13 December 2007

The Chuppah

For those of you who are wondering how long it is going to take me to send you a thank-you card for your wonderful, generous, thoughtful wedding gift...well, the answer is:
Not nearly as long now that I have this!

We have been waiting for a good, printable picture of our chuppah and now we have one, hurray!
Now the only things standing in my way are incessant, intractable nausea and Christmas!
Check your mailboxes early in March.
:-)
-d
PS the photo is credited to Melinda Perez, one of our lovely, friendly and most talented photographers!

04 December 2007

Snow in the Air but Flowers in my Mind

Ive located the cord for transferring pictures to my computer! Hazah!
Actually, truth-be-told, Ive located the original cord that came with the camera when I purchased it this past summer after having lost the cord that went to my old camera (and subsequently finding it after having made said major purchase...but that camera really was ancient!)
So after replacing said cord, the one that came with the new camera, and losing the replacement cord, I have found the original cord in the most natural of all places, why, of course, at the bottom of my knitting bag.

And the reason, my friends, that you should be happy and shouting for joy at this discovery, aside from the obvious -- I am not going to have to pay Radio Shack another thirty dollars for a replacement cord this week -- is that I get to share with you these lovely images of natural beauty captured at my wedding.

My bouquet: No, it is not what I ordered. The roses were supposed to be almost black and the cala lilies were supposed to be fewer so that the effect was more like a sea of almost black roses with a border of cala lilies as opposed to a sea of cala lilies with a border of roses and yeah, we were pretty specific when we talked about it. But, you go to pick up your wedding bouquet on your wedding day, grateful that the morning sickness subsided when you ate your complimentary egg and toast at the B-n-B, and the florist explains to you (only after you calmly and gently comment that gee, I thought the roses were supposed to be darker...) that "that's what they sent me" (whatever that means, whomever they are) and so "I put in extra cala lilies to make up for it" (Okay, only kinda that's the exact opposite of what I wanted now as opposed to what I wanted with a little bit of a different color) what are you supposed to do? You are supposed to remind yourself that it's a bunch of flowers and that your day is going to be just beautiful and fun and amazing anyway and you thank her for the extra cala lilies and you think about how much worse it could be and you say to your friend, "Well, what are you gonna do?"
So that's what I did.
Anyway, here's how it looked. It was still gorgeous.



And for those of you who may have been wondering why every nurse in the Neuro ICU was saving Mannitol bottles for the past six months...

They make the most lovely miniature vases.

These were scattered everywhere. Just perfect.


More random beauty...we placed these in every nook and cubby we could find...by every window and candle light. It was a really nice effect. I wanted there to be "surprise beauty" everywhere.

03 December 2007

02 December 2007

Hi, Jesus! It's Ella!

Just had to share this little story told by a friend of mine. She was down South for Thanksgiving dinner with her mother and father (he a pastor, they all live overseas as missionaries when my friend was growing up), her brother and sister-in-law, and their children - Ella and Lucy (brand new baby girl). I think Ella is two.
So, my friend's brother asked Ella if she would like to say the blessing, to which she promptly responded "No." Her reason? "Because Im not friends with Jesus any more."
Okay.
My friend's father is stifling his amusement, while Ella's dad proceeds to begin the blessing. After getting out two words, he is interrupted by a little voice piping up:

"Hi Jesus! It's Ella.
Thank you for Baba and Maple Syrup.
Amen."

Wedding Teaser



Well, Ive been a Mrs. for just over a week now. It's still fun to call myself T's "wife". I got a little bit impatient and asked our photographers for a teeny tiny taste of what they had for us in terms of finished product.
They graciously responded with, among ten others, these lovely gems.

Our day was perfect and it looks like our pictures will reflect the spirit and character of the setting, the vows, the music and the people involved just perfectly as well. I cant wait to see the rest!

30 November 2007

Me and Technology

Okay, rather, me and power/transfer/charger cords.
What is it about them that causes them to slip into a black hole the second I take my eyes off them?
I have some lovely pictures to share of our time spent in the Holy Land this week.
Well, on the miniature Holy Land Relief Map at the Chautauqua Institution :-). The pictures were supposed to be the punch line, but
Sigh.
You know me and technology.

17 November 2007

This Little Light of Mine


I'm gonna let it shine...

Here are some more Martinmas Moments to enjoy!

The campfire "down below" was so much fun. I love the way a campfire smells, looks and sounds. I am quite grateful that Ian is growing up in an environment where being around such fires is commonplace. (Unlike this former city mouse!)




