whiskered chin
June 30, 2008 | Filed Under ordinary | 3 Comments
pleasant work
cherry juice off the counter, cherry pits, cherry stems
cast iron skillet with salt
drawers with things that stack perfectly
desk mess (then why don’t i ever do it?)
lining up knights at the castle for henry to find later
making the bed, new sheets
grinds from the french press
folding white laundry
unpleasant work
gum that has been melting on the deck
mystery regurgitated feathery cat food (i had nothing to do with cleaning this as i thought it was a dead mouse being eaten by ants and wordlessly insisted that ernie deal with such a thing. thanks, ernie)
shower walls, cold
anything ants have found and are eating
strong, courageous
June 26, 2008 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
i love:
fans (but not as much as ernie does)
the grill, the food, the easy kitchen
the house from lola’s crawling view, especially after vacuuming
all of this vacuuming because of little crumbs, little papers, little fingers
brandishing a flyswatter
the long look of kids who sleep
the end of the day
the rediscovery of capes
the vbs cd that is constantly. spinning.
i do not love, and possibly worry about:
flies in the kitchen!
days and days without rain
gigantic mosquito bites on kids
pardon my french
June 20, 2008 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
we’ve updated the shop with lovelies made from vintage french magazines that we inherited from a french teacher at our alma mater. you can find our french things in the shop and there are more to come this week (yay!). all things made from the magazines are easy to find as their descriptions are full of my terrible french. que sera, sera!
my personal favorites this time around are annie’s woman tags and the birds perched on wire. wire! it’s so fun to work with! there’s a limited supply of the francophone papers, so buy some soon!
beach pasta
June 18, 2008 | Filed Under ordinary | 2 Comments
sometimes things are more edible desirable if they are evocatively named, or at least my boys seem to think so. next time i’ll sneak some “seaweed” (spinach) into the creamy cheese deliciousness and we’ll see what happens . . .
beach pasta (or the pasta formerly known as “shells and cheese”)
boil one 12 ounce box of jumbo shells until al dente; drain, set aside.
beat in the mixer until it’s a lovely lumpy orange color:
1.5 packages of cream cheese
2 cups of grated parmesan cheese
1 cup of grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (or so) of your favorite tomatoed sauce
salt and pepper to taste
stuff the shells with the lovely lumpy orange cheese mixture and place in a lightly oiled 13 x 9 pan.
cover with as much favorite tomatoed sauce as you desire. top with grated parmesan or other desireable cheese. bake for 20-25 minutes.
wish you had french bread for garlicky buttered toast, or have the foresight to have it on hand. serve to two adults, two skeptical but hungry beach loving children, and, hooray: midnight snack, too!
tomato sandwiches
June 17, 2008 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
for his birthday, annie gave jude a copy of the dvd of maurice sendak stories that she had loaned to him for several weeks during which time both he and henry insisted that they watch that dvd and nothing else. we gave the boys the book “in the night kitchen” which was mysteriously their favorite (yet slightly intimidating) story on the dvd. i love the book! it’s so nice, hardcover, the paper is thick and smooth, the illustrations are meant to be studied, the buildings in the background being made of food boxes and cartons and whatnot with funny little captions on them. it smells so bookish and feels good in the hand.
we went to barnes & noble for a father’s day coffee and a very large cookie for henry, a gigantic marshmallow cake for jude, boys who are now successfully going into their own sunday school classes without fanfare. i wanted to buy too many things and so did ernie, but we left with a book about being a spy for henry, who has recently decided that being a private eye is a terrific thing to be. he likes the idea of a hidden camera in his pocket, reads many things with his magnifying glass, and tells me that i’m in a “heap of trouble” when he has me arrested following his investigation. a book about spies had to come home with us. i don’t remember reading encyclopedia brown or the hardy boys (being a harriet the spy girl myself, trixie belden, too), but think that young boy detectives would be something henry would enjoy having read aloud as he scribbles notes in code in his notebook. does anyone want to suggest other detective stories for young ears to hear?
when i get the notion i just jump into the ocean
June 11, 2008 | Filed Under ordinary | 3 Comments
hot, unbearable, really, the day, the earth, dry and hot. we don’t feel it if we don’t go out, and if we don’t go out we feel other things (like rabid madness) surround us in a baking cloud. there are only so many rounds of sorry! and zingo and new-card-games that we can play, only so many approved crash-about-in-the-house activities, only too many snacks that probably contribute to the volume and fever.
