the accounts of my riotous life

New York Beaches

2010-08-27T14:20:00.000-07:00

Every once in while I run across New Yorkers who say nicely, but bordering on haughtily, something to the effect of, "Oh, I never go to New York beaches" or "I wouldn't know about New York beaches, I have never been to one". I definitely hear a lot of about the sketchy cleanliness of Coney Island/Brighton Beach and even a questioning eyebrow about the sand and water at the Far Rockaways.
But I have to say that this summer we have explored a lot of the beaches along the South Shore of Long Island and have been pleasantly surprised. While we, neither the weak swimmer (Sage), the afraid of water completely (buddies), or the only dip in when I am about to boil (me), aren't exactly frolicking for lengthy amounts of time under the water bobbing up and down gulping in big mouthfulls of seawater---the Atlantic Ocean appears to be fairly clean at every single beach we queried. And from the super convienient 15 minute drive, Far Rockaway public beach/free parking to the 45 minute drive there (2 hour drive back)/$10-to-park Robert Moses State Park on Fire Island the sand was clean and litter free and sandcastle-able.

I just kept remarking to myself all summer, "This is so NICE." And then turning to whoever was with me, "Isn't this so NICE?" On Sundays, I could buy the big, thick $5 Sunday Times, drive out the Belt Parkway, pitch my beach umbrella over my beach chair, spread out the beach blanket and beach toys and read--peacefully, maybe even get to the Travel or Real Estate section. Because there is something methodically calming and theraputic about the ocean. Because my kids are transfixed by the event.

The buddies would literally play for 4-5 hours in the sand with their trucks and shovels, occasionally joining forces with other boys to dig VERY deep holes. Sage likes to lay stomach down right where the waves peter out and get sloshed around by the very shallow, but still very powerful water, occasionally venturing out further with a secure adult hand held tight. She marvels at the tiny crabs and multi-colored shells and the vastness.

So, after a thoroughly scientific investigation of the "New York Beaches"---I like them. And I will continue to advocate for them and visit them especially when "New York" becomes to much.

My neighbor's garden

2010-08-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

So I have these neighbors. They do not speak English. They are Chinese, possibly from southern China. And they have the great fortune of living in the garden apartment---which means they have access to the backyard. So from the brothers' bedroom window I have been dealing with loss. Mourning the fact that I no longer have a spot of dirt to dig in. I no longer have a place to teach my children about food and biology and ecology; no longer have a place to be shocked by a lurking mammoth zucchini that is then shredded and frozen in zucchini bread ingredient proportions to be enjoyed throughout the year; no longer have a place to experiment w trellising cantaloupes or colorful, oddly shaped heirloom varieties of tomatoes. It is sad---it is VERY sad. But my valiant, industrious, immigrant neighbors are growing food right below our windows. I somehow feel better because of it...

Memorial Day Camping

2010-06-01T17:50:00.000-07:00

Guthrie is a caterpillar-whisperer

Rye (lft) Guthrie (rt)

Sage and William at the lake

Rye at the beach

Thornton-Taylor Family---we love each other, we love each other

Stephen and the boys at Coney Island

2010-04-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

Stephen took the boys out to Coney Island one day last week and snapped these gorgeous shots of the boys. Guthrie is in red and Rye is in orange. They finished the evening off at the only Uyghur restaurant in the US, also located in Coney Island. Everyone is growing so fast and furiously---we are just trying to keep up with the pace. Enjoy.

SAGE

2010-02-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

So I have the most incredible daughter ever. Most of you already know that, but she demonstrated it yet again when she started soccer this winter. At the beginning of the season she had never even kicked a soccer ball, let alone knew thing one about field positioning or goal-keeping, and was the only girl on a team of five other seasoned 7-yr old boys---but she went out there, even though she was confused and scared and played. By week 5 she definitely gets the award for the most improved--diligently running with the pack after the ball, saving goals and doing the 'good-games'. I am so amazed by her confident innocence. Such a blessing...

