Elizabeth’s Journal

Fun with the Women

Very sorry I haven’t blogged much lately. By the time I get a chance to be at my computer without Kayleigh around, I generally have too little mental energy to create a coherent entry. While I’m sure that would be entertaining for all of you (!), I prefer to wait until I can type up something I won’t be embarassed by in the future.

I had a truly wonderful time with all you women the weekend before last (and you know who you are!). We all have familes or projects or schoolwork that also demands our attention, but it was really restorative to spend a couple of days with you all and enjoy just being with each other. I am delighted that the weather cooperated and that the late nights talking on the deck were even a little cool—much easier to bring out some blankets that to suggest we all go nude! The fact that I already need to make more homemade mustard (I thought I’d made about a year’s supply, but lots of people took some home) was a big compliment to that recipe, and I admit to being secretly quite pleased that people had so much fun rolling out the pasta dough and cutting out the spaghetti for our dinner on Saturday. It went exactly as I had envisioned, and that doesn’t happen often these days! I hope our next one is as much fun . . .

Tomorrow I am participating in a candlelighting ceremony for National Crime Victims Week at the Umlauf Sculpture Gardens in downtown Austin, next to Zilker Park. I am privileged to have been invited to take part and hope that it helps raise anyone’s awareness who needs it and that it is a suitable tribute to those who have suffered from any kind of crime.

I leave you with the image of Kayleigh’s Friday afternoon escapade—while I stole a few quiet (so I thought) moments in the bathroom playing Yahtzee (thanks Joy!), Kayleigh got into the pantry and found a mostly empty bag of powdered (confectioner’s) sugar. Apparently she thought it was great fun to throw handfuls—handfuls, I say!—of it at Jonathan. There was a trail of powdered sugar all the way from the loveseat in the den to the futon in the living room. Sigh. Luckily our vacuum cleaner still works.

My sweetest-ever cousin named Jennifer came over for cocktail hour Friday afternoon and came bearing two doorhandle covers, meant to prevent wee ones like Kayleigh from opening doors. I put one on the pantry and one on Jonathan’s door and thought that I might finally regain a bit of sanity in my current existence. By Saturday mid-morning, she was back in Jonathan’s room, and by lunchtime she’d figured out the one on the pantry too. Another sigh.