Meredith Carson... Across the Pond and Back Again...

Yesterday I sat between my daughter and a friend's daughter at our church's family Christmas eve service.  There were poinsettias and angels and candles everywhere.  The message was about love and life and Christmas, familiar stories told with language that moved me deeply.  We sang the hymn "Star Child" in the middle of the sermon, and I was done for.  I felt that wonderful, painful, upside down, happy and sad feeling that wells up in my rib cage and emerges through my tear ducts.  I almost went into the "ugly cry" there for a moment. After the service was over, the mother of a very dear friend who was seated nearby grabbed me forcefully and hugged me like only a mama can; just what I needed.  She spoke warmly in my ear, "Thank you for being my daughter's friend."  Of course I welled up again.  I felt overwhelmed as the reality of my blessings snapped into clear focus.  I felt euphoric and filled wi...

When we lived overseas, I missed Thanksgiving ever so much .  Even though we always celebrated  the weekend before or after with turkey and most of the trimmings, I found myself downright depressed and annoyed when I had to wake up early in the morning on Thursday and Friday and hustle my little darlings off to school.  Thanksgiving weekend is definitely one of the best weekends of the year in my opinion. We spend the weekend cooking, eating, watching silly family movies, eating, pulling out a few Christmas decorations, reading, playing games, eating a bit more, and beginning to dream about the next time we will bake pumpkin pie.  The Carsons do not "do" Black Friday.  We hunker down, cuddle up, wear cozy clothes and mismatched socks, and savor the fact that we are NOT fighting crowds or being trampled by somebody's Granny who's determined to get her mitts on the last vibrating "personal massager" sale priced on aisle 4.  You'r...

Holy Cow!  Did y'all know it was November?!  We all survived the fall rituals of pumpkin selecting, pumpkin carving, pumpkin soup eating, pumpkin costume wearing, trick-or-treating, and the most dramatic rose ceremony yet (also known as last week's presidential election).  October, for us, has been a wonderfully busy blur.  We have all managed to get to our lessons and practices, get to school on time (most days), and still participate in all of the essential seasonal activities.  My writing has suffered, but my kids are happy, and I am pleased to report that I seem to be keeping my usual seasonal depression at bay with the help of some low dose pharmaceuticals.  Can I get a whoop whoop? So... for my friend Sonia across the pond, here is a review of our October in pictures.... We picked a peck of impeccable pumpkins at Grandma's Pumpkin Patch. That kid struggling in the background with the 40 pound pumpkin also belongs to me. ...

I suspect that fall has always been rather beautiful in Michigan.  This is my third fall here, but this is the first time I have really appreciated the beauty associated with dying chlorophyll.  Trees have burst into flaming shades of red, yellow and orange.  My three year old and I sit at the window and watch the leaves gracefully cascade toward the earth while she squeals and I breathe it all in as though I were observing it intentionally for the first time. Allow me to back up.  I am a girl who adores summertime.  I love blue skies, warm water, peaches, and sundresses.  I love the sunshine and the way it makes me feel.  I begin to fret at the beginning of September because I know, from experience, what lies ahead for me as summer comes to a close.  The days get shorter, my brain becomes foggy, and I become as lethargic as an old house cat. This year I decided to be proactive.  Per my GP's referral, I v...

I had never devoted much thought to the trumpet.  It is a fine instrument, and Dizzy Gillespie was beyond words fabulous, but before tonight, I had never really had a personal experience with the trumpet. But lately my daughter Emma has been talking a lot about the trumpet.  She is a girl who knows her mind and knows exactly what she wants.  When the opportunity to join the 5th grade band presented itself, she was all over it, and she knew that the trumpet was the instrument for her. What?  Everybody plays trumpet in bed, right? Tonight Emma's Dad took her out and signed a rental agreement on a brand new, shiny, fantastic trumpet.  I looked at the final price on the agreement, and made Emma swear that she wouldn't change her mind about the trumpet next week.  She promised.  Then she took off all of the plastic and attempted to wow us with a forceful, solid blast from her new instrument.  She got there eventually, and the littlest Carso...

