A Parenting Reward

If you're a parent you seldom get overt proof that you did a good job.  Durwood and I got some last night.  DD & DIL2 were on their way from Lexington, KY and the closer they got to home the worse the roads were.  DD called around 9 PM from a motel room 45 miles from here to say that they were sorry, but they thought it would be safer to spend the night and come home this morning.  Whew.  I think both of us heaved a huge sigh of relief.  I went to knitting when they hadn't called to say they were close by 5 PM, and Durwood called me there to say that they were in Sheboygan (~60 miles away) around 7:45.  That means that they hadn't gone 20 miles in the intervening hour.  Holy crap.  The streets were awful from here to Harmony Cafe which is 3 blocks so driving up nearly the whole eastern side of the state along the lakeshore had to be one whale of an adventure.  And... they're here!  Be back later.  Much later.  After a short spurt of visiting, Durwood and I headed out to the gun show, then to the grocery, then to another shop, then home.  Short to write, long to do, we were gone about 4 hours to give the girls time to regroup from their long, stressful day yesterday.  DS, DIL1 and Porter stopped over to say hi to the girls and visit for a short time on their way to the grocery.  Now Durwood's cleaning beans and soon as I hit "publish" I'll be whipping up some cornbread so we can have ham, green beans and cornbread for supper.  Yum.


December 29--Filippo Lippi, Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement.  Who is she, I wonder as I look at her there in sharp profile.  She bejeweled and beaded with her blond hair drawn back so tightly that it must hurt.  There's the barest hint of a smile on her small pink mouth, like she knows a good story she's willing to share.  Her eyes are heavy-lidded and steady, not looking to the side but straight ahead undistracted by the man half in the window opposite.  He stares straight ahead too, his features composed, mild.  They are so still and yet both are in red, the color of passion.  Perhaps they are keeping up appearances.

I'm sorry it's taken me all day to do this.  I had the best of intentions but I had to go out to snowblow the drive, then DD & DIL2 arrived, then the snowplow plowed me in but our neighbor TS came over and took care of it (thanks, TS! you're the best), then Durwood and I left... and well, it's been a busy day.  Hope yours was serene.  I'm hoping for serenity next weekend.
--Barbara