Gentle

When Italian Parsley Gets Out of Control

Love Thursday

Here's some love on Thursday. This was on the ferry from Tacoma to Vashon Island (which we took out and back, just because...) There was some tickling and lots of rain.

Here's the backstory: I read some mommy blogs. For a couple of years, I've read Dooce religiously. She's funny sometimes, and she takes good pictures and has cute pets and children. I know she gets alot of hate mail basically because she is so well-known and puts out so many opinions and often talks more about herself than some people really care to know. I am not emotionally invested in her blog, but I guess that many people are (for good or bad). Still - today she put up a link to all of the hate mail she gets and has blasted it with ads, in an effort to turn the hate into money. It's all just a little sad. I can't imagine getting all of the hate mail, but I also can't imagine putting it out there for all to see and to make money off of it. It's kind of an example of two wrongs not making a right.

On the flip side, I also read Chookooloonks. This is the blog of a woman/mom/wife/artist on a journey to bring more love, authenticism (is that a word?), beauty and truth into her life. Her blog is not read by as many people as Dooce, but she has fans - mostly those who also think that sharing and spreading love and beauty and truth are worthy goals. She is a lawyer turned artist, and she has some lovely thoughts. One of these is Love Thursday. When I checked her blog today, she had 24 Ways to Show Some Love in the next 24 Hours. I thought this was so much more the way I wanted my day to start off today, that I, too, decided to share a love photo and to maybe try one or two of the things she suggests. Sorry, Dooce.

Because Disemboweling Mousies is Hard Work

A Day in the Life of Happy Cat:

Dawn - 8AM: Get outside. Morning constitutional. Look for still-sleepy mousies - kill, if possible.

8AM - 8:30AM: Get back inside. Eat.

8:30AM - 5PM: Sleep.



5PM - 10PM: Interact with family. Visit neighbors. Stare at tall grass. Kill more mousies.

10PM - Dawn: Get into bed before Colleen. Snuggle into her pillow. Sleep. Reluctantly share pillow. Sleep.

Goodness and Light

I love photos of my kids having fun. Fun that doesn't involve sharp knives, electrical outlets, Sharpie markers or scissors. I also love the outbuilding. So happy kids on the bed out there is pretty much as good as it gets. Although those same kids NAPPING on that bed would be right up there.

Oh, what a beautiful morning!

We are smack in the middle of a kitchen remodel (demolition is done and no kitchen exists right now). I am trying to wrap up my third term of chemistry by this coming weekend. My mother-in-law is bringing a friend up for the night to sleep in our cluttered outbuilding which has been serving as my study room for months. My husband is cleaning books out of our office right now to prepare for refinishing the floors in here, and any hour now this computer will likely be decommissioned for a while. But, it is indeed a beautiful morning - I've had some coffee, there's a little bird in the tree outside the window, and roses are blooming in the garden. We've got red tomatoes and tons of green beans and the world's biggest Walla Walla sweet onion. And, well, it's just a good day for singing. Don't know why the video is blurry - one day I should read the manual for my camera (yeah, that probably won't happen...) Listen carefully and you'll hear the sound of a burly guy cutting through drywall somewhere in the front of the house in the middle of the song.

I need to document the kitchen remodel on the blog - It's too monumental to lose to the cobwebs of history. So, hopefully, more posts will be coming. I'm counting on the coming absence of chemistry classes to provide time for some fun and blogging.

Fun Days

The end of May is here, and with that comes Hockinson Fun Days! I had to miss the parade this year because of my Saturday morning biology lab, but we hit the pancake breakfast at the firehouse by 7:30 AM and then rounded out the day with some fun over at Oscars. I love when that time of year comes when we grab a cold bottle of wine, load the kids onto the lawn tractor and go a-visiting up and down the street. (In the one photo, there's a good view of Oscar and Deborah's McDonald's Playland. No wonder Oscar is now Maggie's favorite neighbor.) They also have some baby robins that are conveniently hanging out in a tree adjacent to the playground, only about 5 feet off the ground for easy viewing.

Diggin' for Friskies

Ellie and Mags were on the porch when I heard a bit of commotion. Nothing too crazy, mind you, just enough to know that something was up. When I inquired as to what might be amiss, Ellie was kind enough to say, "Cat food up by dose." Then she giggled. And, thus began the search for tweezers, the extraction attempts (her nostrils are kind of small) and the end result on the tip of the pincers without a single tear or even darkening of anyone's mood. They don't teach this stuff in Mommy School.

Goggles, etc.

