best place to work ever...

Plum Pottery...It's always a mess and there is an endless amount of chores to be done but I am thankful for this place...where I can escape three nights a week at the "witching hour" when the kids are getting owly and emotions run high..and on the weekends when I would otherwise plan way to many outings and events...this place calms me!
I get to be creative, hang out with adults, talk politics and in the case of this class...Eat!! Every week someone from the Wednesday night class brings something fabulous. Last night it was awesome guacamole, last week a ridiculously delicious pumpkin cake that Johnny called something like "Choc Full 'O Fat Cake" (I forget exactly the name but you get the idea.) We've had rice pudding and mexican hot chocolate and lemon tarts...and I never have to make them. Wow! I love it when someone actually cooks for ME!
Yes, last night was great... At around 8:00 I got a phone call from home to GO LOOK AT THE MOON. The clouds parted finally and our class stood in the alley looking up at the lunar eclipse. A great night.
Anyway, I love my job if you can even call it that. I would say that the rest of my life is much more difficult...the juggling tasks, the driving everywhere, the orgization of drs. appts and b-days, the volunteering, the LAUNDRY... etc...The fact that I am a potter and teacher is such a blessing! ...

A total eclipse of the MOON! Tonight!!

Perfect timing, unless its cloudy...starts around 5:45 San Diego time becoming complete around 7:00, ending around 9:00! Wow!

relaxing with my baby (doll)...

two interesting new crackle glazes...

...that unfortunately peel right off the rims...back to the drawing board.



I had made a bunch of heart bowls for Valentines day...kinda cheesy but I still love them. The first ones I ever made were for Craig Cami and Finley right after she was born and now I make them whenever I have a dry idea spell because they just make me happy.







Bonus shot: This is what I am looking at as I wait for the above shot to download. Beauty is just everywhere isn't it!!

These are white potato vine flowers with snapdragons and the little yellow guys are those sweet lemony weeds my kids pick and suck on...don't know the name...we call 'em "tasties".
And of course baby Finley smiling back there...
sweetsweetsweet!

first sentences (if you can call them that...)

#1. it's ok mama (after he barfed on me in the middle of the night followed by a breast pat)...
then...
#2. boo again???

If you have to have the TV on...

...I just love the sound of Maurice Sendak's
"Little Bear"...the music, the message...its all
very calming and all three of my kids have
loved it! We video taped all of them when Mac was two and I am glad I saved them! Many a sick day has been spent snuggling on the couch listen to that music...and its good when you are in a pinch...

for instance today, cleaning up a whole lot of
dog vomit...it was nice to be able sit Silas down in his favorite chair and know he wasn't learning to baby talk or be sarcastic like every other cartoon out there. Bugs Bunny is the only acceptable sarcasm for me...but Silas is not quite there yet!

p.s. And Mac was named after....

My favorite actress

Papa

and what about Mac?...

hmm...she's got a voice like Ethel Merman...the face often reminds me of a young Vanessa Redgrave (my mom's face too!)...







...and of course Mac has many
Lucy moments









gotta love those redheads!

February Trees...

My three favorites this time of year are...

ornamental pear (above)...we have many of them at school...
the bark is so black and the flowers so white it is a beautiful
contrast against the blue sky...

and sweet gum, a.k.a. liquid amber, (above)...I love these trees because of
the way the little prickly balls hang like ornaments
and seem to attract yellow birds...and the way all babies
and children are drawn to them, collecting the seed pods.

This, I think, is an Indian Coral Tree and there is one on the front corner
of our school. This is such an incredible tree!

did you ever wonder what these guys looked like as kids?...

Every Year...

...The Air Mobile Unit Party!


The kids love it. They get to watch their father compete in a kipper-eating contest (some weird kind of canned fish...yuck...we will not be sleeping in the same room tonight...). Then they get to eat lots of brownies and burgers and rootbeers. There are helicopters and blindfolded rifle assembly competitions (...I know...) and Mac gets to hide in a box so a trained dog can sniff her out. All of this required much explanation on the ride home.
They had a blast. Silas loved all the activity and grabbed many an army green leg saying, "Papa...?"
It's always interesting for me to see Matt in this light. He's one of the bosses and everyone always acts surprised that he has a family...especially our "crunchy" family for some reason. The AMU is just filled with dudes doing dude things all day long. The hanger is full of lockers and boots and serious equiptment and everything smells like camping. Surreal really.
Then he comes home, puts on his snuggly hat and whips out the banjo.

We Keep Changing Colors...

