sorry it has been so long

i couldn't find the camera until today.  it was in the pocket of my coat which i haven't worn since arkansas.

here were some of my favorite shots from our trip. 

 

 

 

 

we are ending a week long stretch of ford being sick.  at least we are hoping that it is ending soon, just in time for his birthday and debut as big baby Jesus in the african Christmas play at church next weekend.  will write more soon.  i promise.  the thoughts are brewin in my head.

a week's worth of stories

Me: "Frank, do you know why the garage doors are open?"

Frank: "no I don't.  But daddy did say that he saw a wroach in there.  It was a dead roach.  That's the kind of wwroach that you like, isn't it, mama?  The dead kind, that's the kind you like."

Me: "that's right, buddy."

*****

Family enrichment has been a great week.  I have loved having the television off.   Frank has done great without cartoons in the morning, and has instead spent every morning outside watching the men prepare to repave our street.  The actual repaving of the street took about 30 minutes, but the preparation took over 2 days and about 15 men who mostly stand around their big machines and talk to each other.  Frank stands on our sidewalk in front of the house putting on various "shows,"  i.e: acting like a super hero, singing songs, reciting, "Little Boy Blue" at the top of his lungs over and over again, and sneaking secret touches of the equipment when he thinks no one is looking.  I have thoroughly enjoyed watching him do this from secret viewing spots inside the house.

*****

Scene: Walking down the candy aisle at target (why were we there?  I don't even remember) Frank is walking slowly, with his hand tracing the bags of candy as he meanders down the aisle. Then he exclaims: 

"mama, LOOK AT THIS: GUM-GUMS AND ENIMENS!!!!"


He was referring to bags of Dum-Dums and M&M's that were next to each other.  I never correct him on his pronunciation of his two favorite candies because i like his version of their names better.

*****

Another family enrichment activity was watching the movie "UP" with frank.  Can I just tell you how much I loved that movie?  The elderly man, a cute boy, talking dogs and a pretty bird, it was awesome, I felt like someone made that movie just for me.  There were some pretty adult themes, but frank loved it, too.  At one point in the movie, Mr. Fredrickson is looking through a photo album of his life, and I start having some sort of cathartic cry while sandwiched on the couch between two of the men in my life.  Embarrassed and not wanting the boys to see me, I wipe my eyes and say something to frank, who looks at me with a sweet sentimental tear running down his cheek.  then I look at michael, and he had some wetness in his eyes, too.  that was a great moment in my week.  

*****

And I don't want to leave Ford out of this week's news.  He just rocks.  He is nothing but joy.    Now don't take this as sacrilegious, but sometimes I wonder if this is a little what Jesus was like as a little baby.  He is that sweet.  He is still not walking.  i am beginning to doubt the validity of Miss Ethel's claims.  His balance reminds me of someone who is on a small boat at sea.  He is also struggling with holding a spoon and putting it to his mouth, he just doesn't get the concept.  Yesterday, when I put the oatmeal on the tip of the spoon and set it on the tray in front of him, instead of picking it up and putting it to his mouth, he would lay his head on the tray and try to put his mouth around the spoon.  maybe he is special.  but I like special people. 

the week ahead

last week we focused on manners and healthy eating.  this week's focus is on family enrichment by not turning on the television.
except to watch a netflix or two...or three.  surprising how my netflix viewing increases when there is no more television.

any suggestions for family enrichment between now and thursday? 
sometimes i wish that i had an education degree instead of those gerontology and nursing degrees....they just aren't doing much for me these days.

a note on the stinkhorns:
amazing, some critter attacked them on that first night, and they are disintegrating almost as fast as they appeared... they remind me of gremlins.

Random facts

On November 12, 2009:

Ford took his first two steps!....at the YMCA....in the childcare room...with Miss Ethel...while mama was in pilates...what a turkey this boy is.  He knows i have been waiting for this...well, maybe he doesn't, but he is still a turkey.

