the rain is thin
August 31, 2009 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
i am lost in a sea of boxes, dishes, the beginnings of the school year, laundry, dried play-doh, cleaning supplies, painting supplies, paper supplies. i didn’t mean to disappear like this. please forgive.
august, a month for nothing, was full of too many things. she’s gone and we’ve got new sharpened pencils on the desk to prove it.
golden morning
August 22, 2009 | Filed Under familial | 4 Comments
interwebs at last.
most of the household has been moved from one place to the next. the old house is empty and echoes and is sad to walk through. the new house is full and a mess of half unpacked boxes and playthings. some of us have colds. all of us are tired. the diversion of artisan bread in five minutes a day (so amazing!) has been welcome. and a good change from fast food and peanut butter sandwiches. the dishwasher here is not working, some electrical issue. and even though dishes by hand is a very time consuming activity, i do enjoy it a bit, peaceful and productive. it’s only been a week, after all.
this morning, early as always, the kids woke up and fed themselves cereal. later ernie and i watched them in the yard, lola in a bright orange diaper following jude from one end of the garden to the other. the air was cool instead of stiflingly hot as it has been all week.
i am way behind on work. i owe one mama photos, many people paper lovelies. the studio ernie and i share is already a disaster of paper clippings (i’m rethinking sharing the space but he says it’s fine! just be tidy!). but we are blessed and happy. and getting fat from all that bread. why can’t i look nice like nigella after eating like she does?
night of dreams
August 14, 2009 | Filed Under familial | 2 Comments
henry had a hard time going to sleep because he did not know the exact location of his burger king g.i. joe. jude had a hard time going to sleep because he was sure that rather than sleep, i had promised he could watch movies (plural) after dinner. lola had a hard time going to sleep because she took a fast nap at 4:30 in the afternoon while ernie was painting the new living room, the boys were scattering legos all over the lounge, and i was wondering exactly why some of the kitchen cabinets smell like greasy old cheetos.
we move the rest tomorrow, tonight the last night in this house. henry remembered that we had “a lot of good times in this room.” i want to take a deep breath and suck in all of those memories and be sure to label their bottles correctly. i wish i were better at remembering things, all of the little things that instead slip away and are kicked under the bed, distractedly tossed in the trash.
children kicking at the night stars
August 12, 2009 | Filed Under familial, lists | Leave a Comment
twelve to remember about this house
glass doorknobs + accompanying hardware + skeleton keys that lock, unlock
wood floors in the kitchen, newly swept
arched doorway into kitchen, above refrigerator
church window registers in the walls
the loop around which the kids run, skip, creep, tiptoe backwards
clay walls in the basement
turquoise front door
creaky place in the hallway floor
late afternoon light in the kitchen
unexpected daffodils in places
little acorns
the jungle boy hut
flying twice as high
August 11, 2009 | Filed Under familial | Leave a Comment
last week
the long drive there, the long drive back. in between, days in the breeze, the sunny 72 degrees, even the grass alive in the wind. family every day, in every way. too many desserts, late nights, the phoenix, better than before, the carousel for many tickets, again and again. isaac’s guitar, the candle on the deck, birds in the morning, birds by night, cicada scream from the woods. amazing thrifting, yard sailing, indian rug steal over which i’m still in shock.
this week
hopefully, some photos of knoebels and a post or two. for certain, catching up on Royal orders and packing! and then moving into the new house. ernie is painting all week and more painting will follow. it was hard to choose colors, but, at last, i think we did. hopefully they are the right colors. there is a story about ernie and my dad painting our entire (huge) living room orange when it was supposed to be red, proving that it’s a good idea not to trust the color that i choose by my very own self.
next week
unpacking, searching for things like the colander, cords and cables, that other shoe of jude’s, toothpaste, towels, the butterfly template that i’m always misplacing, moving or not.
and all the while, 90+ degree temperatures, sweet tea in glasses faster than i can make it, lola’s! new! teeth!, and too much mario cart.
crossing the universe
August 2, 2009 | Filed Under familial | Leave a Comment
vacation begins! somehow we will find enough clean clothes + gear to fill the car tomorrow and drive away. i always say we’re not going to be bringing much this time, the car won’t be terrible and full, there will be a space at my feet this time, there will be no oversized bag full of unnecessities. but this time, when i say, “no stale snacks that turn to crumbs! no scissors in the passenger seat! no toys with little pieces to lose under seats!” this time, i really mean it.
if only we traveled by balloon… we wouldn’t have this over-packing problem, would we?