approachable art

cheers to rosh hashana +
to having my boys home for
two days of school vacation.

what to do on a sunny morning?
we sketched our way
thru the met.

h: why does such a cool little thing
have such an odd name?

of the ‘reliquary diptych’

cookies + coffee in the rooftop garden = heavenly.

see us?

nathan went
from drawings
to stories
to ideas for a new book.

i couldn’t tell which statue
he was focusing on,

so i was relieved to see this one
instead of…

the one next to it.

wastedtired sweetsie girls

home again,
home again,
jiggity jig.

‘you think it’s a schwinn’

i cannot get brad pitt’s character
in ‘burn after reading’
out of my mind.

hi.lar.ious.

what a perfect role for him.

and frances mcdormand is crazy.
a scream.

well, everything’s funnier when
i’m cozied up next to my cory
in a dark movie theatre;
loveyou,babe.

disclaimer:
this movie is not for everyone.
the disturbing parts are, well, disturbing.

think about the other movies you like +
think about the coen brothers
before deciding if this is for you.

but when you laugh,
you’ll laugh hard.

it’s the little things

it’s the little things that
can be really Big and Important Things.

like this afternoon
when the school nurse rang
to say that henry had a
highspeed run-in
with the playground pavement and that
after careful scrubbing she was
worried that there was still dirt
in his cute little knee.

so i popped across the street
and joined the two nurses who were
(super-attentively) kneeling before
the little man
and i got to gently administer the bacitracin
and a load of kisses
and walk him back to his classroom…

my heart is overflowing with
gratitude to a heavenly Father
that gives me moments like
that one
today.

it’s the Big moments
like that one
that mean
the world to me.

the lefty smear

i think i’m going to need to find
some special permanent pens
for henry to write with
to avoid the constant
s.m.e.a.r.
on his hand + on his paper
from left handed smear-thru-the-ink writing.

right?

lefty advice?

[soggy] pirate adventure

we figured these boys had
been cooped up most of the
rainy weekend anyway,
so, we decided to stick with
the original bday plan…

a pirate-y treasure hunt in
riverside park.

bring your rainjacket.

cory composes the (rhyming) clues

and we’re off

pirate eli walks the plank
(aka. the marble ledge around
the eleanor roosevelt statue)

fellow plank-walkers, ethan + henry

clue-ing in

pirate ethan reads the next clue

(the camera was getting water-logged at this point)
betsy takes a few whacks at the
pirate pinata
(a smiley-face w/ a pirate patch on the eye)

poor mr. pinata,
right before we beat his guts out.

pirate harry + bday boy,
too.much.sugar.

i love me some birthday boy

it was seriously pouring at this point.
these guys are tough.

and i am mostdefinately not going to mention
the dead rat we saw at this point
as i wouldn’t want to alarm you.

troopers.

a sugaryhappy schlep back home

a victorious birthday lunch

now, let’s get our bounce on;
ethan shows us how it’s done.

eli was jumping too fast +
my camera-ability was too slow.

harry takes the plunge

Mr. Six, the happy bday boy.
(see the sugar daddy in his hand while he’s jumping?
nice. where’s his mom + is she paying attention?
i actually didn’t notice it until i saw the photo.
doublenice.)

and
happy birthday, sweet justin!

we sure do love you.

fashion critic, age 4

.overheard.

caroline: ‘you want to look pretty tonight, right, mom?’

kj: ’sure, hon, why?’

c: ‘well, you probably want to take
that watch off first then, right?’

ouch.
thanks for looking out for me, hon.

please tell me you’ve already seen this:
(ricky g’s character talking to his agent,
played by the quirky steven merchant)

golashes needed

7:20am on a rainy saturday morning.
the rest of us have just rolled out of bed
and shrugged on some clothes
before we head out for a yummybreakfast.

not caroline.

she’s already donned a pretty dress,
combed her hair +
added a headband,
2 rings,
a necklace,
carefully-folded socks +
her ‘clicky’ shoes.

ref. cory + no. 7 (aka. ’siete’)

(i still can’t believe that guy changed
his real name to ‘ocho-cinco’)

nathan’s game was rained out
(central park is picky about their fields)
but cory + henry just headed off
to slosh around the fields @ 73rd/riverside.

thanks for the new baseball cards, uncle j.

tra la la

our first ‘real’ day of co-op preschool today…
brilliant.

these girls are ready.

music with ms. suzie

snack time

those pillows are awfully loud

ta-da

awwwww.
lucygoose gave henry’s bday gift
a taste test before presenting it to him.

thanks for the cool dino book, love.

