More Blessings than Burdens

Posted on May 21, 2012 by jphilo

Yesterday turned out not to be one of my best days. I landed in the middle of a mess, big enough to make the memory lapses mentioned in last Friday’s post more worrisome than humorous. A mess that made me feel like our pink peony bush hit by frost awhile back – disappointed by the promise of beauty nipped in the bud. A mess big enough to make me wish for a humongous do over or a trip back in time.

That didn’t happen so I did the next best thing instead. I took my camera along on my morning walk, determined to photograph the beauty around me. First I saw a pair of goldfinches. They are everywhere this spring, and this male sat still long enough to have his picture taken,

though his dowdy wife flew out of the tree just before I could capture her photo.

Next, a red fox made an appearance, but you’ll have to take my word on that because he ran into the ditch and hid before I got my camera out. Not too much further along, a photogenic woodpecker struck a pose,

and a Grant Wood-style plowed field took my breath away.

Beside the stone culvert over the stream, the wild rose that caught my eye the other day still sported a few blossoms,

but the little shrine beside it – perhaps in memory of the high school student who committed suicide last Thursday evening – brought tears to my eyes.

I thought about the woman in our town who will soon bury her son.
I imagined how her heart is breaking,
How she must want to go back in time,
How she would give anything for a do over.

The remainder of my walk yielded no photographs. No more birds, no flowers, no scenic panoramas. Not because beauty disappeared, but because my perspective changed. Beauty hugged me close, too close for a photograph. Blessings surrounded me.My children are alive. My husband is healthy. A grandchild is coming.

Living children.
A healthy husband.
A grandchild coming.
My messes are small.
My burdens are light.
I am blessed.

The Muffins in the Microwave and other Morning Mysteries

Posted on May 18, 2012 by jphilo

This morning, I was up bright and early. At 6:15 I left the house to walk, my back exercises, Bible study, and breakfast already completed. Ten minutes later, my phone rang.

By the time I fished it out of my pocket and untangled the iPod ear buds wrapped around it, and I inadvertently pressing several buttons, the caller gave up. The screen said it had been Hiram, so I tried to call back. But somehow I hit the mute button and had to hang up. Eventually he called back, and after explaining I really hadn’t hung up on him twice, he remembered why he called in the first place. Which is a miracle in itself, as the rest of the story proves.

“Did you put muffins in the microwave this morning?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered, and then added. “And I ate them. For breakfast.”

“Okay,” he said. “So these in the microwave are mine?”

I pondered the question for a moment.
I didn’t remember putting more muffins in the microwave.
But the older I get, the more I forget what I’ve really done.
The older I get, the more I confuse what I only considered doing with what I actually did. And the older I get, the more reality seems like a day dream and the more my day dreams feel like reality.

That’s when I realized Hiram and I have been married for a long time, and he’s rubbing off on me. As my internal dialogue confirms, though I have spent the last 35 years pulling him out of the anti-memory-time-and-space vortex where he lives, growing older is gradually sucking me into it with him. My days as household memory queen are numbered. Maybe even over already.

Hesitatingly, I answered. “I don’t think I would put a second set of muffins in the microwave. And my stomach feels full, so I ate mine.”

“Okay.” His voice remained cheerful and unperturbed. “They must be mine. I just don’t remember putting them there.”

I laughed. “We’re pathetic.”

He agreed, and we both hung up. I slipped the phone back in my pocket and felt something long and stringy wrap around it. I pulled the phone out again, along with a tangle of iPod ear buds.

Where in the world did those come from? I wondered. Then I stuffed them in my pocket and walked down the road cheerful and unperturbed.

Just like my husband.

Three My-Favorite-Season-Is-Spring Thoughts for Thursday

Posted on May 17, 2012 by jphilo

For the past week, the weather has been perfect along our gravel road. The daisies, phlox, and peonies are blooming, the trees are in full leaf, and the grass in the ditches is a rich, luxurious green. Maybe that’s why these three thoughts for Thursday are mostly about my favorite season – spring.

Mom had her springtime doctor’s appointment in Des Moines the same day Mitt Romney spoke a few blocks away. What a relief to not see the fella and tell him in person that I can’t be his running mate in the fall. I’m not sure he would understand that being a first time grandma leaves no time for politics.
Apparently, there’s a blue jay convention in our town this week. They are everywhere. Talk about noisy, uncouth, overbearing tourists!
My teacher friends are trying to motivate kids to learn their multiplication facts, study the three branches of government, and conjugate Spanish verbs on this beautiful spring day. The thought makes me want to bake cookies for them.

