Happy Fathers' Day to All the Beloved Fathers in My Life

Clockwise:  Two of our favorite Padres, Fr. A. who baptised our last three children and who continually blesses us with his counsel and his sense of humor and Fr. G. who performed Paul and Nicole's wedding ceremony and who, together with Fr. A. has had profound infuence on our teenage boys, esp; my brother Dave and his little girl Savvy (baby Elijah not pictured); our son, soon-to-be Daddy, Paul standing next to my Dad; my big brother, Steve, father of our beloved two neices and nephew;Grandpa, Dan's Dad -- the game-;master, and last, but not least, the love of my life and most beloved of Dads, Dan.  And the following most honored and beloved needs no introduction... 

Happy Fathers' Day to all the Daddies out there!

So, Here's the Scoop

The inspection came back without a mention of the drainage issue.
YAY!
But it was full of little nickel-and-dime electrical problems.
BOO!
And they wanted $3,000 to add gutters and drain spouts to the house.
BIG BOO!
And they wanted an inspection of the chimney and a liner added.
ANOTHER BIG BOO!

We countered that we would cover most of the electrical dings and we'd already done a chimney inspection and we'd give them $1500 for the liner we'd been told it needed, but we'd split the cost of the gutters, etc.  What they're going to find out is that this house's roof is too steep to put gutters on it.  It's been here for 100 years without gutters, too.  So, well, good luck, anyway.  We expect them to take the compromise.  The extra expense will land us right exactly at our bottom dollar.  But in this market, one can't be greedy.  We're just thankful.  WAHOO!  No more showings.

And we only had to have one.  Isn't God good?

So, anyway, we just have to wait til the buyers' property closes this weekend to be mostly sure the deal will go through.  (Mostly sure, I do say.  We won't really believe it's happened to we get the check...)

But, assuming that everything is moving smoothly enough to take the chance, we're traveling over to the Western Slope for a couple days to look for a house to rent!

Say a prayer, if you don't mind?  (St. Anthony please remember us!)

Wordless (Almost)

The things a kitty has to endure...

Life is Hard.... Can I Have Mine With Chocolate?

Scene I: For the last week or so, Catherine has been watching a nest full of eggs which is rather precariously built in the lower branches of one of our backyard trees.    She's been carefully climbing up every day to spy when the mama, a robin, wasn't around.  She's been giving us daily progress reports, anticipating the arrival of baby robins with the intensity of an adoptive mother.  Yesterday the big day finally came: two of the four eggs hatched and Cathy was thrilled!

"They're so cute, Mommy!" she enthused.

"Really?" I said.  "I'm sure they have no feathers or anything yet, do they?"

"No, but they're so cute!"

M-yeah. Truly, mother love if I ever saw it.

Scene II:  Our good friends from church brought a litter of kittens to give away a couple of weeks ago, and much to Anna's delight (Anna is our kitty girl), we said she could choose one to bring home.  Thus:  Princess Julia Ravenlocks Davis I.  Remember this one?  Anna loves this kitty.  Oh my goodness. 

 But she thought Julia needed some friends to play with and we always appreciate having a goodly number of barn cats so I told her I'd look around for some free kittens and we could get one or two if I found some.  And I found some last week.  Thus:  Butch and Lizzy.  Butch and Lizzy don't hold the same place in Anna's heart as Princess Julia, who is a snuggle-kitty, but everyone generally likes them.

Scene III:  Late Monday afternoon a piercing shriek splits the air.  Butch (the tabby) has climbed the tree and attacked the robins' nest.  Catherine is horrified, anguished, but powerless to do anything.  One of the hatchlings is knocked from the nest, the other one is Butch's dinner.  The girls are screaming to get Butch out of the tree and away from the other two unhatched eggs.  The mama bird has returned and is dive bombing Butch.  The girls are throwing sticks up into the tree.  It's an awful scene.  But Butch doesn't seem to understand that he's the cause of it.  He looks down from the tree with casual interest, somewhat bewildered by the sticks that are whizzing by him.  Finally he decides he'd better find a safer place and climbs out of the tree. 