we went to a water park yesterday, a little thing with too many people for my anti-social leanings, but very fun and watered coldly and reasonably priced all the same. my brother and his girlfriend were there to help me and that was very nice since none of my kids really swim. there were lots of grandmothers there, babysitting the offspring of their children who work doing the necessary and the unnecessary in air conditioned offices. i enjoyed the grandmother swimwear, animal prints, bathing suits with skirts that fluttered in the (hot) breeze, that clung to the blue vericose paisley of their legs when they emerged from the water, the gold covered visor hats stuck deep into permed fluffs of hair, the fingernails, the tans in wrinkles and waves. we were all very tired and slept very well and it has been decided (by me, of course) that the best, possibly the only, way to actually enjoy summer involves water, daily, water in large quantities, the ocean, the glitter of a pool, anything cold and big and splashable. the question is, of course, how do we go about accomplishing this enjoyment of summer?
i would like you to dance
June 9, 2008 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
tiny things that should not go (but sometimes! do!) in the mouths of babes
cat food
marbles
legos
miniature weapons
paper medallions
paper shreds
anything paper
marker caps
bottle caps
hair pins
safety pins
sewing pins
diaper pins
legos
jingle bells
hi-ho cherry-os
checkers
pawns
pirate treasure
leaves from plants
rocks from plants
magnets
crayons
thread
quarters
because we know we can’t be found
June 6, 2008 | Filed Under ordinary | 3 Comments
the boys have had birthdays (jude’s today, three cheers for four, four cheers for jude!) and we’ve been spending every day being all birthday-ish. too much cake! henry had the request for a cake shaped like indiana jones’ bullwhip. how do kids learn about things like indiana jones when they haven’t seen the movies? good job, people who try to get everyone to know about indiana jones. i guess the lego website had something to do with it. and that lego “set-up” (as henry calls them) and the strange plush (is it plush?) whip that plays the exciting indiana jones music when you crack the thing, these gifts from my brother who used to pretend he was indiana jones, fedora and all, even into the age of high school. yes. so i tried for the cake, it did not look like a whip. “but it tastes good,” henry says. what a smart and polite boy. then jude wanted cupcakes, purple frosting, yucky sprinkles. there have been many gifts and lola has tried to eat many pieces of paper. we have eaten chicken and mac & cheese, and broccoli (henry), then hot dogs and stink chips (jude), and coke because it’s usually a beverage that is “not for kids.” new things make for gentle days. today i heard: jude singing “in an octopus’ garden in the shade” while squeezing play-doh through octopus play-doh gadgetry; henry, marbles, catapult; radio control uncoordination; wooden bowling pins and ball; “but it’s my birthday, please?”
other events include: trying to work hard on a marveilleux collection of things for the shop update annie and i are having soon (trying to work hard because every! time! i sit down! someone! needs! something! aaaah!), signing up for andrea’s postcard swap (yay!), obsessing and trying not to obsess over someone stealing packages from our porch while we were in charleston (!), watching lola learn to crawl, staying indoors and being wimpy about the hot and the sticky and the exploding sun in white who is glaring and furrowing his brow in our direction.
the ocean is salt and blue
June 1, 2008 | Filed Under ordinary | 7 Comments
seashells in pockets, hands, bags, on table and towel, sand everywhere, the bodies shining with sunscreen, lola napping in the shade, sand in her hands, on her face, her lips trying it, her feet kicking it, jude is sure he’s seen a shark, henry is sure he can go deeper in the waves than ever before.
they bury each other, ernie, they dig for long hours, digging, carrying, filling holes with water, working again. no one is there, on this beach, a few girls, a few boys, parents white and flabby, children streaked with pink and brown, the sun, the water, the sand, grit in the teeth, on the floor.
baths at night, the ocean to dream by, people who walk the sand and water in the early morning, girl doing yoga, old women in large skirts walking dogs and seeking shells, the sky wearing some blue forever, the sea wearing nothing, the sand dressed and washed and dressed again, feet printing over the smooth stretch of her skin, disappearing.
more beachiness can be seen on the new royal buffet flickr page! yay!