Family Photo Shoot at Brooklyn Bridge Park

2010-02-03T18:56:00.000-08:00

My new job---120 Wall St

2010-01-20T04:39:00.000-08:00

Trinity Church

Random people hailing a cab

View of Brooklyn from the office

Old time ships in the East River

Brooklyn reflected in the building across the way, this is the view from my desk

Another riotous Thanksgiving in Cleveland

2009-12-05T05:25:00.000-08:00

Lovely Ohio family
My deliciousnessessssssss
Grampa and kids
Tried and true Thanksgiving tradition...rough-housing during half-time
I mean, honestly...too edible.
Madison in her new home
Bros crawling around with Harper
Harper's signature move
My kids performing before the fire.

I now have a 7 yr old and two 3 yr olds

2009-11-13T06:13:00.000-08:00

The cake from Norwegian bakery around the corner
The festive house, plus grandparents.
The 7 yr old
The 3 yr olds

The Taylor Family takes Manhattan

2009-11-01T16:33:00.000-08:00

Our fun new life in Brooklyn

2009-10-18T04:39:00.000-07:00

subway travel---no more car
authentic Mexican food a block away
papa is happy
boys are happy
parks and playgrounds are close
mama is happy
sage is upside down

78th Street

2009-10-06T07:01:00.000-07:00

These are some photos of our street and immediate neighborhood---vintage Brooklyn. There is a nearly even mix of small apartment buildings, two-family homes and single family homes. There are porches and sidewalks and trees and produce stands. We are close to several main shopping thoroughfares, two blocks from Sage's school and a block and half from the 77th st stop on the R train. Its nice.

no sleep 'till Brooklyn

2009-09-26T04:27:00.000-07:00

Soooo you might have heard that we moved to Brooklyn....a very benign and uncool part of Brooklyn called Bay Ridge. We choose it because it is safe, full of families, no gentrification, good food (Mexican/Middle Eastern/Greek/Italian), easy corner pubs and lots of green grocers---most of them with organic and local selections. I have been busy getting everyone organized, including myself---so I don't have many pictures of the neighborhood. But I will publish what I have so far. Sage's first day of school at chaotic PS 127, pictures of my children watching TV naked inside the apartment and one taken last night with a great view of the Manhattan skyline taken from the Bay Ridge Ave pier. We are happy and not too busy yet. I have a feeling life will speed up exponentially once I have a job and next year when the bros start pre-k.

What I've been doing this summer....

2009-07-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

First we planted a garden---Sage's corn plants shown here

Then, Parade the Circle was another fantastic success!

And some of my favorite people in the world moved to town!

Stephen and Grammy supported Grandmommy in Texas:
Then Stephen went to Lima:

And of course I've been hanging out with these guys with every waking breath...

short trip to Ithaca, NY

2009-06-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

Taughannock Falls---Ithaca
The famed restaurant---a pilgrimage.
buddies on the commons, downtown ithaca
roadside produce stand sold by the honor system...

Harp recital year 2

2009-05-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

Sage accompanies Nola Rose on the piano
and receives last minute instruction from the wonderful harp-teacher Christy Tamarelli (watch for her on the harp scene!!)

Mother's Day 2009

2009-05-14T17:38:00.001-07:00

Four generations of women
Me and my kids

Sage is delicious!

Make a juice mama!

2009-05-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

the pulp--how gorgeous!
Guthrie and beet juice

In my vain and desperate attempt to get the buddies to eat vegetables everyday I have devised quite a delicious scheme. I juice copious amounts of seconds found in the ugly organic food bin at the food coop. At the most opportune moment of the day I haul out the machine and assemble the sacrificial fruits and veg. The buddies scream in delight about the loudness and power of the juicing machine and feel quite empowered by making the motor rev and whirl turning the switch off and on. The yell out ingredients as they go in...beets! carrots! apples! ginger! kale! spinach! Then we get the straws down, yet another fun element because i found this huge bag of decidedly unflimsy multi-colored straws, each buddy picks a color. They then proceed to slurp down the thick, mineral-rich juice. I hold one glass with two straws and they go at it straw in mouth forehead to forehead, as they do many activities---relishing in brother, mother, and potent beverage.

