My good friend, Karen, invited me to guest post on her amazing blog, Dreamer. She has one of those blogs I wish I had written. It's always lovely and insightful.
She's
doing a little series of guest posts about how the art we make impacts
our lives. Her blog is fascinating, so feel free to stop by and read my
post, then stay over there a while and read some of her other writing.
Her color series, which she just finished reposting, is especially
good.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Playing Catch up - Highs and Lows
It's been well over a month since I posted. I'm fairly sure I could sum up everything that's gone on, but that would bore everyone (even me) to tears. So I think I'm just going to pick out select highlights of the last month of our lives. (Probably based on the photos I can find in my phone.) Should I do it as highs and lows? Ok, if you insist.
The high that is on a different scale than the other highs: Medman finished residency! This is very exciting. It is massively more exciting than graduating from medical school. At that graduation you troop across the stage in your fancy cap and gown as they say, "Congratulations! You are officially a doctor!" Then they dive behind the podium snickering and snorting hysterically because even though they now call you a doctor, you still have to put in years of indentured servitude benignly called 'residency.' But that is now done and Medman is a free man. It is very exciting.
Colorado Mountains
The last week of residency Medman had a conference in Breckenridge, Colorado.
High: Hello beautiful mountains, hikes, lakes. Rural Missouri would be greatly improved if it had the Rocky Mountains in it.
Low: Hello 10 month old baby who decided he wanted to play newborn and that it was impossible to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. Every night. In hotel rooms where he was sleeping 2 feet from me. Every night. Every. Night.
High: Resort with a play room for the kids with arcade games and super simple mini golf.
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| Dalton was in heaven. He must have played 300 holes of mini golf in 3 days. |
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| Look who's so big. Standing up and wanting steaks and spirits. |
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| The obvious problem arising from having mini golf in the same room as arcade games...Does under the NASCAR game count as in the rough? |
 | |||||||||
| Liam really increased his 4 wheel drive crawling. (FYI- face plants on pokey, fake, putting green grass make the baby cry, but are sort of funny to watch.) |
 |
| Show of hands - who here is amazed that situations like this NEVER ended in injury? |
 | |||
| Belle had no interest in the putt putt, but she rode this motorcycle about sixteen hundred times. Not with any money in it, of course. I'm fairly sure she didn't even know that was a possibility. |
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| And dancing, dancing, dancing. The girl jammed out on the dance machine for probably several hours, all told. Which is extra funny when you know that it wasn't even turned on. Luckily for her the cheapo claw game next to it jingled out some electric banjo music. |
Not high or low - just super weird
I saw this thing several times before I processed what I was looking at. Off in a dingy corner of the game room was a life sized plastic cow.
Yes...it was a milking game. See?
We did not play this game.
All in all we had a lot of fun in Breckenridge. Not that there weren't some moments of boredom in the hotel room...
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| Watching Myth Busters for 13 consecutive episodes. |
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| Hiding in weird nooks. |
Visiting in Denver:
High: We got to see family and friends around Denver. I sucked at bringing my camera to things. And anyway I spent most of the time hovering over Liam who's dearest desire was to put the most lethal thing he could find in any given room into his mouth. So just imagine happy faces of aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends smiling at you. (And if we visited you and you have good pictures, please send them to me!)
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| Friends and fudgsicles. What could be better? |
Yup, that's his right foot across in front of his stomach. And both hands weirdly positioned with the palms facing up. It is a testimony to how much I wanted him to sleep that I did not try to move him out of this position. Just left him sleeping.
Fear not, all you soft-hearted readers, he did eventually get his limbs sorted out all on his own.
Dalton's Birthday
High: My big boy turned six! He seemed unimpressed when I told him that as the anniversary of me spending 28 hours in labor with him, I should be the one getting presents.
For his birthday he wanted to go bowling. So bowling we went.
No pictures of me, of course. But I'll have you know I won both games. The second game I even broke 100.
Let's pretend these pictures are blurry because of the amazing amounts of action they are attempting to capture. Not because kids are constantly getting fingerprints on my camera lens.
