According to the daughter who made it, this ceramic piece is "a kind of green pepper situation."
Here it is in a vignette with other items she brought home:
I've been in the dining room this morning because a student of my husband's is coming for dinner --- just a low-key family dinner, as I have assured her, but I like having an excuse to set the dining-room table.
I'm not breaking out the silver or anything like that, because I told her not to dress up or stress about anything, but we have more room at this table than anywhere else, and it's still rainy and cool out, not great for porch dining, though we might say a rosary out there after dinner. I thought something bright and cheerful indoors would be nice, and again, we won't be crowded at this table.
More indoor scenes:
This is a favorite living-room corner, by the door into the hall. You can see into what we call the sun room from here --- really it's just the smaller end of a double parlor, but unlike much of the house, it does get lots of sun. My mother had bought this bookcase in some junk shop, and it lived in the guesthouse over the garage until she moved and downsized. She and I bought the mirror in a junk shop; the earthenware butter churns came from my grandparents' house, as did the (sadly defunct) eight-day clock. Photographs are of my great-grandmother in elegant middle age, and of my two youngest children being themselves as toddlers. More ceramics pieces by the tiny girl in the photograph.
Much to do today, and here's what I'm wearing for it (surprise surprise):
Yesterday I was thinking that I really should set myself the month-long challenge of not repeating an outfit, but today I got up and thought that that was ridiculous.
Our dinner guest is vegetarian (not vegan), so I'm making a big pot of homemade mac-and-cheese (penne, cream cheese, cheddar, probably some smoked paprika because that makes everything delicious), with salad, fruit, maybe berries and cream for dessert. She's over 21, so there will be wine, but also seltzer water, which we drink as if at any moment we were going to shrivel up and die of dehydration.
It's been ages since we had anybody but family over for dinner, so I'm having to remember how to do entertaining, even though I'm consciously not doing too much overt entertaining, not so much as to make our guest ill at ease. I assured her she was just coming to family dinner, so that's more or less what we're doing, with a few little flourishes and some housecleaning, which we needed to do anyway.
Speaking of all that, I guess I had better stop writing about it and get busy doing it.
ALSO: Not writing about the school shooting, as I have not written about the grocery-store shooting or the church shooting, because there's honestly nothing I could say that hasn't been said. People are derisive about the whole thoughts and prayers thing, but honestly, there is nothing at this moment that I can do but carry these things in my thoughts and do my best to give them to God. If I feel heartsick, that's nothing to what other parents are feeling right now, whose children were in that school.
Meanwhile, my life goes on today, blessedly untouched in any direct way. Their lives will go on, too, but never the same. I can only pray that graces come to those people in their grief, and that they are given the grace of recognizing God's action in the world. Blessed be the name of the Lord.