Art, Books & Breakdown

Driveway moss + fallen camellia
Awesome mail day

February is winding down and this is where I start feeling a little sad.  The first two months of the year are such a great time for hunkering down, watching movies, reading books, organizing the house, preparing my taxes and cooking lots of meals for our family.  As we near the last days of February, it makes me long for just a few more days of winter.  It always feels like it went too fast.

Jesus is Grady's code name in Spanish.  This cracks me up.
Our computer calendar.  Blue for me, red for Grady, green for Steve.  What a rainbow this week!

I looked at our calendar at the beginning of last week and thought how in the hell are we going to get all of this done without a meltdown by one (or all) of us?  Well, we almost did it.

Steve took Grady on an 11 mile bike ride in Santa Rosa, only to be followed up by an extended basketball practice in order to prep for this weekend's playoffs.  The 3rd/4th grade boys' CYO basketball team is playing for the championship this Sunday.  They've only lost one game the entire season.  Monday was a holiday, but it was sports-filled and we were starting out the week with a tired kid from the get-go.  I was mildly concerned.

Letter in a Bottle by GSH
The Bianchi's Jersey Cows were my roadside traffic companions this week

Tuesday was the after-school chess club and this has been such a positive addition to our schedule.  Grady quickly learned new strategies and came home and challenged SL to a match.  He beat his father in three swift moves.  SL was dumbfounded.  Grady was beaming.

For reasons I don't understand, Grady wanted to create a message in a bottle and throw it out in our local ocean waters.  He asked Steve what our longitude and latitude coordinates were and jotted them down, along with a few facts about himself (like his birthday and love of Legos).  

Painting has become a very soothing morning activity for me.  I've been making a few note cards and painted a few wood blocks were primed with watercolor ground last weekend.  This makes me very happy and calm.  It's no wonder I made time for it this week.  It helped.

Angry Art
Top of the hill or punishment hill as it's now referred to
Our Marin Library haul

Wednesday, all hell broke loose between me and my son.

Grady can go for a long time with no problems, no meltdowns, no back-talk.  He's such a good kid, but every once in awhile we get these little surges of attitude.  And I know it's a healthy sign, but they always blindside me and need a proper punishment in order to redirect the behavior.

I met G at the mobile library after school and he quickly identified the teen graphic novel section on the top (read - out of reach) shelf.  I told him they were not appropriate for him just yet and to move on.  He proceeded to argue with me and tried to convince me that he was indeed old enough for the books and already had read a few.  I had to quickly decide that this was not up for debate and told him we were leaving.  He was shocked, but that didn't stop him from yelling at me in front of a bus full of people, crying and pleading with me to let him stay and check out books.

Now I know my boy's weakness is books and sometimes, as a parent, you have to use whatever you know is the child's weakness to enforce a punishment.  I had to act swiftly and not hesitate, because I was done with his tone with me and the way he was speaking to me in public.  Just done.

He wailed the entire way home and I finally just told him that if he said one more word, I would make him run to the top of the hill behind our house, twice.  Because, you see, I already made up my mind that he would run it once for the way he was talking to me on the mobile library.  He quickly quieted down and knew I meant business.

He ran to the top of the hill, fell down and worked out his anger by the time he reached the bottom of the hill.

We talked.  He apologized.  We hugged.  It was over.  He wiped the hot, angry tears from his camouflage-colored eyes with the sleeve of his turquoise hoodie.  The attitude stayed at the top of the hill.  My Grady was back.

Art.  Oh, how I love my boy's art.  I picked up four prints that we had made of some of his best watercolors.  He plans on selling them locally in order to fund his summer mad money fund.

I also picked up two of his masterpieces that we had framed at a local professional frame shop in Forestville.  They turned out great.  I plan to hang this week and will reveal the results on a separate blog post.

Our kitchen table has been doubling as our make-shift art studio.  We're experimenting on wood, rocks and paper.  I'm playing around with some vintage drawing inks and using white as a foundation for some birds I've been thinking of turning into postcards.  It's been fun and satisfying.

