Pavlova, Mustard & Silhouettes

This week my mustard intrigue was finally satisfied.  I called the people who own the ranch below us and asked if we could snap a few photos of Grady in their mustard fields.   After a reluctant yes, we drove down and picked up our photographer-neighbor-friend and he took photos of G frolicking in the mustard and a few of us as a family.  The light was amazing around 7 pm.  The above shot is one Steve took and I think it captures our little guy perfectly.  Happy, glowing little man.

The picture above is of our house -  the green, yellow, blue, pink & teeny-tiny green one.  I have been admiring this mustard field for about a month and soon it will all disappear.  I just had to get down there and have the pictures taken.  It's absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to see what Scott captured on film.

Grady and Steve worked on new signage for our Fisherman's Festival this weekend.  It helped G with spelling, reading and following directions.  He decided his pink playhouse needed an accessory.  I think it looks G-ood.

My sister's birthday was on March 26th, as well as another good friend of mine.  I decided to attempt a pavlova and used my new, beautiful cookbook Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros that I purchased used on Amazon.com for $6.  I've never made a pavlova (meringue, really) and it turned out a little broken and deflated, but tasted really good.  I topped with whipped cream and berries.  I liked it so much that I attempted another one for a dinner party I was having Saturday night.  I doubled the recipe and really beat the heck out of the egg whites.  Well, let me tell you, it was the biggest pavlova I've ever seen!  I stewed the fruit, so that I'd have a bit of a sauce (and I wouldn't do this again because it gummed up the crunchy meringue underneath it).  It was good and I learned what to do and not to do in the future:  

1.)  Beat the eggs until your arm feels like it's going to come off and the mixture is almost climbing out of the bowl, as instructed - but neglected on attempt #1;

2) Have Steve beat the heavy whipping cream to perfection; and 

3.) Just use fresh berries on top (and maybe a light splash of chocolate syrup for color contrast and flavor).

We spent a lovely afternoon in our weed garden eating fruit, playing with animal figurines, reading books and taking a short nap.  You can see G in the background of this picture.  It was such a special day and now that Spring is here, we will definitely be spending more time lounging, playing, laughing and having picnics in our yard.    

On a very exciting note, we hired a friend who is a landscape architect to help us design an outdoor dining area, as well as rid the yard of old, dying plants, rotting wood, dead grapevines, decrepit garden beds, old carpet used as ground cover and junk.  I'll post an after-picture when things are near completion.  We've done so much work on the inside and really need to give some TLC to the outside.  I still plan on planting a salad garden and kale for the chickens, but needed help on the bigger picture.  We'll see how it goes.

Okay, how much bigger can Grady's hair get?  We cut it at the beginning of the school year and he has been reluctant to let me cut it again.  He had his Opening Day for T-ball last weekend and decided that he needs it cut so that he can see better.  Whatever works.  This look is actually growing on me, but I will be happy to shave it off in the garage later this week and marvel at his transformation.

Lastly, I found this amazing store on Etsy called Diffraction Fiber.  You send the artist a profile picture of your child and she creates a silhouette image of said child on fabric.  Using contrasting fabrics, she makes a beautiful pillow (with your fabric choices) and, voila, a personal memento of your child that you can use every day.  She also can create a brooch using this same method.  Genius!  It's going to be my mother's day present to myself and my mom.   I wonder how big Grady's head will look?

Green Week - Trees, Leprechauns & A New Thrift Store

We started the week off with a CRACK!  One of the huge pine trees behind our house collapsed on St. Patrick's Day.  Luck would have it (pun intended) that it didn't hit the water storage tank, any cows, any people or leprechauns.  This was major excitement for our little lane in Valley Ford.  I immediately called Beulah (our neighbor/llama farm owner), as it was her property.  We put on our slicker boots and trekked out back to explore.  At the base of the trunk, the tree was completely hollowed out from wood beetles and there were quite a few wasp nests disturbed and they were buzzing around.  Grady climbed the fallen mammoth pine tree and looked for leprechauns, of course.
We ended the week by going to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and meeting Grady's adopted Grandma, Linda Lou.  What an amazing building (totally green) filled with information about the environment, fragile ecosystems, the rain forest, our oceans, Africa and so very organized.  We purchased a membership, so that we could take it in slowly with Grady and attend lectures, etc.  over this next year.  I highly recommend going, if you haven't done so already.

Of course, the icing on the cake for Grady was purchasing a small African penguin figurine and these fine, fine patches that I ironed on his air-conditioned-at-the-knees jeans.  Just another green way of prolonging the life of his clothing and helping him continue to make his fashion statements.  Lovely.