six short years ago

that sweet henry philip cates
was born six years ago today;
‘christmas in september’
as cory likes to say.

hip
hip
hooray
for our kooky angel.
artist, athlete, and all-around great guy.

tough as nails, sweet as pie,
we sure do love this silly guy.

daniel (chang) + cathy (corbiere)
were our first two visitors
hospital visitors,
followed shortly by kristie (dekoker)
who had just landed her new job.
sweet celebrations all around.
(can you believe you’ve been there six yrs?)

first snuggle of the morning
with our newly-minted six year old

blowing out his candle,
well, it’s a toothpick serving as a
stand-in birthday candle.
(thus confirming that someone else has
Good Mom Of The Year
in the bag
and it’s certainly not me)

(i might’ve snuck fake glasses/noses in
with henry’s class birthday treats)

so proud of his birthday hat from ms. b
(that’s his sweet teacher in the background)

nathan saying goodbye to his supergreat teacher, ms. k;
can you see how he’s about a
head taller than his sweet classmates +
eye-to-eye with his cool teacher?
nice.

lisa gets serious.

earlier in the day
while running bday errands,
i had to bribe them with gum
to get them to keep walking.
(i might’ve overestimated our
distance-ability today)

snow white caroline + princess jane
take good care of their babies

lego-time w/ ethan

(how unbelievably grateful we
are to live below the morgan fam.
the Lord is so generous.
so generous.)

hwk

nathan had to make sentences
from his homonym spelling words.

1 & 2. i can hear henry from here.
3. when henry brakes, he skids and falls.
4. betsy’s heart breaks easily.
5. caroline changes clothes four times a day.
6. ‘close the laptop, henry.’
7. we put betsy down but it takes her an hour
to fall asleep.
8. our family is quite creative.

fluff

i spent four years in college.
i didn’t learn a thing.
it was really my own fault.
i had a double major in psychology
and reverse psychology.

-b.j. novak

the hardest working women in showbiz

how much do i love mom’s groups
on the west side?

and how much more do i adore these
brave women who lead these groups?

a lot.

kudos+cheers to all of you who
schlepped over last night for
magnolia cupcakes + fizzy lizzys
for our leadership kick-off mtg.

i am so proud of you guys +
so proud to be a part of what
God is doing on the west side.

represent.

mental photo, l to r:
kim, jenni, ami, betsy,
toni, ashley, nnenna,
renee, caroline, ava, jordyn,
yvonne, tanya, sandi, karen + i.

(aren’t they gorgeous?)

it’s going to be an amazing year, ladies.

we went crazy

saying goodbye to cory

we did something waaay crazy this morning.

instead of going straight to starbucks-school,
we decided to take a few (four) hits
on bob the builder first.

i know, i know, that is way too crazy,
deviating from the schedule like that.

well, as crazy as my life gets.

my puzzle o’ the day:
writing table numbers on cards
with swarovski crystals all over them.

glass + ink = not such a good match

hmmm.
i’ll figure this out.

and i must mention that yesterday’s
blogging binge, if you will,
was in effort to maintain my sanity
while writing 300+ fancy-scroll-y names
on rather tiny placecards.

can you say, ‘finger cramp’?

hooray for baby chang

we love you, ashley + daniel,
and it was so much fun
to celebrate with you on saturday.

we can’t wait to meet you, sweetpea chang.

caroline + snow white guard the fruit table

joanne’s gorgeous diaper-cake

we made ashley work hard in this game.

[sidenote: the last time i remember
seeing this game
was when alice was pregnant
with sweet mary claire.
love it.]

here we go:

1. swaddle the ‘crying’ baby,
2. while soothing the baby, the phone rings.
answer it. it’s your lovely mother-in-law.
politely tell her you can’t talk right now.
(ashley pulled it off splendidly…in korean, no less!)
3. the timer on the oven goes off.
without dropping your crying baby,
take the cake out of the oven.
4. run back to the laundry basket +
find two pairs of matching socks.

the person who does it in the shortest time, wins.

our competitors:
mama-to-be, ashley
her sister-in-law, joanne
her mother, mrs. teague

mrs. teague won hands down +
she also managed to keep chit-chatting
with her mother-in-law while getting
all of the other tasks done!

bravo to the seasoned mother of 3 beautiful (grown) children.

i love these godly girls.
faith, jules, mama ashley + kirsten

joanne strikes again:
homemade vanilla sugar favors
(made with real vanilla beans)
wow.

talented little miss faith
created all of the floral arrangements
and left them to make my
house beautiful all week long.

thanks, love.
they’re stunning.

