Family
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Happy Birthday Julie!
This is a picture of Maya and my step mom, Julie. Today is Julie’s birthday, and I wish we could be there to share a piece of cake with her to celebrate. Julie and my dad live in Portland, and have a beautiful house and a pretty good life there. Julie owns a yoga studio, and has been teaching yoga for about 35 years. She’s without question the best yoga instructor in the Pacific Northwest, so if you’re ever in the market for a really good yoga class in Portland, check her studio out. In addition to being a wonderful yoga instructor, and a pretty savvy businesswoman, Julie is a…
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Happy Birthday Richard!
Happy Birthday, to my big brother, Richard! Always there to help me buy big item electronics, or give me advice on video games…even though he lives far far away. Thanks for letting me practice dating on your friends (not that you really had much say in the matter), and for selling me your half of the dog when we were little. Even though that meant I was responsible for picking up the dog poop, still the best purchase I ever made. Thanks for bringing Kathy home, and for being smart enough to marry her, giving me a wonderful sister-in-law. Thanks for being a generous, wonderful, snide, snarky older brother. Happy…
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Happy Birthday, Maya and Melissa!
These beautiful women are my sisters, Maya (left) and Melissa (right), and today is their birthday! Melissa doesn’t read my blog, or any blog, and barely has time with a 3 year old and a 4 month old to check her email. Maya reads when she gets a chance, but she has a job and a beautiful 2 year old of her own. So it’s entirely possible that neither of them will see this post. No matter. I wanted everyone to see them anyway, and to say, “Happy Birthday to J’s sisters!” I first met my sisters in January of 1988…after having met my dad in the fall of ’87,…
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Fostering Resiliency
The Center for Human Development in our area offers a “Healthy Choices” program, called “PEP” (Parent Educators Program), which the parents bring to some of the schools. Maya’s school is fairly small (under 200 students) and fairly new (this is their 6th year), and we are working to implement the PEP program in the school. Back when I was on the school board, when we realized this charter school experiment of bringing Montessori Education to the public schools might actually ‘take’, and we were probably going to stay open, we started looking past the immediate needs of getting a permanent location, running water, a principal, and funding to pay the…
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All Souls Day
Today is All Souls Day. Not being a good Christian (but I am a good Atheist, which is better than a bad Christian, right?), I don’t know much about this holiday, but I read a bit on Laluna and Zee’s blogs the other day. I was intrigued. The Christian belief is that the faithful departed who have not atoned for their sins can get into heaven, if they have people still in our land of the living pray for their salvation. (If I have that wrong, please let me know…it’s interesting.) I’m a little bit more interested, though, in the Pagan roots of the holiday, if there indeed are any.…
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My Grandma
I am a very fortunate person, in that I still have both of my Grandmothers. I don’t know a lot of 40 year olds who can say that, and I suspect that most of those that do, count themselves as lucky as well. My Grandma Wells is the one I told you about last month, she of the cole slaw and turning 90 and all. She is my father’s mother. The beautiful woman in this picture is my Grandma Ward, who is my mother’s mother. This picture was taken at the time of her marriage, when she was only 18 years old. My Grandma Ward is much in my thoughts…
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Halloween Candy
I was at the grocery store the other day, and passed by the piles and piles of fun sized candy, ready to be bought a bit too early, brought home and eaten, and for the eaters of said candy to come back and buy some more. I was thinking about how nice a tiny little Baby Ruth would taste, or maybe an Almond Joy. I’m looking forward to after Halloween, when our ‘candy cow’ is full of yummy candy. Most of it will be from Maya’s trick or treating, and some will be the leftovers from our failure to get anyone to come this far back into a little condo…
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Looking Good
