nuggets :: from france with love

nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words about the last week, as inspired by dig

Our little house glowed as evening fell & the skies darkened.
Puffy, pre-storm clouds reigned over Valley Ford the very next day.

Last week our home was readied for special visitors.  Visitors from France, via Southern California, on part of their three month holiday in the United States.

In a burst of energy, I decided that we needed to lose a heavy piece of furniture from our dining area and enlisted the help of my husband to make it disappear.  A quick call to our neighbors and poof! it was gone.  I quickly edited the contents of the dresser and realized my attachment to Grady's childhood place mats, as well as wax-covered candlesticks, decaying craft projects and ungifted trinkets were ready for the donate box awaiting them in the garage.  The room feels light and airy now and the subtle shift and loss of stuff made me feel like spring cleaning had officially begun.

Thumb Wars are all the rage around here

I'm listening to a book on CD called The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom by Amy Chua.  It's quite a lesson in Chinese parenting and a bit, um, extreme.  And while I don't subscribe to berating your child into submission over a six hour piano lesson, the author's observations on Western parenting is fascinating to me.  For example, how every child gets a trophy just for participating in a sport and the littlest mundane tasks are celebrated with praise (i.e. "good job!") sounded oh, so familiar.  I do worry that the children of this generation will be lazy, entitled and lack the skills needed to write a proper paragraph because of all the text-speak they use.  The author's view on self-esteem and family travel did keep me listening and whether you love or hate the book, I think you walk away with thought-provoking questions about how you want to parent and what type of future adult you are raising.

Our entire family went out to support our local Sonoma County 5th District Supervisor, Efren Carrillo, and attended his 31st birthday/reelection campaign kickoff.  I'm working on the campaign this year and it's a great opportunity to involve Grady and teach him about local government and politics.  Plus, Efren is just really nice to my kid.

When our Parisian friends arrived, we filled our days with coffee, wine, cribbage matches, local food and theoretical question and answer sessions.  We laughed a lot and just generally had a good 'ole time.

Jill D., Yours Truly (with a Liberty of London pillow!) & Sissy

I don't typically wake up at 6:30 in the morning on Saturday, much less a rainy, cold Saturday.  However, when my friend sent a Facebook message about the Napa-Sonoma Junior League Rummage Sale that was going to be held at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds - um, I was all over it.  We rallied, grabbed the requisite caffeine on our way into town and shopped like the seasoned thrifters we are.

We quickly debated the necessity of a brand new deep freezer for a sweet $105 dollars (and quickly nixed that idea), texted my husband about tools and lawnmowers, while Sissy called her husband about golf clubs and whatnot.  Jill scored the beauty of the day in the Martha Stewart robin's egg blue cast iron dutch oven for a mere $30.  I talked myself out of a mid-century desk that I didn't need, but wanted - only to realize it would have been perfect for Grady.  Oh, thrifting remorse strikes again!

Photos by David Silpa & Scott Vancleemput

David & Manuella hosted us in Paris for our anniversary a year and a half ago and gave us David's apartment for the week that we were there.  They are the kindest and easiest house guests and we had a fun time touring Westside Road, lunching in Graton and ending up at the wine shop in Bodega Bay for a game of cribbage and time with friends.  David writes a blog about his observations on life in Paris and shares his amazing photography here.

We plotted our next visit to Paris and that it would most definitely include Grady.  He is excited to see the Eiffel tower and eat at the restaurant featured in the movie Ratatouille.   I'll be working on this trip in earnest, as I think it would be wonderful to go to Paris and perhaps take the train to London, too.

It is a Lego world around these parts and as much as I hate plastic, I'm surrounded by it en masse these days.  The building and make believe world of Star Wars' Legos is pushing ahead full throttle with the boy.  He retreats to his room, creates and names different battle ships, places them in small vintage suitcases and carries them to his friend's house for afternoons of play and trading.

And while I don't understand or much care for this world of plastic, I do enjoy the hours of creating and story building that has been taking place.  I prefer it tenfold to the Pokemon spell he was under not so long ago - that is a phenomenon that I just do not get.

This year's birthday list is compiled of more Lego sets, books and clothing.  I think a new bike might be in order, too.  His birthday is less than a month away and we will definitely be hosting the second annual birthday breakfast extravaganza (before school starts).  My mom arrives later in the afternoon and his birthday spills into Fish Fest weekend.  Oh, so much fun is on the horizon.

Happy Wednesday, friends.

