icu nurok

I can't get this silly They Might Be Giants song out of my head. We have been listening to it a lot lately, partly because Henry is enjoying the album more now that he is beginning to do a little (more) reading and sounding out. What a curious thing it is (to a five-year-old and a 37-yr-old) that letters can mean or at least sound like words. Here are the lyrics to the song I'm thinking of along with a translation link.

urnx
urnx, ni, imnx
ictv
ictv, nicu
icu, icu, nurok
urnx
urnx, ni, iw
icatv, icadvd, nicu
icu, icu, nurok
icu, icu, nurok

remembering Goldie, ? to 8-?-08

Last night as Henry was falling asleep I was keenly aware of no sound coming from our hamster Goldie's cage. I had been concerned about her all day, but thought I would listen last night for her noises and then decide what to do in the morning. This afternoon I remembered my concern. Earlier in the week I had fed her nice, organic romaine and Joel and I both noticed that she looked shaky when she woke up the following evening, but we didn't say anything to Henry.

I checked on her this afternoon, since I couldn't see a trace of her this morning, and discovered her body, little hamster soul already with her maker. Goldie, we loved you and we will miss you. Rest in peace.

searching and learning

Well, here we are. We're beginning a homeschooling journey. Maybe for half a year, maybe for a year, maybe a little longer than that. Wow. We have had some wonderful times so far, my five-and-a-half-year-old and I. Here he is on Monday, searching for God in all the cracks of our wooden floor. The conversation went something like this.

Mama, when do we see where God lives? Do you have to die to get there or can we go there now?

Um, well...God doesn't only live "out there somewhere," God also lives in you and in me and, well, God can be found everywhere. God is with us right here and now. [That must have been way too unclear a remark; not quite the description of panentheism I was going for].

Well, Mama, I'm going to find God because I need him to help me find my Star Wars Lego people.

Back to the homeschooling topic, I'm feeling lonely and excited. I'm most attracted to an unschooling approach, plus, I just feel too poor to try Waldorf or some of the interesting-looking reading-based curricula out there. But trusting that we will find our way through this with joy, and that the three of us will know when/how we need to make changes, and that I really do have the right to be Henry's primary teacher when his dearest friends here in town all have a blast at public school...but his Wichita friends have a blast homeschooling. I want to offer him something precious, but I don't want to withhold what he needs. I plan to write more (for myself) about our take on homeschooling so that I have a mission statement of sorts to look back on.

Thanks for listening, friends!

The New Yorker: My Long-time Love

I needed some diversion yesterday morning, so I sat and read "Mink Inc." by Lauren Collins from the October 23, 2006 issue of The New Yorker. I have been reading this magazine on and off since I was sixteen. It's literary, informative, entertaining and, gosh, a person can learn a lot about a whole lot of things just by sitting down to read an issue or two. Here's two paragraphs from Lauren Collins' article. It made me cackle out loud with glee. And I do sincerely apologize if I've offended anyone who's opposed to fur coats for ethical reasons or if this comes across as fat-phobic. I offer it strictly in the spirit of fun.

A few years ago, Ervin Rosenfeld was asked to make a mink jacket for the Bronx rapper Fat Joe. This would not be just any mink jacket; it had to be the pale blue of a Tiffany box, light as champagne fizz, and flattering to a man who was said to weigh three hundred and seventy pounds. Equipped with Fat Joe's favorite North Face parka as a template, Rosenfeld set to work on the garment, for a video called "We Thuggin'." He tracked down a skin, a white ranched female mink, and had it dyed the requested hue; after stitching the pieces together, he cut up pillows and stuffed the material between the fur and the lining, to get a quilted effect. The resulting creation, a sixe XXXXXL bomber jacket, was ready for delivery in three days. But there was a problem. Fat Joe was indeed so fat that Rosenfeld didn't have enough blue mink left to fulfill the other half of the commission. Never mind that the video was set on Memorial Day, in Miami; the R. & B. singer R. Kelly was meant to appear alongside Fat Joe in an identical coat.

Rosenfeld decided to go for what passes in his oeuvre for minimalism. He snipped the sleeves off the pattern, leaving the armholes huge and gaping, and attached a pouch of mink at the back of the collar. Voila. He had invented the sleeveless fur hoodie. It's a look still spoken of reverentially in certain quarters. ...

The article goes on to tell Ervin Rosenfeld's story and how and why he is favored by artists in the hip-hop scene. I feel like a better person for having read it, and I imagine I'll still be chuckling next week as I think about those guys in their Tiffany box-blue furs, posing by a pool on Memorial Day.

Happy Sunday!

happenings

While it's a joy to return to blogging after a three-week (or so) hiatus, I have to say the rest has been wonderful. I wasn't aware of how much time I was putting into taking photos, downloading them, writing down thoughts. This discipline is well worth my time, but I come back to it with a new appreciation for the many other ways I want to (and need to) ply my strength.

The biggest thing I've been up to is growing a baby to fill these well-loved shoes. It has been an amazing gift to hear this baby's heart beat (with doppler assistance) and to feed my body's cravings. How anxious I have felt: are you alive in there? Have I done something to hurt you? After two miscarriages, I don't think I'll ever be able to be casual about pregnancy again. The blessing of this time of uncertainty (not that there is ever any final certainty, even now that my first trimester is over) is that I have had the privilege of hearing other women's stories of pregnancy loss and infertility. Oh, the dear women in my life! I can't thank you all enough. My sisters, my sister-friends...you are an amazing source of strength to me!

Let me spout on just a bit about pregnancy cravings, because I think they are so very, very entertaining. Here is what I have wanted to eat, in more-or-less chronological order, beginning around July 4.

lovely golden-yolked free range eggs from Cheryl
shrimp (which I believe isn't a very ethical--or maybe healthy--thing to eat)
shrimp
shrimp with sour cream cucumber salad on baked potato
fantasies about a carbonated sour cream-shrimp-cucumber milkshake...ugh...yum!
milk and chocolate chip cookies
beef stew
tomato juice/V8
nachos: beans, cheddar, guacamole, sour cream, tomato, chips
biscuits and gravy
biscuits and gravy--yuck! I normally don't like this, but have loved making them both from scratch this last month
red lentil coconut curry
beet borscht and reubens with lots of kraut (so thankful for Yolanda's menu)
kalamata olives
gazpacho
wraps and sandwiches made by someone other than myself that may include heated meat but do not include ham (usually a favorite of mine)
...mmm. I think I'll find something to eat soon.

Here is a photo of a beautiful meal that I really did not feel like eating due to funky nauseated pregnancy feelings. Our wonderful guests brought over the whole meal, which we ate out on the porch. Too bad I mostly felt like eating the boring beef stew in the crock pot.And here's a photo of my sister Barbara's new set of wheels. Couldn't resist including this one! Her electric bike is an eGo. It recharges for about 8 cents worth of electricity after which it can go 60? miles. Wow! And then there's the consolation of this array of healthy local food, grown and purchased from within 100 miles of home. Wow again!Take care everybody!