Honest Scrap tag

Sarah passed along this Honest scap award - which does appeal to my need to confess all.

I am glad to have discovered Sarah's wonderful blog.

1. I cry during many movies (comedies too), during So You Think You Can Dance and even over commercials; even those on the radio. This is only since having children and especially when there is David Grey music or some other poignant soundtrack involved. I don't cry in my real life; sometimes with joy but not often.

2. I have been known to dance to the Leona Lewis song, Bleeding Love and even, a few years ago, to Roses are Red by Aqua when the kids were playing it. Dionne Warwick/Burt Bacharach-collaboration seventies pop songs get me singing passionately. I also like Regina Spektor, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Weepies, Milton Nascimento... I have versatility.

3. I have a corn-syrup issue. Not that I won't drink an occasional Coke. But I do seriously resent those who created corn-syrup. I'm not so thrilled with the Wal Mart phenomenon either.

4. I can be a bad correspondent. I am getting way better since the advent of e-mail, blogging and facebook. Luckily, I have friends and family who invite us there or themselves here, or my children and I would be lacking in social interaction. Though, Gillen and Jesse would pick up the phone and call someone. Thankfully, they don't have my phone phobia.

5. A few Wednesdays ago, in the middle of a So You Think You Can Dance episode that had a disco number, while home alone, I ran into the bathroom (the only room with a mirror bigger than a tea tray) and danced full out for about ten minutes. My hips were doing figure eights, my arms were moving as fast as limbs in a hurricane, my neck and head were snaking...I was back in NYC at studio 54. I was feeling it.

This could explain why I was so intensely exhausted for the next two days.

If only my body could have stayed young while the rest of me joyfully aged.

6. I'm terrible with a ball - any kind of sport including a ball - though I did once claim to at least be good at soccer. I'm sure I exaggerated about my soccer skills.

7. Sometimes I exaggerate.

8. I have good ideas and enthusiasm, but not much staying power. Otherwise, I'd have finished several brilliant novels and my hallway would be the perfect color orange. I have a theory that once I buy idea paint and start listing my ideas, boldly, in purple and blue and orange on my wall, more of these ideas will reach fruition. Plus, the resident guys can share their visions there as well.

I love listing things I want when the tomatoes come in (our profitable season) but then change my mind and hit the thrift stores.

8. I did just follow through on a burning six-month long desire for a Blendtec blender and am making smoothies and juices and popsicles like crazy. I am a Persephone wannabe in the kitchen.

9. I am gullible and an optimist.

10. I only change sheets every three weeks, unless there has not been enough bathing going on. The guests get our best sheets - 800 thread count, a beautiful soft green and washed in lavender water... (I exaggerated about the lavender).


I would like to pass this along to the following:

1. Mindy

2. Jesse

3. Kelli

4. Laura

5. Gail

6. Claudia (who appreciates a scrap as much as I do).

7. Frank

Six Word Memoir Title

Deanne tagged me.

1. Write the title to your own memoir using 6 words. (I did see this)
2. Post it on your blog.
3. Link to the person that tagged you.
4. Tag five more blogs.

I didn't have trouble with the six words but came up with too many titles. I guess my memoir would be a series. What an interesting tag. Thanks Deanne.

Speaking of tags, a tag that I wanted to do but never got to (which is true of so many loose ends to which I later return) provoked my first title:

Still haven't done Sandra's winter tag.

Effervescently joyful though too often tired.

Touched by everything yet seriously silly.

I tag:

Angie
Rue
Mindy
Jesse I asked him what he would do and his answer was the best mother's day gift I could ever want. I'll let him post it. Of course, it could always change by then. But it was about living peacefully with his family. (Later - he did it. I swear he came up with this. He did add, as he wrote, "sometimes Gillen and I aren't so peaceful on the trampoline" but he insisted that peace was the word he wanted as his blog title.)
Gillen

tagged

I was tagged by Kaat, a good mama and a Belgian who lives in Brookline, MA (a place I spent lots of time as a kid).

A - Available?: As much as I can be, but there is a part of me that stays tucked away. I'm more particular about being available, as I get older.


B-Best friend: Not one any more. Several women are very important to me.

C-Cake or Pie?:Both! Though it is much easier to make a chocolate cake than a pecan pie so that gets eaten more often.

D-Drink of choice: Belgian beer; coffee

E-Essential thing used everyday: this old laptop (which I will just keep updating and won't allow to die)

F-Favorite color: periwinkle blue, among so many others...

G-Gummi bears or worms:These are Nicolas' favorite so I would pass them on to him. They don't contain chocolate so it's not difficult.

H-Hometown: Boston, Mass.

I-Indulgence: Books, art supplies

J-January or February: February. But not super fond of either. Though this January was a major exception.

