What a day!

Summer has hit the Bluegrass. I went for a walk with Sophie on Monday and there was a baseball game in the park, wet kids wrapped in towels from the newly opened pool, adults drinking mojito's in their lounge chairs, and Sophie and I in our shorts and tank tops, sweating up a storm and drinking it up.

Today it's supposed to be even hotter and outside has that steamy, muggy look about it. Before the sun gets too high, I decided to take Sophie to the park - a reward for a long, hard week at work.

I've been wanting to get Sophie a wagon for some time, and we found a really good deal on this baby, so off we went.

We have an incredibly small yard. It's great for mowing, not so great for playing. Fortunately Castlewood Park is only a half block away.

So much grass, such huge trees. We're terribly lucky.

Anyway, Sophie used to go to the park and just look around. She needed some prompting. Let me tell you, she has found her playful self!



Ah, happy day, happy weekend, happy life.

List wierd things... about ME? NEVER!

So Roy was tagged to list 5 weird things about himself. When he told me his task my first thought was, "Only 5 weird things about you!?" and my second thought was, wow, that would be hard for me.

An hour later, I had come up with 7.

I'll only list my top 5, however, and spare you further details of my weirdness.

1. If I don't like a particular food, I will continue to eat it with the hopes that I will one day like it. I have been successful on this front when it comes to beets, sprouts, and avocados. Currently, I am trying VERY hard to like mushrooms but there's something about 'em that I just can't get used to. I keep trying, however. I keep trying.

2. I think often about shaving my head. I shaved my head in high school, then in college, then for the last time at the Catholic Worker. I loved it. To do it again would feel sooo good... sometimes, I fantasize about picking up scissors and just cutting it all off. Okay, I need to stop writing about this now or I'll do something drastic.

3. I Love John Carter of Mars. I guess this maybe isn't weird, but I'm not sure all women have the attachment to John Carter that I do. He's simultaneously proud and humble, noble and all gentleman. And ladies, just LOOK at those legs!

4. Of all the furniture in our 1600sf house, we have only purchased one new item. And it's the crappiest, cheapest thing we own. It's a $60 TV stand from Wal-Mart and it's quietly disintegrating into our floor. We have a lot of furniture. This is really quite impressive.

5. I love to pack. Mostly suitcases, but I'll pack a box just for kicks. I have a VERY specific method that involves laundry, folding, piles based upon article of clothing and event to which it might be worn, i.e. bed, breakfast, daytime, church, etc... sometimes, when it's too early to actually start the packing process, I will make a list of everything that I want/need to take and then never refer to it again. Now that I pack for Sophie too, it's extra fun!!

sometimes...

Sometimes, when I feel like I've lost my focus, all I need to do is visit you, my blessed blogging community.

Thank you.

a long weekend

This weekend has been all at once exhausting, frustrating, and beautiful. Dungeons and Dragons on Saturday afternoon and evening, with homemade pizza that was a lot of work but turned out beautifully. We spent 3-4 hours on Saturday at Roy's Grandparents beautiful house. I regret deeply not taking the camera. They live on, what I would consider, the most beautiful piece of property in Central Kentucky. It doesn't hurt that their house, which Roy's Grandma designed, is absolutely beautiful.

When we pulled onto their steep driveway around 11am, Riley ran next door with cousin, Paul, Roy went to work on her computer, and I chatted with Grandma Jean while she got the muck out of the pond and built a protective covering for the pump. We sat for a while under their gazebo and Sophie traipsed through her plants, Grandma smiling on all the while. "My granddaughter can go wherever she wants."

Once Sophie discovered the golf cart it was over. I think we did a total of 6 rides around the back yard, past the creek and the crops of Iris's, down to the spring and around the big tree that resides there. I love driving the golf cart, but this got pretty old after the 3rd trip.

After a few hours, despite the beautiful day and scenery, I was ready to get home. I have laundry to do, a house to clean... it just never ends!

Suddenly, it's Monday, and here I am with more laundry to do, more rooms to clean, more visits to have, and tomorrow it's back to work.

Then, just when I think I have reached my limit, something like this happens.

WTF? Another literary post.

I'm ready to be done with my current book. Know what I mean? I've got about 1/4 left and it's been good and all but okay, let's get on with it. I settled in for another couple chapters of "Three Cups of Tea: One man's mission to promote peace... one school at a time" and something revolutionary - down right CRAZY occurred to me.

The last 6 books I have read have been non-fiction.

WHAT is going on here?

I've always struggled with non-fiction. I'm guessing it's either my mild ADD or my wild romanticism for life, but I'm a fiction girl. Oh, there are a few exceptions. Paula by Isabel Allende... Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver... and Freakonomics by Steven Leavitt. But as I count my most recent reads, it covers the dewy decimal system quite nicely.

