Long Days, Short Years (12/30)

It's almost 5:00 and we've had a full day.  I think I've driven more miles today than all of last week.  I felt like a chauffeur, and also a tourist in my own town.  I'm done so I'm channeling my inner Grandpa Vic and going with the It's 5 o'clock somewhere sentiment.  I am here with my generous pour and a desperate need for a slice of me time.  Writing is my best me time.  It's cathartic for me to process and reflect.  In doing so I realize that there are so many sweet moments in each day tucked between to dos and accumulated along with miles traveled.

Yesterday Miss Bit and I got pedicures side by side.  She didn't want to...she's a tomboy you know...but then she was glad she did.  So was I because her toes needed some serious work.  Work I didn't have in me.  She must have said thank you two dozen times and was so sweet that she had the attention of all the ladies in the salon.  Those are proud mama moments I can never get enough of : my kids wanting to be kind to and knowing to show respect to others.

T. Bone accompanied us to the mall on a mission: to find his sister a gift for her birthday next week.  He did, and it's sweet.  He's proud.  So am I.  He entered the salon to check on our status and quickly left red faced at the suggestion that he too may want a pedicure.  All those girls.  Ewww! Talking to him about his body parts!  Ewww!   Toes!  Ewww!  He came back a few minutes later with an extra large vanilla malt and pleading eyes, but he never said a word.   My kids showing kindness to one another never gets old either.

On the way to camp this morning, Miss Bit decided she wants to stay as nearby as possible for college, but she also acknowledged that she wants to go to a good vet school.  Then she said, But I've got a long road ahead of me you know.  She's just a week shy of 9 so her dreams can and will change, but I just love that she has them at all.  When I was almost 9, my dreams were Disney Land and Christmas coming faster.

We were a little early picking T. Bone up from his golf tournament today.  We sat watching the links rather aimlessly, and then I eyed this golfer teeing off on the last hole.  What a drive!  Wait...I know this stance, this gait as mamas are want to do, but how is it more young man than boy now?  That's my T. Bone all right.  He looks so comfortable on the course playing this game of rules and finesse and tradition.  He's growing up. Maturing.  I'm so lucky that he is growing into a young man of upstanding character and presence.

It is true that the days can be long and the years short, but they're both made up of moments.  Moments I find joy in and will treasure forever.

A Frog Story (10/30)

Miss Bit started a new camp today at our favorite nature preserve.  On the way, she confessed her tummy hurt.  Nerves I told her.  It's just your first day jitters.  As we approached the lodge, she hoped to see a familiar face.  I hope I'm in camp with someone I know.  Well, not just someone I know, but someone I like too, she wished aloud. Moments later we ran into a neighbor.  Wish granted.  When she found out the day's activity was ponding, I knew her queasy energy was cured.

I called her from work after camp and she answered the phone with sunshine in her voice.  She shared that she had a great day traipsing along the trails and catching frogs at pond's edge.  And then her voice got small and slight.  She whispered, But I don't like the teacher.  She told me she didn't like the teacher because she didn't like the way she treated the frogs.  Apparently the masochist teacher piled the frogs in buckets, which does not conform to my girl's rule that you only hold frogs long enough to say Hi, name them and then set them free in the precise spot in which they were found.  She asked the teacher if she could set "her" frogs free. The teacher said No!  The teacher said No! and she walked away, and then Miss Bit promptly set all the froggies free.  The End!

Shrooming (9/30)

I've been saving a recipe that was described as perfect for fall.  It's been 65 degrees the past couple days so I decided to make it tonight.  I recommend you make it too...soon.  It was delicious and definitely company worthy.  That is the most prized rating at Casa Wags.

Slice a pound of mushrooms.  I used  a  combo of baby bellas and white buttons, but you can and should use whatever you have or love.  Season them graciously with salt and pepper and saute them in 3 T. EVOO along with half a diced onion until golden brown.  Add 3 cloves (or 5 if you like garlic like we do) and saute about 3 minutes longer.  Add 2/3 C. chicken stock, 1 1/2 C. heavy cream and 2 T. fresh chopped parley, and cook on medium heat until reduced and thickened - about 10 minutes.  Serve on a bed of whole wheat thin spaghetti (or whatever you fancy) and top with fresh grated Romano and more fresh parsley.