interpretive patch-sewing competition

last friday night was the new-scouts-orientation
for nathan’s cub scout troop.
(he’s a newly-minted webelo this year)

we’re super excited that it’s henry’s first year as
an official scout (he went every week last year
with nathan as fun-tag-along-little-brother-mascot
but gets to wear a uniform this year).

and also that several familes we know + love
are joining scouts this year, as well.

yay.

so last night (after a very full wknd) cory and i
were talking thru last week’s happenings
(aka. what went on here while he was away) +
we were poking thru iphoto
after i had finally had a moment
to empty the camera.

and i thought he was going to
have a
heart
attack.

when he saw this photo he started
laughing so hard
i can’t even convey it.

listen, i was trying to be a
Good Mom
(what a joke).

so i scooped up all of the patches that
had been collecting, waiting to be sewn onto
nathan’s uniform + i attempted to
sew them on in time for friday night’s affair.

well, i didn’t exactly have
Any Idea
where they were supposed to go
on the acutal uniform,
so i started playing around with it.

a few on the left sleeve (in a pleasing pattern),
and a few on the right sleeve (color-coordinated),
and hey, i bet the pack numbers (664)
should go somewhere prominent.

apparently not.
apparently the way i did the
‘664′ is more
the ‘inmate’ look than
the ‘cub scout’ look.

at least nathan doesn’t know the difference.

any bets on how long it’s going to take me
to un-sew all of those patches + numbers?

kj’s brilliant ideas + time-saving-measures strike again.

what nathan is supposed to look like.

snips+snails+puppydogtails

on our way to school.
(yes, that’s the school building in the background,
just across the street from our house,
and
yes, we sometimes have to run
to make it on time.
nice.)

the seesaw crew:
adam r, jack, eli, henry, adam k, nathan + caroline

snow white was upset that
no one would leave the game
to come and seesaw with her.
awwwww.

1 rip stick + 3 scooters = mom-approved wheels

sugar+spice+everythingnice

for our first morning of co-op preschool
for this semester,
we kicked things off with a little
soiree for caroline’s fourth bday.

since cory (my co-party planner)
decided to leave the country,
nathan stepped in and did a marvelous job
co-hosting and playing the part of
‘cool + helpful older brother’

(don’t tell henry that nathan got to
miss a bit of school to party +
eat cupcakes with us;
he hasn’t exactly caught on yet)

painting plaster bugs
(the mainstay of caroline’s bday parties;
this is the 3rd year in a row she’s requested it)

(i really hope cory doesn’t notice that
we used his shirts as paint smocks.)

jane, betsy + isabella concentrating on their masterpieces

kathryn + a tiara-ed caroline

bouncy princesses

O Lord,
satisfy [caroline] in the morning with your unfailing love,
that [she] may sing for joy and be glad all [her] days.

psalm 90:14,
this mother’s paraphrase.

the first line-up of fall 2008:
the pre-K and preschool classes
for our co-op preschool
(jane, caroline + abby are the big girls,
betsy, isabella + kathryn are the preschoolers,
and, not-pictured, are the little kids music class)

yay, class!

they sat quietly at the table
for 45 min. post-party
playing with sweet new
birthday gifts.

mmmmm,
we love you sweetangel,
caroline belle cates.

tip top monday morning

file under: i saw this one coming

i mentioned to cory that he might need to save
this particular chapter
of ‘old yeller’ for later tonight.
(you know what chapter i’m talking about)

but they Just Couldn’t Wait.
they are so crazy about the story
that they had to pick up where they
left off last night +
read some right before school this morning.

cory’s voice was choked up.
nathan had his head in his hands +
tears in his eyes.

oye vey.

we do love our starbucks-school.
this was our 4th day of the semester.

i guess if you put betsy’s pictures together
you almost get a photo of me.

inhale. exhale.

we made it thru
the happywhirlwind what was my
week-without-cory last week.

whew, double-whew.

i don’t think betsy has left his side
since he came home on saturday morning.

the week’s festivities included:
-caroline’s 4th birthday party
-cub scout initiation meeting
-first mom’s group (double yay!)
-our very first fellowship group of the fall (yay!)
-loads of playing + mounds of homework +
piles of laundry + you get the idea…

the Lord was generous, indeed.
we smiled + played + exhausted ourselves
and even remembered to pray for daddy often.

and you should’ve seen his smile (glow?)
when he told us about getting to see
cade + melissa and
to meet baby eloise.

she fell asleep on his shoulder
and to hear him tell it,
you would think that boy won the lottery.

yay for the newmans.
yay for him returning from london.
yay for him not taking a business trip for a good long while.
(i can wish, right?)

and thanks be to God who leads us
gently when the days are lazy
and when the days are busy.
(memories of colorado are fresh in our minds)

and Huge Huge thanks to
all of the friends who loaned
their hands, their brains +
their words of encouragement
to bring the kiddos + i thru the week
in such strong form.
kudos, team!

much love to carrie, to meghan, to lisa, to jules,
to jessica, to paula, to justin, to margaret,
to all of our dear community.

on our way home
from church tonight

ps – thanks, em, for the girls cutest-ever shirts.
stylin’ chicas!

