Harry Poppins and a Spoonful of Cheetos

I love Mary Poppins.  I want to wear high button boots and long dresses that swirl when I walk. I want to sing like her, and I want the horses on the carousel to leap from their posts to take me on fantastic adventures. Most of all, I want to snap my fingers and have the dishes wash themselves. Until then, I've committed to finding the fun in the every day's so that snap! each every day will become a game. 

When Gigi and RJ were very little, I would load them into the car, fill their sippy cups with milk (long before the milk ban of 2013 was handed down in the Official Code of Motherhood, Section 114 governing consumption of food and drink in the Swagger Wagon),.  I would pack extra pants, and tune the radio to Disney's greatest hits. "We're going on an ad-ven-ture!" I would sing-song. And, away we'd go. We adventured to the dry cleaners. We adventured to the post office, the grocery store, and the tag agency. We adventured every weekend and some weeknights, because, when you're very little, all of the little things can be an adventure. Snap! The little every day's became a game. 

When Gigi was about two, I lost the snap. Adventures became chores, and so did everything else. I dreaded bedtime and breakfast. The every day's lost their zing. There was no spoonful of sugar that could make it all better.  

I wish I could say that I snapped my fingers and every task became a piece of cake. I'm not Mary Poppins, and I'll never pull off those high button boots. But, as we near Gigi's fourth birthday, it's very plain to see that something has changed. 

The little every day's have become adventures again. I'm finding the element of fun in every job that must be done. And, snap! Each job's a game. 

Today I adventured to Boiling Springs State Park near Woodward. The highway was long, and I didn't see another mini-van for two hours. But, there were amazing wind farms, and I think I saw all the way to Colorado across the plains. I listened to books on tape (do we still say books "on tape" or am I that old? I did find my Walkman last week.). I snacked like a toddler and sang to Disney's best. I taught a class on lien avoidance and marveled that the girl who got hives when she was called on in class managed to stand in front of a crowd of fifty without a stutter. 

Best of all? I made it home in time to paint my little girl's toe nails and hear about my little man's first loose tooth. Change comes hard for that one; he cried when he discovered it was loose. We'll really have to find the song to move the job of pulling that one along. 

Last weekend, the boys went to a soccer game, and I got to introduce Gigi to Mary Poppins. 

We had a tea party:

"Mommy," Gigi sighed at the end, "I just love Harry Poppins. Can we watch it again?"

She also loves Cheetos. 

And tea.

And as for me, this little bit of sweetness is the spoonful of sugar that has helped me find my snap again. 

Losing a Great One

Lawyers aren’t well loved. We aren’t particularly well liked. But, if we’re lucky, every now and then, we’ll cross paths with a truly great lawyer—someone who teaches us; someone who excels; someone who makes a difference. The legal community lost a great one this weekend. Sonya Patterson was sunshine personified. She loved her job. She loved her clients. And, she made me want to do good things. She fought for people who couldn’t afford her services, and she worked for far less than she was worth. Her confidence far exceeded her years of experience; and her years of experience fell short of her skill level. She was remarkable, and beautiful, and I wanted to be more like her.

I won’t miss daily lunches with her, because we weren’t those kind of friends. I won’t miss passing her in the hallway or seeing her on Friday nights. Those friends will miss her the most of all, and I’ve shed tears for their loss.

But today, the biggest loss of all is that future generations of young lawyers won’t hear her say, "I love my job!" Future lawyers won’t see her greet the poorest of clients with the same grace that she would show in greeting the president. And, those clients won’t see her reassuring smile across the table in court or hear it through the phone. The legal community has lost one of the best. I will miss her, and the world is a sadder place today with her passing.