gifted
re-entry
Photo Info:
Camera: Canon Rebel XSi
Lens: Canon EF 50 mm f/1.8
Aperture: f/2.5
Focal length: 50 mm
ISO: 800
No flash, no post processing.
last day
brand new day
When Callum was a baby, he had considerable trouble with transitions. He cried leaving the house to go to swim class. He cried leaving swim class to come home. He cried when we got out of the car to go into the house. I finally learned to help him with this by waving bye-bye to everything we left. "Bye-Bye, house." "Bye-Bye, swim class." "Bye-Bye, car."
He still struggles with these transitions. Taking down the Christmas tree was hard for him this year. He mostly helped by staying up in his room, getting dressed...for hours. And so I'm working to help him here too. I told him that for me, part of what made having the tree so special was that we had it for a limited time. Saying good-bye to the tree doesn't make having had it any less special. It makes us look forward to next Christmas even more.
And now the time has come to say good-bye to another friend. We're putting the Blue Rain Room to bed. Not the blog, but the name. (Don't panic, mom.) It's time. When I started this blog nearly four years ago, I was full up on crafting blogs and trying my wings at knitting and sewing. The Blue Rain Room was the name from whence all those things sprung. Thing change, she shrugs. I still knit and I still sew (a very little), but if you've been reading along at all, you'll know that this blog has stepped away and become different from those things. More.
It's the best gift I can give my family, to try to capture these moments as we rub along together, so it seems time to move the blog out of that room and let it take its proper place. The one where I take pictures, and I write about my life.
The phyiscal Blue Rain Room still exists, of course. It's my office now. Filled still, with yarn and fabric, it also houses my laptop and grammar books and a space heater. I write there every day. I write every day. I may not write for me every day (yet), but I do write every day, and I think I might be the luckiest person in the world.
So "Bye-Bye, dear Blue Rain Room." Thank you for all the gifts you've given me each and every day.
Hello, www.stillpluslife.com
It's still for the photos I take, and life for this enchanting life I am lucky to lead. I plan on doing some more tweaking than to just the name. Dust off the cobwebs and maybe switch up the look a bit (If I can do it without having to reformat every single picture I've taken over the past four years.). And there'll be some more things to look at too. A greater emphasis on photos. But at the heart of it all the Blue Rain Room is still here. The link will even work for awhile, but I suggest you get used to using the new one. I'm going to try to.
It's a brand new year and a brand new day.
eleven for 2011 (shockingly similar)
1. write for myself every day
2. step it up with the photography
3. find my way back to yoga
4. add more glamor
5. shake some dust off my karma
6. read more with Callum
7. open my heart
8. hone my self-discipline
9. be more brave
10. nurture all my relationships
11. do SOMETHING big
five things, new year's eve edition
1. I think I may need to forego black boots for snow boots, but I am still thinking about black boots.
2. I think I can't imagine a life without dogs. Even ones who have to be carried outside when it snows.
3. I think I have a lot of blog work to catch myself up on.
4. I think I'm already ready for another snowfall.
5. I think I'm ready to ring in the new year.
I'll be back tomorrow with my annual New Year's to-do list. Happy New Year everybody, and be safe tonight.
not so bleak
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago. ~Christina Rosetti
so it was Christmas, friends edition
For four (five?) years now, we've gathered with some friends and neighbors to celebrate the season and check out each other's holiday decorations. It's a night I look forward to every year. When I looked back at this post last year, I realized that we couldn't host our normal appetizer course because our kitchen was in such a midden. I'll have to show you how it all turned out sometime.
We switched it up again this year, and I made dessert. My heart is full when I think of these friends, so I think I'll let the photos do the talking. Living here is one of the very best parts of my year. Every year.
the best present we could have asked for
Sunday Morning, 7 a.m.
