Small Pleasures April 30-May 20th, 2018

At the end of the school year the university honors two faculty members for their teaching excellence, one who is tenure track and the other who is an adjunct. This year both were in our dept. I had to keep the secret for the better part of a month and try to get their loved ones to the ceremony without raising suspicion.

Date night. We actually seem to have a responsible babysitter and got to go out for dinner. After eating at a great local place we went for a walk downtown and saw this goose family out for a stroll down the river.

Legos at the library.

A sisterly embrace.

And another:

It's not easy to do this when you're 5'10". The weather was gorgeous. I made a totally satisfying meal out of random parts: leftover roasted cauliflower with cumin and red pepper flakes tucked into corn tortillas spread with guacamole, topped with black beans and some salsa. 

Graduation:

2 students who started with French 101 and completed the undergrad minor.

1 student who completed the undergrad minor and then got his Master's.

       

Summer reading lent to me by a jaw-droppingly amazing student. She taught herself a full year of French during the winter break in order to start with French 203. If you walked into my classroom on any given day you'd think she was in the wrong class-that the class was too easy for her and you'd wonder why she wasn't in a higher one. She's double majoring in Spanish and knows I like it but my skills are rusty. I'm hoping I'm worthy of this assignment.

Every spring this tree at the back of our house flowers. It's visible from our reading area (aka formal dining room) where we have a pub table, cool lamp, and generally like to work. It's so peaceful, fragrant and beautiful. 

Trying on grandma's glasses (and later mommy's).

A few blocks from my house a developer cut down a bunch of trees to build a house but stopped before actually building it. This was a few years ago. In the years since wild vegetation has regrown including some tulips. While walking the dog a few days ago I had to smile at this. I think of tulips as being so traditional, well-behaved, trustable flowers. To see them surrounded by a tangle of weeds and shrubs was so incongruent but the juxtaposition was lovely.

Courtney gave K a wooden toy made up of geometric colored shapes that you arrange in patterns. It comes with patterns like animals and you lay the wooden pieces on top. Or you can freehand it. On the left I've freehanded this cheerful design. On the right J created with them in 3D to make a village.

Sunday was rainy and dreary. M and J hadn't had much one on one time recently. So K and I went to a coffeeshop. She loves helping me with my coffee. I got her a steamed milk with a few tablespoons of decaf coffee of her own. She loved it!