Art = Happy

This is what's making my heart and soul happy this morning....watercolors and crayon resist at the art table in the living room.

Of course, about half an hour after this, they were running through the house, and Noah smacked his head on the corner of our granite kitchen island top and raised a scary welt on his forehead (he's fine).

Sigh.

But there was an hour or so of early-morning art and peace and creating, and that was bliss.

Raspberries

The taste of fresh red raspberries will never ever fail to immediately transport me to summer, circa 1977, to my grandparents' house by Lake Ontario in Rochester, New York.

I have sweet memories of their above-ground pool, and the multitude of berry bushes that surrounded the pool and deck and lined the edges of their smallish yard. My brother and I would swim in their pool, and then, wrapped in our towels, we'd stand carefully among the bushes and pick and eat berries until we could eat no more. My grandfather, slightly stooped, always tan, and smelling of old cigarette smoke and after-shave, would help us find the biggest, juiciest ones. I remember some of them being as big as my thumb, dark red and bursting. We had to pick them gently, sliding them off their stems and popping them in our mouths, our hands stained red by the juice.

Ever since, and especially now that Grampa is gone and I am older, the taste of red raspberries has been a passport to those days, like a time machine in its immediacy.

That was before, this is since then.

Before we moved to Florida, and before the pool was dismantled and a new one put in, before the deck was taken down, and before they built the house next door. Before my uncle got married and moved into Grandma and Grandpa's original house, before the garden went in, and before some of the bushes got ripped out.

That was before my grandpa passed away.

Since then, I eat fresh red raspberries every summer and remember being seven and picking berries with my Grampa in the yard, and I think that this year, we should try again to get the berry bushes to grow, so my kids can pick and eat until they can't eat anymore.

Horse Lover

My wallet may very well regret this down the road, but I am slowly cultivating another horse-loving girl in this house.

Wren meets Cygne at the Deep Run Hunt Horse Show

I took Wren to a local, large hunter-jumper show today, because she has heard her older sister talk on and on about working horse shows with her dad, and Wren has begged and begged to go to a show. I needed an equine infusion myself, so off we went.

It was really fun. I think she petted every single white horse on the property, ponies included. We got to touch the velvety noses and pat the muscular necks and feel how soft and smooth their coats were. I took in the sights and smells (yes, I'm crazy, but I love the leather/horse/hay smell of the barn), and tried not to think about how long it's been since I last rode a horse.

I think there might be riding lessons in the future for Wren.

I Guess We're Remodeling

If you give the Brandels a new vanity with a Travertine marble top, and a new Kohler toilet that is really expensive, then they have to rip out all the old stuff. When they rip out all the old stuff, they will decide the mirror is too big and has to go, and also that wall-mounted cabinet circa 1978. When they take out that wall cabinet, they will decide that the "decorative wood piece" that holds the toilet roll to the wall is dubious, so that will have to go, too. When that goes, it exposes the fact that the previous homeowners used it to lazily cover up a square hole cut into the drywall for no known reason (Escape hatch? Mouse exit? Secret stash of cash hiding place?). In addition, the paint will need touching up, and a new tile backsplash will have to be put in. A trip to Home Depot will have to be made, and the credit card exercised. New flooring? What kind of storage for the bathroom stuff? A smaller mirror?

Taking all of these things into consideration will result in debating over whether to move the plumbing *now* for the future shower stall, or just leave it until they do the shower (at some undetermined point in the future).

They will briefly consider repainting the entire room in a different color.

They will decide against that, since the current paint job is only a year or two old anyway.

They will rip out the existing vanity and wall cabinet, mirror and toilet-roll-wood-backing-piece, and they will make the trip to Home Depot with two exhausted and incredibly rambunctious children, who will cause them to nearly lose their minds right there in the store.

They will go home, where Travis will tape up some spots on the drywall after dinner and the kids are put to bed, and then they will decide that that is Quite Enough For One Day.

