Whiners, Occupiers, and Wal-mart Shoppers

I've got to stop complaining. I have kept thinking about what I wrote a couple of posts back about not liking my job. I sound like a whiner, and I'm too old for that. I don't always like my job, but who doesn't? The more I hear about the state of the country, the more I am thankful that my husband and I still do have jobs.

At any rate, since my dad is the only one presently reading this blog (and I'm totally okay with that), I think I owe him an apology for having to read my grumbling and complaining. So, I'm sorry, Dad. I will try to be more positive and uplifting.

Oh, who am I kidding? I probably won't be positive because I seem to only blog when something is bothering me, but I can try not to grumble about my trivial personal issues.

So, I guess I'll just grumble about current events though I can't say I stay too current on what's happening in the world. My own world occupies my immediate attention most of the time, but when I do have time to catch up on what's going on, I find myself discouraged and want to stick my head even further in the sand.

Take this Occupy Wall Street thing. It has me perplexed. I mean, I certainly don't claim to be any kind of economic expert. Far from it, but I'm not sure why they are occupying. Frankly, it sounds like a lot of grown ups acting like spoiled kids who aren't getting their fair share of the candy. But we all know life isn't fair. Now, some of those people may actually have legitimate concerns. However, from what I gather, most of them are upset that big corporations, banks, what-have-you are controlling this country. So, the Occupiers want big government instead? Is that what they are saying? How is that going to be any better. Are there greedy big corporations out there? Well, sure, but isn't it the big businesses that create jobs for the middle and even lower classes? How many people would be out of jobs if McDonald's closed up shop? I really wish I could get an objective opinion from both sides of the issue, but I don't think that's gonna happen.

I recently bought Halloween costumes for my kids to go trick-or-treating this year. (This really isn't a totally random topic change. I promise.) Originally, I was going to be all Martha Stewart and make my kids their costumes. I found patterns for $.99 at Jo Ann's, but when I went to buy the material and notions, I realized I was going to be spending a whole heck of a lot more than I wanteed to; plus, I was going to have to make it, too. Not only was it going to be expensive but also time consuming. This was just for one kid. My other kid hadn't yet decided what she wanted to be yet. To make a long story short, I happened to be in Wal-Mart with the kid who had set her heart on being Cleopatra. Sure, I told her, we'll look at the costumes, but we are not buying one. I ate those words in a hurry when we found the perfect Cleopatra costume with all the adornments, and it was on sale! Later I took my other kid back who found a ladybug costume that she liked. (She's 13. It's her last year of trick-or-treating, and she wants to be a ladybug. I didn't see that coming at all.) Plus, it was on sale, too. Woohoo! All said and done, I got two costumes that I do not have to make for a lot less than it would have cost me to buy all of the stuff to make one. Granted I could have spent no money and let my kids figure something out for themselves as a friend of mine is doing, but that's not me. Anyway, I came away from the whole experience in praise of cheap Chinese manufacturing--I, who used to be so critical of Wal-Mart. (Okay, I still am on some points but I'll save that for another post.) Oh, I didn't mention that I had already bought material from Jo Ann's to make the cleopatra costume when I came across the one at Wal-Mart? Well, since Jo Ann's is one of those big box chain craft stores, I was able to return it (unused, of course) for a full refund. Not too many mom and pop stores can offer that kind of service, unfortunately.

My point being that I think many of these people opposed to big business, opposed to capitalism, etc. would not be really happy with the results should their ideology be put into practice. We enjoy a lot of customer service benefits at these big box stores. Now, not being of any kind of business or economic intelligence, I may be completely off base as to what these occupiers of Wall Street really mean. Based on what I have read and heard and my own experience, I can't say as I'm very sympathetic to them right now. I would invite someone to try to convince me otherwise. I am always open to enlightenment.

