"You can have roots and wings"

tractor girl, originally uploaded by turnsharp.

I am headed down to the land of dial up- deep in the hills of Southeastern Ohio. A place that is so slow paced and thick with time that it sometimes attempts to swallow me whole when I stay for a few days. My boys will run on acres of green country grass untouched by chemicals and we will eat berry pies made from the hands of my 89 year old granny who probably picked the berries off vines older than she is.
Joe is staying home to work on Little Alouette this weekend and I will miss him. I will bring him back bounty from the country.
I learned to drive on a tractor you know.
I am Joe's Appalachian princess.

Title post- Sweet Home Alabama 2002

States United

I spoke with Greg of beauchamping a few months back after our gorgeous friend Mary introduced us. Greg has such amazing art and he is starting to share it with the world.
It was a great phone conversations about art and indie business and the way the world works. He is such a brilliant artist and cool cat. He now has an etsy shop!
I am so happy to tell the world.
I love States United so much.
Don't you?
xo

"Let's have six. Let's have a dozen and pretend they're donuts!"

So tired of being angry at Finn for acting out.
I know it is actually my expectations that I place upon him like heavy weights on his lanky frame. I know it is not his fault and he is just five years old and the world is so lush and he is finding his voice and his body moves so beautifully and who wouldn't want to be so free?
It's a funny thing parenthood-no matter how hard you try you can't help but find yrself repeating patterns and forming paths that you might have once hated in yr own parents.
I can't find my own carefree self anymore under this bullshit.
I just come back to finding the parts of my father that I really don't want.
The parts that don't make up the sum of him-
but the parts that were hard for me as his daughter.
The unrealistically high expectations, the anger of unknown origins.
Why can't I find my mothers shoulder shrug or
my mothers ability to drop everything and move right on with her day?
Smiling the entire time void of irony and really filled with peace?
Why would I stay mad at my five year old for hours?
I say yes to everything and most people think I am so la dee da centered.
Bull to the poo.
I am struggling to go back and think in the most basic terms with my five year old.
He is unable to remain focused at a bustling farmer's market while I hold his brother and describe in detail to strangers about locally harvested hardwoods and the benefits of natural teething toys.
No shit.
Why should he want to be good?
I just want him to remember the way I held him on my stadium chair while we ate ice cream and watched the world go by. The feeling of the sunshine burrowing into our bodies.
I am pretty sure that I don't want him to recall the way I growled in his ear to sit down and be quiet numerous times.
The way I was looking at him.
I was looking at him harder than I should.
All of my joy fell off my body today and hit the hard concrete
with a sadness that was almost deafening to only me.
It's just hard to find yrself as a mother.
It's hard to stop repeating patterns that just come so easily and without thought.
Autopilot parenting is not my friend.
I need to be more thoughtful.
I need to show Finn all of the good parts of me over and over and over so that when he calls up my image in his mind and spins me round he gets lucky most times.
He gets to remember my positive bits most.
Like the way I laugh real with him and tell him things
like how the world will be and what he may look like when he is twenty.
How I whisper in his face love notes and tell him all of my wishes and tickle his back and smell good and hold his head in my lap and pinky promise that he is my best friend.
I think the hardest part of life for me is the good vs naughty self.
I have so much good in me and sometimes I feel like I was put on earth to share it around but even this being so true, there is the part of me that I have always tried to fight and push down and stomp and hide.
I don't know where my negativity comes from and I don't care anymore.
Even if I could trace back the genealogy- pin point the origin on a map in some faraway city and
go to that ancestral grave yard and shake my fist at some hard stone... it doesn't really matter.
I got it and it's all mine.
I just wish it would go away more often.
The parent I want to be and try so hard to be just doesn't live inside of me enough.
And that is the expectation that hangs around my neck.
And it's heavy today.

title post- Parenthood 1989

"What the hell do you think Leona really puts in that pizza? "

We drink Woose here (water and the last of the juice), we drive down Belly Road (Cooke Road for locals and quite bumpy), Blaise is addicted to Diddies (pacifiers) and we love to eat Saladza (pizza topped with salad)
I love our little family language...

