Life: Idiotropic

It's sad when you look back seven days and cannot remember even the slightest detail from what was just one week ago. No age jokes, please. I'm not old yet. But really, it shouldn't be so hard. Tuesday... Tuesday... nope, nothing.

Thanks to my handy, dandy calendar on the computer, I do have some memory joggers from the rest of the week. Seriously, if it weren't for my calendar and the photos that I take, I think that every day would be Groundhog's Day.

Thankfully, it's not all a blank. Last Wednesday our conversation group met at my house which is why, sadly, I have no pictures. We had strata together - one I made with stale sesame broetchen, spinach, artichoke hearts and onion. They liked it enough to have seconds. Then I made up 1.5 recipes of pie dough and made both a traditional apple pie and an apple galette. This is the second time that I've "taught" apple pie to a group of international friends and again they seemed surprised that there are no eggs in it. It turned out great - and we had fun laughing, cooking, and talking over coffee, strata, and fresh, hot pie. Apparently apple pie dough is similar to something both the Turkish and Italians use in other dishes... I have yet to figure out exactly what though... when their words begin flying in foreign tongue, I sometimes have a hard time catching them enough to stop and ask for details. Someone hand me a butterfly net.

Thursday was, um (moment to check calendar) - Oh... among a myriad of errands and cookie baking, a lovely, ever so needed, completely relaxing time with Lorella sitting at her house drinking Italian espresso, then sitting at Cafe Immendorf sipping latte machiatos and mmmm-ing over our erdbeer tortchens. Watched a group of 60's-ish men on bicycles completely clad in bicycle attire saunter in for their beer all saying "hallo" and various complementary greetings - a bunch of flirtatious older men strutting their stuff. And then just sat, relaxed, basked in the sun and the quiet, and talked. Lorella is another one of those forever friends with whom I hope to never lose touch with. She is, as she's always been, absolutely fabulous!

Our last night. My last night as president. A member's only bingo night. I had cookies, salsa, chips, stuff for our charity, and a bunch of IWC travel mugs all together. Got there early, set up, watched people jump in without question and help thinking wow... this is it... it's time. I can go. They'll be OK. And the night went off without a hitch. I was the Bingo caller which aside from a tired voice after, is actually kind of fun. I spent the night watching the crowd, catching bits of conversations, smiling at my friends aware of small inside jokes, remembering so many fond memories, and thinking about good bye. For most of these people, this night was good bye. Towards the end I thanked them for the time and the opportunity then introduced them to their new president, my friend, Francesca. Just thinking about it is sad for me. This has been the best 3 years of my life, I think. So many people, blessings, opportunities... mostly people though. I will miss the people.

Late night, early morning. Traipsing all over Maastricht with Arianna and her second grade class looking at the Roman fortifications and looking through the Museum of Natural History. Boy. It's hard to be a second grader... all that walking, all that looking, all those coffee shops, and not a minute to stop for a cuppa Joe. So sad. The kids loved the trip. We learned about Roman toilets all lined up together in a half-circle, so the kids sat down on stones set where a Roman toilet lies beneath the pavement and posed straining for a photo (not my idea - it was a boy's mom). We saw a statue of a horse that was definitely a boy. We saw the toilet in a guard post in the old wall and a statue of a bear with human hands. These were the highlights. The kids also loved the rooms upon rooms of old bones and taxidermy at the natural history museum, a place that has me thoroughly convinced that I am really more of a zoo person. We lunched by the statue of d'Artagnan, the fourth musketeer who died in Maastricht at the age of 62, in combat from a bullet to the throat. The kids shopped for tacky souvenirs - pens and ceramic "wooden" shoes. And at the end of a 7 hour day out, we finally headed home.

Exhaustion comes in the form of pizza take-out from Il Genios and a shared bottle of wine with good friends. My kind of Friday night.

Photos: 1) A large gold framed advertisement hanging on the outside wall of a restaurant in Maastricht 2) Sculpture of a extinct blue-lipped giraffe with a lady whose arm moves to pet it when the merry go round nearby turns. This was the location of several caged bears in the 60's before the people protested that it was too sad. 3) 16 second graders huddled around the statue of d'Artagnan in Maastricht. 4) Arianna posing on the bridge over the Maas river with a lovely view of Maastricht in the background - or it would be, except that it was raining and the umbrella covered all.

