summer people
July 29, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, familial | Leave a Comment
this kid reads too much too fast.
he can almost beat me at chess (not really hard to do, but, still).
he can tell a story that will last for hours.
his lake green eyes, they kill me.
this kid is really in to sneaking up and giving hugs.
he is an amazing creator using the most mundane of things.
he also has more energy than a busload of people combined.
i love his freckles now, tiny, before they grow along with his skin.
this kid no longer wears diapers.
she uses words like “handsome” and most days she asks me to teach her to read.
her lips are really that red, but her bangs are short because she likes to cut stuff.
she’s usually the first person i see when i wake up, and she’s so happy when she wakes me up that i feel happy, too.
many of these
July 22, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary | 3 Comments
today is my birthday. i’m spending it with my husband and kids, eating indian food, having a miniature sleep over, watching a sad movie, drinking coffee, checking the mailbox, crashing my vehicle on mario cart, and possibly sewing a dress to wear tomorrow night. i’m also counting my gray hairs and wrinkles in the bathroom’s new bright light and wondering how i got to be thirty five years old so fast. time is a such a sneaky blinking thing.
hope your day is as great as mine!
fire flown
July 8, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, familial | 1 Comment
spending a lot of time working in the house, reading roald dahl, making new stuff for the indie craft parade (using my sewing machine! crepe paper! fringing scissors!), eating tomatoes and scads of blueberries, watching the kids grow strong and beautiful.
did you know that summer will be over in a wink?
one slow hot summer
June 23, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, inspired | 2 Comments
white butterflies, small and fast, in the garden, on the lantana in the front. jude tries to catch them with a shout and a pinching finger like ernie does but hasn’t gotten any yet. we can pin them like butterflies and beetles in a museum, he says and i see the hallway walls lined with white butterflies, ceiling to floor, their wings unfolded forever under the glass.
later in the day, after the early dinner, after we’ve decided that it looks like rain so we’d better eat inside instead of across the grass and under the trees, after my hands smell of limes and the kids drink chocolate milk, after these it does rain, the sky is black and lola runs into the house for the thunder. the dog comes in, they all come in and pull the wet grass from their legs. rain, thunder, a puddle in the grass, water in streams like mercy from the sky.
six (and then some)
June 19, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, familial | Leave a Comment
this is a boy who is six and several days more. a boy that is all that six should be. he makes me laugh every day and amazes us with his wit and perception. who will he become? a question that both fills me with happiness and terrifies me. who will you become, jude?
when he was born he was early and tiny and we were full of fear (though we feebly fought for peace and faith) for what might become of him. but he was perfect, blond hair that curled around his beautiful face. his hair doesn’t curl anymore, a grievous loss as the curls were a glowing sight to be sure, his face full of freckles and mischief, six indeed.
thank you God, for the gift that is jude, for holding him in your hands, for giving him to me to love.
eight
May 29, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, familial | 6 Comments
this is a child who is eight. my child who is eight just today. my favorite eight year old, and a handsome eight, at that.
when i first became a mother, he was right there with me, a strong and beautiful baby with black blue eyes that just ate me up. now he’s ever more strong and beautiful. and those eyes, green now, deep ponds of a green and gold forever. a brilliant child, imagination and energy abounding, sweet and real and all that eight should be.
thank you God for henry, for what he is and is becoming, for giving him to me to love.
golden and true
May 11, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary | Leave a Comment
hazy morning, bringing rain for the green that would be in all of us. there are train tracks nearby, the kind that are near enough to hear the trains and far enough away to enjoy the hollow bellowing of them. morning is a pretty friend, her birds and song, trees a leafy summer home for her, glittered in sun and gold. but she winks, and is impatient and persistent and must always have her way, bringing the cat to the window to meow too early and long, convincing the coffee to take his sweet, dark time, blinking everyone awake for the living. even then she has a kind of waiting quiet, vast and open, the kind of quiet that lets you hear the far off train whistle, the swooping breakfasting of birds in the garden. broad and strong, tall and shining, in the spring, the summer, morning doesn’t care if we are friends or not, the world putting flowers in her glorious hair and dressing her in a weave of unimaginable greens at the wave of her long white hand.
flyblown
April 22, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary | 2 Comments
every time i post a pic of max i always feel that i must restate that i promise not to turn this blog into a blog of dog photos. but what a handsome boy, no? he’s the best dog in the world and i’m serious about that.
we spent a small fortune at the dentist today, but henry’s teeth are amazing now. i wish i had tooth-colored fillings instead of the silver stars of 1980s dentistry. not only are the teeth beautiful, but the dentist was so nice and not condemning at all and even though i still feel terrible about not being proactive and going to regular dentist visits and the like, i felt a lot of grace all around us while we were there and even now, enough grace to go for a swim inside, deep and wide like the flowing fountain in the song.
over and around us lies
April 17, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary | 1 Comment
inside today, protecting myself from itching, sneezing. something in the air today, an unexplained accumulation of pollen clouding through the sunshine. through the window i’m watching the trees lift up and over in slow, steady waves, the D major chimes on the end of the house blowing back and again in broken chords, irregular rhythms. i want to be out in it, under it all for the day, a blanket under us, creation reaching up and over us into glittery space explosions for miles and worlds forever, all of us tiny dust specks in the grass, eyes squinting in the gold and blue of it, debtors to the afternoon, the white sea of sky, the shining green leaves like a new year confetti.
big buck
April 12, 2010 | Filed Under extraordinary, for the mouth | Leave a Comment
if i have recent pictures i’ve taken it’s easier for me to blog. i know this and i even remember it, but sometimes it’s just a pain to upload things into the computer. am i really this lazy? clearly.
seeds are here. i know that i’m not late in getting started, but i surely could have been earlier, as big daddy hints every day. today we had a radish. a radish! a hairy white radish. it’s very gratifying, being involved in the growing of things. flowers are glorious, but the vegetables amaze me every time they actually appear.