sore thumb

From my kitchen window I can look down on the treetops and see leaves gradually changing from green to red, green to yellow and green to burnt orange.  This is the first autumn I have actually noticed here in China.  It must be because this is the first time I've lived in a place with a great view and that view includes lots of trees.  How lovely. In Georgia we had an annual apple pickin' day around this time.  My folks and family would drive up to the foothills of North GA and we'd spend a morning in the orchard.  There were fried apple pies and cider to be bought and eaten.  The sky would be that brilliant blue that I always loves so much around the Toccoa area.   Is there really anything better than a day spent outdoors in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains?   How appropriate that I'm eating apple crisp this afternoon as I type.   Our provence is the biggest apple producer in the country.  You'd think with all those apples we'd have lots of apple trea

I miss my daughter.  I miss how I used to have the time each morning to get up and play with Madeleine for a bit before I needed to get ready for the day.  I hate how I have to tell her, "I can't play with you right now because....".  I just miss her.  And the worst part is that I know she misses me, too.  I guess that's good but at the same time I feel like it also means I'm letting her down and we both know it. The other afternoon I had helped her lay down for her nap.  As I was leaving the room she looked at me and said, "Mom, I love you SO much."  Just goes to show that even though life looks a bit different these days, she knows the love has only grown deeper.  What a relief. I'm tired tonight.  I like my new class schedule with taking all afternoon classes because I have time to study and prepare in the mornings.  The big downside is that I often don't get a nap and I think this new schedule is one of the reasons I don't have much time

A week ago tonight, Madeleine got her right arm stuck between a rubber ball and the moving belt on our treadmill.  It was horrible.  The belt took off skin around the wrist and on the inside of her forearm.  A doctor friend told us it was pretty much a 2nd degree burn and to treat it as such.  The hardest part was keeping bandages from sticking to it because for several days it oozed.  No blood but just a clear oozing.  Once we started putting wax paper down as the first layer of dressing (Phil's brilliant idea) things got much easier.  Tonight it looked so much better.  New skin is growing and we are just trusting for no major scars or no scaring at all. Madeleine has been a real trooper.  I came to a new conclusion throught this ordeal.  People who intentially harm children should be put to death.  I have always struggled with the death penalty because our system seems so easily flawed by corrupt judges, jurys, lawyers, cops, witnesses and too may innocent people have been senten