Observation

Valentine's Balloons

I really miss writing in this space.

I have not been writing over here for all the reasons you've probably guessed. It is so simple and easy to just Facebook a sentence or two and move on. I am working on poems which require a different kind of focused attention. Life gets in the way over here just as much as it does at your house.

But I miss this kind of writing, this immediate, conversation-over-coffee-kind-of-prose and I am tempted to put a toe or two back into these waters and see what I might be missing.

Keep It Simple

I read Rachelle's post about keeping it simple and her tendency to complicate things this morning. I do this all the time. It is what's been keeping me away from this space. I keep waiting to have the perfect photo or the great story to tell and that has me waiting and waiting and waiting and my voice begins to feel smaller and smaller and smaller. So instead of waiting for perfect and complicating the act to the point of silencing myself, I'm just going to jump in right here, right now. Keep it simple.

We had rain over the weekend, good drenching rainshowers and what was crunchy and sad is now a little greener, a little more supple. I'm thinking about planting some herbs for the Fall. I'm thinking thyme, rosemary, basil and flat-leaf parsley, lots and lots of flat-leaf parsley.

Max is marching with the entire 5th grade in the Howdy Night homecoming parade.

Frank has another staph infection. We keep moving forward, trying new things.

I am working on the long poem that was going to be my retreat project before the pinched nerve interfered. It has been difficult to let go of that vision of working on it in long stretches of time, but I am making progress in smaller doses.

September continues and the things that were once new become less so.

Sometimes the best you can do is show up and let yourself be seen.

Do You Ever?

Do you ever leave your blog software open to a blank page all day long, just sort of blinking there in the corner of the screen?

I do.

The Archives

I spent the morning padding around in my blog archives, (for a reason I'll tell you about later) and I really enjoyed looking back at how this space has evolved over the past couple of years.

I started blogging without thinking too much about what I really wanted to say or how I wanted to say it. I still find myself unable to answer the question about "what kind of blogger" I am? I write a lot about my child and parenting but don't consider myself a mommy blogger. I write a bit about creativity but the powerhouse bloggers in that niche are completely out of my league. I feel like I've complained about the weather so much this summer (ask me how hot it is right now – come on, I dare you) maybe I've become a weather blogger?

It was fun, looking back at the things that I was writing about all that time ago. (You should see the pictures of Max. He looks tiny.) I think it has rekindled my passion for the kind of writing I get to do over here. I plan on showing up here a little more often.

And one last thing, a giant thank you to Nancy at Wacky Mommy . Did you know you wrote the very first comment on this blog?

On My Mind

I have a lot of things on my mind these days.

I'm saddened by the whole Prop 8 fiasco in California. I believe in equality for everyone. Period.

I'm thrilled to announce that Lefty's research will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Bacteriology. (Don't worry, if you can't find it on the newsstand, I can get you a copy.) This takes a huge, crushing amount of pressure off for his tenure review in the Fall.

I'm happy that The Kid is sad that the school year is almost over. It has been a rough year for him socially, losing a best friend and grieving that loss. He has made new friends and is beginning, I think, to find his tribe.

I'm worried about my little sister who's having some health issues, has a lot of questions and the answers are slow in coming. Do me a favor. Light a candle or whisper a prayer. Send a good thought in her direction.

I'm shocked by the idea, but I think I'm training to run a 5K once the long long Texas summer is over. Running is still so new, such an alien concept to me, I still can hardly believe I'm doing it.

What's on your mind these days?

(A note on comments: I am eternally grateful for every single comment I receive here and do a little happy dance every time a new comment appears. I know you're out there. Won't you take a moment and say hi?!)

Holidays By Hand Knitting Projects

I'm a relative newcomer to the knitting world. I started knitting a few years ago and I taught myself, by reading a book (gasp). So I'm telling you, if you want to knit something for the holidays, you still have time to LEARN HOW TO KNIT and KNIT SOMETHING!