I'm wondering if maybe I should go throughout my days wearing my goggles from chemistry lab. They rarely seem to serve any purpose in there (Would it HURT to get table salt in one's eye?) - however, I did just manage to squirt Farley's steroid-based hip arthritis medicine into my eye when I leaned in and over-enthusiastically discharged the little plunger too close to his tongue and with my face too close to his mouth. The medicine deflected off his tongue and into my face. Had I been wearing my goggles - incident averted. However, right now that pesky ache in my shoulder has completely disappeared. I do have a desire to chase the cat, and I'm a tad drooly.

Ellie and I took Mags to her pediatric dentist today, which basically is like going to Disney World except the toys and snacks are covered by insurance without out-of-pocket expense. The waiting room has a giant flat-screen TV, nearly every toy from the latest Pottery Barn Kids catalog and a train that the kids can make circle the perimeter of the ceiling by pushing a giant red button on the wall. They can draw on giant rolls of paper hanging from the wall, choose the party favor of their choice to take home from the toy closet, and snack on frozen yogurt pops. Mags has been to this dentist a few times before and was looking forward to today - "I don't want you and Ellie to come in with me..." So, I sent her off with the hygienist - I peeked in on her 20 minutes later and she was laid out on the chair, purple sunglasses on her face, patent leather-clad shoes resting gently on a small pillow... while her teeth were cleaned, photographed, treated with fluoride, flossed, polished... The girls going to LOVE spas someday. Ellie just liked the giant Mickey and Minnie Mouse near the door and the popsicles. I mentioned to Jay that we should think about taking her to the dentist soon, and he said, "Maybe she wouldn't mind going to our dentist..." As if. That's like sending one kid to Princeton and the other to community college. (Not that there's ANYTHING wrong with community college...)

Jay and I went to a concert in Portland last Wednesday night - and it wasn't the symphony! We went to see The Shins at the Crystal Ballroom (a venue that I've wanted to visit since I moved to the NW - because of the legendary floating floor...) The concert started at 9:00 - with an opening band - and ended at midnight. On a school night. When I had a test the next day and a babysitter who's still in high school at our house. So, I paid for it. Standing in one spot for nearly four hours didn't bode well for my old back, and staying up until nigh on 1 in the morning caused me to miss not one but more like two nights of studying. But, I would probably do it again just to prove that I can still hang with the teeny boppers. It was good fun, especially since the ballroom is a McMenamins and half the room was roped off for "over-21" people who could consume the resident brew.

On a final note for now, this cold rain sucks and although it's been interspersed with lovely weather... it's just not enough dammit. I Want Sunshine and Warmth. (Of course this weekend it's supposed to be 90 degrees...)

The Apple of Her Eye

The temperature on Monday was 80 degrees, and it was as if the heavens were smiling down upon us. We had a little scavenger hunt, a picnic and some really enjoyable girl time! Farley had a good time, too. The old guy likes the sunshine.

Smart Little Girl

Jay, reading from one of our many Mother Goose books:

What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice,
And everything nice,
That's what little girls are made of.

Maggie: WHAT are little girls made of??

Jay: Sugar, spice...

Maggie: What about BRAINS?! I've got BRAINS, too!

Pinocchio and Super WHY

This morning Maggie came out of her room and told me that her sleeping bag had a rip in it. "Hmm," I thought aloud. "How unlikely that the sleeping bag could have a rip... Maggie, please bring the sleeping bag out here." And then I see that it has been cut with a pair of scissors that, well, God knows where she found them.

"Did you cut the sleeping bag?"

"No."

"Well, when did this happen?"

"While I was sleeping. Ellie did it."

"Maggie, are you telling the truth?"

"Yes, I am."

"Well, that's funny because I can tell when you're lying because your nose grows."

"What?!"

Of course, she had no idea what I meant, but it did freak her out a little. Anyway, as I'm pondering how I'm going to sew up the sleeping bag, since it's clear that Maggie's "Just use some tape" solution won't work, I turn on PBS as a babysitter. Serendipitously, Super WHY (I think my favorite of the morning shows) comes on, and guess what story they hop into? Yes, Pinocchio! If the gods are smiling on me, by the time the Super Readers sing the Hip, Hip Hooray song, Maggie will no that no good comes from lying. If only it could be that simple. But maybe.

You know, I really enjoy dealing with shit like this. Because truly, I have an innate love of and patience for repairing sleeping bags and the like. I do.

1,4-dimethylcyclohexane - Really!

I have made the official policy at our house, "If You Are Sick, You Can Watch Television All Day," and that seems to be working well. So, I am doing my chemistry homework on the computer. I just drew this lovely molecule. I don't know how they taught chemistry when the instructors actually had to LOOK at your homework - now it's all online. Lots of fun.

...and the 2-year old captures the moment perfectly.

