Keith and I visited Kirby

I found this was still a draft, dated April 4. I think I had wanted to add photos to it, but I was having a hard time uploading them. I'm going to send it without.

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We drove to Austin Wednesday, March 27 spent three very busy days with Kirby, and drove home on our 29th anniversary, Sunday March 31.

We had a really good time. We went with Kirby to his regular Thursday night karaoke, and stayed the whole six hours. Friday, we went to Longhorn Cavern, and later to see Esther's Follies on 6th Street. They were both REALLY fun, but too much for one day.

Saturday, we went to the Ladybird Johnson wildflower center, ate at Kerby Street Cafe, and went to the Alamo Draft House to see Olympus has Fallen.

Kirby is sweet and patient and nice and kind to everyone.

While we were there, he found that he had gotten the shift he had requested, so later in April he'll be working from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. five days a week with Friday and Saturday off. That means he has two days to recover from karaoke each week. :-)

Here are some I saved (small format, though) for Just Add Light, from that drive and visit:

Thank you to those who helped fund Lori Odhner's Dogwood tree!

Lori has decided she would rather have two smaller trees than one big one.

To those below, who sent donations to help cover the cost of trees and planting by landscapers from Lori's town, thank you!! Some of you know me personally, some of you know Lori, and some of you helped because you knew my writing, or Lori's, personally.

1 Kristiva Stack
2 Davina Harrington (Australia)
3 Heather McLean
4 Karen James
5 Lydia Koltai (Lydia Lucas)
6 Christine Sanders
7 Torrance Pitcairn
8 Catherine Fox (Love in Action x)
9 Dawn Todd (Because your wisdom has helped me greatly. As thanks for that I would like to help you thank someone whose wisdom has been helpful!)
10 Melissa Yatzeck
11 Halfdan Bau-Madsen
12 Laura Bowman
13 Kandace Wright in NH
14 Jennifer Weed
15 Jill Brickman, Glenview IL
16 Laurel Wolfrum
17 Deborah Lewis
18 The Wyhowanec Family (Judith Stockinger)
19 Annina King
20 Heather Horgan
21 Andrea Cranch
22 Mel O'Leary (in Maryland, wrote "I don't know Lori, but if Sandra thinks so highly of her, she must be a special person. Enjoy your dogwood!")
23 Jihong Zhang (Jihong Larson)
24 Marta Pires (in Portugal, wrote: "You're welcome. It's really just a small way of saying thank YOU to Lori and to you too, because I know you appreciate her so much. You guys make a difference in the world! :-) ")
25 Robyn C.
26 George and Eileen Mahowald
27 Marin Holmes
28 The Davis-Pitre Family from Seattle WA & West Hartford CT
29 From Trisha Tinker's Family :)
30 Matt & Tori (Manchester,UK)
31 From Jennifer Hensley, who much appreciates all the wisdom that has trickled down to me from some wonderful women willing to give their time. I am a better wife and mother because of it. There is no greater gift than that. Thank you.
32 Sarah Clark, UK
33 Monty Kerr and Heather Booth
34 Tamara Shand
35 Shada Sullivan
36 Beth and Sean Lawing

On May 20, I sent $450 to Cranch Landscapers (I sent a bit less, actually, because Mrs. Cranch made a donation as well, bringing the total down a bit).

I'm grateful to all involved, and grateful to Lori Odhner for her continuing inspiration.

1000, 1400—lots of light

Tonight I wrote the 1000th Just Add Light post. A dozen of them don't show yet. One is for Learn Nothing Day. One has a good Christmas image. One is about baby Kirby and is waiting for me to find a particular photo and get it scanned.

Thank you if you read those, and if you don't, I invite you to do so.



A couple of days ago I was showing Holly how feedburner works, and noticed there were 1400 subscribers. It's a week of round numbes!

My favorite lately, very sweet and very attractive was this one:

"If you are choosing to be a mother, move beyond playing at it, and *be* it." —Pam Laricchia

Are You Playing the Role of “Mother”? by Pam Laricchia
(see also, if you're having fun, SandraDodd.com/being)
photo by Colleen Prieto

A Dogwood Tree for Lori Odhner

Photo by Stephen Conroy

On May 10, Lori's Marriage Moats post started:

I want a dogwood. Every spring when the trees that have spent the last eleven months as part of the unremarkable green landscape suddenly erupt in white glory, I remember. I want a dogwood.

