December 2011
1 post
November 2011
1 post
October 2011
1 post
Guest post! →
I’ve been crafting a lot lately, and have a few blog posts saved up to write. Just as soon as Nathaniel finally settles on a Halloween costume, and I finish the several I’ve started (as he changes every week or so.) Meanwhile, I have a guest post up today at the lovely Tiffany’s The Kitchen Curtains! Her blog is fantastic, and I’m very flattered she’s asked me to...
September 2011
1 post
June 2011
2 posts
For the record, I'm also a librarian
My kids have been to work with me. They talk about “Mama’s work,” they’ve seen me do it, they’ve used the library. They’ve sat at my desk and played at typing, they’ve swiveled in my chair. Cora helped me get a shipment of magazines off to the bindery a week or so ago.
This weekend, we were reading Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day?, and...
lunch, lately
The past few weeks I’m addicted to the following, adapted from Beatrice Ojakangas’ “Pinto beans and pasta” in The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever:
1 can (15 oz) tomoatoes (I like the fire roasted kind.)
1 can pinto beans, drained & rinsed (I cook my own in the Crock Pot, soaked overnight, drained, and cooked all day on low, possibly with a bay leaf. 1 lb. usually...
May 2011
1 post
on this morning's drive
“Mama, I want to drive a hook and ladder truck. And ride a skateboard. And drive a rocket ship.”
April 2011
1 post
For the record, by "hairbow," she means "pigtail"
Cora: Pretty hairbow!
Nathaniel, pouting: But I don’t have a hairbow in my hair.
Mama: Would you like a hairbow?
N, even poutier: No. Boys don’t wear hairbows.
M: They don’t?!
N: No. Girls wear hairbows.
M: Who told you that?
N: Nobody. I thought about it for myself.
M: Bud, you can have hairbows if you want.
N: Look, Mama! Look what Little Fox is doing!
March 2011
3 posts
while i was baking a pineapple upside down cake
Jon & I turned around to find Nathaniel pantsless.
“Nathaniel, why are you naked?” asked Jon.
“Because I am pretending to be Hopscotch.”
“Does Hopscotch not wear pants?”
“Yes, he does!”
“Then why are you naked?”
“Because I am pretending to be Hopscotch!”
Of course.
my little friend gus, who is amazing
gus: i wanna watch a documentary.
me [his mom, arielle]: can you tell me what a documentary is?
gus: a documentary is a show that people watch with their kids.
in which the boy learns about conversation hearts
Wow! I never saw candy hearts before!
…
These are not good for me.
…
Mama, I think I will brush my teeth. They are candy heart-y.
February 2011
1 post
January 2011
2 posts
December 2010
3 posts
it's even more fun as a parent
When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was the best holiday. We did family Christmases with our Dad, and with our Mom, but Christmas Eve was spent at Grandma & Grandpa’s. Grandpa lined the horseshoe drive with luminarias, and wore the red plaid sportcoat. There was food - a spread of hors d’oeuvres, once it became clear that children didn’t do well with a full turkey dinner when...
November 2010
1 post
bonus
This morning at day care (“playschool” in our house, to capitalize on Caillou’s affection for the place) Cora was a little extra snuggly. I finally put her down, and sent her off to the table for her blueberry muffin & milk. She got all the way to her seat, turned around, and came back, arms outstretched. I gave her a hug, mentally bracing to have to guide her away. But...
October 2010
1 post
imagination
Is that a elementary school?
Yes, it is.
What is the elementary school doing?
Teaching kids all kinds of cool things.
Are they playing with toys?
Well, there aren’t as many toys at elementary school as there are at playschool. There are more books, though. You’ll learn to read all by yourself!
Yeah!
Big, long books, like Mama and Papa read. With no pictures! And...
September 2010
1 post
a little furriner in my house
Nathaniel is becoming ever more verbal, which is a joy and a wonder every day. Most of the time it makes life a lot easier (“Nathaniel, where are your jammie pants?” ”In the toolbox. Nathaniel was going on an airplane.” And then yes, there are the jammies, neatly packed into his toolbox-cum-suitcase.) Sometimes it makes life harder (“Mommy! I want to stay...
July 2010
5 posts
Also, I forgot
Fall. It’s absolutely glorious here, and lasts for aaaaages.
by way of counting my blessings
Things I really like about This Place (as Jon and I generally refer to Elizabethton/NE TN) in stream of consciousness order:
The mountains. I love that the Appalachians are old, and wise, and mellow, and green. They don’t need to show off, like some flashy young mountains (I’m lookin’ at you, Rockies.) I love being able to leave my house and be up in the woods in 15 minutes,...
produce!