All the girls are upset, but Catherine is heartbroken.  She scoops up the baby bird and its heart is still beating, though it's very weak.  She brings it in to try to save it, placing it in a shoebox with a warm towel by a hot lamp.  She makes bread soaked in milk to try to feed it.  She sleeps next to it, keeping an eye on it through the night, but by morning, the little thing has passed away.  It's a sad morning.

But by the time I've gotten dressed and poured a cup of coffee, Catherine's gone out and climbed up the tree.  Her duty to the baby bird now over, her first thought is to check what, if anything, is left in the nest.  She comes in, happy to report that two eggs survived the upheaval.  And she's consoled.  We all are.

But everyone is still sorry about the loss of the two little baby birds.


Wrap Up: This incident is just one of many hard realities the children will have to live through.  Relatively speaking it's a small thing, but it's terrible to see them cry over it.  Heaven knows, it's hard enough for me to understand why bad things happen, but harder to help my children understand.  I can try to explain it:  It's a simple fact that cats are hard-wired to prey on birds.  But that doesn't make it easy to accept when you see it happen.

There are so many hard lessons in life.  Why do cats eat birds? Why do foxes eat chickens?  Why does it hail and flatten our flowers?  Why do our big brothers have to grow up and move away?  Why do people we love get sick sometimes?  Why do they die?  Why are there tornados and floods and natural disasters that kill innocent people?  Why does there have to be war?  Doesn't God care about us?  Why does He make us suffer?   Why doesn't He protect us from bad things? 

The only answer I could give the girls about the kitten and the baby birds is that the predator-prey thing is part of the natural order that God made for our world.  One event or instinct brings about another event.  A bird that builds its nest too low in a tree sets itself up for disaster.  A farm without a good farm dog may have its chicken house invaded by foxes.  People who build levees and live right next to the river can expect to suffer from floods.  Tornado alley is going to have tornados.  Countries whose borders are in drought zones will have trouble feeding their citizens.  People who suffer from the fall of Adam will learn from their own greed and corruption.  Mortal bodies die. 

But our souls live forever. 

And this is what we have to depend upon.  God wants us to care for our mortal world and our mortal bodies, but they are not what our lives are about.  We're here to save our souls.  And that means we have to learn the hard lesson about mortality.  Our mortality.  And the mortality of little birds.  Sometimes it's best to learn it a little bit at a time -- as hard as it is --  the fact that nothing on this earth lasts forever.  Not the good times. But not the bad times either.

The first hatchlings are gone.  But we have two more eggs to watch now.  And trees all around us full of nests.  It's all good. 

The kids and I are learning it together.

And if we want we can take it all in with optimism and understanding -- and chocolate.

Photo Album

My family (at least the ones that are home right now) coming up the drive after a rosary walk.
After all the rain, everything is so green (for us, anyway) and the air smells indescribably delicious.

Update

So, is Noah considered a saint? 

Can we pray for his intercession for a problem peculiar to his interests?

Here's why I ask... 

 Technically, this is high desert here on the eastern plains of Colorado; we've suffered many a year of drought when we worried about our well going dry, but this summer, like last summer, we've been deluged!  I'm talkin' break-out-the-ark-Noah deluged.  Thursday night we were hit with a storm cell that produced tornados down the road from us, egg-sized hail, and buckets and buckets of rain.  Last night we had another storm move through that lacked the tornados and hail, praise God, but let loose more rain upon us than we think we've ever seen here in such a short time.  Little rivers formed all around the property -- and disconcertingly, one ran right up next to our house.  Yikes.  This led to a drainage problem that left our cellar walls damp after the Thursday storm.  Just what we need with an inspection for our home sale on Saturday -- today! 

But, all was not lost...

Yesterday we called one of the town old-timers with a tractor to come save us.  He dug a drainage ditch to re-route the water and dumped some dirt up close to the foundation.  The girls spent yesterday afternoon smoothing that out and packing it down to drain rainfall away from the house.  Fun stuff.  They found 26 froglets in the window well near where they were digging, and between the frogs and the fresh dirt, the little boys were in seventh heaven.  Boy, did they need a bath last night, let me tell you!  But, we got everything smoothed out and ready in time for last night's big storm.  And it looks like our changes did the trick.  Mostly.

