Exhibit A
Exhibit B
(I am totally aware that he looks like a little urchin in this pic. As he put it:"I got some CRUD on my face." Don't ask me where he learned that.)
Doing
Changing things up a bit /
A new header & with it, a commitment to share more art and stories about the small moments of daily life. I've been caught up in big ideas too much of late, and haven't given enough attention to the small things. Diggers. Bulldozers. Apples eaten round and round their equator to the core. Chimpmunks and snakes and wild things blooming everywhere in our yard. Little boy stuff. I don't want to blink and have missed it all, and already the baby has been replaced by the little boy who says, "Mama, I Bean want a digger. Bean want to go in da digger and turn it on. Bean want to drive digger. Bean want a BIG road to drive da digger on."
Hard to fathom how much has changed since this time last year.
Ingredients for a perfect Saturday: /
At breakfast I read a New Yorker piece aloud and DH and both of us are laughing as he makes iced espresso in tall pint glasses. Then the boys head outside to mow the lawn. “It’s gonna be loud,†Bean says, his eyebrows furrowing. I hold him in my lap while DH pulls the cord and the lawnmower starts up with a purr. I can feel Bean’s body startle slightly, but then his boyish passion for all things motor takes over, and he scurries after DH as he makes looping arcs around the yard. The first mowing of the season. The grass smells sweet and sharp, and the sunlight prickles on my skin. Along the house, dandelions bloom in a row, weeds for sure, but both DH and I love their sunny lion’s manes, and so he doesn’t mow them down.
Then we head off to a Touch A Truck activity put on by Parks and Rec. Bean is in seventh heaven. Eighth. Ninth. He cannot believe his luck: they’re serving chocolate ice cream cones, AND he can climb on the diggers and investigate every button and knob in the cement mixer and fire truck. His grin is impossibly huge. We meet up with friends, and chat while our kids dance to the music booming from the local radio station that has set up in a corner of the parking lot under the pines. We try to wipe ice cream off of faces and fingers whenever we get a chance, but it's a loosing battle. Bean clutches his too-big plastic construction hat, and murmurs about diggers all the way until nap time.
Nap time. DH leaves to help a friend, and Bean and I eat lunch and settle in together among down comforters and striped sheets. One of those dreamy, sweet, snuggled afternoon naps that stretch on and on. We’re drowsy and sleep for hours. HOURS. Three to be exact. Maybe more. Finally I roust myself from my stupor, and soon after Bean sits up tousle-headed and grinning. We fold laundry. Or rather I do, as Bean figures out the best possible angles for launching himself into the baskets of folded clothes.
Now I’m sitting with a stack of fig bars and an iced latte in my quite studio. Outside DH is mowing the back yard and Bean in his lady-bug boots and his safari hat, is causing certain mischief. I love the hum of the lawn mower, and the way the light looks out the window. The hills are finally soft now—the twiggy skeletons of branches hazy with delicate new green. Leaves just barely unfolding, clouds in perfect sheep like clumps across the wide blue sky. I’m heading out now to start in on a flower bed. Turning soil, and tossing rocks. Then dinner at a friend’s house: pizza, wine, letting the kids twirl. Such a good day.
How did you spend your Saturday?
Doing /
Doing so many things, there are hardly enough moments to pause with cup of tea and post and read my favorite blogs. To sum things up for the past few days: * Painted my studio blue this weekend, and rearranged furniture. Today Bean stepped in the drying paint tray and then onto the hardwood floor. "Uh oh, mama! Uh oh!" He wailed. I promptly scooped him up and tried to pass him to DH over the top of my work table. He planted his panted on feet squarely on DH's jeans. Naturally, following the utter rediculousness of this particular train of events, DH tossed his jeans into the sink (as per my instruction--hot wanter will remove latex paint, if treated immediately) without removing his cell phone from the pocket. I'm sad to report it didn't make it, but because we know we're prone to bizarre accidents like this one, we have cell phone insurance, so it's all good.
* Threw some new pots at the studio tonight and finally figured out why my back has been hurting for weeks: hunching over the potter's wheel.
* Signed up for a writing workshop right after school lets out with one of my most favorite authors. Whoo hoo! (I'm not telling whom just yet as I'm still feeling a queasy mix of utter excitment and terror at the prospect of workshopping with someone I so admire.)
* Got back into the groove of things at school today. Suddenly the kids all look tall to me. Like second graders. They get jokes now, and can work independently. It feels good to be here, at this point in the year. To see the product of all my hard work in the faces of my eager kids. We wrote an acrostic poem today that I simply must bring home and post because it is brilliant.
* Mopped the floors for the first time (almost, well, no not almost...really, for the first time) since we moved--over vacation, and did aproximately nine million loads of laundry. DH folded the entire mountain today while I was at work--and put up all the dining room window trim that's been missing.
Whew. I'm sure I've missed a zillion other things but my brain is zinging from a lack of sleep. I miss blogging though. Miss hearing from all of you. What have you been up to, since spring has come?
Giddy /
Soaking up sun. We walk, his little hand in my big one. A constant narrative tumbling off his tongue like the little stream we stop to wade through in the field. No clouds, all day. And I can't keep from smiling because I'm off to see Lizardek and Blue Poppy. Certain delight.