This morning I was wearing a nightgown that I had purchased at a vintage store for the Mad Men photo.  It was yellow and fluffy with ruffles and a rose.

Frank said, "Mama, you look like a dancer."
I said, "thank you frank, I wore this because I thought it was pretty."
then he leaned his head on my shoulder and said, without even a hint of manipulation in his voice,"YOU are pretty." 

I wish I could keep them these ages forever.

This evening i made one of the best meals that I have made in a very long time.  lots of flavor and deliciousness.  I'm even proud of how well the meat went with the vegetable. (i usually struggle with food pairings, i.e.: things turn out monochromatic, or the side dish has all the same flavors as the main course. Top Chef I am not. )

Here are the recipes that made the dinner.  I so recommend them.  I think i am even taking the squash to thanksgiving - and if you do make it, you must make the sauce that goes with it.  As slow as I have been to liking cilantro, and believe me - i have been a hater - this sauce was really good.

chicken meatballs and curry roasted butternut squash and chickpeas.

On November 13, 2009:

I took the boys to the science museum.  ford crawled around on the floor of the entomology exhibit that has undoubtedly been heavily trafficked by hundreds of school children, and frank carried the butterfly chart around the butterfly house identifying all the ones he could find.  I was reprimanded by an elderly volunteer who told me my son should not step on the rocks or wave the big plastic chart around in the air because he could kill the butterflies.  then we had a picnic at the Sam Houston statue.  Later, we had a lovely time at a new park with some friends.  It was a good day.....DA DA DUM...until we found this:

and then we saw this:

who, you ask, put crab claws in the garden next to the sandbox?  That is precisely what I was wondering.  Until I realized that they were growing, and spreading, and coming up out of strange white eggs on the ground.  What the #&@*!?

And can you see the gross brown slime coming off the tops?  Now I am all about nature and beauty in strange things.  but these "plants" literally made my stomach turn.  I poked them with a stick and was afraid they would attack me.  After a little internet research, I found that they are a fungus known as the, "Stinkhorn."  Oh, that is right, i forgot to mention that they smell bad, too.  What the *&%@?!  How did this get in my backyard?

If you have a spare minute to look at this website on the stinkhorn, i think that you will not be disappointed.  I am thankful to have an opportunity to learn about freaks of nature in my very own backyard.  you can also check out the stinkhorn hall of fame, here, if you are a nerd like me.

Marilynn Jackson

Yesterday, a light that has brightened my days rose up to heaven.
Marilynn Jackson was 91 years young when she went to meet her savior.

I did not have the privilege of knowing Moo-Moo, as my husband introduced me to her, for long enough.  But in just a few short years - 13 to be exact - she made quite an impression.

Before I even met her, I had heard about her.  and not from michael, but from my brother-in-law who told me that Michael Calloway had a cool grandmother named "Moo-Moo."  And i thought, someone who goes by the name Moo-Moo does have to be pretty cool.


On my first visit to michael's parents' house, I had the opportunity to meet her.  And while I cannot remember the exact details of the encounter, here is what I felt and thought at that meeting and at all others like it, "Wow, she is beautiful... And she makes me feel beautiful just by talking to me."  I think I noticed that she was in a wheelchair for about 30 seconds, and then I never noticed it again.  She could make a wheelchair just seem to disappear.  The same was true even with my sons, who easily might have felt intimated or shy around that hardware that was unfamiliar to them.  Nope, instead they would just launch themselves right into her arms whenever they saw their "Mi-Mi," as she was known to them.


Marilynn was beautiful.  Her voice was beautiful when she spoke, and I have heard that it was even more beautiful when she sang.  With her smile, her mischievous eyes, and her sparkly sweater sets, she would literally light up the room.  She used words and phrases that I have never heard before, and I am afraid might die with her generation of southern ladies.  She said things like, "My stars above" and "Great land o' Goshen!"  It is expressions like these and her beautiful accent that likely led to her many on-air appearances on QVC.  Who wouldn't want to hear her on tv?

