A little House for K.K.

is moving from imagination to dream to plan in our back yard. It's staked out now, and Ruth and I trimmed some trees to make room. K.K., very excited about her potential apartment helped too until a mosquito left a huge red welt on her forehead and her Auntie sent her in. The mosquitos love that child as much as I do, unfortunately. I know it is hard for Joanna to be away from K.K. so the girl can live in Austin and dance, and it's hard for me to have Joanna and the boys and Tracy and Drea moving to San Antonio for work - and I am excited about K.K. being a more everyday part of our co-household.

A Thank you poem for Chris

Home Cooking


Barefoot in the kitchen,
madras shorts, wild curls,
science fiction book open
on the counter. NPR on radio,
fluffy scruffy dog under foot,
you teach your son, one,
who stands on blue stool.
You teach him to break egg.
stir batter, place dishes in sink.
He brings you garlic, olive oil,
grater, parsnips, chocolate chips.
You pound the chicken thin,
make two sauces, spicy, mild,
consider all tastes, feed family.
Great blessing, you home cooking.

Happy Birthday Bob!

Today is Bob's birthday--We didn't do much of anything official to celebrate the day itself but it promises to usher in an exciting new year now that Bob will be officially back in Austin teaching 6th grade. (So thank-you AISD for a great Bob-Birthday gift). And thank you, Bob, for letting Liam and I bake you a cake even when you can't eat it. We love you!

Changes

So much is changing in our Stardust house. I can't even really keep up day to day. For sure Bob is coming home to teach sixth grade at Andrews School here in Austin. We are all thrilled about that, though a little overwhelmed by the work involved in closing the Corpus apartment. Also Joanna's family is probably moving to San Antonio for a work and housing opportunity and K.K. will probably stay with us to continue dancing at Ballet Austin. I find that pretty exciting, but again, there will have to be some structural changes to the house to accomodate her and her stuff - so much happening at once! The atmosphere is good, warm and full of laughter, often following Liam's lead. There is just a lot to do, and probably adjustments in the future for all of us. Life does feel very alive in the midst of so much love.

Red Deck

Chris and Ruth finished staining the deck tonight - It looks really good, a great shade of red to blend with the red brick of hte house and the warm yellow wood - happy deck. I'm astonished they got from nothing here so fast. There is still some touch up to do and installation of lattices around the bottom of the deck (so nothing can crawl under there and die), and they plan to use left over lumber to build a "cuddle nest" in one back corner of the deck.

Mary, you asked about the deck and the heat and bugs. We probably will be out there more morning and evening than mid day during the summer. It was pleasant at dusk tonight. Liam loves to be outside and we take him out quite a bit, and that is more comfortable on the deck than otherwise. We do have an umbrella table and some shade from the house and Danny's maple. We do intend, and in time, to add fans, a sun sail, and probably a mister system - but can't afford everything at once. We also intend a fire pit for winter. We haven't seen bees on the deck yet, but we probably will. We have seen mosquito's, but Ruth has some kind of lantern with citronella in it that helps a lot, and Bob bought a machine that is now in the back yard that does seem to keep them away. We may move it to the deck or get a second. Right now, already, our red deck improves the quality of out lives even though it is HOT here for the end of May.

Bob was home for the long weekend - very nice and will be home for the summer Friday. We've been talking about how to make it as good as we can to be a family of five full time in our home - exciting and I'm sure it will be challenging too. One good thing to report, is that the dogs are already calmer around each other, can sleep in the same room, though Lobo still runs if Duffy approaches (and yes, Duffy is much smaller than Lobo and utterly not fierce!).

Dinner on the Deck - at the table

Evenings are warm in the house and we are managinb not to turn on the AC yet. Tonight we escaped the stuffiness by eating Chris delicious dinner of risotto with chicken, corn and beans on the deck at the table, with cloth napkins and a candle lantern yet. It's a far cry from our first meal sitting on the as yet to be screwed down boards of a small portion of the deck. Ruth and I bought the last five of the concrete "feet" the deck stands on today, along with eight more planks. There is some wood yet to buy, but not much more before the whole basic deck is present. Then there will be staining to do and railings to build - but it is great to be as far as we are.

Deck steps

I can't get over Ruth's gift for design and construction. She's related to me???? I had fun tonight being carpenter's helper, even using the table saw a little, while we installed the deck steps in a cool angled design. They are really there, steps, for Liam and Chris to come up when they return from gaming later tonight.