I forgot...

In my New Year Zeal to post yesterday, I forgot a couple things, which is completely in step with the way I live my life. I spend time every day looking for something I've misplaced. Most days it's just my keys and phone. Scott gave me a remote key finder for Christmas--the perfect gift for me.  I've only used it a few times so far since Justin has become my chauffeur. He actually hangs the key on the key hook. But once he's back in school, and I'm driving on my own again, it will get plenty of use.

Today I have looked for three misplaced objects -- a book I need to write up in the next week for class, the two essays that I printed out and read and now need to have feedback ready for Monday, and a checkbook.

So, here are the forgotten things...

This picture.

Anna in the best Christmas present ever (besides my key finder). It's a Totoro cape. It even has whiskers. Miyazaki fans will be jealous. The rest of you need to check out some Miyazaki anime. Then buy Totoro capes.

How could I forget my most looked-forward to book this year? I was sad when I came to the end. I will reread Gilead, Home, and Lila (though I've misplaced Gilead. Maybe I loaned it out? Maybe I gave it to the library in a stack of returned books like i did with Lila).

I felt the same sadness when I finished Don Quixote years ago. I had read it leisurely, over the course of a year. Ending it felt like the end of a friendship. I actually looked for it a couple weeks ago, but, of course, I can't find it. Maybe it didn't make the cut to get shipped here from France. Though seeing how the cat made the cut, I would think Don Quixote would have...

Rescued from the library lost and found.

That's all that I forgot, but you can't have just two pictures on a post, so here's  Pepper in her reindeer costume that she will be happy to see packed away for the next eleven months.

Pepper, oh so happy that her family cares enough to dress her up for the holidays.

A New Year

Today, in honor of the new year, I'm writing on resolutions, my classwork, books, and anything else that comes up.

New Year Resolutions

My friend Tracy posted these New Year's reflections at her blog, Traveling Clues. She writes, "Our lives take on the most value, purpose and meaning when we practice the discipline of reflection. To examine the choices we make and why, to evaluate the values by which we want to live, to consider the relationships in our lives, and such."

Anna's Christmas sweater

I wrote down answers to her questions this morning and looked through some sparse notes that I had taken at conferences and from my reading throughout the year.

I wrote down over a year ago, during a rare few hours of quiet and reflection at Pokagon State Park with a friend, "May I be faithful in the small things and not afraid to do the big things."

That's still where I'm at. What's small and what's big is not always clear, but I do want to be faithful and not afraid.

My knitting niece

It's been two and a half years that we've been back in the US, and I find that I'm resisting the striving that is in the air we breathe here. I feel like I am surrounded by messages to want and be and do something more. Much of it is good--health and relationships and caring for the world.

Notice Justin's ugly Christmas sweater.

But it can lead to a dissatisfaction that is permanent and strips me of the peace and joy of now. Joy that is independent of my weight or the state of my house. Peace that faces messy relationships and mistakes with grace.

And my brother's classy Christmas sweater

Grad School

I'm about to enter my second semester of my master's program in creative non-fiction at Ashland University. My writing for my coursework is focused on our time in France. I have four chapters done and will end with a book-length project that will hopefully become a real book when it grows up.

I've loved the required reading. My two favorites so far are The Empathy Exams and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

I totally beat these guys at the game in between preparing roasted sprouts, my new favorite food.

Publications

My first published essay, Life in the Infertility Belt, was published at Eclectica this summer. InterVarsity's The Well published three articles this year--Gifts to Empty Places, Ebola, and Louie Zamperini and Loving the Other. I have a few essays out that I've waiting to hear back about, and one almost ready to send out. This new one, which has been percolating for a year, is about issues of race and safety that I've struggled with since preparing to move back here.

My brother performing feats of strength with my nephew.

Four Books

I still haven't finished two of my favorite books this year--Christena Cleveland's Disunity in Christ and Lewis Hyde's, The Gift: Creativity and Artist in the Modern World. Cleveland makes startling statements like, "People can meet God within their cultural context but in order to follow God, they must cross into other cultures because that's what Jesus did in the incarnation and on the cross." Then she backs it up. 

Pepper at the family Christmas party. It's not her favorite.