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.

Happy Birthday, Lady.

Mom.

Madonna.

Donna Beth.

Gigi.

Grandma Donna.

Crazy Aunt Donna.

Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words.  The one in the middle is one of my favorites.

Thank you for - 

...loving me fiercely.

...buying me brand new Nike tennis shoes so I would fit in at school in the 5th grade.

...coming to every single function that involved me in a uniform.

...showing me how to scour a sink, mop a floor & vacuum the carpet into a vertical grid.

...teaching me compassion for others.

...never letting us get away with cheating while playing childhood games.

...for loving me and my boy as much as you do.
...for that one awesome Halloween party on Highland.

...passing down your dancing ways, so that no table top or open door is safe around us!

Happy Birthday, lady.

nuggets :: ballet, blossoms & bed

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

Last Wednesday we packed our bag(s), quickly dashed over to the bookmobile to pick up our library books and then headed to the big city with our friends to have a proper adventure.

With all three kids + three adults excited about our much anticipated trip to the ballet, we started it all off with a bit of afternoon frolicking at the Koret Children's Park.  What an amazing place!  The kids gently walked down the path and as the park unfolded before them, they took off running and didn't look back.

There were concrete slides and the requisite cardboard pieces strewn about for easy grab-n-go action.  Ocean wave sculptures, pyramid-shaped rope climbing contraptions, swing sets, jungle gyms - all there for the kids to explore and enjoy.

All of that good energy releasing fun was by design, as we were headed to the Hayes Street Grill for a very civilized dining experience with the children.  Dinner was delicious and the coffee flavored ice cream at the end of our meal helped jolt the kids from their post-park energy crash.

The ballet awaited us.  We were first timers and it was absolutely magical.  The San Francisco Opera House was opulent and had this warm glow reflecting off the marble floors, gold-leafed ceilings and ivory colored walls.  The San Francisco Ballet's performance of Romeo & Juliet was the cherry on top of this adventure filled mid-week excursion.  Grady was quite mesmerized by all of the sword fighting and the kids sat through two intermissions during this three hour production...on a school night, no less.  Bravo!

Flowering quince branches have been calling my name from the roadsides and are a sure sign that spring is rapidly on its way.  I'd also been noticing all of the beautiful pins on Pinterest of different types of flowering branches brought inside the home and wanted some of my very own.  My partner in crime was up for a little excursion and we packed a little bit of insurance (lemon poppy seed bread) to leave with the owner of these bursting bushes.  We really felt we were doing a community landscaping service - at least, that's how we chose to look at our rifling through a friend's yard and plucking unwanted branches.  Perspective is a powerful tool when coupled with a pair of garden clippers.  Wink, wink.

The end of the week found us at the doctor's office with flu like symptoms for the boy, who promptly handed those little germs over to me.  We took much needed rests and relocated to the couch for a movie and then back to the bedroom for reading and napping.  We were both exhausted and watched the weather roll in and out, as our weekend passed us by.

In a sudden burst of energy on Monday afternoon (read - gone a bit stir crazy with all the laying about), I decided to get out of bed and dump our compost bin into one of our garden beds (with the help of my strong husband).  Now, we have been composting for close to five years and have never made soil out of it.  We generally just add it to the bin, forget about it for awhile, add a little shredded paper, forget about it for awhile and pour a bit of water on it now and then.  Well, to my happy surprise - we had the loveliest, blackest soil I'd ever seen.  This was the black gold that I've only read about.  It was super exciting to me and gave me hope for my gardening ways this year.  I took it as a sign that I was progressing and my black thumb was more of a muted grey.  There is hope.

Speaking of grey...

What the hell did I find under a few bales of straw stacked next to one of my garden beds?  Ewwwwwww.  Two baby moles!  Yes, moles. No eyes, crazy looking paws and squirming all about.  Grady wanted to document them and let them rest under the loose straw.  You can read here about all the lovely things they can do to your yard.  In the end, the chickens took care of the baby moles (no pictures of that and, yes, you're welcome).  Circle of life, baby, circle of life.

So I was in bed four out of the last seven days reflecting on life, friendships, home projects, upcoming volunteer obligations, family and my place in this world.  Getting sick helps me to take stock of where I am with things.  I plowed through a stack of library books and a few in my on deck stack, next to my bed.  I've planned menus and made shopping lists, done loads of laundry and played several games of checkers and scrabble with the boy.  I've drank more tea than I wanted to and caught up on my magazine reading.  My use of Facebook and Pinterest has hit an all-time high and I look forward to leaving the house, going to work and acting like a normal human being again real soon.  I was slowed down and I embraced it, but now I'm kind of over it.

