b o t t o m l a n d

we're back!

It's been a long and winding road, but we're back and beginning to dig ourselves out from under the mountain of laundry amassed by a week of camping in a dusty field.  I've lost three attempts at a post now, so I'll leave you with just one snapshot--one of my favorites from our two-week-long adventure:
 
Yup, that's our crazy friend Shane breathing fire alongside some incredible poi (fire dancing).  Did I mention that we had a great time at PAPA Fest?  Fun was had by all, and I can't wait to share some of our reflections.  Look for a good bit of catching up in this space in the next couple of days.  In the mean time, happy summer!

**  Clara made a dear friend in Lucy, the dog of our friends Cassie and Chris, who, we are sad to say, was just hit by a car the other day.  Those of you who knew Lucy know what a dear dog she was.  We will all miss her! :(

road trip

Remember in my last post when I promised birthday details?  They're going to have to wait.  We've transitioned from birthday madness to road trip madness.  We're in central PA at a lake with Papa D's family for a few days, then we head off to IL for PAPA Fest for all of next week.  I will have some computer access, and will be trying to blog, but if I don't show my face around here for a while, you'll know why.  I will be back online no later than Tuesday, June 24th, and perhaps sooner than that.

For now I'll leave you with the momentous picking of our first tomato!  We have two huge tomato plants growing in the window of the back hall, and our first fruit ripened on Little C's birthday, so she got to pick it!

i'm not dead yet

 Folks, it's been a whirlwind around here.  I am still alive.  I am still interested in the modern art practice of blogging.  I am planning a splashy entry to mark the end of my neglect of b o t t o m l a n d.  But in the mean time I'll leave you all with this shot of my beautiful daughter being crowned 3 by my husband.  We've had birthdays and baby showers, house hunting, conferences and road trips.  Yes, folks, life is a wild ride!

june delights

Poppies in the garden! Spring tonic: lilacs...

The irises are just beginning to open!

Can you see the ant opening up the peony leaves?

You know it's really summer when the woodstove serves as a  flower stand, rather than a heat source!

she climbs!

Hello again, and sorry for my long absence!  We've had a wonderfully busy week, full of visitors and the special activities that come with hosting.  We've had long, lingering philosophical and theological conversations, we've shown off the farmstead that is the latest object of our house-lust, we've eaten at favorite restaurants and cooked yummy meals at home, we've taken long walks and even squeezed in some gardening... 

One extra-special thing that we did was go rock climbing with Papa D's oldest sister (that's her with the braids).  Over the past few years, she's become quite an avid rock climber down in her neck of the woods, and she's been eager to try out our local rocks.  (We live quite close to Rumney, a popular destination for rock climbers, claiming some of the best sport climbing in the Northeast.)  Papa D and I both used to climb quite a bit, and while he's kept it up, I haven't put on a harness in over 4 years.  It was so much fun to be climbing again, and just to be up in the woods.  And the best part of the day was getting Little C climbing!  She used a special child's harness and quickly took to it with the fearlessness of a toddler.  In fact, she didn't want to leave!  I was so incredibly proud of her diligence and continued effort, even though it was difficult for her.  Papa D and I both struggle with pushing ourselves through challenges, and we've often talked about how we can pass along the virtue of diligence to our child.  It was so exciting to see her try again and again, and to see her face beam with pride at her accomplishment.  We were all tired at the end of the day--the best kind of tired that comes from exerting yourself doing something you love.

Psychologically and physically, it felt so good to climb again.  I have to confess that I get too easily intimidated by activities that I once was good at, but no longer spend much time doing (like writing, kayaking, skiing, climbing, hiking).  It's something I don't like about myself--it's as though if I can't keep up the level of involvement that I once had, I don't want to do it at all.  I used to lead wilderness expeditions for incoming freshman at the college I attended, and as a guide and a student of outdoor education I had a moderate level of skill and confidence in these areas.  But once I got out of the rhythm of regular involvement in backpacking and climbing, I've had a hard time doing it at all.  It's as though I'd rather not face my out-of-shape-ness, or that fact that things don't come quite as easily as they once did.  So it felt like something of an emotional hurdle to overcome to commit myself to a day of climbing after so long.  I'm pretty proud of myself, and I did okay up on the rock too!






