Speaking of fashion statements, I also found a really fantastic women's consignment store in Petaluma called the Red Umbrella.  I'm not usually a designer label person, but love finding labels at consignment stores (totally inspired by my friend Jill).  It feels like you're almost stealing something.  Charles David pumps $15, Enzo silver flats $14, Born wedges $15.  I mean, come on, I had to buy all three and a few other things.

I rounded out the week by celebrating the first day of Spring cleaning my house.  I was worried my love affair with 20 Mule Borax would wear off, but it didn't.  I actually was reading a blog this week called Shelterrific and she had a contest question:  How did you celebrate Spring?  I commented about my use of Borax and guess what?  She notified me via email that I won the Snap Pea Spring Cleaning Kit from Mrs. Meyer's.  I was more than excited.  I love to win things (and by that I mean buy things at silent auctions and claim that I won).   

Things on the horizon:

1.  Garden renovation project starting this weekend (with the help of a landscape architect)

2.  Chicks arriving as soon next week!

3.  Continue reading these amazing books/cookbooks (Apples for Jam, A Handmade Life & Made from Scratch)

4.  Experiment with desserts (pavlova & homemade sorbet) 

5.  Try to make butter (?) - just because I never have and it could be funny

I am thoroughly enjoying my domestic life and want to soak it up as much as I can - for as long as I can.  I feel so much closer to my boys, my house, nature and to my true self.  Simply grateful for each day.

Full Moon, Dancing & Parenting 101

We had the most beautiful full moon last week, as well as a gorgeous sunset.  The best of both.  Steve was out in the yard finishing up the chicken coop (all we need now are the chicks) and I tried to capture it, but this image just doesn't do it justice.  We called down to Scott & Jill in the hopes they could glimpse it too.  Sweet evening at the Ponderosa.

My mom's birthday was this week and I made her this little care package of dinner, dessert, homemade bread and a bottle of pinot noir.  What more could a girl ask for?  She was in the process of moving and moving is NEVER fun.  Especially for my mom, as she is the Queen of Everything (or Miss Knick-Knack Paddy-Whack as I like to call her).  She possesses lots of stuff that she loves and no place to put it all.  She could open a Linens-n-Things storefront.  I'm.  Not.  Kidding.  Anywho, I wanted to do something nice for her because moving sucks and I didn't help her much.  Feeding people makes me feel good and now I know it gets me out of manual labor too.

Grady's first baseball practice was this week and was to be a father-son affair.  I went to town to run errands and discovered that I had both of the car seats and it was too late to get back home and get G to practice in time.  He was SO disappointed.  My mommy-guilt kicked into high gear and I decided to take him to the Valley Ford Hotel to listen to Arann Harris and do a little dancing.  My kid was wound-up tight and grooved it out on the dance floor (video above and he's in the white shirt).  Consequently, he's been telling everyone he sees that he missed his first "real" baseball practice because my mom forgot my carseat, etc., etc., etc...(ouch, it all hurt).

On a happier note, when I was out driving around enjoying the scenery that night and running errands, I ran across an Orowheat wholesale store in Cotati.  It was a pastry wonderland and I left with muffins, pita, flour(s) for my new breadmaker, jams & boxes of Entemann's pastries.  Carb-overload.  All was not lost that evening.

Grady decided to pull a few of his books about dogs and make a collection on his bed.  This is just a small sampling of what he has and it made me smile.  I love his passion for the things he loves.  Dogs, farm animals, books, bottle caps, seaglass, rocks, pink markers, t-shirt of the week and nature in general.   We are going to pull a collection of Spring books this week, as well as research and select the chicks we are going to welcome into our family.  Big week coming up - stay tuned.

G received his report card and was so proud of himself for making improvements and strides in several areas he's been working on.  We celebrated with a banana split and all was right with the world.

Top 3 Grady Vacation Requests for this Summer:

1. Antarctica (to help save the polar bears before it's too late);
2. Hawaii (and could he please bring Jack & Harry); and
3. The desert where dingoes live (Australia).

I've been very inspired to create and work on projects lately and reading a few of the blogs referenced in the blog roll below. One of them is  Amanda Soule.  She is a stay-at-home, working mother with four children (and she home-schools them) and is quite amazing.  She has two books out right now and seems like such a wonderful person.  Check out her blog if that kind of person inspires you, too.

Have a great week.

