Picture-books in Winter

Summer fading, winter comes—
Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.

Water now is turned to stone
Nurse and I can walk upon;
Still we find the flowing brooks
In the picture story-books.

All the pretty things put by,
Wait upon the children's eye,
Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,
In the picture story-books.

We may see how all things are,
Seas and cities, near and far,
And the flying fairies' looks,
In the picture story-books.

How am I to sing your praise,
Happy chimney-corner days,
Sitting safe in nursery nooks,
Reading picture story-books?

by Robert Louis Stevenson

(check out this old post for a nearly identical photo of Beth, back when she was the age Evie is now. As I've said before, by the time the third one comes around, there is nothing they do that's entirely new...and yet somehow Evie is constantly amazing us with how unique (aka weird) she is.)

Nina! Who said her favorite childhood toy was the swimming pool. She will be receiving a lovely set of wooden construction toys for her four kiddos. I haven't received mine yet, but when I do I'll post a review and we can compare notes.

All right, Nina. E-mail me your address, and I'll tell the lovely people at CSN Stores, the owners of Toys and Games online, to send you your prize. Congratulations!

In case you missed last week's post, here's a reminder: today is your last day to enter my toy giveaway!

If you'd like a chance to win a bucket of Fiddlestix wooden toys for your kids, click back to the giveaway post and leave me a comment telling me what your favorite childhood toy was.

I'll announce a winner tomorrow!

I was going back over some old pictures last night and I decided that I just don't share *enough* of my life on the Internet and I ought to post some of my pictures from the past year that I never got around to posting on the blog.

Here you go.

You're welcome.


This is Evie and it was taken last March. I can offer no further explanations or excuses for this photo.


This is Eric and I standing on a warm, sandy beach in Grenada. Because there's nothing like the end of January in Oregon to make you wish you were back in the tropics.



This is a giraffe peeking at his visitors at the Oregon Zoo this summer. Because giraffes are my favorite zoo animal.



This is Beth and Abraham Lincoln, on that day last summer when I discovered time travel.

What, I didn't write about that?

OK, it's actually with this guy at the Enchanted Forest whose whole job is to stand around looking like Abraham Lincoln all day.



This is the Oregon Coast. It's really beautiful. If you don't already live in Oregon, I recommend rectifying that situation immediately.



This is my garden's biggest tomato of the summer right next to its smallest tomato of the summer.




This is Lucy holding her brand-new cousin Aubrey for the first time. I just love the awed expression on her face.





This is the Miracle Macaroni; I was in the kitchen when Beth shrieked, "Come take a picture, Mama. Quick, quick!"

Do you see it? Look beyond Beth's weird expression and the hair all in her eyes.

There, on the table, on top of the Sunday funnies...a single piece of macaroni standing up all by itself. We lead an amazing life around here, don't we?




This is what my kitchen looked like after the girls and I made Christmas cookies this year. This is the reason I posted as my status update that day: "Christmas cookies: 1; Jen's kitchen: 0." And yet I always do the cookie decorating thing with them every year. I can't not do it and I can't do it by myself. That would just be wrong.




This is another pretty nature photo. This is First Lake, Simpson Park, Albany.




And this is Evie, just being Evie. Feel free to laugh out loud if you want. I don't know what that kid is doing half the time, but she always makes me smile.

My blog inspiration was lacking today, so today's post is brought to you by my oldest daughter; the words are all her own and she selected the pictures as well.

Oh, pick that one, that one! My pumpkin had the tallest stem. And it was the most gutty and gross inside.






I think painting is cool. Because any color with a paintbrush you dip in is that color and then you get to put it on paper.

I like to play the Wii. I like bowling because I'm really good at it. Winning is fun.

Here's a really good one. I don't like when you say no TV for a week. I don't like it because that is my favorite privilege.

At school I like to do reading group. I like to do all my work. Today I was the very first kid to get done! I was just fast. We have a new letter of the week. Letter T. And I already knew that letter.

I like to do projects in the back room. We have really messy projects and cool projects. I've only done two that were really messy. One was making colorful fall leaves and making Christmas lights. That's all of em. We had two.

