I say this because I keep wanting to blog more. I want to record all the lovely moments in a way that not only lets me share them with family and friends but lets me keep a log of all those discoveries and joys that we can look back on later. Yet so often a day of skiing, or making bread, or kite flying, or sitting on the couch and reading books (let me tell you about the Lil Moose and his oh-so-badly-you-need-to- read-me-more-books-mama!) and the next thing I know I fall into bed exhausted dreaming of how I would share all those moments if I could just get to the computer.

So I’ve decided. Once a week. I am going to post once a week for as long as I can reasonably do so without compromising the time I spend keeping the other goofballs in this family (myself included I guess) sane and happy. In the meantime, let me share a little of what we’ve been up to.

This time of year is always crazy. Whereas most families are settling down and resting after the holiday craziness, we are gearing up for the stream of birthdays that January brings. There are four in our immediate family and three good friends. Not to mention all the friends from school that seem to have birthdays around this time. This year Towhead decided on an owl/dragon/wizard party (oh my goodness is right!). I finally got her focused just on owls, which would have been great except that owls are hard to find when it’s not fall. So Towhead and I decided we would just make them. No sweat, right?

I picked three owl-themed ideas that would be a) relatively easy to make, b) Towhead could help me make them, and c) were not too costly. We settled on owl goody bags, which turned out to be super easy: I cut, she glued.

Two hanging owls that could hover over the dining room table. Again, five pieces glued onto a ball – super easy.

 And an owl cake made out of cupcakes. You can check out the recipe if you like (for the record, I am NOT a fan of Disney media, but it was cute and easy).

Easy peasy rice and cheesy, right? Put together a couple games, send out invites and we’re set. Well, almost. As I was sketching out simple, rotund little owl for which to play “Pin the Eyes on the Owl,” the Towhead peeks over my shoulder and sighs. “What?” I ask. “Not what you wanted?”

“Well,” she says, “I thought we were going to do a barn owl. I love barn owls.” (And the Legend of the Guardians movie where the hero is a barn owl, I think to myself. My turn to sigh. I know what’s coming next.)

“Has to be a barn owl?” I ask. She nods with a sad, yet timid, expression on her face. “Alright,” I say. “Go get me your bird book.” It was all worth the smile I got in return. To her credit, although I sketched it out, Towhead pulled out all the paints and supplies and helped with a large amount of the painting.

In the end it was a lovely party. Good games, good energy, well-behaved kids (and parents). One of the things I appreciated the most was that we had an equal number of boys and girls, which was not something we intended. It was just a natural extension of “who do you wanna invite to your party?” It all felt balanced and full of joy. Just like I’d hoped. It softens the blow a bit that my girl is growing up, and the painful painful reality that Barbie has entered the house. I know, it could be worse . . . but don’t get me started.

Outside the house, Mother Nature has also finally decided to give us some snow to play in. And just in time. Every year for the Towhead’s birthday we go snowshoeing or find some way to go hang out in the powdery snow. After her birthday this last weekend we headed up to Schweitzer Ski Resort in northern Idaho to take advantage of a free cross-country ski clinic, and then Towhead and Mr. A got to play on some of the downhill ski slopes for the first time this winter. It was a beautiful day, and even Lil Moose got some snow time.

It may have been a bit exhausting, but it was filled with my favorite people doing my favorite things. Can’t get much better than that!

For us it was doing the unplanned: relaxing and reading the paper around the table until 10am, playing and joking, and watching the kids chase each other around the kitchen. When the wee ones (ie Towhead) got a bit too rambunctious (imagine a rubber ball bouncing off the walls at every possible angle) we jokingly told her to go out to rake up all the leaves in the backyard.

And she did!

Of course we couldn’t resist joining in the fun.

“Again! Again!” was the refrain of the day.

We had intended to rake up just enough leaves to jump in.

But Towhead kept demanding more, higher. All the leaves.

