Hello Chickies!  Mercy this week has been crazy busy.  This is the first opportunity I’ve had to fire off a blog post.  How fun that it gets to be Friday’s Letters!

Dear Mr. Pea –  You often give me grief over my lack of coordination and the extremely strange situations I often find myself in. For instance, Sunday evening when we were out riding and  the left crank arm came off of Princess Grace!!  There I am on the side of the road with the crank arm stuck to the bottom of my shoe.  Thank goodness I was able to get my other foot unclipped before I toppled over into the ditch, but oh! I was laughing so hard I couldn’t get untangled from the bike.  I’m standing there straddling the bike on the side of the road – I couldn’t get my foot with the crank arm attached up and over the cross-bar without tangling in the brake and gear wires, and because the crank arm was no longer attached to the bike, there was nothing to ‘push’ against and get my shoe unclipped. I kept leaning over trying to pull it off with my hand, but I just couldn’t.  What did you do?  Stood there and laughed with me, because it really was quite ridiculous. Then you pushed me all the way home.   You rode your bike right next to mine, reached over and pushed me all the way home.  You’re my hero.

Dear Trail Ride – 

You were hot and dusty, but you Totally Rocked!  (That’s Princess Grace on the back of the rack.  Her name is a nod towards her lovely color, as well as a tongue in cheek statement regarding my own ability to stay upright whilst on a bicycle.)

Dear Neighbors  – If you don’t want to take your toy with you when you move, my children will be happy to give it a new home.

And, the parade was lovely!

Dear Windowsill Dove – Admittedly I was a little put out that you chased your fledgling out of the nest, just days after I took his picture.  Yes he could actually fly on his own and probably find his own food, but still.  It seemed a little un-motherly to me.

You are now redeemed!

::faithful

Praying for

• Jen, as she bravely battles leukemia
• David, struggling with his declining eyesight
• Fr. Luke as he departs for Austria and a new assignment
• Fr. Joy as he is blessed with a new congregation
• Michelle, donning pink and tackling cancer again

• new Deacons in our parish!
• new Priests in our diocese!
• purple hull peas, peaches, tomatoes and zucchini

::healthy

Biking excursions! First a Dust Bunny ride at Gateway, then the weekly ride with Her Honorable, the Mayor.  Except that Herself was not present after a close call two weekends ago that resulted in a broken collar-bone.  Owie!  Both were great fun, though Gateway left marks – huge black and purple bruises on my thigh and across my chest.  The kind of bruises that make people gasp and exclaim “Are you all right??” if they catch a glimpse at the hemline of my skirt or at the neckline of my blouse. The irony is that I wasn’t even RIDING the bike when I fell this time!  No trees were involved, no drops, no water crossings!  I was simply standing on the sidewalk with the bike talking to Nikki and I tripped on – air? – taking the bike down with me.  Cross bar raked up the leg and the handlebar went into the chest.  Sheesh.

My Mother has always called me “Grace”.  Because I’m not!

::creative

Crochet the lace edging on Miss B’s vest.  Princess Pea is refinishing a headboard so she’ll have a grown up bed when she moves to college.  DirtBike is wrapping up an airplane model.  We found the launch pad left over from Girl Scout days in the garage during a cleanup this weekend so all kids are building new rockets to launch on July 4.

::delicious

The lineup this week includes

• Grilled Pizzas that didn’t happen last week
• Bean Burritos (leftovers!)
• Roast Beef Sandwiches
• Hot Dogs, Potato Salad and Baked Beans
• Polynesian Chicken Kebobs
• Short Ribs with Pineapple and Broccoli
• More watermelon!  Blueberries! Honeydew!

::fun

July 4th!!  There will be a neighborhood parade.  It’s evolved over the decades.  It used to be all of the moms pushing strollers.  Now all those kids are grown and ride their bikes or drive their cars in the parade.  Several neighbors have vintage cars that show up.  The fire department always visits and dumps a bunch of water on the kids from the ladder truck!  There will be a big pot luck lunch, and then fireworks in the evening.  Fun! Fun! Fun!

