Reading List

"Hi, my name is Philomere, and I have a book problem." "Hi Philomere." "It's been 47 days since I last bought a book." Clapping of hands, affirmations, general nods of approval... Really, someone needs to start a 12-step program for compulsive book buyers.

They jump up and down when they see me coming into Book Passage. I went in there yesterday to purchase one book, just one, and I had a legitimate reason for buying A Platter of Figs (more on that tomorrow), but Olives and Oranges was sitting right there...and then...and then... "Will that be all?" says the bookseller with a knowing look in his eye. He's got my number.

When I get home, I decide it's time for me to take responsibility for my issues. Accountability. Isn't that one of the steps? So I pull out all the books I've purchased or been given in the last year or so, the ones I haven't read, or started to read, all the ones I'm trying to read in tandem. I start stacking them up, and it isn't pretty: soon, the tower is over four feet tall and I have to stop for fear that it will topple and crush one of my children.

To his credit, my husband doesn't say, "What exactly is it that you're doing, anyway?" until I start to put them all away. He says it nonchalantly, not exactly looking at me, the way you would speak to a lunatic you're trying to keep calm until you can get her to a hospital. "These are all the books I'm going to read before I can buy another one," I say with determination.

Sadly, the stack doesn't include the 3-foot pile of periodicals, or the Photoshop instruction manual, or all the other educational materials I hope to peruse. The real travesty is that I usually only have time for reading when I'm sitting in the car line to pick Claire up from school, so I've started showing up at the front of the line an hour before school gets out. Obviously, I need help. Sponsorship, anyone?

Sleeping Lady

I love living in the shadow of Mt. Tamalpais, otherwise known as the Sleeping Lady. She's full of surprises, that one; constantly changing her appearance, different from every angle, a reassuring landmark nonetheless. Chloé pointed out the sliver of a moon as we were heading into the high school theater for her performance of Someone to Watch Over Me at the Intermediate Drama performances. It was a magical evening, and I'm glad we caught this glimpse of the twilight sky.

If I Were President

Jack often talks in his sleep and wakes himself up in the early morning hours, so I wasn't surprised to hear him saying what I thought was "rock-a-bye mama, rock-a-bye mama" over and over again. He woke up, and I said, "rock-a-bye mama, what a nice song!" "No," he corrected me, "Barack Obama!"

All the kids have special assemblies at school today to see the inauguration of our 44th president. "This is an historic day," I told Claire. "I bet in your lifetime, you'll get to see a woman elected president, too; maybe even you!"

"Oh, I would never be president," she replied, "too many Secret Service guys following me around all the time. But if we could fix that, then I'd do the job. I'd change all the laws, put a swimming pool on the back lawn of the White House, and on my last day in office I'd let 10 people out of jail." Oooooooooookay!

"Jack," I asked then, "what would you do if you were President?" Without hesitation, he said, "I'd paint big red hearts all over the White House, especially the front door, and I'd feed all the poor people some healthy food." I say, JACK for PRESIDENT!

I Have a Wish

I wish every day could be happy and carefree like this one. I wish the kids would always get along with each other so well. I wish the world was more innocent. I wish people would breathe deeply, smile more, and complain less. I wish I knew what to make for dinner.

Fly Away Home

How lovely that this little ladybug landed on the "L" and refused to leave! We have a group (known in some circles as a "loveliness") of ladybugs that congregates around our side porch door every winter. That ladybugs hang out on the south side of trees and other large protrusions in the wintertime is apparently common knowledge, but I just learned about this phenomenon today. Sometimes these cuties make their way inside the house, to the kids' great delight.

Several of us tried to coax the critter off the keyboard, but it wasn't until Jack stuck out his tender little finger that the bug obliged. He crawled all the way up Jack's arm and then flew away. "He's gone to find his family," Jack pronounced, "I hope he comes back." You know, I feel sure he will.

Flowers for Francine

I had lunch today with Francine, an old friend I too rarely have a chance to see. She's smart and funny and opinionated and reminds me that I do still have a brain, however addled it may be at this point in my life.

I took this photo to mark the passing forward of a personal treasure: my Francine flour tin from France. Farine Francine is the French equivalent of Gold Medal all-purpose flour, and I had to save numerous UPC codes from little paper packages in order to send away for the tin. Call me silly, but it became one of my completely-worthless-but-totally-priceless possessions, probably because of the charming watercolor reproductions printed all over it.

Well, it just so happens that I completely overhauled the pantry yesterday, and I finally decided that I could part with said tin and give it to someone who would appreciate it as much as I have. I plopped in a red primrose and presented it somewhat unceremoniously, but Francine seemed to really love it, and later emailed me to say that it has a place of honor on the sill of her red-curtained kitchen window. Much better than hidden away in a dark pantry. How serendipitous!

L'Artiste

The weird warm weather we're having lets us (thankfully) move some after-school activities outdoors. Watching Claire work at the easel is fascinating to me. She's so sure of herself and so creative in her techniques (shortly after this photo, she abandoned the brush and used her thumb to print the leaves). I love how the balcony railings are making an appearance in all her recent paintings...

Sunrise, Sunrise

It always pays to look south when the sun is coming up in the morning; the sky at daybreak often takes on the ethereal quality of a Maxfield Parrish painting (or maybe that should be the other way around?). Not matter how you look at it, it's beautiful.

In a Certain Light

Our Associate Rector was just ordained and I was asked to photograph his first celebration of the Eucharist. While I'm not really one for all the pomp and circumstance (even after years of attending this Episcopal church), I can appreciate the mystery and history at the heart, the origin, of all these rites and rituals. My faith is just more freewheeling in form and expression.