And speaking of letting your light shine...These are just about the Most Shiny Happy People I know.

16 November 2007

Our First Annual Martinmas Lantern Walk

We were so blessed to have family and friends together to celebrate the Feast of St. Martin of Torres. Because of scheduling, we got together the Tuesday after the holiday...and because we were a few days late, we were able to not only enjoy some seasonable but mild weather, but a gorgeous star-filled sky and our very own Northern Lights Show as well.

Everyone gathered at our house at dinner time. We enjoyed some homemade soup and listened to a reading about St. Martin, the beggar to whom he reached out, his subsequent vision of our Lord wearing the very cloak he gave the beggar, and the meaning of the gospel truth "When you did it to the least of my brothers, you did it to me."

After everyone's hunger was satisfied, we made our way outside for the Lighting of our Lanterns and a lovely walk through the fields above our home. We climbed higher than I had expected, but the view of the sky and the lights from there was just magical and so worth the extra steps. Even Canucu came along and kept up with the two-legged friends.

Once we had made our way back down and around, we headed "down below" to our picnic pavilion for a campfire and s'mores.

The Happy Couple got to share the Good News once again...

Pete and Sarom Lighting some of the lanterns...

Northern Lights!

"Down Below" for the campfire and treats...

Ya know, I wish that I had Jesse's Tree...

I wish that I had Jesse's tree... Why can't I find a tree like that?

Well, this year, Im making our own Jesse Tree. I havent participated in the making of one of these since I was in grade school at St. Matthew's School in Baltimore, Maryland.
This is my first at-home Jesse Tree and Im not going it alone. Thanks the the amazing women at 4 real learning forums
(http://4real.thenetsmith.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=16130&PN=1) I was able to take part in a Jesse Tree swap. Each of us is creating 28 of the same ornament and one very generous lady in DC will be putting them all together into kits for us to use at home, each kit having twenty-eight unique ornaments. The ornaments featured on the Jesse Tree are:

Earth
Apple & Snake
Mary
Ark & Rainbow
Camel & Tent
Lamb
Colorful Coat
Doorway With blood
Tablet With 10 Numbers
Cluster of Grapes
Stick With bronze serpent
Whale
Sheaf of Wheat
Slingshot
Scroll
Stump With Leaf
Lion & Lamb together
Dove & Crown
Shepherd’s Staff
Cross
Heart With Writing
Bethlehem
Fiery Furnace
Brick Wall
Star
Candle or Light
Angel
Baby in Manger

Each represents a passage in the Bible where Jesus was either referred to in prophecy or a part of His life. Here's what I gathered together to make my contribution:


And here's what I made:


I admit it, I chose the simplest one I possibly could. (Even though the Coat of Many Colors was calling out my name.) What with the wedding coming up on Friday and oh let's see...a chuppah yet to be completed, food for forty odd people to make and several dozen origami cranes still existing in only two dimensions as I type this, I felt that participating alone was going to be a stretch, so I better keep it simple.
Im very proud to say my ornaments have already reached DC and are awaiting processing this very moment. I will be certain to include some pictures of all the ornaments when they arrive. We are working on a gorgeous Advent Wreath in New York and I hope to have pictures posted of that and our Martinmas Lantern Walk (which featured Surprise Guest Appearance by none other than the fabulous Northern Lights!) soon.

Look for them soon. Peace. And hey, thanks for checking in.
Heather

Why is this woman smiling?



Here's the scenario:
It's Sunday afternoon. She has to be at work (where she will stay for thirteen hours) in a matter of hours and has not rested today. After driving to two different locations so that her darling little one could get his creative anachronism on (so to speak), she found that both meetings of the SCA had been aborted due to "the cold" (where did these people grow up, anyway?) and while she did get to see some interesting sites like this:


And some downright adorable ones like this:

I really think her being so happy has something to do with this:


Yes! (Yay!) We are having a baby! (And Ive got the twenty seven pregnancy tests to prove it.)

We are just so ecstatic and blown away that we have been given the opportunity to be caretakers for another wondrous miracle.

