almost three

if eyes are windows to the soul, then here is the spirit of my wee one, parker. every day i am blessed by this child's wonderful eyes that welcome me into my place in this world.

sewing

I'm taking a series of how-to workshops at a local sewing shop in August. Although the primary goal is to learn sewing 101, the ultimate and most blessed goal of all is that at the completion of the workshops, the student will receive their own Huskystar E20 sewing machine! Free! (For those who don't know how to sew, we are idiots, and idiots will believe anything is Free!)

But how much fun is that...learn the basics, and there you got it, fancy pants sewing machine for you! And knowledge. That's like going to grandma's house, learning how to sew, quilt, make curtains, read patterns, size up stuff and then walking away with your own damn machine--a new machine, at that. I'll also learn how to use this machine while I'm in the series. Owners can upgrade the machine in the future as they advance in their sewing skillz. Here is a loverly photo of the Husky E20. So glorious! So husky! So Free! not so much!



*a note, this 101 class is so glorious, that even my friend Natalie wanted to take it, but they would not let her (boo, hiss) since she wasn't in need of the Free! machine (she has her own bad ass Viking). It makes me sad, since I'll be going solo. However, this will mean that Natalie and I will have a sew-a-thon at some point in the future, making sun dresses for every boy and girl in Columbus, Ohio, including Charles and Chester.

Also check out Wholly Craft if you are in Columbus, OH for sewing classes. They have some of the best basic and creative sewing classes in town.

bike and tie to bonnaroo

last thursday, our wee family was driving home from the library when we spotted 2 mormon elders on bikes, cycling for the good mormon word. i always wonder if going door to door to recruit mormons really works--or is worth it to those young men. so the following tiny exchange happened between my husband, paul and i:


me: i just don't know why they don't do something better with their time
paul: like go to bonnaroo?


at this point, i realized that it would be so much better for them to be at bonnaroo. without the ties. good luck, ya'll elders!

why potty training sucks in the summer

because you have to go places, like the zoo, the science museum or grandma and grandpa's house with the hope that your child will not pee his or her pants--especially since he or she will not pee on an adult toilet. so what do you do? put a diaper on him or her, which inevitably throws any potty training accomplishments that you might have reached out the window.

or you bring mr. potty and the jar o' potty candy with you.

Veggie Booty Recall

Arrrrh. Who knew that if you ate booty, there's been doodie from yr booty? Arrrrrh! A setback for the vegetarians. It seriously is, though, the best nutritious crack that your kids will eat (and packed full of vitamins...and salmonella.)

berry angel cream

easiest summer dessert (yet messiest)

i made this for my family this weekend. everyone devoured it like a pack of wolves on fried chicken.

angel food cake, cut in half lengthwise, 1/3 way through

1 cup blueberries

5 cups strawberries, cut in quarters, with 1 tbs sugar mixed in

whipping cream (whipped) or light cool whip for fewer calories

cut the cake, whip the cream (a chilled bowl or metal pan works best), sort of hollow out the inner layer of the cake, layer cream on inner layer, put on a layer of half of strawberries, add in a half of the blueberries, add layer of whipped cream onto bottom of top layer of angel food cake. put top layer of cake on (make it fit!). add whipped cream on top of cake and then the rest of berries.

here's my rendition:

fyi, i was actually inspired by martha's new cake, but it went it's own way. as is the case with martha's ideas. that martha.

here's hers:

also in the running

i went to the sweet glass thimble quilting shop yesterday to pick out fabric for the curtains (re: post below) and was informed that they will soon be carrying amy butler's nigella collection. one of the fabrics will include this lovely one, called "passion vine". so now i'm a bit unsure.

the best thing about this one is that it will help in blocking out light. it's also a thicker fabric, which is probably best for curtains. however, i'm not sure if it's too dark for a pink wall. hmmm.

if you are in columbus, you should check out the glass thimble. they've been carrying amy butler's stuff lately and have a good amount left. the owner told me that they had had more of it but that it was flying off the shelf. i guess the good word is catching on. now if i could only learn how to sew fast enough...and grow a money tree. the new nigella fabric is running at $15 a yard. eek!

pink n' cherry n' _____?