It couldn't have worked out more perfectly. The weather folk had been hinting at it all week, but suspiciously. Uncertain. In a don't-get-your-hopes-up-for-a-white-Christmas kind of way. Have I mentioned that I'm a weather nut? I've been watching that forecast. But it was shifty. Some days looked like the weekend would bring us snow, others looked like nothing. In the south, you can never trust a snow forecast. By Friday, things didn't look so good for us. No real snow coming, but that's okay because Christmas is pretty special in its own right.
Still, Alfie is here, and what do we do better than plan ahead and shop for food? We added some snacks to our Christmas dinner shopping, all the while making jokes about how my grandmother used to always worry, "What if it snows?"
Christmas was wonderful, and I'm sure I'll have more to say about that in a couple of days. By Christmas morning, it looked like like we might get a few inches overnight into Sunday. I got brave enough to check the forecast (didn't want to get disappointed), and with each peek, we got more excited. The sky looked leaden, the temperature dropped. Around three we got excited when we saw some flurries.
They lasted for about two minutes.
But we brought in more wood for the fireplace and added more layers and made the dogs go out again, knowing they weren't going to want to after the snow came.
We settled into watch some football and caught the evening news and the weather.
More flurries!
This time serious business. Our weather man called it a "shot across the bow." Not the real storm! We settled into watch a surprisingly competitive Arizona/Dallas game. Every few minutes someone got up to check on the status of the snow. The porch is getting wet! Really coming down now! I can't tell if the grass is white or not, but the road is wet. Alfie made us wait through the whole 3rd quarter without looking out the window. That was hard, but good because when we got up we'd really made some progress.
I slept with my curtains open that night. Whenever I woke up, I could see the streetlight on our street, and even if it wasn't snowing, I felt certain. Certain that we'd see more. That this was it. Our winter gift.
When I woke up before seven, the wind was blowing and the snow was coming down in spades.And it snowed all day.
In the ways that never happen, the forecast amounts of snow increased throughout the morning; 4-6 inches, 5-8 inches, up to a foot of snow!
Around eleven there seemed to be a lull, so we took a walk.
It snowed all day long. Callum and Neel tried to go sledding without much success. Too blowy still and too much snow coming down. So we snuggled in and watched from the window. Every tree limb, every surface, coated in white.
In the end, they're saying we got about 13 inches, but we're measuring a bit deeper in our yard. The third biggest snowstorm in our little city's history. The roads are still snow covered, the medical school is closed today, and there's nothing to do but settle in and enjoy it. We'll try sledding later this afternoon. Conditions should be perfect by then.
It was the best Christmas present ever. The anticipation everything I could have asked for...and the realization everything too. How often does that happen? The only thing, the only thing that would have made it better would be another system headed our way three or four days from now.
Christmas Day
"All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged, fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hand into the snow and bring out whatever I can find."
Dylan Thomas A Child's Christmas in Wales
five things, Christmas Eve edition
1. I think that two sick people and one person recovering from minor surgery is quite enough for the week before Christmas.
2. I think I am glad to have picked up my knitting again.
3.I think I can live with a green Christmas, if it means there's a white day-after Christmas close in the works. Spoons under pillows and fingers crossed!
4. I think that for such a secular family, we really, really enjoy this whirl of excitement as well as the deep sense of gratitude that this time of year brings.
5. I ask this every year, and I'll ask it again. What's better? Presents or expecting presents? I think presents.
Papa in the kitchen
It hasn't always gone well for him, but Neel took over the cooking for football Sunday this weekend.
He stuck to his roots (Indian food), and that made all the difference.
Some chutney, some curry, some daal and some chapati. Not necessarily "football" food, but pretty delicious. I think it's made its way into our regular rotation.
ice skating morning
Our local mall has opened an ice skating rink for the holiday season, and Callum went with some friends on Friday. Despite several falls, a suspected concussion and some achey muscles, he couldn't wait to get back.
We got there early, before they even opened and unexpectedly met up with some friends. It was a perfect day to be out. Not too cold and sunny, and even watching the Zamboni was a treat.
Another treat was a Zamboni Photo-Op!
