January 1, 2013

So here we are, the beginning of another new year.  January 1st brings with it that clean slate kind of feeling - like fresh sheets, an empty laundry basket, a newly weeded garden, a freshly fallen snow.  Or, if you are a cat, a litter box that has been completely dumped and changed rather than just scooped.  The obvious question here is, how do these feelings translate into a meaningful life during the rest of 2013?

Like most of us, I could resolve to lose weight, eat better, sleep more in the new year, but it seems easier to say that I plan to live a more intentional and purposeful life.  What does that look like?  I don’e really know, exactly.  What I do know is that I plan to be open to life’s possibilities, whatever they may or may not be. 

By making myself open to possibilities in 2012, the past year revealed how important photography as a way of personal expression is to me.  To those of you who walked with me through the 100 days of Visual Cents, I appreciate your support.  I learned so much during that project about photography, myself and other people.  It was truly a life altering endeavor.

As I finished that project, I discovered an online community whose purpose is to support its members as they undertake the goal of a picture a day for an entire year.  I have decided to commit to this for 2013.  Unlike with Visual Cents, where I intentionally did not write anything to accompany the photographs, I plan to write about my Capture Your 365 photos - at least sometimes.  These photos come with the same disclaimers that accompanied my Visual Cents photos, they will not all be good but they might be; they will not all be meaningful, but they might be; they will not all be technically correct, but they might be.  What I can guarantee is that they will reflect a part of me.  They will remind me where I was, what I was doing and what was in my heart and mind on any given day during the year 2013.

I invite you to journey with me through Capture Your 365, the 2013 edition.  As always, I appreciate comments, constructive criticism and questions.

I hope that each of you finds a sense of peace and purpose as we greet this new year.

Welcoming 2013

We are having a night of fun, food, family, friends and games at home tonight.  The girls are here with some friends and we had Erin's birthday dinner that she was too sick to enjoy on the 23rd.

Earlier today I decided that is was time to do a little housekeeping - get rid of 2012's dirt so that there is room for the new that 2013 will surely bring.  When things were clean, we were all hungry but didn't want to get the kitchen or dishes dirty so we opted for sandwiches from Schlotzsky's. 

Here is what we got:

Nothing special, but a tasty lunch.

Our total bill -

Welcome 2013!

I wish all of you a happy, healthy and joyful new year!

Like Daughter, Like Mother

Today is my 51st birthday.  I didn't have any big plans, but the ones I did have did not involve being sick.  Last night, I began to feel "not right."  By ten o'clock or so I was running a fever.  By 12:37 am this morning, the actual time of my birth, I was running a measurable temperature of 102.  I was curled up on the couch wrapped in my purple peace sign covered Snuggie that Weber gave me for Christmas and a tie-dyed fleece blanket.  I suspect that I looked like some bad 60's acid trip.  The cat didn't seem to mind though; she was curled up in my lap, probably because I was so warm!  It became apparent that I was going to spend my birthday the same way Erin did - sick.

I had planned to go to the knit shop this morning for just a little while and then my family was to come for dinner tonight.  This morning when I finally woke up around nine, my fever was gone so I decided to go ahead and go knit.  Brooke made me cookies in honor of my birthday to take to the knit shop to share with my friends.  I remember all those treats that I made for the girls to take to school for birthdays and various other celebrations.  The role reversal here seems kind of funny, but much appreciated.

 

These cookies were full of all the things I like - pretzels, graham crackers, oatmeal, potato chips and chocolate chips.  It was probably a good thing that I didn't have to make a decision about what kind of cookies I wanted.  It was a safe bet on Brooke's part to just go with the ones that have everything in them.

By the time I had knit for an hour and a half or so, I was beginning to think that going out was not my best plan.  I could tell that my temperature was creeping up again.  Weber picked me up and brought me some pretty flowers.

 How can one not feel at least a little cheered with bright yellow and orange flowers?

I resumed my position on the couch and slept the rest of the afternoon.  By dinnertime when the rest of my family got here, I had taken some Motrin and my fever was again down.  Thankfully, I was able to enjoy dinner and my birthday dessert.

Brooke made pizza for dinner - one with butternut squash and crispy kale and the other with potatoes and leeks.

There is almost nothing better than homemade pizza.  Except maybe homemade ice cream.  She also made graham cracker ice cream and pretzel and chocolate chip ice cream.  Oh, I did I mention the chocolate and peanut butter torte?  I couldn't let a pesky old fever keep me from all of this yummy stuff!

As is the case with our family, most of my gifts were food themed - a soup cookbook from Mike and a very cool Bento lunch cookbook and various "accessories" from Erin and Edgar.  I did not do well with taking pictures tonight.  That right there is an indication that I don't feel very well.  But, the Bento cookbook and accompanying stuff deserves a post of its own, so stay tuned!

Also in keeping with family tradition, I scratched my fifty one $1.00 lottery tickets.  I am usually not the big winner here.  But, this year is my lucky year.  Greatly helped by this . . .

  . . . a $40 winning ticket, I came out a dollar ahead, winning a total of $52!

All things considered, I had good birthday.  Yeah,  I could have felt better; but,  I also know that things could have been a lot worse.  I wish I had taken more pictures - of the pizzas, the chocolate peanut butter torte.  I didn't.  And that's just the way it is.

I'm going to bed now in the hope that this bug with which I seem to be keeping company moves on by tomorrow.

Christmas Unwrapped

 Just as quickly as it came, Christmas is now over.  I received an email advertisement today telling me that it is not too early to start preparing for Christmas 2013.  Seriously?  Has our society become so obsessed with disposable items that once the gifts are unwrapped and the calendar page turned to December 26 the day is gone?  I feel sorry for those for whom this is the case.  For us, the memories will live on allowing us to keep Christmas 2012 alive for ever.

