13 March 2006

not that you care



nine things I did this weekend (thanks for the inspiration, kath):

1. used up entire roll of tape preparing color-iffic swap packages. unbelievably short trip to post office on friday and voila: green goodies en route to portugal, pink and red goodies to california. continued to oooh and aaah over loot received from said swap-o-rama. thought to self that receiving package from netherlands, a cool thing. felt especially global. realized I am officially obsessed with swaps. pics are here.

2. had meltdown upon discovery of gaping hole in favorite skirt. other contributing factors to meltdown: kids both crying, floors inexplicably sticky, day unraveling before my eyes. briefly considered writing lengthy post about how horrible I felt, how dirty the house was (why can't I ever seem to catch up?), how much I feel I have failed as a mother, how exhausted I am. cried. then cried some more. decided to get down on hands and knees and scrub floors instead. gorgeous day outside, loverboy and bebes at park. stuck inside scrubbing floors but strangely satisfied and calmed by this. floors still looked dirty but stickiness? gone.

3. received latest martha stewart kids magazine in mail, drooled over pages. in denial over rumors that said magazine is folding. tried to convince ava to have silly wacky party or teeny tiny party (featured beautifully on pages 84, 88) for her birthday in july but unsuccessful. stuck on mermaid theme (which we did two years ago). both agree ezra should have bouncy party (pages 90-91) centered around a zillion bouncing balls for birthday in june.

4. rented 'junebug', watched late saturday night. fell in love with it all over again. discovered that music is by yo la tengo and loved it even more. was reminded of growing up in southern illinois, experienced pangs of nostalgia. folded endless pile of clothes, went on and on about characters. am sure I ruined it for ward but blathered on anyway. thought to self that amy adams should have won the oscar for her performance. went on and on about how gorgeous and un-hollywood the film is. snuck many swigs from ward's sobe green tea.

5. returned about a thousand emails.

6. cut bangs even more. wondered how much I will 'trim' before a trip to annoyed hair stylist rudi will be necessary.

7. helped ava count pennies from piggy bank for a book purchase. tried very hard to overlook the fact that it was a 'my little pony' book she wanted with characters named zipzee and pinkie pie. focused instead on greatness of milestone. felt pride as ava handed cashier money from her purse. realized sticky floors and torn skirts aren't that big a deal.

8. played outside with kidlets. thought how much I like the word 'kidlets', which I actually stole from jek. helped ava put on swimsuit, watched her run through neighbor girl's sprinkler. held onto a screaming, wiggling, kicking ezra. finally gave up and let him run through sprinkler fully clothed. squeals of glee had me secretly cursing ward for taking camera with him for the day. thought my sprinkler shots would've been so good.

9. sat in parked car, in driveway. kids asleep in back while ward and I mourned the passing of another weekend. where did it go? sang into imaginary microphone (pilot ink pen), sang along to george michael's can't always get what you want. realized I don't really know the words. realized I don't care. looked at moon. listened to deep breathing of sleeping children. enjoyed remains of sunday night. realized the inevitablity of monday.

24 comments:

  1. i will have to rent Junebug~sounds amazing! sounds like a journey of a weekend, but for some reason very normal (and I mean that in a refreshing sort of way : )

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  2. sounds like alot of our weekends, except your kids are running through sprinklers in march
    while i am looking for winter hats.
    i love the word kidlets, that is the cutest.

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  3. I'm going to have to rent Junebug too--and I could hug you! YOu're such a great mother! As a teacher I always longed for more parents to GET the significance of a child's new reading love--and, rather than saying NO YOU HAVE TO READ SOMETHING AT YOUR LEVEL (which trust me, I heard waaaaay to much) you supported her in getting something HERSELF that she is INTERESTED in. Ok. Enough with the caps!

    Also, just wanted to say thank you for the endless smiles and laughter that your pictures and links (prank photo booth in particular) that your last post produced.

    Don't worry about housework. It will always be there. Even when you die. But sitting in the car singing to old faves? What a fabulous seized opportunity!!

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  4. I haven't seen "Junebug" yet and I want to.

    I love the green crayon photo!

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  5. i would have been very sad over a hole in one of my favorite skirts as well! man...i would have loved to see pics of your kids running thru the sprinklers! weekends go by way too quick!

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  6. what a great summary!
    I totally relate to #2!