Open a bottle of red or white.  It is amply paired with either.  Enjoy.  We did.

My Manifesto (8/30)

It's the end of July, and I woke up this morning to a distinct chill in the air that belongs to another season. We're wearing pants and jackets we haven't seen since May.  We warmed up leftover soup for lunch and then headed to the movies instead of the beach.  It was an almost full theater.  Fall is my favorite time of year.  October my most loved month, but I'm not wishing summer away.  In fact, I've just finally felt the summer chi...found my dog days groove.  I know I'll soon be doing the back to school countdown. Not because I'm anxious for the school year to begin, but because that's the way I am programmed.  I get ahead of myself.  I'm a planner....an anticipator.  Sometimes I fall behind too.  It's also my nature to rue and regret. I'm a nostalgic romantic...a practiced historian.  And then I remember to be. here. now.  In this season...this day...this moment.  To long for the past or to fast forward to the future is to cheat myself of what is here now.  I know that is not the way I want to live. Be. here. now I remind myself many times each day.  As many times as it takes.

Grateful Friday (7/30)

Today I give thanks for friends.  I'm blessed with some great ones so I consider myself a lucky girl.  I don't see many of them as often as I would like, but that is starting to change as my children get older and more independent.  I know these ladies are there if and when I need them.  And when we do get back together, we don't skip a beat.  I've always thought that the barometer of real and true friendship is remaining tethered even when you're not connected.  Picking up the phone after months one day and picking up just where you left off.  No need to break the ice. No posturing.  No awkward pauses.  If there is silence, it is comfortable, and also rare because you can and do talk about anything and everything.  My friend Mary called the other night for one thing and before I knew it Miss Bit and I were on our way to her house for another.  She had raspberries fresh off the bush and she wanted to share her bounty with us.  Raspberries are T. Bone's best loved fruit.  We came bearing a just finished batch of chicken pastina soup for her.  It felt like we were pioneers sharing our harvests only we didn't drive our horse and buggy the mile to her house.  We took a walk around the block and past the first house Coach and I called home.  Incidentally, Mary is the first person my Mom called friend. We just chatted and enjoyed a sliver of the evening together and when it was done, we questioned why it is that we don't do just this more often.  So we said...we must...we will.

Just One Paragraph (6/30)

Tonight I don't know if I have even a single paragraph.  I do have thoughts.  Many thoughts.  They are running rogue and random and not the kind that make for witty or pretty stories tied with a bow.  It was a rough day.  I slept horribly last night.  I'm still reacting to the sun I got last weekend and then every day while I walked this week.  I'm peeling and itchy and mad at myself for getting in this position again.  Just as I was signing off my computer dreaming of coming home this afternoon, I spilled a near full glass of water all over my desk.  My mouse, my keyboard, some important paperwork were all submerged.  Right away I was chiding myself for not drinking the water.  If I had, none of that would have happened.  I crawled into bed and fell asleep for almost an hour when I got home, but before I drifted off, I was mad at myself again for behaving like Oblomov and leaving my girl to watch SpongeBob. I really dislike SpongeBob.  She wanted to do something.  I wanted to do nothing.  My malaise, exhaustion and that annoying sea sponge prevailed.  I woke up feeling much more human and much less self loathing.  Miss Bit and I went out to do a little shopping.  We went in for pillowcases.  She came out with the start of a fall wardrobe.  It made me chuckle because she's not much of a shopper and she has been boycotting any mention of back to school, yet here she was lobbying for school clothes.  We picked up dinner because I didn't even have the desire to reheat leftovers, and we sat down to eat at 8:00 with an episode of MasterChef.  T. Bone finally came home.  This summer it seems that he returns to shower and sometimes he eats and sleeps here too.  Coach made it home after an afternoon at the ballpark with friends.  The house is quiet now.  I'm about to take a couple Benadryl tablets and sleep the sleep of the dead.  It sounds heavenly.  Right now...this very moment is the best I've felt all day, but my body is still itchy and my mind is mottled.  This is the kind of day I'd rather forget, but this writing challenge is all about showing up here rain or shine...good or bad.  Today it isn't pretty, but that's life.  Hopefully, it will be better tomorrow.

