chapters

September 1, 2010 | 3 comments

Well, summer is over. My mom and dad have gone home to Texas after their adventurous visit. The colors are changing and the air feels chilly. The boys have both started school. All is mostly mellow again five mornings of the week. I miss them a lot. I fooled myself into thinking I was ready for the loud, crazy days of summer vacation to end.

This is Mighty’s first year in “real” school–he’s a big kindergartner now. He has seemed ready for it and so far so good. On the other hand, J started second grade. Second grade! I can hardly believe I am that old, let alone him. It’s hard to say if we’re ready for this… I know he is, but if I admit that, I feel like I’m losing his last little bits of baby.

I remember second grade. Second grade was the year my mom revolted against the Arizona public school system and started a homeschooling exodus in our family that ran through all eight of us kids. It was kind of a big deal. Homeschooling was definitely not the hip thing to do in those days. After the changes that came with second grade, I have no distinguishing separation between each year as they all were similar: spent with the same teacher and the same “classmates” (aka my younger three sisters and four brothers). It was a beautiful thing. I wonder what will distinguish J’s second grade year?

Thinking of my second grade year brings me back to the place I spent most of my childhood. My family moved a lot, but when I think of being a kid, I always think of The Orchard. For five interesting years, my family lived on 12 acres of rows and rows of citrus trees right smack in the heart of Phoenix. I was blissfully unaware that we were surrounded by a serious ghetto where gang violence would occasionally send bodies floating down the irrigation canal near our property. Instead, we lived in a haze of orange blossom heat alongside another family with playmates about the same ages. We had our Barbies, tree forts, wild king snake pets and a good roof to watch the famous desert sunsets. We ran from vicious roosters and rode our ponies down to the Watering Hole after a stop at Circle K for some Bottlecaps. It was kind of idyllic on the surface, I’d say.

My first memory of tragedy was here when a nearby neighbor’s house burnt down with two little boys inside. Their mom left them home alone when the house caught on fire. I’m sure my childhood recollections of the event have become more dramatized over the years, but the image of their charred house with the mattress spring skeleton in their room will always haunt me.

We were often encouraged to go play outside. I’m sure most of the motivation for us to get out and explore was to preserve my mom’s sanity. Homeschooling eight kids was probably not an easy task (Gosh, you’re kind of my hero, Mom)! I think this period in my life is what has fostered my craving for nature to feel like a real person. My soul eats up fresh air and natural beauty.

I’m seeing my kids getting older and it makes me wonder what story they will tell in the years to come. It makes me reflect on my own story and why I’m feeling a need to connect with it so badly these days. I guess I think I never have one until I start adding it all up. Most of it has been really good… most of it. And the bad? I guess I don’t have a memory for it. It’s there and sometimes it hurts, but I’m really pretty darn satisfied.

Stories: the common threads that run through us all and the obvious differences that make us all so unique. Isn’t this why we love music? Monster ballads and sad country songs… the occasional instrumental that strikes just the right chord without saying a word. I have a running soundtrack that obviously changes with the chapters in my life.

Brian and I now are both really loving the new Arcade Fire album, both the sounds and the lyrics I think are very resounding for people of our generation. Coincidentally, my sister sent me this link this morning. I entered in my old Phoenix address. Kind of eerie to see the trees here erupting out of the actual earth I used to play on…. how full circle. These days, The Orchard has been plowed and The Suburbs have been placed on my hallowed ground, but the fruit is still growing inside me and the white-painted branches I used to swing my legs off of are entwined in the towering spruce trees that my kids now run beneath.

What’s your story?

…here’s my Wilderness Downtown video, if you want to see more of mine. And thanks for the link, Emily. Your angelic face here makes me remember all the times we must have driven Mom crazy and then played stupid. And she still loves us!

hello rainbow

August 22, 2010 | 4 comments

As if I didn’t see enough beauty on our evening walk yesterday (glaciers, waterfalls, wildflowers, smiling babies, swimming puppies, bald eagles and barn swallows… the list goes on), this beauty appeared out of the looming black clouds on our drive home in a downpour.

My very own double complete rainbow! And it was a giant: stretching from one end of the Mendenhall Valley to the other. It’s as if the universe knew how much I would appreciate this sight. I know Yosemite Bear would have been loving this up right along with me. Can you dig it?

And the splendor continues… this is what I woke up to this morning when I walked into the living room:

My mom and dad are coming to town today! I hope the skies continue to show their glory.

Photo props to Brian for the first two photos.

noticing autumn

August 21, 2010 | 2 comments

The weather has turned back to typical August grey skies. Nights are cooling down more. I’ve even noticed that the Mountain Ash trees are starting to turn yellow. Is it really the brink of autumn? In Texas, I welcomed fall with all my being. Here… it’s great… but knowing that winter is right around the corner… um? For some reason, all I can conjure up are images of snow shovels.

