Tuesday Miscellany

* An earthquake awakened me at 5:30 a.m. That was weird! I've felt one small one here before and one in New York. Very unearthly feeling for such an earthly thing.

* I think the earthquake scared the poop out of my dog, literally. She pooped on the floor for the first time in months. In case you were wondering.

* We're having company for dinner that we've never met. That's always fun! They are friend of friends back in Iowa who are contemplating moving here, as any sensible person would. I'm serving lasagna. I don't know how one couldn't fall in love with this part of the world on a week like this. The azaleas are so outrageously beautiful and something else pops out nearly every day.

* I love the end-of-the-year feeling. I'm not quite counting down the days, but nearly. But I will say this: only six more weeks until my oldest child graduates.

* I've been consumed with oldest child events and issues lately. Senior photo shoot for newspaper on Thursday, prom on Friday, real senior photos on Sunday, and making Eagle Scout ceremony preparations this week. And then dealing with various other things that happen in the lives of teenagers… As we tell him not infrequently, we are figuring out all of this ourselves, too, this parenting thing. He's a great kid, and we are very blessed.

* Yesterday I spent an hour or so just with our youngest son at the park. It was lovely. I sometimes feel a tug at my heart when I think about how much he's "missed" by being the youngest child. All those afternoons at parks, all those lazy days with play-dough and art projects. Oh, he's had a good supply of those things, but it seems like our older kids had so much more of that relaxing down-time. So much more of us.

* And on that depressing note, I'm off to dust the pollen off the mantle.

Have a terrific Tuesday!