Sunday, December 30, 2012

Gratitude

With Christmas over and the new year looming, we've reached a quiet time in the year. The "busyness" of the the holidays is over, and yet it doesn't feel right to start something new before January. My heart is full - dealing with the problems of the past year and feeling hopeful about the year to come. It's a time for self-assessment; how can you move ahead if you don't recognize where you're coming from?

From where I sit at this moment, I am grateful for the blessings that fill my life:

  • Family - those under our roof and those in my heart. Those who live far away and reach out when they can. Those who are "family" through affection and care. Those who do more than their share to make sure we're okay.
  • Friends - Our circle of friends might not be large, but it's full of loving, thoughtful people. Each person has a special place. Each person I count as friend has a core of goodness, kindness and integrity that I treasure.
  • Pets - too many of them and all of them (even Rocky the fish) dear to our hearts.
  • Work - too much, too little, all necessary. Work gives my life structure and also good friends. I'm lucky to have found something to do that really makes me happy.
  • Home and neighbors - Not many people I know are blessed with a neighborhood like ours. We're lucky to have found them. Our house might be a collection of unfinished projects, but it suits us perfectly.
  • Winter rain - I'm loving this winter season. No torrents yet, just steady rain every couple of days. I'm sure it will clear for the Rose Parade, but I hope it doesn't go away for long.
  • Books - They're more restful than tv and there are so many of them. I love handling them, cleaning them, repairing them and even reading them. I seldom talk about books, and that may be something I'll try to change in the next year. Book club, anyone?
  • Knitting - It may sound silly, but it's been giving me a lot of pleasure. Knitting calms my mind and makes me feel like I'm doing something useful. I feel creative and I feel part of a larger community without ever leaving my house.

This outline is the shape of my life. I'm happy with it. I hope the year ahead is full of improvements, but what I have right now is a pretty good starting point. Happy New Year, all!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas Wrapup

Unbelievably, Christmas is over. Well, almost over. The living room is still crowded with boxes and gifts that haven't quite been put away. But the sweets are gone and things are slowly getting back to normal. The kids didn't really start bouncing off the ceiling until Monday, and then it was mostly Christian. He's having a tough time calming down. We're hoping a few days at the Y and a few nights of real sleep will help. Everyone was happy with their gifts. Jim overhead James say at Mom's house, "This is the best Christmas ever." I guess you can't ask for more than that.

Personally, I'm just ready to move on to the new year, but that's how I feel every year. Somehow I think I'm going to do next year better, and maybe someday that will be true. So I hope the new year is good for all of you. We're blessed to have this family and we need to stay in touch more often. One of my hopes is that I can get on this blog a little more often next year. It's become a place to record family events, which is fine, but I think it could be more.

All of you be well and happy through the rest of the holidays.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Kid Chaos

Chaos reigned as I left the house for work this morning. The boys at our house received Nerf-like shotguns as gifts a couple of days ago. The good news is that they're bound to be broken soon, so we know that the noise and commotion won't last forever.

In the meantime, our band of wild Indians seems to grow closer and closer to one another. I love seeing them play together, even if I do have to yell, "Take it outside!" once in a while. Hopefully, these will fill the need for guns for a while.

Last night Mackenzie wrapped herself up as a present. Pretty cute!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

The First Day of Christmas

I know, I know - Thanksgiving was so early and December is an entire week away, but around here the Christmas season starts the day after Thanksgiving. And here's what we did:


We set up the Christmas houses. This is the first year that I've let Mackenzie help me. She unpacked very carefully.

 
With only a little attitude.
 
 
The boys wanted their share of the action.
 



And the finished products!
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

... and there's cooking, cooking, cooking going on.


Mackenzie was in charge of the dressing, and


Rosanne is doing the sweet potatoes.

Not to worry - it's only 5:30 and all that's left to do is the cleanup. It's Kentucky Fried Chicken for dinner and a movie night.

Hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving. We plan to.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Mission Accomplished, and Something I Don't Ever Want to Forget

I just closed the cover on book #100. No last-minute panic this year - I reached the goal. So I guess that means that next year I up the ante. I'm thinking number of pages, but I'm not sure. I kept trying to make myself do more "serious" reading this year, but I flaked. My list is full of mysteries. They aren't all cozies - there's some serious stuff. Hardly any nonfiction, but I think at my advanced age I shouldn't try too drastic a change. Anyway, do you have any feedback?

