weekending
May 15, 2012 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
this weekend we met the neighbors (who are great and have dogs and swear they don’t think we’re too loud), ernie mowed the grass, the kids and i put some plants into boxes and felt a great sense of hope, ernie set up the wii, ernie and i went on a date to a party, we all went to an indian buffet for mother’s day, i took an extraordinarily long nap (super awesome), and just kind of hung around with each other and did nothing overly productive. i think those weekends may be the best because they make the work of mondays easier to take a deep breath and jump into. maybe not.
the post-move discovery of the wii is a good babysitter, i’m only a little ashamed to admit. she doesn’t yell at the kids when they go nuts, doesn’t show them inappropriately scary you tube videos, and is extremely cheap on an hourly basis. when the school is done and people have gotten sweaty outside and done a few chores, the wii keeps the kids happy and mama can get her work done, which makes her happy. unsubscribe from this blog if you must.
this week we’re practicing piano, grilling foods on the grill, drinking iced coffees forever, planting fedco seeds that came in the mail, working on projects when it’s quiet and dark and night, eating baked beans, reading the hobbit, finishing spelling books, buying new swim trunks, hard boiling eggs, vacuuming the floor and going to the doc for a 24 week baby check up. it won’t be long now. we’re ready to meet this kid, though i’m sure this kid doesn’t have any idea what she’s/he’s gotten into.
tunes i couldn’t place
May 10, 2012 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
strawberry limeade
cold by night
boys digging old asphalt from the future former driveway
mushrooms at the park
empty parks
new bird feeder from grammy
waiting for good mail
finding something on my “look for” list at the thrift
clean bathroom
clean pup
clean kids
lola sounding out words
cannonball
May 5, 2012 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
this week: the graduation of ernie’s brother, family all about, celebration indian dinner, hours cleaning the house for a short time of company. it was good, fast. there were eight kids spinning around this little house for a day and into night and it didn’t seem like so many. but just like that i’m a little behind on work, mobiles to make, more than even these.
ernie is gone overnight for a wedding. the house is hot, the dog smells hot. the kids were cranky all day from a very late night with cousins and the usual early morning. i fed them ice cream and pound cake, strawberries for dinner and the complaining stopped for a time. now they’re asleep, a whirl of ice and milk together with cold coffee, the fan spinning constant in the next room. a short return from a foggy land of weariness to clean the messy desk, patch jude’s jeans since we can’t find his only sunday pants, catch up on snipping away at things while cars fly by at intervals controlled by the lights, a saturday night with the pull of a super moon behind clouds bringing the faceless cars in tides one place, another.
no one (i think) is in my tree
May 2, 2012 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
hot now, almost summer, already summer if it weren’t for the still cool air breezing through by night, the trees still a little small of leaf, bright of green. time for summer drinks, fans, grilling the dinner outside, potato salad, popsicles in twos. we haven’t planted anything for a garden yet but there’s still time. it feels late. the refrigerator is full of clean, cut strawberries from a quick drive through mown grass fields and woods to pick them. the kids ran off, leaping over the rows in the fields and i filled the baskets.
may for a time, then june. then the projects lined up and overwhelming me will lessen, we’ll go swimming, the baby’s water flips will be stronger, henry will tan, the rest of us will freckle, there will be fireworks, picnic blankets, and if we start the garden soon we will eat tomatoes, torn basil, salt, olive oil in a pool beneath.
upstream in a wooden boat
April 4, 2012 | Filed Under ordinary | Leave a Comment
spring break, we’re not taking it. enough with the breaks, we need to get the schoolwork done. i see in our future a long summer of math books and spelling tests and an endless stack of handwriting pages in messy cursive.
we have, at long last, a dishwasher in the house. it’s my favorite thing to load it, punch the buttons, listen to it make the tiniest of hums, unload it, load it again. doing dishes by hand sounds more romantic than it really happens to be.
