Bits and Pieces of Our Days

As Imperceptibly as Grief, the Summer Lapsed Away....

~~ Emily Dickinson 

No one can nail it quite like my girl Emily. 

~~~~~

I didn't mean to let the last few weeks slip by without writing. It just sort of happened, in the midst of a crazy late-July/early August. Some of the craziness had us dealing with some hard stuff (I don't mean to vague-blog...I'm sure I'll be able to say more soon), and some of it was just the busy-ness of life.

Atticus, for example, is already back at work. He started on August 9th. And, as happens every year, I'm scrambling to remember what it's like to think about making dinner every night. Can't remember where on Facebook I saw this, but it is the perfect new header for my "What's for Dinner?" chalkboard:

Pros and Cons of Making Food 

Pros: Food 

Cons: Making it 

~~~~~

This is one of our baby swallows. They nest on our back porch every year, and this year we were privy to every step of the fledglings leaving the nest. The girls and I were enchanted. 

~~~~~

I think Ramona should be a picture book illustrator. Here's her rendering of Ten and Rose. 

~~~~~

I love having a daughter who loves to bake. 

~~~~~

One of the highlights of every  month for Ramona: a new ScrawlrBox. Worth every penny for my teen artist. 

~~~~~

This cup? 

When my girls were little, it sported a Cookie Monster design. Over the years and through thousands of washings the design faded (as imperceptibly as grief, Cookie Monster lapsed away.) 

The cup has remained in the cupboard but this week it's going with Betsy to her first apartment.

Serve her well, Cookie Monster cup. We'll miss you. 

Poetry Friday: Leisure

It's been a slightly hectic summer for us so far, but I'm looking forward to some days of lolling around soon. Time to stand and stare ... ah, yes. Good for the soul. 

Leisure
by William Henry Davies


What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

~~~~~

The Poetry Friday round up is at Carol's Corner.

Poetry Friday: A Ramona Original

We got back yesterday from an overnight in a cabin at a beautiful state park, and I was reminded of the first time we "camped" (it's not really camping when the cabin is like a hotel room, is it? But that's the only way I camp) at this spot:

Ramona was almost five on that trip. Back then, she brought Mr. Potato Head along and looked like this: 

After hearing a whipporwhill, she was enchanted, and composed this poem, which I love as much today as I did nine years ago: 

It's so beautiful here.

If only insane, 

I could be a whip-poor-will.

So much has happened in nine years. My family has grown up, our vistas have expanded, scenic views have changed. But one thing will never change, and that is the sheer, utter joy I take in spending time away from the world with Atticus and my three girls. 

~~~~~

The round up is at Reflections on the Teche.

Recent Reading

It's nothing if not eclectic:

Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling 

I like Mindy Kaling. She just makes me laugh out loud and I will always love her for her many contributions to The Office. I liked this one, though I think I liked her first book even better. (I mentioned that one here.) It's lightweight and fun, though whenever I finish a Mindy Kaling book, I find myself sighing, "I hope you find the right guy soon, Mindy. He's out there for you. Don't give up." It's the mom in me, I guess, or the Mrs. Bennett? Deep down, I think Mindy is sort of an old-fashioned girl in a new fashioned world, and I want her to enjoy the old-fashioned charm of marriage-for-a-lifetime.

Brene Brown's The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings of Authenticity, Connection, and Courage 

This one is actually an audio course that pulls from Brown's books and her whole body of work. I've been listening to it when I walk the dog, therefore, if you were to observe my dog-walking lately you'd see me smiling, nodding knowingly, laughing out loud, knitting my brow in concern, or biting my lip as I ponder a cogent point. Before my conversion, when I was still lost, but fighting my way into an authentic life, I considered going back to school to become a psychologist. Brown's work covers many of the things that continue to fascinate and resonate with me: vulnerability, shame, empathy, gratitude, wholehearted living and striving for authenticity. In summary: I really look forward to my morning walks with Brene these days.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty 

Just started this one.

It's the book I pick up when I have a few minutes here and there, so I'm not very far into it yet. I am, however, intrigued, about those missing ten years....

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller, Jr. 

It's been on my to-read list for about 30 years and I'm finally getting around to it. I'm 1/3 of the way in and though it's rich in insight, the ending of Part One was a huge punch in the gut.

"The whole thing's a punch in the gut," said my friend, Jack, when I saw him yesterday. (He was the one who first recommended it to me some 30 years ago.) A punch worth enduring, though, I gather.

I will forge on, and keep you posted.

Poetry Friday: On the Grasshopper and the Cricket

Every year in August, I'm struck by "the poetry of the earth." The cicadas are pleasantly deafening on an August night in Nebraska. Atticus mentioned last night that when he was a child, their song meant there was a month of summer left, but these days (oh, why must school start so early?) it means he's back to work.