So Saladza is my go-to meal for warm weather.
For the kind of day when you have been going going going and cannot face the kitchen.
It is a great substitution for takeout fatigue syndrome.
You can even do it on the grill!
It is simple and a great 15 minute meal!




The boys eat greens so easily when they are topped on pizza!
I like to make a nice mix of greens each week for the family.
I am fully into feeding the kiddos arugula, radicchio, and endive now and getting their palate used to peppery and different kinds of greens.
We do love blue cheese and ranch round here too- I just want to make sure the kids are not growing up thinking they must smother their salads with white dressing from a bottle.
I like that they will eat olive oils and vinegar and feta now with greens.
Baby steps away from dip dip (ranch! you devil!)






I just use a quick Trader Joe's or Whole Foods dough ball and top it with any leftover yummy veg and meat and cheese. Sometimes I use mozzarella and basil and pepperoni. Sometimes I do fancy pants goat cheese and vegetables. Tonight I used chicken sausage, tomatoes, and mozzarella and I topped the pizza with a quick green mix and homemade vinaigrette dressing.
(I would love to know any quick and delicious homemade salad dressing)
We drank big glasses of orange juice and talked endlessly about the hot weather and all of our plans for the summer. We missed our daddy as he was at the workshop all day and thought about what we might do for the rest of the weekend.
Saladza Night! Love it!

title post- Mystic Pizza 1988

In love!

This week I am going to tell you some things that I am in love with:

So in love with this papa!


I have got it so bad for this site!



These amazing handmade letter tiles are so loved by Finn and Blaise!



This market has my heart!



Joe made something this week that I love!




I am in love with this shop:



Love this tutorial. I may replicate this look for the Memorial Day festivities in my Norman Rockwell Town:

sleeping while smiling/pretending to be so alive

I found out about this book called SPENT via my pal Maya.
She wrote a post on it here.
I found myself thinking about the concept of being "spent" and how it applies to me right now.
It is so much a part of how I feel that I am certain when I walk out in the sun there are giant letters S P E N T that appear on my forehead and announce to the world that I am a hot mess.

I know I am tired.
I know I am busy and stressed and working too much.
I am topping that off with trying to be super mom and not let these kids down.
It is a lot and frankly my eating habits were shit this past year.
Overweight or not I am the veggie queen.
I am a very good eater. I eat very good foods for the most part.
I just eat massive volume of food! :)
This past year though I relied on take away and pizza and meals that were sub par too many times. I could feel my nutrition peel away like a skin.
I just knew it was happening, but too tired to do anything about it.

I read "Spent" and then the day after I read it Dr. Frank Lipman 's PR person contacts me and I am all thinking they have my library lending list and am freaked out! But it turns out it was random and we chatted and normally I just don't respond to PR folks in my email, but this felt different. It felt different because I asked to speak to the doctor and she made it happen. I asked to be sent some information and some products and it happened. Dr. Frank Lipman is an amazing man and HELLO I am now two degrees from Kevin Bacon as I see that Dr Lipman treats the Bacon family too!
I digress.
So the doctor is telling me things and chatting to me and I am able to ask him questions.
I like this. I feel way more involved and important in the big machine this way.
So, the book-It really makes sense. It is a lifestyle. It is a kinda detox at first, but it is a lifestyle that calls for care of the body. I know- nothing groundbreaking here, but I felt so much better only after one week of smoothie breakfast with green powder. Honest!
I like it that is has zero to do with weight and all health.
I am not going to type little lies and say my family is doing the program.
Joe and I are not following it to the letter. We are taking a lot of the information and bending it to suit our needs. We went zero processed food and no sugar the week before last. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD THIS IS? Hello agave! Hello no condiments!
It was hard and we thought we were already eating minimal processed foods.
We thought we were kicking ass and it looks like sugar was kicking our ass!
This week was not so good as one time we may have gone to Dunkin Donuts- BUT!!!!
It can be work for us- we know this.
We are using less sugar and zero condiments
(save ketchup- help people? sugar free ketchup? Is it real?)
I am unsure of how the rest of the few weeks will go as we try and work the program to fit our life. I am working on some whole body lifestyle things as I talked about a few months back .
I want to be healthier on all levels.
I think it is important to gain back yr energy as a parent and self employed person.
Most of us are sapped. Even my fit and trim buddies are working too much and forgetting to nurture. The world is out there everyday waiting to be explored and I don't want to be tired.
The doctor talks about Ubuntu. Love this- look it up.

