Who Knows if the Moon's a Balloon

Who knows if the moon's
a balloon, coming out of a keen city
in the sky--filled with pretty people?
(and if you and i should

get into it, if they
should take me and take you into their balloon,
why then
we'd go up higher with all the pretty people

than houses and steeples and clouds:
go sailing
away and away sailing into a keen
city which nobody's ever visited, where
always
          it's
                     Spring) and everybody's
in love and flowers pick themselves.

--E.E. Cummings

The moon has been so gorgeous and intense these last few days, that when I thought of a poem to share with Anne's classes today, this one popped into my head.  It's so whimsical and the language builds throughout in a very child-like excited fast-talking what-if sort of way; I love it.  It makes a person think, too--what if??  Who's to say our imaginations can't help us make our world what it is?  Or what it could be?  I like that idea a lot. 

I'm sleepy this morning because I stayed up too ding dang late, but I just did not want to go to bed last night.  I ate a delicious dinner at CC and Mr. A's house--fajitas with grilled chicken, peppers, avocado, a little cheese and sour cream--yummy.  Then CC and I went on a little walk around her neighborhood, then back to watch a little telemavision and eat the apple pie I brought.  I made the pie on Sunday night with apples that I "rescued" from a lot that used to have an old house on it (they tore it down a year ago or so).  I've had my eye on these apples for a while and the trees didn't disappoint.  They are old trees with big ol' apples that are yellowish with red stripes.  What kind?  Anyone's guess.  But a nice balance of sweet/tart and quite juicy and crisp.  So thank you, person of yore who planted those lovely trees that live on and give back every year.  That's quite a legacy, don't you think? 

Anyway, I got home late-ish for a school night and just puttered and read and pet kitties and enjoyed myself.  I still sort of have that summer night party mentality going on, since the weather has been so beautiful. So, while in my head I know it's foolish to stay up until 12:30, I still feel that urge to enjoy the free time and that I can always nap in the hammock this afternoon.  Because it's summer, right?  And apples pick themselves.

Dance and Provencal Song!

O for a draught of vintage! that hath been
Cool'd a long age in the deep-delvèd earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country-green,
Dance, and Provençal song, and sunburnt mirth!
O for a beaker full of the warm South!
Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
And purple-stainèd mouth;               --John Keats from Ode to a Nightingale

What fun we chickens have been having lately!  (Yes, I've perhaps lost it as I'm including myself and the kids in our flock.)  Summer finally showed up in the nick of time, and we've been enjoying the sweet, sweet weather.  Here's sort of a pictorial review from the last 2 weeks, with commentary:

Here's the best pic I had of my friend Brian's band, Stillwater Hill.  You may recall that Caroline and I partook of the Carnation night life and watched these guys play some great bluegrass at Sliders.  Brian is my old buddy from Tolt and he's the smiley one playing the banjo.  I sure like bluegrass. 

Here we have a shot of a recent harvest.  Caroline and I dug potatoes--which is really fun, btw.  We got our first kohlrabi of the year and she liked it.  It sort of tastes like a radish, minus the spiciness, and is super crunchy, like jicama or turnips.  Likey!  We also picked a few ripe Sungold tomatoes, green and purple podded pole beans--a garden staple.  The purple beans are especially delicious and neat--when you cook them they turn bright green!  I cooked them in a little water and a smidgy bit of bacon grease, per OM's tip.  I loved them, but the kids prefer them raw.  Isn't that weird?  We also harvested some broccoli.  I managed to smash all of these veggies into one meal, here's how:  baked up some chicken with the halved potatoes(olive oil and and a sprinkle of Old Bay), made a cheesesauce (milk, cornstarch, butter, lil salt, then stir in the sharp cheddar and parm after its thickened), cooked the broc and beans in the way mentioned above, with peeled and sliced kohlrabi and tomatoes as the amuse bouche.  Mmmmmwwaaah (kissing fingers), delish!


