week in review

things to be glad about:

baby eliza (and carey and kyle, but really it is mostly about baby eliza around here, no offense, tio and tia) came to visit! fun things happened, kids were cute, carey got sick, but then got better. I'd say it was a successful visit.

 how does my husband love me? let's just count the books. 

one night last week eric was home alone and decided he wanted to do something nice for me, just because. so he ordered some books, one for every year we have been married, he says, plus a few extras as insurance. I keep a running list taped inside a kitchen cabinet of books I would like to own someday and he bought them all. guess I should start dreaming again. and the really loving part is that he knows I will not be hanging out with him in the evenings for a while as I have so much reading to do. true love, folks.

"hey, cora, show me your face when you think about stevie and maeve coming to visit!" don't disappoint, my irish friends. (stevie and maeve are two kids we worked with at camp last summer. they are planning a visit to the south to see how the rest of america lives. we promise to show them a good time. we are taking cultural experiential suggestions now.)
















things I've read:

soil and sacrament: this one is by my friend fred and it is a good one. he's a good storyteller, he talks about things that matter (food and faith and fellowship), and it has passages like this: "from the perspective of the garden, I began to see the trajectory my life had followed. its arc traced a pattern only a hand larger than mine could have writ." two (green) thumbs up. you can watch fred's ted talk here, if you are into that stuff.

the silver star: it's good. I loved her memoir and "half-broke horses" was enjoyable enough. I passed it on to rabbit which means I liked it. we trade that way around here.

some good parenting reminders.

our favorite jam:

lots of van morrison in the mornings these days. I feel like it makes spring come faster, but it does not seem to be working. we must need to listen to even more van morrison.

moments worth remembering:

tio kyle helped jamin and cora realize a lifelong dream this week. jamin has been drooling over this pirate ship for more than a year. and now (an hour of assembly time later) it is his (and cora's) very own. watching him bring it to life is a beautiful thing.

 five kids on a horse gate in the rain? the only thing that makes this photo better is knowing they were all singing "hakuna matata" while they swung back and forth.

here at mudflower we gave up ingratitude for lent, so every day we write down three things we are thankful for on our kitchen cabinets (i painted them with dry erase paint awhile back. highly entertaining for the children.) cora (featured here on the left) is thankful for beana (her favorite turtle stuffed animal), rainbow (a beanie baby she purchased that day at a thrift store), and MAMA, apparently several times over. jamin (on the right) wanted to be clear that his drawing contained not only his thanks for the day, but also a little silliness. he is thankful for picking up sticks in the neighborhood with papa, rabbit making grits for breakfast (note the steaming bowl), and our new baby chicks.

words for the week:

"...the soil is full of marvels,

bits of leaf like flakes off a fresco,

red-brown pine needles, a beetle quick

to burrow back under the loam.

Then the wheelbarrow is a wilder blue,

the clouds a brighter white,

and all I hear is the rasp of the steel edge

against a round stone,

the small plants singing

with lifted faces, and the click

of the sundial

as one hour sweeps into the next."

from "Picnic, Lightning" by billy collins