Bookmobile, My New Breadmaker & Borax

Okay, I am officially addicted to the Marin County Free Library Bookmobile. It's true. I still can't get over the fact that you can order books or DVD's, get them delivered to our remote area and the librarian starts to see your patterns and starts "saving" books for you for your next visit. Brilliant.

Steve started work reinforcing an old gardening shed into a chicken coop. He disposed of over 30 wasp nests and sealed up the perimeter of the roof (where they were getting in). Check out the view from inside this chicken coop. They should be very happy chicks indeed.


I've been thinking about making bread and buying a breadmaker after reading the posts on digthischick's blog and reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver. As I stumbled into the Tomales Post Office last week, there was a posting for a previously loved breadmaker being sold by a woman in town. I called Judy and we arranged a date to meet. She has lived in Tomales for over 40 years and owns four breadmakers. She gave me a tutorial, notes, books, photocopied a manual for me and gave me samples of flour, yeast & gluten to get me started. She let me borrow her "bread machine bible" with the promise that I'd return it promptly. She was another nice reminder of why I love living in this small community on the Sonoma Coast. I mean, really, would this have happened in San Jose? Maybe, but not to me.
In any event, I tried the recipe listed on the above blog and it turned out short, squatty , dense & delicious! I was so proud. G helped pour all of the ingredients in the machine and when we woke up...voila! Bread. Since I was on a breadmaking high, I decided to make pizza dough too. It turned out okay, but not great. I think I need to perfect this recipe and try it again. We had the pizza for lunch with amazing pea shoots from George Marcos (aka - Farmer George) at Earthworker Farms on top & drizzled with champagne vinegar, olive oil, salt & pepper. George delivers his veggies directly to your doorstep weekly and they are fresh, beautiful, pesticide-free & grown with a lot of love and care.


Okay, so now I'm going to bore you a little with my green cleaning discoveries this week. I've used the last of my bleach, soft scrub, windex, etc. I'm only using what my grandma used to use: 20 Mule Borax, white vinegar, hydrogen peroxide & non-toxic cleansers. I decided that with my year of staying at home, I should really be cleaning my own house. I mean, really. Being the Virgo that I am, you would think I love to clean. Wrong. I am really good at putting things away in a closet, drawer, desk, outbuilding, etc. Where I lack the skills is in the down and dirty cleaning part. Well, no more! 20 Mule Borax has re-inspired me. I'm not kidding. This stuff is awesome and does so much. The box tells you all of the things you can use it on (i.e., porcelain, pet stains, wine stains, cookware, hardwater stains, fiberglass, and on, and on, and on). As long as I had a pair of plastic gloves on, everything porcelain got a once over with Borax. I had no idea this would excite me so much. We'll see how long it lasts.


G had a banner week and here are some of the highlights:

1. Helping Dad work on the chicken coop;
2. Assisting in the kitchen as my sous chef;
3. Received word that his first baseball practice is next week (he listened to this message five times on speaker phone & just lovingly stared at the keypad with a sweet smile on his face);
4. He told me he was getting too big for me to sing him his bedtime song (but if it made ME happy that I could still do it);
5. He tried to reason with me about leaving him home alone while I went to the market because he was "tough and brave enough to stay home" (nice try);
6. He received an amazing music box from our friend Patty and he is so taken with it. He's bringing it to his weekly "show & tell" at school (video clip of him eating breakfast and trying to make himself cry?); and
7. West Marin Citizen published Grady's "Home Is Like My Blanket" poem, along with a picture of G in a pretty cute get-up (cowboy boots & all).

Mustard Season, Mud & Chicks

I pulled over on the side of the road heading into Sebastopol to snap this photo. The mustard is sprouting up everywhere and I absolutely love this time of year. Normally, February is all about the mustard - but since we're having a late Spring and the rains are finally here - the fields of mustard are still in full swing. I took Roblar Road to Santa Rosa yesterday and there was a sea of yellow as far as you could imagine.
The finished wine/linen/whatever closet! Yay for me!!! Steve painted the inside of the closet and it houses approximately four cases of wine. He did the flooring to match the bathroom and it's such an efficient use of space for our small pad. Good job husband.

My goal this week was to find soil for my gardening beds. I spotted a large mound of soil on my way to Tomales this week and will have to wait for it to dry out before I shovel it into my step-dad's truck. Right now, it's just a mound of mud. I need it to amend all of my raised beds and then add straw to prevent weed growth before my Spring planting. I feel sneaky about the soil and don't know why... it's not really stealing, but maybe it is?

