The Visit

Last night as I was falling asleep I had some really good thoughts to put on my next post and I went over them several times in my mind rather than getting up and writing them down.  It didn't work so well. I can't remember them.  I was thinking on the subject of Esther and Jonathan's visit over the holiday.  We don't really get to see each other very often and don't know whether we are going to feel like strangers or kin when we do get together.  It's a very natural phenonmenon that after ten years of marriage and living on their own away from either of their childhood homes, they would have developed their own family culture (aaaaagh - they/ve become coffee snobs!). In some ways Esther is still the person I remember and in other ways she is someone else that I need to get to know.  All this to say that I think we both had a degree of anxiety and wanted our time together to be everything good that it could be. 

And it was good for me.  I would say that the only regret  I have is that the time was short - and that couldn't be helped. There are people on both sides of their family in this area and Jonathan had not seen his sister for years and needed to spend time with her as well.  My good memories of the visit are: watching Jonathan work on the quilt while watching Moonshiners (not his choice of show), Esther with pumpkin pie in front of her almost constantly, sitting around the front door at night talking, hugs in various places, walking the beach and the River Walk, reading Amichai poems and old journal entries, listening to car talk about jobs and life in Seattle, the sacrificial 6:30 am goodby time,  and the hugs. Did I mention I loved the hugs?

I love you Jonathan and Esther. Thanks so much for coming.

Time Off

I remember last week looking at the date of my last post and thinking that it had been a whole week since I'd written.  I didn't feel any guilt at that time because the purpose of my having a blog is not to produce guilt. I have to watch out for that because guilt is not a good thing and most of the time it's completely unnecessary.  Now it's been about two weeks since I've written and I have double the reason to feel guilty of neglect, but I still don't.  I'm going over all of this hoping to encourage anyone who is feeling burdened by the demands of communicating.  It's a good thing to never give up on communication but get back to it whenever you can.  Having not done it for two weeks I should have plenty of things to write about. It will be fun to think about the events of the Thanksgiving season as I record them.



Family cojes to visit



This was not the first thing we did but since I have pictures of it I will write about our horse time up at the Gainesville farm.  We picked up Esther and Jonathan at the Tampa airport and went up to Julie's house Thursday night.  Julie had their tent set up for them in the yard and they were determined to sleep out there even though it was pretty chilly by Florida standards. They probably didn't sleep too well until morning when it warmed up a bit. So it was about noon when we finally started petting horses and watching them eat in the yard.  The five horses wandered around,  looking for grass and didn't mind us being in their midst at all.  It's a unique experience to be surrounded by such big animals and all that munching noise. 



It's not hard to catch them all in the same pose





Did you ever get the urge to kiss a horse? (Me neither)

But it is even more fun to ride them and our afternoon ride through the preserve was absolutely perfect. There was no stampeding, no unruliness, no bad attitudes, and the horses were really good too. Juie was the ultimate trail guide and even had supper ready in the crock pot when we returned.  We totally enjoyed our time there and it was DIFFICULT to leave Saturday morning.



Tess, the vigilant farm dog



Julie and Sheepie demonstrating proper sheep holding technique.

The Well-travelled Pie

I am in the process of using things from my freezer so I can restock with newer, fresher things. I was looking in there last week and taking out some food I thought might be used for the week and for Thanksgiving dinner.  I found a box of frozen pie crusts and a loaf of bread and some English muffins. Actually while searching for the bread I spent some time organizing all my bread products and needed to set the pie crusts down while doing that. The freezer is in the garage and my Aztek is parked about a yard from the freezer door so I just reached up and set them on top of the car - the floor is too dirty.
Yes, several hours later in church, the husband who had driven separately from a different location said to me "I parked next to you. Why do you have pie crusts on top of your car?"
"Well," I said, "I'm going to make pies and I'm thawing the crusts. They were frozen."
"Okay," he said, "I put them in my truck so no one would take them."

That was my first Thanksgiving faux pas. The second one, and again it's that freezer that's getting me in trouble, is that I find out at 11 pm the night before that I have no butter.  The freezer is usually full of butter! I love butter and I never want to run out. Since the freezer is getting rather empty it was easy to search every shelf and there was no butter. Now I will have to be one of those terrible people who goes looking for a grocery store that's open on Thanksgiving. Aaaaaaaagghhhg!

But there is no chance that the turkey will not get done tomorrow, because it has been cooked tonight. I was taking no chances. All of my guests tomorrow were also present two years ago when we waited on dinner for over an hour because the turkey wouldn't cook. It never did get done. We had lots of other food and no one went hungry, but no turkey?!  It was surreal and supremely embarrassing, and evidently very memorable because they all have fun reminding me of it.

So this year I want to be known for something else and we'll see what it will be. Maybe the well-travelled, church going pie.

