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My Baby
(What a mom would rather watch)
Slow Dance
Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round,
or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight or
gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down, don’t dance so fast, time is short , the music won’t last.
Do you run through each day on the fly,
when you ask “How are you” do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in bed
with the next hundred chores running through your head?
Ever told a child, “we’ll do it tomorrow”,
and in haste, not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch, let a good friendship die
’cause you never had time to call and say “hi”?
When you run so fast to get somewhere
you miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
it is an unopened gift. . .thrown away. . .
Life is not a race. Do take it slower.
Hear the music, before the song is over.
Valentine's Party
I had my 2nd annual Valentine’s Party at my house today. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. I invited 8 of my friends and made them dinner. After dinner we exchanged valentine cards and gifts and we played a little game. (each person brought a picture of themselves as a baby and/or little girl and we guessed who was who).
We also passed around a journal and we each wrote a little something in it. I will add pictures to it later. We used the same journal last year and it was neat to go back and look what we wrote. Last year, we found out that **** was expecting a baby from our little journal. There were no such surprises this year!
When they left, I gave each of them a single rose with a quote tied to it with a ribbon .
Everyone has left and I am sitting here happy. We talked and laughed and just had FUN. I am sure we resembled hens in a henhouse with all the cackling and chattering we did. What I loved most of all about this night was observing my friends talking to each other and laughing. It felt so good to be together, this dear little group which has gone through so much together–mostly good times but a few bad times as well. I know we will always be there for each other. And the circle is wide. It includes everyone.
friends
(The only man allowed!)
I can’t concentrate on what I am writing because hubby is sitting on the floor next to me looking at his new purchase: a deep fat fryer. Never did I think I would own such a thing. He wants to make chicken wings. 
What a great man he is, he took all 5 of the children out from 4:30 until 7:30 while I had my party. When he got back he put the kids to bed and came downstairs and held my friend’s baby so she could eat her dessert. He’s the one who took the group pictures of us, too.
By the end of the night we all tend to get a little silly. I think SOMEONE had a bit too much sugar?
Thank you, God, for the love of friends.
Valentine’s Party
I had my 2nd annual Valentine’s Party at my house today. It was so relaxing and enjoyable. I invited 8 of my friends and made them dinner. After dinner we exchanged valentine cards and gifts and we played a little game. (each person brought a picture of themselves as a baby and/or little girl and we guessed who was who).
We also passed around a journal and we each wrote a little something in it. I will add pictures to it later. We used the same journal last year and it was neat to go back and look what we wrote. Last year, we found out that **** was expecting a baby from our little journal. There were no such surprises this year!
When they left, I gave each of them a single rose with a quote tied to it with a ribbon .
Everyone has left and I am sitting here happy. We talked and laughed and just had FUN. I am sure we resembled hens in a henhouse with all the cackling and chattering we did. What I loved most of all about this night was observing my friends talking to each other and laughing. It felt so good to be together, this dear little group which has gone through so much together–mostly good times but a few bad times as well. I know we will always be there for each other. And the circle is wide. It includes everyone.
friends
(The only man allowed!)
I can’t concentrate on what I am writing because hubby is sitting on the floor next to me looking at his new purchase: a deep fat fryer. Never did I think I would own such a thing. He wants to make chicken wings. What a great man he is, he took all 5 of the children out from 4:30 until 7:30 while I had my party. When he got back he put the kids to bed and came downstairs and held my friend’s baby so she could eat her dessert. He’s the one who took the group pictures of us, too.
By the end of the night we all tend to get a little silly. I think SOMEONE had a bit too much sugar?
Thank you, God, for the love of friends.
Thumb Cookies (Tasha Tudor recipe) & Pineapple Cookies
Thumb cookies (from Tasha Tudor’s cookbook, don’t think about frozen critters as you read this)
1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 (8 oz) jar raspberry jam
Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 cookie sheets w/parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients except the raspberry jam, in the order given. Roll the dough into teaspoon-sized balls and make indentations with your thumb, fill indentations w/rasp. jam.
Bake for 10-15 minutes until delicately brown. Cool.
Pineapple Cookies (this is from an old community cookbooks that my G.Grandma gave me years ago.)
1 c. shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 c. crushed pineapple w/juice
1/2 c. nuts
3 1/2 flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
Mix shortening, sugar and egg. Stir in pineapple. Stir together flour, soda, salt and nutmeg and add to bowl; stir. Mix in nuts (I never add nuts) Chill at least 1 hour. Drop onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes.
This morning I was thinking about my mom.
It’s the first day of February, the month that I was born. I miss my mom, we talk a lot on the phone but Rich and I moved away 7 years ago and sometimes I am momentarily sad that things aren’t what they used to be.
You know, I would just hop in the car and drive over. Any ol’ time, I knew I would always be welcomed. Sundays were my favorite day. We all went to church and then most of the time we would go back to my parent’s and hang out. Rich and I only had 2 children then so things were quieter. Dad would have the newspaper. The football game would be on. Mom would be busy in the kitchen. My brothers and my sister were still at home. If we wanted to talk, we talked. We just hung out, completely trusting, being together.
The only house I feel completely relaxed in is my parent’s.