i’m thinking about the garden, containers this year, none of the sprawl that comes with a giant backyard garden space. i haven’t planted tomatoes in pots since henry was a wee newborn and ernie and i were young married, popping off the potted tomatoes on our sidewalk, four o’clocks blooming in drawers pulled from the side of the road, our tiny apartment full of sunshine, cranking the windows open, a fish swimming in a bowl on the sill, everything in all the rooms clean and put away while my babe kicked his feet on a blanket and i planted zinnia seeds in the dirt to keep the landlady from plunking in a stodgy bed of begonias in their place. this time i will have jude to send out for the perfect red tomato, to lift the leaves and check for peppers that are new ready. lola will bring flowers too often and i won’t mind. henry to clip the basil just above the last leaves.
write a song a hundred miles long
March 29, 2012 | Filed Under ordinary | 1 Comment
poison ivy on jude, pollen sneezing for half of us, long mornings outside for the worst of it. making headway with boxes, dishes galore, school here and there, creative work there and here, falling asleep too soon, awake in the night too long, pirate movies, astronautic angry birds, perfect strawberries, dreams for the house, for the piano, for the studio, for the garden, for the summer, for the baby, dreams that promise pink blossom style, dogwood dreams, spring a little early, green leaf dreams in every blue sky.
you’re going on it
January 18, 2012 | Filed Under ordinary | 2 Comments
fifties, almost sixties, the january of dreams, green grass peeking out, daffodils confused, early. these are pics from the coldest day i’ve felt in a long time, a model rocket day in illinois with grandparents and cousins and kids wearing the gloves of grownups, moms and a rotation of kids staying in a heated van for much of it. i’ve turned into a southern girl when it comes to winter. give me daffodils in january, a sky blue sky after a day of eternal gray rain, the dog napping in an afternoon sun, his brindled fur shining, kids out more than in; give me these, any of these instead of snow dusted fields and cold white sky.
nothing too special this week, schoolwork, housework. i’m working on a paper taxidermy giraffe for a new baby’s nursery and i really hope to put the smaller pieces in the shop (no moose, just rabbits, deer, giraffes, birds) before long. also, i found an amazing pink sofa at the thrift for a mere $65 and it’s sitting in my living room with chairs and things all around it. when it looks more at home and less like a used furniture store in here, i’ll take some pics. have you noticed my lack of instagrams in this space this month? i’m trying to take more pictures with real cameras. as good as an instagram can be, it does still feel like a cheat sometimes.
where you want to get to
January 12, 2012 | Filed Under ordinary, royal buffet | Leave a Comment
i had a commission last fall for a set of five alice in wonderland themed mobiles for a little girl named rosy. they were super fun to think about and sketch out and cut and string up on wire. i’ve listed them on etsy and can’t wait to make more.
the sun is lost in gray, it’s still wet and cold, days of rain and mud and kids who don’t want to be outside in it parading by. oh, january. you’re not going to get me down.
but i’m a watcher
January 10, 2012 | Filed Under ordinary, royal buffet | 1 Comment
to illinois and back again, cousins and uncles and grandmas galore, cold winter winds blowing us into this new year, blowing all around us before we close ourselves in our rocket and launch ourselves south, mud and gray skies and rain for the taking.
we’re back into the school of things, the first full day of bookwork that sends me over the edge with boys who just want to run, to build, to make mouth noises that drive a woman to coffee, beyond. the house is an ever mess, the dog has come to sleep at the foot of our bed, his usual place too cold for the winter. black beans for dinner, grits for dinner, homemade pizza for dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, make dinner, what’s for dinner, a ringing bell i’m caught inside, constant, loud, abiding: what’s for dinner!
in pretty news, there are valentines in the shop, mostly the age old royal buffet classics because after a christmas i don’t have it in me to produce many new lover things in time. i did a re-make of the lady & gentleman mobile, a heart that beats on the breeze instead of the butterfly of before. it’s going in the shop tonight. valentine orders for delivery in the USA need to be placed by january 31, so plan ahead, friends and lovers.
this week we’re doing school, afternoons one after another of one boy after another trudging through math and handwriting, feigning boredom through geography and history, silent and begging for more chapters in the hobbit. if all of school could be books read aloud while kids draw or build or string beads on a thread we’d have nothing to complain about.
thin, bright claw
January 2, 2012 | Filed Under lists, ordinary | Leave a Comment
a few resolutions for a new year
read 52 books
become very skinny
spend less money
mop more often
learn to linocut
memorize a little erik satie
minimalize the stuff in my life
plant trees