Can't Make Everyone Happy

Elizabeth Goudge is a favorite old author of mine. Her books were well-known in the 1040s. I stumbled across them somewhere, who knows where, but I just fell in love with her writing. The setting of many of her books is the Channel Islands, and she describes them to perfection. If I ever come across one of her books at a used bookstore, I pick them up because a good book is like an old friend and worth revisiting. Last night I snuggled up with GREEN DOLPHIN STREET for just a little reading before bed. Out of the book fell an old newspaper article about the author that someone had snipped from the Wilmington Morning Star. The article said that Miss Goudge had never married, lives with her mother, was quite reserved and kept to herself, yet her books have been enormously popular. At one point in the article, the reporter interviews her mother who says this, "My daughter has been getting a lot of attention lately," the mother said, " and I'm not saying that it isn't deserved. I am delighted that she has been so successful as a writer, but what I'm most proud of is that Elizabeth is a good cook, a really good cook."' I had to crack up. I mean, here's this woman enjoying enormous success as a writer and her mother is still trying to marry her off. So it's a long story to make a point, BUT my point is no matter what we do in life, someone's still going to think we should be doing something differently. So whom should we please? I'll let you answer that for yourself.

Last night my husband had a meeting, so I picked up pizza (which I never do), set it on the table, and told the kids, "Once you've eaten and bathed, the rest of the evening is yours to do what you want." That's normally the case although we usually eat as a family, then they go do their thing, but something about the 'grab and growl' dinner and that kind of freedom just thrilled them. They were all about it. They came to the table faster than I've ever seen them, bathed quickly and without reminder, then played nicely all evening. Everyone gathered on my bed for a while (we've been reading poetry at night for National Poetry Month), by choice, and then headed off to bed. It was such a nice evening. I don't know if it was the change of pace or what, but it makes me never want to cook dinner again. Well, almost. But without dinner set up and clean up, we seemed to have much more evening. And while I insist on us eating dinner as a family for 'family time', I'd say we had much more family time last night and it lasted all evening. Usually, it seems like they're trying to 'lose' us, you know? Eat dinner and then go off to do their thing privately. Whereas last night, everyone kind of hung around. It was nice. I wonder if we could have a night a week with this mission for a casual, pick-up dinner with paper products and then just a hang out night. OR would it lose its magic if it were a regular thing?

One more thing, I went to the Norfolk Zoo yesterday with my son and his 1st grade class. We had a really nice day. I don't know why we don't go to the zoo more often. It's not so far away, and it's a great zoo with lots of cool things to do nearby. So, here's your task. Remind me in about a month if you think of it. Ask me, "Have you taken your kiddos back to the zoo?" because I need someone to hold me accountable like that. Is there something I can remind you of or hold you accountable for? I'd be happy to remind you back!

Everyone take care, enjoy this beautiful spring, and truly seize the day. xoxox

Latin phrase of the day: Carpe Diem