Go out and buy this book. It includes everything you need to knit six great projects. The book will teach you how to start (cast on) and how to finish (cast off) and every little stitch in between. The directions are illustrated and painstakingly detailed. If you need more visual assistance, the web is full of sites like this to help you through. So remember even if you didn't learn to knit at your grandmother's knee, or your mother's for that matter, you can knit if you want to. It's not brain surgery – it is tying knots with string and sticks and anyone can do it.

One other point, knitters love to talk to other knitters about knitting. Anyone who knits will surely be happy to pass along some of their knitterly wisdom.

Now, here's my favorite scarf pattern. Cast on twenty stitches. Knit every row until the scarf is as long as you'd like. Cast off. Wear hand knit scarf with pride. It's what all the cool Jedi will be wearing this season!

Here's the roundup of holiday knitting projects.

Cheryl at Ink & Paper has knitted some precious wee slippers. (You have to scroll down to find them.) I'm sure she'd fork over the details if you ask nicely.

Melanie of In Search of Wonder has a pattern for a Christmas stocking ornament.

Nicki at Domestic Cents turned a knitting mishap into a beautiful hat for her daughter. Knitting is a forgiving art.

Kelly of how I knit to stay sane has knit a lovely Christmas stocking. What goodies could Santa stash in those beauties?

Katherine of Curiositys has knit a beautiful, flowing lap blanket.

Ann at Vintage Mommy has some clever ways to use up yarn from your stash.

Don't forget next Tuesday, December 2nd when Nicole at Gidget Goes Home will host Holidays By Hand and feature QUILTING projects. Contact Nicole at nicoleviola at gmail.com to participate.

Behold the Power of the Internet

The great thing about the internet is the way people can find you after having lost track of you years ago.

I had an email from one of those lost friends this weekend. (Hi Kyle!) It was amazing to be suddenly reminded of this group of people I ran around with when I was a teenager, to have a momentary window back to that time. To know that those people who meant so much to me still remember me after all these years, after I ran away to Maine and dropped off the face of the familiar Houston streets. To know that I wasn't forgotten is enough to bring tears to my eyes. These were the people who taught me the meaning of "finding your tribe", the people around whom I first felt extraordinary, magic, talented and smart.

I am happy to be found.

Before this blog, I would have probably spiffed up my resume a bit when I emailed back, made my life appear to be a little shinier than it really is. The trouble with this blog is that I can't get away with that anymore. Now, my life is laid out, insecurities, piles of laundry and all, and it is easy for anyone to read back a bit and get a sense of what my life is like now. It's not particularly shiny but it's a happy, good life, an honest life.

Hearing from Kyle reminded me of the girl I used to be and I spent some time remembering her this weekend. I may have judged her a little harshly. I hope I was a better friend than I remember, less self centered, more kind. I hope there's still something of that girl in me for these old friends to recognize.

Have you found any lost friends through the internet? Has anyone found you?

And the Winner Is...

This morning we put the names of everyone who commented in a clone trooper helmet.

The Kid drew out the lucky name.

And the winner is

robin_titan.

Send me your mailing address (to the email address above) and you shall have yourself a beautiful scarf! I started work on it today.

Have a beautiful Saturday!

Holidays By Hand

Stop by and say hi to Tsh at Simple Mom today as she kicks off Holidays By Hand with a wonderful assortment of sewing projects for the holidays.

And don't forget to vote!

I Read the News Today, Oh Boy

It is with a happy heart that I join Mrs. G and my fellow derfs today in giving you a peek at an ordinary day here at One of Three. Do go over and have a peek into the lives of some of the loveliest folks on the internet.

My morning starts at 6am, which is too early to be pointing a camera at anything or anyone. I have my one (yes, one) cup of coffee and check the local weather. I daydream until 6:30 and then, I wake up Lefty and The Kid. There's breakfast and a mass brushing of teeth, and donning of clothes and we drive The Kid to school.



Lefty and I walk him down this crosswalk to the school.



On mornings when he lectures, I drive Lefty to campus and drop him off with his bike. On non-lecture days, he bikes in.



Breakfast



with a bit of journal-writing and to do list thrown in for good measure.

Next, I walk.



