Thursday, September 27, 2007

my mother will be so proud



i received a magazine in the mail the other day. (actually, i receive far too many magazines these days, thanks to airmiles, they're free.)i peruse them with my daily morning latte... conde nast traveler, harper's bazaar, W, anthropologie catalogs, jcrew. i don't really shop at jcrew. i usually idea-shop, but i did buy my wellies from there last year, and they've served me well. this catalog came with a girl on the back sporting a hot pink scarf. and i thought: "wow! i like that scarf." and then i thought it was a strange thought, because the scarf was pink. and to those who know me, i'm not really a pink kinda girl. more of a black and blue and brown and olive green kinda girl. my mother is the one who loves LOVES pink.

not many people would know this by looking at me, or my sister rebekah for that matter, but we spent our childhood surrounded by pink. drowning in pink, if you will. (no offense, mom, you know we love you!) we shared a room until 7th grade, and in that room: was pink carpet, bright pink walls, seer-sucker lampshades made by my mother with tiny pink polka-dots, british duvets covers with pink floral pattern, and pink floral curtains. i kid you not. my mother LOVES pink! my mother didn't have the whole reign of the house decorating wise, for my dad exuded a very masculine influence, lots of dark wood, and dark brown couches, etc, so i think she gave herself to full abandon in our bedroom. it's something we get a good chuckle over. good times! i wish i had an old photo to show you.

so, keeping this in mind, when i saw that pink scarf, i thought how my mother would be "tickled pink", (sorry about the pun, just had to use it) to know that her army navy daughter was actually desiring a pink object. and then, when i was brushing my teeth, i noticed: hey, i have a pink toothbrush. and then, in the living room, i noticed: hey, i have pink pillows! (not that their color escaped me when i bought them, but i didn't buy them because they were pink-- they were cheap ikea pillows that i used to cover with, yes, brown pillow covers) and then, wouldn't you know, i started seeing pink everywhere!! it was enough to make me smile...

so i thought i would share this journey with you, as you can see -if you go to my flickr page. and yes, this is what i have been doing instead of what i SHOULD be doing, like washing the summer clothes and packing them away, deep cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom, weeding out the closets, etc etc...all in all, being a better housewife. greg never dreamed that when he bought me a camera cell phone, it would aid in my tendency to procraste, like taking useless photos of all the pink things in our possession.

lest you think me totally lazy, i will say i was inspired to tackle the kitchen last week when i found -yuck! bugs in the cupboards. again! i just deep-cleaned last fall, and i found them again. so either i didn't clean well enough, or they are a pest problem related to the old building we live in. well, this time, i went a bit crazy, and took everything out of the cupboards, washed all the dishes, pots and pans, bleached the cupboards, and lined the food cupboard with that sticky paper that makes me want to scream (i lined it tops, sides and bottoms, and had the initial intention to do the whole kitchen, but after that one cupboard which took hours, i decided: doing the food cupboard was all i needed because we're not going to live here forever!)


then, i went about throwing away all old and opened food, about three groceries bags full, because i found a colony of these horrible horrible things thriving in the donut mix i bought over two years ago, when i made french beignets with my sister. (sigh) (was it really two years ago?) i then went out and bought containers, plastic and glass, for EVERYthing, and this is the new way we are going to live.


a new habit. it's a bit strange tho. i look at my cupboard and it doesn't look like mine. i've lived ten years of our married life, with the color of boxes... and now, everything in glass, uniform, organized, seems...i don't know, like it's some other woman's cupboard. so, i'm hoping it will grow on me.

in other habits...we have recently tried another go at water containers. after my son and husband kept losing our nalgeen bottles and our bicycle bottles, it seemed much easier to buy the 24-pack from safeway of water bottles and then not care if they got left behind. but i've recently become convicted by those news stories tauting how many billions of dollars americans spend on bottled water, when many countries don't even have good tap water. so we're trying the containers again. it's a pain, a new habit is...i feel like it's just one more thing i get on francis' case about: "do you have your water bottle?" "did you forget you water bottle?" "do you remember WHERE you left your water bottle?" jeepers! the poor kid! i had gotten myself a bottle from tully's, just for starters, and francis was so into it, that we decided it was time for him to have his own. we saw a klean kanteen in a store and bought it at 20 bucks a pop, and he was very proud, and we told him it take good care of it. so, we're trying. i don't mind reverting to the olden days, in fact, i like our bottles. so here's hoping they last a year...


well, enough of this rambling. i need to go wash the dishes. and tidy up. and get dressed. and go pick up francis from school (greg went in later today, and so took him to school. so i go walk and pick him up, and our new thing when i do that is: to stop by the market on our way home for a fresh french baguette and some fruit, and then we have that for tea-time afterschool) but now it looks like it's raining, so i also need to go dig out my wellies! oh, fall is here! i REALLY do need to wash my summer clothes, and put them away, and take out my winter ones, cause gray is here to stay...

and a little bit of pink actually does brighten the day...

