Cultivating a Place of Peace

These words came to me this morning as I was up early, bare feet padding on the hardwood floors. Seeming to emerge from nowhere, I stopped a minute to consider them when it hit me.  All the things I’ve been doing around the house lately flooded into my mind: cleaning, purging, organizing, planning, prioritizing.

I assumed all this activity has been part of my meager attempt at Spring Cleaning, but the revelation reveals I am desperate for a more simple existence and a place of peace at home.  To be quite honest, my home is not always peaceful – disorganization, clutter, and weeds catapult me into a state of craziness (my sister and husband can attest to this frenzied state) which often ends in me putting the blinders on and ignoring the problem.  Achieving that place of peace is no small task either especially when you live with a collector, or you’re too busy working to spend time to cultivate anything…but I’ve had a renewed sense of determination, and I’m ready!

Today my plans include making a list of all the things I want to accomplish around here in the next few months, and then I will start on the exterior.  It’s that time of year where we here in Western New York can get out and cultivate our gardens without the lingering threat of frost. I’ve put it off long enough; it’s time to get stated!  My mission is to focus on bringing a sense of simplicity, peace, and serenity to my home through a lot of prayer, hard work, and commitment to what I know is going to be a process.

Wednesday Walk

Walking with friends helps me think and it’s a great time to share. Since summer’s just around the corner, and spring is nearly over, take a walk with me.  See what I have to share!

• MapMyRun is great if you walk or run. I really like the map feature that allows you to “map a run!”

• Speaking of running – I’ve decided to do the Lilac 10K this year. EEK! The annual Lilac Festival is great fun, but I highly recommend getting out to Highland Park before the crowds arrive.

• We’ve been teaching our 1st and 2nd grade multi-age class about worms!  Ever thought about keeping a worm bin?  Check out this Worm Bin How To.

• Summer’s a great time to get out a try some new restaurants. A friend introduced me to Yelp.com for reviews. I’ve signed up and started reviewing as well.  Add me as a friend if you join!

• I know they’re not the best team in the league by any means, but if you’re ever in Pittsburgh, PA make sure to take in a game at PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Tickets are reasonable for an MLB game, and the views of the city are OUTSTANDING!

Friday Facts – Red Admirals

Warmer temps and southerly breezes resulted in thousands of Red Admiral (vanessa atalanta) butterflies flying around Rochester.  I have been seeing them en masse over the past two days.  Yesterday I was perplexed by the large number of “bugs” I saw on my drive along 104.  I noticed them again today, and decided to shoot some photos in my back yard.  They were numerous enough and not very skittish to allow me to dabble in a bit of photography!

The Red Admirals overwinter in Texas according to the reading I’ve done the last few days.  Reports out of Ontario, Canada are hailing the migration as the largest in 50 years!  A mild winter across North America has resulted in the prefect conditions for large numbers of butterflies to successfully emerge from their cocoons and move on to their destinations.  Southerly winds are bringing them far north, and they are feasting on the flowers that are starting to bloom around these parts.  Lilacs here in Rochester seem to be nearing or have reached their peak, and that will provide much needed nectar for these beautiful winged creatures!

Love Grows

Except when you don’t water it…

I apologize to my sister for picking on her and her horticulture skills, but I couldn’t help but laugh at this.

Girls’ Night – Indian Style (recap)

“It was better than I had actually expected.” ~ Adrienne

My sister is good at humoring me, and so took the opportunity to broaden her cultural horizons on Saturday.  I ordered some Indian food from Haveli Indian Cuisine here in Rochester and headed down to the country to eat and watch Bollywood Movies.  Here’s a look at what I selected (minus the galub jamun for desert).

Personally, I thought the okra and chicken dishes were really good! She was partial to the shrimp.  Neither of us cared for the potato vegetable samosas.

***

“I was entertained.” ~ Adrienne

Whether or not she really enjoyed the movies (Rab ne Bana di Jodi and Jab We Met), she at least was entertained.  We did a little bit of dancing, and we had a good laugh at strange English-subtitles. Here’s a couple of links to our (or at least MY) favorite songs from the films. And yes, I know there are no subtitles, but just enjoy the sound and spectacle!

Angry People, Angry Birds

Anger seems to be getting the best of people lately.  Hey, I’m human, I get angry too – but I seem to do a pretty good job of containing it in public.  This weekend was filled with angry people and birds (no joke) and I was there to witness it.

Saturday morning I was volunteering at the Flower City Duathlon/Triathlon here in Ra-Cha-Cha.  I was a road marshal (aka cheerleader) on the bike course. This other woman, Mary, and I were posted at a large, busy intersection on the course.  There were a few police on hand for when the cyclists would come through and need to cross the road.  The cops were very pleasant, and invited us to sit in the backseat of their cruiser so we could stay warm.  One of the guys told us to be prepared for angry people yelling at us.

As the large majority of bikes were coming through, the traffic was stopped, and it backed up for quite a while.  Now, I get it – I understand that it’s a royal inconvenience to have to wait for something like this. BUT, I was raised not to start a confrontation with the cops, and well, that’s life!  Sometimes you just have to wait and have a little patience.  I witnessed with my very own eyes two individuals get out of their cars, approach the police officer, and proceed to angrily address them about the situation.  They handled it very well, and I was just glad it wasn’t directed at me.

