If you'd like to play too...
The Rules:
1. Leave me a comment saying,"interview me."
2. I will email you 5 questions.
3. You will update your blog with answers to the questions. Be sure to link back to the original post.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to interviewed, you will ask them 5 questions.
Here we go...
1. What's your favorite thing you have made this year (last 365 days, not since January).
I am going to channel Ray and admit that it's..."hard to say." I think that whatever I am currently working on is my favorite, which would be my little felted wool wallet. For me, the process is where it's at. Especially since so much of what I make is a little bit rushed at times ( two young children, husband in grad school, teaching job) and ends up being a bit sloppy. I am trying harder to slow down.
2. Why painting rather than any other artistic medium? There is something about the tactile experience of painting that I find at once soothing and invigorating. Maybe that doesn't make sense. Even pushing paint around on a chair is fun for me. I miss my college days of enormous messy oil painting, I will return to it someday.
3. What's the best parenting advice you ever got (or wish you had). Tough question. Two things come to mind. One, chill out. Relax. Most of the things you get worked up about (esp. as a first time parent) are not as enormously important as they feel in the moment. Two, and this could be a long story but I will spare you. Don't tell your children how they feel. If your little (baby, toddler, whatever age) is crying, don't say, "you're fine". Most parents say this and it always bothered me and then, after an ordeal that involved some opinionated friends and an opinionated husband and a screaming baby (little Hen), I found out from (a friend who asked her therapist) that the best way to protect your child from molestation is to teach them to trust their own feelings. As a parent, respect that when they are upset they, are upset and they know their own feelings. If they are told repeatedly by adults that they are "ok" when they don't feel "ok", it is confusing and they might feel that the adults around them know more than they do about how they should feel. So, when my kids are upset about a little scrape and I think it is probably not a big deal, I calmly wait for them to come to me and I give them a hug and let them express themselves.
4. One book recommendation and why? I am glad you are not asking for my favorite book, that would be impossible. I almost feel like I might be hurting the feelings of the books I don't recommend. My first thought was The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, surprising because it is not a Victorian novel (which must be my favorite genre). The hero of this swashbuckling historical adventure is a heroine, Marguerite Blakeney. The story takes place during the French revolution. The Scarlet Pimpernel, a mysterious figure, is rescuing aristocrats from Madame De Guillotine and bringing them to the shores of England. Marguerite is unknowingly married to the Pimpernel, whose alter ego is a great fop, Sir Percy. Suspense, intrigue, politics, loyalty and romance all wrapped up in a fast paced adventurous novel. It is great fun and I have to read it every 2-3 years.
5 . What do you most hope for your boys? or What are you excited about planting in your garden this year? The answer to the first question could be very simple or quite complicated and it is too early in the morning for me to decide which way to answer. I hope for so many things for them. Mostly, I just want them to be good people, and happy. As, to my garden? I am trying to decide whether to rig up my indoor lights and grow my own tomato seedlings again. I will definitely be growing Purple De Milpa tomatillos again (I love salsa Verde). And this variety of tomatillo is the most beautiful with a large husk and a deep purple cast to it (they look like lanterns). I hope to grow lots of heirloom tomatoes, 3-4 varieties of cherries/grape tomatoes for the boys. So I answered both of those questions. Oops.
2 comments:
Thanks! That was so interesting. I especially love the answer to parenting advice--I totally would have told Arlo he's fine without thinking. Er, not without thinking, exactly, but I've always said (and meant) "you're fine" as physical reassurance, like I can see you're all in one piece. I hadn't thought about the psychological aspect... yikes.
Oh, but also (for what it's worth) I wouldn't have said you're fine to a crying child, just one in that stunned half second where they're unsure. But I won't say it at all now :)
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