Looking At You

 Well, hello!  Do you need a bit of shade today?  You can sit under this tree.  Maybe you need some metaphorical shade from the intensity that is your life right now.  Do you think that a bit of solitude is often just the "shade" we need?  As I prepare for school,  I'm trying to plot out the whens and the hows of creative/solitude time at school.  Angela's post at Tracing Rainbows gave me an idea.  I might have a three-ring notebook with art/verse/pictures kept in the drawer of my teacher desk.  I could add a page everyday and build it through the year.  That way, I can use it next year, too.  Before I get to school, while I'm having my morning "quiet time" at home, I'll remember to print pictures for the school notebook.  Pictures always help the words flow.  It might be the perfect way to carve out some solitude before the eleven year old cherubs come into the building.  I'm thinking of ways to make my new classroom seem like a home.  I just have to do this or I can't get excited about spending so much time there.  I'll keep you posted.

 Here is another rose for you, Rosebud.  My roses are buried in sunflowers and cosmos.  I have to hunt for them.

 Here's an old picture of the love doves.  They are singing to you, "wooo wooo wooo"!

 I am not sure why I have not wanted to walk around my neighborhood this year.  In about a month, the apples will look as lovely as they did last year.   Maybe I should make use of daylight savings time and walk after school.  I did last year.  Do you walk outside every day?

 Here's looking at you, kid.  What are you going to look at today?  In the new (to us Americans) Mollie Makes, there are patterns for pockets.  I want to make a white-fronted skirt with a happy calico pocket and I might try that today.

Bill is on his way home from the Philippines.  Isn't this a gorgeous sunset?  He has had the most encouraging time there.  He and four friends put on a "traveling seminary" for some of the youth workers there.  People of the Philippines are so smiley, happy, responsive, and appreciative.  They all enjoyed each others' company very much.  Now, he's on his way back to me.  I'll dash out to the airport at dinner time and retrieve him.  Hooray!  
Last night I went over to Kelli's so they could go out to dinner.  When it was time for Millie Rose to go to bed, I cheated a little (a slight, very slight, deviation from her bedtime routine) and rocked her to sleep.  We sang songs that I have known for decades.  "Be sure of this, be very sure of this, I'm with you always, even until the end of the world."  "Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true.  With thanksgiving, I'll be a living sanctuary for you."  "Lay hold, lay hold, upon the good things of the Lord."  At first, Millie just looked at me while we rocked and sang, received soft smooches, and listened.  Soon, she was asleep and then I just rocked myself for a while.  I like to rock.  
This next weekend is . . . Finn's Picnic!  We'll have all the grands and all the kids and all the food for our last summer event before Granny goes to school again.  Finn is going to be three.  Three is a very good age.  
And by the way, YOU are at a very good age.  Don't you think?  When you have all of eternity before you, it's easy to forget that this time, this moment, this stage, is significant.  It is.  You are learning so much each day.  You are feeling so much each day.  My oh my, YOU are a keeper.  Happy Sunday!  Sing yourself a song or two, okay?