Summer (5/30)

So I already failed the 30 day challenge, but I'll take my mulligan.  Today is (5/30).  There was no (4/30).  It's the way these lazy days of summer progress.  They take hold.  They suck you in.  You think you have all the hours in the day and then suddenly it's the gloaming yet again. You think you will need to put more to dos on your list to keep everyone entertained, and then you wake up one day and it's July 24th .  It's July 24th and you don't even know where your list is, but someway...somehow you've kept plenty busy. You think you have 3 months of leisure and suddenly it's late July.  Reality is setting in: fall will beckon before we know it.  Miss Bit reacts violently (well, as violently as she is able to) when back to school commercials are aired on the t.v. or radio.  The past few days have hinted of what is to come.  Low humidity...cooler mornings and nights...they remind us that fall is looming on the horizon that is morphing everyday as each day gets shorter.  Yesterday I spotted a caterpillar on the path.  I took a snap to show my daughter, our resident naturalist. Caterpillars are third only to frogs and turtles in her field guide.  She decided to accompany me today just in case he was still there.  She was better company than the Dashwood sisters I've been tuning into while I walk despite the fact that I find them rather entertaining too.  We never did cross paths with Mr. Caterpillar, or any other for that matter.  There were other creatures that delighted her almost as much.  When she stopped to make a wish on an extra large dandelion, she wished only to fly.  She didn't tell me, yet I knew.  I know.  I love that her mind can still imagine the possibility of impossibility.  I love that she has a treasure trove of wishes and hopes and dreams.  I love that she so loves this earth and sees so much worthy and good in every small thing...in every minute molecule...in each little moment.

On My Mind Monday (3/30)

But it is important to know this, to know your roots.  To know where you started as a person.  If not, your own life seems unreal to you.  Like a puzzle.  Vous comprenz? Like you have missed the beginning of a story and now you are in the middle of it trying to understand.

Khaled  Hosseini

And the Mountains Echoed

I know my origins and still there are times my life feels unreal to me.  Not just my life...but life in general. There is so much I struggle to understand.  Like the relationship between chance and fate, or joy and sorrow, or suffering and celebration.  Good and evil are right up there too.  I always come to the same conclusion : each day we wake up and go forth and through we are living a miracle.  That allows me to stop trying to make sense because miracles are beyond reason and understanding.  By very definition they have none. Something tells me that at the end of my story I'll still be searching for meaning.

2 day pass

it was a weekend free and clear.
no alarms. no to dos. no shoulds.  only coulds.
there was only one of us with any set in stone plans on every any given day.
he happens to be busy being busy these days.
the rest of us were gloriously happy not to be.
unscheduled time is like winning the lottery in my book.
that leaves vast open windows for reading and writing and watching a movie in the middle of the afternoon thank you very much.
it leaves time for rather spur of the moment trips to the lake to read in the afternoon sun with toes dug into the smooth sand.
the air was no longer an oven, but the water was like a warm bath in only the most pleasing ways.
there were waffle mornings and walks in the mid afternoon.
so what if miss bit added 2 tablespoons of baking soda instead of 2 teaspoons.
syrup is forgiving.
a sunday afternoon storm derailed end of weekend festival plans.
shhh...but as the skies darkened, i prayed for a shower or two.
instead of going out we snuggled in to chill and nap.
then we gathered for an impromptu panini dinner.
and we were no worse for the wear.
we may have been better for it.

be.here.now. (2/30)

There was this ordinary mother at the beach yesterday who struck me as rather extraordinary.  It appeared to me that she lived with struggles in her life (the kind that you can see and I'll simply leave it at that), but what reeled me in was her enormous joy in the face of them.  It was contagious.  She was there alone with her children and they had her undivided attention for the whole afternoon.  She was playing tirelessly and genuinely laughing out loud with them.  They were all being silly : dunking one another and having serious splash wars.  I overheard her having a heart to heart conversation with her teenage son.  What she said and the way she said it...well it was rather poignant.  I had this strong urge to swim up to her and tell her how inspiring she was.  I wanted to tell her that I admired her...struggles and all.  I wanted to applaud her as a mother.  I didn't, but we did share a smile and what I can only define as a knowing glance from one mama to another that spoke volumes.  Goodness begets goodness I know.  She made me want to be good.  She inspired me to be a better mother yesterday.  She made me want to get out from behind my book and get in the thick of things with my kids.  She made me want to plug in and be 100 percent present.  She reminded me : be. here. now.  I did.  I was.

