Easter Weekend

Sam got home from BYU on Friday, so on Saturday we had everyone together for an outing. We chose the Udvar-Hazy Hangar of the Air and Space Museum out by Dulles Airport.  It was a lot of fun, including seeing some serious flying machines, an IMAX film about fighter pilots and lots of time to just hang out.

Everyone at the balcony of the hangar overlooking the
mighty SR-71 Supersonic Recon Aircraft, seen in the
next photo. 

This aircraft really is amazing. On its last flight,
from LA to Washington DC, it set a record
by flying that distance in just a little over
 an hour. That's almost 2200 mph. If it needed
to evade a missile, it just accelerated. 

A rare photograph that includes me. In front of a real
space shuttle orbiter. 

The brothers being matchy. 

Sara and Evan squinting into the sun
so I could get a photo. 

I like this sculpture at the Udvar-Hazy
Center. I think it is called Ascent.  

This is one of the Concorde aircraft.
Eric was fortunate to be able to fly
in one of these, a British Airways
version, before they were retired. It was a
fun  experience for someone who used
to help design aircraft.

Sunday we had a lovely day of remembering Easter in all its religious and cultural splendor.  The Easter Bunny switched things up and made an egg hunt for the kids to find some treats, and everyone good-naturedly participated in the fun. My kids are just heroic that way-always participating in traditions and family fun even when they are probably too old for it. I appreciate that about them.

There is an egg perched between the side mirror and the
the car window. Evan can't see it. Everyone else can but
it is one of his so they can't claim it. 

He still doesn't see it. 

Finally, when everyone came and stood right by it,
he figured it out.

Church was wonderful, full of reminders of why I do what I do every day.  Eric spoke in Sacrament mtg. and I gave a lesson to all the teenaged girls. I think it went well. I made these brownies as a sort of object lesson about appreciating your own unique talents and they really are amazing-a delicious, fudgy, dark chocolate treat-those usually make the best object lessons. You should totally try them.

Our holiday dinner went off without a hitch-traditional with all the trimmings-Ham, scalloped potatoes, artichokes, asparagus, homemade rolls, deviled eggs, yum.

I hope that you had a delightful Easter with your family and friends and that even if you don't celebrate the spiritual side, that you are feeling the joy of springtime and are considering the wonderful reality of having a fresh start.

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A Lovely Tuesday

Yesterday could go down as one version of a perfect day for me. The pace was slow, but I got a lot done, spent time with the kids and just in general felt like the world and I were in harmony. 

I woke up at 5:15 because I can't help it, dozed, read and caught up on email till 8 when I called my son at college (at his request) to make sure he didn't oversleep and miss a final. I found out that I have a snooze button as he asked me to call back at 8:30. I did and he assured me he was really up. I looked for webcams of the Boston Marathon to try and find my friends who were running. I didn't see them, but wished them well as I snuggled comfortably in my warm bed. Thinking about all that running must have had a soporific effect because I actually went back to sleep until the decadent hour of 10 am! I can't remember the last time that happened.  I finally roused myself for real and spent the bit of remaining morning puttering around in the garden, officially beginning the relentless battle against wild strawberries and dandelions that will last until about December. I thrilled to see that nearly every branch of our little apple tree has blossoms. I am hopeful for shelves full of golden applesauce this winter. So far the consensus is to not plant a new tree after losing our other apple tree over the winter. I'm still leaning toward planting one, though I think there are enough other apple trees in the neighborhood for proper cross-pollination. We'll see I guess. I like having a tree in front of the window, but the kids are enjoying the open view and more light. 

I am running a veritable plant nursery this year as I try to shepherd some new hydrangea and lilac bushes that grew from the ones I have into becoming independent entities. It's always fun to get new plants for only the cost of my labor and time. I love the thought of a whole giant hedge of lilacs across the back yard.

In the afternoon, Evan made banana bread pretty much on his own with just a few consultations from me. He is quite a baker and likes to make crumb cake and a few other favorites as well. We had so many bananas that we got 4 loaves, half plain and half with chocolate chips. That was pretty much all we ate for the rest of the day. I think I could actually live on banana bread. I like Martha Stewart's recipe with sour cream in the batter. I haven't been able to mess it up, so it gets the vote as the official family version. 

Later, Evan had practice and Sara went to a friend's house so the house was quiet for a while and I could do some fun art projects for an online workshop I'm taking. Practice ended early with a sudden thunderstorm and downpour, but it's just as well as Ev is nursing a pulled muscle in his back. 

True Confessions:
This is how I work on art projects. I sit on the floor with my
supplies in a fan all around me, put the towel over my lap
and create away.  The thing I'm currently working on is an
art journal about things that are important to me.
(It's sitting there in the lower right)
It's been fun to do.

