Deck of cards

Let the card season begin!  

Don't you love this time of year, 

when the mailbox actually yields Good Mail?!  

(We got our first one in the mail yesterday.  Overachievers!)

My holiday card rules for us: 

capture the real us, 

make it simple,  

have a bit of oomph/uniqueness.

I just came across a cache of our old cards.

It's magic--->

Watch us age before your very eyes...

 

1998

*

1999

This is one of my favorites because I look good in the picture

(I was at my skinniest post-motherhood weight then)

*

2000-2002

missing in action

where are these cards?

Dunno.

*

2003

purchased card frame

and timer-camera photo in the cold

(sometimes just getting out a card is enough, right?)

What I remember about this one is some friends thought 

that was our house and rock wall.

No.  That would be the Old North Bridge and the Old Manse.

Thanks for thinking that though!

*

2004

This time we included a cheesy amusement park photo

from our trip to Denmark

It still makes me laugh.

Not pictured: update letter about our doings

*

2005

Purchased photo card, printed letter (not shown).

That year we found a format we liked, using four things

(best thing, first time, favorite things, famous quote)

for each of us.

*

2006

One of my favorites:

2006 was inspired by a fun wedding announcement 

we received that year

(Thanks Nathan and Sarah Jane)

It was a little packet of 4 pieces:

the red cover

the black and white photo

the update letter

the paper band holding them together

The picture was taken at Niagara Falls

and I took one for the team since it was not

a flattering picture of me AT ALL.

*

2007

easiest ever:

I was so late doing these that the paper store

was out of red and green paper.

One long strip of paper

with photobooth photo on front

(scanned and printed on photo paper)

and a little message on the back.

Not even an update

(and the first time I decided to refer people to my blog).

*

By the way, I'm trying to figure out this year's card.

Do you have any hints?

I tag all of you to do a post of past cards.

(HA! You weren't expecting that, were you?)

Then send me the link,

and I'll publish all the links here.

Pretty please?

I really need some inspiration this year.

And also, how do you display the cards you receive?

We gather together

Last night Lauren and I were staying late at the church waiting for all the fruit basket delivery teams to return. I started playing the piano and eventually she plunked down next to me and we sang all the old Thanksgiving hymns--We Gather Together, Now Thank We All Our God, Come Ye Thankful People Come--her clear soprano with my ole standby alto.

Forgive me if I had a bit of a lump in my throat. And if there was maybe a little moisture in the corners of my eyes. It reminded me so much of the Thanksgivings of my growing up, of assembling with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents in a bustling, happy, turkey-and-gingerbread scented Victorian grandparents' house. After the dinner (and the naps--just pull up a spot on the floor) we would sing. First the Thanksgiving songs ("Swing the shining sickle...nuts are in the attic, fodder's in the shock") and then by sundown, the Christmas carols came out. [Then (of course) leftovers and kids-find-your-coats-your-shoes we would head to a movie.]

So those moments at the piano lifted my spirits in this rather more sparse Thanksgiving. It's just the five of us this year and it's wonderful* but I also miss all those other beloved faces that I used to laugh with at the long oval table and sing with at the end of the day. This living on the other side of the country thing never feels more distant than during the holidays. Sing a verse of "There's a big fat turkey down at Grandpa's farm" for me.

Sending love.

_________

*today: traditional high school football rivalry game in the morning (Lauren played in the band & Greg cooked breakfast for the band), soccer game with some other families, watching the parade and dog show, lots of great puttering and cooking in the kitchen, dinner coming up in an hour or two, then maybe a bit of singing (please?) and a movie.

Thinking thankful

We've put the thankful jar out again this year, 

with blank strips of paper to jot down our thankful thoughts 

(last year the kids especially loved this & I made a little book out the thankful slips of paper).

We've waved goodbye to our wonderful pre-Thanksgiving guests

(thank you, Brad & Jen, you helped chase away my case of the Novembers).

We've sent the dog for a little 2-day vacation,

he's gotten a holiday haircut,

and now he's back enjoying the festivities

We've attended Maroon and Gold Day at the middle school.

And ran in the Turkey Trot at the elementary school 

(the whole school runs a 1/2 mile 

chasing a 5th grade teacher dressed up in a turkey costume).

We've practiced making rolls.

We're delivering Thank You fruit baskets 

with the youth group from church tonight.

I haven't started cooking yet, 

I still need to go to the grocery store one more time, 

and I forgot to take out the turkey to thaw.

