BFF's, Road Trip & Signs of Spring

Well, well, well.  This week seems like I jammed in as much as possible, but I guess there's nothing new about that.  Steve's best friend from college, David Silpa, paid us a visit at the Ponderosa this week.  He has lived in Paris for the last seven years and is a wonderful photographer.  Steve (and perhaps every man) can live vicariously through his adventures, beautiful women and world travels.  He comes back to the States every year for about three months.  You can read his blog and view the world from his unique perspective   My blog was created to share our world with him (thus the similar name) and catalog our life a little bit at a time.

I cooked up a storm while David was here and enjoyed seeing my husband laugh out loud (a lot) with his friend.  Grady LOVED having him here and called by his full name each and every time he addressed him.  Um, David Silpa, can you read to me in French?  David Silpa, watch me hit the baseball.  Hey, David Silpa, can you sit by me?  I like the fact that Grady has such a close relationship with him, despite the fact that he lives all the way in Paris.  We send him Grady videoclips and G loves receiving odd presents from David Silpa all the way from France.  

I decided to hop in the car and take a road trip this week to see my best friend, Kacy and her sweet family.  We had a great time.  Lots of laughs and the kids were so perfect together.  They haven't seen each other since June when we went to Maui for a week and they just pick up where they left off.  They share everything and the imaginary play was in full swing the entire weekend.  I put all of my HGTV-watching to good use and helped Kacy with some home decorating and brain-storming for future projects.  We saw Jack's last basketball game and his first Little League Game.  I caught a chick flick with Kacy and had late night margaritas.  Too much fun!!!  Her husband even let me sleep in their bed (minus him) on my last night.  They have this incredible Tempurpedic (sp?) bed and I slept so soundly.

We left with way more than we came with (thanks Kacy) and now have a box of scrapbooking supplies and a keyboard for Grady to use when he starts taking piano lessons.  I miss my friend so much and it was just what we both needed.  The image below is the cream cheese won-tons she made on Friday night.  I'm going to see if I can recreate tomorrow night for a dinner party at my place.  

We ended our Southern California journey at Grandma Jan's house.  We hung out, ate homemade minestrone soup and watched the Oscars.  It always feels good to stay with Jan and this was no exception.  Oh, we also got to visit with Great Grandma Beezer.  Grady was in Grandma heaven!


While I was gone, Hecht worked on creating a wine rack in our small kitchen closet.  I currently have a really fancy system of running to the garage and grabbing a bottle out of the dark, dank, back corner and hoping that I've grabbed the right one and then running back into the house.  I would love to have the ability to pick and choose from a few cases that are housed right in the kitchen.  I'll post the after picture when he's done.  What a handy husband.

While we were gone over the last four days, signs of Spring arrived.  The daffodils totally busted out and the cherry blossom trees exploded on our property and our neighbors.  This means I need to get started on plotting and planning my garden.  I have a complete black thumb, but I look forward to chronicling my attempts at vegetable gardening, raising chickens and reenforcing an outbuilding as a chicken coop, talking my husband into two goats, fine-tuning my composting abilities, planting a cutting garden, creating an outdoor dining space and hanging my laundry out to dry.  Oh, and learning to make bread for our family from scratch.   

My first assignment is to get dirt, manure and straw for my beds.  Wish me luck...

Poetry, Valentine's Day & Rain on the Brain

The rains are finally here.  I usually dread the torrential rains of December/January, but this year they did not come.  The farmers all around us need rain and if I'd buy the rain barrels I know I need....those would need rain too.  Well, this week the rains and winds arrived and everyone was happy to see it.

We have been preparing for Valentine's Day for a few weeks by creating and making cards for G's classmates.  He loves to cut images from magazines and save them.   He carefully selected the image that he wanted to bestow on each classmate and teacher, glued the image, wrote each child's name and his on the card and then I asked him why or what he wanted to say to each person and I jotted down his comments.  Very sweet and I think I enjoyed it just as much as he did.