I kinda like it when we're just starting out the day. We get to walk in from the door from the gym down the hall. We get to hang up our backpacks on whichever hook we want. We walk over to our table group, take off our coat, put it on the end of our chair. If you have an umbrella you hang it with your backpack. Then we sit down, and we be quiet. But some teams aren't quiet. And--another cool thing about school--we have table group points and whoever is being most quietest gets a mark in their box. And the orange team--and I'm in the orange team--got one of the very first points.

At recess I play with anyone I want or I just play by myself. I like to do the swings and the jungle gym. I like to get a ball or a jump rope, from one of the teachers. I like to play with a lot of kids. Milla and me do the swings. When I was first meeting Milla we swung on the swings the very first recess. Two other people do jump ropes with me and their names are Tori and Shea. I play with Connor and Anthony. They are the guys I play vampires with. But we were Transformers this time. But today I didn't really want to play with them so I just...I don't remember. I just played soccer with William, Luke and Cody.

William is going to have glasses he said. I don't know if I would like to have glasses. I don't know what it's like. I think I wouldn't because maybe because if it has been there so long, maybe it would start to hurt my ears a little bit.

If I could go anywhere in the world it would be Paris, 'cause on movies I've seen that are in Paris, I like to watch all the fireworks and how beautiful it is. I just love the way it looks, and I love their clothes that they sell.

When I grow up I want to be a ballerina. During the day ballerinas get ready for their dance if they have one. And then have one. And I want to live in a house that has stairs. It would be green.

I want to be married when I grow up. And maybe have kids. Yeah. Yeah, I think do. Their names would be Ricardo, Ramona, Junie B. Jones, Jamal Hall, Martha and that's it. How many is that? Five? So maybe five. Or maybe I'll get less. Or maybe I'll get more! I wish I just said two names. Because then I'd just have two.

In closing, I leave you with a photo Beth selected from Flickr.




I already know which one I want! It's that one! A flower with a heart! It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

Nothing like the word "free" in the title to draw you in, right? Well, it's no joke. A representative from CSN Stores e-mailed me this week about the possibility of reviewing and giving away a product from one of their many websites. When I say "many," that's no joke either. CSN--which according to wikipedia is the fourth fastest growing private company in Massachusetts--runs more than 200 different shopping websites, most of them devoted to a particular product. House stuff, office stuff, pet stuff, kid stuff...there's even an entire website for mailboxes. Yep, mailboxes. Just in case you were looking for a way to fritter away your evening looking for a new mailbox, now you know where to do it. You're welcome.

I was of course drawn to the kid stuff. The CSN site Toys and Games Online has pretty much everything your heart could desire in the way of toys for your kids. Outdoor toys, indoor toys, dolls, bikes, puzzles--they've got it all.

Since my girls' rooms are already stuffed with Barbies, ponies, Polly Pockets and every other girly thing imaginable, I've requested something a little more gender-neutral to review.

This Fiddlestix wood construction set looks like the kind of creative toy that you could build just about anything with. It's entirely possible that my daughters will build nothing but magic wands and tiaras, but hey--at least they'll be building something, right?

I will post a full and completely honest review of the set once I get it and my daughters have had the chance to experiment with it a little bit.

In the meantime, if you think this looks like something your kids would like to have too (or if you are an adult who enjoys making little creations out of wooden pegs and dowels), you can leave a comment to be entered in a giveaway of the Fiddlestix set!

Tell me this: when you were a kid, what was your favorite toy?

If you don't have a blogger/gmail account, be sure to leave me some way to contact you to tell you that you've won.

The giveaway will be open until Wednesday, January 27th.

My little Lucy is the sweetest girl you will ever meet. She's Lucy the snuggle-bug, Lucy the bashful, Lucy the tenderhearted.

At home with those she loves, she's a silly, giggly, sing-songy little thing. With those she doesn't know, she tends to clam up a bit and just stare at them with enormous chocolate eyes.

Lucy, singing a song about her sister this morning: Beth is so cute, cute cute cute. And I will love her forever, 'cuz she is my girl, girl girl girl. And I love, love love love her.