***

Fast forward to Saturday night: girls’ night at my sister’s house (another post will be coming on that one too).  I get to her house and  notice she’s got her chairs set up nicely on the front porch.  As I near the front door and she opens it, I say, “Your porch looks nice-” and my voice drops off as I look down at the chairs and then add, “except for the poop.”  Just take a look here for yourself…

My sister’s theory is that since she removed nests from around the front of the house, the angry birds are retaliating with a poop-barrage. EW!  Not to mention that this has been going on for almost a month.

AND, on top of that, the angry birds are crashing into every window on her house. Repeatedly. We’d be sitting there watching our movie and all of a sudden,

BAM.  BAM. BAM.             BAM.

All evening this continued.

In both the front and back, her windows are covered with bird goobers.  At one point I actually witnessed a grackle grab onto the screen of one of the windows and leer in at me.  We’re talking creepy – Alfred Hitchcock style!

I think I finally understand the premise of the angry birds game a little bit better based on this experience.

Girls’ Night – Indian Style

I can’t wait for tomorrow! I get to spend some quality time with my sister.  We’re going to have an Indian-themed get-together.  I recently bought two of the Bollywood movies that I really like, and I coerced my sister into watching them with me.  I’m not sure how excited she is, but I surely am.  I’m also going to expand her palette (and my own as well) with some Indian food.  I’m planning to try out some gol gappas, but other than that I’m not really sure what I’m going to get.

Do you have any suggestions?
Please share

Look at that cute little face!

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned here on my blog, but my little man Landon is going blind.  It makes me really sad, but he’s been getting around pretty well.  I had him over to the eye specialist last week, and his recommendation was to leave things as they are.  I feel less guilty about the cataracts and detached lens, but no one enjoys watching their loved one lose a sense (even if it is a dog).

Admittedly, this whole situation has made me a more patient “mommy” to my little pup.  It seems to me I’ve had a smidgen more compassion and kindness.  I’d like to think that this has helped me be a better person in general, and that God is using each and every circumstance in life to mold me.

na na na na na na na na… BATMAN!

Calling all Batman fans!

Aren’t you jealous?

No?  Well, probably no need to be.  BUT, it was pretty cool to get to sit in a custom built replica of the Batmobile from the 1960′s Batman TV series.

Friday my husband and I attended the Pittsburgh ComiCon.  It was a quiet day at the con, but my husband got what he came for: a few comics signed, a sketch by Jim Balent, and pictures sitting in Batman memorabilia.

What could be better?

Well, there are better things, but my husband was really happy and that made me happy too!

Polish This

If you’re a friend of mine, or you’ve been following my blog, you probably know by now that I have been studying Polish again.  I took Polish in college and unfortunately I didn’t retain much.  Now, I’m back in the language-learning saddle using Rosetta Stone , and I couldn’t be happier.

But why Polish?

That’s the $100,000 question on all your minds, isn’t it?

There’s this funny thing about Americans… we tend to identify ourselves with our ethnic background.  If someone were to ask me “what are you?” I’m most likely to say Polish.  Most of us probably don’t even bother to add the -American to the end of that (forget the fact that my mother is mostly Italian and my father’s mother is actually of German descent).  It’s weird, and believe me foreigners think we’re a bit crazy when we say it.   My students for example, they are Indian or Chinese or Ukrainian, and in their minds I am quintessentially American.  I digress on this point, but hopefully you see where I’m going.

I am Polish.  I was not born in Poland.  I didn’t grow up speaking Polish.  But it’s who I am, and I’ve got the Polish surname to prove it (even if it is the Male form of the name and I am a female – but what’s Polish grammar when you’re in America?).  This is such an essential part of who I am. Teacher. Runner. Wife. Daughter. Christian. I’m all of those things, but at my core I connect deeply with being Polish, and this has fueled in me an enduring love for Poland and its people.

My Grandpa Gene spoke Polish, though I don’t remember ever hearing it.  He died when I was 7.  But even at that early age, I think I knew that the language of my grandfather would hold a special place in my heart just as my memory of him continues to burn brightly there as well.

Over the years I amassed a knowledge of Poland – even in the days before I had access to the internet. My grandmother used to send me the newsletters in Polish that came to her house.  I found Polish pen-pals as I got into middle school.  Friends bought be a Polish cook book.  We investigated the Polish festivals over the years. My dad bought me a Polish Language learning cassette-tape series.  I read books on Poland whenever I could. My high school guidance counselor was Polish and she went to Krakow and I was jealous. She encouraged me to look into studying abroad, and it seemed only natural for me to study International Studies when I went to college. I was in luck too – Polish was one of the languages offered.  I even spent an entire summer doing an independent study focused on exploring the history of youth movements in Poland.

Can we say obsessed?

Maybe. But there’s no doubt all of these factors over the course of 30 years have helped shape me.

Actually going to Poland? Well, that has never been far from my mind.  And now that I’m “grown up,” have a stable job, and the means by which to get there, going to Poland no longer seems like the unattainable dream it once was.

So that’s why Polish.
It’s only natural.