It's Friday: seven late takes

1. More news in the world of throw-back fashion:

Yesterday I saw this girl at Beth's school. She was older, like maybe a high school student volunteering at the school, or an older sister/youngish aunt picking up a kid. But this girl. She was wearing neon-colored socks with little black Keds. And not just any neon-colored socks. She had one hot-pink sock with her black Ked on her left foot, and one neon-green sock with her black Ked on her right foot.

This is exactly the kind of thing I would have worn in fourth grade. I LOVED neon green and pink, and I loved to coordinate my socks and my Keds with my outfit.

How can this possibly be cool again?

2. Evie is feeling much better. Giggling and running about the house and eating and generally being adorable. Thank goodness! I couldn't have taken much more of the whining.

3. However, I'm trying not to get too happy about her return to health. Mainly because I am just crossing my fingers and hoping against hope that whatever she had is not now silently incubating in our bodies, ready to make its slow, stealthy way from family member to family member, sickening each of us in turn, giving me not just one week of sick and whininess, but three or four weeks of sick and whininess. Because sicknesses are like that. They're dirty sneaky little guys with no respect whatsoever for a mother's sanity.

4. I just read Farm City, a book about an urban farmer who grows a giant garden and raises chickens, ducks, bees, turkeys and pigs in the middle of the Oakland ghetto.

So, I'm definitely not planning to move to the ghetto, and raising pigs/slaughtering turkeys does not sound at all appealing to me. But chickens? For eggs? The idea is kind of growing on me. Though I don't think our lot size is big enough to legally keep them here in Albany. But maybe...someday...

5. Beth is saying she wants to grow her bangs out. Which I'm cool with, if that's what she wants. It is her hair, after all, and it's not like she's asking to dye it neon pink (actually she would like to do that, but I'm saying no to that one for now). But I'm dreading the growing-out stage, because her hair is SO fine and thin and flyaway that no hair clip or barrette I've ever found has been able to stay in her hair very securely. How am I going to keep her hair out of her eyes for the several months it will take to get it long enough to tuck behind her ears and pull back in ponytails?

6. Two gardening questions, in case some random gardener happens to read my blog and wants to come to my rescue. First: I think my clematis is dying. Its leaves are gradually turning brown and falling off, starting with the oldest ones closest to the vine, but now spreading to the newest growth as well. I'm no master gardener, but this doesn't seem good to me. What do I do?

Second: I have a big lilac bush that doesn't bloom. The first spring we were here, I think it bloomed a little. I don't remember. The second year, a few blooms. Last year, nothing. Not a single bloom. What is wrong with it? If it doesn't bloom this year, I'm ripping it out and planting something else there. I love lilacs, but what I love about them is the flowers! If it doesn't bloom, it means nothing to me. Yep, I'm heartless like that.

7. I never know what movies are out anymore. I never go to the movie anymore. We don't have cable or satellite or anything so I never see any previews or anything anymore. BUT: my husband has a trip out of town coming up and I'm looking for a good girly movie or two to watch while he's gone. What's come out recently? I feel like there are probably movies that I have wanted to see, that I didn't actually get to see, that would be on DVD now, but I can't think of any. Recommendations, anyone?


More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.

What do you do when your 5-year-old is a better mother than you are?

Yesterday Evie was sick with a fever.

Not so sick that I was seriously concerned about her, but feeling rotten enough that she was whiny and clingy and crying at the drop of a hat. And wanting Mama to hold her nonstop...something that gets difficult at times. Finally, I just had to put her down to help Lucy get dressed. I couldn't do it one-handed. So I deposited Evie onto the couch. She had her blankie, her pacifier, her cup, and a book. But Mama was not holding her, and therefore she was crying. And crying. And crying.

My thoughts, as I hurriedly pulled Lucy's shirt over her head, went something like this: I really wish she would stop. Does she not know how annoying that unending wailing is? How it makes me want to pull my ears right off my head? I'm going to have to miss my MOPS meeting today, and probably my church small group tonight too. All my favorite chances for adult interaction, gone because of this stupid fever and this unendingly fussy child.

