Travel Swap Update

Yesterday I put my travel swap goodies into the mail. In case my travel pen pal is reading this, I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what I included. I didn't include anything about Paris, however, since Nadja lives in Courdimanche, which is right outside of Paris. I figured she'd have plenty of first hand knowledge about the city.

It's been fun getting to know a stranger! Nadja was born in Switzerland and went to college at BYU in Utah. She did a Spanish-speaking mission in California for the LDS church. Her husband is from New Zealand and is part Tongan; they have 7 children. I don't need to ask her what she does for a job....caring for 7 kids has got to be a full time occupation! All her children are bilingual...English/French; the older ones also speak a little Dutch. I feel so uneducated that I'm not bilingual...not even close, inspite of the few French phrases and words I've taught myself. I'm looking forward to Nadja stretching my language skills with a few French words here and there.

Travel Swap

I'm learning so much about the blog-o-sphere! My friend, Randi, emailed me to check out a blog she reads; she thinks I might like to do the 'travel swap.' I look at it, email the blogger, and voila...I'm signed up!

Here's how it works. I send my name, address and email to the host who matches me up with another travel junkie. Each of us puts together a 'swap' package of things about our favorite place to travel and mail it by Feb. 8th. We blog about our gifts, post pictures, and make a new travel/pen pal friend. Fun!! I've already picked out a lavender sachet from Provence, a postcard from Paris and some Roger Gallet shower gel. Roger Gallet is in every pharmacy in Paris, I swear.

Oh...did I mention that France is my favorite travel destination??

The Coffee Bowl

Monday through Friday I drink my morning coffee the same as you do. I gulp from my mug between blow drying my hair and putting on my mascara. I sip absentmindedly while I journal or read my morning devotion. On weekends, however, I drink my morning coffee French style!

Before my first trip to France in 2005, I read a book by Robert Arbor, a Frenchman who moved to the States and now owns 9 restaurants in New York and Boston. His book, "Joie de Vivre," takes the reader through a typical French day with a focus on food and the culture of food in France. This is where I first heard about the coffee bowl. He says...'At breakfast, everyone drinks from their own bowl, which takes the place of a cup or mug. Just as an American has a favorite breakfast cup or mug, the French person has a favorite bowl.....cafes in France serve coffee in cups and saucers--the bowl is for use at home." This explains why most people don't know about this custom; it's private and experienced only in a French home.

Here's the joy of the coffee bowl....you can't do anything else while you drink from it! Goodbye multi-tasking. You have to hold it with both hands and take your time as you walk with it to table, else coffee sloshes everywhere. It makes my weekend coffee ritual intentional and almost meditative. The bowl warms my hands and my spirit; the foamed milk atop the strong, sweetened brew tickles my nose and the sprinkle of chocolate I dash on as a finishing touch smells divine. This is truly joie de vivre!

La Tour Eiffel

It's not surprising that my first attempt at collage is something French! Thanks to Randi for introducing me to Picasa, a free download that organizes photos and allows me to do this beautiful collage.

Ah, la tour Eiffel! the very symbol of France. These images are from all three of my trips to Paris. I just can't seem to stop taking pictures of the tower. Every time you turn around, there she is...tall, stately, begging to be photographed in this light, from this angle. I love her lacy underpinnings. I love how she twinkles after dark, thousands of tiny lights dancing up and down her body. I love how she anchors every vista and peeks over and around buildings, old and new. I well up in tears at the mere sight of her. Because once you see her, there's no mistaking that the marvelous city you are in is Paris..the most exciting, exhilerating city in the world!

PS...I promise not to whine about the weather, but....it was 12 below zero at 6:30am and there's ice on the inside of several windows! Tell me why I live here again??

A Writer's House

One click led to another and before I knew it, I discovered a new blog today that I quickly added to 'My Favorites.' Notre Vie Quotidien is written by a divorced woman who moved to Provence with her young daughter to write. This could be me! Oh yeah, I don't have a daughter, but how about a grandson? Susan settled in a village a bit north of the area of Provence that I'm most familiar with (the Luberon) and she's begun to write about her village and her observations of being an American living in a very French environment. I can hardly wait for her next entry!

Reading Susan's blog brought back memories of Goult and the colorful house pictured above. Chatting with a Brit who has a delightful antique/brocante shop in the village, I discovered that she is the keeper of this house which is owned by an elderly Belgian man. Jan handles all the rental arrangements, delivers the key, and makes sure it's cleaned up. One afternoon she met me there to show it to me. I loved it! It has a big kitchen (with a dishwasher and washing machine!), two bedrooms and two bathrooms...one is huge and has an old-fashioned claw foot tub. The second bedroom is down a scary staircase, but it has French doors that open onto the street. At 450 Euros per week, it's affordable.