I HEART AUSTIN

2009-04-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

I heart Austin in general. I heart breakfast tacos and Beth and Eddie Peden and low-lying bushy green live oak trees and central Texas limestone and murky aqua soft warm rivers and i heart 19 children and counting...and spontaneously breaking into hymns with people that also know all the words and sweaty east-austin bike riders and lauren senibaldi and hip mamas and the list goes on and on. here are some of the photographic highlights, mainly they are of children b/c that seems to be a dominant theme in my life nowadays. ENJOY!

Me and Harper Belle
Sage post-Easter egg hunt
Some of the 19 offspring waiting instructions on the Easter egg hunt
Guthrie and Stephen on a horse out at Toby's ranch

the house where sage was born in austin, tx

2009-04-21T06:20:00.001-07:00

click on the picture to see it more clearly. i think this house was like 200 sq feet! it has a huge elm tree in the front and gorgeous backyard though.....

2009-04-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

These kids are SOOOO ready for spring!

Baby Belle

2009-04-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

My sweet new niece, Harper Belle Thornton was born March 18, 2009. I am obsessed with her.

She has really fat cheeks.

2009-03-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

A recent foto of Sage and I at her Valentine's Day dance.

my kids...if they were republicans

2009-03-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

the buddies broke my camera the other day...an inevitable outcome of being cooped up in the apartment all winter long. i am surprised, frankly, that the camera was the only thing of value to be sacrificed to the power of the buddies' destructive (for good---not evil) force. or perhaps it speaks to the fact that we really dont have much within their ready grasp that is very valuable. every thing they touch i have to be completely at terms with the fact that it could destroyed beyond all recognition. so a very long way to get to the point that i haven't posted anything new recently on account of my camera and that these picture are taken from my mom's camera the weekend the kids stayed with my folks while stephen and i spent four days in NYC. yes, we actually left brooklyn this time. i took a tour for prospective grad students around NYU's campus and located the Iyengar Institute and took a couple of (hard) classes there. we also had dinner at Pastis in the meatpacking district---a quaint bistro with a very well-researched decor (gaslights and menu written on the walls---think any French Impressionist painting of Paris bistros). But the food was heavy.

all in all we are seeing glimpses of life beyond cleveland winter and it renews us with a sense of hope that we will all be allowed to emerge from our respective grotto's and show our pastey white faces to the sun again and will once again be able to put away the wool in favor of cotton and linen. there is something very organic and very raw about the cycles of nature. birth, death and rebirth. hibernation and renewal. i feel priviledged to be a part of it.

2009-01-30T19:10:00.000-08:00

2009-01-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

too cute to not post...guthrie in pink holding keekee and white baby, rye in purple holding donna

Christmas 2008

2008-12-26T11:33:00.000-08:00

Winter in the northland..

2008-12-18T17:17:00.000-08:00

doesn't my papa look great?
mom and pop

my delici0us family.

Thanksgiving 2008 in DC

2008-11-29T12:50:00.001-08:00

2008-11-08T10:24:00.000-08:00

Some pictures from the 6th Annual Rage for SAGE ---held this year at the Cleveland Natural History Museum and included a museum scavenger hunt and a live animal feeding.
Sage and Guthrie
Guthrie
Rye

Sage and Brian-behind-the-fence

2008-11-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

We restored this beautiful antique chair. It's unique and comfy too!

Before...

After...

2008-11-02T19:24:00.000-08:00

The buddies are two. I can't believe we made it. And I am ACTUALLY still relatively sane.

2008-10-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

Guthrie's first haircut---straight across the forehead. Love big sister's pink cowboy boots...Click on the picture to see his cute little face more clearly.

2008-10-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

The only pictures we managed to take in our weekend in Brooklyn. But they are good ones. I hadn't seen Matt Parrott since Dalian, China 2001.