It was at the Word and Words Conference in Louisville this October that I heard of The Gift. I know exactly where I am in The Gift, page 121, because pages 1-120 are underlined in red and black pen.

Pepper opening her Christmas present--a rawhide bone from the pantry.

Here's a random underlined quote, "When either the donor or the recipient begins to treat a gift in terms of obligation, it ceases to be a gift, and though many in such a situation will be hurt by the revealed lack of affection, the emotional bond, along with it's power, evaporates immediately." It is crazy how much this book has influenced my thinking on writing and life these last few months.

Christmas kitties.

I first heard of An Idea Whose Time has Come about the passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Though politics is not my strong suit, it was helpful for me to understand the myriad factors involved in getting significant, life-changing legislation passed.

I'm looking forward to seeing Selma in a few weeks. One criticism of the movie is its depiction of Johnson as against the Civil Rights Act. The book depicts Johnson's role honestly and fully. Very worth a read.

All dressed up for Christmas Eve.

Last favorite book of the year was Unbroken. I saw the movie last week. My take is that the movie is fine, but the book is excellent.

I think people walk away from the movie with a great appreciation of Louie Zamperini's endurance and story. The same is true of the book, but the book pushes further into the story of Zamperini's struggles post-war and the prison guard's escape from any kind of punishment.  I had to deal with my own feelings of injustice in the face of a man who committed terrible acts, was unrepentant, and then forgiven.

Ok, this is a wonderful thing. We have missed cheese fondu here. I usually made it once or twice a year in France. I priced the cheese I would need last year, and it would have cost a small fortune to have enough for the four of us to have our full fill of melty Emmental, Gruyère, and Comté cheese. But, at Costco, I came across this carton of the magical three cheeses, bought it, and melted it in its container in the microwave.  It was so good. It wasn't cheap at $8, but it wasn't $40 either . Now I just need them to stock frozen French pastries for me to pop in the oven, and all will be well.

Happy New Year to one and all!

Productivity and a Betrayal

I'm home with the pets today. I'm determined to get some home front tasks done, so I've had my weekly caffeinated drink and told the pets that we're going to be productive. 

On the pet note, the cat has taken over Pepper's bed. This youtube video about dogs dealing with bed-stealing cats cracked us up this week. Pepper doesn't quite know what to do about this. She will sometimes curl up next to the bed, sometimes go somewhere else.

Pepper got a new toy a couple weeks ago. It replaces her stuffed "baby" that she has torn apart over the last year. She sleeps with it sometimes. I think it's awesome that our stuffed animal-looking pet sleeps with a stuffed animal.

Pepper with her baby

Justin experienced a deep betrayal last week and has still not forgiven Pepper. We returned from being out somewhere or other, and Anna let Pepper out of our room. Justin held out his arms and called to Pepper, and she ran down the hallway toward him...and around and past him and up to me. "Wow," he said. "Just wow." He asked a few days ago why we have pets anyway.  I suggested walking her more.

This morning's snow has melted, and we'll be tackling several large downed branches in the yard tomorrow. And, um, taking down the outside Christmas decorations.

Now to the dungeon basement to organize storage areas. I appreciate actually having storage areas, I do. It's a first for me in my adult life, but having the will to go down to a windowless room and arrange is a stretch.

A Wintry Walk

Just another wintry Janurary, February, March day here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I'm at home on Wednesdays, so since it was a balmy 70, 50, 30, 26 degrees this morning, I decided to take the pup for a walk in the newly fallen snow.

our snowy neighborhood

When it's snowing, what Pepper mostly wants to do is run around and chase sticks and play. So, she didn't really want to just walk. And she let me know.

She played the Tug on the Leash game,

the Grab the Leash and Pull game,

the I Really Want to Grab Your Glove, Run off, and Have You Chase Me game,

and the Please, Oh Please Let's Just Go Run Around in the Snow Look game.

I did eventually bend her to my iron will, and we had a nice walk punctuated intermittently by my own yelps and yankings of the leash as I slipped and slid on our roads.

Science Fair, Snow, and Pep Pic

Since I last posted pictures, we had more snow.

Street sign

 No surprise there.

I shoveled in front so the mail truck could pull up.

