Rain!

We actually had rain last night, almost a whole inch.  Too late, I think, to help the corn crop in this area, but it will ease the drought a bit.  I won’t say plants look perkier but they do look less droopy…  Hopefully it will help farmers with the vegetable crops, the selection at the farmer’s market hasn’t been the greatest.  The storm that dropped the rain moved some of the very hot weather out, so we have the windows open.  It’s still quite humid, and the heat is coming back. I’m getting more used to the heat, though.  On Sunday Madeline and I went to the Art Fairs on and off the Square in Madison, with a friend and her daughters.  It was in the 90s and sunny, very hot, but I was fine.  I used to positively wither in weather like that.

This past weekend was a big one for son Jacob.  He passed the check ride for his CFII certification.  He is now a certified flight instructor for both private pilot and instrument.  This is good because he is now eligible to be an instructor at the school he attends, and because it means that the bulk of his flight training is over.  So a big milestone for him, and he’s about the happiest he’s ever been.
On Tuesday Madeline and I went up to American Players Theatre with the Shakespeare group she belongs to.   There were about 30 of us total, we saw Twelfth Night.  I’d already seen it a few weeks ago, and although well done I didn’t care for the story and could have lived without seeing it again but they needed drivers.  I did enjoy meeting some of the other parents, and it was fun to see the kids enjoying the show and talk about it.  There was a Q&A session with the cast afterwards and the kids really enjoyed that.  They even had a chance to talk to one of the actors as they walked down the hill– very special.  Altogether very worthwhile, but it made for a late night, we didn’t get home until 1 am.  I still haven’t caught up on sleep.

Speaking of American Players, Madeline and I are going up again on Saturday to see Royal Family.  Sometimes I think I’m crazy to spend so much time and money on APT, but the truth is it is something she and I both enjoy.  It’s kinda our thing, and really not the worst way to spend out time or money.

I went through CPR certification this past Saturday, which was very interesting.  Although, as another not-so-young person in the class said, it’s real hard on the knees.  It’s actually a good feeling, though, to know that I can perform CPR, use an AED, and help a choking person.  A big responsibility too, of course.  One of my class mates is also starting the PTA program this fall, so it was nice to see a familiar face.

I’ve managed to keep up the bike rides as time allows and feel better for it.  The eating right part is not going so well– easy to fail on that when I’m busy.  But I keep working at it– small steps forward!

I have the day off today which is wonderful.  I have some things to get done today so I’ll be busy, but a break from the cafe is good.  We’ve been busy, and that is a blessing and I’m grateful for it.  For the most part customers have been great, but there have been a few days where the tips have been pretty poor, in spite of good service.  That wears me down a bit.  So I’ll enjoy the day off.  We need to start getting ready for our vacation, coming in a week and a half!  I am so looking forward to that.

Aahhhhh!!

The week of Independence Day was incredibly hot and humid here in Wisconsin, but this week has been much better.  Still warm but not so muggy, and it was a pleasure to turn of the AC and open the windows again.  I am grateful for AC for the relief it brings, but I hate having the house all shut up, it makes me feel claustrophobic.

I have not been biking as much as I had hoped to.  I have all kinds of reasons (or excuses) not to– it’s too hot, it’s too late, I’m too tired, I don’t have enough time.  On Sunday, when the hot weather broke, I took a short ride, on the little loop I’d found earlier this summer.  I timed it and it takes about 20-25 minutes to do.  It’s not as long a ride as I would like to do, but 25 minutes is better than 0 minutes. I almost always have 25 minutes to spare in the evenings. So, I am going to commit to taking that 25 minute ride every evening, and will do a longer one when time allows.  So far I have kept it up. I’ve also been doing some strength exercises in the morning.

I went to the doctor for my yearly check up last week, and she made it clear it’s time to exercise and get in shape, so that has been the impetus behind all this.  I’m going to try to eat better, too.  My cholesterol is high.  I’m 49, and if I don’t start making these changes now, when do I think I will?  Plus I want to be in good shape physically when I start my clinical courses in late August.

Time to get cracking!

 

Farewell to Fr. David

Seven and one-half years ago Fr. David became the priest for our cluster of 4 parishes.  Our former pastor, Fr. Fitz, had died in May, 2003, and since then we were served by a rotation of retired priests.  We weren’t even sure we would get a new priest assigned to us.  There is a shortage of priests in the Catholic church, and we’d been warned our churches may be closed.  When we heard Fr. David was to be assigned to us, we were thrilled to get a priest– any priest.