But I'm getting a headstart on the thankfulness part:

I'm thankful for: 

GREG

Lauren ~Maddy ~ Sam

my family (parents + sibs) and Greg's

friends, here & there

health & chocolate

my faith & my questions

books & authors & words

my new camera + lens 

mountains

music

mentors

being able to continue to learn

freedom & possibilities

diet Coke & ice

knock knock jokes

naps

funny videos

late night conversations & sunrises

travel & home

love & loneliness

future & past

now

Around here these days...

~Twilighting. I am taking Lauren to the midnight opening of  Twilight tonight.  Yes, I'm officially crazy.  I'll just leave that Mother of the Year nomination form conspicuously on the table there.

~Grooming. Louie is out getting his groovy on today.  His first grooming appointment which, because of his fabulous fur, will take all day. I kind of miss him around here.  We haven't been able to see his eyes for months. I wonder if he'll look like John Stamos/Rod Steward/David Bowie again?

~Listening. You know how when you were an early teen and there was That Song that you absolutely loved and (in my case) taped off of the radio and listened to over and over and over?  The one you never ever got sick of and made your heart go flutter every time it came on?  That's happening around here these days with the same songs flowing from two bedrooms.  My girls are officially obsessed with Taylor Swift and her new CD that came out this week.  Especially White Horse:  "I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale..." (Let me take this opportunity to apologize to my family for inflicting them with  Footloose tape, Journey's "Open Arms," and "Endless Love"  during my early music years. Then I found Depeche Mode et al. and went alternative and inflicted them with that.)  I don't think we go more than 15 minutes without someone playing that CD.  Truly.

~Presenting. Lauren got her birthday present today, four months late.  She's sooo excited about her brand new flute, the Yamaha 461H.  Next year she'll want the kind of Yamaha you can ride.

~Painting. Maddy's room will be receiving its post-wallpaper paint this weekend.  It only took me a couple of months.  Word to the wise: just go straight to purchasing a steamer to remove wallpaper. 

~Bracing ourselves. Not one but TWO of our kids are heading for braces in the next few months (Sam and Maddy).  Headgear. Retainers. Spacers. Bands.  Teeth extraction.  The works!  Upon investigation it appears that the alignment and jaw issues both kids have are not actually from my side of the family but are exactly like Greg's teeth.  And he always said he should have gotten a dental dowry when he got married...

~Handing in. I just finished my last stats assignment of the semester, with just the final left to complete next month.  I am making peace with multiple regression, residuals, outliers, and Mauchley's Test of Sphericity (which, to be honest, is just fun to say).   

~Anticipating. I love Thanksgiving.  It's my favorite holiday.  I'm enjoying making lists, planning meals and shopping.  Being thankful.  We have friends coming to see us for a couple of days right before Thanksgiving (can't wait!) so it will be a delicious, blessed week.

~Loving these. Enjoy:

First Aid Kit.  

Love that they are two sisters from Sweden, doing covers of Fleet Foxes music. Very talented and cool and haunting:

This adorable French girl:

This one will make any day brighter:

Guaranteed. See more here.

Sick day superlatives

^note to my kids: please don't lick your palms. Or try to fake me out.

I knew it was going to happen. We have another sick one around here. Sam's home with a fever and headache today (and yesterday) so in his honor I've got some sick day superlatives:

Best pseudo-sick day movie ever: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, of course! Maddy watched Sleepless in Seattle when she was sick last week and Harry Potter is on Sam's list today.

Best drink for a sickie: Sprite. Apple juice. Water with ice and a straw.

Best place to set up sick camp: on the sofa with pillows and blankets, near a t.v. & some books

Best time to be sick: Tuesdays and Thursdays, please, or I have to miss class. Sundays are also acceptable (and we may have to do paper-rock-scissors to decide who gets to stay home from church with the sickie...what? don't judge me!).

Best lunch for a sickie: chicken noodle soup (confession: from a can), saltines, applesauce, pudding. Or a bundled-up trip through the drive thru (fresh air does a body good, even if the fast food doesn't)

Number of days until I call the doctor: 2-4 depending on symptoms. (I try to keep a good reputation around the doctor's office as being a non-alarmist mom. Although I did notice Maddy's appendix symptoms very early on and had rock star status with our doctor for a while.)

Symptom most likely to convince me to keep someone home: nausea. I can't verify it and it has foreseeable consequences if I ignore it. Also fever. Verifiable, of course.

Best signs that it's time for the sickie to go back to school: He/she has enough energy to argue with brother/sister, begins to complain of boredom (if you're truly sick, you're too wiped out to be bored...except if you have chicken pox etc.), or can run around.