2008-10-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Camping in the Ohio forest in September. Nothing better than everything permeated by the smell of campfire for at least a week...

2008-09-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

i'm clearly NOT watching Browns football ever, ever again in my life because they SUCK ....so i might as well pay attention to my neglected blog. so here are some highlights of my life the past month:

+Sage goes to school all day now---it's bittersweet: my sweet, sweet growing girl.

+the buddies have each had a black-eye---rye's required a trip to the ER for some stitching

+i started grad school at Case Western Reserve University for a Masters of Public Health

+am basically taking two maths classes that have Calculus prereqs and the last challenging maths class i took was in 1995 (!!)

+i will make an A though

+i also started a MUCH long-awaited Iyengar yoga internship with my teacher

+i dropped my phone in the toilet, thus rendering the phone useless

+the steady realization that my kids are so adorable and perfect and brilliant that i must share them with everyone in the world

+the re-realization that my husband is a superb writer and brilliant logician

guthrie's black-eye
rye's stitches
sage azul.

guthrie (lft) rye (rt)

kissing pictures taken today on the porch:

2008-08-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

then...

...and now 12 years later.

2008-08-04T12:48:00.001-07:00

Just some shots of our family and other quirky things at Twins Days 2008 in Twinsburg, Ohio....

2008-07-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

rye (left) & guthrie (right)
Brothers lovin' and Sage and B-behind-the-fence petting a snake today at the Natural History Museum.

2008-07-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

Carly and Rowyn and Asheville and a good time had by all. Baby boys for daze...What would I do without you, Car?

from the second week in june....

2008-06-30T12:14:00.000-07:00

2008-06-30T11:38:00.000-07:00

guthrie, rye and sage at the library this morning...

2008-06-22T17:26:00.000-07:00

Parade the Circle 2008

2008-06-16T12:12:00.000-07:00

how is it that i have a daughter that has lost her first tooth?

2008-06-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

A windy and hot Sunday morning with my incredible child. When the guys went up for a nap, Sage had this idea. It was loosely based on her tin tea set, which you can see underlying the table arrangement. But soon we had expanded into orange spelt pancakes and farmer's market strawberries---it is June after all. Red has always been my favorite color. She set up the table meticuously and I made the food. We make a good team, me and my daughter.

2008-06-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

clematis blooming on my driveway fence---what a divinely beautiful flower.

2008-06-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

happiness defined as 14 clean diaper covers...

2008-05-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

sage has this friend, whom i first heard of as "bryan-behind-the-fence", that lives directly behind our house. they have become fast friends. crying out each other's name as soon as they get outside. they played, faithfully everyday through the fence---sharing toys and laughing and not thinking it at all strange that there was a chain link wall between them. but, today, sage learned to climb the fence.

2008-05-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

it definitely was a riotous weekend...

i love my brother, i love this dress, i love to tie up loose ends, i love break-dancing children, i love drinking red wine late into the night

2008-05-20T17:59:00.000-07:00

80 MPG
Our answer to the need for a second vehicle. Stephen is loving zooming around town! O-and I know how to drive it too.

2008-05-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

mother's day 2008

2008-05-11T12:14:00.000-07:00

Sage at her first harp recital. Her school has partnered with Cleveland Institute of Music to provide free music lessons (any instrument) for the kids. Sage choose the harp because the teacher was wearing a pink sweater. She has been taking lessons all school year, once a week for thirty minutes. Intentionally un-intense and relaxed approach to music and lessons. So on Friday she got up and introduced herself and her piece and then played a beautiful, simple song on the harp. I am gushing with pride.

2008-05-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

We are working here on Sage's costume. Fairy skirt from bubble wrap and green plastic bags and wings from nylons stretched over wire coat hangers. Can I just take this space to say that I love my Sagey. She is so creative and fun and kind and interested.

2008-04-29T09:04:00.001-07:00

its's going to be a fun summer! the guys are able to mosey around and play on all the donated plastic lawn art/toys, thoroughly enjoying themselves. they can mosey whilst i garden. click on the picture to make it bigger and check out guthrie's (red shirt) green bruise---poor little man.