My dream is to someday return to Goult and rent this pink and blue beauty for at least two weeks. I'll walk to the boulangerie every morning before 7am for my baguette, stop at the Cafe de la Poste for cafe au lait, and then go to market and buy luscious Provencal fruits and veggies. I'll spend the afternoons cooking and writing and walking...and writing some more. Maybe I'll finally finish that novel! A pastis at the Cafe in the late afternoon will lead to a chat with the neighbors and perhaps a dinner invitation?

Someday! In the meantime I'll read about Susan's 'daily life' at http://www.notreviequotidien.blogspot.com/ and dream on....

Go Chargers!!

I really don't have anything exciting to blog about today, but I just had to post this picture. Isn't he just a little doll-baby? Parker is the ultimate Chargers fan! Bet his big brother, Chase, might disagree with him, tho. I'm guessing he's cheering the Patriots on!

The Gospel Side

Last evening I attended the 5pm service at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in West Des Moines. I sat on the Gospel Side.

When I asked Edith what the Gospel Side was, she remembered this from her childhood...her mother always called one side of the church the Gospel Side and the other, the Epistle Side. She thought the Gospel Side was on the left, but couldn't really come up with a reason why it was called that.

So...I did a bit of sleuthing on the Internet (whatever did we do before computers?) The Episcopal Church Dictionary says this about the Gospel Side: "an archaic term referring to the left side of the altar as viewed by the congregation from the nave. The gospel was read from this side of the altar. The epistle was read from the opposite side of the altar, which was known as the Epistle Side."

In modern services, both readings are generally done from either the pulpit or in the midst of the congregation. St. Tim's does the reading from the congregants, at least at the Saturday evening service.

So, I sat on the Gospel Side. Since I'm not a huge fan of Paul (who wrote a great many of the Epistles), I don't think that's the right side of the church for me. Here's my suggestion: one side should be the Psalms Side and the other, the Isaiah Side....my favorites! Then it would be a real dilemma where to pick a seat!

Two Recommendations

Over the holidays, I read an important...and very tense...book that my brother, Jim, sent me. John Grisham's "The Innocent Man" is a work of non-fiction, the true story of a man wrongly convicted of murder, imprisoned on death row and eventually exonerated. If you read it, you'll never feel quite the same about our criminal justice system or the death penalty. The down side to reading this book was that it left me a bit depressed and sorely in need of a lift for my spirits. Luckily within days, I received two recommendations that helped me a lot!

My brother, Walt, provided the first. He recommended two movies that 'ya gotta rent.' The first, "Rat Race," a re-make of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World," is okay; kind of silly, pretty forgettable. But the second is a gem. "The Ultimate Gift" isn't star-studded (James Garner and Brian Dennehy are its biggest names), but it's a feel-good movie you shouldn't miss. I won't spoil the story by telling you too much, but it's about a ga-zillionaire, James Garner, who dies and leaves his fortune divided among his family. His grandson, however, gets a mysterious gift that leads him to several other gifts equally as mysterious. If you rent it, be sure to watch it thru the final credits to make sure you identified all the gifts. I guarantee you'll look at life in a more uplifted way after you watch this film.

My friend, Edith, helped me with her recommendation of a book to read; actually any of several books by Jan Karon. I must be the only person on the planet who hadn't read her delightful 'Mitford' books, but now I count myself among Jan Karon's most ardent fans. Mitford, North Carolina is a fictional mountain village populated by the most interesting and eccentric citizens. The stories center around Father Timothy, rector of the local Episcopal church, and his adventures with not only his parishioners, but also the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and the un-churched. A 60 year old bachelor, Father Tim finds love in the first book along with an unwanted 11 year old boy and a friendly black dog as 'big as a Buick.' The stories are simple, well told, and definitely PG-rated...no gratuitous violence, sex, crime, or substance abuse, although all of those human failings live in Mitford's inhabitants. I'm intrigued with Father Tim's theology and eloquence as he ministers to his flock. And I was, at first, puzzled by what the 'gospel' side of the church is all about. More on that in another blog.... If you decide to try a Jan Karon book, I suggest you start with the first in the series, "At Home in Mitford."

There you are....if your spirits need a lift, rent the DVD, read the book. Either will make you feel ever so much better about life in general!

My Favorite Fauve!

The Fauvist movement of painters followed the Impressionists around the turn of the 20th century. Probably the most famous Fauves were Gauguin and Matisse. They painted images of the things around them with imagination and bright colors, and without regard to making objects look realistic. Up until yesterday, my favorite Fauve was Matisse. I 've been privileged to see many of his works of art during my three trips to Paris. The Pompidou Center has a great collection of his work. I especially like the cut paper designs he did when age prevented him from painting. He felt driven, even into his old age, to create.

Yesterday, though, I came to have a different favorite Fauve. Chase, as you know, is an artist as well as a beloved grandson. His school belongs to an on-line art gallery called Artsonia which publishes the artwork of school children. It's a great venue for the kids to show off their work (and for doting grandmothers to purchase prints, coffee mugs, key rings, etc. of the grandkids' creations!) Chase's 7th grade art class is studying the Fauvist movement and creating art in that style. The picture you see here is Chase's Fauvist art creation and I LOVE it!! He has become my new favorite Fauve! Move over, Matisse.