The little rivers have been diverted, but a little water is still seeping in through the window well (which is unusually large and can't be fit with a standard window-well-bubble thingy) and the cellar walls have not dried out.  The inspection is at 2:30 today.  It's still raining, though lightly, thank goodness.  But it's forecast to rain through tomorrow.

So, we're prayin'.

It's in God's hands.  He's fully aware of our petitions -- He couldn't possibly have missed it as much as we've been bugging Him and as much as we've been sending our heavenly friends to bug Him on our behalf.  And He's the one who sent the rain.  So we're content that everything will work out according to His Will.

Everything will be alright in the end.  If it's not alright, it's not the end.

If you have a minute, could you kindly send up a prayer for us -- just to keep our upward deluge of prayers going? For God's will to be done, is all we ask -- and that we know His will and are content with it.  And that our house doesn't float down the hill...

=sigh=
I better get busy.  The kids are all gone with Dan at their rained-out Homeschool Field Day event, and now that they're gone it's safe for me to sweep and mop the floors and clean the bathroom...

TTFN!

Feast of St. Margaret of Scotland

Born: c. 1045

(in Castle Réka, in the region of Southern Transdanubia, Hungary)

Died: 16 November 1093 (aged c. 48)

(at St Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle, Midlothian, Scotland)

Canonized: 1250 by Pope Innocent IV

Major shrine: Dunfermline Abbey (East Port, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland) 

Traditional Feast: June 10;

Patronage: Dunfermline; Scotland; The Queen's Ferry; Anglo-Scottish relations

The story in a nutshell:  Saint Margaret was one of three children of the English prince Edward the Exile, son of Edmund Ironside; she was the neice of King St. Edward the Confessor and related to St. Stephen of Hungary. When the Normans overtook England in the late eleventh century, sometime after the death of Prince Edward, Margaret's mother, Agatha, attempted to escape to the continent, but her ship grounded on the rocky shore of Scotland.  The place where they landed near the village of North Queensferry is now known as St. Margaret's Hope. In a strange land and in danger, still, of the Normans, the family sought the protection of King Malcom II of Scotland and eventually Margaret and Malcom were married.
 
Theirs was a fruitful and holy marriage.  They had eight children, six sons and two daughters: Edward, (killed in 1093); Edmund of Scotland; Ethelred, abbot of Dunkeld; King Edgar of Scotland; King Alexander I of Scotland; King David I of Scotland (revered as a saint); Edith of Scotland (also called Matilda, married King Henry I of England); Mary of Scotland (married Eustace III of Boulogne). Along with the duties of state and motherhood, St. Margaret was the perfect example of piety and charity throughout her reign.  She served the poor before she, herself, ate; she rose at midnight every night to attend holy Mass; she was known for her work in religious reform and influenced her husband, the king, and her children, as well, in the precepts of just rule.

 Margaret was ill when she learned of the deaths of her husband and their eldest son, Edward in a fight against the English; she died three days later, November 16, 1093.

Because the feast of St. Gertrude is celebrated on November 16th, the Church marks her feast on this day, June 10th.

Some thoughts on the story of St. Margaret:  What an example of priorities in the midst of distraction is today's saint!  St, Margaret, in her example of piety and charity, influenced a whole kingdom toward goodness, but she also raised her children so well that not one of them fell away from their spiritual home in the Church, not one of them (that we know of) turned to the treachery so common to the powerful in her day.  This mother, a queen, raised an abbot, a saint, and six just rulers.  Can you imagine the temptations that surrounded them all, though, in the royal court?  It was not easier to avoid the world, the flesh, and the devil in the eleventh century than it is now, but somehow, with the help of God, Margaret managed to do it.  What focus!