I had a date with Jill on Friday to make chicken liver patè.  It's not beautiful to photograph (it looks like cat food), but it tastes divine.  We used the same recipe as our batch last month, but used shallots instead of green onions and sweet vermouth instead of chardonnay.  We used an immersion blender and blended in my dutch over, instead of blending small batches in my mini-food processor.

My new found love of patè is surprising to me.  I only recently tried it and quickly decided I had an affinity for same.  Learning how to make it and doing so alongside Jill has been a fun and easy way to work on listening to my food senses and tweak a base recipe.

Duck livers are next.  Yes, duck livers.  I never thought I'd want to do this, but I'm loving the process and end result.

Rohnert Park Library & the aftermath in my living room

Grady stuff.

We watched The Odd Life of Timothy Green this week and G teared up and shared that a girl, Grace, in his class had kissed him on the head at school last week.  She confuses him and he didn't understand his feelings and why he was crying.  My sweet boy is in the beginning stages of 4th grade spring fever.  I better saddle up.

I've always had a struggle on my hands when it has come to feeding Grady.  It's a long story, but I know I was my own worst enemy when it came to dinner time and the rules/parameters for him.  It's bean a long haul, but he has recently stopped resisting and generally eats what we eat.  For the most part.  People told me this would happen, but I never believed them.

We shared a lovely dinner of roasted beets, cauliflower and red onions over a bed of sauteed braised greens that was lightly dressed in an olive oil, champagne vinaigrette and honey concoction.  He didn't love it, but he ate it.

The next night I steamed up fresh green beans and used the dressing to lightly coat the beans.  He ate every single one and then ate a reheated crab cake.  I almost fainted.

It's about damned time.

Saturday morning Grady rose at 7 am.  He made his bed, got dressed (twice), set the table and made breakfast for himself.  He even had seconds.  He did his chicken chores, brushed his teeth and was waiting for me by the front door at 9:30 am.  I promised him a library visit and he wanted to get there as soon as they opened at 10 am. On the dot.

We arrived shortly after the doors opened and he high-tailed it to the children's literature section.  He quickly maxed out his library card and had to use mine for the overage.

Upon leaving he told me that the library is awesome because you always find something unexpected.  It feels like anything is possible.

It was the perfect way to end our week and start this weekend.

Weekending :: Dolores Park + Japantown

Wood canvases in progress

Our mornings have slowly morphed into mini-art sessions.  I am really enjoying the watercolor medium.  It feels lighthearted and simple.  We sanded the edges of some leftover butcher block that Steve had in his shop and then applied two coats of watercolor ground.  This stuff is magic!  It turns the wood surface into something akin to watercolor paper and takes the paint beautifully.

I've been dabbling in watercolors and love the results.  I'm drawn to spheres, circles and hearts.  They are super simple to paint and I love the sweet images they turn into.  I'm trying to paint something every day and work alongside Grady.  It's been the best part of my day lately.

We busted open Under Wildwood (the sequel to Wildwood) and read the first chapter.  What a rich, smart and wordy book this is.  We read it one chapter at a time and stop to look up the big, unknown words and soak up their definitions.  The words from this evening were:  Ushanka, Triumvirate and Brackish. 

Grady added text to my iPhone pictures using the new app Over.  I'm loving the results.

I failed to get Grady to the Rohnert Park Library on Saturday afternoon, so I promised him a fun day on Sunday in San Francisco.  We got up early and packed a lunch, loaded his bike and a backpack full of books and National Geographic magazines (his new subscription arrived this weekend, along with back-issues).

We had driven past the new and improved Dolores Park a few weeks back when we went to Valencia Street.  There were thousands of people congregated at the park and we were headed home.  I promised him a future visit and Sunday was the day.

SF Street corners

I settled in on a grassy knoll and G took off towards the amazing play structure area.  He bonded with a little two and a half year old named Clyde and they played together for over two hours.  The boy's father came up to me and told me what an great kid I had.  I never tire of hearing those words.  Ever.

He offered to buy Grady and ice cream and was seeking my permission.  I joined him and his wife and mother-in-law down in the play structure pit and they kept gushing about my young man.

