A Passover Movie

This one is for my friend Robin.

Averill's sister-in-law, an Israeli, made this movie of her children telling the story of Passover. Thanks, Dani, for sharing it with us. Enjoy!

More Baby Pics

Our new little man is settling in pretty well at home and I'm loving my new role as Granny QG. Blogging will probably be sporadic the next couple of weeks. Averill lost a lot of blood and needs someone around with her in case she gets dizzy. This week DK is home but next week I'll be filling in. Meanwhile, I'm making sure she has iron-rich foods to go along with her iron supplements. Got any good recipes?

Portia the Freelancer

One of Averill's* design blogging buddies has started a new digital magazine, High Gloss. She asked Averill to write an interview with a Houston designer for the first issue. It's on page 140 and is titled "Modern Makeover." You can also find Averill's photo and a brief bio on page 10, along with the other contributors.

I'm really impressed with the layout and photography of the magazine and, of course, with one of the contributors! It took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to navigate it, but once I maximized the view I found it easy to read. I bet High Gloss will be calling on her again, and it will give her a nice outlet while on maternity leave.

Have a look and let me know what you think!

*Since Averill writes a popular non-anonymous design blog, I'm going to use her real name from now on, instead of "Portia", her nom-de-blog.

Granny's First Baby Quilt

Portia had some of the precious aqua blue alphabet fabric left over from the bedskirt she made for our expected grandson's crib. After we made a couple of pillows for her window seat there was still a lot left over so I made this quilt for him using it and the some polka dot and orange fabric she is using as accent fabrics.

I haven't made a quilt in--oh I forget how many--years. So I wondered how much I would remember about the process. Woo-hoo! A lot more than I thought I would, that's for sure. It's not a perfect quilt but came out pretty well.

Can't wait to wrap that little baby in it....

The Bump Shot

Averill posted a "bump shot" on her blog today, showing her progress at 32+ weeks. 

Here it is.

Doesn't she look fabulous? Not that I'm biased or anything.

The nursery is looking good and we are getting very excited Chez QG!

Looking Ahead....

It's almost like the good old days when Portia and Babs were in college and home for Christmas break: they both took off the week between Christmas and New Year's! So we have had fun doing some Mom-Daughter things.

Today I'm off to the spice store in the Heights and lunch with Babs at a trendy restaurant. This evening El Jefe and I take Portia, DK and the in-laws out to dinner at our favorite wine bar/bistro in Sugar Land. We are all eagerly anticipating the birth of our grandson in early March!

In between, I'm starting to look ahead to the New Year and decided it was time to clean up my sidebar. So down comes the link to Presbyterians Today, since I won't be writing Best of the Blogs next year. And up goes a link to the books I am planning to review--hopefully in order that the reviews will appear! 

I am hosting book tours for The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson on February 8 and for Unprotected Texts sometime in February to be determined. (A book tour means that I have accepted a copy of the book for review from the publisher and agreed to post a review on a given date.)

So far I haven't had much luck driving readership to the book blog, but I do think it is useful to have my reviews collected in one place. I would like to do more book reviewing since general blogging is really falling off everywhere.

In the new year I also take on a new position at church: Clerk of Session. It's a long story, but to make it short, after reviewing the officer roles some changes were made this month that put me in that position rather than the one I was originally assigned. 

The main charge, other than the administrative Book of Order role, is to educate the session about denominational issues and upcoming votes at presbytery. Since we vote on the NFOG in February and the Belhar Confession in May that should keep me busy!

MOB Redux Update: Bridals and Operas

Babs and I got to see her bridal portraits at the photographer's studio yesterday. So beautiful!! There were some cute candid shots of Portia and Babs together because Portia went along on the shoot to lend a hand.

We're counting down to the last two weeks before W-Day and everything is falling into place quite nicely. The MOB does wake up at night thinking of little details that still need to be addressed, and her dentist remarked at this week's check-up that her inside lip was looking pretty chewed up, but all in all she's feeling pretty good and looking forward to the big day.

This weekend there will be a brief Wedding Planning Time Out for the opening night of Queen of Spades at Houston Grand Opera. Our precious Catherine has a small part so my sister, brother and sister-in-law are coming from San Antonio for the performance followed by a reception at El Jefe's law firm.

Catherine has been learning Russian with a private tutor all year to prepare for the role. Thank heaven HGO projects subtitles in English! It's a very lOOOOng opera--3 1/2 hours. I'm not sure we can keep El Jefe up past his bedtime that late. I look at it as payback for all the sports events I've had to sit through over the years. He'll still owe me.

An Inconvenient Cold

Razzlefrackzit!

I caught Portia's cold yesterday. Tomorrow is the big kick-off for BSD and I don't need to be red-nosed and sneezing while I hand out curriculum to a couple hundred women and try to make a good impression as leader to my small group.

And it seems I don't have any tea bags, either. Must have pitched them in the move. Dang.

Double Razzlefraczkit.

Beatrice Blogs: QG's Dachsie Day Care

Woof! Beatrice here with a report on QG's latest enterprise--dachsie day care.

Ever since Portia and DK moved into the neighborhood, I've been seeing a lot more of my sister Olivia. It seems that QG has opened a dachsie day care on me. Portia drops her off on her way to work and then picks her up on her way home.

This means my day is much more interesting. Here's our schedule:

Eight thirtyish--Olivia arrives. We have to lick each other, give the kiss of peace, and run around the house shoulder to shoulder.

Eight-fifty--Exhausted from our greetings, so its time for a morning nap.

Note that nap can be interrupted by people ringing the doorbell, coming and going, QG getting up from her desk, the phone ringing, or a noise outside. Then we must bark. Yes, we're light sleepers!

