Happy belated Thanksgiving

I am back!(It's Lizzy.) I am blogging again because my Mom is writing about sheets in the wind instead of Thanksgiving dinner.This year I made the cranberry ice . For those of you who don't know Cranberry Ice is a kind of cranberry sorbet, and it's a Thanksgiving tradition in our family.

At the begining of the meal mom said she would get Will some cranberry sauce. He heard her ,but she forgot and Will screamed until she got him some. He loved it.
Grandma and Grandpa Mitchell came to SanDiego with Uncle Spencer for Thanksgiving. I don't have any pictures of their Thanksgiving here right now though. Maybe later today I'll post about the gingerbread houses we made.

Thanksgiving Poem

I'm not a poet but once a year I like to write a Thanksgiving poem. I think it is good exercise for the brain and the soul. Last year I wrote a take on Walt Whitman's Miracles. This year I did a variation on Gerard Manley Hopkins' Pied Beauty. Whitman is more my style and easy for me to imitate but I just adore Hopkins and am willing to stretch myself. Sadly meter is not my strength but I did follow his rhyme pattern and general line length. Though it is not a great poem it captures well the small things I'm deeply grateful for right now. One of which is sheets dried on the line. I love how they smell and this is crazy but I also love looking out the window at them.

Simple Gifts

Glory be to God for simple gifts--
For keys hanging faithfully where I left them;
For a child's dimpled hand warm in mine;
For a spider web spread and bedazzled by morning mist;
For twilight sky--silver dome with golden rim;
For stiff white sheets smelling of leaves and sunshine;
For those who daily forgive the absurd things I do and say;
For the scent of new books, sagebrush and rain, fresh cut pine;
For four sleeping kids, no sound but the clock and the distant freeway.
God's in the details, praise Him.



Now the original by Gerard Manley Hopkins. And it is so good, I'm a little embarrassed that I even tried.

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things--
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose moles all in a stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled, (who knows how?)
With swift, slow, sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change;
Praise Him.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Alders Visit

The Alders came to visit this last weekend--earning them the most frequent non-relative visitor award. In honor of this accomplishment Bill decided to take the afternoon off. Unfortunately, the afternoon didn't go as smoothly as planned. First, as Bill was biking home from work a car stopped at a light and flung open a passenger door just in time for Bill to slam into it. He flew over his handlebars. Thankfully he was not carrying peaches.

So we were a bit delayed while Bill cleaned up his road rash. And when we finally reached the shopping center in Carlsbad where the Alders had been waiting for more than an hour, we couldn't get the key out of the car. After much experimentation and consternation we decided to just eat lunch in view of the car. From then on the visit went a little smoother (and we finally did get the key out of the car) but still the beginning set the tone for the rest of the weekend. The Mitchells had lots of mishaps and the Alders were patient. In the photo below we are visiting the San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside. I thought the church was lovely and look forward to visiting more missions but probably without children.

I know we are bit small but at least you have a nice view of the wrought iron gate. Back row: Lara, Adam (with two month Teddy in the baby Bjorn), me and Will in the backpack. Front Row: Tallulah, Lizzy and Zoe. Off doing his own thing climbing the railing: John.

For those of you who don't know the Alders--they are friends from Texas and in a round about way friends from Utah--Lara and I went to the same high school. Though we didn't really know each other back then, we can talk about the same people from high school. Adam is a surgery resident and Lara is a mother who always has a few projects on the side. I think she is currently a slave (OK assistant) to a realtor in Dallas. She worked for years at Banana Republic and as result she and Adam always dress meticulously.

Here Bill is showing off his road rash. John is in the photo because by this point in touring the mission to keep join contained Bill had implemented the hand in Dad's pocket rule.

Bill teaching John proper bell ringing technique. Yes, John rang the bell with his head inside. Other weekend activities with the Alders included: the zoo, some tide pools, Zoey's final soccer tournament. The Alders did lots of dishes and even a little babysitting while I had a church meeting and Bill went to a neighbor's coming of age ceremony (ask Bill for more details.) They are great guests and great friends and I hope for their next visit to have fewer Mitchell mishaps.

Below: Bill and Will at the tide pools.

How much do you like peaches?

I happen to love them. And when offered a 92 fluid ounce bottle of gourmet peaches imported from Spain, of course I accepted. My friends Mark and Deidra Smith just moved from San Diego to Utah. There are just some things that you don’t take along on a move like that, and so they offered the peaches to me. Only problem was that I was riding my bike that day, but hey, these were gourmet peaches. So I tucked them under my right arm like a football and hit the road.

