Rainbow Party

When my niece was planning her five-year-old birthday party, she decided that she wanted a rainbow theme. Pure and true, this was a wonderful idea. And a little easier to decorate for than the jungle theme a few years ago...

This year's party was full of jumping in the castle bouncy:






As well as presents, streamers and ice cream sundaes on rainbow place mats:





and puh-lease do not forget the pinata:





That eventually busted with parental help...




Happy 5-year-old birthday, sweet girl!

Fun at Lydia's House!

Lots of chasing:



Dancing and hugging:



Sandbox-ing:



And drawing the Auburn football game:





I probably have to explain this one.
To his dad.

Henry saw a Football Guys game that was specific for Auburn and specific for Alabama on an ill-fated trip to the mall. For two days, that was all he talked about. Seriously. At meals, bath time, bed time, play time - it was all about that football game. So his grandmother bought it for him as an early birthday gift and he has carried it around and slept with it for the past 4 days.



He does usually wear his Julio jersey when drawing the Auburn players' helmets, if that's any consolation to his father...and uncle...and aunt...

THIS aunt should be so proud, though, you Head Cheerleader, you. Congratulations!

Spring Break '09

We have had a very eventful Spring Break.

First we took off for Birmingham to thaw out a little. Ironically, the day we drove down, Birmingham was experiencing a winter blizzard (Alabama style) and it was sunny in Evansville. The snow did melt by the time the sun set on Sunday evening. Woo hoo.

We got to read our favorite books with Bobbie...



...actually play outside at a real park with swings (we've been feeling a little cooped up and the indoor obstacle courses weren't cutting it anymore)...





...and climb on a metal caterpillar that I used to climb on as a child. Awwww.



We are all feeling rejuvenated from all this fresh air...

Dear Deers

Thoughts from Meg:

Four or fewer... sounds so deceptively simple. But it wasn't. REALLY.
The only MEAL that I ate that had 4 or fewer ingredients was breakfast. And this wasn't a deviation from my standard fare: oatmeal or Grape Nuts, natural peanut butter, tea and milk.

I couldn't do a day of four or fewer because I don't cook. While I plan all the dinners and do the shopping, Nick is home first and cooks. Yeah! We ate deer enchiladas, deer tacos, pizza, deer chili, chicken and roasted pork loin last week. (Can you tell that I live with a hunter?) Most of the shortcuts we employ to make dinner have a few ingredients that do not occur in nature.

I feel that my family and I eat mostly wholesome foods and I'm super conscious of salt, MSG, high fructose corn syrup, etc., in the products I do buy. This project made me feel a bit guilty that we're not eating more simply, but when you look at recipes, especially vegetarian ones, there is NO WAY to stick within the 4 or fewer ideal.

Coincidentally, Nick and I watched Fast Food Nation on Saturday night. I will not be eating, or taking my family, to any fast food restaurant for awhile. It was truly unsettling to see the food served in schools. When I compare the lunch menus at my kids' schools, they are so different. I'm getting over my "clean your plate" feeling at lunch and starting to think: throw it out!

Feeling Crummy

Thoughts from Kristen:

I did A Meal Under Four - grudgingly, sort of -

Cereal was out, except for oatmeal. But I like oatmeal, and I could even put brown sugar on top, so I was happy. I had to pass on my usual black cherry grape juice and have orange instead. Still okay.
Much of my tea, which is my preferred morning drink, has more than four ingredients, so I thought I'd have coffee. I then realized that I couldn't have soy milk in it because of the many, many ingredients in that.
I went back to tea, plain green. For a mid-morning snack, I had applesauce.
And then I had lunch plans, so that ended the project.

This exercise certainly proved how much "stuff" is in so much of the food and drinks we consume, but I don't feel that moved to change much. Except maybe for breadcrumbs ... have you seen the number of ingredients in such a simple food?



I think I'll stick to making bread and collecting my own crumbs.

Formaldehyde...what??

Thoughts from Beth:

I found this exercise to be extremely eye-opening. So many foods have tons of ingredients.

I found lunch to be the easiest meal since I usually eat a salad for lunch. I did have to give up normal salad dressing and go with oil & vinegar. I also had to give up CHEESE, which was tough. Turns out, I actually enjoyed my salads this week more than I usually do.