Enter Fr. David, a new priest but not a young one.  He had been a teacher for a while, then entered the Peace Corps, then after that entered seminary.  He had a beard and mustache, and long hair he kept pulled back in a pony tail.  He drove a tiny old car with a peace sign on the back.  Not quite what our little, rural church was expecting, but we loved him right from the start.

Fr. David is a kind, generous man, with a heart for the Eucharist and a passion for social justice.  He was patient with us, slowly but firmly getting our Liturgies and our parishes better in line with what was expected by the Diocese.  He listened to our complaints with great forbearance.  He shared in the difficult decisions.  He brought together our parishes and helped us all to learn to share, to be generous– not an easy task with four independent, proud parishes!

I was on the parish council for 3 years during that time, and was always impressed with how well he handled things.  Change comes hard to people, and we had a lot of changes coming from the Diocese during his tenure.  He was so patient with our complaints and questions, he was sympathetic to our concerns, yet he never wavered in doing what he needed to do.  It could not have been easy.  He helped at our Faith Formation classes for the middle and high school students, and my co-teacher and I were very grateful to him for that– not all priests are so generous with their time.

While he was our priest he traveled to Cuba, Guatemala and Mexico, and always shared his experiences afterwards.  Several years ago he took a sabbatical in the Holy Land, an experience which touched him deeply.  He brought his experiences there into his sermons, enriching us all.  He  did a PowerPoint presentation of it for our Faith Formation classes, and the kids were almost mesmerized by it– it was a wonderful thing for them to see.

I knew he wouldn’t be with us forever, and had a feeling this would be the year he was transferred.  I’m sad to see him go, but I’m grateful for the time we had with him.  He is the priest my kids will most remember from their childhood, and I could not ask for a better priest for them than this man, who combined a firm devotion to the Church and the Eucharist and a commitment to live out the command of Jesus to serve others.

His new parishes will be blessed to have him.

As for our cluster of 4 parishes, we have been split up, with 2 joining one cluster and 2 another.  This Sunday will be our first Mass with our new priest.  I have heard very good things about him.  I know there will be adjustments and I’ve already experienced the fears and complaints of some of my fellow parishioners, but most of us are choosing to trust that the Spirit is at work and that, as Julian of Norwich said, All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.

…………

In other news, it is Independence Day, it is 10:30 in the morning , and the temperature is already 91.  Zoinks!

Breakfast on the Porch

Today I don’t need to be in to work until 10:00, which makes the morning a little more relaxed.  My daughter had two friends stay the night, so the living room contained three sleeping girls when I came downstairs.  I made a cup of tea and fixed myself a bowl of yogurt, black raspberry sauce and granola, and headed out to the porch for breakfast.  It’s not quite 8:30 as I write this and it is already 73 degrees– the low last night was 70, I believe.  We are 2 days into a stretch of hot, humid weather, my least favorite kind.  I gave in yesterday morning, after a sleepless night, and turned on the air-conditioner.  I hate to do that, because it means closing the windows, and it makes me feel almost claustrophobic.

So sitting out on the porch is a lovely treat and I’m enjoying the fresh air.  The black raspberries for the sauce were picked on Monday evening.  I was struggling Monday with an issue that affects my future plans.   What to do?  Monday I was going crazy thinking about it and finally decided to get out of the house for a while.  I headed to a nearby park that I used to take the dog to, back when he was still alive.  I brought along a container in case their were berries, and there were!  I wore shorts, unfortunately, but refused to let the thorns stop me.  I came home with very scratched-up legs and about 3 cups of berries– not enough for jam, so I made sauce instead. Delicious and totally worth the torn flesh.  To me black raspberries taste like summer.  They are early this year, usually hey are ripe around Independence Day.

We are having quite a dry spell here in Southern Wisconsin, and if we don’t get rain soon the farmers may lose their corn.  However, I haven’t had to mow much and there aren’t many mosquitoes at the moment– so we take the good with the bad.

Summer’s bounty begins

I walked up to the farmer’s market this morning without expecting to find much– I’d gone to the market on Wednesday and there were few vendors and none had much. Quite a few vendors were there this morning and I got all kinds of stuff– some absolutely gorgeous beets, new potatoes, leeks, kale, lettuce, two kinds of cheese and some lovely shell peas.  Few vendors have shell peas and those who do pick them too late, so they are starchy and bitter.  Blech.  But these were young and tender and sweet.  When I got home Madeline and I sat on the porch and ate them all.