I ignored her cries for a another moment while I helped Lucy zip her sweatshirt, then I sighed and said to the girls, "Well, I guess I better go get crankypants."

And there was Beth, as usual, to set me straight.

"Not crankypants, Mama. SICKpants. You know she doesn't feel good, and that is probably why she is crying."

I didn't really know what to say. She was right. Evie wasn't crying just to ruin my day. She was crying because she felt really awful. And so I tucked my tail between my legs and headed out to the living room to cuddle my poor sick baby. And that's pretty much all I did the rest of the day.

Good thing Beth is learning compassion from someone. If only it were from me.

Perfectly Poetical Tuesday: cinquain

Today's post is my first attempt in participating at Perfectly Poetical Tuesdays, a blog idea I became acquainted with through This Heavenly Life. Every month Stephanie of The Little Stuff of Life posts a new poetry form or idea for brave blog poets like myself to try out. It's a bit like good old Poetry Thursday, that I was part of in '06 and '07. Except it's once a month, instead of once a week, which (let's be honest) is a lot more in line with my poetry-writing frequency.

This month's prompt was to write a cinquain. I've never written one before, but the constraints make it a haiku-like type of poem.

My results, inspired by today's weather, are below.





Sunlight
November-pale
a summer illusion
fool's gold; it dazzles but cannot
warm me.


More poems await you.

November bliss

Sipping chai tea.

Watching wind trouble the pine trees and rain stream down the window pane.

Warm air from the heating vent wafting down onto me.

Kids playing in their bedrooms.

Book on my lap.

Need I say more?

Photo above is by Pixelant and is licensced through Flickr's Creative Commons.

/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Quick Takes Friday: Four stories and three links

1. Last Saturday, Eric got up in the morning and took a shower. Prior to showering, he took his glasses off and set them on the bathroom counter. He got out of the shower, dressed and went to the other bathroom to put his contacts in.

None of us thought about the glasses again until the next morning, when he got out of bed and looked for his glasses. And I looked for his glasses. And we ordered the girls to look for his glasses. We looked everywhere we could possibly think of. I looked in every drawer and cupboard in the bathroom.



Evie can now climb up and get things off the counter, and enjoys depositing said things in strange places that apparently make sense to her. Just today I found a sippy cup in my boot and a baby doll in the laundry hamper. Because of this, I considered no place off limits in the glasses search. I searched the trash to make sure she hadn't tossed them in there. I was beginning to say to myself: she couldn't have flushed them down the toilet...could she? And also: Gosh, the kitchen sink hasn't been draining well this week...she couldn't have put them down the garbage disposal...could she?

And this morning I was fixing my hair and I opened up the drawer and picked up the hair dryer and there in the bottom of the drawer were the glasses.

Now, I KNOW I looked in that drawer on Sunday morning. And I have blow-dryed my hair every single day this week. If they were there all along, how could I have missed them?

She couldn't have put them somewhere else, found them again, and put them innocently back in the drawer just to mess with my mind....could she?


2. If you have ever seen the movie Cars, you should read this post. If you like to put way too much thought into the existential questions raised by childrens' entertainment, you should read it. If you like funny things, you should read it.



3. I bought fresh Parmesan cheese the other day to use in a recipe, when previously I have always used the canned stuff. Oh my goodness. It is more expensive, but wow. I didn't know what I was missing.

photo from pdphoto.org

4. I haven't really talked about how babies get made with my kids yet, although I think the time might be approaching to give my oldest a tad bit of information. She's in school now and who knows what other kids might tell her. She does have some questions. This post has a review of a book that sounds like a really good resource in case other mommies are trying to figure out what to say, and how to say it, as well.

5. I was interviewing someone for a story yesterday. It has a holiday theme and is the kind of thing that is frequently run at this time of year. And the source actually laughed at me mid-interview and said she hates these kind of stories because we run them every year. And then proceeded to be very great and cooperative and give me what I needed for the story. But...ouch. She was right. It sucked.