Writer's Block--I Has It; Lots of Time--I Has it Not

Dad, you asked me if I'd given up blogging because I hadn't posted in a while. Well, not exactly, but here are my thoughts lately on that subject:

Not being able to sit down daily and dash off witty, thought-provoking blog posts without a lot of effort is a great source of frustration for me. To be honest, I read very few mommy blogs who post daily that accomplish that feat so I console myself with the fact that it must be a rare mommy blogger who can actually accomplish daily posting with style. I say mommy blogger specifically because I'm not concerned with comparing myself to those who professionally blog or make their living blogging or writing daily in some other venue.

I've come to the conclusion that I couldn't be a professional writer, at least not at this point in my life, because writing, for me, takes an enormous amount of effort and brain power. That last statement makes me sound like a dunce which I don't think I am, but neither am I a genius. The problem is that everybody and their brother/sister/mother seems to think they can write and have something worthwhile to relate. I fear falling into that category--coming across as if what I'm writing is so interesting that it needs to be published on a blog, but in reality it is only mediocre at best. I fear mediocrity; therefore, I don't often post because when I actually sit down to post something, the spark of genius that my thought seemed to be in my head, somehow dies when I try to capture it in words. That's one reason very few people know about this blog of mine. Plus, blogging takes time. To post even mediocrity on a daily basis takes time. I'm only taking time now because I'm too sick to do anything but sit here and think about all the posts I haven't had the time to write, but probably wouldn't even if I did have time because apparently I'm paralyzed by my fear of mediocrity. Sounds like I have some issues with perfectionist tendencies and/or pride.

I suppose if I were more disciplined I could get up earlier and have the quiet, morning hours before my family awoke to ponder my deep thoughts and write blog posts. Of course, I don't think all posts should be deep, but I'm just not very good at being funny although I'm pretty good at being shallow. In a former blog of mine I tried to post daily. I will say that doing so seemed to keep my writing sharper, at least in my own estimation of it, but it kept me up very late and other aspects of my life suffered. When something like blogging, or any hobby for that matter, interfers with keeping up with my housework or interacting with my family then it takes too much time. Yet, I feel taking time to express oneself creatively whether via blogging, scrapbooking, photography, journaling, etc., etc., is an important part of feeding one's creativity--you know, hyacinths for the soul and all that. And, therein lies the sticking point. Any creative endeavor worth doing is worth doing well. We are created in the image of a creative God. Yet, to do something well takes time, sometimes a lot of time. Balance is the key, of course. Balance is something I'm not good at achieving. But I also think balancing one's priorities also means knowing what is most important right now. Right now, writing daily on my blog isn't a high priority. Ideas for blog posts seem to be crowded out by ideas for homeschooling or ideas for our next read-aloud. I'm not going to look back in twenty years and wish I'd blogged more. I will regret any time taken away from my priorities right now--my family. Balance for me means putting aside some of my creative projects so that I can focus on my ultimate creative projects--my kids. Yet, that doesn't have to mean neglecting the feeding of one's soul. I still read. In fact, I probably read more now than I have in a long time. I crochet which I enjoy a lot except when I'm inundated by request to make tons of little crocheted octopi as I have been lately.

Maybe one of these days I'll achieve enough balance to be able to blog daily, read daily, read aloud daily to my kids, perfect my cooking skills, write poetry, read poetry, homeschool, exercise, keep up with the housework, and everything else I would like to accomplish in my lifetime.

Music to my Ears

Last night it rained. Earlier today Little Munchkin and Doodlebug were standing at the front door looking outside at the dreary, overcast, foggish day. Doodlebug asked why the sky looked like it did. I said it was because it was overcast and might rain again. Little Munchkin looked at her sister and said, "Remember? Remember when the sky cried last night?"

Oh, my heart! What a lovely, poignant word picture my baby painted with such a few words. Maybe I'll grow a poet yet!

This Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2008--here is what it looked like at our house: Most of the day the girls and I spent puttering about the house while my husband and brother-in-law braved the congested roads and crowded stores, at least I assume they were congested and crowded. I wasn't with them. My brother-in-law had flown in to town on Tuesday and had not had a chance to get his nieces a Christmas present yet, and today being the last opportunity, he and my husband headed out early to find something.