The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt.

Paulines by Pauline Tabor, by which was about a notorious brothel in Bowling Green, KY and for a few days I wanted nothing more that to be a Madam.

The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Abrams

The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw. Okay, this was kind of a cheat for me. It was the One Book, One Lexington book and I only read half. It was okay, but I can only read so many testimonials about WWII in one sitting. I'll finish it. Just not right now.

Blink by Malcom Gladwell

and now, Three Cups of Tea.

Sitting on my end table are three books that I really want to read. Eat Pray Love, No Country for Old Men, and In Defense of Food.

Two of three are non-fiction. Goodness gracious me... I don't know why this strikes me as it does, but I think it's so interesting to watch my tastes change and develop. I suppose it's nothing new, really. I went from Sally J. Friedman to Holden Caulfield to Sal Paradise to Alobar and Kudra to... real life?

Huh.

Our little singer

Last year, at a party at the twin's farm, I pulled out my guitar and started to sing. From across the circle, an 8 month old Sophie started to sing along. Evenings with the guitar have continued to be one of my favorite past times with her. She has been a true lover of music, plucking the strings and singing their tone, playing piano more gently than most, and yes, singing. I was fortunate to catch this little impromptu concert last night.

my preferred utterance

I've love adjectives. Lyrical, rhythmic, meaningful, adjectives.

It wasn't just a weekend, it was a TREMENDOUS weekend! It wasn't just a meal, it was a SCRUMPTIOUS meal! I'm not just in love, I'm MADLY, MYSTIFYINGLY, MAGNIFICENTLY in love!

I love words. I love SAYING certain words. Eclectic. Myriad. Delicious. Autumnal. Twitterpated. Testicular Fortitude. Bumble Bee. Galoshes. And any number of expletives that I really can't put here.

But I have, over the past few weeks, recognized my favorite adjective. It's not flashy or particularly fun to say. You don't stumble over consonants and falter around too many syllables. It sits, humbly, at the bottom of our vocabulary, being used to describe things like lamps, and fairly ordinary days.

You don't have to be AMAZING or FASCINATING or REMARKABLE.

Just NICE.

Helping people is nice. Being friendly on the phone is nice. Giving someone the bird is not nice. Smiling is nice. Compliments are nice. Being thankful is nice.

The word nice is kind of given the shaft. Flashier words seem to carry more weight than the word nice, but really, being nice is kind of remarkable. It is kind of fascinating. And really, it's pretty amazing.

We are all one people

Tonight I watched a program on Nova called "A Walk to Beautiful". It was the story of Ethiopian women who, by the hundreds of thousands, suffer from Obstetric Fistula.

The story is literally heart wrenching.

Girls in villages all over Ethiopia begin working carrying water, cooking, cleaning, doing manual labor around the villages, at a very early age. Their diet is very low in Calories and because of a combination of the labor and their diet, these girls grow very small. The women in this documentary looked 12 years old, even though they were 18-20.

Many are married between 9-14 years of age and soon after become pregnant. Because of their small frames, they have serious, life threatening trouble giving birth. Where we in America and Europe would be rushed to the hospital for help, some women are in labor for up to 13 days. By the time they give birth, their child has died, and the contractions have worn a hole between their bladder and their pelvic bone, causing them to leak urine and/or feces constantly. This is a problem that affects the poor in small isolated villages with no medical care.

These girls... they are ostricised. They smell. They are forced to sleep away from their families and communities. They feel alone and as though they face a fate worth than death. All whom they interviewed had contemplated suicide.

This documentary covered a Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, a 17 hour trip for one of the girls. Imagine riding in a bus for 17 hours, your clothes soaked in urine, you yourself keenly aware of your the stench.

Imagine!

This hospital saves the lives of these girls. They give them real beds, loving care, medical treatment, and hope. Over 90% of the girls are cured. And at the end of their month long stay, they receive the ultimate prize - new, clean clothes to wear home to their villages.

The greatest impact this documentary had on me, however, was how alike we all are.

These women from Ethiopia could not have had a more different life than I. Yet they showed such fear. Such bravery. Such desperation. They reacted as any human would react to the situation they were in. One wife, upon returning home, said to her husband, "Why didn't you clean the house? In the name of the Lord Jesus, what is wrong with you."

We are all one people. We all have the some blood, the same wants - to be happy. accepted. to have a purpose. We live in such a cruel world filled with war, poverty, and hate. If we could all just see that... if we could all just be nice to one another... the world would be a much better place.

Ettiquite

My Friend Nikki sent me this link today. It's really good.