It seems like it should be a complicated thing, doesn't it?  Saving everyone's souls and our own, too, I mean. We're not ruling actual kingdoms, us moms surfing the web today, but we still have an awful lot on our plates, so many duties to attend to in our daily plebian lives: running our homes, supporting our husbands, taking care of the needs of our family, the education of our children, the stresses of jobs, obligations to our parishes, our friends and our extended relations... And then there's the tv, the computer, the cell phone...  St. Margaret didn't have those distractions!  But the question is the same for us today as it was for her in the eleventh century. How do we do all that we must do in the midst of all the distractions in our world and still penetrate into the souls of each our children, too?

 St. Margaret knew the secret and perfected it and we can do it, too, if we want to.  What did she do so right?  It's not much of a secret.  And it's not complicated.  Anyone who becomes very successful in worldly things uses the same trick to get where they want to be: they forge ahead with single-mindedness of purpose.  Everything they do is focused on a goal.  An Olympic hopeful concentrates all his actions and thoughts toward a gold medal; a rich man spends all his time and effort for financial gain; a saint funnels all his energy toward God;  and a mother of saints performs all her duties while loving God.  Her children see, hear, feel and absorb this love of God and it becomes their own. 

Single-mindedness of purpose.  Focus. Focus so concentrated it encompasses all things in the big picture and delves into all the little things in the small picture.  Everything for the honor and glory of God.

Not complicated.... but easy to do?  Goodness, no!  The concept is easy to understand, but mastering the skill of spiritual recollection takes lots of practice.  And prayer.  And renewed intention every. single. day.  Every. single. minute.  And this is hard to do.  I'm not good at it.  Dang, but I get distracted!  But, this is not something we can give up on.  I'm constantly pulling myself by the bootstraps and expect to have to do so for the rest of my life. But it's worth it.  I can't save my soul if I don't do everything possible to save my childrens' souls, and I can't save my childrens' souls if I don't do everything possible to save my own.  It's definitely worth it.

And thankfully we have the inspiration and intercession of our heavenly friends to help us...  Saints who've "been there, done that."

St. Margaret, Pray for Us!

Not Quite Wordless

(Late on a Wednesday...)

William is

Like Colorado.

If you don't like the weather,

Wait a while,
Walk a mile.

Or find someone to cheer you up.

Oh, my gosh!

I got back from a four-hour lunch with my friend, Lucinda, this afternoon and sitting on my dresser waiting to be signed was a contract to sell the farm!  I expected to see it, though, as  Dan actually texted me the news mid-afternoon.  Lucinda and I did a celebratory jig and hug right there in Panera Bread in front of the drink fountain. 

Here's the scoop:

The buyers are the first people who have looked at our house.  I'm tellin' ya.  No kidding.

If all goes well, the closing date will be July 1st, the feast of the Precious Blood, and the new owners will gain possession on July 4th, Independence Day.  (Significant, that?)  Now it's just a bit of a waiting game to be sure the buyers' house in Wyoming sells; that closing is supposed to happen on Father's Day weekend, a week and a half a way.  So we continue to pray, but...  Wahoo!  They look like nice country folks who will take care of the place and use it as it's meant to be used.  God is good.  And we're strongly thinking that novena to St. Joseph was very powerful, indeed.

Now I gotta start thinking of packing.  And we've got to find a house to live it! 

Yikes!

Dominic

Mid-kick

Awesome photo by our photographer friend, Sarah M.  Thanks for letting us share this, Sarah!

Simply Summer Daybook

Outside my Window...It's Sunday, early evening, and the late-day sun is slanting in under storm clouds building to the west. My usual window view is backlit now with a sort of surreal brightness.  There's something about the slant of the light at this time of day that must bend the prism to make the colors especially vivid  -- particularly the greens of the trees and meadows. This is my favorite time of day. The wind is picking up now and I can hear thunder in the distance...

I'm hoping for... some rain.  It rained just enough last night to perk up our morning with a fresh, just-rained, whole-world plug-in scent.  Now I'm greedy and want my Monday morning to start out the same way.  My flower pots would like it, too...

I'm thankful that... Saturday afternoon's house-showing is over and we lived to tell about it.  It was our first public viewing of our house since we put the "for sale" sign up and we were running around like mad Friday afternoon and Saturday morning trying to make everything look as good as we could.  Talk about nerve wracking.  I'm happy to report that we got somewhat positive reviews and we're apparently on the couple's short list;  I guess they want to come back for a second look.  I'll be even more thankful, though -- more like ecstatic! -- if the first viewing ends in a sale!  (I'm not counting on it, but praying that God's will be done --  quickly if He doesn't mind!)

