Weather is such a big deal, isn’t it? I mean, unless you’re living in an underground bunker like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or something. But for the rest of us, it sets up our days to unroll in certain ways. It affects our activities and our moods. It is both the backdrop and the overlay to what we think and feel and do.

And sometimes in Texas, as you’ve likely read about in the news, we do weather in a very big way.

On certain gray days
passing trains sound lonelier
and the ground gives in

My youngest daughter really likes to cook. Like, you know how all kids like to bake? Cookies? Well, she likes to do that but she’ll go for the full meal deal. Curries. Fish. All variety of things out of fancy cooking magazines. She has had to throw full meals away and she shrugs and moves on. It’s pretty impressive.

Here’s tonight’s meal (not complete — in progress) and tonight’s haiku:

When kids learn to cook
there is the delicious thrill.
And there’s the clean up.

We’ll just let these pretty things speak for themselves:

Each petal, a ray
Each bobbing head is a day
Here’s how I keep time

I worship teachers and I’m jealous of them.

When you’re ten years old
there’s a lot you want to say.
You’re made of poems.

You guys? Everyday I think, I wonder if I can come up with a poem that isn’t about my dog?
Seriously. He’s that inspiring. And I’m a sap.

Do you see this face?
Launched a thousand tennis balls
and then brought them back.

Oh, weather.
Weather weather weather.
The weather of earth and the weather of life.
It’s something to notice, to grieve, to celebrate…

After a hard rain,
some of what was here before
dissolves, rolls away

My daughters were lucky enough to go to a sweet little neighborhood school — like if we ever forgot a bike there afterschool it was still in the rack the next morning, even if it was unlocked. Like all the kids knew the lunch monitors and custodians by name. Like, time flew….

But even as it did, one solid consistent loving miraculous element was the librarian — she’d been there loooong before we arrived (and when I say long, I mean decades) and she was there long after we’d moved on to middle and high school. She knew, and I am not exaggerating one bit, what every kid in school liked to read.

Well, last year she retired (I never realized she was mortal until then) and this year, today in fact, that school library has been re-named in her honor. We love you, Ms. Kraal. You’re magic.

Name your library
after a lover of books
and a champ of children

Y’know how when you’re not from Texas and you read about Texas you get this picture that is dry and flat and brown and boot kickin?

Well, let me tell you something about the spring here.

It is PRETTY. Like, really pretty.

The stars landed here
and burst into bright yellow —
What a way to go!

Yep, we’re still at the pool.
(See yesterday’s post :))

And this girl, my youngest?
Wow is she something in the air.
Don’t you think?

A girl like a bird
only braver, without wings.
Watch her catch herself.

Those of you I know personally know that my daughters are, well, part-fish.
I mean, they look human from the outside but we spend A Lot Of Time at various swimming pools.

This weekend, I’m at a dive meet with one; my husband’s at a water polo tournament with the other.
Y’know that old show The Wonder Years?
Our version is going to be called The Chlorine Years.

So, I take inspiration where I can get it! Here goes:

The podium tiered
like a frosted birthday cake —
Celebrating gifts