laundry and plain greek yogurt (Fage) with brown sugar

Sorry to be gone for so long. I have been preoccupied, tired and bored with myself. I am trying to get some work done so I can write/post about something I have made.....easier said than done.

I think I am almost there. The sewing machine is working and I have two projects for my yet -to -come nephew that I am working on. I also have three paintings in the works, but it is slow becasue I have these two never ending life-long projects whom I love dearly...

Good news, my mother-in-law aka superhero is here helping me for a bit. And, I went to my aunt and uncle's house Saturday and spent the night with my two cousins and my two sisses and had a great time sans children...woohoo!

egg craziness

Don't you love a good frittata? Especially in summer when you can throw some fresh chives and thyme or what have you in there. With a salad or even just the croutons ( the salad did not get made this Thursday in our house), a frittata is a simple to make and satisfying meal.


We finished the last batch or fridge pickles and I reserved the vinegar and threw in more veg.


The boys and I decorated eggs today.

I am tired.

some green for you...

me: So, Ezra what did you and daddy do while I was at work?

Ezzie: We went to da big houshe.

me: What did you see there?

Ezzie: We saw lots of flowershss and plantshss.

me: And what was outside of the greenhouse?

Ezzie: Lots of big dinosaurs. I cwimbed up dem I wasn't scared. Daddy wasn't scared eder.



Matty took Ezra to the UMass greenhouse and arboretum today. The dinosaurs are actually really old trees with low branches that look like brontosaurus necks.

Here are some lovely pics that Matty took.

new look

yes, i miss the orange but we all have to grow up sometime. thanks to matty for helping me figure out the gosh darn banner thing. the banner image is a detail from a series of paintings I am working on. all of the paintings involve images of birds (in this case a mourning dove). anyone out there with good photos of birds send them over. the "series" is mostly in my head right now so maybe i shouldn't use that word yet!

xoxo
k

And These Are For You...

My friend Helen gave me these yesterday when she and her partner and kids came over for Friday Pizza Night. Wish I could send you all flowers!

Saturday Morning project: Spring/Easter Tree 2008

Volgan the drummer

Sometimes, when the kids are driving me nuts and they've been fed, it's dark outside etc. We make a family movie. This week it was a rockumentary about "The Fighters" a band comprised of two brothers: Volgan and Carnal (self named). Volgan is a serious drummer, notice how his chin moves...

check him out

Maggie B.

the babysitter

Henry and Ezra are lucky to be loved by a multitude of relatives and close friends, many of whom have looked after them from time to time. In fact it was only fairly recently that I started paying a babysitter to watch them. Not many people fit my long list of credentials, one of them requiring that you be either a blood relative, life-long friend or have a name that comes from one of our favorite children's books. Maggie B. fits that last credential, and if you have never read The Maggie B. by Irene Haas (also one of Auntie Michaela's faves and introduced to us by her) find it and read it immediately.

The boys love Maggie. By Thursday they are already looking forward to seeing her (she comes every Wednesday). Maggie is beautiful and sweet and smart and clearly enjoys being with them. She also happens to be cousin-auntie Sara's bff and Curt's girlfiend, although I think Henry might be crushed if he understood that.

We are just relieved that her name is not Farmer Small, Grinch, Yummy Yucky or Miss Spider. That would be sort of wierd.

poor man's Monte Cristo

I think the real Monte Cristo involves meat, cheese, batter and deep frying but mine is basically a cross between french toast and a grilled cheese, minus the sweetness of the former. It is the result of Matty accidentally buying a loaf of white sliced bread and me wanting to make french toast but not wanting to eat french toast with zuchinni, lentil and tomato soup (the zukes and tomatoes are from our garden last summer). So here it is. I am behind on my food posts again...More coming.

ezra drawing his first person

Mabubba

Does everyone here know "MABUBBA"? Ezra's most prized word. He invented it before he could articulate much of anything. At the time " Ba" meant everything from "ball" to "airplane" to "breast milk". Then he started saying " Mah" instead of "nap" when he was tired (it has always been hard for him to differentiate the "n" and " m" sounds). Soon enough, he put them together to make "mabubba".

