1993

I ran across this article with a very cool graphic about how the year 1993 influenced technology that we take for granted today. It's titled

How the Ideas and Events of 1993 Created the World We Live in Today

It reminded me of my son who was also born in 1993, and how this person, my son, creates the world I live in today. He is a remarkable person with so much compassion. Who knew in 1993 that he would grow up to create so much love in our home.

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade and Other Delights

Today was a day of yummy food. Marinated grilled chicken tenderloins with herbs from my garden, fresh squeezed homemade lemonade, corn on the cob and homemade strawberry ice cream. Oh, and watermelon! Seedless watermelon, what a wonderful invention.

Three out of four children were home for the long Memorial Day Weekend and it was marvelous. My cute little granddaughter is a joy to be around. I love how she is learning new words every day. (My goal of the week was to have her learn to say "Grammie". We got close, so I'm giving her another chance!) I love the way she laughs and covers her mouth with her hand. I love that she reaches up for me to pick her up. I love her curls. I love her uninhibited joy at the simplest of things. I love how fine tuned her ears are... she can hear a baby cry and a dog bark from a mile away. I love the way her parents love her.

I'm reading several books right now... birthday books and bargain books and found again books that had been sitting on my shelf and never read. I love books that make me think about life. I like how a quote can reach out and grab my heart and soul. Like today in a book my niece gave me by Neal A. Maxwell I read this quote:

"Our genes, circumstances, and environments matter very much, and they shape us significantly; yet, there remains an inner zone in which we are sovereign. In this zone lies the very essence of our individuality and our personal accountability."

I like the idea of an *inner zone* over which only we have command. I'm into these type of self-help books right now. I just finished Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, and have started on Something More by Sarah Ban Breathnach. How on earth do you pronounce her name? She's a veritable treasure trove of quotes. Her words are great, but she also uses a lot of inspirational quotes from other sources. Like this one by Franz Kafka, the second one in her book:

"A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."

I really feel that way, and certain books do break up the ice inside me. Words do that to me. I am an official lover of words. This book Something More has got me started on a project. My kids are probably wondering why I'm cutting words and pictures out of magazines. I'm making an illustrated discovery journey. I'm on a journey of self-discovery... and boy, does she have a lot of good quotes about finding yourself. I'll have to write a post on her quotes and ideas. Oh goody, something to blog about!

Three Years Ago

Three years ago I created this blog... I've been surprised at how well I've kept up on it, even though half that time I was in school. Being a full time student cut into my leisure time, but I liked to keep my family at least barely informed of what was happening in my life and inside my brain. So I don't blog everyday, or every week, but I've done okay with the once a month thing.

When I started it, it was the day after my birthday and I had wondered where I was so far in my life. I made a list of things I had done or accomplished in my life. Yesterday I received a letter of happy birthday wishes from my brother in-law. He wasn't sure about my feelings on birthdays, but they are quite similar. We both feel like... how did we get here so fast! I still have so many things I wanted to do in my life and it's almost over! Okay, it's not almost over. I have plenty more years left in me. But I'm one of those *list makers*. Yes, I own the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die, and The Wish List. Both of these books have plenty of check marks in them of places I been, and things I've done. But there is SO MUCH MORE that I want to do.

And one of them is get a college degree. That's a long term one for me. You can't just plan a trip to college, buy your plane ticket, rent your car and buy a Lonely Planet book, and be back to regular life in two weeks. You do have to plan your classes, pay for tuition, spend lots of money on gasoline to get you to classes and buy lots of books. But I tell you what, it's been a great ride so far, even though it's encompassed most of my life. What I started in 1980 won't be finished until 2010, at least.

So yesterday was my birthday, and today is my blog's birthday. Happy Birthday to us! The theme for my birthday this year was *books*. Josh gave me a book, Becca and Peter "gave" me a book, Machiel gave me a book, my niece gave me a book and earlier last week I bought myself several books at a really cool used book store. I think my favorite present was having my car cleared out, vacuumed, and cleaned, thanks to my husband. And going out to eat at Macaroni Grill with the fam and having some friends show up to join us was a great surprise.

Speaking of last week and books, I took a fun escape to Nashville to visit my granddaughter and, in a turn of events, got taken care of by my daughter. She had a whole list (we must be related!) of things to do while we were there. We went shopping, had a picnic and fed the ducks, went out to eat steak, had pedicures (Holy Red Toenails!), and went to the bead store. Oh, and the aforementioned book store. I told her I was like, to use the overused phrase, a kid in a candy store. I could have stayed in there all day (I didn't even GET to the fiction section) and promised that I would leave as soon as baby started fussing and crying. I came home with two overstuffed bags of books. Great deals, great fun, great inspiration, and something to look forward to this summer. Oh wait, I was looking forward to doing nothing this summer! But that isn't on my list, so I better start reading.

