April Book Report: Mrs Harris Goes to Paris

Earlier this month, I went by the town library and got myself a library card.  When I was growing up, libraries were magical places and everything about them was thrilling.  Filled with the prospect of nearly endless books that I hadn’t yet read, I loved them as a girl.  As a grew up, libraries became places to study and get school work done and I loved them for that.  As a parent, JT and I visited the school library and delighted in a new stack of books to bring home.  It’s been several years since I had a little boy to take to the library but the recent news about book bans and libraries and librarians under attack reminded me of the magic I used to find in libraries.  So I looked up the hours and went to my local library.  

I am best-pleased to report that it is as delightful and happy as the libraries of my girlhood.  I came away with a stack of books and a newfound pleasure in the prospects to be found in this local treasure trove.  

This month’s book report is about a book I found at the local library, a two-volume book by Paul Gallico:  Mrs Harris Goes to Paris & Mrs Harris Goes to New York.  Written in 1958 (and turned into a film last year), the book is about the adventures of an industrious char lady from London.  Mrs Harris, a woman in her 60s, works hard cleaning the homes and tidying up on behalf of posh clients.  She’s been doing so long enough that Mrs Harris may choose her clients and lives a happy, if tiring, life in London.  It’s while she’s cleaning up after Lady Dant that Mrs Harris first sees - and touches - Lady Dant’s beautiful Dior dress.  Mrs Harris is charmed - besotted, really - and the novel is all about the char lady’s effort to acquire her very own Dior dress.  First, she scrimps and saves and finally she sets off to Paris to acquire the gown.  

The novel was a lovely and quick read, funny and clever and the sort of cheering story I love best.  A happy ending is virtually guaranteed from the first page of the novel and the adventure is in the twists and turns that unfold on the way to the inevitable happy conclusion.  Just my sort of book, always, but especially this month which has found me in need of good cheer.  Thanks to the local library (and Mrs Harris!), I found just that.  That's a blessing that will last, I expect and I am grateful for it.

Flowers at Midweek!

This day is the halfway mark on the last week before Spring Break.  Flowers are in order and for a whole bunch of reasons.

It’s sunny today and temps may actually exceed 60 degrees.

I am wearing a Spring dress (with a warm cardigan - of course - but still……)

This school year has been so damn hard and the approaching Spring Break will get us over the hump to the last part of the year.  I don’t like to wish away time but teaching hybrid in a pandemic is ridiculously difficult for all of us - students, teachers, and parents.  The weeks we have been remote were also hard but remote is nothing compared to the challenge of teaching hybrid.  The other side of Spring Break is just nine weeks of April and May instruction, all more bearable because the end is in sight.

Last year’s Spring Break was no break for me as the school frantically set up for remote homebound remote instruction.  This year’s Break promises some actual time off.  Add to that the chance for some enjoyable meanderings in New Jersey, thanks to the fact that I am vaccinated, and I am giddy about the coming break.    

Back to the Far Side

For years of my life, Far Side daily calendars were my companion.  Then cartoonist Gary Larsen retired and life moved on.  But I never forgot the happy amusement of a daily cartoon and when the calendar was available for 2021, I put it on my Christmas list.

So it is that every day I have the happy treat of a Larsen cartoon, many of them familiar scenes that make me laugh.  January featured cowboy and Indian cartoons.  February is dinosaurs and it opened with one of my all time favorites.

Everything about this calendar brings me happiness and in my pandemic world, that is very nice indeed.

Sending Out 2020

I won’t be the only person who is glad to say goodbye to this year.  I almost wrote dumpster fire of a year because, of course, it has been that.  At that same time, so many people lost their lives in this year of years and it seems callow to dismiss the passage of this time when so many people and families have lost someone for whom time truly has passed forever.  I am profoundly grateful for my blessings in this year and I hope that I will always be able to see that light in the darkness that is 2020.

As 2020 fades into 2021, I am glad of so very much: My family and friends and our ability to laugh together; the blessings of jobs that put food on our table and give us a chance to make the world better than we found it; the harbor of walks in the woods and stacks of good books to be read.  I am incredibly grateful to be here as 2020 fades into 2021.  With that gratitude is a brightly burning hope that 2021 brings us more of the things that make life good: steady, kind, and measured leadership; the promise of science and a vaccine; and enough laughter and good will to see us through the hard times.  For all the storm that 2020 has been, I have hope that this nation and this world will safely steer into a safer harbor for 2021.  And so, as I have done so many times, I live in hope for us all as we say hello to a new year.