When I was growing up my dad always had a very large garden every summer– it helped to feed our family of six.  I loved peas, even then, and have wonderful memories of taking a basket, walking down to the garden, and happily picking a basketful.  I would then sit on our screened porch and eat the whole basket, generally without any help from anyone.  I’m sure I was willing to share, and I know I did share sometimes.  I was often home alone– I am much more of a home-body than the rest of my family– so I guess I just got first crack at them. I ate most of the ones this morning, and apologized for being a pig.  My daughter said it was fine, since I love peas so much.  I said she loved them too, but she said she just likes them, but I love them.  So maybe the rest of my family didn’t quite have the passion for them that I do.

We had our first performance of Cinderella last night and it went very well– the house was sold out, or close to sold out.  Some of the cast members are young adults that I first met 8 years ago on the first show I ever worked on, and it is wonderful to see them grown up, still performing.  I’ve said it will be my last show for a while, and it has been such a good one to be my last.

The only thing I don’t like about the show is the music.  Because of our small venue, we couldn’t have an orchestra, but the directors did not want just a pianist– they wanted the orchestral sound.  So we bought the rights to a full computerized orchestration.  In many ways it’s fantastic– the music is very well performed, and the program has a lot of flexibility, it’s actually quite amazing.  But it lacks something– it’s almost too perfect.  It’s much like the difference between studio performances vs. live performance.  Of course, sometimes a live pit orchestra can have its difficulties– I’ve been involved in shows where the pit overpowers the singing, or in ones where they seem to be fighting each other every step of the way.  So we don’t have any of that.  But vamping is a big part of a musical, due to timing, and when the recorded orchestration vamps, it sounds just like a record skipping– it’s the same thing over and over, with no human vagaries or imperfections.  It’s actually sort of horrible, and even somewhat stressful during scene changes– I find myself rushing to make it stop!

Well, we tried it, and it has good points and bad, like anything else.  And as the technical director said, this production is teaching us a lot, including that the venue is not the best one for large, lavish musicals.

Solstice

The solstice was yesterday.  I spent most of the day inside, at work during the day and at rehearsal for Cinderella in the evening.  would normally consider this unfortunate, but yesterday it was in the low 90′s and humid– the kind of whether that saps my energy.  Plus the sun is so intense this time of year.  I walk home from work with the sun beating down on me and am convinced I can feel it giving me skin cancer.  I’m totally serious about that, I sort of cringe all the way home and am rather stressed by it.  I guess I’m a bit of a hypochondriac.

Madeline’s graduation party went well!  All her artwork looked fantastic up on the walls, it was really impressive and people enjoyed looking at it.  It was a warm day and we did run out of iced tea… we had over 30 people come and most stayed the whole time.  It was a lovely party and I’m glad we had it.  The house-cleaning frenzy before the party was exhausting, but we’ve enjoyed having a cleaner house (except for the spare room, where a lot of stuff got chucked!  We’ll work on that later…)

Madeline and I are both involved withCinderella up at our theatre guild, she’s in the show, I’m stage managing along with friend Denise.  I am enjoying it– it’s a truly wonderful cast, extremely talented and also a generous and hard-working cast.  No egos, no prima donnas or prima donalds as we like to call them.  We have 3 shows this weekend, and 4 next weekend, and that will be over.  I don’t plan on getting involved in any more shows for a while.

I found out 2 days ago, via a letter, that the PTA program I’m starting in the fall is on probation with the organization it gets it accreditation from.  The cause is low graduation rates, which they have been working on and the letter said they expect to get their full status back, but it is still worrying.  Not sure what I will do about it.  It’s been the one ow spot int he past few weeks, but it’s a pretty serious one.  Sigh.

June already!

Where did May go?  Such a busy, busy month.  Busy with work, and end of year stuff.  A lovely month full of blooming plants and allergies that kicked my butt.