Thinking Blogger Awards--Meme & Happy Easter /
But, instead of moping, I’ve been tagged (twice) with a cool meme. The Thinking Blogger Awards. My votes go to:
Sunday School Rebel--because her poems are THAT good, because she talks to god, and because I wish we lived next door.
Le Petit Hiboux--because she's written 20,000 words for a novel, and is pursuing the wild, illusive profession I'm terrified to take up: full time writer.
Rosa Murillo--because her found art pies are relics of pure inspiration, and the universe must be smiling because of all her beautiful gifts.
La Vie En Rose--because her contemplative poems and her exquisite photos and her generous spirit are always make me pause.
Seeking /
Trying to find beauty tonight, and striving to ask the right questions of the universe, but feeling shaky about it all. Trying to put the right words out there, the right prayers, the right hopes, so that joy floods into my life and makes me full. Some days this is easier to do than others. Sometimes its hard to even be right here, in this moment, even for a moment without fragmenting into worry and what-ifs.
Thank you for writing all your little rituals--the things you do to find solace and serentity and balance every day. I loved reading them.
I still haven't made it back onto Dh's computer to get the song title print-out for that running mix (which is totally embarrasingly 80's, but definitely rockin'!)...but in the meantime, anyone who hasn't checked out Pandora should, immediately. I'm so undaring when it comes to buying CDs, and I almost never hear new music on the radio (I listen to NPR on the way to work.) This has become my way to venture into new uncharted music territory.. I'd love to know: who are your top five favorite musicians right now?
Little beansprout art /
We've been doing a lot of art lately. Bean often asks to paint, and I've been offering him various mediums--letting him be as much a part of my creative process a possible. First off, I've discovered that finger painting is much more fun if you put the paints into a cupcake tin. Bean loves to use brushes to mix the paint--he's almost more into that than putting it on the paper. But he also loves to get his hands in it. "Splat! Splat!" he says as he puts his handprints all over the page.
We also had fun exploring splattering with a brush. I showed him how to flick the brush across the page, and he had quite a lot of fun flecking page after page.
Finger paints are fun, but I find them to be rather messy in general, so I've explored letting Bean use water color paints instead. I have an old tray of watercolor paints I've used forever that I let him explore with. Once I showed him how to dip his paintbrush in water and then wet the tabs of paint, he became quite adept at it. Here is one of his more recent creations. Watercolors allow him to add layers of paint without having the pigments all mix together to into a dull shade of goop. They're also easy to wash off--and most colors come out of clothing entirely (stay away from some of the darker blues--ultramarine and cobalt in particular.)
The great thing about having Bean do watercolor art, is that I can use his work for the backgrounds for little pieces of my own art. I love this collaboration, and how his wild brushtrokes make me less concerned with details and more inclined to just have fun and play with the piece I'm creating. Today we broke out the stamps. He had fun with those too--learning quickly how to put them correct side down on the stamp pad. Then he surprised me by starting to sing the Alphabet song! The kid never misses a beat.
Lastly, something we've had a lot of fun with is collage. We look through magazines together an he tells me which pictures he wants me to cut out. After I've cut one out, he glues the back of it and then puts it into his notebook, exclaiming "YAY!" after each time he's successfully secured it in place. I was surprised he was able to manipulate the gluestick independently, but after being shown how to turn the paper over, and glue the back, with a little practice he was a pro. The best part of this activity was getting to see which images catch his eye. He loves animals and wants to hug and kiss the pictures we cut out of them. So much fun!
And we're done /
NaNoBloPoMo is over, and I'm so ecstatic that I can go back to being frivolous and lazy and completely irresponsible about posting. I've also decided that because it became my posting art form this month I'll leave you with a list of things I hope to accomplish in the next few weeks. To make me very, very happy (or utterly jealous because you're all sick overachievers) post your lists in the comments. 1) I think I need to go to blog rehab now, to recover from all my crappy, inconsequential posts. To that end, I'm craving returning to my notebook for inspiration. I want to make quick sketches & line drawings, and collages this month...and I want very much to return to the art of writing in complete paragraphs. Yes, I want that very much.
2) I want to send out holiday cards before December 23 when I usually do. I have a crush on getting mail, but I'm so bad at sending anything these days. It doesn't help that my mail box is at the end of our very long driveway, and the only times I drive past it are either when I'm balancing a cup of coffee and a toasted bagle on my way to work, or when I'm clinging to the wheel with both hands, out of utter exhaustion, on my way home each day. I could walk, you might think, but that generally involves a little Bean who is given to pretending he is incapable of walking at the most inconvenient times (like when I'm holding a large armful of mail and really have to pee.) But the truth is, I just suck at sending mail. Envelopes sit on my counter unstamped. Letters get lost in the car en route to the post office. I can't be trusted to send anything on time, except, possibly (and rarely) things of critical importance.
3) When Bean pulled my shirt up and his entire baby hand disappeared into the soft expanse of my stomach, the reality finally hit today. I will not survive the holidays without becoming a truck, if I don't get back into a routine of regular exercise. As it stands, I have already become (according to Bean) a particularly pleasant lump of dough.
