Thursday, April 28, 2011

alpaca


alpaca, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

Each skein has the picture and name of the animal that the yarn was made from. What a great gift. Now I just need time to actually knit.

I finished staining and sealing the deck, and I potted a big new pot of grasses, mounding basil, and a sedum. If only the other rooms were so easy. I worked in the children's room for a few hours today. The though of putting our house on the market in a little more than two weeks is daunting.

alpaca


alpaca, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

singing around the peace pole


singing around the peace pole, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

The third graders read their stories tonight at school, and I'm sure everyone was thinking how their stories have evolved even though some elements have remained the same. Afterward they sang and danced around the peace pole before going home.

Ruby spent a few too many hours at school today and chanted, "I see your boobie" through much of the program. Hooray.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

flower mouth


purple pansy mouth, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

playground afternoons


Ruby & Tess, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

Spring has finally arrived, and we never want to leave the school playground in the afternoons.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

to the sea


martha's vineyard, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

We just enjoyed a week in New England with the kids. John had a conference in Boston, and we tagged along. He was working nearly all the time, but the children love hotel living. I'd almost forgotten I'd be staying in one room with them for four nights. Apparently I'd also forgotten how much they eat. I need a prep kitchen at all times.

We took the train. When a five year old asks how much longer and the answer is seven hours, there may be tears. I loved the train.

Little John got to go to a Red Sox game with Aunt Ren, and the girls and I spent an afternoon in downtown Boston with Uncle Joe. Daddy was determined to get the littles up north to meet his brother and sister in law. Towards the end of the week we met them out on Cape Cod for a few days on the coast. They got us rooms at a great little bed and breakfast in Wood's Hole, and we visited the Aquarium there, the lighthouse, and the best little coffee shop ever, Pie in the Sky, that opens at five am every day of the year. We took the ferry to Martha's Vineyard for the day and visited a alpaca farm. Who knew there was going to be yarn? We drove around the Victorian summer houses of Oak Bluff and then floated back to Wood's Hole.

I'm still thinking about aquamarine walls and glossy white trim. Orange jellyfish. Delicious wine. Quahog chowder at the Black Dog. A big thank you to Joe and Ren.


family time


joe, ren, and ruby, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

trains and trains


new england 009, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

we rode boats


ruby on the ferry, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

The whole enchilada

Here is the recipe for Martha Stewart's Vegetable Enchiladas. I recently had some good ones that were stuffed with potato.

Monday, April 04, 2011

grape hyacinth


grape hyacinth, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

The very thought of buying a new house makes me feel inadequate. Six years ago I wrote a number on a piece of paper in a strange kitchen, and a man I did not know laughed at me. A few days later my then preschool daughter forgot her show and tell and decided that she would just "tell". "My mama went to meet a man to buy a house, and he told her she didn't have enough money."

I met with a realtor today for an hour and a half, and I felt that she was telling me to prepare myself to lose money. I'm not prepared to do that. I'm going to plead with the universe a bit and declutter like I've never decluttered before. I don't want a fancy house, just one that feels like home, one that lets daddy spend more time with the kids than in the car, and three bedrooms on the same level.

On sunday the littles and I went to a birthday party out near my crush house. I'm so over it that I had to cry a little on the way home. The party was at a farmhouse with a wrap around porch, so I was primed. Houses are a difficult proposition. Sometimes it is so easy to get wrapped up in the dream that it is hard to face the reality of what you can really afford, and then you are left salvaging little parts of the dream. Four chickens. Flowers. A heart shaped stone. A leaf. An unfound door.


Sunday, April 03, 2011

yellow


yellow, originally uploaded by ellajohn.

ruby


ruby, originally uploaded by ellajohn.