02 November 2007

Throwing up pictures...so to speak

Happy All Souls! We are caught up in a whirlwind here but there's some serious baking going down. Will write more over the weekend, but please enjoy the images of us making soul cakes and day of the dead cookies.
-H

This little guy in the apron is Ian. I found a soul cake recipe online and we followed it...except I changed the white flour to whole wheat pastry flour and added some chopped black walnuts to some of the cakes. When they were finished cooking, I was disappointed to find they had not risen so much as a centimeter. We powder-sugared them anyway and ate them after returning from mass on Thursday night...and lo and behold it turns out they were DELICIOUS and perfect for dunking in milk or coffee. They had the grainy consistency of a shortbread cookie but were just sweet enough to be fantastic with a little bit of jam or nutella spread on them. So, even though the recipe didn't turn out anywhere near the way it was supposed to, it's still a keeper.

These are some of the Mexican Sugar Skull Cookies we made. I used my mom's tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe, cutting the sugar by half and subsituting almond extract for the vanilla she uses. I figured it was fitting, given marzipan's presence in the traditional celebration. We did two trays with lots of decoration and one tray with just the names of our friends and loved ones who have gone on before us written on them. I think my mom got a little choked up. I have to admit, this was more meaningful to me than I had initially anticipated. I definitely plan to do this every year.

Loved-ones remembered.


Ian fashions his cake to look like a donut...

01 November 2007

Oh How I Want to Be in That Number...

When the SPOON SAINTS go marching in!
What a great All Saints Day craft! It requires some basic craft spoons or tongue depressors, construction paper or cardstock, magic markers and glue... and your imagination. Here's who we made today: St. Therese de Lisieux, Mary, Saint Michael the Archangel and Saint Francis.






And here we have Mother Theresa and her namesake. Don't they look happy together!



This was such a fun craft, and really simple. Thanks to the ladies at 4real learning forums for the how-to.
Stay tuned for soul cakes and Day of the Dead Sugar Cookies.
Peace,
Heather

Click Here for something completely different.

Physics is so not my forte.
So, this little toy is demonstrating to my son the laws of physics. Yes, our planet does that quite nicely as well, but this little gem makes you laugh out loud at the same time.
Try it! It is not as simple as you might imagine.

Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's



But render the Junior Mints and Reese's Cups unto MAMA!

We have another really lovely time trick-or-treating and celebrating at Tina's house this year. I snuck off to the Princess and the Pea bed to grab a short rest before going in to work at eleven o'clock, but not before enjoying going door-to-door with Ian and eating some of the wonderful food she had prepared for us. (And my mother's Amazing Maryland Crab Dip...and that doesnt mean "Maryland Style"...she's from Maryland, the crabs were from Maryland and the dip is out-o-this-world!)

So, another day of fun and spooky treats has come and gone. I wish I had a picture of the "ghost" I fashioned out of a pack of snackwell cookies, a piece of kleenex and some scotch tape for Erin, who relieved me at work at four am so I could get home and snooze a bit before Ian woke up. It was quite a masterpiece.

This year, the fun doesnt end on Halloween. Quite the contrary. We are going to be making some terrific All Saints and All Souls goodies today: Soul Cakes for dessert tonite and Mexican Day of the Dead Sugar Skull Cookies for tomorrow. (You can pretty much rest assured that I am cutting the sugar in the sugar cookie recipe by HALF. Enough is enough, after all.)

Have a wonderful All Saints. Light a candle for me,

H

30 October 2007

LACK-O-DANTERN, LACK-O-DANTERN, you are such a funny sight...


That's what my little guy used to call Jack-o-lanterns when he was around two years-old. I love the way it feels when it rolls of the tongue...try it! "Lack-o-dantern!"

Tonite we (my son, my mom and my Dad) carved pumpkins. This is the first year in a while that I have been able to be home and participate when everyone else does the cutting. Usually I have to work. Another reason I love my weekend schedule.
A few other things about this year's carving night were different, too.

1. My father employed power tools for the job-at-hand while my mother tried to pretend she was not afraid he was going to cut off one of his appendages (or hers, as she was holding the pumpkin all the while).

2. I did not merely Intend To Save the seeds for roasting this year, but actually did save the seeds for roasting.

3. Ian created his jack-o-lantern, from start to finish, all by himself. This intention was announced at the commencement of the carving phase, after he had already cut off the top an scooped out the innards. I can't say I enjoyed watching my seven-year-old wield a knife in such a fashion, but I sure enjoyed seeing the look of determination on his face, subsequently replaced by a look of satisfaction at his handywork and a job-well-done. See for yourself:

YOU WERE ONCE AN ORANGE PUMPKIN ON A STURDY YELLOW VINE...