LaLuna has two wonderful daughters, Big Sis and Chee. In so many families, each person has a role, i.e., “The pretty one”, “The smart one”, “The funny one”…in this case, they are both pretty, smart, talented, and funny, so she’s obviously doing something right. Chee has always been interested in fashion…when she was little, she used to like to talk to me about my clothes…”Auntie J, I like your shoes…” that kind of thing. She used to like showing people her newest outfit, and she would come out and say, “This is how I look.” Just matter of fact, satisfied and happy with her appearance. I wish that confidence could…
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My Wise Child
I’m sad, because I lost one of my favorite earrings the other day. They were little gold hoops, but with a delicate pattern etched into the gold. My bestest friend, Rosemary, gave them to me a few years ago. I’ve worn them pretty much every day. They had a little click attachment on the back. Well, on Sunday, I was wearing them, and I lay down to take a nap. I forgot to take off my earring when I did so. When I woke up, we went to the shops to get a few tops for our growing girl. We walked all over Old Navy and the mall. I came…
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Yummy Rice Recipe
I posted a recipe last Sunday, for a vegetarian dish. Today I’m going to post a recipe for Saffron-Orange Rice, which is VERY yummy. My step-mom makes this recipe. I know it’s from a cookbook, but I don’t know which one. I’ve had it on previous trips to Portland, but I never thought to make it for Ted, because he’s not a fan of basmati rice AND he thinks dried fruit is devil food AND he’s not generally thrilled by nuts either. So I was excited when he raved about this dish, and said he would like to have it again. Right away, I emailed my step-mom for the recipe.…
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Happy Birthday, Grandma Wells!
Today is my Grandma Wells’ 90th Birthday. Happy Birthday, Grandma! I wish you were computer savvy, so you could read this, but maybe I’ll just print it up and mail it to you. I thought, since Grandma’s birthday is on a Thursday this year, I’d do 13 Things You Should Know About My Grandma. 1. She makes some tasty coleslaw. 2. She worked full time, graveyard shift, at the Gallo Bottling Plant until she was 84 years old. She was a bookkeeper for them. 3. She also makes some yummy lima beans. (The trick is to buy dried lima beans, and soak them in chicken broth instead of water, before…
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Grandpa
Saturday, we were driving around in the car, listening to the radio, and my perhaps favorite new song came on: “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”, by Panic! at the Disco. Why do I like this song so much? Because, in addition to a catchy pop tune, it reminds me of my Grandpa. Here are the lyrics: I’d chime in with a “Haven’t you people ever heard of closing a goddamn door?!” No, it’s much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality. I had to laugh, because that “Haven’t you people ever heard of closing a goddamn door?!” sounded JUST like something he would…
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My Horse Picture
When I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, my mom worked as both a Montessori school teacher, and because we all know how well teaching pays (esp a private school), she also worked at a local restaurant. The restaurant, as I remember it, was next door to a small art gallery, where they sold paintings by local artists. I’m not sure how we ended up going inside the gallery, but we did, and I fell in love with one of the paintings. It was of two horses, running in a field, and it was painted on a piece of wood. My love of horses knew no bounds, and this…
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Birth Story
Black Belt Mama has a second blog, called Birth Story, where you can tell the story of the birth of your child if you want to. I wrote about Maya’s birth there awhile ago, and my mom just wrote about my birth. If you’re so inclined, go check it out. 😉 (My mom’s birth, Lilith Joycelyn, and my brother’s birth, Richard Roland, are also there. Which led Maya to wonder if her Granny might write the story of my Grandma’s birth as well.)
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The Post Where I Literally Murder my Readers with Boredom…
This was one of those weekends where you are so very busy, and you take a peek at the activities that are planned, and you think, if I had no child, this would be a COMPLETELY different weekend. Not better. Not worse. Different. Friday, I took the day off of work, and chaperoned Maya’s class to the Monet Exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. All I can say is, WOW. There are some paintings that just look…DIFFERENT…in real life. I’ve seen pictures of Monet’s Japanese bridge with waterlillies for as long as I can remember. On posters, greeting cards, whatever. It’s background noise for the eyes. Then,…