Calligraphy and the crackers

Okay, it’s not 5:04AM, but more like 5:40.

I love the early morning quiet.  With eight people living in our house, there’s just a small window of stillness between 1:00 and 6:15AM each day. At 6:15AM the boys are up while on the other end of each day there’s the bustle of teenage and young adult activity with my 14 and 16 year-old daughters, our soon-to-be married 26 year-old Guatemalan nanny, Anai, and our newest addition, a 23 year-old British friend named JT.

So, at 5:40AM I have just about half an hour before the house wakes.  The coffee brews as I settle in at the kitchen table with my bag of supplies.  I have a wonderful job to do, the task of addressing Anai’s wedding invitations in hand drawn calligraphy. 

The paper is cream colored and reminds me of my own wedding envelopes – same size, color and heft. I’m transported back to that giddy time of life where the excitement and adventure of marriage is around the bend and the planning of the most elaborate party of a lifetime is all consuming.  The dress, flowers, cake, food, music, rings, venue, honeymoon, attendant gifts and many steps to get those invitations out the door come rushing back as I brush my fingers across the thick textured paper.

Carefully, I write in neat black letters and I’m reminded of the beauty and sanctity of what Anai is stepping into.  These days will undoubtedly be locked into her mind unlike other memories, just as mine have a special place, almost eighteen years later.  And maybe for her, this newborn partnership will eventually lead to the pitter patter of two little feet, or someday, maybe even a gaggle of children and a variety of friends all living under the same roof?

These thoughts are interrupted as my boys clamber down the stairs to tell me what they’ve just witnessed on Sports Science.  This day they explain, the inventor of a special athletic cup, called a “nutty buddy”, stands six feet from a pitching machine that’s aiming baseballs…you know where, at 90 mph (that’s 2400 pounds of force)….just to see if the “nutty buddy” is truly a buddy.   During this segment, which we find immediately on Youtube, private parts are called “family jewels, frank and beans, the boys, the crackers and the plums,” all of which I find funny, even before my first cup of coffee.

So, my sentimental wedding thoughts disappear, replaced by early morning laughter about a topic my guys enjoy immensely.  William continues explaining the segment in a voice completely inappropriate for the wee morning hours…and as I pack my wedding supplies away, I realize two things: the “nutty buddy” might be a good idea if my sons continue to play baseball…and just a little bit of quiet before the morning hubbub is  actually all I need!