March :: Out Like A Lamb? Never.

Awesome sign painted by yours truly for the ceremony

Last week we attended the Tomales Elementary School's Honor Roll Ceremony.  G received the highest honor, Principal's List, for his straight A's and 4.0 GPA and he was beaming and so proud of himself.  He was one of two in his class to receive this honor and takes it quite seriously.  This is his second time achieving same this year and he's going for three next trimester.  

Books + Earless Bunny

We hit the mobile library last week and G quickly filled our book bag with graphic novels, a few movies and art books suggested by our amazing librarian.  I love when we leave the mobile library.  G can't wait to get in the car and start digging through his overflowing bag of books.  He opens a book and immediately is transported.  Once we arrive home (about 10 minutes later), he usually stays in the car, absorbed in the make-believe world he's reading about and emerges slowly from the vehicle, walking towards the house with his eyes firmly planted on the pages of a book.  I love library day.

My muses + birdie watercolors

These gals have been my painting inspiration lately.  They've been out roaming the lush, green hills surrounding our house.  They are quite the adventurers.

Me + Owl-loving Boy + Signs of Spring

After last week's blow-up with Grady and re-strategizing my parenting techniques with Steve, I worked on spending more time with my boy and really listening to him.  Sometimes I think just because I'm the parent that I'm right.  I'm correcting or rolling over his sentences with my words of wisdom and not taking the time to hear him out.  I've been snappy with him and loud with my responses for effect, too.  It's funny what you learn when you just shut up and listen to your kid.  He has a lot to say and I'm working on listening to what he has to teach me.

This was a week full of celebrations and art-making.

My little sister turned 39 yesterday and we sent her a care package last week and a special-ordered purse with a picture of her three kids on it from Snaptotes.  I hope she loves it!

Handmade Goodness by GSH

We also carved new stamps for our stationary endeavors.  G wanted to hand-carve his logo which consists of his initials and flames shooting out of the stop and bottom of the "S".  He did a fine job and even carved a really cool skull stamp.

We hosted a friend for lunch to celebrate her birthday (belated at this point) and the date ended up landing on the five year anniversary of her son's death.  G drew her a mourning dove and made fish tacos, rice and Grady's guacamole.  It was delicious and I think she really appreciated spending time with my boy on this hard, hard day.

We were honored and happy to attend the 75th birthday celebration of local birding legend, Don Toms.    This celebration also marked his accomplishment of seeing over 50% of the world's bird species (he reached this amazing milestone two years ago).

Mr. Toms has been kind enough to share his love of birding with Grady and they have gone on two summer birding expeditions in 2011 and 2012.   Their avian bond is really sweet and despite their 65 year age difference, they like hanging out together.

Best Friends 4th Grade CYO Awards Ceremony

Last week was also the CYO basketball award ceremony.  G's team ended up being the 4th grade  league champions and took home the coveted champion t-shirt and a trophy.  Calvin, his best friend, dressed up for the occasion and looked really cute in his all black suit.

I logged 11.5 miles last week on Middle Road Loop (just down the hill from my house).  I've been following a training schedule for a 5K, even though I'm not registered for any such thing.

I'm kind of a rule-follower-list-maker-goal-setting kind of gal and I figured I'd have more success on getting myself moving and exercising if I had a written chart telling me what to do.  So far, so good.

The sage is waking up from its winter slumber
My stack of "on-deck" reading

I've been trying to dive into my bedside stack of books and get caught up on my reading lately.  My stack is a bit schizophrenic with fiction, gardening and cookbooks, magazines, memoirs and a little creative self-help.  It definitely reflects what's on my mind right now and what I'm interested in at this very moment.

G spent a lot of time in his studio on Friday night and Saturday during the day.  He was inspired by the book Darth Vader & Son by Jeffrey Brown.  He drew almost all of the characters on this one sheet of paper and did a really good job.  He didn't trace but, rather, copied by looking at the images and drawing them on his own.  I'm constantly amazed by his artistic talent and admire the way he just dives in and starts a project.

A friend asked him this weekend was kind of medium was his favorite and he answered sketching.  This was news to me, as I thought watercolors were his current medium de jour.  Changing.  Always evolving.

And last, but not least, the guys attended the 50th anniversary of "The Birds" screening at the Bodega Bay Grange, along with Scott and Jill.  One of Steve's clients is an expert on Alfred Hitchcock and spoke prior to the film viewing.  There was also this really fun photo booth that Grady's art teacher put together.

