Henry's First Basketball Game This Season 2011

Tonight was Henry's first basketball game of the season.

He had a great time. I had a lot of issues.

I just wish I had understood basketball back in high school the way I understand it now. I wish so much of parenting wasn't working out "your own stuff."

(Notice the height differences)

I couldn't figure out why these 7-8 year old boys couldn't understand a basic 2:1:2 defense or the simple concept of TRAVELING or maybe just sometimes SHOOT THE BALL?

Am I going to be THAT MOM in the stands???

Yes, I think so.

I can't help it.

It's called LOVE in all its goofy, loud buzzers, irritated siblings, cameras, horrible basketball skills ways.

It's LOVE, y'all.

Snaggle-tooth Svea

Sweet Svea finally lost her first tooth (after the permanent tooth came in behind the baby tooth):

And here's the note she left the Tooth Fairy...since there was about 37 seconds between losing the tooth from her gums and losing the tooth from our possession.

"Dear Tooth Fairy,

I lost my tooth this morning. It was so small. I am looking so different"

Dude, she still got a quarter from that fairy.

But she doesn't know it yet. It's been three days and she STILL hasn't checked the Tooth Fairy Pillow Pocket to see what she got.

Thassmahgurl.

Christmas Tree Farm 2011

We tried to have us a Rockwell Family Moment and go cut down a Christmas tree.

First we got lost. Then Corinne decided to take her opera up an octave. Then Henry and Svea got hungry. Then we found the farm. And we were the only ones there. Then we couldn't agree on a tree. And Svea is a magnet for ants. And Henry is a magnet for complaining. And Corinne squawked while Brian sawed and I pushed the new tree over.

Done.

But the lanes of trees were endless...

...and the clouds beautiful...

...and the shadows were long...

...and fun for hiding...

...and watching Daddy saw...

...and trying to "help."

In the end, we got a few ant bites, have a beautiful tree, supported a local farm, forced a family moment, and enjoyed dinner at Moe's. (Welcome to Moe's!)

On a side note, Svea asked me the other day WHY people put up Christmas decorations before THANKSGIVING?

The only thing I could think of to say was that maybe people were so excited about Christmas, they couldn't help themselves.

She said, "But Thanksgiving is about being THANKFUL and Christmas is about GIVING."

How can she have it all figured out at 6 years old?

I have so much to learn from this child. I'm thankful for that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am covered up with thanksgivings today.

From big Thanksgiving lunches and birthday cards for Pops (that illustrate his favorite tea party poem):

To Brian getting to watch football while Henry and Corinne work out on the Pilates machine:

I think Corinne's aura is white.

And unfortunate pictures from a VERY fortunate dinner at the in-laws:

And, of course, eating enough to earn a Savage's turkey cookie:

Just makes the day.

We are so very blessed, most of all to have each other. The food is just an added bonus. Thank you family and friends for Thanksgiving 2011.

Beth and Tucker Moon's Wedding

I am taking a hiatus from the photo challenge to post about Aunt Beth's wedding.

Which was last weekend.

It was truly an event, I tell you.

Some pictures are up on Facebook already (friend me and you'll see) and there are many more photos to come.

Svea was a flower girl and got her hair "did" the morning of.

She is, indeed, a Princess in Training (thank you, Beth, for the footage):

Andrew was her stylist at Adorn and he was fabulous. I can't really understand every single thing she is telling him, but I did hear them talking about animals, monkeys, lemurs, Netflix, Power Rangers, computers, remote controls, and princesses. He deserves a Great. Big. Tip.

Before we left for the wedding, we were doing some Christmas shopping and Svea picked out these glasses for KB and Brad:

Corinne eventually pulled the eyeballs off the glasses Svea is wearing in the photo...but luckily we know where to get more.

Beth was an exquisite bride:

And Henry, Svea and new cousin Kamdyn were excellent attendants:

More to come, as it was, like I said, an EVENT.

Veteran's Day 2011

On the way to Elmwood Cemetery yesterday, I asked Svea if she knew what a cemetery was. She said No.

So I pointed out of the window at the cemetery and she said OH YEAH I know what that is.

She and Henry used to call cemeteries "die on earth" places.

I explained we were going to visit Papa J's grave, that there would be a marker there that Uncle Johnnie made marking where he was buried.

She said WHY?

So I said sometimes people want a place to go to remember someone even though that person won't be there.

She asked, logically, so are we going to dig up Papa J?

It was windy (curvy roads and air blowing on you) but Mama J finally led us to Block 30 (she told Scott that it was around some trees...and that there were a lot more graves out here than there used to be...two lines that she will never live down since she said them to Scott Matthews).

Lydia and Corinne checked out some head stones...

Corinne stood at her great-great-grandfather's marker.