I spent the morning finishing up some last minute gift wrapping while Little Munchkin and Doodlebug waited eagerly outside the bedroom door, ready to take each gift downstairs and place it under the tree. Did you know that gifts have to be given a vigorous shaking before they can be placed under the Christmas tree? Little Munchkin and Doodlebug undoubtedly knew this and strictly observed this rule. What good little elves they are.

The girls watched a movie, wrapped and decorated presents for each other, took over the wrapping of their cousins gifts, abandoned the wrapping of their cousins gifts, and were playing in the bathtub when their dad and uncle returned from their foray into town. When the girls finished their bath, I got them started on a painting project to keep them busy while I wrapped the newly purchased gifts and finished up a couple of handmade gift projects I had been working on. Afterwards the girls watched the Barbie Nutcracker and ate Turkish Delight. Later, the girls and I cut out paper snowflakes which is the only way we will be able to enjoy a white Christmas here in the deep South. When I took the dog out around 9:30p.m. tonight, I noticed that it was quite muggy and not at all cold or even cool, yet it was in the 20's the other night (that's pretty cold for us). It just seems like it should at least be cold and blustery for Christmas if it can't be snowy. But then again, if I lived in Australia, it would be summer time now.

After taking pictures of the girls putting out cookies and milk for Santa (they love to pretend though they know he's not real), and posing in front of the tree, we settled into a comfortable snuggle on the sofa and read Christmas stories until bedtime. Of course I made sure to include a reading of the real Christmas story which I happen to have in a lovely picture book format accompanied by gorgeous artwork. The words are taken directly from the Bible which I like, and the beautiful illustrations really bring the story to life. Little Munchkin commented that she liked the pictures. Doodlebug, my budding artist, concurred. At one point I stopped reading and asked the girls why they thought Herod was "troubled" at the thought of Jesus' birth. Doodlebug gave a couple of vague answers then quickly gave up in frustration. She wasn't feeling well and didn't want to think about answers to questions. She just wanted to here the story. Then, Little Munchkin suddendly piped up, "Because he didn't want Jesus to be king!" Awesome! My baby was tuned in to the details of the story! Sure she's heard it before, but no one had explained this particular aspect of the story to her to my knowledge. Based on her own understanding, she put two and two together and figured it out. I love it when my kids do that.

All in all, it was quite a cozy Christmas Eve day as far as I was concerned which is one of the reasons I wanted to post about it--to help me remember that it doesn't take much to make a memory. A very satisfying day indeed.

Ordinary Childhood

As I get up from the dinner table, I impulsively plant a kiss on my younger dauther's forehead, something I do frequently. As she happily munches on her dessert, a cinnamon streusel muffin, while I'm gathering the plates and utensils, I am struck by a plethora of thoughts. Funny something so ordinary and uninteresting should prompt such thoughts. Perhaps it is the very ordinariness of the moment that impressed me. Here sits my younger child, happy and content with enough food to eat, a warm comfortable house to live in, her own room, more toys than she needs, two parents who love her unconditionally, and lots of friends and family who also love her. Her life is ordinary, uneventful, happy. Not every child is so blessed, sadly. I try to tell my children this so that they will be appreciative of what they have, yet words are woefully inadequate. I continue clearing the table as Little Munchkin finishes her muffin then skips off to get ready for bed. Happy. She is happy. My children are happy. They are loved and cared for. They are warm and well-fed. And, I am grateful, so very grateful that I can provide a secure environment for them. I tell them frequently that I am so glad God gave them to me. I want them to always be sure of my love, to feel secure. I pray that one day they may realize how absolutely blessed they are now.

Nuts!

