Frank Delaney

There are few books that truly force me to read them slowly, and yet keep my attention, as Frank Delaney's novels do. It took me nearly a whole month to read Ireland, and yet I found my youngest son's name in that book; Ronan, the storyteller, my little seal.

Delaney has a way of showing you different scenes from Ireland's past that allow you to know the place more and better appreciate its people. Being of partly Irish descent, I am fascinated by the people, music, culture and even food of the country. I play the Irish fiddle, and have always wanted to learn Gaelic; someday, perhaps, I will.

I am currently reading my second of Frank Delaney's books, entitled Shannon. At each sitting I usually read no more than a few pages. I'm not exactly sure why this is. Perhaps it is just that he gives me a lot to think about, or that it takes time to digest his work; but whatever it is, and no matter how slowly I read this book, I am caught.

Thank you for slowing me down Mr. Delaney. I am following the Shannon river with Robert now, and I hope he finds his soul, and spiritual footing again. His journey is amazing to witness.

Baking Mode

I love to bake. It's fun to put something scrumptious together with your own hands, place it in the oven and have it come out smelling up the entire house with it's delicious scent. What I don't love doing is cleaning up after these episodes. So I generally don't bake. Lately, however, I've been starting again. I've experimented with cobbler, crumbles, home made applesauce, and bread.

Yesterday was bread day. I had been meaning to get out and buy some more bread for our family but then I realized I have all the ingredients and the necessary time to put them together. So, with my littlest son down to nap time and the elder downstairs playing construction worker, I started making Oatmeal bread. Unfortunately, several times in my recipe I was told to set what I had done aside in a warm area to rise/foam/... Well, in my house there are no warm areas right now. We are using lots of sweaters.

So my ingenious idea was to turn the oven on to warm. But the oven did more than warm my rising yeast...it almost cooked it! So my bread rose very slowly. After the first rising, I only had time for one more if I even wanted it in the oven before I left to teach my dance class. So I skipped the second rising and put my dough right in the pans to rise. About a half hour later they were still slightly deformed but I popped them in the oven anyway. Then I was off to my dance class and when I returned they were neatly on the cooling rack and out of their pans. Thank you love (husband Pocho helped)!

I would like to make this a regular event! I used to bake a lot as a kid/younger woman. I think it's time to get back to that. Smells like spinach pie! Or maybe it's time to bust out the famous butterscotch cookie recipe from who ma? Aunt Betty?

Oh, and side note before I leave this post...the place I was accustomed to buying my bread is no longer. I drove by today and all the bread racks were out on the sidewalk, the sign was down, and I don't know what they're doing with the place. We'll see!

Fall here in Everett is lovely and full of birdsong! We are enjoying the crisp cool beginning of the season as we prepare for colder weather to come. The boys have already picked their Halloween costumes. Big surprise (a bit sarcastic) Jonas is going to be superman, his favorite! Ronan is going to be a giraffe. We tried to convince him to be a shark because there was an awesome costume for one, but he picked the giraffe. One of his favorite books is "A Giraffe and a Half" by Shel Silverstein. He pronounces it ji-HALF (a mixing of giraffe and half).

Today I am on the final turning day of recovery from a nasty cold. The whole household is coughing, sniffling or over-exhausted because of a bug. Finally today I begin recovery though and I'm exhilarated! I have already been productive this morning. I went to the doctor in the morning because of an ear infection that wouldn't quite heal completely and discovered it has healed, but my ear needed a bit of cleaning. That done, I feel much better! After the doctor I went to my favorite cafe (at the library) to do a bit of writing. I'm on chapter II of my very first novel and it's going well. My characters are leading me and I know it'll be a long road but I feel like my story is worth something and that is good.

It's a beautiful, sunny day and I think we will go for a walk when I get home. Jake, our lab, needs the exercise and I'm sure my cabin-fever suffering children need the fresh air as well! I hope your day is full of just as much fun and promise!


The picture of Jake was taken by Jonas when he found the camera. Remarkable, I think, for a 4-year-old. Point and shoot cameras, gotta love 'em!

Coincidental Meetings

Just out shopping for groceries the other day I met another Mama in need of 'Mama friends.' Neither of us even had our kids with us! But mothers will talk about their kids and once this young woman and I started talking we discovered that we were both in need of more time with other mothers. Time to sit and chat while our kids play, or to talk about resolutions to toddler tantrums and such.

It's nice to find that I'm not alone in this random search. This woman grew up here but has a family when none of her other friends does, so they don't understand. I've left my 'mama friends' behind in Arizona and am slowly finding them here.

I ran into one another such 'mama friend' and neighbor of ours at the library today! Wonderful to find people when you're not looking for them, at least not consciously. Good turn around to a grumpy morning!

I've started!

My selkie story is underway. The first draft of my first chapter is done. It isn't perfect but it's there. And the story goes on. I'm working! I'm writing! And I'm off to begin chapter two right now. So here's an unrelated picture for you all, because I've been too busy working on my book to put much up on my blog!:

How old are you Jonas?

Yesterday my first-born child turned four! Everyone always says that time passes fast and your kids grow before you're aware that they've changed. It's more true than I ever imagined. Jonas is four!

We started the day with Aebleskivers (Danish spherical pancakes) hot from the pan. I made three batches, thinking that we would have them left as snacks for the rest of the week. Ronan quickly showed me that this was not going to happen though because he kept eating them all morning. We were soon completely out of them!

While I was cooking Jonas opened his presents: Roller skates from us, knee and elbow pads with gloves to go along with his skates from great grammy Sheehan, construction tools and equipment, posters from auntie Laura and a pig bouncy ball from Natalie. Jonas was bursting with glee! He promptly attempted some skating and kept his skates (knee and elbow pads and gloves included) on while he began to test his construction set.



At 1:30 we had a party for Jonas at the Imagine Children's Museum in Everett. We enjoyed pizza, juice, wonderful cupcakes and a great company of friends and family there. The kids played with construction blocks and ran around the rooftop adventure and finally we all returned to the house for Jonas' custom, homemade, superJonas pinata!


It was a whirlwind of adventure and fun for our little man who is now old enough to anticipate and count down the days to his birthday. I'm so happy he had such a blast