She's my middle child, and she plays equally well with both her siblings. With Beth, she acts out elaborate fantasies. When Beth is at school and Lucy's forced to turn her attention to Evie, they tickle and chase and squeal their way around their house. She can switch from laughter to tears to pleased peacefulness again in a heartbeat.

Lucy, at lunchtime, with a very menacing glare on her face: Mama, you gave me the wrong spoon...but you are still my mama that I love.

She's sometimes a very easy child; she can be content playing by herself for an hour at a time. Other times she makes me want to tear my hair out. When something hurts her feelings, she dissolves into tears at the tiniest slight. This happens every day, over and over and over again. On the one hand (as a somewhat tenderhearted introvert myself) I completely understand how she feels. On the other hand (as a mama just trying to get through the day) I just can't handle all the crying.

With both hands, I just want to pull her up and hug her. And she'd run right into them, I know. Although she's very proud of her big-girl accomplishments (learning to write her name, being able to sleep on the top bunk) she is also eager to remain our little girl. She'd still rather be carried, all snuggled in someone's arms, than walk by herself. That's just who she is. A lover. A snuggler. A sweetheart.



Lucy, saying her bedtime prayers last week:
"Dear Lord, I love Mom and Daddy so much. Don't you love them too?...Oh yes, you do. I knew that. And I love them so much. And everybody loves them. Amen."

Lucy is my daily reminder to stop. To be patient. To hold my kids just a moment longer. To love, love, love my kids. If I can be half as kind and tender to Lucy as she is to the rest of the world, I'll be doing well.

1. A little thing that I love about Evie: anytime someone picks her up, while she is in the process of being lifted through the air she makes a little "shoooosh" sound effect. It's like a Superman flying kind of sound. Where did she get the idea to make this noise? Is this just what being picked up sounds like to her? She cracks me up.

2. I recently started composting in my very own made-from-a-trash-can compost bin (thanks to my friend Brenda for showing me how). A couple times a week I go out and stir around this mixture of food scraps and dry leaves, coffee grounds and egg shells. I don't know why, but I find this chore immensely satisfying. There's something about digging it and turning it and stirring it all around that is fun to me. Maybe I'm just disgusting and I like to watch things decompose.

3.In more "green living" news, I've also recently started buying eggs from a blog friend who happens to live locally. Thanks to Heather at Muddy Creek Creations I now get 18 farm-fresh eggs delivered to my door once a week. How cool is that?

4. I'm not really that "green," though my husband called me a "little hippie" the other day when he watched me saving the coffee grounds for the compost instead of dumping them in the garbage. I just figure if I could be turning all that food waste into something useful rather putting it in the trash (and if it will also eventually save me money on fertilizer for the garden), then why NOT? I pretty much only do "green" things if they are cheap and easy. I don't have the time to search out the sources of everything I buy to find out whether it's local, or money to buy only things that are certified organic--but if it takes only a little time and minimal effort and might actually save me money in the long run? I'm all about that.

5. I have never done Weight Watchers in my life and I'm not really into doing any specific diet or following a certain program. But I saw the new Weight Watchers cookbook on sale at CostCo for $16 a few weeks ago and I've been trying out lots of new recipes from it. So far it's a total winner. Most everything I've made has been fairly decent, and some have been stand-out hits, and everything is quite low-calorie. The sausage-and-mushroom stuffed pizza was delicious and less than 200 calories a serving.

6. It's a sopping wet today in the Willamette Valley (what's new?) but I'm letting my kids play out back anyway. That's what coats and boots are for. And I'd rather deal with muddy children later and buy myself a little silence right now.

7. I'll leave you with a link for your reading pleasure: Are kids really growing up too fast these days? See what Michelle at Scribbit thinks.

More quick takes at Conversion Diary.

I can't say that I like most of T.S. Eliot's poetry. Other than Prufrock--I do like that one--I find most of his other poems to be frustrating, heavily-footnoted enigmas. I don't like to have to decipher things to figure out the meaning; I like to read and understand at once.

