gray in the day

November 29, 2009 | Filed Under familial, ordinary | 1 Comment 

days in and out, beginning, over and done with. food, dishes, the eternal mess on the floor. being needed all of the time for small reasons for big reasons. over and again. sometimes repetition is a comfort, my hands remembering and automatic, my brain checking out and my body just doing. other times it is too vast, wide like the prairie, the stretch of corn in a thousand familiar rows, soybeans flicking by for miles into a distant blue, the interruption of a tree line even the same as the last.

when i think of it i want to be here, today, aware of the now: lola, in pigtails, following me around, weeping when i leave, saying my name forever and again; henry, missing teeth, too long descriptions of things, the wrap of his arms around my neck as only he has ever done or ever will; jude, the depth of his valleys, constellations in his freckles, his strong hands and mind ever a surprise. but i usually don’t think of it, unaware, being too familiar, time for the taking and littering about. a sad and sorry thing, all of the minutes lost, thrown in the sea to be lifted on a wave and pulled below.

the fire went wild

November 28, 2009 | Filed Under ordinary, royal buffet | 1 Comment 

we’ve been to the farm and back again. we’ve eaten too much. tomorrow i plan to bake pecan pies and eat a piece in the late afternoon, maybe outside with coffee in the other hand. tomorrow has many things planned into it, little things like hot breakfasts and the weaving of new shoelaces into shoes, church and the beginning of advent, those pies and some pumpkin cookies for the kids who don’t like the pecans. i have a problem penciling in too many things in the minds eye of my day.

yesterday’s and today’s pictures are iphone pics from the thanksgiving trip to the farm. we were given a rusted old fire barrel, younger sister to this behemoth pictured above. since it was plunked into the garden the kids have asked daily about marshmallows and the like. they are persistent when it comes to sweetness.

this is a busy time for royal buffet, with holiday orders and such. hopefully i will update the shop this week with the ornaments and garlands that i made several weeks ago but failed to photograph. hopefully. there is just so much to do. oh, that i did not need to sleep.

farm living

November 27, 2009 | Filed Under familial, ordinary | Leave a Comment 

toothless storytelling

November 17, 2009 | Filed Under familial | Leave a Comment 

it is quite impossible to have this child make a normal face at the camera. he is becoming awkward in his own skin. when i was sixteen i was told that i was finally growing out of my awkward stage. how humiliating, i thought as i stomped up the stairs in a very terrible oversized mickey mouse t-shirt. and now my child is becoming a little bit awkward himself. he loves the weird teeth, that come along with it.

this is what he entitled his “normal smile.”

a busy day today, lots of running around and doing things. i drank a new kind of coffee today, something that was on sale at the already overpriced grocery store. and it made me zing about the house. the kids liked me better during school because i was zingy instead of grouchy.

ernie is out fetching chinese food. a new place, recommended. the kids ate before ernie came home and big daddy went to a thanksgiving dinner at his church (”a nine dollar dinner! i don’t think i can eat nine dollars worth.”) so tonight is the perfect night for a date and take out. i’ve been making paper things late at night, every night, but not this night. hello, general tso and crab rangoon. it is nice to see you again.

my record may say it

November 13, 2009 | Filed Under familial, ordinary | 4 Comments 

recent

no kale or collard plants left to buy? is it too late?

UP. goodness gracious. i almost can’t believe how much i cry during this movie.

broken dishes of late: vintage bowl, vintage jelly jar, cheap blue glass

short sleeves in november

tea + coffee all day long with big daddy as my cohort

winning a good giveaway (!)

henry’s amazing race he makes for us in the backyard

the dog’s new blue collar

rosemary plant in the living room, inspired by hers, though not nearly as fabulous

ernie’s sweaters and hugs all smelling like starbucks

two before daylight

November 12, 2009 | Filed Under extraordinary, familial | Leave a Comment 

big daddy reminded me that “the weeks go by fast.” he may have been asking me, but we both already knew this. we were sitting there eating chili and the week was just gone. the work is just never done, no matter how many weeks i spend doing it. the boys are tall now and as brilliant as ever. lola is not a baby now. the weeks take the babies and run so fast and far.

