Beach day

The day was so complete. Such serious work being a child at the beach. So much digging and engineering, so much testing of physics, so much surf and sun and sand to absorb... We don't see much of Asa and Finch and Ethan and Charlie, but when we do, it's all good.

Good flick

We watched "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" last night. It was meditative, engrossing, and really interesting. Definitely recommend it.

It was a perfect end to a beach day spent with Janet and her family who are vacationing from Cali.

Tonight we watched Superbad. Giggling and guffawing as we "wasted precious sleeping hours" as Janet put it (they are spending the night---Sag has been in heaven, he really likes Asa and Finch :-)

Thank you

Gem is signing his name to his thank you cards, putting them in the correct envelopes and sticking the Sinatra stamps on them. Why do I have to send a card to someone if I said thank you to them already?

Um. Just because. No. I didn't really say that. But, teaching the kids about gratitude (or being made to feel that I haven't done enough in this regard) has been the cause of occasional pangs of guilt, doubt and regret.

This may have to do with boy-ness and girl-ness. There are girlish aspects to Cap, Gem and Sag in their personalities and their beings. I do think we are all a mix of both at birth. But, it's looking like maybe Gem and Cap are a bit more to one side and Sag and I to the other when it comes to expressing our feelings.

Cap and I not only express our gratitude in different ways, but I think we actually feel it in different ways. Yet, we have never discussed how we want to model the expression of gratitude for our kids, and teach them the many ways there are to say "thank you".

In Waldorf practices, reverence (a sister to gratitude) is a cornerstone of what and how to model and provide for young children. I was very drawn to this idea, but had a hard time folding it into our lives to the extent that I thought I wanted to. (It was too much for just me to take on...it didn't resonate for Cap in the same way.)

I still haven't done more than flip through Soulemama's book, but one of the things that caught my fleeting attention were her family/home activities that accentuate gratitude.

Food for thought, time for some more cud chewing.

Dreamy

20071014_MattPondPA, originally uploaded by kexplive.

Insomnia has led me to this.

First, there was an e-mail from Mali who I think about now and then, but haven't heard from in years.

Then, there was this.

Kitchen notes

Again with the potato salad, I know :-) I've learned a new trick. Scallions. I love the color they add and the flavor is nice, as well. Thanks to Mary C. for opening my eyes and delighting my taste buds!

Corn bread baked in cast iron is the best.

I also made roasted potatoes. Gem cannot get enough of them. Tried russet today and I much prefer Yukon Gold, I have to say.

The witching hour

Actually, the "witching hour" has never been much of an issue with our kids. They have their days when come that time after dinner and before bed they amp up and go nutty, but for the most part, it's not too bad.

(As I'm sure many a parent has figured out, the more of an agenda you have for this hour or two or three, the more stressed out you become when the kids aren't "cooperating" :-)

Well, something moved in me tonight. Vinny's work really opened me up (he gave me a nice pat on the back for the work I've been doing on my own, which he can ascertain by how my system responds to his work). I've been very happy this afternoon and evening, feeling great about my life and our life as a family. Ecstatic, really.

I remembered that one of the kids had mentioned wanting to paint earlier in the day. It was Sag. He leapt at the opportunity to paint tonight, a time usually reserved for picking up toys (typically like pulling teeth) and/or being shuttled into the shower or bath (oh the hand held shower head has been such a good move for us!)



Not too much time passed before Gem joined in on the painting action...












Gem's painting is called "Noon". The time when the sun and moon begin their journeys to trade places (paraphrased...can't remember his exact words).

"A ladder, some spirals, and some smiley faces." By Sag.

Chocolate-y goodness

On our way home from seeing Dr. Vinny, Cap and I stopped off at our local chocolate shop. I picked up a bar of this. I just had my first square and it was heaven.

Last night, at around 10pm, maybe 10:30, there was a police-accompanied graduation caravan that started and ended at the high school, which is a block away. Sirens, blaring car horns, screams and shrieks---a parade at night with no onlookers, but much revelry nonetheless.

It was so...sweet. Most of the time, I think of our town as very cosmopolitan, but every now and again something like last night happens and something true and "small town" is revealed, in a good way.

Oh and here's some hot gossip. Our next door neighbors, whom I have had an edge of disdain for ever since they left a letter in our mailbox addressed to "second floor tenants" about an issue that involved the whole house (and not just us) and after we'd had an introductory conversation where names were exchanged (and she's a real estate agent so I don't buy that she's bad with names...ooh I still have a sizzle in me)---they are selling their house!

They flip houses. I knew this about them when they arrived next door, but somehow, the house is so huge, and well, I don't know, I guess despite our own nomadic existence, I can't imagine creating a home out of a house and then repeating over and over again, when you have kids. So, I thought maybe they were settling down next door.

But, just a few days ago, when the umpteenth contractor was over doing yet some more work on the house, I thought that maybe they were going to sell it. In the less than two years that they have lived there not a month has gone by without some new project being started on the inside or outside of the house (even in the dead of winter).

Well, I'm glad because I never did get over that slight. And now I understand why they never made more of an effort to be more friendly.