I don't exactly know where to begin. Sometimes I feel compelled to state the obvious.  Bear with me.  I am a little slow, and "the obvious" is not always so obvious to me. I live with three children.  All of them are very comfortable leaning on, nuzzling into, and generally treating my body like a beanbag chair.  Most children are like that.  My daughters think nothing of climbing into my bed and burrowing into my flesh as though I were a favorite cushion.  There is great security in that kind of physical intimacy.  Children know this.  We are all born knowing this, but at some point we forget.  We grow up.  We become independent.  We stop snuggling close to our mamas and friends. (At least most of us do.)  Not too long ago my eldest daughter told me, "Mom, I just cannot even imagine you being a kid.  You are just SO boring and grown up."  I tried not to take offense.  I am her mother, after all,...

This was the extremely pleading request of my almost-three-year-old today.  "Can we PLEASE go on an adventure??!"  I decided that visiting the DMV, although necessary and ripe with people-watching opportunities, did not qualify as an exciting kids' adventure. I've had this idea up my sleeve all summer, and today seemed like the perfect day, not to mention one of our last summer days, to have an OUTDOOR SCAVENGER HUNT!  After rather expeditiously renewing our license plate registrations at the secretary of state's office, I took all three girls to a local forest .  I gave them each a list, a pen, and a camera*, and a super-fun afternoon ensued.  (*Lilianna Carson actually left her camera in the car, but that turned out to be all for the best.) It was a perfect afternoon for old and young alike. Here is the list I gave to my older girls: Can you find…. ·         Something beautiful ·    ...

So there we were in an average, over-priced hotel room while buckets and buckets of rain dumped down on the outside world.  We were just about to put on our bathing suits and head down to the unexceptional hotel swimming pool when my oldest daughter blurted, without thinking, "I don't even mind having a baby sister if I still get to go swimming with my Mom!" I wondered how long she had been waiting to say something like that.  Earlier that afternoon the two of us had climbed into the car and driven less than an hour away where we checked into a hotel and headed out to do some shopping.  She had hardly stopped talking since we left the house.  At one point she paused to take a big breath and then carried on telling me about everything important that happened in fourth grade, things I had never even imagined.   There weren't any toddlers to chase or sighing eight year olds to console.  All of my attention was focused...

There really is no excuse for this.  We have been back in the US for over two years now, and we have a local, hometown baseball team.  But we just hadn't taken our poor children out for an evening of watching America's favorite pastime.  They were seriously deprived... but that was so last week.  Now they have experienced the thrill of a minor league baseball game. We paid six bucks each to sit on the lawn and watch the game.  It was worth the price of admission when Mama got a little choked up after a Vietnam veteran invited us all to stand for the national anthem, which was played by a lovely brass band.  My kids have stopped asking, "Mom, why are you crying?" because I do it so frequently.  (Watching the Summer Olympics has been a complete sob-fest incidentally.)   All of the kids decided the best thing about the game was the stadium food.  My daughter Emma will totally appreciate my posting this very attracti...

There are several recipes out there for "3-Ingredient Healthy Ice Cream."  Just so you know, this is NOT a particularly healthy recipe.  It is, however, very fun and easy enough for a two year old to make (with a little assistance).  We got this recipe from one of those Good Housekeeping magazines your mama gave us. Ingredients: 1 pint (which is 2 cups) of heavy whipping cream 1-14oz. can of sweetened condensed milk 1+1/2 teaspoons of real vanilla extract Directions:  Whip all of the above in the bowl of an electric mixer until it forms firm, stiff peaks.  (This will take at least 5 minutes.) Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan.  Cover and freeze for at least 8 hours.  Lick the beaters.  Stick your face in the bowl and lick that too while you're at it.  When you take it out of the freezer the next day, it will be very cold. You might be a little annoyed that your mama wants you to hold it while she takes a picture. ......