Dirty Laundry Blog by Jennifer Hynes

Take the slow path, accept the fucks

August 29th, 2016
August 29, 2016, as quickly as summer came, she leaves me now, my body feeling the change of seasons, waking up early again as if it is some biological, instinctual, transition that is out of my control. The babies are going through the same transition, waking up earlier, taking earlier naps. It’s strange and beautiful. Yesterday morning two blue jays landed on our deck. “Shhh, turn around, but be quiet” I tell Jack and Fiona, we’re sitting at the table having breakfast. “You might get to see the blue jay break open the acorn with his beak.” They turn and look, excited. One blue jay hops away and Jack says “My blue jay” Then Fiona says, “That’s my blue jay!” Then Jack says, “No, that’s my blue jay, that’s your blue jay!” pointing to the other blue jay. “Stop, you guys!” I yell. They keep it up, escalating into hitting and pushing, Fiona loses her balance and falls face first, luckily catching herself before hitting her face on the wall. “Stop it, NOW! Blue Jays belong to no one, they are free!” Oh my god, we’re in the “mine” stage. It’s incredible. And when the child development books say, “To a toddler, everything is about fairness” they aren’t exaggerating. I made a conscious decision last night before I went to bed to make sure this week everything is exactly the same when I give it to Jack and Fiona, down to the number of pretzels on the plate. It’s gotten that serious.

We lost another hearing aid. Saturday we went on a walk, I call it the “Target walk” because you can walk on a path along the bay to Target. There’s a beach and a great view of the Richmond bridge. There’s sea birds and rocks and humming birds and dragon flies. Billy was super excited and running on the beach, Fiona started to walk in her path, I tried to stop her but the whole thing got jumbled up and in the mess of dog running into baby, Fiona’s hearing aid got knocked off. I noticed it right away and found it. It was all sandy so Alan put it in his pocket, unfortunately the pocket had a hole in it. We noticed the hearing aid was gone when we got home. Alan went back and looked that same day, and yesterday we went back and retraced our steps, told walkers and runners what we were looking for and put up signs. In the process of looking for the hearing aid a little shift happened inside me, I was walking slow, scanning the ground, noticing things I normally don’t notice. Jack and Fiona wanted out of the stroller, they wanted to explore too. I start walking faster and Jack starts crying and sits down. At first I want to put him back in the stroller, I’m frustrated by this, another annoying toddler behavior. I walk back, “What’s wrong Jack?” He gets up and says, “come here”, I follow and so does Fiona. We are at the little Duck pond, Jacks happy now. He wanted to explore this, he wanted me to explore this with him. There are a pair of ducks resting, beaks tucked in their feathers, there are ducks swimming on the other side of the pond. We look through the fence; I rub both babies backs. It’s a sweet and precious moment. I continue to follow their lead for the rest of the walk, until both babies start breaking down, whining, at one point I yelled at Fiona, “Shut up!” because she kept saying “I want my raisins” over and over again in this horrible high pitched whining! I thought people must think I’m an abusive parent. Sometimes I say “FUCK” when the babies are driving me crazy getting into everything, Alan says I shouldn’t say that word around the babies, I said “Yes I should”.

It’s a constant shift between smooth sailing and stormy seas being a parent. It’s so important to be able to shift back into the moment, change things up, or just ride it out until bedtime. I still don’t believe it’s true that it gets easier. Things change but there’s always difficult moments, times you think there’s no way I can get through this day. But you do and bits of magical moments shine through the fucks and shut ups! As long as I remember the most important moments come in small packages and to be grateful for the pit stops at the duck pond, or the bedtime routine when everything goes calm, stories are read and breathing slows then the light goes out. A kiss on each babies forehead, “I love you, goodnight”
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Tiny Shards of Plastic in My Heart

August 25th, 2016
I hear a thump and a cry. Heart racing: too much food in Billy’s bowl, “good job Fiona, I’m just going to put a little back”. Open lid of dog food container, putting back food, THUMP. That’s when I hear it. Four feet away, look: Jack’s on floor prone, crying. “Fuck, are you O.K.?” Examine. Feel lump on back of head. I’m scared. I’m not scared. Read lots of books. There are lots of blood vessels in toddler heads. Causes lump to rise quickly, produce large amounts of blood. It’s O.K. and not a big deal unless your kids loses consciousness. He cries. I hold. I rock. I apply ice. Fiona cries. Holds Blue Blue sucking her thumb on the couch. “No, we can’t meet you at the park today. Uggh, tomorrow” Play the excavator song. Sit on chair with Jack, apply ice. Give Jack and Fiona each a cookie. Paint my body orange and blue. Put a picture of my painted breast on facebook. Worry I’ll never get a job as a teacher. Worried I’ll have a breakdown. Babies go to nap. Go straight to studio. Paint. Feeling better. Can’t help it if I’m an artist. Can’t help it if I value art. Can’t help it if I don’t give a fuck. Can’t help if I express. Can’t help it if I’m sensitive, tender hearted and cry. Don’t wanna help it. Don’t wanna change it. I show Jack and Fiona the pictures of me in Mexico with horses and alligators and turtles in the ocean. With little tiny dogs in mens pockets. At the beach, at the beach, at the beach.I think how they are looking at me, smiling on the sand, in the dunes, in the dessert, by the ocean bright red hair and a smile. The East Bay. There is a point at which we break. A point in a moment, in a day, in a lifetime when we need to rest our minds, escape from the mouse trap. But there are those who sit and laugh at the dumbest stuff. They take importance of material things, not on deep emotions and empathy. Dogs require empathy, even though they only live a short time I think we need to understand they run on instinct, not material attachments. Impulse. Destruction. I’m emotional about my dog. And Jacks head and Fiona’s cough. I’m acting out by painting my boobs orange and blue and putting pictures on facebook. My dog fucked up again. My kids have had their own emotional struggles I’ve had to give myself, my gut, my heart, my reserves to be there for, to consul, to love, to feel. And I have. Every minute of every day, and I’m grateful and proud and know I’ve done the right thing 100% as a mother and a wife. It takes every morsel of strength I have to raise twins. It’s all right at the center of my chest, like pain and love. It carries from inside out and as it comes in and out I take in the world and all it’s pain too and sometimes it’s too much. Then I realize I’ve been away from my studio for too long. I go in and release the accident, the cough, the outburst. I paint my body blue and orange and take pictures and post it on facebook, I paint on four canvases I’ve been working on, I write. And as naptime starts to wind down and come to an end I feel a bit better, a bit more relaxed, and ready to jump into the mess. To start little by little picking up the cheerios, tomatoes, plastic spoons; which reminds me of the RaceTrack beach we ventured to the other day. We brought buckets to collect shells. Red, yellow, blue, tiny little pieces of plastic, caps and tops and plastic strings, plastic flossers, we collected them as I wondered, did they come from that giant garbage pile of trash in the ocean? And now here, at home as I raise my family and my garbage pail fills with plastic every day, every day. I feel ashamed. I must change.
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Morning Light, Shattered Blinds

