world on a string
May 23, 2009 | Filed Under familial, ordinary | 2 Comments
raining tonight, the slow quiet gray rain for sleeping, napping, daydreaming on a cloud. jude tosses and turns and finally drifts away when ernie flicks on the basketball game. i always fall asleep when watching basketball, the constant rocking across the screen, one end of the court to the next. i should have thought of this solution to jude’s restlessness.
these are little people with the faces + hair of our family painted on them by goose grease…
they sleep, i do dishes, more laundry, sunday always going more smoothly if there is not a mess in the kitchen to rummage through while making breakfast.
i went to a yard sale today, later in the morning. it was at an antique store and they were hauling new things out by the box. jude liked the ceramic fish, the brass turtle, the glass grapes the size of golf balls. we buy fabric and vintage chinese lanterns. tonight i’m wishing i’d gotten the hot pink lanterns, too. they were just so pink in the gray morning.
groceries, lunch, coffee, cleaning up, messing up, the day ordinary and free. ernie mows the grass and lola watches from the window. i want to nap the rain away, sleep until evening when the kids bathe and brush their teeth. instead i get up and we clean the house, make tortillas, the beans are gone too soon. ice cream, too many napkins, too many dishes for clearing, rinsing, stuffing in the too small mouth of the dishwasher.
configuration of the planets
May 22, 2009 | Filed Under familial, inspired, ordinary | 2 Comments
he draws things that make me catch my breath, invents nonsense names for many things, is getting so tall i want to squeeze him together a little bit so that he’ll just stop it already. she dances with her eyes shut and her upper teeth biting on her lip, started saying her own name, it comes out as a song. he’s almost 7, less than a week until he is, has two permanent teeth, makes jokes that are truly funny and gives some of the best hugs in the world, long and for real, those hugs.
today we went for a walk in a park, threw rocks in the creek and named everything along the path poison ivy. they remembered being there before. we were swinging. one pumped the swings backwards and got nowhere. there were fire ants and we saw them all.
many days the boys ask if they can take the mattress off of their bed to prop against the wall and use as a slide. i always say no and wonder when they’ll just do it since it’s easier to apologize than get permission. i say no because we get enough bloody noses and bent fingers and “oops, i didn’t mean to step on your face while wearing this twenty pound cowboy boot, are you okay?” with the mattress in its proper position as it is.
there are bugs swarming the lamp because the door is always being opened and shut.
the mother’s day lilies have died. they were glorious for many days.
i updated some of my adoration links in the sidebar, in case you’re interested. terrible yellow eyes you must visit!
i’m still working on that sofa…..
dreaming in velvet
May 21, 2009 | Filed Under extraordinary, inspired, royal buffet | 5 Comments
i like my current couch, i really do. it needs some work, but has good bones. and it was only $39. and it has a cushion that doesn’t come off unless an adult unclips it. but there is another one, it is green, there is velvet involved. it’s pretty much the sofa/couch/davenport of my dreams. but i need some money in the Dream Sofa/Couch/Davenport Fund, which is a new fund. started today. the balance is zero.
so, i was thinking that really, the thing is only twelve wordy butterfly mobiles away from being mine. and as i was thinking of that i decided that the next twelve people to purchase a wordy butterfly mobile from the royal buffet shop will also get another lovely something or other from the shop as a thank you for contributing to the Dream Sofa/Couch/Davenport Fund. this way, if you’ve been waiting to get your own wordy butterfly mobile, now is the time, you cannot delay, nor should you. and you will have the added benefit of knowing that i will now have the sofa/couch/davenport that will make our living room just what it really should be, green and velvety and comfy and old and perfect.
so, again, don’t delay! tell your friends and they can tell theirs. many thanks!
submarine
May 20, 2009 | Filed Under lists | 5 Comments
yellow
teapot
lola’s dress
lola’s other dress
new embroidered shirt
sharpened pencils
package of espresso
team zissou shoelaces
unopened blossoms
stack of packages to be mailed
freezer burned banana popsicles that no one will eat
heads of best pins on pincushion
refrigerator
stripe on t-shirt
soccer socks
ibrik-a-brac
May 18, 2009 | Filed Under extraordinary, for the mouth | Leave a Comment
i really did intend to write more in may. truthfully, i did. our internet was frustratingly down! for days and days! clicking in! and out, working! not working, working slowly! not working, working fast! not working. it’s hard to be people who work! from! home! and have no internet connection. ernie was doing things like launching websites from coffee shops to get things done. frustrating! the interwebs seem to be on the mend, tho, so a saturday free-for-all at ikea (thanks camille! yay!) and a sunday of rest comes and goes and here we are, more than half way through may.
a long time ago, long, long ago, annie made turkish coffee for us after dinner. being that the pita house (the local place to buy a turkish coffee pot) is way off in a remote area of town that i do not often frequent, and that they do not take cards, only cash, check, which i never happen to have with me, i had not managed to pick one up until the other day when we went by on the way back from happy cow creamery and i had cash in my pocket from selling my kitchen aid mixer and a hankering for pita house falafel which can be purchased frozen, taken home and fried in your very own kitchen. the pots are around $7 and hang from the shelves with wired twist ties. they are unassuming and you may be distracted by the jars of pickled eggs and such to your left.