However. Eliot's lines stick with you, there's no denying it. They're the kind of poems that get into your head without you knowing it. And whatever the following lines are supposed to mean in the context of the larger poem, I'm not sure. But one thing immediately sprang to mind when I read these lines today:

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,	20
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,	25
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

from "The Wasteland" by T.S. Eliot.



Haiti. Stony rubbish...a heap of broken images...where the sun beats and the dead tree gives no shelter...

I think that's one of the best things about poetry: it gives you words to say things when your own aren't enough.

It's also one of the blessings of the Internet; so many people have already written useful and powerful things about the disaster. Here are a few you can read if you're interested:

Thoughts from my friend Carrie, who has traveled to Haiti to do humanitarian work many times.

Thoughts from my friend Jennifer on why Pat Robertson is a total tool (that's not what she said, that's what I said) who makes other Christians cringe.

A giveaway from PW, a very popular blogger who plans to donate money for each comment received, as well as two $500 donations to the charity of the winners' choice.

And a story I heard on NPR this morning, about pretty much the easiest way ever to donate to relief efforts: text "Haiti" to the number 90999. Doing so will donate $10 to the Red Cross, and the amount just shows up on your next month's cell phone bill. No check writing or credit-card swiping required.

Imagine waking up from a sound sleep to discover that somehow you had been transported to a strange and mysterious land. You are surrounded by strangers who seem friendly enough, but who don't know how to communicate with you. You find yourself helpless and weak, barely able to move your head. It is in every way unnerving, frightening, and frustrating.

That's what I think it must be like for babies. They have wants. They have needs. But they have no good way of telling us what those wants and needs are. We just have to do our best to guess.

And that's why, I think, my one-and-a-half year-old is so overjoyed with her newfound communication skills these days. She has finally amassed enough words--or at least sounds that fill in for real words--that I can understand what she wants almost all the time.

Drink? Cracker? Book? Shoes? Banana? Blankie? Bear? Beth and Lucy? She's got words for all of them. Words that may not be intelligible to the outside world, but here on her home planet we get what she's saying.

And, oh, the joy this brings her! At least a dozen times a day she patters up to me, catches my eye, and says something along the lines of, "Dee? Fweeeeez?" To which I reply, "You want a drink, please?"

When I correctly interpret her request, she does an enormous, exaggerated head bob, a nod so big her full body is involved, all the while grinning so wide that her eyes are squinched nearly all the way shut. It is absolutely, ridiculously adorable. She is clearly thinking, "YES! YES! you understand me! I have made contact! We are communicating here!"


Of course, the opposite is true too. When she asks for something and I tell her no, she is shockingly good at the pouty-lipped, arms-crossed, death-to-you-now glare.

But we're focusing on the positive here, and for now I'll just say that this age--not quite a kid but definitely not a baby--is a major relief. Not just for the poor little traveler who is finally making some headway in learning the foreign language that all the locals speak here, but for the bewildered hosts who are finally able to understand what it is that their tempestuous little guest wants out of them.

Onions.

No, I'm not kidding.

Onions are the reason. More specifically, chopping up onions. You see, I wear contacts; have since age 12. And whenever I wear my contacts--which is most days--chopping up onions is no sweat. Chop, chop, chop, chop, no problems whatsoever.

But whenever I make the mistake of trying to chop onions on a day when I'm wearing my glasses and my eyes have no protective film of plastic attached to their surface, my eyes just go nuts. Within seconds they're burning and I'm weeping and I have to stagger around the room looking for a towel to bury my face in. I get myself wiped up and turn back to the cutting board for a few more pathetic chop-chops before my eyes go crazy again. It takes me five times as long to chop onions without my contacts, and causes me significantly more discomfort. It's ridiculous, I tell you! Is this how you poor people with 20-2o vision are every single time you try to cook? The horror!

And seriously, you can't hardly make anything without chopping an onion. Soups, stews, sauces, casseroles, tacos...almost any dinner food worth eating has onions in it. I love to cook; I cook almost every night. And I could never give up cooking with onions. My contacts are not just vision enhancement--they're a protective film over my eyes, keeping the nasty burning fumes from reaching them.