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| Liam ate nacho chips. |
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| Belle heaved around a ball that was exactly one quarter of her body weight. |
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| Dalton hurled his ball with his own kind of style. |
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| And Medman looks good, but he still lost. To me. |
Ok, that exhausts my phone pictures unless you want to see an inventory of the printers available at Walmart. I'm leaning toward a wireless one, don't you think that's a good idea?
Hope all of you are well. It was lovely to see so many of you in Colorado!
xoxoxo
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Bellisms
Belle is a treasure. Unfortunately my house is not wired with video cameras recording her every word because so much is lost when she's written down. And of course I NEVER have my phone ready when she's in true Belle mode and there are actions and facial expressions that a mime would be jealous of. But here's my best attempt to capture her in ink. Or in pixels. Whatever.
Counting:
"I am going to count to ten for you. Ten is a BIG NUMBER. And FAAAARRRR away. But don't worry. I can find it with...(dramatic pause)...my mouth."
Singing:
I love hymns so my kids end up learning them. They've been know to belt out "Come Thou Fount" in the cereal aisle of the grocery store. My husband thinks that's cool but it's only because he's not there to see all the attention it garners. Quiet children! Your mother is an introvert!
One of Belle's favorites is "Crown Him With Many Crowns." She knows two verses (because I know two verses) and sings it all beautifully. Except one part.
She breezes easily through "Crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon his throne."
She astonishingly wraps her tiny mouth around "Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but it's own." Really. I often stop singing here with her just to be amazed that she gets all those sounds out correctly when she has no idea what they mean.
But here's where she falters. After a clear "awake my soul and sing," it all falls apart.
Here the simple "for him who died for thee" - all of which are words she is familiar with - turns into an enthusiastic, "FA FOO FARRROOOO FOR DEEEEEE!"
And she wraps it all up with "and crown him as thy mathless king for all eterni-TEEEEEE"
I have no desire to correct her "mathless" to "matchless" because it makes me laugh to think of God not liking math.
(God muttering into his beard, "Hmm, this new galaxy has about muble-jumble billion stars and since it's a loosely bound barred spiral with a small bulge it should spin about...six million radians per second...mumble mumble... carry the one...divide by the mass...no, i mean multiply...Four? That's not right..." Then with an irritated huff he just spins it like a top and goes on to other matters. )
Oh, and her version of Amazing Grace doesn't have '"I once was lost". Instead she very seriously sings "Ah shwaa-aaa shwaaa shwaaa...but now am found..."
It really makes me wonder how much nonsense she thinks is in the world of grown up words when "shwaaa shwaaa shwaaa" is acceptable to say.
Mortality:
And the best Bellism lately is her fascination with things being dead. Or "super dead" as she says. It's both morbid and hilarious but it's far too much to stick in at the end here. "Super dead" demands it's own dreadfully inappropriate post. Stay tuned...
Counting:
"I am going to count to ten for you. Ten is a BIG NUMBER. And FAAAARRRR away. But don't worry. I can find it with...(dramatic pause)...my mouth."
Singing:
I love hymns so my kids end up learning them. They've been know to belt out "Come Thou Fount" in the cereal aisle of the grocery store. My husband thinks that's cool but it's only because he's not there to see all the attention it garners. Quiet children! Your mother is an introvert!
One of Belle's favorites is "Crown Him With Many Crowns." She knows two verses (because I know two verses) and sings it all beautifully. Except one part.
She breezes easily through "Crown him with many crowns, the lamb upon his throne."
She astonishingly wraps her tiny mouth around "Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but it's own." Really. I often stop singing here with her just to be amazed that she gets all those sounds out correctly when she has no idea what they mean.
But here's where she falters. After a clear "awake my soul and sing," it all falls apart.
Here the simple "for him who died for thee" - all of which are words she is familiar with - turns into an enthusiastic, "FA FOO FARRROOOO FOR DEEEEEE!"
And she wraps it all up with "and crown him as thy mathless king for all eterni-TEEEEEE"
I have no desire to correct her "mathless" to "matchless" because it makes me laugh to think of God not liking math.
(God muttering into his beard, "Hmm, this new galaxy has about muble-jumble billion stars and since it's a loosely bound barred spiral with a small bulge it should spin about...six million radians per second...mumble mumble... carry the one...divide by the mass...no, i mean multiply...Four? That's not right..." Then with an irritated huff he just spins it like a top and goes on to other matters. )
Oh, and her version of Amazing Grace doesn't have '"I once was lost". Instead she very seriously sings "Ah shwaa-aaa shwaaa shwaaa...but now am found..."
