adventures in home-making

Micah revels in her birthday gift from Suebee and Pops.

From 2009 april

Protestant Easter at the VFW.

Since last year, we celebrated Protestant Easter, this year, we decided to try to celebrate the Orthodox Easter. On Protestant Easter, we took my aunt Sanda to a "Pickin' & Grinnin" jam session at the local VFW. Unfortunately, the pickers and grinners didn't get started before we had to leave-- which is understandable, given that it was Easter and everyone has family obligations.



But we did enjoy two $5 pitchers of beer and a sober reminder of all the brave men who have fought for our country. I couldn't help making a sign of the cross in front of the MIA table; it was very moving.

Sam Cornman glass blowing my mind.

Today, we ventured out to the Kentuck Courtyard in downtown Northport to watch Birmingham's Sam Cornman blow beautiful bubbles and baubles from glass. Max had been busy blowing his own soap bubbles all day, so he was thrilled to learn we were going on this particular excursion.

Just as we were scurrying out of the house, I decided to cut a little peasant head-band from an old flowery sheet, mostly to hide how badly my hair needed washing. As I started snipping, Patrick asked if I was cutting it for Micah. I said no, and then he suggested I cut one for her as well. And for Max. And for him. So I snipped as fast as I could (the kids were ready to go) and fashioned our little headscarves. Now we have family head-sets to match our family call-- the Indian war whoop. Micah is usually the instigator in the family call.

Watching Sam Cornman blow has glass was an amazing sight indeed. He was making a beautiful, blue-rimmed globelt for the crowd gathered in Northport, but we ventured into the building displaying his other pieces to get the full scope of his talent. Among his pieces were mazes of glass that looked like spaghetti noodles suspended in midair twisted, wrapped, and otherwise tangled without actually touching. Imagine a roller coaster of glass about 3 feet high and wide. He had a piece of driftwood punctured with holes and glass streaming through it in every direction, sculptures that looked like human shoulders, and a piece into which he had interwoven his own dreadlocks. Quite gnarly works, I must say. And since my words really don't do the man justice, go here to see for yourself.

More photos from the birthday party.

Micah looks like a little peasant in her do-rag from Aunt Sanda.

"The Moonflowers", a poem by Carl Phillips.

It's as if the dark, which had before
just been context, gave to vulnerability
a permission, almost: fleshy saucers of
spilled cream, so many parchment fists,
unfisting; and now, in pieces, the delicate
mask of an indifference offered radically
up against what, each time, seems as
unthinkable, as unexpected, as when,

in the long dream of retraction, that sea
that is finally not a sea, but what else
to call it, begins again its shifting, and
though to every push of the will forward
there's something noble—which is to say,
something lonely, also—it's too late.

Micah as captured by Uncle Tom.

Web-surfing with stomach pains.

Micah and I are both recovering from the ugly stomach bug that has been visiting nice people lately. Notably, Patrick and Max have not yet gotten the bug, which I take to mean that they are not as nice as me + Micah.

So much going on right now....

• My aunt Sanda is visiting from Romania.
• And Earthfest is coming soon to a campus near you.
  
• As are the Go Green Guerilla theatre skits.
  
• If you appreciare Christian choir music, then the coming week has a number of free and fun evenings for you.
• The news never fails to amuse. Jewish families are being offered $50,000 to move to Dothan, Alabama.
• We saw a bunny rabbit hopping around in our backyard this morning, which reminded me that I need to stop chugging electrolytes and start getting ready for Easter.
  
• Larry Hurtado digresses on the crucifixion.
  
• You can find lots of beautiful ideas for egg decorations here.
• Listen to a free performance of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, composed in 1565 by Thomas Tallis, from a 1995 recording by the King’s Singers. The work was composed to be performed on Maundy Thursday, following text from the Book of Lamentations (אֵיכָה‎,) in the Latin Vulgate with Hebrew letters set at the beginning of each section. The Lamentations have generally been understood to relate to the destruction of Jerusalem in the sixth century BCE. The Latin text can be followed here. Harper's magazine, how I love thee.
• Nerdling art.
  