I'm remembering...  The last time we tried to sell the farm -- and I'm trying to get back into the good groove we had for preparing for showings.  We were a well-oiled machine after a while.  When we had to do a quick cleaning, we had lots of empty clothes baskets ready to collect debris: plastic dinosaurs, stray socks, hair clips, bath toys, stinky sneakers, sinks half full of dirty dishes, everything on and under Anna's dresser, little boys' "tents"...  We ran around and threw it all in baskets, stuffed the baskets in the back of the car and took all the unsightly junk with us when we left.  Made for a pain-in-the-neck unloading when we got back, but it was effective for spur-of-the-moment prospective buyers.  I've got to get me some more clothes baskets...

I'm planning...  free and easy summer outings with my children.  I owe Cathy a hike- date, because she never got her turn last summer, and the little boys are telling me it's their turn to go out with Mommy, too, so I need to plan a zoo day for them before my zoo pass runs out.  And I always love getting out with my teens and my tween, Theresa, too.  This week particularly, though, I get to look forward to a lunch-date with an old friend on Tuesday, the eagerly-anticipated homeschool field day on Saturday, and a BBQ for my Mom's birthday on Sunday. 

I'm reading...  Maurice and Therese, the story of St. Therese the Little Flower's correspondence encouraging a young priest.  This book is a wonderful read; I am loving the chance to see Therese of Lisieux through her own words, instead of through the sentimental mist we very often see.  After clearing away the mist, Therese is even more dear than I knew before.  Highly recommended book!

On my mind... It's Monday morning now -- and I just got a call from our realtor to tell us that she is expecting an offer on our house today or tomorrow from the folks that came Saturday.  What would the odds be?  Especially after 2 1/2 years of trying to sell this house a couple years ago.... 

In light of this --- I'm thinking a lot  this morning about patience and timing and the will of God...  And where the heck are we going to live if this place sells in the next few weeks...

From the Learning Rooms... Joining awesome mom-of-many, Joann, on her preschool learning adventure for the summer.  My little guys need some educational "tuning up" and Joann has a practical, fun blueprint that looks like just the ticket.  Thank God for such smart and organized internet friends!

I am noticing... how tall my little boys are getting all of a sudden.  Gabe has only one pair of church pants that aren't high water, and I'm having to pass all of his old pants down to William.  They'll be getting  me the platters off the top shelf before I know it.

From the Kitchen...  My favorite, quicky BBQ side dish:

To feed about 8 nomal people or 5 teenage boys

U.N. Beans

1 can northern white beans
1 can black beans
1 can red kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
or, if your gang likes it spicy, you can substitue a can of Rotel

1 small bag frozen mirepoix mix (The Holy Trinity variety, with celery, onions, and bell peppers)
alternatively: dice and sautee approximately 1 smallish onion, 2 stalks celery, 2 small bell peppers)

two heaping tablespoons plum jam (jelly works, too -- as does apricot jam or jelly)
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:  Drain all the canned goods; dump everything in a pot, stir enthusiastically, heat over low burner. Serve.  Yum.

In the garden...  still nothing planted.  We've been working on the perennial beds this week in an effort to make our curb appeal less shaggy.  So with that and with the fact that I wasn't here the last two weeks of May and it was snowing before that...  well, there's not a blessed vegetable started here.  =heavy sigh=  Hopefully I'll be able to get something going this week.  But that will only be possible if I can, once and for all, get the chickens in their pen and out of the garden.

Which reminds me...  I dont' think I mentioned that a fox (we think it's a fox..) has found out where we are and has taken advantage of our dogless state....  You might remember that since the chicken eating and highway rambling incidents of our last dog-attempts, we only have Brigid, the foofoo dog left -- who, God bless her, is a sweet but wimpy indoor dog.  Anyway, having nothing to stop it, some predator has been raiding the henhouse.  All we have left of our original thirteen chickens are Booboo Chicken, Henrietta, and Uncle Steve, the rooster.  And empty egg cartons. 