My Something I Don't Ever Want to Forget (sorry if you already read this on Facebook)

For the past few weeks our house has been awash with paper airplanes. We try to gather them in a box every night, just to achieve some level of containment. No room is safe. They're in the bedrooms, in the family room, in the garage. It's not unusual to have them fly past my head while I'm trying to cook. Well, this evening Christian was searching through his airplane book for a new model for Grandpa to help him with. He walked over to Jim and said very seriously, "Grandpa, when you get to Heaven I won't be there for a while. Will you please keep making paper airplanes until I can come see you? You'll be able to make really good ones then." Yes, Christian. He will. And if he can, he'll keep his promise and just keep throwing them down at you from Heaven so that you don't have to wait.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

A Reader's Hope

I know this sounds foolish, but I absolutely worry about there not being any books in Heaven. What do you think? My list of want-to-read books is seriously overloaded and is not helped in the least by my constant exposure to more books. I thought keeping a list on Goodreads would help keep me under control - it has helped in that I don't feel the need to snatch every book from the library shelf in the fear that I won't remember that I want to read it. But hop on over and take a look at that list - it's seriously out of control. It is becoming apparent that I need to give up television and maybe sleeping.

My only hope is that Heaven is supplied with huge bookshelves stocked especially for me. And there should probably be tea and a window overlooking the soft rains or Ireland. What are my chances?

Monday, October 1, 2012

Wizard in Training

I could save this post until I have a picture to back it up, but then I may never get to it.

We watched the first three Harry Potter movies this weekend. (We won't be watching any more with the kids for a while - the third was a little too scary.) Anyway, yesterday I found Mackenzie lugging her suitcase down the stairs. Figuring she was "running away" again, I asked her what was wrong. Nothing, she told me, she was just packing her wizard equipment so she'd have it for wizarding school. I found her a wooden skewer, which she decorated as a wand, and she spent a good part of the afternoon casting spells.

We get so wrapped up in the day-to-day, the homework, getting ready for school, showers before bed, that we forget to look for the fun. Our serious, seriously crabby little girl has a wonderful imagination. Hope I can remember to add a picture to this soon.

Monday, August 20, 2012

This and That

I do my best to keep things upbeat here - it's a lot more fun to share the fun stuff than it is to complain about the tough stuff. But it's been a rough month or so. I know you all care - no need to comment. And things always get better. Suffice it to say, it's been a long, hot summer.

So what I've learned:

1. Water in an inflatable pool can do a world of good, even for grownups.
2. It's never too hot to read.
3. A messy house is not the end of the world - not even close.
4. There are never enough towels. Thank goodness for washing machines and dryers.
5. If you continue to refuse to intervene and expect adults to act like adults, they will sometimes hit the mark.
6. If you remember that the most important job you have to do is raise good, healthy kids, other stuff becomes a lot less important.

So let's see if I feel like this in another month. Who can tell?

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Butterfly Update

Okay, okay, I know I've gone on about this long enough. I promise - last update. There are 13 caterpillars that we can find, and one unopened chrysalis. (The one on the block wall opened and we missed it.) What an exciting summer this has been!

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

The Final Stage


Isn't she beautiful? Took about 15 minutes to emerge and we were so lucky to catch it.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Almost There




One of the chrysalises has turned black. Sorry this picture is so poor. We can see the folded wings through the shell. The other two have not turned, but they will soon. There are five more caterpillars on the plant.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Start of Summer and a Butterfly Update

We've finally made it to the start of summer! Everyone but Christian slept in this morning. He was up with the dawn and ready to go. By the time he got me up he had fed the cats, uncovered the birds and fed his fish. I wonder how long this will last!

We celebrated his birthday on the 15th.



You always know they're going to grow up too fast, but it's still sad. I can't believe he's eight.

The last week of school was full of parties, water balloons and lots of anticipation. This morning Mackenzie started to cry because she "misses Mrs. Sobota."

Our summer plans include a visit from the Washington grandchildren and lots of time in the back yard. The first day of summer vacation always feels so special.

A butterfly update. We now have three chrysalises (or the dictionary's preferred form: chrysalides). Observe:




If you look very closely (in person, you might not be able to do it online), you can see the pattern on the butterfly's wings inside. Also, the little white band on the uppe right actually looks like a string of little gold beads. We've been very lucky to be able to watch all of this. There are two more caterpillars in the planter, so it hasn't finished yet.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Caterpillar Update

Now there are six, and they're getting huge!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Backyard Wild Kingdom

It may not be Marlin Perkins caliber, but our wildlife adventures have certainly been fun.

Do you see caterpillars? My neighbor promised that if we planted milkweed, Monarch caterpillars woud follow:


You have to look very carefully.

Our other new "pets" are tadpoles.


