Just what the doctor ordered

In January my doctor gave me a prescription:

By 7/01/10 at least three days alone with hubby.

No kids.

No interruptions.

Someplace secluded...like the coast.

Some thought that was strange, a sign of trouble and reason to worry. Not at all. My doctor is my mother's doctor. When I saw him in January, we had been through months of crises, and he is well-versed enough in the lives of fifty-year-old women to know the necessity of a break. The months after that appointment were filled with more roller coaster days. Life on the edge of death, parenting of beautiful children, making ends meet when they get further and further apart. The idea of margin was becoming nostalgia, right up there with LPs and phones attached to the wall.

But knowing we had reservations at a cottage in Bodega Bay for three nights was enough to keep us running the race with endurance. A focal point, like in labor, that reminded us that the cares and responsibilities are not all there is; rest was around the corner.

It was worth the wait. Perfectly timed. Last week Bodega Bay was socked in with fog, this week the sky is a canvas of sparkling blue and warm sunshine. Last week was scout camp and dear friends and home. This week is ocean views and meals for two and books started and finished.

Almost there




Home Sweet Home for three nights

Simple pleasures

Happy anniversary, love.

And we still have until tomorrow night. Oh, happy thought.

Welcome guests

With a small house and seven family members, our home is always full, but we've managed to add a few extras for the last two weeks. Sleeping arrangements have been "creative", and our guests have been patient and flexible with the options. It has been one big party. Big celebrations like a high school graduation and Fathers' Day, little celebrations like dutch babies and Movie Fest Day, have kept us hopping. We've eaten, we've imbibed, some have even puffed on fat cigars. There have been two flat tires, a (temporarily) lost vehicle and many a wrong turn in big cities and on small, dusty back roads. Favorite music has been shared, sleep has been lost, laughter has been uncontrollable.

Slowly but surely the numbers have shrunk; we lost two on Monday to Boy Scout camp and two more back to Idaho. One left in the wee hours today to head to the Resolved conference. Two more leave tomorrow for Idaho just before the scout campers return. Maybe we should get a real, true revolving door for the summer?

The rooms will be quieter, the focus more on responsibilities and routines, and we will surely get more rest now that the numbers are dwindling. But the buzz of excitement will be missed, along with the explosions of laughter, the sparkle of blue eyes, and the comfortable, companionable togetherness of shared life.

Come back soon, friends.

*The outdoor smoking lounge on Fathers' Day*

There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths
Where highways never ran,--
But let me live by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man.
~ Sam Walter Foss

*Dear friends gather for Zack's graduation*

It is not the quantity of the meat, but the cheerfulness of the guests, which makes the feast.
~ Lord Clarendon

*How many friends can you fit in a room?*

Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
~ Bible

*Father, son and tutor at graduation*

What is there more kindly than the feeling between host and guest?
~ Aeschylus



*A late Fathers' Day meal under the stars and the rising moon*


Blest be that spot, where cheerful guests retire
To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire;
Blest that abode, where want and pain repair,
And every stranger finds a ready chair
Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crown'd,
Where all the ruddy family around
Laugh at the jest or pranks, that never fail,
Or sigh with pity at some mournful tale,
Or press the bashful stranger to his food,
And learn the luxury of doing good.
~ Oliver Goldsmith

*Singing silliness*

For 't is always fair weather
When good fellows get together
With a stein on the table
and a good song ringing clear.
~ Richard Hovey

The Friday Clive

"The miracles in fact are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."

Thoughts for today

"Whatever troubles come, let us play the man; let us show that we are not such little children as to be cast down by what may happen in this poor fleeting state of time. Our country is Immanuel's land, our hope is above the sky, and therefore, calm as the summer's ocean; we will see the wreck of everything earthborn, and yet rejoice in the God of our salvation." Spurgeon

HT: Shannon Odell, a blog worth visiting often.

Meet me in San Francisco

San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities I have seen; I love it.




I grew up in its shadows, and I have memories on the Golden Gate, the wharf, China Town, Union Square ... really, everywhere in The City.

But there was never a more beautiful site in the city than the face of a never-met friend coming towards me at the Ferry Building last Thursday.