2008-04-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Parade the Circle, the most spectacular art festival in Cleveland, is upon me. I, somewhat foolhardedly, am in charge of the production involving Sage's entire school. So this week is busy cutting primary-colored bird feather out of felt and assembling the wings (recycled thrift store bed sheets). It is a challenging undertaking, but I am loving every minute of it. It gives me an opportunity to tap into (and hang out with) the most creative moms at Sage's school. It feels good to be doing something outlandish and creative and way over my head. We have further challenged ourselves by stipulating that the costumes have to be simple, yet incredible; and that we must use as many recycled materials as possible. Updates forthcoming---should be fabulous.

2008-04-14T18:15:00.001-07:00

ilario took this picture of me in the mountains. in a parallel universe---away from demands and responsibility. i didnt miss anyone, i didnt worry about anyone. i read and relaxed and all my thoughts were my own, for me and about me---and it went by too fast. literally the first second i walked in the door to my house i was cleaning and dealing with screaming children. my trip to italy was a golden gift from god, a glimpse of what life will look like after all of this. when a balance is restored. when i can have creative, intelligent, potty-trained sentient children; as well as, time to read a book and mental/physical space to take a lengthy yoga practice everyday.

2008-04-14T18:07:00.001-07:00

fontanella

2008-04-12T20:41:00.001-07:00

duomo di milano

2008-04-12T03:51:00.000-07:00

two of my favorite people in the world. one who has been a favorite for a long time and one who has recently made it to the list! o, and the alps in the background.

2008-04-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

aperativo in bergamo/rachel, me and the Po Valley

2008-04-07T14:37:00.001-07:00

got back from italy last night...will post fotos and news soon!

2008-03-28T14:32:00.001-07:00

this is an incredible speech---take the time to listen to all 37 minutes of it. dare we hope that he is for real?

2008-03-25T10:25:00.001-07:00

stephen has the car this week. which means i am homebound with the children (happily). he was informed that his job semi requires a car---and as we are a committed one car family, we are opting for a small moped.

the weather is (finally) beginning to warm up. mountains of grey, slushy street snow are melting, our backyard is draining, the windows are rattling because of the strong winds that always precede a significant weather change. no brave crocuses yet, but i have a feeling that is coming in the next week. it has been the snowiest march on record for this area of the world. but even us brave clevelanders are saying enough is enough and ready to turn the proverbial seasonal page and move into, something greener, something warmer.

sage is on spring break. so we are weaving, reading, playing spanish bingo, cooking elaborate Indian food, baking chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies and putting away dishes from dishwasher (sage's new favorite thing to do).

the guys are lovable and very hungry. so far today what i've fed them reads like the hungry, hungry caterpillar:

a pear,
a teething cookie,
two slices of ezekial 4:9 raisin bread with butter,
rice milk,
cow's milk,
water,

and i have oatmeal and indian food (potatoes, broccoli, rice in a mild sauce) prepared for their imminent awakening from the mid-day nap.

2008-03-16T06:52:00.001-07:00

i have a dishwasher now.

it's completely revolutionary.

i really don't know what to do with all my time. if you actually use your kitchen for cooking, real cooking whereby you dirty pots and pans and cutting boards and knives of various shapes and sizes, and you have a big family a dishwasher is one of those boons to humanity.

i find myself chuckling mischeviously as i close the door and push the digitized buttons that send a computerized signal to the hot water in my house to start spraying hotly and vigorously. it feels like i am getting away with something.

2008-03-10T17:14:00.000-07:00

20 inches of snow.

on top of a few remaining inches from the last winter storm! you can see here that the snow is up to the wheel well of the car.

2008-03-04T10:44:00.000-08:00

2008-03-03T15:07:00.001-08:00

ahhh, winter fun. three boys of my fellow montessori mom alex....and sage (legs in the air).