There are daily treks to the creek. Could this water be any more disgusting?

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Summer's Here!

The holiday weekend might have started out rainy and gloomy, but today we are welcoming summer, as you can see!!

Lemonade Stand:



A new inflatable swimming pool (are you envious, Scott?):



And Kenzie learning to make a Jello Poke Cake:


Sunday, May 20, 2012

Aquarium Diaries


In the dim, dark, distant past, we bought a goldfish and put it in a bowl. They never livd a long time, but they weren't that hard to do. Goldfish care never seemed that complicated.

But the world has changed. Last month, the two resident grandchildren came home from the school carnival with goldfish. Grandpa was a good guy and bought food and little tiny bowls for them. Then Grandma went over the top, thinking the fish couldn't possibly survive in those four-inch bowls and in order to care for them properly, we had to have an aquarium.

So home we came with a five-gallon aquarium and various and assorted stuff. One goldfish died, and Mom goes to the store to replace it, coming home with a new fish. Then the other original fish dies, and Mom comes home with two fish - one to replace the deceased and a new one for herself.

To make a long story short - we lost five fish in he space of a week and a half. The good news is that the grandchildren are taking it all very philosophically. But we now have an empty aquarium, which wasn't free. So Grandma goes to talk to the fish experts at the pet store. Apparently, aquariums need to "season." It has to be set up and allowed to run for about a week before introducing fish. Before you get fish, you have the water tested. The original fish were the victims of ammonia, which comes from the new aquarium and is also a byproduct of goldfish respiration. Once the water is "clean," it then needs to be allowed to accumulate a certain amount of bacteria. Water that's "too clean" is a shock to a little fishie's system.

Well, we have a clean aquarium. No ammonia in the water. We've allowed the water to "age," And today we introduced one new fish. So far, so good. He doesn't seem shocked. He seems content enough. He'll have to learn to be an only fish, because apparently you can only have one goldfish per five gallons of water. We are cautiously optimistic. We haven't named him, though. We want to see if he's going to hang around before we form a personal relationship.

Life hasn't been all goldfish. The kids have had plenty to do.

Karate:




And Golden Eagle Awards:

Friday, April 27, 2012

Library Visit

At long last there's a child in the house who will go to the library with me - willingly! Mackenzie is now on a quest for books she can read herself. Yesterday was the day, and it was a great success. She not only found five books, but she got to visit the goldfish and meet the new guppies at the reference desk. My friends behind the desk made her feel so welcome. She had her first experience with "Chinese handcuffs" and was able to bring them home to trick her brother. Loved it, and now I have to go listen to her read!

Friday, April 13, 2012

What We Do on a Rainy Day

Thunder and lightning. The electricity went out. Lucky for us we'd been to the Lego store earlier, so everyone had something to do.



Saturday, March 3, 2012

On Mysteries

Patrons are asking me all the time, "Can you recommend something to read?" I always hesitate to respond immediately because it seems like my reading interests are so limited. I read mysteries. Mysteries of all kinds, but my favorites are series. Mysteries seem to be a universal interest. If you look at the genre labels on the library shelves, the little Sherlock Holmes sticker is much more in evidence than any of the others. I suppose mysteries provide a sense of safety - no matter how heinous the crime, the perp generally is caught and justice is served.

Today I'm caught up in an offering by Susan Hill. The title is The Shadows in the Street (A Simon Serrailler Mystery). It's that subtitle that set me thinking this morning. I started reading this series a couple of years ago, then lost track of it. On picking it up I was drawn right back into the lives of the characters that populate Susan Hill's literary world. I really like these people, just like I like the characters in books by P.D. James and Elizabeth George. More recently, I sped through the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny.

The mysteries are interesting, but the people are more so. These are intelligent people with complex minds and lives. I would want these people to like me. And somehow I really care about them, hoping they're able to solve their own problems and that they weather their personal storms safely. Weird, isn't it? Agatha Christie's sleuths were recurring characters, but it doesn't seem to me that they "grew" or became any way changed. They're simply the instruments through which the mystery is solved. Those books have their merits and make for a good read, but they somehow don't draw my in.

No real point to this post except I'd like to know who you like to read and why. Any takers?

