And then there were five..

I live alone. My kids at school think that is weird...some of my neighbors wonder about me also!
After time a person gets used to it..now I'm not saying I like it..I am just saying it is how I live...or should I say how I used to live.

This afternoon around 4:00...a carload of folks moved in with me...they drove a white van that was filled top to bottom with "stuff" that has now filled the Cottage at White Picket Gardens.

Odd, you think...did they randomly choose my lovely house on this quiet tree-lined street? No, it was rather deliberate...it is my son, Aaron and his family, Karen and their two babies, Matthew and Jonah. They will be staying here until the first of June.

My kitchen is filled with baby food..the high chair is now in the dining room with a real live baby in it...my knitting basket, seashells, CD's, silver stars have all been tucked away...there are toys and cribs and diapers and trucks all over.

There is also something else around that I don't hear very often...soft voices, breathing, laughter, cooing, and someone to share dinners with.

Yes, life will certainly be different for the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted!

If I write it...will you read it??

Dear Friends,
I have just realized how irresponsible I have been to this blog site..and believe it or not..it it really important to me. So, if I become more faithful, will you become more faithful in reading???

Tonight was my book club night. I love book club. We are all women. We take turns hosting and serving dinner (yes, we talk about the book..a lot!!)

This month's read was Reading Lolita in Tehran. It will probably become (it is already!) my favorite book of the year. It is written by Azar Nafisi. I would recommend it highly!!

The book itsef lends itself to other reads...Nabokov, Fitzgerld, James, Austin...it is a rich read, and I found it especially wonderful after the V.M.

There are so many wonderful quotes that it is very difficult to choose one...but I shall indeed do that:
"Modern fiction brings out the evil in domestic lives, ordinary relations, people like you and me. What is frightening i that the blindness can exist in the best of us as well as the worst. We are all capable of becoming the blind censor, or imposig our visions and desires on others."1

1. Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi

Stuffing a backpack...

I can stuff a turkey, really I can...and I used to be able to stuff a Volkswagon (remember those days???), butI am having a hard time stuffing my backpack.

I will be leaving on my Carl Sandburg trip in just a couple of days and have been getting everything ready...black and white film, new mastercard to replace the one I lost at the fund raiser on Saturday night, cash from the ATM, charging the phone, stopping the mail, washing the jeans, finding sandals..raincoats, getting the new journal ready, books to read on the train, hair barretts, sweatshirts, business cards (never pass up a great opportunity!!), glasses...both distance and sunglases, sunscreen, t-shirts, socks, underwear, camera, clothes for Portland.

And then there are the travel arrangements...there are six folks involved in my getting to the airport and back from the train station..I feel a little like a bag of potatoes...but as long as everyone remembers their part, I should get there and back OK!!

So now comes the stuffing part...it just won't go, plus I forgot to put toothpaste, shampoo, hairbrush and all of that on the list.

The big question of the night is this? How in the world did the hobos do it?? Of course, they didn't photograph their historic journey (how did they know it would be a romantically preserved time period...and they didn't journal..again same reason. I am quite sure they didn't need sunscreen or sandals or their ATM card or business cards to drop along the way...here, Kansas City, have a business card, give me call if you have any work for fifteen cents an hour.

OK, ok, I am trying to duplicate the trip...but doesn't anyone out there want to go along to carry this big, stuffed backpack???????

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.