weekending
January 31, 2011 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
sick for the weekend, a weekend of two glorious sunny days in a row. i stood in the sun and let it trickle down to the ends of my hair, sat at the window with my face on a pillow and let the sun wash over me like the fever. such a pity, a weekend of sickness. the kids stare at the tv. they go outside for awhile to eat a mild piece of toast. they feel better in the sun like i do and stay out longer. but the sun goes down and a fever is back and we curl into balls under covers for restless dreams and not enough sleep.
it’s the last day of january. we will mark it with sun and a long walk. we will skip the post because nothing was finished over the weekend.
i told you once, i told you twice
January 28, 2011 | Filed Under ordinary | 2 Comments
sick kids, sick mama, sick poppy. sick for what feels like an age, weeks at best. it’s only been two days. the mess grows. we eat toast. i administer drugs and do a fair share of tucking and tear drying and snuggling on the couch in front of nature documentaries and an endless parade of movies with animals that talk.
i went outside to love on the dog a bit, the sun warm on my sick head, a perfect day out there beyond the dark rooms in the house with the curtains drawn, the covers pulled high, the air still and sick itself. lola and i made a delicious vegetarian golden broth with noodles but no one ate it but me.
royal buffet giveaway!
January 28, 2011 | Filed Under ordinary | 62 Comments
it’s been three years of royal buffet paper lovelies and, as is customary in these parts, i’m having a little giveaway to celebrate! the winnings are a winner’s choice of any pretty thing in the shop.
to enter, simply comment on this post. if you want a double entry (double entry, crazy!) become a fan of royal buffet on facebook or follow me on twitter and then come back here, make a new comment that says something like “i became a fan on facebook!” or “i just followed you on twitter!” and you will thusly be doubly entered in the giveaway. and, wait for it, hold your horses, you can be granted three entries if you become a fan on facebook and also follow me on twitter and then return to this post and enter separate comments that say, “i became a fan on facebook!” and another post that says “i just followed you on twitter.”
in summary, celebrate with me! enter in a royal buffet giveaway! choose to enter once, twice, or three times!
enter once by commenting on this post.
enter twice by becoming a fan on facebook OR by following me on twitter, coming back here and telling me that you did so in an additional comment.
enter thrice by becoming a fan on facebook AND by following me on twitter, coming back here and telling me that you did so in two additional comments.
you can do all of this multiple entering and fanning and following until 11:59 p.m. on february 4. i’ll choose the winner with a random number generator and post about it on february 5. good luck to you!
thanks so much for all of your kind words about my humble creations and your support over the last three years. without you i know that it couldn’t happen, at least not as frequently as it does, and i would be sorrowfully languishing in front of the television far more often than is good for the mind or the soul.
awake
January 25, 2011 | Filed Under extraordinary | 1 Comment
evening, the last of the day, the pieces of quiet sewn together like a quilt to wrap around myself until morning. tonight i tuck them all in, read to them with the younger two piled around me, leaning here, getting up and coming back again. henry flips through his own book while i read to the others, lending a comment here and there about our story. it’s not the same with him when i read anymore. in many ways, this is okay, his interests in books growing up like his body that doesn’t fit as well in my lap anymore. it is as it should be and as i hope and want it to be. but i still feel it, the pull on my heart as he moves just the tiniest measure away from me.
he loved this book with the chimpanzees when he was little. we read it every day, him beating the drums on the pages to the beat of the text when he was a drooling baby. all three kids read the book, abused it. it finally fell apart beyond repair. i was in a cleaning frenzy and threw it away without thinking to put the pieces in henry’s box. when i thought of it later i felt a little sad about it, wishing i had thought to keep it. it reminded of me how many stupid things are in my head most of the time and how often i totally trade the things that matter in exchange for the nothings that cover the world like a fine layer of dust, my eyes catching one piece of it caught on the air and flashing in the sunlight, watching this little spark of nothing float slowly away while the important things explode and speed by me unnoticed.
weekending
January 24, 2011 | Filed Under weekending | Leave a Comment
grocery stores
migraine
hurt feelings
tirade
tears
basketball games
date with jude
thrift shop
letting go
pizza night
finishing valentine orders
wrapping valentine orders
good church
jesus thoughts
dealings with raw chickens
bitter cold
new magazines
napward thoughts
community group
late nights
short walk
lola scooter
naughty pup with noisy new toy
garden thoughts
nightmare about hoarded cats in the house
long story by lola
laundry
dishes
new books
silver & gold
January 22, 2011 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
day five of the poppytalk color week! i did it all week long!
silver, gold, starlight, moonlight, colors that twinkle and glitter and glow. they are colors that reflect, that gather light in a basket for reaching down deep and pulling up in a handful to scatter.
green
January 20, 2011 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
day four of the poppytalk color week!
green is the color that changes in spears and veins as things that are growing, a color that is clean and new no matter how worn and old it is. henry’s eyes have turned a magnificent green with waves of brown strung through them. we dress our kids in matching green hoodies to keep track of them. green is sometimes a smell and sometimes a feeling. and when i think of green i think of the dark earth, the secret a seed holds, and the hope of something new.
blue
January 19, 2011 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
day three of the poppytalk color week!
blues, the color of most of the greenes eyes, the walls in several rooms of my life, the sky all afternoon today while the kids played in the dead garden and the open windows puffed up the curtains like slow balloons rising for a ride in a basket over fields and cities. blue is my kind of color.
white
January 18, 2011 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
i’m jumping in on the poppytalk color week. i’m typically very bad at keeping up with things like this, but cheers to day two!
these are snowy day photos from last week. the snow is nearly melted now, a rain coming down last night to take with it the snow still hiding in the shady places, leaving us a lazy winter, brown and dreary this morning as it usually is in the south. the only icicles left are the few that jude stashed in the freezer along with some grass laced snowballs. i love that he’s that kind of weirdo.
red
January 17, 2011 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
i’m skipping this week’s weekending post and jumping in on the poppytalk color week. can i finish? probably not. i’m not good for that kind of promise.
monday’s color is red. i do have frequent exciting flings with this color. i dye my hair some manner of red, try to wear red lipstick with success. i could eat cherries and pomegranates and homemade cranberry sauce every day and without restraint. red zinnias, red poppies, red tulips, red geraniums, these are the best of the flowers to plant wherever possible and everywhere possible. i have, ridiculously, owned at least a dozen vintage red velvet jackets and i am not embarrassed to admit that i still look for them every time i go to the thrift.