‘cas-what??’

last night’s chapter of old yeller
had a surprising revelation
for the boys.

cory’s reading along in the middle
of chapter nine and comes to,
‘…what hurts him is the castration,
and i never did like that part of the job.
but it had to be done,
and still does if you want to eat hog meat.

let a boar hog get grown without
cutting his seeds out,
and his meat is too tough and
rank smelling to eat…’

and nathan says, ‘hey, what does he mean?’

and cory gently tells him
what he’s talking about.

and nathan’s eyes bulge out of his head.

and he quickly pops over and
whispers something in henry’s ear
and then they both
are All Eyes On Dad,
saucer-eyed in disbelief,
‘really??’
‘really??’

really.

and you know i’m going to be
answering more curious questions
about the subject throughout the week.

nice.

(i think i’ll just save
them for dr. cates
to answer when he gets
home at night.)

cruel + unusual punishment

well, the sun is being a
sleepyhead these days,
forcing fellow morning-heads and i
to alter our usual summer routes
in favor of better-lit,
more-populated options.

so this morning,
instead of hitting either park,
i headed up amsterdam and
down broadway
in a series of dizzying circles
(which included a funny set of
jogging figure-8’s around those
thigh-high barriers @ the jcc.
glad it was dark + no one could see
my awkward/fun personal-olympics)

and it was KILLER.

not the walk, silly,

the lure-me-in smells.

5:30am-ish
darkdark outside
apple bank is reading 58 degrees
and all of the
deli’s and cafe’s
had their well-lit doors swung wide open
and the smells of
bacon
bacon!
were pouring out.

doorway after doorway after…

it was all i could to do not
run inside,
slide into the cozy booth
and say, ‘yes, please!’
and ‘coffee, too!’

ps – dear new american apparel store,
i had high hopes for our friendship.
that i might pop in and find a few
fun things for our family.

but nosireee, bob.

not after that life-size picture
you posted in your window.
put some clothes on that poor girl*,
for crying out loud.

* just another one of those things
that we see around that leads
to the running conversation
the boys and i have,
about how even if someone has
chosen not to protect their own modesty,
that they’re made in God’s image,
and we’re to help protect their modesty.

even if they’ve made the opposite choice.

but i wasn’t looking for more fodder
for that conversation, guys.

(hello, the georgi vodka truck?
saynomore.
oye.)

pps – aa, get my gist?
change the picture.
i still want us to be friends.

ppps – barneys coop is debuting a line
of men’s clothing by,
i’m not kidding you,
andre 3000.
and they look cool.

well, ‘cool’ like ‘cory-wouldn’t-touch-them-with-a-stick’
but ‘i-probablycould-pull-off-a-less-expensive-but-similar-look-on-my-boys’
‘cool.’

+ = ?

on piety

a new friend, melissa,
gave me a copy of a
quite compelling article.

john angell james’ ‘female piety’
and particularly, ch. 11:
‘to young mothers’

a meaty snippet:

’she must cultivate all the habits and
dispositions which will fit her to
teach and to govern.
she must seek to acquire thoughtfulness,
careful vigilance,
quick observation,
and discretion in various forms.’

and this line cracked me up:

‘a young mother is apt to entrust
too much of the care and early training
of her children upon servants.’

thanks, melissa;
it was just lovely and oh-so-helpful
to meet you and susan.
come again soon.

magical recipe

when cory’s away,
cereal becomes the breakfast standard,
as he is Mr. Hot Breakfast around here
and i sure wouldn’t want to
step on his toes.

between spoonfuls this morning,
henry started evangelizing the kids about
a cereal he had somewhere
this summer called, ‘lucky charms’
(you’ve probably not heard of it)

the girls eyes were getting big
as he was telling them that it had
marshmallows in it.

in the cereal.
imagine that.

so caroline asked how they made marshmallows.

and henry was glad to launch into the
informal recipe:

1. stir up the sugar and then
put it in a pan.
2. put the pan out in the sun to dry.
3. cut it into little shapes
4. paint them with colors.

one big fight

thank you, eugene peterson,
yet again,
for helping me better
understand myself +
my situation.

these words from
‘a long obedience in the same direction‘
have been reverberating in my ears
and giving me fresh energy to press on,
to listen + redirect my children
with renewed purpose
as i do the same
when i come before the Lord,
listening to his word +
letting him redirect my
selfish heart.

