Spring!!!

Marching to Me

It feels like forever since I just plain ol' blogged about what I've been up to. Mostly, it’s been hard to find the time to stop and even process life – ever have those days weeks months? It's now MARCH and my head just can’t seem to wrap around that fact. March.

Weekends have been full and only seem to be getting fuller. We’ve been busy doing fun family activities (and ignoring projects) but that's also coming to an end. Expect some Before & After photos of some house projects that I am eagerly awaiting. Seriously, I'm a power tool geek.

Oh, and I have been blogging, just not here. I volunteer for a great organization and upkeep their blog here. Plus I contribute & guest post to several other blogs.

Other ways I'm getting back to ME is investing in a DSLR camera and really digging into my garden full throttle this spring. So, that's an update on me. I'll be back more often to update on my silly family next.

Wordless Wednesday

Playroom in Action

It's Time ...

It's time for us to dig into the garage for E. to find one of the two trikes buried in there and just let him go at it. His sister didn't master it until she was closer to three years old but yesterday we were at a park and Super E. jumped on another kid's tricycle and started to pedal a bit.

These 2 kids are so different -- always keeping me on my toes.

It's also time for me to restart up my kid's music blog. I used to really enjoy it.

Colors of our Weekend

We are a family that is happiest surrounded by color. Our house is a reflection of this and so are our weekends.

This weekend's colors were MULTICOLORED as we celebrated Day of the Dead at the Walters Art Museum.

Sunday-ing

I love Sundays. The eternal laziness of the day. Well, most of our Sundays are spent that way. Not this one though.

Today by 10AM we had already:

- made super cheesy scrambled eggs and cornbread

- put a second coat of paint on the playroom (photos later)

- moved a huge pile of sandbags and mulch since those projects are NOT getting done for now

- showered (and I'm online while Mister showers) and then we're headed down to our favorite museum for THIS.

Saturday Letter

Dear E,

The amount of time that Mommy has put into your baby book is absolutely no reflection on how much I love you. Instead it shows how I'd rather spend time living the moment with you rather than documenting your weight, height and tooth count.

Do you buy that?

Well, let's face it - we barely make it out the door on time to any place and I'm running circles to keep up with the four different schedules we've got going on right now. If I sit down to: 1) write 2) make a call or 3) type -- it's an instant signal to you and your sister that I need to come to your (this week) 1) tea party 2) circus or 3) be a swamp monster.

But you're doing really good, kiddo. We laugh a lot, we play a lot, we dance, sing and make messes. And you are just one heck of a character - you are goofy and silly. My kind of guy.

Just know that you were healthy and happy -- even if it's not written down.

Love,

Your Silly Mommy

** photo by Brooke Baker our go-to photo gal (brookebakerphotography.com)

4AM

From a strange dream involving college friends, I jolt from slumber's warm embrace to the early morning yells of my son.

"I want MAMAID"
"I want MAMAID"
(louder)"MOM-MEEEEEE I want mamaid!

Next the bleary-eyed stumble into E's room.

"What's wrong, honey?"
"Mamaid"
"hmmmmmm?"
"MaMAID - wha my Ma-MAID?!"
"What?"
(howling) "Ma-MAID! I need my MA-MAID!!!"
(finaly dawning) "A Mermaid? You want a mermaid??"
"Yes!" (beaming at me)

I look around with half quinted eyes to find a fairy figurine on his bedroom floor. "How about a fairy? She's a friend to the mermaid." He opens his hands to accept it and I stumble back to bed.

Having an older sister means this boy is equally obsessed with mermaids, fairies and princesses. All things girly. And I'm totally OK with it. Loving on this post this week. You HAVE to be the right kind of mother to your son. I don't force stereotypes of gender on my daughter and my friends find great humor as the feminist in me still rankles at her princess obsession. But I feed her imagination with all sorts of books with females in strong roles. And I want to feed my son's imagination -- and let's face it, fairies fly AND sparkle, mermaids are beautiful and tea parties ARE fun!!

Take a Seat ....

Take a seat ... just shoved in the garage.

A little spray paint on a sunny day. add some scrap fabric and TA-DA
a perfect art desk chair emerges for Super A.

Mottos in action

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
~~GE Lessing

Rally in DC

So, my first post this month will just be a quick tour through my experience at the Rally to Restore Sanity this past Saturday in D.C.

Originally when the announcement for the rally was made I had many friends from all over who were interested in attending. We live close to D.C. so our house could become Hotel L. for the weekend. But unfortunately the weekend was also Halloween and said friends also felt that (understandable) parental obligation to their kids for the weekend festivities.

The Mister insisted that I go along and enjoy the day visiting museums and then stay for the rally. He and the kids had Halloween-y plans anyway. I knew other groups of friends were going and made plans to meet up with them throughout the day. Upon waking to our first truly frosty autumn morning, I layered up my clothes and jumped in the Red Monster to head down to the closest Metro station. I was excited that it was early and I would clearly have lots of time to enjoy myself.

On exiting the beltway I saw this mass of humanity arranged in a rather orderly line at the Metro station. The queue had to be at least a 1/4 mile long. But again, because it was early we got through at a decent clip. Everyone was chatting and chilly - happy to be experiencing the day. As the Metro pulled out we saw a very long traffic jam to get into the parking lot. I heard later that this was the beginning of the daylong jam.

Enough has been written about the day, but I truly was thrilled to be there. I got a rather decent spot up front where I could see the stage and bopped along to the Roots and then I got antsy. I was getting a little claustrophobic (being short in a crowd can do that) plus the journalist side of me really wanted to do a walkabout and take in the day. I sensed a lot was going on back behind the stagefront crowd and I was right.

