Coming and Going

There has been a lot of coming and going in this household lately. More than I would like. And more than is good.

But with Oldest Daughter taking some dual credit classes with a local university, volleyball season in full swing, school starting up for all 5, and all the other responsibilities that you know as well as I . . . well, there's just a lot of coming and going.

And sometimes that coming and going can begin to make me feel stressed and a little lost in my own world and anxious.

This past Sunday Youngest Daughter brought home yet another coloring page from Sunday School. I accepted it from her with mild pleasure and slight irritation. After 5 children and 17 years of school art, camp art, church art, home art, and more, I am guilty of feeling, "Now what am I going to do with this?" Don't stone me. It's true.

We've worked out a system where the current art goes up on a cupboard door for a week and then the "art fairies" come and whisk it away to their fairyland where they can enjoy it forever. Okay, that's what I tell myself. I've never explained this to Youngest Daughter and she hasn't asked!

I have to confess, I never glanced at the artwork that came home last Sunday and went dutifully up on the cupboard door.

But this week as I was coming and going, as I was looking at a "To Do" list that was much longer than humanly possible for a single day, as I felt the pressure start to creep up the back of my neck, and as I began to feel alone in the swirl, my eye caught the piece of childish artwork and, even better, a blessed reminder.



Ah, "The Lord keeps watch over me as I come and go." He is with me. He is my helper. The day stopped swirling, the stress crept back down my neck. I am not alone.

I called Youngest Daughter over. "Honey, this is beautiful! Can you tell me what the picture is?"



"Well, this is me and I'm sitting on the green grass and I'm blowing bubbles and the sun is shining. Oh, and these are God's eyes. He's watching over me."

Oh, lovely, delightful Father!! With me in the car! With me as I'm making up another daily "To Do" list! With me as I'm deciding at 6:05 p.m. what to make for dinner with frozen chicken, 3 red potatoes, and an eggplant that should have been used yesterday.

For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.

Dreaming

Today I'm dreaming.


Do you see this big comfortable leather chair with comfy pillow and blanket to pull around one's toes? I'm dreaming that I am totally by myself sitting right there. I'm dreaming that there's no dog hair caught in the pillow or floating around my head as I plunk down.




Do you see any cushions askew, any blocks sticking out from under the couch, a slingshot, dirty tennis ball, or stack of magic cards that need to be carried up to a bedroom? No, me neither. Because all is tidy and calm. Because I'm dreaming.




By my side is a big basket full of soft yarns. Do you hear any voices? No, I don't either. I'm all by myself and there's no one yelling, "Mom, what's wrong with my white shorts if I put them into the dirty basket wet and now they have black, fuzzy spots all over them?" There's no one interrupting me as I slip, purl, yarn over, and knit two together . . . calmly . . . over and over.




On the table beside me is a freshly made salad that I'm going to eat with no one picking out all the black olives.




And I've got a stack of books right beside my salad. Books I've tried to get to all summer. Books that have been inviting me to have a good, long visit for quite a while.


All is neat, all is quiet. I am alone. It is bliss.

-*-*-*-

And now that I have set up this scenario of blissful perfection, let me tell you what would happen approximately 30 minutes after I had achieved my "Nirvana."

I would become bored . . . and lonely . . . and irritable. And I would wish for the chaos and noise and mess that transform these walls from house to home.

Dreams are good . . . but only for dreaming. When it comes to living . . . give me reality!

Goodness . . . I love this life!

Geranium Love

I love geraniums!!


I didn't know I loved geraniums until this past week when I babysat three precious specimens for My Mom.



They sat in huge pots on my front porch, drank in blistering sun without complaining, and erupted in cheerful explosions of color, adding charm to the front of my house. Even their leaves are flirty.



What have I been thinking? Why hasn't this fun, hardy plant been part of my "landscape"? (I use the term "landscape" very loosely.)





I guess it took babysitting them and getting to know them to make me realize how much I need them!



I've heard that can happen with babies and puppies. Apparently, it's also the case with geraniums.

Two Worlds Collide

Here's a funny moment my blogging buddies will appreciate.

Several weeks ago I did my "100th Post Giveaway." When I had a winner, I packaged up the goodies and took everything to the UPS Store to have it boxed up and shipped.

I was waited on by a young-working-his-way-through-college clerk. I gave him the individual packages to box up and a little note to lay on the top that had the sentence in it: Thanks for being a sweet reader.

I saw him read the little note. And then his eyes widened, and he stood a little taller and asked with admiration, "Are you an author?"

I paused a moment. A nice long moment. A nice long moment in which I savored the words "you" and "author" being used within the same sentence. I smiled indulgently.

And then I shook myself and said, "Oh, no, no. I just have a little blog and I did a little giveaway."

"Wow, must be a pretty big blog to be able to do a giveaway!!!"

Well, uh, no, you dear young thing. Giveaways pretty much pop up like wildflowers in an open field here in Blogland.

"What do you blog about?"

Oh, my. I dove right in. "Well, just, uh stuff like, uh, being a mom and home and, uh, stuff like that," my excellent verbal skills proving my true claim to the title of "author."