‘whether we like it or not,
the moment we confess Jesus Christ
as our Lord and Savior, that is,
from the time we become a Christian,
we are at the same time
a member of the Christian church–
even if we do not permit our name
to be placed on a church roll,
even if we refuse to identify ourselves
with a particular congregation and
share responsibilities with them…
no Christian is an only child.’

then:

‘psalm 133 presents what we are after,
‘how wonderful,
how beautiful,
when brothers and sisters get along!’

’scripture knows nothing of the solitary christian.
people of faith are always members of a community.
creation itself was not complete until there was community,
adam needing eve before humanity was whole.’

and:

‘but if living in community is necessary + desirable,
it is also enormously difficult.
there is a clue to the nature of the difficulty
in the phrase ‘when brothers and sisters get along’. “

‘most christians have some firsthand experience
of what it means to live with brothers and sisters.
brothers fight.
and sisters fight.

‘the first story in the bible about brothers living together
is the story of cain and abel.
and it is a murder story.
significantly, their fight was a religious fight,
a quarrel over which one of them loved God best.’

‘the story of joseph and his brothers follwos
a few pages later, in which joseph,
envied by the rest, is sold into egypt as a slave.’

‘miriam and aaron quarreled with their brother moses.
david and his brothers fare no better and add
to the evidence of discord.’

‘even Jesus and his brothers are evidence of disharmony
rather than peace. the one picture we have of them
shows the brothers misunderstanding Jesus and
trying to drag him away from his messianic work
because they are convinced that he is crazy.’

regarding ’sibling rivalry’ :

‘…what Scripture says:
children fight a lot;
each brother is quick to take offense
if he doesn’t get his own way;
each sister wants a major share
of the parents’ attention.’

‘children are ordinarily so full of their own
needs and wants that they look at a
brother or sister not as an ally
but as a competitor.’

‘if there is only one pork chop on the plate
and three people who want it,
i will look at my brother and sister
not as delightful dinner companions
but as difficult rivals.’

‘much of the literature of the world
(novels, plays, poetry) documents this:
living together like brothers and sisters means,
in actual practice,
endless squabbles,
murderous quarrels,
and angry arguments.’

‘and so if we are going to sing,
‘how wonderful, how beautiful,
when brothers and sisters get along’
we will not do it by being left to ourselves,
following our natural bent.’

‘if we do,
we will only get into a big fight,
and the only wonderful thing about it
will be the pleasure the spectators get
in watching us bloody each other’s noses.’

and finally:

‘living together in a way that evokes
the glad song of psalm 133
is one of the
great and arduous tasks
before Christ’s people.’

‘nothing requires more energy and attention.
it is easier to do almost anything else.
it is far easier to deal with people as problems to be solved
than to have anything to do with them in community.’

hello +
welcome to motherhood.

it’s like a cosmic joke that
i’m trying to deal with my own immaturity,
my own sin,
my desire to withdraw from community and
live in a vacuum
with my sins + selfish pride kept
as private as possible.

while simultaneously
calling my children,
training, begging, exhorting, requiring, even,
them to live in harmony with
eachother.

it truly is beautiful that God
has called us to community.

all of us.

not just the children.

big jump

i think i’m catching on.

there’s quite a jump in
homework-levels
between 3rd and 4th grades.

and now that we’re responsible for both
1st grade
and
4th grade
nightly homework,

dude -
i’ve got to get my
Game Face
on.

asap.
yesterday.

less,
‘come on, boys,
let’s jet to central park;
we’ll hit the homework later’

and
more
‘okay, homework first, kiddos,
and then we’ll buzz off to the park’

i feel like i’m in homework bootcamp.

ps – the nuances and subtleties
required for post-school afternoon
schedules are not insignificant.

it’s not enough to just allow an hour
in the schedule,
we have to have maintained
enough emotional wherewithall
to study and
to think
and not just
dissolve into tears
or other varied emotions
at the end of these good
(but long)
school days.

surely we can figure this out.

weird mental games

do you ever catch yourself
playing weird mental games?

two of my regulars:

1. the crosswalk game.
i can only walk on the white lines.
the black is boiling lava.