We shoveled and snowblowed (snowblew?) like everyone else, had a day off from school, then the requisite two-hour delay to help kids adjust back to waking up early. The district is so nice about providing that buffer.

Days later, it snowed just a couple inches  The forecast for the next few days was warm--40s and 50s. I figured it wasn't worth the trouble to shovel if the snow wasn't impeding our ability to get in and out and would just melt in a couples days. That was a poor choice. Our driveway is now an impenetrable solid two-inch thick sheet of ice.

Justin needed a picture of himself as a kid for school, so chose this one to scan and bring in...

So cute.

Aren't the kids cute?

I went into this year's science fair prep with much trepidation after last year's led to results like this one:

A friend posted this on Facebook. I would rate this as a Superior entry in terms of accurately describing last year's science fair experience.

Last year's project involved countless rotting seeds in baggies needing to be opened and checked on consecutive days in our downstairs science lab/furnace room. It was not pleasant.

This year's involved the following materials:

Our vacuum.

Our cat

And a computer and a stopwatch. Nothing rotting. The title was, "Does Music Calm a Cat?"

Here's Anna when she was still stomping mad that she only got an Excellent ribbon instead of the coveted Superior. Four points away. She barely consented to the picture.

Anna stomping mad but trying to be pleasant. Notice the awesomeness of the cat shirt.

Fortunately, she got a special reward because the school counselor chose hers as her favorite. I am forever grateful.

And here's me bugging the dog by taking flash pictures of her mussed-up Winter face fur.

Annoyed dog.

Happy last week of February! It's possible that the kids will have a normal week of school with no delays or closings. It would be the first time since the first week of December. 

Snow Pics

 The snow is here. I went outside to take peaceful close-ups in the yard.

Everything is super pretty topped in snow.

And then there's Pepper...

 Lovely snow-topped thistle.

Wild snow beast.

Artful wood pile.

Scary snow beast.

Snow-topped thistle family.

Pepper, "Can I help build the snowman?"

Anna, "Sure, here's how it's done." 

Hope y'all enjoy the snow as much as I will!

Collegiate licensed pet jerseys

I went grocery shopping today at Meijer. I've mostly made my peace with this store after spending a soul-deadening hour and a half there on one of my first grocery trips. I had to keep backtracking the length of the store to find items that were placed illogically. 

Like, the yogurt is not next to the other dairy products. Why does it get it's own section at the very back of the store across from things like refrigerated cookie dough and refrigerated tortillas? I really don't know. 

Costco and Aldi are both opening in the coming months, so I may drop Meijer shopping--though I bet the scale of Costco will be equally daunting and involve backtracking. Though, if they provide quality snacking stations (aka free samples), I can handle it.

In any case, a large sign with this advertisement was near the front of the store today...

I think this is funny on many levels. It's funny that the ad points out that the jerseys are licensed. I'm assuming the dogs don't really care as much as my son does whether a jersey is the real thing. The big dogs look none too thrilled with having been dressed up. The little dogs are happy enough, but then they're probably used to this kind of thing. 

And it's kind of an interesting juxtaposition of two American values--pets and sports. There were plenty of pet stores selling pet clothing in Nice for those harsh Mediterranean winters. And plenty of little dogs in sweaters, but I never saw a doggie soccer jersey. French people would think it was silly. 

But then again, one day, as I was walking down the street in Nice, I saw a man and a woman sitting at a café table with their two small dogs. Each on their own chair. I was totally bummed not to have my camera. Americans would think that this was not only silly, but a public health threat.

Pepper has long since grown out of Anna's Build-a-Bear outfits, which is truly unfortunate. For all of us.

Pepper Lovey won't be getting one of these jerseys. She has plenty of fur. And sports really aren't her thing.

Pepper Post

After a silent summer and a whirlwind of a September, I'm ready to get back to writing projects, including the blog.

I want to write eventually about some summer and fall reading, family happenings and pictures, but today will be about the pooch.

I think she first began doing this about a month or two ago...

First of all, Pepper rings the bell to go outside. We trained her to do this when she was a puppy. It's a lot better than scratching or barking at the door to go out.

