September 15, 2009

On Sunday,I dropped my youngest child off at school in another state and drove home alone.  A hard day.  A long ride.

Don't get me wrong.  I know he's completely ready for this and I'm proud that he is.  I know that I've been successful in my most important job as a mom -- to give my boys roots and wings.  But knowing that doesn't make this any easier.  

I went to the grocery store today, headed to the meat counter and started to put a four-pound roast in my cart before I remembered that there was no teenager at home to eat it.  I put back the roast and went about the business of filling the cart with individual servings of yogurt, one chicken breast, some lettuce and baby carrots and a bottle of grapefruit juice.  And, just for old time sake, a big package of Oreo cookies.  

I think this is going to take some time. 

September 5, 2009

I guess you could call 2009 the Summer of Love, at least that's the way it's been around here.  As you know, our middle son was married to a simply wonderful young woman on July 18th.  And not long before, our eldest son announced his engagement to an equally wonderful young woman.  Yes, at our house, love is very much in the air.  (And, may I say, it's none too soon!  After 28 years as the only woman in a house full of men, I am delighting in my new daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law to be!  We needed a little more estrogen around here!  And more people to be on my side in family board game tournaments.)

Tonight, we're hosting a party to celebrate that love and to introduce both couples to our friends who were or will be unable to attend the wedding.  The tent is all up, vases washed and ready to receive fresh cut hydrangeas from my garden, and the dance floor is ready too.  Now all we need is the band!  

I'm so proud of my boys (make that my men) and so loving this stage of my life, seeing them spread their wings and create families of their own.  My husband and I weren't perfect parents - just ask our boys - but we did our best.  And just now, it kinda feels like we must have done something right. 

August 22, 2009

Twenty-eight years ago today, I was lucky enough to marry the only man for me, the groom who could make my heart go pitter-pat just by walking into a room.

I won't say it's always been strawberries and cream, this marriage business.  Getting to this day has involved many negotiations, set-backs, struggles, gray hairs, miscommunications and, very occasionally, full-throated arguments. But, I wouldn't take back a single day of our last twenty-eight years as man and wife.  And, as evidenced with by the fact that I just spent a full ninety-minutes getting dressed to go out to dinner with him, my fabulous, loving, funny, sexy husband still makes my heart go pitter-pat.  

Happy Anniversary, Darling.  Always and forever.

August 21, 2009

I just returned from a quick trip to the Seattle area to visit my mom.  We had a great time!  Ate out a lot, saw a movie, went to a baseball game, and Mom even treated me to a massage and facial.  (I asked for the kind that makes you look twenty years younger.  It didn't work.)  I also had a chance to see my friend, Debbie Macomber, (if you haven't read her newest book, SUMMER ON BLOSSOM STREET, you should).  We did some lunch and, of course, some knitting.  Debbie helped me work through a problem on a shawl I've been working on forever! 

I came home late last night to find that my cat, the fabulous Wendell, was completely out of cat food.  This seemed very strange to me as I had purchased an entire new bag only a couple of days before I left!  Which means that in the course of eight days, Wendell scammed the kids into feeding him something like four pounds of food!  Yes, my friends, they've finally invented the Bottomless Cat.  He is alive and well and, at this moment, waddling into my office, meowing in his best "starving kitty" voice.

Nice try, Wendell, but it won't work with me.  The sheriff is back in town.

August 15, 2009

I'm in the Seattle area, visiting my mother... and absolutely nothing else!

You may wonder at my exhuberance, but it's been a long time since I've gone off on a trip that was not a combination of business and pleasure.  Of course, I usually find business a pleasure, but even when you're doing what you love the press of deadlines and schedules can be just that - a press.  And you know what a press is, don't you?  It's the root word for pressure.

But, todcay, there was no pressure in my life.  None. 

My mother had to go to a wedding this afternoon.  I didn't know the bride or groom so I declined to join her for the festivities.  She felt terrible about leaving me on my own, but I assured her I would be fine and would welcome a little unstructured time for myself.  (I wasn't being nice in the least; it's entirely true.  Writers like being alone.  If we didn't, we'd have to find another line of work.)  After Mom left, I drove over to the shopping plaza. one of those very chic, modern types we don't have in my neck of the woods, and made a beeline for - you guessed it - the bookstore! 

"Wait a minute", you say, "I thought this was a pleasure trip?" 

Oh, it is!  What could be more pleasureable than wandering through a bookstore?  I love books!  I adore books!  I am passionate about books!  Or, as my friend Jane would say, I LURVE books!  

I spent four hours at that chic shopping plaza and browsed many very lovely clothing boutiques, even tried on several outfits, but the only place I felt compelled to part with my money was the bookstore.  I bought Cathy Lamb's newest novel, HENRY'S SISTERS, Beth Moore's DAVID: 90 DAYS WITH A HEART LIKE HIS, a really fabulous new planning calendar (most writers not only like books, we like office supplies and stationary - see my previous post on the subject), Christopher McDougall's BORN TO RUN, (after a ten year hiatus, I am considering taking up running again.  Folly?  We shall see.), and two copies of my own, FIELDS OF GOLD (this isn't egotism on my part; that book is out of print, even I can't get copies now, so when I saw these I snapped them up).

Then, I found a sunny spot on the very chic shopping plaza, sat down next to a gurgling fountain, and read and read and read until the light was too dim for me to see the page and my stomach said it was time to go find a nice glass of pinot noir and a chunk of cheese.  

In my book, this is the absolutely perfect vacation.