more summer shots

more! more!

(vacay pictures sooooon)

 

summer shots

(wrote this in july… i realize i am a failed blogger, i am learning to accept it) here are couple of shots from the summer so far. it speeds by then it crawls by then it speeds by again. i have spent the summer unexpectedly being SAHM which although it is a lovely and privileged position, is not for me. no doubt, i love the time with beanie, but the walls just have a way of closing in on us after the 8th day of rain or whatever. i have finally figured out how to shape the day, that i need to leave the house, find a playgroup, go to the park, obsessively grocery shop, SOMETHING. i finally started taking beanie to the woods for walks and wild blueberry picking. of course now that i feel okay with this routine, family camp begins friday, then we (me, beanie, my folks, my bro & his friend, my sisters and niece) are hauling ass up to cape breton, nova scotia for beach and relaxation (and 16 hours in the car with two toddlers heh heh heh).

anyway, here are the best photos from the first bit of summer, more to come (and if you have some plez email them to me!)

We’re Back!

So its been a long time. So I am a little embarrassed to start writing again but I have been peered pressured into it- thanks Annas. I have enjoyed this blog immensely, to share thoughts and photos and stories and to back from (some of) you all, but I got a little weary of the detailed digital footprint I am leaving of Jolene without her permission. I don’t post a lot of photos of her on Facebook (mostly because having been on that thing since freaking 2006, half of my friends are random people from high school who wouldn’t acknowledge me if I ran into them on the street so why should I let them stalk my beautiful child?), Shutterfly has a ugly interface, but its not like I am writing paper news letters, calling friends, sending carrier pigeons either. I’m a bit of a luddite, but I want my friends to know things about Beanie, like how she likes to sweep the floor, or how she says “MESS!” when she spills her water or how she will spend upwards of half an hour on the swing. Internet privacy is a thing to negotiate and watch going forward, but at this point avoiding talking about my child online seems more anti social than respectful of Jolene’s future sense of self and vision of her childhood. When she is more of a screen user, I’ll show her the blog and at a certain point, I will probably stop blogging about her all together but for now, we are back. 

 

Daughter- Get Lucky

can’t get enough of this song

word vomit… no wait a minute actual vomit

somehow this feels like an appropriate subject for my first post in a while. its been that crazy student time of year…maybe you understand? (and by you I mean you Anna(s))

so yeah carsickness has been a big problem in our happy little family lately. like every couple of days jo has been tossin it in the car and for some reason I HAVE NOT YET GOTTEN IT THROUGH MY THICK SKULL THAT I NEED TO CARRY AROUND A CHANGE OF CLOTHES so i have done an emergency Goodwill run holding a baby in nothing but a diaper and maybe a blanket about 5 times in the last 2 months. finally yesterday, i made up a little puke kit to keep in the car consisting of…

-rags

-paper towels

– baby wipes

-a plastic bag full of plastic bags

-change of clothes

-hand sanitizer

(if you dont have/use a car i would imagine these are generally smart things to carry around in a diaper bag when you are out with a baby…how come jo is nearly 18 months and i am just figuring this out??)

so yesterday i packed all this stuff up and was feeling very smug when drove to town to get jo…until i realized that the sippy cup i had tossed on top of the whole bag had spilled and soaked all the extra clothes. womp womp. is that funny? i dont think thats funny. there is something about parenting that totally screws up your funny o meter… i think its the inherent sleep deprivation…

but its summer time! the semester was a big push but its DONE and i am scraping together employment for the summer but for now i am taking a minute to relax, clean the house, maybe do some gardening (because its may and what is growing in the garden? dandelions….). last night i made kale salad for the first time (little slow on the food trends?) and tonight i am making black bean soup and orange bunt cake with dark chocolate to honor her mother Susan who died seven years ago this weekend. mothers day man. i will enjoy some yummy brunch on sunday but i honestly think this holiday causes a lot more pain for those who have lost their mothers (or for some birth moms or people estranged from their mothers… the list could be long) than it does good (of course i am none of those and am only speculating… which perhaps i shouldnt be doing…)

and thats a crying baby. later days.

 

EDIT more on mothers day

Remembering How To Grieve

sometimes ya just gotta

…drop your way cool mangled essay thoughts on placing children at the center of principals of universal design to create urban spaces that acknowledge the full citizenship of younger human beings what am i even talking about homeless youth in Toronto? AND JUST ANSWER THE MEH PROMPT YOUR PROFESSOR WROTE because sometimes its more important to get it done than write your manifesto. I hear there might be time for that this summer? I don’t know what that is. 

 

A thing I do know is I have three weeks of class left?! 

A thing I do know is that Jolene wore pants with GIANT pockets to daycare today and filled them with sand and her teacher didn’t notice until she went to change her diaper and the sand poured out EVERYWHERE

Another thing I do know is that I am having a hard time focusing. I know that is the season, but I just want to lie in the sun all day and take Bean to the beach and go hiking maybe? 

Another thing I do know is that this is the funniest blog I have seen in a long time (he was just on Good Morning America? Am I late or actually living under a rock) and this is really interesting.  

Another thing is that CLPP Conference is this weekend!!! This mumma is pumped. 

Another thing is that I am building up my summer hobbit feet. Its getting real real. 

 

 

 

feels so good to get GOOD NEWS

the five best photos i took in march (of jolene, obvi)

two things i have not been doing this month… blogging and taking photographs. i had this brilliant idea to buy some film and dust off my oldmm manual camera and take pictures during spring break…. nope didn’t do that. i took a couple on my parents canon rebel… i like a few of them…

yeah and most of these pictures were taken during the same two days (is this a link am i writing a link??) 

this last one is in celebration of weaning! freedom!! cow juice!! 

some food for thought

(and no its not roast beef chopped up really fine and mixed with ricotta cheese, which Jo GOBBLED down at daycare today…. um ew)

I don’t have a whole lot new or interesting to contribute to the this week of SCOTUS madness, but someone posted this here link on FB today and its got me thinking about our emphasis on marriage as the ” the most important relation in life” in the fight against the crazy “family values” agenda ( ” that includes abstinence-only sex education, stringent divorce laws, coercive marriage promotion policies directed toward women on welfare, and attacks on reproductive freedom”). Let me be clear…I think everyone should be able to get married, but married families are not more important that unmarried families….

(below is directly quoted from BeyondMarriage.org…)

Marriage is not the only worthy form of family or relationship, and it should not be legally and economically privileged above all others. A majority of people – whatever their sexual and gender identities – do not live in traditional nuclear families. They stand to gain from alternative forms of household recognition beyond one-size-fits-all marriage. For example:

·     Single parent households

·     Senior citizens living together and serving as each other’s caregivers (think Golden Girls)

·     Blended and extended families

·     Children being raised in multiple households or by unmarried parents

·     Adult children living with and caring for their parents

·     Senior citizens who are the primary caregivers to their grandchildren or other relatives

·     Close friends or siblings living in non-conjugal relationships and serving as each other’s primary support and caregivers

·     Households in which there is more than one conjugal partner

·     Care-giving relationships that provide support to those living with extended illness such as HIV/AIDS.

okay also this is hilarious…

Keagen: Mr. Cooper, could I just understand your argument. In reading the briefs, it seems as though your principal argument is that same-sex and opposite — opposite-sex couples are not similarly situated because opposite-sex couples can procreate, same-sex couples cannot, and the State’s principal interest in marriage is in regulating procreation. Is that basically correct?

Cooper: I — Your Honor, that’s the essential thrust of our — our position, yes