Coffee break?

I was just getting the coffee maker ready for my parents breakfast tomorrow - filling it with water, putting the coffee in the basket - and suddenly a memory came into my head. A sweet memory that reminds me of why I love my husband.

About 23 - 24 years ago, when our daughter Sarah was maybe 2 1/2 or 3, she and her dad had a little evening ritual. Daddy would take her into the kitchen, and get the coffee maker out (a little two cup thing, I don't like coffee) and they would get the machine ready for the next day. He'd give her the scoop, and let her put the coffee in the basket. They'd count out the scoops - some full, some over full, some not so full - and then the basket would get put in the coffee maker.

There were often spills that I'd have to vacuum up, but no one got upset and it was a happy time that Sarah looked forward to each evening.

It wasn't until much later that I found out that my dear husband never went back and changed the amount of coffee in the basket. He took whatever strength came from the drip drip drip of water pouring through the coffee that Sarah apportioned to him the night before. He never complained.

I think I'm married to a very special man. I just have to remember from time to time just how special. I wonder if my parents are drinking the coffee I make - a non-coffee drinker who has no clue what makes a good cup of coffee - and, because I made it, not saying a word about how it tastes.... hmmm....

I haven't run away.... yet!

My friend, KellyK, says that people who read my blog will think I've run away (people read my blog?), which is her subtle way of saying "hey, you should update your blog!"

I'm currently at my brother and sister-in-law's home, where my parents are temporarily staying while we look for a home to share in Champaign, IL. (which, by the way, is not as easy as I thought it would be... the finding of one, that is) We are entertaining the idea of building a master suite on to our first floor. The problem is, it would not be completed for 6 months... at least... because it wouldn't be started until spring.

Another problem is that one of the cats my parents want to bring into the combined household (three cats are currently still at their old house, people are stopping by to feed them) is. and apparently has been for a while, spraying. Mom has already had to give up 3 of their 8 cats to other (good) homes, and I don't know if she can take losing another.

The cat is a sweet boy, very interesting face and markings. Shy, but once he warms up to you he's a lover. He was an outdoor cat, probably dumped, he's been neutered. What to do? Any suggestions? (And I'm not even going to publish or answer comments that say to euthanize him)

These are just a few of the items that keep me up at night. I lay in bed, trying to come up with workable solutions. I draw plans for an addition in my head. I imagine how we might fit into one of the houses I have looked at and what it will be like fixing up our current house to sell it in this wonderful economy. Eventually I go to sleep.

I've made some new beads. I just can't seem to get my act together, the umph to photograph them and list them.

So, perhaps I've satisfied Kelly and confused the heck out of my (ahem) hoards of readers. Hmmmm?

Theory of satisfaction vs perfection in practice... China painting

China Painting Demo by Paula

One of the reasons - actually the main reason - I'm here at my parents' house is because my mom signed up for a 3 day china painting workshop with Paula Collins in Morton, IL, and she needed someone to drive and help her while she was there.

Mom used to do a lot of china painting... before the knee surgeries, pulmonary embolism, etc mentioned in the previous post. All of the medical problems she's had in the past 5 years have managed to set her back in a big way. She's done very little painting, and the shake in her hands has become more pronounced during those difficult years as well. So this workshop has been extremely frustrating and somewhat humiliating for her.

I've been recruited to do some of the painting... a lot of the painting... and to say I am out of my element and out of practice as well is an understatement. Sure, I got my degree in studio art. In 1980. I rarely pick up a brush as small as is used in china painting any more.

So I repeated my mantra as "we" were painting (mom watching, me painting) that the reason we take a class is to learn something new... that we can't expect a masterpiece to come out of it (read: a plate like the instructor's). It's so interesting... in all of the china painting classes I've observed, it's standard practice for the instructor to come around and sort of help "clean up" what the students have done, unless they object (few do). Thinking back, I guess I did a little of that myself when I was teaching polymer clay...

Anyway, here is the teacher's plate progression today (click on photos to enlarge)




And here is "our" plate. I sketched in some leaves after this, but we had to leave because mom was not feeling well, so the teacher blocked them in for us. I'll take a picture tomorrow to show what it looks like fired. The china paints look very different once they are fired...

Caretaking

They say we women go from being taken care of (as children) to taking care of others (husband, children) to taking care of our parents, to being taken care of again.

Currently I'm in the middle role - taking care of others, my parents. My dad went into the hospital for pain in his hip severe enough that he couldn't sit up or walk. My mom walks with a walker and has back, leg, and shoulder pain, and dad has been taking care of her. So with dad in the hospital, we children who live close to them (my brother, who lives in the next town with his wife, and me, 90 miles away) play tag team, as we generally do when something like this comes up.

Tag. I'm it. (my brother and sister in law are also around and about doing stuff)

I have several things I want to blog about - one being the kind nomination by Melissa for an "I love your blog" award - but they will have to wait.

Maybe I'll take some pictures of my parents' 7 cats and post them in the next several days... if I have the time and energy. Meanwhile, my daughter has kindly agreed to do a little entrecard dropping for me. Yay, Sarah!