There was no hope of meeting up with friends as the phone service was jammed so texts and phone calls weren't going through. I did go to a designated meeting spot but didn't find anyone at our set times Later we compared notes and we were all at opposite ends at different times.

At 2pm I was amazed to still see hundreds upon hundreds of people still streaming in from the Washington Monument side of the mall. The Metro stops were still massed with crowds arriving. At the end, the official count was 215,000 to 250,000. This total definitely doesn't take into account those that remained in the closed off streets, never making their way down to the mall area.

The best part of the day was definitely taking in the vibe of the crowd and the funny, poignant and apolitical signage. See a gallery of some here and here and here.

Wordless Wednesday

Renaissance Festival

Etsy: Window Shopping

1)Frida charms 2)Frida pillow 3)Little Frida 4)Casa de Frida 5)Skull earrings 6)Frida t-shirt 7) Frida purse 8)Frida-inspired mirror 9)Pink Frida headband

Frida Kahlo is one of my favorite artists - I draw inspiration from her color palettes and imagery. And so do many others, it seems. I did a little Frida-esque window shopping on Etsy and found the following charming items amongst hundreds of others.

Enjoy!

Soups On ...

I just awoke from a 3-hour nap and I don't know what to do with myself. Except maybe crawl downstairs to the couch and wince at the light emitting from my laptop. The kids are gone -- off to play with Daddio on the loveliest of autumn days. The plan was to celebrate Halloween at a kid's amusement park and I'm super sad to be missing it.

It's been a week that I've been suffering and I finally admitted defeat, lucky too as I had a sinus infection (ugh). I did get a dose of antibiotics and then caught a cold too.

M I S E R Y

I usually can soldier through, but I'm being a big baby with this cold. The only remedy - call my mommy and have lots of soup.

I am loving on my spicy homemade Mulligatawny soup. Heavy on the curry, heavy on the cayenne. mmmmmmmmmm!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Caught in the act ... fun/fascination with forks

People in the Neighborhood ...

I love living in a neighborhood where we can walk places - interesting places too.

Having a 2-year old with a typical fire truck obsession, we can stroll up the street and visit the library and then go around the building to the fire station. He starts to skip as we near the building. The guys at the house are super friendly and nice. If the bay is open we can walk around visiting all of the trucks.

Other days we stroll the opposite way down the lane and at the end is a horse farm. There is always some large vehicle or other doing some busy work. We'll stand and watch for awhile and then head back home -- sometimes just in time for the mail woman to be parking in front of our house. She is super friendly too and lets E. jingle her large ring of keys.

Of course, I cannot help but hum this song during our strolls. Dig Bobs big sideburns.

Changing it up ...

My mother is an amazing cook. She grew up on a farm with fresh produce, meats and cheese so she can whip together everything without touching a processed food item. She can adapt and change on a whim, not restricted by rigid recipe requirements. She does have a huge cookbook collection though, as she loves to try new things too.

One of the things she's been doing over the past 5-6 years is changing up many of her favorite recipes to allow for the shifting diets of her children. I'm vegetarian and my brother and his girlfriend are vegan. My other brother and my sister and their families are also eating healthier so it benefits us all.

My mom and I touch base on the phone when either of us tries some new adaptation of a family favorite. I have been completely stumped on creating a vegan version of the classic No Bake Chocolate cookie that my brothers adore so much (they used to pay me to make it for them in high school). It just won't set without the real butter/margarine but I keep trying.

But just yesterday I put together a great version of my Mom's Apple Pie using whole wheat flour and vegan butter. And of course a whole bunch of apples that we got apple picking at a local farm. I was so happy that it turned out perfect with the changes made. Plus it was the perfect way to celebrate the first day of October.

Sunflower Fields Forever ...

Super A. had a fabulous morning -- one of her school friends had a birthday party at a yoga studio. There was music, stretching, painting and kid-inspired yoga. She left it completely happy and relaxed.

I decided we would take a little drive on the sunny day, listening to the Beatles and enjoying the windows down. Our destination was the sunflower fields of Clear Meadow Farms.

We probably visited on the last viable day for many of the blooms. We took a walk through a path in the middle of one field. We laid down and did some cloud watching and butterfly counting.

Before we headed back to the car I remembered a trick my Dad used to do with the pollen heavy flower heads -- pick a few buds off to make a sunflower happy face. My daughter had the same silly grin on her face that I did when my father first did it for us.

More Firsts ...

Today was E's first day of co-op.

I was happy to find a new co-op preschool close to our house. My first experience with this type of preschool for A. was amazing -- it fostered a real sense of community with the other moms and kids. Each class there were 3 "Helper Moms" plus the teacher. We were assigned different areas each time, snack, craft, tool bench, dramatic play plus all of us on the playground. We all got to know each other and our children. And the bonus was that I brought E along with me and there was a babysitter in the next room. I could go in and breastfeed and comfort him whenever he needed.

Everything was perfect about the experience ... except the commute. I had to sit in rush hour on our way there. A 10 minute drive was often 30 minutes.

So, I was pleased to find a co-op preschool up the street (a lovely 10-minute drive through winding farmlands) for E.

I hesitated about enrolling him. I struggled with it. I really don't feel preschool is necessary for a 2-year old but I plan on going back to work soon so I hoped it would be a good step towards preparing both of us.

I look forward to another great co-op experience.

My little guy delved right in and had no problem with me leaving the room.

He's not the only one growing now ... and letting go.