summer people
July 29, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, familial | Leave a Comment
this kid reads too much too fast.
he can almost beat me at chess (not really hard to do, but, still).
he can tell a story that will last for hours.
his lake green eyes, they kill me.
this kid is really in to sneaking up and giving hugs.
he is an amazing creator using the most mundane of things.
he also has more energy than a busload of people combined.
i love his freckles now, tiny, before they grow along with his skin.
this kid no longer wears diapers.
she uses words like “handsome” and most days she asks me to teach her to read.
her lips are really that red, but her bangs are short because she likes to cut stuff.
she’s usually the first person i see when i wake up, and she’s so happy when she wakes me up that i feel happy, too.
before midnight
July 27, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
it seems like summer should be all about the popsicles.
raining here, gallons of glorious rain in jagged waterfalls from the sky, lightning crash flashing in the gray, thunder rocking her babies to sleep. we lost two trees this week, before the wind and rain, long and piney falling diagonally and crushing the fence. the boys prefer the trees this way, sticks of all kinds and a good place to climb. the grown ups look at the other trees, the other tall pines with their spindles stair stepping to the clouds, and we sort of know that they have to come down, too. euthanasia for the trees. it makes me feel a little sick inside.
many of these
July 22, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary | 3 Comments
today is my birthday. i’m spending it with my husband and kids, eating indian food, having a miniature sleep over, watching a sad movie, drinking coffee, checking the mailbox, crashing my vehicle on mario cart, and possibly sewing a dress to wear tomorrow night. i’m also counting my gray hairs and wrinkles in the bathroom’s new bright light and wondering how i got to be thirty five years old so fast. time is a such a sneaky blinking thing.
hope your day is as great as mine!
step right up
July 15, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | 3 Comments
the boys had their birthdays at the beginning of summer, but we were traveling around so much that we all decided to do a party later on, when we had been home enough to plan and execute. part of me only wants to celebrate on the birthday, parties and cakes and gifts and fireworks and flaming torches up the drive on the exact day of birthday. but we don’t always get what we want, do we?
ernie made these invitations for us. i love it that he can do such things. love. it. i only wish i had more reasons for him to make invitations and little printed cards for me.
we’re having a carnival, ernie’s brother doing tricks for a show. there has been talk of a homemade dunk tank, and is it possible to make funnel cake cupcakes? we shall see. if only the dog could wear a pointed hat and walk on his hind feet, and ride in a circle on a pony.
page number
July 14, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
water, summer, grass on my feet, the legs of the kids as they run through it. they don’t have the feet of the sock wearing people, they have the earthy feet, the kind that are always dirty and banged up and bitten. i love to bathe them in summer. maybe because you can see just how dirty they got during the day, popsicles, bugs caught and released, forts and sticks and a thousand ideas popping! over and around them all the day long.
this summer has had the most beautiful of days, the heat bearable with the slightest whispering wind just when you think it’s time to go inside. sunshine and clouds that you can nearly reach for to touch.
so many days, all of them in little piles at my feet, some that stand out like bright pink pieces of paper, most forgotten at the bottom, lined note pages with handwriting in slants and black ink from left to right and over again. i wish my mind worked like a library’s catalog, the cards of all of my days in an understandable system of wooden drawers. maybe i wish for this. the bad days could be locked in a drawer at the bottom, the key strung on a chain and a hook in the closet.
birds are sleeping
July 9, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | 2 Comments
when i help lola to sleep i tell her that even the baby birds are sleeping. sometimes she asks me to tell her this. if she is out at night and the sky is dark, crickets fiddling about in all corners of the yard, she listens for birds, the sounds of birds sleeping. the ruffle of feathers, a sigh. do the birds yawn or chirrup in their sleep?
she cut her hair today, her bangs. she cut jude’s hair last week. glued the dog, dumped the popcorn, sprinkled water from her lips, her cup. she changes her clothes all day and tells her brothers what is what. i can’t leave her alone for a minute now. add up the minutes, put them in bottles on shelves to collect dust. she’s the baby and she’s not the baby and i feel it all the time.
i love the weekend so. it rained tonight, a little sticky summer rain, one of the best kinds.
fire flown
July 8, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, familial | 1 Comment
spending a lot of time working in the house, reading roald dahl, making new stuff for the indie craft parade (using my sewing machine! crepe paper! fringing scissors!), eating tomatoes and scads of blueberries, watching the kids grow strong and beautiful.
did you know that summer will be over in a wink?
a yellow eye
July 2, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | 3 Comments
i didn’t know i needed one, but i’m so glad i’ve got a daughter, and one such as lola is a good daughter indeed.
the last few days i feel life pulling me down, down by the face and into the dirt. i’m glad for the weekend, some perspective, fireworks, sparklers, lemonade, baked beans and perhaps some blueberry cobbler to help things along.
lemonades
June 30, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
it’s color week at poppytalk. i missed the first two days, so they’re here together: pink and yellow. when i miss things like this, miss starting at the very beginning, i have a bad habit of just throwing out the whole project. i think it goes along with only being able to turn a new leaf on a monday. is it pride? am i too proud to admit that i failed at something, so i just don’t even admit that i started to do it in the first place? proud and lazy, hand in hand, a thing too sad for pink and yellow lemonade photographs.
polka dot bed
June 29, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
lola has new sheets to go on her new bed. it’s summer so the fans blow swirling hard around her when she’s sleeping on her sheets. when she’s jumping on her sheets her hair flies in golden streamers around her head. when she’s reading on the sheets her books and dolls are in a mess all around her. she calls them her “polka dot bed” and she’s proud and happy. a simple thing to love.