gardening assistant

So I just blogged about my "finished" gardening - and a new development is on the scene - the appearance of my gardening assistant - Em.
She starts off eyeing the plants from a distance.
Inspects the watering can.
And tries to prune the newly planted flowers. Yikes! Hopefully the garden can tolerate Em's green thumb.

garden progress

All of my plants are in for the summer. The hosta swath that we planted last year is looking very good. I went with lots of red plants for my planters - I found a bunch of different red coleus that are gorgeous - high hopes for those. And I bought my hanging planters - full of red and purplely/blue. I am feeding everything once a week in May and then sending them off on their own for the rest of the summer. A working mama only has so much to give to the yard.

lego club

E really wants to get his picture and lego creations into the Lego Club magazine. He gets the magazine each month and reads it obsessively.
We've started documenting his pieces - looking for just the right one. Here are our first two pieces - a power boat and a beach scene.

two pink beauties

In the past my favorite pink beauty was the lipstick pink peony - it couldn't be beat, but now my favorite is definitely Em. It's her perfect color. She is SO close to walking.

market happiness

Peonies and strawberries - the Portland Farmer's Market is in full swing - evidenced by a crowd at 9am - people, please sleep in and let us feel like early birds at 9am.

It was a gorgeous morning of hanging out with friends, eating yum-yums and trying to get a picture of all four monkeys together.

happy birthday Marfie

Happy Birthday Marfie!
We celebrated Marfie's significant birthday with a surprise party on Saturday night filled with family and friends and wine and champagne and cake and cookies. The party was inspired by all things Marfie - so of course, it was fabulous. Auntie B made this amazing photo collage and I think the picture in the middle of Marf holding the kransakake waitress style is the picture that sums up Marf most for me - it is just so HER.
E - who loves her very much - read a poem for her (borrowed from one Jonesie wrote him):

Dear Martha,
Roses are red
Violets are purple
You are so sweet
And so is maple syruple

Love, E.


Marfie -you really are the best. So much fun to be around, such a loyal and true friend, and a very loving mama. Happy birthday!

can't get away from this story

I have to admit, every time I see a news story online, on tv or in the paper about the earthquake in China, I've been turning my eyes. My heart is breaking over and over for the parents of all of the children who died while in childcare or at school. The NYTimes this morning had a cover picture so tender, so painful that I was in tears while waiting for my coffee. Every time I think of Em and her gorgeous chubby thighs and instant smile when she sees us, I feel that stab of parental love that is beautiful and yet achy all at once. My friend Marian told me once that the art of parenting is the art of letting go. I find that to be very true and I hate it - all the more so because anything as wonderful as the love you have with your children is the thing you want to hold SO tightly to - but raising whole, self-sufficient, happy children requires you to not hold tight.
I've been repeating an Eckhart Tolle mantra from his book The Power of Now to help keep me in the moment of feeling that consuming love for my children, rather than imagining the pain of losing them - you don't have yesterday, you don't have tomorrow, you only have this moment.

I have to say it a lot to not think about the parents in China.

Ev's photos

Mother's Day was perfectly perfect - out to breakfast at Broder, walking around the zoo, I read my book while Emme napped and finally, a bike ride with Ev. Tall House, Double Cup orchestrated a truly lovely day. Thank you!

I am MOST excited about my new bike - and the new trailer bike we got for Ev. We are still putting the final touches on connecting the two - but let me give you this exciting preview - two Martha Stewart colors, a coordinating helmet and bell, fenders (!) and a basket on order. Oh happy day! on to the real topic of this post . . .

Ev is really into taking photos. He is dying for his own digital camera - little does he know, Tall House, Double Cup just got him one - we are just waiting for a milestone or great behavior moment to gift it to him. He took these pictures one afternoon - I love seeing what he sees through the camera.

the pasta that ate the baby

caught in the act

Em's favorite act of civil disobedience is to race to the cat food bowl and water glass and partake in kitty's meals. She likes to stop just a foot away and look over her shoulder to say, "You'll never get across the room quick enough to stop me from getting one piece of cat food." Which is often true.

New to her routine is now going for a sip of water out of Mara's margarita water glass. yuck. My parents said E did this too but I don't remember it happening.

Em is getting very close to walking. She loves to balance and bounce and walk around tables. Ev walked at 11.5 months so I am wondering if they'll be so similar in their development.

children's literature book group

I've been in the same children's literature book group for over ten years. I never blog about it but I know I have lots of friends and family who are always looking for book recommendations so I thought I'd share our monthly reading list (we meet every 4-6 weeks - usually with lots of pizza, wine and dessert).


Here's what we'll be discussing in early June:


Picture books
In a Blue Room (Averback)
A Visitor for Bear (Becker)
Violet the Pilot (Breen)
All Aboard: A Traveling Alphabet (Demarest)
Maybe a Bear Ate It (Harris)
Grump Groan Growl (Hooks)
Trainstop (Lehman)
Albert the Fix-It Man (Lord)
Silent Music (Rumford)


Fiction
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Lockhart)
The Willoughbys (Lowry)
Shooting the Moon (O'Dowell)
Six Innings: A Game in the Life (Preller)
Sweethearts (Zarr)


Nonfiction
Ain't Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry (Nelson)

I, Matthew Henson (Weatherford)

lilac love

The lilacs are blooming! The lilacs are blooming! In Wisconsin, lilacs always bloom at my birthday in June. In Oregon, I now get them right around my wedding anniversary. I planted several lilacs from the Hulda Klager historic lilac garden several years ago and am definitely seeing the results this year. I have four different varieties in my yard - both early and late . . . so I'll have at least a month of these. hurrah!

so excited!

Exciting news to report! On Friday I learned I was elected Chair of the 2010 John Newbery Award Committee. The award is given by Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) and getting to be the chair of the committee that reads, reviews, debates and finally selects a winner and possibly honor books is a true career highlight. We'll get to do our reading and work in 2009 and make the announcement in January 2010. I was on the 2001 Newbery Committee that awarded Richard Peck the award for A Year Down Yonder and the 2002 Caldecott Committee that picked The Three Pigs by David Wiesner. Both experiences were so satisfying and joyous - I can't wait to meet the rest of my committee for 2010 and get to steer the boat so that we have a really good experience. I just love thinking about the book that is out there just waiting for us to read. Joy!

pottery porn

I went to the ceramics showcase of the Oregon Potters Association last week over lunch with some friends. We blasted through there in less than an hour but in that short time I fell deeply in love with this teapot and mugs. I walked away twice and then realized it was just calling to me deeply. I am in LOVE with the design and the red and brown glaze.

It's decidedly fall-ish and frankly, my house is festooned in in green and turquoise for spring but I still had Nana figure out a place where I can see it all the time.

It's James Sloss Pottery from Dayton, OR. The website doesn't do the pottery justice. I see a field trip in my future.!

from two to four

Happy Anniversary to pdxpishposh and tall house, double cup! 7 years ago in Hawaii . . . yeah for us!

We need a new family picture for E and EM's school - one with ALL of us in it. I take all of the pictures in the family so I have lots of pictures of Tall House, Double Cup with the kidlets but none with all four of us. We did an impromptu attempt to get an updated one tonight using the timer. All went well with the test shots - even Mara the cat joined in. But trying to get all four of us looking presentable at once is near impossible. We'll try again - maybe when I get a tan.