We depend on us.
We need to be ready and able to work and parent and live.
I think that this book will give me some good ideas and some ways to step up my pep.
The Dr. is wicked cool and will take questions if you have any for him.
I plan on writing a follow up post soon about how I feel and I can post any questions then.
Just shoot me an email.

What do you feel like? What helps you? Yoga? Wheatgrass? meditation? Sleep? Diet? The laugh of yr child? Yr lover? Sunshine?

Daily Spain- coffee view

I try and rise before the boys...Some sanity for at least 30 minutes of my day and coffee is the first thing that happens. I did live next to a Starbucks until it closed last year and that was heaven as I would stumble over in my PJ's and trench coat and grab my needs- but nowadays it is me and my drip coffee standing at the kitchen counter.
I write my to do list and think about my day.
It's funny how quickly something that feels good becomes a habit.
Coffee I love: Peets, Dunkin Donuts, and Jamaican blue mountain!
And Starbucks- iced or an americano...
What about you?
Enjoy some coffee loving over at spain daily

to market to market

IMG_0559, originally uploaded by PEARL MARKET.

It was a great opening for Pearl Market. I had an amazing time meeting all the vendors and learning how the market moves. It is wild and full of life and you can feel it as you turn on Broad St. early in the morning. You walk down the windy alley and it is alive full of those people who make and do. Full of the indie spirit I love so much...
We rode the bus this afternoon and the kids were well past insane by the time we got home and then Blaise exposed my boob to the UPS man as he picked up a package and then my new pal (the adorable reporter) came by to pick up an order and my house nearly swallowed her her up in the squalor that is my downstairs. (hello diapers on the floor and half chewed assorted food in the foyer) I felt defeated for a moment. But then I picked up the phone and ordered a pizza and methodically planned my bubble bath in my head and pretty much everything became just fine.
Oh yeah and I had Kettle Corn today. Hot from the Kettle. Life rules!

I am pulsing with the possibility of a wonderful week.

The things I needed today were:
Large mugs of coffee
Sunshine walks with the boys
And some Shawn Colvin
I got all I wanted.
I am kinetic energy right now.
I am pulsing with the possibility of a wonderful week.
How are you?

Pearl Market and the Market Maven!

OK this post is mostly for my locals- but it is exciting to me and I wanted share!

I am the Market Maven of the Pearl Market this season!
I will be the blogger and citizen journalist for the rocking market!
I will blog here weekly about the amazing vendors and market!
I will bring Little Alouette goodies down to the market through August too!
(my cousin Erin will be there on Fridays!)


I would love love love to see some of you guys there this summer!
Please come by and visit us! I would love to have you for lunch in the booth! xo

MARKET INFO:

We’re located in Pearl Alley next to the Rhodes State office tower, one block north of the Ohio Statehouse. We’re very close to the corner of Broad St. and High St. in Downtown. The Market is bordered by Broad, High, Gay, and Third streets.

There are numerous parking options near the Pearl Market that include garages, surface lots, and parking meters.

Click here for a printable PDF map the area parking facilities. For more detailed information, call 614-645-5061.

---

Dates and Hours:
Every Tuesday and Friday, 10:30 am to 2 pm
May 19 through October 30

It's FRIDAY I'n in LOVE/Inspire Me Series #20

Follow the Bliss...

