Merry Christmas!

In lieu of a Christmas card (which I have yet again not written ...) I dug up a few favorite photos from this year to put here. It is bittersweet to get so many cards in the mail, from faithful friends and family who don't get return cards from us - such pleasure at being remembered, and at being able to catch up a bit with growing kids and various adventures, but so! difficult not to compare my actual accomplishments with the endless and ever-more-perfect list in my head of things I should have done.

Things I might have written, had I sent such a card:

Peter is lively and energetic and was, I believe, the inspiration behind the structure of the children's Sunday School program earlier in the month - it involved a reinactment of the Creation narrative, complete with interpretive dance to represent the emergence of various critters onto the earth, and there's really nobody like Peter for wriggling around energetically in church. We feel loved at our church and that makes the rest of the week easier.

Grace is doing a range of things inside and outside school, including dance and violin, and along with Peter has become a veritable encyclopedia of all things Harry Potter-related. Her analysis of Dolores Umbridge, in particular, is quite interesting. (She is, for the uninitiated, scary as hell. Dolores, I mean, as Grace is a lovely young person and not at all scary.) I've become the mother who has to remove the book from the child's hand if she wants teeth brushed or the table set, and I think that's a good sign.

We are otherwise making our way, more or less. I am astonished by how busy we are, and yet we almost always eat a dinner together that someone has made from actual ingredients. I'm planning a marathon next July with my fabulous friend Kara. About 90% of the time, I really love my job. I learned a lot about what kind of music my students listen to this year, and am a more culturally attuned person for it. Mike's working hard and at his job and is now on church council which is, I think, a sign of his life coming full Lutheran circle.

I can hardly bear how big my kids have gotten, but am also so pleased that they're interesting people who make me laugh and make me think.

So thanks for the friendship and patience, sorry about the lack of cards, and phone calls, and timely birthday greetings, and the slightly neglected yard, and the occasional late return of papers, and the other various daily instances of imperfection and finitude. We'll figure it all out eventually.

Long time, no blog...

Oh, dear... December already? Sigh. This mama has had a busy fall!



We had a lovely Sankta Lucia celebration today, or two really - one at church, one at home. Yesterday we baked Lussekatter, and today we ate it.

Peter vetoed the Starboy hat this year, so Grace did Lucia at home as a solo production, but at church Peter was delighted to dress up in Lady Martyr Drag - he wanted a Lucia crown, and a Lucia crown he got. (I made one for each kid in our small Sunday School out of garland and ribbons - while I neglected to take any pictures at all, they were plenty cute.) The kids helped to pass out cookies for the choir's annual post-church cookie fest, and then helped to collect plates, etc. after people were done. It was easy, and fun, and successful, and helpful to the elderly choir ladies hosting, so it felt like a series of wins. It was a holiday lite version of the celebration this year, although I may still come to their respective classrooms to teach a bit about the Lucia tradition, separation of church and state pending. (Yep, I'm serious, but they got jelly donuts for Hanukkah, so I think gingersnaps for St. Lucia shouldn't be too much of a stretch...)

First day of school...

Yep, it's mid-August. And also the first day of school! My lax uploading of vacation pictures will have to resume later on (also a series of dioramas peopled by clothespin dolls of humans and aliens - that's going to be amazing, so stay tuned). It's unbearably hot here, so the day's start was a sweaty one as we all milled around on the blacktop listening to the brass band and sorting ourselves into the appropriate student group or the large herd of parents (some weeping, but not me!) The kids are happy with their new teachers and more or less eager for the start of the new year.

Montana trip, part one...

Mountain sheep! Mountain goats! Mountain children!

Snow in July (at the top of Logan pass) is always fun. We spotted a herd (?) of mountain sheep and a lone mountain goat, and amused ourselves by sliding around in the snow. On the shuttle bus ride down, we saw a family of mountain goats, with shaggy, slightly grimy adults and cute, freshly-issued kids, which made me laugh. The shuttles were really cool - we brought lunch with us and ate before riding to the top of Logan Pass, then had quite a comfortable (and free!) trip to the top and then back when we were ready. Much nicer than driving.

Upcoming: we tie dye! we swim! we fish! we run although there are no pictures of the actual half-marathoning so we will illustrate with post-practice-run photos from the park!