Recovery

Today is the second day I have spent in bed, thanks to some planned outpatient GYN surgery yesterday. While I am sure some of my friends are envious of the time I am spending laying in bed, napping, reading, surfing the internet and having things brought to me, it really does get old sometimes. I am grateful to have the support of a fantastic family -- especially my husband, who has made it his personal mission to manage everything that goes on in this house with expert skill and attention to detail. The kids have been great, albeit their usual loud selves. They happily have snuggled in bed with me, shared yummy crackers and ginger candy (ah, post-surgical nausea!), and brought me flowers this afternoon.

I feel better than I did yesterday, for sure, when I threw up the Percoset I was given in the recovery room. Oh, and then again halfway home when I had to insist that Travis stop the car. right. this. minute.

I feel decent enough to get out of bed for short stretches of time, and go downstairs to eat and get myself something to drink, but then I feel the need to go right back upstairs and lie down until the dizziness and nausea passes. I had to miss my son's ice cream social on his last day of preschool, and that made me sad, but I knew I wouldn't have felt well if I tried to get there.

That is the biggest frustration: I feel good enough to do some things, but then I feel like crap again after a few minutes. Ugh. So many things I want to be doing, but napping and resting are the only order of the day.

Tomorrow will be better, I hope. I don't want to miss Wren's last day of preschool picnic. It's her last day of preschool ever, ever.

Quoth the Raven

Once upon a midnight dreary, as I pondered weak and weary....

Today was a rainy and dreary day. Kira was actually home this weekend, and not at her dad's, so I thought it was a perfect time to have a mother-daughter outing. We spent the morning shopping for her new swimsuit (and I bought myself a glittery pair of flipflops), and getting Easter basket goodies for the little kids. Then, after lunch, we made our way downtown to thePoe Museum in the city.

Kira has been studying Edgar Allan Poe in her English class this year. She has developed a love for the dark, haunting stories and poetry, especially 'The Raven' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart'. Most people associate Poe with Baltimore, but really, he has a much more significant history here in central Virginia -- in Richmond, specifically.

The museum is located in the oldest building in Richmond -- a house built in the early 1700's, and later given to the museum to house the collections about Poe and his life.

The museum is made up of several buildings clustered around a walled garden that contains the Poe Shrine.

The walled garden, facing the shrine.

The main building holds the gift shop and a small exhibit of furniture and paintings. Two other buildings hold a huge model of Richmond as it appeared during Poe's life, his first-edition books, some family artifacts and clothing, and lots and lots of information and details about his life that I had no idea about. Of course, I couldn't take any photographs of the artifacts or the insides of the buildings, but I took as many shots of the outsides of the period structures as I could.

The back of the main house, which contains the gift shop and some offices.

Kira ponders the gardens

From the inside of the Poe Shrine

We really enjoyed our visit here, and although the museum was small, there were so many interesting things to see and read about that it was well worth the time and small admission fee.

Afterward, I took Kira to Richmond Hill, a few blocks away, to show her one of my favorite views of the city. It was starting to rain, with the significant warning for sever weather, so we ran up several flights of concrete stairs that went straight up the side of the hill to see this:

It started to thunder and lightning shortly after I took these pictures, so we quickly made our way down the hill and made it into the car JUST as the downpour began!

A few blocks away is St. John's Episcopal Church, where Patrick Henry gave his famous "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, and also where Poe's mother is buried. I really, really want to see this church, so it will have to be next on my tourist agenda.

I love my adopted hometown of Richmond, Virginia. This place is so very full of history and art and culture and science! So many terrific restaurants, so many great outdoor spaces to play in, it's hard to see and do everything. It's a great place to live.

What to do with a rainy Tuesday....

...take out your umbrellas...

...maybe swing in the hammock...

...dig in the dirt...

...relax and enjoy it...and read about gardening...and promise yourself you'll be a more diligent gardener this year...but mostly, relax...

(oh, and maybe do some laundry)