Tiara quote of the week: "guys are so confusing. they're moods change. they'll be like one way and then another. it's like they're PMSing or something. And they think us girls are confusing."

Thankfully, it is officially spring and finally ice cream season. Our long winter was quick to go so within a crazy two week period we went from bitter cold frosty mornings to warm shorts and t-shirt weather that brought all the blooms to the roundabouts and opened the doors to all the ice cream shops. Cafes are now more outdoors than in with chairs spilling out into market squares more than doubling the sizes of the restaurants themselves. Bicycles are everywhere and happy people are sitting with ice cream or beer relaxing, smiling, and enjoying the season. It feels good to be outside.

Today we went to Sittard on some Easter Bunny errands, but took a moment to enjoy an ice cream from Die Twee. Smurfijs for the girls - they love that blue stuff. And though I've asked random ice cream servers for the last 3 years what flavor exactly is a Smurf, today I finally got the long elusive answer - Caramel! So now you know. According to Dutch and German ice cream makers, Smurfs definitely taste like overly sweet caramel - a flavor and a color that my girls absolutely love.

Enjoyed the city today. The market area was absolutely packed with folks relaxing in the sun at cafe tables. We wandered and took pictures and bought some good cheese so my visiting Uncle could try some and see a bit of The Netherlands. Felt good to wander and relax. A nice afternoon.

Played Easter Bunny tonight... everything is ready. Going to hide this letter now to save. Arianna wrote to the Easter Bunny. Our friends might not be able to join us tomorrow for dinner because one of the kids is sick... my girls are all very concerned and sad that their friends won't be able to be here. Here it is:

Every year on the Sunday before the Crazy Days of Carnival, Sittard has their children's parade - a wonderful parade of music, costumes, humor, and crazy makeup. It's fun. The onlookers dress up almost as much as the parade participants and though there isn't much candy thrown, it's still one of my favorite parades. So, today we got there early hoping for a good parking spot. The lot was so empty that I thought for a moment that I had the wrong day. The crowds came, but slowly. So we walked around the market for a bit, had cocoa at De Buren, then bagels at Bagels and Beans, then found some friends, a spot to stand near the cotton candy so the girls could watch them make it while we waited, and then we watched the entire wonderful parade in the cold with a light sprinkling of snow.

Lots of photos are posted here. Take a look. It's pretty amazing what they can do with costumes and makeup. And though I can't read all the Dutch to catch the jokes, the sense of humor among these people is obvious. I'll miss it here.

This little witch had the bluest eyes. She was in the parade with her mommy witch. Many toddlers were pulled along in their wagons or prams completely dressed up, and many completely oblivious to the party around them... or better yet, sleeping.

Many a critter, clown, and warrior watched the parade from their daddy's shoulders. And they all looked just as oblivious and just as cold. My middle ones loved it, got into it, and oohed and aahed at the costumes. Elise wavered between enthusiasm and frost - looking like these little ones half the time. Cold and tired.

And the last photo here... an odd one. These ladies in green had the most dull costumes of the entire parade, but what made them interesting is that as soon as they showed up, a man in the audience showed up with a tray held high above the crowd covered in beer - at least 10 tall glasses. It's a wonder that none of it spilled as they were handing it over the heads of little ones. But there they were, a sea of green ladies with hands full of glasses pausing to organize their brew before moving on.

More photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=92673&id=674507268&l=a6184

Between Karnival and Easter, on a high hill in Sittard, a special Kroombroodrapen committee throwns 15,000 crescent shaped rolls down the hill to the children waiting below. This tradition has been going on since 1923 and commemorates the Biblical story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with just one simple lunch of bread and fish.

This statue in front of DeGats - the oldest building in Sittard and home to a cafe that serves delicious coffee and soup - depicts this special day - something that only occurs here in the mainly Catholic town.

Tiara and I had a mother-daughter shopping day in Sittard today... we came, we spent, and we had a cup of good coffee and a bowl of soup at DeGats. They serve their coffee with a chocolate cookie and a truffle! Mmmm.

Aahhhhh.... never need an excuse to go to Maastricht. I'd live here in a heartbeat. Would bike into town from my old brick house on the outskirts, stop at my favorite cafe for a caramel cappuccino, then visit my church bookstore. It's just lovely, relaxing, and absolutely never boring.

