troublemaker
March 5, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
daffodils in places, a puddle of crocus, things green where they weren’t before. tonight is the annie and analisa show at art & light. lola and i are going on a date together because the boys are going to the children’s missions conference at church, where they learn about indians and blow darts and death defying feats of faith. darts and poison have more appeal to them today than butterflies and farm animals and fragility galore in the gallery, and i suppose i don’t blame them.
i’m finally catching up on orders. the aftermath of christmas, sick kids, valentines, two year molars, influx of bird mobile orders have all pressed down upon me heavily, but at last i’m seeing some light. if you’re waiting for yours, it’s coming, it really is. trust me.
days for nights
March 4, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
tonight, tonight you are slow and dark, stars stitched in silver in your sky. the house sleeps, boys burrowed under covers, lola, the threads of her hair shining gold in the lamplight. winter is for nights like these, cold in the dark, the pup sniffing around, the moon cradling itself in the bright of itself.
march, let’s hear your roar
March 1, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary, project: churchy opportunities | Leave a Comment
i updated churchy opportunities yesterday. there are many things to do and my updating over there kind of fell by the wayside.
march, you and your daffodils are welcome always. they say it may snow tomorrow, at the least a cold rain. but just being in a month that promises wind and flower is enough to get me through.
goodbye, february
February 28, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
sunday, rest galore. chimichanga and the like for lunch, surprising myself with a nap, the long slow making of homemade mac & cheese for community group. i like to grate cheese with the grater, heaps of uneven shreds in piles on the counter. the baked mac & cheese in the joy of cooking is very good comfort food, indeed.
ernie’s parents are here helping us get our other house on the market. we’re slow like this, the kids, work, the real things getting in the way of painting and sprucing up places. it’s good to have help because it takes too long to do it ourselves these days. hopefully the house will sell fast. it’s a nice little house and i loved it immediately, green carpet and wallpapered hideousity regardless. i almost don’t want to see it with it’s new white walls and bathroom sink.
this post makes two months of posts!
sweeping into the next
February 26, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary, royal buffet | Leave a Comment
this little garland is now in the shop. six feet of chirruping goodness. i have several other things in the works, if i could just stay caught up on actual orders!
today, cold, the afternoon sun still cold. big dad took kahlil for a walk, so it wasn’t too cold, i suppose. ernie’s parents are coming for a few days and the clean condition of our house and the newly organized game cabinet (why yes, we do have all of the pieces to sorry. oh, bananagrams? yes, those are right here.) will tell you that.
tomorrow brings the weekend, blue and cold. i want to do things like make a fire in the barrel, take max for walks, eat pasta, play cards, loll about in my bed with a couple of kids and some books. wishes sometimes do come true.
fog
February 23, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
morning a fog through the window and all over the place. fog for driving, and just for a bit. then, a day for cleaning, kids in the yard, bringing leaves in and dumping them on the floor, dirty feet on the white bathroom floor. after baths, late afternoon books to read, easy dinner, lola napless, jude asking me to not read with a british accent, fast dinner, bedtime, last minute and ernie goes out, annie comes over with chocolate eclairs. a day that would be fine done over again in almost exactly the same way.
star atlas
February 20, 2010 | Filed Under familial, ordinary | Leave a Comment
saturdays, easy and free. i hate the grocery store on saturdays, but somehow, today, it wasn’t too bad. later there was pizza and lots if olive oil, a pretty loaf of bread and the sounds of laughter from the kids in the gathering room.
saturday nights, sleepy and slow. henry in his bed reading books, drifts away into stars and dreaming. jude in his bed, sprawled out, mouth agape, his early morning a mere blink away. lola in her pajamas, curling hair on the pillow, covers kicked away, the world hers for the taking.
like deer, but sweeter
February 13, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
snow, a surprise, snow in depths to measure. the kids only had their sneakers and wore cold toes until they couldn’t anymore, the dryer taking the shoes for loud spins until later. cows in fields, ice in their water, breath of cows rising around their curly heads. jude hunted squirrels with his cousin, waiting in winter and trees, catching nothing. days at the farm sometimes send me wishing for a farm life of our own, quiet and birds and wide openness in all directions.
many splendoured
February 11, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary, royal buffet | Leave a Comment
i made this little valentine for annie and can’t stop thinking of phrases to write and clip and string. i hope i actually make one to hang here, in this house. you know how the baker’s children have no bread? and the cobbler’s children wear no shoes? well, there is a sad scarcity around here when it comes to garlands and paper fascinations. the kids are always asking, “is that for me?” when they wake up to a ceiling full of mobiles, paper birds and pennants strung from here to there.
and now you can make up your own phrase for me to string on silver and send your way, if you like.
we’re headed to the farm tomorrow. just one night to celebrate ernie’s grandpa turning 90. hopefully we can fit 90 candles on one of those dreadful millionaire pies grandpa loves to eat.
sunday mornings are hers
February 7, 2010 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
i love weekends, the emptiness they usually hold, two whole days that stretch before us into a distant blue. this weekend was busier than usual, included lots of work on saturday and many churchy opportunities today, but was all a weekend could hope to be as far as i’m concerned. a little more sleep would have been nice, but i’m not complaining.
i took a walk today with max, around the loop, over the creek, past the sorry house whose occupant just chopped down every tree in the yard. it smelled like mulch, summery and new, the stumps of the trees in a row in the back, a sad gaping scar ripping through the grass. maybe they were dead, diseased, something less grim than cutting on a whim, like you do to bangs, or the hem off a dress.
some sunday nights i don’t know how i’ll manage to wade through the week to come, the weight of the minutiae pushing and holding me down. tonight i don’t feel this at all, the new week rolled out in front of me, a carpet for soaring, i hope, for riding the wind through clouds and sun and onward into the weekend next.