Filed under: pictures, stories | Tags: blythe, diction, hair, liam, park potty
Today, I took the kids to go swimming. On the way (not really), I picked up a car-less friend who lives on this little dirt road, among over-grown landscape and wild vermin. Sounds appealing, right? It felt like something out of a Flannery O’Conner story, minus the delusional grandmother and convicts. So, here I was driving and imaginatively immersed in A Good Man is Hard to Find, when I suddenly hear Blythe say, “f–k. f–k. f–k.” What? I turned around to see her pointing at her foot and saying in a songlike manner, “f–k.” So close, sweetheart, but not quite. Well, it wasn’t long before the boys (who love mocking her babytalk) chimed in. Suddenly, I had a chorus of profanity in my backseat. Lovely.
Yesterday, we took the kids to the park to eat dinner and play. In the meantime, Liam had to pee, so naturally he pulls his pants and underwear down to his ankles, arches his back and projects his pelvis toward the tree to relieve himself. Now that’s a dramatic potty break. But, this moment actually gave me flashbacks to last summer when Liam pulled the same stunt at the park. Only when he was done, he reversed the pelvic thrust to poke his butt in the air and poop. Right. There. In. The. Park. I had to call Mark to bring a brown paper sack, so I could clean up after my son. I would love to say this only happened once, but it’s enough for me to speak of it only once (still with laughter).
Finally, I cut Liam’s hair. I noticed Liam had helped himself to some hair wax and decided he needed “spikey” hair again. When I quickly informed him that his hair was too long to stand up, he opted for a haircut. I obliged (but with sadness). You may also notice a small chunk missing in the right side of Liam’s nose. He tripped while jumping off of the big, red, concrete ball in front of Target, practically landing on his face.
I picked up this little recipe from my dear friend, Lynn, and they’re wonderful. I did have to add a little bit more cream because the dough was too dry to gather. They look impressive, but are pretty easy to make — my kind of recipe. Below, I made blueberry lemon and cranberry orange scones.
servings: 4-6 prep time: 10 min. cook time: 12-15
- 2 cups flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp sugar, 2 tsp sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten (reserve 1 Tbsp of egg white to brush the tops)
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 dried berries
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon or orange zest
Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 Tbsp sugar. Cut in butter. Add berries and zest. Add eggs and cream. Stir briefly and gather in a ball. Knead 10 times on a table or counter. Divide the lump into 4 parts. Make each lump round and 3/4″ thick. For smaller scones (shown above), divide the lump into 4 wedges. For larger scones, divide into 2 wedges. Repeat with each lump. Place each of the wedges on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush tops with reserved egg white. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 12-15 minutes, until the tops are golden.
Today Burke came into the kitchen where I was to let me know he had to go poop. (Because I’m still unfortunately involved in the clean-up, he’s obligated to make these sorts of announcements.) Anyway, a few minutes later I made my way back to his bathroom to find him reading a book in his bed. So, naturally I comment, “Burke, I thought you said you had to go to the bathroom.” “I will in just a second. I have to finish reading this book first,” he replies. Priorities. I laughed and left the room thinking of my husbands favorite phrase, “we all make choices.”
The other night Kristen and Tim were over having ice cream with us. I decided to strip Blythe down to her diaper to ease my post-ice-cream-clean-up. Well, apparently, she decided she didn’t need her diaper either, so she desperately tried to take it off by pulling it down, rather than unclasping the tabs. After many failed attempts, she relinquished the struggle, leaving her crack peaking out of the diaper as a small sign of victory. She then unabashedly ate her ice cream cone.
While the seventh year of marriage has been our most challenging yet, I can easily say – I have never loved you more. Happy 7th Anniversary. (And thank you, KMDfoto, for the pictures.)
This morning the five grandkids (and their parents — me, Mark, Josh, and Bethany) went to go cheer on mom/Nina as she ran her first 5K race. Dave ran with her to encourage her along the way. She finished in 38 minutes! Congratulations, Nina!
To say that I love the ocean may be an understatement, but it will do. I never feel as liberated ( in all manners) as when I stand at/on/in the ocean. It’s as if the ocean’s counterpart lives within me, aching, with a force that might cause it to burst out of my skin, to return to its love: deep calling out to deep. Two enigmatic creations longing for their Creator, leaving me, the subsequent bystander, to deal with the paradoxical feelings of power/inferiority, eternity/finality, and familiarity/ignorance. In those moments, I feel as close to how I imagine Moses did when standing on the cleft waiting for God to show His face: small, but known, loved, and encountered.