Marilynn was strong.  Her life was not easy, but she made it look that way to me.  In the years that I knew her, she always carried herself with dignity, even through the hardships of a body that was aging but a mind that was sharp as trap.  She would get knocked down physically, but her determination would push her to always rise back up again.  Her strength against adversity was inspirational.

She loved black licorice and olives.  She wrapped beautiful presents.  She had fine taste.  She loved her immense Santy Claus collection.  She was a great painter and appreciated the art work of others.  She was an encourager to her friends.  She smelled good.  She made delicious cornbread dressing, cheese straws, and date nut loaf at the holidays.  She was funny and not afraid to laugh at herself.  She was fun to sit next to.

I only got to her see her a few times a year, and I so wish it had been more.  There will never be another like her, and I am blessed to have been a part of her family for the last decade.

We love you, Moo-Moo. 

 

 

something that looks good

here is a recipe that i thought we all might want to try: salted brown butter crispy treats.

i think it is funny

... that frank slept with a real pumpkin in his bed and carried it around like a stuffed animal for over a week.

....that my screen saver rotates through pictures of the last year, and at least once every few days it shows ford's birth in too much detail - really large - filling the entire laptop screen.

....that frank runs EVERYWHERE that he goes in the house.  it appears to be impossible for him to walk anymore.  he told don and alex that his new shoes give him "running opportunities."

....that ford finishes the food off frank's plates on a daily basis

....and that Ford stood up, unassisted in the middle of the room today - about 20 times - it is amazing to watch.  his legs are so strong he can just rise up.

A funny thing happened at Costco

I got hit by a car.  Or I hit a car.  with my cart.  which had my baby son in it.  we are fine, don't worry.

You see it was raining, so we parked in the garage, and having I left my employee appreciation St. Luke's hospital umbrella at the YMCA two weeks ago, (and apparently they give your umbrella away to other people if you don't claim it within the week) I did not have an umbrella. 

So from the garage to the building is only about 20 feet.  So I got my excited voice on for Ford, explaining that we would run really fast and get a little wet.  And I started to run...and then i heard the horn and saw the minivan that was coming out of the garage really really fast, and I couldn't stop and I ran right into the side of the front of the van.  So I guess you could say that I hit them.

Now here is what is amazing.  You would think that my response would be to stop, check the baby, check their car, find out why they were driving so fast, etc.  Nope.  my response is to run across the street and pretend like nothing happened.  This is the same reaction I had in college when running on the treadmill at the Rec. when I lost my footing and flew off the back of the treadmill into some unsuspecting man's arms who happened to be walking behind me at that same instant.  I jumped out of his arms and ran back to the treadmill and said in a voice way too loud (because I had headphones on) "I'm okay! I'm okay!"  and started running again. 

Apparently my "flight" response to danger overtakes me.

So I am under the awning of the Costco and a woman asks me if I am okay.  And I say yes, I am fine and pretend that nothing happened, while i look over my shoulder to see the van just sitting there.  and I wonder...are they checking to see if i hurt their car?  or are they worried that they drove into a mother and baby?  But my flight response kicked in again and I ran into the store before I could put more thoughts together.

Once inside I finally took a breath, checked the baby, counted my blessings, and just stood in the snack aisle for about 5 minutes until I could think straight again.

Not that I can ever think straight in Costco.  Who can?  I believe that store has some sort of hypnotic power inside of it that drives you, trance-like in search of samples of food that you don't want to eat, and bargains for things that you hadn't planned on buying.  For instance, every time I am there I stare at the large number of individually packaged snacks and spend a really long time trying to decide which snacks we must have because there are so many to choose from.  Do I want the Peperidge farm snacks or Nabisco?  Maybe we should be healthy and get the Annie's bunny snacks again.  and ooh look at those fancy new Kettle chip/Stacy's Pita chip snack packs.  What the heck?  I am here for paper towels! 