Officially Thankful

As of 12 noon today I am on Thanksgiving vacation!! I am already mentally enjoying it even though there is work to do. I feel excited and relaxed at the same time, how can that be? The morning was rigorous and ended with me packing hundreds of bags and suitcases into my employer's van (slight exaggeration) and sending her and her helpers to Myrtle Beach for their own Thanksgiving vacation. I am off work until next Wednesday and already the time is going way too fast. 

Tonight I go fetch the kayaks. Tomorrow I get to bake and smell wonderful stuff in the kitchen. These things are fun and fun is good. #so#thankful.


Okra and sunflowers for the table



First Florida Boone Coffee Hour

Well, like all Boone coffee hours it was probably longer than an hour.  And because we're all on diets it was oatmeal and fruit instead of cinnamon rolls and pastries, but it was great and it's a keeper.  Visitors always welcome.



waiting for the starting flag



Digging in



Kim and Gracie



Me with a small coffee, Dennis with a large milk

Gracie took this one





Gracie's animals came too



Another event

 It's funny how one can live so much with a future event in mind that everything revolves around its approach, its occurrence and then its memory. And it can all happen in such a short time once it starts. Thanksgiving and a visit from family members is the commanding event. Every day I'm planning, putting another piece of the event in place. There is a lot to do that is interesting so I'm enjoying it moment by moment.

I have done a lot of cleaning.  I have no fingernails left and if bleach is as toxic as they say, I can expect to die momentarily from exposure to it. I have disposed of enough cat hair to fully clothe two additional cats at least. (Locks of love for felines?... maybe not). I have overcome two of my most deep seated proclivities. I threw away most all the magazines I have been saving and I also gave up some boxes. I don't know why I save boxes - except that some of them are so cleverly built and seem like they should be useful for something. Well, they're gone. I just got tired of saving them, and cleaning them, and organizing them, and looking for a new place to store them. And in spite of the fact that I'll probably need them tomorrow, I'm glad they're gone.

I thought some on my meal plans for the coming week. I bought some first quality Hunsader vegetables and a boquet of sunflowers and okra pods. I was given a whole bunch of coupons for other Thanksgiving groceries by a thoughtful friend. I've gotten together with my co-conspirator for the cooking and we've planned our pre-meal work and everyone is assigned their favorite thing to bring. My guests are all lined up. I've started reading the Thanksgiving story to Gracie, a few chapters at a time out of the book about John Billington and Squanto. We've had a good laugh at all the pilgrim names like Love Brewster and Remember Morris,

I'm planning on cleaning the car and making a packing list for Gainesville tomorrow.  I have the batteries charging for the air mattresses. I've asked Julie to make her yummy crockpot lasagna for Friday. I have reserved our kayaks for the weekend. Things are moving forward and I'm full of anticipation of a good family time together with my children - a pretty rare thing.

And in the midst of this, last Wednesday, a young mother in our church died suddenly and unexpectedly. It must have been an embolism or something quick like that. Her four year old son found her. I have just been to her memorial service and am very aware of how quickly life can change, and how final that change can be. The things that I am thankful for, the things I get to do in the next week with people I love, have taken on a new brilliance and significance. I am so thankful for now and even more thankful that I'm not afraid of the future and of eternity. This will be a heartfelt Thanksgiving for me.

The Past

Last night someone asked me a question about a past event in our lives, when did it happen, what year?  I'm not good at answering those questions.  Time goes by too fast for me.  I'm always thinking some great memorable time was just last year until I realize that two or three years have really gone by since it happened.  So I try to journal, keep calendars, write letters... anything to rehearse events and the dates that they happened.  I still don't remember them very well but I have the written record in most cases.  I looked in all those places last night and didn't get the answer to the question, which was, "what year did the horse, Ghost, come down to Florida from Wisconsin"? I had to message my daughter and get the answer from her.

But, oh the fun I had looking for it! I have one journal in particular that I wrote in, off and on, for over ten years while my children were young.  There are so many descriptions of them, and life with them from my perspective.  Having such a poor memory I really value those writings.  I suppose the memories are in my head somewhere but reading about what happened kind of drags the thoughts out where I can think them again. I guess that's what memory is.  I've also been looking at a lot of old pictures of family and our lives in various places since my "barn window project" and that has been a similar experience down memory interstate (it's not a lane anymore). 

The most remarkable thing for me was to see how my feelings about some things have changed over the years. Specifically, I see how hanging in there has paid off for me in so many ways (my work, my marriage, my faith).  I am glad that in those moments of temptation, despair, trouble of one kind or another, that I had a reason to persist and a purpose to fulfill.  Faithfullness is one of my favorite words and to me, it is a description of God's character much more than my own. Given time, he is always proven to be faithful.  I think he gives us the past to prove that.