I'm feeling a little dry in the blogging idea department, but feeling the need to visit this space. So here I go with the random boring stuff:
(Yarn Along for Ginny)
I'm reading Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, for the first time. After pulling it off the bookshelf and recommending it to Avery, I figured I should probably read it myself. Something sticks out in my mind about it being a little controversial. A little over half way through, I'd say it's pretty tame. It reminds me a little of the Anastasia Krupnik books. I think I like Lois Lowry's preteen heroine more than Judy Blume's. So far.
I really love my preteen heroine, Avery, best of all. She went shopping online this morning and found a few shirts she needed. I told her I'd buy them, but when she saw the shipping price, she offered to pay the shipping. ($10 is a bit steep for shipping, but much cheaper than a trip to the mall.) I told her she could work it off. She folded the five loads of laundry I'd been avoiding the past few days. Win-win. Also, last night, she made the yummiest rosemary crackers to go with our minestrone.
My little hero, Aidan, has been pretty lovable this week too. Walking along the tracks the other day, he shouted out, "Come see this Mom! A dead worm in the shape of a heart!" That boy knows what I like.
They both chipped in and helped me make limoncello the other day. Don't they look happy? Poor kids - all that work, and they won't even be able to drink the fruit of their labor. Despite the looks on their faces, I think they enjoyed the work. They just look serious when they're concentrating.
I mopped our floor today. Something I've been meaning to do for, well, months. Maybe since Thanksgiving. Gross, huh? The thing is, I don't actually have a mop, so I "mop" our floors Cinderella style. Down on my hands and knees. We have wood floors throughout the house. It's a big job. I rewarded myself with a homebrew and an episode of The Daily Show when I finished.
Now I've got to put away all that laundry Avery folded and make some tortillas. We're having enchiladas for dinner. Aidan just started a fire - in the fireplace. It's good to have kids with skills.
Did you hear it's supposed to snow in San Francisco? The first time since the year I was born. That was a long time ago. If it snows there, we'll have plenty of snow here. Maybe even enough for sledding.
And just because there can never be enough birds in blogland:
Put a bird on it.
What did I tell you? Booooooooring. I'll try to spice it up a bit for your next visit.
Mmmmm. I feel much the same way about my blog right now. I'm living life, yet can't think of a damn thing interesting to say on it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway i didn't find this post boring. I too am loving my kids' new skills, it's so good to have helping hands. As for the book, it would be funny for me to go back and reread that. What WAS the scandal, anyway?! The mere mention of menstruation?
I don't see anything boring! Lovely post. :)
ReplyDeleteI remember being totally scandalized and embarrassed reading that book. But I don't really remember why now. Was it a bra? a suggestion of private parts? does she get excited? down there? I can't remember but I blushed reflexively when I saw your photo - so there must have been something that got me when I was 12 . . .
ReplyDeletei've all but abandoned my blog, though i think of it almost daily.
ReplyDeletethings don't sound so boring to me. they sound like my life, only with older, more skillful children. i'm kind of envious of that right now, if i think about it. bea folding laundry is probably a lot different than avery doing it.
and limoncello? that sounds divine.
Not boring at all... this is life... sometimes it screams with excitement and sometimes it's all contentment.
ReplyDeleteYou don't fool me. You guys make your own crackers and tortillas! How can you be boring!?
ReplyDeleteI'm loving the heart-shaped worm. It almost looks like one of those dang Silly Bandz that I find everywhere I turn.
I think I remember hearing that "Margaret" was controversial because she gets her first period? Very over the edge. ;-)
Oh yeah! There was a PERIOD in that book! Crazy. :-)
ReplyDeleteI actually find these kinds of posts more appealing at times than some of the blog posts that seem to come from ideas (though I often like those too), because there's such an intimacy to them, and because the thing we have that's unique is our own little lives. Everyday details say so much - this is one of the things I love about Virginia Woolf, her ability to depict the interior life of her characters and the more quotidian aspects of a life.
I can't believe how long ago I read it. Love that worm heart and your kids expressions. Snow in SF? Weren't you just having a heat wave at the beginning of the month? Am I that much older than you that I believe I remember it. I was four... or maybe it was just hail. I'm 41. Anyways... you are NEVER boring.
ReplyDeletei really enjoyed this post. thank you
ReplyDeleteI too, love the expressions. Full on concentration on the task at hand.
ReplyDeleteI love reading the minutiae of life. All lives.
Ooh looky, sweater progress is being made!
ReplyDeleteWho could be bored with heart-shaped dead worms and limoncello?
I am so upset about this weekend's predicted snow. Because Lulu and I are going to NY to visit her brother, and we're going to miss it! And it looks like we'll be getting rain, not snow, in NYC! Wa-a-ah! Since I'm so dang much older than you are, I remember that last time when snow stayed on the ground in the Bay Area. I was ten. We went to the junior high field and made snowmen.
I hope I don't have to wait another thirty-five years to see it again!
Boring? Nonsense! I love the kids' expressions... my son, when very little, used to look fiercely grim when he was really enjoying himself; I have a great photo of him on a fairground toddler's roundabout, driving a train, quite enthralled, but looking the very picture of miserable dislike.
ReplyDeleteI think there should be a prize for that heart-shaped worm.....
Oh, I loved that book. Can I admit to even trying that exercise that was supposed to increase your bust size? It didn't work.
ReplyDeletei like this kind of post, molly. you are living a full life. in my mind, that is the most important part.