• Some male chimps choose food over sex. Slightly.
  

A constellation for Carla.

CALL TO LOVE by Crooked Fingers

CHASE THE FEELING by Kris Kristofferson

YOU CAN NEVER LEAVE by Crooked Fingers

YOU THREW A SPARK by Crooked Fingers

LOVER'S SPIT by Broken Social Scene

RUNNIN' OUT OF FOOLS by Neko Case

SORRY SIGNS ON CASH MACHINES by Mason Jennings

EXCUSE ME WHILE I BREAK MY OWN HEART TONIGHT by Ryan Adams

LONELY OLE LIES by Neko Case

A happy first birthday for Micah and Cousin Ben.

Our house was overflowing with family this past weekend, and it was awesome. So many sweet babies and so much love. I am so grateful for our big, boisterous, busy family. Seeing Uncle Tom, Aunt Ginny, and Mallory was extra special-- we've missed them so much since Suebee and Pops moved back to Hotlanta.

Of course, we also missed poor Pops, who had to stay in Atlanta to continue his fierce battle with a stomach bug of magnificent proportions.

Micah was especially intrigued by her cousin, Gabriel, who won the award for the most laid-back baby. I also think he is the only one who slept through the night.

As you can see in this photo, Gabe just does his own thing.

Baby Ben takes after his daddy more and more. Precious, loving, and tough as a ton of nails, that little guy is not going to be a pushover.

Little Jo-Jo has come out of his shell, and assumed the mantle of the "oldest baby of the bunch". He was much more assertive and big-boyish than the last time we saw him.

From spring 2009

Environs this month.

APRIL 4            Alabama Wildflower Society Native Plant Sale (Kentuck Courtyard)

APRIL 7            The Gee's Bend Experience (Vestivia Hills Public Library)

                      University of Alabama Opera Theatre Present Selections from American Musical Theatre                           (Choral/Opera Room, Moody Music Building)

APRIL 9            Barbed Wire Reading Series Poetry Reading (Little Willie's)

                      Red Mountain Reading Series features fiction writer Bob Whetstone (Jefferson State                                  Community College)

APRIL 11           2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt (Oak Mountain State Park)

                      Glass-Blowing Demonstration (Kentuck)

                      Tank Tasting (Morgan Creek Winery)

APRIL 13           Spring Break Movies (Tuscaloosa Public Library)

APRIL 15           Tax Day Tea Party (University of Alabama Quad)

                       Princess / Prince / Fairy Party (Tuscaloosa Public Library)

APRIL 16           Campfire Activities (Tuscaloosa Public Library)

APRIL 16-17       Montevallo Literary Festival (Montevallo University)

APRIL 18           Alabama Book Festival (Old Alabama Town, Montgomery)

APRIL 30           School House Rock! (UA School of Music)

MAY 1              2008 Alabama Blues Project Extravaganza (Bama Theatre)

EXHIBITS & ONGOING:

Recent works by Sam Cornman (Kentuck Gallery)

National Poetry Month at the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature

Hewett's Honey Farm (Duncanville) has local honey to help with seasonal allergies. (It worked for Max.)

A package from Granma Vicki!

Oh the joy and excitement galloping throughout the house when we received a package from Granma Vicki. Inside the brown box, we found a host of gifts for Max and Micah... Max loved his new Dr. Seuss book.

And Micah couldn't get enough of her colored stacking blocks, which she first stacked, then nested, then just banged against the floor. As you can see, she likes to poke her tongue through her teeth when she concentrates on something. Alas, I was the butt of many family jokes in my youth for this tongue-dragging trait.
 

Micah and the dogwoods.

So the dogwoods are exploding and Micah has reason to coddle them. I love spring-time for the scent of new life hovering in the air, for the promise of neon green, for all the beauties and wonders that still enchant me.

I like this one because you can see my first white hair... and my man,

A Friday afternoon with Mom at the Arboretum.