My asparagus are already popping out of the ground. I'm going to cut them down today and start enjoying the little devils this week. Nothing compares to fresh asparagus. The kind you find in the store can be a little woody and lack flavor. I'm so thankful the previous tennants planted this when they were here, as we can reap the benefits for 20+ years, if we take care of it.

Here's something interesting. Someone told me this is a "voodoo lily" and smells like death. Hmmm, interesting. It does wreak, but it sure is beautiful and perhaps a little falic? Since we've weeded out a few areas, the bushes are much larger this year and are exquisite to see. Similar to a calla lily and apparently very old (accordingly to a botanical artist).

It was another week of entertaining friends, attending birthday parties, client dinners, playdates and neighbor visits. Everything I love about our small town living.

It's been raining most of the week, but I did get in one day this week to garden a riased bed that is behind our house and will be Grady's responsibility. We are going to plant carrots and strawberries, so far.

I've been doing some chicken research and can't wait to order same. Steve is going to work on fixing up our old greenhouse, so that it can accommodate our flock-to-be. On a side note, my mom found a cute cottage in Tomales that has four goats and a llama, as well as an amazing barn (that has housing for chickens). She might move in next month. It would be so great, as she can pick up Grady from school and there is a trail from her house to the elementary school. Grady is in love with the goats already and is quite sure they are in love with him too.

Grady ended the week with a visit from Future Farmers of America at his school. He milked a fake cow and thought that was so cool. They did bring real goats and now he wants a goat or a ram for our homestead. Steve is still not on board with the goat thing. I think tackling the chicken coop is the first order of business and then we can work on coercion in the goat department.

Never thought I'd type the last paragraph in my lifetime. Wow, how Valley Ford has changed me.

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.  

Historic Week on Many Levels

Inauguration Day was a bevy of activities for us.  We were asked to attend a small breakfast soiree at the Santa Rosa Country Club by our friend and former 5th District Supervisor, Eric Koenigshofer, wherein we watched the inauguration and applauded, cried tears of joy and toasted President Obama & Vice-President Biden.  I can't seem to recall ever being so relieved and happy to see a President leave office and such an awareness by the country for the new one taking office.  

We taped the inauguration so that we could watch it later with Grady, as he was so excited the night of the election results.  He was glued to the t.v. and I hope he remembers this day, along with the rest of the nation.  The above photo is from the night we went to an "Inaugural Ball" at the home of our friends in Bodega, Charlie & Patty.  Grady did not attend, but that didn't stop him from playing dress-up while channeling a Chippendale dancer?

All of the Pollock-inspired paintings I've been working on with G's school are now hanging at the Tomales Bakery and they look beautiful against the yellow tin walls.  Three sold on the first day and we're hoping to raise close to $1,000 for the school PTA.

We had the pleasure of going back to G's preschool this week to help out for a few hours.  One of the teachers was in a really bad car accident and we asked to help in any way we could.  G was so excited to be a "teacher" for the day.  He brought a book to read to the class and kept saying the cutest things about being an example for the little ones and he got to climb his favorite tree.  When he started kindergarten he got a time out for doing something on the playground he wasn't supposed to.  He came home and told me that his new kindergarten wasn't as "daring" as his preschool.  His first lesson in new school, new rules.  

After his first "teaching" day, Steve took his training wheels off of his bike and he learned to ride without them.  He was so proud.  We don't have a lot of pavement for him to ride on, but he just pushed on in the gravel and dirt and did a great job.  Later in the week, he sat camped out by our driveway waiting for over an hour for his dad to come home, so that they could practice more of his riding skills.  

We love going to the beach.  The above photo is of Grady and his friend, Iain, up on a rock at Doran Beach.  After a day of frolicking in the sand, we went to the Open Mic Night at the Tomales Town Hall.  Grady had wanted to perform with a few instruments and a friend, but he got too nervous.  It was a very eclectic group and I enjoyed seeing the community come together and support the array of artists it had under one roof.  Rap, folk, new age, rock, etc.  At events like this, I reflect on the choice of leaving suburbia and moving to a small town.  I'm always reminded that it was the absolute best choice for us to uproot our lives and move north and wouldn't trade it for any strip mall in the world.  The absence of fast food chains, a Walmart or Costco and an abundance of nature, animals and stretches of beach are the things a childhood should be made of.  

The round out the week, we headed to Cambria to meet up with Scott & Kacy.  We left G with our friends Scott & Jill and my brother/mother.  We have such a great network of friends, family and neighbors.  As Hillary Clinton once said...it takes a village.  We belong to an amazing village.