Dear Xanga,

        I am uncertain if you are aware of this, but you seem to have misplaced another one of my posts in the ABYSS.  I was innocently plodding along, writing happily and drinking tea when POOF it disappeared like so many Shriners after a parade.   Listen Xanga, this may have been my very first post without photographs EVER  and I was feeling rather proud of myself for that when you pulled the rug out from under me and now I am uncertain I have it in me to do it again. 

    How can you sleep nights, you toady little bag of gym socks?

        love always,

               Julie

    

 

Self Portrait Challenge
September’s theme: portals (week 3)

 

 

See more SPC entries HERE.

 

 

All Of This, In One Morning

She wakes early because there are things she wants to do and she wants to get a head start on eating breakfast and trying on 32 pairs of pjs and unrolling toilet paper on the dog. These things take time.

It feels good to be awake because it does

after breakfast, we race out to check the Russian Olive berries which are nearly ripe and she tells me about the other berries she has loved all summer long and how she will miss them in the winter but then it will be spring again and there will be more berries.

it is her very own love story.

and then she is tired and wants to walk back to the house for tea but not before stopping to be certain there are no more raspberries. “It is late in the season” I tell her, and this is not likely.

But we find some anyway because she is five and sometimes berries appear because she loves them so much she wills them into growing.

and then it is time for a two minutes of loud, passionate playing on her keyboard before sleeping

While I drink my tea and watch her sleep, Jesse comes in to show me something very exciting, A CAN SHAPED SNACK. He could not be more thrilled that his Annies O’s are standing on their own and tries to heat them up without disturbing their form.

Roo wakes, and she hurries to put on her favorite dress because she wants to wear it in the fields and in the woods and under the apple trees.

and then we run to the apple trees because it feels good to run and breathe and be alive

we find many apples, each one as exciting as the last.

we eat 3 apples each and we stop to rest for a few

this is important

Jesse brings us this

and loses his mind from happiness because it can do this

then we go looking for caterpillars, voles, mushrooms, berries, snakes and birds

we find some

she calls this one Buttcrack Fungus and I am inclined to agree

he is amused by this

she finds a red Bellied snake

she holds it like this and tells me how it’s eyes are cloudy but this is ok because it will shed it’s skin soon and then it will be able to see everything clearly again.

he sits in his favorite apple tree for at least an hour because he can

I lay down for nap in the field because I have been working late at night when they sleep and I am so tired.  When I wake, I find that she has pilfered my scarf and is delighted with her stolen bounty

I retrieve my scarf by tickling her into submission and then I smile at her because we both know she will be back for more.

 

  It doesn’t get any better than this.

 

 

Blueberry Pancakes 

~~~~~

we pour the juice while they cook because it is hard to wait and it helps to find something to do

pancakes!

yes there are blueberries inside but it is important to also have blueberries perched on top

pancakes so good they are gone in a blur

whipped cream is also nice

she is telling me about the whipped cream and how it looks sadder than it tastes.

this is how I make gluten-free, dairy-free pancakes:

2-3 cups of Red Mill gluten free pancake mix

2 eggs

2 T oil

Rice Dream, as needed to make the batter the right consistency

 

 TA DA.

If you would like to confess then consider yourself tagged (if you are having a hard time with motivation let me know and I can send mooncatblue’s chupacabra along to steal your underpants since mine were not worth stealing).