Madeline finished up her schoolwork and is officially done with high school!  We will have a party for her in a week.  I had not originally planned to have a party– her brother was content with a dinner with family.  I grew up in a time and place when graduating from high school, while commendable, was not considered something that needed to be celebrated extravagantly.  I was surprised when we moved to this area to see the goings-on at graduation time: huge tents on the lawn; rented tables and chairs; catered meals ranging from pulled pork sandwiches with cheesy potatoes to gourmet hors d’oeuvre; guest lists in the hundreds.  Madeline’s party will be nothing like that.  We will have cake and probably some snack types foods– cheese tray and fruit tray and the like.  For beverages we thought we’d have a selection of iced teas.  The special part will be her artwork– we’ll remove all the pictures/painting on our walls and hang up her work!  We’re excited about that.  We’ll have some of our closest friends, and her paternal grandparents will be here too.  Should be fun, though I need to get moving on cleaning the house…

I’ve gotten her final homeschool transcript completed, signed by her dad and I, and mailed off.  Yesterday she received her housing assignment from college– it’s starting to seem real!  She already heard from one of her room-mates (she’ll share an apartment with 3 other girls).

Jacob finished his semester early in May, and did well, he should make Dean’s list again.  He went to Nationals with his flight team; they didn’t do particularly well as a team but he did all right individually, and he had a very good time.  He’s back in Dubuque for the summer, and has found a good sublet through mid-August, moved in today.  He just wasn’t happy in his last place, so I hope this suits for the summer, and I hope he finds something good for the fall.  He has one part-time job and will look for a second one, he’s also taking a 6-week summer class.

As of today I will no longer receive child support for Madeline.  That’s the way the law works in Wisconsin.  So money will be tighter from now on, but I’ve been prepared.  Both kids got good financial aid packages from their colleges; I did not, nor did I get any sort of scholarship, which surprised me.  I’m a little bitter about that, since I know I had a good application, but I remind myself that at least I still have the means to go to school– many don’t.

So here we are, in June, with my flower boxes planted and blooming on the porch, and my herbs growing in pots and in the side garden.  The daisies are blooming as well, and event the day lilies– they are both a bit early this year.  Mourning Doves have nested in the crab tree by the porch and the little ones watch me as I mow the lawn.  The  sunny days end in a long, lovely twilight, and I relish the peace whenever I have the chance.

Vacation 2011

We are back from our week-long vacation in beautiful Grand Marais, Michigan.  It was absolutely wonderful, a week of rest and relaxation in a place of incredible natural beauty.

We left last Saturday after yet another week of busy schedules, with work and activities keeping us from preparing for the trip.  Jacob made cookie dough, which we portioned out and froze, and he made and froze satay sauce, and I made beef stew and spaghetti sauce, which we also froze.  The night before we left I made & baked bread for us to take along, as well as some pizza dough, and managed to throw together the dry ingredients for muffins and pancakes as well.  We finished packing quite late and got to bed even later– we were all a bit wound up, and it was too hot to sleep anyway.

We got a good, early start, leaving just before 7 am (central time) and arrived in Grand Marais a bit after 4:30, with only 3 stops (breakfast, lunch and gas).  It was lovely there, cooler and dryer, and it was good to be in our little rental place, so familiar to us now.  We unpacked, wandered around a bit, stocked up on supplies at the grocery store, and settled in to home-made pizza for supper followed by sunset on the breakwater.

A big difference for us this year was that we slept in every day– in the past we had always gotten up early.   Now we lazed in bed and had a leisurely breakfast and then would head out to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore for the day.

Sunday we visited the Au Sable  sand dunes and Sable Falls, and hiked to the visitor’s center, and picnicked on the dunes before heading back into town, Madeline and I to swim, Jacob to re-supply with water and head back to his beloved dunes. Lake Superior was warmer than it has been in a while and the swimming was excellent.  Monday, we visited Log Slide and hiked to the Au Sable  light house from there, picking wild blueberries on the way.  Tuesday was rainy so we drove on newly-paved county road H-58 to Munising, had lunch, and drove back, stopping at Miner’s Castle on the way.  Wednesday we went to Twelve Mile Beach and hiked the two-mile White Birch Trail, where we came upon masses of wild blueberries, which we picked and ate in our pancakes the next day.  We sat on the beach there and watched the waves crashing on the beach and the white caps out on the lake. Thursday we hiked to the forget-me-not bridge near Sable Lake, then went to Hurricane River, hiked to the light house again and took the tour (Madeline passed on that, heights are not her thing), and played and picnicked on the beach, then Madeline and I hiked and picked thimbleberries, which are delicious although none of us could quite describe the taste. We arrived back in town in time for a swim.  Friday we spent at the sand dunes, with Madeline and I heading back early for a swim and Jacob heading back out again.