Dad called him Pie (maybe from playing Pee-Pie - that is, Peek-a-Boo, as a child?) but he was Mama J's dad and a dentist named Loran Lane.

Mama J looked and looked and told us stories.

It was hard to get a cousin picture with the sun in our eyes and the wind and leg warmers and Corinne can walk so why should she sit?

But we tried...

Here's Papa J's marker that John Stewart made. I had never seen it.

We did two rubbings of it...one for Lydia and Miriam to take home and one for us.

Another treasure for our family, a story-starter on many levels.

This is a shifting iron name plate that connects us through family alive and dead, offers the images of a sun rising or setting and the Methodist flame and cross - two images that never stay, cast in iron that will never fade. The irony is not lost.

Nor is my experience with my own Henry and his idiosyncrasies that remind me of Papa J.

Thank you, Veterans Day, for making me take the time to connect what is important in our growing family.

Day 30: With Flaws

I had a project due for my drawing class.

And Somebody wanted to contribute.

So I turned in a drawing...with flaws.

It is SO worth it.

Day 29: Style

Svea's sticker press-on fingernails...that I keep finding all over the house...and the washing machine.

Day 28: Air

Day 27: Pain

There is so much pain in this world. Too much.

That is why I am going to stay "on the surface" here and touch on the "mild to moderate discomfort" that comes before pain.

It almost hurts me that the dictionary is upside down on the book shelf.

There is so much in this life we have no control over, and much of that involves pain. But I can control how the books on my shelf are arranged. And that, in itself, brings comfort.

That dictionary was also the first birthday present Brian gave me when we were dating (that whole 20 minutes before we got engaged) and if you know me, it was the most romantic gift he could have given.

You go, hubby.

Now flip that big honking dictionary over, already...

Day 26: A Color

Practicing walking in these shoes...and loving the color on my toes...though I'm thinking a burnt orange for the upcoming wedding...

Day 25: Shadows

Working with charcoal pencils on Mi-Tientes gray paper...thinking about shadows.

Day 24: Studying

I SO want to be one of those Couponing Queens...so I study...

Day 23: Big vs. Tiny

My new kicks for the wedding this weekend...and the tiny blue Polly Pocket shoe I keep digging out of Corinne's mouth...

Day 22: Equal

I've been thinking about abacuses a lot lately.

Then we got some small stones to line the labyrinth yesterday and Svea immediately grabbed a handful of stones so she could do math games.

Hooray for math games! With small stones! It was a very Montessori moment from a public-school-educated child. Hooray for Meadow View!

So Svea lined up stones to play adding games and my heart multiplied.

Day 21: Fragile

Svea's sweet little ego is a little fragile.

She keeps setting up these "shops" that offer different "lessons" such as drawing or painting or spinning tops. Seriously.

Tonight she made another drawing shop and when no one ran to buy her drawings, she kept reminding us that her shop was OPEN. So I bought a "pumpkin perspectives" drawing she did and I "paid" $5. Which she then gave back to me as my change. Sweet deal for me.

After I bought my drawing, she continued to repeat herself until other family members visited her shop...and Henry told her to be quiet (but not that nicely).

Maybe her ego isn't all that fragile considering all her repetition...maybe I just fear the moment she does feel fragile...

Day 20: Hope

Henry ran, Svea danced, and Corinne rolled through this labyrinth we made with masking tape on the floor of Restore last night.

The labyrinth, the children, the joy, the gift of contemplative practice give us HOPE.

Day 19: Pressure

This is a painting my brother did.

Somehow it ended up in my grandmother's basement (instead of on MY WALL in MY HOUSE) when he and Amber moved to Singapore.

Then one day, a friend of my grandmother's was going down her steep driveway, coming for a visit, and mistook the gas pedal for the break pedal and ran his car into the side of her house. He left the front end of the car in the basement.

Something hit something that fell on something and ruined a bunch of stuff.

In the process, this canvas ripped under the pressure of shifting objects.

It's not ruined though.

I have plans for it.

Day 18: Weather

Still not cold enough for sweet Corinne to wear this...but I can't wait. Thanks for the hand-me-down, Katie Jane!

Day 17: Time

This is under my kitchen sink. In time, there in the bottom container, I will have collected enough Capri-Sun pouches to mail into Terra Cycle.

The top two containers will decompose into yummy compost and feed the worms in the backyard. It'll take longer now that it's getting colder...but in the end, all we got is time.

Day 16: Soundless

Day 15: Warmth

Every night. On my floor. Until Corinne decides to sleep.

Day 14: Denial

I am in denial that time is all about perception, that I can fit more activities into actual minutes, that I don't care that my watch stopped working when I tried to "fall" back an hour last weekend, and that this current state ain't just a river in Egypt.