My kitchen window

On the left, my kitchen window as it looked until this morning. Although this picture doesn't show it, it's the sunniest place in the house. Since I got internet access in the kitchen, I spend a lot of time sitting at the table with my computer


The picture on the right is my kitchen window as it looked a few minutes ago. If this were Wednesday this might be a whine/anti-whine post over at Phantom's, but since it's Monday, I'll just do it here:

Whine: It's 26F outside and they're taking out my window!
Anti-whine: They're taking out my window and by tonight I'll have my new.bay.window!!

All the windows in my house were replaced before I moved in, except this large kitchen window (which was also the only window not original from when the house was built). I loved the view from this window, but the outside of the window was quite rotten, and it's been slated to be replaced for the last year. But with one thing and another it is just now happening. And they are replacing it with a bay window with a window seat--something I've always wanted to have.

Updates later.

My other grandmother

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and my mother, circa 1938.

My mother was the youngest of five children and the only girl. She was also a "late life" baby; she was almost 11 in this picture and her mother must've been around 50. I don't remember my maternal grandmother very well. She died when I was in kindergarten and even before she died, we didn't spend as much time with her as we did with my paternal grandmother. She looks so stern and forbidding in this picture (click on the picture and you can see this better). I wonder if that is what she was really like.

This picture was taken on a visit to a lovely azalea filled park in a small South Carolina town. It's very likely that my mother and her parents were visiting cousins in a nearby larger city. Some 40+ years later I lived in the same small town for a few years.

Morning light through the back door

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The hall between the kitchen and the dining room is a pantry--probably was meant as a "butler's pantry". I love the old cupboards with the glass doors. When the kitchen was remodeled before I moved in there was talk of getting rid of the pantry, but I'm glad they didn't. I like it.

Friday again

~It's Friday again, and for the second Friday in a row I worked part of the day instead of taking a full day off. And for the second Friday in a row I had a headache and felt blah. Could these two things be related?
~My office is being painted (yay!) and that means that all my books have been piled in the middle of the floor. My bookshelves are finished and so I went in today to put all the books away. Of course, it morphed into more that--way more.
~It's COLD here. Finally. I wanted winter so I won't complain, but it is really cold. My new bay window in the kitchen was supposed to be installed yesterday and today, but the carpenter decided that two of the coldest days of the winter mght not be the best time. Meanwhile, I'm sitting in front of the old one and it is drafty.
~It's also very windy...I can hear it and feel it as I write.
~Ironically on a day off that wasn't really off, the RGP Friday Five is about renewal: name four ways you relax or give yourself a break, and one self-care dream, something you'd love to do but haven't been able yet. Here's mine: 1) blogging--both reading and writing 2) curling up with a good book 3) hiring someone to clean the house every two weeks 4) taking a real vacation --last summer was the first time I'd really done that and it was great. And my dream--one small-a regular pedicure; and one large-a trip to England and Scotland.

Tracks in the Snow

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Winter day

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There is a small pond behind my house. Most of the year I can't see it because there is so much undergrowth between the stone wall and the pond. Even after things die back in the fall it isn't really obvious. But the last few days of cold have allowed it to freeze over and the dusting of snow we had early this morning makes it show up quite well.

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The house I live in (the rectory) was built in 1937, and except for the kitchen it has never been remodeled although some small things have been change here and there. But there are a still a number of touches that make it seem old-fashioned even for a house built in the 30s. Two of the doors still have these brass locks with big keys. When I moved in, this one was grungy and didn't work, and the door itself was in terrible shape, but two retired men at the church stripped down the door, repaired and repainted it, and refurbished the lock.

National Blog for Choice Day

Today, the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, is National Blog for Choice Day. So my assignment is to tell my readers why I am pro-choice. I think it is (on the surface at least) very simple: Women should have control over their own bodies. No one, especially not men and laws made primarily by men, should be able to dictate that a woman bear a child against her will. And that is what those who oppose abortion would have women do.

Beyond that, the issue of abortion is far more nuanced and complicated than most of the arguments against it (and some for it) are willing to recognize. I've never had to seriously consider abortion as an option, but I can imagine the circumstances in which I might have done so. I don't know if I could have an abortion--I'm not sure that any of us who have not been in that situation really can know. I'm uneasy with the idea that abortion might be used as an "easy" form of birth control, but honestly I've NEVER met anyone who thought about it that way. It's far too invasive a procedure for women to think of it so lightly.