I love where we live.

Crazy birds and all.  Feel free to replace the word birds with people, farmers, tourists, farm animals, ranch hands, neighbors, community members...

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.

Welcome, Autumn

Fennel fronds going to seed

The weather has shifted here and crisp winds blew through our valley over the weekend.  Autumn is upon us.  The roadsides are bursting with explosions of yellow fennel fronds and it is one of my most favorite sights to see on my way to and from Sebastopol.

Picture Day 2012

Soccer season is in full swing and Grady helped secure the team sponsorship by writing a heartfelt letter to the owner of Mombo's Pizza, Fred Poulos.  The owner could hardly refuse, as it was so sweet, pointed and shared his passion for pizza, art & playing soccer.  The team is undefeated as of today's date and flying high on their winning streak.  A very different season than the boys had last year.

Books & Blackberries

I'm settling into new routines and just love this time of year.  I feel the urgency to pick blackberries before they shrivel up on their thorny vines.  I have plans of canning as much blackberry jam as I can this year and will employ the boy to help me.

This time of year feels similar to when January 1st hits.  It feels optimistic and wide open, full of possibilities.  School has started, summer is fading and a new rhythm must be created.  This time of year feels hopeful and it is a time to put the garden to rest (what little there is of it), old projects must be completed or discarded and new lists created for the coming months.  I love this feeling.

The new flock & trap door

My good friend and chicken farmer, Anna, gifted us with a new flock of ladies.  They are so cute and all we had to do was fix their trap door and promise to be vigilant about locking them up each night.  I have promised to do so and hope they have long and lovely lives here on Johns Street.

September book club & thunderstorm

Thick raindrops dotted our deck last week and left us with a rather amazing rainbow later that evening. Rain on September 5th was certainly an unusual occurrence, but a welcome surprise.

4th Grader

My little fourth grader has been a bundle of emotions since just before school started.  He has been easily moved to tears and been publicly affectionate with me (which was never the case before).  He has been kissing me on the cheek and willingly holding my hand.  I'm going to soak this up while I can, as I have a feeling it is going to come and go quickly.

Soccer Game at Apple Blossom & Bird Book

Watching our family unfold and settle into the season brings great joy to me.  New dinner routines, work schedules and discussions about our changing days leave me completely filled up.  Our entire family helps put dinner on the table, cleans up afterwards and settles into our nightly rituals of books, teeth brushing & the occasional after dinner drink.  Our home is peaceful this time of year, with little entertaining and lots of family connection.

Homemade thank you note postcards

Art has taken a backseat, for now, as homework and literature take up a lot of our spare time.  G will resume his private art lessons later this month and he's looking forward to working with Ms. Warren, once again.

I recently shared with a friend that taking pictures help me to notice the world around me.  It helps me to pause, notice, reflect, capture and document my life, our life.   A decade or more ago, I'm not sure I would have paused long enough to appreciate the turkey clan migrating towards my home.  I love that I live in a place that inspires me to stop and pay attention to the natural world around me, around us.

My goddaughters' grandmother recently passed away and they released dozens of butterflies in her honor.  It was absolutely magical and beautiful.  One butterfly remained and the girls thought for sure it was their Nana Maria.  I like to think it was, too.

I've thought a lot about my life this week.  Losing loved ones makes one reflect on those types of things.  I feel grateful to have this life, in this place, that I love so much.  I have so much more intention than I ever used to have.  Instead of life just happening to me, I now go out and seek causes that are important to me.  I volunteer and help where I'm needed.  I help friends out when they call upon me.  I try to be more patient and kind to my family.  This is quite a journey, this life.  So much more is revealed to me as I travel through it with eyes wide open.  And while it's not perfect, it's so satisfying to know that if you carve out an existence and keep it simple that you will be rewarded.

I picked Grady up from the bus on Friday and he leaped off the bus and ran towards me with his arms wide open, hugging me in front of his friends, schoolmates and trusty bus driver.

He didn't say anything.
He didn't need to.
Then he walked up the hill with his two buddies towards home.
His home.
My home.
Our home.

nuggets :: lucky

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

It kind of looks like the basketball on the trophy is going up G's right nostril.  Lovely.

We attended an awards' night for the CYO basketball season that ended last week.  Did you know CYO stood for Catholic Youth Organization?  Well, it does.  Grady's team jersey said COA all season long and no one could tell us what the heck it meant.  Found out during the last game - Church of the Assumption.  Well, how do you like that?  I guess the assumption would be that we should at least know who we're playing for, right?  It's good to know they accept Pagans in this league!  Great season overall.  A lot of lessons learned (like how to handle crushing defeats...) and it turns out that the boy wants to play again next year.  

