Out with the Old!

This is what I love to do on New Year’s Eve Day. New Year’s Day is for eating a nice breakfast and then taking down the Christmas tree and decorations. Christmas Eve is for purging files in my office.

It’s like getting a workspace facial. I’m exfoliating the dead skin, the dead-end projects or ones that are so completed that they don’t need to take up prime space.

This year I’m making more changes than usual in my work environment as I shift toward telling stories (I’ve discovered it’s called being a personal historian), and continue working on an historical novel. If you know me, yes, I mean the same novel. I have a main character names Alma, and as Alex says, “It’s time to kick Alma out of bed.” And although that sounds a bit harsh, I do agree with him. Full speed ahead to completion!

This process is a joy to me. It lets me let go of past pursuits. Some of them I grieve; some of them I celebrate. Then I can welcome a new year and move forward.

May you tend to whatever you need to do in order to grieve and celebrate, and face the future with hope and great expectation. Happy 2011!

Knocking on Neighbors’ Doors

Adeline is not a stroller girl! She likes to take walks/runs in the neighborhood, usually with a wooden doggie pulled behind her on a red string.

Of course it’s boring to just walk along the sidewalk. Even when there are blooming flowers to smell, rocks to pick up and carry, or interesting pieces of litter to examine, the sidewalk is boring compared to neighbors’ driveways and front porches.

Driveways on an incline are Adeline’s particular favorites to trudge up and scamper down – after she’s knocked on the front door. The knocking part is important to her.

When she started doing this, I figured it was okay because her little rap is so quiet that she surely won’t rouse anybody. Then I caught on to my attitude. I didn’t want anybody to come to their door. What would I say?

Well, how about…Hello. I’m walking with my granddaughter and she wonders who lives here. Wouldn’t that be okay? I might even meet someone!

So now we walk the doggie with a new sense of expectancy. Is anybody home?

Learning to Live a Larger Story

Dr. Calvin and Mimi Wilson

I’ve been reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller. It’s story within a story. The basic story line is that the script for a movie version of Donald’s memoir Blue Like Jazz was being written, but the writers didn’t find enough action in his life to make it interesting. Consequently, Donald set out to live a larger story.

The story within his story is how to write story. The book fascinated me on both levels.

As I think about my own life, and the story I’m living, I’m thankful for friends who are living so large that their story inspires me to live beyond my own comforts. The point is to get on board in the larger Story of what God is doing on earth to build his Kingdom. As in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done….”

My friend and Once-A-Month Cooking partner Mimi Wilson and her husband Calvin will move to Rwanda in December for at least three years. Calvin, a physician who is head of International Medicine at the University of Colorado Medical School, will be training Rwandan doctors and setting up continuing education programs for them. Mimi will extending hospitality to doctors who stay in their home during training, and to many other visitors.

Mimi has a gift for hospitality. I learned many years ago not to compare myself to Mimi in this arena: to not even go there. When they were moving with their children to Ecuador many years ago, they had our family of five over for breakfast with their family of five. As Mimi served us all in the breakfast room, the movers were taking the dining room table out the front door. That’s when I decided.

Mimi asked the Lord to let her do what she loves to do in Rwanda “one more time,” and He led them to a 10-bedroom house in Kigali available to rent.

While Mimi is gone, I will hold down the fort for Once-A-Month Cooking. But more than that, I will continue to think beyond my own comfortable walls, inspired by what my friend does. Perhaps Alex and I will visit them, and sleep in one of those 10 bedrooms. Or maybe we will be watchful for guests who would like to stay in our extra bedrooms. Or maybe it will be something else entirely, something unique to each of us and our part in the larger Story.

We’re thankful for friends who keep our sights focused on a large horizon.

Preparing the Room for Sleep

On the nights when 18-month-old Adeline sleeps at our house, Stephie comments quietly, “I’m going to get her room ready,” and slips upstairs to the baby’s room.

If I peek in before they put her to bed, the nightlight is glowing and the baby monitor is on. A cheerful penguin humidifier puffs moisture into the air. For chilly nights, the little space heater is set on 72 degrees.

Adeline’s sleeper and fresh nighttime diaper are ready in the darkened room, as are a couple of board books and a bottle.

Who wouldn’t want to go to sleep in such a settled cocoon? And Adeline does sleep well.

Sometimes I enter our bedroom at night and think of Stephie’s words, “I’m going to get the room ready.” So I turn on the reading lights, as well as a battery-operated candle on the dresser. Gus circles on his pad in the corner and curls up for the night. I turn down the bed and have the feeling that a book won’t keep me up long. The room is ready, and we’re going to sleep well tonight.

 

Home Lending Library

My friend Judy is the most avid reader I know. She’s in a book club, but besides their monthly selections, she’ll read another 10 books each month.  Her home is tastefully, comfortably, strikingly bulging with books. Besides the ones in bookcases, an antique wagon near the front entry is filled with books. The subjects are widely varied: fiction and non-fiction, memoir, classics.

As a guest in her home in Kansas City last weekend, I had the luxury of sitting in Judy’s sunroom, holding morning coffee and talking books. She told me that some friends dropped in to visit recently on a Friday afternoon, and brought their foster daughter Irma, who is a senior in high school. Irma commented on Judy’s wealth of books, and Judy replied that it is her lending library and asked if Irma would like to borrow some.

Irma took three home with her, and in three weeks emailed Judy to say she had finished them all. They’ve set a time to get together, to talk about the books she completed, and finding more to send home with her. Although Irma is in AP English, the class is woefully light in its requirements, so Judy is going to hunt up books her kids read when they were in AP English classes.