The next thing we knew we had raked up all the leaves.

The leaves did all make it into the compost . . . eventually.

It’s times like these that weave us closer and hold us together.

Filed under: Uncategorized ]]> http://atamian.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/falling/feed/ 0 C IMG_1064 IMG_1029 IMG_1037 IMG_1038 IMG_1046 IMG_1058 IMG_1056 IMG_1063 http://atamian.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/halloween-chili-and-chilly/ http://atamian.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/halloween-chili-and-chilly/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:20:58 +0000 C http://atamian.wordpress.com/?p=999 Continue reading →]]> October 31, 2011 Spokane, WA

All Hallow’s Eve in Washington this year was a gruesome sight. Families with babies got together to watch their older children play before consuming vast amounts of beer, chili, cornbread, and what appeared to be human fingers. The house was filled with screaming and chaos, but the cause did not appear to be the digits on display. Crowds congregated in the kitchen and living room eating the fingers that protruded from their chili bowls without a second glance. A shocking sight indeed! There was much nibbling on baby fingers and toes as well. The assumption is that the parents are attempting to tenderize them for future feasts.

Following this most shocking of spreads was a foray into the neighborhood where everyone crowded the streets begging for food. This oxymoronic behavior, potentially explained by the gruesome dinner fare, seemed to be inspired primarily by the parents. The shrill laughter that came from the children must have been inspired by madness, as was their attire. The specific group observed consisted of a cackling witch on her broom, a robot with blinking lights who had trouble going down stairs, a cowboy vampire, a bat-like superhero, and another superhero-like figure who insisted on being carried. Another small child seemed to come to his senses and shed his dragon costume in favor of a blanket-covered stroller. As the evening wore on and the cold winds rose from nearby river, it became obvious that the parents were significantly more motivated than their young counterparts. The parents finally gave up when all the children crawled in the strollers and appeared to boycott all begging activities. Sanity seemed to prevail at the end of the night as the children gathered in a bedroom around an ambient heater while the adults drank wine and ate a finger-free apple crisp. 

Editorial note: This reporter has been conditionally placed on suspension as she followed the previous story without taking any photos or even bringing a camera. If you would like us to refrain from firing her please send donations to rememberthedamncamera@stupidmom.org

What I love about fall though, besides the fact that my birthday falls right in the middle of it, is that we come inside to play, which is a nice change after several months outdoors. We were out shopping the other day and stumbled on Halloween costumes for the wee ones. Towhead has decided to be a witch and the lil’ Moose is going to be her pet dragon. So we were in the right mood when Lil’ Moose went down for a nap to make some potions and practice some spells!

Vinegar and baking soda work for everything: from volcanoes and potions to cleaning the coffee pot.

A little spit from a drunken toad (ie. vinegar with green food coloring), the eyeball of a cranky octopus (cherry tomato), and the dandruff of two talking dogs (baking soda), and poof!: a perfect potion.

Towhead also got it in her head to take a few of her feathers and turn them into pens. She kept pushing for real ink, which I wasn’t going to tell her I had we don’t have, but black tempra paint worked just as well. We let Towhead watch the first Harry Potter with us over the summer, and she spent many summer hours pretending to be a student at Hogwarts with our friend’s older son and daughter. They had her so well-trained by the end she actually knew half a dozen spells from the books by the end of it all. So with her quill and ink she had me spell out for her a few of the ones she remembered.

The "spell book" is now hanging from her doorknob.

After a bit she decided to get creative and just make dots and swirls all over the cards and some pieces of paper. Is there anything more fun than writing with a feather? Not for a 5-year-old! When the feather was done for we punched a hole in the side and used a pipecleaner to make a ring that bound them all together.

