Sunday Sounds: On The Nature Of Daylight

Sunday sounds like your own quiet heartbeats that you hear when you stretch yourself into a new day, the vroom of the vacuum as it effortlessly sucks up all that darn pet fur off the floor, the gentle flow of the black fountain pen as it dances upon the white page offering words of gratitude, clinks of the slowly dissolving ice cubes as they swirl themselves around the edges of the glass that contains your elixir of good tidings, and some Max Richter.




Oh, hey there. Long time, no see. I'm back from a wildly unexpected hiatus. A lot has happened since my last post. The biggest news is that I finally earned my Masters Degree in Teaching English. Woohoo! AND I now have my teaching certificate, however, I am still on the search for a teaching gig. I am currently subbing in two school districts. Can I get a "You go, girl!" because I could really use the encouragement - thank you. I'm glad to be back on the page. How have you been?

Mayonaise

I was almost home and Smashing Pumpkins' "Mayonaise" came on the radio. I didn't want to turn the radio off when I drove up the driveway so I parked, put the volume up a little louder, sat back, closed my eyes, and let myself feel the music until it was over.  Have you ever done this?

Wordless Wednesday: Waiting

Sunday Sounds

Sunday sounds like an early morning, soft footsteps, crumpled paper, cracking of dried blackberry stems, giggles from 3 extra kids, whistles from the t.v. refs, a gentle heartbeat grateful for this day, and some Kings of Convenience.

Sunday sounds

Sunday sounds like the clickety clack of knitting needles, fallen leaves crunching beneath my rain boots, laughter from the kiddos, cheers from TV land football fans, and a broken rendition of Coldplay's "Fix You" on the piano (Audrey is hoping to learn it).  A good Sunday indeed.

I took a walk

I took a walk to enjoy the quiet.
I took a walk to breathe in the fresh air after a rain.
I took a walk to remember my connection to the earth.
I took a walk to fall in love with the colors of Autumn.
I took a walk to feel alive.

Snow Day!

We went to bed last night expecting a light dusting of snow, if that. What we woke up to was a Winter Wonderland of white. It was so beautiful and quiet. The kids had no school and the hubby worked from home. It was a nice mid-week surprise.

We hiked a little. The kids played. But, mostly we ooohed and ahhhed.

Christmas in July?

The kids were silly this afternoon. They decided it would be fun to celebrate Christmas. They pretended they were the parents of a family of stuffed animal children. They also gathered a bunch of their own toys and pretended to unwrap each one all the while commenting on how shiny or cute or cool each thing was. They even blasted some Christmas tunes. So, Christmas in July? I guess anything is possible with a little imagination.

And if you could have Christmas in July why wouldn't you be able to throw in a little Halloween too? A few days ago I ventured into Home Goods with my parents and the kids. This store always has the cutest stuff for your home. As we walked in my mom and I were surprised to see a whole display devoted to Halloween stuff. Can you believe that?! Every year the holidays creep up on us before we even start thinking about them. Apparently, some marketing genius had Halloween on the brain. And, GoshDarnIt, that marketing worked. I ended up walking out of the store with this little jack-o-lantern in the box:


and this funkadelic family portrait wreath:



It seems I have money to burn. Shhh, don't tell the hubby. I don't think he's had time to read the blog yet. Happy Chrismoweenummer!

It's kinda fun when...

you are driving home on a long stretch of road and blasting Disneyland's Space Mountain music 'til your ears bleed. It makes you feel wild and free. It makes the kids go nuts too. Good times.

It's going... going... gone

The 4-day weekend flew by us pretty darn fast. We celebrated at my parent's place and had a lot of fun visiting and eating. The kids were as colorful as the fireworks.

The Statue of Liberty has some competition.
He should be in a barbershop quartet.
Legal Fireworks. Heh.

Our area played it safe this Fourth of July since California is so super dry right now. Although our legal fireworks weren't as eye catching as the illegal ones some neighbors blasted through the sky, the kids had a great time whooping it up and hollering after each light show.

Saturday night we did some backyard camping. Nothing beats sleeping under the stars on a warm, summer night. We originally wanted to pull out the ol' tent, but decided to camp out on our trampoline instead. We blew up the air mattresses and gathered our sleeping bags for a bed like no other.

