Fireflies -- Fantasy or Nightmare??

Shane and I camped 2 nights at Julian Price Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway -- really nice place. The weather was mostly perfect, we saw a little wildlife (couple of deer, couple of chipmunks, some birds) and a bajillion fireflies. . . . .Thursday night about 10 or 10:30, we walked up to the bath house and the fireflies were flickering and glowing all around us. It was absolutely one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen -- surely no fairy wonderland is any more beautiful. It was incredibly enchanting, and we turned off our flashlights for quite a while, just stood, captivated by the amazing "laser show" these guys were doing for us. Things like this are the reason I like camping anyway -- getting close to nature and seeing things that people who don't like to camp don't get to see. . . .and then I got home, and waiting in my email was an email from enature.com -- one of my favorite wildlife sites. They were sharing summer interest stories, and my mind was on the fireflies, so I clicked on that one to learn more. . . .Imagine my surprise to learn that some species of firefly after they have mated, the female's body chemistry changes somewhat, and hormones are activated that make her a man-eater. She still lures the males with her enchanting flickering beacon, and then as he joins her in the bushes hoping for some romance, she attacks him and has him for dinner. Now, I'm sure I'll get over it and still enjoy seeing the beautiful fireflies flickering, but I gotta tell you -- for a while I'm gonna think twice -- it kind of destroyed the romance for me. . . .I guess there really IS such a thing as TOO MUCH INFORMATION!!!!!!!!!!

Fencing Hummers

Fencing Hummers
With fancy wingwork, the hummers dance around the feeder on the fence,
Fighting, fighting, fighting
For food, for survival, for sheer competition, for territory.

One perches high on a branch above the feeder,
Watching , guarding his special feeding spot,
Then, as another jeweled green hummingbird nears the feeder,
He advances.
You can almost hear the announcement, “En garde”
As the other hummer leaves the feeder for a quick battle.
Swords at the ready, the wingwork is intricate, complicated, and so fast
It appears a blur, wings moving 50 times in a second, readying him to advance, then retreat.
One hummer cuts, while the other flicks.
They glide as they hover, moving their sword-like beaks in time
To an imaginary song of nature
Or a medieval song of competition
They thrust, parry, retreat, reprise. . . .
Swords at the ready continually,
They sip, dip, flip, hover, attack, counter-attack. . . .
Fencing hummers on the fence.

My Mother's Day Poem for Mama

On days like today, I think of the gifts I’d like to give,
But, instead of giving, I’d actually take away –
The discomfort of 9 months of waiting,
The long, hard hours of labor,
The 6 weeks of crying, sleepless nights.
I’d take away the sibling squabbles,
The skint-up knees and temper tantrums.



I’d take from you the sass and attitude
I gave back then – wiping out their memory.
I’d remove all the nights of missed curfews,
The lies told, and the worries I brought.
I’d lovingly scrape away all the hard times
Throughout our lives together, leaving only happy memories.











But then, when I came to now,
Our relationship wouldn’t be the same. . .
Those challenges made us the mother and daughter we are.
Yes, I have regrets, and things I’d take away,
But it would change who we are now –
The friendship we have and the love we hold dear.




I hope it’s enough to look back on those days
As building blocks that helped create
The woman I am today, and the relationship we share.
I hope you know
That I appreciate the love that wound itself through
All the memories, good and bad,
And brought us to the place we are today.

A Year without Cigarettes

Well, Mama has made it a whole year with no cigarettes. So many blessings -- her grandson will hopefully never have to see her with one of those things in her hand or mouth. We were looking at pictures recently, and Mama had a cigarette in most of them . . . .how wonderful to see her smoke-free now and still. We are all so proud of her! We sent cards and balloons for her 1-year anniversary. Yay, Mama!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you know the way to San Jose?

No, not the Mexican restaurant. . . the place. . . as it happens, one of my favorite students is leaving me early. Yes, I know we only have 9 days left to be together. Yes, I know I'm supposed to be anxiously awaiting summer. Yes, I know that's one less to deal with for these last few chaos-filled days. . . .and No, none of that makes me feel any better! Marleni has been a source of constant joy this year. She has blossomed and had such fun in my class. She loves me and the feeling is mutual. She has fallen in love with the Babysitters' Club Little Sister books this year. She has read them voraciously -- every one I could find for her. And as she's been talking about leaving early, she asked me earlier this week if she could have something to remember me by. Her idea of something to remember me by was the whole series of the "Karen books" as that is how she FONDLY refers to them :~). The second half of the year has begun every morning with a Karen update. . . she could sit with me for hours discussing Karen's latest crisis (and often tried :~). She's ended her second grade year with just shy of 200 AR points. Not only has Karen stolen her heart, but she's also been one of the biggest supporters of the Magic Tree House series. She especially enjoyed the Titanic story; was completely swept away. She borrowed another book I had on the Titanic, watched the movie at home with her mom, and was so dramatic. As we finished the MTH book, she finished her book and we had had in-depth discussions, she said one afternoon, "Mrs. Fletcher, it's just so sad! I think I just want to go home and lie on my bed and cry for hours!" And for the next week if anyone mentioned the word Titanic she would look sad and cover her ears. . . . She embraced the story of Helen Keller in our reading book, and was dying to learn all the sign language I could teach her. She has been the most motivated student I've ever had and has enjoyed all the learning I could share. She did her best to keep me straight and keep me doing everything I was supposed to do (which was sometimes helpful and sometimes annoying) :~) She would have sat with me at every meal and come home with me if I'd let her. Her family is heading back to Mexico, which is sad on a number of levels. I'm so sad not to be able to see her in the hallways next year, so sad she's not going to get to enjoy these last few days with us, so sad to miss out on her hugs and conversations, so sad. . . . .I've been teary all week as she's been talking about moving. Today, I got more than my fair share of hugs from her accompanied by "Mrs. Fletcher, I don't want to go." I can certainly relate to that -- I don't want her to go. I don't know what the schools are like in Mexico. I don't know what opportunities she'll have. I don't know if she'll make it back to America. I don't know if she'll fulfill her dreams of being a teacher, singer or doctor there. I don't know if she'll maintain her amazing command of spoken and written English. (When she came here in Kindergarten, she did not speak a WORD of English.) I just don't know.