Noonish--Time for food! Our favorite is venison/rice/sweet potato dry food with a cottage cheese garnish. Nonfat cottage cheese of course because Olivia is...well it must be said...a bit chubby.

Afternoon--naps after lunch all around. Occasional forays outside if its not too hot for water, bird chasing, sunning and rolling in the grass.

Sixish--Portia returns for Olivia. Whew! It's been a hard day. But I like having company, especially when no one is home.

Evening--naps interrupted by evening walks with El Jefe and QG. Don't know what goes on with Olivia at Portia's. But there are some cats to chase there and I hope Olivia remembers whose side she is on.

Beatrice, her mark

Portia's House Beautiful Post and GG

Gannet Girl is one of my oldest blogging friends. We have much in common--as women of the same age and stage in life and as attorneys who left that profession to become more involved in the church: me as a Director of Christian Education and later Moderator of Presbytery and she as a teacher in a Jewish school and now as a seminary student preparing for ordination in the PCUSA.

She also follows my daughter Portia's blog, Odi et Amo (link on my sidebar). A recent post there, House Beautiful, which was a color personality quiz prompted GG to write some fascinating reflections about color, decor, spirituality and ministry this weekend.

Go here and here to read them. Thanks GG! I wish I had time to write a more thoughtful response here, but am due at Portia's this morning to help with more unpacking from her move.

Good News, Good News

Here's why we're rejoicing Chez Grace.

Furniture Shopping for the Tall

Although the new house is pretty well set up, I am now looking for a few chairs for a couple of rooms.

Since El Jefe and I are both very tall, I am visiting furniture stores and sitting in lots of chairs. Here's what I've discovered: it isn't easy to find chairs that are comfortable for us. Most of the new ones sit very low to the ground and even my altitude-challenged friends find them hard to get out of. Many others have seats or backs that are so short that they hit us in funny places causing numbness or pain. Even the upholstered ones. This leaves me with limited choices in most stores.

This may be a niche market that Portia could exploit someday if she decides to do some interior decorating on the side: Tall Furniture R Us.

Portia Recognized by Washington Post

Which blogger is bursting with parental pride over the recognition of her daughter's blog by the Washington Post?

Go here for the link.

Portia's 100th Post

There's still time to hurry over to Portia's blog and participate in her reader give-away celebrating her 100th post!

And no, it's not an April Fool's Day prank....

Sister Blogging Act

Babs is now writing a weekly food feature on Portia's blog (Odi et Amo). "Cibus Corner"* appears on Fridays. Today's post features a couple of favorite desserts, complete with one of my favorite toddler pictures of Babs, family stories and recipes. If you're looking for some baking inspiration, check it out here.

*"Cibus" is the Latin word for food, following Portia's Latin theme for her blog. She was a Classical Civilization major in college, and both the girls took Latin in college.

Portia Critiques the Men's Runway

And you thought women's high fashion was absurd...


Portia explains it all here.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Daughter Portia recently began her blogging career at Odi et Amo.

Ever the classical studies major, the title she chose for her blog means "I hate, I love" in Latin. Odi et Amo focuses on her interest in fashion, interior design, the movies and anything else that strikes her fancy. I think it's really good, but of course, I'm the Mom.

Go on over and check it out and tell her that Mom said to say "hello"!

Thanksgiving To-Do List, Checkin' It Twice

This afternoon we're off to the bay house to celebrate Thanksgiving with 17 to 20 people ( no one knows for sure) and 5 dogs.


So I'm making a list to be sure I get everything in the car I am responsible for contributing:

-meat, salad, bread for dinner tonight
-Olivia's allergy-free salmon/sweet potato chow (that's why she's called Shrimp Breath)
-ingredients for killer sweet potato casserole for T'Day
-wine and coffee and milk
-jackets
-dog beds, leashes and harnesses
-books to read
-better attitude (see below)

I'm looking for a better attitude to take along because in the midst of all this I have to get a set of keys to Portia's place to Babs so she can get Portia's mail. Portia should have taken care of this before she left for her in-laws, IMHO. This means getting the keys made and then a round-trip drive into Houston that I didn't need. But packages are getting stolen from behind her gate so we need to check on it.

Praying for help to set aside the petty irritations and enjoy the big picture,
QG

My Mother's Day Present

I think El Jefe and the girls bought this as much for them as for me.

But I'm not complaining!

We tried it out and it works very well for a non-commercial size margarita machine. But we weren't happy with the mix we used and are looking for something better.

Anyone have a great margarita recipe?

Meanwhile...lookin' for that lost shaker of salt...

Something We're Pondering

Last week Portia decided that old Mom and Dad need a puppy--to replace Babs when she moves out on her own. Portia thinks Dad is ready for Gretel The Noble Dog's successor. Why don't Portia and DK get their own puppy? Because they have two cats and aren't home much, that's why.

Babs agrees and even has a name for the prospective pooch: Beatrice. This is a reference to Princess Beatrice, the youngest child of Queen Victoria who lived with her mother to keep her company, even after marrying. (The picture to the left reminds me of El Jefe's saying: "as cute as a speckled pup in a red wagon.")

Babs thinks a dog is a good replacement for her. Not true. Although a dog might watch "Big Medicine" and "What Not To Wear" with me, it wouldn't help cook dinner or have her witty sense of humor. She promises to train it while she is home. Hmmm. Now that she's an adult, I could hold her to that promise, couldn't I? We all know who will be primarily responsible for a puppy now, don't we?

Still...it's an appealing thought. El Jefe is all over it, but his one requirement is that the puppy must have different coloration than Gretel, who was a red dachshund.

Stay tuned....we're pondering the idea.