For snacks, I stuck to my norm of dried cranberries and almonds.

For dinner, I tried something new: Tofu Shirataki. I bought a few packs of the fettuccine noodles and added chicken, mushrooms, garlic, oil and vinegar. The "noodles" come in this liquid that smells a bit like formaldehyde so it takes some time to get used to.
After I got over the newness of it all, I actually enjoyed my meal and plan to replace my whole wheat pasta with tofu in the future.

Luckily the clementines are really yummy this time of year so I was satisfied with my dessert choice after dinner too!

One Meal Per Week

Thoughts from Amy:

I really liked the theme of this assignment. I was never able to fully participate in it, but it raised a sorts of questions for me and made me really think about what I am putting in my body.

About the only thing I eat that has less than four ingredients are vegetables and fruits - which made me really sad. I consider myself a pretty healthy eater but I felt like this project reminded me of the small ways in which I am not conscious about what I am putting my body. Also, trying to find recipes with ingredients of four or less things that have only items that have four or less ingredients was really difficult.

This assignment really caused me to think about where my food comes from and much of it has been processed. I am interested to see what others experience was with this assignment and am thinking about implementing to one meal per week this way to remind myself to be ever conscious of what I am putting in my body.

Thanks for inspiring awareness.

I, Mollie, am Indeed Indebted to You, Alicia

Thoughts from Alicia:

This assignment was especially hard for me. I am a “live to eat” person, a trait I share with my father and several other members of my family. I am also nearly 7 months pregnant, which has intensified my love and appreciation of food. For reasons in addition to these, I considered not participating this week, but decided I needed to see what lessons I could learn from the experience.

7:30 am Breakfast
I had an odd craving for Honey Nut Cheerios this morning. I normally do not like this cereal, and was reminded of this half way through the bowl. However, the sweet left-over milk and juicy orange was just as refreshing as my cool glass of water. Emotional state: content.




10:00 am Snack
Starving, I raided the kitchen for a snack. I was quickly satisfied by a handful of walnuts, purple grapes, and a steaming cup of hot chocolate. Emotional state: content for a few moments, but then slightly agitated.




11:45 am Lunch
I am really getting hungry now and kicking myself for deciding to do this assignment. I couldn’t resist a left-over turkey burger and steamed broccoli. I cheated a little with some “adornments” on my sandwich: pickles made the 4th ingredient, but I snuck in some sliced tomato and red onion too. Emotional state: irritated and in need of dark chocolate.




5:30 pm Dinner
It’s the end of the day and I’m losing patience. It’s either the hormones, the fact that I’m iron deficient (and still haven’t gone to the store to buy a supplement), or just incredibly hungry. While preparing dinner, I’ll be honest and admit I had some more grapes mixed in Greek yogurt. However, I was still able to stick to my four for the actual "comfort" meal: lemon-pepper chicken, red-leaf salad, sweet potato, and a yeast roll. Okay, so I did add candied pecans, dried cranberries, and raspberry-walnut dressing to the salad after I snapped the picture. Oh, and Smart Balance spread on the sweet potato and the roll. Emotional state: distraught and dark of mood, still in need of chocolate … so I thankfully devour four homemade chocolate chip cookies with a tall glass of milk, lovingly made by my husband.




As for the lesson I learned: I am grateful for my high metabolism and hope that it remains as I age, because if I had to eat like this all the time, I’d just rather not exist at all. iMollie, you owe me one!

Masking Simplicity

Thoughts from Jesika:

Even my most simple (and favorite) dinner of a fresh green salad, tomatoes, and green olives, drizzled with evoo and a dash of red wine vinegar, served with a bowl of durum semolina, niacin, ferrous sulfate (iron), thiamine, mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid tossed with evoo, the juice of a freshly squeezed lemon, parmesan cheese (pasteurized part-skim milk, salt, less than 2% of enzymes cheese culture, cellulose powder to prevent caking, pottasium sorbate to protect flavor) aged 6 months, salt and pepper, and a small warm loaf of enriched flour (wheat flour, unbleached unbromated, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, high fructose corn syrup, vegetable shortening (partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed, &/or canola oil), salt, vital wheat gluten, dextrose, datem, absorbic acid, and enzyme proved far, far, far too many ingredients both separately and in combination to make this work.

