Plane Goodies


For Pond @ 2.5 Years:

Gerda Muller's Seasons Books.  So sweet with no text, just children doing what they do when outside.
Thin beeswax in every color.  For sculpting, hole punching, decorating.  It takes a bit of quiet & patience to melt the wax, then it makes your hands all warm & honey-smelling.  With plants dyes & no stick, this is as clean as sculpting gets.
Old-fashioned clothesline & clothespins with drawstring bag.  So he can hang things off me & make a fort in his seat.
Silk - for hiding, for sleeping, for warmth, for a bit of home.
Locally harvested, spun & plant-dyed fingerknitting wool.  By Colors of Nature.
"Hand" paper punch.
Translucent window star paper in a rainbow of colors.
Large wooden play clip.
Wooden car with a hole, large enough to drag through the airport.
2 kinds of bug-view scopes.
Journal with stickers.
Block crayons.
Drawstring pouch with hematite magnets.

I've had a bit of travel anxiety this past week.  There's so much to do, to set up for our house guests here, to prepare for there, to tie up everywhere.  Before distinguishing what was going on for me I kept thinking, "How's this gonna work?  D's going to want to sleep. We've got 3 boys.  He can't sleep!  They're just going to want me the entire time.  Baby loves to scream.  He's a total screamer.  He doesn't like to nurse while he's awake.  I only know how to nurse to calm on planes!!! This is going to suck!!"  You know, the record player that gets louder & louder until we hear it.   What's actually so is that my sweet baby is just so in love with these two big brothers of his, so he's distracted all the time.  He'll be fine on the plane, & I just need to be ready for the screams, which come when he's happy & come when he's frustrated.  Which he very well may be on a cross-country flight.   And D is, of course so happy to stay up the whole flight & be a king about all of it.   Once I took the time to create how this flight's going to go & got in dialogue with my partner, I got more related to reality.  As women we're well trained in communicating, but somehow we still manage to be running a monologue in our heads.  Especially when it comes to asking for help.  A context of partnership makes all the difference, doesn't it?    Or more importantly, remembering that the people in our lives are there because they love us, they want us to be happy & cared for & nourished.  Just like we want for them.

All that helps at least as much as toy bags.  


So we've ransacked our art supplies & rainy day boxes & here's what we've got.  They are ecstatic.

And I'm calm with just that little high that comes from laying things out in a lovely way, enough to appreciate the colors, the organization, the textures, & mostly the reminders of each sweet child & how he uses things. 

Crafts Supplies = Happyness Frenzy



 It's here, it's here, it's here! Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh! Aye. Ya-Yaye Ohmygoodness! My very own first Gocco.   Long awaited, years really.  It's too beautiful to use.  A piece of plastic actually worth fawning over.  And Lotta's printing book for inspiration, which I scored for $6 at the Friends of the San Francisco Library at Fort Mason Center while waiting for a table atGreens (aka Favorite City Eats. Favorite.).  I'm so into her screen printing on fabric - love it, love it, love it.  But all those chemical-ly inks mixed with little boys makes for a very scary situation.  So this is so beyond exciting for me.  I mean you should see me! Obviously, I Am Ranting.  But what you can't see is my grown-up-mommy-version of the Happy Pee Pee Dansk jig.  I've got lotsa great borrowed ideas.  Like this. And this. And this.  I mean, I'm excited.

And as we head to Lake Winnepesaukee we'll be bringing 2 thick stacks of envelopes for 6 & 7 year-olds to print, so that Love & J (aka the Rainbow Lite-Brites Box Girl) can write eachother once they're back on different coasts again.  I mean, this thing's practical.


And at the co-op the sale bin had these Lotta notecards at half-off!  Crazymaking.  I'm going to make them into little blank books like Sally, Amy + Amanda. The boys already know they're for them so they've been transferring images of "boy" embroidery patterns into them & then drawing roads, tracks & stations to tie them all together.  They really seem to honor the fancy materials & put more love & care into their work.

And from Goodness & Pomadour24, a little sweetness itself.  Japanese linens & tapes for making the boys "concession-stand money aprons," "tool belts," & "work pouches."  Don't ask me, I'm just the stitcher.  I don't even do the pedal work.  I'll show you what they come up with.
It never fails to amaze me.  

Like this sweet ballerina by my girl Jelly Bean.  She comes over on Wednesdays, asks for a little bit of wool, a little bit of fabric, a glue gun here, fancy pens there.  2 months later, Ta-Dah!  Kids know what they want, they just need materials & someone to bounce their ideas off of, just like the rest of us.

Floating


I woke up Saturday determined to go to the Yuba.  There's nothing like that water- fresh from the mountains, baked on the hot rocks all day 'till there's a softness to it, a sandy beach with a mini Pekoe salmon nuzzling up like puppies,  their sides glinting mint, watermelon & fool's gold.  Unfortunately the air quality in Northern California is pretty much dangerous, so we headed Southwest, to Sausalito.  And here we discovered a colony of 400 floating homes, filled with folks living a bouyant daily dream...




All the neighbors take care of eachother's "gardens." This is the opposite of "When we get our farm...," & yet, it seems that it would be incredibly fulfilling, an ideal life for an artist, a f way to stay connected to both source & community, a nice way to simplify.  I just know I wouldn't sleep at night with all that water around my boys; different from the Lake, where they have woods to play in, to get out all their stuff...But logged into the databanks, another possible life adventure.