The fact remains, though, that there are real and serious reasons--personal, psychological, financial, and/or medical reasons--why abortion might be the best choice for a woman. And in such situations she should not have to justify her choice to the courts or even to her doctor. Nor should we condemn those who have made such a choice

Twenty years ago when I was an undergrad I took a class in biomedical ethics. We went through all the philosophical arguments about personhood and potential personhood and rights of the mother versus rights of the fetus, and I wrote a decent essay about it all. In retrospect it all seems sort of cold--logical but cold. These issues are fraught with emotion, tangled up in the web of lives that are inevitably messy. If we really treasure life, if we really value children, wouldn't it be better to devote our time, our energy and our money to making the world a place where contraception and reproductive education were readily available, where women's bodies and women themselves were valued and respected so that they would not be objectified, abused, or subjugated , where resources were distributed in such a way that mothers knew that they would be able to adequately care for their children no matter what?

Outside today

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Is everybody watching football?

~This morning after church all I heard was talk of this afternoon's football game. The Kid has gone to a friend's house to watch, too. Gah. I can muster some interest in baseball, and a tiny bit in college football, but professional football? No thanks.

Just words for a change

In the form of random weekend snippets...

~The sun is out! The sky is blue! It feels like it has been gray and gloomy around here forever. It finally got seasonably cold this week, so I was hopeful we might have snow, but no, on the coldest days it was just gray, and on the days the temperature rose above freezing it rained. Blah. It is supposed to be cold for the next few days; perhaps we'll see some snow.

~I worked yesterday on my day off because there were things that just had to be done. But in return I am NOT working today even though there was an activity I was slated to attend. I was dragging yesterday--headachy and just not with it--but today after a good night's sleep I feel energetic and I'm happy to have the day off. And I've already done two loads of laundry and cooked myself a real breakfast. Not bad for a little after 10 on Saturday morning.

~I've finally done something I've talked about doing for years--hired someone to clean the house every two weeks. She cleaned right before Christmas and it was wonderful. It forced me to deal with some clutter beforehand and it was so nice to have sparkley clean house without stressing about it. So I decided to keep it up. Her first regular day is Tuesday; since it's been a month since she was here there is more decluttering to do, but if I know she is coming every two weeks maybe I won't let mail and other stuff pile up. Maybe. And hopefully this will not strain the budget too much.

~I'm loving posting pictures for Project 365. But I need to get out of the house and take some pictures. I'm not sure how many more pictures of what is on my bookshelves I can do! I'm wondering, too, if I should move the pix to a separate blog like the other Project 365ers are doing. I'm also pretty sure that all this picture taking is going to fuel my desire for an even better camera.

~I've not read much poetry since I was a child. Not sure why; perhaps the way it was taught in school ruined it for me. But my friend D posted this on her blog the other day and it really spoke to me. I love having friends who expand my horizons, and D is a friend who often does that.

~The dryer has stopped and if I'm going to maintain any momentum today, I should go and fold what's in it. Happy Saturday everyone.

My Grandmother

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And combining two threads into one, more about my grandmother via the RevGals Friday Five

Who--My paternal grandmother; daughter of a Methodist minister in the mountains of North Carolina, one of four children and mother of one.

What--This is the only picture I have of my grandmother. It was taken when she was about three, which would have been 1906. My grandmother gave me this picture a long time ago; it was packed up for years--in fact, I thought it was lost, but I found it when I moved here and unpacked some boxes that had not been unpacked in several moves. I love old family pictures but I don't have many. This one badly needs to be restored, and I'd like to have it done professionally. But I might try scanning it, too, if I ever get a good scanner.

When--My grandmother lived from 1903 until 1987. This picture, I believe, was taken in 1906.

Where--She lived her entire life in various parts of North Carolina. Because she suffered from horrible motion sickness her entire life, she didn't travel much. When we moved away from NC, she and my grandfather did come to visit (thanks to lots of Dramamine) and I believe those trips were the only times she ever left NC. She saw the ocean for the first time visiting us in Maryland when I was in high school.

