Chad and I watch movies. This year I’ve resolved to keep better track of my movies as I am often asked for recommendations. Or at least, I enjoy giving recommendations. Check the tab above to see lists of my previously watched movies.
This British flick is a dramatization of the moment the all the female workers at the Ford factory in Dagenham, England, decided that working at half the pay as men and being called unskilled was for the birds. Led by spunky and surprised Rita O’Grady (the young mom of two never imagined she’d be a community organizer), the women take first timid and then more determined steps to hold their ground – in fact, their unanticipated strike shuts the factory down! It’s a bit shivery to think about how recently women were treated so second class. The story begins two days after my birthday in May 1968. Sally Hawkins is perfect as O’Grady (she was the lead in another good one, Happy-Go-Lucky) and you’ll feel like you know more about history when you’re done. Got 7.1/10 at IMDb. I give it a B+.
This movie was pretty much panned by the critics (4.9/10 at IMBb), and I give it a C. But there was something interesting going on, in terms of the cinematic telling of a fairy tale. It doesn’t nail it like The Princess Bride, or even like Bella’s pre-teen obsession, The Tenth Kingdom, but it does attempt a certain stylization of fantasy – just promises more than it can deliver. The director relies too heavily on stereotypes and the relationships are never developed. The storyline is good, clever even. Watchable, but just barely. I’m waiting for another good Neil Gaiman story to be told (Neverworld, please!)
I woke up this morning to dozens of birthday wishes in my mailbox, some from folks I haven’t seen in over twenty years. That is the strangeness and hilarity this side of facebook.
My parents sang me Happy Birthday as a memo and sent the file to me. The best bit is at the end, where my mother snaps at my dad in Korean, GOOD GRIEF – you’re covering the microphone!
I used to have trouble remembering how old I was turning, which was complicated by the fact that Bella liked to tease me by adding a year or so to my age when ever it was mentioned. That trouble is gone since Christian was born two days before I turned 40. His age plus 40 = 43.
Thank you for thinking of me. I’ll continue posting my thoughts throughout the day (a questionable practice, I know).
On the other hand, we’re about to leave to for our last Earthroots class of the spring session, and then it’s off to Korean food for dinner. So, I may not be back until after dinner…
Yesterday you received what may be the best birthday card you’ll ever get. It’s a homemade Star Wars-themed card from your buddy, Aiden. It’s a keeper. (Although he also loves the Strawberry Shortcake card from Anna, which plays a rousing, “Have a berry happy birthday” every time it is opened.)
The cover of Aiden's heartfelt card. Do YOU recognize Darth Vader and Yoda? Christian sure did.
The inside of the card featured Chewbacca, a stormtrooper, R2D2, and C3PO.
Visiting the hot springs at Casper's earlier this fall.
So, after that last laundry list of chores I posted, my sister expressed sisterly exasperation about 1) my lack of posting and 2) my current limited range of topics.
Sorry, All, life’s been getting in the way. I’m still here stuffing as much silly fun into my life as I can manage, but also trying to organize my household. It’s hard to balance the two – for me.
Watching tadpoles at O'Neill Regional Park.
I’ve really been loving our Earthroots class. Seriously, if you live in south Orange County and you have kids, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you check out Earthroots. (Yes, I work for them.) (No, I’m not getting paid or any other perks to say how much I love them.)
My reasoning goes like this: According to the guy from Simplicity Parenting, our young-uns have something like four times the amount of neural activity going on than the average adult, which is why kids are such mind-boggling information sponges and can learn new languages, recite arcane details from last summer’s vacation, etc, etc.
This is an enormous responsibility for parents; we need to surround our kids with plenty of healthy stimulation, but where to find that?
OUTDOORS.
And not just outdoors, but as wild as outdoors as possible. That way kids get maximum stimulation on every sensory front, but without all the assault (and battery) of toxic plastics, harsh colors, and canned sounds. Let’s face it, no indoors room, no matter how well-decorated or well-stocked, can ever match the infinite variety and beauty of a simple wooded hill or pond.
So, I believe that you raise smarter, healthier kids when you have them spend time outdoors as much as possible. Every day if possible. But hey, even I don’t always manage that. Today, I’ve only gone down to the garage once. Yep, that’s been our only trip outdoors today. But tomorrow is Earthroots and I know I’ll get a good five solid hours in the Cleveland National Forest and that we’ll be outdoors all day.
