hiking through life with fiddle in hand
Please do not think that the following posted poem reflects in any way that I am in a depressed state. I’m sure you can relate to the feelings I express. If there is anyone out there that doesn’t have this experience as they are in the midst of enjoying a lovely moment in their life I’ll eat my hat.
Amidst the beauty of life
Sorrow follows me
And reminds me that these times are tenuous
So hard to understand death
And that someone could be, and suddenly not be.
Constantly I give my fear to my Lord
Because I know He is good.
He is Lord of Life and Lord of Death
And he knows where each one goes when they dissapear from our sight.
This strange, mystical thing
That happens to us all.
Time for a recipe! It’s been too long. These tasty little things come from Aimee in Arizona. I loved ‘em and begged her for the recipe. Today Elijah and I made these and he had a good time helping roll them into balls. It’s a nice easy no-bake recipe, very healthy, and oh so yummy! Beware of husbands who really like peanut butter, they’ll be gone in a flash. Okay, I’ll admit, quite a lot of them were eaten before he even got home.
Ingredients
Directions
I haven’t written a food blog in awhile and I think it is time. So while Leif Ove Andsnes serenades me with a Haydn piano sonata via Pandora Radio, I will serenade you with my latest culinary escapades. First, there is the matter of yesterday’s baby food making extravaganza. I poached a nice piece or two of cod and adorned it with a sauce of garlic and onions sauteed in extra virgin organic olive oil and added some fresh chopped dill and parsley from the herb garden on my deck. In the meantime I cooked up some spinach and got out some grated cheese. I flaked the fish and mixed it with the spinach, cheese, and garlic-onion herb sauce. A triumph! Tasty enough that I wanted to eat it myself. Brynn had her first fishy meal today and liked it very much. I must say, though, that it was very strange holding my baby up for a smooch after her nap and getting a strong dose of garlic breath.
I’ve also been diving into more traditional American cooking. Comfort food. Last night I made my first meatloaf ever. We all agreed it was a success. Meatloaf, potatoes, applesauce, and carrots with an herb-butter sauce (very yummy- I love my little herb garden). Tonight we had the leftovers but needed a little more in the veggie department so I made sweet-and-sour beets from my More with Less cookbook. I loved them but discovered that Marc doesn’t much like beets.
Well, that’s about it on the food front!
I used to write in my journal quite a lot before I became a mother. I could go through several notebooks a year. I think I started the one I have now over a year and a half ago and there are still pages and pages of blank space. Today I picked up a journal from my sophomore year of college. I used to copy things down that I liked that I was reading, particularly poetry. Yes, once I had time to have a cup of tea and read poetry. I actually had the presence of mind to read poetry. I came across this one I had copied down. Perfectly splendid.
Moment
Now, starflake frozen on the windowpane
All of a winter night, the open hearth
Blazing beyond Andromeda, the sea-
Anemone and the downwind seed, O moment
Hastening, halting in a clockwise dust,
The time in all the hospitals is now,
Under the arc-lights where the sentry walks
His lonely wall it never moves from now,
The crying in the cell is also now,
And now is quiet in the tomb as now
Explodes inside the sun, and it is now
In the saddle of space, where argosies of dust
Sail outward blazing, and the mind of God,
The flash across the gap of being, thinks
In the instant absence of forever: now.
~Howard Nemerov
I spent the night in the Aleutian Islands last night. Yes, it was a dream. But one of those dreams that was so splendid and so vivid you feel as if it was a very real adventure. And yet there was such a magical quality to it that I don’t think it was these Aleutians here on earth- perhaps the heavenly Aleutians, if there are such a thing. In my mind’s eye these Aleutians were a mirror image of the real Alaskan ones, as if Alaska and the whole continent were flipped over so the Aleutians now resided in the wild North Atlantic. I was tremendously far from home- 50,000 miles, stranded after having accidentally taking the wrong flight there and having no way to pay the massive amounts of money it would take to fly home. So I resigned myself to settling in for the long haul and got acquainted with the local townspeople. They took me out to the beach in the late evening, with the moon so bright you could see the colors of the rocks. It was not a sandy beach but a beach of round, smooth, colorful rocks: muted deep reds blues, purple and white. Out in the distance snow-covered mountains rose up from nearby islands. And suddenly the Northern Lights began to gleam and glow and flash around the moon. It was so real and tangible that it was with shock and disappointment that I woke up suddenly with a whomp! and a loud purring noise in my ear- Nutkin arriving for her 5 am visit.