Well, okay...I did eat a banana for a snack one day.

With a glass of water.

But my single (truly) simple meal was brown rice, a fresh avocado, and a sliced Roma tomato. It was delicious! I was actually making a more complex dish, and these were my 'leftover' ingredients. But for a quick, simple dinner for one, it was satisfying and flavorful in a way I don't often experience.
As a devotee of spices and less-with-more one-dish or slow cooker recipes, I cook with a lot often - and often these are good, simple vegetables or grains or meats. But this four ingredient challenge made me realize I so often mask the simplicity of these wholesome parts in a whole that ultimately requires more time and effort in order to achieve even the verisimilitude of flavor and fulfillment as my brown rice, avocado, and tomato provided.

Curious...

All of these responses have gotten me thinking about other questions...so I'm going to add some poll questions in the margin for a little informal survey action.
Let me know what you think.

Honest John

John's reasons for not participating:

Taco Bell calls to me almost daily.

My relationship with food overwhelmed my ability to participate.

Photography is easier than Food.

Middle-of-the-Road Challenge

Thoughts from Leta:

I actually found this task next to impossible.

I'm not sure what that says about our eating habits...probably nothing very good. It did make me feel rather guilty when I thought about it. The day I came closest was still pretty far off the mark.

I feel that we are kind of middle-of-the-road, as far as how healthy we eat, but I would find it extremely challenging to eat like this all the time.

Stagnant...or consistent?

Thoughts from Lisa:

Wow, this was tricky.
I have long been a label reader but not with this parameter. I was in no way successful for an entire day as I eat the same breakfast every day and it disqualified right off the bat (I know stagnancy inhibits growth but consistency is comfort for me).

I was however successful on many of my other meals without any effort because that is how I already eat.
Hmmm.... this smacks of fear of change or perhaps laziness - I can't decide.

Thanks for the thought provoke.

Barefoot, and Going to the Deepest Layers

Thoughts from Lauren:

On Ash Wednesday I read this quote from Thomas Merton, a monk, a
writer, a theologian, and even from inside of a monastery, an
activist:

"In some monastic communities, monks go up to receive the ashes
barefoot. Going barefoot is a joyous thing. It is good feel the
floor or the earth under your feet. It is good when the whole church
is silent, filled with the hush of people walking without shoes. One
wonders why we wear such things as shoes anyway. Prayer is so much
more meaningful without them. It would be good to take them off in
church all the time."

On Ash Wednesday I took on the second assignment. Breakfast was steel
cut oatmeal with pecans and maple syrup. It was good. I'd been
eating some instant oatmeal lately it doesn't compare to this
goodness. Sometimes I think its not as much the taste but the process
of cooking and thinking about the simple goodness of the oats, maple
syrup and pecans and where they come from. It reminded me of the
Merton quote, that stripping down to get to the essentials, is good
and holy work. In retrospect I should have eaten my oatmeal barefoot.



My other two meals had good aspirations but then I realized that
several of the items had more than 4 ingredients. Its amazing how the
layers just sneak in there!

for example lunch: 1.apples, 2 carrots, 3 water, 4 sandwich (with
four parts): 1. bread-from a bakery, don't know ingredients, 2. roast
beef-just roast beef maybe?, 3. provolone-probably more that four, 4.
red pepper sauce-more than 4.
Going to the deepest layers is always the hardest isn't it?

Cool Whip

Thoughts from A.M.:

This has definitely been an eye-opener for me. It has made me much more
aware of all the crazy things in the things I eat and I hope it will help me
clean my diet some...just not sure if I'm ready quite yet. The first step
is recognition, right?



I did have a nice bowl of strawberries and blueberries last night instead of
my usual ice cream or frosted flakes. I really wanted to put Cool Whip on
the fruit, but it has 13 listed on the ingredients - 13! One of the things
is Xanthan and Guar gums - scary. I don't think I even want to know what that is.

(in the cool whip picture, the area that is not blurred is the ingredients
list - hard to get a clear pic on that)



Thanks for the awareness though - makes me want to buy much more raw fruits
and veggies.