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Some Pictures

 Kenzie had her snow clothes on!
 And so did Christian.
Our snow angel

Monday, February 27, 2012

Day 2

Off to a rocky start this morning - still no snow and not a whole lot to do. We drove to Big Bear City; not a lot to see. But then we saw a few little flakes. Found a nice coffee place for "elevenses." Drove out to a picnic area that had some old snow, which was really ice. Christian, Mackenzie and Rosanne tried the sled, but it was really too slippery. It began snowing a little more while we had lunch. We went back to the room for a while because Christian has school work to do. Besides, there really wasn't enough snow to even play in. The kids were going crazy. But now it's snowing. The cars are covered and we drove back to the picnic area where the kids sledded, made snow balls and snow angels. We were all wet and cold, but the kids didn't want to leave. We promised we would try again tomorrow. Right now we're trying to decide whether it's worth driving out again for dinner.

Pictures will follow later!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Vacation Day 1

We made it to Big Bear without any problems. We actually managed to make the trip without video games or dvd's. Christian thought the rocky deserts were wonderful. Mackenzie just enjoyed the ride. The down side - not really any snow. There are patches of it, but nothing to be played in. We stopped at a commercial tubing hill; I would have paid twelve dollars for each of the kids, but drew the line at twelve dollars per adult to stand and watch them slide. The hotel is fairly nice and is within walking distance of the village. We walked the village this afternoon and stopped at the candy store. Then we went back to Troll's, a small restaurant in town, where we had dinner. Food was simple and good. We walked back under a beautiful moon and breathing in very cold air. There's a promise of snow tomorrow. If not, we'll have to take the kids to a commercial sliding spot, but that's okay. We're settled in tonight watching the Oscars. Christian just said, "Grandma, this is the best day ever." I guess we did okay!

Friday, February 10, 2012

At Least Today It's a Different Song

No lyrics this time, just a youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Oi7CdBc78

I love the romance of this story. We've seen the chapel and Grace Gifford's prison cell in Kilmainham Gaol. Don't  know why I felt compelled to share this, other than the song's been stuck in my head for a day and a half. Hope you enjoy the info.

http://www.easter1916.ie/index.php/people/signatories/joseph-mary-plunkett/

Did you guess I'm ready to go back?

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

To Speak of Music

I've had the strangest songs going through my head all day, the same two songs, over and over. The first is one I have on a Mary Black cd. The first time I heard it, I was struck by the haunting tune. Then I listened to the lyrics, which are just as haunting:

My youngest son came home today
His friends marched with him all the way
The fife and drum beat out the time
While in his box of polished pine
Like dead meat on a butcher's tray
My youngest son same home today

The song speaks of the troubles in Northern Ireland. Mike and Scott, you would probably like Mary Black. I'm especially drawn to the "dead meat" portion of the lyrics.

The second song isn't haunting, it's irritating:

Hot dogs, Armour hot dogs
What kind of kids eat Armour Hot Dogs?
Fat kids, skinny kids, kids who climb on rocks
Tough kids, sissy kids, even kids with chicken pox
love hot dogs, Armour Dot Dogs
The dogs kids love to bite!

Would anyone care to join me in my own personal hell?







Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Status Check

So the goal I stated for last month was to simplify, to get the clutter cleared. And how well have I done? Not so well, I'm afraid, but I did accomplish this much:

  • Two cabinets cleared out and organized
  • Kitchen counter and sideboard cleared once in a major way, and pretty well maintained, day to day
  • Yarn stash reduced and organized

Like I said, not so much. But I haven't given up - my goal for the next month is to get the kitchen cabinets done. Surely, I can accomplish that much.

There are times that I marvel that we get anything done around here. I keep expecting the chaos to lessen, but it's not happening. I have to stop myself once in a while to remember that to school age kids in the house means that things may not stay on track. I don't know how Mom did it; I certainly can't. It feels like we all fly from one thing to another. Homework is a major undertaking. Clutter piles up higher than we can keep up with. But there's been time for the fun stuff, too - a couple of bike rides, the long promised trip to Disneyland for Mackenzie's birthday. Life is pretty good.




Thursday, January 26, 2012

Name That Town 2

Is this making anyone else homesick?

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Name This Town


And do you have a favorite story to go with it?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

I guess we didn't pay attention when Conor decided he wanted a bed to sleep in, so he solved the problem himself:

Mackenzie supplied the fuzzy stole for his blanket.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

A Lost Tooth & Finished Object

Mackenzie lost another tooth.



And my first "Finished Object" of the year - a Shilling Hat for the Women's Wellness Center.

Monday, January 2, 2012

A Very Good New Year

Only two day old, 2012 has already had its ups and downs. The highlights of the last two days:

A surprise visit from the son of long-time friends and his adorable family.

A bike ride with Christian and Mackenzie.

Going to see "The Adventures of TinTin" and going out to dinner.

We won't talk about the Christmas decorations that aren't put away or the laundry to be down. So far, 2012 is a great year.