I think i have mentioned it here before, but the movie Idiocracy comes to mind so often to me.  It is a dark, weird comedy about the sad state of the future of the United States - there is a lot of gross butt-like humor in the movie, but also many truisms that are starkly frightening.  One of them is that Costco becomes the only store and the center all activity in society.  Everything happens at Costco in the future - even transportation.  This feels entirely possible to me.

I noticed that i am not the only person spellbound by the store.  I witnessed today another seemingly normal lady push her cart right into a poll in the middle of an aisle.  she wasn't even on a cell phone, just totally distracted by all the large quantities of moderately well price choices around her.  I met another woman in front of the $34.99 Calvin Klein sheet sets who had the same look on her face.  She and I stood there staring at the sheets for at least 2 minutes, and I am sure she was thinking the same things I was: " 35 dollars for sheets...that's not bad...plus they are Calvin Klein...that seems really good for Calvin Klein...do i even need sheets...well, not really...but I wonder if I don't get these sheets if they will be gone the next time I am here....and I guess that I could use some more sheets, mine are a little old..." I am proud to say that I did not buy another set of these sheets as I had been contemplating, but my friend next to me did give in to the voices.

Maybe i drove my cart right into that car because I was just so excited to get in to the store to see how much I could save using the coupon book today.  Maybe the man in the Odyssey almost hit me because he had not yet shaken himself from the Costco trance.  Whatever the reason, I am glad we are okay, and I was thankful that Ford got an entire smoothie sample while we were there. 

the orca and the jack pumpkin

we had the "Trunk or Treat" party at frank's school this evening. 

i was going to wait until after halloween to post the pictures of his costume, but I can't wait.  they make me laugh too hard.  And everyone could use a good laugh this week. 

it was such a team effort.  thanks to my dad and michael who made it possible.  I am positive I could not have done it on my own.  

note here the flipper that ripped after only 2 minutes of taking pictures.  a quick fix with some metal brads, a stapler, and a black sharpie and we were good as new.

poor little ford was sweating to death in the pumpkin suit.  he is such a trooper wearing that costume so his daddy can eat his candy.

ford notes

two days ago, ford did exactly what michael and I had been anticipating.  He was standing in that funny bear position: legs straight, hands spread apart on the ground, and then all of a sudden, he just stood up.  and he stood there and looked at us like it was no big deal.  that is, until i started squealing in a really high-pitched excited voice which then scared him and he sat back down. 
he is also learning very quickly how to push the little noisy walker-do-hickey thing.  i love to see his proud face when he turns a corner. 

i do suspect that ford is farsighted.  i have no proof of this.  It is just a suspicion - and my suspicions are frequently wrong.  i was verbalizing my concern the other night, and then michael reminded me that if he does need glasses, ford will have the coolest little baby glasses, and he will be adorable.  Then i sighed in relief.  I am thankful to be married to someone who won't let us walk around dorky. 

the killer whale is almost done.  ford's thighs are too big for the cow costume I had planned on him wearing.  so much for my black and white halloween. 

plans for today: make pizza, make owl cookies, spray paint whale, wait for cable guy. 
how would butternut squash taste on pizza?  i'm thinking it will be tasty.

truth

I have been thinking a lot about perceptions and how people portray themselves.  One night, I spent at least an hour looking at tiny facebook thumbnail pictures of people i have never met, trying to decide what I think makes a cool profile pic.  (jeremy shellhorn has my favorite).   
Sometimes I look at other people's blogs and I feel frustrated because I think, is their life really that perfect?  or maybe it isn't, but they get to decide what they want on their own blog so they edit their life to look perfect.  perhaps I try to do the same.  well, i think it is safe to say I often do the same.  Not because I think my life is so great, it is just that you want to remember the good things and the nice things, not the crappy stuff.  But life is all about the good, the bad, and the messy in-between. 

So today, I have decided to show you what my house looks like on a regular basis when no one is coming over. 