I AM SICK OF MABUBBA!

There is a touch of the bittersweet here, I will admit. I don't plan to have anymore babies out of this body. There is a FAINT chance we may adopt someday and I know if I tried hard enough I might be able to nurse an adopted baby (yes it is possible,but that is another story) . Most likely this is the end of the line for my mams. It is ironic really. When Ezzie was born he was tongue tied and nursing was excruciating. I bled! I wept on the phone to LLL leaders, I spent weeks pumping and bottle feeding through the night before I figured out the problem and found a doctor who would clip his frenulum (another story). Much later, at a LLL meeting I got a round of applause for not giving up. It never really crossed my mind. I absolutely had to nurse that baby. Months later, after the frenulum was clipped (no blood, no pain) and he was nursing pain-free, I was convinced he would wean himself early because he didn't nurse constantly like Henry had to. Years later here we are and he is addicted. Yes, folks we need an intervention.

So, anyone out there who has plenty of free time and wants to live in the Pioneer (Happy) Valley in a closet with the constant threat of cockroaches, two little boys who like to fight, can't stop moving and making noise and is happy to stay up all night with a very cute, pudgy-cheeked and stubborn two year old who wants "mabuba" and will call you a "dumb guy " if you don't give it to him.... come over. I will bake you cookies.

Into the Wild Spoiler alert...

Sleep is a delicate beast with me. And I think that at this point, even if Ezra were to suddenly start sleeping all night, I would still have trouble. Last night I made the mistake of watching a beautifully resonating film (Into the Wild), while I was still mourning the end of Middlemarch. I spent the night tossing and turning while visions of the Alaskan wilderness, stretches of highway and Christopher's starving face played over and over again in my mind. I was thinking about the last paragraph of Middlemarch this morning while I lay in bed trying my best to sleep in as Matt made blueberry pancakes for the kids. Dorothea spends most of the novel trying to figure out a way to do something hugely important for humanity. She marries her first husband with the firm belief that he will be her accomplice in this endeavor but it is a disastrous marriage. In the end she leads a quiet life with her second husband and does many small good things...George Eliot writes it beautifully...

"Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the numbers who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

Dorothea is idealistic and I would call Christopher (Alexander Supertramp) idealistic too but I feel that that word carries a grain of naivete that is not necessarily part of Christopher. At the poignant end of Into the Wild, the viewer witnesses Christopher's sudden realization that his departure from society etc. to attain peace and happiness was a little misguided, as he (in the film) writes..." happiness is only real when shared."

Please Dear Spring, STAY

50 Questions

Tina (constantcatastrophe.blogspot) sent this to me, here is my version, email me yours if you like...

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6:00, but Matty was sweet and got H. ready for school and I went back to bed and got up again at 7:45...

2. Diamonds or pearls? Neither, I am more of an amber, jade, coral kind of gal, but I do have a honking diamond and white gold engagement ring care of grandma that I wear occasionally.I mostly like it for the story...because it replaced the one that she hawked when she left grandpa for a couple years. She must have had some serious spunk back in the day. She came back and they lived happily ever after.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Atonement, yes Keira, beautiful walking stick insect actress can act.

4. What is your favorite TV show? The Office or 30 Rock (tied).

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? Coffee and cereal or oatmeal

6. What is your middle name? Ann

7. What food do you dislike? meat products

8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Bob Dylan,Modern Times

9. What kind of car do you drive? old misty lavender (sorry Matty but it is true) Toyota Camry

10. What is your favorite sandwich? a real Italian panin(o?)

11. Favorite item of clothing? lovely colorful skirt or jeans, boring but true
12. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
New Zealand, Barbados, India...