A few weeks ago I decided (for all the usual reasons) to limit my meat consumption, specifically by cutting out meat at lunch. (If nothing else, it’s kept me out of the College’s cafeteria all summer, where I will eat two plates, plus ice cream.) Anyway, stealing a page from Jon’s book, I’ve been making a pot of beans and some rice, and packing it for lunch. And...
remembering
One day last summer, I took off a couple hours in the afternoon so Jon could go to some paperwork-y thing as he prepared to start work at the hospital down here. It was warm, but not too hot, and we were (I think) at the old North Side hospital, which just closed (turned into a skilled nursing facility?) Jon went in to do whatever it was (drug test?), and the kids and I sat on a hillside. Cora...
lost season
In April I had big plans for the summer. I have a couple of big projects I was going to knock out at work, so I could move on to some other things this fall. The College opened a brand new wellness center, and I was going to work out on my lunch breaks, so as to be in some kind of shape by the time students return, and I have to be on a treadmill next to some 18-year-old who thinks she looks...
June 2010
2 posts
streettarinsummer asked: I was doing a test run. How do you make a comment on blog postings? And is this ask section different than comments/notes? I know this probably wasn't what this section was for; thanks for humoring me.
My sister-in-law ran a marathon today.
So I’ve been running a little bit on my lunch breaks. A little bit. In the beautiful new “wellness center” [fancy gym] at the College. It really is gorgeous. The first “Gold” LEED certified building in the area, with all new equipment. Treadmills are great for me, because they control my pace.
This morning there was a 5K race here in town, as part of...
May 2010
3 posts
I still think they're kinda boring ;-)
"There'll be roses! Curtains and fountains of...
This photo of our house was taken last spring, the day after I was offered my job. The house was posted on Craigslist the next morning, and I immediately called Dan Pigeon, our (now) landlord. For all its issues, it was the only semi-reasonable looking place, and one of a very few to post photos. This area hasn’t quite caught up with the whole Interwebs phenomenon yet. I’m still...
Phidippus audax
On our way home tonight from the Tunnel Bridge Ducks and Geese (also known as the Historic Elizabethton Covered Bridge), I heard Nathaniel calmly but insistently calling me. I stopped the stroller and asked what he needed.
“Help please, Mama?”
“What is it, Buddy?”
He turned and looked toward the upper corner of the stroller. ”Help please with that?”
...
April 2010
2 posts
this morning's drive to work
Cora: fussing.
Nathaniel: Mama, give Cora baby milk!
Mama: Nathaniel, I can’t give Cora baby milk right now; I’m holding coffee.
N: Mama give Cora Mini-wheats!
M: I think Cora’s sad because the sun is in her eyes, and there’s nothing I can do about that right now.
C: happy coo.
N: Na’niel throw Mini-wheat to Cora! Cora eating it!
plants in the ground
So we finally got plants, scaled back considerably from our grand gardening plans. We didn’t get around to ordering from all the fantastic plant catalogs we had over the winter, but did get to check out a farm & garden supply shop over in Johnson City.
The roster: tomatoes, bell peppers, cantaloupe, squash (zucchini and butternut?), and some cherry tomatoes. Jon put them in while I...
March 2010
2 posts
time together
Before Cora was born, I worried some about how I’d miss time together with just Nathaniel. Then Cora was actually here, and Nathaniel showed how good he is at demanding attention - I ended up craving time with her. I do bedtime with Nathaniel every night. He insists upon me whenever possible. I ache for Cora-time in a way I’d never imagined.
But today I had a haircut appointment,...
sick
So we haven’t ordered any seeds. Or plants. We got as far as making a list, and then the kids got a cold. Then Jon got the kids’ cold. Then Cora got fussy, and turned out to have an ear infection. (She’s been on Zyrtec for a couple months, in hopes of drying out the fluid in her ears. Now she’s still on Zyrtec [“Doda bubblegum”] as well as antibiotics...
February 2010
4 posts
view from the porch
When we moved in, this house (and the one next to it - now occupied by a lovely couple, and the apartment building next to that - still empty) was abandoned. Its owner had died, and the family weren’t sure what to do with it. Late summer, some people showed up. A couple, and occasionally some kids. We’re not sure they ever really stayed at the house, but the woman’s mom...
Cora ate Jon’s list, so tonight he’s taken our Henry Field’s catalog with him to work, along with my list, to chart his plan. Probably a good idea, as he’s more knowledgeable about all this than I am (and thinks of things like, “Corn takes a lot of space and a lot of water, and is very pest-attractive. Maybe not corn.” I think of things like, “I really...
planning
Today I had a snow delay at work. It was probably unnecessary, but I had the chance to scrub the bathtub, which has been driving me nuts for far longer than I care to admit. And we all enjoyed the extra family time. (The kids played together, which I’ve never seen before. It ended, predictably, with Nathaniel yelling, followed by Cora crying, but still. It’s a start. Also, later,...
getting started
a new blog coming soon, about my family, our life in tennessee, and the garden we’re planning to grow this summer (in our yard, and the yard of the abandoned house across the street.)