All of Prague was in a good mood and too many layers today. The weather soared above 50 degrees, the horse stables put out their beer garden benches, and despite collective bronchitis we hit the trails with Gus on his Strider bike. Everyone in town had the same idea, and we all grinned like sun-bedazzled fools in a sea of dogs, horses, bikes, scooters, walkers, strollers, and shockingly white arms.
The elation that taking off our coats brings us is only slightly above the elation this recipe brings us. It cleans out my fridge and allows for rampant substitutions. No sour cream? Try buttermilk or tvaroh or cream cheese. No basil? Cilantro, spinach, parsley, whatever. I grate in carrots, sweet potato, and zucchini. I double the broccoli and toss in pine nuts. I add whatever cheeses need finishing. I use spiral noodles and shells and whole wheat bow ties. It comes together in a jiffy and is one of the very few vegetable laden dishes that inspires Gus to praise.
As we sat at our little table in our little kitchen with our little man eating our mac and cheese today, we were awfully grateful for these little lives. It could be the delirium from seeing the sun for the first time in five months, but neither P or I knew that we were the kind of folks that would find joy and satisfaction in a long morning spent keeping a wild balance biker out of the river. We dig it. We dig it a lot.
Our Prague time is winding up, and we'll soon both be employed on a new continent. I've been thinking on whether I will continue to capture these little goodnesses in this personal blog while balancing writing about my work and also balancing just working on my writing. I'm in balancing conundrum. This blog existed to help me find joy in the ordinary and to keep me artisitically productive here in a new life in Praha. It has served me well, but it was never really intended for an audience. There are other things I need to write. I teach writers and believe very strongly they need to see me actively producing. Yet, it alarms me to put all my time into a blog for their benefits and not into the writing I hope may someday turn into a something. I'm just not sure how a teacher balances modeling writing while protecting his or her own writing space. One could wear themselves a little thin with too many blogs or too many articles or too many whatevers spread out in all directions for all audiences (and really...let's be honest...how many folks really want to read what's being said?). Neighbor B was kind enough to listen to me process earlier this week and she assured me I'm not the first teacher to ask these questions, but I cannot think of what to type into Google to find the answers: "How can I write and publish things I don't want to show my student communities and yet have the energy to professionally blog and offer writing samples that my students can read and also still feel like I have artistic direction and maybe maintain a personal blog..." Hmm. Thoughts, teacher friends? This will sort itself out. For now, I don't know what will be being typed next Spring, but for today, we are happy in our record of the littles.
Digital coloring of the last post's drawing. I think I prefer it.