4) To that end, I went on a run tonight with DH. At night. In the dark. By flashlight. And I want to beg all of you to try it. It is fantastic to run in the dark, without all the visual distractions, and the thudding rush of your blood rising up like a song in your ears. Also, when we got we gave the flashlight to Bean, and he had the BEST TIME EVER running around the dark yard pointing it at things. Remember flashlight tag? So fun.
5) Lastly, I'd like to finish the mammoth stack of books I now have by my bedside. Like a workout habit, I need to reinstate a few moments in my day meant just for reading. I miss the dreamy other-worldliness of reading for hours, and the way it almost immediatly has a positive affect on my writing, like a I.V. of brilliance to the arm.
What do you want to do before the solstice arrives?
NaBloPoMo /
Because I cannot NOT take the bate, and because my stubborn mind-over-matter brain has managed white-out the very important fact that I have thismuch extra time in the day, I have decided to participate in NaBloPoMo ’06. Apparently, I like the idea of having my ass kicked. That, or some terribly pathetic part of my writer’s soul hopes that this will be the needed discipline I need to produce a manuscript for an MFA program by the end of the month.
Either way, I’ll be showing up at the page every day slightly more regularly than I have been; even if it is only to post the indistinguishable string of consonants and vowels is the direct result of pressing one’s forehead into the keyboard in despair.
A Sunday list /
... French toast with local syrup ...Freezing rain & sleet
....The power is back on (yesterday it was out nearly all day--a tree down at the end of the road)
...Reading Vanity Fair cover to cover
... Re-reading the underlined parts in favorite books
... Writing lesson plans for the week
.... Hibernating
What are you doing today?
Sunday antics /
A walk down to the mail box this morning with Bean to collect mail from yesterday. I lifted him up to open the metal box, and inside? Such cool housewarming CD's put together by the most wonderful Teri. You made my day, woman!!
Bean picked pockets full of acorns on the way back, and during his nap, neighbors we hadn't yet met stopped by to bring us divine blueberry banana bread and an open invitation to dinner.
And after a four mile run with DH, lounging in the backyard with family, soaking up the last rays of summer afternoon sunlight. Bean's giggle wild and heady with glee.
This much I now know: /
2) That there are so many amazing, talented and wonderful people that read my blog. Some I’ve known about…others, I’m excited to explore. Your feeds are now all on my reader! Look for me, I’ll be commenting on your blogs this week.
3) I’m also in the process of including all of your links on my sidebar, but right now my in laws are here so it will have to wait until I have uninterrupted internet time.
4) Summer is suddenly dissolving at the edges: the last sun drenched stretching out between chilly mornings and evenings where the dusk lasts for hours.
5) The Eastern field has a maple tree with leaves already washed in vermillion, and the grass is higher than my waist.
6) I passed the test with only a small flash-back to my high school test taking fears, and a very early morning.
7) My classroom is starting to look like a place where kids might like to learn: a cozy library is taking shape, a center for science investigations and for art. Yet I still have an endless list of things to do. This is what every single day is like as a teacher: always wanting to accomplish more than is humanly possible.
8) And this: I hardly ever check my stats, but I did recently and nearly died laughing at the search strings that lead people here. Really. Worthy of a post by itself. See?
rss what? /
It has been brought to my attention that there is an easier way of doing things! Easier than routinely clicking through all my bookmarked links (a list that far exceeds the hodgepodge of links I’ve pathetically compiled in the margin, which has begun to spill over here, and still is vastly incomplete—I have a case of sever blog love, it seems) every single day, sometimes repeatedly. Apparently I can just use an rss feed reader. Duh.
Okay. So maybe I am the only person in the blogsphere that dosen't already use one. Stop laughing.
And then help me. Leave your rss feed in the comments. Pretty please?
If you also leave your website url, I’ll add you to my sidebar and we’ll have that going for us…which is nice.
EDITED TO ADD: By rss url I mean, leave your website link with the additional rss feed information so that I can plug it into my feed reader without doing any work at all. Yes. I'm lazy. But I'm also 1) studying for a really aweful test I must pass in order to become certified to teach in this state, 2) whimperhing because I've started learning how to lift weights at the gym today--and did a lot of squats. ouch. 3) procrastinating about # 1, 4) sighing because I have oh, probably 500 books to sort through at school and sheesh, do you know how long that takes?
Doing /
1) Grinning because it's a perfect 70 degrees and sunny today, with no haze. The mountains seem close enough to touch---like perfect cardboard cut-outs on the set of a play.2) Planning to make kebabs, red wine & peaches and ice cream for dinner with friends tonight. I'm into cooking lately. Trying new spices (juniper berries & star anise), and loving blush wine (how can anyone not love something that color?) 3) Tiling (finally!) our backsplash with lovely white handmade tiles. A zillion special cuts, cement on my cut-off jeans, and we're one step closer to having a finished house. 4) Wincing when I smile because Bean wacked me in the eye brow with DH's watch this morning. Ow. He thought it was FUNNY when I started to cry. Grr.