10 on the 10th @ 10pm :D

I got this idea from my blogging-friend Rosey.

Here's my list of 10 -with 2 hours to spare!

10 things that put a smile in my heart -without fail

a. listening to my daughters' laughter

b. thinking about the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup

c. seeing that man jogging in the morning -he looks like I imagine a professor from the 70's might look. He wears what looks like dark blue Dockers, & a button up long sleeve shirt & a knit pullover vest & running shoes. & he wears silver wire rim glasses & his hair is kind of like a graying Gabe Kaplan style (Welcome Back, Kotter)

d. seeing either or both of the two sets of older couples on our block going to or coming home from morning mass -every day

e. good graffiti (not tagging)

f. talking/chatting/hanging out with girl friends

g. birdsong in the morning

h. snowboarding

i. creating/crafting

j. interesting architecture


Plain & simple, no pics to post today. And not exhaustive: next month might be another list :)

spilling her heart on the page

deciphered, for your reading ease:

"Your heart is the trophy!
You are the true love.
We spend the time together.
You are like a snowman.
You are like a diamond, red or pink.
You always smile.
You are like a silver button.
You fill my heart.
You are joy."

And I melted.... Have I told you lately how much I love my kids?!

for Nikki

randomness

new wheels for Fi: what is old is new again -or I was having 80's flashbacks


NatGeo in our laundry room: the spider versus the millipede thingy. I have never actually seen a spider wrapping up it's dinner in a web, à la Charlotte; it was fascinating. The spider was working it's little bee-hind off & the meal was doing it's best to wriggle away. I think the dinner got away: When I looked a couple hours later, the show was over & the entire web was gone...and a few days later I saw said escapee crawling across the floor.


This was how we chose to entertain the girls one night while waiting 45mins for our food to be served at an Ethiopian restaurant. Maddie was taking pictures with her phone, Fi was playing sudoku on Garrett's phone, Lib played chess on mine. Sign 'o the times?


Looky what our school got over the summer: Denver's first public elementary school authorized by the International Baccalaureate to offer the PYP programme!! Sweet!!


late one Saturday morning a few weeks ago, we heard fire engines -no big deal. Lib asked if it was on t.v. or outside, I said outside & then the sirens got louder & closer. Yep, 2 of the these bad boys and a rescue truck across the street from our house. Exciting & good eye candy ;P Thankfully it wasn't a serious fire!

since we're expecting snow

here are the last vestiges of summer 2009

monkey girl rigged up a jump rope to the monkey bar








Lib did not find the jump rope swing to be fun -or comfortable

a few more memories

the reason I started the list of appealing-to-me-things, & then I forgot to post them:

the sound of a flash bulb going off, you know that high pitched sound that I can't accurately describe right now but it kind of starts lower in pitch & slowly, but not so slowly, whines higher until it "pops"

the way those old Kodak flash cubes looked after they were spent

the way a wiggly tooth used to make my scalp tingle -I'm guessing it was neurons

this 'n that

a few things that I find appealing:

that fresh out of the wrapper, new sponge wetness

stepping on sand near the edge of the water at low tide & the look of the sand when my weight displaces the water immediately surrounding my foot

katydids & praying mantises & stick bugs

dental hygienist appointments

listening to the littles carry on conversations

rediscovering favorite music from my childhood that I had forgotten about in the chaos of everyday life

imagining everything I drive past turning into cartoon or mosaic

imagining brilliant color where there is none

the sound of a breeze in the woods

the pinkish "color" of gasoline seen through the little window in the hose while it's being pumped from tanker to in-ground tank

the sound of gas station tank lids being lifted & dropped on the pavement for the tanks to be "sticked" late at night/early in the morning

the cloud of mud & muck & algae that dissipates when river rocks are moved looking for crawfish
and the smell that goes with it. And the feel of the teeniest fish biting on my ankles in the process.

finding the smallest of small seashells -amazing that something soooooooo tiny lives in an expansive ocean

wooden matches

memories of smells:
-the gas smell from old time kitchen stovetops that had to be lit with said wooden matches
-my mom's old lily of the valley perfume
-school paste & tempera paints
-that rosin-y smell in gym class
-my dad's old Aqua Velva
-Blue Jeans cologne from the 70's
-wet pine needles on the forest floor
-axle grease, motor oil, gasoline vapors
-fresh cut hay
-waking to Sunday morning breakfast cooking in my mom's kitchen
-fresh mimeographed paper -and it's accompanying warmth

food stuffs

first up: we had a blast making delicious & nutritious (and easy!) gnocchi. They turned out okay, but I'll make some adjustments to the recipe for next time. I think I'll try boiling the potatoes in the skins instead of baking. And maybe use more egg and more flour and maybe some ricotta.


Lib's job was to cut the dough into individual dumplings


Fiona's job was putting the divots in each dumpling (the better to hold the sauce)


don't they look good -even before boiling?


after boiling


Fi chose to test the divots & decorated her plate before eating. Presentation counts for something, right?


Dinner at my good friend Kelly's house. Both recipes came from the Barefoot Contessa. So delicious!


