Kindergarten happened. A whole first week of it, though it turns out I got the soft launch: this was a half day week, so next week, when Otis starts the afterschool program too, will be the real test of what this new rhythm looks like for both of us. But on my custody days I got to walk him there myself, hand in hand, and pick him up, and sit with him doing his actual homework at our actual table, which is a sentence I did not expect to feel so strange writing. Because the whole shape of it is nothing like the kindergarten I remember. I grew up in the suburbs of Florida with both parents still under one roof, the version where school was just school, a fixed point everyone orbited the same way. This is different. This is custody days and half days and me building a whole new kind of structure around a kid who has no idea he's the center of a small logistical universe. He just wanted to know if there'd be a snack.

The hands stayed busy too, mostly with crochet this week. I got my hands on some beautiful 100% cotton yarn from the creative reuse store and used it for two bookmarks; they still need a wash before I can embroider them, so they're sitting in a kind of holding pattern right now. I finally put the handles on a project that had been waiting on just that one step, so that one's done and off the list, always a good feeling. And I dug into my stash, hand-dyed yarn I've had for something like five years, and turned it into a tiny pink drawstring bag, which felt like exactly the right use for something I'd been hoarding for no good reason. Now I've pulled some super bulky out of the stash too, ready to start a chunky shrug pattern this coming week, though that means a trip to Michaels first for the five skeins I'm still missing.