The embarrassing part is that I forget each April. I bumble along, glad for foliage after a bleak winter. But when the jade branches abruptly wake up looking like a constellation of stars, I feel the prudence of my driving skills take a nose dive. I cannot rip my eyes off of the dogwoods.

She went on to create an beautiful analogy about marriage, as she can do so well, and the rest is here:
(Dogwoods, the original writing and image, in the Marriage Moats archive).

When I had my first baby in 1986, Lori was one of the two La Leche League Leaders at the first meeting I went to, and I went back for years. Though she wasn't always the leader, I liked it best and learned the most when she was. I have stayed in contact with Lori (and with Carol Rice, who was her co-leader), and I spoke at her Caring for Marriage conference in 2011.

I know, though, that I'm not the only person whose life has been touched by Lori's wisdom and patience.

I think she ought to have a dogwood tree, and I will find someone in Bryn Athyn or thereabout who will plant one where she wants it in her yard, if you will help me gather money. The more funds, the bigger tree we can give her.

If for some reason this can't actually be done, I'll refund all donations! I am very honest.

At PayPal there should be an option to leave me a message. Let me know what name or names to put on a note to Lori.

Choose amount

nice! $5.00 USD thanks! $10.00 USD Lori is sweet. $15.00 USD Good Plan! $20.00 USD

For those who don't have PayPal, my house address is

Sandra Dodd
2905 Tahiti Ct. NE                  (the "Ct." and NE are very important)
Albuquerque NM 87112

If you send a check or cash, please include a note letting me know who to include in the "from" note.

(This really lives here: http://sandradodd.com/LoriOdhnerTree but I figured having it where I could post a follow-up might be helpful.)

Woman dressed as a carousel

http://www.retronaut.com/2013/04/dressed-as-a-carousel/, around 1919.

I'm becoming more and more interested in photos of carousels, having realized in retrospect I had photographed them in England, the Netherlands and a mini kids's-ride one in Switzerland on the French border. I have a plan to go and photograph four or five in Los Angeles with Pam, and sometimes Roya, within a year. So I thought I would put this here for safe keeping and inspiration.

Good use of my book

I don't know where to put this, so lest I lose it I'm putting it here.

Marta Pires put it on my facebook page. Marta wrote that Ivan is "her sweet four year old son."

Sandra, a friend of mine (Ana Telhado) wrote me an e-mail yesterday and it was the sweetest thing! I asked her if I could translate what she wrote and post it on your wall and she said yes:

"I loved the video (your "Doing Unschooling Right" video with Portuguese subtitles) and the Portuguese page! And everything you sent me. Fantastic! Thank you so much!!!

Last night, when Ivan realized that I was getting impatient because I had so much to do and he was still awake, he said 'I've got an idea Mommy, I'll be right back'. He went downstairs, while I was washing the dishes in a less-than-joyful manner, and he went to fetch Sandra Dodd's book, the one you lent me, and he said 'Take a look in here to see what we can do now'. So sweet! It just melted me and my irritation disappeared."

I hope you'll meet each other at the symposium! :)

Here are the things referenced:
"Doing Unschooling Right" video with Portuguese subtitles
the Portuguese page
The book
The symposium!

Marta added another note:

Just wanted to add that when Ana said that she's loving "everything you sent me", she was referring to me and another friend of ours, Cátia Maciel. (English doesn't have a plural you, tst, tst, tst) That might have helped too, having two people she trusted (I think) tell her the same things and showing her that these changes are possible and do lead to a more joyful and peaceful life

My quote on a clock!

hi sandra,

i hope you are well! i wanted to let you know that a family from australia recently requested a 16"x16" custom clock and after looking at the quotes in our shop decided to go with one of your quotes. thought you might like to see how it turned out! also, it's now in our shop as a regular listing. :) https://www.etsy.com/listing/128896064/clock-16x16-sandra-dodd-quote-made-to?ref=shop_home_active

kind regards,

mary burrows l mb art studios
website l mbartstudios.etsy.com

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In the etsy shop, there's my clock next to clocks with quotes from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Carl Sagan. (On the clocks page, there are other philosophers and such in there, too, and me.)

Tile is like magic. Rock-hard but fragile magic.

There are two other tiles Mary sells with quotes of mine. There's an image of them both here: http://aboutunschooling.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-words-on-tile.html