2. the pick-a-room game.
i pretend that i have to give up
one room of my apartment
and then reconfigure everything else
to make our home work with
one less room.

that game is genius because it
instantly makes me uber-content
and extra-thankful for the space
we do have.

so if you ever catch me with
that look in my eye
where i’m staring off into space
but my mental wheels are
obviously chugging away,
tell me to stop it.
that i don’t, in fact, have to
work up a revised floorplan
that very minute.

note: on the pick-a-room game,
the only way i ‘lose’ the game is
when i choose to give up the
boys’ bedroom.
i just can’t make it all work out
without that particular space.

i’m sure you guys have
strange mental exercises
of your own, right?

the redeye

we miss sweet cjc already,
but i can’t tell you how excited
i am that he gets to meet
little miss eloise cate newman
and hug her precious parents.

give her extra kisses from me, hon;
see you saturday morning.

rookie mistake

i’m still quite green at this
biking-in-the-city thing.

some things i’m quite comfortable with now,
many other times i’m quickly looking around for
fellow cyclists to mimic their manuvering.

so last night as i was zipping down to
the redeemer offices for tracy’s
(brilliant! wow, it was super-impressive)
children’s ministry training,
i had several minutes of (seeming) brilliance
followed by
complete chaos.

brilliance:
as i left the west side highway at 34th st
(following a quite adept cyclist in a suit)
after a couple of blocks where we were
shoulder-to-shoulder with two huge trash trucks
(read: l o u d + unnerving)
all of a sudden there appeared a
‘buses only’ lane which was 100% empty.

four blocks of glory.
it should’ve read
‘buses and kari jo’

(my lead-cyclist headed south
two blocks into the four)

and as i’m lost in a daydream of how
pleasant and beautiful this ride is….

un-brilliant:
i arrive at the macy’s corner at 34th and 7th
just as the light turns green.

and (seeming) millions of people flood out into the street.

ummm.
uh-ho.
exactly where am i supposed to go now, genius?

so i hop off my bike
(i might be wearing a dress +
it happens to be cory’s bike,
you know, a boys bike,
so i couldn’t exactly find a
completelyeffective way to keep my dress down.
i digress.)
and do the tip-toe-one-legged-hop-ish thing
slowly slowly thru a moving mass of
ready-to-commute-home humanity
and
oye.

so once i made it to the northwest corner,
i had to turn and wait
(on tiptoe, trying to be modest -
there wasn’t even enough room for me to
dismount my bike.)
for the light to change the other way
and repeat said unattractive bike-hopping routine.

so by the time i was able to turn north
and get out of it a bit
(i’m riding against traffic at this point.
slightly terrifying in my novice-state.)
all of the magic-ness of the ride
thus far has dissipated
and i realized
i really need to get some tips
from other urban riders.

advice??
oye.

note to self: if it seems too good to be true,
watch out for the next corner.

how do you really feel?

overheard
(during a longbutcheerful return car-trip
from virginia on sunday
as betsy tries to hand trash
from the backseat to me
in the front sea)t:

caroline: hey! don’t put your trash on me.
i’m not your mom.

oh, the implications.

‘you’re bringing me down’

nathan also said to us,
‘i think i need to go out solo
on this one’
and
‘you’re holding me back’

listen, we were all trying our hardest
at rock band
and let me also point out,
though he was loud,
i’m not sure his solo album
would break the 100K mark.

that said,
we’re having a blast in sunny virginia.

lead vocals

the backs from left:
cory, dad + mom, nathan on vocals,
uncle jacob (who came over from annapolis) on bass,
uncle scott, henry + aunt katie
(and baby girl who will join us in december)

’should i stay or should i go;’
henry channels the clash

uncle scott tutors henry

punker cory
brings down the house

pilots + motorcycles =
top gun, anyone?

scott, caroline + henry
are getting excited
to ride on the harleys.

papa + caroline
(she Loved It. loved it.)

scott + jacob
(my bro + c’s bro.
i like it.)

tgif

a humble friday offering:
our all time favorite
smarmy david brent moment*.

they really are quite
brilliant musicians but
how they can sing these lyrics
with a straight face is beyond me:

and one of the clips i have on
speed-dial on youtube,
guaranteed to bring cory + i to
tears
no matter what day
no matter what mood.

