Brae and me!!

I did it! I broke free from my neighborhood tangles to spend last weekend with Brae in Annapolis. It took until Sunday after church at Starbucks with Brae sipping a double espresso for me to hear about her friends, her thoughts, her big dreams and plans, her likes and dislikes, her new place in Philly, her church and mainly her determination to find her way into the world of photo-journalism. I admire and love her so much and find it hard to believe she came from traditional, conventional, domestic me!! I have found the secret to Brae opening up...the double espresso from Starbucks. Thank you Brae for your time and companionship. I love this picture you took of us.

Boy Howard breezes in for a visit ...

Lowen is almost 25 and rolls into town and nonchalantly walks in with the old familiar "hey Mom" and as usual I am in the kitchen fixin' up some dinner. He kisses me quickly with his beautiful face and then tunes in to the dog and takes her for a walk. You would think he just lives down the street. he comes back and talks with the Papa about music, movies and books--nothing has changed here. They stayed up til 1am talking. He keeps texting and emailing Whitney but that's good ( Sometimes young men get very strange without the beautifying effects of a woman on their mind). I am so glad he has come to take the girls back to their mountain for their second year at Covenant. Mothers everywhere are having nervous breakdowns as their grown-up kids head off once again. Lowen will make this so much easier on us as Dame and I are not up for the 12 hour trip there that Lowen says is no big deal.

Just a tent

In the Sunday school class Damien and I attend there are a handful of older friends who greatly enrich the group with their questions and comments. We listen to a chapter of 11 Corinthians on tape and then we converse about it. I love this kind of Sunday school. Two Sundays ago, I felt like I had never seen this particular verse before: "For we know that if the TENT which is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a HOUSE not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." All that we have in this life, all the wonderful and amazing people, places and things that we observe and interact with is likened to a TENT! Now to me, the word "tent" conjures up words like unstable, dirty, uncomfortable, a very temporary shelter that could blow away quite easily. This verse says that's what our earthly body, home and world is like! It will all be rolled up and pitched one day and there His people will be on the other side of death- wide-eyed, mouths open in wonder standing speechless in eternity where the real beauty begins - "houses eternal in the heavens."

Wonder Woman

Chalice and I have some history of attacking rooms together for the sake of transforming them. When Sienna left for Africa, we ransacked and transformed her room so it could become Chalice's room. Another time we teamed up on the laundry room. There is nothing subtle about this mood that hits us. It usually involves painting the room and heaping up bags and bags of stuff to be hauled or given away, and buying new room accents at Wal-Mart. Well, we got that gleam in our eye a few days back regarding Pax's large bedroom. We saw in our mind's eye Pax's bedroom becoming a sort of den for any family member wanting to read, write, nap, or just be alone. We'll need to have a giant jalopy piano removed and hauled off.
Mission was accomplished single-handedly this time by Chalice since I was recuperating from not feeling real well. I am convinced Chalice has major talent in design, physical strength and determination to get a job done really well. A girl after my own heart. Thanks a million Chalice. Picture is forthcoming.