there will be pie

{Sept. '07, OH}

Annie is coming. Here. In six days. For one week. Sans kids. A birthday gift to her from her husband. There will be pie.

In case you are wondering, here's a brief history of our friendship: co-workers (BYU, 1999), turned roommates (BYU, 2000), (husbands & moves: NY, SC, OH, UT) turned pen palls (2003-present). Annie & Sarah, writers of letters; stamps, envelopes and all.

I'm going to excuse myself from this blog for the rest of the week in order to properly prepare for her arrival.

Take care & bye for now.

Don't get blogged down.

Send someone a letter; stamp, envelope and all.

purple collages

- "What color should we do for art today?" I ask.

- "Purple." He states.

- Simple as that.

watch for scarecrows

{scarecrow AND a saxophone, Cleveland, OH}

down right awesome

(send me scarecrow pictures sarahstarrsmith@gmail.com)

little sack of sugar

"little sack of sugar I could eat you up"

(wearing the vest, it made it into Fall, I'm considering picking up some stitches at the bottom to lengthen the ribbing so it can get a bit more wear)

undoing

It's a good thing that I picked up this staple remover at a yard sale.

Because,

sometimes,

you want to undo what you've done so that you can redo.

bringing out the Color Kid in me

{Rainbow Bright Meet the Color Kids coloring book with a RAINBOW PENCIL!}
This came in the mail Saturday sent from my sweet sister-in-law Sara O. A. in far-away Richmond, Utah. It was completely unexpected and has had me grinning since. After opening the package, I sat right down on my doorstep with Malcolm showing him the wonders of the rainbow pencil, and colored. It was a perfect surprise, and, when I was wondering about such things, a good reason to keep blogging. In small ways this blog keeps me connected to my far-away-family&friends. (I love you all.)

I had to include Sara's hand written note. Isn't it amazing? This is her everyday hand writing - for reals. It is so put-together, peaceful, and pretty - very fitting. (Thanks Sara, I'll color a picture just for YOU.)

(And if you are wondering this is "Happy Man".

Thanks to Malcolm I have it memorized to my core.)

Here is a Rainbow Bright refresher course, and, because I'm curious about such things, what Color Kid are you?
"The Color Kids help me [Rainbow Bright] keep the world colorful and happy! We live in Rainbow Land in the Color Castle. We gather Star Sprinkles and use them to color the world!"
_Red Butler
_LaLa Orange
_Canary Yellow
_Patty O'Green
_Buddy Blue
_Indigo
_Shy Violet

Power's back.
I won't be posting this week though.

I'm thinking about compost.

What are you thinking about?

*be*back*monday*

[Friday Family]

My family of the past week:


{Who will help me grind the wheat?}
Is this an idealized blog moment or what? Oh well, it happened, it was simple and wonderful and lucky for me Dave took a picture so I can always remember. I love Malcolm in his apron - not to be mistaken for a dress.


{building blocks}
-"Malcolm, I have to make dinner."
-"Mommm, PLAY! Mom, play."
-"Okay."


{Dave & his demolition, making the most of a day off}
He calls it "dustless". (See how he is holding the vacuum attachment?) Hmmm. At least he seems to know what he's doing.


{drum set}
This boy has a hero, Harry Belafonte.

porch revisited

{charmed by my own wet foot prints}

None too sunny around these parts today! But we are getting a nice rain. It really is nice. I was even lulled out to the porch - with bare feet - to watch, listen, and smell the storm.


{drip}

[Thursday This Season]

It's days like today where every waking moment should be lived on the porch. I love autumn for days like these.

I Write

Well, I wouldn't call this a morning post, but, it is afternoon, and I've decided to "show up" here today. That's the thing with writing. Sometimes I don't want to do it. My insides kick and scream. I get tired, wiggly, and uncomfortable - not because I am, but because these feelings have proved to be successful techniques of avoidance in the past. Not today, I'm going to write anyway, even though I wonder if I have anything of interest to share. So, why put up the fight with myself? Why write, especially when I don't want to? Here are some thoughts I will spill out for you. I think it takes a great amount of courage and perspective to love yourself. And, I think you must love yourself in order to be yourself, to be open and truthful from moment to moment, and to allow yourself to take an idea all the way. That's why writing can feel so daunting and scary. Perhaps it's because I'm afraid I wont be true. So, I'm finding ways to practice writing, not because it will be towards some great end, but because it will just be a way of life. I use spiral bound, single subject notebooks for my free and often times sloppy writing. I write my more put together ideas in my pretty journal. And, this blog? Well, I think I'm still trying to figure that one out even though I'm on my 100+ post. It's been a fun show-and-tell, but I'm wondering how things might evolve. I'm letting myself play, experiment, try new things, it's practice after all. I write for peace. I write for sorting, sifting, processing, venting, wanting, releasing, celebrating, questioning, and naming. I write to pay attention, to take note of the details that make up the texture of life. I write to let go and empty out. I write to remember, to see where I am, to imagine where I might be going. It seems to me that it might be worth the fight, and with practice I wonder if the fight might fade. I write for courage, perspective, and love.

