Happy Father's Day
This is such a special day. I love men. I love the way their hands look when they are holding babies and the way they can fall so easily into the minds and playfulness of children. The rough way they love. How children can stumble from their hands looking like happy, rumpled kittens.
My own father died three years ago, but I think he was well aware of my esteem for him by the time of his death. Joe and Stewart are both tremendously good fathers. So much so that I feel my kids are just doubly blessed. Stewart has the handle on art, music, involvement, laughter. Joe teaches them stuff, shows them how to fix things, shows them about sports and grilling food. I feel doubly blessed. Is there any feeling on earth better for a mother than seeing her children thrive? And Nick and Alex are. They really, really are now.
I am up early and savoring the morning. Alex and I made a cake from scratch yesterday. The recipe is supposedly Princess Diana's birthday cake from her childhood. Its a light sponge cake cut into four layers, slathered in strawberry and a whipped cream based frosting. Its in the refridgerator. I've never made a layer cake before. It leans a little bit and Joe teased me about it last night, made me giggle, then felt bad and told me how wonderful it looks. We'll have it this evening with dinner. He's smoking a LOT of stuff in his new smoker today....two kinds of ribs and two whole chickens. Nobody is starving in this house. Stewart's coming to eat with us. The boys and I are taking Stewart out to brunch this morning. Joe's watching the US Open this weekend, so its a kind of father's day gift to give him a little peace and quiet to do that. We went shopping for presents for both of them last night, but the real present is in the cards the boys selected. They not only picked really sweet cards, but I told them not to just sign their names, but to write a little something in there. It could be something very simple or more elaborate, a memory, a thank you, but to say something that would make the card meaningful. They blew me away completely with what they wrote. If they did that to/for me, I would be sobbing. I am really excited about what I got for Joe. His kids are pretty involved in their own lives these days but he usually gets a phone call from them, which makes his day completely.
We had our first tomato out of the garden yesterday and more are turning red. They taste far better than the ones from the store and no salmonella to boot! I hope we get a huge crop this year and I can share them with my mom and brothers. We all miss the quality of the produce from the garden we had when living in Nebraska.
My own father died three years ago, but I think he was well aware of my esteem for him by the time of his death. Joe and Stewart are both tremendously good fathers. So much so that I feel my kids are just doubly blessed. Stewart has the handle on art, music, involvement, laughter. Joe teaches them stuff, shows them how to fix things, shows them about sports and grilling food. I feel doubly blessed. Is there any feeling on earth better for a mother than seeing her children thrive? And Nick and Alex are. They really, really are now.
I am up early and savoring the morning. Alex and I made a cake from scratch yesterday. The recipe is supposedly Princess Diana's birthday cake from her childhood. Its a light sponge cake cut into four layers, slathered in strawberry and a whipped cream based frosting. Its in the refridgerator. I've never made a layer cake before. It leans a little bit and Joe teased me about it last night, made me giggle, then felt bad and told me how wonderful it looks. We'll have it this evening with dinner. He's smoking a LOT of stuff in his new smoker today....two kinds of ribs and two whole chickens. Nobody is starving in this house. Stewart's coming to eat with us. The boys and I are taking Stewart out to brunch this morning. Joe's watching the US Open this weekend, so its a kind of father's day gift to give him a little peace and quiet to do that. We went shopping for presents for both of them last night, but the real present is in the cards the boys selected. They not only picked really sweet cards, but I told them not to just sign their names, but to write a little something in there. It could be something very simple or more elaborate, a memory, a thank you, but to say something that would make the card meaningful. They blew me away completely with what they wrote. If they did that to/for me, I would be sobbing. I am really excited about what I got for Joe. His kids are pretty involved in their own lives these days but he usually gets a phone call from them, which makes his day completely.
We had our first tomato out of the garden yesterday and more are turning red. They taste far better than the ones from the store and no salmonella to boot! I hope we get a huge crop this year and I can share them with my mom and brothers. We all miss the quality of the produce from the garden we had when living in Nebraska.
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