It’s easy for us to feel awash in books. Where do you put them all? They’re heavy to move, require shelving and catch dust. But Judy has found a good reason to keep them. She enjoys her books, and then enjoys the friendships that grow as she passes them on.

Bookcases in the dining room? Why not?

Spice ‘n’ Sniff

Adeline is 17 months old and is packing as much life exploration as she can into each minute. Our days are quite a workout for Nana.

Two of our kitchen drawers without child guards are my spice drawers. I have the jars arranged alphabetically (pretty much), lying on their backs with their names up. Actually I’m pretty proud of my spice drawers. Adeline began removing jars. Chervil – what on earth is that? Have I ever used it? Arrowroot – looks like cornstarch. I had an idea. As I took each jar from her, I unscrewed the lid, took a long smell of the contents, then held the jar under her nose for her to smell it too. Her eyes grew wide. Whoa. A game with Nana! Very seriously she put her little nose close to each spice and sniffed.

I admit that I have never taken the time to get acquainted with spices by their aroma. My favorites were allspice, bay leaf, cardamom (what’s that for?) and chipotle chile. I tossed the Chervil, which had no smell left at all and didn’t deserve to take up its space.

When Adeline gets a little older, I’ll wrap a child’s apron around her and she can stand on a chair and help me mix up something, and we’ll stop to smell the spices. I have a lot to experience and learn, and we’ve just begun!

 

Boring Old Chicken

On an early fall evening our dinner was one of our final grilling events of 2010. We charcoal/Weber hold-outs don’t generally keep up grilling through the winter.

As I finished chewing a morsel of a tender pork chop, not over-done as is so easy to do, I contributed to the conversation about our favorite items to grill.

“Salmon is my favorite. And pork tenderloin. Anything but boring old chicken,” I said, as I stabbed another bite of chop. I looked at my son across the table and the words old boring chicken reverberated in my brain.

Look at how spoiled I am.

I can have pretty much whatever I want to eat whenever I want it. Within reason or course. Our funds are not unlimited. But I take for granted easy access to the world’s foods, and certainly to having some meat or poultry every day (not being vegetarian). The next bite of pork stuck in my mouth and I felt the guilt of the Israelites for whom God provided manna – bread from heaven – each day, but they got tired of it and grumbled.

I still grow tired of chicken cooked in 72 ways, but of course I’ll still eat it. Now with a touch more thankfulness.

Recomposing Home

Drew, the resident fix-it guy, has moved on

Alex and I seem to be empty-nesters. Tim is now married to Beckie, and they are having fun arranging their wedding gifts and their few furnishings into a townhouse. Their home. Drew is off too, living in a friend’s house. Meals are simple now. The house stays clean. It’s time to move – Yes? No?

We’ve reached the point where the home that was just-right for raising three sons is not configured quite right for life now. Not that we’re in a hurry to move. We’re comfortable here. We’re used to the blemishes and hardly notice them anymore. And we have plenty of room when the kids come over, to have parties, and for holidays.

Still, Alex agrees that it would be invigorating for us, for our marriage, to find a new space that seems just right now and in the foreseeable future, and to make it home. Our this season home.

I’m watching friends who are making this transition. What do they consider? How do they scale down – and why do some choose to scale up? We’ve turned a corner, and while content we’re also keeping a look out. How about you?

No More Bikes in the House

Tim and Beckie were married the night before last, and it was beyond wonderful. Coming out of the stupor that I walked around in yesterday, I am piecing together favorite memories. As always for the big events in our lives, some are surprising ones.

Like this one, which I wish I had photographed. The day before the wedding, with Tim staying with us, I came downstairs in the morning to find a bicycle in the breakfast room, propped against the railing of the basement stairs just as comfortable as can be. It struck me that this may be the last time, since Tim as a little kid began assembling his own bicycles, that I’ll have a bicycle in the house.

Tim has always repaired and assembled bikes for people, but I’ve never really understood why he did this in-the-house thing. Had he brought the bike in the front door because it was too much trouble to open the garage door? Had a friend ridden over and didn’t want to leave his bike out front? Was Tim (or Alex) going to put up the bike stand and exercise while watching TV? It has happened frequently enough over the years that I quit asking why, much less protesting.

Now Beckie can decide what she thinks about bikes in their home, and our home will be, well, more boring. That’s what’s left when those little nuisances disappear. And when the special people who create those little nuisances move on in life.

Weddings and Girl Time

Shopping with the bride is also feminine fun

Tim and Beckie’s wedding is next Saturday, and it’s shaping up to be like Thanksgiving, where the morning spent in preparation for the feast is almost as fun as the dinner.

Since we are the in-town family, and the bridesmaids need to meet with the hairdresser/make-up artist in a home, they’re coming here! I’ve been surveying the bathrooms in anticipation. What needs special cleaning? What supplies should I have on hand?

To spread the fun around, I’ve invited two best girlfriends to dither around the girls and advise. I’m sure I’ll get hair and make-up consultation in the bargain.

I’m planning to have lunch brought in, and I gave extra thought to dessert: individual “bundtinis” from a local store called Nothing But Bundt. I’ll stock the kitchen counter with cold beverages and ice, and divide up a big bouquet from COSTCO to put in small vases in the bathrooms.

So what if the groom, father of the groom, and the brothers co-best-men will also be dressing here? They can figure that out; for once I’ll have my hands full with the girls.