"Mom, can I have a lemon? Can I make lemonade with it?"
"I guess so. Try not to make a big mess 'k?"
"'k"
"Know what, B? I know a story about another boy who doesn't get all puckered up over lemons…"
Impromptu story stretchers. My favorite sort.
Monthly Archives: April 2012
bits of spring
Smile because it happened
There she was, that nanny goat, as we turned into the marketplace full of Easter revelry. She arched her blonde neck to nibble the last bits of grain from one wrinkled hand. Moira and I tried to coax the little girls in close to feel that soft nose, to see the sleepy burro in the straw. Oh, they stepped in a bit. Tentatively.
They don't remember.
Their world is so new that their memories don't reach back beyond these cobblestones. Tess talks of loving to ride the horse, but it is not our horses she speaks of. It is the pony ride tent she recalls. For a minute my knees are weak.
It wasn't so long ago. I sat on an upturned bucket and ran my hand along the side of doe like this one, coaxing milk from a warm udder and knowing exactly how long I had to work before the feed was eaten and she'd stomp impatient. If I close my eyes I can feel the metal handle of the water bucket, hear the bleating of goat kids in the stall nearby.
It wasn't so long ago. And it was good.
Things are different today. We stand here with these girls peeking between old boards. Another farmer will gather this flock in tonight. My husband and I will gather our own little flock into a yellow house at the edge of a village some 5,000 miles from a barn in Colorado. While they sleep we pore over pictures of houses in yet another country, wondering which we will find ourselves in this summer.
This too is good.
Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned these past two yrs is that happiness is not wedded to a place nor a circumstance. It is not frozen in time. It is fluid and changing and can pour out of its old containers to fill up entirely new spaces. Even to overflowing. I think I didn't know this for sure until I left.
I leave here with something I didn't have when I came. Faith. Faith that happy isn't just a fluke. It can happen again. And again. Just like challenges. I don't know where we are going exactly but I feel sure there is good there and we will find it.
Still, I hope that just maybe, there will be another day when I turn a corner a England and see a nanny goat.
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. - Dr. Suess
Evening Walk on the Karlův Most
There was a break in the misty rain that second night in Prague. Our apartment was quite near the Charles Bridge, close enough that after the littles were tucked into bed with the big girls we could step out for a short walk together.
The Charles Bridge connects the Little Quarter in Prague with the Old Town across the Vltava River. By day, vendors line the sides of the bridge with souvenirs and artwork. After nightfall, there is a hush over all. Couples stroll quietly, looking across the gently flowing water towards the illuminated landscape beyond.
Walk with me, and I will show you…..
An Apartment in Prague
As I have shared before, if we are expecting to spend a few days in a place we usually opt for a vacation rental over a hotel. It allows us to cut down on expenses by preparing our own food. (We usually do one nice dinner locally and prepare our other meals at 'home') It also gives us a feel for how regular people in the area live and work every day. In Prague it was an old walk-up townhouse just a half block from the Infant Jesus Shrine and close to the Charles Bridge. A couple of the units were vacation rentals but the rest were full-time tenants. We loved it.
Quarters were spacious this time but sometimes they are less so. And it goes without saying there will a lot more, um, togetherness in the car and in small vacation rental than at home. Michelle Duggar discusses troubleshooting snug spaces and crankiness on the road here.
Frohe Ostern!
Holy Saturday
Weekend Photography Tips – depth of field app
This next tip came in one of my mailings this week and is only really useful if you have program modes or manual options on your camera. So, mainly you dslr folks.
Stanford has some new app's that help you visualize the exposure triangle at work. You can manipulate the aperture, ISO, and shutter speed online and see how the image is affected immediately. You can see how much of the image is in clear focus, how much is lit properly, and when parts of the image become over- or under-exposed.
Fun. : )
sweet
random sweet things…
Spring Break so far
Shortly after we returned from Prague we drove up to Frankfurt to pick up the son of our close friends from Colorado. I am still recovering.
I can't tell you how many times over the years I have looked out my window to see this boy and his brothers jumping on my trampoline, embattled in Airsoft wars on the prairie, dogs and chickens and kids in a flutter. We have shared holiday meals and sacraments. We have watched him grow up with our own kids. I must have blinked however, because I was not prepared for this 6ft, self-assured young man, on break from university studies in Florence, who entered my vehicle.
I always figured this move from middle school to college, while of course important, would nonetheless pale in comparison to the unfolding of life from its first appearance on the ultrasound screen to that delightfully mispronounced speech of early childhood.
I was wrong. This? This is amazing.
It is such a blessing to have true friends. It is an even greater blessing to raise your kids together and watch this whole crazy incredible life thing happen before your eyes. We love you Chris and Becki, and we are so grateful that you have included us on this wild adventure.
(pictures taken near Burg Nanstein, hiking before dinner at the Schloss Hotel )
Starry Sky Journal 