Then, last weekend, the kids and I loaded into OM's Silver Fun Bus with her brood and headed up to Lummi Island to celebrate Sister Sue's 50th birthday.  We celebrated with our tribal members as well as some of Sue's other Sisters.  The weather was next level beautiful, the kids had a beach to play on and stuff to jump off of (see below):

Here are the rascals all jammied up:

And here we have OM and Kimmy lighting the candles on Sue's cake:

There's Sue, recoiling from the intense birthday candle glow:

And here she is, contemplating being 50:

It was a gorgeous night!  We had a beach fire, bien sur, stuffed the kids in the tent, talked and laughed, and then everyone went to bed.  OM and I built up the fire a bit and stayed up talking and looking at stars.  I saw Scorpio way low on the horizon and that was a treat; it's such an amazing constellation, my favorite.  It's huge and spread out and has the coolest red star in it, Antares, that looks like a RUBY, and the long curve of the tail is so pretty! 

The kids woke up at the crack of dawn, of course they did.  Therefore, so did OM and I.  I was SO tired, but the benefit of that was getting to see the sunrise.  Yay!  Sunrise over Lummi, best ever. Look:

Dance and Provencal song...yes indeedy!

Shhhhhh.

"Now we will count to twelve
And we will all keep still..."
--Pablo Neruda

Dontcha sometimes feel that there is simply too much noise in the world?  I really loved the excitement of school yesterday and today, but there is something so beautiful about the contrast of quiet when I get home.  Especially on days when the kids are at their dad's, when I control the quiet. 


When I say noise, I mean auditory AND visual noise.  I haven't had telemavision service for almost a year now and the silence is truly golden.  I love having this swell computamer, but don't find it hard at all to ignore it most of the time. The last 2 days at home in the afternoons and evenings have been mostly about reading and sitting quietly in the garden, doing a little living room yoga from a deck of yoga pose cards a friend gave me--breathing,  simple meditations, stretchy good-feeling poses.  Nice and  quiet.


And of course, I've been enjoying Ruby Mae even more.  Yesterday, I rode her into town to run errands.  Duvall is built on a big hill with roads running across the hill that make for reeel nice bike riding.  After my errands, I wasn't ready to ride home just yet, so I traversed the town a few times on those nice roads, wind in my hair, skirt flapping, the ticka-ticka-ticka of the bike when I coasted.  Fun.  Bike riding is FUN.  And exermacise! Here are a few pics of Ruby Mae, since someone asked:

Now, isn't she a real cutie??

Today, CC and I rode bikes up by her house, which is at the top of the hill on a nice plateau.  We zoomed down streets and around cul de sacs--we like to sometimes ride around the circle a few times until we get sort of dizzy.  Our legs were jello-y when we dismounted and her teacup dogamule, Soxie, got to ride along in Carrie's basket, just like Toto!  I'll have to get a picture of that because believe me, it is the cute business.  

And now, I'm done typing and am about to settle in to the sweet silence of home and the delicious peace that accompanies it.  

It's All I Have To Bring To-day

It's all I have to bring to-day,
   This, and my heart beside,
This, and my heart and all the fields,
    And all the meadows wide.
Be sure you count, should I forget,--
    Someone the sum could tell,--
This, and my heart, and all the bees
       Which in the clover dwell.

--Emily Dickinson

It's the first day of school and I'm brimming with excitement; it's all I have to bring today!  It's such a big day for the all the kids. And for some, their first day of middle school--HUGE!  And maybe scary.  And hopefully exciting.  I know I'm excited after kicking around work for the last 2 week sans students. 

Middle schoolers have the best energy.  They are so funny and honest and most of them are very sweet.  I was out between classes today giving locker opening tutorials and walking kids to class and reassuring them that it was no big whoop that they were going to be late.  All the other staff members were sending the same message, too.  Which is one of the reasons I love working at this school.  People are NICE.  And we really are like a family here, which is why I greeted the kids this morning with, 'Welcome Home!"

After work I get to run errands and then I think I'll ride Ruby Mae for a spell.  Last night CC and I went a'riding and I was wearing a skirt and she said I looked very French.  Merci! Best compliment ever!  I'm wearing a skirt today, too, so I'm hoping to emit the French vibe again, if only to myself. 

Ohhh La La!