Bored With It All

Thoughts from me, Mollie.

It took me four days to get geared up to do it, which is a luxury (to not have to think about my food, that is.)

So on Friday, I ate and drank in this order:

Cup of water
Black coffee
2 bananas
1 avocado
Mug of peppermint tea
An adapted version of this recipe in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, only using the onion, olive oil, chard and eggs.
Mug of peppermint tea
Two handfuls of cashews
Bowl of tortilla chips

Then for dinner I WAS going to have chicken grilled on the George Forman grill with salt, pepper and lemon squeezed on it, roasted asparagus and a baked sweet potato.
Honestly, by the time it came around to prepare dinner I was tired of thinking about food and preparing whatever so I did not eat my goal. But I had a goal. And it felt thoughtful in an irritating way to consider the ingredients of everything.

I appreciate this project, but I did not enjoy this as much as I hoped.

Some other thoughts I had through the day:
1. This takes so much time.
2. I would have to really change my lifestyle (time management, budget, hosting others, convincing the rest of the family to eat this way, etc.) if I were to keep this up on a daily basis.
3. I have a deep respect for individuals with food allergies and intolerances.
4. I am taking out the compost bin a lot today.
5. This affects my digestion.
6. I have more energy.


I do hope I think about this more and that it gets easier over time.

Ms. Four-or-Less

Thoughts from Carol:

This assignment reminded me of my book "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" by Euell Gibbons. (I know I'm dating myself by being familiar with the book--a "classic" from the '60's.) I didn't do very well on the eating part. It was difficult to find something with so few ingredients in my cabinet--I felt like I was stalking an elusive wild asparagus. Even when I tried to focus on eating four or less, twice I found that my food had more than 4 ingredients but I was eating it before I realized!

Here's what I had:
Breakfast: Egg, bacon bits, cheese (oops--too many ingredents listed on the package!), pistachios, black tea with raw sugar.
Lunch: bulgar pilaf (which has bulgar, onions, eggs, and soy sauce--another oops--too many ingredients in the soy sauce!), orange slices, carrots, lettuce, and mandarin orange slices.
Dinner: pot roast with beef, potatoes, carrots, and onions. I felt like I was just throwing things together to meet the assignment requirements, not really making a cohesive meal.

What I learned:
1. I couldn't eat anything from a box except my black tea.
2. Even things like cheese and soy sauce have way more than 4 ingredients! As I looked through my food stores I found that most of the stuff in there had a huge lists of ingredients, most of which I can't even pronounce. (I found that scary!).

What I realized:
1. How far away I've gotten from what is genuine and most healthy for me.
2. How often I make mindless choices without being fully aware of what it is that I'm choosing!
3. Less is better--I actually felt more alert mentally without the processed food ingredients.

I was going to have a nip of my red cooking wine to celebrate my new awareness, but alas--more than four ingredients!

My photo is of some of the things I ate during the day. I call her Ms. Four-or-less, she's just read what Mr. Gibbons suggests about eating naturally. She's trying to smile but just can't seem to make it a genuine one!

This was fun!

Project Aware, Week 2

Last week, participants in Project Aware spent some time thinking about the food they eat.

Here was the assignment:
A Day Under Four

One day this week, try to eat only items that include four or fewer ingredients.
If you are looking at your meal, each component of your meal must be four ingredients or less.
Example for your sandwich component:
Bread
Mayo
Mustard
Lettuce
Tomato
Turkey
Cheese

Each of those components of a sandwich must have fewer than four ingredients.

If you want chips, try tortilla. If you only have Pringles, maybe go for a raw carrot instead. Or some celery or cashews.

If it's too hard to do a whole day, try just one meal.

Once you have done what you can do, email me about the foods you ate, the picture of what you ate (if you feel inclined to snap a shot), any experiences or revelations you had, any thoughts around this assignment.


I'll post the responses throughout this week, along with a few pictures.

Happy, thoughtful eating to you all...