I had to get back to the VA Hospital to work, 2-3 miles away, and quickly realized it was going to take a while in the low gear I was in. But I couldn’t shift gears because of the huge jar under my arm. I thought I would just reach over and change gears with my left hand (don’t ask me why I didn’t just use the other shifter). After bouncing off the curb, unable to reach the brakes at this point, I decided to abandon ship. After a quick hop off the bike and a tuck-and-roll maneuver, I came to rest in the grass along Regent’s Road. First concern: the peaches were fine. Second: by some miracle I was uninjured. Wow! Was I feeling lucky. Until I rolled over to get up and placed my hand squarely and firmly in a fresh pile of the stuff that makes me question why they are called man’s best friend. With poop squished between my fingers, I shifted the gears, got back on the bike and headed for the VA. I am happy to report that the peaches were fabulous.

Mischief Managed

After the Halloween party and before I picked the girls up from school, I was checking my email and I thought I heard the fridge open. I looked for John and he was playing quietly in the family room--I thought I must have imagined the noise. A few minutes later when it was time to walk to school, I discovered the real culprit. Will had gotten into the fridge to eat the cake I'd been saving for his sisters.

A few days later he got into the eggs.

And just this week he made his first scribbles on the wall.



Lucky for him he is adorable. How long can I be mad at a face like that?

H is for Happy Halloween!

I hosted our preschool Halloween party the day before Halloween. Because it was a party we invited a few more than the six kids who regularly attend our co-op preschool.

For this party John was a cowboy.

The letter for the day was H and for our craft we made monster hands. You know the popcorn and candy corn in surgical gloves.

For science we did magic science. Here I'm showing the kids how vinegar and soda and a few magic words can inflate a balloon.

We also had a hunt for a hidden witches hat which turned out to be a pinata. Those who went to some of our parties in Texas will recognize a definite pattern. It was lots of fun and I was especially grateful to have my dad around to help with the clean up. Sorry there are no pictures of him. He is usually the one taking the photos.

Lizzy Lovegood

Lizzy was super excited about her Halloween costume. She was Luna Lovegood one of her favorite Harry Potter characters. Luna pretty much looks likes your average British school girl except for her radish earrings and her necklace of butterbeer corks. So pretty much nobody got Lizzy's costume. But she didn't mind. Actually a lot more people recognized her this year over the time she was the Country Bunny (which looked like a polygamist with gold tennis
shoes and paper rabbit ears.)

Note the radish earrings. We carved radishes out of Styrofoam. Lizzy does not have pierced ears yet so she had to wear clip-ons. Also, for this costume Lizzy learned how to tie her dad's tie.
We found the sweater, skirt and shoes at a thrift store. Everything else we had at home. Altogether, I think she makes a great Luna Lovegood.

Zoey was a pioneer for Halloween. This was the easiest costume ever because I asked a woman from church for a bonnet pattern and she gave me the pattern as well as a bonnet and apron to borrow just in case I would like to save time by not sewing. And indeed I could use some extra time. So I didn't bother sewing a new bonnet. All I had to sew was a shawl. Zoey won the costume contest at our church party. Bill says that at an LDS party the kid dressed up as a pioneer always wins. Zoey was thrilled.

Here we are about to go trick-or-treating. I just put on my Little Red Riding Hood costume from previous years. Will was some sort of fuzzy green monster (thank you Thompsons) and John went as a purple dragon. John's costume was also borrowed (thank you McConvilles). Bill stayed home and passed out candy. Afterward he read the kids some Harry Potter while they ate too much candy.

I read Twilight which I had been saving to read because I was told it is a sort of mind candy. I rather liked Twilight by Stephanie Meyers. And though George Eliot it is not, I consider a degree or two above mind candy--something like mind ice cream. I don't think it's really a book about vampires at all but about relationships. I think the vampire motif just heightens the thrill and risk of falling in love. Also, I liked how it illustrates the idea--not often found in modern fiction-- that we show love to others by controlling or overcoming our natural instincts. The story reminded me very much of falling in love with Bill. I think when we fall in love we recognize something extraordinary in our beloved that no one else sees. Just as on their first date Bella sees Edward shimmering in the sunlight. Bill does not appreciate me comparing him to a vampire. But it's hard not to. Along with being supernaturally wonderful he too doesn't seem to age and I'm afraid could easily pass for 17. I waiting for this book to become a movie and Bill's patients-- in addition to the Doogie Howser and Catch me if You Can comments-- to add vampire jokes to their arsenal. Happy Belated Halloween! (I've been too busy reading to post sooner than this.)