I wanna tell you about my girl Summer.
She is the mama of Fawn and Forest and I adore her.
I love how two people can never meet in real life but have a great and instant connection on line. We work together great as we have our products in her gorgeous and amazing shop and we have come to be online buddies too!
I love her great attitude to work and family- she is family first and lives life this one!!!
Love her! She inspires me as a mama and a business woman!
She has given us a cool list of 10 things she has learned in ten years....I think it rocks.
check it out here:

10 things I' ve learned in 10 years:


1. How to cook dinner for my family.
Once my first son started to eat, I had desire to cook my family real, whole (organic) food. A real
meal. Currently, my favorite cookbook is Super Natural Cooking and 101cookbooks.com. Also my
subscription to Everyday Food has been indispensable.
2. How to make chocolate chip cookies.
I have made countless batches of failed chocolate chip cookies. Though I still try new recipes,
this is the current winner.
3. How to have good posture.
This one is pending as I still find myself hunched over typing or nursing baby O. I do know that
exercise is key. Get those muscles working for you! My current fav is Tracy Anderson. She kills.
4. How to be funny.
Humor lightens the load. This is why inside jokes were invented. Children are always funny, too.
They say all the right things in wrong ways.
5. How to be aggressive.
If you are not your own biggest fan, nobody else will believe in you and invest their time, money
or insight. I'm fairly certain at this point that I can convince anybody to believe in and get excited
about my ideas.
6. How to throw a fun party.
The most fantastic parties are the ones where everyone feels loved + special.
7. How to be in love
10 years ago I met my husband at art school. He sat down at the table I was sitting at alone on
the 1st day + showed me his tattoo. We were instant best friends and even had every class
together. We briefly dated at the end of the school year. We were engaged by that September
and married in November. While I do not suggest going to art school, I do suggest marrying your
best friend.
8. How to salt food properly.
Growing up my mom never salted the food. I really had to learn how to do this and not be afraid of
salt.
9. How to be content + thankful.
...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and
I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every
situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything
through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:11-13
10. Part ways.
After years of carting around stuff Iʼve learned to harvest my home of clutter and “stuff” that I just
don't need. I always have a donation bag going and have learned not to buy something just
because it's on sale.

Thanks Summer! These are awesome lessons for us all! Thank you for yr time. Please visit one of the coolest shops on the web and check out her blog too!

It's like motherhood. You can never truly describe it. One must experience it.

the great outdoors

and the rain left behind just the hint of something lingering in the air.
It smells like Van Morrison today in Worthington, Ohio.

the great outdoors is over at spain daily

jane, ladybug-zen, ian, bonnie, esti, sophie, cele, modsquad,

caitlin, joyce, ani, couturecoucou, kim, a day that is dessert, natsumi, epe, kaylovesvintage, trinsch, c.t.,jeannette, outi, schanett, ritva, dongdong, francesca, state of bliss, jennifer, dana, denise, cabrizette, bohemia girl, ruth, dianna, isabelle, amber, a girl in the yellow shoes, mister e, janis, kari, jgy, jenna, skymring, elizabeth, audrey, allison, lise, cate, mon, victoria, crescent moon, erin, otli, amy, ida, caroline, lisa, dorte, kimmie, la lune dans le ciel, nicola, malo, vanessa, britta, virgina, april, rebecca, b

love her

"You met me at a very strange time in my life."

Joe and I are getting a new mattress delivered today. I am hopping the kids all up on sugar and DVDS after lunch in a vain attempt to delay napping as I want to nap today too. I want to throw my body down on this pillow top heaven and sleep. I never get a fricking nap. I am carving one out today. Our current mattress is so old that the sateen sticker at the bottom of it is one that has a very 70's sexy broad on it in a chiffon night garment. When I change the sheets she mocks me. She is a reminder that there is always something else that needs purchased and it never gets to be a bed! We are crippled from poor sleep and wander through our days propped up on coffee. Seriously, it's a banner flipping day here.

and just because it is my favorite poem and it is about sleep....

Variation on the Word Sleep


I would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head

and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear

I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center. I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and you enter
it as easily as breathing in

I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.

-Margaret Atwood



title post- Fight Club 1999

The end of the school year GIVEAWAY

Wanna give yr kiddos teacher or any teacher in yr life AN AWESOME gift for the end of the year?
I have a copy of 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny: Life Lessons from Teaching by the delightful Philip Done to give to you!
Actually the amazing author himself will mail you or that teacher a copy this weekend!