Why--I always thought that my grandmother was the best grandmother a kid could have. My grandmother had red curly hair. I always thought it was so cool when I was a kid to have grandmother with red hair, and I wished that one of my kids would have red hair, but none of them do, nor do I or any of my siblings. My grandmother was very traditional in some ways, but very much a non-conformist in other ways. We spent a lot of time with her when we were children; she loved to read us stories and play with us, and she let us do lots of things that my mother wouldn't, like play "scientist" and mix up all sorts of things from the kitchen to make "formulas". She had an old refrigerator with a very small freezer (the kind that was in the refrigerator compartment) and she always claimed that it wouldn't keep ice cream frozen. One summer morning when my siblings and I had spent the night with her, she drove my grandfather to work and returned with a half gallon of peach ice cream. Which she gave to us for breakfast--and we had to eat it all because of course the freezer wouldn't keep it frozen.

My grandmother doted on her grandchildren. My father was an only child, but I think she would've liked to have a whole house full of children. Apparently she had a number of miscarriages and at least one still-born child, and almost died herself with one of those miscarriages. She lived long enough to meet five great-grandchildren (including my three oldest kids) which thrilled her.

Wonky?

Is it just me, or is Blogger acting wonky today? Some blogs I can access okay, some are very very very slow, and some I keep getting error messages about. Weird.

On my bookshelves

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Some of you know that I collect Madeleine L'Engle's books. This is my collection (all but a few books on the 2nd shelf). I think I probably have copies of 75-80% of her books, although it doesn't look like that much here.

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Have you ever gone looking for something you've read about in a book? I first read about this postcard of a Lavers and Westlake stained glass window in this book. Both the postcard and the window are associated with the seminary I attended (a couple of years after I read the book) but it took me two years to find the window. And I think I bought two of the last postcards in the bookstore.

Morning reflections of a different sort

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How my day off began

5:45 am Alarm goes off as it always does; I turn it off without really waking up

7:15 am Cell phone alarm goes off because this seems like a reasonable time to get up. I hit snooze once, then again, finally just turn it off

8:57 am Wake with a start remembering that I was supposed to open the garage for a delivery (my!new!bay!window!) that was supposed to come Friday but they left it at the church instead(!)

9:05 am Go into bathroom to begin my morning ablutions

9:06 am Phone rings. It is always an occasion for scrambling when the landline rings because the Kid is apt to leave the handsets anywhere but where they belong.

9:07 am Answer phone. Could I go down to the church and unlock the door so that the delivery people can retrieve the window, and oh, would I mind just staying there since the office is closed for MLK day and there ought to be someone there when the door is unlocked. I agree to unlock the door but not to stay.

9:12 am I return to the bathroom to begin my morning ablutions

9:13 am The doorbell rings. It's someone from church who needs to be let into the kitchen because the key the office gave her on Friday (in order to avoid just such a scenario) doesn't work. I give her my keys.

9:45 am Having finally brushed my teeth and washed my face and put on some jeans I walk down to the church to retrieve my keys and to unlock the other door for the guys who need to retrieve my window. Since I'm there anyway I go in my office and print some things to work on for tormorrow.

10:20 am Back home, thinking I will have a latte, I put some milk on the stove to heat.

10:22 am Phone rings. The window won't be picked up til tomorrow. Could I go back down to the church and relock the door?

10:23 am Milk boils all over the burner.

Oy.

Dissed?

The scene: Me, still in vestments, greeting parishioners at the back of church at the end of the service; I get the back door because I preached today; the boss who celebrated the eucharist is at the side door.

Middle aged man to me: "Please tell the minister...."( what it was I was supposed to tell him isn't crucial here)

Me, thinking to self: What am I, chopped liver?

To be fair, this guy is the son of a parishioner and not a regular, but still...

Another thing I do

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Self-portrait

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More on a theme

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Catching up Project 365

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Ordinary day

Part of the purpose of Project 365 is to record what life is like each and every day. I'm afraid shots of my office would be pretty boring, especially since everything is piled in the middle of the floor right now while the office gets painted.

But tonight I cooked dinner. I know, most people cook dinner everyday, but I don't. Bad habit, but there you go. So while I know this isn't great photography I offer you this snapshot of what is probably the most momentous part of my day, homemade vegetable soup:

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And two others I took on New Year's Eve in Maine, as a reminder of winter is supposed to look like...


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I do intend to work on the other part of Project 365--improving my photography skills..doing it every day may prove more of a challenge than NaBloPoMo!

Our shame: What are we to do?

From The Guardian....