"Now you are a lack-o-dantern! See the candle light shine..."

29 October 2007

So Shall You Reap




We have begun to allow the chickens to roam in the Garden Proper and it is probably only a matter of days before they will be allowed in the teepee garden/pumpkin patch as well. While Autumn is my favorite time of year, I can't help but be a little bit sad to see our garden decay. I had begun a little notebook of what was planted when and where and how and what I would like to change next year. I had hoped that next year we'd have more than three brussels sprouts and that Id remember to harvest the lima beans before two thirds of them were dried out. I wanted to sew in some of the Alaskan Fish Fertilizer in the Spring. I wanted to plant more pumpkins and get the nastertiums in earlier.

Next year we most likely will not be here to enjoy our garden. I know, I know, we are going to have a Whole New World open for exploration and they DO have dirt and seeds and rain and sunshine in New Zealand. (I checked.) But Im feeling the loss of my first garden.

T created the raised beds with the help of his kids and Ian and myself of course when it came down to to transporting dirt from one part of the property to the other. And we all built the teepee garden (much less wonky once T pointed out it, um, isn't supposed to look like that). My garden was a reason-for-being-outside. It was the reason I caught so many amazing sunsets and evening skies. It was a way to silently meditate in the early morning hours when little boys were still sleeping soundly in their beds. It was how and where and why I saw my first Bat Parade.

My garden (OUR garden) was a way for me to feel connected to the earth, my food, and the Universe... and my family.
It gave us (and continues to give us! Don't forget the purple potato patch!) nourishment of more than one variety. It nourished my body, heart, soul and mind.

I called it the Garden of Possibility. It lived up to its name.

So here's to my garden. May it live on, even if it has to be at the hands of another.

WONTON!

At some point in time, someone gave T and his family a set of Puzzler cards bearing the mind-exercising (and really fun!) puzzles featured on the NPR Sunday Puzzler show. I found them and had been casually working some of them out with Ian as we sat on the front porch (he was mainly holding Gherkin the Turken while I figured out puzzles aloud). I happened to mention to T that I had found them and what fun they are. He had no idea they were even in the house, at least, he couldnt remember them or their origin. So, he and A have been dipping into the puzzler box every now and again and having a BLAST figuring them out.

Here's one of the ones they phoned in to me at work last night.

There is a name of a popular soup which, when written backwards, is a phrase meaning "later".
What is it?

Wonton!
(Not now)

Not only are these puzzles good mental exercise and great family fun, they make you feel SMART, too!

28 October 2007

Nurses are Sick, but also quite Generous

Here is the first non hat or scarf crocheting project Ive ever completed. It was begun at a nursing conference where I was inspired by the sub-zero temperatures in all the presentation rooms.
Naturally, Lori began speaking right away about how much she wishes someone would make her a blanket like that...with those gorgeous colors. And the edge.

So, I presented it to her yesterday as an early Christmas present. Nurses are generous.




This picture was taken at work, where the gift-giving was to occur. There was talk of setting up a dummy isolation room and taking turns posing with the blanket wrapped around us in our Lovely Yellow Gowns, but there were no empty rooms.

See, if you were a nurse, you would think that was funny. Nurses are sick.

The down side to giving Lori her gift now is that I will most likely end up making or buying her something else before Christmas arrives. The up side is that I now have one less thing to worry about getting rid of before we move.
Im looking around at all the "stuff" Ive accumulated throughout my 38 years on this planet and I pray for the strength to part with most of it. They say it's quite freeing...having nothing. I have to say I dont know what that kind of freedom feels like, but Im finding myself more and more of late, as much as the notion scares me, drawn toward finding out.

I can honestly say that if every "thing" I own were to be taken from me in an instant, as long as my family and loved-ones were safe and well, the first thing I would feel, before I had a chance to become sentimental, would be relief. I think that says something about my current state of affairs and what needs to be done.

I pray for the strength to do it. To find meaning in and inhabit the shedding of "stuff".

More on this later, as Im off to work.

Blessed Sunday,
d

27 October 2007

My Little Franciscan




We eventually got the three knots tied nicely after the pictures were taken. (Thank you, Dad!)
How about those sleeves, eh? That's right...Im sewing things with sleeves now, folks. It's a whole new ball game.

When I finished the costume (okay it still isnt finished, it needs some sort of closure at the back, hence the saggy neckline), he was just so excited, he wanted put it on RIGHT AWAY, so we did. It really warmed my heart to see him as excited to dress up as St. Francis as he gets when he dresses up as a knight or a jedi or a pirate.

