Wednesday, September 28, 2011

hump day nuggets :: celebrate



hump day nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week

I didn't feel like coming here to write tonight.  It's been so stinking hot here today (in the upper 90's) and all I want to do is sip my glass of wine and read a good book.  However, this weekly assignment to myself to download some photos, organize my thoughts on our life over the last seven days and jot down a few words to help me remember it all is just what I need to do to help preserve these memories for me and my family.  So here I am.

nuggets.

:: As we said goodbye to summer last Friday and hello to autumn (hello, autumn!), we have been in a state of organized chaos.  We have been purging for our upcoming multi-family yard sale.  Sweeping the porches, power washing the house and outbuildings and using our slicker boots more and more during wet, dewy morning chores.


:: I discovered that one of our hens has been laying eggs outside of the hen house.  Over the last month or so, she started flying over a small picket fence behind our bedroom window and spent about 20 minutes or so making a full-on ruckus.  She was our new alarm clock and now it all makes sense - she was laying eggs away from all of the other ladies.  Perhaps she's our shy one?  Apparently, the beautiful surroundings of the Mexican sage bush is her happy place.

:: 18 eggs.  I knew we were missing an egg or two a day and I looked high and low for any buried eggs.  Guess I needed to look around the corner.  We tested all 18 eggs and none of them floated, so they were okay to eat - but I'm still not so sure.  She hasn't laid one in the secret location since she was found out.  Too funny.
:: The Tooth Fairy delivered.  Yes, he still believes in the Tooth Fairy.  We picked him up Friday from school and he was beaming.  Guess what, mom?  You'll never guess.  I lost my tooth in computer lab!  He placed it in a plastic, see-through box and taped it shut on all sides.  He was perhaps a little on to the Tooth Fairy, but wanted to believe.  She left him two gold one dollar coins and this sweet Sonoma Vermiculture hat (to replace the one that his mother ruined in the washing machine & dryer!).  What a cool Tooth Fairy.
::  Jenner.  Sunday was a wet and rainy morning.  Nothing at all like the stereotypical last weekend of September that I have grown to know and love out here in Sonoma County.  It was also my Goddaughter's 8th birthday and we were scheduled to go to the beach for the afternoon.  Rain or shine.






We trekked out to Secret Beach (our name for it) with our bags full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk cheese and the sweetest baguette from the Cazadero bakery, chocolate chip cookies, tempera paints, Sharpies & paintbrushes.

The birthday girl (pictured on the far right) requested to visit the driftwood houses on Secret Beach and help paint new art to the evolving artist-in-residence series it was currently exhibiting (just kidding about that). Her father thought perhaps we were teaching the kids the not so fine art of graffiti and potentially vandalizing the structures.  It is all how you look at it, right?  Half-full, my friends, half-full.
She blew out an imaginary flame on her celebratory cupcake because we forgot the matches.  She made her wish and played along.
Yes, I love taking an action shot.  These kids never tire of posing for me and jumping from rock formations, poolside ledges or on trampolines.  If I had a dollar for every digital shot I have of them jumping...I could be rich.
We had the honor and pleasure of spending the day with the Queen Fairy Godmother, Cheryl.  The birthday girl's mother was out of town and we just knew we had to jump in and help celebrate her little one.  We brought books of poetry along to read to the kids, painted and documented our visit in photographs and spoiled all three of them with this adventure.

She said it was one of the best birthdays she's ever had.

The kids quickly set about finding all of the dirty words and painting over them or modifying them.  It's funny how disgusted they were with all of the not-so-nice words they found.  I kept reminding them that they were just words, but that didn't fly with the oldest.  She was like the profanity police and she was having none of it.
It was an epic day of fun.  Her mama would have been proud.  Her daddy spoiled her, too.

