Memorial Day Weekend

It's been a wonderful, scrumptious sort of weekend. A homeschool rally, a graduation party, church & potluck on Sunday, honoring the branches of the military, then a long afternoon of games and a movie at a friend's house.  Lots of time to eat and talk...and just be. :)

When humid air creeps in...

When humid air creeps in and brings to life
the scent of 100-year-old wood -
the pines, the cherries, the oaks -
with 100-year-old dust to create a scent familiar
to those who grew up in old farmhouses,
those humid homes with sticky floors and sticky doors
and sweating pipes and stifling attics.

The morning air is sweet, and windows open
bring the smell of cooking sausage and brewing coffee
mixed with blooming honeysuckle, manure,
and beautiful sunshine on dew-laden grass.

The sound of birds outside, so happy in warmth
and the sound of a fan in every room
to stir sticky stifling around and make it livable.

It makes me so happy, so youthful
and I want to run through grass like I did as a child
dandelion fluff sticking between my toes
sweet clover rustling as I go.

To drip with water from the swimming pool,
feeling sensations of hot and cool
from catching tadpoles in the creek
to sunning on the rock-baked patio
and then back in my room, my very own little girly room
to lie in front of the fan and whisper secrets to my very own best friend.

To ride bikes as if they are horses

through the fields and around the empty lot
box lids clothespinned between the spokes
to make the galloping sound quite necessary when you are only 10.

To know the realization of very short life
through the unfortunate accident of a mother rabbit
(whose funeral in the front yard was a teary one to say the least)
and to know the fulfillment of nurturing life
by bringing back to health baby rabbits left behind
and name them after the very best rabbits we know -
Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, Benjamin and Peter.

To eat popsicles three at a time
and spend hours in the forgotten library with books
that haven’t been cracked open in more than a decade.

And all this comes flooding to mind as quick as the snap of two fingers

when humid air creeps in and brings to life
the scent of 100-year-old wood.

Salted Caramel Brownies

I've been eyeing salted caramel recipes for a while, and when I saw this recipe, I finally took the plunge. 

There really are no words. These brownies changed my life. I think I may request them in place of a birthday cake this year. I will never look at a brownie the same way again; the standard has jumped so much higher.

itching to paint

I'm itching to remodel something. But instead of remodeling, I'm supposed to be cleaning out and packing up. I don't mind the cleaning out part or even the packing up part, but I'm seriously getting antsy to paint something and go on the hunt for some vintage furniture.

So I satiate my remodeling desires by looking at pictures online. I've already shown you a portion of my kitchen pictures...here are some bedroom pics.

First, kids' rooms - just because they're fun and often feature bunk beds (something I missed out on in my childhood):

And then big people rooms:

Though all of these have elements that I really like, none of them captures perfectly what I would like to have in a bedroom. The following picture probably comes the closest, but something is missing... It looks awkwardly laid out, but maybe it is just the angle of the photo. I like the separate pieces, colors, patterns, etc, it just feels like it is missing the 'personal' element a bedroom should definitely have.

Wouldn't it be cool to have a closet like this? Maybe I just think so because I've spent so many months out of the past couple years living out of a suitcase. :) In reality, I have a closet 3 feet wide, and it suits me just fine!

Next time...whenever I get to it...I'll have to show you my favorite collection of pics - outdoor living spaces!

2010 World Cup in South Africa

"And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with summer."

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

The beginning of this week, it was cold and gloomy. I do love gray days...

But it hit me last night - as I cruised along in my convertible with top down, honeysuckle heavy on the air, crickets chorusing, milkshake by my side :) - that summer is now here. And it's shaping up to be a wonderful summer at that! So I guess I do love summer too.

Office Hours

My office:

My office companion:

And nothing to do with my office, but a hair update!

If you are male (or female) and hair posts creep you out (ahem, Sam) feel free to skip to the end.

After months of trying to coax my hair to curl and finally coming to the conclusion that it was too long to curl naturally, it did this today:

Sorry...not the best at the self-portrait thing! :) In fact, I look rather mad in this picture. I must have been concentrating too hard.

I was so shocked! I wish my hair would just be predictable and behave itself. Instead it has to go changing plans on me and always switching things up. It totally has a mind of its own. Guess it's just the nature of hair. :)

The Elephant's Child

An excerpt from "The Elephant's Child" by Rudyard Kipling that reminds me so much of my nephew!

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,

I send them east and west;

But after they have worked for me,

I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,

For I am busy then,

As well as breakfast, lunch and tea,

For they are hungry men.

But different folk have different views,

I know a person small -

She keeps ten million serving men, 

Who get no rest at all!

She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs, 

From the second she opens her eyes - 

One million Hows, two million Wheres,

And seven million Whys!

-Rudyard Kipling

Yesterday, my nieces and nephew were over for the afternoon. My nephew was given a green popsicle after supper, and about halfway through, he remarked, "MMmm... this is a good zucchini popsicle!" Apparently zucchini is the first thing he thinks of when he thinks of green things! :) When I explained that it was lime, not zucchini, he started in with the questions - Why are fruits different than vegetables? Why are zucchinis green? How do they make popsicles? How do they get the wooden stick in the middle without breaking it? Why do popsicles melt?......

Loss: A Prelude to Life

"As I look back on that time, I think it was Lesson One for me in the school of faith. That is, it was my first experience of having to bow down before that which I could not possibly explain. Usually we need not bow. We can simply ignore the unexplainable because we have other things to occupy our minds. We sweep it under the rug. We evade the questions.

"Faith's most severe tests come not when we see nothing, but when we see a stunning array of evidence that seems to prove our faith vain. If God were God, if He were omnipotent, if He had cared, would this have happened? Is this that I face now the ratification of my calling, the reward of obedience? One turns in disbelief again from the circumstances and looks into the abyss. But in the abyss there is only blackness, no glimmer of light, no answering echo...

"It was a long time before I came to the realization that it is in our acceptance of what is given that God gives Himself. Even the Son of God had to learn obedience by the things He suffered. He had come for only one purpose: 'Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God.' And His reward was desolation, crucifixion...

"Each separate experience of individual stripping we may learn to accept as a fragment of the suffering Christ bore when He took it all. 'Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.' This grief, this sorrow, this total loss that empties my hands and breaks my heart, I may, if I will, accept, and by accepting it, I find in my hands something to offer. And so I give it back to Him, who in mysterious exchange gives Himself to me...

"It was only gradually during the months that followed that I saw that to God nothing is finally lost. All the Scriptural metaphors about the death of the seed that falls into the ground, about losing one's life, about becoming the least in the kingdom, about the world's passing away - all these go on to something unspeakably better and more glorious. Loss and death are only the preludes to gain and life...

"Faith, prayer, and obedience are our requirements. We are not offered in exchange immunity and exemption from the world's woes. What we are offered has to do with another world altogether."

-My favorite excerpts from These Strange Ashes, by Elisabeth Elliot, emphasis mine

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency

This is a fabulous series of books by Alexander McCall Smith, giving me my first taste of Botswana before we even got there. While in Africa, someone told me that they were making a TV series from the books, but I never imagined they would be available here! But look what I found on Netflix!!




The series is true to the books (with a couple added characters) and true to Botswanan culture. Just watching it and seeing the familiar scenery makes me a tad homesick. :)