Grady truly loves little ones.  He would have been an amazing big brother.  And while he doesn't care that he doesn't have any siblings, it is nice to watch him spread his kindness, knowledge and warmth to another little soul.  The boys ate ice cream, we exchanged emails and Clyde gave Grady a big hug goodbye.  Grady wants to invite him to his art show this summer and meet up with Clyde again.  I love knowing this.

Japantown mural & landmark

We were going to head to the Legion of Honor after the park, but it was just too gorgeous to be inside.  The weather was in the mid-70's and the city was alive with activity.  We popped over to Japantown and hit the Goodwill, where Grady scored a few books & I found some sunglasses.

The young, teenage kids were dressed up as action figures and the girls had turquoise and hot pink wigs on.  It was like we were in a Japanese graphic novel and G was mesmerized by all the commotion in the center of town.  We want to go back and people watch.

Steve drilled drainage holes in the bottom of my re-purposed water trough and the holes read GR8Y.  Once it's turned over, it will be our little secret.  I love when Steve does sweet things like this.

I also learned to use two different types of sanders this weekend.  I feel very proud of myself.  Power tools freak me out, but the sanders were a piece of cake.  Grady even got in on the action.

G's basketball team won their final game against St. Elizabeth on Saturday morning.  Our Johns Street neighbors, S+J and Beula, went to the game to root on our team.  Final score :: 23-18.  We are going to the playoffs, as the boys only had one loss this year.  

Afterwards, we came home to spend time with friends on the deck, drinking champagne and enjoying a delicious citrus salad w/ toasted coconut, chopped pecans, mint & a lime-honey sauce, potato bites w/ sour cream, truffle salt & chopped parsley and a double chocolate sheet cake with chocolate frosting for dessert.  It was too hot to sit on the deck, so we retreated to the coolness of my kitchen.  February?  Yes, you are a tricky month for weather.

Our rooster had no name.  She is the one the pictured on the top left and in the  middle (right photo).
The middle feathers are all that remain.

Last night Steve decided to wring our rooster's neck.  You see, we didn't realize that we had two roosters.  When our friend wrung the last rooster's neck on Xmas eve, we thought we were done with all the noise and aggressiveness.  The noise didn't bother me, but Steve found it annoying while he was trying to have phone conversations with clients and have the rooster cackling in the background.  He saved a few feathers and we will have another avian funeral later today.

We have a regular pet cemetery going on in our pasture.

Country living.  It's something.

Valentine's Day Love

Pastures Preschool Art Show + Winter Open House 2013

I love returning to Grady's former preschool.  It is always beautiful and inspiring.  Always.  We popped  in to the winter art show, perused the original art and purchased a few treasures to bring home.  Hallmarks of Valentine's Day were everywhere and original prints and screen printing of the childrens' misshapen and totally original hearts were a lovely sight.

We've had a warm spell and it reached the low 70's this week.  We read and lunched on the deck over the three day weekend and did a little late winter gardening.   Better late than never.

We have been working on Valentine's cards for weeks and we finally mailed the last of them a few days before the holiday.

Grady asked me to make him a shirt that said "FREE HUGS" and I think it is just the cutest thing ever. Clearly, he has a special someone he wanted a hug from, but would not reveal that to me.

I make him soft pretzels with pink sea salt and chocolate-covered strawberries for his class party this year.  I just dropped them off and didn't stay.  I'm learning to give him a little more space and, yes, it's hard.  Especially when he's wearing a "FREE HUGS" shirt and all the girls are chasing him around the playground.  I guess I better get used to it.

I really like what a sweet holiday this is.  I know most people think it's a marketing scam for flower shops, restaurants and Hallmark, but we really don't buy into all of that.  Rather, we make each other cards, make a meal together and have a sweet treat to share.  We gifted Grady a subscription to National Geographic magazine and I scored a red Converse t-shirt for him at Hospice Thrift.

Here's a poem Grady wrote for his father and me.

This is Love
by Grady S. Hecht (your "special" son)

Is this love?
Chocolate doves and puppy love, is this love?

Self-love and, is this love?
Sort of?

Not boxing gloves, not any of the above.
Is this love?

This is Love.