More Martinmas in the Making


This is one of the invitations Ian made to our at-home Martinmas celebration. He asked me today, after we had just read about St. Martin of Tours, if he can dress up like a soldier like St. Martin. How did I know that was going to happen? Im not sure where he got the military gene but....It's in there.

We didn't get much "school" done today. When contemplating the whole home-schooling idea, I forgot to factor in the dozens of errands that I used to run every week while Ian was in school. Now he goes with me. I wish I were one of those mothers who had the patience and energy to consistently create math lessons in the grocery store or discuss history along the interstate. Im always looking for learning moments with Ian, but I have to admit there are times I let the moment pass without exploitation.

My conscience today is eased, however, because we are planning a family walk this evening out among the glorious autumn foliage. If we plan it right, we will be able to take in the colors at my favorite time of day...when the landscape is awash in the pink and purple hues of the evening sky.

Ian has a second-grader friend coming over for dinner and play this evening. He will be doing his homework here...I must admit Im a little bit curious about what his class is learning and how it is being presented. Ian became very frustrated with the copywork I gave him to do today. I ended up changing my mind and having him create an invitation to the wedding for his friend Seamus instead.

He began crying and told me that "This is just so much harder than first grade!"

I dont know if he is just having a rough day, if he just doesnt want to do "hard things" (which had been noticed by his first grade teacher last year as well as myself) or if I really am asking too much of him. Im shocked, actually, because I had been under the impression that the work we were doing was not challenging enough for him.

Who knew?

Well, we still don't know. It could have been any number of circumstances converging at one time to create that feeling in him. I did, however, lighten up the load today and will continue to try to be more sensitive.

As for me, I have a duvet cover to complete and a St. Francis of Assisi costume to begin.

22 October 2007

Now is the time on Sprockets when we have a nervous breakdown.



One month and one day til the wedding.
I feel something akin to entering Transitional Labor. Im finding myself asking aloud, once again, "People do this more than once??????"

Martinmas In the Making

This year, my second-grader, Ian, will be lucky enough to celebrate Martinmas twice. First, on the eleventh of November, my parents will take him to celebrate with his old school friends from the Waldorf School of Pittsburgh. They will assemble at Frick Park for their annual lantern walk, complete with songs, lanterns, hot chocolate, coffee and home-made pretzels.
Here is a photograph of one of the lanterns he made while at the Waldorf School of Pittsburgh. It now sits on the nature table in our Waldorf-inspired classroom at home in Arkwright, New York:


And as long as we are on the subject of our classroom...here are a few of the things I really like about our homeschool:



The rolltop desk ("my desk") is very old and was salvaged from a tug. All three of T's children used the desk at the center of the room ("Ian's desk") and I painted the chalkboard wall and created the window treatments myself from silks that Ian dyed in kindergarden and some scrap fabric generously given to me by my dear friend (and fellow fabric/yarn/office supply junkie)Lori.

The cross on the wall in this one is made of drift wood we scavenged on the beach at Lake Erie this past summer. Lots of beach glass from those same recon missions is displayed on our nature table. I created it on the spur of the moment one morning while Ian was still asleep. Needless to say, it was a big hit...I had an idea it would be, given his affinity for sticks (and for Our Lord, whom he used to refer to as "Saint Jesus"...but that's another story).



And the second celebration...the one Im so excited about... will take place on the Tuesday after Martinmas. My first annual Martinmas Celebration at our home in New York. If all goes as planned, the second annual Martinmas Celebration will be taking place in another hemisphere, so Im making a point of inviting a few of our dear friends to walk with us, bearing both light and witness into the beautiful Western New York night.

21 October 2007


Poppies
Mary Oliver

The poppies send up their
orange flares; swaying
in the wind, their congregations
are a levitation

of bright dust, of thin
and lacy leaves.
There isn't a place
in this world that doesn't

sooner or later drown
in the indigos of darkness,
but now, for a while,
the roughage

shines like a miracle
as it floats above everything
with its yellow hair.
Of course nothing stops the cold,

black, curved blade
from hooking forward—
of course
loss is the great lesson.

But I also say this: that light
is an invitation
to happiness,
and that happiness,

when it's done right,
is a kind of holiness,
palpable and redemptive.
Inside the bright fields,

touched by their rough and spongy gold,
I am washed and washed
in the river
of earthly delight—

and what are you going to do—
what can you do
about it—
deep, blue night?