On Thanksgiving day we were there and I started to cry a little because it felt so nice to sit on the couch and not be the one in charge. I was daughter again.
It’s special to think about MOM now and then.
To her you’ll always be
just a youngster at her knee.
Edgar Guest
Y
To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home,
To my first love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome.
Christina Rossetti
Y
When You Thought I wasn’t Looking
Mary Korzan
When you thought I wasn’t looking
You hung my first painting on the refrigerator
And I wanted to paint another.
When you thought I wasn’t looking
You fed a stray cat
And I thought it was good to be kind to animals.
When you thought I wasn’t looking
You baked a birthday cake just for me
And I knew that little things were special things.
When you thought I wasn’t looking
You said a prayer
And I believed there was a God
That I could always talk to.
When you thought I wasn’t looking
You kissed me goodnight
And I felt loved.
When you thought I wasn’t looking
I saw tears come from your eyes
And I learned that sometimes things hurt-
But that it’s okay to cry.
When you thought I wasn’t looking
You smiled
And it made me want to look that pretty too.
When you thought I wasn’t looking
You cared
And I wanted to be everything I could be.
When you thought I wasn’t looking-
I looked. . . .
And wanted to say thanks
For all those things you did
When you thought I wasn’t looking.
On Monday evening I went to the library alone. A rare treat. I found a book titled Photography Speaks/150 Photographers on their Art. I have found it to be extremely humbling, inspiring, and fascinating. Here are some quotes from the book:
There is another quality which ought to be present in all photographs without which no photograph can be considered perfect; and, until this quality has been recognized, the photographer should stop before he pats himself on the back and says, “What a good boy am I,” after he has taken what he may look upon as a perfect piece of work, as an example of technical skill or an attempt at picture-making; it may be clever, yet for all that it is a failure if it cannot speak to those who look at it. Frank Meadow Sutcliffe (English, 1852-1941)
I longed to arrest all beauty that came before me, and at length the longing has been satisfied. Julia Margaret Cameron (English, born in India, 1815-1879)
If I were asked what I have learned during my 40 years experience as a Photographer, I should reply: “The most important thing I have learned is to observe the beautiful effects of atmosphere and light.” Many Photographers are concerned only with the subject and they seek to render it as it is. Often they fail to observe that the lighting and the atmosphere adorn and transform even the most humble and common-place objects. Leonard Misonne (Belgian, 1870-1943)
If you call it a “glorified snapshot” you must remember that life has much of this same quality. Alvin Langdon Coburn (English, 1882-1966)
The most important skill of the photographer is to know how to see. With just one click, the lens captures the photographer’s inner world. Germaine Krull (German, 1897-1985)
I photograph to see what things
look like photographed. Garry Winogrand (American, 1928-1984)
Rich was home yesterday with a terrible headache. I spent the whole day “showing off”. 
He was lazily reclining on the couch, too much in pain to do anything but lay there. I cleaned the kitchen, made a double batch of jam thumbprints and a batch of pineapple cookies while keeping track of the children and teaching school. I was in my element! Every once in a while we would make eye contact and smile.
It was great having him home and it was a nice change to have him depleted of energy. That sounds bad, but it is really hard for him to just “hang out and be at home”. . . .he’s the type that always has to be doing something. Yesterday he had only one battery when he normally has ten! And he never takes a day from work! Of course I am thankful that he’s not seriously sick, and he did go to work this morning, reluctantly.
These pictures were taken on Saturday:
From “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown”
HAPPINESS IS FINDING A PENCIL.
PIZZA WITH SAUSAGE
TELLING THE TIME.
HAPPINESS IS LEARNING TO WHISTLE.
TYING YOUR SHOE FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME.
HAPPINESS IS PLAYING THE DRUM IN YOUR OWN SCHOOL BAND.
AND HAPPINESS IS WALKING HAND IN HAND.
HAPPINESS IS TWO KINDS OF ICE CREAM.
KNOWING A SECRET.
CLIMBING A TREE.
HAPPINESS IS FIVE DIFFERENT CRAYONS.
CATCHING A FIREFLY.
SETTING HIM FREE.
HAPPINESS IS BEING ALONE EVERY NOW AND THEN.
AND HAPPINESS IS COMING HOME AGAIN.
HAPPINESS IS MORNING AND EVENING,
DAY TIME AND NIGHT TIME TOO.
FOR HAPPINESS IS ANYONE AND ANYTHING AT ALL
THAT’S LOVED BY YOU.
HAPPINESS IS HAVING A SISTER.
SHARING A SANDWICH.
GETTING ALONG.
HAPPINESS IS SINGING TOGETHER WHEN DAY IS THROUGH,
AND HAPPINESS IS THOSE WHO SING WITH YOU.
HAPPINESS IS MORNING AND EVENING,
DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME TOO.
FOR HAPPINESS IS ANYONE AND ANYTHING AT ALL
THAT’S LOVED BY YOU.
I thought the words were sweet. . . it reminds me of families. . .and reminds me that I can find pleasure in just about every little thing that happens during the day. The kids are awake now, time to start the day.
happiness is. . . . . being together
Good to be Home 