And now for your tour of the real, earthly Aleutians. I do not put personal claim to any of these photos, if you would like to see where they came from, simply click on them. If you would like to sponsor me to go and procure my own photo album in person, please contact me immediately. I am surprised how much this first picture really looks like the landscape in my dream. And the last- my supreme favorite. I think the photographer went the the heavenly Aleutians too- how could such a scene exist on earth?
There’s something to be said for exercise videos. You don’t feel like a complete oaf in a room full of sleek, supple bodies as you attempt something you’ve never done before. So today I was at the doctor, and she pointed out to me how woefully weak my abs are. Yes, it’s true, the ab-strengthening regime I set out on 6 weeks after Brynn was born lasted about 5 days. After a stern lecture about how I need these muscles to be strong to protect my back, she told me to get crackin’ with the exercise.
Therefore, tonight I put on my flannel PJ bottoms, cleared toys from a space in front of the TV, and put on “10 minute Yoga.” There’s a bunch of 10 minute routines you can do focused around different areas- abs, thighs, etc. I started with the “yoga basics” and learned how to do the salutation to the sun, and then skipped ahead to the abs section. Dad, am I right that you used to do the salutation to the sun exercises every night? As the sleek video lady did them I suddenly remembered you doing them too. As for me, I tried my best but I was glad there was no one to see. My heels most definitely didn’t stay flat on the floor and there were lots of piggish grunts instead of deep flowing breaths. Same for the “10 minute abs.”
Now, how can I keep this up? My friend Aimee and another gal just started a blog on making healthy life transformations- “trek180” if you’re interested. One of the things they are going to do is keep each other accountable for the changes they are going to make. A way of doing this is that they are going to have rewards and consequences for keeping or not keeping their commitments. I never thought of doing that before in relation to exercise. I think it could really work. So I need to think of a good reward and a good consequence say, for doing this for a month, maybe 5 times a week. Any ideas?
This is our nutty little cat. She actually behaved herself pretty well last night, sleeping nicely on our bed instead of pouncing on us every time we moved.
Today we spent the day out at Marshy Point. For pictures of the expedition, click here. It was a very fine way to spend Mother’s Day.
Nutkin is providing us with lots of first-rate entertainment, at least when Elijah’s not around. She’s starting to let him pet her, but generally he is too loud and rambunctious for her taste, I think. Also the fact that he used Daddy’s bicycle pump to blow air in her face might not have endeared him to her very much. Anyway, once he is down for a nap or for the night, Nutkin comes out to play. She likes to gallop madly around the house, pounce on feet, and sit in the windows to birdwatch. We have a very nice kitchen window seat where she loves to sit and watch the bush outside where some birds have built a nest. It’s good to have a cat in the house.
It was a beautiful day today and I took the children to check out a local market. We found a very nice bakery and Elijah was delighted to discover how tasty a chocolate eclair is. Brynny was asleep in the stroller so we could relax and hang out. I particularly liked that this bakery served coffee in real mugs. Lovely handmade ones.
I was hoping to get the kids out to a park this afternoon but they both took incredibly long naps. I took advantage of the time to finish watching “The Gospel of John,” which is a word-for-word movie rendition of the book in the Bible. It’s just phenomenal. Very powerful and moving. I challenge anyone to watch that and not come away at least liking Jesus. I cried my eyes out. It was wonderful.
Nutkin is busy attacking a plastic Easter egg and sending it flying around the room, yowling like a cat-demon is after her. So fun!
I just discovered a new artist. Her name is Marla Olmstead and she is now 9 years old, attracting attention for her art since she was 4. Her paintings sell for many of thousands of dollars and she is compared with the likes of Picasso. Maybe you’ve heard of her if you are one with the art world, but I hadn’t. I just checked out her website, and I can see what all the hype is about. All I can say is wowsa. This is amazing, amazing art. Stunning.