Saying Good-Bye

Time to catch up a bit here. I have several unrelated things to post, so I'll just do them in bullet points:

1. FirstSon is about to graduate from the University of Oklahoma with a Bachelor of Arts in Letters and English--Summa Cum Laude in both. He has been offered a job in France teaching English in a French school for the school year that starts this fall. Congratulations, FirstSon!

2. SecondSon is about to graduate from one of our local Christian high schools. He has been offered a hefty merit-based scholarship to the University of Tulsa where he plans to room with his best friend from here. Watch out, Tulsa! Evenings have been crowded with activities to tie up the school year for him.

3. ThirdSon is already dreading being an "only child" after his brother leaves this fall. He'll adapt, though.

4. We adopted a new kitten. She is a tortoiseshell and was named Penelope, in honor of the faithful wife of Odysseus, by SecondSon and several of his friends in a text message the morning we got her. May she have a long and healthy life.

5. I've been reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I'm getting close to the 800 page mark out of about 1150 pages and am starting to think, "OK, I get your point. Let's wrap it up now!" It's been a good read, though; and I've enjoyed it more than I expected. The TBR stack is shrinking, slowly but surely.

6. And, finally, I've decided to shutter up the windows of September Whimsy. I jumped into the world of blogging with great enthusiasm, writing posts, reading other blogs, and occasionally commenting. It slowly began to dawn on me, though, that I was spending so much time on this new hobby that I wasn't reading hold-in-my-hand books nearly as much as I used to--and I missed it. I've tried cutting back, but it seems if I don't write often, I don't write much at all. So.....to all of you who have read and to those of you who have commented, Thank You! It made my day to hear from you and to see your cities show up on my map. But, I'm returning to my favorite hobby, reading; though I plan to still visit the blogs in my blog roll.

Again, thanks; it's been fun!

A 13 Year Old's Perspective

"The Government has all this money that they don't want to pay back foreign countries to pay our debts, so they just spend it." This came at the end of a discussion on silly research grants granted by the government.

Piano Restoration Complete

Last November, I wrote about having our piano keys restored. This was the "broken smile" that needed repair.
















Here are the "innards," the bowels of our precious piano with the keys gone. Because a part of the faux ivories was backordered for several months, our box had laryngitis. Our sons missed its music and Jeff and I missed theirs.
















Here is the finished product; didn't Mr. Henry do a beautiful job! It's wonderful hearing the tunes roll out again.

Program Note

Please note I've added a new blog to my blogroll. It's a quirky photo blog by Matthew Smith of Indelible Grace titled There Is So Much I Don't Know. Jeff, ThirdSon and I went to his concert in Hot Springs in February and thoroughly enjoyed the music. (His twitter page says "Old Hymns + New Music = What I Do.") Check out the blog; it'll bring a smile.

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I'm going to be self-indulgent for a moment. Jeff and I were especially interested in seeing Matthew Smith in concert because we had heard from several people over the course of a couple of years that he reminded them of our FirstSon. He did for us, too! Physically, there was a slight resemblance, but the mannerisms--way of walking, how they hold their heads, the positioning of their arms, and posture--were all a bit uncanny in their similarity.

Life is Good

It doesn't get much better than a thirteen-year-old boy's outburst, "I love you!" in response to being told his lunch for tomorrow includes Girl Scout Thin Mints for dessert.

Food

FirstSon came home yesterday from OU for a few days of spring break so I asked him what he would like for dinner tonight. After the, "I don't know, whatever you make is fine," answer he chose "the apple one" of the three choices I offered. This is turning into a family favorite. You might like it, too.

Fall Sausage with Apples and Onions

1 pound of sausage links (I like turkey sausage)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 apples peeled and chopped
2 cups baby carrots
2 tsp. caraway seeds
1 (12 oz.) bottle of beer (non-alcoholic will work)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Slice the sausage into 1/2 inch slices and brown with the onions in a little oil.
2. Add the carrots and the beer.
3. Add the apples last because they cook the fastest.
4. Stir in caraway seed, salt, and pepper.
5. Cover and simmer until carrots and apples are tender, about 10-15 min
6. Serve with rice, rolls, or bread.
Serves 4

The carrots and apples are my favorite part, so I usually add extras of them. I hadn't heard of combining these foods except for remembering Almanzo in Farmer Boy telling of fried apples and onions. After trying this, Mrs. Wilder's recipe doesn't sound so bad.

A Child's History of the World

A Child's History of the World was on my TBR list for 2008; but I didn't finish it last year. It wasn't from lack of interest; it was from lack of time and concentration. The last of my TBR books to be started, I had gotten about halfway through its 500+ pages when Thanksgiving hit. The week before Thanksgiving is the official start of crazy time on my desk calendar, so Child's History was set aside for some easier, escapist reading in the moments I could steal from decorating, shopping, wrapping, cleaning, and (hopefully) "memory-making." A couple of weeks ago, I got back to it. Nothing in depth, but it gave a solid, chronological, fast-paced overview of world history. I told SecondSon that after reading a 5th grade history that I'd be interested in moving up to a 7th grade for my next attempt! (In case you didn't catch it, that was tongue-in-cheek!)