If you have time, check it out. I think I'll keep handy as a gentle reminder of the finer points of growing up.

a wonderful 24 hours

While Mother's Day isn't technically until Sunday, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful Saturday weather (it's supposed to rain tomorrow) and head to the Louisville Zoo. We've been planning this all week and knew exactly what to do. In fact, even though Roy let me sleep in this morning, I was up by 7am for coffee and a good morning snuggle, too excited to sleep anymore.

The Louisville Zoo is spacious and has an incredible amount of green space that is favorable for picnics, so after our regular morning visit with Great Granddad, we headed to Whole Foods to buy food for lunch; grilled asparagus salad, roasted lamb, ginger sesame chicken, tomato and mozzarella salad, honey sweet potatoes, and of course a couple glasses of smuggled in wine.

When we were checking out, Sophie got some stickers.


Sophie loves animals, but I should have been more prepared for how intimidating these creatures would be to her in real life. When we walked into the Orangutan area, Sophie took one look at these large, lumbering animals and said, "no" and pointed toward to door.

So we took a break and rode the carousel, which she loved.

and let her take her own time... and have a little snack.

Finally, it was time to unpack our AMAZING picnic and we ate, laid around on the grass, played, and rested.



By 2:00, Sophie was an hour past her naptime and the zoo was getting increasingly crowded. Sophie had obviously had enough, and we decided to head home.

As I type, it nears 5:00. Roy naps, Sophie has yet another glass of Orange Juice, and we have an entire evening ahead of us. What to do!? We have an unwatched LOST and Battlestar Gallactica... a movie to trade at Blockbuster... the park down the street... Okay, so the sink is filled with dishes and if I don't do laundry soon, I'll have nothing to wear to work on Monday. But some things in life are much more important than these silly chores.

Happy Mother's Day too all of you inspiring moms!

Where's Sophie?

THERE SHE IS!!

Cinco de Mayo Carnival

We absolutely love our daycare, The Children's Spot. It's not fancy, or high priced, and they occasionally feed my child poptarts for breakfast. But it's diverse and when you walk in, and the teachers squeal "SOPHIE!" you know it's full of love. It's within walking distance of our home - more rare than you would think - and the owners are some of the nicest people I have ever met.

They've recently expanded to a larger space and while the indoors is perfect for play, they lack green space. Regardless, today they had a Spring Carnival, complete with face painting, games, a clown, and blow up jumping around thingy. Tonight I heard more French and Spanish than English, and was proud to know that we were part of it. Roy's granddad came with Sophie and I to this event and to quote him, "Well this is just wonderful. We can really do something here."

All Sophie really cared about, though, was her popcorn.





This is one of Sophie's teachers, Jordan. She really loves him, she's just not showing it in this picture.

Free Advertising

If you watch the Discovery Channel, you have seen this commercial. If you don't, you may watch it here. Pretty much sums it up for me.

That First Saturday in May

I think it could be considered an official holiday. If the Derby were on a weekday, no doubt businesses would be closed; they wouldn't be able to function with 90% of their staff "sick".

We went to Roy's aunt and uncle's house for a kid-friendly party. John schooled Riley in teatherball and I got my chance to show him who's boss after his strategy of wrapping himself between the pole and the rope resulted in a rope burn, taking him out of the game. SHOW NO MERCY!!

Watching the Derby yesterday with kids and adults alike, I watched them more than the horses. Sophie laughed and squealed through the entire race, and the adults were cheering as loud as the kids. Grace, Roy's 8 year old cousin, had fallen in love with the Filly, Eight Bells. She had been watching her development, and her dad, John, bought her a show ticket at Keeneland.

When tragedy struck and Eight Bells fatally broke both front legs, just after coming in second, a sadness fell over the house. Grace was in tears, being comforted by her parents, and finally sat down and wrote a letter to the horse owners in Florida.

Like the playing of My Old Kentucky Home, which will forever bring tears to my eyes, there is something about the Derby that resonates. That brings us together in mint juleps and gambling, that is healthy and real. It's also the unofficial start of planting season.

Happy Derby Day to you all.

Time to Remember

This has been kind of a hard week. Not because of anything in particular, but a lot of things combined. Sophie's been sick (AGAIN!), I didn't feel well all week, work has been difficult, and personal relationships strained and frustrating. Our lawn mower was stolen last year, and our current one wouldn't cut butter. We now have the longest grass on the block, and have borrowed our neighbor's mower more often than is neighborly.

The weather all week has been cold and my allergies have been killing me. Advil and Loratadine are doing nothing for my sinus headache. Still, yesterday was 76 degrees and sunny. My day off, to boot. So Sophie and I walked to the park down the street from our house.

We met trees

and marveled at their size


and I came home, reminded to be thankful for things.

Like popcorn and ice cream for supper


and dogwoods

Precociousness

and mornings that end in jam covered faces.

Ah yes, the world IS a beautiful place to be born into.