ReplyDeleteI guess I am boring too. I love the photo of the worm and the young boy who found it. Seems right up my almost eight yr olds alley. Enjoy your boring days - they are perfectly lovely.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this post as well...I like the randomness. The heart shaped worm is just too much! I remember reading Are you there God it's me Margaret...that was a really big deal to me at the time...I think I remember wondering if my mother would approve of me reading it, of course looking back now I know she would not have been upset in the slightest, it's just funny to remember how it made me feel.
ReplyDeleteNot so boring, life is in the little things. I wrote about DUSTING (of all things) yesterday! Your kids sound amazing, which should be no surprise. BTW - I finally found a mop that does as good a job as me on my knees. I'll try and send a photo :)
ReplyDeletei love that first photo.
ReplyDeletenot boring at all, just the little peeks into another life are fascinating. really.
ReplyDeleteSometimes there is just not that much going on...such is life. The photos are still lovely! "Are you there God" is one of the most banned books ever... which just seems insane now, but I think Judy Blume was one of the first authors to talk really frankly about things like puberty, divorce, etc.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy everyday posts sometimes more than anything. It helps me realize that everyone has to do the sometimes boring everyday stuff that I have to do too and it makes it not so bad. I'll admit our floors haven't been mopped in awhile either.
ReplyDeleteAnd Yes, I live in SF. We are suppose to get snow and EVERYONE is freaking out about it. We are from Missouri originally and are cracking up at all the people losing their minds over a dusting of snow.
I'm also glad to know a mother other than me tries to read the books her daughter will be reading. My daughter is only two but I've started collecting old books for her and have been reading through them over the winter. They never seem to get old.
Every time I stop at our local coffee joint I always look around hoping to see Judy Blume, one day I'll catch her there! It just isn't the same spotting someone if you know they'll be there, you know? Like I could have gone to see her and Meg Cabot give a talk at the library but couldn't be bothered but I'll get all excited about *maybe* seeing one of them in a coffee shop. Anyway, limoncello sounds divine! I wonder how it'd be with Key Limes?
ReplyDeleteLife can be boring sometimes, but those are usually the best times with the kids cause we're not so busy looking for the big stuff to happen, it just does :) Love the yarn color, very soothing.
ReplyDeleteI've being feeling rather boring on my blog lately too. I even totally scrapped a post I was writing yesterday since the only reason I was writing it was because it had been so long since my last post, and really I didn't have anything to say. I blame it on the season we're in. Between the beauty in snowy winter and the rejuvenating of spring. Right smack in the mud and mundaneness of it all.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading that book. Bras and periods. Fun stuff ;-) I remember reading it several times, trying to absorb some knowledge about the boobies and the periods because my mom never filled me in ;-)
ReplyDeleteI made Limoncello also! After I heard we are getting yet another huge snowstorm tomorrow, it can't be done soon enough...ten more inches, really?
ReplyDeletePlease! Not boring at all, just real :)
ReplyDeletelet's see, what was i going to say? oh ya. so, we've made a great mop out of the swiffer sweeper thing, but instead of using those disposable covers we just use a warm, wet cloth - sometimes with white vinegar poured on if that's the kind of clean we're going for.
ReplyDeletealso, my boy calder is similarly great at spotting the sort of thing he knows i'd love to see. good kid!
that same edition of "are you there god?" is on our bookshelf. i wonder if either of the boys will ever read it?
and, ya, everyone else is right. this wasn't boring at all.
hugs and hopes for big snow!
Boring? Nope not here! Loved this post and seeing pieces of your life through your lense. I really like your new banner, fantastic DoF it's so pretty! I always have a batch of Limoncello going too, would want to run out lol. Love that your son found that worm, so fun. Hope you get lots of snow for sledding!
ReplyDeleteThat book defined my life as a teen. I still have my 30 year old copy. No cover, but its still my favorite book.
ReplyDeleteI've done some job switching...well, actually my FIL sort of canned me after a family disagreement. I had a lot of computer time and waiting while it prints time there, so I'd do a quick blog post. Missing that time and my new part-time is NOT computer at all, and my other job is too busy, so the posting is very rough, but I still sneak in reading whenever possible and I'm shocked by how far between my own posts are. i did Missing Mom - post a picture of me every week for a year and then started again for a second, but I went missing around Thanksgiving and really haven't been seen since! Maybe that's a good place to start for me. But you post a lot and lots of people read you, so hey, it's all good!! Just roll with it!! What are you knitting, by the way?? I took a sock class in the fall and now I'm trying another pair to see if I remember what to do, then I think I want to change up the yarn a bit. Still need to make a vest or sweater, but afraid to take the plunge!!
ReplyDeleteOh my, how I could use a little of your kind of boring in my life right now! February was such a roller coaster, I'm glad to be letting it go and starting on my forward March...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I ever read Are you There...EVERYONE else did, and talked about it incessantly, so I think I might have just absorbed it through pre-teen osmosis and probably pretended I read it because I was to shy to really read it. I do find myself reading a lot of Young Adult fiction when the kiddo is playing at the library...don't tell.
I am a Cinderella-style mopper, as well. A mop is one of those tools we think about purchasing on occasion and then we just...don't. My mother finally sent me a pepper grinder because I seemed frustrated with always using a mortar and pestle for ground pepper. Apparently, I talked about it a lot...I don't really mind the mopping so much.