December’s Light

For most of 2020, I have appreciated the beauty of the sky as the day transitions.  In both the early morning and the twilight, there have been days and days with stunning light to behold.  I’ve taken the time to soak it on whenever I see it.

I don’t know if this year’s skies have actually been extra lovely or the fact that I’ve been home much more often to see it, but the light in the sky has often been a balm in this hard year.  

For me, light like this has a way of putting even the biggest of anxieties into perspective.  I hope that when life returns to whatever form the new normal will take, I remember to pause and appreciate this beauty when it shows itself.

That’s happy!

Front Porch in August

All the variegated leaf plants have joined the flowering plants for the August front porch table.  There’s a red and white tablecloth to anchor the festivities.

The flip flop flag remains because flip flops always make me happy.  This picture faces East and in the humid haze the coming tropical storm can be seen.

The other plants are spread around the porch to soak up their share of the warmth and sunshine.

I drink my morning coffee in this spot and I never tire of the verdant refuge that is this front porch.

Monday Garden Update: July 20

Things are coming along nicely and I sense warm tomato sandwiches and zinnia bouquets in my future.

Summer always satisfies.

Crazy Plant Lady

For my birthday last November, my sister gave me a house plant subscription.  Each month, a new plant came to live in my green menagerie.  I was most delighted by my expanding collection.  By April, I had 6 new plants happily thriving in my house, all of them headed to the front porch for the Summer.  The last plant to arrive was a Croton plant with variegated red-edged leaves.  Like all the other plants it was welcome.  Soon after my sister reminded me that the plant surprises would be coming to an end, three more Croton plants appeared.  I began to transplant en masse.

And then two more.

Six in total.  I gave away three to good homes and kept the other three for myself.  They are thriving in the sunlight of my front porch and though there are some concerns about where all these plants will go come the cold weather season, I'm not worried.  Instead, like the crazy plant lady I am, I cheer on each new leaf that they grow.   

Pedicure!

Yesterday, I got my first pedicure since life shut down in mid-March.  It’s an admittedly small thing but I have missed my trips to the salon for the quiet luxury of a pedicure.  My regular salon is a hard-working family business that always makes me feel welcome; yesterday was no exception.  The salon was re-organized to allow separation; at limited capacity and with plastic shields between customers and employees.  We all wore masks.  We also took care to ask how people and their families had fared while the business was closed.  I treated myself to some flowers on my big toe, a celebration of the summer and gratitude for this small bit of unmitigated pleasure in a hard time.

That’s happy!

Fairy Garden Move In Season

Over the past couple of weeks I have added some daily joy to my life by setting up my fairy garden.  Now the move-in is complete.

These little houses and small details bring me such satisfaction.

For Christmas, I got a new apple house occupied by rabbits.  

So far they are of the sort that don’t eat my garden.  I am charmed by the tiny details, like the teeter-totter and the apple bench.

In the evening, the solar lights on some of the houses glow in the darkness of the backyard and remind me to be grateful for the small daily blessings that make life just a little sweeter.

Obituary for a Dishwasher

On Saturday, December 28, my dishwasher died.  Strictly speaking, it passed to the great appliance beyond sometime the night before.  I started the dishwasher before I went to bed on Friday night and when we opened it on Saturday morning we found that the water pump had failed.  Fittingly for this workhorse of a machine, it had spent the past 10 days being run 3 to 4 times a day, to keep up with our busy holiday season.  It was never pretty but it always got the job done.

This beast of a Whirlpool machine joined the family in May 2005 when I moved into Sassafras House.  The previous owners had taken their shiny new dishwasher and given me this well-used transplant from their new house.  From the outset, it looked rough, with dents and scratches that suggested it had been in more than one fight.  The push button start mechanism was already worn through and that was the clue for how to start the machine.  But start it did and for years to come, it got the job done.  

In 2005, it was no Spring chicken, though it washed like a dream.  Inside it looked a little rough.  Over the years that appearance continued to decline as it began to rust and shed parts.   

When I first started it in 2005, I figured we’d ride this dishwashing wave as long as it lasted.  That it survived another 14 years is a surprise.  But golly did this beast earn its keep year after year.  For its faithful service, I offer a hearty and grateful thank you.

