minding the unruly: summer vacation

Dear Melissa,

Today is the first day of summer vacation for us, which feels crazy as I am right now typing wearing a coat. I love summer vacation but am also filled with a tiny bit of dread, considering the many hours to fill with hopefully constructive and happy play. Here's a small list of easy, creative, and time-consuming (for the kids, not the mom) activities that I compiled for a recent Enrichment night at church. I would LOVE to hear other ideas, please please please!

-PLAY DOCTOR & MAKE CASTS. requires: 2(+) kids, 1 roll of toilet paper + 1 squirt bottle with water.

This was a consistent crowd pleaser with me and my siblings growing up - we spent hours casting each other's limbs. Bonus points for coming up with awesome stories about how the fake injuries occurred.

how: have your young doctor wrap a layer of toilet paper around the victim’s pretend broken limb, i.e., arm or leg. Then have the doctor squirt water on the toilet paper to make it stick. The more layers, the more time this game will take. I encourage very thick casts. Do this outside.

-SCRIBBLE ART. requires: 1 piece of paper, a few markers.

how: using a black or dark marker, make a crazy big scribble on a piece of paper. Then have your child color in the scribble using different colors. It will look like stained glass if they ever finish. (this is best for advanced color-ers – like ages 4+)

-MAKE A FAIRY GARDEN. requires: 1 patch of dirt, 1 stick.

how: explain to your child that there are fairies who fly around looking for nice places to sleep at night. Impress upon them the need to help make a spot just right for a fairy, and have them beautify the dirt patch for a potential fairy landing with grass, little weeds or flowers, etc.

-Along those same lines, you could introduce your kids to the british artist Andy Goldsworthy, and have them make their own art installation in your backyard with the things they find (and maybe some beans from you :) )

-LISTEN TO “Peter & the Wolf” (we like the David Bowie version. $9.99 on itunes. Totally worth it when you need a break but don’t want to turn on the TV)

-MAKE A MINI BOOK. requires: 1 piece of paper, a pencil.

how: instructions can be found here. We’ve used these in school projects, for Christmas cards, and during many a church meeting. Even if your kids aren’t old enough to do the folding themselves, they will have fun filling a little book with pictures or words to songs or whatever.

-MAKE A FIELD GUIDE TO THE BACKYARD (older kids) requires: paper, pencil, colored pencils, & a nature book or the internet to help identify leaves & plants.

How: send your kids out into the yard to collect specimens of your flora. Then have them draw, describe, and properly label them. Staple them together at top, or fold in half and staple on fold, for a simple book.

-MAKE SIMPLE PAPER DOLLS WITH FABRIC SCRAPS requires: 1 piece paper, some teensy scraps of fabric or colorful paper & a pen. Idea from Joel Henrique’s great upcoming book MADE TO PLAY, instructions can be found here.

-Work through the lessons in Sewing School, a fantastic guide to teaching little ones how to sew (I love, love, love this book! The instructions are super clear, and the projects are really fun).

-Have them brush up on their knowledge of current events by reading kid-appropriate news on Here There Everywhere, a great website edited by a mother and former producer of the Today Show.

-And finally, look for opportunities for your kids to serve in your community. Even little things like helping neighbors carry in groceries, secretly dropping off a little bouquet of flowers on someone's doorstep, or covertly make their sister's bed, hopefully help them to become better and happier little people, right?

-a few other great resources: made by joel, the crafty crow, deep space sparkle (great art projects)

Dear Melissa,

Last Friday our contractor Jim finished up our kitchen. Hip hip hooray - it's been five months since our big leak and subsequent kitchen tear-out, but I am happy to report that it's been well worth the wait. I'm pleased with how everything came together and in the end, I kind of feel lucky to have had the leak even though at the time it was excruciating.

Let me take you on the grand tour...

(Do you like my Tolix knock-off stools? I bought them on overstock, $80 for the pair). It was too hard to justify getting the real thing once I saw these).

Our kitchen previously had standard brown wood cabinets. The white really brightens up the kitchen, and I love how our contractor shaped the bases. They kind of look like furniture to me.

After a friend gave me a heads-up, we paid a bit more to have a special finish put on the cabinets that makes the finish more durable (it's kind of like a coat of laminate). I'd recommend a process like this for anyone going with white. They are really easy to clean. My mom recommended to have the hinges put on the outsides so you can see the edges, and I'm glad we did - that's a detail that I totally would not thought of.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that white painted cabinetry is less expensive than wood (not that white isn't wood, but it is paint grade). With that difference, we were able to upgrade other things, like our faucet, sink, and fixtures (We ended up buying both the sink and the faucet from an online retailer, quality bath. Their customer service was fantastic - the sales representative on the phone took a lot of time making sure the faucet's neck was the right measurement for our sink, and everything came in the promised time frame carefully packaged. And they had the best prices, too). The faucet is by Rowe and is so much sturdier than what we previously had - I feel like it will last forever.