So, here's a couple from my day... the lady by the statue that I thought was interesting and a couple photos of my beautiful little Elise - quite a ham in front of my camera.


This was a beautiful sunny day doing the "tiffany route" - a bit of this and that - touring my favorite city. Starting at the Vrijhtof, walking to the Stokstraat quarter by way of the Blanche Dael coffee roaster, meandering past a couple old churches and down a really cool wall lined alleyway towards the Jeker quarter, then walking back to the Hellspoort along the old wall and garden area. Coffee at Coffee Lovers and a scoop of gelato were our rewards to a walk well done. Mmmm.

May be you've heard of "The Bite" events as in Bite of Portland, Bite of San Francisco, etc... where some of the best restaurants put of tents and serve small portions of some of their star dishes. Well... tonight Kirk and I went to the Preuvenemint - essentially The Bite of Maastricht with 31 food booths ranging from caviar to Korean, Dutch to Italian, coffee, gelato and so much more... it was amazing.

Music played all day and into the night from the stage in the Vrijthof that was surrounded by enormous hanging floral arrangements and dozens of sunflowers all around the stages edge. We heard American rock and roll, German folk music, and French ballads while we were there. People crowded around the stage to watch with small bottles of wine topped with these funnel shaped tops making it easy to drink straight from the bottle. Couples dance at the event entrance. It was crowded, but not uncomfortably so... I enjoyed the sun, the ambiance, and the people watching.

These weren't just booths. Some set up with to-go style food that you could walk with or eat at outdoor patio areas near by and others set up mini restaurants complete with stylish tables and chairs, decor similar to their restaurants decor, flowers, and one had a chandelier and branches with floral vines hanging from the elevated tent ceiling. Atmosphere changed completely from booth to booth and it was really fun to see. We started with Korean - something Kirk misses from his time in Osan. He greeted them and said goodbye in Korean and for our interest, Kirk got a free bit of extra kimchi. It was relaxed and casual. From there we went to Moods with tall white tables - modern and shiny like patent leather and long benches that were soft round cylinders of black leather - sheek and modern. Kirk had a delicious Thai curry soup. I had scampi with sundried tomatoes and salad (a taste in a very small cup with an over sized toothpick to eat it - no fork). From Moods we shared a scoop of sangria sorbet served on balsamic vinegar marinated strawberries and mascarpone cream. Wow. A phenomenal flavor combination.

After moods we had Thai - chicken sates in peanut sauce and lumpia served from a stand with only outdoor seating. A patisserie caught our eye, so we did a quick stop there to taste some too-too decadent desserts served in tiny clear bowls. Then we went to Tom Miessens with bright wine themed art on the tent walls, tall round tables, and large silver bowls filled with ice and chilled champagne bottles. We each had a glass of wine and shared a cheese plate served with good bread and strawberry jam and I learned that those overly stinky cheeses are delightful when paired with a thin layer of sweet jam. The combination makes each part better.

Full, but with 5 coupons left, we toddled toward the ice cream tent, but I just couldn't bring myself to order ice cream. I was too stuffed and didn't want to feel heavy. So we opted for coffee at Coffee Lovers - the perfect end to our afternoon out. The coffee was perfect and mine was served, happily, in a real, full-sized, coffee lovers ceramic mug. A nice touch of class and the perfect comfort food.

Today brought a occasionally sunny, frequently torrential day in Maastricht where we met our Brussels friends for lunch, shopping, and a visit. Probably easily one of my favorite cities, it didn't hurt my feelings at all to go again. It never gets old and I always see something new.

We ducked in and out of stores in cadence to the off and on downpours and hot bouts of sun admiring the beauty of the buildings and hunting for a bargain or two.

The one rather wonderful discovery was a coffee shop that I'd found on my last trip, but hadn't been able to try. Stopping for just a coffee and a snack, we ended up enjoying marvelous sandwiches there and relaxed for longer than planned until the rain allowed us just enough time to run to the gelateria before its next burst. Casual and uneventful, really, other than the 45 minutes we drove frustrated in circles looking for parking that didn't seem to exist - a first for me having always found a spot in the same garage the past two years. The little girls enjoyed seeing their friend Marlene and we got to turn the table on our friends, playing tour guide to them in a city they'd never seen even though they are both European and travel often. It was fun and I, of course, got to "snap" a few more photos... after all, I have been called the "Snapdragon!"