Here's Little C, unwilling to admit that it's time to go home.  Don't worry, sweetheart, we'll do it again soon!

happy cooking!

I don't like the spicy sauce because I'm only four and a quarter.  Maybe when when I'm older.  --Nate

We're expecting house guests (Papa D's sister and brother-in-law) in a few hours, and so I may not pop my head up here for a few days.  I did just want to briefly share this amazing book that I got out of my library all about cooking with kids.  Mollie Katzen, the author and chef, is the vegetarian maven who has published such classic cookbooks as The Enchanted Broccoli Forest and The Moosewood Cookbook.  This book is geared towards the 3-6 set, and is full of great ideas about engaging kids in the kitchen.  Kids love to cook, and already Little C (at less than 3) is able to take on meaningful, simple tasks in helping me prepare our meals.  For many months now she's been good at stirring and pouring, but she is able to use a sharp knife under my close supervision.  I am a big believer in the Montessori/Waldorf principle of giving kids real work to do.  I think our culture vastly underestimates children's ability and interest in participating in the work of real life (I know I've posted about this before) and our life attests to the value of including kids in household work and chores.

 

Anyway, this book provides great inspiration for hitting the kitchen with your little ones!  Kids are much more eager to eat healthy food when they have helped prepare it.  Even better, get them started in the garden growing the food that will become their dinner!

Here's some "rules" as outlined by the preschoolers that Katzen worked with in developing this book:

• No walking away with knives!  --Theo
• Be careful when it's in the oven.  Stay still!  --Meila
• When the food is hot we can look with our eyes, but not with our hands. --Leah
• Say "No thank you" instead of "I hate that!"  --Sarah
• Stir slowly because we don't want to get it on our clothes.  We don't want to get it on our shoes, either.  --Sarah Jane
• Don't run in the kitchen or you could bash into cabinets.  --Ethan
• I think I have to be six to like spicy food.  --Eli
• You can't stand on a stove.  It's not a climbing structure.  --Molly
• Don't put food on your arms.  --Nyko

a poem for today

from The Cure at Troy

Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted or endured.

The innocent in gaols
beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home.

History says, Don't hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.

Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter self-revealing
double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
of new life at its term.

~ Seamus Heaney ~

the weepies

I have to start out by saying that I LOVE music, but I've been in such a rut lately, feeling somewhat sick of all my CD's.  I'm not very adventurous about trying new groups that I'm not familiar with, and I rarely spend money on new CD's, so it is with great delight that I tell you that I've been completely taken in by a new-to-me band called The Weepies!  They are a husband and wife duo based in Southern California, where they live with their cute baby boy, Theo.  I'd never hear of them, though they used to live out east, she (Deb Talan) in Boston and he (Steve Tannen) in NYC, and they both used to play at Club Passim, a favorite folk club in Cambridge.  Dave and I first heard of them in this Paste magazine article (thanks, Eden!), and Dave bought me the CD for Mother's Day.  I've listened to it obsessively ever since.  What can I say?  I'm a lover--I love to fall hard for things...  And these guys possess the dangerous combination of being both easy to listen to and provocative.  They both sing and play a variety of instruments--their harmonies are hauntingly beautiful (I love that expression!) and while the tunes are more "poppy" than I usually like (look out, the songs are very catchy!), I find that the music has real depth.  Besides, I'll be honest, I like anyone with a baby, and many of the songs on their new album deal with trying to get pregnant and the myriad worries that come with creating a new life.  Anyway, I just wanted to let you all in on this non-secret (their songs have been featured on TV shows such as Grey's Anatomy and in Old Navy commercials).  The Paste article is great, and their music is even better!  Buy it--you'll be glad you did...