..the [Democratic] party has dedicated itself to a raft of legislative changes over its first 100 hours in power. Among other things, the Democrats will raise the minimum wage, cut interest on student loans and bring in stricter laws on lobbying - all modest, manageable, sensible and centrist. But none of them deals with the key question of the day and the principal reason why they were elected - the war.

There are two reasons for this. First, the Democrats have no coherent position on the war. In fact, most of them voted for it. Second, given that the president is the commander-in-chief and conducts foreign policy, there is a limit to what the Democrats can constitutionally do about it, beyond refusing to fund it. This would represent great political risk, making Democrats vulnerable to the Republican charge that they are putting American soldiers at risk for partisan reasons. Such a stance would demand both principle and determination - neither of which has proven to be their strong suit.

...if the Democratic Congress is unwilling to use any means at its disposal to fulfil its democratic mandate, then it will be left to the public to make their displeasure known. It is two years and tens of thousands of lives, some of them American, before the next presidential election. The American people clearly don't want this. A CBS poll last month showed that 18% wanted to see an increase in troop levels compared with 59% who want them either decreased or withdrawn completely. The question is: what are they going to do about it?

The tragic answer is probably nothing.

Read it all here.

Random Bullets of Monday

• It's another rainy, windy, gray day. It was raining hard enough at 6:20 this morning that I drove the Kid to the bus stop (but, hey, at least he was up in time for the bus!). The wind and rain make it feel colder than it actually is, but it might actually get cold enough for snowflakes on Wednesday. This despite the previously mentioned flowers by the driveway and the grass which is greening up nicely in the back yard.
  
• I wake up every morning to the news, first BBC and then Morning Edition. So usually the first thing I hear is whatever has blown up in Baghdad today, how many car bombs have gone off, how many soldiers have died. It is sobering. I wonder if GWB wakes up to a similar report? Somehow I don't think so. If he did how could he be contemplating sending 20,000 more American troops to Iraq?
• Will the new Congress have the wherewithal to stop the troop surge? What would it take? I'm not a fan of violence, but I have wondered lately if an uprising of the people, some kind of revolution, is what it would take to stop Bush from doing whatever he decides to do. I don't seriously think it will happen but it is another sobering thought.
• On a more cheerful note I am trying to learn to distinguish Downy woodpeckers from Hairy woodpeckers. I know that I have Downys who come to my feeder just outside my window, but a moment ago I think I had a Hairy. I would post pics, but they are stored on my old computer at the moment but here.....from the Cornell website is a Downy and here is a Hairy. As you can see, they are quite similar. Have to keep the camera nearby in case the larger one comes back.
  
• I really need to take down the Christmas tree today. Argh. It's a lot of work and it makes a mess. And I've been trying with not the greatest results to begin a knitting project. After restarting a half a dozen times or so, I think I've got it almost figured out, so I want to spend some time working on that, too. And I badly need to buy groceries. And do laundry. And maybe go buy another bird feeder.
  
• This is so typical of me--I spend more time thinking of what I could/should/might do on my day off than I do actually doing it. For now I'm going to make a latte and have breakfast. Oh, you say, weren't you up at 6:20 to take the Kid to the bus? Yes, but I went back to bed :)
  
• Picture of the day to come later.
  

A Year Ago Today

I was ordained as a priest. Before ordination it's hard (or at least it was for me) to imagine what it will really be like to be a priest. And now, a year later it is hard to describe it still. Years ago, before I became good friends with a priest, I was among those who tended to put priests on a pedestal--surely they must be holier, better connected to God, just "better" than regular people! But in fact, no. If anything our clay feet may be larger than those of others. Yet, being a priest is more than just a job. It does somehow change one's being in some ineffable way.

I am grateful each and every day for the privilege of being a priest. I am especially grateful for

• the children and the innocence and openness with which they come before God
• celebrating the eucharist--in solemn and beautiful settings and in places as simple and intimate as the front deck of my friends' house
• the way I am ministered to in the midst of ministering to others
• the privilege of being invited and allowed into the holy spaces in the lives of those to whom I minister, those whom I encounter regularly or those whom I meet perhaps just for a brief moment in time.

Thanks be to God.

