corner view: experiment

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Cole | 6 Comments

Corner view is a weekly Wednesday gathering, originally hosted by Jane, now by Francesca. A topic is given and you can see impressions; be it photographic or writerly in form, from around the world. Come see the world’s corner view via the links on the sidebar!

I think mostly my life is one big experiment! Seeing what works to make it through the day, then trying it again and adjusting it the next. Everything from how to respond to my child’s temper tantrum that is occuring in the center aisle of the grocery store because I said that no we cannot buy yet another pillow pet to keep the other pillow pets company while she is in school to how to help my kindergartener with learning disabilities and speech apraxia read her site words out loud in a clear enough fashion that her teachers can understand what she knows to how to get my third child to believe she can sleep the night without nursing because what we did the previous times doesn’t seem to apply to her. Then there is how to lose the baby weight once and for all, how to manage the surge of hair growth and graying appearing in my 40’s and how to how to articulate the thoughts in my head in a fashion that makes sense to the people I try to tell them to be it in a blog post, facebook status, email or conversation.

But by far, my favorite experiment- is how to shoot into the sun:

corner view: slow

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Cole | Leave a comment

Well- I guess pretty much I’m slow to post 🙂 Here in the Upstate of South Carolina we’ve had more snow and ice than the state has seen in one dousing since 1993. For us- this has meant slower days spent together introducing our Southern children born of Northern parents to winter fun! I can’t help but to swell a little with pride as the baby wakes in the morning and says, “Momma- snow!” We’re on snow-day 4. And seeing as Zuzu cried at the news that school was cancelled yet again last night, I think it’s fair to say we are just a bit, well stir-crazy.

Today Lovey and I headed back to work and the girls went to celebrate Valentine’s Day with their buddies at their little school, since the big school was still closed down. And judging by the sistred squabbles echoing down the hall, the reopening of their little school came none too soon. The beauty of a snow day here though- it cleans up after itself. We expect sunshine and a high near 60 by Sunday.

Our week was spent sledding, snow-girl building, snow-ball fighting, movie watching, napping, valentine-card-signing, pizza and pancake eating and of course snuggling. I’m tickled that I was able to walk my 41 year old self back up the sledding hill without being winded and to return to work today feeling fairly well rested. The last time I spent this much concentrated time with the girls without a daily break called “my desk job”, was last summer. The day after we came home from vacation I collapsed into an extended afternoon nap and the following workday I was so grateful to be able to just sit down for more than 15 minutes at a time even though I had to sit with my feet propped up trying to mitigate swelling and soreness from having been on them the previous week. The stamina I’ve built up with my small run/walk routine- I think this might be the biggest pay-off it’s provided.

On to the pictures of our wintery, snowy, slow days:

five minute friday: write

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Cole | 3 Comments

…where a brave and beautiful bunch gather every week to find out what comes out when we all spend five minutes writing on the same topic and then sharing ‘em over here.

Go:

“Momma. I need a pen. I need to write down how well I did on my math test and leave it for Daddy to read when he gets home tonight.”

“Q-u-a-i-l. Good! Good job writing your name! You did it all by yourself!”

“Momma, here’s the list. I asked the Quail who she wants to come to her birthday party and then I wrote it down for you.”

“Me. Yes. Write. Name. Me. “

They do what they see, right? They learn from what we do. Momma typing on the computer. Daddy writing the grocery list. Their teachers writing on the pro-boards. Their friends coloring in the valentine hearts. And they pick up their pens, and their crayons, and their markers and their chalk and they scribble and turn the paper and write the letters they’ve studied on the refrigerator, on the TV, in the books we read to them, in the books they are learning to read to themselves.

“Momma- let ME make a webpage. Let ME type in the webpage I want. Let ME write the list. Let ME call Gramma by myself. Let me write the story that goes with that picture”

Suddenly they are not the babies I hold, and wipe up and dress and feed. Suddenly they are individuals with opinions, and ways of doing things and rules they want to follow and enforce of their own. Suddenly they are alternate versions of myself writing their own story that I can’t put down.

Stop.

corner view: vision

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Cole | 8 Comments

What I want to see; the vision I want to set my sites on, soothe my heart and brain with…is the happiness that comes from my loves. The details woven into the larger picture of our world. I’m happiest when I can take a moment to see these threads that connect us. It’s those moments when I see myself and my life most clearly.