When I woke up this morning, I only thought I would spend the day studying (since the new term has started like a cheetah at full speed) and then take the girls to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner with my neighbor down the street. Little did I know that Jay would come home and crash into bed feeling sick, then my neighbor would call in tears to cancel on dinner, then Ellie would break her glasses at KinderCare, and then, to really top things off, Maggie would puke and puke and puke yet again. As Ellie yelled at the top of her lungs as she ran about the house tonight, "What the fuck is going on here???!!!" Yeah, you read that right.

Okay, today I really mean it.

It is FAB-U-LOUS outside today. The princesses are wandering about singing songs and picking flowers. Time for a picnic lunch!

What a Freakin' Gorgeous Day!!

Look at my children, frolicking among the spring growth at Yard-n-Garden Land! Spring is truly here, and today is the best day we have had in 2009. Time to break out the SPF60! Oh... April Fool's!

It's just another sucky day of steady rain... but we did sneak out the other day in between showers. The kids are in desperate need of sunny days and space to run around. I know, July will come soon enough...

Because in March, Dandelions are Just Wildflowers

Princess bouquets being held as if two princes are waiting for their brides at the end of the driveway.

She Did NOT Eat the Proboscis

What am I going to do about this little girl who has started LYING about every blessed thing in her life?

Maggie, did you make this mess?

No, Ellie did it.

Ellie was with me.

Papa did it.

Papa is at work.

Farley did it.

Farley is outside. Besides, throwing princess dresses around isn't really what old Labrador retrievers like to do.

YOU did it.

Try again.

The giant did it.

What giant?

He's over there, under the blanket.

Let's go look... I don't see any giant.

He's invisible...

So the invisible giant took all of your princess stuff and threw it all over the floor.

He was looking for the Sleeping Beauty princess shoes.

Of course he was.

So, yesterday, we played Cootie. She gets it, and we can actually get through a game if Ellie's not around. But, clean up is a bitch. Let's see... There are 4 cootie bodies, 4 heads, 4 toppers (hats, antennae, etc.), 4 mouths, 4 sets of eyes, and 24 legs. The sheer number of parts makes it a "That Which Must Only Be Used with Adult Supervision" toy. But alas, Mama had to go to the bathroom. When it came time to clean up, we were one curly tongue-like part short.

Maggie, have you seen the missing Cootie piece? It looks like a curly tongue.

I ate it.

You're kidding. I didn't hear any choking or hear any whining.

No, I had to eat it, I was sick and it made me feel better.

Did you chew it?

No. Just swallowed it whole.

Okaaaay. Well, I guess we'll just have to see what happens.

This morning, magically, it showed up on her bedsheet - and not through any indescribable in-one-end-and-out-the-other process.

I am grateful for her active imagination, and yet worried (and not a little pissed off) about her constant propensity to fib to me about the littlest thing. Hoping it's just a phase.


And this little stuffed puppy? He gets put on the blog because his name is "Little Easter Puppy Who Found the Eggs on the Back Porch." This has been his name for a few days running, even though it requires a deep breath to get the whole thing off one's lips. This is notable because 1. It is not yet Easter, so no eggs have been found anywhere. 2. We don't have a back porch.

Life with Little Girls

...somehow I think we've reached the age when life is fundamentally different between boys and girls. That phone ringing at the end? That was their agent.

A Few Pearls from Mags

Spin Art: We have a nice spin art machine. It was a gift from Jay one year when I asked for one. And when I say it's nice, I mean I could do the birthday party circuit and it would hold up. Every now and then, when the weather's nice, we enjoy taking it out on the porch and getting creative. Problem is, we end up with stacks of spin art paintings. I keep them neatly piled on a shelf, but one day they ended up spewed all over the floor of the great room. When I discovered them, I yelled, "Maggie!! Where did these come from??!!"

"Oh, Mama. They came from our imaginations!"

Baby Chicks at Wilco: The other day, Jay took the girls to see the baby chicks and ducks at Wilco. They keep them in gated little pens with heat lamps, and they are pretty cute. After everyone got home, I asked what the baby chicks said.

"Mama, they didn't say anything. They didn't eat their alphabet soup." (Yes, she is a little familiar with Martha the Talking Dog.)

Finding a Man: After watching Beauty and the Beast, in which the beast at the end turns into a handsome prince with long flowing locks:

"I need to find me a nice guy with good hair." Girl's got her priorities straight. Of course, if you check out the prince at about 3:30 into the video, you'll see that "good hair" is pretty much a Fabio do... I asked her if she wanted to find one so she could marry him (because she tends to frame relationships in Disney princess terms). She said, "No, not so I can marry him. HE has to marry ME."