A Weekend Away

I had another lovely Zentangle retreat at Copper Beech Mindfulness Institute, my fifth!  I love the location--a huge, connected, multi-building monastery on a forested hill complete with labyrinth and (at least once that I saw, though not this year) Great Horned Owls.  This time, my little room overlooked the woods, my favorite view there. 

I was getting into the retreat spirit early, stopping at the other labyrinth in town--can you imagine, two lovely labyrinths?--which I had never walked.  I do love to walk a labyrinth--it's restorative and contemplative.  And it's the first thing I did when I got to the monastery, walking the labyrinth there, which is my favorite of anywhere.  I love the wide, flat, accessible walkway, and most particularly the beautiful stone circle in the middle.  In fact, I actually bought a print from the Monastery Gallery of a photo of the labyrinth, stretched to make it look painterly.  Lovely.

The majority of the weekend was devoted to Zentangle. I love to learn new Zentangle technqiues, to be challenged in my practice, and to draw with a group.  And I got to do all that this weekend.  Several of the projects were outside my comfort zone--I generally like black-and-white, non-representational tangles.  This weekend we used a lot of watercolor to make little houses and a "creative girl" (inspired by Danielle Donaldson), which would not have been my own choice, but I had such a great time tangling.  And I've gotten more comfortable with color as non-representational, meaning I'm not specifically coloring in particular shapes, but only laying down washes of color before or after drawing. 

The two women at my table were new to Zentangle and asked a lot of questions; so I got to explain and explore Zentangle with them--comfort tangles (the ones you know and use a lot), favorite resources (www.tanglepatterns.com and the books Zentangle Primer and  A Tangle a Day), tips to turn the tiles while drawing, step outs of Huggins and w-2 and pokeleaf/root and Diva Dance Rock 'n Roll, all of which only mean anything to people who tangle. There were tons of supplies, raffle prizes for many (I gave away my blank canvas tote and origami book to one of the newbies at my table who didn't win.) 

We enjoyed several fantastic meals--roasted chicken, lemon fish, roasted potatoes, the best balsamic vinaigrette, orange-y pickled beets, oatmeal with all the toppings (granola, raisins, Marcona almonds, blackberries, cinnamon, yum!), frosted lemon poppyseed cake, a variety of cookies, and delicious little cannoli--it's such a treat to be cared for this way.  It was a lovely little break.

While I was away, Sis worked her last Girl Scout cookie booth for the year and for her term as a Girl Scout (she wants to be an independent Juliette next year, without a troop, so I had my last cookie booth last weekend!)  She also got to walk her horse outside on a sunny day because the ground had firmed up a bit.  (I got to go outside with the horse and Sis yesterday; Patience was so happy that she actually rolled on the ground.  I missed it, though, because I was corralling the dogs who had spooked her just a few minutes before.)  And Bud had his first competition of the year, winning three gold medals and a high score of 9.93 in straight sword.  Yay! 

Fragment dice to choose a tangle!

Catching You Up

Yes, I've been a hopeless blogger for months, and most of all in this new year.  If I can still call it a new year here in March.  It's not just busy-ness that has kept me quiet here; I've been expressing myself on FB, in private discussions, and in the few papers and responses I write for my seminary classes each week.

Yep, seminary.  I'm a "special student" taking two classes for credit that will count towards a degree program when I apply for the fall semester.  Both classes surround Christianity--one on representations of Mary, the other on church history.  And, while there is a lot of theology, there is enough history, which has always interested me (though, usually not the history of the east Mediterranean!)  I'm also learning how to navigate discussions and interpretations of text I don't "believe" in, which is to say, the Bible is only a text for me, not a sacred statement of belief and faith inspired by God.  So, I'm more likely to look to socio-historical interpretations or feminist/womanist hermeneutics when I examine a text.  Yep, see me using the lingo there?!  I'm loving it.  I think I'd forgotten how much I really do love being a student and learning things in a structured environment.  And I'm really good at it.  So it feels wonderful to be in school again.  Which Sis and Bud just don't quite understand.  And Mama is happy to see me so engaged, if a little bit jealous that I love my "work" so much.

Otherwise, as you know, we went to Thailand over Christmas.  I'm sure I didn't tell you everything I had meant to, but between temples and food, I hit the highlights.  The other big thing to happen in January was almost entirely negative and traumatic:  our horse was severely injured around her back fetlock (ankle/foot) in a freak accident, Sis found her lying in a pool of blood (horses have 50 liters so can spill several, which looks awful), it took forever for the vet to arrive, she was taken to the emergency vet hospital far away, where she spent a few weeks.  And it took awhile for us to know if she would be ok.  She's back at our "home" barn now, but still takes antibiotics, is on stall rest, and has a huge bandage.  But oh so much better than it was.  We learned a lot about equine medicine, which I'm not sure we needed to learn experientially.  Except these things happen to all pets and big horses can have big problems.  Sis has been a trooper--sure, she had hard days and lots of stress--but she has taken great care of that pony and been very diligent and responsible.  I'm proud of her.  I'm just sorry she had to go through this.  Sorry for our sweet horse, too.  But yes, Sis will be able to ride her again and things should be all well.