Here is the "before" picture.  The living room is decorated, presents surround the tree and the stockings are stuffed.  But, what sticks out to me in this picture is the sign on the mantel that reads, "Bless this home with love and laughter."

Here is the "after."

We were all indeed blessed with an abundance of laughter and love.  Long after the trash bags full of paper have been carried to the curb, the Christmas tree darkened and packed away until next year and the new Christmas shoes marked by the dirt of life, the memories of love and laughter that we shared on this day will continue to sparkle in our hearts and minds.

We know that Brooke loves us because every Christmas morning she bakes us pans of homemade cinnamon rolls - lots of homemade cinnamon rolls!

We open our stockings, eat breakfast and then gather around the tree to open the rest of our gifts.

"Look!  Here comes Santa Claus!"

Just kidding.  It's not Santa Claus.  The timer on the oven just beeped signaling to the masses that the cinnamon rolls are done.

While we all indulged, Frankie did her duty and protected the gifts still under the tree.

Adidas was the first to open a gift.  

This kept him occupied while the rest of us opened ours.

Then it was time to find out who had been naught and who had been nice.

"Naughty or nice?"

"Surely this doesn't look like a naughty face?"

"I don't know whether this guy was naughty or nice, but for the sake of those of us who were definitely nice, I hope someone gives him a personal dresser for Christmas!"

"Really, I've been good.  Please, would you read me the one about the chocolate cake with the mocha frosting?  I'm getting tired of the one about the carrot cake and the cream cheese frosting.  It's so predictable!

Our gift opening was interrupted when it started snowing.  A white Christmas!  Another wonderful blessing.  Jason, who is from South Africa, claimed that he had never been out in this much snow.

Mike, who has, was not nearly as excited to be standing outside in the snow in his PJ's."

During the afternoon, we played Bad Apples, the newest incarnation of the game Apples to Apples that we played at Thanksgiving.  Though the game had its serious moments, it was wrought with a great deal of laughter and love!

I am so grateful for the time that my family and I had together.  We are truly blessed by a home filled with laughter, love, cinnamon rolls, a possessive cat and barking dogs.  As we live through the remainder of the twelve days of Christmas and usher in a new year, I will give thanks for what I have and pray for all those in this world who have nothing to laugh about and no one to love them.

Merry White Christmas!

Merry Christmas

from our family to yours!

Brooke, Edgar, Mike, Weber

Jason, Erin and Kris

A Visit from . . .

Twas the night before Christmas,
when all through the house
not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse . . .

"That's what they think!"

Merry Christmas to all 

and to all a good night.

No. 2 is 20

Twenty years ago on this day, I had thirty-some staples in my abdomen, a horrific spinal headache and a brand new baby girl.  Today we celebrated Erin's twentieth birthday - and the fact that I have successfully raised all of my offspring through the teenage years. (This post is tagged with teenagers.  I guess it will be the last time I use it for a good long while.)

Erin is one for establishing and maintaining traditions.  Unfortunately, at least one of her traditions is not so worthy of the attention it too often gets.  She has this thing for getting sick on holidays.  At age two, she broke out with the chicken pox in church on Easter Sunday.  Her little pink dots matched her pretty pink dress.  Her first experience with the flu was on Thanksgiving and then there was the swine flu on Earth Day, the stitches on Mother's Day . . .Unfortunately, today she kept with her tradition.

The kids had planned to make a gingerbread house today and Erin had delegated all of the various components of her birthday meal.  Brooke was to make bread for the chicken pesto sandwiches that Edgar was going to make.  I was to make broccoli salad.  And Brooke also was to make a strawberry cake.  But, this morning I got a text from Erin saying that her throat hurt and all that she wanted to eat was soup and smoothies.  We offered to postpone her birthday until she felt better but that wouldn't do.  After negotiating an acceptable Plan B, we settled on macaroni and cheese from scratch, brussels sprouts and spinach and pear salad.  Doesn't that sound like comfort food to you?

Macaroni and cheese slides down a sore throat fairly easily and roasted brussels sprouts are just pretty darn good.  Erin didn't even want her cake today.  Her sister is going to make it for her on New Year's Eve.  After our meal we went out for frozen yogurt.  That soothed the birthday girl's sore throat and was somewhat of a birthday treat.

The girls and I started the birthday festivities on Friday by going out to lunch and spending the afternoon shopping.  Erin arrived today in a big cozy sweater that she found that day.
I suspect that she didn't want to postpone her birthday because if she had to feel so crappy she should at least get to open her presents!

As she started opening her gifts, the fact that we are a bunch of foodies whacked us all in the face!  This is what was in the big green package . . .

 . . . a juicer.  Doesn't every twenty year-old want a juicer?  Well, this one did and her dad got it for her.

And Brooke got her this.

I think it is in response to text messages asking her sister what to do with twenty pounds of peaches or oranges or cucumbers.

Another family tradition that we have is that on your birthday you get a dollar lottery ticket for each year of your age.

Brooke is usually the big winner here, winning often times double her age.  That was not the case this year.  Though neither of the girls won big, Erin managed $11 with her twenty tickets to Brooke's $9 with her twenty-three.  Since we only waste spend money on lottery tickets once a year, the loss here is minimal; it is worth the fun of scratching them.

After all of the excitement, Erin fell asleep on the couch.  By 5:30, we scooped her up and sent her home to rest in the hope that she will feel better before Christmas.

Happy Birthday, Erin!