...since I can no longer dye clothing for fun (Silas won't have it!) we fulfill our color fixation on this poor, tired blog.
Also its been hard to figure out the weird template/bloggerheader photo problem...the pictures are now too small...so we change colors to make up for it. Emmett's color day is coming up!

one of those great moments...

I was never that into "The Miracle Worker" or Helen Keller...but Mac is doing a project on her life so we watched the movie tonight. Seeing things through the eyes of your children is amazing. I am always surprised when Mac doesn't like something I do...and I am even more amazed when I become interested in something I never thought I would because of Mac. This past week as Mac told me bits of pieces about what she has learned, I have become fascinated with the life of Helen Keller. The movie tonight was great and Mac's reaction to it was classic Mac. She jumped on my lap, grabbed my hands and started spelling things in sign language with joyful tears in her eyes. She loves stories like this and can really relate...teachers,spirit,communication,equality,love and dare I say, tantrums...and I love stories like these too!

Here is Mac's timeline... And looking at it I realize that she published something like 9 books...amazing! And was Helen Keller actually in the movie "Deliverance"? Eek.

Attention Family and Friends...

Mac is doing Alice in Wonderland!
She is the Queen of Hearts!
The performance dates are...
Fri. Feb 28th at 7 pm,
Sat Feb 29th at 2 pm,
Sunday March 1rst at 2 pm,

and then again the following week...

Friday March 7th at 7 pm,
Saturday March 8th at 2 pm and
Sunday March 9th at 2 pm.








For some reason you have to buy tickets in advance (OY)
so if you could let me know if you want tickets for a specific date I
will reserve them for you. Kids $7.00, adults $10.00.
I will be going the first Friday and the last Sunday and Nana will be
going a couple of times on the Saturdays.
Mac is really excited!

BooKs, all day and night...

...check out the video.



It's been very fun around here lately...lots of reading,
walking around talking about any old thing...

yesturday's haiku:

apple, oops, fell down
okay, yum, up up mama
Mac? Emmett? BooK!

the people i rule (im the king emmett)

mama:the queen
papa:the kings advisor
nana:the princess
mac:the knight
silas:the prince
rosepanda(my cat):the cook
sapphire:the gaurd
benjamin:the jack
pablo:the jester
everybody else:pilgrims
mable:my dog

Emmetts 7th Birthday!!

The many faces of Emmett!



sweet, thoughtful, friendly, silly, tough, curious...
A great brother...


Loved By All!!!


...and here he is on his actual 7th Birthday...Good Morning!

Happy Happy Day! XXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOXXXXXXXXX

hahahahaha...i love matt damon...hahaha...(NOT FOR KIDS)

This most hilarious video is not for kids at all, even the audio, MAINLY the audio!!! And if you think R movies are offensive, skip it!!! 12 months and younger probably ok...ha!

Things I Should Write Down Before I Forget...

...baby book stuff, since I've been too lazy to keep it up I will try to combine my "oblogations" with my kid stats and records.
Silas' Words:bird, mama, papa, nana, mabel, ball, "gucker" for sucker, maC, emmeTT, booT, booK, stuck, open, off, up, down, on, "ish flaw" for wish flower, hat, sit, owl, hot, wawa, uh-oh, ow, elefa, bike, car, rock, tree, oops, again, more, boo, "cock" for clock (thats a good one), tick tock, bed, yes, oh no, stop, tickle, belly, eye, apple, cracker, airplane, diaper, spoon, moon and of course every animal sound imaginable... More and more words everyday! Its so fun...I love it when the talking takes off...its a door into that little head!...oh, and we can't forget..."OH THIT!" for...well you can guess. (He learned that one when I got locked out of the house and tried every door with increasing frustration... louder expletives...it was 7:45 am and we were both barefoot! Finally our neighbor saved the day by crawling in through a tiny window!)
Anecdotes: Mmm, lets see, well... Silas likes to do the same thing over and over every day, always adding things, never taking away. For instance, if we walk around the block, find a flower to make a wish, collect rocks, look for birds, listen for planes etc then we do that in the same order and at the same spots every day, but then he likes to add things like smelling a flower or laying down and making sidewalk angels etc . So...our trips around the block get longer and longer every trip and we can never skip anything or HUMONGOUS TANTRUM. This boy has a real knack for the mind-blowing-traffic-stopping-mama-sweating-tantrum, much like his spirited sister but with his own twist...just when you think he's calming down and relaxing his body in your arms he bucks backwards and I have almost dropped him many times!
...and I also don't want to forget that Silas calls this Mr. Incredible doll "Papa" for a long time now and thinks its hilarious.

Craig, you have competition...

...Silas does a mean Marlon Brando...

...and loves this chair, especially if Elmo is involved.