A recent picture of family!

From left: Heather & baby Harper, Rusty (James), Momalu, Grandma and Scott

Makes me so very glad!

Mitsy

Mitsy has been restored!  She now resides in a new frame, complete with protective glass.  She also received a few touch-ups here and there and has been cleaned and vacuumed.

Here is a close-up

So you're probably wondering, who is this delightful bird lady?  Well folks, meet Mitsy! She was painted by a friend of my grandmother's for my grandparent's bar, The Birdcage.  Mitsy was the centerpiece at The Birdcage.  It wasn't long before people started talking about the resemblance between Mitsy and my grandmother, Jane.

After The Birdcage closed, Mitsy moved to my grandparent's house where she remained the centerpiece for many years.  When my mom and grandma hit the road and started traveling it was decided that Mitsy needed a new home.  

She has found a home.  

But the question remains - is this lovely bird lady really my grandma? 

A Nod to Parisi café & Natasha's Mulberry & Mott

We have this lovely little place in Kansas City called Parisi café.

The coffee is beautiful, heavy, luscious, healing, intensely complex.

They also get these fabulous dark chocolate coconut macaroons from Natasha's Mulberry & Mott.

I have embraced parallel parking because of Parisi café.

If I described the dark chocolate coconut macaroon, I might say, "little nugget of bliss," or "messy, sticky chocolately coconut kapow."

happy

I have carpal tunnel.  I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it.  It is only a tiny hiccup in my life.  It is easy for me to redirect the energy I spent on tennis into something else.  I am blessed with unlimited passions and excitement.  I do hope that I heal and I can play tennis soon, but I'm not throwing a lot of concentration into that hope. 

I have another appointment for the carpal tunnel next week, however, and I am getting quite anxious.  I am ready for great news.  

I am happy, sometimes overwhelmingly so.  And I need to keep sharing this happiness.  It isn’t entirely mine.  As much as I would like to claim my happiness and hoard it for melancholy days, I know that it needs to be shared.  If happiness is not shared it doesn’t go anywhere, and stagnant joy carries little weight.  

I will leave you with a little Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.

Gifts

Each time I ride my bike I stumble upon these amazing little moments that take up residence in my spirit.  They are moments that I would not have seen in my car, thrilling and deceivingly minute happenings that completely consume me.

I have seen the fragile shells of birds with holes created by the urgency of life, the bright flash of eyes in the shrubbery when the earth is dark and still.  Once, I saw a brilliant leaf hover above the sidewalk like a tiny spaceship before it lifted and whirled into a dragonfly.  

Often, I take my humanness and capture these gifts with language.  But what I carry with me through the day isn’t anything I can ever humanize. 

Haute Construction Worker

This is a meal I like to call The Haute Construction Worker:



It's a bologna frisée sandwich on 12 grain bread and a glass of banana milk on ice.  It is crucial that the milk is in a glass (the fancier the better) and the sandwich is on a napkin.

Since we last spoke

We moved our kitchen to the back of the house.  When we walked in the front the old kitchen was immediately to the left.

This was our old kitchen 

Tearing it down

Gone

These 3 pictures are of the back room, which used to be a second living room and is now where the new kitchen is.

This is our living room.  We gutted it as well and added new insulation, an extra built-in, and new fireplace surround

We decided to carry the wood floors throughout.  So we hired someone to stitch them together.

For the finishes we went with a stained maple, white Silestone and a wall color called "Cavern."  We also found handles that matched the shape of our appliances.  We also decided to put built-ins in the spot where the old kitchen was.

Done!

We also said goodbye to the pond

I left Gift of Life, but only as a paid employee ; )

Robert put in a sprinkler system – all by himself!

We did a little bit of caving

And said goodbye to Madeline's son, Jeff 

and Robert's uncle, Rodney

We also said goodbye to my Toyota Matrix and my collection of fortune cookie slips

We visited the birthplace of Robert’s grandfather, Sam

I put up a fantastic Poetry display, which I’m doing again in just a few days

 I’ve been playing a lot of tennis, and was fined for bringing my dogs with me.  Well, mostly I was fined for asking the officer if she needed a hug.

Speaking of Ella and Rose - Rose is still keeping the Earth from floating away

And Ezza Bezza has been playing a lot of ball

I have been painting quite a bit

Scott left Noble Hops and is much happier

Mom and Grandma nested in Oro Valley

Jason and Spanky moved and from what I've heard, are watching too much Duck Dynasty.

Dad is, as always, the master of lines and puns.  

And Rusty is engaged to Heather.  They are expecting a tater tot soon.

GLORIOUS!

Today's ♥ list:

1. I woke up to poached eggs, courtesy of Robert
2. Volunteering at Gift of Life.  Visiting with Andy and Keith was a treat, and I totally tackled the Life Savers forms ; )
3. Intent on reading a few of the 100+ books I have checked out, I somehow fell asleep, and it was GLORIOUS!
4. After my nap, Ella brought me a ball and when I pointed to where I wanted her to put it she climbed up on the couch with me and all the books
5. Robert and I watched a little Top Gear : )
6. I'm always up for a little snow.  Today's was a little sloppy and sad, but I'll take it
7. I looked back at this blog and discovered that I need to find my way back here

Dear Soandso,

I don't know who you are, but I have witnessed how you manifest in people, and for your presence I am sincerely grateful.

Lately, my family has experienced a few crises, and because of you, we have been able to keep moving past them.

I hope I can pass this love on, and share the light that you fill me with when I blatantly ignore the brightness of the heartbeats of my loved ones, or when I struggle to rise from the grime of self pity and fear.  Please know that I am filled with life and a sense of humor and am a brick potty house to boot.  I am all these things because of the people who have taken your light and passed it on to me.  We are keeping this thing called faith alive - this wildly powerful belief that a higher power exists and strings us together with an invisible line made visible with love and trust and positivity.

We are the toughest house of cards.  We fall.  We grow.

I never know when you will appear, and I'm most always unprepared, and the gratitude I express is never enough, but I am here whenever needed.

doing my thing

Robert snapped this picture of myself, doing my thing. : )