11.25.09
Thanksgiving
*For the adventurous eaters in S’s 4th grade class who were excited by my modest veggie plate at the pre-Thanksgiving feast today–the red peppers and nasturtiums went fast.
*For the curious kid who wanted to find Singapore. I took a look at the classroom globe with him, and now I know some easy directions: Find China. Put your finger in the middle of the country, and go straight down to the equator. There’s Singapore!
*For my two grade-schoolers who run up the porch steps and give me hugs after school.
*For the stuff that’s still blooming in my yard.
*For the fact that right now, no one in the family has a cough, fever, sore throat, stomach ache or headache (finding some wood to knock on).
*For possibilities and opportunities to re-invent myself.
*For a six-year-old who really believes that the tooth fairy got tripped up on Legos last night and that’s why his tooth was still under his pillow this morning.
10.17.09
The Oikos, post 1
Hestia’s at her mirror here. Changes within the household abound, and this week posed a particular challenge.
S.’s been sick for more than a week beginning last Friday, the kind of sickness that recedes and leaves a bouncing, happy girl one hour and rears up to leave a languishing, glassy-eyed and coughing wreck the next hour. B. and I were able to share care-taking responsibilities for Friday-Sunday. Monday I stayed with her, Tuesday B. took off of work to be with her, Wednesday she came with me to Seattle (picking K. up from the airport, etc.), and then by Thursday she was feeling fine but hanging onto a cough. So I didn’t send her to school, but took her with me to UW. We loaded her up with cough drops and a thick scarf and she didn’t cough once on the bus. She read and did schoolwork while I was in class, and felt mighty grown-up.
I have a feeling that the question of what one does with quasi-sick kids will rear its head again.
The dinner routine has settled into much the same pattern as last week:
Mon: I man the panini press
Tues: leftover soup from B’s Sunday Soup pot
Wed: crockpot dinner
Thurs: hodge podge or another crockpot
Fri: pizza and salad
This Friday, we ordered take-out pizza from a new place here on Bainbridge, Modern Pie. We got ham and pineapple with black olives (not by a long shot the most interesting toppings they offer). It tasted like our homemade pizza crusts (I couldn’t tell that their pizza had been baked in a brick oven)–which is to say, good, but a bit heavy. They use a raw tomato sauce that’s really different and excellent (the fontina sticks tasted a bit like bruschetta).
Because of this week’s particular demands (including me being in Seattle all day Tues, Wed, and Thurs), the old homestead is in sad shape and the weekend has never felt so welcome. Saturday cleaning, here we come!
10.13.09
Campus crush
Crush of students, crushed rose petals perfuming the path, my crush on the physical campus of UW growing with every visit.
Having traipsed my shivering way through the city today, I think I’ll document how lovely my past couple of afternoons at the university have been.
Lunch outside the Guggenheim building, with rose-scented breezes and chatting students strolling around the grand fountain. Almost ideal. I’m trying to find the perfect yogurt, and this greek-style is good until you read the fat content. By Zeus, the stuff has 17 grams. Cannery Row, on the other hand, is fat-free with lots of pith and fiber for the old noggin to chew on.
10.05.09
Fly girl
Here’s my new Il Bello–B’s ridden it far more than I have already, but I’ll change that soon. It’ll pay for itself a couple times over during the next few quarters of school.
09.25.09
Ordway jogathon
A beautiful sunny day on the BHS track, lots of energetic kids, fresh white jogathon t-shirts, and an orange Sharpie in my hand = smiling for hours. Here I’m telling S. “Good job, kiddo!”
When we drew bright orange slashes down the kindergarteners’ shirts to mark their first lap, they stopped completely and stared in horror and confusion. Grownups writing on me with marker?! It took them a couple of laps around to get used to it.
S’s new blue Chucks.
And A’s hand-me-down Keens. Those things last forevah.
4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, and kindergarteners, you ran so well!
06.08.09
On work, trades, and non-traditionals
Listening to KUOW’s Weekday this morning, I was captivated by Steve Scher’s guest and what he had to say about manual labor. Matthew Crawford has a PhD in philosophy, runs a motorcycle repair shop, and has some intriguing and very relevant ideas about education, class, livelihood, work, craftsmanship, and the trades.
Crawford remarked on the “differences in disposition” that we (parents, educators, society) need to recognize in students–not everyone will be happy in an academic track, not everyone is cut out for college, and there are many people whose intelligence is better expressed through the trades. More than that, he makes the case that most everyone would benefit from knowing a trade and experiencing the immediacy of catastrophe or success and feeling utter responsibility for that outcome.
I’m lucky enough to know several people who are autodidacts or are otherwise non-traditionally brilliant–and I’m convinced that knowing how to work with one’s hands is an essential part of human expression and satisfaction. The philosophy of my friend M.O. in Okanogan comes to mind: part of rearing her children is training them in a trade–she grows and processes lavender; her husband tunes pianos. Whatever else the children study and go on to do, they will know something practical and useful.
On that note, look what I know how to use now:
I used it to cut cedar planks, then finished them with tung oil:
Basement stairway ceiling commenced:
04.23.09
Delicate but tenacious
The rain yesterday couldn’t dampen the beauty of UW’s cherry trees:
Wet cherry blossom petals stick to your shoes like crazy. I found petals still stuck tenaciously even after walking a couple of miles through Seattle, and they made me smile.
04.18.09
A riot of wonder
“The campus is a riot of wonderful natural life” –Theodore Roethke, on UW (p. 105 On Sacred Ground by Nicholas O’Connell)
Yesterday afternoon at UW I found a magical scene: the quad was in full bloom with Yoshino cherry blossoms (2 weeks late, or just on time for me) and alive with students aware of the beauty around them. I laid down on my back in a sunny patch of grass and let the petals drift onto my face, my hands, my legs.
The windows of the music building were open and the sound of a rehearsing choir floated by on the odd breeze; to my left, soft chords from a guitar and frisbees crossed the air.
So many students had cameras and I wished I had mine too (if the blossoms will wait until Wednesday, I’ll be back to capture the scene)–but the experience was fully, robustly, 3-dimensional. I’ve rarely been struck by such a sense of beauty and possibility and life.
03.28.09
Leaving flowers in the rain
One of K’s classmates (both last year and this year) passed away unexpectedly. I don’t have any words, except to say that K.M. was loved so much by so many.
03.18.09
All warm inside
Sakai Intermediate School, 11: 44 a.m.
Me: (wrapping up weekly book discussion) Okay, guys, it’s time to gather your things for lunch.
5th grade girl: Aww, I don’t want to leave. This is my favorite part of the week!
