Happy Thursday, everyone!
Thursday is the best, isn’t it? Ohhh, I love.
I just made up the line “Thursday Thoughts.” (At least I think I made it up.) And I thought I was so clever I gave myself a pat on the back. The creativity is just running wild over here.
So this post is a bit of a random mish-mash of things.
Just some recent thoughts of mine for you to mingle over as you ease into Friday (let’s throw our hands up in the hair and praise the LORD!).
Here we go…
1. This is my new jam.
It makes for such good driving music. And blogging music. And keep-me-feeling-happy music.
The whole album is currently on repeat in my car.
It’s good, guys. Real good.
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2. Did I tell you my parents came to Boston last weekend? Our time was swell.
We did some eating, some book shopping, and mostly a lot of just being together. Which is the best kind of visit.
My dad is watching the Syracuse game in that last picture. In the restaurant. On an iPhone.
What can I say? The guy’s addicted. Can’t help but love him.
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3. This week was a 3-day week at school for the kids. Why do those weeks always seem to drag on the longest? Right? I can see you shaking your head yes. What is it about them?
Tuesday we had a professional development day at school. We had a keynote speaker in the morning that was absolutely fantastic. He talked all about how we as teachers can help set the tone for our classroom in terms of motivation and resilience.
It’s about creating a positive classroom environment.
A safe place where children can grow and learn and take risks and make mistakes.
All without ever having to worry that they won’t be accepted. Or told they’re wrong.
It was very powerful for me and helped me think about how I can make sure my classroom is a welcoming, nourishing, safe place. For all of my kids, but especially the ones that don’t have a lot. The ones that struggle at home or have a low self esteem. It’s these kids I need to reach the most.
Because it only takes one person to believe in a child to change their life. To give them strength. To give them courage. And if I can be that person, that teacher, that is when I will have done my job.
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4. I know I’m not alone out there with my love for Downton Abbey.
Really, how terrific is that show?
When I am watching this show I am reminded of my love for Titanic (oh, Leo), but I am also brought back to my childhood and Anne of Green Gables and Avonlea. Oh, how I wish I could be part of those times! Dresses and horses and petticoats and tea and biscuits.
The characters on Downton Abbey just came into my life by storm and now have a most special place in my heart.
Lady Mary!
BATES! ANNA!
My friend Clair had a fun post earlier this week all about Downton Abbey recipes. It made me smile and made me hungry too. I’ll take some of those crepes suzette, please. I was drooling in that episode.
Do you watch it too?
(Also, sidenote to my HWS friends: Who thinks Lady Mary is Marissa Greechan’s other twin (besides Dana)?????????? Can I get a heck YES. I can’t get over it. Every single episode I just can’t get over it.)
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5. Blog Friends DINNER!
We did it!
Clair and Mackenzie and I finally got together!
We stayed at Veggie Galaxy for 2 hours and talked all sorts of wonderful things. We talked blogs. And twitter. And blogging and more blogging. And stolen bikes and our love for long rides on the T. And children’s books. We all have a special place in our heart for children’s books. This is ultimately how we found each other’s blogs and how we can now call each other soul sisters.
This is my favorite part about blogging.
FAVORITE.
Making connections. Making friends.
It just makes me happy.
SO very happy.
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One thing that stuck with me from last night is how Mackenzie so perfectly described blogging as reading/writing a letter to a friend. It’s so true. And then this morning I was thinking, of course. That’s how my blog name came to be in the first place, after all. How could I forget?
And so, friend. I wish you a happy one. A very happy Thursday, indeed. ♥
3. Something you adore: old photographs of my mom and dad
January 3, 2012
My mom and dad have been married for 30 years. It’ll be 31 years this August.
They first met in 1976, three years after my dad had his accident.
I think to tell this story fully, you need the background information first. It’s the most amazing miracle I’ve ever heard and it’s the reason my sister and I are here today.
In 1973 my dad was in a life-threatening car accident. He was thrown from a jeep 4 days before Christmas and landed on his head. He was with his friend and was in the passenger side of the car, and he was not wearing a seatbelt (as most people didn’t in those days). They were coming home from getting a Christmas tree and were hit by another car in the middle of a snowstorm.
He was in a coma for 3 months and he barely survived.
I still get shaky every time I think about it. What it was like for his mom and dad, for his brothers, for his friends. They did not think he would survive, and even if he did, they thought the damage to his brain would be too great to recover from.
But he did survive.
He survived.
He woke from the coma, a miracle in and of itself, but it was only the beginning of an incredibly long road to recovery.
He needed to re-learn everything. Everything. How to eat, how to walk, how to talk. The right side of his body was paralyzed from the impact of the fall. Slowly with the help of many others, my grandmother helped him get back on his feet. My Grandma Grace loved her son too much to let him slip away. In 1975 my grandmother went to the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia, PA to learn “patterning”. Patterning is a specific type of rehabilitation for people who’ve had a traumatic brain injury. She patterned him every day. And taught everyone around to help too. My dad was patterned twice a day by 4 or 5 people at a time. He did that program for a year and made so much progress that he was able to go to college.
Still even today, my dad walks with a limp and slurs his speech a little. But he’s the friendliest person alive and has the best outlook on life and the best laugh. I am forever grateful that he’s my dad. Forever and ever and ever.
It was on a weekend night (in a wheelchair) that my dad met my mom in a bar in Syracuse. He was still recovering from his accident, but had made tremendous gains. My dad was out with some friends. My mom was attending Syracuse University for graduate school and was at the bar that same night.
A few years later my dad saw my mom again at a wedding. Another year later, my mom asked my dad’s brother Dean about my dad and how he was doing. Dean told my dad afterwards and pressed him to ask her out. After another year (it took him awhile he says), when my dad was on a school break, he saw her again. Finally, he called and asked her out to dinner. He took her to the Old Stone Mill in Skaneateles. He had a “buy one, get one free” pass and told her they couldn’t get any drinks or dessert.
This makes me laugh harder than anything, because this is perfectly my dad.
He laughs so hard when he tells this part of the story.
He laughs so hard, everyone that’s listening starts laughing too.
Then he says, “Well, then I broke down and we had dessert. And she married me despite all that.”
I love my parents more than anything. I love how they fit so well together and how much they have given me and my sister. Each and every day I admire them and their goodness and grace.
We are so so very blessed to have them.
It’s a miracle, really.
A miracle.
You didn’t think I’d leave you hanging without this cookie recipe did you?
I’d like to think you trust me more than that.
We are friends after all.
Here you go!
Mom’s Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
2.5 cups of sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
C of butter, softened
1 1/4 tsp vanilla
1 C of confectionary sugar
Directions:
Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside
Cream butter and vanilla until butter is softened
Add confectionary sugar gradually, cream until fluffy after each addition
Mix in the dry ingredients (my mom doesn’t add all the flour because it gets too stiff and is hard to roll out)
Then, take half the dough and roll it out until 1/4 inch thick.
Put some confectionry sugar and flour down when you roll the dough out (and sprinkle on top so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin).
Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Watch them, too, because they burn easily.
Enjoy!!
Do you have a favorite christmas cookie recipe? Or some other favorite treat that’s your go-to for the holidays? My grandmother makes loads and loads of different types of Christmas cookies every year. She puts them in little holiday tins and the whole time I’m visiting I’m basically just munching and munching on cookies till my teeth hurt.
It’s a once a year thing and I’m happy to indulge in it.
“Let them eat cookies!”