Gluten Free French Bread Pudding


We tend to abstain from gluten fairly regularly around here.  We don't need to, although it does turn my prince charming into a major grump & he's incredibly disciplined at staying great.  Every once in awhile I do throw a giant fit about it, I have to admit, like when I'm making gluten-free gnocci & instead of slicing lovely long rolls into fluffy marshmallow-like pillows to be steamed I'm trying to drop gobs of ultra sticky paste into splashing, boiling water.   It's not an easy lifestyle, but it's not a suffering one.  I'm so laid-back, though, that I'm prone to rant & rave for a half-hour several times a month from the built-up pressure of my own home-economics ambitions.  He rides through all of it with me, however.  And it probably has something to do with the fact that I make gluten-free gnocci & what-not.  So here's a breakfast bread pudding.  Make sure you use organic ingredients.  And yes, it is as moist & chewy & buttery & crusty as it looks.   Congratulations in advance.   

-15 slices of Food for Life's Rice Pecan bread ripped into little cubish thingy's.
-4 eggs, a splash of vanilla, lotsa cinnamon, 3 T. melted butter,  1/2 C raisins, 3 Cups of milk (we use soy or almond), beat well.
-Butter a 9x9" baking dish, add bread.  Pour over mixture & bake at 350', for 40 minutes.


For language arts this week we built a "G"rass "I"ce Cream "H"ut out of cardboard.  It has an ice cream menu, a sliding door to retrieve the treats, little paper muffin liners as cones & an extremely cute staff.  Of course this meant making real ice cream to build on the theme, & then, lemonade popsicles.  From my mom's garden...


H is also for "H"arvesting.  These are from Love's wonderful birthday garden he planted in October.  He's such a green thumb.  How cute are these little guys?

7/4 Celebrating Interdependence

What does the iconic American holiday look like in our world?  Well, since Tonka's terrified of fireworks, it looked like a giant bubble bath  with our Ipod & Mac Hi-Fi blaring all the good stuff: Huey Lewis, Blondie, (happy) Depeche Mode, Hall & Oats.  I'm undecided with the fireworks themselves - I always grew up celebrating the Fourth with our huge family & I'm a very American mix myself- Pilipino, Slavic, Spanish, Chinese, Basque, it goes on- with old San Francisco ex-hippies who baptised us with the dew from morning leaves.  AND... we're peace activists!  So how do I ooh & aah about a war reenactment knowing I've never myself experienced a direct attack, while I've many, many dear friends who've lost & themselves downed mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, cousins.  We have such a privilege to take these things lightly in the States.  Let me now mention that all my godchildren are Airforce brats, my beloved Lolo (grandpa) was a Silver Star & Purple Heart recipient who was recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor & I have a deep, ridiculous crush on Lera's very military, Bush-loving family of six yet somehow-still-sewing blog.  I actually think I check it twice a day for updates.  She's opened my mind, I tell ya.  Not to mention provided loads of inspiration & smiles.  I'm just saying - I'm undecided.  Adding to that, we usually celebrate in the most applepie way of all:  6 island families in their motor boats following eachother to Meredith Bay to float under the fireworks on Lake Winnipesaukee after a gorgeous dock barbeque.  


In any case I've much to rejoice about.  My gorgeous husband, very Aloha toddler, my bittiest in his blue tabou - a plaid headscarf handwoven by the indigenous Muslim tribes of Mindanao where my mom's side is from.


The beach in San Francisco is truly such a gateway.  A reminder of roots & possibilities.


Giant pelicans demonstrating the ultimate freedom.


The gift of grandparents & grandkids.  I really believe that deep roots create stable trees.  So we throw them whatever we can - family, declared family, precious memories, warmth.   Even a biting cold beach is all sweetness & warmth when that orange hits our faces.


The strongest anchors come as they cultivate their own relationships with earth, with spirit, & with eachother.


The ultimate reminder of how we're here - sun, spirit, earth.


We always felt like Love was such a buddha-baby.  I asked if I could capture that sun on his face & here's his response before running along the "river."  Imagine how grounding this sweet  boy is for us.


Being urban means coming from community & diversity.  So what better way to celebrate our independence - our freedom to choose -  than to acknowledge & act from our true state of interdependence.  Our wonderful, wonderful friend Ross who invented the Xtracycle pointed that out this morning.  Our holiday looked like just that...

Fractions

I've always had a Japanese aesthetic.  Maybe 'cause I was conceived in at the Miyako.  Or since I went to Nihonmachi Little Friends preschool.  Or the Japanese elementary school.  I'm not Japanese, but obviously, it runs deep.  Like the amazing quilt my mom-in-love made.  It's actually kinda New England on an antique dresser from their family.  In my hands, however...very kawaii.

Trees at the zoo? Kawaii Nei!  It's all in the repetition, the balance of soft & bold colors, the presence of natural, earth-based order.  And, uh, I'm not a math person.  I missed one week in 3rd grade being sick at home & missed my times-tables. It's been a bit of a rough road ever since.  (It hasn't impacted my entrepreneurial savvy, mind you.  Just my ever important momentary self confidence when the group check appears.) 
And so how extremely pleased am I with Love's fractions & patterns exercise here?  He invented it himself & had me join in with gigantic, papertowel-sized chalk.  A suspicious purchase to be sure, but he promised me they'd use them.   It runs the length of this wall & contains very specific, very detailed, most importantly very cute math visuals.  Kawaii, indeed.

And Who's This?

It's amazing to me how our little ones have these angelic, distinct faces & yet we have no idea what they're going to look like later.  They change so much everyday.  And then you look back at old babyphotos & there they are, exactly themselves already, right from the beginning!  I've so been adoring our littlest, with him nearly every second of the last five months.  And then I see this picture - Who's That???? Well, it's him, like I've never noticed, & somehow, more himself than I've ever noticed.  A face & a presence to match that strong, strong, strong voice he came in with.  This was taken right before he inchwormed up, over the boppy to eat the metal strip between my rug & bathroom floor.  His brothers were, naturally, so very proud of their boy.


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