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The Christmas Swans
My, my this world can look dreary once the trees show their branches and the grass turns as gray as the sky. When the sun is obscured by the clouds, our blue clear lake reflects nothing but gray right back at us. But just when all is gloomy and dreary, these swans fly in. Last year there were two; this year there are four swans. Their arrival puts them just in time for Christmas, and in the way that we deck the dreary world with holly and evergreens, the swans deck the lake in pure, pristine white. You can get an idea of the size of these swans are by…
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I Wish All Trees Were Evergreen
Such are the dreams of little boys in the midst of raking leaves. The leaves at the lake were so thick and so deep that they brushed against our knees as we walked. You could say the leaves were 3 feet deep. This is a big job. In years earlier we have “hired†this job; the result is 110 bags of leaves. We worked for two days, using every available drop of the few hours of sunlight we had up here. At one point, I actually heard these words: “Mom, it never gets that hot up here anyway… we don’t need the shade — let’s just cut these trees down.”…
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Smiles and Sticks of Gums
If you look closely at the glass here, you can see my doughy fingerprints all over my morning cup of pumpkin pie in a mug. I was busy making Thanksgiving rolls, while I sipped. I was thirsty… for that. While I rolled the dough, Tom, our kindergartener’s turkey, stood watch. This work was just long enough time for me to remember the words of Maya Angelou. Yesterday, I just happened to have some quiet alone minutes in the car to hear her talk about gratitude, and how important it is to have a grateful heart. But she went further to say that when we give, we receive. No news there…
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My Vintage Album Overflows
The box is full of the stuff a daughter collects from her Mom’s house after she dies; the stuff she’ll never have the time to do anything with, yet wouldn’t dream of letting it go. “Must do something about that stuff,†I say every day as I have walked past the box to the washing machine, for the last four years. This is followed by a pang of despair, knowing I will never find the time, nor do I want to make the time. The box overflows with black and white photos, vintage greeting cards, report cards from the 50s, and out-dated deeds to properties that have passed through the…
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A Mug of Pumpkin Pie
Seriously, tonight this dessert drink counts as a health food. The pumpkin makes this drink full of beta–carotene, right? It’s been a busy week, and other than lots of pomegranates, we’ve been a little lax on the fruits and veggies this week. So, along with our take-out pizza, I whipped up this pumpkin pie drink for dinner. I’ll warn you in advance, there’s no way to resist this cup of comfort. Each cup is filled with freshly grated nutmeg, ginger and comfort spices — you can make it in one big batch, store it in the fridge and drink it all week. Here’s my best shot of the drink. Here’s…
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They Were Drooling Over Ox Tail Soup
Entertaining the kids on long car rides with Books on CD. Turns out, they like the grown-up stories the best.
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Maurice and his similes
Where the Wild Things Are is only one of Maurice Sendak’s books. Higglety Piggelty Pop! or There Must Be More To Life was published in 1967 by Harper Collins. In this picture “chapter” book, a dog, Jennie, is looking for “experience” so that she can join the theater, so she decides to become a baby’s (a real one) nurse. Baby won’t eat, and a Lion in the basement has, in true Where the Wild Things Are style, eaten previous nurses who failed to get the baby to eat. We are not finished with the book, and I like surprises so much that I have not peeked at the ending. But…
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Productive
Dad took off with my camera, and all four boys, to go trekking through the woods this morning. They all went, kicking and screaming out the door. And my husband captured this best shot. Well done, lovey. I stayed behind and wrote, and wrote and wrote. A three-hour, uninterrupted stretch of time is virtually unheard of in my normal frame of reference. There were no school bells ringing in the background, no pick-ups, no drop-offs, no one else to take care of — save for the words on the page. I found myself gulping down the minutes like a dehydrated person stranded in the desert. I was amazed at how…
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Rolls are the perfect bread
I just heard somewhere that it costs about 40 cents to make a loaf of bread. (I’m thinking of doing a cost-by-cost analysis someday on this soon.) Given that the cost of store-bought bread is well over $2.00 it makes good “sense” to make your own. Making bread in Five Minutes means there is time to make bread. Plus, I don’t have to think about all of those extra additives in store-bought bread — one less thing to clutter my mind with. The smell of fresh bread in the house is an easy, cheap luxury. Rarely do I have the time to slice the bread properly. So instead, I’ve been…
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