Kirsty goes to NYC

Can you believe it? I was in the Big Apple. The city that never sleeps. New York, New York! Somehow, I found myself volunteering to be a driver and chaperone for the youth group at church.

Best impulsive decision, ever.

I'm such a rube. A hick. A tourist..... and yanno what? Could not care less!!! I had the best time. From architecture, to the incredible weather (sunny. blue skies. 40-50's...not a drop of rain!); from street vendors to the fascinating people, and all the incredible food..WoW.

New York pizza? omg. And the bagels? Srsly? Who knew?

Well, New Yorker's know. Buy a slice for a buck and you've got a meal! Run 'round the corner and buy a just-made bagel...oh so soft inside, and just perfectly firm on the outside....

Oh, and the walking... oh my gods above and below!!! We walked from Battery Park, to the financial district. There were somber moments at the World Trade Center site...it hits you like a fast blow to the gut...or a fist grabbed tight around your throat..shocking and unexpectedly painful even after all these years.....then, tears and shivers, a soft-spoken prayer, and a heavy heart.

We proceeded to Chinatown for an authentic Chinese meal. (omg--i'm gonna be saying that a lot.)

Then on to SoHo, and the Village, and St. Marks (a 'place', not a church!). All told, we walked for 11 hours. We sat down once in all that time, at the restaurant, for an hour.

yes.

Eleven. Hours. Of. Walking.

And that was just *Saturday* !!!

We walked nearly all day Sunday as well, (7 hours!) taking in the beauty of Central Park (omg!!), and "my" group heading to MOMA (Museum of Modern Art)...and get ready for yet another OMG....

Jackson Pollock....Picasso...Monet....Manet...Andrew Wyeth (omg i got to see Christina's World....!!!! And too bad I didn't discover until *after* we got home that Starry Night was there...*pout*...well, tis a reason to go back, right?!)

just a few of the many, many things I was so lucky to see there..

Just a small aside here....I don't think you can fully experience the sheer genius of Jackson Pollock unless you see his art up close and personal...I was not a fan...until Sunday.

Wow. His work blew me away. It is raw, and visceral and intense...so full of humanness...and no, I've never seen the movie about him...but he spoke through his art.

There were so many paintings and wood block prints and sculpture (there were these perfectly round marble "balls" and an "urn" that were to represent "woman" on a round marble disc...wait, lemme see if i got a pic of that....)

Yes! (pictures? how about over 300 in 48 hours?!) So this is the "breast and symbolic opening of a woman, representing her ability to bring life into the world."

As a woman who never gave birth to any of her kids, that didn't resonate with me, not at all. Yet frankly? I was mesmerized.

The thing about those marble "breasts"? They were *perfect* spheres, and the sheer smoothness of them...the marble was as slick, and smooth as skin... it was amazing that hard cold marble could be transformed into something so perfect.

and there was this one, same artist and sorry I didn't get his name.....

the ball might have been gypsum? it too was perfectly round, but not slick the way the marble one was...this one had shimmer/gleam to it...

And oh my the "memory maker" things...a wild turkey in Battery Park (where the Staten Island Ferry leaves for Ms. Liberty)

...the long subway ride to the park at the start of our epic trek, packed like sardines....the Elvis impersonator who was more than a little bit kinda freaky...the Broadway show( omg! )...the Chinese Lady who chased me through her little shop in Chinatown selling me a purse for "10 dolla...8 dolla...okay for you ...5 dolla" (i did buy it for $5!) (this after buying $50 of other things there...she really liked me... )

And the buildings. Gosh.

Like this one (just outside of Battery Park, in the Financial District):

the mirrored front reflected the sky, the passing clouds became living art... I was enchanted with that..and the mix of old and new living in some sort of strange harmony...St. Pauls Cathedral all gothic architecture, right next to tall glass-fronted sky scrapers....the statues,and the people...great green goddess, the people.

The energy there is electric. At 11 p.m. it is nearly as hubbub-filled as at noon. (and in the Village? MORE people than at noon!!)