After working in shifts on various loose ends, laundry and decluttering, the day ended pleasantly with me and the kids watching Harry Potter 7.1 while I crocheted on a blanket that will go to either my about-to-be-born nephew (any minute now) or my soon-to-be-born niece (July). 

I went to bed feeling satisfied, appropriately tired instead of exhausted, and excited for what the morning would bring. I like this kind of day the very best. 

We thought we might get 5 loaves, but we ran out of
sour cream. 

He suddenly looks much more teenager-y
than little boy-y.

He's a very precise child, so this is how he
laid out the butter to soften. Love it. 

We have a wheat grinder in the house again, so we added
a bit of WW flour to the batter. It worked out just fine even though it
was still just a bit too coarse. I'm still fiddling with the new
machine.

The fruit of his labor.

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Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

I do feel a bit like doing a jig. I'm so glad to be home after this last trip. Not that the trip was in any way unpleasant, because it wasn't--it was great (teaching in Atlanta)--it's just that I'm happy to be home and feel sort of settled again. Stitches South was one of the last things on my Large List of Gigantic Tasks to Complete, so it feels good to have it checked off.  Spring break begins today and we've been so busy lately that everyone agreed unanimously that a few days of nothing are in order. Today we have been puttering in the garden and reclaiming parts of the house that have been buried under the layers of whatever is most urgent, but in short spurts and definitely not according to a schedule. It's kinda nice. Later in the week we'll head into the city for some sort of outing, get ready for Sam to come home from school, and be able to have a day together with Eric. That will definitely be nice.

I'm so very pleased to have a break from class this week. I can write my paper about Margaret Bourke-White, take some more photos to develop and catch up on so many little things that have fallen by the wayside in past weeks. Today in the garden I got my freecycle-obtained stella d'oro lilies planted, moved some black-eyed susans and hostas, and cleaned up perhaps an actual ton of leaves and sticks in my yard. I moved rocks, counted how many lilac shoots I have that need to be moved and discovered that my clematis vine has reproduced. I'm not sure if that is by new growth from the root system or by layering (when  a branch touches the ground for a long time, it actually puts down roots and starts a new plant). Anyway, the happy news is that I now have several clematis vines that I have to move somewhere.

There's lots more to do, so it will be an everyday thing, but that's okay. It becomes a little piece of quiet each day that I look forward to. True, it will never really be done, but it also never stops providing me with pleasure and something to look forward to.

So all in all, I love my garden, untidy and slightly neglected as it is right now. My little ritual at the end of all shifts of garden work is to take a minute and sit and look and see how things look and what needs to change or just enjoy the colors and textures and the way it feeds my soul to have things growing around me. Today I saw some trees that need to come down and decided for sure to buy a new hammock. I noticed that two of my neighbors have dogwood trees about to bloom, and relished the image of the future golden glory of the flowers I just planted.

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My Organizing Project

There is still a cute button over on my sidebar that will come down later this week. A while back I joined a challenge at simplemom.net to clean out 5 hotspots over the course of 5 weeks. I started out whole-heartedly, cleaning out my closet to a degree that it hasn't enjoyed in years. It's actually staying neat, too. I love that.

Throughout the 4 weeks after that, a new hotspot was revealed each Monday morning with the challenge to conquer the clutter in that area by Friday of the same week-working quickly, being decisive about purging, etc. After the closet was the kids' stuff, then the paper clutter, the refrigerator and pantry, then for the last week, a hotspot of my choice.

Sadly, I have to report failure, at least in terms of the time frame set. As I've complained about over and over in this space, the last month has been really strange for me in terms of my time being given over to things outside of my home. So, after my great results the first week, I fully intended to do the other projects. I took photos of before. I downloaded the lists, I put blocks of time on my daily task lists.  But none of it got done.

But you know what? I love my closet. That one thing has made such a difference for me. I solved my ironing problem, I have a better sense of what I actually wear and don't wear, and have continued to downsize my wardrobe.

So, I have to look at the upside and say that I did as much as I could at the time and it made a difference. Maybe I'm just making excuses to ease my own mind, but so be it. I officially excuse myself. I did my best and what I did accomplish brings daily good feelings. Do I want the good feelings from tackling those other jobs? Sure. But at another time. Until then, I'll revel in my perfectly functioning closet and keep working on the other stuff like I usually do--a little at a time.