2008-02-28T04:56:00.000-08:00

contrary to popular belief the inuit do not have 30+ words for snow. the actually have one verb "to snow" and then qualifiers; like falling snow, blowing snow etc... very similar to the english language. this was a somewhat disheartening discovery. i was all prepared to wax eloquently about how the inuit were much more in tune with their natural surroundings and lived bravely in harsh, arctic conditions huddled in semi-warm igloos developing thousands of different concepts for the white stuff that fell from the sky. but, no, they, in fact were/are probably a lot like us. we are all dependent on the balance of the natural world for survival. but i digress....

i am loving living through my third winter back in the north. i love the thick snow flakes, i love the blowing side-wise light airy snow, i love the snow that is great for snowman-making, i love the snow that makes the cross country skies slide easily, i love wearing wool sweater, and stamping snow off of my boots, long underwear, down parkas, cold red cheeks juxtaposed with warming fireplaces.

2008-02-23T16:02:00.001-08:00

a limerick about the ruby red:

there once was a grapefruit so red
out in front of the pack it has led
with a sublimely sweet flavor
it's fragrance i do savor
it could only be rio grande valley bred

and a haiku:

delicate citrus
rich morning mouth festival
red tropical dream

2008-02-14T19:51:00.000-08:00

i always feel slightly overwhelmed about going to my weekly iyengar yoga lesson, but i am ALWAYS glad that i went. and when i am there i feel like i could live in the world of yoga class forever and ever amen. i love it, i mean, i love it. it's my total solace. my body bends and twists and i GET it. it's breath and movement and non-movement. it's peaceful and centering and revolutionary. i am at a real yogic crossroads, though, right now. how to continue and pursue the passion?

2008-02-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

the best thing about today was getting up to a snow day (school canceled for sage). which allowed me to be with sage during her morning educational explosion---normally she is at school learning and doing. but today we sat over breakfast and she did like four pages of addition problems that i made up. and then i taught her subtraction. it was AMAZING.

2008-02-11T18:35:00.000-08:00

this is rye age 15 mos at the literacy playroom.

2008-02-07T17:19:00.001-08:00

thursday are delightfully full for me. sage goes to school, then when she gets home i go to my highly-valued iyengar yoga lesson (twists and forward bends today--ay my hamstrings!), then i am home for an hour before i take sage to the nature center at shaker lakes for a winter outdoor education class (hibernating animals, tree identification, finding animal tracks etc). while she is doing that i take the guys to the literacy playroom at the newly renovated cleve hts library. they run semi-wild and i get to spend time with other moms. other moms are an interesting breed. they are the only ones interested, without being close friends or family, in your kids.

2008-02-04T12:47:00.001-08:00

sage is reading now...this is the first book she read all the way through. nothing spectacular about the book---it was just the right time and place; it's like a metaphor for life.

2008-01-30T17:43:00.001-08:00

2008-01-30T10:07:00.000-08:00

last night the wind was gusting up to 60 (is that possible?) MPH and i felt that the window over our bed was going to blow in on us at any second. i heard a portion of a freight train was derailed due to wind west of here in sandusky, ohio. it was very frightening. we could feel a serious draft, prompting stephen to ask if the window was open. and i think i had a dream about caulking the window frame!

i was up a couple of times because of the wind but not because of the babies...i think, i THINK--- dare i even say it---that they are now sleeping through the night. mainly due to the fact that we are no longer nursing.

i am mourning closing that door forever.

it's sad.

2008-01-26T16:58:00.000-08:00

i have no idea where the week has gone. i started working this week. it's only 16 hrs/wk spaced out over four days, but i can tell it's too much. i need to be home. this picture is the extent of my non-bedtime routine time with sage azul---a brief morning-time kneel down hug. i have to communicate with my boss the need to be in the workplace but not of the workplace. mommy-ing is my main priority right now, not antiquarian books. books can wait kids can't!

