the phoenix has molted its winter feathers

sweet, sweet acacia.

just like when we boil veggies and fruits to enhance or draw out the flavor, the sun warms and lifts the scent of desert plants right off of the tree and onto our olfactory palate. the air is drenched with an arid kind of sugar. I'm excited to go to Junipine and smell the vanilla sweat of the pinetrees this summer!

ender and i went on a bike ride this morning. he rode in a trailer in the back. Thank you heather! and it was very liberating dragging a feisty toddler behind me. released some angst of my own. the sun baked us, but did not transform our scent into anything worth writing about. tis so stinky to be a human.

*zander went rock climbing today, so more pull ups on his hangboard for me :)

donde esta la luna

i saw a rusted penny roll out from under a velvet blanket of stars. And as it rolled, it rose, and became the moon

driving with my family on a country road in oklahoma, the celestial rock was different. i asked them all the description that came to mind. i wanted to remember them in that way. i wrote down their responses somewhere in my stacks of journals. I'll have to dig them out. I will especially treasure my bobbye jean's response. when i find it :) !

in germany i sat in the library and poured over quotes and poems about the moon...

"that orbed maiden with white fire laden, whom mortals call the moon." - Shelley

in sixth grade for our mythology report i made a mask of the moon goddess, a hideous plaster of paris of Artemis, hideous!

if i ever got a tattoo, oh yeah, the moon, but i will never get a tattoo

one of ender's first words-'moon'.

what is it that you think of when you see your moon?

they have sprung and are springing!

oh so long ago, the hobbits with not only a palate for fine mead and wild mushroom, but adventure and curiosity of the great beyond, migrated to the city. here are two of their descendants.

fresh and natural

when i lay down at night, i have the vision of these treasures dancing over my head.

zander is getting nervous about my obsession with painting everything white. he has been through this before with me, except, it was with black and crayola green. haha, oh zander, you love it.

i know the succulents in the trendy CB2 candle holders is so last season, BUT, i had to get it out of my system, you know? And i have to hand it to my awesome cousin greg who was the first before any magazine to craft these cactus creations. hes so hip :)

the stones my father brought back from one of his trips into the heart of the desert. This is them after a few baths in the rock tumbler. smooth and creamy.

the antique-ish candle vases are from the dollar rack at Target. Score! 3 for 2.50, say what!

katie's craft

my quote for katie, always, is "impressed, but not surprised!" artfully lifted images of her family, given a glassy medium.

i stole this photo of her off a stranger's (my stranger, not her's) facebook. i like it.

hopefully i'll see this face rollerskating around in my new house. rustic, stained concrete floors are in my future.

Saint Patrick- I award you the Purple Heart.

purple shamrock. you're a dream!

That dear little plant still grows in our land,

Fresh and fair as the daughters of Erin,

Whose smiles can bewitch, and whose eyes can command,

In each climate they ever appear in:

For they shine thro' the bog, thro' the brake, and the mireland,

Just like their own dear little Shamrock of Ireland.

i can't lie. when i found out Zander had not a drop of green irish blood in him, i was a little perturbed. in high school, i swore by his irish ancestry. how did i get so delightfully confused? looking back, he was really into punk and listened to the Dropkick Murphys. that must have been it. AND he had a really thick lyrical accent at the drop of a dime. oh yes, and his sisters were really into Lord of the Dance. Talk about mixed signals! ahh, ignorance was bliss.

i discovered the shamrock at our local nursery. and my snail pal, i rescued from Walmart! he is too cute! he has the happiest smile.

ranting - one of my fortes

zander rock climbs. i love his spirit. i don't want him to be caged. as a dad, lets face it, he has less limitations than i do as a mama. so on a whim he can go unless ender and i are in immediate need. i'll admit, it can get pretty exhausting fighting to be a selfless person, fighting to embrace this season in my life, fighting to realize that the source of adventure, passion, and beauty are in Jesus. He proves it over and over. Especially in the existence of Ender.


Well, on Saturday Zander spontaneously went rock climbing. And instead of being excited for him, i seethed with jealous anger.... :) I really did! I was so mad, like The Hulk mad, I went to his hang board and did ONE furious pull up. ha ha ha, i laugh now, and I should have laughed then, but one pull up is very hard! I had such a mix of strong feelings that day. I felt sorry for myself that I couldn't go, but then I felt like I was the most blessed person alive because I spent it with Ender and my mama. The storm eventually lulled to a calm and my emotions returned once again to peace and understanding. Truly truly i have an adventurous life with the fellas. i am not stifled. i live in no cage.

I went to the plant store, as I always do to cheer myself up and bought a plant specifically designed by God to attract hummingbirds. Our feeder is new on the block and so its not really well known among the locals. I think my Mom and Dad's place, just down the road, gets all the customers. They have more of a Ma and Pa feel...

dr. suess's romantic side, i didn't get a photo of the trunk, but believe me, its whimsical and this beauty should raise its head high up to 5 five feet!

ender grows serene whenever we go the the nursery. those baby blue eyes soak in all that green and filtered sunlight

i've been treating my blessings more like debris than treasures. it took ender and a tin pie can to go and scavenge them back to me. these are small items small fingers found before small fingers crushed and or threw them. ender is a living breathing reminder of the Good Stuff. That said... he is also a chameleon of fickle substance: glass to stone to upholstery stuffing to fine china...


this photo gives you time to study a little bit of his method. Here you notice the blue eyes beckoning you closer in, perhaps for a kiss, light banter...? I think not. A keen observation and you discover a glint of a mischievous ruse.
for the past two days ender has made it quite clear that he is changing into a man. A man with opinions and tastes! Hes mad I tell you! Thankfully there is a version of him already grown and when he gets home from work everyday i set the boy loose on him and they have a swell time battling for power. Really, they like it.

LIST FREAK

My "to-do"lists all began back in the day when i was emotionally overcome by zander and picking flower petals one by one, "he loves me, he loves me not". In order to still be a productive human being, I wrote my chores and activities down on a good piece of scrap paper.

This came so essential to time management in college.

And when ender was first born you could see a pathetic list of: feed ender, eat breakfast, shower, cry, call my mom. ( i had a hard time getting motivated after hurricane Ender hit)

Still, if I do not have my to do list, i find myself wandering aimlessly. And even when I accomplish lovely, awesome things, if they are not written down I don't feel as satisfied. I quickly scribble the item down on my list and then with a sigh of success cross it out.

No I am not clinically OCD... I can't possibly be alone on this:) I refuse to believe I'm unique!

To enable my obsession with notes and lists, anthropologie came out with....

petrified magnets! I'm a rock geek, but not a big spender. This is another great idea to help me enjoy my rock collection again. I will be making these.