Building a fire in the cob oven, in which we roasted veggies and baked a vegan, gluten-free pizza!
I also find that the homeschool field school program, which meets at a new location every week, really stretches me to explore new adventures. Last week our class spent the day bicycling around the Newport Back Bay. Despite my outdoors inclination, I’d never even visited the Back Bay until Earthroots, much less biked around it. It was really uphill for me to get there too, because normally Chad deals with all the bike stuff, the car stuff, the direction stuff, and the toting the baby around stuff.
In a nutshell, I got lost, I couldn’t get the baby bike seat on, and then I was completely freaked about biking on Chad’s bike for the first time… and riding with Christian on the bike for the first time. And this is coming from somebody who has been on 700+ mile bike rides and has even lead bike rides through France and New England. What I’m saying is that, if somebody like me is stumped by getting outdoors, I can sure appreciate that it would be hard for other moms who aren’t even that comfortable camping, hiking, or peeing in the woods.
But! I made it there, I met the group (late), and I had one of the my best days of 2011 so far. There was one other mom, three instructors, and only two other kids. Those two kids were energetic boys on dirt bikes and so we were not limited by speed or even our group size. We had plenty of time to cycle leisurely, watch people track the endangered clapper rail (a bird), climb trees, and search for good lunch spots.
In fact, we past what I though was our day’s destination, in the first hour of class, and we just kept on going.
At one point we paused along the shore and took a short explore walk. I was looking down into the reeds and I saw the cutest wild animal I have ever seen: a wild weasel.
It was a gorgeous rust red, about the length of my forearm, with a jet black tail tip, and so graceful and ethereal that I hardly believed I was seeing a real animal. That was awesome, not to mention that I now have a great touchstone image for lucid dreaming (more on that later).
I don’t know if it’s because we are just out early (we start at 9 am) or it’s just that we are out so regularly, but I’ve been seeing a lot of wildlife in class, including whales (!!!) sea lions, eels (!!), and many birds of prey, like the osprey.
P.S. The video below is of Anna and Christian working on their fire-making skills.
My siblings arrive for a visit in approximately seven weeks.
I’ve decided to try and complete one large onerous organizational household task each week until then.
It’s not so much that I care what they think about my house (they know me too well), so much as I am trying to quell a rising sense of panic when I think of how UNfunctional my already too cluttered home will become with an additional five people here. It’s a desperate attempt at some much needed de-cluttering.
Here’s the list. I am planning to spend one week on each project. I am determined to de-clutter, organize, and clean each of the following areas:
1. Files (top of cabinet, which currently is a slippery slope of papers and envelopes needing filing)
2. Files (inside – whew, get worried just thinking about this one)
3. Dresser Top (accomplished this one already – woo hoo!)
4. Linen Closet (almost finished here – wow.)
5. Clothes in closet (got a good start here, but may have to include the craft projects which also live in the closet)
6. Under Bed (I think I will actually have to lift the cal king mattress and put it aside to tackle this job properly. So, perhaps husband should be around.)
7. Bookshelves (There are just two – but both need weeding and serious dusting.)
8. Photos (I’m alright if I don’t get to this one.)
Okay, who needs three brown bags of assorted hangers then? Selling an Elna sewing machine for $25. Giving away an espresso machine/coffee maker. Let me know – otherwise going to hit freecycle and craigslist.
So far, I’m ahead of schedule. If I can clear my desk some, I’ll post pictures too.
P.S.
This is a pic of my desk earlier this year - it can get pretty bad...
We’re squeezing in one more late spring/early summer playgroup cycle before we break until autumn. That completes our third year!
As per usual, most of the handplays and poems come from Betty Jones’ A Child’s Seasonal Treasury plus a song from Elisabeth Lebret’s Pentatonic Songs. The story will be a continuation of The Root Children. The craft will be birthday crowns (with lovely 100% wool felt from purl soho – yes, it costs $56/yard.) Our opening songs and closing songs remain the same and can be found in earlier posts.
The book discussion will be The Happiness Project. I wanted a shorter, lighter book, since in September we are going to tackle Jon Young’s Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature. On our pending bookshelf:Â soule mama’s Handmade Home, Boys Alive!, and another parenting book that-I-will-post-the-name-of-when-I-remember.