Photos: 1) the girls one of the pedestrian bridges. 2) the view of that bridge and the Maas River from the other pedestrian bridge. 3) a window with raindrops and sunflowers 4) Kirk, Elise, and Luci 5) the old Rathaus in the market square

This afternoon, once the most forboding clouds gave way to spots of blue thus raising our hopes of a somewhat dry afternoon, we hopped in the van and made our way to Maastricht for a day of shopping and playing tourist. A perfect day to enjoy the July sales and walk the historic streets, we saw our share of strange today. Here's a photo montage of the fun...

For those of you with little time, I will occasionally be publishing these blog entries with "Tifnotes," a condensed, to-the-point summary of the usually long winded entry. Here's the first Tifnote-- the full entry will follow for those with time to read.

Tifnotes version: We went to the Children's Carnival Parade in Sittard and had really delicious hot chocolate from Bagels and Beans. The costumes were amazing and I saw first hand that Dutch people really enjoy silly string.


The Carnival season is here and though some events are definitely not for kids, the Kinderoptocht (Children's Parade) is made exactly for children, but leaves out no one.

We hadn't been to this before and though I've heard of it, I only found out when it was through the Dutch Bagels and Beans newsletter that I always try to "read" through though I can only pick out words here and there. Luckily this time I could understand "kinder" which is also child in German and could understand that they were going to be open on a Sunday which is quite unusual, so I used Babelfish to look up Optocht and confirmed what I suspected - the parade!

It's always fun when a little detective work uncovers a treasure. And, this parade is that. I found the website for the Sittard parades that includes photos of both the adults and children's parades dating back to the 1920's! Amazing!

We didn't show up particularly early, but still found parking in the residential areas without difficulty and walked to the center. I let the girls pick out wild headbands knowing that putting them in costumes would take too long and I wasn't 100% sure if spectators would be wearing costumes. Wow. Confirmation came quickly. Everyone that we saw crossing the streets and walking towards the square was in costume. The children - ALL OF THEM - were completely decked out with costumes, elaborate makeup, wigs and props. And even the adults were not altogether boring. Though some looked "normal," the majority if not in full costume, were at least wearing silly hats, boas, glasses, and other funny accessories. I felt very American and there was no avoiding that. Next year we'll dress up and come armed with silly string and loads of confetti so that we too can cover all passers by with it - the police cars, the tubas... all covered in silly string.

We got cocoa and coffee to go and found a good place to stand just outside of Bagels and Beans where the road curves and the parade would come straight towards us down Putstraat before turning and going around the corner to the Markt. For about 15 minutes, we stood there in the cold wind hugging our warm drinks and watching the party going on around us - kids running around the empty spaces, throwing confetti and chasing each other with cans of silly string, then picking up streamers and confetti off of the ground so they could throw it again. There were a lot of little boys with toy guns that made a loud crack every time they pulled the trigger. The group next to us were all decked out in the Dutch Carnival colors - red, yellow, and green with hats, and feather boas in those colors. Entire families stood together from infants to elderly - all bundled and ready.

The lead car was a police car slowly arriving already completely covered from front to back, windows and wheels, with all colors of silly string and piles of confetti. Just as he got to us, he used his windshield wipers to clear it. It's amazing he could see anything before that. That was the first of many a person or car to arrive on our corner decorated by the crowd. Even band instruments had string handing from them. At first, I watched the small procession of cars going by thinking, "is this it? How lame!" But then, the cars were gone, and the fun stuff started. For 2 full hours we stood watching group after group go by all dressed in amazing costumes. I wish that we could have read the Dutch. All the groups had signs. I could only read a few of them.

There were a couple traditional floats, but most groups came with just their costumes and smaller float-style props like strollers and wagons that had been completely transformed with balloons, foam, and other items into whatever they needed them to be. Families walked together. Babies in matching costumes and with makeup on, slept with their heads flopped sideways in their fancy stollers completely oblivious to the noise around them. Bands played and most groups had a wagon with a speaker system hidden inside playing traditional carnival music loudly.

They threw some candy, but not a lot. The girls also got a few little things... a heart flashlight key chain, a pen, and a ball. One group ran around with ribbons and strips of netting tying them to people's arms. A young girl tied a bow around both Arianna and Luci's arms and though my girls didn't understand why (nor did I... couldn't read that sign), they liked to be given something. Towards the end of that group a mother and 2-year old girl dressed alike came up to Elise and gave Elise a small handful of ribbons tied in bows. I think we're supposed to remember something.