I was hungry for matzo ball soup, well before fall. Homemade stock, natch-what else to do with the leftovers from beer can chicken? I took my inspiration & a few tips from this website. MMMMMM comfort food!


the banana bread recipe that I've been using for so long that I don't need to refer to it anymore. This time I improvised a bit & used peanut butter for the fat instead of vegetable shortening. It was tasty without being overwhelming. Bonus: peanut butter has less fat than shortening -& it's a healthy fat too! I also used white chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet or milk chocolate. I will definitely try this again.

two finished projects

I'll post details later...I just wanted to get the pics up since I haven't been here for awhile -& now you know why :)

The first hat is called Spring Beret. I think I'll do another one but in a different color -and probably a different yarn. This is in Lily Peaches & Cream cotton. I'm afraid that it'll shrink like the dishcloths I've knit...and then I'd have an American Girl Doll sized hat for Fiona's Julie ;P







This one is called Foliage. I had seen the pattern last year some time, then while I was still working at JoAnn's I saw this yarn that was part of a four skein kit to make a felted purse. I thought it would be perfect for the Foliage hat. And then the kit went on clearance for $7.00 (plus discount!)!! And voila! A handmade christmas present from me for Olivia (hence Fiona is modeling)

kids these days

generally don't appreciate their roots. And why, oh why, can't we have decent, innovative music here & now in the 2000's??? Must I ever more listen to "classic" rock? *sigh*

hyper sensitive sensory system

I know dogs have an acute sense of smell. And their hearing is also superior to humans in some respects. I imagine it all works together beautifully, as a complementary package. What I'm wondering today is exactly how acute is that system? I mean, it's one thing for my dog to hear the milk truck coming 'round the corner at 3am -and bark in warning for the whole neighborhood. And of course, the mailman gets a daily dose of "keep away from my territory" starting when he's 3 houses down on the other side of the street. But how hypersensitive are her senses to wake up at 5am when a coyote is padding down the middle of the street? And you know, me being the light sleeper that I am, I was immediately & rudely awoken so as to all the more quickly jump out of bed & take a look out the window at what intruder might be lurking nearby. Don't get me wrong, this time I wasn't disappointed. I'd started to think that the neighborhood coyote thing was an urban myth. But still. The twilight was silent -the birds weren't even singing yet. It's not like a coyote is clomping around in Doc Marten's or unlaced high tops. Padding might even be too loud of a description. Or was it the scent? Funny that she couldn't care less about the neighborhood fox. Ever. And the fox is the stinky one. It's the cat who get's all territorial with the fox. I loved that the coyote stopped to pause & consider our house more than once. Was it tempted to break that Cody mandated perimeter out of curiosity or defiance? Or was it hearing that vociferous warning & moving on down the line to less injurious pastures? Personally, I think our dog would sooner play than attack (not that I'm testing that theory out on the mailman anytime soon.) She's just that kind of gentle soul. Big old bark, no bite at all. And that's fine with me.

nature's mischief

a single, tiny leaf
suspended in midair on an invisible thread
twirling silently, magically, in the early morning light.
a wee mobile for a faerie child?

How to Make Time Stand Still?

"I'm going to be tall, mom." she says this morning on our walk to the bus stop
"I'm going to be taller than dad. THEN I'm going to be a super model."
Asserted with the self-confidence of a promising future
Like only an eleven year old can muster.

And she spouts poetry off the top of her head
At the dinner table.
Exuberantly, nonchalantly
She doesn't even realize what she's doing.

"I'm really pretty, aren't I mom?" she asked me last night,
Not really needing -or even waiting for- my approving response.
A rhetorical question.
"I could be a model."

And she bursts out in song at the top of her lungs
in the car.
Proudly, all happy-go-lucky,
She can't stop, even when it irks someone else.

"I love you, mom" she whispers to me at night.
She snuggles in closer,
Though her body nearly equals mine in length.
How did this happen, overnight, without my knowing?

Too many memories to trust to my sieve-like mind.
My heart aches,
Bursting full from the excess weight of delight and wonder
And love

Obama speech aftermath

I just remembered that I forgot to post this last week:

I haven't read anything yet today about it, but I know that Maddie watched the speech live yesterday. And they didn't discuss it afterwards, but went back to their normal science lesson. Come to think of it, there wasn't a whole lot to discuss. It was a pep talk geared toward the 11+ crowd. The littles didn't view it nor do I think they would have walked away with much from it. Maddie did say that she wished Obama had said her name, as in: "Maddie, who had to live with 3 sisters and yet she is the now the founder of this environment saving thing". verbatim. (I never realized that living with siblings was such a trying circumstance to overcome, but apparently to an 11 year old girl, it is?)

Nikki had to watch it in one of her classes & there was debate afterward that leaned into politics. I guess anyone can read politics into anything, if they really want to. Someone said Obama was spoiling little kids' dreams by telling them they wouldn't be professional athletes -like telling them there is no Santa. Someone else said that he was excluding the blue collar jobs that are necessary for the country to function by encouraging kids to want to be scientists & doctors, etc. I say, thankfully he didn't mention that there's a place for everyone in society to be a "worker" -can you imagine the field day the conservative right would have with a "socialist" statement like that!? Poo poo.

As it was, the speech was merely a nationally televised, beginning of school year rally encouraging kids to do their best. Who better to deliver this message to our children than the president of the US. Pep talks from the president shouldn't be reserved for graduation commencements only.

it's a small small world

Proof positive that we all breath the same air -when a wildfire burns unabated in Cali, the sky in CO is blech & the mountains disappear. Look at that horizon. I could be in Kansas....



And the sunrise outside our house. Wah! It was like this for four days too long! Hope the firefighters continue to be successful in the fire's containment.




Look what Maddie & I found at ARC last weekend! We were going to take it outside but when Maddie started carrying the book it was on, the Katydid started freaking out so we left it there. Yeah, I empathize; sometimes I'm most content when surrounded by books, too :)

details details details

more interesting architecture from Mad's school neighborhood