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Wrestling

Tonight was the wrestling banquet for Evan's high school team. It was such a great event, with good food shared, comradarie enjoyed, kind words spoken, funny stories remembered, and a general nice feeling. The other parents are so nice-even though I'm not so outgoing at things like this, I do like helping and being useful, mostly because it is such a good icebreaker and I can get over my shyness and get to know people. In addition, there are strong boys on the team and hardworking guys doing the coaching, and my boys have all benefitted from the rigorous program at our school.  Evan had a tough first season, but he came out of it fully invested in the team, ready for more and having learned that losing is not the end of the world.  Here is another of my big projects of late-I was the team photographer and sorted through the more than 1200 photos I took during the season to come up with this:

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All Hail the Groupon

This July, Eric and I will celebrate 25 years since our marriage. As Eric always appends, "25 WONDERFUL years." He means it, too, bless his heart-it's the one thing he says that's never sarcastic.  It seems strange to say, but it has gone very, very quickly. As in a dream almost. I look back and years compress into moments and moments into memories that seem as fleeting as drops of water running down a window through which I'm viewing my life.

There's a lot about 1986 that I want to remember though, so we've started celebrating already. My knitpal Gwen and I were going to go on a teaching cruise through the Panama canal and our husbands were going to come along and that was going to be the big, over the top celebration for the silver anniversary. But it didn't sell, so we're not going, so I have to come up with another way to mark the occasion.  April especially is important in that year, because it is when I got home from my second year of school to find Eric home from his mission and already pretty much a part of my family. I think if we hadn't gotten married, my dad might have filed adoption papers. He was always hanging out at my house, playing with my siblings, helping out my folks, etc.. At this point there was no romance between us, so it was actually kind of annoying at times. But it was all part of the master plan, and he has been a blessing to my family ever since. Some of my siblings were so young at this point that they can hardly remember life without Eric in it.

Anyway, back to the celebrating. Since more is better, so far I've settled on the idea of going on lots of little trips throughout the year. I decided to kick things off by buying a Groupon for a Baltimore B&B called the 1840's Carrollton Inn and this week we had a fun, 21.5 hour extended, overnight date to Charm City, the City that Reads, the Greatest City in America or as Eric (being from Chicago) calls it, a lousy little shot & beer town (so unfair). I instead chose to Believe, Hon, and we went into Baltimore and had a lovely time.

I actually love the city of Baltimore, in spite of Peter Angelos, its much maligned reputation and stupid slogans over the years. Because I grew up mere yards from the city line, I went there often as a child, grew comfortable and familiar with its roads, thrilled to its rich history and found myself proud to be a Baltimoron. (I mean Baltimorean, of course). I can slip into a local accent fairly easily and am able to translate for outlanders who are puzzled by residents warshing things in wooder and drahvin' downyaishin doring the zummer. (washing things in water and driving down to the ocean during the summer) I like that it has recognizable and unique neighborhoods that work to maintain their uniqueness and local flavor. I don't think there is a Starbucks in Fells Point yet. Long may it be so.

This little gem of a B&B was on the edge of one of those neighborhoods--Little Italy--so we were able to walk through the breezy, quiet streets to have dinner in a great little restaurant called La Tavola. It was amazing food, from the goat cheese and walnut salad all the way to the chocolate mousse. I highly recommend it if you need a night away from the suburbs.  We woke up the next morning at the decadent hour of 8 am and had a fabulous, cooked-to-order breakfast in a cozy dining room resplendent with beautiful fabrics and luscious details.

Our room was great. I chose the Caton Suite since I grew up in Catonsville, and it was fun to read the historical explanation on the plaque outside the room and thumb through the more thorough history in the hotel book on inside the room. Here is proof that we were there:

Eric grins cheesily in the entryway.

The hallway leading to the main part of the suite

Eric is amazed by what a good deal we got-all this for the
price of a night at the Holiday Inn Express. 

The view outside the window-these
blossoms were
up and down Lombard Street

We capped off the day with a quick drive up the Jones Falls Expressway to the Baltimore Museum of Art. I took lots of photos, but on film, so hopefully a few will be printable. We looked at lots of wonderful art, enjoyed the blooming magnolia and cherry trees outside the building itself and then got home before the kids arrived from school.

It was just enough to leave me feeling refreshed, with a bit of time to think about something besides my list of to-do's and focus on my love-my husband who works so hard to make all my dreams come true.

25 Wonderful Years indeed.

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Book Review: Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre
By Charlotte Bronte
Adult fiction, romance, gothic

I just this moment finished listening to Jane Eyre. It has been my companion for the last few weeks as I've knitted on projects and proofed photos at all hours of the day and night.  I listened to the Librivox version #3, read by Elizabeth Klett. She's a favorite narrator and I always think she does a fine job. I really like supporting Librivox and have the distant dream of maybe volunteering to read a book or two for them someday. I do love reading aloud.