There a dove’s nest on the ledge of my office window. Mom Dove builds a nest there every spring. Or maybe her offspring, as this is the sixth year in a row there’s been a nest in the corner.  I enjoy hearing the cooing as Mom Dove comes and goes; watching the eggs hatch; and then watching the baby birds grow.  I do worry about them falling before they are feathered out, as my office is on the second floor and a dove’s idea of a nest is to toss a few sticks and blades of grass down and call it done. The baby is a fledgling now and can fly!

::faithful

Praying for

• A friend’s daughter, Jen – leukemia has reared its ugly head again.   She was diagnosed with leukemia last year, literally weeks before her wedding date.  She and her fiance called all their friends and family, moved back their wedding date and got married right away, determined to fight this battle together. It’s been a long year for them, consumed with chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant and recovery.  They were planning to depart today on their delayed honeymoon, but found out last week that it’s back.  Instead of their cruise, Jen starts another round of chemo today, to be followed by a ‘booster’ marrow transplant then hopefully remission.

Grateful for

• air conditioning
• healthy children
• coconut popsicles

::healthy

Biking excursions! The Architect had a team ride this weekend at Northshore, and I tagged along.  I did not ride with him and the team on the west side and the new rock section – I couldn’t keep up even if I tried!  Instead, I pedaled over to the east side, which is better suited to novices like myself.  It was such a beautiful day and I’m thrilled to say I finished the entire loop without falling even once.  I was being super cautious, though, because I was riding alone.  I actually got off the bike and walked through the really big drops.

::delicious

The lineup this week includes

• Pork Tenderloin with fresh creamed corn and baked beans
• Bean Burritos
• Ratatouille over Polenta
• Garlic Shrimp and Snap Peas
• Pizzas on the Grill
• Orange Ginger Salmon with Broccoli Slaw
• Lots of watermelon and fresh peaches because they’re in season and abundant at the farmers’ market!

The lemon bars didn’t happen last week.  Our oven has been limping along for more than a year now, very persnickety and temperamental.  Sometimes it will turn on, sometimes it won’t. Once it’s on, it won’t stay on. When it is on, you have to monitor to make sure it’s staying at the right temperature, as it likes to surprise by popping on the broiler element.   We can’t bake anything longer than 20 minutes without fear of burning down the kitchen. Yes, I know this all sounds like a ridiculous thing to live with, but really!  It’s the same scenario as the dishwasher.  We have all the best intentions to remodel the kitchen soon so it seems silly to invest in a new oven, especially because when we re-do, I want a double oven with one convection unit which fits into a different size cabinet space.

The oven would NOT cooperate yesterday, and after a frustrating hour and a half I ended up with bars that were gooey and undercooked on the bottom, and scorched on the top. Very sad.  I asked Mr. Pea to just completely disconnect the oven from power, and we will live without until we remodel.  It’s too hot to use the oven, and baked goods don’t fall in the category of “healthy eating” anyway.  Besides, over the past year, I’ve found all the best bakeries in town. 🙂

::creative

Finish up the baby vest and give it to Miss B. Name Plates for office mates.  We all have ‘nicknames’, and instead of formal name plates on our office doors, we have our fun names.  I’m the self-appointed Name Plate Maker.  Just Because.

Here’s Mine.  It’s an iPhone snapshot so the quality is quirky and glaring from the window.

Yes.  They call me Chef.  I’m the favored breakfast maker in the Breakfast Cartel,  volunteer griller at company picnics, bringer of amazing potluck dishes and maker of vegetarian chili worthy of placing in the annual chili cookoff.

::fun

• Kayaking!  It’s much cooler out on the lake in the evenings than it is landside.
• The kids and I went to see Brave on Friday night.  It was good and we enjoyed it!
• Blowing stuff up!  Okay, this may not seem like extremely safe fun, but when you have teenage boys and that small window opens up each year when fireworks are available, and Mom and Dad are sort of geeky and agree to supervise the execution of said experiments, well, stuff gets blown up.

This was last year’s effort: