I love the optimism of this picture.

Outside dining and snow. Spring fever I guess.

When

the boys were about 8 and 10 if I blew kisses at them they would grin, pretend to grab my kisses out of the air and then stomp on them. I would pretend to be shocked and they would just laugh.

If I try to kiss them now (at 18 and 20) when they are watching tv on the couch they will cover their faces.

This morning husband was talking to S2 via computer. I said "Tell him that mom is sending hugs and kisses."

The reply - "I cannot accept care packages at this time."

:-)

Dinner?

So you have eaten here before? :-)

Not really. These are dinosaur eggs for school tomorrow. Sand, plaster of paris and a dinosaur in the center. Hoping that I didn't make them too hard or else we will NEVER get them open tomorrow!

Snoopy and I went for our usual walk today and the ground has thawed on the trail. Where it felt like hard pack a week ago is now mud. The smell of dirt, decay and spring is intoxicating. Of course Snoopy was interested in other things. Tracking the herd of deer we disturbed, hearing the sounds of small animals in the thicket and trying to decide what they were.

Oh, Winter Quilt,

I was so excited to put you on the bed last fall. Your rich colors made me yearn for you. I was tired of white and the crispness of the sheets. I thought instead of cold winter nights and snuggling under you.

But I am fickle. I am tired of the cold, the wind, the gray skies. I want to wear summer nightwear and feel (and smell) the sheets that have dried in the hot sun. You make my soul heavy. I crave lightness. I want the white quilt back with it's thinness and lightness. Cool pillows on which to lay my head on a hot summer day.

I think that I may pack you away early.

But as I said - I am fickle. Come July, when I have tired of the hot sun, I will look at you again and dream of cool nights, heavy pajamas and the feeling of your softness against my face.

You Will Never Meet the Queen

is what I used to tell the boys when they were little in a futile effort to stop burping and belching at the dinner table.

The first time that S1 went to Germany his hair was long, his clothes that he took were a little ratty and his sandals were held together with duct tape. His german teacher and his parents PLEADED with him to get a new pair of sandals but he maintained that his sandals were fine.

Unfortunately this photo taken at a CDU party (Christian Democratic Union) does not show his feet because he did wear the sandals to the party. "Mom, you said that I would never meet the queen but I did meet the next chancellor of Germany wearing my duct taped sandals."

I finished two dishcloths this weekend from the pattern that I mentioned a couple of posts earlier. Easy to make. I used a size 7 needle as I like the feeling better than using a size 9 needle. Not as wimpy feeling.

This monstrosity is for the children to paint on maybe tomorrow. It's volcano/dinosaur week. Yipee. I have recipes for 4 different volcanoes so we will try it out on 4 consecutive days.

We are still on the list for a puppy. The ultrasound on the mother will be done this week and the puppies are due March 7th. I'm excited for Snoopy as he is terribly lonely and misses Maxine so much. We saw a dog on our walk the other day that looked like Max and Snoopy just wailed.

A test to get my blog to realign.

The winner is

Linda May from Blue

Ridge Bloomer.

Thanks to those of you who entered. Linda May send me your address to my email and I will send out the book pronto!!

Tonight I made a rhubarb cake. It is good but I think I can make the recipe better. It's not blog ready.

During a conversation with one of my students who is having some social issues about how nice it is to have more than one friend. "But I don't like people from Pluto," the child said.

I am in the midst of Mark Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War. What a marvelous book and as it is over 800 pages I get to enjoy it for quite awhile.

Our oldest is coming home tomorrow. Yipee.

Don't forget to

sign up for the giveaway. Scroll down the page and put your comment/hi in the comments section. Yes, anyone may enter no matter where you live.

Thank you to everyone for your concern in the post below. I'm feeling back to my old self :-).


A project that I pick up and work on every now and then. Making Granny Squares is theraputic. The squares are in various shades of purple and yellow. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft and it is wonderful to work with.