I haven't read this since my teen  years, so it was a delight to immerse myself in the crystalline language and passionate ups and downs of Jane's extraordinary journey to love. I especially like that this book is very nearly a fable--reminding us that passions and emotions must not be allowed to rule our lives, but instead, if we stand by our morals and beliefs, good things will come to us, even if not by the easy path. In this day of instant gratification and relativism, I loved reading an authoritative voice declare in such gorgeous language that being good has rewards and true love can actually conquer all.

It is the story of an unfortunate little girl. At the beginning we find her orphaned, living with her resentful and abusive aunt, then packed off to a worse boarding school called Lowood, then getting out of there to become a governess at a distant estate called Thornfield. There she meets Mrs. Fairfax, Adele, and, most importantly, Mr. Rochester. He is the master of the hall, enigmatic, athletic, energetic and ruled by a mysterious melancholy.  Of course, he and Jane fall in love, but that's just the beginning. Mr. Rochester has a big secret and the story takes several unexpected turns, which I'll let you discover on your own.

If you've never read it, I highly recommend it, if just for your cultural literacy to be complete. There are things in there that are still referenced in modern culture, even today. If not for that, then read it for the love story, the utter Englishness of it, and the fact that it is just a great old novel.

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Some Happy Things

It's time to push that last post down a few slots. I am feeling better about the whole situation, and am grateful for the support  that came to me. It means so much.

During the last few weeks, in spite of my deadline-driven days, there have been many small joys that I wanted to make sure to record here:

1. I was casually walking down the hall in the art building at HCC and this display case caught my eye and I realized that my work is in the wild!

There in the top middle is my Blue painting from
last semester! I had totally forgotten that
several of my pieces had been taken to be
used in the display!

My two here are the Black and White and
Yellow and Lavender versions of my
Variations on Drunkard's Path, a quilt block
that I used for inspiration for an abstract collage. 

2. I got to spend a day at the American Visionary Art Museum with my good pal. It was a stubbornly cold early spring day, as you can see by my actual clutching at Corinne for warmth, but it was plenty warm among the fascinating halls of this local gem of a gallery. I felt really inspired to do more to pay attention to my creativity, to make sure that it is bringing me joy and that it adds some light to my everyday life. Of course we visited a bookshop, and of course there was food involved. Good times.

The courtyard of the AVAM has a bird theme with a giant,
mirrored egg and a NEST balcony on another building. I
did take some photos of that, but with my film camera.
If I get some decent prints, I'll post them. 

Still trying to get warm here, but oh what fun was that
little bookshop. I can see myself going back all by my hermit
self and just sitting among the shelves and reading all day long.

3. I actually finished something on my list. Completed. Out the door. Sigh of Relief.

This lovely thing was designed by my friend
Jeanne Abel. It was fun to do, but fiddly.
I hope it does the job as a shop display at
shows all around the country. 

4. With my friend Nora, to get some inspiration for her book, we went for a walk in the woods near Savage Mill. These little local wild spots are just waking up now, and they don't seem to hold many signs of life, but if you look closely, you can see spring ephemerals like this flower--bloodroot--which is all over the place along a familiar path near Bollman Bridge. I was able to see buds, partially open blossoms and fully-blown specimens. There was also lesser celandine--a bright yellow flower--just starting to bloom, as well as Spring Beauty--a tiny white flower that looks like a star. It was a balm to be in the air and the trees.

5. The Wailin' Jennys. I got to see them live again. I had seen them for just a minute as part of Prairie Home Companion at Wolf Trap a couple of years ago, but this time it was all them in this wonderful small venue at Montpelier Arts Center. How I love these girls' singing and here is how close we were to the stage. It was another one of those things that almost loomed on my calendar because it would be pushing away things that I needed to be doing, and as it was I had to practically use a shoehorn to fit it into a ridiculously busy weekend, but as the music flowed over me and I sang along, I knew I was in the right place. I got to hold my husband's hand and breathe more deeply than I have in a while. The fact that I could share the evening with friends as well as Eric made it all the better. 

6. Last but not least, General Conference. Twice a year my church goes global and broadcasts 12 hours of inspirational learning over two weekends all around the earth. Anyone can watch and be able to know what we believe. For me it is a looked-forward-to opportunity to stop and listen and ponder and remember what is most important. Today we shared the day and the traditional breakfast with more of our adopted local family in lieu of being with blood relations. The Millars are beyond pals, and it was fun to see their kids and our kids all mixed up on the couch in one companionable pile. We ate good food, laughed, worked on the meals together between the speakers, and shared in the spirit of the day. It really lifted my spirits to have these people I love in my home. 

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