wednesday

It's late and I'm tired. I don't want to go to bed because it feels too early for that. These late nights are getting me programed, but by Thursday I'm mentally exhausted. Tomorrow must be Thursday right? Okay, so I'm tired a day early. My eyes are tired. I've been reading like a madwoman and churning out literary analyses like there's no tomorrow. All of this just to be an English teacher...yeah, it's worth it...but what if I've lost my sanity by then? Currently I'm doing Adolescent Literature and surprisingly I've discovered a book I really really like. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse is a keeper. It's a book written in verse so that any page by itself is a poem, but collectively the pages tell a story about a girl living in the dust bowl of the 1930's. I've added it to my favorite books list because I like it so much. Maybe I should have been a Librarian....hmmm...right now that sounds pretty good. I am so easily distracted. I got on here to update everyone about Jacob...that's pretty bad isn't it? Anyway, Jacob was able to come home on Monday-a whole week ahead of schedule. He is doing very well. He had an appointment with the cardiologist today and they said he could even return to school next week as long as he only goes for half the day once or twice during the week and then gradually work his way back to the normal schedule after a few weeks. He lost 8 lbs. while he was in the hospital and now weighs a whopping 51 lbs. My sister says she can't believe how well he is doing and how fast everything is healing up...must be all those prayers :)

RAIN rain RAIN rain

I'm beginning to think the name of my blog should be "Late Night Latte" instead of "Morning Coffee". My morning quiet time has been very sparse and I miss it. I enjoy having a routine to wake up to, but lately my only routine is staying up until 1:00 in the morning working on literary analyses. The nice thing about it is that I learn so much about some of our authors that I feel almost like I've gained a friend out of the deal. This week my friends were William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. Authors from the South put so much passion into their writing. In spite of the hard work, I really have learned a great deal and this has been excellent "book weather" with the rain's pidder-padder on the rooftop. Last weekend Dave ran in the CIM and he happened across one of my old friends from high school and she sent me a couple of emails this week wanting to stay in touch, so that has been an unexpected surprise. It's always nice to get reacquainted with friends you haven't seen in awhile. Time passes quickly, people change, It's interesting. I'm excited tomorrow is Friday - I've even been thinking about playing hooky to get a head start on my housework. My family has been so patient this week with the maze of Christmas boxes I have scattered about. Hopefully the next three days will prove to be very productive. The Fall semester will be over in two more weeks and I can sleep in and shop and bake and whatever I want...I'm so excited! I really want some down time so I can master this crochet stitch my mom just taught me. She makes the most beautiful afghans and I would really like to learn how. I know how to knit but I never really tried to crochet, so this should be fun.

Zippity-Do-Da

November is just zipping right by. It certainly has been a busy month full of school, deadlines, birthdays, writing, and planning. We managed to slip a surprise dinner party in on the kids. It was nice getting a few of their friends together and they never even knew. Just goes to show you that I can be sneaky when I need to be! I just can't believe they are as old as they are - 18 and 21. The time has went by so fast and I have never felt more blessed than when I look at the two of them. It is very enjoyable to see them as individuals. Yes, they are my children but they are also my friends. I love the time we spend over coffee (or rootbeer) talking about the day's events, goals, life. I am excited for them to get started on their lives. I'm sure not nearly as excited as they are - living at home can get quite stale, even I can understand that. Next week is Thanksgiving - another year of cooking for family members I only see once or twice a year. I always feel inclined to swap out a few traditional dishes for something gourmet or exotic, but I can already see fingers pointing, asking "What's That?" so I will more than likely reserve my opinion that they need to be more adventurous with their tastebuds. My Thanksgiving menu will have to please EVERYONE and so be quite ordinary in doing so. At least my oven door works properly this year and I can open it all the way. Maybe I'll make something different for dessert other than pumpkin pie. Hmmm.....any suggestions?

Was That A Sestina That Just Ran By?