Words most commonly heard around when there's a sickie home: "Did you wash your hands, honey?" "Cover your mouth, please" "How are you feeling, sweetie?" (I pull out all the endearments when someone's sick.)

Most likely time someone will get sick: right before a vacation. (Proof here and here.) Runner up: on a day I have to be somewhere (today: class and a seminar and a vet appointment. Oh well.)

Worst after-effect of sick-days: All that make-up homework from school (kids). Rescheduling everything I cancelled (me).

Best after-effect of sick-days: Alone time with the sickie (day one) , PLUS a tidier, more organized house from my puttering (days two+)

Junior sleuths society

Veteran's Day 2008.

Lauren headed to Cambridge with three friends (on the subway! by themselves! huge rite of passage right there) to go to the Harvard Natural History Museum as part of a big Biology project.

Greg was at work, talking on his phone and doing what he does at work, where he is usually found on Tuesdays. (His company doesn't take those kind of holidays off. Moment of silence for absent G.)

That left the three of us (Maddy, Sam and me) for the day. I took a break from homework & projects in the morning and we decided to go letterboxing.

It's no secret that Sam loves everything to do with sleuthing and puzzles and mysteries so he loves it when we go on a letterboxing adventure. Plus it gets us out in the fresh air at the same time...just right for a day off from school. We hadn't been for a year or two (I know I've posted about letterboxing before but somehow can't find it in my archives) so we clicked here for a refresher.

[You could really make this two days of activities: the first day you could make your stamp notebook and even carve your own stamp from a rubber eraser. The next day you could follow the clues to the treasure. I'm just saying.]

Letterboxing is basically a treasure hunt arranged by kind and interested strangers. At each site, they bury a box with a notebook (for you to sign or stamp with your own stamp), a stamp (to stamp your own notebook like a passport book), and an inkpad. On the website, you can search for a location near you and download the clues to find the buried box. We chose the one in Sleepy Hollow cemetery in Concord.

Thank you, veterans.

There were clues like "go to Author's Ridge"
"you will pass a sphere on the right and a hollow stump on the right"

"walk 20 paces"

"...behind the tree you will see a partly buried rock.
The box is under the rock."

The thrill of discovery!

I was kind of concerned about the ethics of bringing Louie
to a cemetery
(would he want to dig anything up?)
but he was very well behaved

The stamp: "the earth laughs in flowers [Ralph Waldo Emerson]"

It was a good day.
{Let me know if you try this...I'd love to hear about
other sleuthing adventures}
p.s.
Lauren successfully navigated the city and the subway
and finished her assignment.
She came back spilling with stories of getting a bit lost
(she did some sleuthing of her own after all)
and loving the glass flowers
and the stuffed llama.

Better than candles

Thirteen years ago, I dropped off 2-year-old Lauren 

at our friends' house at 5:30 a.m.,

cried a bit at how her life was about to change,

drove to the hospital

and...

three hours later...

wonderful Madeleine entered our lives.

This morning the sky celebrated with these colors:

and then six girls showed up on our doorstep at 6:30

with breakfast and presents

 to surprise the birthday girl

and to make her go to school in crazy pajamas 

and (inexplicably) antlers.

{Let me just pause to give thanks for her friends.

I love these girls.

And they still act [and look] 12-13.

Enthusiasm. Giggling. Politeness. 

And none of that trying to look 21 nonsense}

I think she liked it

{and she can rock the antler and jammies look}

Happy Birthday, Maddy girl

Go ahead, take it

As kids we used to think it was so funny to hear my grandma answer the phone.  She would be chatting away in a normal voice, which for her (and her 8 sisters) was rapid fire and kind of loud.  The phone would ring, she would cross the kitchen, pick up the receiver and say  "hellO-o?", her voice suddenly sweet and soft and singsong, managing to draw it out into three syllables.  The stark contrast cracked us up every time...somehow the trek across the kitchen transformed her from the Grandma we knew to a caricature of over-the-top sunniness. Even better if the phone rang when she was upset or scolding us. ("You kids stop running through here!  We have enough people in the kitchen already.  Everyone out! " {phone ring, delicate clearing of throat}  "HellO-o?")

I've worried lately that sometimes this blog feels like that cheery, sing-song hello--definitely one side of my life/personality/experience but not always exactly the full picture.   When I decided to call this spot on the internet "basic joy" it wasn't because I think my life is any more joyful than anyone else's.  It was to remind myself to find the basic everyday joy, a nudge challenging my sometimes Eeyore moods. Life is complicated and mine is messy and imperfect.  Challenges, life's pace, loneliness, expectations, hormones, did I say expectations?, and too little sleep conspire to hide the joy.  

