here's the "peace room" 

another moment of spray-paint insanity. (there are so many more coming, beware.) i decided that orange is our "signature color" (not blush and bashful....trivia question: where is that from?) this is "pastiche" according to jon. it's just kind of cool according to me. 

my solution to the sconce problem...$2.95 at home depot plus a little spray paint. i've always loved the classic jelly jar look. 

it took a 14-year old several viscious hits to get elastigirl down. thanks, caitlyn! 

elastigirl from party store for $4.99 couldn't be denied. she was a hit! (no pun intended!) 

fabulous phoebe holding estie jane so i could document the madness and awesomeness of our house"cooling" party. thanks, phoebers! 

leah double-fisted the rice krispy treats at the housewarming! you gotta live a little, right? 

ain't she sweet? beans and rice for little estie! 

do grafitti artists get carpal tunnel?

I pose this question because I have just gone through 5 spray paint bottles on my wicker patio furniture and my arm is totally gimp and i've lost the ability to grasp, pinch, etc. with my right hand. It's total degeneration. But, my patio furniture looks pretty awesome--the loveseat is "harvest orange" and the two side chairs are a lighter, springier orange. The crazy thing is that I've gone to Lowe's twice now to get spray paint, and I've run out for the second time. If I go back again, they're going to call the cops and follow me home and make sure I'm not the culprit. I also painted one wall of Leah's once neon, now not-so-overwhelming orange and pink toyroom. Color? Sugared Peach. Couldn't resist my favorite childhood breakfast. Mom--I remember you peeling and peeling and peeling pounds and pounds of Allred O'Henry's and we would eat them as fast as you could peel and sugar them. I hope that you got to eat a few---quel sacrifice...such is motherhood.

Yesterday, Leah and I painted the front bench (built-in on the front entrance to the house) a sort of yellowy-green color. We had lots of paint left-overs from some of our recent projects, and I just started mixing my own hue. It looks fabulous and matches the new green hydrangea almost perfectly. She was delighted to learn that the bench needed "two coats" and told passers-by of our "clothing" the bench. She also helped with the toy room this afternoon. She's getting to be quite the little painter girl. I love working with her.

Remind me to tell you about the new outdoor sconces I got for $2.95 each. I'm just hoping they look fab....I was thinking we were going to have to slap down at least $75 each for anything half-way decent. Photos forthcoming, promise. That blasted digital camera. Still busted.

Dreams Fulfilled

Before we moved to the Streng, I had this image of myself in a cute skirt, approximately 25 lbs lighter, pigtails and highlights, working in my kitchen with fun jazzy music playing--lots of light and windows. It's essentially a mock layout of a Real Simple article about my life, which ironically seems everything but real simple. But it's one of those beautifully composed, very deliberate moments. This image is just one instant--there are no words, I don't know exactly what I'm doing, and it's a rear view. But there is total happiness; I'm content with my life, I feel young, but mature (nearing 30 is really actually fun for me), funky, yet classy.

So today, with pigtails and highlights, not 25 lbs skinnier (but who cares--i've got my whole life)--a cute outfit (pants, actually), lots of light and windows in my kitchen--and a gentle breeze, I remembered my special image and realized that I am who I want to be, where I want to be, doing what I want to be doing (most of the time). Such is contentedness. Nothing's better than this.

What Work Is

Today, during the canning episode (see post below), I was thinking a lot about how work--physical AND mental makes me feel so valuable. I don't know how many times I've counted my 20 quarts (5 GALLONS!) of applesauce tonite. It's quantifiable. Jon has billable hours (not that I want to adopt that program any time in this lifetime). I have endless days. But today I have 20 quarts of applesauce and two girls who saw me happy and working all day. Leah even put on her apron (which mom made for me when I was a wee girl) and helped turn the crank of the strainer. She was chanting "squirt, squirt, squirt, fart!" about the noises the boiled apples were making as they were obliterated. She is such a Francis. But that's beside the point. I want to post some work poems:

To Be of Use

The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.

I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.

--Marge Piercy

I'll post the other work poem tomorrow. I have to go mop the stickiness of the floor before snoozing for the night.

Applesauce, Neighbors, Seasons

I am tired. I am sticky. There's a thin film of applesauce covering my kitchen; I just finished a long day of applesauce canning. There is nothing more fall-ish than making my homemade applesauce and "putting away" 20 beautiful quarts full of gloppy gold.

As I chopped, boiled, strained, and processed 80 lbs of apples into sauce today, I couldn't help but think of Diane Keaton in "Baby Boom" with her Country Baby applesauce. [I used to love that movie so much--I can even hear the theme song in my head right now. Do you remember when she first got the baby and was talking to her boss "Fritz" at the restaurant and her leg was shaking uner the table? Such a fine memory.] Estie was my country/city baby as she was one of the first enjoyers of the bounty. I loved spooning the still-warm sauce into her mouth--a mother bird to her baby.

We borrowed cinnamon from Monika, our German neighbor who hates cinnamon--she gave us the whole bottle--and Jon, Leah, and Esther delivered the only batch of cinnamonless apple sauce to her tonight while I was at Enrichment. I love having neighbor-friends new and old. Speaking of which, I went to good ole Greene Terrace yesterday with the girls to deliver House"cooling" invites to the old hood. I was lovingly greeted by Jill, Molly, Laurie, and Ashley. I'm so nostalgic; I almost felt like I would trade in my Streng just to be in their vicinity again. But now I've got Monika, June, Tony, Louise, and Joanne. And more neighbors who I haven't even met yet.