the mr. and i are currently refabbin' our boudoir this summer (thanks to domino). we got a jump start this spring by painting it pink. pink, in the form of valspar's "quebec calm", which is more of a light-blue-pink. "a calming effect" pink.

i'm now in the midst of upgrading the room's decorative elements, primarily the lamps, rugs, and curtains. but i've hit a boo-hooey stumbling block in this process. the lervly light cherry furniture that lives in the space, the cherry that once pleasantly matched the sage color on the walls, now stands alone in it's earthiness. pink and cherry might go well in some spaces, like a gynecologist's office, but not so much in this case.

to that end, the cherry wood must become one with the quebec calm. the main priority now is to decide on the best fabric for four single panel curtains--all of which will be backed by a basic, plain ol' color, like khaki or black or something that matches. i'll post photos of the room soon. in the mean time, feel free to comment on the swatches below. fabric is from amy butler's lotus collection.

pick the perttiest one:

1

2

3

4

5

6

trumpetessness

This is Leslie. She is a librarian, friend, creative being and a musician. She can work a number of instruments, including this here trumpet. Her band, Church of the Red Museum is playing this weekend at Columbus' annual Comfest. If you are in town or coming to to Columbus (come ya'll!), check them out on Sunday at 7:10 pm at the Offramp stage at Comfest. They're also playing on Friday at Little Brother's.

i love charlottesville

how many times have i come to you out of my head with joy, if ever a man was, for to approach you i have given up the light and all directions. i come to you lost, wholly trusting as a man who goes into the forest unarmed. it is as though i descend slowly earthward out of the air. i rest in peace in you, when i arrive at last. -wendell berry

we went to charlottesville this weekend to see tyler and sena get married. tyler is an old friend of my husband's. i had only met tyler twice or five times and paul hadn't seen him in about 4 years. however, he insisted that we be at their wedding. it was lovely,charming and genuine. i've never heard "venus in furs" played for a wedding party processional. and my friend dominic read "in the country of marriage" by wendell berry. it was awesome.

as is the case with most out-of-town weddings, i had a chance to meet a lot of folk whose names/histories i'd only heard about. i was also reintroduced to people who i met over 10 years ago. both myself and the person i was meeting again could remember way back in our skulls when we had first met. it was quite endearing to have a bit of blank space filled in. it also left me wanting to know them all more.

i told paul this morning that we should move to charlottesville so that we can spend more time with these kind people. he then reminded me that most of the clan were ex-c'ville pats. too bad. charming charlottesville has such a brigadoon feeling. paul's mantra for the weekend was that "everyone's important in charlottesville"--from the burrito dude to the rocker. and loved. we'll definitely be back for more.

in my head now

1) tony soprano is not dead...or is he?
2) bedroom inspiration board--make it!
3) jim gill, children's musicmaker. will there always be sunshine?
4) tyler and sena's wedding in charlottesville party=PARTY ya'll
5) is christina aguilera pregnant?
6) am i pregnant?
7) parker's potty training almost done, except for the poop part
8) tire tread thin, needs repair
9) clean up the back yard now
10) huntington dog beach...and dylaney
11) i want my own ipod
12) library books due
13) ramona is a lovely name
14) spurs will probably win. i am sad for cavs

and bread will once again be 2 cents

one thing that i hate about living in columbus, oh is that there are no direct flights to my hometown of richmond, virginia. there's never ever, to the best of my knowledge, been a direct flight. and when you do take a flight, the only option has been to connect in charlotte, nc or washington, dc at the average cost of $300. bullshit in darkness.

today, april 24, 2007, lightness came wrapped in a sugary sweet, ice cream and french fries-filled 6-letter word: skybus. direct flights to my home town from here on out. no connecting flights to drag my toddler through during nap time. god has shown us his love and mercy forever, amen.

but wait, it's not over. the best is yet to come. and with this, war will be over. and britney spears will pull off her straw cowboy hat to reveal a returned mane of hair. and each day will be a spring day, filled with flowers, avocados and basil.

TEN DOLLAR ONE-WAY TICKETS

I had a feeling that this clever, new Skybus airline had some tricks up her sleeves, but I had no idea it was this ridiculous. REEE-DIC!

And what does one do when prices are so awesomely, sugar smack low?

