straggle much?

Hey you stragglers! I went this-a-way:

http://www.glimpse.terrifischer.com

Toldja!

Did I not just say that I would predictably obsess over blogging the moment I decided to become bored with it?

As expected, I've done just that. Created a whole new blog, actually.

I'm still messing with it, but I think I will just jump in and start blogging there. So, without further ado... Prepare your bookmarks...

http://www.glimpse.terrifischer.com

Plague Vampires Apathy

Wow, I guess it's been a while. Here are my excuses.

1. The Plague. It has chosen all four children as victims, and has turned our house into the House of Puke. Not actually fun.

2. Vampires. For a week and a half, I regressed to adolescence and did nothing (aside from cleaning up puke, of course) but read all four books in the Twilight Series, which, although they are pitifully easy reads, are still 500+ pages apiece. The fourth, Breaking Dawn, kept me company during my all-nighter with a continuously vomiting Shortcake Monday night.

3. Apathy. As per usual, I am just so over blogging right now. Predictably, just as I decide to put energy into anything else, I am sure to become bored with that, and return to blogging. Or not...

A very dark film shot of Belle putting her shoes on in the morning. I was saving this neg. scan for such a ...bleh... post. I don't even feel like resizing it. So there.

IF-Intricate

So, my next purchase, apparently, must be a moleskine. All the cool kids are doing it. Until that arrives, I'm sketching in a pretty recycl-ish paper journal, which, years ago, I was writing my dreams down in every morning. That was trippy to re-read! These I did while nursing/holding a spoiled, sleeping 15-month-old.

While scanning these in, Belle said "ooh! pretty! You are the best spiral drawer I've ever seen." Which reminded me of this quote by Amy Krouse Rosenthal:

Here's what's great about having kids. You can be really bad at something, but because they can't do that thing at all and perhaps have never even seen anybody do it, they think you are good at it.

Hippie Nappies

I've got other thoughts waiting to be blogged, other photos waiting to be shared, but this must be done first. I've got to tell you about the cloth diapers, which we just started using a week or two (or three?) ago. Better late than never?

We love our cloth diapers. They're so soft! They're so cute!
They're so easy to use! They're so comfortable!

They're so... not filling up landfills!

And I Didn't Even Know It

My vision
Assaulted
By 90-degree angles

Aims for the tall pines
Beyond these suburban clones
To the chaos of Nature’s order just at the end of the block
Because it is truth
Because I know it like a sister
An airplane trip away

My line of sight
Tries for the trees
It clings desperately
But fails

The 90-degree angles
Jump like gremlins
And assault my vision
Pointed rooftops and vinyl siding
Sheds and bricks and fences
Swingsets sandboxes and identical decks

Like noise
Like clanging
Like the TV

So, I know nothing about poetry. But this came out of me as I was sitting at the window the other day, hating all of the houses that stood in the way of my view. I'm not searching for validation, just sharing. I remember once I shared a poem online when I was 17 (wow, there was internet back then?), and someone offered me critique. Thinking back, I now know it was exellent critique, and I wish I would have taken it. At the time, though, it absolutely broke my heart (as did everything else at 17 years old), and I stopped writing poems altogether.

The Present

I have better quotes from more reputable sources for this topic, but it is only appropriate to post this one. Not only do my children bring me much enlightenment, but sometimes, their DVDs do as well. This one's for you, dad!

Quit, don't quit? Noodles, don't noodles? You are too concerned about what was and what will be. There is a saying: yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the "present."

-Oogway, Kung Fu Panda

Rarely Occasionally Frequently, I get caught up in frustration with my mundane stay-at-home life. Oh, don't pity me. I spend an absurd amount of time enjoying coffee with friends, playing with my kids, or doing frivolous things like doodling, blogging, facebooking, driving-to-the-diaper-store-to-touch-cloth-diapers. I've got a charmed life, indeed.

But often, when faced with the reality of doing the laundry, dishes, etc. for 6 messy people, I get a bit spacey--like Joaquin on Letterman (what was that about?!). I walk in circles, mumbling things like "pathetic, pointless, worthless, don't wanna..." Or, as a less crazy-person alternative, I function like normal, but my mind is still circling and mumbly. I was having such a normal-person breakdown the other day, when Shortcake, sitting at the table and eating noodles, reached her hand out to me.

Shortcake does this often. She reaches out her hand and says "Daaaah?" It is her way of saying "dance," and it usually means she wants to take me somwhere--to the refrigerator, to the piano, to the center of the living room to dance. She grabs my finger with her chubby little soft ones, and pulls me along. Yeah, it is absolutely precious.

Anyway, she did this during my little "woe is me" moment. I gave her my hand, but she didn't want to go anywhere. She just held on tight and smiled. I think she just sensed my restlessness, and wanted to bring me to where she was: just here and now. It was exactly what I needed--to take a deep breath and come back to the moment.

I gave her a kiss, noticed the beautiful light that rested on her curly head, and said, "Thank you, little girl."