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

why i walk my kid to school



it's the fourth week into fourth grade and: time has resumed flying, 7:30 in the morning still feels VERY early, and walking to school has resumed it's routine. everyone who finds out that we walk to school is usually suprised, because it is quite far by city-standards. it takes francis and i about 25 minutes (or even 35 minutes, if he stops to collect leaves along the way.) i walk home much faster.

i can be found guilty of doing things not necessarily out of desire, but for the mere sake of the memory. walking to school may be one of them. if our grandparents did it (in snow! uphill both ways!) it's the least we can do. it has been a habit of the past few years, and last year marked the first year where francis didn't complain. this year he doesn't even balk; it has become expected. maybe even normal. the fact that we usually merge with other walking-to-school children a few blocks from the school reinforces this, and he knows he's not the only one, which helps; he doesn't realize (yet) that he is walking much farther. the fact that we have only one car, and that we live outside of the school-district-zone for bussing are actually the main reasons for this. (greg goes to work much earlier than school starts, so that he can be done in time to pick him up.) but i guess i've come to look on the whole thing as: enforced excercise. i need it. francis needs it. and so we bundle up, and we deal. i probably won't go quite so far as to say "i just love my morning walk", but there is a part of me that recognizes that the day goes by so fast, and the morning walk is the only slow part of the day, and the only truly one-on-one time i get with francis. afterschool is sports, or teatime, then homework, dinner, reading, bath, bed. there's just not enough hours in the evening to do all this it seems.

i used to walk quite a bit. when i used to live at home, i would walk down our hill (out of the tree line, and to the fields, about a half and hour) and then up again. to be alone, to get fresh air. before i was married, when i lived on stone way, but worked in the u-district, i would walk to work and back again. just because. nowadays, there's not much to walk to. i've never managed to make a habit of walking around greenlake, even though i can walk to it. i find it boring. it can't be just for the sake of excercise, or i find myself falling short of my goals. it must be that i HAVE to do it. i MUST take francis to school, so: no car and no bus leaves only feet. school has been a nice incentive. in the morning, it is usally gray, there are few people on the streets, and it is quiet. francis chatters undistracted. the leaves are changing. we looks for snails. even when it rains, in rainboots and umbrella, he seems completely unfazed. maybe even enjoys it. i know this may possibly last for only one more year; who knows where he or we will be when he reaches the 6th grade? but at least when he is old, he can regale his children and grandchildren with his very own "when i was your age, i had to walk to school, uphill both ways" stories...




Thursday, September 13, 2007

reading a blue streak


i had a friend comment "and what have you learned?" when i said i have been reading like crazy. i had no answer, not because i have learned nothing, but more, where to begin? it's not a list that can be numbered on a page; it is subtle changes of mind, and maybe even astonishing discoveries that can be discussed only with someone else who has read the same book, too. often, it's an unspeakable moving of the heart, and a sadness when the book is done, as if the characters were real and have moved away and i will see them no more. i feel that way now. i just finished, today, at 2:36pm (to which i had to hurry and change and go walk fast to pick francis up from school) "jane eyre" by charlotte bronte. oh. my. goodness. how have i never read this before? how have i managed to live 34 years and not even know the gist of the story? i knew absolutely nothing about it, other than it was a classic, and written and published at the same time as her sister emily's novel "wuthering heights". (which i read for the first time last summer.) that alone was curiosity enough for me to see how one sister's story would vary from the other's. i was in for a surprise! it continually amazes me how a story written in 1847 can be so pertinent today. it was an incredibly gripping and moving story, and such that i can't get it out of my head.
right before that i read (and by reading, i mean, all day, all night, whenever i can get my hands on it, for i am terrible at functioning in any other capacity when i am reading a good book; i can do nothing else...) "till we have faces";it was a re-read for me, and as greg had picked it up for bus reading, when he left it behind i thought i'd read it again and catch up to him so we could discuss it after. well i passed him and finished, but i haven't read this book since i was younger and single, and it struck me completely different reading it as a mother and a wife. themes of sacrifice and selfishness hit you differently when you are sharing your life with someone else, and not just living unto yourself. it is a greek myth, the story of cupid and pysche, retold by that excellent storyteller, c.s.lewis. i count it as one of my most favorites...
getting into more greek myths retold, i read "a wonder book for girls and boys" by nathaniel hawthorne, published in 1893, and now i have been reading them to francis, who really likes them too. we have much to talk about afterwords, especially since in so many of the stories can be found parellels in the bible...
somehow i must be stuck in a rut in the 1800's, because before that book, i read "sense and sensibility", and now, we are also reading, together, sherlock holmes (unabridged, original text, i know, i'm such a snob) and francis is reading "tom sawyer" for his afterschool reading homework.(and before that,i had re-read "sounder" and "old yeller" to see if they would be ok for francis, but i think i'll wait til he's older. )
enough of this dreary listing...
off i go...
to ponder more of jane tonight...

