I appreciate

• The stained glass windows at our church
• The priveledge of helping someone truly in need
• My alarm clock that lulls me to sleep with the sound of a crackling fireplace and wakes me gently with the gong, gong, GONG of church bells
• Big fat snowflakes that melt on your tongue
• Moose-noculars
• The wool blanket I bought in a century old mill in Ireland, the hand-crocheted afghans made by Grandma Johnson, and the embroidered angel watching over me, made by my mom
• The discovery that flavors you wouldn't think go together can make a surpisingly good pairing- like vanilla ice cream, strawberries, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of fresh ground black pepper
• Egg bake on a Sunday after church
• Any genuine experience that reminds me of the goodness of humanity
• Chocolate!
• Irreplacable people like Garrison Keilor, Harvey, and Trees (though most people have only heard of the first two)
• My pink polka dot martini glasses that remind me to live a little
• Tea or coffee with a good friend
• Adventures like random grape-ings, so good that the story lives on and on
• Hearing other people's best adventures and stories- because I don't have time to experience everything worth experiencing in this life- you need to do some of it for me and share the wealth. I will try to do the same for you.
• A good man in a pair of jeans.
• Art, which may or may not be a man in a good pair of jeans.

a Spanish Odyssey

Our micro-family knows how to live.

Manda and I are not typical morning people. And yet, as I drove her to school this morning, we sang loud and proud along to the Sound of Music. We are sixteen going on seventeen.

Later, she read aloud from Homer's Odyssey to me as I prepared her dinner of green beans and cheesy rice.
Then, while she ate, I quizzed her on her Spanish while sitting at la mesa.

This is not uncommon for us- her reading aloud, while I clean the kitchen and prepare food. On Sunday mornings after church she likes to read me the 'Nightlight' -a spoof of Twilight- while I make pancakes.

Nor is it unusual for us to sing in the car. Wicked, Buffy the Musical, and Dr. Horrible- whether I want to or not, I know all the songs. "Captain Hammer's here... and the day needs my saving expertise"

Maybe it helps if you don't really have to look at each other. All I know is, it all gets to count as communication with my teenage daughter, so I'll take it. And I recommend you do the same. Even if it means singing angry songs about bunnies while cooking your huevos and hearing cheesy re-dos of teen fiction while scrubbing the sink.

I just want directions

I composed this poem using magnetic poetry words:
I just want directions to
the sunshine shadow mist
your eyes crush iron love
like the next weak gift
a little whisper from my heart,
as if tonight I know
he will be wearing black

Initiate Sequence, Ready for Launch

Slept in today. This was sorely needed after a very long and stressful week.  Being that January is nearly over, I decided to tackle putting away the tree. I'm not sure why it took so long this year- it's been so cold, perhaps I felt I needed the twinkle lights and the cheery reminders of past-happy Christmases. At any rate, I decided that rather than just hastily stuffing everything back in the big blue plastic tub, I would approach this task mindfully. Not in a zen way, but in a way that allowed me to time travel and linger over special memories.

So, as I took down the hand-painted plaster ornaments, I recalled the Craft Parties of Christmas Past. As I put away the foam penguin and paper elf my daughter made in grade school- I was transported to a simpler time for her, when she was not worrying about whether she would be able to handle the pressures of college and of being a grown-up. And as I held the crocheted white angel that my grandmother made, for a moment it was as if she didn't really die in September, instead she was hanging out in her blue recliner, quietly rocking and crocheting.

I sorted through every item in the big blue box. Some of my favorite past ornaments were irreparably broken, so it didn't make sense to keep storing them. Like my tiny green glass tree- the only tree I had my first year away from home, so bittersweet. The side had a huge chip missing. I was a little sad to throw it away, but relieved to know I would no longer be reminded of its brokenness every year.

Some things I'd kept for years, but very rarely or never displayed, like the metal door hanger with the country Santa on it. A gift, in the country woman style that was definitely not me. I set it aside for the donation pile.

When I was done, there was room left in the top of the box. Room for new memories, new good feelings. I shut the lid, and felt heartened.

I ventured from home briefly to pick up some things we needed: milk, TP, groceries, and a yoga mat for my class. Even grocery shopping can get a little complicated for us. My daughter is a vegetarian, and she loves veggie corn dogs, so I was super excited to be able to find these for her. I- on the other hand- cannot eat gluten, which meant I would need to make two main dishes.

You know those cooking shows where celebrity chefs try to show you how you can make a complete and fabulous meal in 30 minutes? You're no dummy-you just KNOW it's like the hairdresser who promises she gave you an easy to style haircut and she throws in some gel and runs the hair dryer for 5 minutes and you look amazing, but then the next day YOU try the exact same thing and you look like Medusa?

Well, I would have never believed it, but it turns out I am capable of kick-ass meal timing. Amanda's was easy- put corn dogs in oven preheated to 425 degrees for 22 minutes. Mine was a little more complicated- I wanted shrimp with peppers and onions. Here's the sequence of events below:

Turn oven to preheat to 425.
Pull shrimp, red pepper, and mushrooms out of fridge. Get out cutting board, onion, and citrus-seasoned pepper and salt.
Fill rice steamer with water, measure rice and pour in.
Put corn dogs in oven, set timer for 22 minutes.
Open can of green beans for picky vegetarian daughter, pour in top that fits on steamer, start steamer.
Cut mushrooms. Pour 2 TBSP olive oil in deep frying pan. Cut pepper and onion.  Throw veggies in pan. Season.
Get butter lettuce out of fridge. Clean.
Add shrimp to pan. Season.
Tear lettuce in pieces and place in shallow dish.
Stir shrimp dish.
Timer buzzes for corn dogs. Pull them out.
Check rice, it's 99% done. Turn off, but leave in cooker
Shrimp is done, pour over butter lettuce.
Rice (and green beans) are done.
Dinner served in less than 30 minutes.