Initial Montana photos....

Somehow we misplaced the cable that attaches the camera to the computer and allows for the magical downloading of pretty vacation pictures. But luckily I took some with my phone... here's a sampling of Fun Summer Stuff.

Grace and Peter at lunch in Bigfork... some flowers in a planter at UM, in Missoula... and most fun of all, a tree sporting a knitted cozy. Like a tea cozy, designed to keep one's tea warm in the pot during a leisurely afternoon of tea sipping. Only for a tree. I think this is fabulous and hope it catches on, that trees everywhere rise up and demand to be cozied.

It might have had something to do with the tree's proximity to a yarn store, but we'll leave things open for interpretation...

Mamas run wild!

We're in Montana for our annual vacation that I'm hoping, over time, gives my kids a powerful sense of place and a deep connection with the outdoor world. But in the meantime, they are learning to appreciate that mamas run fast.

About a year ago, my friend Kara and I tossed around the idea of doing a marathon this summer. We decided in the spring that the half marathon was more our speed (pun alert! pun alert!) and have been training for it for months. It required some logistics (registration, hotel reservations in Missoula, wrangling of three generations of each of our families to meet at the finish) and we left to the end some of the important details, like how fast we might run, and whether we would even run well together.

Happily it only took one four-mile practice run to determine that our paces were compatible (this after I disclosed over the phone a few weeks ago "I can't possibly run faster than ten minute miles!" and Kara responded "Thank goodness!") We met up the morning of the run, and in my coffeeless state I was so glad that Kara was thinking things like "Is this the right bus?" so that we didn't accidentally get dropped at the full marathon finish. The pep talk at the start was typically annoying, but the other runners, especially the ones dancing to the warm up music, had us giggling, and the day was gorgeous - clear and sunny, but not hot.

And the run was amazing! Several miles of rural roads, and then a slow turn into town. As the houses got closer together, more and more people were out playing music (sometimes live, including some great kids on violin and oboe) and showering us with their sprinklers and - amusingly - having cookouts.

Kara's so fun to run with, and she's smart in a way that I am not smart. She planned race strategy in a way that meant we pushed really hard at the end, and - in her words - had a "strong finish." My usual m.o. is to try to keep an even pace throughout, and then inevitably slow down near the end as I tire out. Her way is more fun and more energizing and I don't think I could have done it without someone to show me how. We had a 5 minute lag at the portapotties near mile 5, but otherwise ran faster than our target pace, finishing with a very respectable 2:16:15. If you enter either of our last names in the finish cam engine (link below), you can see us at the end - she's in the sunglasses and brown shirt, I'm in the navy blue tank top, and we split up and zip around a guy in a red shirt right at the end. I've *never* run faster than anyone at the end, but we were passing people from about mile 10, and it felt really, really good.

http://www.runwildmissoula.org/index.php/fuseaction/missoulaMarathon.main.htm

Other things that were new to me: lots of people had temporary tattoos of the race logo (see image above), and lots of people had special tape on various hurting parts of their bodies (mostly knees and feet). It seems like a gamble to tape yourself up for race day, but it seemed to work. There are also a lot of tattoos in general in Missoula, more per capita than in Omaha, and I had fun looking at people's ink as we ran.

Next year we're going to do the full, and Kara's doing a half and I'm doing a half later in the fall. It was a New Year's resolution for me to get back into half marathon shape (after time off running last fall to get some physical therapy on my IT band) and stay there, and I'm really happy about how good my knees are doing and how much fun it has been to run this spring and summer.

Other vacation stories, which will likely come out of chronological order: We visit sheep! We go fishing several times without catching fish! We swim and hike and play in the park! Mama learns to kayak (which turns out to not require much skill if one is on a sunny, placid lake)! We go on a treasure hunt and are delighted with with results!

It has been a nice vacation.

One of these things... is not like the other.

In which we do some delicious cultural/religious anthropology and determine... Swedes and Italian's ain't identical.

First, as avid readers of our blog will remember, we are quite fond of the Swedish Santa Lucia tradition in our household. (It is the inspiration for our Christmas tree topper, several elementary school presentations, a regular December home celebration, and our tattoo.) We noticed last year that local Italians also have a Santa Lucia festival, which happens in June. Naturally, we've been wanting to go, and today was our chance.

