This last month has been a time of almost constant rain. A desert girl at heart, I generally love rain. Growing up rain was novel and needed; any time it happened was a time to rejoice. At first I did just that. I reveled in the smell of rain and introduced my children to the beautiful sport of puddle jumping. As the weeks went on though, the skies grew darker, the sunny days turned into moments, the basement flooded, my four-year-old Target…
Maybe you haven’t heard, but Colorado is on fire. We are lucky to be out of harm’s way at the moment, but it definitely feels like the entire state is on fire. We had five straight days of record highs and today is the first day we stayed in the 90s. We don’t have air conditioning or a swamp cooler, so regulating the temperature in our house to keep it from spontaneously combusting has pretty much monopolized all of our…
We’ve already had some record highs here in CO and the forecast isn’t making us feel much better about things. It’s unpleasant and kind of scary with all the fires we already have, but I’m doing my best to find at least something good in this whole situation. Not only do my clothes dry faster than they would in the dryer, but I’ve found some awesome ideas for channeling the sun’s power to cook. I’ve pinned a few DIY solar…
It’s strange that a rope strung up between two trees could bring me such contentment. If the extraction of all the original clotheslines from pretty much every backyard in our neighborhood is any indicator, I certainly don’t think most people feel the same way. Or at least they’ve forgotten that they should feel that way. There’s just something about the simpleness of it. A row of sun bleached diapers fluttering in the breeze or a collection of Men’s pants almost…
Still no baby, but it won’t be too much longer. Every Sunday we drive by the Unitarian church and read their sermon topic off their sign. They always have such interesting topics and some Sundays it is so tempting to attend their one hour sermon instead of our three hour block. (One Sunday I was sitting in the last hour of church and one of the other primary instructors pulled out this cartoon.) The past couple of Sundays I’ve dutifully…
I’m told that Golden has just as many sunny days as San Diego. Although I’m sure our sunny days aren’t as warm on average, we’ve had some really warm days this week. (For our friends and family in actual warm climates we’re talking high 50’s here.) I’ve loved opening my windows to circulate fresh air into the house and being able to let Cooper play outside. Yesterday, we went for a family walk during Noel’s lunch break. There were several…
The Poetry of Bad Weather Someone had propped a skateboard by the door of the classroom, to make quick his escape, come the bell. For it was February in Florida, the air of instruction thick with tanning butter. Why, my students wondered, did the great dead poets all live north of us? Was there nothing to do all winter there but pine for better weather? Had we a window, the class could keep an eye on the clock and yet…
In spite of how hard it often is to wake up (especially since the arrival of the child), I love being awake in the morning. Everything has a certain crispness in the early hours, a freshness that assures me that all that was bad from the day before is being rolled away with the receding darkness. Smells and ideas are pleasant and distinct. Sometimes I feel as if I am the only person on earth awake, free to dream while…
The first summer of our marriage was dry and hot. The mountains caught fire, the grass died, and there were so many people at the public pool you could hardly move. I know that’s not uncommon for Utah, but for some reason that summer felt worse than others. It was the first summer we both worked full-time 8-5 jobs, and we took it so seriously that we hardly went on any vacations. We were training for our first marathon and…
Whenever I’m asked to close my eyes and go to my favorite place, I always find myself surrounded by hot, red sandstone. A breeze tickling my face as I completely relax, lizard-like, and absorb rejuvenating UV rays. It’s always a disappointment to come back to the reality of air conditioned buildings with few windows. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still been known to use the A/C and I hate sweating when I’m wearing nice clothes, but in the early days…