Chicken Days of Summer

It's a girls weekend around here (Jack is camping with his grandpa).  Caroline is good company and we've been having a marvelous time! So far, we've:
* dined al fresco 3 times
* gone swimming in Pine Lake, C in her bikini, me in my clothes (good call, OM)
* done mani/pedis
* tried on all my fancy shoes and dresses
* watched Annie
* held chickens
* dressed up in maxi dresses and are about to go out on the town
* played Barbies

Here's C in her maxi dress:

and here are a couple other girls who just want to have fun:

And so we're off to hit the town (Carnation) to listen to my friend Brian's band, especially his strummin' on the old banjo!

Fee Fi Fiddly-i Oh!

Work Hard and Get More Learn!

Tonight we had our annual Back to School Feast!  This is the 3rd year we've done it and it's always a delight.  Every feast, we think of a theme for the year.  This year's theme is part me (work hard!) and Caroline came up with the 'get more learn.' She said it and then cracked up.  We HAD to leave it the way it came out--too funny and well, it's right.  We could all afford to get more learn.  


Here are the kids in their crowns--I always make crowns.  With glitter.  And other flair.

On the menu:  pasta with tuna, garlic spinach, good bread, milk for some, rose' for others.  Dessert: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  Soooo delicious!  

This year we had a very special surprise guest join us.  Jumped right up on the bench.

Sookie!

Here's what we discussed during the feast:  


Jack:  In 3rd grade I want to work hard on: Reading on a harder level and doing harder math.  
Biggest anticipated challenge:  85 X 462.  
In whhhat waaaaay (we recently watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off--remember that teacher?)do you want to 'get more learn': maybe try to start a school newspaper and put a funny cartoon in each issue.  
Most looking forward to: air conditioners in all 3rd grade classrooms (they're portables), especially after PE when you're all sweaty.  And seeing all my friends.


Caroline: in 2nd grade I want to work hard on: reading
Biggest anticipated challenge:  times or division
In whhhat waaaaay do you want to 'get more learn':  times 
Most looking forward to:  seeing all my friends


We'll talk about our theme throughout the year. The feast is a fun yearly tradition, one we'll keep doing.  Plus, now we get to have cake for breakfast tomorrow.  Looks like I'm catching on already.

At the Seaside

When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.


My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up, 
Till it could come no more.
     --Robert Louis Stevenson


We just got home from a week on the sunny (really!) Oregon Coast.  Specifically, Waldport, at the cutest lil beach house ever. We've rented the same place for 5 years now and it feels like home!  Joy, Keven and Emily joined us for another week of beach time, agate hunting, serf perch fishing, clamming, kids bickering (Oops, did I really type that?  Yep.), and vacation eating (i.e. ice cream every night!).  The weather was very lovely, surprisingly quite sunny and many days without the expected beach wind.  Niiiice.  When the kids weren't bitching at each other (whoops, again), they had a marvelous time.  Now, to be fair, they were tired monkeys--staying up late talking and getting up at the crack of dawn, followed by a day of hard beach play.  C'est la vie, right? They LOVE the beach, building sand castles, making driftwood forts, and jumping waves.  The ol' Megster here even got in on some wave jumping on the hottest day (must have been pushing 80), and that icy water felt fannntaaaastic.  Here are some pics of kids enjoying themselves:

And here's one of Caroline when she was mad about something:

Thank god for wine!  And we enjoyed many a night with our favorite boyfriends, Charles and Charles (rose'--best summer wine ever--$8 at Costco).


It was wonderful to have a whole week with our friends at the beach.  I am looking forward to next year already.  It's always hard to drive away from the beach.  But...we were very happy to get to stop over for a night in Washougal and see my mom and Bobster, with the added bonus of seeing my sissy and her boys.  It was a great day to play in the Washougal River!  See:  

And a peaceful night's sleep in the quiet little cabin helped me transition back to normal-ish life.  


Today, I did lots of laundry, made myself a dentist appointment, and called up Subaru to schedule a time for them to take a look at the Freedom Wagon, as she seems to be runnin' a little rough, I fear she has a clutch issue--think good thoughts for me, please.  I wandered around outside and marveled at how big my plants got in only one week, dead-headed flowers, pet the chickens, cuddled with the kittens, charged up Sister Bluebell's battery, and enjoyed one of my last few days of puttering about; I go back to work on Thursday!  Oh my!  Until then, I'll enjoy the idleness of summer and bask in the sweetness of our week at the beach.