So, to end the carnage, we decided we had to get a farm dog.  We prayed to St. Francis and St. Anthony to help and headed out to the animal shelter last week.  A dangerous place, the animal shelter.  You want to save everyone there.  But we controlled ourselves, somewhat, and only ended up with two more kitties (to help with the barn cat shortage), one mistake that we had to take back because he tried to eat one of the kitties, and one sweet little yellow lab mix.  We named her Noe, for one of the saints of the day that we got her (St. Noe Mawaggali, a Ugandan martyr) and she is perfect.  She doesn't chase chickens or kittens, but loves the children and is very sweet and well-behaved.  We love her already.  We think she's a keeper. Thank-you, St. Francis and St. Anthony.  (Franciscans rock.)


A picture to share...

Jon making his "Stanley" face.

  Paul got him this shirt for his birthdayas a challenge, thinking he wouldn't really wear it.  Paul has this mistaken notion, you see, that Jon is a totally serious kinda guy.  Silly Paul.  (Cracks me up every time I see this shirt!)

Oh, and by the way...  My camera battery charger has been missing since our Breckenridge trip...  I wanted to post a picture of our new doggy, family member, Noe, but have no camera to use right now.  Hopefully Dan will pick me up a new charger today and we can take some pics of our new pets...

** Lists of more Simple Woman Daybooks can be found here.

Quickish Takes

This is a beautiful and interesting country we live in.  Driving three quarters of the way across it last week, we were constantly amazed -- sometimes because we were amused, sometimes because we were apalled, sometimes because we were awed by the scenery.  Here are some quick takes on our Colorado to Virginia trip:

1. No question about it: on our particular route, Kansas was the most boring state to drive through, but it was one of our favorites due to the lovely crop of conservative billboards that grow along the highway.  (We've seen the same thing in Nebraska on other trips, incidentally -- and love Nebraska for it!)  Missouri is very pretty, rolling and pleasant, but it's half way through that state and into Illinois and Indiana that the apalling billboards start to appear.  We were shocked at the number of "adult" venues that were advertised.  We don't have anything like that in Colorado.  Mind you, such horrible places do exist here, but they hide under the armpit of our state instead of being emblazoned on its forehead.    I wonder if it's part of our laws here or just an extension of our sensitivity to natural beauty. I don't know if it's true anywhere else in the United States, but in Colorado billboards are banned altogether on scenic highways; a law I very much appreciate.  And, though I don't think it makes sense to ban billboards everywhere, it does seem like there ought to be decency laws to protect us from public pornography.

2.  We did see some funny billboards on our travels, though, and some that just captured the essense of the country we were passing.  For instance: 
In the middle of Missouri:  Heads up Taxidermy
Somewhere in Kansas: The 2nd Friendliest Yarn store in the Universe  (Begs the question: Who's the most friendly?)
And all through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, there were barbecue restaurant signs, something we don't see out west.  And biscuits.  The closer we got to Appalachia, the more biscuits were featured as hot items on restaurant menus.  I guess we don't go for biscuits so much in Colorado.  (Though, I personally LOVE me a good biscuit...)

3.  We saw this one (tho the picture's off the internet) on the side of the road outside of Kansas City, MO, but it didn't occur to me at the time what the statement was.  Duh.  Just a little point to be made about our president.

We didn't see the following billboards, but they also apparently decorate the roadsides of Missouri:

4.  Then there was just the natural beauty.  The rolling hills and trees of Missouri.  The big beautiful barns dotting the farmland that patchworks Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. Then the beautiful, soft mountains of Appalachia through eastern Kentucky, West Virgina and western Virginia.  I grew up in the midatlantic, so these are the mountains I know from my childhood.  Certainly, they aren't as majestic and awesome as our Rockies; there are no snow-covered peaks or soaring rock cliffs in the Appalachians.  But you can feel the history of the mountains here.  You can smell it in the air. The landscape is softened and deepened by it.  But you can also sense the poverty of this region.  And it's a sad thing to see, but, in a way, I think it's preserved the natural beauty.  Money has a way of taking over a place.  If you've ever driven through Vail Valley, you know what I mean.   We have valleys full of condos and lodges and swank hotels, ringed at night with twinkling strings of lights in the trees year-round, but we almost never see anything like this where we come from:

We found this old, rotting house in Mossy, West Virginia.  So sad. How did it come to be abondoned?  It was a fine proud home at one time.  I'd kill for a place like this!  (Well, not really, but I'd love to have this kind of a house!)  What do you think? I bet it's haunted.