This book made me laugh and cry. I love this man. Really. I do. He and I have been emailing for a long time now and his book really grabs you if you have any sort of connection to the education world. It will grab you if yr a parent too. If you have a heart he will open it.
I have had a lot of negativity at times in my life surrounding the state of the education system in America and this books shakes that crud right off and makes me dreamy and idealistic again for what teaching is all about and how learning can be! It makes me miss my school kiddos so much.
His honest and funny book is uplifting without being all Chicken Soup for the soul annoying.
It is the real deal and I am glad that I have it in my library.
I am also glad that I have Philip as a contact now in the world of writing and education.
He's brill!
I think this book should be given at graduation for all teachers. For Realz!
AND he's super nice! He will mail a copy to one lucky reader or teacher!
Just leave a comment and tell me something about yr favorite teacher and I will draw a lucky winner Sat morning!

Oh Mossimo I wrap my arms around you

Target dresses pretty much rock for me.
I only have problems when I forget my own body and pretend I may be someone else.
(Note to self- you are not tiny gorgeous woman like Shim and Sons Sally!-That frock purchased last year is now a house frock for sure)
I like picking out a few summer dresses from Target bc they are cheap and usually wash and wear which make for good travel. My girl Jos agrees with me I see.
I like nicer dresses and I certainly don't want an entire target wardrobe- but I am crushing on my new dress that My friend Michelle (follow her on twitter bc she may rock out a fashion blog soon) made me wear in Florida a couple weeks back.
It was again one of those moments in fashion that you just try- you just listen to yr friends.
I was certain that this style would not suit me.
I guess I was wrong.
My 70's glasses and uber messy hair rocked the neighborhood all day long and some days you just can't help but be cool...
xoxoxo Have a day that you want to remember not to ever forget. It's Joe's birthday and he is so happy. He thought all year he was 37. Nope. Today he is 37. Rock.

working hard

work work work, originally uploaded by turnsharp.

I think I was suffering from some sort of depression from finishing five seasons of The Wire on DVD in less than a month. I love that show. I would burn my eyeballs and watch it late at night. I am rating this show right up there with Six Feet Under. It is on my laminated list of shows that I like to make love to.
Today kinda rocked though- and pulled me from the post traumatic stress of missing McNulty.
We won the etsy baby shower gift contest and we were interviewed for a local newspaper article about our wood toys.
Yeah, the work is hard but super sweet.
I think it is kinda cool that our boys are growing up in a house where they can learn a trade if they like. Sure they can rock it at college and I hope they do- but they can also move to some cool small town and be the hot carpenter perhaps.
They can carve out magic of their own.

And feed them on your dreams

Thank you Mom for all yr hard work in growing this wild woman.
I know that one of the greatest gifts you gave me was the hope for me to find myself.
My true self.
I am still trying and I am closer than ever and your unconditional love has been the upward force that keeps me afloat.
Buoyancy- that's you baby.
Happy Mother's Day.

It's FRIDAY I'n in LOVE/Inspire Me Series #19

Follow the Bliss...

This week I am so happy to talk about the wonderful Schmutzie.
This is what I wrote about her for something last year:

Schmutzie is one of my daily reads. I love her writing and I found her blog last Spring when she had discovered she had cervical cancer. I have been happy to read along with her as she recovered and I was blessed to meet her at BlogHer this summer [July 2008]. She has been so open about her fight and her gift is her writing as she can make you laugh and cry and shake yr head as easily as she steals yr heart.

I pretty much love her. She is interesting and genuine. I think someday she will write a book. I have this daydream where we both write books and they get picked up and we tour the country together. She is sweet and small and I may like to carry her on my back as we tell the world the stories in our heads. She has amazing stories.

She has launched a wonderful movement this year called Grace in Small Things and it rocks. Go there and be filled up.

She says:

Three things that inspire me:
- other creative people
- the early morning dark
- laughter

Three photos I like:
- PHOTO ONE
- PHOTO TWO
- PHOTO THREE

Favourite places on the Internet:
- thebloggess
- shuttersisters
- thesartorialist

Visit her at her beautiful blog and here:
Grace in Small Things, Five Star Friday, Schmoetry, Twitter, and Schmutzie's Reviews.