Some small accomplishments, and small big things

I got some stuff planted! Yay! After the whole leg injury fiasco, I feared I would have to live yet another year without even really attempting to grow food. But! I got some herbs planted, some strawberries planted, some zucchini planted. I know I know... zucchini grows crazy amounts of veggies! I like zucchini bread though, and it freezes really well, and I learned a couple years ago how to make double batches of muffin batter, pour it into paper-cup-lined muffin tins, and freeze the batter unbaked. Then you pop those babies out, put them into a ziploc, and when you want some fresh muffins, just put the cups back into the muffin tin, and put it into the oven. Don't even have to adjust the bake time or temp. Maybe just a hair, but it's then 17 minutes instead of 14 or something. So, lots and lots and lots of zucchini muffins all winter! Fillin' the deep freeze, yo!

Let's see... other small accomplishments... got the big book of my mom's memoirs transcribed. While this is actually fairly monumental, it is a small thing in the big picture. Very happy to get that done. Just two small books and the stuff Hannah's working on, and I can put the whole behemothic thing together! I think I may have to print it to proof it effectively. Ack! It's gonna be almost a freakin' ream of paper! Not really even kidding... solid 350-400 pages. And then standardizing the format... not really sure how one goes about that, but I'm going to try to figure it out. I'm sure I have a Word book somewhere around these here parts...

And, most awesomely, one small big thing is that Cassady will be here in ONE WEEK!!! You know, seeing your 20 year old daughter is a small thing, it would seem, but it is HUGE here in our house. We haven't seen her in 7 months. Connor has grown and changed, she has grown and changed (differently, but, well... you know...) and, she had her 20th birthday far from home. The day after she gets here is her brother's 18th birthday, so I get to perform a small gesture for them that is a big deal for me:
For perhaps (quite likely) the last time, I will get to prepare my traditional birthday breakfast for my kids. Hers will be late, but they will be together in my house, and they will get pancakes, with the number of years they've inhabited the planet placed carefully in chocolate chips, fresh strawberries circling the edge, and whipped cream surrounding the whole shebang. I am giddy! It's such a little thing... strawberry-chocolate chip pancakes. It's so huge... I'll be putting a '20' on one and an '18' on the other. My last baby enters adulthood in the legal sense. It's a huge day. I'm feeling it. Even though he's been on his own almost a year, and she's been coming and going for several years now, the reality that Jorma is a legal adult, he needs my permission for nothing, is responsible for his own self, can vote, can get his own passport... it's just really a turning point, a new place in our relationship, a new place in his life.

I've never been one to dread the empty nest. In fact, I was looking really really forward to the empty nest. I got Connor, so the nest had to quickly be rethatched, but I am so proud that I have raised independent, competent young adults. And yet... the passage of 'children' is a profound moment in parenting. Small... just one day turning into another. Huge... they are now truly responsible for their own actions, the consequences, and off in the world, traveling, finding their own joys, experiencing their own sorrows, not coming home to share their triumphs and tragedies. Dealing with adult life, as adults in the world.

Wow. Just... wow.