Steve slaves over homemade crab cakes every year and I just absolutely think it's the greatest gift he could give me.  He only does this on Valentine's Day and it's a labor intensive task, but totally worth it (says she who doesn't have to do it!).  This year, Grady ate two of Steve's wasabi-laced cakes and loved them.  We topped it off with chocolate-covered strawberries and a game of chess.  I cherish these sweet, small traditions we're making.

Prepping Canvases
Watercolor note cards
February shadows
Blue Monkey Valentine for Steve

There has been quite a bit of art going on around here.  G has recommenced lessons with his private art teacher and has been readying his canvases with watercolor ground.  This is a new process for him/us and I can't wait to see what he creates.  

I've also been dabbling in making little watercolor note card sets and think they are alright.  I love color and the watercolor medium.  It appears effortless (even though it is not) and simple and I'm pleased with the results.  Watching my son paint, create and try new things has bolstered me in this area.  I also love painting alongside him.

I've been baking and cooking a lot lately.

We've been getting back into a regular routine of work, basketball practice & family dinners and keeping our weekends plan-free.

Our new routine is that I'm on early morning duty during the school week.  I ready his breakfast and pack his lunch.  I make a carafe of coffee and get a little work done before SL is up.  He generously drives G to school while I sip coffee, shower or work in my pajamas for an hour or two before I really have to go to the office.  It's a nice, new rhythm.

Grady has been doing the chicken chores without any fuss.  He's still forgetful, but does them when asked.  What a difference four years makes?

All this kid wants to do this weekend is go to the Rohnert Park Library.

Steve mowed the yard for the first time in a long time.

Grady picked me the first daffodil bloom of the season.

I love right now.

Time Flies + Clothing Swap

Lately, I've been waking up in the middle of the night or early, early morning - depending on how you look at it.  Our home is quiet and chilly.  I lay in bed thinking of all the things on my to-do list and eventually throw my legs out of bed, grab my eyeglasses and shuffle to the bathroom.  I don't want to get up at this ungodly hour, but I know that sleep eludes me now and I don't want to wake my slumbering husband.

The house is dark and I turn on my desk lamp in the living room and flip on my laptop.  The heater clicks on and I'm alone with my thoughts.  Outside, our home is wrapped in a thick, grey fog and it mirrors how I feel.

I haven't been writing here like I had hoped I would this month.  I made a quiet goal of daily blogging for the month of February that I was keeping to myself.  Today is the 10th day of February and I'm just getting around to gathering my photos and words.

I'm having trouble with the photo editing website I use and I find I'm uninspired to write unless I have photos to prompt me.  I'm flying blind this morning and struggling to find the words.  Since I am a lover of lists, I'm going to try and sum up the past two weeks with a few headers & photos to match what's been going on in our lives.

Community :: Clothing Swap

Clothing donations after set-up

The PTA & ELAC sponsored the 4th annual clothing swap at Tomales Elementary School the first weekend of this month.  There were thousands of items donated and we had a record turn out.  The oddest items found were an "I heart Doobies" belt and a real straightjacket.  Swear.  My farmer friend, Anna, relieved us of the straightjacket and reminded me how very resourceful she is.  She said it was good quality canvas and she'd surely find a use for it!

Day of the Swap Shopping

 I left with a bag of clothing for myself and Grady.  He selected two new baseball hats, two pairs of shoes that are too big for him, and a few "cool" shirts.  I scored a chain belt, three jackets that look very similar to one another and a pretty, silk carpetbagger purse.

The Clean-Up Crew 2013

This event serves so many in need in our community and it's growing in size.  Don't you just love my belt in the photo above?

Books :: What We're Reading Right Now

I'm slowly enjoying My Berlin Kitchen by Luisa Weiss.  She writes a blog called The Wednesday Chef, too.  I've never wanted to go to Germany, but her descriptions of the people, seasons, food & weather have me longing to go now.

February's book club selection was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and was hosted at Ginny Bassi's house.  Our book club had a lively discussion, as always, and I came home with leftover chocolate cake for the boys.  The best cake.  Ever.

The bi-monthly mobile library came last week to Tomales.  I can't tell you how much that little mobile library and the awesome librarian that drives it means to me.  I look forward to her visits and the chance to talk books, share what we're reading and mingle with the locals.  It is truly one of my favorite days of the month and I try never to miss it.