It really makes me wonder how much nonsense she thinks is in the world of grown up words when "shwaaa shwaaa shwaaa" is acceptable to say.
Mortality:
And the best Bellism lately is her fascination with things being dead. Or "super dead" as she says. It's both morbid and hilarious but it's far too much to stick in at the end here. "Super dead" demands it's own dreadfully inappropriate post. Stay tuned...
Friday, May 18, 2012
Solar Eclipse on Sunday!
Just in case I'm the only rocket scientist you know and you haven't wandered across a news story about this already, here's a little space news for ya...
On Sunday, around sunset, there will be a solar eclipse. (Where the moon butts her way in between us and the sun, for those of you who haven't had astronomy classes in a while...)
Even when the moon has moved directly in front of the sun it won't completely cover the sun, it will just cover the center of it leaving a "ring of fire" eclipse ('annular eclipse' for you linguistic nerds.)
The western parts of the US should see the full eclipse. Those of us in the Midwest won't get to see it all because the sun will set too soon. But we'll get to see the beginning of it. It will probably look something like this...
...sans the beautiful ocean....
Here's a useful site that will show you what time you'll see the eclipse depending on what state you're in...( or country, my Canadian friends...)
Solar Eclipse by State
Wanna know how to watch it? It's quite easy.
Please don't just look at the sun. For some reason we have actually had to make that rule with our two older kids and I can't imagine Liam will completely develop without needing it too. We'll just be riding in the car, look back and see a little one staring wide-eyed at the searing ball of fire that is our sun. You can practically hear their rods and cones frying. "NO LOOKING AT THE SUN!"
But it's easy to make a little pinhole viewer. I'm making one for us, so here's a little tutorial:
You will need:
1) cut a little window in your cardboard. (Do not mock my cutting skills.)
2) tape aluminum foil over the window. (No, I don't know why there's that extra piece of tape along the bottom. It's bothering me, too.)
3) Put a pinhole in the middle of the aluminum foil.
4) Go find the sun. Put the white paper down facing the sun, hold the pinhole between it and the sun. move your pinhole closer and farther from the white paper until...Viola! An image of the sun.
Yes, my image right now is round since the sun is looking pretty round today. But during the eclipse it should look like the giant smile you're by now very excited to see. And if you're far enough west then you may get to see the entire "ring of fire".
Here's a link to SpaceWeather.com's website with a couple extra ideas for how to view it:
http://spaceweather.com/sunspots/doityourself.html
Or stay inside, ignore the outside world altogether, and check out one of the dozens of websites that will be showing it. I'll leave it to you to google one.
And, if you're feeling lazy, don't worry. God made you millions of solar eclipse pinhole viewers.
Go stand under a leafy tree and find something white to let the leaves' shadows fall on. The spaces between the leaves act like pinholes and you'll see dozens of little eclipses.
Now, if we could just keep clouds away on Sunday night.....
Happy space watching!
On Sunday, around sunset, there will be a solar eclipse. (Where the moon butts her way in between us and the sun, for those of you who haven't had astronomy classes in a while...)
 |
| annular eclipse - photo credit |
Even when the moon has moved directly in front of the sun it won't completely cover the sun, it will just cover the center of it leaving a "ring of fire" eclipse ('annular eclipse' for you linguistic nerds.)
The western parts of the US should see the full eclipse. Those of us in the Midwest won't get to see it all because the sun will set too soon. But we'll get to see the beginning of it. It will probably look something like this...
...sans the beautiful ocean....
Here's a useful site that will show you what time you'll see the eclipse depending on what state you're in...( or country, my Canadian friends...)
Solar Eclipse by State
Wanna know how to watch it? It's quite easy.
Please don't just look at the sun. For some reason we have actually had to make that rule with our two older kids and I can't imagine Liam will completely develop without needing it too. We'll just be riding in the car, look back and see a little one staring wide-eyed at the searing ball of fire that is our sun. You can practically hear their rods and cones frying. "NO LOOKING AT THE SUN!"