Prepping the bed.
Cheering on sunset.

Once the sun went down we knew it was time to fire up the camp stove for some S'Mores.

Dad handles the flames like a pro.

After dessert was out of the way we headed back up to the trampoline to get comfy and to prepare ourselves for a spooky story.

I read Where is my Golden Arm?

We gave the story 3 screams out of 4.

What a happy 4th we had. Can't wait 'til next year!

You'll only care about this post if you live in or around Fresno

I don't follow much sports let alone college sports. But, around our neck of the woods you couldn't help but follow the College World Series. Our local Fresno State Bulldogs (the underdogs in the land of College Baseball) were in the run for the National Championship and last night they pulled it off by beating the University of Georgia 6 to 1. Awesome!!! Way to go Bulldogs!!! Most news is calling it a Cinderalla Story. And it kind of is. The Bulldogs definitely started out low-man on the totem pole. If you are interested to read more about it, check out Sports Illustrated's story.

Congrats to the Fresno State Bulldogs!!! (And thanks for putting the little city, Fresno, on the map for a day.) Image from the Fresno Bee

HAPPY SUMMER!!

We played it cool today by mostly staying indoors. 102 degree weather is a wee bit on the hot side for us. Indoors can be fun. The kids painted and blew bubbles. It was a wonderful and sweat-free way to welcome summer.


Letting the creative juices flow.


Bubblemania


Watch out! Big bubble!

A Flickr Meme

1. Vanessa cardui..., 2. Haloumi Cheese, Zaatar & Tomato Pizzas, 3. Silver Creek Field, 4. Happy Yellow, 5. Nick Hexum, 6. "Chai" tea, 7. The last sunray - Barcelona, 8. Sweet Cherry Pie, 9. Colors for peace, 10. The Calvo Family - Holidays, 11. seeker, 12. shawnimal

I haven't done a meme in ages, but this one was too cool and fun to pass up. I found the meme via Zazazu. Good times. Here are the details if you wish to play along too:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search
b. Using only the first page, pick an image
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker

Here are Ze Questions
1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3. What high school did you go to?

4. What is your favorite color?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favorite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favorite dessert?

9. What you want to be when you grow up?

10. What do you love most in life?

11. One word to describe you.

12. Your Flickr name.

My answers to the above questions and what was searched for in Flickr
1. Vanessa

2. Pizza

3. Silver Creek

4. Happy Yellow

5. Nick Hexum (from 311)

6. Chai tea

7. Europe

8. Cherry pie

9. Peaceful

10. Family

11. Seeker

12. formyspace

Please leave me a comment if you play along. Don't be shy. I just want to check out your results. Have fun!

Do you care for tea? Why, yes. I'm very fond of tea.

My Birthday Haiku
A lovely tea lunch
Spent with two girls I so love
Happiness fills me

Who's the boss?

Luke and I ran some errands today and shopped a little. We also grabbed some lunch at Taco Bell. We roll like that. While we ate, we chatted.

Luke: I like Taco Bell.

Me: Me too.

Luke: Mom...

Me: Yeah?

Luke: Do you wish you were a kid like me or do you like being the boss?

Me: *chuckling heartily*

So, who's the boss? Well, apparently, I'm the boss. Right on.

Note to self while doing Friday house chores:

Appreciate everything especially the mundane routine, the ordinary events of day to day family life. For, when you appreciate the ordinary you click into the joy.
-Judy Ford

Forreals, yo.

Pretty Friggin' Happy

The sun is shining. The flowers are blooming. Lovely thoughts are dancing in my head. It's a good day indeed. And that's no (April Fool's) joke.

My daughter, however, has planned a little April foolin' on her teacher. She gathered her thugs yesterday at recess for a plan to get Mrs. D screaming today. Some talk about scorpions and walls. We'll see how that goes...

There was a boy

There was a boy.


He decided it was a good day for an adventure.


He came upon a bubbling creek and wondered what creatures it held in its watery world.


He found a log bridge and had to be brave to cross to the other side.


His bravery was again tested as he climbed up to the top of a small hill.


There was a boy whose smile said he conquered more than we will ever know.