A new one has been summoned and installed.  Like the last dishwasher at this house, it’s a Whirlpool. Also like the last machine, we plan to enjoy it for a very long time.  Welcome aboard, washing beauty.  We already love you.

I Might Be a Grown Up

Today, I turn 52.  This is crazy for a million reasons, but especially because it means I am clearly a grown up.

I do not feel like a grown up.

Over the years, I’ve realized that no one really ever feels like a grown up.  Clearly I must be: I’ve raised a child, I have a full time job that quite likely is a career, I have a home that I care for and utility bills that I regularly pay.  I cut the grass and do other grown-up things.

All the evidence is in:  I am a grown up.

A grown up who loves being JT’s mama and T’s partner; whose days are made better by flowers, good books, mason jars, and twinkling lights; who likes to cook and feed the people she loves; who pours over garden and book catalogs and daydreams about both.  And let’s not even mention the time I spend planning out front porch decorations for each month.  I like to laugh and play card games.  I love coloring books and the occasional cat video.  I like a fresh pedicure and a soft blanket; candlelight and sunrises.  My list of joys great and small could go on and on. I realize what a blessing this is.

But mostly I am filled with enormous gratitude for the people I love and who see fit to love me back, warts and all.  Time is flying by at a speed I never could have imagined when I was 10 or 20.  I am grateful for all of it and so very glad of this life I love.

That’s happy!

November Front Porch

The front porch is always ready for the next season.  The Halloween decorations have been packed away and replaced by November’s thankful display.

Pumpkins, mums, and gourds remain the theme of the season, though I am well aware that soon enough the local wildlife will hop up here to treat the table’s bounty as their own personal buffet.

As a child, I thought of Thanksgiving as the boring prelude to the spell of joy that is December.  My father always preferred Thanksgiving and the older I get the more I appreciate a month that reminds us to be grateful for our blessings in this life.  This is the thankful season and being thankful means that I am glad to share with any hungry creatures.  I am always thankful for my home and there is no reason not to share our gratitude with others.

Happy November, y’all!

Relieved

T and I spent the week nursing her stitched and casted arm and, as the days passed, nervously awaiting the doctor’s call with the pathology news.  Our expectation was that the removed tumor was benign but confirmation of that confidence was much-desired.  By Thursday, we were nervous whenever her phone beeped.  As Friday closed with no news, we steeled ourselves for a weekend of uncertainty.  Then her phone rang on Saturday and the news was good — all benign.

Saturday was a lovely day, with milder temperatures, lower humidity, and the kind of breeze that suggests fall in the air.  The good news made a lovely day even better.  It felt - it feels - like we can take a deep breath and plan the coming months.  We are relieved and glad, of course, and all the more aware of blessings received.  That's happy, so very happy.

That’s Happy, What Else?

Several women that I know have had babies this Spring and as I’ve bought tiny little sets of pretty clothes for the new mamas, I’ve added a book from my vast collection of children’s books to their gifts.  This has been a way to share some lovely stories as well as a way to thin my collection, which fills two enormous plastic bins and is far more than I can use when my grandma days arrive (several years from now, if you’re reading this, JT!).  It's also been a treat to look through these familiar books.

Reading is one of my greatest pleasures in life.  So it should be no surprise that as a mama, reading books to a small child was one of my great joys.  I read to JT every night for years, reading books until he drifted off to sleep.  I stopped when I could be sure that he would read to himself at night.  The stories that we read, especially those that we read over and over, served as the very foundation of both his world and mine.  

As he got older, I read to him to slow the evening into sleep and to set him up for a lifetime of imagination.  When I look book at all of those books, I see a philosophy of life coming in to view.  The stories we loved the most were the books that valued unconditional love and taking pleasure in the natural world.  They celebrated shared laughter and joy in the every day.  Some of them served as mantras for the living of the rest of our lives, as did a lovely book called Tell Me Something Happy Before I Go to Sleep.

In this story, a big brother bunny named Willoughby settles his little sister Willa to sleep by reminding her of the happy things she will find when she wakes up in the morning.  Willa, eager to stay awake, responds to each happy thing (her chicken slippers, her sailor suit, her breakfast, and her toys) by saying, “That’s happy.  What else?”

Toddler JT loved this book, with its sweet pictures and gentle reminder that there was happiness to be found in the every day things and practices that made up our lives.  Saying “that’s happy” became a part of our lives, one part reminder to enjoy the here and now and one part reminder that happiness is not finite; there is always more to be found.

