Return to the Land of Clean and Orderly

After an uneventful cross-country trek, we have arrived in Houston. Here's what I know:
-The older kids get, the easier it is;
-Eating McDonald's 3 times a day won't kill a child immediately;
-Coffee is a great thing;
-iPods are better;
-Loving the way our family expresses shock at how much the kids have grown never goes away.

My parents-in-law moved to a new house which they completely transformed from grungy-ugly to spotless-stylish in only 6 months. Coming home to them is always refreshing and gives me new inspiration to cut through the clutter in my own life and clean up a little. "A place for everything (and never too much stuff) and everything in its place (and if there's no place for it, get rid of it)" is my mother-in-law's practical philosophy. And I love being in her house. It is restful, orderly, precise, like a hotel with just enough stuff to be comfortable and sparse enough to allow the mind to expand and breathe.

It would be perfect, if not for the viscous hot air that invades everywhere except climate-controlled places. Shopping in the myriad of strip-malls forces one to walk across countless parking lots and, once the errand is done, brave the heat again only to suffocate in the boiling car while the air conditioning tries desperately to restore a human quality to the small environment. It doesn't help that the children unfailingly comment about the heat and beg for cold air every time we enter the car.

Who Needs a Garmin?

Thanks for saving me three hundred bucks, Dominic!

One Traditional Italian Salad

I just resurrected this recipe from a long time back and remembered how much I love it, so much so that I decided to share it:

-Fill a salad bowl with mixed greens (the organic kind from Kroger is fine). It should have a fair amount of the bitter kinds of greens. If you want to be really authentic, fill a bowl with rugula.
-Cover the top with chunks of shaved, ripe bosc pear.
-Cover that with chunks of shaved parmesan cheese (Kroger makes a good one that is already shaved).
-Top with a dressing of 2 parts olive oil, one part balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper that has been mixed well.

Enjoy!

I love the salty/tart/sweet combination of this salad. It seems to work best with really sweet pears. Ah, summer.

State Gym Meet Video Posted (Finally)

In the Absence of Air Conditioning

"I Have Lost My Ability to be Profound"

EDIT AFTER THE FACT: So as we alternate here on this blog among the three things that I seem to always hit: how-to do stuff, American Idol, and "why I'm such a bad blogger because I'm busy just living my life," I came around again to this last topic, and the post turned out like everything else: "Boy I'm glad that I just do housework and leave to blogging to people who are better at it, and anyway I'm happier this way." I put this whole story together that I have been wanting to do for THREE MONTHS, published it, and then someone all of a sudden jumps off google reader to read it, then I went to take a shower, then I had second thoughts, and so now I'm here again, at the computer at almost one o'clock in the morning, because I'm not a person who can leave things undone. So now I'm just saying: You know how I always say that I'm much happier now just living my life? Well, I had this super cool conversation with an old friend who came to the same conclusion in her own life where she said, "I have lost my ability to be profound." To which I replied something like, "Me TOO!! And, boy, was it starting to get to me, but now that you say it (she who is an amazing soul) I don't feel so bad." So that's the point, but you can read it (edited to protect the innocent and not so innocent) here:

I have an old friend who lives far, far away, and we only get a chance to catch up with each other by telephone every four to six months. That's because when we do catch up, it usually takes a few hours, and neither of us seem to have chunks of time like that to spare. Anyway, during these colossal phone battery-killing marathons, one thing I always discover, much to my surprise, in fact, is that we are living in parallel spiritual universes. The conversations are always laced with phrases like, "Me too!" and "Oh my gosh, I've been thinking the same thing," and they usually conclude with some kind of comment like, "I think God has given us to each other to be a real encouragement along the way, to reassure us that we're not alone." It's at the same time uncanny and perfectly apt, in a way only God can choreograph.

Well, for the past year or so I've had this creepy feeling like I've lost my spiritual mo-jo, my ability to go deep, my ruminating capacity. The feeling gets stronger when I look at this silly blog and realize the only things I have to say are shallow, even though all this time I've never been more balanced, happy or plugged-in to my vocation. How come I can't push out a decent reflection on things? How come I can't throw together a deep message?

These questions have bothered me a lot, especially considering that I used to be the expert at connecting the spiritual dots for my friends and for myself. The realm of "heavy, deep and real" used to be my playground. Now, not so much, in fact, not much at all.