Seashell Song by Betty Jones
Can you hear the sea’s song in this little shell? (Cup hands and place in lap.)
Hold it up to your ear and listen, listen well. (Put cupped hands to ear; listen.)
Shish-shoo-ooh.
The seashell’s song is from the silvery sea, (Lower cupped hands, sway them side to side.)
Where the waves roll in, wild and free. (Make rolling wave motion with hands, moving in, then out.)
Shish-shoo-ooh!
There upon the sand, the lovely seashell lies, (Cup hands and place in lap.)
Until a little child finds this seaside prize. (Cup hands to heart.)
Shish-shoo-ooh!
So guard this shell, its life-long song, (Cross hands at heart.)
And remember the home where it belongs
Shish-shoo-ooh! (Cup hands around mouth and voice loudly.)
Fairy Ring
Round about, round about in a fairy ring, (sashaying around circle)
Thus we dance, thus we dance, and thus we sing! (go to center)
Trip and go, to and fro, over the grass we go (sashaying around circle)
All about in and out, for our Flower Queen/King. (go to center)
Numbers
In my head count windows seven,
1,2,3,4,5,6,7.
Point each way, that makes six,
1,2,3,4,5,6.
See my fingers five
1,2,3,4,5.
Limbs I have four,
1,2,3,4.
Head, heart, hands, they are three,
1,2,3.
I, you, are two,
1,2.
One,
Done.
My Horses
My white horses like to step
Peaceful and slow,
Over mountains, through valleys,
So upright they go.
My brown horses merrily
Trot in the sun,
With their silver hoofs beating
The ground as they run.
My black horses gallop
With courage around,
And they throw up their heads
As they hammer the ground.
(Children enact horse movements described, moving in one directon around circle. Repeat in opposite direction.)
At the Beach by Betty Jones
Build a sand castle to the sky, Pat air; move hands upward.
Make a moat so when the waves roll by Make a big circle with arms in front of body.
The castle will stand with its sandy wall Hold arms upright with fingertips touching.
‘Til high tide comes and then it will fall. Fingers flutter at rooftop, and slowly flutter downward to lap.
Children’s Prayer Music by Elisabeth Lebret
The golden sun, so great and bright
Warms the world with all its might.
It makes the dark earth green and fair
And tends each thing with ceaseless care.
It shines on blossom, stone, and tree
On bird and beast, on you and me!
Oh, may each deed throughout the day,
May ev’rything we do and say
Be bright and strong and true,
Oh! Golden sun! Like you!
Sunshine Fairies
We are the sunshine fairies
And with our sparks of light
We shimmer and glimmer in the air
Hugging flowers with colors bright!
Begin standing in a circle; children hold out their arms at their sides and turn in place clockwise as fairies. Stop, and flick fingers as sparks. Hold out arms at sides, flutter fingers, then turn in place counterclockwise; hug self and rub hands up and down over folded arms.
My friend Jodi leaves for Africa today; she’s going on a once-in-a-lifetime safari with the San People for two weeks to experience their culture and way of living. And she gets to go with Jon Young!! (One of Tom Brown, Jr’s more famous tracker students, who later founded the Wilderness Awareness School in Washington.)
It is one of the most exciting adventures I could imagine.
I’m thinking of her today – traveling to Africa – it’s a fitting staff development trip for the founder of Earthroots. Here’s a video from a previous trip.
Well, nobody really thought we were going to get out of the two’s without some struggle did they? So a few things get broken, shirts get stained, and mama’s label-maker gets thrown off the porch – yup, you’ve definitely discovered your will and the power of NO. In fact, talking to you about something (as much as you love to talk) doesn’t really get us anywhere these days, except a quick trip to the LAND OF OPPOSITION, so your dad and I are really polishing up on alternative ways of introducing transitions to you (i.e., naked to dressed, barefoot to shod, muddy to clean…)
Oops, I hear you waking. We’ll run down to the dog park with our neighbor’s dog and get back here tonight.
