may

every day I write the book

It is definitely spring when Authors' Tea starts at our school, and having three children means a whole lot of nights listening to stories written by all the classmates.  Ruby and John had theirs this week and Ella's is on May 6. Ruby's story was about a fairy named Ding and her adventures with a dragon. John's story was Minecraft based, but he promises that next year his story will be completely "out of game."

#doubleexposurelove

sunday coffee

sometimes the best toys are not toys

A friend needed a place to keep her piano for a few years. I think this is the perfect spot. Not everyone has a piano in the kitchen, but for me the kitchen is really the "family room" and heart of the house. As of today, my heart is beating a bit louder.

springing

This appeared in two days.

green days

This was my one time out of the house today when I wasn't attached to a dog leash.  A few months ago I bought the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I read it, but then I didn't have time to actually complete the process. Today I dove in. Little John's room now smells like mint, and all of his clothes are organized.  We purged relentlessly, and he loved it. He feels like his room is much more grown up, and he even found the cord to his keyboard. Ella gave him a lot of books that he wants to read, and we moved his furniture. He can still see mountains from his bed.

We rented our house out for the University's graduation on May 15, so I have until then to get the house more organized and pared down.

planting flowers

I planted some bleeding hearts today in the front border under our bedroom window. These in the picture are from our old house, but I hadn't gotten around to planting any here yet. Someone told me that Lake Smith had a huge border of bleeding hearts out front when this was her house. We still have her lilacs, peonies, and poppies, and the grape hyacinths are blooming in the grass. When we moved in the yard had been scraped and seeded with grass, but in the spring the flowers appeared and we could see the shapes of the old borders.

The top picture is Lake, her father, and her daughter Norma. They are standing in the front yard here, and our lane would be along the far fence line. That driveway in the picture used to go along the side of the house with the addition. Norma died in 2007 at the age of 81.

a new twist

weekending

The kids had a good time in Richmond, but by afternoon Ruby said, " Get me out of the city." She did like Perly's french toast topped with roasted apples.

chickenfeather

Yesterday she said, "Mama, I've learned something about myself. I'm a little bit boy." I like this, but to her being a little bit boy means that she likes dinosaurs, dirt, and playing with boys who don't go for a lot of drama.

supergreen

dandelion, mango, cucumber, lime

thirty pounds by friday {because the one thing I have is a sense of humor}

The stars aligned this week, and I had a chance to meet four times with a personal trainer at the gym. She works with me at the preschool and needed to work a certain number of free hours at the gym. Please let me introduce you to her if you would ever like to do something like this. My kids (and my little kids in my preschool) had spring break this week, so I had the time and energy to take on something very new.  I have had a gym membership for years, but I am pretty self conscious while I am there. I didn't know how to use all of the equipment, and I didn't want to talk to all those super fit people who seem to know what they are doing. I know. It is my problem.

I have been lifting weights, doing yoga, and even went to my first spinning class. That was the hardest thing I've done since before Ella was born--hardest exercise in fourteen years.  It was insane, and I'm going again this Wednesday. Thursday morning I had to pull myself out of bed with my arms.


I also did a full week of the Eat to Live diet. That part is simple. Plants. No added oil. I takes a bit of prep work, but I like eating this way.  As hard as I've worked this week I thought I'd drop ten pounds, and I have been joking that I was losing thirty pounds by Friday. I lost 2 pounds. I think I'm taller, at least in my head.

blood orange, beet, carrot, dandelion greens

It's spring break here in Appalachia, and all the snow has finally melted. Birds are building nests in the bluebird boxes. One of my friends at work just got her personal trainer certification, and she has offered to meet me at the gym and work on an exercise program. I'm meeting her every day this week, so hopefully I'll still be able to walk by Friday.

red {beet, kale, cucumber, orange}

and then it snowed again

I have really enjoyed being at home today with a fire going, and I'm about to go out and sled with Ruby, but I needed to see some greens, some raspberry pickers, leaves on the trees.

between snowstorms

My dearest Universe. Please stop snowing and warm up. The pipes are freezing, and the children won't stop eating all the food. Also vomiting.

burnt norton

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction 
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
                     But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.
                Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?
Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
Round the corner. Through the first gate,
Into our first world, shall we follow
The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.
There they were, dignified, invisible,
Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,
In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,
And the bird called, in response to
The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,
And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses 
Had the look of flowers that are looked at.
There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting.
So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern,
Along the empty alley, into the box circle,
To look down into the drained pool.
Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,
And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,
The surface glittered out of heart of light,
And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.

t.s. eliot

ruby draws annie

both sides of the lens