Happy New Blog!

Happy 2011! As a present to ourselves and our children, my husband and I took our children to NYC for a few days before Christmas. Our trip was about the sights and sounds and flavors of New York City and one of our best times was in a quiet zone in Central Park. Exploring the Park with the kids on a freezing cold day we found Strawberry Fields.

September is always this fabulous time for renewal for me...the weather is getting easier to breathe than the dog days of summer here in Richmond, and the kids are headed back to school. Not that the summer was not awesome, but I always look forward to the new school year to have time for me. So my sketchbooks are full of ideas and my head wants to be designing new creations...I made it through the first week of school relatively easy... need to improve on planning meals that cook themselves during the day...haha...

A new beginning....

Interesting how a new year can fill you with hope! January always feels like a re-birth, the new beginning....creatively my artistic side turns to home and for the first time in 4 years I have painted our bedroom a beautiful cool blue to contrast the warm Moroccan accents we have...I painted with no tape and a 1 1/2 inch brush along the edges, and Kaitlyn helped me with the roller painting.
I want to mix lime wash and glaze to get that look i want.
It is fun to make a nest and flesh it out in the cold winter months and somehow that feeds my creative soul and renews it.
January also brings me to want to organize and purge...hooray! It is a very rare occurrence for me to not want to shove and close the door because organizing must mean a mess in my world...I can handle a mess but everyone else can't....
A new beginning this January is our new President, Barack Obama! I am excited and hopeful for the future and am willing to be guided by a leader I feel we have been waiting for as a nation.
I am excited with the discussions happening in my house and with my friends...

Keith Mason ...rest in peace

My uncle died this week, after an relatively short battle with cancer of the esophagus. Keith was such a powerful person in my life, it's hard to write this to sum up how I feel tonight, but i will give it a go.
Keith was the second oldest son to my grandmother, Catherine and the child closest in age and spirit to my mom.
Here are the memories bubbling forth...
Keith and Rosemary's music collection and record player
many a day on vacation did I pour over Bob Dylan , the Beatles, and many other classic artists...learning the words to songs and realizing that music was poetry.
Keith at the kitchen table eating a bowl of cereal covered with kidney beans and instead of milk pouring orange juice into the bowl. He had a whole system of food substitutes for allergies...it was gross...
Keith and Rosemary's dining room was a wonderful gathering place for family meals. Every summer we would come to Maine and all the family would gather at Keith's . From lobster dinners ....until the cousins became old enough to protest... to beautiful quiche breakfasts, to
millet loaf....ugh ...organic greens, we had a virtual feast.
Keith had a beautiful garden, and he loved to work on it whenever he could. I have day lilies from his garden in my own.
Keith was a social worker, working with children for his career. I received his wisdom on our last time together and i am forvever thankful for his loving and pragmatic advice.
It is so hard to be here when I feel like I should be in Maine, but we had a great summer vacation in Maine and were so thankful we were able to spend time together with eith and Rosemary....we shared a few lobsters and had a lot of laughs...I love him and will miss him.

A South of the James "date" with my son..

I have been spending a great deal of time re-aligning the stars for my children lately, especially Bryan. He has just started middle school and all the weirdness that brings...waking up early to shower every morning, hair has to be just right, trying to figure out the social order of things...all that business is VERY important when you are 11.
On Saturday, B and I headed to the South of the James market for a little fun! We had a great time! A little limeade, fresh squeezed from the ladies with the incredible peaches...beautiful beans and heirloom tomatos from Amy's Garden, sticky buns for the first day of school and a Big Daddy's pork sandwich made for a great morning. Top that with the smoky blues of the guitar playing gentleman we saw there...love it! Then off to the family thrift store on Midlothian for some cool t shirts and pants. We had great conversation , went to the used music store and re connected!

My girl

Ok, so I could not have two more different children...and so I really need to write about my girl. Kaitlyn has this unbelievable ability to process music. It is so pure ,this talent of hers to hear a piece of music and instantly know how it forms and flows. I appreciate music, but never learned anything but Hot Cross Buns on the recorder...where did this come from? She definitely has the flair for the drama, and so tonight she is reading to me a book of her choice and she chooses a classic Dr. Seuss, MR BROWN CAN MOO,CAN YOU? Front cover, read, first page, read.....the next words are sung,simply. Then she breaks into bluesy, jazzy wonderfully amazing "reading" of the book! She looks to me when she finds another presentation, covered in layers of beautiful notes. Absolutely flattens me! I beam at her as she beams, " I like the sound of my voice..." I love it baby, what a great way to read to me tonight!

Summer...

Summer is supposed to be a time for relaxing and re grouping...in our household it has been so unbelievably busy! School was out the end of June, but swim team had already begun. Kaitlyn is at practice every morning at 8:30, I head home to pick up Bryan at 9:30 for his practice from 10-11. Tuesdays are YMCA work days, so we jump out of the pool at 9:15 and head to the Y until 1. We have meets every Tuesday night so we are up late. Weds. starts over again. I am pretty ready to be done with swim team now at the middle of July. Bryan is at boy scout camp this week
and that has been a weird experience for all of us having him away.