This weekend we didn't go anywhere. No errands to do, nothing. On Saturday we spent a good chunk of the afternoon outdoors clearing a whole lot of junk out of our backyard. In actuality we just rearranged the junk, but it's much neater now. We did burn a lot of old, rotten wood that was piled up around my husband's workshop, stuff left from the previous home owner. We also finally moved the old shower stall and two toilets that were out there, also left from the previous owner. I'm so glad. The glaring white of the cast-off bathroom fixtures contrasted disturbingly with the woodland setting. So did the old tires. We moved those, too. It was a veritable junk yard back there. It was driving my husband crazy, but we had to wait until it got cold to do anything about it because here in Georgia a big pile of old wood, tires and toppled-over toilets are havens for snakes, spiders and scorpions. Not to mentions ticks that fall out of trees onto unsuspecting people. But all of those poisonous, blood-sucking, stinging things should be hibernating for the most part now so we were finally able to tackle the task of whittling down the junk pile that is our back yard.

It was while traipsing around rolling tires behind the shed and helping my husband move toilets that I made a thrilling discovery--a treasure trove of acorns! I didn't raid some squirrel's winter stash, but I did find scattered on the ground around the pile of old tires, lots and lots of big, fat, brown acorns, some with their little caps and others smoothly bald. I picked some of the best ones I could find and loaded both of my pockets. Why? For my woodland crafts projects, of course! Another idea I had was dusting them off and putting them in a little bowl on my coffee table so I could periodically scoop up a handful and admire their lovely, brown woodsyness. I also like the dry, clattering sound they make as I dump them back into the bowl. I enjoy pecans in much the same way.

I also discovered a lovely, pink mushroom which we tossed in the fire to see what would happen. I did tell my kids to move away from the fire and not inhale the smoke. I didn't want them to get high off of mushroom smoke or worse, poisoned.

Maybe next I'll find some beautiful pinecones. And twigs--nice, dry, snappy twigs.

Two Weeks

It's been almost two months since I visited my blog. Things are looking a little dusty around here even though the newness hasn't really worn off this here little baby blog of mine.

Christmas is in exactly two weeks. I am once again inwardly scolding myself for my lack of preparation for the season. I don't feel I do nearly enough to keep myself and especially my kids focused on the real reason for celebrating Christmas. Oh, of course they know Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, but it's so hard to escape the materialism that bombards us from every angle this time of year. Each year after the holidays, I vow to do better the following year, to celebrate the season in all of its true meaning, to give my kids a thorough grounding in what it really means to celebrate the birth of Jesus, this awesome, miraculous event in which God became man, a perfect sinless man, in order to take upon Him our sins, to go to hell for us, to suffer immeasurably so that we do not have to. How does one impart that knowledge to her children adequately?

I know of families that don't celebrate Christmas with gifts at all. I also know of those who don't do Santa Claus but still give gifts to their kids. (I fall into this group though my reason for not doing Santa is primarily because I don't like the idea of convincing my children something is true when it isn't. In other words, I don't like to lie to my kids. I realize plenty of people, Christian people, do the Santa thing. I'm not passing judgment just explaining my reason for not doing it with my kids.) I know of other families who make a big birthday celebration for baby Jesus out of Christmas complete with birthday cake and party decorations. Yet, I'm not sure any of these approaches are adequate.

I can't just not celebrate Christmas though. I like what Beck said about celebrating in little ways over the course of advent so that all of the anticipation is not focused on just one day and then dispelled with a tremendous feeling of letdown when that day is over. At any rate I'm currently in the process of doing some more research on the history behind some of our Christmas traditions. It's rather surprising how many pagan traditions are mixed in with the Christian ones. I found a book on the subject at the library--a book by Clement A. Miles that I think was the authoritative work on the history of Christmas around the turn of the century, the last century, that is.