So back to my friend and the parallel universe. She, too, was the counselor to her friends, the one who could eek out a pedagogical meaning to even the smallest happening. I have always viewed her as far more developed in her concrete spirituality than I could ever hope to be, and I have often looked to her for encouragement and perspective. And then this past year so many things unravelled. Unreconciled family relationships and health problems dogged her to the foundations of her faith. She told me there were months where she just went through the motions, slapping a smile on her face for her family while she died inside and questioned everything she had ever believed. Of course, my first exclamation after hearing this was, "Why didn't you CALL ME?" To which she answered, "It was so bad I couldn't call anyone."

This past year for me wasn't as dramatic as my friend's, but I got hit pretty hard by something. It was, among far too many other things to recount, the first time that I have had to ever do something that seemed so unloving on the surface, but that, in truth, was the only loving thing that could be done. Anyway, it is enough to say that the whole event stripped my confidence in being any kind of spiritual help to anyone.

What my co-universe inhabiting friend and I did as knee-jerk responses was to get focused on our kids, our husbands, and the jobs that were placed right in front of us. There was no energy or creativity left to ruminate or philosophize or theorize on the meaning of such things. The operative phrase was, "Just.Do.It." Period. And, for me, I wondered why I was suddenly so much happier, and then I worried why I couldn't be deep.

Then toward the end of the conversation with my friend she said, "After all this, I have completely lost my ability to be profound." And after I screamed, "Me too! Me too!" she said, "And it is a very good thing. God is so much better at that than I am, and what he asks of me is simply to serve my children and my husband." I asked her, "What about your music? (she is an accomplished music minister)" to which she replied, "God will find a way to bring music to those who need it. My job is already in front of me in the form of my family. And I've never been freer or happier." Hearing that was such a relief, as I had been feeling exactly the same way (not regarding music, of course, because I stink at it, but rather regarding my over-blown notions of my own "gifts").

I guess that explains why things have been really good this year, because I decided to take seriously what was directly in front of me, as it is, really. Not what I theorize it should be or what I suppose I could be. Just what is in front of me and a mere "yes" in the form of taking it seriously enough to actually do the laundry. And it also explains why I'm not able to make it deep, because for someone like me who doesn't have a narrative talent (eg. what you are reading now!), to represent this "new" life in its concrete, event-bound beauty is pretty impossible.

So, yes, I, too, have lost my ability to be profound, because concrete "dots" are so much harder to "connect" than theoretical ones, but I truly believe that I have increased my ability to live.

In a deep voice: "Now back to your regularly scheduled (shallow) programming" Because even this little "exercise" in trying to be deep has set me back at least one hour's sleep and a load of laundry. And no reader really cares about that. It's my kids who have to pay the price tomorrow! Plus, I now have a whole lot of worry that I'm not even saying what I really mean. Can you believe that I have been intending to write about this for over three months? Ugh.

Thank You, Father!

I'm actually working on a "real" post, but I found this little nugget that helps me justify my fan-status for David Cook. This was a comment left on a blog that got copied to another (funnier) blog post about him. The video in the post is worth watching and makes me hope with eagerness for his appearance on Saturday Night Live.

"Dear Mr. Morris,
Both Davids are very musically gifted, as almost everyone seems to agree universally. However, I believe that the "young warbler" was consistently singing the same style that was endearing, but not very entertaining after you've heard him a few times. He really needs to broaden his repertoire. David Cook on the other hand had a fantastic range of genres and styles and he showed with a beautiful voice of highs and lows, singing his heart out about lonely Eleanors and Father McKenzies, tenderly kissing the face of little sparrows and warning poor maidens to guard their love for worthy suitors, sharing his heart about the world of love and idealism that he believed in. Although the reasons you mention for the victory of David Cook are all important factors, I believe that it was David's soulful representation of the mystery, gift, poetry and beauty of human anthropology that won the hearts of so many fans. David Archuletta has potential to grow in that dimension, but David Cook has reached a very beautiful stage of human development as a kind, humble and loving child of God's creation. My prayer for him is that he shall encourage many young people to follow in his example of seeking beauty, humility, truth and other eternal and most noble virtues of the human heart in this blessed gift of life's journey. It is people like David Cook that make the John Paul II's and Mother Theresa's come alive in our simple human lives.
Sincerely Yours, In the Peace and Love of God,
Father Peter Zygas,
Immaculate Conception Monastery, Putnam, CT"

So. There. Hah!