I know from talking to friends, the young women I work with, and a few of you that I'm not alone in this.  I've got a classic case of the Novembers, I think.  I cry at victory speeches, concession speeches,  birthdays, commercials, stories on the radio, watching my kids rise to the occasion and despairing at their struggles--good cries and sad cries, happiness and loneliness.  All of this coexisting with the necessity of my cheery hellO-o voice when it's required.

Then I remember what I always learn in these dreary spans: I can choose joy even in the middle of all that. So I lean heavily on these thoughts:

I salute you. I am your friend and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got. But there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instance. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take joy! Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty . . . that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it, that is all . . . And so I greet you, with profound esteem and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away. ~Fra Giovanni, "Letter to a friend"

Love that.  Take heaven, take peace, take joy. Go ahead, after you...

* * *

Inspired by:

~this post at Segullah about blogging

~a similar discussion about finding joy on my friend Jenny's private blog (so no link)

~this blog about mothers and creativity and blogging

~conversations with friends, family

Taking a day

Maddy is home from school sick today with a sore throat and cough.  I have to admit (a little guilty confession) that I really enjoy it when my kids are home sick (as long as it's not something worrisome, of course).  A sliver of old fashioned Florence Nightingale-ness activates in me.  I like to check their foreheads and set up a little stool with good drinks and crackers next to the couch.  I give them a little extra attention and the pace of the day turns into something slow and cozy. 

Even now that they're older, I still want to hover. We read or watch a movie together. Maybe I'll take a little nap along with the patient, in sickness solidarity, eager to toss the to-do list for the day.  I happily cancel whatever's going on that day and settle in for some nurturing.  

That's the first day.

On the second day, I'm perfectly willing to turn over the t.v. remote to the little patient and get some things done.  The weak voice calling "Mom...can I have some more sprite?" from the other room may or may not be catered to.  My Florence nurses' cap slips a little. Or a lot.  There's a law of diminishing care that kicks in...it discourages faking sickness longer and sets everyone up for a seamless return to normal life.

Heaven help the child who stays home on the third day and beyond (because I'm much less likely to at that point).  I become more drill sargeant than Florence and start to say things like "turn that t.v. off and find out your homework that you've missed" or "pick up those socks off of the floor please" or "get on your clothes...you're coming with me to the grocery store.  We need food!"  I start to resent the germy mess we're in and long for the freedom of errands and schedules.  (And inevitably, the NEXT child will come home sick that day and never see Florence Nightingale mom for the whole sick cycle.)

Today we're on day two.  I'm enthusiastically encouraging a return to school tomorrow and so far no one else is complaining of a sore throat.  Everyone knock on wood for me. 

~picture above of a Sam sick day, 2006

Having my say

I put on my new red shoes and blue jeans and headed to my polling place...

where there were no lines! 

I was kind of disappointed because I came prepared 

with a novel and my ipod 

and had visions of in-line comaraderie--

maybe some joking and couple of new friendships.

But I waltzed right in, got my ballot,

stood in the booth, filled in the circles,

put my ballot in the box, and got my sticker.

5 minutes max.

Tonight we'll be making Gabi's pizza dough recipe, 

throwing together some voter map pizzas,

and gradually filling in the blank US map

with blue and red

as the results trickle in.

Hooray for democracy!

Hooray for the 19th amendment,

only 88 years ago, giving me the right to vote!

Next presidential election, 

my daughter will vote, too.  Wow.

On a serious note, I do have firm opinions about this election, as I'm sure you do, too.  I don't usually tout my opinions widely because I respect that everyone arrives at their political beliefs and opinions in their own way, prioritizing the issues that are most important in their own lives (the loudest I've gotten here is quietly putting a little image in my sidebar) but I do love to discuss things in person.  The thing is, I can see both sides.  I have both parties on my family tree, back several generations. There are stands on both sides of the aisle that I believe in. 

I am heartened by the fact that, no matter the result tonight, we have four good people willing to put themselves out there for derision/mocking/applause/support/commentary ad nauseum in order to serve our country, to lead us.  I'm sure these next years won't be easy for the new commander in chief.  So my best wishes to whomever it ends up being.

*Did you know my home state of Utah gave the vote to women in 1870, 50 years before the rest of the country? I think that's applaudable (&, as I remember, my great grandmother was a suffragette who pushed for the 19th amendment early on). Thanks, Grandma Achsa.  I thought of you today.