Cooking with Kids

Last week, a good friend and I had our kids cook together. Both of us have husbands that work pretty late and very hard, leaving us with many dinners to have on our own. So her idea was to have the kids cook their own dinners one night. Brilliant!!

And cook they did.


The kneaded their pizza douch, spread olive oil on top of it along with some pizza sauce and mozzerella, Norah and Harvey added a few peppers and... there was dinner.

Another Lazy Days Skirt

Before leaving Portland, I promised Norah that she could pick out some fabric for a skirt because she didn't like the last one I made her AT ALL. I mean, I have to bribe her with lots of forbidden treats to even get her to put the thing on. As a new sewer, I desperately want to see my kids in my creations, so I knew I would make another one in a fabric of her choice. Sadly, the fabric of her choice is not one of my choice, but... she is wearing it and I am loving it no matter what. I got the pattern here, cut the fabric to 16 inches (I think) before the seams, and cut the elastic waistband to 19 inches (18 after overlapping). Olivia, her dolly, has one on the way too.

Settling In (Sort Of)

Our stuff arrived about a week ago to our new (temporary) home in Montclair and we have begun the process of settling back in to our new (old) town. A trip to the farmer's market last Saturday made me feel even more back.

Funny how life throws you those curve balls. i can remember opening day of the Montclair Farmer's Market last year--I was happy to be there and sad that it would be one of my last trips to it. And last week, there I was, returned from Portland, a changed yet still very much the same person, buying my sausage and eggs and my spinach from my favorite vendors again this year.
What a funny life it is.

Catch You On The Flip Side

I am going to be absent from this little space, my cyberspace home, for the next week or so as we transition from our West Coast home to our East Coast home, and I will be back in full as soon as possible.

Mothers Day Gifts

I knew that I wanted to make our Mother's Day Gifts this year, but I just didn't know what to make. It had to be something simple and versatile as the gift would go to three very different mothers in our lives--my own Mama, my Aunt Donna, and Brian's mom. In the end, I decided to sew up some handkerchiefs from my new favorite book, Linen, Cotton, Wool. I embroidered the first letter of each of their names on the kerchiefs, had the kids paint the cards, and added some dried lavender for effect. The embroidery isn't perfect as I am new to that sport (and neither is the sewing for that matter), but hopefully they will be loved nonetheless.

2009 Faery Festival

This past weekend, amidst packing and tying up some loose ends, we went to the Faery Festival


There were some happy crown wearers

and some unhappy ones...

What a dreamy place it was. Norah and Harvey made fairy wings, they planted fairy gardens, we watched men on sticks walk around in circles and we
sat
in
the
green green
grass.

Learning to Let Go

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver



For the most part, here in my little blogging corner of the world, I try to focus on what makes me happy in my life--my kids, general domesticity, the natural world, good books, etc...and there is some space here for deep sorrows or mild annoyances to make their appearances as well. The faces of my/our/your troubles show up from time to time throughout all of my days and, I have found, if I try to ignore them, they only insist on staying around longer. So I am learning to invite them to sit down next to me throughout my days, to offer them some lemonade, to chat with them awhile. Maybe then they won't look quite so ugly; maybe then I can see what they have to offer, maybe, just maybe...

I spent some time tonight looking through pictures I have taken, of ways that have chronicled our year here in Portland--pictures that mirror back at me a time of discovery, a time of peace, but most of all a time of tremendous pain. A time of tumult, of chaos and abandonment, of coming together, of falling apart, of rebuilding, of birth and rebirth. And yet, there are those pictures of this year, this moment in time, this seeming eternity, this ephemeral chaos and this fleeting peace, and they reflect exactly what Mary Oliver so pristinely describes above--the world goes on.

Ah yes, it does.

It really does.