Check out all the life here, too.  So much , it takes over what isn't consciously preserved from being consumed.  Moss, saplings, shrubs, trees.  Covering every square inch.   It's so, so green in the east.  Living in the arid west for so long, you forget the green.  But it's so beautiful. 

Here's the river across from the haunted house pictured above:

 

You can just barely see the Civil War soldiers hiding along the riverbank and Tom Sawyer is just beyond that thicket playing pirates with Huck Finn...

5.  Just across the street from the old abondoned house in Mossy, West Virginia, there was a little, old, no-name gas station.  Inside there was a haphazard convenience store arranged around two tables in the middle of the room.  Four or five older gentlemen sat around the tables shooting the breeze and drinking coffee. If there had been music playing, it would have been Billie Holiday singing 1930s blues or The Skillet Lickers playing "Bile Them Cabbage Down." 

 A lady from Florida in shorts and high heels came in while I was looking through the drinks fridge, and I didn't hear what she said to the old guys, but Nicole told me later that she was enthusing about the novelty of the harrowing mountain roads and the "Watch for ice on bridges" signs.  (snort!) Us Coloradans got a good chuckle out of that when we got back in the car.  But, truly, it's all relative.  

6.  Oh!  By the way! We got a couple bottles of "original" Dr. Pepper while we were in that  little country gas station.  No high fructose corn syrup!  But still not as good as I remembered it as a child.  I think I could write a whole post about Dr. Pepper and the connection between smell and taste and memories...  And maybe I will.  But, in short, I don't think a bottle of Dr. P. could possibly taste right unless it's consumed while dangling bare feet and mosquito-bite-covered legs over the edge of a pier on a humid Carolina day.  With a bag of barbecue potato chips and a pile of skipping stones nearby.

7.    And then there were the names of towns we passed.  They change as you travel east, becoming more interesting, telling more of the story of the place.  On the Colorado highways, we have towns like Fairplay, Limon, Fruita and Rocky Ford, serviceable names, but not colorful.  And there are very few turnoffs that mention a community name; the stretches are so long on the prairies, especially, that any turnoff that's not a town goes by its mile marker number.   In West Virginia, though, you pass turnoffs like:  Frazier's Bottom, Johnny Cake, and Droop Mountain.  We happened by a road called Black Cat Run and stayed in the town of Hurricane.  You know there's a story behind every name back east, though you may never find out what it is.  But, then we got into Virginia and passed turn-offs like Chancellorsville, and Spotsylvania.  And we knew those stories.  So much history.  So much beauty.   This is an amazing country we live in.

* Run over to Jennifer's at Conversion Diary for lots of Quick Take Friday posts!

Coming Soon:  Drivers west to east...  Is there a difference?

Where Do You Draw the Line?

1. If a kitten finds your cup of coffee on the paving stone near where you're weeding and sticks her little nose in to take a drink, do you: a) throw out the coffee and go get more in a clean cup; b) keep the coffee, drink some more, but put your cup where she can't reach it again; c) share the rest with the kitty?

2. If you have a cup of dry cereal in a bowl in the grass next to your coffee and your always-hungry dog comes over and takes a nibble, do you: a) fuss at the doggy and put her in her pen or crate; b) give her the rest and get some more cereal of your own; c) share it with her?

3.  If your toddler has a snotty nose and slimes your glass after taking a drink, do you: a) get yourself another glass and let him/her keep that one; b) pay no mind and drink on the opposite side; c) wipe it off with your sleeve, maybe, and share the rest?