Every night ended with us biking/scootering down to the breakwater to watch the sun set, although on both Tuesday and Wednesday the waves were high enough that we couldn’t go out to the end.  The other nights the lake was glassy smooth.  We would stay there, watching the sun set, then staying a little longer to watch the colors and to see the moon shine on the lake.  Sublime.

We never rushed, we never felt stressed, it was just a lazy, relaxed week of fun.  We headed back home feeling refreshed and renewed, and today we’ve caught up on laundry and other things, which is nice to d before heading into a week of work and activities– back to the craziness, but with renewed energy and focus.

August

Where did July go?  It’s been hot and humid for a few weeks now, and it’s getting old. We’ve had a lot more rain than we usually do this time of year, which means the weeds are flourishing and the lawn needs mowing frequently.  The dehumidifier in the basement runs incessantly.  We broke down and turned on the air conditioner during a  brutal few days.  I’m tempted to do so again– the nights have been sultry and it’s hard to sleep.

More rain also means the mosquitoes are flourishing, which is miserable.  They make it hard to enjoy the porch in the evenings.

Last week I finally had a chance to do something fun with friends– between my own crazy schedule and my friends’ equally crazy ones it has been impossible to get together.  But on Friday I went with my friends Denise and Wendy to see Of Mice and Men at American Players Theatre in Spring Green.  It was a lovely, clear summer evening, the mosquitoes were not bad, and we got there early enough to enjoy a very leisurely picnic and some conversation.  The show was wonderful, as it always is at APT.  I’d never read Of Mice and Men nor had I seen it performed before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, serious though it is.  Some of my friends and acquaintances have been reluctant to see it because they want something lighter, and I can see their point, but I’m very glad I saw it and would willingly go again.  There is humor in it, the kind of humor we encounter in our daily lives, even when times are hard.  Of course, there was also so much that was sad and tragic.  But life is like that sometimes, the funny mixed with the misery, and there was such truth and such beauty, the characters were so incredibly human in their actions and choices, I was deeply moved by it.

It was the second show I’d seen there this summer, daughter Madeline and I went to Blithe Spirit a few weeks ago and enjoyed that– a rather silly show but the dialogue was wonderful– Noel Coward.  I have tickets to 3 more shows, two with Madeline and one with Wendy, and I may squeeze in another.

We leave for our now-traditional week in Grand Marais, MI this weekend, and I am so ready for vacation.  I know my kids are, too.  Jacob has been working full-time plus this summer, and Madeline has been very busy too.  We are all looking forward to relaxing and reconnecting by beautiful Lake Superior.

Independence Day

Here it is, July already.  Where did June go?  Busy with work, theatre stuff, classes at the diocese…  As usual my house is a wreck, I haven’t gotten enough exercise, and I feel like the summer is slipping by.

It’s been good to have a few days off.  Yesterday the kids and I went hiking at Devil’s Lake State Park.  It was busy there, the busiest I’ve ever seen. I’ve been there before on a holiday weekend, but this was the first time I’d seen cars parked along the road.  We managed to park in one of the small parking lots a little away from the beach but close to the trails, and we had a lovely hike up and along the East Bluff.  Usually we go around the lake, but it didn’t make a lot of sense because of where we parked, so we just spent some time exploring and the kids clambered up and down rocks.  It was busy but we managed to spend some time away from crowds by avoiding the more popular trails.

When we returned to our parking lot, we heard a strange sound coming from the tall pines nearby, and it turned out to be Great Blue Herons, nesting at the tops of the trees!  We also saw turkey vultures and suspect that they were after the eggs or young– the herons were pretty riled up.  I’d never seen so many, so close and I’d never heard them before.  Quite a sight, we watched them for a while.

Today is July 4th.  I listened to the reading of the Declaration of Independence on NPR, which is a tradition for me.  The last lines always bring tears to my eyes: “and for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”  Well, they took a chance, didn’t they?  I never appreciated American History in school but as an adult I’ve become very interested in it, it’s an amazing story.

We made absolutely delicious barbecue chicken for supper, with home-made sauce, and home-made cornbread and home-made cole slaw.  We’ll have some ice cream in a bit, and then walk over to the park for the fire-works,  a tradition I’ve come to enjoy.  The whole town is there, it seems, and I enjoy seeing everyone and visiting as the sun sets, and then watching the fireworks, and then walking back home along with everyone else.  Small town America, at its best.