I only wish I had told her.

(For the next 30 days I'll be participating in Christina's just one paragraph challenge.)

when a man says he hears angels singing...(1/ 30)

he hears angels singing.

We were in the car bound for a day on the water.  On my last rounds through the house to make sure we had everything, I grabbed Mary Oliver's A Thousand Mornings.  It was an urge I simply couldn't resist despite the fact that I had two other books in my bag.  I started to read the poems chronologically cover to cover as soon as we hit the road.  I love to do this and am always reassured by the way the same lines and poems speak to me every time no matter the order in which I intake them.  I had just read and reread Blake Dying. I always get stuck on the lines that read:

When death is about to happen
does the body grow heavier or lighter?

No matter how many times I read those lines I need to stop, sit with them and mull them over.  These are the kinds of thoughts that keep me up at night.

My phone rang.  It was Jess.  Jess who had called earlier to tell me that her close friend's husband, her friend too, had been in an accident.  An accident on a  4-wheeler.  Facebook told her he needed prayers, but she finally received direct word that nothing short of a miracle was going to save him.

It's a tragedy in every way.  A thousand ways or more.  A young husband, father of one soon to be two, a son, brother and friend plucked so painfully from his life on a perfect July night.  I doubt he had the opportunity to ponder whether he was light as a feather or heavy with the weight of what his loss would mean to his world.

All day I watched the people on the beach around me with suspicious eyes.  They were laughing and smiling and merrymaking.  There were two precious brand new babies being passed around a large group gathered for a life celebration, and I couldn't stop thinking about this friend of a friend who would never know his daughter.  This daughter who will never know her father.  How?  Why?

When?

I wasn't begrudging them their moments.  Sometimes that's all we have.  Sometimes that's all it takes.  I was simply praying that they know how precious the moments are.

Grateful Friday

Today I give thanks for...

Dinner with girlfriends last night.  It was so good to catch up and enjoy some time away from home on what turned out to be a beautiful summer night.

Air conditioning.  Like much of  the country, our temps have been hovering in the oppressive 90s.

Cool fronts.  One is on the way.

Invitations to swim.  This week we were in many a pool and several times at the lake.

Ping pong poolside.

Friends who not only loan you their AAA card, but wait with you in the heat on busy street corners for the serviceman to arrive.

15 minutes of fun, but 15 minutes of fun for 4 days in a row.

My frog whisperer.

Miss Bit played her final softball game of the season.

They won, but I think the girls would have cheered either way.

Miss  Bit had a date with a friend she hasn't seen since the last day of school.  She's been missing her.

T. Bone had 2 golf dates.

Sports wrapped up this week.  Camps wrap up next week and then we have a week off before football and sailing start.

Fireflies.

Plans to go to the beach tomorrow and then to Festa Italiana for mass on Sunday.

Alter Ego

You know how sometimes you utterly surprise yourself?  You don't feel the least like yourself or recognize yourself at all.  You say, self is that really you?  It cannot be you.  Hello, where have you gone?   Who is this stranger?  I kinda like this stranger.  Hey self...don't hurry home.

I've had two such encounters with my alter ego in the past 24 hours.

The first chance meeting occurred yesterday at 3:00 when I left work very happy to be heading home to a quiet house.  T. Bone was at a baseball game with friends and Miss Bit was swimming with the sitter.  When I got in the car, I was considering my music mood but all I heard when I put the key in the ignition was my car making a horrible on its last legs sound.

Three hot and humid hours later the AAA guy arrived at 6:00.  It's a comedy of errors involving false identities and wrong addresses and being kept on hold for 20 minutes at a time.  I was ready to lose my cool until I realized it was THE Eric, AAA guy who deserves a AAAA.  That's 4 A's!  He's come to my rescue before, and I knew once I saw him that everything little thing would be all right  (That song actually came on the radio on my way home).

As he stood there changing my corroded battery, he kept telling me how this could have been so much worse.  So besides a battery installation I got a pep talk.  Platitudes on positive thinking and a glass is half full cocktail.  The thing is...I didn't really need one.  Sure I was feeling a tad irritated that my three bad things happened last week and this was a fourth I wasn't really waiting for, but it was minor.