In my somewhat feeble attempt to find fun things for my kids to do leading up to Christmas, I came across some fun-looking Christmas craft ideas online that use woodsy, outdoorsy stuff such as twigs and pinecones and such. Seeing as how we have boocoodles of pinecones and twigs I thought this would be perfect. I had visions of tramping through the woods with my two kids in tow, bundled against the semi-cold, collecting stuff for our project. After which, we would burst into the warm kitchen, rosy-cheeked and laughing, ready for some hot chocolate and anticipating a cozy evening by the fire crafting quaint little pinecone angels. Well, the past few days of constant, drizzly rain have pretty much shot that vision of homeyness right down. I'll have to come up with an alternate plan. In the meantime I think we'll have the hot chocolate anyway.

A Birthday Post

It's been two weeks since I've blogged. I guess that's what joining Facebook will do one's initiative to write. At first I thought the whole Facebook thing was a time waster; however, I've found a few people that I've not had contact with for a while such as college friends and people we knew from when we lived in Savannah.

So yesterday was Doodlebug's birthday. My baby is ten years old! And I'm feeling it. I feel old.

I wanted to give Doodlebug something special for her tenth birthday like a special necklace or charm bracelet, but I never found time to go by myself to get something like that. We did have a big cookout this past Saturday with church friends and Doodle invited a few of her special friends, too. She had fun and received many nice things including three gift cards which she loved.

I had planned to wait until after her birthday party to shop for her so I wouldn't duplicate anything. But she really wanted to open gifts from us at her party so everyone could see what all she got from us. I figured I'd get her a few little things for her party then give her something more special for her actual birthday. But it just didn't work out that way. We probably spent more on the cookout than we did for her birthday at Monkey Joe's last year. The present we gave her she loved. One of the things I gave her was a pink file box full of office supplies. It seems a strange gift perhaps, but I knew she'd love it. I spent a bit more than I thought I would putting it together, but Little Munchkin and I had fun doing it. Since Doodlebug has been pretending to run a jewelry shop from her bedroom, I thought a few official looking supplies would add to her fun.

And, of course, the Poppa came over for Doodlebug's actual birthday, yesterday and took her out to a Japanese steakhouse. Her choice. He also gave her money which she promptly spent. Despite my feeling of letdown at not commemorating her birthday with a special present, Doodlebug seemed quite content with the events surrounding her tenth birthday. That's what really matters, I suppose.

Why is it when I want to write about something it comes out sounding bland. Like this post. Ho hum. My baby is ten, dang it! Why couldn't I make a post about it more interesting?!

A neighbor was telling me recently that she is going back to college to finish her degree in communications. She said she's really good at it, and she's glad that after thirty-eight years she's finally found something she's really good at. Now why can't I be that confident. I haven't actually seen anything this neighbor has written so I'm not sure if she is as good as she says she is or not.

I had more to say, but it'll have to wait.

Let Nature be Your Teacher

Another lovely, breezy, ordinary day. I intended to get up early to go pick blueberries yet again, but that so didn't happen. Staying up until 1:30 in the morning will do that to my early rising plans.

But, my handy hubby was up and at 'em early as usual. Today he built me a very nice and sturdy clothesline. (I should post a picture, but first I really should learn to upload pictures to the computer. One day, one day.)

Since he needed to wait for the cement to set around the clothesline posts, my husband volunteered to go with me and the girls to pick blueberries. So we loaded up and headed out to our friends' u-pick blueberry farm and picked about a gallon of blueberries. I've put up in the freezer the blueberries from our previous berry picking expeditions, but I needed some fresh ones for a recipe I wanted to try. It's a gelatin mold with fruit in it. I've never made one before, but I want to try this recipe because it doesn't look too difficult. It calls for strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. We'll have to do without raspberries because they cost a stinkin' fortune at the grocery store, and we don't know anyone with a u-pick raspberry farm.

After picking blueberries, we made a stop at a cabin some friends of ours are remodeling. It's located in the woods overlooking a creek filled with lots of flat rocks and trickling water falls. It's a lovely, peaceful place and the girls went prepared to get wet. The cool water felt refreshing on our hot, dirty feet. Doodlebug and Little Munchkin loved it there. They were not ready to leave. I understood. There was something calming and centering about sitting there on the rocks, my feet in the water, watching my girls enjoying nature. I wasn't ready to leave either.

