Category: make me smile

–GameBoy atttending an all-nite school party to reward students who’d read 50+ books extra-curricularly this past year. Games, movies, pizza, oh my!

–The superb garden-fresh ciabatta lunches that John‘s prepared for me daily for the past 2 weeks.

–End-of-the-year concerts for both kiddoes. Some marvelous flute and cello music. Beaming parents all ’round.

–TobyKitty curled up in a couch-cushion tunnel next to me as I write and grade papers all day.

–Getting the giggles as I administered a Final Exam yesterday morning (trying to cover it with some dry coughing). Having to leave the classroom momentarily to regain my composure.

–Giving my piano to Dora-chan for safekeeping. The pleasure of knowing that she will give it much love and attention while I am distracted with my dissertation for the next couple of years.

–Making Bonny’s Blackberry Crumble with berries just picked in our garden.

Blackberry Crumble (recipe from this website)

* 2 cups washed blackberries
* 2/3 cup sugar (Note: I used half the sugar and it still tasted great)
* 2 tablespoons lemon juice, or juice of 1 lemon
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/8 teaspoon salt

Put blackberries in a 1-quart baking dish with half of the sugar. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Cream butter, remaining sugar, flour, and salt together; sprinkle over berries. Bake blackberry crumble at 350° for 40 minutes.

Serve warm or cold with cream, ice cream, or dessert sauce. Blackberry crumble dessert recipe serves 4.

You people are all so kind!

So this morning I slept in, then lounged around in bed chatting with my little sister on the phone (her birthday was yesterday so we had a lot of birthday talkin’ to do). So I am just now opening my computer. What fun to open my laptop and see John’s hack appear on my screen! What a sweetheart. :)

So now I will get a bit of work done (read: tidy the house a bit) as I am contemplating what kind of birthday goodies I want to make to share with some friends tonite. I’m tempted to try Sara’s cake recipe, but I’ve also got a bit of a hankering for fresh strawberry pie…

Early this morning I found myself at Trader Joe’s buying quinoa (or at least attempting to buy quinoa, but eventually settling for a 3-grain rice blend because they were out of quinoa).

Anyways, there were the most gorgeous bouquets of peony buds all through the lobby–large pink knobs on long stems. On impulse, I bought a bunch, brought them home and put them in water. All day long they’ve been unfolding one cup-shaped petal at a time–literally changing every few minutes.

So…you guessed it…peony photos coming soon. :)

PS: Ellycat loves peonies almost as much as I do–she’s nibbled the tips of most of the leaves off already…

-the power going out last night. everywhere. wandering around a bit in the complete blackness. Seeing other folks bobbing around with flashlights and candles. feeling safe even through my worry about the outage.

-munching on waleed’s pita chips. ’nuff said.

-sitting in the back porch reading. burning a stick of vanilla incense. looking up at the blue sky and the soft light filtering through the trees…

-sitting in the garden at dusk and smelling the heady, nearly overpowering, scent of honeysuckle.

-finishing CatGirl’s colonial costume this afternoon. Pride in knowing that I was able to sew the apron and mobcap without a pattern, using a bit of white fabric from a friend.

:)

–a new set of chairs for my dining room/library table from a freecycle friend. With lower backs and a smaller footprint. They make the room look so much bigger!

–an email from this old friend today. Speaking of his surprise in having stopped by my blog and discovering my Quaker affiliation. He & his wife are Quakers now and he’s the clerk of the Saylesville Meeting–they meet in this simple 300+ year-old Meetinghouse in Rhode Island. What a *thrill* it is to know that David and I are not only friends, but Friends!

–John’s off of work today because of Spring Break. Sitting across the table from each other this morning. Each working on our laptops. Then a nummy sushi lunch together. Playing footsie under the table and nibbling off of each other’s plates.

–Discovering this article about a Chilean dancer in the “New Era” magazine. Mavi was a foreign exchange student in our previous ward. I was her YW leader and she spent many hours hanging out with our family, teaching us how to make empanadas, telling us of her dreams for dancing, and attending the Nauvoo Temple Dedication at our Stake Center together (her first dedication experience). How exciting to know that she’s achieving her dreams!
:)

-the man in the plant nursery parking lot who, when he saw my peace bumper sticker, told me how cool it was and then proceeded to take off his shirt and show me his various peace & love tattoos.
-My long-lost Great Aunt Deloris
-TobyCat curling up in the “blankie tunnel” under my bent knee as I study
-the scent of the new grapefruit handsoap in our bathroom
-These heavenly-tasting scones.

-no new gopher holes in my garden today!
-John, bringing the Barefoot Contessato bed. Because reading French recipes together is sometimes better than foreplay.
-getting some dental work done yesterday and getting my whole lower jaw and tongue numbed. So afterwards I was literally having to hold my chin to keep lower lip from hanging open and drooling on myself. Then running into an old beau, trying to stammer out a ‘hello’, and realizing that I couldn’t even explain why that was impossible.
-1/2 flat of fresh organic strawberries. Then rolling them in sour cream and brown sugar. And realizing that life just doesn’t get any tastier…
:)

–Spending the noon hour in my garden. checking the progress of my new plantlings and feeling the warm sun on my face. Lovely.
–CatGirl and GameBoy’s dental checkups went well. No cavities for either of them–even after having had braces for the last few years.
–Betting the checker at Trader Joe’s that I could estimate the total cost of my groceries better than he could. I was almost exactly right. He was $30 too high (ah, because I’m such a savvy shopper….)
–Vegetarian mushroom stroganoff for dinner. Yum!!
–Teasing the kitties a bit: preparing their dinner meal w/o singing the tuna song. Eyeing them to see if they would know it was mealtime despite the departure in our routine (yep, they had it figured out pretty quickly).
–Our showerhead working again after a visit from the plumber today. No more cold and dribbly showers. And the tub is draining much better, too. Hooray for the perfect warm shower experience to start the day!
:)