Kindergarten hasn’t been a total breeze so far, getting used to new rules and expectations, but I’m glad that it still leaves us a few days to play and spend time together – yes, even when that time is not always fun. The last few months of summer with all three of us being home together all the time definitely had their rough spots. The rhythm changed, things got bumpy, and we all had our fair share of stumbles. Transitions like that create rocky ground where no one is quite sure of their footing. For now, things seems to be getting onto smoother footing and I’m grateful. It feels good when you can hit the trail with less complaining and spend more time enjoying the journey.

Hubble bubble, toil and trouble, fire burn and glass jar bubble . . .

A few snapshots from the raft:

• Towhead is now in kindergarten and loving it. Her teacher finds her smart, enthusiastic, and quick to catch on to new ideas and tasks (Wow! I’m so surprised. That’s not how I would describe her at all. *grin*) Her downfall is that she is a bit too talkative just so friendly. Towhead tells me her teacher is “a little bossy” (read: doesn’t put up with any of her shit.) Mama thinks it’s a match made in heaven and probably spends a bit too much time chuckling to herself.
• Lil’ Moose had a birthday complete with BBQed pork and heavenly applesauce cake. We kept waiting for him to dive into the cake face first but he took the more cautious and reserved approach and patted it like a dog before ripping it apart and feed it to the the actual dog.
• Towhead decided to challenge my parenting skills the last couple months by being a . . . 5 year old. All of this sent me into an existential identity crisis of sorts. The solution consisted less in changing what I was doing and more more in changing my mind set. The process of discovering all this also reminded me that I need to read more, connect with other moms, and find time for reflection. It seems that there are so many life lessons that I continually have to rediscover. And then knock myself in the forehead, while I feel stupid for letting go of an epiphany I’ve already had. I suppose only so many things can fit in the forefront of my mind – the others have to be filed away so I can stumble upon them later and contemplate the new layers of meaning.
• The garden is finally done. Except for the sugar pumpkins. I can’t believe how much we received in return for the work we put in last spring. Gallons of heirloom and cherry tomatoes, buckets of snap peas and green beans, Armenian cucumbers, lettuce, spinach. Cilantro for Mr. A’s salsa, purple carrots that reminded me of Harold’s crayon, onions, and more beets that I care to admit. And raspberries that wouldn’t quit – I pulled two off this morning before I trimmed back the plants.
• And bread! I have rediscovered bread making thanks to my friend Karen and this book. When things get busy I long for a few minutes to throw together a batch of bread. It’s so easy! I want to experiment with new flours, try new recipes, and I would love LOVE love to get a baking stone for the oven and see what effect that has. (Can you tell this has totally sparked my creative side?) It helps that everyone in the house can’t get enough of it.
• Lil’ Moose has 8 teeth and has finally decided to join the world of the walking. At 13 months it’s about time! He is a loving and snuggly boy who spends a large amount of time laughing and trying to imitate everything he sees us do. I look at both my kids regularly these days and realize how lucky I am.

A few other snapshots:

Mirabeau Park checking out the duck and pond turtles

Crabbing in Puget Sound - we ate WAY too much crab that week

Goofy girl moving into the next frontier: Kindergarten

But chasing his sister has this little cowboy draggin’ tail

Filed under: Uncategorized ]]> http://atamian.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/cowboyz-and-injuns/feed/ 0 C IMG_0640 IMG_0628 http://atamian.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/a-gift/ http://atamian.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/a-gift/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:33:27 +0000 C http://atamian.wordpress.com/?p=964 Continue reading →]]> This is what my girl made for me this morning before we headed out grocery shopping.

It was such a sweet gift, what could I do? I had to wear it to the store Lilies make lovely necklaces, don’t you think?

Each moment is a gift :: Enjoy the present

Filed under: Uncategorized ]]> http://atamian.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/a-gift/feed/ 0 C Lily necklace http://atamian.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/summer-snapshot-2-butterflies/ http://atamian.wordpress.com/2011/07/21/summer-snapshot-2-butterflies/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:33:49 +0000 C http://atamian.wordpress.com/?p=958 Continue reading →]]> My most intimate experiences with butterflies have been pretty similar to most people’s. I’ve watched them flitting around the garden or hovering over vegetation at the side of a trail. Truthfully, most of what I know about butterflies I’ve learned from books by Robert Michael Pyle, like Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland.  But this summer the Towhead and I incresed that intimacy quite a bit. The best part is that the whole thing happened so organically that I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.