And the streets, all stories in themselves...Wall Street, Fifth Avenue, Central Park South, (yes I did take pictures of them all!)...and Broadway. Omg! me, hick from the stix...ate lunch on Broadway .... !!!

and Times Square?! OMG...where to look? oogling *everything*...look up and see Radio City Music Hall, and down there to the building where the New Years Ball drop happens...

Would i go back there again?

oh, yes!

(but not, please, until next year...I'm still processing...and my feet? they might leave me)

Always i cannot figure out the uploading-- so these of course are backwards....

So backwards this post will go!

From the top...the broken-limbed birch from the infamous ice storm 2 years ago; those azure sky's are only to be found this time of year...and certainly no portent of the impending storm hurtling towards us even now...

Other than this hopeful sign that faces towards the front door...and the cirrus clouds as KC and I had a "brisk" walk (that said with multifaceted meanings!) to the dentist this morning at 20 degrees and windchill too cold to think about...

And back about 3 weeks now the Princess Cake for the Princess. The ladies' dresses all have battery op-tea lights underneath, buried in the cake (and I thank goodness for Cake Boss showing me how such as this is done!!)...with the hills and vales requested by Ms. Princess herself. "So the Ladies are outside dancing in the snow" she said....

Perhaps because she has discovered the unequaled joy of throwing herself onto a sled and careening down the hill into the backyard....someday that little girl will wind up in the brook as her Mommy did so long ago...

So for these joyous moments of Winter..we smile and grit our teeth, knowing...knowing..that the days are growing longer every day (415 and still light out this afternoon!!)...and the wheel turns us click by click back to Spring....

...and the seed catalogues are getting dog-eared from all the love...

A Mural is Born

As usual, I can't make heads or tails of how to load the pictures in any semblance of order, so this final picture of the series is the only one in proper order!

The kids painted all the "bricks" by spatter painting red paper with black, white, and gold and silver sparkly paint. The used "recycled" bottle brushes, which make perfect smudgy-spattery marks. I cut them into the "brick" shapes, and they're glued onto the white background.

This year the kids can do so much more! They painted Santa's boots coming down the chimney, and helped shred and glue the "fluff" at the bottom of his pants, which hang down over his boots.

The star at the top of the tree was done tracing the shadow of a star that hangs from the dining room chandelier, in the only 5-minute window the light reflects off the neighbors windows and into my dining room window...just a kewl confluence of events. I had to capitalize on it!

The tree was quick-painted with the chisel-edge of a foam trim brush!

Tomorrow the kids will make paper "stockings" to hang from the "mantle", and I'll paint ornaments on the tree, as well as gluing 3-D items onto the "branches"...and the kids will "glitter paint" them to give them pizazz....

(and don't get me started about the hour we spent assembling the gingerbread house...it was a kit but the kids had a BLAST!!!)

Such a creative, positive energy day!

Ready for the Big Day...and I'm Not Just Talkin' Turkey!

Untraditional.

That's the word of the day. The word of the Year. The word that most aptly describes this year's Turkey Family Fest.

Or Feast. Whichever *grins*...

Turkey being done in a new way...being "brined" for 12 hours before cooking it, partially downside up, then flipping to "golden" the breast

Stuffing not done *in* the turkey (I wonder if my brother will freak out more than my sister...or vice versa?)

A traditional apple pie....and a non-traditional, done with a "cookie" style topping rather than in a crust.

And the biggest tradition breaker of them all?

A Buffet-style meal, served, not in our beautiful dining room, but in the living room. With the television tuned to the New England Patriots, who are playing football on Thanksgiving for the first time since *I've* been a football fan.

And it will be the first time the family will see the "new" kitchen...the new floor, the wallpaper, and the 2/3 updated paint job. Yanno...I didn't even sweat not getting the painting done. *shrug* they all come here for family, for food, for laughter, and remembering...but I doubt any of them will say ..."Gee, how come Kirsty didn't get that paint job done"...(I'm laughing here coz, my brother the painter, well, he's cut from a different bolt of cloth and as a professional painter...he just might!! C'est La Vie!!)