So, while in Corpus last weekend, we stumbled upon a wind and water competition (wind and kite surfing). Watching these surfers float through the air and graciously contort/thrust their bodies on the water, as if extensions of it, I confess, made my sand-sunken self a little jealous. I can’t surf. And seeing that we don’t have an ocean in central Texas, I imagine I never will. But, thanks to the subjuntive, I can build a whole imaginative world in a statement like this: if I did live near a beach, I would definitely be a surfer. Liam must have glimpsed a little of this imaginative world too, for Mother’s Day, he drew the picture above –mom windsurfing.
Last weekend we went down to south texas to celebrate Mark’s Nana’s 80th birthday. We partied with a water slide, a bounce house, a pinata, and lots of family and food. Below are some of the pics I took during the little fiesta, the highlights being Blythe’s handprint in the cake (before Nana saw it) and the broken toilet turned flower pot. (These people know sustainability on a different level.)
Some of you will rejoice, while others will mourn – but, today, I’m sad to announce that I will no longer have any music on this blog. Apparently, the company had to shut down “due to the music industry” — also known as, the man. hmph. I’m not too surprised by my misfortunes actually. It seems to me that the technological world delivers far less than it actually promises to offer or benefit. Now, I realize that those of you who are savy in these types of ways consider me ridiculous; I’m simply suggesting that maintaining/updating these devices and techno-lives requires a lot of resources – namely time, knowledge, and money — all of which I have very little to spare or acquire for this purpose. So, when I purchase/download a new device or program, I want it to work, and work easily. I created this blog to give you all a glimpse into our fairly small world, at your leisure and distance. That’s convenient. Maybe you just want to keep up, but don’t really have the time to call or email, or simply don’t want to call or email. I get that. Believe me, I get that. You read and comment as you can or will. It’s easy. However, I received a handful of emails this last week from people who tried to comment and couldn’t because their computers shut down every time they tried. That’s not easy, for me or them. At times, I start to feel like a sucker, thinking, “oh, what a great idea! This ____ will help with ______.” Then it doesn’t. This is one of those times. I like music. I like the idea of living to a soundtrack. So, I’m a little disheartened with this news. Don’t worry, I’ll get over it and probably try another program [that promises to do something it too will ultimately fail to do]. Do I sound bitter? I’m really not.
My mom, with a $15 garage sale purchase, single-handily won Liam’s heart, again: a bike this time, not spider-man shoes. He’s been riding the pedal-less bike (Scuut) since we bought it for him two Christmases ago, desperately wanting to transition to the big-kid milestone, the two-wheeler. We were waiting for his birthday, which unfortunately for Liam is another 5 months away. But, fortunate for Liam, he has Nina. 10 minutes after pulling the bike out of the car, he was riding, without help, down our street. He has definitely arrived into boyhood. Burke gleefully received from this transition as well, stepping up to take his place on the Scuut.
We went for our first family bike ride, without having to stop and rest Liam’s little legs (Burke still had to ride in the trailer with Blythe), where we not so quickly learned that Liam had not fully mastered braking. During the back half of the trip, where the road slopes slightly downhill, Mark and I both notice that Liam is still pedaling, rather than braking. RED FLAG. Mark and I are both yelling (as we approach a busy intersection), “Liam, hit your brakes.” When Liam failed to brake again, Mark instinctively cycled ahead, jumped off his bike, and threw himself directly in front of Liam, receiving the full blow of a downhill, pedaling, 4 year old and his not-so-light bike — ouch. But, he saved our son from catastrophe — I’m sure it won’t be the last time. Needless to say, we’re practicing braking and emergency curb crashing before our next ride.
Once a year Ben & Jerry’s gives back to their cultish following (and anyone else interested) by offering an entire day of free ice cream cones. I refused to miss it — that’s about $15 of free ice cream cones from our favorite ice cream creators. Fantastic. So, after I picked up Liam from school, the kids and I met Kristen and Tim for our afternoon treat. I mistakenly ordered a cone for Burke, instead of a cup, which turned out to be disastrous. Just like everything else, he slowly and methodically ate his frozen treat. He couldn’t possibly lick fast enough to compete with the rapidly melting chocolatey goo dripping . . . everywhere. However, it was entertaining to see Tito coaching Burke, “faster, faster — you got to lick faster. Over here Burke — this side — no wait, now this side. You can clean yourself up later, don’t worry about that now — just lick!” Who knew eating ice cream was such a science?
