Archive for the 'Family' Category
March 11, 2010 @ 8:26 pm | Filed under: Books, Crows, Family, Nature Study
OK, I am really enchanted by these crows. We had such fun today, watching them at work on a nest in the top of an enormous tree just the other side of our back fence. Our house backs up to an elementary school (I know, ironic) and in the schoolyard quite near the fence is a very large widespread Moreton Bay fig tree. (I think that’s what it is.) One crow went back and forth to the tippy-top carrying twigs, while another perched in a supervisory manner in a nearby eucalyptus.
At intervals we’d see four crows wheeling about between the fig and another clump of very tall eucalyptus trees on the other side of the school. Perhaps there is another nest over there.
They ate up the peanuts we left them—when we weren’t looking. When I was looking, they only made low swoops over the table, eyeing the nuts and uttering baleful remarks to the wind.
In the evening I saw one of the crows inspecting our driveway, stepping deliberately up its length beside the minivan. Probably he knows it is a reliable source of crushed goldfish crackers.
It was a quite interesting day, though we were stuck at home with the remnants of fevers-and-sniffles. A man came to investigate the scrabblings in our attic; he found two dead rats (horrors) and earned Beanie’s forever-friendship by letting the kids look at one. It was repulsive, she told me. I should think so. Rose now says she wants to pursue a career in pest control so she can see more “fascinating dead things.” There is a moral here somewhere, having to do with what happens when you fill up their days with poetry and music and art, I’m sure. Apparently our mental diet has been low in fascinating dead things.
I shall make no attempt to remedy that. They’re on their own.
Plenty of fascinating live things in my flower garden: I did a lot of pruning today, and the middle kids had a grand time stripping leaves off the long canes of cape honeysuckle and then swishing them over one another’s heads and being indignant about how they almost knocked each other’s heads off. Swoosh! Like crows swooping low over the peanuts. I left the butterfly bush lopsided because just when I was poised for the final series of whacks, I realized there was a nice little bower behind the honeysuckle and the butterfly bush, if I stopped where I was. So now there’s a comical view from the patio, and a Secret Hideout in the back. They are stocking it with plenty of canes for knocking off each other’s heads.
Things people read today: Jane finished Don’t Know Much About Geography and began the History volume; Rose finished Tuck Everlasting and said she wasn’t sure how she felt about it but wasn’t ready to talk about it yet (I get that, especially with that book); Beanie began The Saturdays; and I finished Charles and Emma, which I greatly enjoyed. Darwin’s personality was not at all as I had envisioned it—I think I’ve imagined him more as a curmudgeonly, uninterruptible sort, very much like the grandfather in Calpurnia Tate. But it seems he was quite a teddy bear of a father, deeply affectionate with his children, so reluctant to spoil their fun by making them stop jumping on the furniture that he’d turn and leave the room rather than tell them to cut it out. And completely adoring of his wife, Emma, respecting her candor and insight even on the very serious questions for which they had quite different answers.
I loved this bit about Charles’s reaction to a wedding present—it begins with a quote from one of his letters:
“My good old friend Herbert sent me a very nice little note, with a massive silver weapon, which he called a Forficula (the Latin for an earwig) and which I thought was to catch hold of soles and flounders.” But Erasmus, who knew these things, told him it was for asparagus.
Hee.
I’m poking around the stacks now, trying to fix upon which of a dozen promising tomes to read next. I’m craving a really absorbing piece of fiction, something I can fall into. There are a good many likely prospects in previous TBR posts on this blog: I still haven’t made time for I Capture the Castle, which so many of you have enthusiastically suggested, and I STILL haven’t gotten to The Elegance of the Hedgehog, nor The Thirteenth Tale, nor the second Mysterious Benedict Society book, nor In This House of Brede…not to mention this whole list of requests from my kids…plus you’ve got me all fired up to read those Patrick O’Brian books you were talking up in the comments the other day. And Girl of the Limberlost, which I did download to my iPod after your fervent recommendations.
I suppose I might get more reading done if there weren’t so many interesting things happening in my backyard.
Here’s how Beanie settles the problem:
(Speaking of books I mean to read.)
March 9, 2010 @ 8:31 am | Filed under: Family
We’re heading into wildflower season here in San Diego. (I hardly dare admit this you you northeastern folks.) Admiring the orange and yellow roadsides from the backseat of the minivan, Rose says, “Mom, I want to know more about plants and birds.”
Me: “OK, we can start doing more nature walks again and work on our nature journals.”
Rilla pipes up: “Mommy, I want to know more about princesses and princes getting married.”
Me, suppressing a laugh: “OK, let’s read more fairy tales at home!”
Beanie, slyly: “Mom, I want to know more about….candy!”
