Adam

I just got off the phone with Adam. He's in Connecticut. He described down to the big houses on the hill to the white swans on the water where he was. He said the leaves are almost gone. He said being there reminds him of being there with me. He said, "I think we miss Connecticut."

He said he'll try to take me with him next time.

I've been missing Adam.

He fixes whatever is ailing me.

Last night for example, after the kids were in bed I sat on the couch in my darkened living room with his warm voice in my ear and I told him all about it.

I told him about how hard it is to home school our children. I like to think it will be easier. I'll make it all work better. Someday this will all be calm and peaceful with children drinking up knowledge. But it's just hard. Hard emotional work.

And Adam understood.

I told him about how I broke the strap on my favorite brown mary janes. I told him that my first thought was to have his dad fix them. Then I remembered and felt crushed.

And Adam understood.

We talked about the details of raising our children...significant and otherwise. Mark's wildness, Braeden's twelve-year-old-ness, Emma.

And Adam understood.

Today I'm embarking on an adventure. As part of our school day, we're going to the Seattle Art Museum. I've been wanting to do it for a long time but have lacked the mettle. I am woeful at navigating and get lost and then panicked. My children are resilient and patiently wait for me to find the place. They steel themselves for the ordeal.

Adam fields calls from my cell phone when I'm lost. But today my brown-eyed GPS is in meetings in Connecticut and I'm on my own.

I purposefully planned this outing for when he was unavailable. Because of The Shoes. I am bestowing them with magical powers. They are going to give me courage and ability beyond my own to traverse downtown Seattle with ease.

That's what I'm banking on.

I told Adam.

He understood.

The Third Outing

I took The Shoes to another of my favorite places today.



It just never disappoints. I love the place.

First for the cheesy posed picture: proof I took the shoes:

notice the sunglasses--there was a weird bright light outside that causes squinting...I can't remember what it's called

I took my straw sipping bookish sidekick along.

After debating the merits of staying or going, the boys decided to stay home. Emma and I didn't exactly protest.

In a rare some-kind-of-miracle-I-must-be-living-right turn of events, it was a cloudless day. The drive along 405 in the bright sunshine was gorgeous! It's amazing what a blue sky will do to lift my spirits. If it weren't for the tiny detail that Adam's job is here, I would be packing up my family to move to the sunlit high desert faster than you could say overcast sky.


Emma and I had a marvelous time at IKEA. We soaked up the sights (and lignonberries). Even though I didn't "need" much, quite a few things flew into my cart (without my permission, I promise Adam). You'll be happy to know they were all very attractive items. Think of it as me spending the budget I didn't spend on Halloween decorations.

That works, right?

The next outing I'm taking the shoes on is not necessarily one I'm looking forward to. Stay tuned. I'll explain.

Getting Over It

Don't you just love the first of November?

Don't you just love that Halloween's over?

I know, I know. I'm trying to have a less cranky attitude.

Yesterday at church I was thanking a lady (that I admire a lot) for sending her polite son to our house for a Halloween party with Braeden. She said she was glad for an excuse for him not to go trick-or-treating (these boys are on the cusp of being too old but they're not sure they want to be too old). I confided that I really hate Halloween. She said, "I used to. I decided that I needed to get over it."

She's wise. One of the reasons I admire her. One of the reasons I like going to church too. Almost everyone there is smarter than me. Sometimes I get too worked up about things that don't matter very much.

I'm going to get over it. I'm going to try. (But really, when people say that Halloween is their favorite holiday?! Have they met Christmas?)

So in the interest of "getting over it", I'll post some of the festive pictures of our Halloween. My poor children suffer with their unenthusiastic mother but luckily for all of us, the neighborhood goes Halloween crazy so they're able to get their fix.

Braeden and Emma flexing their pumpkin carving muscles

Mark the Clone Trooper in front of the black light (that was necessary for Braeden's party)

Getting ready to hit the streets..Emma's cat costume was the original creation of her and her long suffering grandmother

The witch's brew beverage at Braeden's party (see, I'm not such a bad sport)

I'm giving my kids dry ice for Christmas. They had a great time playing with it...and it disappears! No mess to clean up!

A Hotel in London

How many hotels do you think are in London? I have no idea but when I typed the words London and hotel into google, I got back 70,500,000 results. Also, considering it's a city of 14 million people, I'm guessing there are a lot of hotels.

I've stayed in exactly two of them.