We spent today getting things ready and it was fun. Busy for the last 13 hours, non-stop things to do...but it was good. Only a wee spat and that corrected fast and I was left with the happy glow of getting things done, being ready, and being happy.

And isn't that the best feeling of all?

Holidays Come Pouring In....

Yay oh Yah, we're starting to swing into my 2nd favorite time of the year. And yanno what? All those picayune details that I spent weeks worrying about? The wallpaper, the painting, the curtains...it's so close to done that I've decided to package up my "worrying" and put it up on a box in the back of the closet.

All things happen as they should, all things will get done if you keep to it. And I have. And..yeah, it's so amazing and good.

Leaves are up and done, and my new floor has it's first waxing completed. All that's left is the drying, and the putting things back.

When the family arrives on Thanksgiving, they will be met with a nice tidy (well, within reason, Martha Stewart might cringe a bit...) home, but the things they will notice aren't the new floor (my sister was oblivious when she came out a few weeks ago). They will notice the scent of turkey in the oven, the smiles of my kids, the warmth of love that will spill out of every corner and wrap us all in the embrace of love.

Now, that, to me, is Thanksgiving.

Ponderings

I've been going to church for the last few weeks as a conciliation to my wife. Church is very important to her, less so for me.

That sounds callous, but my church is ...everywhere...which is not to say that I don't get great food for thought at our Unitarian Universalist church.

The hardest thing for her to understand is that I need time, true alone time, to recharge. As a full time stay at home mom, homeschooler, earth-mom type, I am on call all day. Mind, I am far from perfect, but I am a good mom. I am a good teacher. I am a good wife.

But I also need some me time. My diet coach helps me get that when I get something in my inbox that says "have you walked today?" Walking helps me calm down, slim down, and take notice of the wider, natural world around me.

Still, I find I need more than the 3-4 days a week a get a 30 minute walk. One of these Sunday's they will head off to church without me and I will rake leaves, or paint my kitchen woodwork or ...something. I'll do it in silence, a rare commodity for me. For several hours there will be no one asking me a thing, no one I need to speak to, just letting me charge up and breathe.

I so crave that.

And, despite a deep-seated pessimism, I am working hard, so hard, to embrace my pagan beliefs fully, to find the blessings that are hidden in plain sight, if we but take a moment to see them. Things like the brilliant iridescent green on a mallards neck that I spy as I drive past a small pond; the glimmer of a bold yellow leaf before it falls, the absolute purity of a white, fluffy cloud drifting silently overhead.

Sometimes the blessings come from people I speak to, or things that I read, or even something I overhear.

Today I found my hidden blessing in church. Heh. Who knew?

"You need not think alike to love alike."

That was Francis David, a Unitarian "martyr" (one of a very few U/U martyrs) just about five hundred years ago in Transylvania (google him, he was pretty neat...) .

Five Hundred Years. And a message as fresh today as ever it was then.

Thank You, Francis David.

Home Work

No pics, but...at the end of a terrible and frazzling week....

the leak in the upstairs supply line was found, and fixed...

....which necessitated ripping out 9 tiles from the kitchen ceiling installed last year....

.....................which necessitated ripping out an additional 25 tiles because of the way they dovetail...

Raised the blood pressure (again)....

but tis done. (and we won't even talk about the welding that had to happen )*( that close to the almost 200 year old floor joists....)

New ceiling tiles came home with Lee yesterday, and were installed in under an hour today. Well, okay, 2 hours, including ripping out and prepping the strapping. My butt is reminding me that I am not 25 anymore, and going up and down a ladder 50+ times is not an exercise that came even close to replicating my normal walking routine!

I bought a shelf to mount between the kitchen windows, and when I install it, will prep the last wall that needs painting prior to...

....painting all the woodwork so that I can.....

.......................install the wallpaper.

Can't start either job until Monday as I am working and churching and working again this weekend. Glad I get a chance to sing in the choir this week, been two years and I've missed it. And alto's are a valuable commodity in the choir! (isn't it nice to be needed?) Then, Sunday I'm in charge (OMG?!) of the Halloween Party at work for the kids at the Village, the apartment community where Lee and I work.

Kids, with multiple issues, in costumes.

