A family day

Sophie telling me naptime is over

The holidays are over, the days of family getting together gone for the time being. You really don’t expect much in the way of family reunions in mid-January. But that’s what I had today. A mini-reunion.

My good friend Melinda, who I hired as production manage for TCU Press some sixteen years ago, a position she still holds, brought lunch today—a wonderful chicken salad sandwich on a croissant—and we chattered about publishing and the press and one project in particular, a book I had shepherded. Now she either has to reprint or look to a new edition. I promised to talk to some of the contributors and look ahead into the crystal ball of the future. Meantime, I said, reprint. It’s Grace & Gumption: Stories of Fort Worth Women. IF you’re in Fort Worth and don’t have a copy, order it now.

I expected Colin, my oldest child, about suppertime, so I was surprised when I was in another part of the cottage (hard to do in this small space) and heard the front door. “Your dog isn’t much of a watchdog,” he said. Of course not--she adores him. He just got unloaded for a two-night stay when my brother and sister-in-law arrived. We were having a good visit, when Christian came in, saying he had come home for something he forgot and saw the cars in the driveway. So we had a cheerful, happy reunion. My brother has not been feeling well lately, was sick over Christmas, so I was delighted to see him with good color, in good humor, and by his own admission feeling a lot better. We siblings are aging, and it’s easy to worry about each other.

Tonight, with Jordan enjoying sunrises in Puerto Rico, I fixed dinner—a repeat of last night’s spaghetti. I am spending the week cooking a day ahead of myself—today I cooked tomorrow night’s dinner, and tomorrow I will at least get a start on Wednesday’s dinner. Jordan comes home Wednesday and announced she would really like a dinner. So she’ll get chicken pot pie—Jacob liked it so well last time he used fresh strawberries to wipe up the sauce left on his plate.

It’s a social week for me, but that’s okay because I’m in a holding pattern—waiting for the editor’s comments on my Alamo manuscript, waiting while people research photo requests, etc. And I’m reading fiction—what a joy.

Hope your week is off to as good a start as mine. What more can a mom ask than to have one of her out-of-town kids asleep on her couch. I am, always, blessed.