The other night I was watching a movie: Last Chance Harvey. It was a nice and sweet movie. As I was watching, Dustin Hoffman's character checked into his hotel in London. It was the Maida Vale Marriott, where I have stayed.

What are the chances?

When Adam got home I asked him if I was right. Isn't that the Maida Vale Marriott?

Why yes, it is.

Later, when I was finishing the movie (I watch romantic comedies in installments because Adam doesn't like them all that much and I don't want to watch a movie when I could be with Adam!) Adam saw that the characters were walking from the hotel to Trafalgar Square to the Millennium Bridge to an unknown (to me) location across the Thames.

Adam said, "They should have taken the 7 bus."

I told him he's a show off.

He knows how to navigate well in foreign cities and I have to consult google maps when I'm venturing to somewhere exotic--like downtown Everett.

Pathetic.

A Mother's Heart

I just got off the phone with my mom.

She's in the hospital, recovering from swine flu and pneumonia (oh, my!).

Being a mother is who my mother is. And now that she's on the mend, she's busy mothering the nurses.

My mom told me about several of them, the connections she's made with them (Her mother grew up in Starr Valley. Do you remember this family? Her husband works with Edgar...possibly).

My mom has been busy.

She told me about one nurse that she's worried about. She's a single mother, raising three little boys. My mom told me what a great mother this nurse is. My mom is concerned about the difficulties of raising her children alone. Her heart aches for this nurse who works night shifts and then goes home to get her children off to school. Then she started worrying about the hill this nurse will need to traverse to go to and from work when it snows. She was relieved when the nurse told my mom she ordered studded tires.

My mom.

I'm sure all of these nurses love her and are happy to be welcomed under her comforting wings.

Just like I always was. Just like my mom's students when she was a teacher. Just like her coworkers now that she's an accountant.

She's a mother. And a magnetic one that attracts those who need mothering.

The Second Outing

One year on Christmas Eve, we lived in the Bay Area. Our children (ages 3 and 1) were nestled all snug in their beds, envisioning sugarplums and Adam and I flipped on the TV. On PBS, they were broadcasting Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring Donny Osmond. We were delighted and decided Braeden would love it too. Though he was 3 and though it was late, we woke him up and brought him to the couch to watch it with us.

And thus it began.

Our family's love affair with Joseph.

We bought the video and our kids know practically all of it. When the opportunity arose to take them to the 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle to watch it, we were fortunate enough to be able to go (Go, Go Joe!).



We had a great time (and had fun seeing a lot of our friends).

a hold-back-your-arm-and-take-a-self-portrait we took before the usher told us no cameras inside the theater

And I wore The Shoes.


Mark remembered when we walked in the door at home that I'd promised him a treat if he was good and Braeden and Emma (I know, who's surprised?) were hungry. So we all had pop-tarts and milk except Adam. He was disdainful of pop-tarts at 11:00 at night.

The First Outing

I decided to take my Traveling Shoes on some travels to some of my favorite places.

This morning I started school early, skedaddled through educating the children (I had to insist to Mark that the 5 he had erased and written three times to try to get it perfect was good enough--how did I get children with perfectionist tendencies?), left my kids with lists of work to do and hit the road.

My destination was over the river and through the woods to Snohomish. It was not sandal wearing weather by any stretch of the imagination but I bravely wore them.

It was rainy.



One thing I've learned from living around here though is that you can't wait until it stops raining before you do what you want to do.

You'd never do anything.

There are two things I love in Snohomish, the antiques and Joy Works.

Joy Works is a delightful confection of a store that I wander through with a smile on my face. I love everything inside that store.

While I was there I found some art by a Seattle artist that I fell in love with. I bought myself this necklace that reminds me of my sisters. I'll wear it when I miss them. (everyday)


After Joy Works, I rambled through some antiques. I really like old stuff. Some of it is beautiful, some of it is hideous and some of it is just quirky. I get in sort of a trance as I poke through piles of old books and old dishes and old linens and old toys. It makes me happy.

There was one alarming thing along the way:



These are exactly like the lunchbox and thermos I took to Mrs. Jund's first grade classroom every day.

And they're antique?

Notice the price tags--$49.95 for the lunchbox, $9.95 for the thermos.

I wonder how much my mom paid for them back when dinosaurs were roaming the earth and I was a first grader?


Stay tuned for another adventure with the shoes...they're hitting the town tonight!