I popped into the Sebastopol Library and gathered potential books for Grady to read.  Typically, he likes to select his own reading material, but I like to mix it up for him every once in awhile.  He perused the chess books, loved the Nanny Piggins book and shared that his school librarian is reading Bridge to Terabithia to his fourth grade class.  The rest went back to the library unread, which is fine by me.

Make :: Art Projects

"Dowager"

Grady has been studying with a local watercolor artist, Jean Warren (who is also one of Steve's clients).    They are working on paintings that will be shown later this year at an art show with our friend-neighbor-photographer, Scott Van Cleemput.  Grady is reinterpreting Scott's photos using watercolors and they will be hung side-by-side.  I love his first finished piece for the show above.

We've been dabbling in crafts around here lately.  G finished up Valentine's cards for his class and we've been painting and drawing for fun.  When I sit down to paint something, Grady likes to encourage me and tell me how great my work is.  It's so cute.  He's mirroring what I do for him and I think it's the sweetest.

The time spent around our dining room table painting for fun means so much to me.  We have really nice conversations, share techniques and the boy opens up to me about girls, school and whatever interests him.  Lately, we've been listening to NPR's This American Life and pausing the podcast to discuss what we've just heard.  I'm savoring all of this time with him at the end of his 9th year.

Food & Drink 

We hosted a birthday dinner for Jill at the beginning of the month.  It was a dinner for 10 (!) and we served sushi and these sweet little cupcakes.  Lots of sake and bubbly were consumed and it was a lovely way to kick off the month and her 45th year on earth.

I look forward to Friday night pizza.  I wake up and get the dough started in the bread maker early, so that it can have plenty of time to rise during the remainder of the day.  Using what we have on hand, we made due this week.  Onions, kalamata olives, a few fresh tomatoes and sauteed mushrooms, red pizza sauce & green pesto, a smattering of fresh oregano & lots of mozzarella cheese.

This coffee cake is such a staple now in my baking repertoire.  It's substantial and delicious.  Jill's surgery prompted me to make this week's cake and I took it down to her with a pot of french tea.  We nibbled on the remainder for the rest of this week.

Home, home on the Range

The girls are producing after a slow winter of egg laying.  We go through a lot of eggs around here and cracking open their perfect shells and seeing their orange orb-like yolks helps to reinforce why we have chickens in the first place.  Steve installed a new fancy plexiglass door for their hen house this past week and G has been doing chicken chores without much of a fuss.

The weather has been chilly and clear most days.  The rains hit us hard in December, but we haven't seen much since then.  The hillsides are lush and green and soon I will turn my attention to a future garden plot.

Cow funeral procession up the back hillside

A cow died in the back pasture last week.  The farmer was hauling it behind  his four-wheeler and the other cows were trotting alongside, nudging and circling friend.  Later, the cows were heard bellowing and trotting across the back pasture to say their goodbyes.  Steve pointed this out to me and we both quietly watched from the windows of our home, pausing and paying our respects.

Steve spotted this red-tailed hawk at the bottom of Johns Street.  He believes it died of natural causes and found no puncture wounds.  Grady and his friend thought it was the coolest thing ever.  And while I think it's beautiful and all, it kept making me jump every time I exited the house and spotted its quiet mass taking up residence on my bench.  G saved a few feathers and ended up burying it without a lot of fanfare out in our pasture.  What an absolutely beautiful creature.

So we celebrated birth days and observed and honored a few deaths this month, too.  We went to chess club, art lessons, the Farm Bureau Crab feed and Kaiser Hospital for G's ear infection.  I witnessed my goddaughter in her starring role as Charlotte in her school production of Charlotte's Web.  I've harvested tangerines from the orchard at my office and watched the end of season two of Deadwood.  G's basketball team is on a winning streak and heading to the playoffs in the coming weeks.

We've packed in a lot for being only 10 days into the month.

Time.  It's going so fast.

I'm glad I woke up at 4 am this morning and took the time to jot down these words and download the images to this blog.  This will help me remember these wondrous, full days of our lives.