She'll have her favorite Karen book, a 2 page letter from me (complete with all my phone #s, snail mail and email addresses), a ruler, multiplication tables, a Hannah Montana pen, a magnetic US map, etc. tomorrow. How I wish I could give her more.

I've cried for the last 2 afternoons, and don't know how I'm going to talk to her father tomorrow when he comes to visit. I don't know how I'm going to say goodbye. . . my goodbyes are usually just summer goodbyes, followed by a gradual release before I'm not going to see them again. This one is sudden and sad, and I really don't want to say it.

Please say some prayers for Marleni. She's young and resilient and I know she'll be fine, but she has the capability to be so much more than fine. My prayers will be with her and I sincerely hope she'll find a way to stay in touch. I wish her all the blessings and opportunity Mexico has to offer -- and a reunion one day where we can recap all the wonderful second grade memories and catch up on all the great things that have happened since we were last together.

Many blessings, Marleni, Thanks for all the second grade memories you were a part of this year!

Valentine's Day

Money has been tight and time has been tighter, and Valentine's Day fell on a weekend, and we've promised all our non-promised weekends to our house renovations. . . .so that meant for Valentine's Day weekend we were home, and we were working. Friday night Shane cooked chicken and pastry for me (one of my favorites). I took time to create a table setting that even Sandra Lee would probably approve of for Valentine's Day -- a white tablecloth with clear vinyl placemats with multi-colored hearts and a little glitter for good measure, a centerpiece that was quickly pieced together from various little gifts and hand-me-downs, and 2 floating candles. . . .quick and simple, but festive -- and nice. So in between working upstairs and getting ready for my sister's baby shower and doing dishes and laundry, we dined.. .Saturday morning Shane brought me breakfast in bed, which was delicious, and he even color-coordinated the dishes on the tray with the tray. . . (am I a lucky girl or what to have a man who even notices???) We sanded, cleaned, and painted upstairs all day long Saturday. I took some steaks out to thaw early in the day. . . .I stopped around 5 or so and went downstairs -- took out the trusty laptop and began searching for recipes. One of our favorite movies is Chocolat, and we had joked about doing a chocolate feast for supper on Valentine's Day and watching the movie. . . .so I found recipe for a steak rub that contained...................yes, chocolate (and coffee and oregano and salt and pepper and cayenne and paprika. . . .) So I whipped that up and massaged the steaks well, stuck them back in the fridge. . . .then looked up a chocolate vinaigrette salad dressing Sandra Lee had made on Food Network. Unfortunately, it called for a pre-made balsamic vinaigrette dressing (which I happened NOT to have), so then I had to look for Rachael Ray's balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Well, when I finished I had a chocolate vinaigrette and it was actually very good! Now, I can't tell you that I added chocolate to the baked potatoes -- they were just butter and cheese, but I did spray them with olive oil and sprinkle them with sea salt before wrapping them in foil and baking them. . . .After we showered, we got a little dressed up. . . .then we lit the candles, listened to NorthPole radio, turned on the gas logs, and had a wonderful relaxing supper. We followed it up by watching Chocolat, snuggling on the sofa and ending on a very romantic note ;~}

No roses, no candy, no dinner reservations, no balloons, no pantyhose, no fighting the crowds at the restaurants, no standing in long lines, no chaos, no drama -- just Shane and me spending a beautiful, nice, quiet, private evening together. . . .

Dinner from the freezer/pantry $0.00
1 Valentine's Day card bought on sale $1.50
1 tablescape created from stuff on hand $0.00
Private showing of a romantic movie $0.00
A quiet, PRIVATE gourmet dinner with your handsome husband AND getting home renovations moving forward PRICELESS

The Strength of a Mama

You know, last summer Mama had surgery. The doctors told her that she really needed to stop smoking. We all knew that was unlikely. . . Mama had been a smoker for 50ish years! She had started as a teenager, and was quite dependent. We were thrilled when she made the decision to stop. It's been about 8 months now, and there have been so many blessings -- sometimes they crop up at unexpected times -- like when we all went out to dinner recently. The hostess asked "Smoking? or Non?" I started to say "Smoking" for Mama's sake, but then I realized that I didn't have to do that anymore. .. . The day to day blessings are the best -- the fact that the house doesn't smell like smoke -- we can go visit and our clothes don't smell like smoke. . . there's not nasty ashtrays everywhere. . . . .and the timing was impeccable, since Shanda is expecting a baby in a few weeks.

Smoking has been a part of our lives forever, and it is really incredible that it is not anymore. It was probably one of the hardest things she's ever done, and while I know she did it in part for her health, I think she also knew how happy it would make us for that part of our lives to be behind us. How wonderful to be able to breathe easy and clean and clear. And how amazing is the strength of a mama.