Over and Around Us

From somewhere in Vermont….

overandaroundus — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:24:08 +0000

…comes this poem by Wendy.

Champlain, Champlain,

Glorious Champlain.

Soft as the breeze, wild as the rain.

I love you…Champlain.

I should be making battlements but….

overandaroundus — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:03:01 +0000

…I am sitting here reading blogs and eating my breakfast (the kids ate with Papa while I went running….oh, I love when he is on vacation). Today is Wendy’s party. It is a Medieval Castle Party complete with castle cake with battlements and drawbridge and a moat, jousting, a knight’s quest, and crown decorating. It should be fun as long as it doesn’t rain—I don’t know how to host jousting in my house. Frankly, Wendy has so many friends that we had to narrow it down to two groups: neighborhood and school friends. Apologies to those whose kids we left out. I also don’t know how to handle jousting gracefully with a 40-kid party.

My birthday is on Friday. Wendy and Papa bought presents on Saturday during their daddy daughter date. Wendy promptly wrapped them in silkies and keeps leaving them on my pillow. Papa won’t let me open them, much to her dismay. I’m turning 36. I wonder when that happened.

We are leaving at week’s end for our grand summer adventure which includes stops in suburban Detroit, their grandiose thrift stores (though maybe they won’t be so hot this year with all those car execs losing all that money), a lakeshore somewhere in Vermont, hopefully a few Green Mountaintops, China Town and the subway–NYC and other places that we used to haunt in the days when all this was just a dream, Granny and Grampy’s house and everywhere in between.

Now I must be off to fashion a lance and add the drawbridge (thank you, Laura, for the recipe…worked just great….all four batches…sigh…).

Perspective

overandaroundus — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:00:50 +0000

My life has become really busy. This makes me laugh, reading what I just wrote, because Gosh, my life is Always busy. It is full of, well, LIFE. The highs and the lows, the easy moments of sitting in the shade and listening to voices of children that I love, seeing the laundry blowing on the line in my peripheral vision, savoring a few words from a good book…..and the challenging moments when those children’s voices are all talking at once and they all want my attention and one is fussing and the other is whining and the other is just singing away at the top of his lungs his newest favorite song and I feel like my head is about to explode and sometimes it does.

It’s been getting to me lately. I don’t know why all of a sudden “it” is winning (“it” being the head exploding part). But I won’t let it win because this LIFE, this crazy, noisy, lovely, beautiful life that is mine is so worth it. And it helps to read posts like this one every now and again to remind myself to just relax. To just let myself keep growing. To just sit back and enjoy my children and not worry about if I’m doing right by them so much as just getting in there and doing LIFE with them. They are going to become the people that they choose. And their environment is important. Critical. But a mom too worried about choosing-the-right-books-fitting-in-the-right-classes-while-still-providing-ample-time-to-be-outside-and-getting-their-feet-muddy-and-running-through-the-sprinkler-and-discovering-the-beauty-of-the-world-while-having-enough-social-opportunities-but-not-too-many-that-family-is-overshadowed-and-blah-blah-blah that my brain is on hyper-drive about…..that kind of mom just isn’t that much fun. And above all I want my kids to think of me now and when they are grown as adamantly loving my job as their mom. I want them to know deeply that I CHERISH it. Which means I have to act like it.

So go read that post I mentioned up there and become just a bit more present today….and tomorrow….and…..

Overheard

overandaroundus — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:51:19 +0000

I have so many back-posts to write. I went to California. The Farmer’s Market started up. We had a great time with good friends today for Memorial Day. I had a strawberry glut and made yummy jam. I’m doing kefir experiments. Our homeschool year is wrapping up and I’m beginning to plan for next Fall. There are things coming up in my garden. I’m really enjoying hanging out my wash everyday. Yeah, lots of posts. But right now I really just need to go to bed. But not before I write this down so that I don’t forget more silly words from around here.

During a dinner in which I served steamed snow broccoli stems (we use the leaves in salad). A bit of butter and salt. Yummy, in my opinion. To get the full sense of this snippet you must hear both children speak in dreamy voices.

Wendy: “Mama, (sigh), that was soooooooo delicious!”

John: (same voice) “Mama, (slight pause), that was sooooo disgusting!”

Keep in mind that my parents live in Vermont (you can read this as heavenly-green-place-that-I-love …or not….it’s not related to the snippet). My mom is Nana. My dad is Tools. Funny name, maybe….unless you know him.

Michael and I were in the car alone doing errands.

Michael: Mama, where crocodiles?

Me: In Florida…..and Africa.

Michael: Mama, where’s Nana?

Me: In Vermont.

Michael: Where’s Tools?

Me: In Vermont.

Michael: No, Tools in Africa.

Me: Oh…really?

Michael: Yes.

