October 8, 2009 @ 3:46 pm | Filed under: Family,Photos
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children's book author
you'll find posts about:
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Rose, 12 yrs
Beanie, 9 yrs
Wonderboy, 6 yrs
Rilla, 4 yrs
Huck, 19 months
and Scott, the love of my life
Yes: it is so, so much fun, and that is why I write these posts all chattery with excitement over this or that connection the kids made today. (Or that I made myself!) I know I get carried away, but that’s the point, isn’t it, that way leading on to way has carried me away?
And yet—and yet—I think we are at once ‘carried away’ and made more fully present in the now, more rooted, by these relationships between ideas about things past and future. The joy of connection makes me want to celebrate this moment, this brief encounter with wild-haired child and broad-trunked tree, bus going by, sign on church wall, Scottish warlord creeping over the tower wall and startling the English soldier’s wife who has just put her babe in arms to sleep by crooning that the Black Douglas won’t get him. Child, laughing, shouting “Dinna ye be sae sure aboot that!” across the courtyard outside the library. How can I not celebrate this freedom?
(from a post called Way Leads on to Way)
Coming in October with a foreword by yours truly
- sarah: So cute! Infact I think he is the masculine personification of cuteness (Rilla being the feminine.)
- Penny in VT: T-shirts never lie. Nor do bumper stickers. Cute little fella ya got there .:)
- Melissa Wiley: Mary-Alice! Then we owe you a huge debt of thanks! It is one of Scott’s favorite books to read...
- Mary-Alice: Little Bean!!! I acquired that book from the UK when I was at Harper. I loved that little girl and her...
- Murray: Perhaps the t-shirt does not lie. Why else would he have called me yesterday? Not that he had much to say,...
- Sue: I’m always impressed with how you manage a large family, writing, blogging, and everything else you do....
- sarah: A busy life is a full life. I envy you your Kindle! Although I doubt it would be as forgiving of raindrops as...
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Author and Illustrator Blogs
(Excerpt from this post about Real Life, quoted here because I don't want anyone to be under the impression that things are always perfect around here! Heaven knows we are anything but. Perfect, frictionless, orderly? Nope. Happy? Most of the time!)
Who, pausing in flight
On limb too slight,
Feels it give way beneath her,
Yet sings,
Knowing she has wings.
—Victor Hugo
Find my books at IndieBound
Your wooden floors look so much warmer … and less dusty … than mine. And yet you have so many more children than I. It seems your protestations of not being a Supermother do not stand up to the photographic evidence at all.
Posted on October 8th, 2009 at 5:22 pmI can’t believe how big that baby boy is! I did a double-take.
Posted on October 8th, 2009 at 5:54 pmNah, the floors have to be kept swept so that the baby doesn’t get all his meals from eating dust-bunnies. But if Lissa is anything like me … *thinks* … not that I’m suggesting she is, or anything! Where am I going with this?! Oh, just that keeping the floors tidy due to Baby is one thing; one can feel one has done the most important thing, whilst letting certain other things (undefined), erm, slide.
But of course, I’m only talking about me here. *smile*
Posted on October 8th, 2009 at 6:10 pmI agree with MelanieB. I can’t believe you had him less than a year ago; he just looks like one of the gang!
Posted on October 8th, 2009 at 6:51 pmThat Huck is so dang cute!! (Need. to. hold. baby.) Kids are the best – lying on floors, running and screaming and skipping at the park, eating raisins stuck in the carpet. Not caring what anyone thinks. Sometimes I wish I was one!
Posted on October 8th, 2009 at 8:26 pmOh Sarah, Sarah, if you could but see my floors up close!
If they don’t look dusty in that photo, it’s only because they had been polished by a belly-scooting baby with a drooly shirt. Ellie is very much on the right track but even she gives me too much credit. We sweep often, but finding a good time to *clean* the floors? Near impossible. Ask Laurie; she knows what they look like up close and in person. 
On the first day of Shakespeare Camp in August, I made a snap decision to move the sofa up against the fireplace so we’d have more room. The other children arrived just in time to see the MOUNTAIN RANGE of dust bunnies, stray toys, ponytail holders, board books, and colored pencils underneath the sofa’s regular spot. It was hilarious!
Posted on October 9th, 2009 at 6:32 amWhen Eli (now twenty) was a baby — really, until he was about five, I’d say — I swept daily and mopped three times a week, without fail. When Calli (now ten) was wee, I swept daily, and mopped once a week. I was eight months pregnant with Joshua when we moved into this house (he’s seven): I scoured the house repeatedly leading up to his birth. I will not say how (in)frequently I have mopped since. I’d say the sweep/vacuum happens weekly.
Lissa, we don’t have a sofa, but I do not wish to know what resides under the piano. No, I do not.
Posted on October 9th, 2009 at 9:47 amlol – when Erin was about 4 I mopped the floor and she looked at me like I was nuts and said “mommy, what *is* that thing…” lol
Cute photo, and very cute little pals you get to hang out with every day – good times.
Posted on October 9th, 2009 at 3:39 pm