Who would you bake cookies for on this fine spring day? Leave a comment.

Breakfast Salad? Are You Kidding Me?

Posted on May 16, 2012 by jphilo

When I read the name of recipe in USA Weekend Magazine the weekend before Mother’s Day, my reaction was…breakfast salad? Are you kidding me? But a quick skim of the ingredients showed the recipe met the requirements for our healthy eating checklist:

Non-dairy for me √
No sugar for Hiram √
Lots of veggies for both of us √
High protein for high exercise days √
Easy to make √
Easy to substitute ingredients √

So last night, we tried the recipe – turning it into supper salad by serving it with baguette on the side – and it immediately received the coveted Hiram seal of approval. Not a wow-this-is-good seal of approval. But a wow-how-soon-will-you-serve-this-again seal of approval. Yup, it was that good. Don’t take my word for it, though. Try it and leave a comment about your family’s reaction to breakfast salad…any time of day.

Breakfast Salad

8 slices Canadian bacon (original recipe called for 4, but no way would Hiram go for that)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice (original recipe called for balsamic vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste
8 cups lightly packed, washed baby spinach leaves (about 8 ounces)
1/2 cup sweet red, orange, or yellow pepper thinly sliced (original recipe calls for 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half)
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped

Cook Canadian bacon in lightly oiled skillet over medium heat until golden brown, about 5 minutes, turning once. Remove from skillet and cut into 1/2″ strips. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and pepper. Place spinach leaves and sweet peppers into a large serving bowl. Add dressing and toss to coat evenly. Spoon spinach/sweet pepper mix evenly onto four dinner plates. Top each serving with 1/4 of egg and Canadian bacon. Serve immediately.

Top Ten Reasons to Wear a That’s-So-80s Fanny Pack

Posted on May 15, 2012 by jphilo

My dear, dear daughter fixed the clasp on my new black leather fanny pack during our recent Ohio visit. Since our return, I’ve been prancing down the road, showing off the pack during my morning walk. But on Sunday, I had a conversation with a young woman in our church. She described fanny packs as “so 1980s” and “old-fashioned.” She’s right on both counts, of course. Even so, here are ten reasons why I’ll continue to buck fashion by wearing my pack whenever I please:

10. The Goldilocks reason: A backpack makes me slouch, a shoulder bag pulls unevenly, but a fanny pack sits just right.

9. The Artful Dodger reason: Wearing a fanny pack makes a pick pocket’s job much harder.

8. The platform shoe reason: When platform shoes are in fashion, anything goes…including fanny packs.

7. The “I remember when” reason: I remember when fanny packs weren’t invented yet. Life is much better with fanny packs than without them. Toilet paper still has top billing in the before and after impact category, but fanny packs aren’t far behind.

6. The used tissue reason: Who wants damp tissue innards soaking through their pants? No one, and that’s why God invented fanny packs.

5. The free hands reason: Fanny packs leave a mother’s hands free for snatching children bald, wiping chocolate smears off faces with a little spit, and for herding ~~cats~~ children to safety.

4. The fashion-is-a-moving-target reason: Since my high school days, I’ve watched earth shoes, Doc Martins, platform heels, Chucks, shoulder pads, bell bottoms, skinny jeans, baggy jeans, big glasses, small glasses, big hair, smooth hair, no hair, dyed hair, big purses, little purses, back packs, and book bags go out of fashion and then reappear as the best thing since sliced bread. The return of the fanny pack is coming, and I’m ready for it.

3. The I-just-rearranged-the-pockets reason: It took me over a week to figure what to put in which pocket of my new fanny pack. No way am I going to abandon it now.

2. The circular reasoning reason: I walk every morning to stay slim and trim enough for my fanny pack to fit around my waist. No fanny pack. No walk. No waist. ‘Nuff said.

1. The they’ve-been-around-since-the-dawn-of-time reason: Those strategically placed fig leaves Adam and Eve fashioned after they listened to the snake weren’t undies. They were fanny pack prototypes. What’s good enough for Adam and Eve is good enough for me.

If you still wear a fanny pack, leave a comment about why you’re a trend setter rather than a fad follower.