Yeah, just another regular day at work (ha ha)!! My "costume" consists of an orange tee shirt I made last year...jack-'o-lantern in the front, and "Staff" on the back. Yay.

I LOVEEEEE Halloween, and the only part of my job I truly hate is that I miss dressing up, and handing out candy at my own home. Still, it's a good job, and I am lucky to have it.

Things are coming together, and the kitchen will (hopefully) be done by the end of next week. The saga that began in early July with the mysterious leaking dishwasher hose floating my floor tiles, will finally be put to rest, and I will have (a completely unexpected) kitchen rehab.

If Wishes Were Fishes...

I can't believe it.

I missed it.

Okay, I didn't *miss* it...I missed the opportunity to photograph and forevermore capture the much anticipated highlight of the fall leaf season.

Two days ago, such beauty, such incredible beauty surrounded our house. We are the only house on our street that is totally surrounded by maples.

Shades of yellow, gold, tinged with auburn, deep ruby, russet, blending into oranges...poised for a moment in time.

Colors that teased one's eyes to *look*, *look*, dear Goddess, *look*...

Drink it in, suck it deeply into the spirit, let it gild you...

My words cannot adequately describe the intense, vivid beauty.

And yet, I am reminded of that blog I read recently, the monks creating their mandalas of sand, only to let them be carried away on the wind.

Such beauty, we are reminded, is transient.

The beauty we long to capture...we can.

We can hold it in our hearts, and carry it forth into the world.

Autumn in New England Means...

Well, it would have been better if blogger would cooperate and switch the photo's but the pie came first, the jelly second.

Being somewhat frugal, a few years ago I bemoaned all the peelings that went to waste after making a pie (actually I had made apple pie filling and canned it, which uses a TON of apples). And yes they are *lovely* in the compost bin, but I always felt there must be more.

And guess what...there is! Apple Peel Jelly, is made using the peels and cores, cooked down, left to seep out all the good yummyness of the apples, and then strained into syrup.

The resulting jelly is a beautiful pink (even if you use green apples!) and the flavor is ... just the right balance of crisp apple, and sweetness.

I'm glad I was able to can something this year! T'was a very slack year for canning, though I did a lot of freezing.

Next years garden is already being planned...tomato seeds, and pumpkin seeds and and ... in time. Can't make myself order the seeds until the New Year...a traditional way of saying "yes, this winter will end, see, my seeds have arrived!"

But for now, there is fall, and apple pie...and jelly.

Fall Posting

Suddenly it's really Autumn here in the Northeast. The leaves turned almost overnight from green to yellows and gold. It never fails to grab me how fast the passage of time has been flowing around me of late. And by "of late" I really mean the last 6 years or so. Something about adding a few kids to the family managed to simultaneously speed up and slow down my internal clock.

Lest you think that's an impossible juxtaposition, I beg to differ. Suddenly, it is Thursday. Wasn't it just July and I was frenetically packing for our camping trip? And yet, yesterday, didn't the kids and I spend 5 minutes, that passed like 5 hours, trying to catch the breeze-blown leaves fluttering from the maple in the side yard?

Something about them makes me younger. I may joke about being 'old woman" but inside, I still feel youthful. Maybe they help me look at the world from a tighter perspective. All this talk of global economy, and global village leaves me feeling powerless, and often, frightened. But bring that wide world down the the microcosm of a 6 year-old, and suddenly...there is joy and curiosity, and beauty in every thing I behold.

Funny, I started out thinking I was going to write about my disordered kitchen, the way I am feeling stressed and trying desperately not to be...

and instead I find myself looking things from my kids viewpoint, and am feeling the thrill of discovering what's under the old wallpaper, wondering about the transformation of new wallpaper, and what will it look like when the plumber pulls apart the wall upstairs to find our leaking pipe...

and not like a nervous adult wondering about the mess, the cost, the fuss...

Funny what a change in view can do for the spirit...

Been Gone So Long

Life has been busy. Full-on hectic, as life with kids can be. So hi and welcome back and yeah. Sorry I've been neglecting!

