Reading Lolita in Tehran...

...and reading Philosophy on my couch have been some of my more decadent pleasures this summer.

My grad class at MSU started last week. And I am loving it. Sometime I will encounter a class I don't enjoy so deeply, I am sure. But thus far, Music Learning Theory, Music Psychology, and Music Philosophy have been stimulating and fun. The almost two-hour drive (besides being expensive) is a peaceful and exhilarating space for me. Azar Nafisi's stories and her voice are captivating as she reads her memoir, 'Reading Lolita in Tehran' to me (through my cassette player). A wise and loving professor, her philosophies about the value and complexities of stories...her insights into the greatest works of English Literature and all of life are brilliant.

My feelings toward my Music Philosophy professor are similar. Without actually 'saying' a lot, she has invited us to think deeply, to question why we believe what we do about music, to ask important questions...

It seems that learning has the same effect on my mind as caffeine.

Our delightfully long weekend was spent...

...playing with Rudd cousins...watching fireworks on a grassy hill, singing and dancing in Go-Go's downstairs, practicing for the 'cousin show' that never happened, swimming, running, playing, eating out on the deck, art fair shopping with sisters...





...and saying farewell to the 'cottage,' the beautiful old Harmson A-frame nestled into the woods by a creek...just steps away from lake Michigan. Maya and Sophie and I escaped being soaked by the annual Fourth of July water fight. I was grateful that 'nap-time' provided an excuse for me to avoid getting wet. It was far more fun watching everyone else scream and surprise each other with balloons, water-guns and buckets of water.

The water fight of 2005
(including smaller versions of Emma, Liam, Jaelyn, & Addison)

2008

The chaos of chasing a silly two-year old, calming and feeding and diapering a 3-month old, and keeping track of all the 'stuff' that accompanies these tiny people provided a welcome distraction from the sadness of saying good-bye to this perfect place.
Even I have accumulated eleven years of memories here. But for Ryan, I know, this is the place of his childhood memories...snowy Christmases, hot mosquito-y summers playing by the creek, riding down an impossibly steep wooded hill in a wagon?, playing with cousins, visiting his Grandma and Grandpa...

"Nothing important is completely explicable."
- Madeleine L'Engle, A Circle of Quiet

It seems too good to be true...

...but I'm addicted whether it's true or not.


But supposedly....

"For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program . Here is how it works. When you play the game, sponsor banners appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these banners is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people."

"I know Ohio..."

I don't think I even heard it on our trip...but the song floated through my mind all weekend, especially as we wandered around 'the back roads' near our first home in Vermilion.


It was a very quick trip...but a few of our favorite moments were captured with the Cybershot...

"Ohio Church"

"Ohio play porch"

Today, Maya saw a magazine with 2 kids on a porch. She told me their names were 'Addison' and 'Maya.'

"Ohio mornings"...
...are earlier, now with 2 babies to wake us, but still wonderful...with

cuddly kids, the strongest coffee in the world (with cream, of course)...and Lynn's pancakes. yum.

"Ohio yard" (pronounced 'lard')
Swings, a tree house, a slide, cousins, and bubbles...

"Ohio peanut butter"
Maya was really excited that Aunt Lynn let her 'make' her own sandwich for lunch.
Sweet independence.

The favorite "Ohio Story"
The Swim Lesson.
A great story of courage despite fear of the unknown.
"I won't go in. I won't go in. I won't go in the water.
The water is too cold. The water is too deep. The water is too wet."

But don't worry. The heroine goes in.
In fact...
"She won't get out. She won't get out. She won't get out of the water."

After story time, Andy and I listened to the monitor for THREE HOURS as Maya happily chatted away while she was supposed to be napping. "I won't do in da water" was one of our favorite oft repeated lines :)

Mandy's (and Josh's) house had really yummy breakfast cereal... and noodles, a magical fort, a really big and friendly dog named Shelby, and 'Goldilocks pool.'

"I won't get out. I won't get out. I won't get out of the water."

'Goldilocks Pool'


Maya really didn't want to say good-bye to Mandy... or Ohio.

Oh, and Sophie enjoyed the trip too. She's just a little quieter and less active than her busy big sister.

Despite the fact that she seems to be absent from the pictures,
she *was* there...and pretty content most of the time.

See?

Father.

You are the one that has given that name meaning for me. Before I ever knew the depth of the name 'Father', you showed Him to me.

I have always known that a Father is full of unending, unconditional, sacrificing love. That a Father is trustworthy, wise, and patient. That a Father desires what is best for his children.

And as you lived all of these things, you also gave me something far greater. You told me stories about my Father that created and loved me even more than you could. But I've always had a hard time believing that kind of love was possible, because I knew how deeply I was loved by you.

I knew that you hurt when I was hurting. That you hated to see my pain or failure or disapointment. Now that I am a parent, I've found myself saying the words that I so often heard you say to me..."Oh honey, I wish I could take the pain for you." Though I never doubted it then, I now know how much you really meant it.

And yet it is clear that more than happiness or comfort or ease...you desire what is best, what is right, what only God can give us whether it brings happiness or sorrow.

For all of my life, I have met new people, that somehow have been impacted by you, by your teaching, by your love, by your wisdom...and always, with great pride and gratitude, I say...

'He's my dad.'

our two Sophies

Maya loves them both...almost equally?

Seeing them side by side on the couch was (and is)...cute, of course, but also strangely disturbing and scary.

I'm pretty sure their 'likeness' won't last too long.

piper

I just stumbled upon this beautiful artist today. I haven't really taken the time to browse much beyond the current post. But I'm in love with her art. I'd like to fill Maya and Sophie's rooms with murals in this style. This is how I imagine all the fairy tales...

my favorite red overalls

maybe this summer...

...I will actually visit the farmer's market regularly and have fresh, locally grown food all the time.

...I will start a vegetable and herb garden.

...I will attempt to cook some real Indian, Greek, Italian...foods that Ryan and I love.

...I will plan for school as thoroughly as I always hope to.

...I will actually start exercising again.


Sometimes publicly posting my long-wished-for-and-oft-listed-but-never-actually-accomplished
goals helps me do something productive towards their success.

Want to come help me with my (so-far-still-imaginary) garden? I don't really know what I'm doing.

It sounds so peaceful...

...to lie down in green pastures.
To walk beside still waters.



But my favorite part of this Psalm---a line which unfortunately wasn't captured on this quick 'Photo Booth' video during Ryan's lunch break today --is when Maya walks around the house saying...

'He restores my pole.'

It's my favorite line of that Psalm. The words are so hopeful, so beautiful and rich.
And Maya's translation of it just makes me smile.

three years

of blogging.

This was my first post on April 25th 2005.

I think I'm a 'real blogger' now.... though I just noticed that I've only posted pictures for the last few months.

Maybe I'll think of something to 'say' soon. Maybe not.