I know!

Well, where have you been?

I've been off making decisions:

1)  I won't work with landscapers who won't provide drawings and spend the time with me to talk through the details. (There's a backstory about a well-spoken creative guy who, when bidding to fix our tree root problems, suggested a cut out in our bricked flower bed to create a sitting area. The dot, dot, dot is that after his "team" did the work and then immediately took it out, so I would stop screaming and crying, our long time and trusted friend and masonry artist, came to my rescue. When the space is complete, I will share pics.)

2) I will, after #1, remember that when something is done wrong, and you're paying for it, you should be sure that it's done right. I will always remember not to let my thoughts run wild with, "It's my fault. I should have made him give me more detail. I should have been here when they were putting tiles in without grout and cut them into tiny squares when the email said 24 inches." And I will listen to my husband, and thank God for him, when he says he's going to be sure I have what I asked for.

3) Time spent with this doggy is all good. This is him, literally, cheering when I came in from moving the car yesterday morning. He reads feet and noticed I wasn't wearing shoes. A clue that work was out and time together was in. Happy, talking guy.

4) Writing morning pages is essential and so is time in the Word.
I have to get up at 5:00.

5) Loving what you have is good. (I have more than I need anyway.)












6) Mason jars are a very fun rage right now and dinners with loads of Mason Jars with candles are full of retro-cheer.  Picture credit: Diane Jensen, New Parent Welcome Dinner 2012.











7) I won't be buying any new votive holders this Fall-into-Christmas season. Even the ones calling out my name at Anthropology.

Not this.







Or this.







Or (so sadly) this.






I have a drawer -full. Oh! and all those Mason Jars.

8) Pastor's don't always stay at churches. But God never leaves and neither does His Spirit, when we graciously ask Him in. I need to keep my searching eyes on what God is doing more than who is doing.

9) I'm going to see more movies. Movie dates with my boyfriend are essential. So are dates with my husband. He's been both for 20 over years.

10) I will enjoy caught-up sighs when they come. (See #9.)

Persistence & Determination

This, is a tale of persistence. It begins long ago with a quote from Calvin Coolidge shared by my beloved Uncle Jimmie.

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."


Interestingly, my daughter was born with more than a small dose of persistence. Somewhere during her first couple of years, my Dear and I noted how, when fixed on an idea or desire, our little gal would get what she was after. The first real notice of this was when sitting in my lap at the dinner table, she grabbed for and got the glass of water I held and drank from the glass. Way before I expected this. We watched it time after time with reaching, crawling, standing, walking, climbing, etc. And oh yes, it was a key factor in the two and three years. At some point we laughed that she was born in two and a half hours (!) because she wanted to be born. Now. With this persistence comes a strong will. So you can imagine, that occasionally we're challenged, as we all are and should be as parents, to channel this trait in the right direction. (Far too often, I've found myself a wall rather than a guide to a better pathway. But, I'm growing too.)

Well, God blesses us with maturity, doesn't He? Our gal, the determined one, woke up somewhere around the end of winter and took on math like it was a hill to be climbed. She practiced homework with laser focus. When she found a snag, she asked for a tutor. Her grades went directly to A's or 100% almost all the time and she found herself the only one in class who got every answer correct on the final test of the year. Right around May she started telling me about a pre-Algebra class at the local all girls Catholic high school. About a week after she first told me, she handed me a stack of paper and asked that I sign her up.

Really? Summer school? What about this week away at camp and that week driving to visit friends? What about all the sports camps at school in June and July? Summer school? In uniforms? Doing math?

Well, this girl saw that she could take pre-Algebra in four weeks and move up to Algebra where she wants to be. So she did it. She got up every morning at 6:30. Put on her school uniform, went to class, did her homework, studied the lessons and pulled the highest grade in the class. On the last day, she took her own school's math placement test and was offered that chair in Algebra.

There's a lesson here for me (and maybe for all of us). Something worth attaining is worth working for. I think about the adage that a job worth doing is worth doing well, and other similar thoughts. But the thing I think about most here (right after I well up with happiness and some mommie-pride) is what my Uncle Jim shared over and over:

Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. 
He would know. He set the goal to retire at 40 and got there at 41. 

Wait, maybe all this should be about genetics.

Happy Math my sweet girl! We couldn't be happier for you.

Nora Ephron

My neighbor John called me a day or so ago to say his peaches are ripening. I need to get a basket and harvest. He mentioned that I might like to make, well, a peach pie. (He's a fruit pie kind of guy.)

It made me think again of Nora Ephron and our loss with her passing.

So in honor of the funny, brilliant and giving woman and her cooking influence, here are a couple of yummy gifts which will live on:

Nora Ephron's Peach Pie

Nora Ephron's Dijon Vinaigrette

To Nora!