Is this Thursday? I have been inundated with literature. That's right I am drowning in monometers, dimeters, trimeters, tetrameters...all these feet and no where to run. I am beginning to dream about which genre I prefer. I can however, see the light at the end of the tunnel, because I can smell Friday and it smells delicious! I do have something to share today - while I was on my textbook purchasing binge I happened across a treasure of a book that I had to have. It's titled Picnics by Hilary and Alex Heminway. It has beautiful photography, poetry, recipes, and cute little tips for planning themes. There are ideas for picnics in the rain, children's picnics, backyard formals...lots of fun stuff! It reminds me of a grown-up version of a favorite Tea Party book we loved so much when Kristin was little. I remember the teddy bear tea parties and the miniature heart sandwiches. The girls would get "dressed up" and enjoy their tea in little china cups. I wonder what ever happened to those? Hmm, I am sure they are packed away somewhere waiting for the day to be rediscovered. It's always fun to pull out old boxes and explore the contents. Well, enough reminiscing. This week has been incredibly mundane, but Kristin always seems to pull through with some variation of excitement. She received her very first speeding ticket yesterday. Actually it wasn't a normal "speeding" ticket per se, because she was going the speed limit but unfortunately she was in a school zone and should have been going 25 instead of 40. There were no children around because school was in session and she was quick to point that out to the officer and he was quick to respond with a "there you go" as a boy was being dropped off by his mother. So apparently "When Children Are Present" means "While School Is In Session". Ah, another lesson in life. She was pretty upset and concerned about our reaction, but I told her, "Hey things happen, learn from your mistakes and move on". It really doesn't do any good to get stressed out about things. So that I don't eat my words, I had better get reacquainted with this half-written paper staring me in the face. The short break was nice but homework does take precedence over blogging, right?

T.G.I.F.

Thank goodness it's friday. I can catch my breath after a whirlwind of a week. I know, I know, my first full week and I'm already whining. I'll work on that. I'm really not complaining, I'm just exhausted! It has been a relatively uneventful week around the house. Kristin locked her keys in the car one day and Erik's truck broke down today and had to be towed home. Other than that - life is good. The kids really get aggravated when little inconveniences occur and I just smile and tell them "That's the way some days go". Kind of reminds me of a church marquis I saw that said "God promised a safe landing...he didn't say anything about smooth sailing". I think there are many character-building attributes to the challenges and tribulations in life and we ourselves need not go through great adversity to be able to recognize how others shape our strengths and weaknesses. I think it is really important to be observant and learn from others. It has been my experience that most things boil down to attitude. It is easy to identify character traits in others that we would deem as flaws for ourselves, but how often do we look at ourselves and measure the level of positivity we express through how we react to things? I am wondering what characteristics I possess that others might find undesirable. Are we ethically obligated to set positive examples? How often do we really thank people for being so positive and encouraging? I'm wondering if I try to always find the good in everything and when I don't, does it show? I just hope Erik and Kristin realize the importance of endurance and are humble enough to realize they are better off for having dealt positively with the things life delivers.

Summer's End

Every summer adds a unique chapter to our lives. When I think back to all the summers I remember as a kid I always remember fun times spent with friends when we use to swim in the river, pick sweet juicy peaches out of the orchard that were the size of today's small cantaloupes. We would wash them from any neighbor's garden hose we would pass along the way. I remember the collection of baby frogs I insisted on keeping in my bedroom until the day they all got loose and my mom made me get rid of them. I gave them to trusted friends who promised they would return them to me as soon as mom calmed down. I remember the boys who would sit on the fence outside my bedroom window and talk to me until dad would come out and chase them away. There are countless memories that confirm my recollection of having a wonderful childhood. Aside from a few scattered days of unbearable heat, summers are and always will be a treasure cove of new beginnings to friendships, book lists, and travel itineraries that elude to deeper meanings of self discovery and personal growth that I myself do not even recognize until some time later. This summer has been no different. Many things standout but my favorite memory of this summer was when the entire family went ice blocking. This "sport" had only been recently introduced to me by Kristin one night when she kidnapped me and promised to end our boredom by showing me what she and her friends liked to do. I had so much fun with her that I couldn't wait for the next weekend to arrive so that everyone could go. So with ice blocks in tow (at 10:00p.m.) we arrived at a nearby park with steep, grassy hills where we each firmly sat upon our towel covered ice and slid down the hill. The trick is to balance the bum and outstretched legs in such a way that you go real fast until you either reach the bottom or you crash. Walking back up the steep hill went virtually unnoticed as we were always laughing and racing each other and apparently it was the laughing that ended our late night of fun because it marked the first time in our family's history that we got booted out of a park by policemen who said we were being too noisy. My tailbone ached for weeks but I would do it all over again!

Last evening I was working in the garden and I happened across a rather large Praying Mantis. I got the camera out (me being the shutterbug I am) and began taking close-up pictures of her. She was quite aware of me as well, as her pose for the camera will attest. If you click on the picture above, it should enlarge to show the detail. It looks as though she was posing for the camera, but in fact she was just keeping a watchful eye for her own safety. Knowing she is a beneficial bug to my garden, I thanked her for the photo shoot and let her go about her business. I do love all the sweet little signs that summer is almost over because I can reflect on all that it offered and look forward to what fun things might occur in the fall.