For me, the cicada song also means, "Since Atticus is back to work, I've lost my chef and I have to start planning dinners again."

O, cicada!

O, late summer!

O, Atticus! We miss you. (And not just your cooking.)

On the Grasshopper and Cricket*
John Keats

The poetry of earth is never dead:
  When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
  And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper’s—he takes the lead
  In summer luxury,—he has never done
  With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
  On a lone winter evening, when the frost
    Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
  And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
    The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.


~~~~~

Heidi Mordhorst has the Poetry Friday round up.


*In the public domain.

Poetry Friday: Leisure, by Amy Lowell

I am all about creating enough margin in our lives that we don't go crazy. I must admit, however, that this summer has felt a little crazy by our standards. The busy-ness has all been great stuff.  I don't begrudge any of us any of it but I am trying to make sure we still have time for the "goddess of a bygone age." 

Leisure
Amy Lowell

Leisure, thou goddess of a bygone age,
When hours were long and days sufficed to hold
Wide-eyed delights and pleasures uncontrolled
By shortening moments, when no gaunt presage
Of undone duties, modern heritage,
Haunted our happy minds; must thou withhold
Thy presence from this over-busy world,
And bearing silence with thee disengage
Our twined fortunes? Deeps of unhewn woods
Alone can cherish thee, alone possess
Thy quiet, teeming vigor. This our crime:
Not to have worshipped, marred by alien moods
That sole condition of all loveliness,
The dreaming lapse of slow, unmeasured time.

~~~~~

The round up is at Reflections on the Teche.

~~~~~

"Leisure" is in the public domain. 

Poetry Friday: Still Life With Invisible Canoe

My girls, sitting on the dock after sunrise. 

Just home from a short vacation -- visited my parents in Arkansas, and also savored this beautiful view from the deck of the rental we shared with my sister and brother-in-law. 

Though my girls are no longer little, today's poem prompted a mix of memories (from make-believe in a living room to walking in woods with a small child) that over the years has left me, as the poet says at the end of the poem -- do go read the whole thing, it's very short -- with "a feeling near holy." 

Still Life with Invisible Canoe
Idra Novey

Levinas asked if we have the right
To be the way I ask my sons
If they’d like to be trees
...
(Read the whole poem here, at Poets.org.)

~~~~~

The round up today is at Mainely Write. 

That Summer (Routine) Feeling

Still transitioning into some kind of summer schedule here, feeling a little bit afloat, but it's getting better. I'm writing a new book, so work time for me has to be part of the schedule. So, lots of this:

And lots of this: 

Ramona is doing horseback riding and Atticus is on chauffeur duty for that, so, that's helpful.

Ramona at age 3, about (GASP) -- 9 years ago.) 

Ramona's adjusting to piano lessons with a new teacher. She loved her old teacher but she also loves her new one, who is a dear friend of mine and of our whole family. It's all good, just new and different, and and change is funny, even when it's good change, right?

The piano never changes. 

Speaking of change, I may not be able to change up anything in my dining room (between the piano and the table, there isn't much room) but I can change up the artwork: 

There's the new artwork! 

Some of it is from Betsy's "Art for Elementary Ed Majors" class last semester: We were guinea pigs for her Van Gogh-inspired collage project, and her best friend, who took the same class, taught the Eric Carle-inspired lesson (note the pink cat.) 

And second from the bottom, in the center, is Ramona's Minecraft-inspired art. I think it's a Creeper? 

One of Ramona's self-appointed summer projects is to clean up and organize her art area:

One advantage to being the youngest (and being six years behind the next-oldest sibling) is that one gets one's very own art area. When Anne and Betsy were younger, the "art area" was the kitchen table, the living room, the backyard....

Other summer stuff to fit in and work around: Anne is still working for the college as a biology tutor, Betsy will be Ramona's main chauffeur to the pool and water park (thank you, Betsy!) and we'll be visiting out of town family at some point. Ramona might do a couple of theater camps, and there are lots of fun things scheduled through our library and the parks commission, like family nature nights. There are sleepovers to plan, read-alouds to complete ...  I figure that just about the time we get the summer routine down, it will be time for everyone to head off to school. 

(Part of) The Denver Trip in Pictures

I didn't take nearly enough pictures.

I snapped not a single picture of the lovely and gracious Mary Machado, who runs the Rocky Mountain Catholic Home Educators Conference. I didn't get pictures of the other charming women I met, including Gwen, Carmen, Stacie, Sarah, and numerous other welcoming, encouraging, supportive moms. 