The nice man let Neel sit on the Zamboni too!
I was not physically brave as a child, and I appreciate so much that Callum has bravery in spades. He's willing to try anything, and leaps headlong into it, seeking to master the skill.
All three kids were incredibly brave, and the transformation they made in just a couple of hours was remarkable. Not just our kids, but everybody there. Even the ones clutching the wall for dear life eventually made their way around the rink fall-free. An impressive feat on the feet.
After skating, lunch at the boulangerie (la boulangerie!).
Callum double fisted soup. Warming up from the inside out.
five things, december 17 edition
1. I think I will never outgrow the excitement of a snow day.
2. I think my least favorite thing about the holidays is the wrapping and packing of presents.
3. Many years ago, when talking about Christmas, a friend of mine said, "Belief is a choice." I think it's okay to still believe in Santa Clause.
4. I think I shouldn't have started looking at macro lenses.
5. I think I'm excited about the prospect of a new photography class in the new year. I'm ready to step it up.
tell it to the board
It looked a near thing for a while this morning. A no-snow snow day, possibly. School was called, as it sometimes is here, on the threat of snow. (And before you get all weird and self-righteous, please remember that this is the Tidewater, people. We're not quite equipped for winter around here.)
But finally, finally it started snowing. It's been so cold, that we've got instant gratification with immediate sticking to rooftops, fire pits and roads.
I love this little chalkboard. I stole the idea from Pottery Barn and hung it by the door. It tells all of our pertinent thoughts. Early Dismissal, Don't forget swim stuff, football scores, how many days til Christmas and lately, our heart's desire. Let it snow.
Is it too much to hope for a white Christmas?
maybe you really can't go home again
Callum at karate in 2007. That was then.
Callum had a karate tournament this weekend at his old school. We were thrilled at the start of the year to learn that his instructor was going to be teaching a class at his new school. Part of this was selfish of course. Karate is good for our boy. It gives him confidence and self-discipline in spades. But also we love his sensei. We love the way he teaches, and we were thrilled that a new batch of boys and girls were going to be able to experience this wonderful man and his introduction to this ancient art.
Callum can't get often to karate. While he's been taking classes since he was in kindergarten, he has dropped in and out, always managing to keep it as a thread in his life. The class at the new school is offered twice a week, but with his schedule, he only manages to get there on Fridays. I feel certain that he doesn't practice at home as often as he should. And yet, when we asked him if he wanted to do it again next term, the answer was a resounding, "yes."
He was so excited to participate in an inter-dojo tournament this weekend. Sensei was able to bring kids from his free standing dojo and the dojos at both schools (Callum's old and new school) together for one event. And while Callum generally thrives on competition, he was mostly anxious to go back to his old school and see his friends, some old and some new all together in one place.
The first person we saw when we got there was a boy from Callum's class last year who had been in and out of karate with him through the years. In no time it seemed that everyone was happily hanging out, and the tournament went off without a hitch. We told Callum's sensei what a great idea we thought this was, and even though he didn't win in his division; Callum felt good about how he'd performed.
Callum, this Saturday. This is now.
When we got home, a different story came out. Turns out that kid we saw when we first got there...the one who'd been a friend and classmate of his last year was actually pretty mean to our boy that day. Called him a traitor for going to a new school. Said to another friend that he hoped Callum didn't win. That he hoped no one from Callum's new school won. He called the mom of a friend of Callum's a hippopotamus. (She's not.) All really nice stuff.
Callum was pretty bummed. To say the least. He doesn't feel like a traitor. And come on folks, let's face it. He's not. His parents are the ones who decided to send him to another school, and Callum has made a good effort to go back and see his old friends. He's always done it with an open heart, anxious to reconnect. Each time though, his expectations have been too high perhaps. That was certainly true again on Saturday. Unexpected for all of us, but I think we've learned a lesson here. Sometimes maybe, the old friends aren't the best.
first fall
It won't last. It can't possibly. But here in the Tidewater, we'll take what we can get.