(and enjoying ripe itanlian plums, and pears, from our neighbors trees, which he kindly lets us pick from; we pick a handful daily when we come inside, and eat them fresh from the tree! oh yum!)

Monday, September 10, 2007

blink and you might miss it



a whale, a tree, a thought, a boy.
a blur.
this is what my life feels like right now.

school started last wednesday and i was not ready. i am not ready to be over with summer, and with the sunny days we've been having, i have the tiniest scraps of hopes for an indian summer.
francis was very excited for school, and is glad for his teacher, Mr. Bauer, whom we have heard good things. he has familiar friendly faces in his class, and we have hopes that this year will be better than last.
soccer has started already, with the first day of school, so now i dig out my blankets and thermos' for another season of practices and games, and watching...
and today, monday, was the first day we resumed our morning walks to school.
oh, how very out of shape am i!

we have decided to take advantage of the sunny days, and be out and about as much as we can, before the gray and rain tempt us to remain indoors...
we spent labor day weekend in portland, visiting with greg's family and it was sunny and HOT, hotter than seattle, the whole time. greg was able to relax with his brothers, and by relax i mean, sweated and played tennis in the beating sun for hours, then sweated and played golf in the beating sun for hours the next day. francis loved getting to play with his cousins. i relaxed: i sat in the sun and read! we went to the water fountains of downtown portland to cool off, and i took francis to a local river for some swimming, people watching, and shell collecting. very fun. the drive home, as soon as we were out of portland, we hit pouring rain all the way home (not fun!) but, we did get a rare treat of heat lighting and a few lightning bolts, for the 3 hour drive home. it was an onslought of rain and lighting, very thrilling to say the least.

this past weekend, the forecast again said "sunny", so we decided to book a whale-watching trip in the san juans for saturday. we drove to anacortes in the morning, and our trip was at noon. i packed a lunch, and we brought extra layers, which we needed, for though it was sunny and warm on land, on the sea in the boat it was very chilly! whale-watching is hard on the patience of a child; it was a 5 hour trip, and the hours of scanning sea and sky under a beating sun turn quickly into a headache, but francis did very well, and his binoculars kept him very entertained. (thank you, dad!) he was just as excited for the sea birds as for anything else, and we did see harbor seals basking on the small rocky islands. we did see many sightings of minke whales, but sadly no orcas. the guides kept boasting the rarity of "minke whales! in these waters!" but we think they were extra chipper about it to divert the undercurrent of communal disappointment that the resident orcas were nowhere to be seen. we saw one "stinky minke" (they called them) come up out of the water once, his pointy nose, his white throat, but usually it was his small black dorsal fin dipping back into the water. francis missed alot by glancing away the second it would come up out of the water, and turned to see a small hump descending away, but he still got excited. all these fantastic nature shows haven't ruined him completely; he was still excited to see the whales first hand, and that was a gift.

after the tour ended, we were exhausted from beating sun and wind, and took a break in starbucks for frappicinos before heading to Deception Pass to view the bridge. the sun was setting, and it was so beautiful, but i was a bit dismayed to discover another sign of getting old: i was too freaked to cross the bridge! it had even been my idea: "hey, let's cross the bridge; it'll be fun" but as soon as my legs left land and i looked over the water, i started breathing really fast and got real tense real quick! the railing was also not very high for my comfort level and you could barely walk two people side by side, so i held on to the railing and to francis' hood and walked as quick as i could without even looking at the view til i got to the other side. very disappointing! (sigh) on the other side, there is a path down to the beach, where we went and my boys skipped stones til it was dark, then we had to trudge back thru the forest trail in the pitch black, and back across the bridge by the light of oncoming cars and holding my breath, with hopefully francis none the wiser...