There were many points in this ordeal that would have had me undone under normal self circumstances, but yesterday I just couldn't be ruffled.  I was actually finding the humor in it all along. That usually takes me at least 24 hours.

I got home at 7:15: roughly 4 hours and $150 later and smiling somehow.  Maybe even dare I say...feeling gratitude.

I recognized this impostor again this mid morning when I confessed to Coach that I knew upon waking today  this day was not going to be mine, but I said it with resolute happiness instead of irritated angst. T. Bone came home with four ripe smelling friends fresh after a party and sleepover last night before lunch and suddenly I was not in for the day I planned. So what did I do?  I went out to buy not one, but two slip and slides and then I made a vat of lemonade and big huge pan of mac and cheese...homemade mac and cheese!
And I'm totally OK with it.  Better than OK...I'm good with it.

I'm also OK with the idea that this alter ego may just be me altered.  a little less intense...a little more go with the flow...a little lighter, and with a little brighter outlook.

2 day pass

why is it i always feel summer slipping away this same time each year?
how is it?
after all...there are many more dog days before us than behind us.
and even knowing this, i still struggle to adjust my viewfinder.
i have a hunch that the unforeseen early end to the baseball season factors in here somewhere.
a sneaky suspicion.
friday's game was one of those games the knight's should have won.
it quickly became one of those games the boys could have won.
reminding us all in an unforgiving poignant way that it ain't over til' it's over.
i felt for all the boys...especially my two.
a party after the loss didn't seem like a good idea, but then it was.
there was still much to celebrate about the season, the team, the fans.
and they did...we did.
none of the boys wanted the night...the season to be over.
they were all scheming for sleepovers, and asking parents who had imbibed in a summer shandy or two.
t. bone came home with two of his teammates...two of his closest friends.
when i peaked in on them before turning in for the night, they were all sleeping soundly.
no doubt dreaming of the next day or adventure and not errors on the field.

we returned to the same fields for miss bit's all star game saturday eve and the stands were filled with the same family and friends that cheered t. bone on the night before.
she had a pit in her stomach nervous she was to be in the spotlight...
god forbid to get the ball.
she loves to hit but loathes the fielding.
we'll be working on that now that coach is down 2 teams for the rest of the summer.
our favorite fans gathered at casa wags for our favorite pizza after the game.

sunday morning t.  bone was home long enough to eat a donut before the phone rang and he was off with friends for the day.
the rest of us bathed in deep woods eau de parfum and headed to the audubon to frog and hike.
miss bit caught so many frogs that i lost count...big ones, little ones, teeny tiny ones, green ones, brown ones, loud ones, quiet ones...
she was hot on the trail of a snake out for a swim too.
he was too fast and slippery for her net though.
we ended up on the beach where we waded in the cool lake michigan water and where every other rock on the shore was heart shaped...at least to me.
coach carried them all home for me.
after we deloused, we made dinner together.
coach grilled steaks and i sauteed spinach and shrooms, and it was delicious.
we all collapsed in the family room for a movie at the end of the weekend...
full in every way.

RIP Season 2013

No words...only these images.

Grateful Friday

Today I give thanks for...

T. Bone’s homerun this week.  It was a sight to be seen and celebrated.

Ice Cream and custard and frozen yogurt and sometimes for lunch or dinner.

Our National Anthem.

T. Bone’s impromptu 12 ½ birthday celebration.  All that we needed was burgers and boys.  And balls...baseballs, footballs, basketballs, soccer balls, tennis balls, golf balls, goofballs...

Watching the fireworks from our yard as they went off all around us.

A mid-week getaway to the Wisconsin Dells for water park fun, family time and a scenic tour of the Wisconsin River.

Sharing the bbq platter at Buffalo Phil’s with Coach when I was all set to order a chicken sandwich.  When in Rome...it was the smart choice.

Road trips.  Even short ones.  There’s something so cozy about having my little family tucked in to our van destination bound.  And then equally warm and fuzzy to pack up and come back home.

Reflections.  Figurative and literal.

Lilies.  Mine and Mother Nature’s.

The kitchen has been closed for most of the week.

Lil spent the weekend with one set of grandparent and then the better part of the week with the other set at Camp Grandma.  She was a little homesick as the week wore on.  I’m not grateful that she’s rueful…just that she loves home enough to miss it.  We're both grateful for grandparents who spend lots of time with the kiddos.

