Indulge me...

These are some of my favorite pictures of my favorite daddy. Is it any wonder my life is so much fun? It's not because of me I can guarantee that. He is such a wonderful balance to me. Look at this guy! *sigh* My kids are so damn lucky.

What else happened this week...

time busted out of its bottle and flew on...

goodbye old friend...

Kate's Summer Reading List...

I'm a pretty heavy reader. I love books. I love writing. I love fiction. I love non-fiction. I love short stories. I love memoirs. I love poetry. Many people can't seem to believe that I have time to read 4-6 books a month, but I can't for the life of me figure out why. I don't know if people think that having 5+ kids means I am chained to the washing machine or I spend every waking moment tending to a child's need, but the reality is quite different. I would describe my day as several periods of very intense busyness (like dinner time or bath time) and then long stretches of relative calm. Yes, I could be scrubbing my floors on a regular basis, but why? Instead I take the kids to the park or the creek or even the backyard, and then I do a lot of this.



And then I might do some of this.



And when I get tired of that, I might do this.



So, as you can see, I have a lot of time for reading. And I'm good at it, so I read (according to Chowder) pretty quickly.

For my summer reads, I like to get a good mix of meaty classics I should have read already, but the lighter ones not the hefty thick lyricky ones. I like efficiency in my summer reads and not a lot of material that weighs me down like a thick quilt, that's what my winter reading list is for. I want my summer reads to refreshing yet juicy and clean tasting, like a good peach.

So here is what my list consists of so far. I perused various summer reading lists and came up with what looked good to me. I have already read 3 from the list since Memorial Day (I know, I know, my nerdy friends. It's not Summer, yet.) And have been very happy with my choices. I'm too lazy to add links and reviews of all these books. You'll have to look them up yourself. Nah!

• Room With a View by EM Forster perfect. light and breezy and romantic.
• A Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers 163 pages of the best description of the jump from childhood to adolescence.
  
• The Street by Ann Petry Harlem in the 40's. A heavier read but absolutely amazing.
• House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
• The Twilight Saga books by Stephenie Meyer young adult fiction series that has come highly recommended to me. (4 books)
• The Lottery by Patricia Wood
• A Passage to India by EM Forster
• Dragonwyck by Anya Seton Put down that Phillipa Gregory and go read Katherine by Anya Seton. Yes, I enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl, but Katherine is the original standard. Dragonwyck is an American Gothic tale.
• Belong to Me by Marisa De Los Santos
• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
• In the Heart of the Sea- The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathanial Philbrick
• So Young, Brave and Handsome by Leif Enger so, so excited about this book. His first novel Peace Like a River is in my Top 5 favorite books of all time.
• Take This Bread-A Radical Conversion by Sara Miles
• Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
• Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

So, there you have it. That's what I have lined up so far. I don't know if it will last me through the whole summer, so if you have suggestions (or if you have read any on the list) PLEASE add them to the comments

Happy Anniversary, Baby...

Darling Bob~ from dumb kids 20 years ago...


to dumb kids 9 years ago...


From what I hear, marriage is supposed to make us miserable and resentful. Thank God ignorance is bliss.

One of our favorite spots...

In the middle of my city is our own "Central Park" though it is over 500 acres larger than it's New York version. (Yay us!) We spend a lot of time here. It is a hop skip and a jump from our house and it houses the zoo, the art museum, the science museum, the history museum, the Municipal Opera, the Shakespeare festival, the Great Balloon Race, etc. etc, etc. And one of our favorite spots to while the summer afternoons away. We just call it "The Rocks."

You have a spot like The Rocks around you, too. If you have not found it or you don't spend a lot of lazy days there, you need to fix that. Children and nature are an amazing combination. They will literally spend hours exploring creeks and the habitats around them. They will find crawdad carcasses that an egret has cleaned out, they will find ducks and water bugs and they will be completely entranced. They will learn physics as they create dams and bridges. If they aren't used to exploring or are used to being entertained by people and activities, it may take them a little time to adjust to this new mindset, but time spent poking around in the creek is very very valuable time. If you haven't read Last Child in the Woods yet, it really is worth the read.

Proud Mommy Moment brought to you by the U.S. Treasury

When people ask me to describe Porkchop, I usually tell them that he will be my ticket to heaven or prison depending on which one of us survives his childhood.

Yesterday he swallowed a penny. He kind of panicked and I told him to relax he'd poop it out. Well, that somehow didn't help him relax and he spent the rest of the day obsessing about his poop and the possible pain that will accompany it.

This morning Porkchop woke up at 6am and was an absolute whiny pain-in-everyone's-butt terror. Finally, at one point I actually snarled at him, "I can't wait til you have to poop out that penny!"