Good news and a lazy day

My conscience bothers me on a Sunday when I’m too lazy to go to church, but today I told myself that I was still tired, recovering from the hospital stay. I’ve got to stop giving myself that message. Resolve: to get out more, to exercise more.

Because, tonight, good news. Our neighbors, who are both doctors, came over to catch up with my health. It was extremely kind of them, but we wanted them to know so that if I have an episode and want immediate help, I can call them. The good news part is that my heart rhythm is regular—no a fib. I pray that it stays that way. A little learning is a dangerous thing, and of course I have a theory about what caused the a fib and why it’s gone, but I won’t go into that. I honestly do feel better—but still tired.

Wrote my thousand words today and piddled the rest of the day. We had a picnic tonight—that’s sort of what we call it when we eat in the cottage instead of at the dining table inside. But the dining table apparently is still full of now-clean dishes from last night’s dinner party, and homework has been added to the mix. Christian fixed barbecue chicken in the crockpot and, lacking any other buns, served it in hot dog buns.

A belated thought about last night’s dinner party: I entertained often in the house, with frequent dinner parties of six or eight (plus me, always adding the odd number). I am delighted that Jordan and Christian have taken up that custom, and invite me most of the time—It’s truly a pleasure to still sit at my usual place by the kitchen door (Jordan calls it my princess chair) and enjoy the conversation and good food. Christian is a good cook and also an adventuresome one. Last night we had bulgogi, a Korean dish he made of flank steak. Megan had given him the recipe, saying her boys loved it. It was the first time in a long while that I’ve had flank steak that wasn’t too chewy—and I attribute that to Christian’s carving it really thin. The marinade made it delicious, so thanks to Christian and, secondhand, to Megan.

After the picnic, Jacob brought his homework out. Christian was puzzled by some grammar questions, but I found a secret long ago to pronoun usage. Suppose the sentence given is “We and them wanted to go to dinner.” Instead of trying to remember the rule, break it into two sentences. You would say, “We wanted to go to dinner,” but not “Them wanted to go to dinner.” Clearly it should be “they.” I thought my explanation was wonderful, but I fear Jacob was a bit confused. Oh well, I’m sure it’s not the last time I’ll repeat that little lesson.

Busy week coming up. Doctor and dentist, a radio interview, and the biggie of the week—my launch/signing for Pigface and the Perfect Dog. I hope if you’re close by, you have it on your calendar. At the Wine Haus just down Park Place and across the tracks, closer to Eighth Avenue, 5:00-7:00 p.m. Come enjoy fun and fellowship. I’ll post a graphic on Facebook tomorrow.

The solar system, a great dog, and a hectic evening

It was hectic at my house tonight, but the afternoon started out calmly. Jacob brought his latest project--the solar system--home. I had seen it before but he painstakingly explained it to me, describing each of the planets and some of their remarkable statistics. Truthfully, I was pretty impressed--it's a good presentation. He got 100 on the project, and 100 on his presentation. Kudos to his dad who helped and who, thank goodness, is good at this kind of thing. Homework was a different matter--his class had moved on to the geography of South America, and it was hard for him. They provide a small map, but we ended up using Google; still we were both frustrated. His mom arrived and in minutes they finished what Jacob and I had labored over for a half hour. She tells me I'm too intense and should not sit by his elbow while he does homework--but shoot! Truth is he sits by my elbow, and yes, I probably do give too much help. I'm reforming. I admit I got in a snit about homework, cooking, and conviviality, but I recovered my good disposition. Think I'm tired.
Then the evening got hectic--Jay, Subie, and Phil arrived, ready to try the new TV and move furniture. Big problem: TV didn't arrive, and we learned it's backordered until early March. But they all moved furniture, measured, and we got a new sectional ordered for the "sunroom"--that's what I'm going to insist people call it. During all this I was making a double batch of my version of sloppy Joe, and occasionally stopping to sit and sip wine when my opinion was called for. The couch has been ordered--tan, but we will put lots of bright pillows and throws on it.
Subie, who hates sloppy Joe and will not eat it, liked mine. In fact, I think she had two helpings--just not on a bun. She and Jordan ate theirs in a bowl. I loved mine and look forward to the leftovers. Everybody else seemed quite content--Jacob followed his sloppy Joe with a peanut butter/jelly chaser.
Phil comes accompanied by Santiago, his seeing eye dog, who is one of the sweetest dogs I've ever known. He is nine years old and more than ready to retire, but Jacob loves him. Sophie loves him too, though she gets a bit jealous at times, and Santiago does try to eat her food. He's also a bad counter surfer, and we watch that nothing is where he can get it. A big lab, he's easily able to reach up and steal food.
Everyone was gone by seven-thirty (having arrived at four-thirty), and I did the dishes (not much to do since others had gotten a huge start on it) and settled down for a quiet evening. Whoosh!
 

What hat am I wearing today?