But it's easy to make a little pinhole viewer. I'm making one for us, so here's a little tutorial:
You will need:
- Part of a cardboard Eggo's box. (Yes, I suppose any sort of cardboard would work)
- White cardboard or very stiff paper (really anything flat and white. A paper plate, a white notebook...)
- aluminum foil
- a pin
- a solar eclipse
1) cut a little window in your cardboard. (Do not mock my cutting skills.)
2) tape aluminum foil over the window. (No, I don't know why there's that extra piece of tape along the bottom. It's bothering me, too.)
3) Put a pinhole in the middle of the aluminum foil.
4) Go find the sun. Put the white paper down facing the sun, hold the pinhole between it and the sun. move your pinhole closer and farther from the white paper until...Viola! An image of the sun.
Yes, my image right now is round since the sun is looking pretty round today. But during the eclipse it should look like the giant smile you're by now very excited to see. And if you're far enough west then you may get to see the entire "ring of fire".
Here's a link to SpaceWeather.com's website with a couple extra ideas for how to view it:
http://spaceweather.com/sunspots/doityourself.html
Or stay inside, ignore the outside world altogether, and check out one of the dozens of websites that will be showing it. I'll leave it to you to google one.
And, if you're feeling lazy, don't worry. God made you millions of solar eclipse pinhole viewers.
Go stand under a leafy tree and find something white to let the leaves' shadows fall on. The spaces between the leaves act like pinholes and you'll see dozens of little eclipses.
 |
| photo credit |
Now, if we could just keep clouds away on Sunday night.....
Happy space watching!
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Our Trip to Chicago - Highs by person
Last week we got to go to Chicago for a quick trip so Medman could re-certify in some sort of hero course. Since Medman and I lived there during our dating years, we were excited to go back.
It was a little funny going back there after living in a small town for seven years, though. We used to giggle at the country folk who came to downtown Chicago, rubbernecking and snapping pictures.
I sometimes forget that our kids have never lived anywhere but our little town. I don't think we have an escalator anywhere in town. Do you know how excited they get about them?
D (dashing through the upscale snooty shoppers in Water Tower Place) : Let's take the excavator! C'mon!
Belle (squealing with delight): THIS IS SO FUN!!!!
Jason and I handled it with the disdain and boredom appropriate to grown ups who have spent most of their lives in cities.
He declared, "Let's race Mommy to the eighth floor!"
To which I maturely answered by racing off as fast as Liam's uber-cheap umbrella stroller could go to the elevator, pushed the button about a hundred times then yelled down the escalator from the eighth floor when they finally came into view that we'd been up there for hours and how did it possibly take them so long???
I'm fairly sure that the looks we were getting from the professional city slickers around us was one of love and appreciation for the fact that we were clearly a family that knows how to have fun.
I do think we have lost some "city skills." Apparently seven years of waving cheerfully at friend and neighbor alike as you drive down the road has erased our ability to make "city face." That face that looks serious, important and a bit detached even though you are surrounded by millions of people, most of whom are invading your personal space.
We even saw a woman navigating Michigan avenue while reading a book.
I have skills. I can feed a baby while cooking dinner, convincing Belle that "tsunami" really starts with a t, not an s, and follow a convoluted story about race cars closely enough to ask educated questions at the right moments. But I could not have made the trip she did unscathed, zig-zagging around people and cars with nary a glance up from her page. Actually, the only time I saw her glace up was when she passed us.
So here's the highs and lows of the trip from each person's perspective. (No, I didn't ask any of them. I'm just taking it upon myself to declare their highs and lows. I believe that is within my maternal rights.)
LIAM:
High: This was tough seeing as he thinks eating grass is a high, but probably the high for him was that he got held a lot because there were lots of floors I didn't want him crawling around grazing off of.
Low: He was unhappy but resigned about the hours in his car seat.
BELLE:
High: Belle loves a good park. She often comes up to me and says in her most excited voice, "Mommy, I have a grrrrRRREAT idea!!! We could.... GO TO A PARK!!!" This is always her great idea. Morning, noon and night. And boy did we find a good one. Near our hotel was one with...
Low: He had to get out of the Lotus.