Not that anyone is standing around offering me handfuls of extra money with which to get Lasik surgery, but if someone was...I'd have to think twice. I have a couple of friends who have had it done and they say it's great, that not having to worry about glasses and contacts is very nice. And I'm sure that's true. But having to wear contacts really doesn't bother me at all...and what about the onions? Forget about possible side effects, eye problems, the freakishness of having a laser pointed at your eyes...what about the onions?

1. Like my former co-worker Steve, I never get sick.

That is an exaggeration of course. I am human (I know you all thought I was actually divine, right?) and therefore susceptible to disease. But I rarely get sick. I take no special immune-boosting vitamins, drink no cleansing teas, do not eat an all-natural diet. I'm just blessed with an extremely hard-working immune system, I suppose.

2. Now that I've got my bragging out of the way, I have to admit that right now I have a horrid sore throat, and a cough, and my voice is nearly non-existent today. It's somehow managing to be both squeaky and scratchy at the same time. If I can get any words out at all, I sound like a hard-core, life-long smoker. Or like Minnie Mouse. Maybe, Minnie Mouse after she realizes that Mickey never loved her in the first place and that big bow on her head looks ridiculous, and she kicks off her stupid high heels and spends the rest of her life sitting on her couch chain-smoking. That's how I sound right now.

3. While I may not have a voice, I am blessed with an amazing husband, and he got up with the baby when she cried at 5:30 a.m., and again at 6:30 a.m., and then made breakfast for everyone, and then walked Beth to school and took the younger ones with him, leaving me to sit alone at the table reading and eating still-warm made-from-scratch pancakes with real maple syrup and drinking hot coffee. I really love this man.

4. But then he left, because he does have this little thing called a job, and he kind of has to actually go do it in order to pay for the maple syrup and coffee and high-speed internet access that we enjoy around here. But, seeing as how I am a stay-at-home mom/freelancer and therefore I am my own boss, I declared to myself that I was taking a sick day today.

5. Of course, that doesn't mean that I get to stop changing diapers and making sandwiches. I wish. It does mean I'm going to ignore the nagging thoughts that I have actual articles I ought to be working on, because hey--how am I going to call and interview anyone, or even attempt to arrange an interview with anyone, when I can't even talk? Off the hook.

6. It does mean that instead of trying to do anything else productive today, I got dressed in comfy clothes: a big wool sweater that I stole from the back of my dad's closet at age 15 and now keep in the back of my own closet for days like today, and warm, fuzzy socks. And pants. I am wearing pants. And I have no intention of doing anything today other than drinking tea and finding non-strenuous ways of entertaining my children.

7. I am hoping that taking a sick day will do miraculous things and heal me quickly. Because I think that if I do this a whole bunch of days in a row, my house will implode under the weight of all the accumulated laundry and dishes in the sink. Also, I think there's a name for people who just lay around and never do anything all day, and that word is: lazy. But right now, my kids are asleep, the house is peaceful, my book is interesting, and my tea feels good on my throat.

I might need to start getting sick more often.

More quick takes at Conversion Diary.

Of all my resolutions for the new year, there's one that I think that I'm most likely to keep--and that's because it's simple, won't require a huge amount effort on my part, and involves one of my favorite past-times.

Are ready for it? Here goes:

I resolve to be more intentional about my reading.

And now you're going, "That's it? That's the big resolution? What does she even mean?"

Well, friends, I'll tell you what I mean.

I love to read. I read all the time. I read while I eat, I read while I'm in the bathroom, I even read while I'm driving if you count books on tape.

And I find myself at the library all the time. The kids require a new supply of books every week, plus the library has lovely toys to play with and couches for moms to sit on. However, I don't have time to just browse through the stacks looking for a whole pile of glorious new books to take home, like I did in the days of my youth. "Browsing" for me now involves a dash to the grownup section with kiddos in tow, a quick perusal of a shelf that looks promising, and a grab of a book that I think maybe I might have heard of once and I hope it's good because I have to get out of here before the kids get too noisy.

Sometimes I find good ones that way, sometimes not. Often I find myself just grabbing chapter books off the kids' shelves at the library because it's easier. And--who am I kidding?--I really do adore kids' lit. At the same time, I'm not sure reading Harry Potter for the 10th time is really growing my brainpower. And I am in serious need of increasing my mental capacity, not turning it further into mush.

