Fathers with influence

Though both of our fathers have been gone for more than 30 years now, their influence in our lives and that of our children and grandchildren can still be felt. The love, security, discipline and integrity of their lives had a profound impact on both Ron and I-in many ways it was subtle but it left its mark. I treasure the memories i have of my father. I am so glad I knew Ron's father. He is so much like him, it makes me think I must have many of my own fathers characteristics as well. Happy Father's Day!
"Are we not like two volumes of one book?"
"He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it."
"It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was."

Hearing the Bird Song

Last summer was our "summer of the owls". I have only seen them once this summer. No matter, there are plenty of other fellows out there to hear! . Here is a family in an ash tree right outside our back door. For once these robins have built up high enough to keep themselves out of trouble.:

Then, this hawk was nesting above a tennis court in Western Springs. A pretty comfy out of the way spot. (and hard to photograph, too with my little lens)

I was contemplating the 'ordinariness' of birds in our lives this morning on our walk. For the most part, we hardly even notice that they're around. (other than to remark on the odd occasion about how lovely they are) Lucky ones of us who have trained our ears early to recognize the most common songs. Remarkable if someone knows several dozen by their song(or hundreds as in the case of friend Mark) But learning to identify a bird by its song is easily done when we just train ourselves to hear the variety. Much the same when learning to identify God's voice in our lives. We need training, the earlier the better. Then there's not such difficulty in picking Him out among the loud voices that surround us so often. Like the Robin with several variations of his song, So is God. But it's not impossible to know and understand that voice!

Stream of conciousness

I love how blogging lets me have a conversation with you every single day about whatever seems to be on my mind. None of you seem to mind the topics that I pick. You just follow along though I'm sure you must sometimes think I'm a bit bizzare, out to lunch or maybe even right on the money. Either way, you're too polite to tell me when you think I'm really nutty today. It's ok, I keep writing and you apparently keep on reading. Thank you. (I think) There are many other venues out there right now, for sharing ones whole life. I can't keep up. I have a flickr account, a picasa account, and then there's Facebook and my space and Twitter (anything I'm missing?) I'm sure there will soon be the moment when blogging is way out of fashion. Maybe they'll update and I can actually keep up. Thanks for checking in with me today. It's been a busy day at work. I have a turkey breast in the crock pot, a staff meeting coming up shortly and the prospect of a tornado filled evening. So I will stay busy.

New graduate

4 Siblings: Joan, Charlie,Sue, Tom


I spent last weekend in Chicago (excuse me, Western Springs. A tiny town of only 12,000) to join in the celebration of my nephew's high school graduation. My last kid's high school graduation was about the time that he was 5 years old. Quite an age difference between the cousins, when there's only 5 years age difference between my sister and myself! (I was pretty young when I started having kids) It's hard to believe this kid is ready for college. I'm not sure that college is ready for him! I was extra glad to be able to make this trip. My sister's two kids are pretty cool kids, and so much fun to talk to! Abby starts high school in the fall. She is a marine biologist to be. I have no doubt that she will fulfill that dream! Adam, has been practicing on his 'don't talk to parental units they only embarass' for a few years now. He tends to answer in grunts. But you can get him going if you get him onto the right subject: i.e. woodworking, rocks, coin collecting, and work stories. Pretty funny! I think he'll move out of that before too much longer!
Anyway, just had to share my weekend.

Is this heaven?

Saturday was Adam's party day. Did we stay and help clean? No, Joan sent us downtown with Don to the annual "Printer's Row book sale". It was amazing. 3 blocks of tents filled with books books books! There were new books, old books, cook books, kids books, rare books, signed books, comic books,...and odd assortments of other things like maps and sheet music, a few odd (really, i.e. strange)DVDs old postcards and so on. The books were the main things, however. I didn't know what to do first. Should I stand and take pictures? Yes! Should I look at the books? Yes! I went back and forth between everything. It was awesomely cool. We could have spent a lot longer at it, but there was enough time for me to buy a couple of books. And when we got back home. The house was clean. Magic.