As much as the thought of the looming cold, dark winter does not appeal to me, I am really enjoying sitting back and noticing nature’s transformation into it’s fall splendor.

We walked out to Point Louisa yesterday for some beach-combing. There are subtle differences in the land and wildlife. The colors are more orange now. The moss and lichen are going crazy. The snails are covering the seaweed by the thousands and the geese are flying in formation. South already? All the fireweed has turned to seed but the fields of clover are making the air smell heavenly.

We had an impromptu nature scavenger hunt, went tree climbing and found treasures for sketching. Bird did lots of bear hunting. Her favorite book right now is We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, and she loves to quote it: “swishy, swashy, swishy, swashy!”

My two favorite finds were a small green sponge and this strange piece of seaweed (?) that had the same exact texture of snake skin. I have no clue what either of them are. Any ideas? So cool! Also, check out this little piece of the ocean that looked just like a tiny brain. Slimy.

The boys were calling the long strands of kelp “whippie hippies” and tying them to their arms and legs. It was pretty darn funny to watch them–they looked like sea monsters!

Of course, the best part for me is sitting down to draw what I found. The kids walked around the small point with their notebooks and drew for at least an hour, coming back to show me their works of art every now and then. It makes this mama really happy to see her babies so inspired by the natural world. I hope they never lose their enthusiasm.

After our walk, we went by the school to see what teachers the boys will have this year. It turns out Mighty will have J’s wonderful first grade teacher for kinder! And J will be in class with some of his good buddies. We’re looking forward to the new school year as we welcome autumn.

summer’s end

August 16, 2010 | 1 comment

I spent all weekend laying on various beaches in the sun. It was hovering around 80 both days–and it’s continuing today. Rapture! What an amazing send off to the last week of summer. The boys both start school next week so we are going to be out soaking up as much of this remaining warm sun as possible and having all our last minute fun. We have a big day of berry picking planned today: blueberries and raspberries!

mad craftin’

August 13, 2010 | 8 comments

We have this room downstairs. It’s kind of like a basement and has become the catch all for everything that has no place in the house. I was finally inspired to clean it out last week, in an effort to create a kind of studio space.  It’s definitely not cute and just kind of pieced together with what I had… but everything now kind of has a place.

before (GROSS!)

after

I’m actually really digging my lockers that I scored at the state surplus, now a vibrant Longhorn orange (hook ‘em) (sorry, I’ve been watching too much Friday Night Lights on Netflix and I am totally into football for the first time in my life–just when I leave Texas).

I was actually able to put my new “studio” to use for the first time with a few simple projects. I’ve been so uninspired to create anything with fabric this summer, so I had to go back to the real basics and make some good old bandana pants for Bird. The boys were jealous of her new threads so we had to dig up two of their new school t-shirts and have some freezer paper stencil fun.

And now (to make this post even longer…) I have to tell you a story. Bird was totally obsessed with a strange video on YouTube about a cat named Burger and Fries. He’s super mad because he has the stupidest name for a cat. Ever. For months and month, every time we turned on the computer she asked to see Mad Kitty. I couldn’t check my email without watching this loathsome video. What made it even worse, is that it became a game in which my kids all tried to act like mad kitties. The noise generated was something on par with real cats in heat. seriously.awful. Anyway, Mad Kitty kind of took on celebrity status in our house and that’s how my new label was born. I can see a faint glimmer of  Mad Kitty’s name in stars (just please don’t call it Burger and Fries).

Here’s the video, but be leery of showing it to your toddlers for fear Mad Kitty will take over your life.

smoked

August 10, 2010 | 5 comments

I have big plans for my kitchen adventures this fall. Ok, I only have one but it’s awesome. And it was actually Brian’s idea. He put the first step into action for me this weekend. Ok, so he started something on his own with an entirely different idea to use it and I decided that I’d hijack some of his bounty and use it for my own personal ambitions…

In any case, he made smoked sea salt. It smells sultry and heady and it’s look is downright sexy–like I’d wear a dress adorned with this salt. I almost said sparkle-licious but that is just too cute for this very mature and complex mineral. He used both alder and mesquite in our Big Chief smoker to achieve “a little bit of Alaska and a little bit Texas” flavor blend. It’s tres chic. He’s thinking steaks, I’m thinking chocolate. I’ll let you know how they both go. We have enough to get crazy with the possibilities.