Some days I feel like I wear a number of different hats. Today was one such day. It began with a dental appt. at 9:50--only the hygienist called at eight and wanted to know if I could be there by nine. I actually made it, throwing on yesterday's clothes, and was there ten minutes early. What I expected to be a long appointment wasn't, even with x-rays and a visit from the dentist. I was home shortly after ten, cleaned up odds and ends, had an early lunch and took a really early nap--noon--so I could be ready to go to a 2:00 funeral at the church.
Toni Newton was the assistant (read executive secretary, though I'm not sure she ever attained that title) for Chancellors Moudy and Tucker at TCU. I met her when my office was in the administration building but then I got to know her through church, the Church and the Arts Committee (which she claimed had more fun than any other committee--and she was right). Toni was one of the most upbeat people I've ever met--always cheerful, always welcoming, always concerned about you. Many of us said today, "Toni was always so good to me," but I always added, "and she was so good to my children." Once in high school my oldest daughter wanted to join the church, but she had never been baptized (long story) and didn't like the idea of immersion. Toni told her, "Oh, honey, just fudge. God won't care." She lived a full life, dying Nov. 22 at 97--someone said "Leave it to Toni to die on a day of national significance." For me, it was hard to see that wonderful, vibrant life summed up in a brief memorial service--but I was glad I went.
Home for a few minutes, intending to get Jacob and a friend by 4:15 but Jay came by with wine in his hand, and it was five before I got the boys and started them on homework--first we had to go back to Hayes' house because Jacob left his binder with all his homework. They actually worked diligently (well, pretty much) and I wonder if there might not be something to this shared homework. Then we went to meet the neighbors at the Grill--a big crowd. To my great joy both boys were well behaved, ate well, and didn't cause any fusses.
Hayes' parents came for him about 8:45--they'd been to a party--and it's all quiet now. Jacob is getting a last few minutes on his iPad.
Is it okay if I go to sleep as early as he does? I'm tired, but it's kind of nice to wear different hats--except maybe for the dentist. Nice as those people are, I always dread it, a hangover from my childhood. Otherwise, though I felt hurried, it was a good day.

Have you done your homework yet?

Jacob told me on Tuesday that he had a project due on Friday. He handed me a tiny piece of paper on which he'd written Jacob Burton/Tiger Woods. "I have to do a budget, and I chose Tiger Woods because he's a great golfer." Okay. "Do you know what a budget is?" "No." So I tried to explain, but it's kind of hard to do in Tiger Woods' terms--where do you start? $10 million? More? Less? I figured he'd take it home to his parents.
Next day, he was frantic. "Where's that piece of paper?" He looked through the loose papers on my desk--they are many--and found it but then last night it was still on my desk. Meanwhile late last night he told his folks he had a project due Friday but they had no inkling about it. I talked, separately, to two concerned, even frantic, parents today. All ended well. I could tell Jacob didn't understand what he was talking about, but he did say that the class would go to the library tomorrow and find information about their subjects. All well and good--no project due. What he missed was that they'd work on the project Friday.
When he comes to my house in the afternoon, we spend a minimum of an hour and twenty minutes on homework--sometimes we finish most of it, sometimes we barely make a dent. He goes home to do his reading and reading comprehension (the latter is a problem) and finish whatever we didn't get done. Then it's dinner, bath and bed. If it's a baseball day, the schedule gets all out of whack.
I finally confessed to Jordan something that's been bothering me for a long time: I don't remember doing homework with my kids. "You didn't," she said, "We didn't bring any home. We did it all in the classroom. When we got out of school, we played with friends. Then it was dinner, bath, and bed."
Whew! I wasn't a bad parent. But where's Jacob's play time? If he wants to play with a friend after school any day but Friday, I have to say no. We have homework to do.
I wonder what all this is doing for him. Today we were adding two two-figure sums. He did it the way he's taught in school--you add the "tens" and then the extra numbers. To check, I scribbled it on a piece of paper the way I've always done it--and came out with a figure ten higher than his. He insisted he was right; when he finally redid it, he said, "You're right."
I'm not sure the Texas gubernatorial debate about how much we spend on each child really addresses this problem. Yes, we ought to pay teachers better and fund our schools better, but will that fix the curriculum? I need teacher opinions.
Meanwhile I'm struggling through third grade and Jacob's sometimes struggling through his childhood, which should be a happy time.

Blue Monday--or is it?