One morning in June we were out in the garden. Towhead was singing and climbing on the rocks while I pulled up last year’s parsley to make way for the cucumbers I was about to plant. By that time the parsley was almost three feet tall and beginning to go to seed. To use it up I had been making big batches of tabouleh, one of our favorites. I was cleaning up and ready to go inside when I heard Towhead yell, “Mama, look what I found!”

I turned and saw her coming from the vegetable bed with something in her hand. What she produced looked a lot like a butterfly chrysalis about an inch and a half long. “Wow,” I said. “Where did you find that?”

“Where the parsley was.” Uh-oh, I thought. Did I just kill one of the coolest things we’ve ever found in the garden? I immediately broke out the camera and we took a picture. I had never stumbled across anything like this before. The added bonus was that Towhead had been learning about insects at school during June, so she already knew about the butterfly lifecycle a bit.  When we were done examing and photographing the coccoon I said, “Let’s go abck and stick it in the little bit of parsley that’s left so it can finish growing and become a butterfly. OK?” It took a bit of convincing but we finally set the pupae back near the base of one of the remaining parsley plants.

Fast forward a day, and Lil’ Moose, Towhead and I were sitting on the couch watching a cartoon when a commercial for a live butterfly garden comes on the TV. Naturally, Towhead and I got excited. We had been talking non-stop to Mr. A and our friends about butterflies and how cool it was to find a pupae in the garden. However, it was one of those commercials complete with the 1-800 number, so I wasn’t too sure how legit it was. I had visions of this being a rip-off, or that the caterpillars they sent us would be an invasive species in this area or something. I was excited about the prospect of raising butterflies, but when it comes to these things I know enough that I needed to make sure what we were doing was not ecologically irresponsible. My google searches revealed that the company was in fact the leading insect supplier for public schools and that the butterflies were Painted Lady butterflies, whose range extends across the entire U.S. And since things checked out on both fronts, of course we ordered them (The irony being that I had saved about $30 to get the Towhead a new video game for her Leapster, since she’s been playing the same one for 7 months. That money went toward the butterlies – but seriously, is there really a comparison? There’s no doubt this was a much better use of that money. Don’t tell her though.)

Our caterpillars arrived and we spent the next 3 weeks watching them grow (i.e. triple in size!), climb to the top of their containers and form a chrysalis, and then hatch into butterflies. Once hatched we picked flowers to put in their enclosure and sprinkled the flowers with sugar water. After a few days we released them outside. It was so much fun – I can’t believe I didn’t take more pictures!

During this time we also kept checking on our pupae out in the garden. Come to find out it was actually a moth coccoon! For awhile I was positive we’d killed it by handling it; it had been in the coccoon stage for 2-3 weeks and the Painted Lady only incubates for 7-10 days. But Towhead convinced me to put it in the enclosure with our other butterflies to see if it would emerge. I had given up hope when finally I looked in the enclosure one morning and saw a new and totally different butterfly. I tried to identify it but the closest I could get was to determine it was a moth in the family Sphingidae – but that’s a BIG family that also includes hawkmoths, which this was not. (Again, why didn’t I take better pictures before we released them!?)

This was just the type of thing I wanted to do with my girl this summer before she heads off to kindergarten. And I love the fact that we didn’t plan it. It makes it that much more magical. I think we got our friends hooked too – they have plans to order and raise butterflies now too Towhead has been trying to convince me we should do this again with different insects like ladybugs and grasshoppers . . . I’m tempted to make it a summer ritual from now on.

. . . which of course means we had thunderstorms in the afternoon