mundane thoughts

Steve and I have been so busy, I feel that I have not had any thoughts lately except about surviving. Well, not really surviving, as some people in the world have to think about it, but, you know, too tired to think anything except mundane thoughts about cleaning the house, or brushing my teeth, or getting the coffee maker ready for tomorrow. I am usually convinced that nobody wants to know about those thoughts, and since I have been too tired to have any others, I haven't posted anything.

Steve and I have been this busy and this tired for the majority of the time we have known each other, but parts of this spring were very nice and non-busy, and we are hoping to be not busy more often. I never thought I would need to have such a goal: to be at home more and say 'no' more, and be involved less, but we are pretty desperate for all of those things right now. I know from the outside our life does not look that busy, but we have been dying from it! We are always taking steps to make it less busy though, and I cannot wait until we have a routine and feel that we have plenty of time together and time to rest. Does that ever happen? Am I asking for too much? We have been working for that ever since we got married, and it feels like we are about to get there. I hope so.

I have to say that Steve is so good to me, and I didn't ask him to, but he quit being president of our HOA board the other day, which was keeping him very occupied and always working! He said he was happy to quit too, and to celebrate, he gave me a 5-cd set of classic Disney songs! I am loving it! He is so sweet. :)

Glad it's Labor Day weekend too! Yesterday was our 20-month wedding anniversary! Steve had to go to work Saturday, but today we had a good day and went to church and were lazy at home, and smoked a brisket!! We will finish cooking it tomorrow. We seasoned it with a rub from the Salt Lick in Driftwood TX! :)

Sorry for the complain-y, mundane thoughts. Some of you asked for it. :) We do have things to be happy about. I am not unhappy, I've just had enough of being busy!!!!!

by the way...

Thanks for the wonderful introduction, Stacy! :) I would link to it, but...wait, now I can!! Ladies and gentleman, Stacy's blog!

(she's my cousin-in-law who has been teaching me all this blog stuff.)

the treehouse tree

It seems like I am having a lot of time to post things this week. Well, it is my last week off before starting up teaching again. (even though I never really stopped...grrr!!! Better luck next year.)

It's Saturday and my brother, Stephen H. (not to be confused with Steve H, my husband) is in town, but strangely, I am all alone at home this afternoon. Steve had to go in to work for a few hours and Stephen is also working today. He is out buying books for his online book business. In fact, he just called a minute ago to ask if I wanted another copy of How the Irish Saved Civilization. Yes! So Aubrey, you can keep the one I left at your house. :)

I made the ice cream pie for my birthday party tomorrow, but in a minute I need to go make the hot fudge. Stephen gave me one of the best birthday presents ever! It is a ballpoint pen drawing of the gnarled old oak where our treehouse used to be when we were little.



This morning we went and picked out a matting and frame for it. I love it so much! Stephen is a very talented artist. I will post a picture of it, whenever I learn how to do that sort of thing.

Gone With the Wind

"There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind..."



I am watching Gone With the Wind this evening, having been inspired to watch something by a huge pile of clean laundry that I have avoided folding for three days! I am watching it on the old vhs tape set that Susanna and Kathleen got me for Christmas a long time ago. I love remembering that. It's a lovely set, in a case with a big picture on the cover, you know, the Gone With the Wind picture. I like it. And it has a paper inside with some trivia about the book and the film. Did you know Margaret Mitchell tried a few different names for Scarlett including Pansy, Angel, Robin and Storm. I don't think the book would be the same at all if her name were something else!

I have not seen the movie in forever, and it has gotten me thinking and wanting to read the book again. I think I'll start it tonight. Steve and I are having so many peaceful, non-busy evenings these days. I think we have had more peaceful evenings this August than in our whole first year of marriage! (that wasn't his fault, believe me!)

Anyway, I have to say this: my very favorite thing about watching Gone With the Wind is all the shots with the trees silhouetted against the sky. That is my favorite time of day, when the trees are dark and the sky is still pale.


Trees in general are some of the most touching things in the world, I think. I better go. I could go on about trees forever, and the Kince is lying around on all the clean clothes.

oh

I guess I should explain that this is the new name now, for people who didn't know. The old name had too many question marks in it. This title is about two things that I think about quite often, and they are both things that my world could not very happily do without.

This blog needs a new name...

It's cloudy today and I love cloudy days the best. I am listening to choral music by Josquin Desprez, which also feels perfect with clouds. I listen to that kind of music all day sometimes (I must add that there are few kinds of music I can listen to for all of an hour, not to mention a day!!) and it makes me feel like I'm just hanging out in a cathedral. As if "hanging out" and cathedrals really go together, but if you're just in your house doing chores (and your blog :) and suddenly you realize you're thinking and thinking about cathedrals, then that's just how it feels right then. And tea. Tea goes with cloudy days...

Stephen is coming to Dallas tomorrow to buy books and I'm really looking forward to his being here! He is also coming to my birthday party. I am excited about that too, because we're having pizza and champagne and ice cream pie. I'll post the ice cream pie recipe soon, because it is staggeringly delicious and not too hard to make and all of you should taste it, if you haven't.

Some of these things are such little details, and it feels so good to think about them and write about them, because most of my life this summer has been focused on big picture sorts of things, and suddenly I am home and they are all over. Most of them were fun, but some of them were sad, and I really am glad to have a rest now.

finally

A lot of my friends and family have told me and told me lots of times that I should have a blog, especially Stephen. Stacy just told me again today, and so, to avoid working out right now (I am all dressed for the gym, but I really don't wanna go), I started one.

I guess I might change the title later since I really couldn't think of one just now, but I guess it's a sort of appropriate title since I never expect myself to do anything that has to do with technology. Well, then I got facebook, so that was sort of computer-ish of me. Oh well. Anyway....

I am actually so happy to be able to keep up with people better now. Or, keep people up with me, I should say. We'll see if I actually do it. But I like all my friends' blogs, so here goes. Maybe someday I'll even learn to put up pictures! I really want to make it prettier actually, so that will be my first project.