March 5, 2010 @ 11:39 am | Filed under: Books, Family, Snippets
I’ve been writing the occasional “snippets” post for years, when I had a bunch of shortish things to say. But Conversion Diary Jen’s “7 Quick Takes” meme (now in its 71st edition) is much nicer—so pleasantly organized and a nice spirit of camaraderie about it—and I always enjoy reading the quick takes posts on other people’s blogs. I don’t know that I’ll pull it off every Friday, but now and then might be fun.
1. You know one reason I haven’t done a Quick Takes post before? It’s the glitch in my blog layout that won’t let me center properly. I think when I center images, they are centered on the whole page—but the main text column sits a bit to the right of center because of the blue ribbon. So the visual effect is that centered images appear off-center, and this drives me crazy. And every time I thought about participating in Quick Takes, I got hung up by the off-kilteredness of the button. Yes, I know I could simply omit the button. But…but…nope, can’t do it. Ah well, I am decidedly off kilter myself, so I don’t know why I should expect anything different from my blog.)
2. Earlier this week Beanie looked up from a Percy Jackson book to ask what an eclair is. It’s my duty as a homeschooler to show her firsthand, right? You know I’m all about the hands-on learning.
3. Even earlier than that this week, we went to Balboa Park with my parents and 13-year-old niece as a last outing before they departed for home (Colorado) that afternoon. Visited the science museum and had lunch at the Japanese tea house. The rice bowls there are huge and delicious. Later we saw a man in hipwaders in the lily pond. Beanie worried about the snapping turtles. Have I mentioned how much I adore Balboa Park? And also visits from my family.
4. I knew my kids were looking up pillbugs online, but I didn’t see their search term until later: “roly poly food.” I guffawed. (If you’re wondering: “decayed vegetable matter,” they informed me. Which explains why they were harvesting bits of my baby lettuces and leaving them out to decay.) Alice says an old potato makes excellent roly-poly food too. Turns out she is practically an expert on the subject. Many talents, that woman.
5. New favorite iPod Touch app: Words with Friends, a Scrabble-like game. My teenager is a formidable opponent.
6. Speaking of the teenager, here are some books I’ve seen her reading recently:
• HONEY, MUD, MAGGOTS & OTHER MEDICAL MARVELS (a tome from my Martha-book reference shelf)
• DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE UNIVERSE by Kenneth C. Davis
• ENDER’S GAME by Orson Scott Card
• DAVID COPPERFIELD
• MUSASHI #9 (a manga title)
• the latest issues of MUSE and ODYSSEY
• THE HOMESCHOOL LIBERATION LEAGUE (a Semicolon recommendation)
• CHARLES AND EMMA: THE DARWINS’ LEAP OF FAITH by Deborah Heiligman. (I’m reading the latter now myself, and it’s got me working on a post about my favorite literary naturalists—so far I’ve got Dan from JO’S BOYS, Calpurnia Tate, and of course Dickon of THE SECRET GARDEN.)
7. And to finish off, a mini-photoessay about my little bird-lover.
Admiring the dear finches at the feeder. They fill her with wonder and delight and…
…an irresistible urge to practice karate kicks. “To scare them away,” she tells me, aiming another fierce kick their direction and shouting “HI-YAH!”
More quick takes at Conversion Diary.
February 24, 2010 @ 7:34 am | Filed under: Family, These People Crack Me Up
Every now and then I like to collect the kid-quips I’ve tweeted and deposit them here, just to keep the family archive in one place. Apologies to Twitter-friends for whom these may be repeats.
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Actual last line of chat with friend last night: “TTYL—must go get hulk out of dishwasher.”
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Rilla just asked me to pour her a “nice juicy cup of milk.”
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Rilla staggers into the sunny morning, squinting. She rages, rages, against the coming of the light.
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Baby boy just figured out how to activate big bro’s toy computer, uttered his first triumphant “YES!” All it was missing was a fist pump.
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How very cool. Scott & girls are at small-venue Suzanne Vega concert (hasn’t started yet) & have a table directly in front of the stage.
Suzanne Vega wished Beanie a happy bday after the concert last night. (Bday was last month; the concert was her present.) Beanie is beaming.
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Prepared for anything: Wonderboy just came to me with his hearing aids to put in, his glasses to clean, and his pirate scarf to tie on.
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Beanie: “Whenever I put honey on our sandwiches, I always make sure there are smiley faces.” Love that kid.
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This moment caught: 9yo sketching amaryllis, the 2 boys playing w/ trains. 11yo reading about B. Franklin. Teen reading Gulliver. 3yo sings. 1:28 PM Feb 3rd
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Big Bad Bunny has become Rilla’s Mike Mulligan & the Steam Shovel, and I’m Beezus.