Miz Booshay and her girls were fabulous company, and I am incredibly grateful we could finally meet after ten years of online friendship. Thanks for a beautiful day, ladies. I am happy to have more memories on the streets of San Francisco.

FYI: Great place for a meal in Chinatown: House of Nanking

New food blog

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.


I wanted to let you know I will be moving any food conversation over to my recipe blog, recently changed to: Notre Pain Quotidian. Notre Pain Quotidian is French for Our Daily Bread, a beautiful reminder of the sacredness of our everyday lives and Who provides.

The road home

The weather for my drive was perfect.

Shasta Lake was beautifully full.




Mt. Shasta was distractingly snowy and glorious.





Gutenberg College graduation made me want to either

a) return to school myself OR
b) spread the good word that Gutenberg is a unique and worthwhile college to consider.

These tutors really care about the souls of their students, and I have been impressed with how that has worked in the life of our Gutenberg girl. Everyone makes a big point of saying that Gutenberg isn't for everyone; well, of course it isn't. No school is for everyone. And I do think more people could benefit from the work and the community that is Gutenberg. Click that link up there. Consider it if you or your loved one is planning on college someday.





We packed life back into the van, sad goodbyes were said, and off we went.

Oregon said goodbye.

California said hello.

A few hours later we were home with the ducks and the weeds and the chores to be done before company comes on Monday and all those sweet faces that jumped out the door to welcome home our long-gone girl.

It's good to be home!

On my way....

to pick up my favorite college girl. It is a long drive, and I start the trip knowing it will feel like forever. But at the end of the drive will be a girl, finished with her three-hour Western Civ. final, finished with her first year of college. When we waved goodbye in September, the year was a total unknown, but now it is seen in all its glory and groaning. Now there are people in Oregon who will be missed from home. The world has changed for our daughter, just the way we hoped it would.

I better get on the road so I can see it for myself, and then bring her back home.

The Friday Clive

Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality. There are mass emotions which heal the wound; but they destroy the privilege. In them our separate selves are pooled and we sink back into sub-individuality. But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.

The hollyhock corner

Ruffled beauty has exploded in the lower garden.





Thanks for planting them, dear!

Grace

Much of life is hard work.

To have the satisfaction of a job well done

it is no surprise that we have to actually

do the job well.





But sometimes we collide with grace.

Beauty not planted with our own hands,

not watered or nurtured.

It just grows and blesses and sparkles in the afternoon sun.

Sometimes we are given gifts,

things not of our making.

I am grateful.

The Friday Clive

"Actually it seems to me that one can hardly say anything either bad enough or good enough about life."

Currently listening

The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen by Jacques Pepin

I'm listening in five-minute snippets right now, but I plan to take let Pepin entertain me all the way to Oregon next Friday. Being transported to another place and time, another life, will help the hours fly by as I go to get my girl.

Read by Michel Chevalier who has a marvelous voice.

Highly recommended

I made this meal last night. Tequila-Lime Chicken, refried beans, rice, pico de gallo, tortillas. All made from scratch. (All recipes found on Pioneer Woman Cooks.)

It was a Major Success.

And FYI: we're on a major budget crunch this summer, but chicken on sale made this a VERY inexpensive meal. And we were eating like kings and queens.

For those of us who cannot handle the lard lifestyle without looking like we're, um, living the lard lifestyle, add some salad fixings, make them pinto beans instead of refrieds, limit the tortilla consumption, and you have a fine substitute. Teenage boys will pick up the slack, though, and make sure there is barely enough leftover for a man's lunch the next day. Ask me how I know.

I would have taken pictures, but....it all disappeared too quickly. And I was too busy enjoying myself.

Loved it

In San Diego with a friend....

and again tonight with my husband.

Eleven more days

We can hang on for another eleven days. We've done it for the whole school year, right?

But what is it about the last few days that make them sooooo s-l-o-w?

Eleven.More.Days.

Ten hours of driving by myself.

And then we're together again!

We will have a ten-hour drive to ourselves, and a summer of family time to share.

Eleven.More.Days.