Full Day Sunday

From morning until late in the afternoon, this was a very full day.

6A.M. sunrise... hint of light making the cloudy sky all pink. Sometimes it is sooo good to be up and out at this quiet hour.

William's fourth birthday party... and look at this, he got a bike!

He challenges Angelina to a race and them makes sure he starts before she does....

Pete has his own set of wheels at this bikes, trikes and scooters birthday bash.

W. might be in the lead for now... but this girl plans on catching up.

The pinata took a lot of whacks before it finally gave up the goods... here everyone is busy stuffing their sack.
P. tries out the night goggles as Great Grandma and Cameron's Grandma look on.

Angelina gives W. a hand unwrapping the birthday presents.

and a little more help....

Ahhhh, cupcake time!
Peter is saying, "Cheese!"

lightness and dark

A good friend e-mailed me today and attached a blog he regularly visits... in it the author talked about trying to find just the right word... a problem I run into. But what bounced to the top as I read, was she was writing this blog at 9:54 in the morning. And I thought, "that's it!" I need my mornings.

I haven't written anything in days, weeks, feels like months... and the things I write feel forced and awkward.... and suddenly I think it is all about mornings. I haven't had any in forever. But spring break is nearing. Three weeks away. And then I will have two entire weeks of 10 a.m.'s to enjoy. I could clap my hands a do a dance in anticipation... maybe this writer's block will finally end.

On a much more serious note, there is a boy in one of my classes I am very concerned about. I teach art, a class where those more special students can often shine... a class that welcomes different strokes. Usually, I can get everyone to join in, and the ones that don't fall more into the dead-weight category than anything else... but this week I have seen something different. A silent child. He seems frozen... almost like he is afraid to put a pencil on the paper and make a mark.
After school, I went and talked to a couple people, and suddenly my worry about him turned to fear. I sense that something is violently wrong in his life. I am going to move my concern forward as best I can with the public education system... but I'd like to ask you, if you are the praying kind, to hold this boy in your heart.

Thanks.

tea

I have found a new tea, blackberry... mmmmm, it is so good. I have been lacing this slightly tart tea with a packet of Emergenc-C and a teaspoon of honey. Tastes like a wonderful, warm elixer that breaks through all this mucus my body seems to be generating lately. It warms me and soothes me and staves off the snack runs I get when I first come home.

A couple years ago my cousin, an earth mother from Oregon gave me a zip-lock bag of dried raspberry leaves for tea. It was amazing. Not like this blackberry tea at all. This tea is brilliantly red, while the tea from the leaves was the soft shade of olive green that green tea gets. The tea I am drinking today is tart, like pomogranate... even when I drink it unsullied. The tea I got from Teresa was the tiniest bit sweet... it had the flavor of raspberries that had ripened to their full sweetness.

Mmmm, it is a tea kind of night. Still unseasonably cold for the Valley of the Sun and a steaming hot cup keeps the chill at bay.

Hope whatever you are enjoying right now is a good as this.