13. What color is your bathroom? beige tile and white...ak

14. Favorite brand of clothing? I can never afford it but I love to look... anything served up at Anthropologie

15. To where would you retire? Southern Italy
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? My 30th, I went for a bike ride by myself on a country road (wearing my favorite green skirt) on my new vintage bike. Also, I can't remember any birthdays before last year, because of sleep deprivation.

17. Favorite sport to watch? soccer

18. Farthest place you are sending this to? The internet goes everywhere!

19. Favorite saying: My Nana used to quote Mae West and one of the quotes ended with"...come up and see me sometime." I'll have to look it up.

20. When is your Birthday? May 10

21. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning

22. What is your shoe size? 7 1/2
23. Do you have any pets? no...only houseplants and children right now.

24. What did you want to be when you were little? A veterinarian

25. What is your favorite candy? halvah, swedish fish, nonpariels...
26. What is your favorite flower? tulips, poppies, ranunculus
27. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? not sure...

28. What is your full name? Kelly Ann Carlisle

29. What are you listening to now? Ticking clock

30. What was the last thing you ate? peach and yogurt smoothie

31. What is the weather right now? early spring day, sunny, chirping birds...smell of mud...delightful.

32. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, of course.

33. Favorite soft drink? ginger beer

34. What's your favorite restaurant? Pintu's in West Springfield

35. Siblings? one older sis, a younger brother and a younger sis.

36. Favorite day of the year? the day that buds appear on trees

37. Favorite toy as a child? dolls

38. Summer or winter? summer

39. Hugs or kisses? hug

40. Chocolate or Vanilla? chocolate in solid form, vanilla for cakes

41. When was the last time you cried? two nights ago. My eyes are very clean.

42. What is under your bed? art supplies and dust and probably some random toys that ezzie put under there.

43. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Marianne from the north country days although now she lives in Indianapolis...

44. What did you do last night? put kids to bed, baked cookies with sara ate so much cookie dough couldn't eat any baked cookies.

45. Favorite smell? early spring dirt... late spring dirt... my neighbor's jerk chicken

46. Plain, buttered, or salted Popcorn? Pepper (minimal), Butter (medium), salt (medium) and nutritional yeast (lots),

47. How many years at your current job? Less than one.

48. Favorite day of the week? Friday, I don't work.
49. How many towns have you lived in? Albany, Watertown, Herman, Dekalb, Aurora, Baltimore, Florence, Savannah (GA), Athens(Ohio), Leverett, and Amherst.

50. What is your biggest pet peeve? Being late.

funny stuff ?

Some funny things my kids have said lately...

Ezra announced to me the other night that he has a new puppy, Carnal. Last week he had a dog named Carl. Naturally, I asked him if he meant to say his puppy dog's name was Carl. He said emphatically and a little bit angrily that "his name is Carnal and he is a puppy, not a puppy dog."After a few minutes of "petting" Carnal and explaining that he was very small and blue in color, he was quiet. Right before drifting off he perked up and asked me "Do I have a puppy Carnal?" I wasn't sure what to say, I told him that if he felt that he had a puppy... and then I just said "sure, why not, goodnight Carnal, goodnight Ezra."


The other day I bought Honey Nut Cheerios. I was in StopnShop. Normally, we purchase our cereal at Trader Joes. We almost exclusively eat Barbara's Shredded Spoonfuls, Puffins and one other I can't recall at the moment. But I saw those Cheerios and started drooling, well not really. They have more sugar than I normally allow, more than 6gm per serving. I bought them anyway, I guess I have a thing for Honey Nut
Cheerios. That night after dinner, Henry was complaining about going to school. He said, "I don't want to go to school but at least we have new cereal in the morning".

Were those stories even remotely funny to anyone else? Am I so sleep deprived that I don't understand funny? I am hungry, I might eat a bowl of cereal while I wait for the primary results....


p.s

re.photos above

pensive henry

scarf wearing sumo ezzie

enormous ferrari/carlisle family-built snowman (taller than matty)

my first landscape attempt, beginning stages