Yes, he's been working hard on his upcoming art show.  We are finalizing the where and the when, but it will definitely be in Valley Ford on 11.11.11.  Mostly watercolors and an alphabetical book on monsters.  Each painting has a story and what started out as a show of paintings of things or objects that friends and family have given him, has now morphed into whatever he wants to paint.  The show will be called - whatever.  Not in that snotty, irreverent way that whatever can mean when a kid says it, but just whatever he painted he will share with us.
I love you kid.  I could not be more proud of the person you are becoming.  Your love of the written word makes my heart swell.  Your new found interest in playing Jenga & Yahtzee until we have to cry Uncle! is sweet.  Your rotating necklace-of-the-day is intriguing, if not mildly confusing.  The  fact that you will only wear short-sleeve shirts and shorts is a battle I am finally willing to give up on.  Your request for Mick Jagger's God Gave Me Everything I Want every morning on our car ride to school is encouraging.  Your rendition of Maroon 5's Moves Like Jagger is hilarious.  The fact that every night I can count on finding a hidden cockroach or snake in my bed makes me smile as I hit the pillow after a long day.  I am so lucky to be your mom.

Happy hump day out there.  

(I'm about to lose my mind with editing this blog post.  I cannot, for the life of me, fix the wonky spacing with the paragraphs and photos.  I'm leaving it as is to save my sanity.  I hope to fix on my next post.  Ugh!  I am so frustrated.  Night all.)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

hump day nuggets :: seize the day(s)

hump day nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week

It seems like our summer has finally arrived and with that comes a whole lot of living, soaking up the fun, spending time with dear friends and watching our boy explore the world around him.

When I downloaded the photos from this last week, they made me smile.  What a full and wonderful week.

nuggets.

:: Dip.  This picture is a bit fuzzy and dreamlike.  G went for an impromptu dip in our friends' vacation rental hot tub up in Sereno del Mar in north Bodega Bay.  There was no way he was going to miss an opportunity to soak in the hot water and count it as a bath.  No way.
:: Take it in.  The sunsets have been epic and are right on time as we eek out the last few days of summer on the Sonoma Coast.
:: Delicacies.  I love it when we are with good friends, a glass of wine of wine in one hand and a plate brimming over with oysters.  It seems absolutely decadent, but easy at the same time (especially since I never shuck them?).  Hog Island Oyster Company is just 15 minutes south of us and I do believe it's oyster season, as we are at that time of year where the months end in ber...September, October, November, December.  Yay!
:: The boy had a tough week last week.  Sent to the principal's office, cut his left eye on a soccer net and then got sand in his right eye the very next day.  So many lessons learned this week on the playground.
:: I took a screenprinting workshop last weekend at Stitchcraft in Petaluma.  We learned some basics, got our screens and then went to town on paper and fabric.  Our instructor was really great and I loved the process.  I'm planning on ordering a custom screen using one of Grady's illustrations and then customizing a few handmade gifts for xmas for our family and friends.
I made this shirt for my bird-loving boy.  He had me customize it even more by cutting off the sleeves this morning before school.  He has very definite ideas about his fashion and wants it how he wants it.  Don't we all?
:: Harvest.  I've slowed down on the applesauce-making, but had to gather more pears and apples this weekend before they all fell from the tree and began to rot.  My plan is to can them this later in the week and preserve for future enjoyment or gifting.
:: Spin.  I love watching my boy notice the natural world around him.  He has a keen eye for the little things in life and his power of observation is being honed with each passing day.  This little spider had been busy on a Saturday morning.
:: Change.  G has moved from the top bunk, to the lower bunk - bringing with him artwork, his blankie, a stack of books and decorating the slats above him with glow-in-the-dark stickers.  He has been reading quite a bit, listening to his Harry Potter & Tin Tin cassettes and just discovered that you can listen to Dodger games on the radio.  Whoa.  At this rate, he may never leave his room.
:: Imbibe.  I love me a martini.  Dry, slightly dirty and with good, fat olives.  My friend-neighbor-cohort and I decided that it would perhaps be safer (and cheaper!) to enjoy a few vodka martinis at home.  The husband makes a really lovely cocktail and it seemed like eons since we just made a stiff drink, BBQ'd and sat around our dining room table sharing stories, creative ideas, laughter and food together with our good friends.  Nothing like it.
:: Grow.  I was late to the party this year in planting my sunflowers, but they seem to be doing their thing and are just about to bloom.
:: Make.  I ordered this book because I had checked it out three times from the library (my indicator that I must own it) and made the blackberry apple fruit leather.  This is not at all like the sticky sweet fruit leather that you find in the stores.  It has intense flavor and the one batch I made will surely last us about a month, with daily strips added to G's lunch bag.  If you have a surplus of fruit, I would give this a try.  It is easily modified.
:: Grow.  The boy has planted, watered (or sometimes forgot to water) and harvested his very own carrots.  He loves carrots.  We washed them off, cooked them up and sprinkled with a bit of brown sugar.  He was very proud of his little harvest.
:: Child Labor.  Oh, how I love free child labor.  My car was a hot mess and the boy jumped at the chance to wash it.  His dad helped him with the roof, but he had a blast spraying the car, himself, the chickens, etc.  Not one complaint out of him about doing this job.  I think I've finally figured out a chore that he will happily perform and not give me any grief about.    I will have to test this out next week and see if it was a fluke or not.
:: Homework.  School has been pretty easy for the boy up to this point, but the level of homework has definitely increased with the start of third grade.  I'm sure his love of reading helps him in lots of subjects, but math is finally starting to click for him.
:: Bloom.  By the end of this week one sunflower had started to bloom and half a dozen more are on the verge.
:: Game Day.  G is slowly getting the hang of things in soccer.  He's running in the right direction, making contact with the ball and enjoying the after game snack.  Snacks seem to be a big part of the game for 8 year old boys.
:: Power.  The boy was convinced he could make this contraption go all the way to the top.  He mustered up all his power and he got to the 2.00 mark.  He was not discouraged and vowed to try it again at next year's Harvest Fair at the Two Rock Presbyterian Church.