One buys oneself a ticket to Los Angeles for that which is less than the cost of one of the following:
a meal at O'Charley's for 1
a pair of K-mart jeans
8 thrift store shirts
a subscription to People magazine
half a bag of groceries at Whole Foods
a full tank of gas for a Volvo Station wagon, on a good day
2 pizzas

$20!!! LA.!!!

Get in on the action while the summer spots are still low!

Sestina for the Working Mother

I recently picked up Deborah Garrison's The Second Child at the library. It's the most recent work by the Pantheon Books editor, and mom of three.

This one was quite beautiful--no less another reminder of the awkward and sorrowful reconciliation between working and staying at home.

Sestina for the Working Mother
No time for a sestina for the working mother.
Who has so much to do, from first thing in the morning
When she has to get herself dressed and the children
Too, when they tumble in the pillow pile rather than listening
To her exhortations about brushing teeth, making ready for the day;
They clamor with "up" hugs when she struggles out the door.

Every time, as if shot from a cannon when she shuts the door.
She stomps down the street in her city boots, slipping from mother
Mode into commuter trance, trees swaying at the corner of a new day
Nearly turned, her familiar bus stop cool and welcoming in the morning.
She hears her own heart here, though no one else is listening,
And if the bus is late she hears down the block the voices of her children

Bobbing under their oversized backpacks to greet other children
At their own bus stop. They too have come flying from the door,
Brave for the journey, and everyone is talking and no one is listening
As they head off to school. The noisy children of the working mother,
Waiting with their sitter for the bus, are healthy and happy this morning,
And that's the best way, the mother knows, for a day

To begin. The apprehension of what kind of day
It will be in the world of work, blissful without children,
Trembles in the anxious and pleasurable pulse of the morning;
It has tamped her down tight and lit her out the door
And away from what she might have been as a mother
At home, perhaps drinking coffee and listening

To NPR, what rapt and intelligent listening
She'd do at home. And volunteering, she thinks, for part of the day
At their school—she'd be a playground monitor, a PTA mother!
She'd see them straggle into the sunshine, her children
Bright in the slipstream, and she a gracious shadow at the school door;
She would not be separated from them for long by the morning.

But she has chosen her flight from them, on this and every morning.
She's now so far away she trusts someone else is listening
To their raised voices, applying a Band-Aid, opening the door
For them when the sunshine calls them out into the day.
At certain moments, head bent at her desk, she can see her children,
And feels a quick stab. She hasn't forgotten that she is their mother.

Every weekday morning, every working day,
She listens to her heart and the voices of her children.
Goodbye! they shout, and the door closes behind the working mother.

march, march, march!

those of us in central ohio have been slowly recovering from a bi-polar snowstorm that hit us about 3 weeks ago like a bad case of the miseries. the ice is now slowly melting and there are just a few traces of snow left around town in dirty bits that remind me of the piles of laundry in my bedroom. one thing that i actually love about living in ohio (i'm a southern transplant) is that we actually get snow...and i often look forward to it arriving, preferably during the winter holidays, now excluding valentine's day and president's day.

this year it came kind of late and in a big glob. it snowed straight for almost a week and ultimately caused tons of chaos--for me anyway. my husband and i landed ourselves into crazy bickering sessions over how to handle it ("you're not supposed to boil pots of water and pour them onto your car! don't break my window!!!"). and our cars took a beating as well, ending up with holes in the pipes underneath and layers of salt coating the exterior. thankfully we were able to get around after digging ourselves out many times over throughout the days. there was one sweet moment where about 8 people stopped what they were doing to help get my husband out of the snow while he tried to turn a corner.

the most significant impact the snow has made, i think, has been my mental stability. snow is beautiful and makes things clean and all, but for someone like myself who prefers the predictable, the snow war created a ton of anxiety. i assume because of the work we had to do to get around and the lack of options for childcare once the school shut down for several days. i think also because of how isolated i felt from the world, though it was only for a few days.

so three cheers for march! hip, hip, hooray!

all in a day

The last 24 hours of the insatiable E! RSS feed has included the following headlines:


"Anna Nicole's New DNA Deadline"

"Anna Nicole Dead"

"Anna Nicole Dies"


Kinda gross. Kinda sad.