Thanks to everybody for all the birthday wishes. Facebook is great for stuff like that.

May

May is my favorite month.

I was recently visiting some band director friends of mine, and one of them was in a sour mood.

Me: "School's almost out! How can you be so down?"

Him: "Don't you know I hate this time of year?"

Me: "I love the month of May. It has Mother's Day and my birthday, so I get showered with gifts. There are flowers blooming, everything's green, the weather is perfect, well, except for today. Today is a gloomy, drizzling rainy day."

Him: "School ISN'T out yet, I'm sick of it. There are middle school auditions at three different schools. Leadership and colorguard stuff after school everyday, District meetings, budget meetings, calendaring meetings, I'm sick of it."

Me: "I still love this month, but then I'm DONE with school, I have no meetings to attend and can go and do as I please."

Him: --gives me an evil look--

I do love the month of May. I found a cool quote about May:

It was one of those beautiful, lengthening days,
when May was pressing back with both hands the
shades of the morning and the evening.
--Amelia E. Barr (1886)

I love how the days get longer, the temperature gets warmer during the day, but you still need a sweater for the cooler evenings. I just love this month. Right now the sky is blue and the temp is perfect. I should be outside somewhere in a comfy chair and a good book.

But alas, I can't always do as I please in the month of May. I have to teach lessons today. But tomorrow... tomorrow I will go visit my granddaughter and have fun for three days. Nothing but fun. Unless I have to change a poopy diaper... that's not too fun.

NYC Skyline on my mind

A long time ago we took our kids to Maryland to see family and decided to make a side trip to visit a longtime friend and college roommate of mine in NJ. While there we decided to go see the Statue of Liberty. We came from the NJ side and took the ferry. It was magnificent. I remember seeing the New York City skyline for the very first time in my life. I took lots of photos of the skyline as seen from NJ and of Lady Liberty. I remember looking through my camera lens at the amazing giant city that seemed eerily quiet and still as seen from afar. I knew that it was a bustling, busy, noisy city with lots of people, but from behind my lens miles away it was peaceful and magical. I still can see skyline in my mind, the photograph I took. It was one of those *moments*.

My husband's grandmother was known to say that in life we need to take mental pictures of moments and freeze special times in our lives. This was one of those personal moments, seeing NYC for the first time. What's ironic about it is what happened when we got back to Baltimore. We had a family renunion of sorts and it was the first time all my brothers and sisters had been together in years (and unfortunatety the last time we were all together). I gave the camera to my husband and told him there were only a few shots left (this was still the pre-digital film era) so make them count. He shot a few and kept advancing the film. It kept going. It was then, after the camera said we had taken 38 pictures on what we thought was 36 shot film, that we realized there was no film in the camera.

Luckily we were able to catch that rare moment of having all five siblings together on film when we actually put film in the camera. (I thought YOU put film in the camera! No, I thought YOU did!) Anyway, the moments I had of NYC behind the lens of my camera actually turned into frozen moments captured in my head. I'm glad I can still see it.

The point is, and I do have a point, like Dave Barry likes to say, is that there are times when we don't have a camera with us and we want to capture the moment. Stop, and think clearly about what you are seeing. Really think about it. And I promise you will be able to pull up that "picture" maybe even 20 years later like I can.

Guys

Mom: What are you doing?

Son: There's chocolate or something all over my wii remotes, so I'm wiping them off.

Mom: Why are you wiping them on the couch?

Dad: Yeah, you don't wipe things on the couch. If you need to wipe something off, use your shirt.

Mom: Why do I even bother. Sigh. Boys.

Thanks

Thanks for the inspiration.

I am thankful for many things.

I'm thankful for my clever children. I'm proud of them, the redheads and non-redheads alike.

I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to go back to college, and for a husband who totally supports that. I'm thankful that this old brain can still remember a thing or too.

I'm thankful for poetry. No, really. I am. I like it! Words are so cool.

I'm thankful for beautiful things, for art, nature and lampshades.

I'm thankful for the music in my life, for pop music and jazz, for classical and baroque. I'm thankful for French augmented chords and for mm7 chords and for the Tristan chord, even though I'm not really into Wagner. Did you know TS Eliot was?

I'm thankful for the cutest granddaughter ever. I'm thankful that she will climb up into my lap and let me read to her.

I'm thankful that my son-in-law is days away from graduating after diligently working through three grueling years of law school.

I'm thankful that PF Changs has come to my town.

I'm thankful for chocolate fudge pudding.

And I'm thankful for my life, warped as it is.