Mixed Moss

My dad is in town this week. This means that he and I have been doing all kinds of lovely dull things, like going to the hardware store, sanding and re-painting the kitchen stairs railing, burning brush piles out back, and baking pasties (weird miner food that are basically like little turnovers with meat and […]

Is it a sign of a problem when you take your pills with coffee?
I have this emotional dependency on coffee. It’s quite sad, really. It’s not even a chemical dependency, because I drink decaf.
Now before you say anything, there’s a reason for the whole decaf thing. I just function better when I have little to […]

1) We had a British Christmas this year: Sunday roast with peas and Yorkshire pudding, and a sticky pudding for dessert (the sort with cherries and chocolate in it and decorated with holly sprigs). Sam and Rachel, I’m sure, will appreciate that one.
2) I watched White Christmas and Pirates of the Carribean on TV. Now, […]

If it weren’t for that whole Christian thing, Christmas would be awfully depressing. Not merry at all. Certainly not the most wonderful time of the year. In fact, I’m sick of Christmas songs that tell me to be merry, joyful, and peaceful when I’m feeling anything but. I hope that doesn’t make me a scrooge.
I […]

Every year my grandmother makes cookie trays. She gives them to neighbors, family, school teachers, etc. This year my family isn’t going to her house for Christmas for, like, the first time. So I made “grandma” cookies for our family. Here’s a picture. Not quite the astounding variety my grandmother achieves, but I’ll improve next […]

We don’t dare put up more than lights and ribbon. Even with those we keep a close eye on her– lest she fall and get caught in them. Doesn’t she look possessed? Her eyes reflected the flash.

My sister’s cat, Reagan (yes, she is named after that Reagan– what? It’s a good, strong Irish name!) climbs our Christmas Tree. It is not a real tree, and she has no front claws; but so strong is her urge to climb that she hikes herself up with her front legs until she’s six feet […]

I don’t approve of gambling. Especially the lottery. It seems to me absurd that the Great State of Ohio, as it is called, or indeed anybody, should make money off of other peoples’ ignorance and misfortune.
But it occurred to me today that we are all gambling.
I read Parke’s post on Living the Fairytale, and the […]

This week I giggled (between prayers) over the fact that there was a terrorist bomb scare at my Grandma’s mall (where my cousin Khristina works) in Illinois and a tornado in London. Wait a minute…

A long winter
silent, soft and deep
pens me in
outlasting its time
wearing out its welcome.
Numb, inert
I huddle beneath
a downy heap
shivering
loth to move
as early darkness
oppresses my afternoon.
Look within your chill cocoon
find the strength you lost
the hope you could not find
the embers of the hearth fire
you thought had died out.
Let it warm you
melt the snow
and turn your eyes to […]