Knowing we would stop by, I brought my camera, but left it in the car. Though I could have easily retrieved it, I decided that this was one of those times that I wanted to be in the moment so I left the camera where it was. Instead, I took a mental snapshot of my two children as they climbed rocks, waded in the cool, muddy water, discovered raccoon tracks and sat by a little pool of tadpoles watching them swim about. I watched and listened and tried to answer their questions: "Are there bears around here?" "Do tadpoles turn into fish, too?" "Can a snake swim on the bottom of the water?" "Is there anything in the water that might hurt us?" "Will the little fish nibble my toes? Will it hurt?"

It makes me sad to think that there are many children who don't get the opportunity to really enjoy nature like we did today. We do not have rocky creek beds in our back yard to explore every day, but we are privileged to live in a lovely, woodsy, natural setting. Nature is all around us, and I encourage my kids to get out in it as much as possible. After reading Last Child in the Woods and For the Children's Sake, I am more convinced than before that it is critical for children to have opportunities to be outdoors. I believe it's possible, too, even for those who live in the middle of town though it may take a bit more effort to make it possible. I know because we used to live in an apartment in the city. For me, just being outside on a beautiful day is invigorating even if the terrain is characterized mostly by cement sidewalks and asphalt roads; but being outside on a beautiful day is positively exhilarating if I'm smack dab in the middle of nature, too.

Today was one of those days.

An Ordinarily Extraordinary Day

Right now, atthisverymoment, I'm rather stiff and feel as if I've been on my feet all day which makes sense because I HAVE been on my feet all day. But, on the inside I feel alive and invigorated and not at all ready to go to sleep even though it is almost midnight.

Perhaps that is because I'm still riding the wave of satisfaction I feel at being rather domesticated and homey today. And, I don't mean simply cooking and cleaning because I DO do that daily. What I am referring to is more of an attitude of domesticity, of delighting in nurturing and caring for my family rather than simply seeing daily tasks as necessary evils.

Here's a run-down of my day:

First, I went out back to the jungle we call a garden and picked some ripe tomatoes and zucchini. I put the not-quite-ripe tomatoes in the kitchen window and the others I placed carefully and neatly in little rows on the counter top to await the boiling hot cauldron into which I planned to plunge them. More on that later.

Next, I'll confess I had myself a little computer time. There are four of us and one computer and no TV so the computer is used quite a bit and when I find it unoccupied I take advantage of it.

After catching up on blog reading, I piddled about doing laundry and sundry household tasks. Then I cooked lunch. After which, I got busy putting up some of our garden produce. I knew we would not eat up all of the zucchini we had so I shredded it and put it in Ziploc bags and froze to use in zucchini cake which I've never made, but I have a recipe for it and it looks to be sort of like carrot cake which I have made and quite enjoy.

Speaking of carrots, the girls picked some yesterday (oh how they do love to pull up carrots), and we made a carrot cake to take to church out of some of them, but there were plenty left. So I shredded those suckers and froze them, too.

Later, while the kids and their daddy went swimming, I mulled over what to do for dinner. Shockingly, inspiration hit quickly, and I got to work. We had green beans from our garden, baked beans, and a barbecue chicken recipe I found in my latest Simple and Delicious magazine. I think it was called Monterey barbecue chicken or something such as that.

The chicken was topped with barbecue sauce (of course), chopped green onions, tomatoes, a slice of bacon and some shredded cheddar cheese. And, I was thrilled to put this dish together using green onions and tomatoes from MY garden. Plus, we had the green beans from the garden, too. It IS exciting to grow one's own food especially when one has never done it before. Who knows, the novelty may be gone next year, but I don't think so.

Our delicious dinner was accompanied by yummy cheese biscuits which I made from scratch from a recipe in what must be Paula Dean's first cookbook ever.

