lunes, 25 de abril de 2011

ride yr way home

I decided to go grocery shopping by bike at dusk and it was so much fun.  It is a wonderful bike very slow and heavy. You just kind of sit comfortably back and it feels like the world is moving along with you.  Kind of a boating feel most of the time..


And since its been winter just riding a bike on the sidewalk again took a little bit of mental activity, planning yr bumps and avoiding trashcans and other sidewalk hazards- many little scooters at cross angles at one house. I had my moment of happy duh-ness where life and concepts intermingle.  I was thinking "it's like a video game!" because it was getting dark, and tricky and things kind of pop up at you. and then I was thinking " no, no! this IS what what video games aproximate/ tap into!"  - reaction time, decisions, swervies and leaning and physical skills etc!  Of course... at this point I had upped my biking video game from "easy" level to "medium"  since I had bought a watermelon of course at the store and decided to put it and other sundries in my big front basket.

frontloading!  So I had a nice slushy feeling to how the bike handled and a wee bit of danger feeling. Also, this bike has pedal backwards brakes- and ... that just feels silly to me, so I tend not to brake with this bike ( slow bike not a problem...) I just put my feet down.  drag it, or just quick hop off. Plus it is fun on little downhill curves to kind of lean over and start hopping ( kind of hopping- bike hopping..) on one foot to slow down. Of course I DO stop with the brakes occasionally,  its just somehow not my preferred way of slowing or stopping on this bike. 

Point being- that not stopping factor was in there with my bike ride along with the watermelon... in the dark... whilst playing swervy with yard objects and trash cans etc. in my path.  I was having so much fun, and thinking " no, I am really NOT going to smash my watermelon tonight. woops..... that was a good bump for the groceries..".  kind of stream of conciousness.


After a while I thought of this blog and just wanted to blare out " Go ride a bike tonight!".    That random advice is so in tune with blog format.....

I was thinking about blogging tonight and how my posts tend to fall into categories:
1. Jessamin's random good advice column.  ( tonight's synopis  " hey its fun to ride bikes!".)
2. weirdo wonderfulness of the world, hidden treasures, little moments of wonder, awe, glee, or oddness.  ex: ( "we saw a duck sitting on a car today.  What a chilled out duck."   ( also happened today)
3. Kid news   ( usually under the category of " hey my kids are cute ( share example) or  " They are REALLY difficult (share struggle) or instrumental in changing me as a person. ( philosophic ramble about parenting and humans follows.)
4. or you feel the urge to share info/ educate.  Kind of like #1 friendly advice colummn but with a pedantic slant.  The occasional deep thoughts that must be shared fit in here nicely too.

I  started blogging because I wanted to use it to motivate myself to do new things and write about them.  I had very specific goals. 1. Lose weight and talk about that process and put pictures up of "the same red dress!" (with me in it).  And do new things and take pictures and write about that and kind of have the blog motivate me to do more new things. So I really envisioned the blog as something for me. But, whenever I write it its really to my mom, sisters and few friends first THEN I am also writing for me.  And the writing for me part is just the satisfaction of phrasing or the keeping on going with thoughts.  That part is definately personally fun.  But as a tool to change my life, this little blog morphed away from that pretty quickly.

hmmm- very writerly musings tonight. I was just thinking do we EVER write just for ourselves.  ?  (besides lists! I mean all other longer forms of writing..)


ooh yeah, I should add the random Minnesota bliss of today to top off this mental delectation I am trying to pass along to the world  ;)       Today's offerings: redwing blackbirds burbling, hearing people point out to their children " look there's still some snow" under a pile of dirt and everybody swiveling to look at  ....  manky dirty SNOW!,  hearing Canada geese honk ( yay,  They're back!),  and chatting with neighbors through the fence.

The tulips are tall. I will still expect the random snow storm to fall on daffodils or crocuses, the firsties, but tulips give me faith.  Bird people are making nests.  Frog noises!  Winter is officially over!

And that's something around here.

yippety doo da, yippety ay, my oh my what a wonderful day...   cricket on yr shoulder.

lunes, 18 de abril de 2011

things the children are thinking about

sorry no photos. our camara has gone to the great camara recycling bin in the sky...

JUNE:  (sitting in the back seat after 5 minutes of silence)  " what if.. what if something... as tiny as my fingernail- just floated into the sky ?"   ( me and Marie : " huh ? like what ?"   Junie :  " what if it was... icecream!  REal icecream, and you could EAT it and it just floated down from the sky".       

me - waiting for more conversation about this but.......  All I heard was a satisfied sigh from the back seat as the two children contemplated this thought of little bits of REAL ice cream floating around the world.


MARIE:  Has learned the art of successful negotiation; and the art of talking about - and explaining shades of gray.  

At the park today when we had to go and I told them- 'time to pack it up kids" Marie worked out an acceptable deal to stay longer.  The conditions were : 1. she couldn't go past the big slide ( we were in a huge park and I wanted to see them).  2. and when it was time to go again in 15 minutes they had to both say ok, and come along nicely no asking for more time and no dilly dallying.  So ! the 15 minutes (really half an hour) run out and time to go, and they both say "ok" sweetly then scurry under the slide to play with sand.  ANd I say "come on, remember yr promise to walk off nicely with me," and walk off.  Children remain in sand...  I say "come on, time to go"  a few more times as I am leaving.   Then, come back saying " I am going to pick you up and carry you, this is not the way we should leave the park.."  and  " I am not very happy that you guys did not keep yr promise". 
        I get there. I pick up Marie telling her I am not happy. She says she'll walk now, and when released walks along nicely. June comes when she sees obedient elder sister.   And.... then, Marie starts putting a SPIN on the situation.  Saying," I was looking for my shoes mommy"  ( to explain why she was not originally walking toward me, which was a nice try but lacking in truth and I tell her so..) And then  " well, mama " she starts in rebuttal to my comment that she failed to keep her promise and I am grouchy about that "well, we halfway kept the promise because we did walk nicely."  ( Me- " after I picked you up, so you didnt come nicely I had to get you". ).
Marie- " well, we kept part of our promise since we walked partway!".  
Me :  " That you did".   
Me " I feel less grouchy now'.

and...........  for some reason on the way home we made a little detour and got creampuffs for all.    shhhhhhh....  :)