Enjoy the short vid below. Note that moments after this frolicking scene was filmed, the boys took turns sitting in the water, leaning back slowly and dunking their heads – which of course eventually led to full-body-soaks. It makes me laugh out loud when we hike with your dad and he imagines that we are going to keep you dry and mud-free…
You have burst up in height – so that even though you’re not huge for your age – you’re suddenly as tall as your “tall” friends and all your pants are high-waters.
Your fascination with swords and guns has not, sigh, diminished in the least. You love nothing more than to sword play with your friend and neighbor Riley, whom you currently adore. He’s a year older than you and can handle your present moody bossiness, or should I say, he can out-moody and out-bossy you any day. That’s what’s called for right now, because your contrariness leads to shouting matches with even the kids you normally love (Yes I did! No you didn’t! YES I DID! – Do you even know what you’re arguing about anymore?)
Earthroots homeschool field class- that welcome five solid hours in wilderness every Wednesday – is still our anchor midweek.
You love love love to talk and your understanding grows in spurts. After you saw me shaving in the shower the other day, I heard you earnestly explaining to your dad that you were going to have hair on your chest when you were a “big guy.”
Right now your favorite toys are the Ben Ten characters that you and your dad have amassed from many trips to gas stations and Asian grocery stores
in east LA, Koreatown, and Orange County. Seriously, I suspect that your dad is having even more fun than you hunting down and collecting all the gumball machine characters; although I know he broke down last week and ordered a complete set off amazon! I often hear you and your dad in the other room, belly-laying and naming all the guys:
Dad: Who’s this guy?
You: Deep Freeze! Gray Matter! Chromostom! Ben Ten himself!
Pretty cute, even though I have to overlook the general creepiness and complete un-Waldorf-ishness of the little plastic figurines.
I’m moving into birthday preparations for your big Three next month. Still haven’t figured out yet what will go down, but we’ll do something FUN. As for a gift… a crocheted chain maille hood? a chain maille sweater? a felt horse and knight? You, I know, have determined that I will get you a pirate sword and pirate eye thingie.
I love you, Baby.
Love,
Mama
P.S. On Earth Day when I went into Starbuck’s to get my free coffee in a refillable coffee mug:
Me: Okay, we’re going into Starbuck’s for coffee, buddy.
Christian: But you had coffee today, Mama. One at already Trader Joe’s! (note: it was a sample) Are you having TWO COFFEES today, Mama? What the heck?!
I hadn't realized that Kehinde Wiley is something of an art star with studios in three cities (New York, Beijing, and Dakar). His work is not only sumptuous but funny in a don't-laugh-out-loud way. This work is titled After Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' The Virgin with the Host. It's a large photograph from 2009. His show at Roberts & Tilton was similar, but the subjects (still handsome men of color) were all from Israel and all the portraits were painted oil on canvas.
Chad, Christian, my friend Ellen, and I spent Saturday cruising through the art scene in Culver City. It was quiet and on the hot sunny side. We made it through over a dozen shows (George Billis, Blum&Poe, Cherry and Martin, Honor Fraser, Francois Ghebaly, Emma Gray, Paul Kopeikin, David Kordansky, Walter Maciel, Malony, Mihai Nicodim, Roberts & Tilton, and Taylor De Cordoba), but in the end I only wanted to write about three artists: Florian Maier-Aichen, Tillman Kaiser, and Kehinde Wiley.
I only got the capsule on Kaiser written and submitted before other writers beat me to the Maier-Aichen and Wiley.
That’s okay. We had a lovely day, and Ellen treated us to a delicious lunch at a newly-discovered spot. It was a hole-in-the wall place that had taken over the sidewalk in front with a garage-size shade cover, wooden fencing for walls, and painted plexi-glass windows. It was an ingenious makeshift restaurant space that turned this take-out joint into a sit-down restaurant! It was called, simply, Oaxacan Restaurant, and I hope to eat there every time I visit Culver City. I had the chile relleno stuffed with chicken – think I’ll have it next time too.
In any case, I had already written and submitted a longer preview piece AND pitched a feature to another magazine based on a previous art day this week.
We needed the practice finding Kordansky (Blackwelder, Blackwelder, the entrance is on Blackwelder) and we enjoyed the clever use of space by the galleries Francois Ghebaly and Emma Gray.