Recently, a self-proclaimed atheist said to me, "I envy you your faith. It gives you something to fall back on." I just smiled and nodded, swallowing all the smart-mouthed comebacks that popped to mind, like: "Well, faith is free for the taking...", "You have faith in your convictions, right?", "Yeah, the empirical world isn't much of a comfort, is it?" Not very Christian of me, I know....

I wish I had my grandfather's brand of steadfast, unshakable faith; mine is more like quicksand, a candle in the wind. But it's there. Honestly, who can contemplate the Fibonacci sequence in the face of a sunflower and not believe in a higher power? Whether or not he's got my back every minute of the day, well, I'll have to get back to you on that one. The older I get, though, the more inclined I am to agree with Ralph Waldo Emerson: "All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen..."

The Year of Living Simply

On, off, on, off: if only everything in life could be so straightforward! Instead of making specific resolutions for the new year, I made a conscious decision to try and live more simply. If that's a broad and far-reaching concept, the steps towards achieving the goal are small: consume less (go to the library instead of buying books we don't have room for anyway), jettison more (James, I'm talking to you, too), don't create extra work (there's enough of that already), look far enough ahead to stay organized, but not so far that I can't enjoy the moment... Simplify, simplify, simplify! What works for you? I'd love to know.

His Eye Is On the Sparrow

"The sparrow is a symbol of comfort and simplicity. In European lore, the sparrow is symbolic of domesticity and competent homemaking. The sparrow is also associated with motherly love. Small though she may be, she is certainly powerful. She reminds us we do not have to have the big stuff to be important; we do not have to have the loudest voice in order be heard.

"The sparrow is vigilant in her goals. She is always bustling for her food, foraging for her nests, and gathering for her young. Fastidious and productive, the sparrow is a reminder that idle hands (and idle minds) should be avoided in order to live a full, healthy life. She beckons us to keep our burdens as light as we can in order to avoid a heavy heart."

*

When a sparrow crashed into the window yesterday and didn't survive, I felt overly upset. Then, just minutes after it happened, I learned that Chloé and Wynham's great-grandmother in France, Mamie, had passed away. She was amazing, always youthful and industrious; a tiny woman with an enormous amount of energy, much like a sparrow. A mother of four children herself, she taught me so much about motherhood.

"I just can't stand another blow," said Wynham. It's been a hard couple of years of loss for these kids. Needless to say, our hearts are heavy as we look to the sky and think of her...

*

The Feast of Kings

One of my favorite traditions from France is a cake celebrating the Epiphany called La Galette des Rois - "the cake of the Kings". The cake consists of flaky puff pastry layers with a dense center of frangipane. Tradition holds that the cake is baked to draw the kings to the Epiphany.

A figurine is hidden in the wafer and the person who obtains this trinket (la fève -"the broad bean", which is what was baked into the galette in the Middle Ages) becomes king for the day. A gilded paper crown is included with the cake to crown the "king" who finds the fève in their piece of cake.

To ensure a random distribution of the cake shares, the youngest person at the festivities sits under the table and names the recipient of each piece. The cake is cut into as many slices as guests, plus one. The latter, called "the share of God," was intended for the first poor person to arrive at the home. Claire already called it for breakfast tomorrow, since Wynham got to be king...

Farewell, Florida

Or, as they say down here, "BYE, Y'ALL!"

I know a few folks who will be glad to sleep

with their heads on their own pillows tonight!

Crabby Girl

Claire discovers the joys of a crab leg dinner

on our last night in Orlando,

while Wynham stabs his steak in the background.

All in the Family

The kids were living it up at Carol and Patrick's wedding today and they all participated in the event: Jack as the ring "bear" (grrr), Claire as the flower girl (who took her duties very seriously and practiced several times to get the distribution of petals just right), Wynham as a groomsman (who was dubious about having to walk not one, but two, bridesmaids up the aisle), and Chloé as the solo vocalist (not a dry eye in the house after her version of Nora Jones' Come Away With Me). You can see loads more pictures in the wedding picture slideshow. I enjoyed the champagne; that, and having a Really Good Hair Day for once (thanks to the hair dryer I found in the condo...)!

Vacation Condo, Not

Here's a view of the lovely white sand beach from the vacation condo in Siesta Keys, Sarasota, where we stayed for three days. I'd just like to point out that while buying groceries for the condo, making meals in the condo, washing dishes and doing laundry in the condo, cleaning up the condo because it's for sale and the owners want to show it, and keeping everyone organized for wedding and pre-wedding activities (some of which were held -where else - at the condo), I never set foot on this lovely white sand beach.

The only sand I came in contact with was the stuff that stuck to my feet after everyone else went to the beach and then came back and shook out their towels and bathing suits in the condo. Did I mention it was a "vacation" condo? Do I sound like I'm complaining? As someone I dearly love always reminds me, "Oh, the abnegation of the mother!" But hey, at least I didn't get a sunburn in the condo...

Happy New Year from Animal Kingdom!

Animal Kingdom offers us a "peaceful" respite

from the last couple of days.

Long in the tooth! This cheeky llama kept

swinging around to get a closer look at us.

The gang lets loose somewhere on the African plains.

Pssst, Chloé, this isn't really Africa...

This morning at the pond in front of our hotel I was delighted to see a
blue heron, harbinger of prosperity and good fortune,
putting his best foot forward on the first day of the new year.