Capturing Fleeting Moments

Last weekend I had to sit through hours of softball in the heat. My daughter was on the Pony League All-Star team, I have to admit, to my chagrin. I rarely look forward to events that cause me to miss a weekend on the houseboat. And as this weekend was forecast to be the hottest and most humid of the summer, I was really dreading a softball tournament. But after a little facebook complaining, an old friend reminded me that my girls wouldn't be in the house forever and I should make the most of the time I have with them. So I adjusted my attitude and the tournament really was pretty fun.

This week, Wednesday was my day off from my summer job of teaching graduate classes at Central Michigan University. Normally when I have a day off I spend it getting a little caught up on laundry and housework. But I've been thinking a lot about how little time I have left with my girls. Genevieve will be starting high school this fall. When I think about how fast the first 14 years of her life have gone by, I know these next 4 years are just going to be a flash in the pan. So I decided yesterday we just needed a girls-day-out.

We got a late start and spent quite a bit of time trying to decide what to do. We decided on a trip to Ionia. It has a quaint downtown and Lili and I had spent some time discovering its charms during Spring break when Genevieve was doing a job shadow at the court house there.

Some road construction caused us to go off the beaten path. We LOVE Tunnel Roads--you know, those narrow roads so crowded by trees that the trees make an shadowy emerald tunnel to drive through. We drove down plenty of them and marveled in the beauty of Michigan fields in full foliage: corn that is now about chest high, wheat fields that make you want to sing "amber waves of grain", and potatoes with tiny white blossoms bobbing on the breeze. We even saw some workers in a field of onions, their large-brimmed sun hats made us feel like we could be driving through Vietnam rice paddies!

As we were weaving our way through the dirt roads, we looked at the names. We passed one called Bogart Road, and I said, "Humphrey Road," and continued driving. About two minutes later, Genevieve started laughing and saying, "Humphrey Bogart Road, that's priceless!" It always cracks me up when the girls get my jokes but only after they have time to crystallize in their brains! We also discovered, on our drive through the countryside, the quaint villages of Lyons and Muir and discovered they were full of Victorian era homes.

Once we arrived in Ionia, our first stop was Eldon's Cafe. We ate outside under a colorful umbrella and enjoyed chatting with the townspeople who walked by. Eldon's Cafe has a fantastic hot dog menu: 20 different ways to order a dog! And they are yummy! I recommend the Deputy Dog: a hot dog smothered in pulled pork, BBQ sauce, mustard, pickles, and onions.

As we sat out on the sidewalk waiting for lunch, Genevieve said, "If I am ever in prison, I'll sharpen my toothbrush into a shank." Where does she come up with this stuff?

After lunch it was on to the Favorite Finds Consignment shop. This shop has great prices--even better than Goodwill, which is another store we love to frequent. We ended up with some new school clothes for the girls and they had fun trying on other funky clothes.

I hate to think that I'll have to buy her a dress like this for real soon!

Lili is cute in just about anything, but crazy high heels are her favorite!

Genevieve couldn't resist trying on some "gangsta" pants.

We did a little more window shopping around town. I couldn't resist, in spite of their rolling eyes, taking a picture of the girls in this side alley. It reminded me so much of the foliage filled alleys and streets of Aruba--minus the heat and humidity today!

It was such a fun day with my girls. At the end of this week, I will be done with CMU for the summer. Although Genevieve will have volleyball practice twice a week, that gives us plenty of days to discover other out-of-the-way places and most importantly to make some great memories with the fleeting moments of childhood they have left.

Snowmen and Christmas Cookies

My Grandma was a hairdresser. She had a salon in her home, but we never called it a salon; it was always called the beauty shop--lowercase. It didn't even have a proper name. Her customers were mainly little blue-haired old ladies. At least that is how I remember them. These ladies showered Grandma with gifts during the holidays. Most of them were hand made: doilies, strange beaded window hangings, lots of plastic canvas, and crocheted toilet paper covers. The other thing she got a lot of was Avon. And my favorite of her Avon gifts was this cute snow couple. Grandma used to complain about the blinking lights, but I would always turn them on when I got to her house. Finally she decided to give them to me and now they have a rightful place in my home, blinking merrily in the living room at Christmas time.


I also think of Grandma at Christmas because she made the best Christmas cookies. She cut them in big Christmas tree shapes and sprinkled them lightly with green sugar. And I always got to take home any that were left after our holiday gathering at her house. The dough for the cookies is very hard to mix up when all the flour is added, but even after she no longer had the strength to mix them, she would make Grandpa do that part so I could still have cookies. Now, my girls and I use her recipe and have made our own tradition of baking Grandma's cookies on Christmas Eve.

Simple Memories

Tonight Lili asked me to put sponge rollers in her hair. My mom used to put my hair up in sponge rollers at least once a week when I was a kid.
I loved the feel of her hands combing through my hair, even if she pulled a little when my face started turning back toward the tv. I hope Lili remembers it fondly one day as well.

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