We chose soapstone for our countertop. I love how matte it is, and also the pretty veins that run through it. Anyone considering soapstone should know that while the surface of the stone is extremely impermeable, it is relatively soft and will get small scratches and knicks. I don't mind this at all; in fact it is one of the things that appeals to me about it (I want my suburban home to feel old). We've been told that most of the marks that will inevitably happen can mostly be sanded or oiled out. Another interesting thing about soapstone is that when it is installed, it's a light cement gray. You can either leave it like that, or give it a coat of mineral oil. We oiled ours (although I like the gray, too), and have been told that we should probably continue to oil it every couple of weeks for the first six months or so to maintain the matte black.

pick up your brush

oil on canvas

minding the flock: aarg!

Dear Melissa,

That "aarg" is my very weak tiger roar because I just finished reading Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The book is totally good. I really liked it, and ended up with a lot of respect for the author, Amy Chua, and think that her girls are lucky to have a mother who loves them so much, and who is so incredibly not-lazy. (And, she's really funny).

That being said, I don't think my goal in the end is to be a tiger mother. I think I'd rather be a cricket mother. What on earth do you mean, Lynne? you may be asking. I will try and explain and if you are not in it for the long haul, perhaps you should click away right now, because I have been thinking a lot about this and it will take me the long way around to explain. When I was growing up I loved listening to the crickets at night. I remember laying on a bed of itchy grass wearing my yellow terry-cloth shorts jumpsuit and light blue holly hobby polyester knee socks, feeling like the queen of the world hearing that vibrating chorus and watching the fireflies blink away while the stars popped out of the night sky. On those nights I had the feeling that all was possible: I might be a brilliant novelist, or an amazing artist, or...the dream most cherished of all...a mysterious and beautiful CIA agent, code name Samantha.

I kind of think that John Steinbeck was writing about times like this in East of Eden, when he talked about the "glory" (have you gotten to this part yet? It's on page 131 in my copy, and he says it better than I could explain):

"Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man. It happens to nearly everyone. You can feel it growing or preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite. It is a feeling in the stomach, a delight of the nerves, of the forearms. The skin tastes the air, and every deep-drawn breath is sweet. Its beginning has the pleasure of a great stretching yawn; it flashes in the brain and the whole world glows outside your eyes. A man may have lived all of his life in the gray, and the land and trees of him dark and somber. The events, even the important ones, may have trooped by faceless and pale. And then - the glory - so that a cricket song sweetens his years, the smell of the earth rises chanting to his nose, and dappling light under a tree blesses his eyes. Then a man pours outward, a torrent of him, and yet he is not diminished. And I guess a man's importance in the world can be measured by the quality and number of his glories. It is a lonely thing but it relates us to the world. It is the mother of all creativeness, and it sets each man separate from all other men."

What does this has to do with cricket mother? I think my point is kind of that I want my kids to have enough ROOM for spontaneous magic in their lives. Hard work is definitely part of the equation of opportunity - and hard work takes a lot of time (and to be practical if you've ever been around a seven year old trying to learn a stringed instrument or their times tables, a good deal of parental involvement or else it just won't happen, period) - but then I think you need to step back a little and just let them...be, you know? Like, let your child wander to the piano, figure out for an hour how to play "The Eye of the Tiger," and connect with the universe when he or she succeeds. Wasted time? I don't think so. That feeling of connection - the process of lighting up with yourself - those moments, like Steinbeck said, are what make life zingy and exciting - and then give you the momentum to propel yourself forward in your life, to engage with life. To watch your daughter head into the bathroom where she has discovered the acoustics to be amazing, and sing in a crazy falsetto voice all of the Christmas carols she knows and then emerge flushed with the conviction that she just loves to sing... we are not headed to Carnegie Hall, perhaps, or not even to the school talent show (a painful conversation), but an AWESOME afternoon.

Probably this doesn't quite make sense (I am on a lot of allergy medicine, after all, which doesn't seem to help my love of run-on sentences) - but long live crickets! And keep reading East of Eden - I can't wait to talk about why Cathy eats chalk.

xo

Lynne

study a bit

(this is a pretty book. the photos in this post are completely unrelated to the content of the post. this is called multi-tasking, of which I am a master.)

Dear Melissa,

Now that we have conquered Macbeth (anyone else out there want to weigh in on it? Last chance! I thought your post about the letter moment was really thought-provoking, and much deeper than my analysis, which was simply that Lady Macbeth was a complete sociopath, and you shouldn't kill people or else you will ruin your life) I think we should move on to our next book.

dum dum dum...

