this week's ride

It's been quite a week.  Quite. A. Week.

The better part of my time has been spent squinting through swollen eyes rendering me a close cousin to Rocky Balboa.  But without his fighting spirit.

By Tuesday evening I was in tears while making dinner.  I was going to call someone.  But what could I say?  That I'm crying over laundry?  That I'm scrounging a dinner because we had not yet managed our weekly grocery shopping?  That my face resembled a boxer losing a fight because somehow I had forgotten over the winter that my tree allergies flare up each spring?  That I don't know how I could even possibly forget something like that?

Later in the week, as I went to the elementary school to pick up my sons, I opened the back of the minivan and discovered a wide open space where the stroller should be. I stood there staring, trying to make sense of what I saw.  Slowly it came to me that I must have left it in the church parking lot from a stop earlier in the day.  In. The. Parking. Lot. Twenty. Minutes. Away.

So that explains why I was walking in my sons' school with Pal strapped to my back in the hiking pack.  Funny enough he loved it.  And I received oohs and ahhs from the teachers.  One very generous teacher gushing that "no wonder you look so great, you are super-mom to take four kids hiking, in the snow no less, and you bring me homemade bread." I assured her I am not super-mom. But thank you.  Oh so very much. 

As it turns out I'm not the first mom to forget her stroller in that church parking lot.  Really.  And that I gave the staff a good chuckle.  I'll take that.

Just like I will take the afternoon I spent having coffee with a friend.  After the tears Tuesday night I invited her to come over Wednesday afternoon.  It gave me that boost needed to do a quick tidy up, put the sugar in the wedding present crystal sugar bowl, and have cookie batter ready for fresh-baked cookies as we connected over coffee and kids. She brought me a goodie bag to combat the swollen face.  Such goodie goodness from the generous women I know.

Like another friend that helped me laugh my way to the weekend.  She and I spent Thursday evening in Starbucks, and like true friends should, we quickly made our way to sharing a depth of understanding of each other, filled with compassion and free of judgement.  

Ah, just what I needed.  Similar to the special package I received in the mail from a dear blogging friend.  (More of which you'll see later.) And the unexpected delivery of homemade caramel corn from a former colleague.  How could she have known it's sugary yumminess was exactly what I needed at that minute of my day, of my week?

My eyes are still a bit swollen.  But this morning I took a solo hike breathing cool fresh air, leaving my tracks in the dusting of snow among those very trees that are causing some discomfort.  

I thanked the trees for their oxygen, forgave them for their angst.

this moment {observation day}

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment. 

In Amanda's words: "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Please link to your moment too -- I love to see what you are enjoying this week!

Wishing you a weekend full of goodness!

interim

I don't want to seem obsessive about my purse.  Maybe I am.

Somehow I feel compelled to keep talking about this. Much like I have the compulsion to talk to my husband about how much laundry I am never-endingly doing.  Moving on...

Since the big dump last week, half of my purse contents remain in the grocery bag, the other half in a cloth tote bag.  Neither very useful.  I think the paper grocery bag has normalized  because one of my kids asked if it was actually my purse.  Really, they asked.

Buying a new purse is on my list.  Just below scheduling dentist appointments and just above sending in spring soccer registration forms.  (Did I just admit how pedestrian in a soccer-momish way my existence is?)  Moving on...

This morning I had the thought to get an old purse from the attic for the interim.  A wool plaid number that my Mom gave me before I had kids.  Kicky and cute don't you think?

Then I realized it might not work, since this is what was in my old purse (minus the camera!)

Count with me....1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.  Yes, eight journals.  Can I really have that many coherent, important thoughts in my head to need eight journals in my purse?  Unlikely.  Moving on...

So I resigned myself to using another pre-children purse that I knew would be big enough, but that I've been embarrassed to actually use for the past decade.