This is more of a stroll, than exercise - a ramble around the block just to clear my head.



I feed Albert.



I sit down at my desk (which is a disaster, thank you for noticing) and write. I try with all my might not to get up from here for a good stretch but I'm often distracted by



dishes or



laundry to wash or



laundry to fold or



decorating to do or



messes to manage or



piles to contemplate.

I take a break for lunch and read some blogs, answer emails and read or



knit for a while.

I pick The Kid up at school and we have a snack



and some homework and some of this



and a little bit of this



a whole lot of this.



Lefty rides home and we have dinner, and a little more play time, then a bath for The Kid and our favorite part of the day, bedtime reading.



Lefty and I settle in for some stimulating adult conversation, I mean, television. I knit, he works on his laptop and then I'm off to bed.

An Average Day (Coming soon)

Check back after lunch...

Some People

Some people get haircuts when they're in a rut - I obviously mess around with my blog template.

Stay Tuned

I'm having some trouble writing this week. It's not writer's block. It's just a general inability to concentrate on much of anything for more than 10 minutes at a time. I feel restless, and edgy. Impatient.

This particular feeling is seasonal with me. (Although it's still really hot down here in Texas, the light is changing and our mornings are cooler.) It's an Autumn thing that's been with me for years. Nothing to be done but to ride it out.

So, go write something wonderful on your own blog…

It’s a Small Internet After All

So, today was "bring a buddy and break a board day" at the karate school. We brought The Kid's best friend Trip along. (Trip's parents are newly-divorced and the preparations were a mine field of being sure to get permission from both parents and then the coordinating of who would be where when, drop off by one parent and pick up by another, trying to be aware of everyone's feelings and be respectful of their situation was a little exhausting and made me appreciate the simplicity of our little family.)

Anyway, we were sitting in the karate school and I recognized a little girl - not a karate school regular. I was trying to figure out where I might know her from when it dawned on me. Why, that's Big Mama's daughter and there sitting across the room is Big Mama herself!

Now before you go clicking over there you should know, Big Mama and I do not have much in common. She is waaay younger than me and sort of famous for her fashion advice. I'm quite certain she's much more conservative politically. That being said, she's a SAHM with one child and that is a lot to have in common, church affiliations and political parties aside.

I knew she lived in this part of town. I instantly recognized her description of "the pool" not the Trinity pool where we swim, but the fancier neighborhood pool and I think we shop at the same grocery store. I read her blog, despite our obvious differences, because she is self-deprecating and laugh out loud funny sometimes. I enjoy reading San Antonio bloggers – it's geographic loyalty.

This is the first time I've run into someone I know exclusively from the blogosphere. It's weird, to sort of know someone in here but not know them at all out there in the real world. What's the etiquette? I don't comment on her blog, so she doesn't know me from the internet, but a fellow blogger (!), how could I NOT say hi?

I eventually went over and introduced myself, said, I read your blog, complimented her very cute child. She was gracious and did not seem at all alarmed at being approached by a stranger at the karate school.


Oh, and Trip broke his board on the first try and The Kid broke his with a solid and confident slide up side kick and then there was half an hour of getting shoes on and tied and then we took The Kid and Trip out to lunch. Oh, and there was ice cream. Not too bad for a Saturday.

Comments

If you never venture into the comments section of this blog, you may not know I have the kindest, most compassionate readers on the web. Today, I'm replying on the front page.

Hi Ann and thanks for stopping by. Welcome to my little corner of the internet.

Thanks, Mrs. G. Permission to be a whiny mess is actually (as strange as it sounds) comforting to hear right now. Sorry your weekend was not all gin and kittens. Are you feeling down about Miss G's impending departure? I've been thinking about you and sending good thoughts. I go through a dress rehearsal for this every year when the incoming freshman arrive at Trinity (where Lefty teaches). It reminds me that one day it will be us, tucking The Kid into a dorm room. I'm hoping that 11 more years of seeing other parents go through it will help me avoid being the mom sobbing hysterically in the parking lot.

