Oh, so this is what it feels like

when you begin to realize you're growing up.

1. When your mom goes on a trip to Puerto Rico, and starts talking about what shoes to wear for her zip-line adventure in the rain forest canopy you get unreasonable about her having to buy a new pair of Keens because her tennis shoes aren't going to give her "protection."
2. When your husband goes anywhere (road ride, plane trip, climbing, soccer, work) you say "be safe" and you mean it in the most desperate and true way, because if he's not... then what?
3. When your nineteen month old child balances himself on the edge of the couch by touching the wall under the huge framed picture (that has a sheet of glass covering it), you worry that he may tip over backwards and hurt himself by falling between the couch and the wooden table there. Then he jumps forward, hopefully not onto his brother's head.
4. When same nineteen month old desperately wants to leap between the table and the couch (but can't pick up both feet at the same time yet) his brother bear hugs him and tips them both across the space between said couch and table. You just feel hopeless about this couch, since you've tried EVERY SINGLE possible way to stop them from using it as a jungle gym.
5.When your dad won't stay and eat dinner, you worry if he is going to eat at all, since he's home by himself and has a "lot to do".
6. When you look in the mirror, you're surprised about your face. It doesn't look quite like it used to, the last time you noticed. And you actually can hear the words to that Bonnie Raitt song.
7. Every book, newspaper article, story that mentions someone hurt or dying reminds you of the pain of that person's mother.
8. You see a fender bender, and there is a young girl crying into her cell phone but everyone looks okay. And you remember when that was you just a few years ago, but there weren't really cell phones around yet so you cried all the way home before you made the call.
9. Your dog keeps getting older and is really good company to have near your feet.

Friends

Both Rowan and Milo have had their friends over recently for entertaining. Milo and Maisie are enjoying a little reading together, and Rowan and Zion took the 60 degree Feb day in picnic style.:)

[Yes, that is a clementine from Spain you see above on the picnic table. They are my weakness!]

The new things that have happened in the past few weeks around here:

Rowan learned how to open the car door from the outside, so now i don't have to open it for him OR clip him in!
Milo can climb up onto his bed without the stool!
I made my first batch of vegetable stock. Do NOT ask me why it took me so long to do this very simple thing.
We got the box of legos that Rachael and I had as girls out of storage and now my boys are playing with them obsesively.
I got a class where I "have" to read fiction for homework!! (40 YA books)
We've done two small trips in the car without diapers for Milo!
We finally visited our friends who moved from NY to CSprings, it was long overdue.
Rowan and Milo both got sick, and wiped out a week of plans.
I got to go to the Brown Palace for high tea with the Radicals. That was lovely, thanks girls!!
I walked the exhibition floor of the MidWinter ALA conference, surrounded by publishers and librarians!! That was pretty fun, and I got a bunch of advanced readers copies of YA fiction.

My reading list from the last few weeks

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian S. Alexie (highly recommended)
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants A. Brashares
The Outsiders S.E. Hinton
American Born Chinese
Speak
The Giver L.Lowry
The Shadow of the Wind C.R. Zafon(highly recommended)
Zen and the art of Faking it
The Golden Compass
The New York Times!!! What a great return to the news.
(half of) The Grapes of Wrath (mandatory for all!)

I'm sure I've left a few out.

Congratulations everyone!

If you want to know what our family is rocking out to, it is The Obama Song by Michael Franti and others.
What a glorious day, to witness history and be proud to be an American.
Now please, any forces for good, protect this man and his family, and let him get to work.
And let this country sit up and pay attention.
please.
#44
Barack Obama
Our President!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Silent Month

In my race to keep up and catch up with all that I am hoping to do (which of course, will never happen) I have neglected the computer. The christmas holiday was fun this year, being at home and quite mellow-- even with the kids and the many presents. My favorite part is the stockings. If we could somehow just have stockings that would be perfect for me.

I got a really nice pair of clippers from Santa George AND my very own compost turner, retrofitted with an extra long handle. One lucky gal I am, and that wouldn't have fit in my stocking, so I take it back.

My best present? George sitting across from me at the table with drawings and lumber take-offs for the new compost bin he's building.

Which brings me to my rave of the day.... DENVER! We are the lucky members of the City of Denver's new compost pilot. They come and take so much stuff, it's silly. ALL food scraps (yes, meat, cheese, etc), takeout boxes, takeout coffee cups, tissues (no, not toilet paper), all kind of yard scraps... I'm in heaven. Now if they would just recycle all the kinds of plastic things, not just many of them, our trash bin would go even much longer.

Go denver. Now, if we could get that lady across the street to stop throwing her newspaper IN the plastic bag into the dumpster, I would feel a whole lot better about the state of the world.

Once again, we felt amazingly blessed by this season. We have a warm and cozy house, we can pay our bills, we have good food to eat and we aren't being bombed by anyone, which I'm thinking that many in Gaza can't say ANY of those.

I managed to compress my usual writing for our yearly letter into the back of a postcard, (using every single character, thank you) and if you didn't get one, just write me a note, and I'll send it to you. No offense-I'm just always barely holding it together here. ... Don't write me a note yet- I just ordered the cards, slipping in just before the very end of 2008(so give me a few weeks to address them and get them in the mail). I think most will say good riddance to 2008, but I will reserve good riddance for W. January 20 can't get here fast enough for me, and no-I don't think that Obama is going to work magic, but he can (at the very least) speak in complete sentences, and can chew and think at the same time. I think that should be the bare minimum required in a president.
I'm hopeful for the new year, I'm hopeful for our future, and I'm hoping that I make it another year and a half to graduate!!!!! We hold those hurting and struggling close to our hearts, and send our love and care for comfort.

I'm off to plan my garden plots. Are you doing this already too? I got my first Seeds of Change catalog, and I'm dreaming dreaming of lots of land, and much food being brought forth from our little patch of dirt.

Seriously, folks

Do I need to say more? This greeted us Saturday when we returned from our lovely (and shopping free) trip to Seattle. The story about the worker who got killed by a WalMart throng? I mean. Really.
And that horrible picture on the cover of RMN/Denver Post of people heaving flat screen TVs out into a crowd? It's truly embarassing. I can't tell what bothers me more? All of the coverage of our "recession" where this kind of shit happens, or the suits from Michigan rolling into DC on their private jets to beg for millions of our money. AFTER debuting a freaking HUMMER the year that the Mini Cooper was introduced. Think there might be something wrong with that take on what's happening around the world?
And what a terrible place to be in for politicians... let them fail, and see the fallout of the thousands of workers, or encourage the ridiculous practices that they employ. Shitty, I tell you.
But at least Bush is going away, and to celebrate, we have gotten a subscription to the NYT since even though it's mostly bad news, it is not the worst news you can find every day. There is a small ray of hope. On our first day with the paper, we actually looked up a word in the dictionary. How often does this happen with the good old Denver Post? Exactly never in our years of reluctant subscriptions.