I have been blessed to host my youngest sister, Frankie, this week.  Frankie is a principal this year, and she was given permission to attend a fabulous conference at McCormick Place in Chicago.  I have forgotten the appropriate term (I’m sure she will help me out when she reads this), but the subject was how to make sure the classroom teacher reaches all the student’s levels of ability with each lesson.

Slightly off track here….I was astonished to learn that many schools no longer use text books!  I was aware that text books are available on computers, but schools have gone a step further, and do not use any form of text book!  Teaching has changed remarkably from when I was in a classroom, and it looks like it’s about to change a lot more!

At any rate, Frankie went to the first day of the conference on Wednesday, and then came here for the night.  She lives in the Eastern time zone, we are in the Central time zone, so that was working against her, on top of a full day at the conference and two long drives.  We chatted over dinner, and then sent her off to bed.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday she took an early train into Chicago, and a cab to McCormick Place.  Dear Husband took her to the train on the first two days, leaving before 6:00 a.m., and I drove her to the train on Saturday.  I dropped her off at the “Kiss and Go,” and she wanted to know where the kiss was.  I blew her smooches, since I was belted into the car seat.

Now, when we go to Frankie’s house, she goes all out!  The house is gorgeous, beautifully decorated and cleaned to a shine.  The menu is always fabulous, and she has us dine at a lovely table.  We have always felt like royalty when we visit.

Frankie comes to MY house, and there are banker’s boxes sitting all over the place.  She has to make her own coffee, and helped me to put the sheets on the bed in the guest bedroom.  In other words….she’s not treated like royalty, but more like my kid sister.  I HAVE to do better!

We did try to cook for her.  With all that was going on we managed to give her dinner.  Broiled Salmon with roasted potatoes and onions, roasted asparagus and Caesar salad on Wednesday, Minestrone on Thursday, and a Barefoot Contessa dinner: Penne with Braised Short Ribs, and a crunchy salad from Cook’s Illustrated on Friday.  We even managed some variety for breakfast.  While it was fun to try new things, and to share old favorites with her, it’s nothing like what she does for her guests.

The best part of the week, of course, was the chance to see Frankie, and hear what she was learning, and just be with her.  We are at points in our lives when it isn’t as easy to spend time with each other, so I value any time that I have.

After breakfast this morning there was a rush to the car.  I was standing just inside the garage while Frankie loaded up her car.  We both heard a cardinal call “birdie, birdie, birdie, BIR-DIE!” and we called back.  I said something about the fact that the sun was rising and sang, “the sun’ll come out, tomorrow..”  Frankie said that she stores up phrases in her mind, and today’s was something about  “singing up the sun.”  I got TWO hugs, and then she was off.

I hope the morning is memorable. Frankie will hear Sandra Day O’Connor and Maya Angelou speak before she goes home. What a wonderful cap to an interesting conference.  I’m so glad these people made it possible for me to spend time with my sis!

…since I last posted.  My friend, Cop Car, has written, asking if we were all right.  Yes, we are, and thank you so much for asking!

Those of you who follow this blog know that we intended to put our house on the market last year at this time.  When the realtor came to visit, he asked that we box up as much of our belongings as possible, to give prospective customers a sense of how big the rooms are, as well as to give them the idea that we are ready to move out NOW!

I started the packing in March, and worked on it for three or four months.  (Do you sense some denial here? *G*)  Then, My-Sister-The-Nurse, Frankie, and her youngest daughter came to visit, and they packed up half the kitchen, the china and crystal, and assorted other rooms.  It sounds like we are ready to go, right?  NO!  We now have a house that looks normal. Unfortunately, the bookshelves seem to be filling up again, and I had to cull through things on the bathroom shelves a second time.

We have two rooms that have not been touched: the office, and my sewing room (studio).  The realtor said that we could tidy them, but leave them as functioning rooms.  That’s good, in that we can continue with our lives, and bad, in that we have ALL that to box up.

So, this weekend, my job has been to go through about eight banker’s boxes, to determine if things need to be tossed out, or reorganized and stored.  I found family genealogy papers, and  papers that need to be mailed to my siblings.  Some of this material was my Mother’s, and some goes back to my grandparents.  I have one box that is just pictures that I want to sort through when things are calmer.  I have a box of materials for our shredder which is getting a workout!

While I was working on the boxes, Dear Husband was guiding three high school age teens to carry things out of the basement to a dumpster.  They actually overfilled it, so we will have to take some of it off before they come to pick it up, but it’s good not to have to run up and down the stairs.

So….it’s real.  We’ll sign the contracts shortly and the house will be on the market.  I’m afraid it may take a long time to sell, but that’s another of those good and bad things.