*the set-up:
david brent can’t stand that the management consultant
is getting more attention in the meeting than him,
so he decides to run home,
get his guitar,
come back and
upstage the whole meeting.
this is the song he sings.

ps – i might have inscribed ‘hot love highway’
on the back of cory’s ipod before i gave it to him.

pps – when gareth joins in,
we really About Die.

on chores

i was questioning my life-style coach,
(well, ‘consultant’ really as she’s not on
actual cash retainer) margaret,
yesterday when the boys were playing -
i was quizzing her about what chores her boys do
and she mentioned:

-empty trash
-wipe down the bathroom (between weekly scrubs by mom)
-fold the socks

i love that she saves all of the family’s
socks for the boys to fold.

that has to make it a bit more fun when
you pull them out of the drawer,
‘hey, these look crazy.
are they knotted together?’

and my other consultant, jenny,
recently recommended
a book that i’m waiting on the curb for
amazon to deliver:
‘what every child should know
along the way:
teaching practical life skills
in every stage of life’

i wish i could pay all of my ‘consultants’ more
because i’m always stealing all of your ideas
but all you’re going to get in reimbursement
is my debt of gratitude +
a few shouts out on a random white
computer screen.

thank you!

wait, i just had an idea.
maybe i should print up ‘consultant’
business cards for all of you guys
whose brains i pick on a regular basis.

but then other people would want
to fake-hire you as well
and then,
well,
we’d just wear you out.

cruisin’

down the west side highway,
en route to chelsea piers.

our eye-level view of the cruiseliners

freezing our boo-tays
while watching hockey practice
at the sky rink*

we were admiring this guy’s job
to sit there with the gun that
measures how fast your
puck shot into the net +
then holler out, “fifty-one!”
etc.

cooling off during the ride home

chillin’ like a villian

i’m filing this one in the category of:
‘well, i haven’t seen this one yet’

they put up a tent to define
their personal space at the park?

have you guys seen this one before?

i can hear them bragging at the office,
‘yeah, i’ve got a river view…’

days after the ‘fiesta’
and there’s still a party
happening over his head.

i love it.

*yes, we would travel all of the way
to chelsea piers for
famiglia pizza
(nostalgic for our 112th/bway days)

so we’re sitting there enjoying a slice
and i look up over our heads
is this 12′ x 18′ (huge-ish) poster
of the 1994 stanley cup-winning rangers.

and there, larger-than-life,
is the dad of one of henry’s classmates.

i about choked on my pizza.

what a small world.

(i knew he was a doting dad and
used to be a hockey player
but i did not know he was
a six-time stanley cup superhero.)

ps – did i mention that i’ve decided that
the cates’ boys will take up bicycling effectively immediately?

after i read this excerpt from a random
interview with lance armstrong,
i determined that i will take my
boys bike riding for hours every day,
every.single.day,
from now until age 25+.

lap after lap around the central park loop,
up and down the hudson river.

“but the fact is that if you are riding your bike
five, six, seven hours a day, you are not a sex champion.
you’re just not. you have fatigue, low testosterone, and a lower libido.”

got it.
on your bikes, boys.
off we go.

pps – i like the new vanity fair
piece on armstrong.
candid. brave.

finally…home

though we’ve technically been home
for almost a week,
it wasn’t until sunday night
at 5:01pm
that i actually
felt
completely
‘home.’

queue the band,
tom on piano,
michelle @ the mic,
david leading us in worship,
a near-capacity crowd
(judging from their requests for
us to keep ’scooching in’),
seeing all of our friends,
breathe in, breathe out.

and when we sang, ‘how great is our god’
and the instruments dropped out
and we sang the last chorus acapella…

ladies+gentlemen,
we are Home.

walking/scooting to church with jules
definately brought the ‘home’ feeling,
though we’ll need the girls
to complete the deal.

fiesta

henry + i made tissue paper flowers
to set the ‘fiesta!’ vibe
on saturday night.

a little end o’ summer soiree
to reconnect with sweet friends.
(well, those who were willing to risk
their life and/or
ruining their shoes -
we had reports that it was actually
raining sideways at times)

lisa challenged the ‘fiesta’ notion and
thought, ’semi-sophisticated apartment party!’
was more like it.

either way,
fiesta, amigos.

photo credits: lbrn

henry skewered the fruit +
nathan made the brownies =
child labor laws?

felicia, jen, moi + sara

lisa, yoohoo, jules

diane + tracy,
two of my favorite ladies

doctor’s visit

it’s that time of year.

time to continue my love affair
with
the
rug dock-tah.

that little red bundle of energy
just blasts his way into my heart
with a soapy, steamy stream
and
leaves me sighing
with happiness
for weeks after
his visit.

ps – since i learned how
to handle the beast last year,
this year was a snap.

pps – don’t believe the picture.
mine is siren red
not calming blue.

tongue-dyed

mom + dad took cupcakes for
caroline’s fourth birthday (tomorrow)
to dinner with friends
in colorado springs last night.

before + after shots:

veggie-palooza

while we were away,
the strange pashmina store
was
replaced by
the super-mod restaurant, maoz,
a veritable vegetable-explosion.