What else?  We're talking about high school!  Sis got into a special magnet school and is so excited to be going.  Bud will be in all honors here at our town school, which is a perfect fit.  They've never been in different schools before.  It also means we're only four years away from their heading off to college; half that to a driver's license.  Time flies.

Other tidbits:

• Sis has decided to leave our GS troop at the end of this school year, but she will stay on as an independent "Juliette" because she loves being a camp counselor and also likes some of the council programs (like archery and outdoor cooking.)  It's bittersweet.  I've been her leader for 9 years--this was my last cookie season!--but I now it's right for her.
• Bud just finished lunar new year season for kung fu, after numerous performances.  Now he's prepping for competition season, which starts this Sunday.  He's also teaching the little kids' class on Saturday afternoons and the graduating senior on the team is also preparing him to take over as unofficial head of the team.  So proud of him!
• Mama is actually doing some studying on her own, trying to pick up some new tech skills.  She misses coding and programming and is finding her way back to it.
• The cats have found a relatively happy balance, though Hermione is still grumpy.  Or even grumpier, especially as she is increasingly arthritic.  But Eris isn't as scared of her, or any of us, anymore and, after two years, really seems to have settled in.  Romeo, the new orange guy, is just in love with Sis, whom he follows around and sleeps beside and sits on; he even guards her door from the other cats and us once she's headed to bed (until he is ready to turn in!)  He only engages me when I am in the kitchen, in hopes that he'll get a little milk. I do give in sometimes.  Albus is still our great protector; he does clockwise rounds of the first floor a few times a night.
• My mom is coming for a visit next week, before she goes on a grand trip down the Rhine in April with her dear friend Granny Quinn.  They should have a great time.
• I had a terrible stomach bug a few weeks ago.  At first we thought it was another obstruction and almost went to the ER (twice!); I was that miserable.  Threw up for hours and hours.  With a fever.  But we checked in and the doctor on call thought it was a virus. Ugh.  Sprained my poor stomach muscles and my back, and didn't move for two to three more days, didn't eat for another week, talked to all my specialists, still a bit hesitant to eat much.  Blah.  I've never been that sick.  
• We've seen a few movies.  How to Train Your Dragon 3 was a wonderful, if tear-jerking, ending to the trilogy.  Those are some great movies.  (But the trailer for the dead-dog-spirit movie A Dog's Journey that we saw before the feature was enough to start our crying early!)  We also saw Captain Marvel--NO SPOILERS--we loved it.  Really great, right up there with Black Panther and Wonder Woman, for the genre.  
• We aren't doing anything for spring break, a "staycation," I guess.  But then we did go to Italy and Thailand last year, plus got a horse and a new cat (both kinda unplanned!), replaced our upstairs flooring, and spent a week at Audubon family camp, in addition to all of our usual things.  The kids are going on a retreat later this term, with their church group.  And Mama and I are using it for a local nano-honeymoon.  We'll do some cool things here in CT that we've wanted to do together, instead of heading somewhere $$$$.  
• ....because both kids are going to camp this summer and we're going to TEXAS!  Yep, we're headed for a week or so in the Lone Star State to see my sis and folks.  The exact dates are TBD because we're still having snow days (had one last week, actually.)  But it'll be great fun!
• As for fun, I'm going on retreat this weekend which is lovely.  I wasn't going to go, but Mama insisted, which was really nice.  Or she's trying to tell me something!
• And I will end with a recipe we all really liked recently:

Slow Cooker Chicken Salad

2 lbs chicken breasts

8 oz cream cheese (choose your kind; I think I used 1/3 fat free)

salt, pepper seasonings

Spray the slow cooker with cooking oil.  Place chicken in cooker; season.  Cube cream cheese over top and cook on HIGH for 4 hours or LOW for 6-8, until chicken is cooked through (165F.)  Remove from cooker and shred chicken.  Stir in any desired ingredients--I added finely chopped celery and sliced almonds.  Refrigerate until chilled.  Actually my kids liked it warm, with pasta.  Then we ate it as a cold chicken salad.  And today I actually heated the leftovers with zucchini, onion, salsa, and bell peppers which made a kind of Tex-Mex chicken-a-la-king.

Mommy Hungry

I think that's all I can think of right now.