A lovely weekend

After three stay-at-home weekends in a row, thanks to D's new job teaching high school math (as a "non-traditional teacher") and new graduate school courses that are taking ALL of his spare time, this weekend has been lovely.
Friday night, we drove over to Berryville, about 30 miles away, to watch D's school, Green Forest, play their big rival. High school football is always so much fun, and D's little boys just did a great job, and tied the bigger team. I got a kick out of seeing groups of young students, when they'd spot Doyle, say to each other, "Hey! There's Mister D!" and come up and say hello. D's a natural with kids, and they're so blessed to have a teacher who cares about them so much.
After a day at home with chores and stuff, Saturday night we drove down to Jasper to help the Ozark Cafe' celebrate its 100th anniversary. What fun! The live music of the cafe's owner, Tim Ray, and his group JAZZPER, was just amazing. Tim is unbelievably talented - an opera major who somehow ended up owning a cafe in a tiny town in the Ozarks. He comes out of the kitchen, whips off his apron, gets on their little stage, and just BECOMES Jerry Lee Lewis, or Patsy Cline, or Elvis, or Ray Charles, or the guy from Les Miserables singing "Bring Him Home"...he's an amazing talent, and we had a great time eating pizza in the crowded cafe.
Then today, Mass with my sweetheart this morning, then a wonderful drive down through the Boxley Valley and into the little town of Kingston. See the slideshow I posted for photos, if you'd like.
A walk with my husband and our Great Dane Hagrid down at Crooked Creek - time to make homemade lasagna for my family, and then a great visit with my son Jamie, who came by for a little while - weekends don't get much better than this. Thank you, Lord!

Time to start ...

Welcome to my new blog, Just Thinkin'.
I blogged for a long time on Xanga, then for the past six months or so, have found myself spending too much time dancing around Facebook and too little time writing.
A follower of a number of wonderful blogs, I've decided it's time to try my hand at a new kind of blog of my own.
I don't know yet what it will grow into. I'll share my weekly newspaper columns. I'll share a little bit about what I'm thinking and reading. And I hope you'll share, in return.
Today is a sleep-late, headachey, rainy-outside, stay-in-the-house-and-do-laundry kind of day. My gorgeous, jade-green alpaca knitting yarn just arrived, for a prayer shawl that I plan to knit for my niece, who will marry in June. I'm not much of a knitter, but I'm excited about this project. I love the idea of knitting prayers together while I knit the yarn. Tangible blessings. Sort of like a yarn Rosary.