Key: If you answered with mostly as, you're a neat freak, possibly a germaphobe, at the very least persnickety.  If you're a mother, you're at your wit's end 99% of the time.

If you answered mostly bs, you're practical, but picky.  You're a fussy mom, but willing to compromise.

If you answered mostly cs, you are sloppy, but carefree and lots of fun and/or have more than three children and gave up fussiness a long time ago.

Me: 1b, 2b, 3b

  I will occasionally slip into as and bs, depending on the day, how much sleep I've gotten, and whether or not I've had my morning coffee... but this morning out weeding the garden -- it was b, b, and b.

How 'bout you?

Wordless Wednesday

Another bad case of kitty love here.

Just Sittin'

So I'm back.

 Can you hear my back creaking from where you are?    Here's why I ask -- my last two weeks' itinerary in a nutshell:

1) Paul's college graduation on the Western slope on the 15th, then back home on the Eastern slope by the 16th to meet the boys coming home from Omaha;
2)the long-awaited Breckenridge family reunion from the 17th to the 22nd;
3) an impromptuWestern Slope trip, just me and my three littlest girls from the 24th to the 26th;
4) a last-minute decision to make the drive with Paul and Nicole to Virginia from the 27th to the 30th;
5) yesterday, the big wedding of the eldest daughter of close family friends;
6) today Jon (19) and Dominic (17) headed off on a road trip with our good friends, (Seminarian) Carlos and Omar, headed to Spokane to visit the Sisters and priests there and to see Carlos' sister graduate.

 =sigh=

It 's been busy.  But lovely.  creak.  crack.  pop.

I've been up for an hour and I need a nap just thinking about it all.

That's the thing about getting older.  The spirit is willing, but the body is starting to fall apart.  I remember road trips back in my twenties; the only ill-effects I suffered were zits from too many french fries and a sunburnt left arm from driving in a car with no air conditioning.  But it's twenty years later and I'm forty-five going on forty-six. (Seems hard to believe sometimes!) After a full week of driving, I'm happy to say I didn't pick up any zits and (Praise God for air conditioning!) no sunburnt arm, but I have a crick in the neck, a crick under my right shoulder blade, a crick in the left lumbar, and a pound for every french fry.

Still, it's all been great.  The reunion turned out better than we could ever have planned.  I got to spend some really wonderful quality time with my little girls and had a useful and fun visit with our Sister friends.  Then I got three full days of yakking with my sweet daughter-in-law.  And I got to see the nice new apartment Paul and Nicole will be living in while they're in Virginia.  It's a good thing for a Mom to be able to picture where her children are.  And their apartment is pretty, practical, clean and safe.  I'm content.  I'm glad I got to see it. 

And now.  I'm home.  (Deep Breath)  Dan and the kids have been in charge of the house for a week.  Do I need to say any more, Moms?  God bless him, Dan has done an admirable job, especially since he's also been working from home six to eight hours a day, too. (He's a great guy, my husband.) The Littles all seem to be happy, fed, and healthy, and all the obvious surface stuff is taken care of.  Before I got here, they did tidy and sweep and wipe the counters.  But, let's face it, there are things that a Mom does that the rank-and-file wouldn't think of doing without urging.( And reminding.  And nudging.  And threatening.)  You should see the state of my pots and pans cabinet, for instance... (Picture: avalanche-waiting-to-happen)  And, let's just say everyone appears to have clean underwear, but there are no clean towels or washcloths, there's a chin-high pile of dirty clothes in the laundry room, and there are two unpacked baskets of clothes at the foot of my bed from the Breckenridge trip two weeks ago.  But, it's all good.

I already had the first big load of towels in the wash by 8 this morning and distributed the contents of one of the baskets of clothes from Breckenridge.  No sweat.  We'll have things ship-shape in no time.  But right now I'm going to pour another cup of coffee and watch The Road Runner with Gabe and William.  And then we'll read a new book I got for them about bad little monkeys.  And then we'll go outside and see what flowers are blooming in the perennial beds.  And then we'll have something healthful and low fat for lunch.

It's been a fun and exciting these last couple of weeks, but I'm glad to be back. This is the real thing.