Happy St. Pat's to all...

I love St. Patrick's Day...it is right up there with the Solstice and Robert Burns Day..

I love the wearing of the green...dusting off my brogue...and drinking green beer....(that comes later tonight!!)

Tomorrow night (at Rachael's) there will be a great St. Pat's celebration with singing (we made our own songbooks), and stories (that is my job!) Hopefully we will have folks from wall to wall..so if you are in Angola tomorrow night, come on over!!

Which reminds me..I best go brush up on those Irish tales, take my walk, and oh yes...have that green beer!!

Still winter according to my fourth grade writers!!

Haiku for Winter by Fourth Grade Students in Northern Indiana

blustery cold winds
blankets of snow falling down
gleaming snow glows bright

snowflakes still falling
animals want snow to leave
arctic winds blowing

Spring is a traitor
betraying us in sharp March
adios Winter!!

Winter, be gone now
take off your dreaded white coat
you've stayed long enough

cold frosts evenings
winter's sweet maple syrup
wondrous tree tapping

deer bound across fields
like snowshoe rabbits in snow
which are both awesome

longer March sunsets
warm air melting it's cold ice
geese swimming in ponds

snowy freezing days
cold, chilly, raw March evenings
people wanting spring

The way it is...

Philip left this morning.

Coming home at the end of the day to an empty house was difficult. It is always like that when he leaves. He spoils me when he is here...cooking, washing dishes, having a lovely pot of tea ready for me when I walk in the door. Oh, how lonely my house is tonight.

I called my sister. She always has a way of listening to me...I read..I cooked dinner...and I walked in cold, dark tonight..the temperature is 21 degrees, but the stars are like diamonds. It was a good night for walking and thinking.

I think I'll just go to bed early with the electric blanket...a cup of herb tea...and a good book. Sigh.

Life has a way in interfering....

Sometimes I think I am on tract with my journal writing and then...life just happens right in the middle of everything. (If you are only a blog reader go to my website www.louannhoman.com and click on Sunday Passages for the full story. Also check out the new photos on the scrapbook page.

It is a rainy, dark day in Indiana. The rain is to turn to snow towards evening with another blast of cold, arctic air....but the promise of spring is somewhere???

Tonight is dinner at a friend's house..simple, cozy...soup for a cold night...a bottle of wine to share..and stories...always stories.

Winterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It does not end. The plow chugged up and down my street all night as I slept with the curtains open catching site of the blinking light in my dreams. By morning we had several inches of snow and my good neighbors were here shoveling for me.

By two in the afternoon, it had all turned to sleet...heavy, heavy sleet pelting all around my house and gardens.

Currently, it is raining and quite foggy outside. One of my favorite quotes about winter never ending is found in the book, Winter, by Rick Bass. He writes, "Be loyal to winter, all the way through--all the way, and with sincerity--or you'll find youself high and dry, longing for a spring that's along way off, and winter will have abandoned you, and in her place you'll have cagin fever, the worst."

Friday afternoon Haiku...

What a nice way to end the week with a fourth grade class loving Haiku, clinging to Haiku, not wanting to go home from school (well, almost!) Haiku!! These were all written by the kids!!

wishy-washy pearls
what's in your recollection?
Liquefy or not

savouring winter
non-ending glacial snowflakes
forsaking sunshine

cold silver diamonds
fridget crystals of winter
frosted crescents fall

snowflakes drifting
white pearly crystals falling
dancing all over

February's warmth
always melts your snowman's heart
so what about mine??

steal a broken heart
February warming air
my tragic break-up

ice looking like stars
walking in the cloudy snow
snow melts in my arms

cotton candy snow
sticking on windows like lace
flying in the air

Confession...

I own a Jeep. There, I have said it. Some of you don't know me personally, but now you know the truth. I own a gas, guzzling SUV vehicle. I also protest against drilling oil in Alaska, support the Brady Bill for gun control and will be in the Vagina Monologues.

But, before you close out....just let me explain. I have to own a Jeep, I mean it is part of my storytelling. I have a great license plate that says STORIES...I have bumper stickers that give the world a clue as to who I am.

My Jeep is my house on wheels...my Laura Ingalls Wilder wagon..the first flight of the Wright Brothers...

I write in my car (not a safe practice!!)...read in my car (also not a safe practice!) sometimes enjoy other activitie in my Jeep (I'll not even go there!!)...I cry and eat McDonald' burgers in my Jeep (did I say McDonald's, I meant soy burgers from the health food store, really I did!!

I carry microphones, work out clothes, walking shoes, scraper,tapes for the tape player, 8 pair of ice skates (well, you never will know when you run across a lovely patch of ice, meet 7 folks who also need skates)...a cowboy hat (!)...musical instruments..empty and full water bottles, candy wrappers (they were from a hitch hiker I picked up once, and that is the truth)...and a lovly prism that bobbles from my rear view window.

Today my Jeep will turn 100,000. I have had three Jeeps during the past few years...all run 250,000 mles..I think Jeep should be reading this and letting me do their commercials..I am a walking (I mean driving) testimony to their durability.

Besides, I think I look cool in my Jeep. When I work at schools, the kids are all impressed when they carry my stuff out to my Jeep, "is that yours?" they ask in amazement.

"Yes," I say with pride looking at my beginning-to-be-rusted, bumper stickered, covered with Indiana salt Jeep,
"Yes, that baby is all mine!"