P.S. I Love You!

I've been mulling over yesterday's post and feel like I need to add a postscript to it...mainly because I didn't mean to slight my son, Travis. I have absolutely loved him unconditionally from the day he was born almost 36 years ago. With your own children, tho, it's so easy to get caught up in all the stresses of parenting, earning a living, being a good spouse. When that happens, you sometimes forget how important it is to love your children without regrets and with no strings attached.

It's a little different being a grandmother. I don't have to hassle with things like potty training and making sure the baby eats his vegetables. When he's fussy, I know Mommy and Daddy will be here soon to take him home, and I'll have peace and quiet. The pressure is off; I can allow myself to just feel the love, the precious blessing of the baby who has just become a teenager. And now I'm doubly blessed as I have little Parker to love unconditionally as well.

Happy Birthday, Chase!

Today is Chase's 13th birthday! It's amazing to me how fast these 13 years have flown by. How does it happen that one day he's the cutest little newborn and the next day, he's turned into a teenager? One thing that I know for sure is that he is the sweetest, most gentle boy I know. Having him in my life is a true blessing. And he's taught me what it means to truly love another human being unconditionally.

Global Warming

Forgive me for complaining about the weather...again! You'd think with a forecast for 40 degree weather this weekend that I wouldn't have anything to complain about, but you'd be wrong! 40 degrees means that everything is thawing out. The gravel road where I walked Lucie this morning is a mess of ice, slushy snow and mud. I had to pick a path to avoid slipping on the ice, sliding on the soft, mushy snow, and sinking into the mud! And Lucie with her long black hair was a muddy, icy dirt ball when we got home. 40 degrees also means that when the storms that are currently pounding the West Coast finally arrive here next week, we'll have pouring rain turning to ice and, then with any luck, to snow. I don't think I can survive another major ice event!

If this is what global warming is all about, I say we need to do something about it....quick!

Caucus 2008

I attended my first caucus last night and oh boy! was it ever fun!! I feel sorry for any of you that don't get the opportunity to experience grassroots politics up close and personal like we do in Iowa!

The adventure started with a treacherous walk across the high school parking lot. I did the 'old lady shuffle' on a sheet of ice until I arrived safely at the building door. Then it was a matter of following the hand-lettered signs to the library. Promptly at 6:30pm the doors were locked and 83 of us from two townships (the ground level unit of local government in Iowa) found our seats. Each Democratic candidate had a table and those of us who were 'standing for Hillary' clustered around one. My neighbors, Loren and Doug, were there. Loren sat down with the Obama camp; Doug joined me with Hillary supporters. (I'll bet the conversations at their house have been interesting lately!) The chairman made some required announcements, did an official head count, and then computed the numbers. Each candidate had to have 12 supporters to be viable; Dodd, Biden and Richardson were quickly eliminated. That's when the fun began as the rest of us tried to woo their supporters to our candidate. With a total of 6 delegates to send to the county conference, more supporters meant more delegates. We tried to lure people with our awesome cookies, campaign promises, etc. An hour later, it was over. Here's the results from Truro, Iowa....3 delegates for John Edwards, 2 delegates for Hillary, and 1 delegate for Obama. A little different than how the state went overall. Everyone left with a smile, a cookie, and a determination to put a Democrat in the White House come November!!

As you know by now, Obama took Iowa with Edwards and Hillary closely matched as runners-up. But the big news from my perspective was the turnout. Over 239,000 Democrats caucused; over 112,000 Republicans. These numbers almost double the turnout of 2004!! Everyone is excited about this upcoming election. As I walked the hospital halls this morning, everyone is talking about going to the caucus and what's happening from here. Iowa, at least, is so ready for a change. Republican or Democrat...everyone feels the need to get our country back on track and change our image in the world. These are exciting times and I feel privileged to have been a part of this movement toward integrity, hope, compassion and inclusion. However the campaign looks when it comes to your state, I urge you to participate, vote, speak out and hear the candidates. It's FUN!!

New Year's Day

It's New Year's Day at Red Bell Farm and bitterly cold! The thermometer says 5 degrees; the forecast says wind chills of minus 15-20 today. Brr-r-r! It will be a challenge to muster up the courage to take Lucie for a walk later.

No, I didn't stay up until midnight last night. New Year's Eve is not a holiday I celebrate much. Thankfully, the evening was quiet....no political candidate calls. Iowa is in a frenzy preparing for the caucuses on Thursday and the candidates take every opportunity to get your attention...radio ads, TV ads, newspaper ads, phone calls. It's never-ending! But after Thursday evening, Iowa will go back to being that place 'somewhere in the middle' that no one really cares about...and that's fine with me!

I plan to go to my first caucus this year. I'll let you know how that goes.