6. Do you ever feel a mingled sense of pride and sadness at your children growing up? So do I. So does every mother. If you'd like to wallow in it a little bit, go read this post.

7. In the book Ramona the Pest, which we recently read and enjoyed, Mrs. Quimby and her neighbor Mrs. Kemp walk their two kindgerteners to school for the first month or so. Then they let the kids walk to school by themselves. One day, Mrs. Quimby even leaves Ramona at home by herself for 10 minutes and trusts her to see herself off to school. I read this lots of times as a kid and never thought anything of it, but now that I have a kindergartener of my own I just thought: Wow. That would never happen today.



Even though the school yard is right around the corner from our house, I still wouldn't let Beth go by herself. In a few years, maybe. But not at kindergarten. Plus, the school won't even LET kindergarteners walk themselves home. An approved adult must pick each child up at the door. I'd like to think myself as more "free-range parent" than "helicopter parent," but I'm afraid I just can't go with Mrs. Quimby on this one. Thoughts? Am I paranoid? Has the world changed so much since the book was written in 1968?

More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.

Poetry Thursday: Hopkins

A friend of mine had the first line of this poem as his Facebook status a few days ago. I knew I'd read it before, but couldn't recall the rest, so I had to look it up. (I knew Facebook was good for something!)

I was glad I did. I like both the uncoventional imagery (comparing the sky to a cow!) and the sentiment: celebrating the beauty of "all things original, counter, spare, strange" as opposed to traditional notions of beauty being only what is pure, light, and unspotted.

Because life isn't just a vast meadow of sunshine and flowers. Light mixes with the darkness to create a world of things both dazzling and dim. Sometimes it's that patchwork pattern that's the most beautiful of all.



Pied Beauty

GLORY be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

--Gerard Manley Hopkins

My morning disguise

I've decided that my hat was the best purchase I've made in a long time. Really, it's not just a hat. It's more like a magical disguise. Like Clark Kent's glasses. Put them on, and he's a mild-mannered reporter. Take them off, and he's Superman!

You're wearing glasses! No one has a clue who you are, Clark!

Except with the hat, it's the reverse. We start with one tired mommy. The kids woke up way too early. She didn't get her run in this morning. If she's going to exercise later in the morning, she's not going to bother to shower before school time. And yet...she has to make herself somewhat presentable. What to do, what to do...

*cue trumpet flare*

The hat! Hat to the rescue. Put it on! Instantly the unwashed hair is covered. Pull it down a little further on the forehead, and the brim camouflages the tired eyes and un-make-upped face. Swap sweatpants for jeans and slippers for sneakers, and in less than two minutes tired mommy is transformed. She is now.....




Tired mommy who is wearing a cute hat!

It doesn't make me fly, but at least it makes me feel better on that morning walk to school.

(If anyone knows of any accessories that would make me super-strong and capable of flight, feel free to share your secrets. They're safe with me.)

This post is brought to you by Fall

And everything that goes with it.

Pumpkins:



Story about the pumpkins: my sister grew these in her garden and gave them to us about two weeks before Halloween. The girls were so eager to carve them that we did so within days of receiving them. And...they rotted well before the big day. We got a second round of pumpkins from my friend Rebekah and carved them in the morning before trick-or-treating. They're still looking good.

Dressing up for Halloween:



We have here a lion, a unicorn and a fairy princess.




Did you know that it's just about impossible to get three little girls who are VERY excited about costumes and candy to all look at the camera at the same time? These pictures are the best we've got. Take my word for it, they were cute.

And playing in the park before winter takes Oregon in its clutches and traps us indoors for days on end:


And, finally, it's time for another round of Guess the Baby. Same family, same park, similar pose...but which of these was taken yesterday and shows Evie, and which was taken almost exactly two years ago and shows Lucy? Leave your votes in the comments.