[Wednesday Write Along]





topic: I write

Write along with me.
Take this any way you like: why, how, what, for, who, when, where...
If you post on your blog, leave a comment so we can link over. My I write post will be here in the morning.

(Cleaning out, I found that glass pen. My mom and sister brought it to me from Italy. So pretty. I have yet to use it. I'll have to get some ink and give it a try. It is resting on my 15 yr. old journal that was also unearthed. Very uncomfortable to read. Yikes!)

[Tuesday TO DO]

It is dark this morning. Gray. It started with some rain, which I don't mind, but, now the clouds are just hanging around. Will the sun come out today? I just don't know. You get days like that here in the Cleve. And, it can get sort of, um, depressing. (Although, I must say that yesterday was gorgeous, sunny, just right, perfect, I want to seal in a jar and store for days like to day kind of weather.) SO here's a sampling of today's TO DO:

_ settle on a shade of yellow for the living room walls, (Yellow, it turns out, can be a very complex color.), (Is this an over reaction to the gray days?), (I don't know.)
_ take the boy out for lunch & milk shake
_ light a yummy candle
_ put on some sunny tunes
_ order this



---update 3:30 p.m.:
Sun's out!
_ get out and enjoy it

[Monday Muse]

Creativity
is less about being born
with a friendly muse
& more about putting
time & effort into developing know-how.

Pam Allen, Knitting for Dummies

write along: I Love My Life

Thanks for writing along friends. Each one made me smile.

Sarah G.
Hatsuho
Annie

You can still write along. Just let me know and I'll add a link to your post here.
Get ready, there will be more write alongs to come.

mess & order

Things are a little messy again round these parts.

That's what happens when you start pulling things out of an attempt to put them in order. I've regrouped to the point where you can see the floor, but every other surface is covered. It's called clean out. It is nothing like the exciting task of placing color in cubbies. This is all the extra, things with out home, useful things mixed in with not-so-useful things. You know what it's like, I know I'm not alone in this. But look - my metal chairs are now grape leaf green (Behr). There is progress. That was a nice distraction from the clean out. (Just like the few minutes I'm spending typing this all out for you - distraction, procrastination, call it what you like). But. Remember this, it always gets messier before it gets better. That's why follow through is key. Don't stop in the mess. (Notes to self.)

The calling out for order in this house is catching. Yesterday I pulled out everything from the dining room cabinets and made them pretty with dishes. ONLY dishes, no CD player, no CDs, no office supplies in the mix. Oh, and I color coded again. I can't help myself, I am a Punky Brewster-Rainbow Bright girl at heart.

While we're on the subject of creating a little order... I'm going to be ship-shaping this blog too. Don't worry, nothing too fancy, just some labels and some structure built in (kind of like "days of the week" undies - I'm trying to remember if I ever owned a set of those).
Good luck with your own mess & order, I'd better get back to mine.

SSAS

(Oh, did you catch the zebra? It was on our porch when we got back from our summer UT/ID trip. We were like "what the - -?" Turns out, neighbors across the street were throwing it out and the neighbor down the street saw it, thought of us, and rescued it. A zebra on our porch, a nice welcome home, it was. It is usually hanging out in Malcolm's room, but sometimes he likes to ride it - only he pretends he's driving a garbage truck - and it ended up in my room.)

tomatoes

There was serious neglect of the garden for a few months. We even started referring to it as the secret garden. Secret as in, we - the supposed gardeners - didn't even know it was there. Do you catch my drift? We had some casualties, but I like to refer to them as learning experiences: pumpkin, radish, spinach, broccoli, and cucumber. (That poor cucumber plant. It tried so hard. It was holding on, it even produced one cucumber, but it was a sad cucumber, sad, sad, sad. We left it there for awhile, but one day I made it disappear, it was just too sad. The next time I was out there with Malcolm he said "Where's the sad cucumber? Did it run away?" Later at the dinner table he brought it up again with a confused, adult look on his face, "sad cucumber".) But look what pulled through, trusty, tasty tomatoes. The main reason I grow a garden - for the tomatoes!!! The cherry tomatoes never make it to the table, Malcolm makes sure of that as he picks and gobbles them up right in the garden.

{vine}

{basket}

{plate}

Honoring the tomatoes on the cake plate is dramatic, but it is nothing compared to the dreamy, white, cast iron, tomato stand that they set up on the corner of La Dolce Vita in Little Italy. I want it to disappear and then reappear in my dining room. I promise to share a picture when I take one. I won't steal the tomato stand, but I will take a picture. Thanks tomates for growing! We love you, then we eat you.