Ahem. What was he to do with this information?

"Well, uh, I guess at least there wouldn't be many people who would blog on that topic." ::nervous giggle:: "So, at least, uh, you'd have a corner on that market."

Oh, my, you dear naive boy. You dear-naive-working-your-way-through-college-at-the-UPS-store-totally-outside-my-realm-my-world-my-sphere-boy.

Yes, there are 3 of us that blog about home and life.

Million.

3 million* that is. At least that's what it was when I went to bed last night. By this morning it was 3.4 million of us domestic/creative/bloggy type people out there.

The UPS clerk quickly boxed up the goods and avoided any more converations that would involve blogs, writing or domesticity . . . clearly three subjects far outside his comfort zone.

Then he returned to reading Hot Rod Magazine and drinking his Jolt Power Cola.

And I drove home to blog about painting my deck with my boys and making tabbouleh and knitting eco-friendly cotton market bags.

*Note: I have NO idea how many crafty/domestic/creative bloggers there are. Don't look to me for a source of statistics!! I just randomly pulled this fact out of the air : )

Sunshine After Rain

Yesterday was a thick, muggy, blanket of a day. The kind of a day that only a person who has experienced a Southern summer can appreciate. And I find myself beginning to mutter words under my breath like, "sick of summer," and, "can't breathe in this heat," and, "if fall ever gets here."

So, we weren't surprised when the weather radio began to sound its alarm around nightfall, warning of severe thunderstorms and flash floods, swelling rivers and high winds.

It descended on us once all The Kiddos were calmly tucked in to bed and the dogs had buried their sleepy noses under their paws.

And descend it did. It rocked, it crashed, it exploded, it flashed, it drenched, it buffeted.

And this morning it is gone. And in its place is clear, fresh air and blue, blue skies with white, flossy clouds scudding across.

Drips falling from cherry tomatoes.




Water delightfully beading up on the deck The Sons and I just stained.

A magical mushroom pushing its way up.

And a million little crystal sparkles caught in the tangle of green morning grass.

And, excuse me, but was that just the slightest hint of a cool fall breeze I felt in the air?

Wait, wait.

Please, Fall, come when it's time, but I've still got kids in the pool and tomatoes ripening on the deck and sundresses and flip-flops in the closet.

Just kidding about the seasonal complaints! We're still soaking up the summer. Fall can wait!

Comforting and Fresh and Delicious . . . Oh, My!

I think it was because Oldest Daughter and I watched the finale of a cooking competition last night that yesterday I just couldn't cook the "usual" for dinner. No spaghetti, no tacos, no goulash. I just had the need to unleash my inner Top Chef . . . well, maybe not, but we can dream.

So, when I looked at Pioneer Woman's food blog entry and found Red Pepper Risotto, and my favorite chef at Publix handed me a plate of Lime Butter Tilapia to try, and I had garden-fresh tomatoes sitting on my counter, well it just all came together!

Don't you just love it when occasionally a meal comes together like that . . . all the planets line up and magically you just put together something dreamy.

And mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm, it was dreamy.

Comforting, fresh and delicious. Would that everything I serve at my sturdy oval dining table could be such!

Lime Butter Tilapia

1 1/2 lb tilapia (orange roughy or flounder) fillets (thawed, if needed)

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

1 lime (for zest and juice, rinsed)

1 shallot (rinsed)

Using electric skillet, set temperature to 250 degrees. Season both sides of fish with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper.

Place 1 tablespoon of the butter into pan; swirl to coat. Add fish; cook 2 minutes on each side. (my favorite Publix chef told me this was long enough, and amazingly it was!! This fish was the softest and moistest I've ever had!)Cook time may vary depending on the thickness of the fish.

Meanwhile, cut remaining 4 tablespoons of the butter into small pieces; place in small bowl to soften. Peel several strips of lime peel, without any white pith, with zester (or vegetable peeler). Chop finely for zest (1 tablespoon); add to butter. Remove ends and peel from shallot; chop shallot finely and add to butter.

Stir remaining 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper into softened butter mixture until well blended; chill until ready to serve.

Squeeze juice of lime (1 tablespoon) over fish; remove fish from pan. Top fish with lime butter mixture and serve.

Recipe courtesy of Publix Apron's

Volleyball Season

(So sorry for the blurry pic. I mentioned many times during the game to the Man of the House that I could really have gotten some awesome pics if I had a digital SLR camera. He did not appear to be listening.)

Volleyball season is here! And with it comes hours on hard metal bleachers, stomach-churning matches, and long drives to locations all over North and South Carolina.

But I love this game! I love watching this game! I love watching Oldest Daughter play this game!

I love conversations that include words like "dig," "dink," and "dive." I love screaming my lungs out after a long rally that finally goes our team's way. I love the streak of pinky-red that crosses Oldest Daughter's cheeks when she's determined to win the point.

Yep, for the next 3 months you'll be able to recognize me by my stiff hip joints, hoarse voice, and the GPS clutched tightly in my right hand.

Go Hurricanes!