glory, pumpkins, Eeyore and love

Alright, so I have been trying and trying to post this weekend. I have had so many lovely thoughts, but every time I try to blog, I just end up leaving it as a draft. I have too many thoughts, especially about C. S. Lewis. So here's just a little piece of all the things I was trying to write.

Saturday morning was cool and nice, so I took my tea set (with tea and cream and sugar in it!) outside and had tea on a blanket under a grove of trees. I was finishing C. S. Lewis's The Weight of Glory. I love, love, love how stunning the end is, and how realistic and honest Lewis is, even while he is tying together such lofty, lovely, scary thoughts. I cannot say all that it made me think, and you'll have to read it yourself if you really want to know about it, but here is one quote from the essay that always brings me out of myself and back to reality:

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations---these are mortal, and their life to ours is as the life of a gnat. It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit..."

On a different note, Steve and I have bought a huge pumpkin! It looks just like it came right out of a coloring book--it is such a perfect shape, and so orange, and has such a properly curving stem. It makes me so happy. I am going to make lots of pumpkin foods this fall. I have already been looking for recipes, and I found a soup, a pudding, and a stuffed pumpkin recipe that all sound very good and not too hard. :) I can't wait!

Today Steve went out to run some errands (he sometimes goes to Dillard's when they have a sale in the really tall men's dept.) Anyway, he came home with, among other things, seersucker shorts (this is too many parentheses, but I have to say, he loves seersucker, which I find quite funny) AND he also had a very non-Dillard's-looking bag. It was actually a bag from the Disney Store. He told me to open it, and inside was Eeyore! He got me an Eeyore stuffed animal for a surprise, and I thought it was just the sweetest thing ever. My very soft Eeyore is at the moment sitting on top of my very wonderful, great big pumpkin which, under the circumstances, looks even more coloring-book-ish.

What other random things have been on my mind? Well, we have again been very busy and I am thinking of taking a sort of break from "extracurricular" (I guess I mean extra-marriage, but that's not a word) activities in October, so that is something sort of nice. I am happy I got to have tea outside, but mostly I am so amazed and happy that I have married such a wonderful guy who buys me Eeyore stuffed animals and who, by his own admission, knows how much it means to me to have curly hair. Of course there are other more important reasons I love him, but wow. :)

fresh night air

I know. Fresh, cool night air is not supposed to be happening in Texas yet. It's only September, but we sort of got a cool front last night, and it has been lovely all day. Steve and I went for our first walk in months tonight! It felt so good! We took George around the pond. Since the moon was full I was looking at the sky the whole time, and the clouds were funny and cotton-y and clumpy, in a wide group that moved slowly towards the moon. Those clouds reminded me of nets, some sort of cotton-ish nets that probably don't even exist, but they could. Anyway, I was reminded of nets for some reason, and then I thought,

"Nets of silver and gold have we!" cried Winkin, Blinkin and Nod.

Daddy used to read us that poem all the time. I am sure most of my siblings can quote it almost by heart also. I tried tonight and remembered most of it, and Steve humored me and listened as we walked under the moon. So I just felt like posting it. Here:

Winkin, Blinkin and Nod

Winkin, Blinkin and Nod one night, sailed off in a wooden shoe.
Sailed on a river of crystal light, into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?" the old moon asked the three.
"We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful sea!
Nets of silver and gold have we," said Winkin, Blinkin and Nod.

~~~

The old moon laughted and sang a song as they rocked in the wooden shoe,
And the wind that sped them all night long ruffled the waves of dew.
Now, the little stars were the herring fish that lived in that beautiful sea.
"Cast your nets wherever you wish! Never afeared are we!"
So cried the stars to the fishermen three, Winkin, Blinkin and Nod.

~~~~

All night long their nets they threw to the stars in the twinkling foam,
'Til down from the skies came the wooden shoe, bringing the fishermen home.
'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be,
And some folks say 'twas a dream they'd dreamed of sailing that beautiful sea.
But I shall name you the fishermen three, Winkin, Blinkin and Nod.

~~~

Now Winkin and Blinkin are two little eyes, and Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies is a wee one's trundle bed.
So shut your eyes while Daddy sings of the wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see those beautiful things as you sail on the misty sea
Where the old moon rocked the fishermen three, Winkin, Blinkin and Nod.

I love it. I am not sure if some of the words are wrong or not, and I looked it up online, but couldn't find out who wrote it. I'm sure I just didn't look very hard, and I found it on a few websites and blogs, but some of the words that those people used were not as I remembered it, so I just wrote it the way I remembered it best, right or not. :)

Support Corn~Kits!!

I love corn-kits. I had never heard of them until we decided to switch churches and found a new one. There is a factory in Denton on the way to church. Just after you round a corner covered in beautiful trees, it rises above you with no other sign but great big red light-up letters on top that say,

morrison's
CORN-KITS

I love it. At first I just thought it was a kind of random factory, and what's a corn-kit?? But seeing it every Sunday, I have started to love it, and I think about it a lot because it's funny, if you think about it. Here is a picture of it that Steve made into my desktop wallpaper without being asked. (Isn't he so sweet?)



The name "corn-kits" does not offer much of an explanation as to what the product might be, which is my favorite thing about it. Is it a kit to grow corn? A just-add-water type of thing that makes actual corn, like canned corn or something? How about one of those capsules you can put in water, and it turns into a sponge shaped like corn? Or maybe one of those cast iron muffin tin sort of dishes that you can bake corn muffins in and they come out shaped like little corns-on-the-cob! (I tried to buy one of those pans at Walmart today, but I guess they're only on walmart.com...I got a sparkly gold folder instead. I'm sure I'll find something to put in it...) But I don't suppose that the factory cares whether or not the name on top of it explains the product. It's not like someone will see it and think, "Lets go in and buy one of those." (Well, I did of course, but the building is obviously a factory, so you wouldn't think to shop there.)

Anyway, Corn-Kits are actually little packets of cornbread/corn muffin mix. Steve and I got some from Kroger and made them for dinner tonight. And I'm not really sure why I say "support corn-kits" except that I really, really like the phonetic sound of the word support when it's next to the corn-kits combination. So, support Corn-Kits! Incidentally, when you go around the corner coming up to the corn-kits factory, it would be fun to say, "one, Two, thrEE, CORN-KITS!!!!" Not that I ever do that. :)

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.