Black Bird

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
all your life
you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

-Blackbird by The Beatles

Both my girls heard this song not long out of the womb. Abigail and I would sit in the rocking chair in her nursery and I would sing to her or hum the tune and it always seemed to calm her down. Charlotte heard it as well, sitting on the couch through many a long night nursing.
I hope they will remember it when they get older. I know I will always remember those times with them.

blue bird

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

-Emily Dickinson

Fambly

Here are a couple pictures of Great-Grandma Mead, Aunt Pam, and the rest you probably already know. These were taken before Christmas at our house. The first time G-G had seen Charlotte. I'm so glad she and Pam could come into Portland for this visit.

Friends don't let friends do Midol

5 Reasons I don't like Midol:

1. Midol: my-doll. how sexist is that? like only girls get dolls?!

2. Midol has a diuretic in it. and diuretics are the biggest word-cons in history. I used to think, before I had ever seen the word spelled, or heard what the definition was, they were actually things to magically help you d-i-e-t.

3. Midol has caffeine. This actually takes up two places on the list-

4. When I've got heaving cramps of doom, the last thing I want to do is to be hepped up on 5 million mg of caffeine, running around cleaning everything in sight. I want to be comatose, curled up on the couch with a blanky.

and #5. What guy/girl wants to have his or her girlfriend, wife, partner, free-basing with caffeine? because personally speaking, I can be a real bitch when I am feeling the menstrual spirit. Breaking the land-speed record for nagging and/or general rudeness is not something I want to be remembered for.

Maybe those year-round menstrual cycle blockers aren't such a bad idea after all??

love ya,
E

List #1

Today I:

1. had to make coffee twice due to the filter imploding on the first batch.

2. made my youngest daughter upset by forcing her to eat a green bean, one solitary
little green bean, even after it had turned to mush by her mulling it around in her mouth for 5 minutes.(and she still wouldn't eat the damn thing!)

3. bought a pendant and some beads to take up my long lost like of jewelry-making.

4. vowed to not eat salt and pepper kettle chips until I could control myself to only one small handful.

5. cursed the constant liquid deluge outside once or twice.

6. watched the HGTV dream home 2009 and lusted over Sonoma County, CA

7. only did one load of laundry

8. got the chance to play for a blissful hour and a half with my littlest little while daddy and sister were out.

Tomorrow's forcast: Rain, grumpy co-worker, and one headlight.

g'night!

if I had a million dollars

Hello fair friends,

As soon as I get the camera back I will regale you with fantabulous pics of our happy Jesus day fun pirate scary holiday adventure!(T-that last bit was for you!)
I'm glad to see others have had a good holiday-it always seems to create more stress than it relieves, but we strive to rise above all that, right?!
I got some loverly things from friends and family, not the least is a black velvet opera cape from my husboard. Can I pick them or what? (not that I have another husband, but you know what I mean.)
And, after reading my sis-in-law's latest blog, I have to confess I have a package for her tots all ready to go. My plan is to actually run out the door at 7am with it in my hands this time instead of leaving it by the hall tree!

Blessings and best wishes to you all as we reach New Year's Eve,
E

give me a pen and paper

I need to remember something. When blogger asks if I want to delete all my current html, say no. Just say no. Now I have to re-enter all the sites I like looking at and the friend's blogs I like to go visit. arrggh!

Gratitude

Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poorhouse. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the almshouse as brightly as from the rich man's abode.

Henry David Thoreau

Neti Magic

Back in the day I used to work for a wonderful lady who was an acupuncturist and naturopathic doctor. Among the many things I learned from her was the art of using a Neti pot. What's that, you ask? It is a magical, non-mechanical, stylish, handy dandy nose cleaner outer!
I have not been as faithful a user as I once was, but I still hold it in high esteem. The neti pot can help with symptoms from headaches to sinus infections and allergies. We have recently begun using a form of the Neti pot, the Neil-med on our youngest daughter who has had problems with her sinuses almost since birth.

Of course she is not too thrilled about having warm saline water shot up her nose at 6 o'clock in the morning, but it has already improved the clarity of her speech and her snot factor has decreased in volume and is not green any more!
With cold and flu season upon us, I recommend everyone get on the neti bandwagon and have a go at shooting water up their nose! Today!

Job-like

No, not job, Job, as in the man of many sorrows from the Old Testament...
So I'm driving along I205 no problems, speeding happily towards work when a great commotion commences under the hood of my precious 49 Volvo. It was just in the shop, I think, what the heck? I shakily make it to work, pull in to the parking lot and shudder to a stop. Call USAA for towing service. Tow man cometh. Starts car. Says, hey, that sound sounds familiar. Mind if I look under the hood? No, I say. He pops open the hood and low and behold a spark plug is missing. Missing, I say? Yes, he says. So the beast of burden is hauled off to the volvo hospital where they diagnose her with a missing spark plug. Less than $20 later we are back in business, picking the baby up tonight!
Then I get in to work and my computer won't turn on. Which is funny because I never turn it off. Not sure about that one. Get it turned on but then it won't connect to the server. So I reboot. It connects to the Internet just fine but not to our corporate connection. Yikes! I curse a little under my breath for good measure, reboot the bloody server again and yipee it works!
Then my mouse won't work. Two AA batteries later and I'm working along.
Theeeen I go to the bathroom and notice that my sort-of-new black tights have mirrored runs in them on the outside of my legs. dammit! Skirt gets pulled down a little bit more to hide this most egregious misstep. Nobody at Starbucks said anything so I think I was okay.

just a little job-like day.