I bought in Vancouver at the Roots store.  You know, the company that can outfit an Olympic team in style.  It is leather and sturdy and a kicky cute color.  I bought it because I had not seen a single other purse like it.  Not.  A. Single. One.  It just so happens I bought the original style of what became a grossly imitated fashion trend that rendered my, quite expensive (ahem) all-leather bag a veritable fashion leftover within months.  I was not happy.  Quite not happy.  Moving on...

At least all of my soccer-momish purse items fit.  Not perfectly, but good enough for the interim.

All I need to do now is figure out a way to carry it so no one can see my initial on the one side lest they presume I believe I am rocking that over-done purse fad of 2003.

this moment {this morning}

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment. 

In Amanda's words: "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Please link to your moment too -- I love to see what you are enjoying this week!

Wishing you a weekend full of goodness!

sweet and sour

Pal is having a love affair.

With the vacuum cleaner.

I know from his squeals whenever she appears.  And the cries when she goes away.

He courts her with leisurely walks around the living room.  Her loud noises do nothing to scare him off.  No, they draw him nearer and he holds on tight even as I vacuum.  See how lovingly Pal gazes at her.  (I won't mention all of the hugging, kissing and (gulp!) licking.) 

 So, so sweet that Pal of mine.

On a completely unrelated note, this is the inside of my purse:

Well the contents of the inside of my purse in a brown grocery bag.   The bag is half filled.

Last fall I asked for birthday money so I could buy a new camera purse.  I haven't picked one out yet.  Really?  The chance to shop, buy something new, something ALL for moi, and I haven't done it yet.
 
Recently, even without my new camera purse purchased, I retired my much-worn, much loved, place-for-everything-and-everything-in-its-place purse.  I've been using a really cute, but terribly ineffective, bottomless-pit-can't-find-anything-in-it-purse from Anthropologie.

I've been unreasonably frustrated by this purse (seems a pretty good metaphor for the various jumbles I have going on here and there, without end in sight.)

So when I was out the other night with a dear dear friend of mine, contemplating and commiserating and problem-solving each of our jumbles, she mentioned that she liked my purse.  So I dumped the contents of my purse into a grocery bag and I gave it to her.

Problem solved.

this moment {date night}

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment. 

In Amanda's words: "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Please link to your moment too -- I love to see what you are enjoying this week!

Wishing you a weekend full of goodness!

loving

Valentine's Day seems a very fitting day to enjoy and share some things that I am loving right now.

:: a colorful iPhone case (it only took me nine months to pick it out, it reminded me of daffodils when I bought it.  When I showed it to Honey, he thought of the Steelers.  Uggg.)

:: Lovey's stripey polka-dotey fashion

:: these kids (and the wild chaotic bliss they bring to my every moment)

:: the Daddy that the kids are piled upon

:: a little boy who is teaching himself to walk by holding the handle of the yarn basket and scooting it around

:: the colorful packaging of this Trader Joe's chocolate

:: empty laundry baskets as pet beds

:: feeding and seeing our own little flock every morning

:: new Moleskins (ah, daffodils again.  I must be wishing spring.)

:: sweetly wrapped, fresh-baked presents

:: braids

:: handmade Valentine fuzzy friends

:: a sparkly heart-shaped magic wand

Oh yes, loving it all.
What are you loving right now?

quite something

We've been making friends with the lovely Annie and Jim and their boys.  It is quite something when a chance blog comment leads to a link on another's blog and leads to you and subsequent emails and eventually blogging life intersects with real life.

Quite something, and oh so good. 

Recently we got to travel to their homestead.  Before we even finished the tour of their historic farmhouse the kids were fast friends and off playing.  So the grown-ups got to be grown-ups for a bit.  They shared about their journey into homesteading and parenting.  We shared about life with four children and our dreams of some more space in the future.

We shared a meal.

We enjoyed the warmth of their wood-burning stove.

We met and fed their chickens.  (I pointed out to Honey all of the great and easy aspects of keeping chickens.  In fairness, he made sure I saw inside the coop, that eventually gets cleaned.)  We both were happy.

We learned about their bees, and their plans for their homestead.