Coach has been serious about his honey do list.

Super  fans.  Grandmas and Grandpas who come to cheer on their grandkids.  They all love it!

A movie night with T. Bone this week.  We ordered Identity Theft and laughed quite a lot even as we tuned out some of the expletives and fast forwarded a scene or two.

My camera arrived.  No more grainy phone pictures.  Amen!

Now

I came across this personal inventory on another blog recently.  Unfortunately I cannot locate the source.  I was doing a lot of catch up this week after being off the grid the week prior so I was all over the WWW.

Playing  Ruzzle.  I am not a gamer.  Except now I am.  In fact, just typing the word Ruzzle right now presented me with the overwhelming urge to get on my phone and play a few matches.  So I did.  Games are serious time sucks.

Drinking not enough water and too much caffeine.

Eating plenty of tomato sandwiches and salads, lots of leftovers and really anything that can be grabbed on the fly for we are spending more time at the ball park than in the kitchen.

Watching movies.  Edward Scissorhands this week, which was way creepier and far less funny than I remembered it.  Also Next Next Food Network Star and always some reality t.v. that shall remain unconfessed.  Also clouds in the sky and birds in the backyard.

Listening to Pandora.  James Taylor radio in the mornings and Jack Johnson or REM radio in the eves.  Also Sense and Sensibility when I walk.

Wearing summer shoes : Reefs and Birkenstocks make me a happy girl.  So do skirts and Perscriptive’s Caylx my go to summer scent.

Reading And the Mountains Echoed.  So poignant just like Hosseini’s earlier novels.  Also Barbara Kingsolver’s Flight Behavior, and I’ve so many more worthy reads in cue it makes me giddy.

Feeling rather hormonal truth be told.  I am blessed out one day and beat down the next.

Wanting the entire summer off and maybe fall and winter too.  I guess that is really the answer for dreaming.

Wishing time would just stop already and stand still.  After the 4^th, summer seems like a slippery slope.  I keep telling my glass is half empty self that we still have ¾ of vacation ahead of us and months of great weather, but it has yet to take hold.

Hoping I can figure out just how to use my new Nikon before Friday’s game since it is his last on these fields and maybe of the season.  Also hoping that tomorrow’s game is not his last.

Thinking that almost 9 and 12 ½ aren’t too shabby.  Miss Bit and T. Bone are busy enjoying a summer to remember.

Enjoying all things summer: plums, nectarine, green grapes and red cherries, an extra hour of sleep in the a.m., a 10 minute driveway to desk commute on workdays, boys in uniform, firecrackers and cloud creatures in the sky, vacations and staycations with my family, Instagram especially Project Life 365 and my mil’s recent snap of my girl loving on a hen named Henrietta, more daylight every day, iced tea and my new Bolle’s.

Loving life.

Bad Things.....

They happen in three they say.

1) I woke up at 8:57 this morning.  I was supposed to be at work by 9:00.  It was my first day back after a week off.  I probably should have been in at 7:00 to catch up, but didn't make it until 10:00.

2) At 8:58, I paused to look out the window while my coffee brewed, only to notice that a gust of wind upended our patio table overnight and glass shards were everywhere.

3) The Knights lost their first tournament team game tonight 3-5.

They also say there's always a silver lining.  I was very well rested thanks to 10 hours of sleep, Coach was home today to pick up all the pieces and order a new table top, and T. Bone hit a home run and was personally responsible for the 2 RBIs despite the loss.

On My Mind Monday

I know now that some people feel unhappiness the way others love: privately, intensely, and without recourse.

Khaled Hosseini

And The Mountains Echoed

Alphabet

Having a turn at this meme today.  It's light.  Seems about right for a summer Saturday.

A: Attached or single?  Attached and lucky.

B: Best friend?  Can count them on one hand. Beautiful blessings, real and true.

C: Cake or pie?  Cake.  Chocolate Cake or Grandma Rosie's Coconut Cake...Ina's now.  But I do like French Silk and Coconut Cream pie....go figure.

D: Day of choice? Tuesdays and Saturdays, but the only day I dread is Monday.

E: Essential item? My Keurig and real cream for my morning coffee.  Also my Aveda lipsticks, my library card and my lap top. Pandora.  My favorite knife...a serrated bread knife I blasphemously use for almost everything.

