Try and try again

My social calendar has been filling up once again.  This is a good thing, of course, but it’s going to be rough once all my friends disperse to the four corners of the country come summer.

Friday morning I hosted a mothers’ coffee here at my house.  A couple of my friends brought their kids over to play with Grace, and a new friend joined us with her two little girls.  I am so thrilled that Grace now has some girls to play with.  I love my friends’ kids, all of them, but being boys, they can be rambunctious.  This is good for getting out all of Grace’s wiggles and giggles and energy — but these new little girls are encouraging Grace to branch out into more quiet and sedate play.  It won’t hurt her to learn how to enjoy herself whether she’s with energetic little boys or quieter, more imaginative little girls.

I made a new recipe to share with the girls — a quick whole wheat and molasses bread.  I’d made one loaf last week to serve with my poached and roasted chicken, and it was absolutely delicious.  I had issues with it, though; there wasn’t nearly enough liquid for all the dry ingredients. So I added more buttermilk and more molasses, and it came out so deliciously.  This time I kenw I needed more liquid, but I guess I didn’t add quite enough molasses.  It was sweeter and tastier the first time, though the second loaf was by no means inedible.

Note to self: Add more molasses next time.

As if that weren’t enough excitement for one day, I took Grace over to my friend’s house to play with her boys for a while, and then she took me out to dinner for my birthday.  Yes, yes, my birthday was three weeks ago, but she was away on vacation that weekend and couldn’t come to my birthday party.  This weekend was the first chance we’d had to celebrate together, so we leaped at the opportunity.  Two ladies, out for dinner and drinks, away from husbands and kids.  What a wonderful night!

The photo above was snapped during our night out; B had ordered a cosmo while I indulged in a mango margarita.  I know I have found an excellent friend in B.  Not only did she suggest I take a photo of her drink for my one-photo-a-day project, but she very patiently allowed me to monopolize her drink to shoot it from every different angle.  Many people wouldn’t have been nearly so patient with me.  I’ve irritated more people than I can count with my need to take photos.

When I agreed to do this one-photo-a-day project, I did it pretty much on a whim.  My friend presented it, and I said, “Oh sure!  Sounds fun.”  I knew I could do it, since I have at least one camera with me at any point in time, but I didn’t realize really how much it would entail.  I’m not just taking a quick shot to post to get it over with, not usually.  Always I’m thinking about what I could photograph, the lines, the textures, the small things that few people would pick up on.  I’m trying to push myself, to find something new, to see things I haven’t seen before.  I don’t always succeed, and sometimes I don’t have time to come up with a decent shot.  Life does occasionally interfere.  But I try my best to keep those days to a minimum.  I have to keep up with the other members of the group, you see.  Those two ladies take some amazing photos.  I’d hate to shame them with my contributions.

I think tomorrow we’ll check out a flea market in our area.  Talk about excellent photo opportunities!!  Plus the weather should be perfect, 50º and mostly sunny.  I think spring is on her way.

Happy Pi Day to all my fellow nerds out there!