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an everyday life

an everyday life

Tag Archives: Entertaining

Watershed Wonders

25 Saturday Dec 2010

Posted by Janell in Life at Home, Prayer, Soul Care

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Christmas Letters, Entertaining, Everyday Life, Iowa Summer Writing Festival, Prayer, Soul Care, Writing

“Say after me:  It’s no better to be safe than sorry.”  –  a-ha

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Watershed years defy tidy summary.  But as a nod to Dad and his passion for movies, I’ll begin by calling ours, “Two Funerals and a Wedding,” but then focus on these other in-between moments: Two college graduations; a wedding announcement by Bryan and Amy; and soon — anytime now — the birth of a new grandchild, Kara and Joe’s first.  Next year’s sequel waits to answer our family cliffhanger: Is it a girl or boy?

Amid these transitions, Don’s travel schedule was lighter than usual, with just a few short trips to Houston and overseas.  And while his annual backpacking trip fell by the wayside, we headed off into the western sunset together to enjoy the beauty growing wild in Alaska. It was our first taste of life on the retiree’s travel circuit – and while we may not have made the cut, we didn’t leave the ship without booking next year’s trip.

Closer to home, our family enjoyed a different sort of travel as we again took turns hosting a monthly moveable feast.  Most months we kept it simple by gathering at a local restaurant, where we played our assigned roles.  Don’s regular part is the manager who keeps us anchored in reality while moving clockwise, Kyle and Kara are our two creative souls, who talk someday of writing a children’s book together.  Then Kara’s husband Joe is the consummate sports fan, who is always strategically positioned to watch whatever sport happens to be airing on television.  Next are resident lovebirds Amy and Bryan — just glad to be together again, with Amy having just returned from a month-long family visit.  Finally there’s Glen and Kate, who keep us in stitches with their repartee — with Kate rolling her eyes, Glen’s been talking about how he knows how to fix their broken toilet — but that he’s just not worked up to it yet.

And then there’s me — the one who could write the book on not yet working up to doing “this” or “that.”  So how fitting it was for my watershed moments to pry me out of my contemplative comfort zone:  From leading my father’s funeral service in April to spending ten days at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in July, you may be surprised to learn I’ve continued to set aside my introverted nature to make cold calls on Dad’s family back East.  While the calls began with hope of picking up the missing and puzzling pieces of Dad’s sad childhood story, my restored family connections have evolved into something more – especially my regular visits with Aunt Carol, Dad’s only sister – but exactly what the ‘more’ is I’m not ready to name.  Yet I can report how downright comical it’s been to listen to my own introductory spiel — telling unknown cousins how we really are related — before they hang up the phone, thinking I’m some sort of strange solicitation call.

I don’t know where the changes will lead.  But I know mine began during Lent, listening every morning to this ‘song-bite’ – “Say after me:  It’s no better to be safe than sorry” – performed by a band fittingly named a-ha. In a year punctuated by my father’s and aunt’s deaths – as well as the upcoming marriage of my brother Jon – I can’t help but wonder how lives would differ if we were to live everyday believing this song-bite true.  And on this dangling question I’ll close – for in this Season born of watershed wonders and professions of faith, who could want a tidy ending?  Like some movies, tidiness can be overrated.

Carrying the Load

25 Thursday Nov 2010

Posted by Janell in Life at Home, Prayer

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Entertaining, Everyday Life, Prayer

Granny’s dressing sits on the kitchen counter ready to pop into the oven while a double batch of her egg noodles sit tight in the freezer.

With such a busy week, I give thanks they are ready to cook, even THOUGH it took til yesterday afternoon to come together.  With only a corn casserole still to mix, I’ll soon be traveling east, carrying my trinity of gifts for today’s Thanksgiving table.

My sister Christi is hosting at her renovated farmhouse — the one that sits on Granny and Granddad’s homestead.   I asked if she’d like to a few months back — I wasn’t surprise she said yes.  Christi is so darn proud of her home.  And it gives her joy to share it with others.  And isn’t this how it should always and everywhere be? Not just with our gifts — like with our particular knack for making certain foods just right — but with our homes and most of all ourselves?

As I gather with a litany of family:  my husband and two of my children — Kyle and Kate — Kate’s husband, my grandchildren, sister, sister-in-law, nieces and aunt and uncle, I think of other Thanksgiving tables and the faces gathered there.  My daughter Kara will sit at a table filled with in-laws while son Bryan is celebrating for the first-time with future in-laws at a borrowed table in Eureka Springs.  And what do you know, but that this year my amazing brother Jon is in Dallas, dining with a new girlfriend and her family.

Then I think of family further afield — like Aunt Carol, hosting her children and many grandchildren at her Utah home.  And my new found second cousins even further east:  in Vermont — John, George and Olga — in New York  — Judy, Rainey and Helen — and in Florida — Butch.

I pray blessings on all these many tables.  But especially those trying to fill the gap of lost love and Thanksgiving table gifts.  As I write, my love embraces Aunt Jo’s family, who somewhere a little further east of Sis’s house, will be gathering for the first time without Aunt Jo and her lovely pecan and pumpkin pies and her own particular version of Granny’s dressing and noodles.

And how can I not think of family even further afield, the love I no longer see but in some mysterious way, carry alive within me? Mom, Dad, Papa, Uncle Sonny, Aunt Jo, Granny and Granddad — even now, I sense all is well with you — and until I gather with you, I’ll do my best to carry your love forward.

The Party’s Over

15 Saturday May 2010

Posted by Janell in Life at Home

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Entertaining, Everyday Life, Graduation, Raising Children

Wearing her best party dress, my youngest granddaughter was floating around the house earlier this evening singing “happy birthday” to her two uncles.  Someone commented that Karson didn’t quite “get” that today’s party wasn’t a birthday celebration.

There were presents.  There was cake.  And presents and cake equals a birthday party, doesn’t it?  I don’t think anyone bothered telling Karson otherwise; ‘coz once Karson gets something in her mind, it’s hard to shake it loose.

For the record, we were instead celebrating the college graduation of her two uncles, Bryan and Kyle (who today Karson called Bryan and Bryan), from the University of Oklahoma.  It was  a full day.  Full of pride, joy and just a tinge of sadness.  And of course work, since I did my own cooking.

But as I sit and think in this house that’s grown quiet, I’m thinking Karson wasn’t totally wrong.  It was a happy day.  And in a crazy sort of way, the college degrees that the boys now hold will one day — when this big bad recession is finally over — lead to a new and better, grown-up life.

Too, I do sympathize with Karson’s confusion.  After all, how can it be that both my boys are now college graduates?  That the party is over?  That my formal parenting years are over?

Parenting is one crazy ride.  Just as you get semi-use to it, the job is over.

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