Noticing Carroll Lane's Week

1. Tea Party Balloon - CLP
My daughter's balloon left over from a "real" tea party at the library

2. Art Essentials - CLP
Crayons and dishtowel - essentials for any art project

3. Remodel - CLP
Light switch that has yet to be recovered from remodel

4. Treasures - CLP
My daughter's "treasures" on the floor in the afternoon sun

Noticing Lauren C.'s Week

1. Boxes on Trains
I live over the hill from very busy train tracks and love
hearing the train whistle almost every hour but have actually never
seen it. I saw this train at work, just a few miles away, maybe it
goes on the same tracks by my house. I loved the color of the
containers, like children's blocks, carrying something, somewhere.
Now I have these beautiful colors to imagine chugging by when I hear
the train whistle from my mysterious train.

2. 490
This greets me everyday when I come home, our house number
and little birdhouse. I love how everything in this picture is a
little tattered: the cement wall is chipping, the house number is all
scratched up and the bird house is full of cobwebs. Somehow the
imperfection of it all makes me feel welcome and home.


3. Waiting for Eggs
I live in the city and we are raising chickens in our
backyard. We raised them from chicks and they have finally reached
the age where they should begin laying eggs. We built them a nesting
box, made a nest, and added some golf balls for their inspiration.
Every morning I open the door on their coop to see if they have laid
an egg yet. In this picture, I love the feathers that have fallen
around the "eggs". This is my image of hopeful expectation.

4. Walking Beauties
Every morning on my to work and on my way home I see this
beautiful woman walking her dogs. She is so striking to me with her
beautiful brown skin, most often clothed entirely in black, walking
these enormous fluffy white dogs on either side of her with great
power and grace. I was delighted to meet her on a walk and she gladly
stopped for this picture. In this photo I noticed for the first time
her fur-lined hood which completes the picture.

Noticing Darcey's Week

I am appreciating light these days interiorally as well as in our little house; thus lightness of being and home focused my Noticings.





1. Darcey 2

2. Darcey 1

3. Darcey 4

4. Darcey 3

Noticing Brittlee's Week

1. Brittlee 2

2. Brittlee 1

3. Brittlee 4

4. Brittlee 3

Noticing Brian's Week

1. My Other Job
I can see my office from the front door of the parsonage. It's amazing how much your world shrinks when that is the case, since you're always both at home and at work. When Mollie asked for "everyday" sorts of things in these photos, I immediately thought of bathing the kids and walking to work, I'm not sure what that says about me.

2. Brian 4
Picture two is what I see out one of my office windows, the reflection of the Chapel in the theater building.

3. The Commute
The third picture is literally my entire commute. In the time it took you to read that sentence, I am at work.

4. Bartholomew
The three flaying knives are from the front doors of the Chapel, which display the 12 signs of the apostles. 7 of the 12 are the ways in which they were executed, including this representation of Bartholomew's "flaying." It's a pleasant way to say "Welcome to worship."

Noticing Meg's Week

1. carpool sneakers

2. carpet's view

3. commute

4. bed time

Noticing Leta's Week

1. Mug
My morning ritual: a cup of hot tea in front of the computer.


2. Feet
Self portrait

3. Clean
I have way too many bottles of shampoo.

4. Lokie
I spend the vast majority of the day chasing this little crawler around the house, discovering what new mess she's gotten herself into.

Noticing Alicia's Week

1. After Shower

Before leaving my sanctuary each morning, the shower, I always pause for a moment in the steam, take a deep breath, and enter the cold.


2. Window

The morning sun streaming through the curtains makes a beautiful pattern of light and shadow on the floor of our living room. I look forward to this each day if I wake and know the sun is shining.


3. Donald & Daisy

My son has a love of vacuums. He knows which brands are which, and will quickly tell you that the Dyson is the best. He has lovingly named our Hoover vacuum, Donald, and his toy Dirt Devil vacuum, Daisy. He plays with them every day, gives them blankets when they're "cold," and often wants them to "sleep" at the foot of his bed. I love the maternal way he cares for these machines.


4. Morning Alarm

I have never experienced waking up and seeing the alarm clock clearly. This is an attempt to illustrate what I see when I first wake up. Of course, there are several inaccuracies I must mention: 1) I never get to sleep in until 9 am and 2) this image is much clearer than what I actually see.