August 24th, 2016
Please let the quiet slumber of Jack and Fionas’ nap last a little longer. Give me a bit more time to relish in the peaceful sounds: the humming of the overhead fan, the creaking of the house, the fridge, chimes; sounds different and sacred, meshed together calmness I desperately need after the day I’ve had. Morning comes, as I wake to Fiona coughing incessantly, then calling out “momma, mommy, mommmy, momma”. I decide to get her, bring her upstairs with me, but as I go to the door I hear Jack crying what sounded like, “I want my pizza, I want my pizza, I want my pizza” I stood next to the door. Should I, shouldn’t I. It’s only 7:00AM. I decide to go upstairs and have my peanut butter toast and coffee first, maybe they will fall back to sleep I say to myself. Jack and Fiona quiet down and I enjoy my little morning coffee break. I make them breakfast as usual and go down to get them. They great me with smiles and stories about things they remember from the days before. Things seem normal, I’m not worried. I think about taking Fiona to the doctor for her cough, but that doesn’t stress me out. “I wanna watch Mickie Mouse” Jack starts saying. He has barely touched his breakfast, same with Fiona. I reduce my expectations, turn on Mickey Mouse and lay on the floor with the babies. We enjoy this time together, who cares if we’re learning to tune out, we’re together and we’re resting. I have a nagging, I know I can’t just stay home all day, we need groceries, I’ve been putting it off. I ask the babies if they want to go to the park. “No, no park” Jack says. I’m can’t believe it. “Do you want to go to the store?” I ask. “Yes” they do. I tell Billy “Stay here, we’re just going to the store”. We get our groceries and some new toys from T.J. Max and go home; I let both babies loose while I unload the car. I start to take things in. I start with the new toys, putting them in the babies’ bedroom, thinking it might keep them occupied while I put away the groceries and make the lunch. Right off the bat fighting occurs, “I want that!” then crying, hitting, pulling, annoying behaviors start to unfold. “Oh my god!” I say. I am looking at shredded blinds, splinters, pieces hanging off, pieces on the floor, all these thoughts running through my head: should I cut the whole thing off? How can I clean this? Who did this? Did the babies do it last night and I was too tired to notice this morning? What will Alan say? How mad will he be? Oh my God, Billy did it! She was so pissed I left her behind today. I start picking up the mess, Fiona helps me, picking up pieces of wood and putting them in the bag. I break off the broken slats of wood and roll the blind up far enough so the carnage isn’t visible. I vacuum and put the nursery back together. I hear Jack upstairs, “Oh my God!” he says. “What?” I yell. Silence. I grab Fiona, “We gotta go see what Jacks doing” I say. As I’m walking up the stairs I call out, “Jack, what are you doing?” He tells me he’s getting water. I see he’s sitting on the edge of the sink with his feet in. I put Fiona down and rush over, he has his feet right next to broken glass, I scan for red, pick up each soft, little, precious foot, no cuts. I look down and I see why he said “Oh my God”, Billy has gotten into the trash, there’s wet, stinky, coffee ground covered, banana peel, garbage strewn across the floor. I barely managed to get it swept up, lunch made and unsuccessfully served, and Jack and Fiona down for a nap before I snapped. I got them down just in time for my workout and hot shower to take the morning edge off, just in time to keep my sanity and not fall into some type of permanent fog of stress and disbelief. Just in time to realize that, that’s life, yesterday my dog was amazing, today she’s a damn bitch. Just in time to accept my children as being needy and needing my whole self, not just a portion, not just a side glance while my face plants on a screen. In time to have the break I need to appreciate life for it’s bad days, hard days, art days, and beach days. Just in time to say to myself, “I might not have time to paint today, that’s o.k., I can wait until I have time.” I hear Fiona waking now, Jack will be right behind her. I am here ready to slip into the evening routine, whether they are sick and needy or fun and healthy! I will be grateful for either and adapt to whichever it is, fully available as Mom.
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Take the slow path, accept the fucks

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Tiny Shards of Plastic in My Heart

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Morning Light, Shattered Blinds

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