I am making baby wash clothes (like these) though I may come up with some other baby ideas in order to work more with the Bernat yarn. It is cotton and also has a wonderful feel.

**and remember the giveaway is below.

A Giveaway

My blog posting lately has been almost non-existent. I could write more but I don't think that you want to hear in detail about the ultrasound that I had to check for ovarian cancer. (It came out fine!!!) Just a little stressful.

So to celebrate I'm having a giveaway.

I loved this book. And somehow I ended up with 2 of them.

Here is part of what is says on the back cover:

In this charming and beautifully written memoir, we meet Catherine Goldhammer, newly separated and starting life anew in a cottage by the sea, in a town where live bait is sold from vending machines. Against all logic, partly to please her precocious twelve-year-old daughter and partly for reasons not clear to her at the time, she begins this year of transition by purchasing six baby chickens-whose job, she comes to suspect, is to pull her and her daughter forward, out of one life and into another.

So, if you want to put your name in for the drawing leave a message on my blog. A simple hi will do. And I will send it anywhere. I will draw the name Friday afternoon.

Years ago, a Sunday School teacher that husband and I had was adamant that animals did NOT have souls. So strongly were her beliefs that she wanted her husband, when he went to the Annual Conference, to bring that point up and have it voted on. (Her husband died before the conference.)

Yesterday I met a very charming older man at the grocery store who wanted to talk to me about his pets. He was in the last stage of renal failure and though he had plenty of people that wanted his animals he still was concerned that something not so nice might happen to them. He talked about how all 4 slept on his bed (2 dogs and 2 cats) and how each of the dogs had paired up with a cat. Laughter as he talked about how if he got up in the middle of the night the animals always shift their positions so that he has to squeeze in a tighter space to go back to sleep. (His wife had been dead for 25 years). Very sweet.

I don't know if pets have souls. But I think it's arrogant to not think that there is a possibility of it.

My Valentine's gift from husband was a massage. I have never had one but lately my back and shoulders have been so tight and so achy in addition to some stress that I've been carrying around. When I would get up in the morning my shoulders would feel like they were hunched up to my ears.

So this afternoon I drove a mile to the little office for my 3:15 appointment. - And not a moment too soon as it turned out. Think an interesting day with a group of 5 year olds with possible early spring fever (70 degrees today). 3 were in timeout before the pledge was even said. One child had temper tantrums the likes I've never seen (and I've seen some pretty good ones). And then there was a MASSIVE nosebleed. - So

for an hour this afternoon I enjoyed hot rock treatment, massive shoulder work and a general massage. I feel somewhat better (as I told husband it may take more than one :-).

A wonderful and much appreciated present.

The Scream(s)

The past couple of times that I've taken Snoopy out we have run into quite a few people on our little trail. That is something new. Usually we have the trail to ourselves.

The problem is that runners are not announcing themselves and I don't hear them until they are right behind me. The other day I screamed. Today I did also. It is quite unnerving to have someone (like today) come up behind you with their dog off leash running.

This past week
we had snow without the snow day. This was one my drive to work.

The Importance of Lunch

I have not sat down for a regular lunch since the boys were little. As the boys grew older S2 and husband became more finicky and didn't like what was fixed for lunch. S1 might not be hungry or wanted to fix his own. And I got tired of taking orders like a waitress -"This is not a restaurant" I would say to no avail. After I started working it got worse as my job ends at 12:30. I would leave, run errands and just grab something when I got home. Usually too hungry to fix something I would take the first thing that came in sight. And eating at 3 meant not being hungry for dinner.

I browned bagged this week. Nothing big. An egg salad sandwich with applesauce was quite yummy. I sat in my room and did the things that I usually take home to do. At 1:30 or 2 I left work knowing that I didn't have to think about work again that day. Maybe did a little shopping and came home.

Days became noticeably calmer immediately. Just another step in taking care of me.