I didn't think to snap a photo of Lissa and Scott, or of my sweet godson, Huck. (Yeah, he is totally that adorable in person.) 

I am so often busy living my life that I forget to record it. 

I am a failure at 21st century living. 

What did I take pictures of? Potato chips and rocks. And I took my daughter to the vet.*

We are truly exciting people.
We took a picture of the chips we brought from home:
the bag puffed up, thanks to the change in altitude. It would
not be a homeschooler's trip if we couldn't include a science experiment. 

At Garden of the Gods.
Beauteous!

Still at Garden of the Gods. Still beauteous. 

About to leave Garden of the Gods.
Beauteous'ed out.
Worried we'd be washed away in a blinding rain
on the way back to the hotel. Endlessly thankful we dodged the mudslides
that accompanied the rain in some areas. 

Alameda East Veterinary Hospital.
This one deserves its own blog post, which I'll get to soon. *

*More on the Alameda East visit soon. 

Top Ten Reasons My Blog Has Been Languishing

10. It's been hot this summer. Everything is languishing.

9.  My friend Paula was visiting from Chicago -- I was busy with her and Ramona was busy with Paula's daughter. I begged to accompany was forced to go with Paula to a cool old furniture shop and consider buying a gorgeous cedar chest that I don't really need.

8. I didn't buy the cedar chest but the mental wrangling took all my energy.

7. We had a bat in the house. Eeeeeek! We had a bat in the house! The screaming, the running, and the  feelings of disgust took all my energy (and just after I'd regained it following the cedar chest incident. Not fair.)

6. We have been shopping for a car for our teens. We've made do without a teen car so far, but we're finally all going in too many directions.

5. Visiting used car dealers should qualify us for an enormous discount off our time in purgatory. (This doesn't technically qualify as a reason for blog languishment. I just had to say it.)

4. We've been finishing up various summer activities: a cool "outdoor classroom" hosted by the Game and Parks Commission (in which Ramona romped in a delightfully big mud puddle), horseback riding, the water park before it closes. I'm trying to remember the meaning of the words "cook dinner" and we've been adding and dropping classes at the college for Betsy's early enrollment: Spanish! No, French! No, Spanish! (We've just registered, and this is crazy, but pick a language, and call me maybe....)*

3. I had to clean out a closet and put up some new curtains in the dining room because, you know, when you're writing a book it's easier to invent unnecessary organizational and cleaning projects that make you feel you're accomplishing something than it is to stare at the screen and ponder just the right word for that sentence in chapter seven.

2. On the subject of writing, a book, well, I'm writing a book -- and I have only so much room in my brain/time at the computer, and often I've spent it all on the book, which leaves my poor little blog out in the cold (or is it languishing in the heat?) If I spend entire days and nights at the screen, Ramona looks like this:

and asks, "Mommy, don't you love me anymore?" 

1. I wonder if that cedar chest is still there....

~~~~~~~~~~

*To be fair to Betsy, a fair amount of the switching was my doing, covering bases in case one or the other of the classes doesn't take off due to low enrollment. In other words, I'm making my daughter look indecisive for comic effect. This is totally unfair of me, although (in all fairness to me, as long as we're going for fairness) she did waffle a little, due to various considerations.  But it's my blog and it's hard enough to find things I can share about my teens without violating their privacy, so when I find something I can say, I say it. Even though I fully expect to hear, "Mom!" 

Poetry Friday: Sort of Like Going Fishing With Billy Collins

The poem is called "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July" and although it's August here (but it's August everywhere, isn't it?) it still feels like July, calendar divisions and page-turns being the arbitrary things that they are. Tis soupy and sultry, the days calling out for iced drinks and air conditioning and sprinklers and flopping on furniture while whining about the weather.

Seems the quintessential time to try to "manufacture the sensation of fishing on the Susquehanna" with beloved Billy Collins, while sitting in a cool, quiet room.

Fishing on the Susquehanna in July
by Billy Collins

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure--
of fishing on the Susquehanna.

I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one--


(Read the rest of the poem here, at Poets.org.)

~~~~~

The round up this week is at On the Way to Somewhere.

Poetry Friday: Jane Kenyon

This one is fitting for this time of year, for obvious reasons.

Philosophy in Warm Weather
by Jane Kenyon


Now all the doors and windows
are open, and we move so easily
through the rooms. Cats roll
on the sunny rugs, and a clumsy wasp
climbs the pane, pausing
to rub a leg over her head.

All around physical life reconvenes.
The molecules of our bodies must love
to exist: they whirl in circles
and seem to begrudge us nothing.

(Read the rest here, at The Writer's Almanac.)

You'll find a delicious Poetry Friday round up at Jama's Alphabet Soup, hosted by the ever-gracious and beautiful Jama Rattigan.