Tribute To Jerry

There is an older couple that live across the street and I love to watch them with each other. I would guess they are in their mid to late eighty's. The man's name is Jerry and I am disappointed that I do not know the woman's name. They put a smile on my face because they love each other so much. She is not in the best of health and hasn't been for some time. Jerry brings her out in a wheel chair and walks her up and down the sidewalk and he will stop so she can look at a neighbor's flowers or a cat in the window. He is so patient and nurturing. When the weather is more comfortable to be in he will load her frail little body up in their truck and take her fishing. He always tells me about how she loves to go fishing. When he talks about her there is always a sparkle in his eye. Some days he works out in his garage and she will be there with a lap blanket carefully tucked in around her and Jerry close by. She always waves at me. I really don't know how he does it. He takes care of the yard by himself and one time he told me about how much she loves the roses that are planted in their front yard. Now when I see him out cutting the roses I know they are for her. He once told me that her memory is pretty bad and that she often forgets simple things but he is always amazed that somehow she remembers Kristin's name and our dog Lacey. She use to always tell me what a good dog Lacey was. I haven't seen her around lately and this morning a firetruck came to their house and Jerry left in his truck right after they did so I am saying a little prayer for them. That kind of love is so inspirational to see. No one knows their story quite the way they do and knowing how everyone experiences difficult times in a marriage just makes me wonder how they did it. He is so caring and loving toward her that I know she must be an incredible lady. I hope she is alright because Jerry would be very lonely without her. My own parents are getting up there in age and they do not tend to each other's needs. Mom takes care of dad, period. Good days or bad days mom waits on him hand and foot. She says he's lazy but I think she just has him spoiled. This morning I went out to their place and helped out around the house and visited. Nothing much changes. I get updates on my brothers and sadly, that is about the only way I know how they are doing. My friend Linda came by to see me today and I was so happy to see her. I have not seen her in so long so it was nice to visit and get a little caught up. She is leaving for Italy in October but when she gets back we'll try to get together for coffee or lunch or something. We use to work together in the grocery business and she is one of the few people that I missed when the store closed two years ago. Some days it hits me harder than others how important it is to stay in touch with good friends. The days come and go so quickly, but sharing time with friends help to make them more memorable and just maybe I would feel a little better about these laugh lines I'm getting.

Another Hot August Night

It was sooo hot today (105 degrees) so I had to prioritize my morning in order to get things finished up before it got too hot, besides writing in the evening is kind of nice. The house is quiet for a change and I don't feel rushed. The moon is absolutely beautiful right now. It looks like it is parked right at the end of our street above the trees. If it weren't so humid outside it would be nice to just sit in the garden swing and relax. Today I wrapped up my Hardpan submission with only two days to spare. That is a load off my mind and now I have to just wait for a reply, hopefully a positive one. Yesterday we got Kristin's license and textbooks all taken care of and her window replaced so now she can put last week behind her. I really dislike seeing the kids go through tribulations but at the same time I know it prepares them for life. Kristin has had more than her fair share lately but maybe it is best to get them all over with. It always breaks my heart when they hurt. I try not to pamper them too much, I just let them know I have an ear if they need it and both kids are pretty good about sharing what is on their mind. I'm pretty excited about tomorrow. Erik has the day off and he thought it would be fun to go clamming, something we have never done. After he looked at the tide report though I think we settled for just spending the afternoon in San Francisco because neither of us relish the idea of getting up at 5:00 a.m. We'll see how energetic we are in the morning. Just getting out of this heat will be nice and traffic shouldn't be too bad. I like doing stuff with the kids or maybe it's just that I like that they would want to do something with me. We don't usually get into too much trouble, although there have been ocassions...it's just nice to be free to do stuff because I know after next week I will be a prisoner of a relentless academic schedule. I'm actually quite excited about the semester starting. There is a certain level of autonomy that I am unable to obtain any other way since I am not working. I love to be around the students and the professors. If anyone would have told me twenty years ago that I would be making a career change I would have thought they were crazy. I am happy where I am and that I have waited because learning is so much more valuable to me now and I haven't been jaded by the system enough to stop caring like so many teachers today. If I have everything calculated correctly, I should be in a position to pour myself into other people's kids right about the same time mine are leaving home, so maybe that empty nest won't have such a negative impact on me. In any case, I am looking forward to the next chapter. I did not post a yummy recipe yesterday because I had a request for chocolate chip cookies and I figured everyone already has a recipe for that...but Erik and I prepared cous cous last night for dinner (actually I cooked it and he decorated it) and so we will post a picture of that. It was quite delicious. We've really been getting into the organic scene lately and eating much healthier, not that we ate that unhealthy before but we are just trying out a lot of new things to see if we like them. It has been my experience that cous cous is best when prepared in chicken broth and accompanied with avocado and tomato slices. Overall it has a nice nutty flavor that goes well with just about any other entree that you would normally serve rice or pasta with.