Today's theme

Things have seemed a bit gray. Not bad. Not glorious. Gus and I had a few too many nights of collective coughs. We went to IKEA (yechh). Our accomplishments of late are boring: criminal record checks, shipping insurance forms, and short-term medical insurance. And yesterday at 11:00am, the bank said the money hadn't arrived yet and I should come back tomorrow. It was reminiscent of when we stopped by Burger King on a student field trip while living in Singapore and they said, "Oh, sorry--we don't have any burgers." 

But today, after the wonder of a good-night's-rest (thank you Husband of the Year), Gus and I woke up to sun and color and choosing-joy. Some folks even decided to dress like it: 

Keeping with the theme, I started my next sketchbook project. This book's theme is "The little things in life".

There are lots of little things looking good today. The lilacs are blooming, Neighbor B made homemade peanut butter cups, I may or may not have ordered this Waylon Jennings necklace, and there's a painting project underway:

To add to the synchronicity, a friend sent a link to a bucket list for kids under twelve, and it's inspired me to think on our family bucket list. That's good fodder for dinner time conversation in a household of seasoned list-makers.

And finally, as I putter in my office and with my paints and listen to my podcasts on this happy-shiny Tuesday, I savor a BIG thing, which is my dear Father's (slightly belated) birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad!

(it seems rubber boots are a theme as well)

Roar!

March went out roaring. There was so much to do and clean. But it was all for very very good reasons:

A miniature raspberry pie was baked. From scratch.

And then put inside a cake to become the trendy and surprisingly tasty (but still sort of embarrassing) piecaken. A birthday girl was happy.

And there was a last minute weekend to Poland where I may or may not have purchased Polish pottery for my son (What does this mean? What would Werner Herzog say? Have I crossed the line of rational pottery thinking?).

Someone awfully special went from baby to boy and had to celebrate his birthday at school since his parents are too ridiculous (lazy? wise? terrified-of-other-toddlers?) to throw him a proper party.

Amazing folks flew all the way from the US to play legos and give thoughtful presents and take long, windy, cold walks through Praha. We are missing them already.

And, as we wait (change sheets, wash towels, bake gluten-free muffins, etc etc etc) for the second round of guests to arrive this weekend (yay Meehans!), we're thankful for this recent purchase. Yup. We gave into the Man. But--we got it third-hand, so it doesn't upset me as much as it should. That and the espresso it makes is absolutely delicious.

There's no time for art with all this goodness, but we're making memories!

 

Balancing bikes and writing

All of Prague was in a good mood and too many layers today. The weather soared above 50 degrees, the horse stables put out their beer garden benches, and despite collective bronchitis we hit the trails with Gus on his Strider bike. Everyone in town had the same idea, and we all grinned like sun-bedazzled fools in a sea of dogs, horses, bikes, scooters, walkers, strollers, and shockingly white arms. 

The elation that taking off our coats brings us is only slightly above the elation this recipe brings us. It cleans out my fridge and allows for rampant substitutions. No sour cream? Try buttermilk or tvaroh or cream cheese. No basil? Cilantro, spinach, parsley, whatever. I grate in carrots, sweet potato, and zucchini. I double the broccoli and toss in pine nuts. I add whatever cheeses need finishing. I use spiral noodles and shells and whole wheat bow ties. It comes together in a jiffy and is one of the very few vegetable laden dishes that inspires Gus to praise.

As we sat at our little table in our little kitchen with our little man eating our mac and cheese today, we were awfully grateful for these little lives. It could be the delirium from seeing the sun for the first time in five months, but neither P or I knew that we were the kind of folks that would find joy and satisfaction in a long morning spent keeping a wild balance biker out of the river. We dig it. We dig it a lot. 

Our Prague time is winding up, and we'll soon both be employed on a new continent. I've been thinking on whether I will continue to capture these little goodnesses in this personal blog while balancing writing about my work and also balancing just working on my writing. I'm in balancing conundrum. This blog existed to help me find joy in the ordinary and to keep me artisitically productive here in a new life in Praha. It has served me well, but it was never really intended for an audience. There are other things I need to write. I teach writers and believe very strongly they need to see me actively producing. Yet, it alarms me to put all my time into a blog for their benefits and not into the writing I hope may someday turn into a something. I'm just not sure how a teacher balances modeling writing while protecting his or her own writing space. One could wear themselves a little thin with too many blogs or too many articles or too many whatevers spread out in all directions for all audiences (and really...let's be honest...how many folks really want to read what's being said?). Neighbor B was kind enough to listen to me process earlier this week and she assured me I'm not the first teacher to ask these questions, but I cannot think of what to type into Google to find the answers: "How can I write and publish things I don't want to show my student communities and yet have the energy to professionally blog and offer writing samples that my students can read and also still feel like I have artistic direction and maybe maintain a personal blog..." Hmm. Thoughts, teacher friends? This will sort itself out. For now, I don't know what will be being typed next Spring, but for today, we are happy in our record of the littles. 

Digital coloring of the last post's drawing. I think I prefer it.

Soon

Itchy for spring around here.

Blog Salad

This is how we felt most of the week post-Gram and Grampy:

But we're going to be okay. After all, April is closing and making room for happy May.

And today we hit the getting-better-every-weekend farmer's market where we victoriously said "15" in Czech when we really meant 15 and not 50, which has happened and is not pleasant. Then we sat at the sunny (lilac-laden) park with the (totally fantastic) A family. And later--later P has convinced me to play Catan. He's been super-hero-husband lately, so I can't opt out no matter how ridiculous I feel saying "stone. sheep. wheat." 

There's even been some doodling. And some thinking on How To Steal Like An Artist. And a ricotta pappardelle made from local produce and pasta.

Yay, Saturday.

 

Keeping our chins up

Good things from Wednesday:

• M was wise, wise, wise. At a rainy park, while Gus ate sand and head-butted cement, she pretty much put the whole universe in perspective.


• This new fabric collection from Orange You Lucky's P&B Textiles.


• Neighbor B walked me to DM---just because. We both earned cappuccinos.


• Gus smelled every lilac on the walk to Billa (and those lilacs are out-of-this-world).


• Three borrowed books.


• A nap and early bedtime.

Avoiding the blues--at least the sugar-free ones

Here's how we're keeping it happy and creative in arthritic times:

1. We're buying Easter brews at Billa. The jogging stroller needs a workout.

2. We're reading the best of design blogs and pondering the most recent Tigerprint competition.

3. We are pretending a lot of things are cell phones: Carrot sticks. Socks. Xylophone mallets. Anything goes.

4. We are practicing our playground Czech on gorgeous Prague Spring days (Zowie! Spring comes fast and glorious here!)--learning to say, "That's not yours!" and "Stop that!" and "He is very sorry he flung sand in your face. He's not very coordinated. Would you like to share our pretzels?"

5. We're reading David Sedaris's newest.

6. We are loving--Loving--our blue birthday cake.

7. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Grammy and Grandpa. They have no idea how much they have been missed.