Won’t Let the Parade Pass Me By

Posted on May 14, 2012 by jphilo

NPR ran a story about an intriguing concept this morning. The host interviewed Taylor Jones, a 22-year-old who created the website www.dearphotograph.com. Here’s what Jones, in an article at www.npr.org says about how the website came about:

He came up with the idea last year while sitting at his parents’ kitchen table. While flipping though a family photo album, he stumbled across a picture of his younger brother, Landon. “It was his third birthday,” Jones says. “He had a Winnie the Pooh cake, and I was sitting in the same spot my mom was when she took the original photo.” Landon was also sitting in his same birthday seat. So, Jones held up the old picture — taking care to line up kitchen cupboards just so — and snapped a photo. He posted it on his blog, and the rest, he says, is history.

People can go to the website and submit their own photographs, all of which must begin with the words Dear Photograph.

Like I said, an intriguing concept. So intriguing, I started thinking about what picture I would like to rephotograph in the same setting as it was originally taken.

One from our South Dakota days? Too far away.
A wedding shot? Too unoriginal.
A Kodak Instamatic shot of the Badlands from the famous camping trip with my uncle and aunt? Not sure where that one is.
Something from my teaching days? No, they tore the school down.

Undecided, I opened iPhoto, and there was the scan of a newspaper clipping we found when cleaning out Mom’s house 3 years ago. The clipping records one of my earliest clear memories – the day my aunt took her two daughters, my brother, and me (I’m the one closest to the camera) to watch a parade in our home town. I don’t remember the parade as much as the newspaper photographer who shot the picture. I do remember how safe I felt with my aunt, how much help she said I was, what a big girl I’d become. Heady stuff for a middle child whose major talent at the time was tripping over her own feet.

The caption says 8,000 spectators watched the American Legion Parade that day in 1961. It also lists our names, ages, and the address of the corner where Aunt Donna found a quiet, shady spot (Central Avenue and Fourth Street SE) so we could watch the National Guard trucks rumble past.

Mom and I are going to visit Aunt Donna in a couple weeks. Maybe I’ll take the original clipping along, find that street corner, line up the clipping with the present day location, snap a picture, and submit it to www.dearphotograph.com. I know what to write beneath my submission.

Dear Photograph,

Fifty years has taught me it’s more fun to join the parade of life than to sit and watch it go by.

Jolene

Yesterday, I Took My Camera

Posted on May 11, 2012 by jphilo

This beautiful spring morning, I decided not to lug my camera along on my walk.
“I took it yesterday,” I reminded myself. “And what with stopping to take pictures of

our town’s freshly painted, newly filled swimming pool,

two goldfinches playing king-of-the-hill at a bird feeder,

Papa Gander, Mama Goose, and the goslings out for their morning constitutional,

and a bluejay in a tree, I wasted a good portion of the morning.
So no, I won’t take it along today.”

My decision seemed like the right one at first.
The swimming pool looked much the same as yesterday.
The bird feeder was abandoned.
The pond was still as glass and empty.
The bluejays were nowhere to be found.

But just past the pond, an unfamiliar chirping made my head lift.
Only a yard away, at eye level,
An indigo bunting perched in a sapling.
It glowed in a shaft of sunlight,
puffed its chest, and sang a clear and piercing song.

Yesterday, I took my camera.
But today I chose
Time over nature,
Time over beauty.
Time over a picture I’ve been waiting years to capture with the lens.

When will I learn that time hoarded is opportunity lost?

Three Road Trip Thoughts for Thursday

Posted on May 10, 2012 by jphilo

We arrived home safely yesterday evening from a road trip to see our Ohio kids. The four days with them flew by. But since our return, the boring business of unpacking, sorting, laundry, plant-watering, grocery shopping, and figuring out what I was working on before we left continues with no end in sight. All these menial tasks left plenty of time to think up this Thursday’s three road tripping thoughts:

Surely some mechanical person could invent a washer/dryer unit to attach to car engines. Travelers could start a load during every potty and gas break on the trip home, fold clothes in the back seat, and check laundry off their to do list when they pull into the driveway. YES!
There’s nothing like entering the house after a long trip and realizing the cleaning lady left shortly before you came home.
No matter how hard I try, I’m not a good packer. How could I know there wouldn’t be time to read the two books tucked in the suitcase, but that the Road Kill Cookbook and Granny Clampett would have come in handy after Hiram nailed a possum strolling across the highway?