Project 365

After seeing this over at Bright Star's I think that I am going to do a "Project 365"--post one picture every day for a year, or at least one picture for everyday of the year (so if I miss one day I'll post two the next). B* has a separate blog for hers, but I think that I will just post mine right here. Starting January 1st isn't required, but I'm thinking I might post a few extras today and tomorrow and then do one a day for the rest of the year. We'll see how it goes.

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2/365 Christmas Fire



3/365 New Year's Eve in Maine

Global Warming

January 5, in New England. This is so very wrong.
(Taken by my driveway this afternoon)

Happy Birthday, Lovely Daughter #1

Tomorrow, January 3, is LD#1's birthday. But because where she lives it's already tomorrow, I'm going to say this now: Happy Birthday! We miss you!

LD#1 has always been the adventurous one in the family. She's the one who learned how to climb out of her crib when she was 15 months old, who learned to walk and climb with a cast on one leg, who was an intrepid gymnast from the get-go, the one who longed most for travel and adventure, who dreams of a better world and works to change the world she's in. For almost two years she's been living and working in South Korea--far too far from the rest of the family but where her heart calls her to be for now.

LD, I hope the next year (and those that follow) will bring you all the happiness you seek.

Love, Mom

Back, Safe, Home Again*

The Kid and I were supposed to come home yesterday but as the forecast had predicted, we awoke to a coating of ice on everything, and freezing rain still falling. Not wanting another hair-raising trip, I decided to stay in Maine another day even though the Kid had school today and I was supposed to be at work. We had another lovely day with our friends--brunch, playing board games, watching movies--all in all delightful. Today dawned bright and sunny with the snow and ice virtually all gone. And we had an uneventful trip home. Tomorrow it's back to school and work.

The sort of non-winter we're having ought to give pause to the global warming doubters of the world. Of course it could perhaps be just a "normal variation" in weather cycles, but January in New England with temps in the 40s and 50s and virtually no snow cover is not business as usual. We had a number of discussions this weekend about what could be done and whether we as individuals or collectively as a nation had the will to make the necessary changes to stop the warming trend. It's hard not just to throw up your hands in despair when you think about the magnitude of the problem. We need some real political leadership to instigate the large changes, and that is seriously lacking at this point.

While many have already packed away Christmas, my tree is still up and will be until the weekend at least. Epiphany--the 12th day of Christmas--is Saturday, so it may come down then. Or it may stay up longer... we'll see.


*This line comes from a Richard Scarry book featuring the Pig family. Mother Pig (Mama Pig?) would always say this as they arrived back home, and I started saying it when the kids were little. Old habits die hard, and I still say it from time to time.

Blogging the New Year

• We're in Maine visiting our friends D and J. We drove up yesterday in some of the worst weather I've driven in in a long while. When we left home it was cloudy, but well above freezing, and when I'd checked the weather forecast the day before no precipitation was called for. But as we approached the northern border of Masachusetts it began to snow--dry, swirly snow on the road, and not too he avy coming down. I was surprised but not worried. It quickly picked up and as we reached the bridge into Maine, the fun began....the bridge was very very icy. Traffic was moving slowly, but cars were sliding all over the place. We had to stop for cars ahead of us, and when I tried to start up again, I had the awful sensation of moving sideways instead of forwards. I could not get any forward traction, and I was trying very hard not to freak out. I tried backing up a little and then going forward but all I did was slide. I put on my blinkers and kept trying not to freak out. Finally a very kind man pulled up beside me and asked me if I was okay. With his advice to put the car in second gear and ride the clutch I was finally able to get going and inched my way across the bridge. The roads were slick much of the rest of the trip--what should have taken 5 hours took closer to seven and a half.

• But since we arrived we've had a wonderful time. Last night was dinner with a great group of friends--lots of good food, carol singing and conversation and laughing. Today we had a lovely brunch and this evening we went to a local first-night type celebration, although we opted to come home well before midnight. Now we are watching Garrison Keillor and (alternately) Times Square as we await the New Year.

• We also took a lovely walk in the snowy woods this morning.

I love the newly fallen snow....very beautiful and very peaceful.

• Pausing for a champagne toast at the stroke of midnight...Happy New Year everyone. May 2007 bring peace to us all.

• It is sad to see Dick Clark looking so decrepit. While it is good that he has recovered as much as he has, maybe there comes a time to gracefully retire.

• And while I love Prairie Home Companion, the New Year's show is long on singing and far too short on features like "Guy Noir". I'm just saying.