Updated pix of the youngest kiddos....Rob in March, using our "leprechaun" glasses as "goggles"...too funny!


Lissa just got her hair beaded in this pic. It takes about 2-3 hours to braid and bead her. The good thing is that she's done for about a month after the efforts. And she loves tossing her head and having her beads "clack, clack".

And KC, doing a "Santa beard" in the tub.

In order, Chet is now 24.5, Rob just turned 14, KC is 6, and Lissa is 3.5....

I'm done with diapers, pretty much, bottles long a thing of the past, and the kiddo's are at that stage where helping Mommy is fun. Oh, how I love this stage!

Because Mommy wears long skirts all the time, our sweet lil gal also prefers dresses or skirts...however, she's a boy in girls clothing! Oh, my, that one is twice as much work as ANY of the boys...maybe even combined!!

She'll not take crap from any of the boys, stands up for herself, tantrums like a pro, and yet still is prone to random acts of sweetness, a hug for brother KC when he's sad, or a full-on body slam from across the house hug with her sweet face tilted back and an "I loooovvvee you mommmmmmy" as her wee arms wrap around my legs.

Life is good.

I Like It!

Moonsingers darker color...that's what you get for coloring your hair when the kids are up and you have to turn off the timer and then separate squabbling sibs...nonetheless...I Like It!

Just saw this quote:

“Risk-taking, trust, and serendipity are key ingredients of joy. Without risk, nothing new ever happens. Without trust, fear creeps in. Without serendipity, there are no surprises.”Rita Golden Gelman
.............on Quilters Coven and had to steal it... I Like It!

I've been decorating the house like a fiend for Yule...a few lights here, an arrangement there. Make a wreath here, and hang another there. Santa here, jingle bells there...aaahhh, the Yule Season is here once again...and I LIKE IT!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you the brilliant colors of Autumn
the brilliance gleam of smiles
the spirit of love to surround you
and all things yummy to eat!

Blessed Be!

The Wheel Turns...

We have come to the end of a season. For me, Summer is fully "put away" when the leaf raking is done. Although there are a few straggly bits to take care of (noteably, the hedge where leaves blow from neighbors, and down the street..always a maintenance issue), the yard is essentially put to bed for the season. Compost bins are full and working overtime to produce beautiful soil for next season...the wheel isn't just turning just now, it's in full whirl! Above, the brook after a "cleansing" rain...

Another kind of wheel...the first apple pie of the Holiday Season! Yet to do are 3 more for Thanksgiving (apple), then a pumpkin pie, and finally, a chocolate mousse pie. That's today and tomorrows work. KC declared this "the best looking pie you've ever done, Mom," which is all the praise anyone could hope for! Blue ribbons have nothing on the adoration of your own kids!

It's so hard to see in this photo...but where the shadow of the house is...is an outline of the house in frost! It was so kewl to see! Didn't photograph all that well, but it was neat watching the shadow move with the sun, and seeing the frost *poof* into vapor as you were watching! Note the lawn is virtually leaf-free.

All is well in our corner of the world. Watching the spinning of the season wheel...the last geese stitching across the sky, the fast approaching gloaming early each afternoon, the deep darkness of nightfall, making 6 p.m. feel like 9 p.m.! When it's dark, this moonsinger feels like it's bedtime! Oh, how I envy those farmers of old....in this day and age, our rhythms follow those of necessity...the "gotta get dones"....even when our spirit cries for rest....Ahhh, well, there's always snowshoeing to look forward to!

It's...it's....it's...

More Powerful than a super Bug...
Faster than a fat momma pig....
and Able to Leap Small Children in a single Bound....

It's SUPER MOONSINGER!!!

This is what Moonsinger looks like after the H1N1 has knocked her on her ass and finally gotten back up:


A smile. Make up. Eyes still a bit blurry, but hey, they're blue, and not reddened, runny or closed. Progress on the forward road, my friends.

I have survived the Aporkalypse!!

Thank goddess you can't see all the gray roots in this shot! (prob'ly why I chose this one, eh? LOL!)

Before and After 10/24 + 10/31

From October into November in one fell swoop!

Home Improvements and Women Power!