(the ad for it looks like a cross between
united colors of benetton +
the green market on steroids)

okay, now you know where
to find me
at lunchtime
as many days as possible.

can you say, ‘pita + salad for $4.50′.
?
!

the fragile+still-warm wheat pita
and a super-clean, tasty + herb-y
salad bar to
fill it with.

i got the fresh-fresh-everything’s-fresh vibe
from the smiley staff
(they’ve only been open a month or so,
i’ll give them a bit to get jaded and punchy)

veggie-brilliance, in my book.

i’ll race you there.

ps – i must admit,
the boys weren’t too sure,
so they imported a subway sandwich
to the mix.

pps – cory’s falafel + belgium fries were ‘quite tasty.’

ppps – i will say,
the store is still new enough
that when you’re dining-in
you get the monkey-in-a-zoo feeling
because there were that many people
coming up to the door/window
peering in and stopping to
do a complete discourse with their friends
about the merits of vegetables, presumably.

there were about the same number of people
inside the restaurant enjoying lunch/
standing in line
as there were outside
merely considering entering.

70-71st + broadway
(they have 2 other manhattan locations)

thermodynamic dreams

sweetcory was still tapping around on the computer
when i just couldn’t keep my eyes open
any longer last night.

this morning, i noticed my browser was open
with 17 tabs
all including words like:
‘tank’
‘thermocouple’
‘temperature sensing’
‘buderus boilers’
‘water heating’
‘boiler’
‘triangle phase water system’ (? i’m curious.)

so far, this morning’s activities
(luckily, after the happy waffle-y, sausage-y, egg-y, coffee-y,
hymns + scripture lingering breakfast around the table)
included:
-acquiring fans from our precious neighbors
-googling + phoning for plumbing supply stores
-searching for info on replacement ‘thermocouplers’
-peeling back the wet carpets
-moving all of the things to the corner of the
room downstairs

you get the gist.

golashes, anyone?

spin doctor

from my mom:

“i invited frances p. for coffee this morning.
i had set out a little plate of cookies and crackers.
after betsy had had quite a few (++!),
i said, ‘no more.’

she went downstairs and told daddy,
‘grammy isn’t sharing her crackers.’ “

she tried to tattle-tale on my mom?
gutsycrazy little girl.

boy bonding

a milliongazillion thanks to mom + dad
who are enjoying 2 wks with the girls
so that cory, the boys and i
can enjoy two weeks ‘alone’ together…

we are loving every minute of it.
every minute.

different family configuration = different chemistry =
slightly different things that come
tumbling out of their sweet hearts

it’s beautiful to hear the stories that
the boys share/invent
when we have extended periods
of time together in relative silence
(minus girly-chatter)
or just walking along the street,
or poking in the back yard with sticks.

i am drinking it all in.

and am filled with gratitude.

ps – if precision camera in boston, ma,
will kindly fix my camera (as the warranty implied)
and mail it back asap
i would be much obliged.

my phone calls to them are getting
me nowhere fast.

pps – i must say, for as unique and sweet
of a time that it is,
the boys are desperately
des.per.ate.ly
missing the girls.

we’ve actually had tears at one point.
we’re not complete without them, of course,
but the change is fun.

for a minute, at least.

palpable

you can almost feel the excitement
in the city today (nervous excitement, even)
as it is the
first day of school
for the new york public school system.

it isn’t being felt in our
particular apartment just yet,
as we’re still adjusting from colorado-time
and my boys haven’t
so much as fluttered an eyelid

but i anticipate some excitement
when they do wake up
(on their own or
with a gentle snuggle)

yay for school!

(esp when it’s not me going to school)

ps – don’t forget your apple.
for the teacher, silly.

not so much labor

could you hear the smacking kisses from there?

our reunion with cory (after 22 days w/o him)
was divine.

he brought cold gatorade (the boys) and
seltzer (i never did find real seltzer in co or ks)
and met us at the airport
with spin-you-around-off-your-feet hugs
at midnight on sunday.

a few hours of sleep followed by
a dreamy day of
james + kara’s gracious/scrumptuous/picturesque
hospitality completely revived us;
thanks for a glorious labor day, friends.

photo credits: jordyn ’speedygonzales’ cho

cory was getting some sweet love
from cutie ezra

princess lydia

james, henry + nathan
tore it up on the tube

getting schooled by abe

james + henry

abe, mr. cross, michael + cory
hit the table

ps – the boys were superexcited to get to
visit the swimming hole of that
disgusting massive catfish
we met earlier this summer.

one frog was caught + released.

smiling faces all around.