Noticing Kristen's Week

1. Aspirations

2. Pesto

3. Early to Rise...

4. New Perspectives

Noticing Lisa's Week

1. Vintage Aprons
A pile of vintage aprons amassed for the new window display at work.


2. Miss P and Me
I had Andy take this one. Miss P and I share the ritual every morning.


3. The Other Woman
Zach's engineering degree is the other woman these days.


4. Be Gone Winter
The coats in the hall are threatening to take over. If only winter would end I could banish them.

Noticing Neda's Week

1. Trees

After living in downtown Baltimore for 6.5 years, I still can't get over the luxury of a back yard with trees in it. Every morning when I get up, I come down to the sunroom and look out the windows, just to notice the view.


2. Tulips

On a similar note, all plants and flowers in our old apartment would die within 24 hours. Period. No matter how I would position them near various light sources, no matter how much or how little I watered them, they would die within one day. We've lived in our new house for one month so far, and our plants are thriving. I noticed the bright color of these tulips a whole week after my parents brought them over.


3. Fan

At each meal, I notice the reflection of our dining room light fixture in the glass bowl centerpiece, neighboring the similarly round and pale candle.


4. Mervis

Shortly after we moved in, Anis found a little mouse in our utility room.  I've never seen him, but I call him "Mervis" so that I'm less afraid of him.  We laid out mouse traps, and every day I notice whether or not we've caught Mervis.  We haven't yet.  I'm okay with it. 

Noticing Carol's Week

As I was "noticing" this week, I found that I was drawn to certain objects that I see every day in or around my home. They seem to define the major forces that make up my existence day to day:

1. Hope--as seen in Dawn from my Kitchen Window


2. Interconnectedness and neverendingness (is that even a word?) of all things--seen in a stained glass piece I call Unity Circle


3. Love--the force that holds all of the elements of my life together as seen in Love Stitches (the first counted cross stitch my niece, Alicia, made when she was little).


4. Surprise--in Snow Berries--as a sudden and unexpected snow fell just today!


I loved the nudge to notice the little things that bring the greatest joy to each day.

Noticing Jennie's Week

Only after I took pictures this week did I realize why I was so uninspired: I was seeking the outdoors and was closed off to subjects that did not relate to outside somehow, whether in the form of dying flowers, glimpses through the window, or a pile of things habitually taken outside.

The cold weather always makes February a month to simply endure, sandwiched as it is between the post-holiday high of January and the hint of spring in March. I am clearly pining for warm weather!



1. Duck Table

2. Tulips & Crafts

3. Suncatchers

4. Junk by Front Door
I am always irritated by this pile of stuff, all of which is close at hand for those exiting the house.

Noticing Lauren S.'s Week

1. Ocean Beach


2. Walking Spot


3. Chinese Junk Market
A Chinese junk store on Clement Street

4. Practicing Brazilian Capoeira
A kid practicing his Brazilian Capoeira at an intermission of a professional performance of the same.

Noticing MCK's Week

1. windex please

2. trashed

3. amalgamation

4. storm today, firewood tomorrow

Noticing Jesika's Week

my eyes find evidence
of what
I've not yet done
and wish still to do;
or fulfillment and feast,
or famine and fast.
i've eaten well and yet there's more
to have -
words, stones, fruits, and hopes -
looking, seeing, waiting.


1. Enter

2. Avocados

3. Rocks

4. Banana

Noticing Robin's Week

1. Mousepad
This is at my computer at school--mousepad was a quarter at the thrift store 15 years ago.

2. Glass after slumping
Washing the glass after slumping--the light is so nice.

3. Maggie
And, mean ole Maggie.

4. Favorite people
A view of my bulletin board behind my chair at school--my favorite people.

Noticing John's Week

1. Princesses,
Our daughter's dollhouse is overrun with small plastic people, including the Disney Princesses, who were oddly lined up and ready for their close-up.

2. Please,
This sign was hung up on a tree along one of the county roads where we live. I've never been one who thinks evangelism signs, bumper stickers, t-shirts did much good, but I really do like the fact that this one says "please."

3. Fish,
I carved this from a table top and have always loved this image of three fish as a trinity. I look at it everyday. It hangs in my office.