The door is in the kitchen and leads to the garage.  The cat actually does this now as well, showing that you can teach a cat new tricks...If no one comes, Pepper just rings it again until we come. If we have left her home for too many hours with freedom to roam the house, she will ring it, pull it off the door, and pee next to it. This has happened once. It was funny.

Pepper waiting patiently at the door after ringing.

 The door leads into the garage...

Note the cat door on the door to outside. We haven't managed to teach the cat to go through it.

The door leads to the side of the house. For several months, we had a short wire fence so Pepper would just go to the gate. She eventually figured out that it was easy to hop over--especially once the neighbors across the street had puppies tied up in their front yard.

We had to hold Pepper's collar as we guided her to the gate to the back yard. The puppies are gone now, so she's back to being compliant.

Pepper being compliant.

Most of the time, this is the end of story. We close the door, Pepper does her business, plays, hangs out, chases things...and eventually gives a bark to be let back in. But sometimes, especially on days when I'm home alone with her...

I get this...

The look

...the look.

She doesn't run off. She looks at me, intently. Sometimes she gets into that doggy play pose--head down and upper body on the ground with tail up and wagging. The first time she did it, I was confused for a few seconds. Then I realized.

She was inviting me to play.

Even if I'm busy, I almost always come. There's nothing like being invited to come outside and play. Here's one version of the invitation...

Once I'm out with her, we don't do much. She usually roots around for a stick.

Pepper on the wood chippy part of the yard.

She finds one, runs around, chews on it...

Once she finds a stick, she often won't share it. Or she'll bring it to me, drop it, then grab it again once I reach down to take it. It's a little annoying.

Pepper not sharing her stick.

Sometimes, I can get her running back and forth down this path. It's super cute. She bounces when she runs.

Path to bench we never sit on.

Though it does lead to this area's grass needing constant replanting. It's where she skids to a stop and turns back around. So worth it though.

The skid spot.

She probably does about the same stuff that she does when I'm not there. She just wants company. If she is willing to drop a stick for me to throw, she rarely chases it more than three times. If she's super boisterous, she'll start racing back and forth.

But, usually, we just hang out. She chews on a stick, I look at the basil and wonder about picking it and freezing it and then put it off for another day.

Still not sharing the stick

Pepper's kind of like me. She doesn't need exciting entertainment; she just wants to hang out with her people. I think this is her doggie version of getting a Chai Tea Latte with a friend at Starbucks. 

Home Alone

Scott's in Indy for meetings today, and I'm not at the office. So, I'm home alone and tending to things like my soul and the refrigerator.

I've decided we need a doggie door. Pepper rings her bell to go out very, very frequently. Sometimes the cat joins her. You may be wondering what the items strewn across the floor are...

Poor bird

This is a small stuffed robin that belongs to Anna. It sings a robin song if you squeeze it. 

Anna's new stamps

Here are some stamps that I pulled out for Anna when school was cancelled Monday because of freezing rain.

Please let me out and stop taking pictures. (She totally makes you want a dog, right?)

You may be wondering why my daughter is so careless with her things. Pepper is the true culprit. We forgot to put up the doggie gate on Anna's door this morning. For Pepper, Anna's room is the room of forbidden treasures. She knows these things are not hers, but will steal something occasionally, then trot to the door with her prize in her mouth. There's a certain trot that's the "I've just stolen something" trot that's immediately recognizable.

She used to keep the forbidden items in her mouth as she rang her bell to go out, seemingly unaware that we could see what was in her mouth and were unlikely to let her out with a precious Harris family object.

Now, she knows there's not a chance, but I suppose she drops them here just so we know she got away with it.

Maybe a doggie door isn't such a good idea...

And here are some pictures from last week's school cancellation, which was way more fun than the freezing rain cancellation...

Justin in his neon hat

10.9 inches

Pepper and her best friend, Charlie,  playing in the field with the kiddos

This is balls of snow encrusted on Pepper's leg. It takes a while to get off.

Happy Friday!

Ball of Fur and the Cat

On a cold February day, Negra cuddles up to our much beloved ball of fur, AKA Pepper.

A Beautiful Day or Two

First, let's start with the sweet doggie pic. Here's Pepper a few days shy of her six month birthday. Her nose is off center in the picture, so we figure she was sniffing the camera.