when i came home and gave the boys chocolate milk that made them a little bit sick (it’s so good from happy cow, though, almost worth feeling a wee bit sick afterwards) i decided that i must make turkish coffee immediately. having no! internet! i called annie who told me how to do it. the song of the turkish coffee burst from the pot and now i think about making it most of the day. it’s a tiny bit sweet, strong, has the grounds that, while very fine, are there to be chewed on? swallowed? i’m not sure what you’re supposed to do, but i do a little of both and leave the rest in the bottom of the cup.
if you must buy a turkish coffee pot, and i’m telling you that you must, you can get one locally at the pita house way down on pleasantburg drive. if you’ve never been there you must get the falafel plate with hummus and those olives-of-all-olives. bring cash. or a check. if you need to order one online, i know that they are here, and here, or you could go all fancy and get one like this here. then you bring it home, wash it out and make it. i like annie’s directions but i’ve also tried it a few different ways (this one is good and really does leave most of the grounds in the bottom of the pot) and cannot decide which way is the best way. i do believe, however, that the true turkish coffee drinkers do not add cream or milk of any kind. shame on them, they’re really missing out. or, perhaps, shame on me. if you do make turkish coffee yourself, please tell me how you do it so that i can try it that way, too. i don’t mind trying it many, many different ways.
cobbler’s bench
May 11, 2009 | Filed Under familial, ordinary, royal buffet | 5 Comments
jude likes to wear this sweater of hers, this and tight underwear so that he can grunt and dance and be an organ grinder’s monkey. lola complains when he wears the sweater. she is lucky to have no sister, or so i hear. having no sister myself i can only imagine such a predicament.
henry has taken to curling up with a book. literally curling up with a book. reading is easy! i didn’t think it would be, but it is, and now he’d rather read for school than anything else. if nothing else will make me a confident homeschooling mother, this curling up and reading will.
the internet blinked in and out all day. thus, my desk is clean and many other places, as well. i really am not online too much. it is all a mere coincidence.
the paper class on saturday went very well. i especially enjoyed seeing how people take the methods and materials and make things that were totally unique and theirs. i’m always nervous about this kind of thing, especially teaching, but it was great, the girls were great, and i’m so glad we did it. thanks, everyone, for coming and making pretty things with us! if you’re local and you didn’t make it, you missed out! but should have a chance to come and make something papery and amazing yourself sometime in the fall.
it is raining again. i’m glad for the vegetables, the flowers that think about coming around. the petunias near the back door are white and fat and close to spilling over the edge of the pot. the boys play in the mud and rain anyway. i dry off lola’s swing and she swings anyway. shrugging my shoulders, i make coffee even though i’ve made it twice already.
motherly
May 10, 2009 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
we’ve been having internet woes for two days. this should have posted last night? but must have been lost in the interwebs……
happy mother’s day, to you, my mother, and to all of you mothers out there…..
today, although i unrealistically and ridiculously requested that everyone sleep, nay, snore until 9 a.m., was awakened bright and early by the early, the bright. i’ve been kissed and hugged and well-wished. i’ve been given tall, yet-to-open lilies, coffee, taken to eat and given illustrated tokens of love from sons to me. i’ve been offered a nap (declined, and now, late, i’m wishing i’d taken one).
it was a lovely day, breezy, warm. there were bright colors everywhere at church, girls in new dresses, kelly green, turquoise, the sunshine of yellow. i like just-spring, the splatter of color on everyone, sandals, the wind having no beginning and no end.
buckets of moonbeams in my hand
May 8, 2009 | Filed Under ordinary | 3 Comments
it’s hard to blog every day. i don’t know how people do it.
jude fell asleep yesterday afternoon. we don’t normally let him nap but he was so tired we just couldn’t wake him up. his long nap, lola’s late nap, my running off into the night to see sharon + natalia meant that when i came home at 10, everyone was still awake. ernie had to leave to work on something (poor man works so late every night!). they didn’t go to bed until 11. i don’t care how late they are up as long as they are happy. and they were happy, no fighting, no freak outs, happiness, laughing, henry reading to jude in the late and dark. of course what this means is that they still woke up with those cheerful birds but were, sadly, not cheerful themselves.
the day ahead, impossible. the coffee, abundant. the television, not working. the floor, to be vacuumed. the bagels, eaten. the asparagus, to be roasted, eaten. the baby, pigtailed. the lincoln logs, stacked tall, high, surrounded by indians, cowboys. the bed, made. the fans, blowing. the packages, waiting at the door. the eyes, tired. the tongue, bitten. the noise, encompassing.
sighing by a sycamore tree
May 6, 2009 | Filed Under lists | 1 Comment
nice
sunny days
a tidy linen closet
owning the same sweater as the girl in the dr. horrible movie. (what were the chances we’d be sharing love?)
sleeping
popeye, spinach, boys who want to share in popeye’s awesomeness, boys eating spinach
nicer
the surface of my desk, to be found soon
throw rugs
fern fronds
sleeping past 6
music ernie knows i like
lola shaking her little finger at me and saying, “no, no, no!”
buttered toast
nicest
kites!
stove top espresso pots, french presses, coffee on demand
sleeping past 7
time to sew on the horizon
birthday parties for boys i love the most
strong hugs from henry
“walked barefoot to palestine for a touch of his nether lip” and other lovely phrases
asparagus in all her glory
some birds sing in the rain
May 5, 2009 | Filed Under haiku | Leave a Comment
2.
pages of rain, each
droplet writes words. i listen.
he listens. words, rain.