And I want to admit that i struggle with planning events and accomplishing tasks on a to do list.  I am easily distracted by any opportunity to have fun.  Today, i am coming clean that i loose my temper too often with my precious family, and way too often with my dog.  I lack patience - then chastise my son for not having patience.  I am a bad gardener.  I get jealous very easily.  I eat too many sweets after I put my boys down for nap.  i drink too much caffeine.  I am very bad at keeping in touch with people i really care about.  I am a procrastinator.  I don't make my bed every day.  there is more i could confess, but that is enough for now.

I just wanted you to know, that I know that I am so very far from any semblance of blog-perfect.  I am still the same girl whose grandfather once picked up over 100 items off of my bedroom floor.  I am just older now and I pick up before you come to my house. 

My prayer for the past week or so is that God would reveal to me in new ways his love for me.  As an adult in this hurry worry world, I forget to reflect on just how much we are loved by God.  I think a lot about what I "should" be doing, and what I "shouldn't" be doing.  But I often forget to just accept that I am loved - just as I am.  And thank God that he is not done working on me yet.

Here is a verse that comes to mind: Philippians 1:6 (from the Message)
"There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears."

tis the season

to prepare for the next two months of celebrations

to finish the killer whale costume

to plan the robot birthday party

to buy tickets home for Christmas

to make soup

to roast root vegetables

to make a pot roast

to watch the workers and equipment resurfacing our street

to drink cider and eat Kraft caramels 

it is a good season.

 

this is the result of allowing your son outside in your flowers with his scissors.  He cut them all.  He was so proud.

dance party is back

i was just feeling sorry for myself that i can't make it to the gym once again today.  I decided to listen to some music on Pandora to accompany my laundry folding.  I found the Dance Genre with Funk as a sub-category.  perfect.  Laundry may never be the same.

the professor

Frank says too much these days to capture it all.  Here are some snippets that I don't want to forget.

"Mama, I DO want you to interrupt me while I am playing when you are ready for me to put the cheese in (for mac and cheese).  DON'T forget to interrupt me, i won't mind.  I DO want to put the cheese in....  Do you understand, mama?"


"Mama, you have already had your coffee today, why are you getting more?  I thought you were only supposed to have just one coffee."


"mama, do you think that we could have homemade pancakes for breakfast this morning?  we haven't had a long (pronounced wong) breakfast in a wong time."


"can we turn the vacuum over so that we can see the part that sucks the dirt up?" - this was followed by a very detailed study of how the machinery of the vacuum cleaner works.  the next day it was how the coffee pot works.  too bad i don't really know the answers to these questions.  I am just making it up as I go, trying to keep up with the kid.

more outdoors

this past weekend, I have officially decided that I want to become "outdoorsy."
something that I never thought would be possible living in Houston, TX.
but apparently if you are willing to drive - and wait until fall - you can get out into nature - even in houston.

Saturday, we participated in a church sponsored 4 mile walk around Brazos Bend State Park.  we met some new people and got to know others even better.  it was great.  a bit challenging for Ford, but overall it was so good.  just kidding, we didn't make ford crawl for all 4 miles....

i believe that Frank could become a true outdoorsman.  he did not whine or complain once.  He did ride on Alex's back for about 15 minutes, but he didn't complain.  He seems to be enamored with the woods, the rocks, the animals, etc.  Ford also loved it at first, but in order to go, we made him skip his morning nap, and about halfway through the walk, he decided he did not want to stay in the backpack carrier.  so he moved from my arms to michael's, to alex's, to mine, to michael's, and then finally to don's....where he fell asleep on don's chest until the end.

After 2 weekends in a row of being outdoors, I feel like we have really found some rest.  Even though both events involved less napping and sleeping in than we would like.  We weren't trying to do crazy futile errands.  We weren't sitting in traffic.  We weren't watching bad movies or falling asleep on the couch - well I did do that as soon as we got home.  But we got to be together outside, with no agenda.  Why don't I do this more often? 

The car ride home.  awesome.