Have I mentioned that these people can make absolutely anything out of foam???? It is amazing! The bird hats in the photo above are entirely made of that brightly colored thin craft foam that is so vogue for kids these days. We saw hat after had made of that and even strollers wrapped all around in foam with foam windows to make it look like a pirate ship.

Anyway... that was it. Two hours of costumes and fun. The little girls all enjoyed it. My big girl tolerated it. I loved it. I love seeing the families together - seeing infants and children walking, riding, and being carried by their parents and grandparents, all wearing the same costumes and participating together. It's a beautiful thing and people were all smiling and having fun. We'll definitely next year and then, we'll all dress up.

It's 0335 and I just got home from the Dutch Premier of the latest Harry Potter movie - now probably still three hours ahead of the earliest U.S. premiers. It's kinda funny to think of all those people standing in line on the east coast while I'm heading off to slumber knowing exactly what this movie was like. No spoilers here... but, being the Dutch premier was interesting. We saw the original version - only with Dutch subtitles. They change the names of many of the characters which is strange. The show began at 2355 (11:55pm) and ended right around 0230 with the 20 minute intermission. The red carpet was rolled out with large advertisements for the movie all around, and in one corner, a lady dressed up with a gown and witches hat, stood at three tall tables housing small clear plastic footed cups with drinks of assorted colors. The green ones were non-alcoholic and tasted like diluted watermelon/apple jello. The others in red, yellow, and orange were VERY alcoholic - quite strong actually, and came in various unidentifiable fruit flavours. The tables were there, attended, but not really supervised. The drinks were free. Anyone could walk up and grab, one, two, or more. I had two... that was plenty.
We all ate candy and good old-fashioned American popcorn. That's what it said on the red, white, and blue starred box. And, that Dutch "American popcorn" was better than anything I've ever had in the states.

At midnight just before the show started, Tiara turned 12. I teased her about waiting until it was midnight on the West Coast, but gave in and gave her first present to her there at the theatre. All in all a good night.

So have you heard about the great mountains of The Netherlands? You know, they might just be vying for a position to host the next next winter Olympics!

Ok, ok... so yes, The Netherlands is flat almost entirely with most of the country below sea level. But, that doesn't stop the Dutch. These people are world travellers and skiers and there's no telling them not to ski in the summer. So, they built SnowWorld.

Yesterday, we went skiing with a bunch of friends, looking for something fun to do and excited about the idea of skiing in July.

SnowWorld is a indoor ski center in Landgraaf, NL just about 30 minutes from our home where you can ski any day of the year. There is one small area for beginners and young kids with a conveyor belt so that they can step onto it and get slowly moved up the hill at a non-threatening pace. Arianna spent quite a bit of time there confidently skiing on her own in that little area. Some of her friends played in that area with their little red sleds.

Just to the left is a banana tow, a rope tow with plastic "bananas" that hook behind you and pull you up. Then, just to the other side of the run sits the one and only chair lift there. It's not bad. It goes up a ways in between two runs that weren't open that day and over the top of a mid-hill restaurant advertising "biertje?" and other Dutch foods. (bier is beer) It lets you off at the top, of course, and then there is one run to go down that is a perfect beginner run.

I decided to take ALL FOUR GIRLS with me for the day confident that Arianna and Luci would remember how to ski and I could ski for a while with Elise before she went home with a friend. Tiara got there, got ready quickly, then took off skiing before I even had the little girl's skis on.

Arianna was nervous, but went up the banana lift by herself and skied down pretty well, falling once, but not being upset by it. Luci, on the other hand, forgot how to ski. She was scared. So, I finally got her and Elise up the banana lift comically, then told her to make her pizza with her skis and go down while I held Elise between my skis to help her down. Luci made her pizza, pointed down, built up speed, and crashed. Poor thing. So, I picked Elise up, skis and all, and raced down to where Luci crashed with Elise on my hip. Elise loved skiing with me holding her between my skis, but I couldn't do that all day and she didn't want to try anything by herself. Luci will do great again in ski lessons, but needs more instruction before she has the confidence to ski by herself again. So... I did another run each with Luci and Elise and then sent them inside with a friend so she could take them home with her. I am a mother, not a ski instructor and while I feel great about helping Tiara, I am not skilled to logic with little people on the slopes. Arianna skied a while longer and then we all went in for lunch. Aria saw my friend, LaVonne with her sisters and decided that playing with the dogs was going to be more fun than being cold. FREEDOM! Tiara and I skied the rest of the day both together and with our friends. She's FUN to ski with! Confident and fast.