And, and, I also made a blueberry crisp for dessert! With blueberries we picked ourselves! For free! Blueberries are quite expensive at the grocery store so when friends offered to let us pick blueberries from their bushes, I snatched up the nearest buckets I could find and set off to get enough to last a while because, guess what? I freeze them. And, do you know that frozen blueberries make tasty cool treats to eat by the handful right out of the freezer? They do. Yum!

After dinner, I set my cauldron, I mean kettle, on the stove to boil water for my tomatoes. After the water begins boiling rapidly, I will drop the tomatoes in for no more than a minute. After which, I will scoop them out and immediately plunge them into a bowl of ice cold water. Doing this causes the tomato skins to virtually slide off.

Doodlebug came along about this time and wanted to help so I told her what to do and let her go to it. She peeled the tomatoes, cut them up, squished the seeds out and put them into Ziploc bags. Then, she made tomato juice out of the leftover bits by squeezing it and running it through a sieve. There wasn't a lot of juice, but after Doodlebug got through with those tomatoes there wasn't anything left, but a little squished glob of tomato skins and seeds, and that went into the compost so nothing was wasted.

Really, my day was quite ordinary, but to me that was the beauty of it. It has taken my husband and me almost sixteen years to get where we are, but we are trying to live more deliberately. To find joy and satisfaction in growing some of our own food and freezing it. We are trying to stay closer to home and live a less hurried life and teach our children to do the same. Everyone is so hurried these days which is not necessarily the same as being busy. We were busy today, but not hurried.

Sure, I've had days like this in the past, but they were always scattered sparsely amid the hurried days, but now these unhurried, satisfyingly busy days are becoming more frequent. Oh, I know I'll have other hurried days in the future. They can't be entirely avoided, but my goal is to make them the exception rather than the rule.

In Praise of a Perfectly Lovely Day

Oh, the loveliness of today! Here in West Georgia we have had unseasonably cool weather the past couple of days, and it has been glorious. I love coolish weather. Autumn is my favorite season because of the crisp, breezy coolness it brings round about October/November. Yes, here in the South, fall comes a bit later. It's usually still rather warm in September.

But today! Today did not feel like July 1. I told my husband that I imagined this is what summer is like for those who live in the far North. "Um, sure," he said, disinterestedly while busily sketching plans for our new deck. I'm sure it gets hot up North, too, though minus all of the humidity we have here. How I loathe humidity.

First thing this morning, I took full advantage of the lovely weather and went for a walk, then picked some vegetables from the garden, weeded the flower bed and cut some flowers for an arrangement. After I came inside, I opened all of the windows so we could get a little cross ventilation going, arranged the flowers in a couple of little vases, and prepared the tomatoes for the freezer all while enjoying the gentle coolness of the breeze blowing through the kitchen window.

Doodlebug and Little Munchkin played with some air-drying clay, happily molding it into such things as flowers in little pots, animals, and other indistinguishable objets d'art.

Later, I stood outside in our wonderfully thick, lush grass while my husband muttered and puttered about measuring for the deck he plans to build which will greatly aid our al fresco dining capabilities. I would occasionally hold the measuring tape for him, but mostly I stood there soaking in the day.

Eventually, I found myself flat on my back in the freshly cut grass which smelled faintly and deliciously like watermelon. I hadn't fallen or anything. I purposefully lay down in the grass. I've dreamed for a long time of having thick, luxuriant grass in my yard and now I have it. Today was the perfect day for exulting in it which for me meant rolling around in it. So, I lay there while my husband measured and muttered, and I inhaled deeply the beauty of the day.

At one point while lying on my stomach, I imagined that if I stretched out my arms, I would kind of be giving the earth a big hug. That's just what an exceptionally lovely day will do to me--turn me into an earth-hugging nature nut. Now as I sit here typing while my girls drift off to sleep, I can hear the night song of the crickets, katydids, and frogs through the open window.

And I wonder how anyone can possibly believe the beautiful complexity and diversity of the world around us just evolved.

"The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands." Psalm 19:1