we’ve been busy being sick, not being sick, trying to keep the house from caving into a heap of mess, learning, playing, and catching up on paper creations. christmas just sneaks up on me, every year. in january i secretly resolve to work a little at a time each month on winter things, advent things, gifts and things just for us to enjoy. and then, of course, i never do it.

today we took the day off from school and played outside all day. a friend needed a place for her boys to go for the day so they came here and there was more than the usual hooting and hollering in the backyard all afternoon long. big daddy built a fire and the boys stabbed at it with sticks and roasted hot dogs and burned marshmallows. it was easy, and thrilling, the fire, in our own yard. i may have been a little overly thrilled about this fire. i’m very thankful for this amazing yard we’ve been given and was ever-more thankful today, sitting in the yellow leaves, more yellow blowing all around us, the kids sticky and happy and free.

black of night, heaps of covers, wind chimes talking slowly in d major,  windows still open and cold, quiet for hours (or not), kitchen light still awake, house nodding off, children asleep here and there: these are the last few glories before sleeping. yellow morning, studio spilled over with sunlight, unbelievable noises all over the place, coffee at last!  children fed (and thus tamed), cold schoolroom, hoodies and socks, snips of paper and books and peelings of crayons on the table: these are the workings of waking. the rest, the in between, flying by and in and out of weeks, blur in a smear of illegible looping handwriting for squinting and deciphering some year to come later.

five pointed

November 3, 2009 | Filed Under familial, ordinary | 4 Comments 

i spent the afternoon feeling like i would die if i didn’t fall down and sleep immediately. i hate having a cold.

we made a tent and the boys painted themselves with war paint and played in and around the tent all day. lola and i sat in the tent and had crackers and i had tea and everyone wanted my cough drops. i love this kind of day, easy and slow. even the baths were long and slow due to the snorkel that made its way into the tub with each of them. homemade pizza for dinner, jude asleep in a flash, lola helping to fold laundry, henry reading to himself in a very clean room.

more wild indians can be seen here….

there are nights with a thousand words before sleeping. there are days with a road that is empty and quiet. and then there are pieces of stars, shining and clear, a lifetime and more through gravity and away, pieces of stars i fold into a place in my hand.

beat the drum

November 3, 2009 | Filed Under ordinary, royal buffet | 4 Comments 

i think i may be getting sick: sick with a cold, sick and congested, my head shattered into a million throbbing drums. i’m trying not to pout about it but it really will be miserable. sickness is everywhere and it’s almost impossible not to come up with something, it seems. jude had some kind of bug last week, henry the week before. nothing big and unspeakable, but definitely something whine and grump inducing. and then annie broke her ribs by coughing. it might comfort her for you to buy something wonderful from her as she recovers.

i tried to get more holiday lovelies finished and photographed and listed, but the only thing that made it was this wreath. i love working with wire and envision all kinds of things coming off of the spool. there was a giant (new) roll of chicken wire for $8 at the thrift store but i wasn’t sure if that was a good deal or not (have yet to check, actually), so i left it there. i did have a car full of chairs and lola and a slide (!) for the backyard, so there would never have been room for that wire, but i was tempted all the same. i really should have a truck. so the wreath is in the shop and comes with a plethora of options by way of colors and glitters. hopefully this week will not be quite as unpredictable as last week so that i can bring some more winter loveliness to the shop.

volcanic activities

November 1, 2009 | Filed Under extraordinary | 3 Comments 

these pics are from a new mobile i made for a new baby called opal. what a classy mama she has…..

oh, yellow.

the tree in the backyard, the yellowest one, the maple that was struck by a flash of lightning, this tree is bright, nearly a moon of jupiter, we think when we stand out and under, squinting in the bright. the pull of the wind, the tide of the rain, and the tree sends the leaves like daughters with a wave goodbye, down in a swirl to the grass. everywhere you look there is yellow, a golden ash underfoot.