The Swedish festival, to recap: usually happens in church; involves a flaming crown; has a great set of traditions like lussekatter (eyes on a bun!) and Starboys (little brothers in choir robes!) and is scheduled for the darkest night of the (Gregorian) year.

The Italian festival, if the local one is any indication, is like this: a carnival! In summer! With awesome Italian food! And beer! And a tiara from the 1950's! And a statue who gets paraded around! And karoke!

I had an Italian sausage and [red] pepper sandwich that was - really, really good. A longtime festival-goer recommended it, and she did not steer me wrong. Grace had fried ravioli, and if that sounds odd, it ... was odd. Still decent. Peter had a hot dog, that being his default Kid Food. And the kids had some ice cream. We also chatted up the reigning Lucia Festival Queen, who was as lovely and polished and friendly a young person as I have met in some time. And y'all will remember that I teach college, so those are words of high praise indeed. She mentioned that as her gift to the festival, she had the tiara professionally restored, which I found just delightful.

So it wasn't totally clear to me what any of this had to do with Lucia, the (possibly fictional) young woman martyred in the third century of the common era. There was an organ transplant advocacy organization sponsering the festival, and Lucia did allegedly have her eyes taken out, so there's that... but it was fun and yummy and the kids enjoyed it, so what else could I ask, really?

Sample of Spring

Spring is here, and even overtaking us. We have hydrangias looking good, seedings growing inside, tomatos accumulating inside and waiting to be planted, things blooming everywhere, and some very odd-looking little baby birds, whose thoughtful parents have housed them in a pretty wreath I got at Marshall Fields (RIP) several years ago 75% off. Yeah, I'll be washing it carefully when they're done.

Recently the kids counted 20 trees in bloom visible from our back deck. Running in all of that scent and petal confetti is like a funny fairy tale. It is spring, and we are glad.

Egg hunt win!

Today, the Easter Bunny managed to do her thing before the kids woke up (sometimes the Bunny comes while we're at church, but not this year.) So first the kids made pastry under Papa's guidance (Nutella plus puff pastry equals yum) and then while it baked they hunted for eggs (hence the chocolate smears on some participant's faces.)

It was fun, all the eggs were located, fancy chocolate pleased one and all, and contrary to what you'd expect the kids were extraordinarily well-behaved at church. Perhaps chocolate acts as a sedative under certain circumstances? Must investigate further.

Easter fun

Temporarily postponing Peter's birthday pictures to blog our Easter preparations. The Easter china gets its time in the sun starting today, which Grace and I, at least, find great fun.

We did the standard egg dyeing, plus one sock that Peter turned pink, and the colors seemed especially pretty, including a couple of eggs my very, very favorite shade of blue. One egg got cracked so there was an uneven number, and the kids compromised by taking turns writing on the last egg with pencil before dyeing it. Grace picked a quiche recipe from a kid cookbook, which seems to have turned out well, and we've got a grownup quiche with suspicious vegetables like.... ... mushrooms as well. Papa has a pastry plan for tomorrow, and so it all seems as it should: nice brunch on the pretty dishes we've used since Grace was a baby, and church on Easter, and an egg hunt with our beautifully dyed eggs afterwards, plus a metric ton of good chocolate. Mmmmm.... resurrection!

When a mama has a posse...

... that mama runs fast. Reasons running with the kids (as they bike) is fun:

1. It's so cool to have a pace team. Go, mama! (Seriously: people got out of our way. We were a force of nature. I doubt it was righteous fear on their part as much as healthy self-preservation, but I so rarely get a chance menace the general walking public.)

2. It is finally spring, we can be outside, and there is nothing nicer than the fresh, green outdoors with my delightful, energetic kids.

3. Their slowest bike pace>my fastest foot pace, so I got a workout. Also my endurance>their endurance, so they were usually either well ahead of or well behind me. So they got a workout. (We did a pretty solid three miles.)