So: the need to be intentional in my reading. To plan out in advance what I'd like to read. And take advantage of the library's handy "hold" feature, which means I can go online, request the book I'd like, and have it there waiting for me when I want it. No dashing to the grown-up section required.

Part of this intentional reading thing is made easy for me, because I'm a member of not one, but two book groups, which means I have a great list of books laid out for me, plus accountability to get me to follow through on reading them.

I've also started keeping a post-it on the edge of my computer monitor with a running list of book recommendations. Whenever one of the many blogs I read mentions a book that sounds good, I jot it down on my list. Then, when I'm doing my handy-dandy online library hold thing, I always know what's next on my list.

I also have started a list (I'm big on lists) of books I have completed this year. Because people are always asking me if I've read anything good lately, and even though I know I have, sometimes I just can't remember what I've read (more evidence of that diminished mental capability). This way I'll have it all down in black and white forever.

So, just in case you're curious, here's what I've read so far in 2010:

1. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini.

Here's what I'm currently reading:

2. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert.

Here's what's next on my agenda:
(forgive me, but I'm not taking the time to include links to each of these books. If you're curious about them, you can Google the titles).

3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, Shaffer and Burrows

And here's what else I'm planning to read (so far) this year:

4. The Help, Stockett
5. Humble Boy, Jones
6. Columbine, Cullen
7. Angry Conversations with God, Isaacs
8. One or more of the Jeeves books by P.G. Wodehouse
9. Churched, Turner
10. The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
11. Crazy for God, Schaeffer
12. Founding Brothers, Ellis
13. Welcome to the Departure Lounge, Meg Gederico
14. Precious Bane, Mary Webb
15. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kinsolver (already a favorite of mine, but I'll probably read it again)
16. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, Louise Erdrich
17. The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon
18. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson
19. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris
20. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak
21. The Seduction of Water, Carol Goodman
22. The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner
23. Gentlemen of the Road, Michael Chabon

Twenty-three books! That's almost two books a month, and I know there will be more than that on there because one of my book clubs does not yet have all our books for the year figured out. Oh, plus one of those items on my list was a trilogy. An ambitious list for a mom of three kids age 5 and under . Not as ambitious as some--one blogger I read finished 100 last year. I'm sure I have read that many per year in the past, but those darn adult responsibilities do cut into my reading time now. Will I finish? You'll have to check back in a year and see.

Have any of you read some of those on my list? Want to tell me whether they are particularly good or bad and make me even more excited about my year of reading? Or, is there a book that I must simply add to my list? I'll never turn down a recommendation for a good read.

What is it about a screaming child that really, really makes me want to scream too? My screaming child, anyway. Other people's children, I hear them in the grocery store, it just doesn't bother me. My own start having a fit, and all I want to do is tear my hair right out of my skull.

Instead, I usually end up putting them in their room and shutting the door, while I come here to the office and shut this door. And even though I have made all the typical New Year's resolutions about taking diet and exercise seriously for once, and even though I've been doing SO good for two whole days, the child-fit-throwing also makes me want to medicate myself with whatever kind of ridiculous food I can find. An entire box of doughnuts and a Pepsi sounds great about now. Instead, I'm on my second granola bar. It's sweet and chewy and not very good for me...but not quite the same as doughnuts.

Also: why is it that on days like yesterday, when I was full of happiness and energy and made an effort to get my house looking good, the kids and I were (cheerfully) alone all day. And on the day when I did not make any attempt to pick up the living room and the kids seem to have drunk a full cup of naughty juice for breakfast, unexpected company drops by?

In short, if someone could please orchestrate the universe so that everything is arranged to suit me, I would like that, thank you very much.

I really have had all kinds of posts floating around in my mind--about resolutions and goals, about books and reading, about all the ways I really want to make this year count--but I haven't found time to write them out in a satisfactory manner, and so here this blog has sat, un-posted-upon, all week. And now I do finally make the time for it, and what do you get? Just the dashed-off dregs of a frazzled mind. Sometimes you just have to take what you can get.