F: Favorite color?  Pink, but really all colors are beautiful.

G: Gummy bears of worms?  Neither thanks.  I'm a chocolate lover.

H: Hometown?  Milwaukee, WI

I: Favorite indulgence? Wine.

J: January or July?  I cannot choose.  I love the first month for the ushering in of something new, but July is splendid in all her red, white and blue.

K: Kids?  Two.  Both rather amazing.

L: Life isn’t complete without?  Love.  Loved ones.  Family and friends.  Dreams.

M: Marriage date? October 21, 1995. Etched in my memory.

N: Number of siblings? One brother and many fristers.

O: Oranges or apples?  Apples in the fall and oranges in the summer.

P: Phobias? Spiders.  All bugs.  Heights.  Disease.  I seem to be getting more phobic as I age.

Q: Quotes? I think in quotes.  They are my inner speak.  My best is Oscar Wilde's, "Every Little action of the common day makes or unmakes character."  I love it because it is such a good reminder of personal responsibility and how little things matter big.  And what's not to love about Oscar Wilde.

R: Reasons to smile? Just because.  Because it makes the world such a nicer, kinder, happier place.  My heart too.  But also when my son throws a knuckleball and wows all the fans in the stands, or when my daughter tells me to step out of the way so she can catch the little frog I have spied and then quickly set him free, or when the right song comes on the radio.  Right now it's Tracy Chapman's Fast Car.  It takes me right back to freshman year in college.  A particular night actually.

S: Season of choice? Fall always and forever, but I love the change of seasons.

T: Tag 5 people.

U: Unknown fact about me. I have lived within a mile of my first home my entire life except for summers on the east coast and four years in college.

V: Vegetable? Spinach, Brussel's sprouts, fresh green beans, sweet summer peas and tomatoes just picked from my aunt's garden.  I consider tomatoes a veggie btw.

W: Worst habit? Interrupting. People pleasing.  Saying yes when I want to say no.  The www.  Specifically, Ruzzle  right now.  It is addicting.

X: x-ray or ultrasound? I last had an MRI of my thigh.  That was 2 years ago.  I had a nasty tissue infection.  It still hurts. Muscle memory is profound.

Y: Your favorite food? Cheese.  Poached eggs.  Good toasted bread.  Pizza.  Cheese on good toasted bread and poached eggs on pizza!

Z: Zodiac sign? Leo with a Virgo cusp. I am a needy, attention seeking control freak.  Except usually I just want to be left alone and have someone else make decisions.  My parents were both Virgos.  That's why I think their marriage only lasted 4 short years.  Well, that and the fact that they were 19 and 20 when they wed.  My husband is a Scorpio.  He has only the best characteristics of the sign so far as I can see.  I take issue with the incompatibility between Leos and Scorpios...we've been together for 22 years and married 17.

Grateful Friday

Today I give thanks for the fact that I almost didn't realize it was Friday.  We've been on vacation and the day of the week has not been of much importance.  Spending time together, having fun, making memories...those are the kind of things that have mattered.

Luckily I took a few photos with my phone this week.  They aren't good, but they're ll I got.  My Samsung doesn't take good pictures as you can see.  It really has nothing to do with me.  That's why I'm ever so grateful that a brand new big girl camera is being shipped to me as I type here.

 This is one of Kermit's cousins.  Miss Bit caught him one day at the pond.  She knows just how to hold them and then she returns them right where she found them.  That way they can find their families she says.

 We enjoyed a boat excursion on the beautiful Wisconsin River. 

 Meet Captain Blackhawk. 

 The ducklings we met a month ago are almost as big as their mama.   

 And I think this turtle may have been alive since the Cambrian age.

 Pancakes anyone?

 The boys were happy to have us home so much and then after a quick trip, glad for us to return.

 This girl is not afraid to get into the thick of things.  Things like pond scum that is.

 Ready for a race.  A little sibling rivalry.

 She's already won his heart.

 Coach and I had a date to see Willy at Summerfest.  It was a great night listening to good music, drinking beer, eating pizza cones and the best of all...people watching!

 Clowning around at Witches Gulch.

 Monkey see monkey do.

  Beautiful sandstone bluffs.

Most precious lights of my life.