Making the Days Count

Today is President’s Day. It’s the holiday to celebrate all of our presidents, but in particular George Washington’s birthday. I remember in elementary school coloring pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and learning stories of their exploits of how George chopped a cherry tree down and couldn’t tell a lie and Abe was an honest self-educated man who chopped wood. I don’t know if these tales are true, but I do know that these two presidents led our nation in a time when its citizens were uncertain of how events would turn out.

And so being the wise nation that we are, we celebrate our heritage and history by letting the schoolchildren out of school for the day. Now, in the interest of transparency, I do personally benefit from this holiday and all of the other holidays, as well. I am a teacher. However, being a teacher does not imply an endorsement of our holiday practice. Now that that is out in the open, I can continue. Continue reading…

It’s another three-day weekend for me and a four-day weekend for the kids both my own kids and my students. Monday is President’s Day and schoolchildren across the land have the day off. I think those days should be spent in school, but I’m a minority voice. My school district has parent-teacher conferences Tuesday and the kids are off while we meet with parents to give feedback, praise, and some serious honesty about how their child is performing (or not) in our classes. My kid’s school district had an in-service day Friday – so we both had a long weekend. What it really does is to provide an excuse to spend time recreating, so we left town and headed north for snow and winter outdoor fun. Continue reading…

It’s Sunday morning, it’s bright, sunny, windy, and lake is blue, as blue as the early morning light colors the water.  Wind rustles through the trees and blows in through the open screen door and through the cottage. Last night, a front blew through the area and brought much cooler and drier weather. It is the same front, which blasted though the Chicago area and later northern Ohio with high winds, lightning, and rain. We were supposed to get storms with rain and high winds, but nothing happened; the storm broke up before it arrived. We got pleasant weather instead. I’ll take the trade-off, anytime. Continue reading…

Wednesday was a great day. Fishing, boating, swimming, skiing, dinner out, and no clean up! This morning I ignored my alarm and slept a little longer. I could hear the wind in the trees and the lake slapping the pontoon and kayak and I got up to a grey sky, rain, and a very quiet morning. It is a good way to begin the day.

Yesterday was a fun day. O awoke and asked Continue reading…

July 1976, it was the summer before high school. It was hot, as only southeastern Texas could get. It was the summer of a lot of things for me; growing up, figuring out who I was, figuring out what was ‘cool’ and what was not, who was cool and who my friends were, and getting ready for high school. It was also time for the Summer Olympics.

The Summer Olympics come around every four years, which is fortunate because if they came every summer, they might not mean the same thing, they might not be as special; because, the Olympic Games are something special. I have no memories of the Olympics before 1976. Continue reading…

It seems that the weather this summer has been on again, off again. It’s been warm and sunny, but each day it seems the wind is up one day and gone the next.  Almost, every other day the lake is calm and then, the next, churned and frothy. Yesterday was one of the calm days.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

I let the kids sleep late in the morning; Continue reading…

It’s mornings like this one when I truly appreciate the cottage. It is quiet and the lake is calm, much calmer than yesterday when the wind whipped the lake into whitecaps, the trees rustled in the wind, and the sun beat down through the clear blue sky.

Grandma and grandpa left almost a week ago and I miss grandma and our early morning coffee together in the front room looking out upon the lake. Ivy’s curled up on her pad almost as if it is her nest, sleeping. I got up much earlier and it was cool, crisp, and clear I decided to sit out on the deck and invited Ivy to join me, she decided to stay inside and curled up and went back to sleep. Continue reading…

I have been in a writing funk for almost a week, now. I started to write Thursday and stopped. I started, again Friday, and again Saturday and stopped both times. Honestly, the summer has been a whirlwind and lately, I have been having a hard time keeping up.

After a week in the hospital grandpa came home and my in-laws returned to Ohio late Wednesday; and grandpa is recovering, slowly. Beth returned with them and is helping where she can. The kids and I stayed back at the cottage and I feel, sort of guilty enjoying summer at the cottage. Though, I’m not really enjoying summer as much as I would or could. Continue reading…

Grandma and I are enjoying the lake, sipping coffee, talking baseball, and sharing memories of our time up here. I am writing, but my mind is somewehere else; our thoughts are with grandpa and we’ll hop on over to visit him this morning.

O and I drove back to the lake Saturday afternoon. She won her game and she was elated, but she was even more excited about getting back to the lake. I can’t blame her. Except for a bit of rain as we drove out of town, the drive was dry and clear. I could see thunderheads off to the east, or west, or north, but we missed them all.

As soon as we pulled into the driveway and unloaded, W and O were in the lake and having a great time. Ivy was content to sit in the yard and watch as they played in the water. O took the kayak out and the hooked it to a buoy and played together in the water. They swam and played until they tired of the water and came in, dripping. Continue reading…

I skipped writing yesterday, too much goin’ on, in-laws arrived and I had a bunch to get done. Though momma might dispute that – I did take a nap yesterday afternoon before they arrived.

This morning, I came downstairs and grandma and grandpa were up. The morning culture at the cottage is sipping coffee in the front room and enjoying the lake view. It’s been that way as long as I we’ve been coming here. It is an amazing view. Continue reading…