Hey Laura. Thanks. I bet the book will arrive before we leave. Our bracelets got here on Saturday and we had fun catching each other's in complaints for the rest of the afternoon. We will be back home on the 7^th so it looks like our paths won't cross. Disappointing! It would be fun to add meeting you to my vacation fun list. Yes, I do feel guilty about every ball I drop these days. I am going to try today to be a little kinder, a little more patient with myself.

Michele, I shall henceforth call it venting. As for the pumpkin, I was kind of traumatized by the discovery of such a large (it's a big pumpkin) cache of candy that I now must figure out what to do with.

Janet, I saw your pic of the new tattoo! Have you seen the trailer for Bottle Shock? Every time Alan Rickman speaks I get a little Snape shiver.

Happy Anniversary

I have been blogging for one year today.

A year ago, I had no idea what I was getting into or what a fabulous community I would soon consider myself a part of - I got lucky, very lucky.

So leave me a comment to help me celebrate something new and shiny in my life - this blog, that's taken on a life of it's own and you, dear reader, who never fail to make me smile.

Have yourself a day and thank you, for making me feel at home out here.



I can't wait to see what lies ahead.

Flea Circus

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have fleas! In our house! And no pets! Go figure.

Tomorrow, we're throwing a little going away party for the feisty little critters and we have to be out of the house for a large chunk of the day. (No, I'm not wagging my laptop around town with me, although I was tempted.)

I'm leaving you with a question. My blogiversary is Thursday - one year of bloggy bliss! What should I do to celebrate?!



Photo courtesy of sideshowowrld.com

This is the Way the Internet Works

Last June, I started a blog and I started reading blogs. When I found a blog I really liked, I would check out all the people on the blogroll. I found other blogs I liked. I found some people and some people found me. I still read some of those blogs. They're like old friends at my blog party. I feel like I know them.

This week my sister, Boots, (yes, the one who just had a birthday) called to say her daughter was sick again. They'd spent six hours in the hospital. It was bacterial pneumonia. Boots was frustrated by her pediatrician and needed to find a specialist. Her daughter was a preemie. She has asthma and is prone to respiratory infections. We talked on the phone and I felt pretty useless.

I am a continent away and there is very little I can do besides make sympathetic noises and pray. Then I suddenly remembered – I have a friend in Portland, Oregon. A blog friend who shares some common interests and her daughter has asthma! So, I drop her an email and before the evening's up I have some suggestions and some places to help my sister start looking. She even said to pass her email along if my sister would like to talk.

This, all of this, from a woman who has never met me. A woman who knows me only from this blog and her own. This is what is powerful about blogging and we should not forget it.

I have a friend in Portland and believe me, she has a grateful friend in San Antonio.

The Family that Blogs Together…

For the longest time, The Kid has wanted a blog. He reads this blog with more frequency than Lefty (and has made some pretty insightful comments on poems I've written for my National Poetry Month poem a day project). Often the first question I hear after school is, "Did you post today? What did you write about?" He has, on occasion, made supervised visits to some of your blogs. So over the weekend, I set him up with a blog of his own.

Now, before you'all have a cow about vulnerable kiddos turned loose in the big bloggy world, let me offer some assurances. Our family computer is in a very public space (the front room we call "the parlor"). The Kid is never online without a parent within eye or ear shot – most often one of us is right beside him to lend technical support as well as parental supervision. I'm moderating his comments myself.

The Kid is in love with the technology. He thrills at the idea of internet community - perhaps he'll find a friend or two to talk Legos, Star Wars, Bionicle and Pokemon with. I hope so.

So, you, my faithful reader, are invited to go on over there and say hi. The Kid will be thrilled.

Slow Cook Thursday at Mrs. G's Place

I'm mixing it up over at Derfwad Manor today. My long-promised chicken and dumplings recipe is there in all it's traditional southern glory...

I knew I would get a lot of fun comments from this, but you guys, all the hair compliments are just killing me! Really, y'all can come over to my blog and say nice things about my hair any day!

Thank you, Mrs. G for being such a gracious and generous hostess.