Me: What’s he doing in Africa?

Michael: He taking care of crocodiles!

Overheard or “May the Farce Be With You”

overandaroundus — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:48:02 +0000

I am vacuuming the kids’ bedrooms. After helping me clear the floor they are now playing Star Wars with the light sabers the boys got as party favors at yesterday’s Star Wars themed birthday party. They are very cool light sabers, by the way, made of pool noodles cut in half with handles wrapped with black electrical tape. Colorful, powerful-feeling, and almost completely harmless.

So, keep in mind that my children have never seen Star Wars. Well, they saw about 5 minutes of the Darth Vader vs. Luke saber fight on the catwalk while we were furniture shopping about THREE YEARS AGO….and have apparently gleaned some name information from friends….but no direct experience.

Open Scene:

Light Sabers cracking, screaching and running….

Wendy: “John, I’m Luke, you’re Darth and Michael in YOGA”.

Ah, yes….I’ll keep my children isolated from the force for a few years longer just to be able to giggle at keepers like that.

Namaste.

Treehouse

overandaroundus — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:52:06 +0000

A treehouse, a free house,

A secret you and me house,

A high up in the leafy branches,

cozy as can be house,

A street house, a neat house,

Be sure and wipe your feet house,

Is not my kind of house at all.

Let’s go live in a treehouse!

-Shel Silverstein

Puddles, Worms and Beasts

overandaroundus — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:12:10 +0000

Last week was rainy and gray and cold. Which led to lots of reading, a few rain walks, and afternoon tea and toast.

I’m guessing I’m not the only one who gets nostalgically gloomy and sad when my kids grow out of clothes? These boots are pinching the toes but she insisted on wearing them.

These “Duck Boots” as they’re affectionately called around here still fit, luckily….because there’s no child after him to pass them down to. I think puddle hopping and a 2-year-old are a perfect fit.

And here comes the gory part of the story (beware all you squeamish ones):

We came across a puddle filled (and I mean writhing!) with half-drowned worms. And not only that but they were massing around the crack in the sidewalk. We looked. We discussed whether they were enjoying themselves trying to get into the puddle or frantically en-mass trying to get out. We concluded it was the latter and tried in vain to scoop them out with sticks (oh, it was just really gross. It was like a snake-pit….only worms. Gross but quite interesting).

OK, on to more pleasant things (except you’ve probably lost your appetite by now):

The best-tea-in-the-whole-world (yes, I’ve linked to this tea elsewhere on this blog….but it’s really good) accompanied by buttered and peanut-buttered (oh, my) homemade-bread toast.

And what rainy afternoon is complete without a good book or two. This one —a favorite at the moment–is worth the worms!

All Things Easter

overandaroundus — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:54:43 +0000

Here’s our Easter Week in pictures–which includes some egg dyeing from the week before, Bunny Day, and Easter Sunday.

Making Kefir

overandaroundus — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 02:00:03 +0000

My parents were health-food junkies. They still are, really. There are smells from my childhood that are still potently real to me now when the right memory surfaces. Maple sugar steam, fresh-turned earth, the warm smell of tomatoes as they grow in the sunny window. And the health-food store.

This wasn’t a Whole Foods or Wild Oats, clean and grocery-store neat with linoleum floors and high, straight shelves and bright lights. Oh, no. This was a wood-floored, cluttered affair—sunbeams filtered through the haze of bulk-goods-dust, the smell of grains and honey and dirt (garden dirt, that is) and probably beeswax from the candles in the house-and-body-care corner. It was a true co-op. My parents worked in the store a certain amount of time every month for the privilege of shopping there.

A few treats I remember: Tigers’ Milk Bars, dried pineapple, chocolate covered yogurt popsicles (stawberry or vanilla)—oh, they were heavenly. I’d do quite a bit to eat one of those again….haven’t had one since I was about 7. And Kefir. My Dad loved Kefir.

So, when I had the chance to inherit some true kefir grains from someone I jumped on it. Kefir that is homemade? Not overly-sugared and at $4 a pop? Sure they look a little repulsive and it goes against my instinct to leave milk sitting out on the counter for 24 hours, but….it was worth a try.

Nourishing Traditions tells you how. I’ve got to say….doesn’t taste a lot like the commercial stuff, but add some blended frozen strawberries and agave and it’s a yummy kick. And good for your insides. We’ll see if my Dad likes it.

A Daddy trip to the Desert

overandaroundus — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:00:17 +0000

Scott took the kids adventuring a few Saturdays ago. They had a great time! Here they are leaving early in the morning:

And having fun all day hiking and playing in the dirt, finding petroglyphs, eating hiking snacks, etc.

And what did I spend my day doing? Well, after finishing teaching around 1 I got to DO WHATEVER I WANTED. When does that ever happen? Lovely day, indeed.