Yanno.....sigh...someday I'll figure out how to load these the right way! So --TADA! The finished ceiling!

The...it's nearly done ceiling!

The...Oh, it's-not-as-hard-as-I-thought first steps...

The deconstruction mid-phase....

Time to take out all those staples and nails.... okay, so you have the scene, backwards of course, of the 6 hour project. We had about an hours lag when waiting for the electrician friend to come by and take down the 3 light fixtures, and filled that hour with house chores...the inevitable, inescapable laundry, both starting a new load and folding a done load, and putting said load away. By the time that chore was done and a cuppa was consumed, our handy electrical neighbor was over and uninstalling the lights. We made short work of getting the tiles under the lights removed, and started the install around 10 a.m. By 3 p.m. the job was complete. And with just 2 five minute breaks.......one to pee/change the wash to the dryer, (I know TMI!!) and another to wolf down some chicken (thank goodness for purdue done it).

We did first stage of clean up while waiting for the neighbor to return to reinstall lights...he was amazed that two women ( not to mention OLD BROADS,, LOL!!) could put up the ceiling so quickly. And it looks decent. Not contractor perfect (straight lines) because our house is so old that there are no straight lines anyway. And....So. Much. Better. than the deeply bowed ceiling that existed before. Bright and new and tight.

Yay us!

The Staff Shirt

One year of Art KC age 4-5

One of my favorite KC artworks is the one above. He used computer paper that had a rainbow arching over the left top corner, and he "saw" a scene in it. I remember we had one heck of an arguement about him "using" (aka "stealing"!) Mom's computer paper. But when he showed me the picture that was trying to get out if it...well...the stormy clouds, the lightning bolts, the giant raindrops....all the images crowding in his head from weeks of stormy weather this spring. This helped me be aware that I sometimes need to listen better as a Mom....

An early age 4 pic KC made for Mom. He knows how much I love the New England Patriots, so he made this picture of Tom Brady (the quarterback, in case you're not a football fan!)...his numbers are reversed, but he did a great job! He was a young 4 at the time, and I was just amazed that he was writing numbers at all! He also did a pic of Tedy Bruschi, reversing his number as well (54)...

I don't know when he decided to frame, and outline his work, but the flower just pops. The electric blue doesn't translate as well on the monitor as it does IRL, but trust me, it's gorgeous! Note the "knobs" at the corners to connect the frame!

Ocean themes abounded this summer, especially after camping at Old Orchard Beach in Maine, twice. This whale was drawn with dry watercolor crayons, and then "bled" with water. He liked the blurry effect it created, so it looked just like a wave misting as it broke.

And finally, his first attempt at free drawing stars. He had such a time learning this, and he's getting better all the time. I've never met a more determined kid! He practiced doing these for at least an hour. He gave me the picture so that "You'll aways have stars, Mom!" I call him our Star Child, for he was blessed by the light of a full moon and beautifully shining stars, just a week or so after he came home to us, and this celestial theme is one that he and I are deeply connected to.

Proud Momma!

PS. I hate taking down artwork and putting it away, but blogging it has helped. Now my workroom walls are clean and bare, ready for another winters artworks to adorn them! This year Lissa is more excited about creating, so I'll have artwork from two littles to post about next time!

And so it goes...

The view from the front porch to the trees across the street

and what you can't see is the photographer,

happily resting her elbows on 100 bags of wood pellets, which arrived on Tuesday, 3 days before the first snowfall, Friday. Also, these pics were taken just before the snow started falling on Sunday.

So here it is, Monday October 19th and we've had our 2nd snowfall of the season. Already. Okay,not enough to measure, unless you were at Foxboro stadium yesterday (GO PATS-- WOO HOO!) where it was snowing sideways, but really, two n'oreasters in 2 days?

So....A summer that rarely if ever made it out of the 7o's, winter arrives in October. Tell me this....if there is global warming...where the hell is the warmth? Because it's FREEZING in New England !

Gotthose good pics above of the foliage around here before the winds came up and tore many leaves down. Now if only they (the winds) would come back and blow them into the neighbors yard. Hee.