So, there it is... indoor skiing. This place is great for people who love to ski and want to continue in the summer. It's great to train. It's great for beginners. It's set up beautifully with everything that you need pretty conveniently located. However, being indoors, it lacks trees and sky - two things that play a large part of my ski addiction.

Will I go back? Probably, occasionally with friends. Often, not. I need sky and trees and a variety of runs. This one run was fun, but got boring really quickly and I can imagine that on a busier day, the little slopes would fill up making it impossible and probably a little dangerous to attempt a good run down the hill. Tiara enjoyed herself, but she felt the same way. She'll go with friends to have a good time and be social, but it's not a place she needs to go a lot. We prefer the mountains. Send us to the Alps!

We're having unseasonably cold weather here. According to one German neighbor, the "siebenschlaefstag" foretold more cold coming this summer. This is a day, a seemingly random day in June, that is much akin to our Groundhog's Day in that whatever the weather is on this special day, that will be the predominate weather for the next 8 weeks of summer. Oh boy. Gotta love that. Just serve up a little bit of sun, a lot of rain, and extra cold on the side.

Tonight Tiara had ballet and we went for ice cream to pass the time. On a warm summer day, the Sittart markt would have been absolutely packed with people. Each restaurant would have been full with people spilling out to fill the sidewalk seating. This evening, the markt was like a ghost town. Restaurants open with only one table to serve and the space heaters on outside like it was January.

Still, we went for ice cream as promised. The little ones wouldn't let me go anywhere else despite the cold. We just sat inside. I enjoyed my usual cappuccino with a cookie and a small cone dish filled egg liquor with whipped cream on the side.

The walk back to ballet was nice as always. We took the little path behind Putstraat, looked for the goblin in the tree that my dad told the girls about one trip of his, looked at the chickens, and climbed up on the hill above Fort Sanderbout where the trees are espaliered and you can enjoy a beautiful view of the rooftops and a sneaky peak into some one's back yard and living room.

When there is a nice day, I really would like to go and sit outside with my camera poised so that I can catch the bicyclists going by. Here, it is not at all uncommon to see two adults on a bicycle. One peddling and the other sitting sideways on the back where a basket would normally sit on market days.

Summer break is here now, I'm trying to catch up on all the backburnered items from the year. That could take a small eternity, so I'm making an effort to do at least one fun, mommy-involved thing with the kids each day. Today was painting - always a favorite with all four, and, for me, it's really a treat to see the finished product as they always reflect the individual styles and developmental stages of my little artists.

This morning I met some friends for coffee at Bagels and Beans near the Sittard markt. It was market day (all Thursdays), so I walked around the market a bit too to pick up a few things. Really, the markets are the BEST places to get produce and a lot of other things. I think Sittard probably has the best fish and some of the most wonderful cheeses.

So, today, I got 4 quarts of strawberries for only 3 Euro (not each, total price), 4 pineapples for 2 Euro, 12 apples for 2 Euro, and two quarts of seedless grapes for only 3 Euro! I love buying produce at the market. It's always beautiful and so much less expensive than anywhere else. I also got 5 lavender plants in 5" pots for only 5 Euros total. What a deal!

Driving to the grocery store should always be this beautiful. Here, it is. I should never complain. As much as I regret the time I have to drive some days, or the hassle of shopping itself, the drive is always a gift. Today I saw a pair of kittens playing together in a window, an old man sitting on a bench in the sun with his car parked nearby, a striking lady in a pink jacket bicycling down a narrow shady street, and many other people gardening, walking, and bicycling. On this route today I saw horses, sheep, goats, and dogs as well, and the largest Queen Anne's Lace ever - these blooms were as big as dinner plates and covered an unused field with stalks 4 feet tall. These drives while often hurried with my mind racing with dinner plans and grocery lists, are still, peaceful reminders of passing time and a slower life outside my window where life is simple and blessings are abundant. These are more "everyday" views of my world here that I've come to cherish.