Yesterday, when you were young,
Everything you needed done was done for you.
Now you do it on your own
But you find you're all alone,
What can you do?

You and me walk on
Cause you can't go back now.

You know there will be days when you're so tired that you can't take another step,
The night will have no stars and you'll think you've gone as far as you will ever get

But you and me walk on
Cause you can't go back now
And yeah, yeah, go where you want to go
Be what you want to be,
If you ever turn around, you'll see me.

I can't really say why everybody wishes they were somewhere else
But in the end, the only steps that matter are the ones you take all by yourself

And you and me walk on
Yeah you and me walk on
Cause you can't go back now
Walk on, walk on, walk on
You can't go back now    

leaves

Something miraculous has occurred in our life.  The leaves have arrived!  The last few weeks of warmer weather have brought swelling buds to the recently-naked limbs...

...but just yesterday it seems, the buds have given way to fully-formed leaves!

The last few days our world has been transformed to a deep, lush green, and it is delightful!  Yesterday Little C and I were having our breakfast out on the porch, and we heard the wind rusting the leaves for the first time!  It was magical!

more mother's day musings

The true story of Mother's Day precedes Hallmark cards and flower delivery services.  It originated as a day of mothers gathering to demand peace in the face of the carnage of the Civil War, and Julia Ward Howe's original proclamation and rallying cry reads as all too pertinent to our current global situation.  Of course, a day to celebrate our mothers and our mothering selves is great, but our culture is all too quick to trade action for consumption.  As mothers it is our sons and daughters (and husbands and selves) who are turned into killers by the machine of war.  As mothers it is another woman's child being killed by our own.  As mothers we hold the power of human life in our bodies, and we hold the moral authority to declare that all of life is sacred.  If we hold our tongues, who will speak for peace?  If we are so easily silenced by the command from on high to consume as usual, who will show the moral fiber to name this madness for what it is? 

A great short essay describing the evolution of Mother's Day is here, written by a UC Davis prof, and below is a poster from my very favorite artist Nikki McClure, which can be purchased here.   Also, many awesome women's peace organizations exist today, such as Code Pink and Mothers Acting Up.  Check it out, and let's think together about what kind of values we want to instill in our children, and what kind of world we are creating for them.

Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870
by Julia Ward Howe

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today I remember not only my personal transformation as a mother, but especially my own mother, Cindy, and my grandmothers, Sylvia and Emma, who are/were wonderful examples of fun, compassionate, spunky mothers in their own right.  I celebrate you all!  Thank you for your guidance and inspiration!

And thank you as well to all my mama friends who have provided me so much support and inspiration.  I have survived many dark moments on the strength of the mothering bond that stretches all around me, touching all the mothers I know and love, and behind me through all of time. Special thanks to my dear women friends who surrounded me with your love and blessing when Little C was born so painfully early.  My Mother Blessing is one of my fondest memories, and I've been thinking lately of the hymn we sang together that August day nearly three years ago.  It reminds me that God is our Great Mother (as well as our Father) and that the nurturing we pass on to our children does not find it's source only in us, but in our Creator as well:

Mothering God, You gave me birth
in the bright morning of this world.
Creator, source of every breath,
You are my rain, my wind, my sun.

Mothering Christ, You took my form,
offering me Your food of light,
grain of life, and grape of love,
Your very body for my peace.

Mothering Spirit, nurturing one,
in arms of patience hold me close,
so that in faith I root and grow
until I flower, until I know.

Special thanks to my mother-in-law, Melinda, for introducing me to this hymn and for being a great mom to my husband and a friend to me!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!

mothering montage

What an amazing adventure this motherhood thing is!  It has been such a journey of discovery--humbling, terrifying, exhilarating, joyful and above all wondrous!   

Thank you, Little C, for teaching me how to be your mother, and for being patient with me when I don't always do what is best.  Being your mother is one of the greatest honors of my life.  You are a delight!