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She comes to me with socks on her hands & gives a fearsome roar. Then, as she clambers onto the bed: “Did you know monsters love to cuddle?”
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Yesterday: I’m in the rocking chair. Rilla climbs in my lap, arranges herself comfortably, says: “OK, Mommy. Let’s do this!”
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3yo: “When I grow up I’m going to teach my little boys and little girls how to squish gummy bears.” (Pauses. Thinks.) “And math.”
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For dinner Jane made a SCRUMPTIOUS cheese & onion “hogbake” from the Redwall cookbook in honor of the arrival of Doomwyte in paperback.
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Rilla & I just spent 20 minutes watching elephants on Youtube. She very badly wants them to be able to see her back.
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Overheard: “Wouldn’t it be funny if his name were Chris, and our last name was Muss? Get it? Chris Muss?” Ah, 8-yr-olds.
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Playing hangman with the 8yo. Very tricky, actually, because she keeps picking very short words. _o__. No E, T, N, S, or A. My guy’s toast.
Ha! Saved by the L! (It was doll.)
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Was just requested (by 8yo) to draw a picture of a “Norwegian forest cat.” Um.
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The 3yo is demonstrating proper lollipop-licking technique for me. She takes this extremely seriously.
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Rilla asks me to draw a horse. Surveys my handiwork, laughs indulgently. “Mommy! It didn’t need a mouth.”
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ME: I’m worried that (minor detail of story) isn’t right.
SCOTT: Sweetheart. At this stage, that’s like worrying that your font isn’t right.
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The 8yo just asked, “Mom, would you like to hear a short history of the piñata?”
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Rilla, upon seeing the blue button-down shirt the baby was given for his birthday: “We’re going to dress him in MAN clothes!”
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Listening to Scott and four or five children wail to “Like a Rolling Stone.” There is some delicious irony there (“How does it feel..to be on your own”—ha!), and also just deliciousness.
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The 8yo: “Mommy, I am haunted by the temptation to stick a lettuce leaf in the candle flame and see what happens.” (So yes, I let her try.)
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This day so far: donut holes at the park with the younger 5 while the 14yo did mix-y things with chemicals in her science lab.
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Rilla asks me to draw a picture of grandma. I comply. She looks, quivers, says sadly: “I guess it’s okay if she don’t be a ballerina…”
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Today: took a mountain drive, clambered over rocks, gobbled Pfeffernusse, assembled the Galileoscope. Now trying to get the moon in focus. (Dec. 31st, 2009)
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Overheard: the 3yo: “How old was I when I was a baby?” The daddy: “Perfect. You were perfect.”
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Beanie upon trying (and loving) her first green smoothie: “This has liquified my distaste for spinach!”
February 5, 2010 @ 8:06 am | Filed under: Family
• getting set up for Journey North (first batch of clues are out today, woohoo!)
• watching Beanie fall into Redwall
• wobbly steps growing more confident…suddenly this baby is EVERYWHERE
• LOST is back. I is happy.
• thinking and thinking about Carney and Winona
• George Mason and the Bill of Rights
• Big Bad Bunny until I know it by heart
• magical red blooms on the amaryllis
• lots of stuff to read online—Salinger, Apple, Macmillan, and Amazon kept me busy
• several kinds of waiting
• measuring cups scattered across the floor
• Rose’s blue ocean in a casserole dish
• Jane and Gulliver
• a phone call that made my week (I’m gonna be a godmother) 
• Wonderboy and Rilla on stools at the counter with eye droppers and food-colored water (thanks for keeping them busy, Rose!)
• Rilla in clompy heels (“clip clops,” she calls them)
• old photos unearthed by my dad…look, there’s Rilla in 1971! (And could my parents be any cuter?)
January 25, 2010 @ 1:09 pm | Filed under: Family, Fun Learning Stuff
Since my dad’s fun family-photo coloring pages have garnered such an enthusiastic response (see especially Lori’s comment, which includes a link to a Crayola site that will let you make some of your own), I thought you might enjoy hearing about some of my father’s other grandkid-pleasing innovations.
One Christmas he gave us this set of custom-made placemats. Each laminated mat has a collage of family photos on one side. On the back sides, he made gorgeously colorful collages of other kinds of pictures—an array of his beautiful bird photos, for example (most of them taken in my parents’ backyard or ours). One is a nature collage; one is all kinds of art supplies. I can’t tell you how much my kids love these placemats. My littles use them almost daily underneath their dinner plates or drawing paper.
But I think Wonderboy’s special book takes the prize. My dad really outdid himself with this one. This was a present he gave to my boy a couple of years ago, and it is still one of Wonderboy’s favorite things to look at. Rilla too, actually.