Winter visited us in a big way this last week and decided to rain for five days straight.  I enjoyed the downpour and it gave me lots of opportunities to drink warm pots of hibiscus lemongrass tea and read my book club selection for April, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.  With spring arriving in just a few short days, it was nice to see winter show up and show off.

One more month of being eight years old

Friends called to check on road conditions in Valley Ford, as we can see a problem spot for flooding on Highway One from our living room.  I love a good storm and the feeling of camaraderie that grows out of everyone watching out for each other as the skies open up and inundate us with the wet stuff.  Is the road clear?  Is your power on?  No?  Well, then come over here for a cup of coffee and wait it out here.  Yes, I love a good storm.

Jill's world famous Irish soda bread, Leprechaun Traps & my spot of green

We were gifted Irish soda bread and the boy made a heavily taped leprechaun trap to help us usher in St. Patrick's Day here on the home front.  Grady seemed to really believe he could catch a leprechaun and I was delighted to play along and leave him York Peppermint Pattie's for his enthusiasm and efforts.  Just when I think he's just about done with the make believe world of Santa and the Tooth Fairy, he reminds me that he's still only eight and loves a good game of make believe.

The hills and grasses soaked up all that good rain we had and were lush and green this weekend.   I wrote about a tree falling in our back pasture on St. Patrick's Day back in 2009 here.  Usually, there's not a lot of fanfare for the Irish holiday in our household, but strange things do seem to happen on this lucky day.

G's fave was the bird quilt illustrated by children & sewn by an adult (upper right)

We attended the Voices in Cloth quilt show over the weekend and saw a lot of amazing quilts created by some very talented fiber artists.  My good friend and work colleague helps produce this show and we enjoyed the artistic displays, as well as the children's scavenger hunt (which is genius and keeps children busy looking for objects in the quilts, allowing you time to enjoy the show).

Oreos grave marker & our new fancy satellite provider 

We came home to a really bizarre St. Patrick's day afternoon at our house.  Steve came in the house and calmly let me know that one of my chickens was just killed by a bobcat.  Apparently, it had a staring contest with Steve and was not leaving our property without that dead chicken.  Well, insert a lot of phone calls up and down our lane by yours truly, lots of commotion, curiosity, gun-toting, funerals and a big discussion about the circle of life.  Yes, nature is constantly teaching us about ourselves.  Once again, we were reminded about the beauty of life - even in death.  We now have a flock of five hens.

Growth is everywhere.  The buds are bursting on the trees, the grasses are begging to be mowed and weeds are taking over our property.  The afternoon sunlight is warm and wraps itself around us like a blanket.  This afternoon light has made the dinner hour my favorite time of day.  Our little kitchen glows and there is no need for artificial light, as I prep the evening's meal and G finishes his homework.

Doesn't everyone have a Guinness with their crepes? G journaling his Yahtzee victory as it's happening!

We made it over to Gourmet au Bay on Sunday and enjoyed freshly made crepes from the Ultra Crepes Food Truck they had on-site.  We enjoyed a few savory crepes, while the boy was in Nutella heaven with his.  We rounded out the day with a little family game of Yahtzee (where Grady rolled three, yes, three Yahtzees in one game!) and we called it a weekend.  He would like to be referred to as The Yahtzee King from now on.  I think he earned it!

This is the dirt gravel road leading to the Moody Ranch just down the hill from our house.  My little wannabe frog wanted to demonstrate his ability to levitate and I finally got the shot in the headless fourth frame.  He resisted doing this little photo shoot but, obviously, got over it pretty quickly.

Ram-like hair?  Yes, absolutely.

I see this glorious mustard field from my kitchen window (and it is the same field I spy in the summer months during haying season) and it brings me such joy.  I've written about a previous jaunt to this field here.  It starts blooming in February and is in it's full blooming glory this week.  I knew I had to get down there and take some photos or I'd regret it.  Grady was my super silly model and cracked himself up during our mini photo shoot.

I really love seeing our funky little green, yellow, blue & pink houses dotting the hillside from this vantage point.  All of this gorgeous mustard has me excited for spring.  I'm ready to plant some seeds, weed a few garden beds and buy a few new chicks to add to our flock.

Happy Spring, friends.