4. Three Months From This Date
This is a fortune cookie fortune I taped to my computer in the first few weeks at my new church. It was a much needed reminder that things would get better, and I think it was more appropriate than the poster of the kitten hanging from the line with "Hang in There" under it.

Noticing Beth's Week

1. Ready to go home
NY Post protest outside of Rubert Murdoch's News Corp building. Was walking to grab a slice with my old boss and walked passed the protest. You read about it here.

2. On my way to lunch
Beautiful sunset view from the 40th floor, where I sit. You can see the Empire State building, Bank of America's new green building, Fashion Week in Bryant Park, Lady Liberty floating in the water. After a long day of sitting in a cube, it's nice to walk by the large windows and take in the view. Quickly reminds me why I live here.

3. Still at the office
Trapped in a glass bubble - view from our breakroom.

4. On my way home
Waiting on my ride to pick me up. I found this tree branch sticking out of a trash can last night. Seems as if someone purposely placed it there. As for the fruit cup, I got no explanation.

Project Aware, Week 1

A new workshop has begun!

Project Aware is a four week collaboration designed to heighten awareness of our days without creating more work.
It's about noticing what you are already doing.
This project involves taking pictures, noticing the food you eat, how your home is arranged, and personal intentions for your days.
Anyone can participate.

This week's assignment was to take four photos of your life.
This could be an image reflected in your coffee mug, your shoes before you put your feet in, what you see on the way to work, while at work, when home, going to bed, etc.
Each picture could be part of a theme, or they could be totally random. They were just to be of your day, your life. No posing.

I got lots of inspiration from Sisters of Serendipity as well as from The Noticing Project 2008 and 2009.



For our Project Aware, I am uploading all of the submitted photoshere, but if you only want to see the collection of mosaics, they are saved here.

Everyone who has submitted will be highlighted on the blog this week.

I'll go first.

Here are some things I noticed this week:



1. Cleats
I drive under these cleats several times a day. Sometimes I take a different route home so I don't have to notice them and feel sad for their owner.

2. Amphibians
I have passed this sign in every season and have yet to see an amphibian, or see the road closed in case they are crossing. I'm not giving up though.

3. Scarves
Trying to stay positive about these cold days we are having. Looking at my scarves through sunlight helps.

4. Nightstand
I noticed this week that my nightstand describes my current state very well: the white book I am enjoying so much that I don't want it to end is Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - thank you, Heidi!; the yellow cup of water because I like to have a sip in the middle of the night; just recently I had to start setting an alarm again; the roll of toilet paper on top of the alarm clock for the runny noses that come to my bedside in the middle of the night; and all of the assorted clips and rubber bands as I am in a very in-between (read: ugly) hair phase.

Turns Out...

...that if your daughter is left handed, and you put the mouse on the LEFT side of the keyboard, she'll love playing Starfall and ask for a turn at the computer before she has her cereal in the morning.

Because My Mom Taught Me Never To Throw Anything Away

I pieced a baby quilt top with some old scraps. So fun!

Bye Henry, Jack and Marv. Hello Morton.

Henry decided before Thanksgiving that his name was Jack.
Everyone had to call him Jack: family, friends, the librarian, even his preschool director.

Then he changed to Marv (pronouced Maaahhhv).

Then he found Morton (pronounced Moh-ton). Marv and Morton are friends on Charlie and Lola, of course.

Oh, and Morton has "frankles."

Swing Batta Batta

Papa got some great pictures of Henry playing baseball this past weekend.

You can see them here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just want to point out a few things about this video:

First, the words are set to the tune of Jingle Bells (as if that wasn't obvious har har) and they go:
Valentines, Valentines,
Valentines for you.
Valentines, Valentines,
Red and pink and blue.

Valentines, Valentines,
Valentines for me.
Valentines, Valentines,
Pretty as can be.

Those are the words, but I'm not sure we ever get them out in correct succession.


Second, even though the video does not show this, Henry does get in trouble when he hits his sister.
And we do, in fact, tell her to shake it off.


Third, this correctly portrays what happens when I ask them to do something and one has to hit the other and then one refuses to sing, and the other immediately agrees, then one changes the words, and on and on. Seriously, this is real.


Fourth, aren't they cute?