Basketball and Southern Weddings!

What is going on with the NBA? Why is everyone emoting?

New topic: I finally got my copy of Southern Weddings and you can see my pretty little Scrappy Heart Garland in it! Just barely, but still! And they spelled BananaSaurus Rex right and you know how I love that....

Leading with the weather.

Hey, what's going on in Bahrain? How about New Zealand?

I wouldn't know, because around here the news all week was: It's gonna snow!

I was promised snow.

Instead we had blue sky and batting practice, which is also nice.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, in advance. If you pee your pants with laughter.

All the way home.

Tromping around in a winter wonderland.

Snow is super fun, and nice to visit. (So glad I don't live in it.)

Half.

Okay, this is embarrassing. I'm totally not a hoarder. Well, maybe I am. I'm sure I'm not.

Moving on.

I have this recurring daydream in which I pile the contents of my home onto the front lawn and edit and donate and ruthlessly purge and carry back into the house only the objects that are loved and necessary. I think I could get it down to about half. Half.

In theory, HALF sounds so very very liberating. But in practice? How do you measure? By volume? By item? I have two couches and I'm not getting rid of one. Then again, I probably wear one-fourth of my clothes. How many sweaters equals a sofa?

On the other hand, every time I go to look for a permission slip or auto registration or other mildly important slip of paper, I pitch (recycle) most of the paper I encounter on the way there. Most of the paper. How much paper - that I don't need - am I living with?

Even my wallet is a burdensome mess, so I decided to start there. I think I kept one-third of the contents, and got rid of some things I cannot explain. Like the expired credit card from a company I left eight years ago? And, who needs five pounds of pennies?

Also tackled: one bin of children's books (with the help of the children). We gave 15 away, kept 35 including 2 that my kids don't care about, but I love them and they're out of print..... so. Still, a 30% reduction isn't so bad. Especially for bookish, indoorsy folk like us.

We gave each other celebratory fist bumps and ate Valentine candy.

Pictures of the sky.

Do you ever get tired of pictures of the sky?

News from Kazakhstan:

I received the following email from my sweet sick sister the other day....

Bec,

It's snowing today and I'm home with bronchitis and a bottle of Kazakh antibiotics prescribed by the school secretary who is actually a doctor but makes more money as a secretary. And that's my run-on sentence for the day. How are you?

Love, Em

She also reports that the apartment building has steam heat and it's cranked way up all the time so they have to open the windows to cool down a little. It's like 40 below outside. But, their Christmas trip to Thailand was amazing!

ps. I didn't have a new photo, so I used a really really old one. It was not taken in Kazakhstan, but in a Volkswagen.

Rain. Rain.

Happy Valentine's Rant.

With a rebel yell, I cry less Less LESS! Please, less. I can't deal with another holiday where my kids come home from school with bags of candy and toys that I have to pry out of their tear-stained hands when they break after 4 minutes of prying them out of their packaging. It's a waste of money and heaps our landfill with cheap junk from overseas and fosters a sense of entitlement in our children. I'm over it....

Ha! that turned into a cantankerous rant. And I meant to be so triumphant this morning! There's hope for me still because my friend, Khris Brown and I made these super-fun non-candy-bearing valentines with the kids. One for each monkey in their classes. And for the price of paper and a little jelly-bean fueled labor. They are delighted with them and I must admit that I'm feeling super-awesome about it.

Also - we recently had a birthday party for six-year-old Fin, with a jumpy-house and doughnuts and NO goodie bags. And guess what? They didn't even notice.

In the stacks.

Choosing a biography to read for a second grade assignment went like this....

Mama: the Wright brothers?

Seamus: Shaun White?

Mama: Michaelangelo?

Seamus: Michael Phelps?

Mama: Neil Armstrong?

Seamus: Lance Armstrong?

Mama: Deal.

Up with people!

Ah, there's nothing like a populist uprising. So romantic.

Yet, if there's one thing I've learned in my years on this planet, it's that the story is never the story. Do you ever read Gregory Maguire? Wicked is amazing. I like it so much I eat it with a spoon.

Friday, I'm in love....

I have one of these boiled wool jackets from Nabali, and I might wear it out. It's so soft and cozy and I put it on the the morning and wander around all day sewing and singing little songs about grandmothers and tea. I think the best thing to do would be to get another, don't you? You should get one too.

Boiled wool + sewing (substitute fulfilling work of your choice) + singing + grandmothers + tea = comfort and joy.

So now you know.

Last weekend, I lost my beautiful amazing lovely adorable grandmother. She made things and laughed easily, often at her own jokes. In those ways (and - I hope - in as many other ways as possible), I am like her. I miss her so very much.

Six things about Fin.

1. He is relentlessly affectionate.

2. If he does not like what you have to say, he pretends he can't hear you.

3. He opened a stamp stand. It's like a lemonade stand but without the lemonade, and for $0 he will put a really cool dinosaur stamp on the back of your hand. He gets his business sense from his Mama.

4. When he has a feeling, he expresses it with his whole body.

5. His tongue isn't always blue.

6. Today he is six.

New apron.

Super-soft vintage linen with warm golden poppies. I love poppies. I'd go outside and plant some right now if I wasn't so lazy. The apron is in the shop.... and it was featured here and here today. Cuteness!