First grade

DSCN9681, originally uploaded by nora_gardner.

E began first grade last week at our local Waldorf School. She loves it and can't wait to get there in the morning each day. She seems so much happier now that she is in school. She has a large class and a teacher she loves. I am so glad to see her so happy as the last few weeks of summer vacation were a little rocky and she seemed to be really wearing out on being at home with me and L. I think she is getting to an age where she needs some time when she doesn't have a little sister begging to be a part of everything she does and I am so happy that she is going to a school where I feel she will be taken care of and taught well.

today

I am tired and I have spent the evening staring at my old art books wondering "what next?". I am finding it hard to feel enthused about drawing things outside the kitchen somehow... in this Autumn weather somehow I am pulled unavoidably to draw pears and apples, garlic, fresh baked bread... to caress their contours on the page as though caressing the fruit itself. I remember painting some apples once in watercolor.... those apples live forever in my memory so that I can almost smell them, taste them 8 years later

I think I may be obsessed with two things... art and food

I wrote a letter to a friend recently about wishing I could set up an easel in the produce section and draw and paint there all day.... and, while I didn't actually set up at the grocery store, I did set up in my kitchen... I love drawing in the kitchen... the familiar contours of garlic, peppers, the dirt still clinging to mushrooms, bowls full of apples and pears. My two passions converge in the kitchen... art and food... and I am happy there.

summer's end

It feels suddenly like summer is finishing up. The tomatoes and raspberries are heavy with fruit, the sunflowers on my table remind me of Vincent and the air in my kitchen smells of ripe fruit in bowls on the kitchen table. The heat and haze of August is slowly giving way to the cool breezes of Autumn... it is hurricane season, when we begin to lay things down in the freezer and hope with fingers crossed that a hurricane doesn't come and take our power for days on end so that we have to eat up all that defrosting abundance in the basement. My girls are in their element in the garden... muddy fingers and toes, raspberry stains, and wild hair combine to herald their exuberance in the harvest of the fruits of late summer. The eat more than they bring indoors and I don't mind... I laugh at the smears of raspberry juice on faces and dresses. They are me 20 years ago, and it makes me so happy to relive my childhood through them.

our days at home

I have been thinking about getting back into blogging lately... I wish I had more time... I love to record our days and what the kids are doing, but somehow it only happens when A is away on a boat in the middle of the ocean someplace.

I am working on making a doll... well, two dolls... for the girls for christmas.... early to start I know, but if I don't start now it will never happen in time. Things are too busy around here though. I am in a wedding this weekend, work is busy with lots of orders for baby carriers coming in and going out... but here I am... here we are... going through our days slowly and quietly at home more often then not. I am looking forward to cool Autumn days... I miss the cool damp smell of leaves on the ground and the chill of a rainy fall morning. I am beginning to feel that I am done with summer and ready to turn my head, heart, and hands to work of making my children's playthings for christmas.

Ok... so, I didn't fall off the earth

Hi anyone who reads this... I just wanted to say, HI!!! here I am! I have had a busy few months, with my husband away on a boat in the Pacific (right near Tonga... he was studying seismic activity on the ocean floor in the month or so before they had the volcano erupt there... probably obviously in hindsight, it was pretty wiggly), and with 2 major illness going through me and my kids in one month. Oh... and I spent 12 hours doing a painting that I was asked to do for by daughter's school's auction, and 6 hours doing art for the school calendar, and I was asked to take over a friend's business at the end of March.... so, it's been busy. Anyway... Onward.

little dolly lost

So, what should a mom do when her daughter has lost her favorite doll... the one mommy made for her at christmas... the one that she sleeps with every night... and you know it must be in the house someplace, because you haven't gone anywhere all day... what should a mom do when she has looked in every conceivable hiding place for a doll and all the inconceivable ones too... we're talking sifting through the trash and looking into freezers and under beds... then what? I feel like a terrible mother, like I like should just know where to find it because I am the mom... but I don't... I have exhausted all the possibilities several times over and the doll still has not come forward and admitted to hiding. How could it have even gotten lost in the first place? My immediate thought is to beg the two year old to tell me where she put it and hope that she knows, but she seems as confused by this as I am... and with A away, there is no daddy to help look either. What to do (she said while wringing her hands and tearing her hair)?

life is what happens...

i haven't posted in ages, and I really don't have an excuse except that I have been busy and my husband is away in the middle of the ocean on a research ship for the next month and half... so, I have been being a single mom for E and L and that doesn't leave a lot of extra time in my day for writing. But I recently started yet another diet, and in an effort to make it work I have downscaled some cup-o-cake recipes and you can find them here at my other bloglosergourmet.

The winter here has been long and gross... we have been busy with snow and ice and I have to saw, though I like winter, I am ready for spring about now. This slushy muck we are getting right now is pretty nasty and I am not looking forward to cleaning up after it.

It's howling outside right now, and I imagine that I will have to go out into it soon... wish me luck in getting the driveway cleared of a ton of leaden sludge.