East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

I've started and I feel like it's the perfect book for me to read right now at the beginning of our hot California summer. I have read this book before, but I was only 19 and since then I completely forgot it, so I don't think it counts.

So far I love Steinbeck's portrait-like approach. Adam and Charles...beloved Samuel and Lee...and of course Cathy who is totally fascinating in her chalk-eating evilness. It makes me think that a good painting project to go along with this book would be a portrait of some kind. I'm really bad at painting people so I look forward to learning some new stuff.

(I wish I had a wall of family portraits like this)

(but most of all a room like this, covered in butterflies)

Love,

Lynne

wearing today...

Dear Melissa,

(Or, should I say, bonjour, Melissa with my adorable fake french accent?) I've been taking to heart the excellent advice received and have been wearing scarves a lot more. And, earrings, and sometimes even bracelets and necklaces. I am making progress and felt obliged to report.

Here I am, ho hum, just a normal Monday morning, fresh from the market where I am proud to report that I bought a few different varieties of fromage which I will probably stress eat by myself in the afternoons whilst the children do their homework, practice instruments, beg for play-dates, and fight.

Here are my shoes. They are my favorites (can you tell?), my Ugg clogs. I like that they have a little bit of a heel because I am short. I mean, petite. Yet they are comfy. I am still working on finding those perfect ballet flats that don't make my petite legs look stubby. (Does anyone else have that problem?)

Here is my post-market look, which means, without the sweater (I get cold there). Please pardon the skee-wompus photographs, they were taken by a four year old. Who encouraged me to model in my "fake book reading pose" for most of the pictures. I was very interested in that book with and without the sweater, can you tell?

Really you should go look at these great hair tutorials on Cup of Jo, they are fantastic. I love the three mini buns one the very most. Oh, but the messy bun one is great too.

Kisses,

Lynne

(sweater, Anthropologie, courtesy of my very chic sister Katie; shirt dress H&M; belt, Target; scarf, Banana Republic; leggings, Madewell)

Dear Melissa,

Would you like to see our dining room, post-leak?

(For those of you who are reading who don't know, we had a leak in the beginning of January from our kitchen, which ruined our floors, kitchen cabinets, drywall, and dining room bookcase. Slowly, slowly, slowly things have been put back together).

(Our previous built-in was brown, with large cabinets on the bottom. This time (and hopefully our last time!) we opted to go white, and have all the shelves be uniformly sized bookshelves.

Steve surprised me with this chandelier I've been looking at for years for Valentine's Day. So romantic.)

I love all things John Robshaw, but unfortunately all things John Robshaw are pretty much out of my budget because I plan on sending my children to college one day. So I applied the techniques explained in Lena Corwin's excellent book and made my own block print shade for the window. Can you see it? It is supposed to look a little bit like these gorgeous-maybe-one-day fabrics.

Grand total for my curtain project (I sewed together some old sheers that had been languishing in the back of my linen closet for a couple of years - and now that I look at the picture I maybe should have done a better job ironing them) - $4.95 for the small bottle of block printing ink. Success!

We're still finishing up the kitchen but hopefully in the next two weeks that will be done and I can use the kitchen sink and disposal again. What a luxury it will be to no longer spend long amounts of time fishing soggy cheerios out of cereal bowls before I can wash them!

xo,

Lynne

Lady Macbeth alone with a letter

Dear Lynne:

The climax of Macbeth, for me, is act 1, scene V with Lady Macbeth "alone with a letter"--that cursed letter that will cause her ruin. It's still quite early on in the play. Some may feel that the climax doesn't come until later, when the murders are actually being committed. But for me, I feel the climax occurs right in this room in Macbeth's castle, in this cozy, intimate scene of Lady Macbeth reading this damning letter. This is the decisive moment. How she reacts to this will determine her fate. It seems that broad sweeping changes often occur in little quiet decisions, whose consequences become vast. Thus I see this letter as decisive, as it was for Bathsheba (whom you will recognize in these paintings, dear art historian sister-in-law Lynne.)

I think these Bathsheba paintings could easily have been of Lady Macbeth. The lack of clothing simply magnifies the starkness of her situation: she is completely denuded, detached form time and place, a human being in all her rawness exerting her force on the universe.

Rembrandt captures to perfection the look of forboding in Bathsheba's face: this small moment, this simple gesture will have monumental consequences and make her one of the femmes fatales par excellence. It's those hinge moments, upon which history turns, which are so monumental. The reading of the letter from Macbeth is one such hinge moment in this play.

Don't you find the second Bathsheba painting particularly stunning? We saw both of these paintings in our recent trip to Paris at the Louvre. The Willem Drost Bathsheba was hanging a few feet to the left of Rembrandt's painting. I think my husband (your brother) certainly liked it. I think that's what he's staring at so admiringly...

I look forward to hearing your insights on Macbeth.

Melissa