Shark tooth necklace from Alaska via the Mahleys
:: Play!  We jumped in the car and headed to the beach after school yesterday.
I'm so glad we did.  It's not often that Steve joins us at the beach, as he's usually working and tied to his computer or showing property on the coast.  However, the weather has been hot inland and the guys clearly wanted to play soccer and bocce in the sand.  Quite ambitious for a Tuesday.  I just love watching them play together and strengthen their father-son bond.
G jumping at Doran Beach on 09.20.11
I also love this picture.

Happy hump day out there.  Go seize the day!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Monday :: Link Love List

Crayon's Heart by ljangphotography
September is humming along.  Here's what I'm loving this week:

cooking...up batches of this recipe for G's lunch (super easy & fun for him)

ordering...tickets to see Mary Oliver speak next month in Santa Rosa!

learning...how to screenprint on fabric & paper over the weekend at this local workshop

harvesting...apples, apples, pears and more apples

watching...Season 3 of The Tudors and, yes, I'm totally addicted

supporting...our 5th District Supervisor at his kickoff fundraising Fiesta in Guerneville on 09.23.11

enjoying...a martini or two at home made with Tito's Handmade Vodka

making...a lunch date with my husband for Food Truck Fridays at Iron Horse Vineyards

reading...about the Roadworks Street Fair at the San Francisco Center for the Book on 09.24.11

Happy Monday!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

hump day nuggets :: reflection

hump day nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week

This past Sunday marked the anniversary of 9/11.  I woke up and tried to tune into NPR on my kitchen clock radio.  I couldn't get a signal, so I decided to make coffee and take some time to reflect on the last decade before our day got underway.

I thought about where I was 10 years ago on this fateful day and how 9/11 changed my path in life.  I was just three weeks away from getting married to the man I love and he was in North Carolina on business.  He called me and told me to turn on the t.v. and then time stopped for what seemed like an eternity.  After that call, I waited four long days until he could fly home and was never so glad to see someone, as I was to see him.

We got married as planned and honeymooned along the California coast.  We talked about our lives and where we wanted to be in 10 years and how unsatisfied we were in our current careers.  We ended up cutting our honeymoon short, driving up to Bodega Bay and making  an offer on a business that we had been looking into buying.  We went straight home and put our house up for sale, sold most of our worldly possessions and made a B-line for the small town that would be our future home.  All of this done in three month's time.