Now back to canning; I want to spend my life celebrating seasons with traditions and rituals. Applesauce feels like fall to me now as much as pumpkins and crisp leaves. I hope Leah and Esther tell their kids about the days when Grandma Chi Chi made applesauce all day long. And maybe it will be enough of a ritual in their lives that they'll continue it; but I guess that doesn't matter as much as the fact that it's my ritual--and it makes me happy.

Ode to Estie in Purple (title of photo--no poem forthcoming)

Here she is in the "Peace Room" aka Living Room....initially dubbed "Peace Lair" when the Furrs were visiting...now just "Peace Room" to make it easier. Leah even calls it the peace room, which I find totally cute, and even totallier hilarious.

On second thought, this pic is Queen Esther of Peace.

I now know how to do pictures. Watch out, world!

Peace out

Happy Thoughts 8/30/05

--Japanese Maple leaves' shadows dancing on the walls of our master bedroom
--Esther learning how to crawl (mixed blessing) and getting on her knees and bouncing around with her butt in the air
--Fun friends everywhere
--My "Priorities" list on my new white (really silver) board with NO priorities listed.
--Leah is potty-trained!
--I re-found a black and white pic of Susannah grabbing onto me and laughing into my ear--we lived on Swanson Drive--I assume I'm 3 and she's 5 in the pic. Jon says Estie looks like me in the picture.
--"We're going to the zoo, we're going to the zoo..." tomorrow with Fillmores.
--Leah picking fairy wings with her $1 at Dollar Tree.
--I'm resuming work on my Kaffe Fassett pennants quilt.
--Speaking of Kaffe and pennants, I love my pennants (celebration flags) strewn from my patio. Picture to follow if I can figure this thing out.
--4 cozy schutzes in the king in the morning
--the delta breeze is alive and well.

How is today different from yesterday?

I've got some sorting to do.....not just the random dregs of our recent move (2 huge boxes in my closet, 19 boxes in the "office/craft/guest" room, but mainly mental sorting.

Being a mom is really hard for me. It brings me my greatest joys, but my ultimate lows: try yesterday when estie was screaming her guts out for no apparent reason and Leah was fake crying because her Strawberry Shortcake band-aid was coming off and I was being "not very nice" to her--this at the near-end of a day with incessant whining, complete exhaustion, total boredom, and an afternoon realization that the missionaries were coming over for dinner at 5:30...I ended up locking myself in my bedroom and calling a quick s.o.s. to jon--not that he's able to really physically save me, but mentally?...that's the hope--anyway, I really felt that the only way out was out--I jokingly told jon "self annihilation or a full-time job." But it didn't seem too funny at the time.

So today I've been to the gym, made a cute t-shirt that I'm currently wearing, made homemade granola complete with 3 baggies for various neighbors, played a bit with my kids and taken care of them--and I'm not at all crazy. This is what I'm sorting. Today I feel like the alter-ego of yesterday. I'm pretty content, but a bit frightened. What lies on the other side of today?

Can I attribute today's success to the fact that I went to the gym and got an adrenaline rush and free time? Maybe. Is it pure circumstance that my kids are actually behaving better today? Maybe. A huge blessing from God to derail yesterday's dilemma? Maybe. I honestly don't know. But I'm going to run with it. Gotta go deliver that granola.

Sometimes the view is better if others are looking in

Leah, Esther, and I just said goodbye to Joe, John, Jacob, and Billy. We were their last stop on a whirlwind Cali roadtrip. It was really fun to be with Joe--this is only the second time I've seen him post-mish--and Jon's first.

Susannah and Nathan were here, too, with chittlins until yesterday afternoon. Before Joe got here, we went to the Yolo County Fair to try and go to the Demolition Derby. (How WT can we get? Read on.) After much unsuccess with tix, etc, we succombed to pony rides, cotton candy, and shaved ice. Walking next to Leah on her pony was magical. She was so happy and exclaimed, "my pony has four legs!" when she first got on and looked down. After her ride was over, she kept saying, "I want to go ride MY pony!" She was thrilled. Jon watched on, a very proud father, and Estie giggled everytime Leah went around and passed by her. Magical.

So back to the purpose/title of this blog. What I mean is that I was just kind of down this weekend (we had three heinous run-ins in a row with anti-family-men who claim church callings, jobs, "sisterly love for wives" as their excuse to not hang out with their families; Jon had done a few minor things to annoy me; our kids haven't been sleeping well....) and I was beginning to think that OUR little family was in peril. (I'm quite dramatic when it comes to family/marital relationships.) But then we had a magical night last night with joe and co. We went downtown Sacramento to show off our environs, the capitol building, etc, and when Leah announced that she had to pee, Jon ran her around to every building in a 6 block radius to see if the doors were open so she could use the toilet (after trying to coax her into using a nearby bush without success). They were on a mission, and when Leah emerged triumphantly from the Wells Fargo highrise, gleefully screaming, "THE DOORS WERE OPEN AND I WENT PEE!", I was thrilled that I am me and that jon is my husband, and Leah my girl.

And then when Leah came out from her bedroom the THIRD time after Jon had already read her 17(?) stories, and instead of getting ticked we put on "Hey Ya" and had a dance party in front of Joe and his friends, I was even happier. She shook her little booty and Esther was awake and laughing melodically, and the boyz were laughing at the whole scene--and quite possibly thinking, "i want my future family to be like this"--I was glad that this is my family, past, present, and future. Sometimes it takes other people enjoying my family to make me realize how fun we really are--and how little everything else really is. I love us.

Hello World!

Susannah and I are sitting here reading random people's blogs and we decided to start this one up right now. Testing, Testing, 1-2-3.