2008-01-21T06:17:00.001-08:00

sundays in the fall and winter are inadvertantly dominated by american football. when the browns are playing it's visceral and compelling. they did great his year, a thoroughly and exciting winning season. but even when the brownies are not playing, there is something so RIGHT about hunkering down on the couch with my knitting and blanket and kids and husband and maybe a choice beer and watching the game. football is like comfort food for me.

2008-01-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

i was supposed to start the long-awaited yoga teacher training today...but, like everything in my raucously riotous life the training has been postponed due to low enrollment. the lead yogini is in India and communication with her is "spotty" (that's the word everyone is using), so it's all up in the air. hopefully it will be postponed only a couple of months. i love how i am trying desperately to plan life and am thwarted at every pass. maybe the lesson is to set goals but not time limits. ahh--revelation.

had a FABULOUS yoga class today. it was a twist class but also concentrated on puffing out the upper back thigh muscles in all the standing postures. sarvangasana made my biceps hurt...i must have been doing some good work. my teacher is incredible! she has really become my yoga mentor. yet another reason for being in cleveland.

2008-01-14T18:00:00.000-08:00

i got a job today!!

2008-01-14T17:36:00.000-08:00

It snowed this morning. What a lovely, lovely way to wake up. Snow is so quiet. I never realized how much I missed the snow living in the south for all those years. And every snowflake is different?! Is that true? How can one know that? If it is true is a testament to the ornately crystalline and utter breathless beauty of nature. The observation of the peacefulness of nature exists juxtaposed to my life as a mom. My kids are a also a testament to the exquisite beauty of nature---a heart muscle that pumps blood, brains that continue to strengthen and develop new neuro-pathways and stunning blue eyes; but my life as a mom is anything but peaceful for me. It is exhausting to be needed so much every waking moment of every day. It is exhausting to be responsible for healthy eating and healthy, creative play and protection from consumer culture. But it's such a short period of time---that's my mantra. And a place and time that could never exist again, one that must be absorbed in it's absolute fullness every moment that it happens.

2008-01-12T16:50:00.001-08:00

yesterday was one of those windows into the divine. i love it when i have days like that! we have been TENSE for about a month now, thinking certain doors were closed to our future. and out of the chaotic cosmos we found out yesterday that stephen is back on track for the M. Ed.---projected graduation date of spring 2009. apparently they can just make classes count for things that they are completely unrelated to and it all works! another cozy year in my beautiful cleveland apartment!
consequently we slept well last night (as well as you can waking up at least twice to screaming baby boys) and happily piddled today away. i cooked a pot of beans for the coming week ( i now just throw in a halved onion and a whole garlic pod skins and all to save time yet guarantee flavor), steamed carrots, sweet potatoes and regular potatoes in a feeble attempt to fulfill hungry 14 month old bellies without sugar, wheat, meat or dairy. i finally relented to sage watching a madeline movie in the weak hours right before sundown. stephen helped john continue to restore the downstairs apt. now that dear, crazy debbie has moved out. i also went thrifting with my gram.

2008-01-10T18:03:00.001-08:00

what i did today:

decided to let the guys be awake and play in lieu of my sleep

sage came home from school and her playmobil cast of characters had a farewell feast before being put up after a 3-day long saga

went to yoga (ahhh)

made lunch (salmon salad sandwiches--thank you foodheads)

took kids to play-time at the library

7PM put kids to bed

2008-01-10T17:25:00.001-08:00

guthrie walks now. with arms splayed to the sides and a smile from ear to ear as we sing gayly "what would do you do with a drunken sailor, what do you do with a drunken sailor, what do you do with a drunken sailor earlyyy in the morning!!"

2008-01-10T17:01:00.000-08:00

i think it should be criminal for pediatricians to prescribe medications to children. there is no way in the universe or any extension of it's sub-galaxies that a four year old could be bi-polar, number one; and number two, that that barely-out-of-infancy child could in any way benefit from taking mood altering, heavy brain-restructuring drugs. it's ludicrous and dangerous. and any parent that would seriously consider such quack-ishness obviously doesn't spend enough TIME with their child.