The events of 9/11 changed our trajectory and put us on a new path, a better path.  We made very conscious decisions about what we wanted out of life and then figured our how to turn those ideas into a reality.  We have never looked back with regret.  We are now part of a small town and know our neighbors.  We are an integral part of our communities and proudly serve in what little ways we can to help make it a better place.  We get to raise our son in an environment that is idyllic in every sense of the word.  We couldn't imagine our lives any other way now and feel humbled and grateful to be in this place.

nuggets.

We're getting into the almost-autumn groove around here and I'm slowly settling into the September rhythm.  I've been cooking.  A lot.  I almost forgot how good cooking makes me feel.  It grounds me.  I feel so satisfied making something from scratch.  The research and prep-work bolster my enthusiasm and push me towards the kitchen.  Feeding my family and sitting around the table together is nirvana.  I've been making batches of caramel sauce topped with Parisian fleur de sel and Molly's perfect meatballs, soups and batches of applesauce, roasted the best chicken-a-la-Alice Waters and even attempted blackberry-apple fruit leather as a treat for Grady's lunches (big hit with the under 10 set).  I've been nesting for sure.
:: Our little house was built in 1952 and every time I pull out of the drive and see this view, I fall in love with it a little more.  It's funky and almost 60 years old, but I absolutely dig it.  This September marks our fifth year of living here and calling it home.
:: We spent a grey, warm & insulated afternoon on Doran Beach for a birthday party this past Sunday.  Shoes were abandoned, rocks were gathered and chucked into the ocean, dog tracks were followed and sea kelp given the once over to see if it could be turned into a horn (long story...).
:: The requisite rock-jumping ensued and I thought G was about to take flight.  If you look closely, his green carabiner necklace just about smacked him in the face.  Oh, the high price of style.
:: I'm harvesting as much as I can from our garden and fruit trees.  The artichokes are just ornamental this year due to the lack of, um, watering they received.  Oops.
:: Our first full outdoor soccer season has started and boy do I love this sport!  Oh, wait, it's not about me?  Well, the team is a little rag-tag at practice, but once it's game time they bust it out and work so well together.  G has mastered which end is which and thinks the name of his team is ultra cool - The Dark Tornadoes.
:: See the broken window above?  Some unknown bird flew into it and left bloody claw prints all over the chicken coop.  It totally freaked out my flock, along with me and the boy.

See the guilty chicken looking at the camera on the right?  That's Spike (the former wannabe rooster and leader of the pack) and she decided to get all turbo and jump into my face when I opened the  henhouse door Sunday morning.  IN MY FACE, PEOPLE!  With all the force she could muster up, she slammed right into the bridge of my nose and flew the coop, as they say.  I'm not going to tell you all the nice words that spewed out of my mouth, but I will tell you this:  I'm just about done with these crazy birds.
:: Let's change the subject and talk about flowers.  My zinnias are growing like mad over at my office garden plot and have reached about 4' high.  And while I'm proud I grew them from seed - they are taking over and my tomato plants aren't getting any of that late summer sunshine that they so desperately need.  I'm about to pull them out of the ground and try to will my green tomatoes to ripen.  Note to self:  next year, zinnias get their own bed.
:: Grady has moved to the lower bunk and his boxer dog pictures have travelled with him, of course.  He misses Molly so much and I think it's sweet that he goes to bed every night with her image right next to him.
:: We tried to capture the harvest moon and did a very fuzzy job of it.  I think I need zoom lens.
:: Grady has been working in earnest on his upcoming art show.  He drew for almost seven hours straight on Saturday and he logged in over 16 hours over the Labor Day weekend.  This boy is on a drawing binge!  His first solo art show will be Friday, November 11, 2011 from 4 - 6 pm at the Valley Ford Hotel.  Consider yourself invited.
:: Our house looks like it is glowing.  A lot of life is being lived inside those walls and it feels so good to be home.

Happy hump day, friends.

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