My mom came over during the week (after completion of our homemade cards) and had four boxes of Valentine's cards.  I told her we make ours and she insisted we take a box and/or donate the rest to the school.  Most of them were logo cards (Disney, cartoon characters, etc.) and I am not a fan of any of that.  However, she did have a box with animals on it - so I said he could keep that box.  Mind you, I didn't read the text on the cards.  Grady immediately sat down and started writing cards to neighbors, the post office ladies, the young man that works at the Valley Ford Market, some of our friends, etc.  Here's a few examples:  "I'm Glad God made us friends" and "Jesus thinks you're special", along with sad little pictures of animals.   Okay, not so funny to most people - but being married to an atheist and my sad attempts at organized religion and newfound freedom with the label "agnostic"....this was very funny to us.  G didn't know what the cards said, but was delighted with the imagery and I think everyone else enjoyed his sweet sentiment nonetheless.

So much happened this week.  Here are the highlights:

• Making sweet treats with Grady for Valentine's Day
• Date Night with my husband in Petaluma at Graziano's & Graffiti
• Numerous rainbow sitings
• Grand Opening of Mermaid Treasures (Isabella & Sophia's storefront at River's End)
• Watching Grady read his poem at Open Mic Night in Tomales 
• Birthday Party & Play Dates
• Bodega Bay Fireworks fundraising underway 
• Buying fire bowl (?) for our yard & all the fixings for s'mores
• Watching Nim's Island with Grady (PG movie, so he had to watch with us and LOVED it)
• Dancing up a storm at VFH while Arann Harris strummed & sang all of G's favorite songs
• Preparing for visit from David Silpa...all the way from Paris!  

We attended the Tomales Open Mic Night and Grady was going to read his poem "Home" to the crowd.  He signed up to go first, sat down and patiently waited.  No fear for this guy.  He got up on stage and delivered a sweet reading and I was so proud of him.  The West Marin paper was there and asked him if they could publish his poem, along with his picture.  He agreed and I'm posting the poem and his imagery of our home, as colored by the little man himself.

I'm jotting a few lines Grady used on me at bedtime this weekend:

Mom, you're sweeter than a rose.

Mom, you're sweeter than juice.

Mom, I love you too much.

Mom, I love you more than Valentines and all the hearts in the world.

I am so lucky.

Birthday Party, Chinese New Year & Local Eateries

Quite a celebratory week here on the range.  We celebrated my step-dad's birthday this week at our house and Grady helped me make the Hecht Family Kahlua Kake.  I've been making this cake for approximately 10 years and it's always a hit (thanks to Jan's perfected recipe).  You can have your cake and alcohol all rolled into one delicious dessert!

Chinese New Year was last week and I was geared up all this week to head to San Francisco to enjoy the sites and smells of China Town with Grady.  He'd been fighting something all week and developed quite a headache, cough and fever - so we had to nix the plan.  I did head to an asian market in Cotati and, as you can imagine, it was not quite the same thing.  We did discover that Steve was born the year of the dragon, Grady was the year of the sheep and I was the year of the dog.  Grady didn't actually want to go to the city because "he loves his home too much".  He started lobbying earlier in the week for us to stay home because "home was like his blanket".  After he uttered these words, I quickly wrote them down.  I told him those words would make a beautiful poem.  Every morning thereafter I asked him what home meant to him and he told me a few things.  And I wrote them down.  At the end of the week we had an amazing, compilation of words and thoughts about home.  It really showed his feelings about what we've created for him and how strong he feels about home and himself.  Here it is...

Home is like my blanket.

Home is sweetness.

and no harm.

Home is nice.

and dry and warm.

Home is beautiful.

and colorful.

Home is for snuggling up.

and happiness.

I feel like a home that walks.

We have found a new babysitter and Grady was elated (and smitten) that she was watching him Friday night.  Hannah is her name and she is already booked for next Friday night.  My mom usually helps us out, but her work schedule has changed and it's going to be nice to have someone else in a pinch.  We actually had a Friday night date and went to our former shop (Gourmet au Bay) and then to have an intimate diner at Terrapin Creek in Bodega Bay.  This used to be the Seaweed Cafe and the new owners are fantastic.  The food was so good and the dessert was incredible.  They sent us home with cookies for Grady and I can't wait to go back.  We have just a few restaurants in Bodega Bay and this is such a nice, fresh surprise of a place.