4. Peter has a great future as a coach, which I am nurturing by volunteering to be his first, um, subject. He kept encouraging me to sprint, and then when I did, despite my best efforts (and despite the fact that for this brief period I was faster than he was), he was unimpressed. "Mama, you call that a sprint? Your hands are supposed to be like this [hands unclenched] when you sprint!" Sigh. Mama sprint fail. Peter coach win. Mama will attend to her form.

5. The full moon, visible in the late afternoon sky as we walked home up the hill, was simply gorgeous.

6. Rabbits! Birds of prey! Trees! Spring! all on display. Usually I come home from a run with a summary of whom, and what, I've seen, but the kids in tandem notice far more than I do alone.

7. Grace will totally carry your gear if you need to slip off that long-sleeved tech hoodie three minutes in. And, when you do, leaving yourself clad in a long-sleeved purple tech top and a bright blue running skirt, and pink sneakers, her usual colorful ensemble will make you blend in rather than stand out. A keen sartorial sense, has my child.

8. I'd recently loaded "Spirit in the Sky" onto my iPod (I listened with only one earbud, fyi, so that I could also chat with the kids) and it came on as we were finishing, and I played it a few times, so my memory of that song is now indelibly fixed to that series of moments, in the spring air, fresh from running and happily connected with my sweethearts. (Plus the theologian in me is amused by the image of Jesus being one's reference when appealing to the Spirit... I should slip his name onto my CV. Although if Jesus has email, I'm not privvy to the address.)

Finally, we make savory food...

We use our pasta maker - oh, about twice every ten years, it turns out. I think we'll make pasta more often after yesterday's success, though. Fairly easy to make the dough, although it took me two tries, and then the kids really enjoyed the process of rolling the dough through the machine (a gorgeous hand-crank job that is, as Grace noted, from Italy.)

We filled the pasta with pesto, but could have used something more substantive, like cooked sausage, or maybe cheese, or a cheese/tomato mix, or... you name it. Next time I'd like to make lasagne noodles, since they're easier, and it would be fun to experiment a bit. We found that each ravioli needed to be very firmly tamped around the edges or the pesto leaked out, but about 90% of ours held together nicely. I'd like to try a simple farfalle, but I'm not sure how to get the shape to hold together. (I would guess that google might be able to teach me that little trick, possibly even providing video, since that seems to be how all the cool kids are learning these days.)

Not pictured: our beautiful weather, destined to be short-lived this week since we're expecting snow tomorrow. But spring is headed our way; we can tell by the tulips peeking out, and the snow melting, and the birds taking a gander at the new wreath hanging on our front porch, and the ever-important emergence of the peep-toe shoe from the closet. Also not pictured: mama's haircut, which yesterday was way, way foofy in a somewhat alarming way, but which today has calmed down into a perfectly nice short spring cut.

Next up on the Spring Break Blogging Bonanaza: the outside! and its cool spring tricks of growing stuff, again! And (if I can get good images) the kids' newspaper, which they made under the editing supervision of my beloved workstudy student Brittney, which is so hilarious that I can't do it justice with mere words. Also upcoming: Easter! Including mimosas at brunch, I think, since I have (mostly successfully) given up alcohol for Lent and it has been A Long Damn Month.

Spring. We're ready.

And... still more cake.

So this is perhaps not a representative sample of our daily living, but we did indeed eat cake again, this time cheesecake. Behold: it starts with cream cheese! and granola crust! And requires a lemon zester and a springform pan. This is one cheesecake that always turns out beautifully, and we topped it with a great blueberry compote. Those are, attentive blog viewers will note, the birthday dishes, because it happens that the second-oldest denizen of our corner of the world... is now a leeetlee bit older. Ah, 35. So far, so good. It was very much the highlight of the day that our beloved honorary cousin, the fabulous Dorothy, now has a brother, born on my birthday. Now *that* is a friend who really loves you!

The days are getting longer, and warmer, here - I had a nice good run outside on Saturday and am thinking about a cheap local 10K next Saturday. Spring is not around the corner, exactly, but it's across the street and down the block a bit, browsing in some shop window, not noticing our impatient foot-tapping. The kids are now accustomed to thinking of 34 degrees as "warm out" and play pretty well in the snow still, although the novelty has long worn off. But as we endure, we're holding out for better things, and it looks like it might pay off yet.