Birthdays and blessings

 This week the kids have been home from school three days in a row because of an ice storm. All over the community, trees are down, and power is out. The kids won't go back to school again tomorrow because of power outages and road hazards, even though the rain is over and the temps are warming.  The ice did quite a bit of damage to trees and power lines.  I'm pretty sure some of my landscaping plants won't recover. Goodbye, lavender and rosemary! Goodbye, salvia and Sago palm! And good-bye to some rather large branches from our spreading live oak tree in the front yard.

Today was our first day to venture out after two cozy days in relaxing in our pajamas most of the day. At noon youngest and I went to Mass for the Feast of the Presentation - forgot to bring candles. Then we stopped at the grocery store and picked up a birthday present for her friend.

The days off of school were welcome opportunites to spend time together, and the second day happened to be our third son's 23rd birthday. His gifts were not exciting, but we had a delicious Italian dinner to celebrate. He is the one who spent the summer with the Benedictine nuns in the Pacific Northwest, and then decided not to go to Spain and teach English and live on peanuts. He's still looking for full time work, although he did have a seasonal part time gig. I love having him home because he likes to experiment in the kitchen and helps with errands. Yesterday he made bread and butter (by overwhipping whipping cream), and concocted a ragu sauce with roasted tomatoes and peppers that simmered all day into deliciousness. 

When I was looking through pictures for some baby photos for the yearly birthday social media post, I was reminded of how much I used to do with the kids - there were the fancy birthday cakes (for example, a cake shaped like a guinea pig for the 23 yr old's 7th birthday, when his present was his first guinea pig. Actually, we just bought him the cage; we made him save up for the purchase, which we told him was $100 to postpone buying the rodent. The party was taking him and 4 or 5 of his friends to the fun pet store that had all kinds of animals that customers were allowed to pet, like a large tortoise and a parakeet room, The kids think they had small monkeys, but I think this must be wrong. Probably sugar gliders? Although there was a pet shop in Norfolk that sold wolf hybrid puppies behind the counter...) We also did things to celebrate the liturgical year - All Saints day costumes, special dinners for the kids' patron saints days, crepes for Candlemas, throats blessed on the Feast of St. Blaise, which we always thought would be a cool name for a boy, but too cool for us. 

Of course, it is natural that as the kids have grown up, we set aside some of these traditions, although I am sad for our youngest that she didn't experience them, and the older kids seemed to have forgotten - I myself had forgotten many of the memories captured in these photos. A good reminder that I need to print some more photos from the last eight years! 

I have been grateful, though, for the days at home with my two girls who got to stay home from school and with the 23 yr old.  We made crepes today for Candlemas and enjoyed the left over eclair dessert that served as a birthday cake and made bracelets and Valentines and walked around the neighborhood to look at the ice damage and pretend for awhile that we live in a crystal palace. Tonight the ice is almost gone - melted away by warming temperatures, although the sun is still in hiding. 

We also read and loved Kate DiCamillo's Beatryce Prophecy, the story of a young girl in a long ago and far away place who is destined to unseat the king and cause great changes in the kingdom. With the help of a vision impaired monk, an orphan boy, a demon goat, and a mad runaway king, she makes her way to the palace to right wrongs and fulfill the prophecy. It was a fun book to read aloud while wrapped in blankets on the couch with tea and cocoa.  My reading has been spotty lately, mostly books for class, although I have to reread the Odyssey for a training at the community college where I am teaching one day a week in hopes of getting a humanities class next fall, although I'm still not sure if I should seek out some other career rather than continue adjunct teaching for little pay and irregular hours.  At any rate, all I seem to be able to finish are books for young people - this book, the March books about John Lewis, the book for book club West with Giraffes, a book about the cross country travel of a pair of giraffes destined for the San Diego Zoo and the young man who drives them, which is in the adult section but seemed appropriate and of interest to middle grade readers.

Time for bed now before the day is officially over. More time to catch up on life tomorrow.