I just love this poem. It is one of my favorites...and I have a hard time choosing favorites in most situations. The subject matter, the imagery, the truths expressed.

And Im grateful that I know what it means to be washed and washed in the river of earthly delight and etheral delight in that momentary bliss when they are, in fact, one and the same. That moment when the expansive poppy sky spreads forth and moves away away away over the horizon with the sweeping storm clouds that half-obscure its red glow. That moment when the autumn leaves, at the climax of their death-song, are literally intoxicating and God and Universe and Earth and All are sweeping me up and saturating my senses. And what are you going to do about it, deep blue night?

I will never be a princess and this is not "my day".



I have the uncommon distinction of being a thirty-eight year-old first time bride. One of the great things about having this distinction is that I gave up my delusions of princess-dom (and my desire to wear a tiara) oh, say...thirty years ago. So, I've got that going for me, which is good.

Another really wonderful "thing" about being an older bride is that I've had many really wonderful days in my life already. And I don't really need this one to be "mine". While doing the requisite pre-wedding reading (books on planning your PERFECT day! Imagine! A PERFECT day! Sign me up, right?) It occurred to me over-and-over-and-over again that Brides in this culture are being told a big, awful, potentially relationship-damaging lie by the Bridal Industry. And we all know why they're even showing up for the Big Day. Their reason has nothing to do with commitment, the creation of a family, our spiritual well-being or our happiness in marriage. They want our money.

How fortunate I am to be in a position where, as it happens, I have no money. Or at least, very very little money to spend on this wedding. Yes, this too is a gift. Here's how:

I can not afford the 1500 page Fairy Tale Wedding Album full of photographs where I look....well...perfect.\
I can not afford the forty layer cake that better be just oh so perfectly right even though most brides dont get a chance to eat it except whatever her groom accidentally places in her mouth as he publicly betrays her trust by smearing it all over her face and her perfect makeup and her perfect gown with the price tag the size of the average mortgage.

Instead, we have (gratefully, joyfully, solemnly) had to approach our wedding day as the day it really is. The day when the people we care about, not all the people with whom we were ever acquainted, but the people who really know the us that is us deep down inside, will gather around us and with us and lay their hands above us and pray with us that we will remember these vows stated in the presence of God and man and air and sky. And we will witness the creation of something that is Greater than the sum of its Parts.

I am so so very pleased, and yes grateful, to be a thirty-eight year-old first time bride.

Co-sleeping....in shifts



I came home from work this morning to find this guy (the one without feathers) all rolled up and warm under the quilts in my bed. He says he likes the way it "smells like you, Mama".
And you ask me why Im so grateful?

And so, not wanting to disturb him (he prefers sleeping sideways, smack-dab in the center of the bed, and has done so since he was nine months old...incidentally, when we stopped co-sleeping on a regular basis) I chose to stay in my dirty dirty ceil blue scrubs and lay down on the sofa to catch a few moments of peace before he awakens, we eat something for breakfast, his grandfather swoops in to take over and I go upstairs to a warm, darling boy-scented bed and fall fast asleep.

Except there is a woodpecker delivering what is apparently a most urgent message via morse code, conveniently, against the exterior of my house. An annoyance, absolutely, but once I remember what it was like when I lived in a basement apartment and it was people delivering loud, often obscene and far less melodic messages on the stoop just outside, above and to the left of my bedroom window that kept me awake late into the night, I decide it isn's *so* terrible a sound.

I can get just as much rest by focusing on my breathing and engaging in quiet meditation and prayer as I can from actual sleep.

At least, that's what Im going to tell myself until Im upstairs.

Last night my dhtb rang me at work and asked if I had time to listen as he read our daily devotional (we hadnt a chance to read it in the morning as I was off to get my ds from his second-ever sleepover and back to Pittsburgh in time for karate class). It was such a small gesture, but so great with meaning.

The devotional is a new thing for us. With everything that is going on, all the changes in our lives (eu-stress is still STRESS, after all), it was my suggestion that we actually put into practice what we have said all along about wanting our spiritual life together to be held as a priority. We both had envisioned, I think, something much more....eastern. Something involving zafus. At least one zafu, anyway.

But my ds's own spiritual path, as it crystalizes and takes shape in front of our eyes, has brought me back Home Again to the realization that I can live my truth wherever I find myself. And so we return to what we know. And what a deep, rich homecoming it has been.