We also had the pleasure of dining with Bert Rangel & Family at Nick's Cove Saturday afternoon.  G stayed home with my brother and we drove down to Marshall for a lovely afternoon with Bert's family and his parents.  It could not have been a more perfect day.  It was warm out and no wind, as we walked off the lunch on their private pier.  I was reminded, again, that February is my favorite month of the year on the coast.  It's always super green, with a sea of mustard growing in the surrounding fields and clear days (with rainfall usually happening at night).  

We're getting ready for Valentine's Day this coming weekend and Grady has been preparing homemade cards for his classmates and teachers.  He's also started reading a bit more this week and identifying words on boxes of food, magazines and books.  He's cautious about it and seems a little skittish to declare that he can, in fact, read.  However, he's definitely turning a corner in that regard.

Another lovely week in Valley Ford and on the coast.  I couldn't ask for anything more.

Cowboys, Cornell Box & Hotly Debated Clothesline

This picture is of Cowboy Grady and his new hat.  A good friend of ours, Eric K., came over Friday night for dinner and instead of bringing flowers...he brought a felt cowboy hat for our little man.  Grady has outgrown three cowboy hats and was so pleased when he opened the box.  I just found a little western snap shirt at a consignment store in Petaluma and we got him boots for his preschool graduation, so I think he's set.  Oh, Eric also gave him a bolo tie.  The look is now complete.  Watch out Valley Ford ranchers!

This week we worked on creating a Joseph Cornell box with the all of the found objects G has collected over the past year and a half.  He studied this artist in preschool and we took him to the exhibit at MOMA in San Francisco last year.  He really loves collecting random things (what kid doesn't?) and this is a great way to utilize the "stuff" collecting in his room and honor his vision of their beauty.  He remembers where every little item came from and had a lot to say regarding its placement.

Another beautiful Monday at the beach.  We saw harbor seals, birds, collected golf balls (we always find at least one), sticks, beach glass and smooth river rocks.  The above photo is from a series of photos of G jumping off of that log.  This one seemed like the happiest.

We went to the Valley Ford Hotel a few times last week to see Mr. December and, separately, Arann Harris perform.  Two of our favorite performers.  Grady has been on a music kick this week and sang for over two minutes "I had a bad day!" at the top of his lungs on our back porch, while standing on a table.  The video was too big to add to the blog, but it was so stinking funny and cute.  He would just keep repeating the same line for two minutes, with toe-tapping, country accent and all.  Great blackmail material for his wedding day.

I worked at Pastures Preschool on Friday and it is always like walking into another world.  The children are so unique and expressive.  Stacy (the director) has been studying the poet Langston Hughes with the children and they wrote a collaborative poem (ages 2 - 5 years old).  Here it is:

After Langston

I had a dream of dinosaurs made out of buckets

A dream that lasts all day long... underground

One night to start, one night to finish

We dream about eating TOO many marshmallows, twirling costumes, pretty pierced ears, miner's lettuce, chocolate, all kinds of candy and bones all night long

One night to start, one night to finish

It's nice to know that if you expose your children to art, music, writers, animals, nature - you will get so much back from them.  It's nice to see the path that Stacy takes the children on at the preschool.  What an amazing foundation to build upon.  The school has really helped me with becoming a better parent to my little guy.  We stopped letting him watch t.v. on school days and let him watch a movie or two on the weekend.  It has changed our lives for the better.  I feel like I know my kid so much better and he doesn't hound me for anything that would be in a commercial (McDonald's, toys, etc.).  We feel free of the media onslaught that is directed at children and he is really using his imagination to create his own world and not what someone is trying to sell us.  Okay, I'm off my soapbox now.  It was just a huge shift in our household for the better and I highly recommend it.

Here's a poem Grady and I worked on after getting the inspiration from the little ones at Pastures:

I love January mornings

Crunchy, sparkling grass underneath my boots spread like glitter

Distant sounds of owls calling (whooooo, whoooo, whoooo)

Seeing my breath as we laugh and run

Frozen disc of water in the bird bath and I want to make it melt

Warm, toasty, yummy waffles

I love January mornings

Steve and Grady installed a clothesline for me on the front deck.  We had a lot of debate over where to place it and optimal sun times, etc.  When I got home Sunday and saw them working on the project, Grady said "Dad is trying to make you happy".  I am happy.