MEDMAN AND ME:
We had fun. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory,
got to window shop at cool stores like the Lego Store,
Lows: Ummmm, there wasn't much. A little antsyness on the way home when we were all ready to be out of the car, but overall a fun trip.
Oh, and Medman is certified to be heroic again, so that's good too.
It was a little funny going back there after living in a small town for seven years, though. We used to giggle at the country folk who came to downtown Chicago, rubbernecking and snapping pictures.
I sometimes forget that our kids have never lived anywhere but our little town. I don't think we have an escalator anywhere in town. Do you know how excited they get about them?
D (dashing through the upscale snooty shoppers in Water Tower Place) : Let's take the excavator! C'mon!
Belle (squealing with delight): THIS IS SO FUN!!!!
Jason and I handled it with the disdain and boredom appropriate to grown ups who have spent most of their lives in cities.
He declared, "Let's race Mommy to the eighth floor!"
To which I maturely answered by racing off as fast as Liam's uber-cheap umbrella stroller could go to the elevator, pushed the button about a hundred times then yelled down the escalator from the eighth floor when they finally came into view that we'd been up there for hours and how did it possibly take them so long???
I'm fairly sure that the looks we were getting from the professional city slickers around us was one of love and appreciation for the fact that we were clearly a family that knows how to have fun.
I do think we have lost some "city skills." Apparently seven years of waving cheerfully at friend and neighbor alike as you drive down the road has erased our ability to make "city face." That face that looks serious, important and a bit detached even though you are surrounded by millions of people, most of whom are invading your personal space.
We even saw a woman navigating Michigan avenue while reading a book.
I have skills. I can feed a baby while cooking dinner, convincing Belle that "tsunami" really starts with a t, not an s, and follow a convoluted story about race cars closely enough to ask educated questions at the right moments. But I could not have made the trip she did unscathed, zig-zagging around people and cars with nary a glance up from her page. Actually, the only time I saw her glace up was when she passed us.
So here's the highs and lows of the trip from each person's perspective. (No, I didn't ask any of them. I'm just taking it upon myself to declare their highs and lows. I believe that is within my maternal rights.)
LIAM:
High: This was tough seeing as he thinks eating grass is a high, but probably the high for him was that he got held a lot because there were lots of floors I didn't want him crawling around grazing off of.
Low: He was unhappy but resigned about the hours in his car seat.
BELLE:
High: Belle loves a good park. She often comes up to me and says in her most excited voice, "Mommy, I have a grrrrRRREAT idea!!! We could.... GO TO A PARK!!!" This is always her great idea. Morning, noon and night. And boy did we find a good one. Near our hotel was one with...
 |
| ...a very cool playground... |
 |
| ...fountains that shot out water in the most unexpected places. And by "unexpected places" I mean nailing Dalton right in the wazoo on more than one occasion... |
 |
| ...and the coolest little kid sized maze... |
 |
| ...the hedges were exactly one Belle tall... |
Low: I don't think she had one. The girl just had a good time.
DALTON:
High: This is easy. While we were at this swanky little outdoor shopping area we happened to park next to a Lotus.
 |
| And D sweet talked the owner into letting him SIT IN IT! |
 |
| The boy could not be any happier. |
MEDMAN AND ME:
We had fun. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory,
got to window shop at cool stores like the Lego Store,
 |
| Are you wondering what Belle is looking at? |
 |
| Yup, a Lego dragon coming out of the ceiling above her. |
And we got to get some good pictures. We have a picture of ourselves that is at least 15 years old from the courtyard of a beautiful church on Michigan Avenue. Well, we happened to walk by it and we still love this church. Here are some of our pictures. This peaceful place is literally feet from the bustle of Michigan Avenue.
 |
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| Here's us 15 years ago. Is it sad that I still own that coat? |
 | |
| And thankfully our oldest can work a cell phone, so here is us this weekend. |
 |
| And the little family we've acquired since the first picture. |
 | ||
| Oh, and a trip to the park bench where Jason proposed. He brought me ice cream that day instead of flowers. So of course I said yes. Wise man. |
Lows: Ummmm, there wasn't much. A little antsyness on the way home when we were all ready to be out of the car, but overall a fun trip.
Oh, and Medman is certified to be heroic again, so that's good too.
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