We've had a few balmy days here in Fort Wayne, Indiana. After days of single digit temperatures, it was a welcome relief to not count the air as my enemy. 

 We walked Pepper together over to Starbucks for a mini date Monday (with each other, not Pepper). 

Pepper's first Starbucks

Scott went in to get our drinks while Pepper and I waited outside. The server, or I guess I should say, barista, noticed Pepper and sent out a glass of water for her.

Our walk back home on a lovely day

My definition of a beautiful day would usually be sunny and around eighty degrees. But there's nothing like a two degree morning or two to lower one's standards. Grey, overcast, with a temperature of forty-five or higher is now lovely, and anything over fifty is beautiful. Yesterday's sixty-three was stunning. Don't mind the fog or rain. 

We're back to winter today. It's seventeen or so with a wind chill factor that drags it down to five. So, I'm back to inside life and grateful for cars and heat and hot drinks.

The Christmas tree and reliving toddler days...

Justin put this picture up on Facebook the other day, showing the Facebook world that our tree is about twice as big as any that we've ever had.

When we were signing for our house, the previous owner asked if we wanted to buy their twelve foot Christmas tree for $50. I blithely agreed without taking into account some logistical factors--like needing a ladder, lots of lights, and more ornaments to add to our eclectic, but meager supply. Btw, we're pretty sure that the tree is ten foot, not twelve. But we're not mad about it, especially when we saw the price tag on the box for $299.

One benefit of adding the ladder to the setting up of the tree was that Justin was fully involved. He is usually at best ambivalent about helping with the decorations, but he LOVED getting up on the eight foot ladder and was truly helpful for the first time ever. I should  figure out a way to incorporate tools into dinner prep or mundane household tasks...

Putting the lights on the tree took a lot more work, and we ended up missing a chunk in the middle with the colored lights (from Justin's shoulder to elbow in the picture) which I finally fixed this morning.

On another note, our house looks like a toddler lives here. Toys are strewn across the floor-- bones, balls, plastic toys, and empty water bottles (Pepper likes to chew on them) instead of Fisher Price, but the effect is the same. We say, "No," all the time followed by a redirect.  And the Christmas tree's bottom branches are misshapen and bereft of ornaments. Fortunately, the top eight feet are out of reach. For now. 

Here are some random photos from the last couple weeks... 

Post-Halloween version of after school snack found on living room end table.

We had lots of Halloween candy left after discovering our street is not heavily visited on Halloween night. No sidewalks.

Our stuff from France with someone's stuff from Australia perched on top in the white boxes.

We waited over four months for our boxes to arrive. The winter clothes are welcome, but unpacking is slow. Most breakables made the trip fine (I had my doubts when I saw the verticle stacking). I averaged only one broken piece of Harris china per trunk (a couple dessert plates, which are superfluous anyway and a bowl that Scott's great-grandmother painted for him when he was a baby. He had a brief time of mourning over it, but the matching cup and saucer made the trip and it's not like we ever used this bowl). 

Artsy photo of Poochie Woochie (one of her many nicknames).

What to say about this puppy?  We will have her second puppy training class at Petco this Saturday. Out of the six dogs in her class, she is the one who fell asleep during her first class--which we feel is a sign of her calm, good-naturedness, and not that she's exceptionally lazy. Her ability to sleep through noise has been put to good use as Justin has been drumming a lot lately. There is a drum set in the basement now that merits its own post. For now, let's just say that it gets really, really loud around here.

Poochie Woochie's ratty, Dr. Suessy tale.

 Pepper is cute, but her tail is kind of ratty looking. More photos to come.

Do African musical metal figures go well on mission-style mantel? Probably not. This and myriad other decorating quandaries abound as I unpack our African, Colombian, French, and American stuff.

Figuring out where to put things on the walls is going to be a challenge. When we received our shipment, I was thinking that I would have everything up by Thanksgiving. I have hung up one clock so far. Paintings are not unwrapped yet and piled up in a trunk. These walls may stay bare for a while.

Poochie Woochie practically disappears into the floor. Works in fall leaves as well.

That puppy smell

This is me, once again, not letting the pup sleep peacefully. That's why she looks mildly irritated in all these pictures.