Mondays are often sort of dull days for me--I rarely have lunch or dinner plans, and if it weren't for Jacob and his homework, I could well go through the day without any human contact. But Jordan pops in when she drops Jacob off at school, and we have a short visit when she comes to pick him up. He has baseball practice on Mondays, so they never linger long and he and I move at a frantic pace to get homework done. Today we did a find-the-word puzzle with his spelling words--both of us stumped by "collision" and "sculpture." Jordan took one look and found them right away!
I do work on Mondays, which is good--today I finished a book and wrote a review, worked quite a bit on my next novel, did some marketing. And to my astonishment, got a letter asking for some quick material on the chili book I probably submitted three years ago to a university press. I thought their board was meeting this summer and, having heard nothing, dismissed the project once again. But it turns out their board meeting was postponed...and could I supply a CV, synopsis, and suggested 30 pages in the next two days. I haven't had a formal curriculum vitae or resume in years--wasn't looking for a job. I'm not sure I've even kept my list of publications up to date. But I wrote a biographical sketch, took a stab at a synopsis, and suggested the first 30 pages. Got it all off tonight.
I'd been wondering lately about all those young girls kidnapped in Nigeria, so I was interested and yet appalled to read that most of them are still missing. Some have escaped but relatively few, and Boko Haram has taken over other towns and taken smaller bunches of captives. Yet it has faded from the headlines. The international forces that were looking for them, including American, have about given up, and there are hints that corruption and bribery are involved. Meanwhile think of those poor girls and their families. Their story has been replaced by the horror of ISIS,
We live in a global world. Isolationism is not possible as it was in 1900. Technology has changed all that, and yet how do we decide what bad guys we're going after, which ones we're going to throw up our hands about and give up. I'm glad I'm not commander in chief, and I support President Obama who deals with these difficult decisions every day.
Lord, let their be peace--seems a bit of a futile prayer, doesn't it?

Gnawing on bones and celebrating life

If you heard a report of two fairly well dressed ladies "of a certain age" gnawing on bones at Ellerbe's (for non-Fort Worthians, that's one of our more upscale--read expensive--restaurants), I confess to being one of them. Went with good friends Betty and Jeannie tonight for our annual Christmas celebration and gift exchange--oops! I didn't realize we were exchanging gifts and had only trinkets while they had lovely, thoughtful gifts. Thought we had agreed before not to do that. Anyway, we had a good visit, great wine (Laird Vineyards which Betty had visited and was enthusiastic about) and a terrific supper. Betty had redfish, but Jeannie and I zeroed in on the rack of lamb. When we had cut as much as we could off the bones, she said, "I wish I could just pick it up and gnaw on it." I thought, Why not?, and picked mine up. She followed suit--and I know I got a lot more meat. The lamb was crispy on the outside and a perfect medium rare inside--what a delight. For dessert, I had a small but oh so rich piece of flourless chocolate cake and they shared an oatmeal cookie with cream cheese filling--looked more like a slice of carrot cake to me. Great evening, great food, and very special company.

The dinner marked the end of my first day back in the outside world--went to the cleaners, hardware, the grocery and the Dollar Store (twice). Felt so efficient to run so many of the errands I worried about the whole time I was housebound. Two things I learned: every store in town is out of rock salt, and doilies are old-fashioned. No one carries them any more. Such a pity. In the Dollar Store the clerk didn't know what I was talking about and offered me tissue paper. No, sweetie, that won't do it.

My driveway is still ice, even after temperatures of 42 today, but Jordan pulled my car up to the back gate where everything has melted due to southern exposure, so getting in and out was a piece of cake, even carrying too many sacks of groceries.. For some time, before I went, a police car blocked off the street just in front of my house and I worried about getting out. I think a water main broke and froze at the other end of the block. But I still didn't feel comfortable walking down the driveway to get Jacob. The street and sidewalks in front of the school are fine--just not my driveway. I am indebted to neighbors with young children who have brought him home to me.

We did homework, but he begged to do his new advent calendar, and we discovered we hadn't found the calendar itself, so we had eleven days to catch up on (his parents have been married nine years today--where does time go?). We did four days until Mom came, and then she was upset we hadn't finished homework. But the calendar--the Jacqui Lawson Edwardian Calendar--sure is fun.
I'm a happier camper tonight..

Absorbing reading and other excuses

No blog tonight, because I've let myself spend the day reading Through the Evil Days, the newest Julia Spencer-Fleming mystery. There's an old philosophy about writing--back to Shakespeare maybe?--that a good story begins with the principle character[s] in a terribly complicated, dark, hopeless situation...and proceeds to get worse by the minute until it seems no solution is possible. Spencer-Fleming has mastered this technique in her Russ Van Allstyne/Clare Fergusson books, and her characters are complicated people drawn to each other by an irresistible attraction. No, this is far from a happy-ever-after love story--the universe throws one complication after another at them, and half the time they're irritated, irritable, irrational. A friend of mine put it well when she said what attracts her to the books is the moral dilemmas and complexities that Russ and Clare face.  Both are military veterans and the survival skills they learned on duty serve them well in the impossible physical situations they get into.
No, I'm not ready to write a review. I'm not even halfway through the book, but I find myself neglecting my own work, desperate to turn to the next page, the next impossibility. So there. That's an excuse for reading all day. It was a cold, cold day but under a brilliantly sunny sky. I ran one errand this morning--amazed at how the sun warmed my car--and then was content to stay in and read, eat a meatloaf sandwich, and nap. Surprised at how cool it was when I went to get Jacob. We did his homework--as usual, he unfocused and me harping (that's literally the word) on paying attention. We differed on the approach to one math problem (I know I am right) so we deferred it to his father.
Betty, Christian, Jacob and I ended the day with a wonderful dinner at a new Mexican restaurant--small, quiet, clean, and terrific food. Lots of fun. Fort Worthians, try Trevino's.