Tillman Kaiser's Facher (2010)
My capsule:
Don’t worry if the works in Tillman Kaiser’s show Für Kinder and Kenner seem esoteric and hard to understand – Kaiser himself using phrases like “brain digestion†and “laboratory for psychoanalysis†to describe his practice – but as the title suggests (translation: For Children and Experts), his works operate on many levels. Although the works range from painting to sculpture and wallpaper (and a combination of those in four canvases hooked together to form a large paravent), Kaiser’s meditative and slow process with layers of egg tempura and silkscreen, his restrained palette, and elegant geometric repetitions create a cohesive show full of hinted meaning. Oftentimes there is a layer of handwritten text underneath the paint, but even if words cannot be discerned, these futuristic mandalas are a sublime exercise in form and composition.
(Honor Fraser, Culver City)
P.S. Yes, Chad biked up. Yes, he’s still doing these crazy 70+ mile rides on his mountain bike.
My neighbor recently had a dragon training-themed birthday party for her 4-year son (a post unto itself), which gave me an opportunity to try making a dragon t-shirt for the birthday boy (and his little brother and Christian…) I knit the dragon scarf for him too, and that, also, must be put aside for another post.
This technique of making t-shirts produces t-shirts that look like they were professionally silk-screened, except that you can choose ANY DESIGN YOU WANT. Even better, you can make them at home for under $10 per shirt including the cost of the shirt – it’s virtually free if you already have solid-colored shirts to use.
This is the same technique that soulemama illustrates in her book The Creative Family.
You need
Image of your choice – I’m using an enlarged dragon xerox from my friend’s free clip art. It should enlarged to be exactly the size you want.
T-shirt – solid color (widely available for $5 at Old Navy or Target or craft store or online…)
Butcher paper – apparently the Reynold’s brand is easy to find. I just used the stuff that was wrapped around my boar’s head deli cheese. It’s the same stuff! Paper with one waxy surface.
T-shirt paint – Scribbles is cheap and easy to find ($2 at Joann’s) or you can splurge and get Lumiere by Jacquard which is $5 a bottle. You only need a little bit, so it’s fun to share with a friend. My friend just loaned me her paints. (Thank you, Ruth!)
Scissors/Exacto knife – Both would be handy, but you can do it with just one of the two.
Paintbrush
Iron
Protected working surface
Look around, you may have everything you need already in your house. This project is fast, easy, and extremely satisfying. It makes a wonderful and useful personalized birthday gift.
Cut out your design. Then trace and cut it out of the butcher paper to make a stencil. The exacto blade is helpful for cutting the stencil.
Trim up the stencil and iron it on to your shirt. Position carefully.
Paint the entire design evenly with your brush. Let it dry for a while. Then peel the paper off.
The jacquard paint recommends air-drying fro 24 hours. Then heat set by ironing both sides at the correct heat for the fabric of the t-shirt.
Look! My shirts look just like Ruth's shirt (she showed me how to do it and loaned me supplies). You can see the shirt she made for the 4th of July. Next on the list is a Mario/Luigi shirt for the Mario-themed party I'm going to next month. I'm thinking a silver silhouette of the two characters running across a royal blue T.
This British flick is a dramatization of the moment the all the female workers at the Ford factory in Dagenham, England, decided that working at half the pay as men and being called unskilled was for the birds. Led by spunky and surprised Rita O’Grady (the young mom of two never imagined she’d be a community organizer), the women take first timid and then more determined steps to hold their ground – in fact, their unanticipated strike shuts the factory down! It’s a bit shivery to think about how recently women were treated so second class. The story begins two days after my birthday in May 1968. Sally Hawkins is perfect as O’Grady (she was the lead in another good one, Happy-Go-Lucky) and you’ll feel like you know more about history when you’re done. Got 7.1/10 at IMDb. I give it a B+.
This movie was pretty much panned by the critics (4.9/10 at IMBb), and I give it a C. But there was something interesting going on, in terms of the cinematic telling of a fairy tale. It doesn’t nail it like The Princess Bride, or even like Bella’s pre-teen obsession, The Tenth Kingdom, but it does attempt a certain stylization of fantasy – just promises more than it can deliver. The director relies too heavily on stereotypes and the relationships are never developed. The storyline is good, clever even. Watchable, but just barely. I’m waiting for another good Neil Gaiman story to be told (Neverworld, please!)
