Therapeutic Steam

You know, there is something about cooking that straightens out my thinking.  Or maybe I just cooked so much tonight I am too tired to be very stressed out.  

What a lovely evening.  Today was another wack-a-doo day at work.  There are many of those anticipated in the future.  But I try not to write very much about work here.  I am grateful to be gainfully employed in the field I spent many years getting educated to work in (and I recently read that the rule about not ending a sentence with a preposition is silly and outdated, but it still just feels wrong to me).  

I am now on vacation.  I don't return to work until July 14.  Yippee.  I am excited about it.  

I have a huge family dinner here tomorrow.  So, tonight I made potato salad and I forced my daughter to make a key lime pie.  And after she made it, she talked to her boyfriend on the phone about how she made this pie all by herself and she will be happy to make him one... it was so cute.  

I came into the house from the back yard and saw that steam rising off my stove and all the stuff all over the counter and it made me so happy.  I am pretty compulsively neat, so I cannot possibly LEAVE stuff all over the place like that, so when I see it, I know there is something really special going on.  And there is.  

Tomorrow my brother, who lives far, far away in North Carolina, will be here.  And his wife, who has been my sister-in-law since 1965.  And their son.  And his wife, and their three children - and my niece's two children.  And my three children (adults to anyone but me).  Oh joy.  I am so excited.  My brother and his wife have never been to this house.

Tomorrow I need to get up early to get to mass before the day begins.  Then I have another pie to bake, and some last minute sprucing up to do, and more cooking.  My son will be manning the grill, which is a good thing.

This is good stuff.  Very good.