On this Mother’s Day, we are apart as JT finishes up his first year of college, and I can’t help but think of this story and Willa’s chant.  In a few weeks, he will be home again and I will be so glad to give him a hug and hear the sound of him in the house.  I’m looking forward to that happy moment, confident that more happiness is around the corner.

That’s happy!

Adventures in Home Repair

On Friday afternoon, JT and I arrived home within minutes of one another.  As he helped me to unload the groceries, he advised me that there was water leaking out from under the kitchen sink.  I reluctantly opened the cabinet to find that yeah, there was water.  About a half inch of it with more still coming.

Awesome way to start the weekend.

I quickly emptied out the cabinet’s cleaning supplies while JT gathered the old towels we keep on hand for just such an emergency.  The collected cleaning supplies got stored on the front porch.  

Three large towels later, we’d sopped up the water and discovered the source of the leak.  We called our plumber (when you have a house that is more than 80 years old, you have a plumber of choice) and let him know we required his services.  A small bowl underneath the leak filled in less than an hour, so JT set to work in search of a larger item to collect the leaking water.  He hit upon a solution in the attic.  In the meantime, I tightened the water line and though I couldn’t stop it, that slow the leak to a manageable drip.  The bin underneath fills in about 6 hours, not ideal but manageable for the weekend.

My plumber has already phoned me back; he’ll be here on Monday morning.  Since we dodged the bullet of standing water on wood floors, we're gonna call this a win. Updates as warranted.

Like Camping, but with a Sofa and Fridge

My air conditioner offered its resignation as the year’s biggest heatwave rolled in to town.  After some back and forth, a replacement is slated to be installed on Saturday.  I have a window unit in my bedroom so that I can sleep comfortably, and I could certainly hang out with friends.  But I’m off work for the rest of this week and I like to be home.

Originally, I had plans to be one part productive and one part leisurely for this time off.  I planned to garden, read for hours, touch up some trim paint, clean a closet or two, and catch up on the home improvement shows on my DVR.  But even with the windows open and fans blowing, the house is steamy and unpleasant, so I’ve basically converted to camping-at-home mode.  I’ve spent hours on the shaded front porch or back deck with books and electronic devices that can easily be charged by stepping inside.   The walk to get a drink of water or use the bathroom is easy, if sweaty.  My heat-loving cats are happy and sleepy, per their usual habit.

I’ve mostly made salads or cooked on the grill outside, which is the summer mode around here anyway. I’d like to make jam to can for winter gifts but there is no way I will get the kitchen that hot without a/c, so jam-making will wait.  There is plenty of time for jam and outside relaxation is lovely.  It’s nice to have a coffee maker and a fridge to keep the half & half cold.  When the heat is too much I retreat to my meat-locker of a bedroom and cool off.  In the meantime, I enjoy the chirping birds, cicadas, unexpected breezes, and counting my blessings.  

The Restful Season

The start of Winter Break signals two weeks of time off for me.  I am ready for the rest and eager for some unscheduled time.  Yesterday afternoon was the first day of our Winter Break.  We don’t return to school until January 8.  Gift-shopping is compete.  Yesterday, I picked up the holiday ham and the other ingredients for our Christmas meals, saving only Costco for today.  

As the last of the sunlight faded away on Friday, T tucked under a blanket for a nap on the sofa.  In the quiet, I wrapped packages and happily considered the days ahead.  The coming two weeks will bring me hours of time to read and write, the chance for an afternoon nap, and plenty of unscheduled time.  During the school year, I work seven days a week.  December is always extra busy.  The break is a most-welcome development.  It’s a chance to rest, to reflect on my many blessings, and to enjoy the company of a boy who is closer and closer to leaving my nest.  The time off will remind me to rest and refresh; it will set me up for the remainder of the school year.  That’s a blessing indeed.  

Pretty Packages

Christmas planning has headed into overdrive at Sassafras House.  Last night, I made two batches of cookies for my annual cookie day.  Every day, I find the time to wrap a package or two.  

That’s happy!

Snow Day

Yesterday it snowed.  T and I baked treats for her work, caught up on Netflix, and otherwise enjoyed the quiet.  We’ve lots to show for our efforts and the relaxation was much needed.  The first snow of the season is a treat that I never grow tired of enjoying.  That’s happy!