schlockmeister...

I just wanted to say that I've been blogging so long now that I can't remember which pictures I've already used. So, if you think a picture looks familiar, it probably is. That is all...

little snowman...

There's snow on the ground this morning & there's still a little stream running next to the house from all of the rain we've been getting. Yesterday we thought we were going to float away & this morning it's so peaceful. I think I'm finally ready for winter.

worldliness...

Emmeli- "Our whole back yard is the world."

One day I was bragging about the map I made on Little Big Planet. It's a map of our yard and it looks like a fine folk art quilt. It's wonderfully bright, and real, and happy, and I'm very proud of it...

So we were talking about it, (we meaning me)
And Aimee was listening obediently,
When a little voice piped in somewhat dreamily,
(It was a little girl who is named Emmeli)
And she said, "Our whole back yard is the world, you see..."

Well this was spoken so matter-of-factily
We asked, "Do you mean the level on LBP?
Or perhaps you were just speaking generally?
And we found the reply from the sweet voice to be
"Indubitably! I spoke quite generally!"

scapegoat...

Happy Thanksgiving to my sweet, absent friend. I know it was the goats that kept you!

perennial pedagogue...

"When I get kids, Mom, I'm going to ask you to teach them." ~Emmeli

hanging on...

I hope I make it through another year of blogging. Pictures abound, but I fear I am running out of words.

three little kittens...

I spent the whole afternoon baking with Snow & Emmeli yesterday. Nothing really turned out, but the pies looked beautiful & it was sweet. Snow & I made a banana cream pie & Emmeli made a miniature "apple crisp pie." Hannah didn't help becauses she wasn't feeling well. She has a cold, so she watched SpongeBob in the playroom & talked to Aimee on the phone & came down to check on us periodically. I thought Snow looked like a picture with her hair pulled back and her sleeves pushed up to her elbows as she was surrounded by whisks and mixing bowls and measuring spoons and The Joy of Cooking. I looked at her & thought the image belonged on a bag of flour or in a fairytale. I learned that Emmeli loves the smell of dough, which is interesting. Yes, I want to attach "me" to that smell so that all through life when she's standing in her kitchen with her rolling pin she'll think of Mommy holding her hand and helping her make miniature pies when she was but a wee little kitten.

good samaritan...

I've been having a super crappy morning so far today. In times like these, only my dog will do.

secret society...

How do you explain something that was never meant to be explained? You don't. Welcome to our secret society where nobody makes any sense whatsoever. This brings much joy & laughter to society members, especially when precisely planned prattle is pronounced at the peak point of prime opportunity. King (or queen) of the moment, that's what you are. "Are you eating deodorant? That is soooo not nifty..."

splendid...

God is good. No particular reason, those are just the facts...

glowing, gleaming poppy-land...

Have you ever seen the movie 50 First Dates? If you haven't, I really hate to be the one to introduce you to it, because there are some really gnarly parts in that movie. That aside, it's one of my favorite movies of all time. In brief, it's a really sweet love story about a girl who has short term memory loss & how this guy spends every moment trying to get her to fall in love with him when she basically can't even remember who he is. So, the guy ends up making a video for her to wake up to every morning. It's like a wake up call every morning- this is you, this is where you are, this is what happened, you were in an accident, you have short-term memory loss, but I'm here, I love you, there's lots of beauty in your life, here are the highlights. As I watched this girl at the end of the movie, waking up to this video tape, I honestly felt like, you know, that's what I need. I've got a similar problem, a sort of brain damage, like I forget what's essential in life. I get wrapped up in this thing or that thing & I feel like, if I just had something to wake up to every morning, to set me straight so I don't go wandering about in circles, then life would be a breeze. Well because I'm such a scatter brain, this thought went just about as quickly as it came, not that I was going to go make myself a video tape or something... but this morning it came back to me so clearly. It was like Ego from Ratatouille when he took that first bite & was instantly a kid again right there in the moment where everything was so clear to him. It was simple. Noone has to translate what was going on there, if you saw it. I know, I'm a dork. I relate all of my deepest thoughts to kids' movies. (But that sound effect that they have in the movie right there in that scene, the kind of sound effect that you just can't put in a blog, that goes here too.) So something set me straight right from the start this morning just like that. And it wasn't food, & it wasn't coffee either. It wasn't a sound effect & it wasn't a cartoon, ok? It was a feeling, because that's what girls do. They feel. It was a feeling that only comes from hearing the right word at the right time. It was so essential to my life, because it is the essence of my life, this thing. And even though it's right there with me every moment, for some reason this morning it was like right in my face where I need it to be, beautifully radiant, shining, & warm, not unlike a splash of cold water. It was a faithful feeling that comes from faith, but not for faith's sake, for God's sake. Amen.