Summer Reading for Teens

Last week I promised I'd be back to talk about summer reading for teens.

I'm back.

I'm not going to break these down into categories for younger teens/older, maturity levels, etc., simply because 1.) I'm lazy and 2.) tastes, reading ability, judgment on what is age-appropriate, and so on, vary wildly. Also, while some of these are written for young teen readers and some were written for adults, many of these books appeal to the whole spectrum.

So, as always, please look into the subject matter, language, and so on for yourself -- faithful Catholics have varying attitudes on what is appropriate for their children and why, so I'll leave that part up to you.

Here are some of my daughters' favorites, in no particular order:

The Anne of Green Gables series (obviously) and all L.M. Montgomery
The Betsy-Tacy teen years
Regina Doman's Fairy Tale Novels
The Percy Jackson series, Rick Riordan
The Kane Chronicles (Riordan)
The Hunger Games series (more on them here and here)
The Harry Potter series (more on Potter here and here)
The Mysterious Benedict Society series
The Gallagher Girls series (about teenage spies)
Most of Madeleine L'Engle
Jane Austen, of course
Louisa May Alcott, of course
Sharon Creech
A La Carte and Mare's War, by Tanita Davis
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
Operation Yes and Letters from Rapunzel, by Sara Lewis Holmes
Laurie Halse Anderson: Fever 1793 and Chains and Forge
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The Giver and Gossamer, Lois Lowry
Jen Bryant's Kaleidoscope Eyes and The Trial
Flipped, Wendelin Van Draanen
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (may he rest in peace ... he just passed away yesterday)
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
Doomsday Book, Connie Willis


And, a few more for the 9-12 age group:

Everything Melissa Wiley has ever written (we actually love the Martha and Charlotte books even more than the original Little House books, and Ramona can't wait for The Prairie Thief)

Redwall series, Brian Jacques

Peg Kehret (especially her memoir on having polio)

You might also want to check out Treasure Chest for Tweens, a great blog that has reviewed a bunch of books and discusses them in the light of the Catholic faith.

Summer Reading

The other day I asked about summer reading lists, and said I'd be back soon with mine. Here's  bit of what I hope to read this summer (although when I'm writing a book, I don't always get a lot of pleasure reading done, and my actual To-Be-Read stack is ridiculously large.)


On my list:

Shirt of Flame by Heather King
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker
Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos
Quiet, The Power of Introverts In a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery

Atticus plans to read*:

Watergate, by Thomas Mallon
The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien by Oscar Hijuelos
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Book of J by Harold Bloom and David Rosenberg
Nothing Like the Sun (a reread by Anthony Burgess)
Henry Adams and the Making of America by Garry Wills
A Godly Hero, The Life of William Jennings Bryan, by Michael Kazin
The Memoirs of General Grant, by the guy buried in Grant's tomb
And whatever intriguing British police procedurals cross his path (along the lines of the Resnick novels by John Harvey)

This morning I'll be on Relevant Radio at 8 a.m. central time, talking books and summer reading. Some of my recommendations will come from our all-time favorite reads:

Picture Books:

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney
Only Opal by Barbara Cooney
Jim Arnosky's books
Josephine Nobisso's The Weight of a Mass, Take It To The Queen and Francis Woke Up Early
All things Magic School Bus
Most things Tomie de Paola
All things Mr. Putter and Tabby by Cynthia Rylant
How My Parents Learned to Eat by Ina R. Friedman and Allen Say
Tea With Milk by Allen Say
How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman

For Ramona's age (9-12)**:

Frindle by Andrew Clements
All things Andrew Clements
All things Encyclopedia Brown by Donald Sobol
All things Little House
All things Betsy-Tacy
All things Hilda van Stockum
All things E.B. White
All things Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

And, I'll be back later with favorites for teens!

*Atticus says: "Some of these contain material that some might find offensive, so beware."

** Varying levels of maturity -- be sure to check them out for yourself before handing them to your child, especially a very sensitive child.

Summer Boredom Setting In?

I honestly don't remember the last time I was bored. I have too much to do, and too much interest in doing it to get bored. I can always think of something to do. Or read. Or write.

But, my kids have sometimes been tempted to use that awful word, that bored word. When they do, I tell them that I'll start clearing the house right, this minute of all the clutter -- the books, the puzzles, the games, the toys, the crafts ... if it's all too dull, we may as well get rid of it, no? They generally scatter and find something at that point.

If that doesn't work, or if you're too nice to do that, then don't forget to have your kids check out these great lists from Sherry at Semicolon:

100 Things to Do When You're Bored

100 More Things to Do When You're Bored