K-Kids and names: Gillen and Jesse (bad boy cowboy names for some reason). If we'd had a girl, she would have been "Sophie". Now, I think I'd consider "Nora" or something really romantic and unusual like "Dagny".

L-Life:is not a dress rehearsal. Though I sometimes act like it is.

M-Marriage date: October 15, 1995

N-Number of siblings: One brother and one sister.

O-Oranges or apples: Fuji Apples. We eat all fruit seasonally, but since these apples aren't at all local, we eat them less now.

P-Phobias:Used to be flying, until a fear of giving my kids this fear shook me out of it. Now, just rats. They have not inherited this one, for some reason. When they see me on furniture screaming over a mouse (small rats) they laugh. What's up with that?

Q-Quote: 1) Anais Nin : "And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." 2) "It's practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry." — Joe Moore

R-Reason to smile: This moment last week at the oscars; this hilarious video(you've probably seen it - the I'm f-ing Ben Afflek video?); this Flight of the Conchords song. But mostly, my boys' innocence and their joy over little things.

S-Season: Fall.

T-Tag three people: Jesse, Gillen and Sara.

U-Unknown fact about me: I am from another planet. Oh, and I am about to cut my hair short, "about" used very vaguely here.

V-Vegetable you do not like: Brussel sprouts (well, except when my farmer from Brussels grew them - he even made these taste good)

W-Worst habit: Reacting before taking a breath, but this has gotten much better over the past few years. Another is getting side-tracked.

X-x-rays you have had:foot (I stepped on a needle as a teen and it moved its way into my blood stream), and gums.

Y-Your favorite food: Maine lobster. The foods that I actually get to eat more than once a decade - spare-ribs from our local friends' hogs, lox, spinach, okra, Thai food, sushi, homemade chicken soup. I am going to go eat everything in the kitchen now.

Z-Zodiac: Sagittarius.

Six Things I Love About Bhu

I was tagged by Rachel, an unschooling mom in Chicago. I first connected with Rachel when she posted "The Lanyard" (a poem that I like; you can listen to it here) on the Live and Learn conference list last year. I really like reading about her adventures with her sons.

The rules:

(1) Link to the person that tagged you.

(2) Post the rules on your blog.

(3) Share six things you love about a friend, doesn’t have to be the same friend who wrote about you, really!

(4) Tag other random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

This gives me a great opportunity to ramble on about one of my best friends - my sister Bhu. She was born when I was fourteen so she is much younger, hipper and cuter than I am (I am not being self-deprecating here, Bhu, I am just stating the facts ;). At the same time she is wiser than I am and is a constant source of inspiration. Better stop gushing and start listing...

1. Bhu is immensely generous. I posted about one example of this last summer. Here visiting, on her Birthday week, she gave me her Nikon D70!!!

This wouldn't be as extraordinary if she were rich, and was swimming in extra SLR digital cameras, but she is not. She is a photographer who is just starting her own business and is married to a just-starting-out teacher (who, by the way, is another thing I like about her). The plan had been that I would buy it from her. Instead, standing in my kitchen listening to me while I did the dishes (not easy to get to do dishes when she is around), her beautiful Julia Roberts lips curved into an anticipatory smile and she handed me the camera. I tried to pay. She refused to let me. I argued, for days. She is one stubborn girl.

Before shooting many of the pictures that I have taken since that day (and there have been thousands) I have thought about Bhu and that generous act.

2. She is sooo talented at so very many things. She sews, draws, paints, creates amazing gifts for all the kids, and is one hell of a photographer. Check out her photography web site. Be sure to click on the "project" section. Look for the series of photos that she took in a Montana taxidermist's office. I ask you? See the joy in those fascinating peoples' faces juxtaposed against their lovingly stuffed dead animals? Hauntingly good.

3. Her courage and her staying power. I love that she prizes a search for the truth, and service, over comfort and complacency. I want to be just like her when I grow up.

4. Her love of family. She gets all excited about coming home for those reunion Christmases when our family all gathers here. She is as excited about seeing all of us as I ever was about Santa. She will never tell her kids about Santa. Too much integrity for that. She is grounded in the magic of real relationship.

5. I love dancing with this girl. When my boys were small and I rarely got a shower, let alone a night out, she convinced me to meet her for sushi and dancing. I love that she is as happy and wild as I am when dancing. I hope we'll still be able to do this together when she is the one with wee ones. It would be great to live closer and have a weekly dance date now.

6. I love her authenticity, but also appreciate her ability to creatively add some sugar (unlike me she grew up in the south) or hot sauce as needed to make the truth more interesting to digest.

7. (I have to add one more) I love that fifteen years ago when she was a slightly annoying (to impatient me) teenager, I had no idea that we could ever become this. You can choose your friends and not your family. I am very lucky to have family that I choose to call my friends.

I tag two unschooling women who are super wise and so much fun to hang out with - Danielle (I choose to ignore your tag reticence) and Mindy.