I'm ready to get back out in this big, beautiful world.

Happy Wednesday, friends.

this moment

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

nuggets :: sonoma coasting

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

The mornings have been so many things lately - warm, frozen, foggy, clear, wet, productive, restful, stressed, hurried, leisurely, pensive and chaotic.  Yes, all of these things and (thank goodness) not all at the same time.  As I awake from my nightly slumber and shuffle across the cold, Douglas Fir floors to quickly turn off the alarm clock and adjust the thermostat, I am reminded that it is mornings I like best.  It didn't always used to be this way and I can easily look back and see the gradual shift in my pre-dawn routines and how this shift has changed my day, my life.

I now slowly greet the day by climbing back into bed for 10 minutes, all the while starting a mental list of what this morning holds for me, for us.  I gently nudge my sweet, warm, sleepy-faced boy for the first round of let's get up and head to the living room to take in the sunrise and turn on my computer.  Round two of okay, Grady, let's really get going now is uttered from a mom on a mission with only 35 minutes to accomplish same.  The coffee gets made, the breakfast is served and lunch is in the works.  Round three of alright, let's go, you're going to be late.  Email is checked, a few daily blogs are read and the dishwasher gets emptied.  Then the mad dash to the bus stop for the 7:39 am pick-up from the nicest bus driver in all the land.

This daily rhythm is finely tuned now and it is a grounding way to start the day, the week.  

nuggets.

Last Friday I found myself on the coast once again.  I was heading up to Sea Ranch Lodge for work, but could not help myself from stopping along the way and taking in the sprawling ocean views, admiring the color of the water and the sky above me.

My only traffic jams turned out to be several cows just hanging out in the middle of Highway One.  I stopped several times on my way north to snap photos of laqsidazical bovine herds just resting atop the cliff sides and warm, blackened asphalt.  On my way south, my focus turned to the horizon and I was able to bear witness to the blazing sun just as it was about to turn in for the night.

The day was productive and the project I'm working on is coming along beautifully.  I stole a few minutes at the end of the day to walk the property, visit the barn and just savor this rare and peaceful beginning to the month of March.

The light has been amazing the last months and when the sun is setting between 5 and 6 pm, the warm glow bouncing off the fields and surrounding buildings is perfect for shadow photography.  I feel so very tall and anonymous in these photos.

As I hurried down the coast towards the first game of the boys' CYO basketball tournament, I was filled with so many emotions.  This inaugural basketball season was long, but a really good experience overall for Grady, as well as for Steve (the team scorekeeper) and myself.  I've learned a lot about motherhood since Grady started school and I have gleaned lots of sage advice from this woman pictured above.  She is a selfless volunteer and a shining example of walking-the-walk.  It is going to be such a treat to watch our boys grow into young men together through school, sports and life.

Supply hunting & Sword Battle

The boys celebrated the end of their basketball season by doing a little fort-building and battle play.  They created their own little world using found wooden boards that had been decaying in the back cow pasture.  They spent 6+ hours creating, playing, building, lunching and asking me to photograph their progress every hour or so.  It filled me up to see my boy so happy with his friend and helped me to make a mental note of why playing with others is so important to my little man's development.  Otherwise, he would have just wanted to stay in his room and read all day and this was a much better day indeed.  The only down side to all this fort-building was that the perfectly constructed treehouse in the neighboring field is still going unused.  Steve and G spent a big part of last summer building it and I hope the interest to use it returns this coming summer.

I've been missing my sister in a big way lately.  She lives all the way across the country in New York and I haven't seen her in over two and a half years.  I miss her sweet little girls and her newest baby, Jade (who I have yet to meet!).  Oh, how I wish she lived closer.  I wish we could raise our kids together and make family dinners and be there for each other in ways that only sisters can.  She has a dry wit and is of the funniest people I know, as well as having flawless skin (yes, she got the Irish skin from my mother's side of the family)!  She gets me like no one else does and I miss her like crazy.  I love you Traci Ann and hope you are finding your happiness in this world.  Life is short, live it up, take care of yourself and I hope to see you and your girls soon.

We're off to the San Francisco ballet this afternoon and I'm so excited!  I've never seen a ballet, not even the Nutcracker.  How is that possible?

Enjoy this precious day.

this moment

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.