Have you been traveling lately? What thoughts do you have about your adventure? Leave a comment.

Non-Dairy Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

Posted on May 9, 2012 by jphilo

How does a person live to the age of fifty-five and not know she has a dairy allergy? If I knew the answer to that question, my allergy would have been diagnosed long ago. Instead, the was confirmed by “a moderately positive response” to a blood test at the Allergy Clinic of La Crosse. The doctor recommended eliminating dairy from my diet for a month to see if doing so would clear up my sinus issues.

Two days into the diet, my sinuses felt way better as did various parts of my digestive tract. (That’s all I’m going to say about that.) Feeling better was the easy part. The hard part is finding tasty and effective ways to avoid milk products in our dairy lovin’ society. One of my most successful attempts so far has been the non-dairy strawberry-banana smoothie pictured above. Not only is it pretty, but it also tastes as good as it looks! Here’s the recipe.

Non-Dairy Strawberry-Banana Fruit Smoothie

3/4 cup coconut milk*
8 large ice cubes
1 cup hulled, washed strawberries
1 banana, cut in chunks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon honey

Process coconut milk and ice cubes in blender for thirty seconds to a minute. Add strawberries and blend until they are liquified. Blend in banana and vanilla until mixture is smooth and no chunks remain. Add honey and blend for about 15 seconds. Pour into glass and enjoy!

*Almond milk can also be used, but the coconut milk adds a delicious hint of tropical flavor.

Top Ten Things I Love about my iPad

Posted on May 8, 2012 by jphilo

A mere month ago, the phrase “iPad 3″ filled my heart with fear and frustration. But now, I am head over heels in iPad <3. How did such an about face happen? This top ten list of things to <3 about an iPad 3 gives you an idea.

10. It’s much easier to wrestle from beneath the airplane seat (where the flight goddesses insist it be placed during take off and landing) than a Mac laptop. The strangers seated beside me – the ones normally elbowed black and blue during the technology retrieval wrestling match – <3 the iPad 3 for this reason, too.

9. The note feature, where I jot down ideas and to-do list items, sends the list to my email box 12 hours later. By then, my 55-year-old brain has forgotten about the list, so the iPad 3 has become my personal assistant.

8. The Kindle app makes it easy to check out library books or order them from Amazon. So far, no matter how hard I try, it’s been impossible to destroy the process!

7. The Kindle feature means it’s also easier to travel light. However, the feature does not help me stay awake at night long enough to read more than a paragraph or two. (Apple research and development people, would you get to work on that?)

6. Fingerprints on the touch screen give the obsessive-compulsive part of my personality something to obsess about. Now if someone would invent a microfiber sleeve cuff, I’ll be set for life. (Another idea for the Apple R & D department.)

5. Going to Apple Store classes with all the other old people determined to get their money’s worth from their new gizmos makes me feel young, since most of them look older than me.

4. Thanks to the iPad 3, the Square app, and the card swiper do-hickey, I can now accept plastic when manning my book table. I haven’t used it yet, but my sister says it’s really easy to use. She said the same thing when she taught me to play jacks, jump rope, and color in the lines, and was right, so I believe her about this, too.

3. I can buy a month of Verizon service for $20 before traveling. Being able to access the internet in any airport is worth the investment, especially during 6 hour flight delays. And when Hiram and I are on the road and the one in the passenger seat, we love being able to update our websites. (www.jolenephilo.com, www.DifferentDream.com, and www.philoguitar.com.)

2. Using the iPad 3 to type notes at church or workshops makes me feel so techie and with it and disguises the fact that I need the notes feature in order to remember anything.. In fact, while I type away, the people around me are probably thinking, “Wow, look at that young woman typing on her iPad. Surely, it’ll be decades until she can order from the senior citizen’s menu at IHOP.”

1. The iGeniuses at the Apple Store love me. They recognize my face when I walk in the store. Most of them know my name. Not only that, they laugh whenever I ask a question. Who knew a 55-year-old, who doesn’t look it and can’t remember any of their names, could bring so much cheer to the lives of lonely, intelligent, twenty-something techie geeks?

Do you have an iPad? Leave a comment about what you <3 about yours.

Down the Gravel Road www.jolenephilo.com

Author Archives: jphilo