Completely unrelated, I picked some huckleberries off the bush I found on my walk with J the other night. I laid them out out to freeze in a single layer on parchment before I packaged them up in a bag (a helpful trick so all your berries don’t clump together in the freezer). I can’t bear to part with the beautiful polka-dotted parchment with which I am now left. The huckleberries, on the other hand, are super tart. Whatever I make with them will have to involve much sugar.

date night

August 7, 2010 | 7 comments

J and I took a walk out to our neighborhood beach last night. He held my hand and we chatted about life. We collected the most beautiful oyster shells–ones that we’d never seen before but seemed to be in great abundance on this day. We found a giant red huckleberry bush and a gooseberry bush that we plan to go raid tomorrow. He pointed out neat things for me to take pictures of (like the beach grass that Daddy likes).

My boy is growing up. He rolls his eyes and says “whatever” when I tease him now. He has great ambition to play hard until school starts in two weeks. The house will be sadly quiet when that happens (though part of me is counting the hours). Sigh. As my dad would say (and back before that, I believe it was My Fair Lady), “He’s a good boy, he is.”

I’m lucky. And I realize how important it is for me to connect with all three of my kids on an individual level. On the rare instances that it happens now, I learn so much about their unique perspectives and quirky ideals. So much fun.

some folks never see a bear at all

August 5, 2010 | 13 comments

I haven’t been around my usual haunts lately (flickr, here). Aside from my trip to Seattle, I’ve really just been hanging out with the family, leaving the camera behind and enjoying things at face value. I get way too caught up in taking pictures sometimes so I’m taking a little breather.

My solo trip to Seattle was very restful and mostly pleasant. I got to meet Lecia (finally! hi Lecia), went to the Seattle Art Museum, saw a great old friend and her new beautiful home, and did lots of eating, shopping and walking. The reason for my trip was a totally out-of-the-blue medical scare that could not be dealt with in our small town. Luckily, all has turned out fine, but was completely frightening in the throes of it all. I’m breathing a big sigh of relief and counting my blessings now.

I did manage to sneak in a few shots (though really terrible as the light was fading fast) of a young black bear we saw about 10 feet from us at the Mendenhall Glacier a few nights ago.  The sockeye salmon are in the creek there now so it’s bear heaven. We watched this guy (girl?) with about 40 other people so we didn’t feel too threatened that he’d turn on us and mistake us for food. It was the kids’ first real bear encounter and they were thrilled! I do worry now that they will think all bears are this chill and not use as much caution as they should. We’ve been talking a lot about this.

This bear really didn’t give a lick that there was a crowd of people surrounding him just a few feet away. We were more or less standing over him on a platform so that gave us a (completely false) sense of security. However, it was just a little unnerving when he’d look you straight in the eyes. Fun to see regardless. When he would finish his catch, he’d walk down to the creek, grab another fish, and bring it right back to his cushy spot in the grass for us all to watch.

So there’s my bird’s eye view of our new little friend. Brian managed to get these next two, which are not so sharp but much lighter than mine. Isn’t he a beauty?

Ever since our fairy tale encounter with the bear in the woods, I have had Lyle Lovett’s Bears song on repeat in my head. And each time I go for a walk at the harbor, I have to sing to myself, “If I had a boat, I’d go out on the ocean. And if I had a pony, I’d ride him on my boat.” It’s like Lyle wrote the soundtrack to my life. Some days that seems really awesome… and some days that makes me feel extremely boring! For the record, Lyle, Texas didn’t want me (or so the stars have shown). Maybe I should be looking for some new theme songs. Ideas? I’m thinking I need to liven things up a bit.

seattle

July 29, 2010 | 8 comments

I’m in Seattle. All alone–for four whole days and three whole nights. There are days at home when the idea of such a nice break sounds heavenly. But honestly, I’m a little lonely. I really miss my family! Funny how that happens. I am trying to enjoy myself though. It’s certainly a nice, quiet time for me to refresh and get some perspective.

I haven’t been in a city since we moved back to Juneau in December. It’s crazy how shocking it is to be around so many people in one place again! I didn’t realize how accustomed I had become to being in the sticks. I do love a good city though: the culture, the anonymity, the sounds… and all the options. As long as I have the ultimate option of going back home to the wild.

I am not entirely here for pleasure but I do plan on a little shopping, a little museum hopping, and some serious eating of fine cuisine. Not to mention a whole lot of sleep in my hotel room. Sleep? What’s that!?

it’s a double complete rainbow!

July 26, 2010 | 8 comments

You just have to watch this.

I can’t stop laughing. I want to meet this person… and I have to admit that I would probably be just as enthusiastic. My favorite part is when he asks, “What does this mean!?”

This rainbow appeared as we were driving down the highway during a crazy storm in Montana last summer. It was probably one of the coolest rainbows I’ve ever seen.

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