It’s a comb-bound, laminated alphabet book full of pictures of our extended family and objects from around our house. (My photos don’t do it justice.) My dad included both English and ASL fingerspelling letters for each word, which makes it all the more special (and useful) for my hard-of-hearing son.
I love my dad’s choice of words to illustrate—you can tell he understands his grandson’s interests very well.
I know I’m gushing here, but, well, you understand, right?
The back cover is my favorite page.
On another visit, my dad gave Wonderboy a second book, this one focusing on colors and numbers. I especially love this page illustrating the number 4—
—but I would have to say my favorite is the Number 1 page.
Like the wise man said, we can’t help falling in love…with you, Grandpa.
January 13, 2010 @ 4:49 am | Filed under: Baby, Family, Photos
From this
To this
::::::::likethis::::::::
December 29, 2009 @ 5:42 pm | Filed under: Advent & Christmas, Family, Gardening
Well, it has been a funny old Christmas in these parts. About half of us, including me, were sick with a rather vicious bug on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day—fever, chills, aches, cough—and others succumbed over the weekend. Today, Tuesday, the fifth day of Christmas, most of us have climbed back to normal. I’m sitting in the playroom watching three girls ride scooters in rings around the patio, while half a dozen sparrows scold them from the bushes. The feeder sat empty since Wednesday (you can tell I was really sick) and the birds are very happy to have their feast before them at last.
On Christmas Eve, around light-twinkling time, I was starting to feel a little sorry for myself, knowing I’d miss Mass the next morning. Then I thought about Billy and started writing the post I’ve been carrying in my heart for a very long time, and that snapped everything back into perspective. We had a lovely Christmas, fever and chills nothwithstanding. Happy children, the Babe in the manger, candy canes, beeswax candles tied with red ribbon, sparkly lights on the neighbor’s palm trees, a snuggly blanket and a little girl at just the right age for that stack of Jan Brett books she found in the basket. Scott took the healthy kids to church on Christmas morning and I stayed home with the little ones. Later he made a ham dinner. A good day. They are all good days, even the hard ones.
Today I feel almost back to normal, except for the lingering cough. I wandered into the backyard this morning and started pulling weeds, and suddenly there were pruners in my hand and I was whacking away at three months’ worth of neglect. I chopped the overgrown salvia bushes back to reasonable clumps, and beneath their straggly branches we found legions of seedlings: columbine and nasturtium, mostly.
And in the veggie patch the delightful surprise of a tomato plant and some tender cilantro seedlings. It’s all looking very springy back there and I know that must sound so strange to all my friends in the wintry parts of the world. Three years here, and this climate is still a wonder to me.
Against the back wall, a geranium is blooming: here’s where I find my Christmas red and green.
Now it’s later, and Scott is chopping potatoes for soup. It got cold here fast when night fell, chilling my toes, but the girls are still out there riding. Rose’s Christmas present was a new bike, inspiring a new passion for all wheeled conveyances, it seems.
Whack, whack, the knife on the cutting board. Shrrr, shrrr, the wheels on the cement. “You know what just occurred to me?” asks Scott. “Meryl Streep really did have to learn to chop onions at a dizzying speed.” He’s thinking of Julie & Julia, and he’s right, that was one of the scenes where I forgot I was watching an actress play Julia Child. Tonight, after the kids are down, I think we’ll watch part three of Lark Rise to Candleford, which we started last night. I’m so enjoying seeing Lydia Bennet of the BBC Pride & Prejudice all grown up and doing well. (Though I wish she’d spend less time riding horses with the Squire. Worrisome.)
That’s the fifth day of Christmas in these parts.
December 10, 2009 @ 6:25 pm | Filed under: Family
The baby was just dozing off in my arms, not quite ready to be transferred to the bed, when the doorbell rang. Girls ran to answer it. Bean’s head appeared in my doorway.
“Mom, it’s, um, Guy.”
Guy is our very nice next-door neighbor. It’s highly unusual for him to ring our bell, so I slid the baby onto the bed rather more hastily than was conducive to his remaining asleep. As I hurried down the hall to the door, I heard him already beginning to rouse and fuss. Shoot. I’d had things to get done during that nap.
When I got to the door, no one was there—except a stranger walking away down the sidewalk, a sheaf of flyers flapping in his hand. We get many such visitors, young men wanting to let us know about discount on vinyl siding or yard work.
I turned to Beanie in befuddlement.
“I thought you said it was Guy!”
“No, Mommy. I said it was ’some guy.’”
December 9, 2009 @ 7:35 am | Filed under: Family
Speaking of getting all teary-eyed, I’m all choked up at the thought that this little boy is six years old today. And that brilliant, funny, cocky, sarcastic guy I married is as wicked cute as ever.
Happy birthday to my two leading men!
