Across the water a great blue heron hunted, apart from the four Sandhill cranes. They watched our paddle lift and fall still, lift and still. We drifted and the heron watched. The cranes returned to their own business. A kingfisher chattered. Our bellies grumbled quietly, as we too thought to seek our own dinners. A swallow caught its prey overhead ( Read more... )

Early morning -- R and I got up because we were awake at 4-Mo wake us with a sleepy request for hug, after which he fell back asleep but we didn't. Though we'd gone to sleep before 10, maybe as early as 9 or so. Wow.  So we watched an episode of Life together. R went to work (early shift this week). I made A's lunch, now writing these notes to all ( Read more... )

OK, so Art on Main has an annual Community Art Show for ages 2-whenever. Sliding in under the deadline, Mojo and I both brought 2 pictures down for the show. I matted "Unexpected", and framed three of the WeatherWomen together. Mo has "Flower Shooter" and "Sunshine", in mixed media and marker, respectively. (Mixed would be "marker plus stickers ( Read more... )

• 10:46 M is writing to the Easter Bunny to tell him where we will be on Easter.
• 12:21 Ah, h***, now A has a fever.

• 12:24 Ack. M now has the 24-hour stomach bug (I had it this weekend; both grandmas had it before that). Hoping A + R don't get it.

• 07:05 Underground Coal fire: www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Bright-Green/2010/0205/Centralia-Pa.-How-an-underground-coal-fire-erased-a-town
• 07:36 Mo before breakfast, clearly tired, *insists* he wants to help Dad snowblow, + worries Dad will finish before M gets dressed. He's out, now.
• 11:02 Can't get to a real train soon, so... www.google.ru/intl/ ( Read more... )

• 19:20 M on the edge of sick, so I also went to ECHO with him, AuntE. Ripton and dog care after. Not so productive, but I think the right choice.

Explanation: I wanted to work, but didn't think it was OK to send a possibly semi-sick kid out and about without making sure we could haul him home in the event of meltdowns. I wanted only me to be ( Read more... )

• 16:27 Took M swimming today (way fun!) and now am illustrating two bookmarks for the Birds of Vermont Museum (interruptedly).
• 17:28 I bought one of these organic cotton Ts for M, and love the feel of it. www.cafepress.com/whimsicaldreams?s=whimsicaldreams&type=261

• 07:37 Friday is Kid Day: Pint-sized science? Housekeeping? Trip to KidsTown (M has birthday gift card)? Silly M is making smiley faces at A...

Pint-sized science is a program at ECHO ( http://www.echovermont.org/events/3_6yo.html ). KidsTown is a store. Just wasn't sure ( Read more... )

• 15:32 My almost-5-year-old was poking around www.allaboutbirds.org/ and watching birding vids just now. Nice change! Go Mo! :)

The difference here is not-Blue's Clues and not-Wired Science on Hulu.com. On the whole, I am not really worried about Mo's inputs. Sometimes I am a lazy parent to be sure, and there's too much of the media and not enough ( Read more... )