Sorry, Anna Nicole.

who is the wee little woman?

One of our favorite bedtime books is "The Wee Little Woman", a story about small, single gal who spends her day milking her cow and hanging out with her animals. The book has been such a staple that I've give it it's own song, titled "Wee Little Woman", sung to the tune of Asia's "Heat of the Moment", respectively.

Anyway, the wee woman gets in a fight with her cat when he tries to drink her milk. The cat gets scatted ("scat cat!"), leaves town and returns to a very sad wee little woman. They all make up--and drink up some milk.

I have been trying to figure out who the wee little woman reminded me. Perhaps she's a woman from Guatemala...a lady from downtown...a figure from a work of art. I finally got my answer. Last night as I opened up the book and read out the title, my husband said from across the room, "...starring Lisa Bonet, circa 1986."

Moments like these make story time rule even more. Thanks, Paul!

water, trail mix, pen

I've often wondered what I'd do if I were faced with an animal attack on myself or a loved one--or total stranger. I'm still not sure. However, it appears that this 65-year-old woman knew what to do while when her husband was ambushed by a lion while the couple hiked in a northern California park last week.

As I started reading about the attack I wondered how this granny chased off the cat. With the machine gun she had nestled next to her Patagonia fanny pack? No, a pen. She used a pen to save her spouse. Apparently, she pulled a pen from her husband's pocket (at his request while being attacked) and gouged out the animal's eye. I've been wondering how on earth did she could have mustered the courage to make it happen. A pen! She also grabbed a large log and clubbed the cat in the nose until it backed away. I'm absolutely blown away by her bravery.

So this brought me to some pondering about whether or not I'd respond so well to an attack as such on my own partner. One seriously has to get it together, dig in and go on the offense. I'm still marveled that she got as close as the eye--let alone the head or body. Do you need to have taken a self-defense class to have your brain and body in that place? Do you have to read "The Power of Now" or is it pure love that makes us to apt to save our beloved during these frightful moments?

Apparently, it's just teamwork, according to a statement she gave to a reporter:

"We fought harder than we ever have to save his life, and we fought
together," she said.

The collective. The we. The together. That's the answer. I can almost believe it. Pens are useful though, I suppose.

Happy almost Valentine's Day.

resolving to be simple--but not broke

My resolution for this new year was to live a little more simply: not buy as much crap as I usually do (from Target), not give in to the urge to have all the latest of coolness, get rid of my credit card debt, not fill my brain with celebrity gossip (sick, sickedy, sickness), not eat as many pre-packaged foods, spend more time with the family, read more, walk more, sing more, enjoy life more simply.

Simplicity all of my own doing--until I was hit with the reality that December was a 5-week month and that the money that I would have used to spend on my bills at the beginning of this month was used to actually pay for Christmas (I was avoiding credit cards the last two weeks of December...part of my "simplicity" plan, which is actually a "get off the master's card" plan). SO I have had no extra money at all, other than that needed to buy gas and groceries. So it's not so much fun any more that I'm actually broke. But it is indeed, I think, my own fault. I know it is my own fault.

Making this transition from semi-broke to living with less is hard. But I think that downgrading has allowed me to see how much I really don't have and how much I depended on charging for things.

(I have to insert here that I work with low-income folks for a living, so I know what real broke is and RRrrrreeeeal broke is. We aren't real broke. Just 1% real broke. But I feel the pinch.)

So what are we doing this weekend? Using our Blockbuster "get one free" coupon, swimming at the Y, making pizza at home, taking the dogs to the park, singing, playing cards, putting away the decorations (such a cheap option for entertainment), and dreaming of next Friday: payday...and Wendy's fries.

gramma's up!

Who knew that Nancy Pelosi could turn Senators into little boys!

You go, gramma!!!

yay for everything

i'm back. trying to return to the routine of just writing...to anything. writing is good. not writing is bad, sometimes. but i'll keep posting...more soon.

until then, i'm in a frenzy of knitting a million scarves (the only thing i can knit) for holiday gifts. starting now. when i get to the end of the yarn pile, i'll write a little more.

the new job is amazing. working with therapists is the best thing. no drama. and it's quiet. and everyone is nice. and i only have one job to do...not three in one.

happy december. stay safe and warm.