We ventured into the woods.  The kids raced and climbed.  The grown ups walked and talked.

We witnessed their gentle parenting and comfortable home.  Annie's talents are seen everywhere in the handmades she sews for beauty and everyday use.  Quilts, washcloths, delightful cloth napkins.  Jim's hard work is felt in the stacks of wood, gathered and cut and awaiting the wood stove.  The fresh eggs, the whimsical wooden coat hooks made from sturdy branches.

How lucky we are to get to this quite something, and now are making dear friends.

adventure

Student ID, circa 1989.

Once when I was in college I went with a friend to the airport at 3 o'clock in the morning, just to sit and people watch. (And smoke cigarettes, but never mind that part of the "things-I-tried-in-college" part of the story. Ahem.)

Not that there were many people to see at that hour.  But sit we did for quite some time, talking and thinking ourselves awfully interesting to do such a thing. Mind you, this was in an era when you could roam freely around any airport terminal, there were indoor smoking sections and, apparently, anyone could sit in an airport lounge area at 3:00 in the morning with nary a sideways glance.

It's been years since I've thought of that little trip.  For some reason it came to mind this week.  Perhaps because of my, somewhat surprising, recognition that I've become a woman who so eagerly embraces routine, and that the young adventuring woman of 19 or 20 seems long gone. 

Certainly my routine keeps me from adventuring much these days.  But, if I think a bit harder about it, maybe all of my organizing and list-checking actually gives me just enough space to grab that adventure in other ways, in small bits, in ways outside of our routine.

I'm not talking about middle of the night trips, other than to the kids' rooms to check on who is stirring.  But I am talking about having enough confidence in our rhythm to know that I can veer from it at times.

I can comfortably leave the house like this....

In order to do this...

Baking cookies and bread, then delivering them to several friends who need a cheering up.

A leisurely trip to the library and getting a whole new stack of books.

Coming home and sitting amongst that mess reading together for a long, long time.

I'm pretty certain that this wouldn't seem much like an adventure to that perky youngster on my student ID.  That's just fine.  That younger me didn't yet know the true adventure of marriage and home-owning and parenting.  That younger me is less experienced and, frankly, less interesting.  My wrinkled and sagged and in-pajamas-by-9 version of me, the me of here and now, it just right.  So our baking and library adventuring seems just right too.

this moment {being mommy}

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment. 

In Amanda's words: "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Please link to your moment too -- I love to see what you are enjoying this week!

Wishing you a weekend full of goodness!

goodness

Our easing has allowed me to see the goodness happening around us.  Such goodness.

:: some January thaw that allowed shorts, shorts!, to be worn for a day
:: making snowmen -- of the chalkboard variety -- as we await more snow
:: allowing the kids to run in the rain, splashing in puddles, and enjoying that January thaw (that is until this Mama discovered all the squeals of joy were from dumping cones-full of puddle water over their heads...oh my!  Then the parenting wheels came off.  Not a stellar mothering moment.)
:: being a winner over at Soulemama!
:: kitchen experiments.  Where water, flour, and dried out play-doh is all that is needed.
:: receiving a meaningful mama merit badge from Amy
:: handmade pine cone bird-feeders
:: an organized basement
:: uncovering, in that basement clean-out, a sweet little rocking chair that Lovey and I picked up at the thrift store for a couple dollars some time ago.  It simply needed a good wipe-down.
:: deciding to mix my own non-toxic laundry detergent, inspired by watching this movie
:: a family portrait by Lovey.  It was immediately put into a frame and placed in a prominent spot.
:: the first issue of Kindred, a beautiful literary magazine created by Amanda
:: a boy discovering the magic of headphones and an iPod
:: opening the very last jar of our homemade grape jelly goodness.  Oh, we must make much, much more next fall.

What goodness do you see these days?

this moment

Joining Soulemama, and many others, in this moment. 

In Amanda's words: "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Please link to your moment too -- I love to see what you are enjoying this week!

Wishing you a weekend full of goodness!