Monday: One of the most beautiful spring days ever. When my husband went to pick up Marshall at his bus stop, Livia and I sneaked out in our bare feet, sat upon the sun-warmed rocks, played with sticks, and admired the daffodil buds.
Marshall picked the first dandelion of the season. He asked for a vase, so I found one of my little vases for him. The dandelion looks pretty in the window, doesn’t it?
After I finished work, Marshall and I went outside. I did some freelance work while Marshall blew bubbles. When Livia got up from her nap, we all went up to the playground area of the yard. I sat in the swing and watched the kids play in the dirt. It always amazes me how it’s the simplest things—a pile of dirt, some shovels, a toy dump truck, and a bucket—that seem to keep them busy the longest.
The kids needed a bath when they were done playing. I bathed them and then they ran around with their hoodie towels on. The towels reminded me of capes, and they made the children look like little superheroes.
After the kids went to bed, I made an Italian rice pie. This is something I had wanted to try since seeing a recipe in the newspaper. I thought a traditional rice pie would be nice to bring to my sister-in-law’s house for Easter. But she informed us that someone else was planning to bring a rice pie and asked us to bring salad instead, which we did <yawn>. Well, just because rice pie is traditional for Easter doesn’t mean you can’t make it after Easter, right? And here’s how it came out.
You can’t tell from the picture, but this pie was already half-eaten. When the pie was all gone, my husband said, “You’re not allowed to make this again.” (translation: “It was so good that I ate almost all of it and now I will surely get fat, so you must not tempt me like this again.”)
Tuesday: The daffodils popped!
I went for a walk in the woods and paused to watch a spider trek across a tiny garden of moss and lichen, and to listen to the wind blowing through the branches of a giant pine tree, and to watch a pair of butterflies fluttering by, and to appreciate the cool shade of Council Rock, and to admire veins of quartz in the rocks.
Wednesday: Long, horrible day, getting reading for my trip to CT for work.
Thursday: I drove to CT and had a relatively easy day at the office, thanks to all my preparations the day before. I was able to leave early, so I didn’t have to fight traffic on the way to my mother’s house. We went out to dinner together. She offered me a basket of kitchen items which she had gotten from my aunt and which my aunt had gotten from a neighbor, who had purchased it at a church fundraiser. I knew I probably didn’t need anything in the basket, but I figured I’d look through it and donate anything I didn’t want.
I looked at the basket when I got home and immediately noticed that there was something unusual about it. There was a box inside that seemed different from the other items, and there was a tag on the basket on which someone had written “and something extra!” The extra something turned out to be two bone china teacups, both which featured roses. It’s a lucky thing that my mother had told me the history of the basket. I called her up and said, “Hey, I know my aunt likes roses. Does she happen to collect teacups?” “Yes,” my mom said. “She does.” So my aunt had given away the basket without even looking inside and consequently had given away the real gift portion of it. And so had my mother. Let that be a lesson to regifters everywhere!
And yes, in case you’re wondering, I sent the teacups back to my aunt.
Friday: Work, work, work.
Saturday: We spent several hours on Saturday at my husband’s aunt’s apartment. She had passed away a few weeks before, and now the time had come to start going through her things. It was a challenge sorting the trash from the treasure. It seems that she kept every box she’d ever had. The sheets on her bed were old and worn, but she had huge trunks filled with linens that looked as though they had never been used. She even had a big bag full of lids from plastic contains. But there were gems, too, hidden among all that worthless stuff. There was this carnival glass set, which we kept, of course.
And we think her curio cabinets will look nice in our house once we clean them up. Here is a picture of one of them.
It pains me to have taken these items from her place, just as I hated taking some of my grandfather’s things after he died. But I look at my grandfather’s things, which now live quite comfortably among my own, and I’m glad to have reminders of him. I didn’t know my husband’s aunt well, because she was already losing her memory by the time I first met her, but I liked her. And because we have these things in our house, we will remember her often.
Sunday: A day of rest, much needed and much enjoyed.