I'm trying to capture Pepper's eyelashes. They're super long.

I'm finding that I like that distinctive puppy smell. But am also noting that certain articles of clothing, like my jean jacket, are smelling very puppy. And although I love the smell of puppy on a puppy, I am pretty sure I've never met someone smelling like a puppy and thought to myself, "Oh, I love that smell." So, I need to be diligent about not smelling like my pet.

We love the wavy ear bottom hair.

 On another note, I'm experiencing an unexpected bout of reverse culture irritation. In France, dogs go everywhere--grocery stores, cafés, restaurants, etc. One day, as I walked down the street to get Anna, I saw a couple and their two small dogs all seated at a café table. One chair for each. Four chairs. People usually don't go that far, but still.

And there have been many animated discussions at our French church about whether people should be allowed to bring their dogs. Pretty sure this doesn't come up regularly in committee meetings at our Fort Wayne church.

That's just dirt on the end of her nose. But notice the cuteness of the around-the-mouth fur tufts.

So, I now have a dog, and as I walked her Friday, I found myself mildly resenting that I could not take her into the grocery store or library. Although, if we trained her to be a therapy dog, we could theoretically get in on the read to a dog program at the library on Monday nights. Hmmm.

I never in France thought, "Oh, I just love how dogs can go everywhere." It didn't bother me. But I was neutral on the issue. Mildly amused and ambivalent.  So, it's somewhat ironic that I'm irritated here about something that I didn't value there. Though perhaps I would have if I had had a dog in France. Perhaps I would have been vehemently defending our French dog's right to come to church. Or go out to eat. Or help with grocery shopping.

I'll end with this...

mouth tuft close-up

Puppy pics

We're on day five of puppy ownership, and my life seems to revolve around when and where puppy goes pee. We were at a 100 percent success rate today until about 11am when she got a little too excited after playtime, which took us down to 80 percent for the day (which started at 3:30 am when she had tummy troubles). I'll spare you the details.

Instead, here are the pictures of our first days...

Negra and Pepper meeting for the first time. Pepper sees Negra as the Big Scary Black Thing in the house and will not pass if the cat is blocking  a narrow pathway. "You shall not pass," comes to mind every time I see this happen.

Pepper taking her first walk with Justin and me to meet Anna at the end of her school day.

She made it halfway before she needed a lift.

Anna observing a moment of silence as she held her new puppy. She  cried a little.

Anna "walking" her back home.

Reading time.

Dress-up time.

Pepper chewing on a toy in her happy place (her crate).

Me not letting a sleeping dog lie. Notice the curly end of ear fur. You can't quite tell here, but she has super long eyelashes.

Puppy

When we talked with the kids months ago about moving to the U.S., we told them that we'd be getting a dog. Partly as a compensation for leaving everything they know, and partly because we've always wanted a dog. With the pace of our lives and the apartment living in France, it wasn't an option.

From the 10th to the 14th of October, we will attend a debriefing conference as a family, and after that, the door is open for the acquiring of the dog.

So, I've been researching, and I finally we finally decided on a golden retriever/poodle mix.

Yesterday, Scott and I took a road trip while the kids were in school to choose a puppy. It was a secret trip because the plan is to wait and surprise the kids with the puppy when they get home from school on the 15th of October...

So, here are some of the puppies. Which one would you choose?

sleepy puppies

"Puppies, cute or ugly?" is our favorite quote these days. Name that sitcom character. 

Puppy pre or post snore

We held several puppies, and I'm pretty sure that these are pictures of our pup. Pretty sure. It's really fun to hold puppies. We chose ours because she and I bonded when she snored on my shoulder.

What are they thinking?

I love how seriously this pup and Scott are checking each other out. This picture is crying out for thought bubbles above their heads.

I was able to keep the secret from the kids until about 8:30 last night. I can't keep a secret to save my life. Justin is thrilled in his very low-key-thirteen-year-old way. And Anna is just plain old thrilled.

Scott and I found a dog crate at a garage sale this morning, we have a book on training your dog, and we have informed both children that the dog will not sleep in beds. So, preparations are underway. We also have informed Negra that she is going to have a little sister. She is thrilled, in a low-key kind of way.