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  7. but we DO care....

    love love love the crayon shot!!

    isn't it amazing how weekends fly by.... loved hearing of yours... [i should be scrubbing my floors!] xox

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  8. cleaning therapy is the best... something about scrubbing the crap out of floors, tub always do me a world of good- I think it is the *sparkle*.

    Will have to rent Junebug...

    I want to run through the sprinkler... snowy & gloomy here though.

    My camera was on vacation this weekend too, I was jealous- there were so many pictures I could have taken.
    wonderful post....

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  9. I love George Michael, love my greatest hits CD. Will have to listen to it now, thank you for reminding me.
    We're getting warmer up here but not time for sprinklers yet. Yes, weekends go by so fast. My husband was out of town this weekend so I was hans solo and I took my Ava to see Grease at the local high school, her first musical!

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  10. portugal? you have friends in portugal? i'm portuguese. is that where your good taste comes from?

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  11. it's all about junebug. how did it get so overlooked? I watched it once then hit play again. fantastic.

    lovely post. I'm inspired (again) to account my own nine things.

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  12. Dejavue? (spelling?) This sounds familiar for a young, beautiful girl named Augusta Ann and her loverrrrboy, jimmyjoecrona. Great writing!

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  13. Hey - I watched Junebug this weekend too! I Loved that movie so much. And Amy Adams was so fantastic.

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  14. kids magazine is folding? ...I'll try to heave myself up out of a mild depression for the rest of the day now...

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  15. oh whats a girl to do! this was a great way to capture the weekend and make it feel so familiar! wards mom is right, you do paint beautiful pictures with words!

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  16. oh so lovely - even your bad days - you make them sound so wonderful, well not wonderful but meaningful.
    love how you tell a story!

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  17. andrea!! KIDS is gonna be OVER???

    waahhhh!! nonono.

    no.

    ): but your weekend sounds awfully nice...

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  18. Next time, leave the sticky floors and go to the park with your husband and kids, it really is more fun! Or take the time to yourself and work on your collages or go to a coffee shop and read a book and people watch. As my friend's mom always used to say, "Happy kids come from messy houses."

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  19. Ohhhh...I wanna rent Junebug! Amy Adam's character clip during the Oscar's cracked me up!!! That's my relatives on my Dad's side!!!

    AND NOOOOOOOOOO, don't tell me that cool Martha Stuart kid's magazine is folding!!! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I love looking through them when I see them places...

    Oh, and by the way, as usual, you riiiiittte seeeeew puuuuuuurdy.

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  20. oh we care all right - great pic and sounds like a good weekend - lots of projects

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  21. thanks, all. always such kind words. glad you like the crayon photo... I've been having so much fun with the macro lens effect on our new camera... and to all those contemplating a trip to the video store to rent 'junebug'... I highly recommend it. and thanks to all those who are on board with amy adams... you're singing my song.

    lovegreendog, ha-- I'm sure we're not completely done with the winter hats.

    christina, thank you for such wonderful words of encouragement... means so much. (glad you enjoyed the photobooth prank clip too).

    lisa, thanks for caring. sometimes I feel bad about ranting. but then that's what blogs are for, eh? and I sometimes forget how supportive our little community is. :)

    nessie noodle, yes-- something about cleaning... so therapeutic. and I always do lots of thinking while I'm scrubbing too. which is good.

    acumamakiki, how did ava like 'grease'? bet it was super fun.

    37oline, oh I wish! i wish I had friends in portugal... she was a random person assigned to me for this swap thing I've been doing. but it was cool to pretend like I knew someone in portugal... can you be my first official portugese friend?

    amstar, wow-- I KNOW. the truly truly great work always seems to go overlooked. which is tragic. looking forward to your nine things.

    dad, you and mom talking about the old days... that's what gets me through my rough days. love you both so much.

    stephanie, jenny and justin, isn't that the worst news? of course I'm not sure if it's true, but just the IDEA. horror of all horrors!

    anonymous, those are wise, wise words. thank you so much. and I love the 'happy kids come from messy houses'. love that.

    meridith, the swaps are SO fun... and there are so many out there. email me, I'll hook you up-- you'll love it.

    kath, thanks for caring. you are an inspiration to me.

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  22. Every time I read one of your posts, I am instantly entertained and I wanna read more. Love the idea of the color swap and wish I could participate! Enjoy the kidlets, they become whiny teenagers sooner than you're ready for...

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