optimism

* people-drawing because the teacher told me to ;)

* subject matter provided by the Just Draw It! FB group :) 

carpet

I started this bit of art-ish-tics just to see how I could draw our carpet (using watercolour and coloured pencil, as it turns out). Then I got sucked into drawing the hoover - pun unintentional, but on point ;) And this is where it ended, quite unplanned.

This is not how we coexist in this house! Willing or not, you probably gleaned I'm not always one for letting things go easily (although I'm fervently working on that - really!), or to let sleeping dogs get their much deserved sleep ;)

But we did celebrate 11 years of marriage, last Thursday! At times, dust bunnies take over the house - small & bigger arguments left unresolved overnight, petty grievances unaired, random crap rehashed and chewed again, you know the sort of thing ;) It sure as hell isn't always easy, but then, no one said it would be! But we're still here. And as far as I'm concerned, we're sticking it out!

Happy anniversary, honey :)

fire

I am not a huge rugby fan. & rugby, she's not hot, really, here in the Low Countries. But husband is South African, so I get... contaminated, every now & then ;)

Just this morning, apropos of nothing much, I got this image in my head: a dog lives in the center of the Universe. And it barks and bites. Not a comfortable image to start the day with. For all sorts of reasons, better left undisturbed ;) But then I saw this:



I love watching the All Blacks perform the Haka!! I can't even begin to explain how this sets fire to my insides, so I won't ;) But I've decided to play this for myself, first thing in the morning, for as long as the dog refuses to wag its tail & do a happy dance!

duh

Ever think or write something that makes you say DUH?
I just wrote:

'I'm feeling so minimised by what I put on pedestals...'

There are WORLDS behind that ;-)

truck

In the stormy winds that raged here the past days, some roofing tore loose off a neighbour's dormer. It was hanging quite precariously, so the fire service was called out.
The truck was parked right in front of our house, and if you know anything about Squirt's LOVE for cars, you can imagine this was Da Bomb ;) He pretty much had his nose stuck to the glass the whole time :)

basically

Basically?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrghhhhhh!!!

Moving is hard work. I think everything will be alright. I think the new place will be beautiful when it's finished. I do.

But right now?! It's a shambles. And a roof tile blew off in last Friday's storm. We have water damage, probably - hopefully! - because of it. And for the first time in my life, I can't just call the central number to get it fixed.

So basically? I think it'll all be cool. Soon. But for now? If I weren't so busy getting wall paper stuck to walls, and assorted other stuff, I think I'd be sitting on the floor with my fingers in my ears. Rocking to and fro. Singing lalalalaLALALAAAAA! Obviously, that never helped anyone, but it sure feels good, at times ;)

Do you want to share the last time you really wanted to sit down & sing to shut out the world? Or is everything smooth sailing in your corner? Hope so!

photo challenge: HAPPY

I thought I'd kept the challenge simple. Photograph what makes you happy. Even amidst chaos & mayhem, there are things that make you happy, right? Or, there should be, to keep you grounded. The important thing is, you should never stop looking for things that make you happy, especially while in the jaws of disorder and dust bunnies, both actual and in the form of dislodged bits of settled life.

And I do actually still see the happy! I would be lying on the floor in one big blubbering heap by now if I didn't. Honestly, yes, I am that dramatic in the face of Big Change. But Squirt keeps me firmly planted in the Now, most of the time. I like to think I'm more realistic and practical these days, since becoming a mamma almost 2 years ago. But still. All I ended up with was a photo of a pizza cooked from frozen (with added banana and jalapenos), after a hard day of sorting, discarding, packing, cleaning...

& a bowl of fresh home-made pesto. So apparently, as far as visible records go, my happiness is in food these days! But it isn't, not really. Although it helps, food. Especially the not quite responsible, greasy kind. My happiness is - as always, really - in the small gestures, the funny remarks, the Big Hugs I get at times. The stuff that doesn't photograph well at all. So I emailed Mridula, and told her I was out of the challenge till the move - The Move - is complete, somewhere near the end of November hopefully.

But my creativity isn't locked completely - granted, it's a tangled heap at times, these days, but it's definitely part of what's keeping me sane(-ish, some might argue)!

And also, I think there is nothing wrong with responding to a challenge saying; 'well, there it is. This is the best I can come up with right now.' So, I'm not out! I'm still in! I can't promise to meet exact deadlines at the moment, but I'll be there with what came up, whatever it is, to publish when I can!

Please look at Mridula's post to see how she interpreted the assignment! She came up with the next challenge, SHADOWS, and the deadline is the 8th of November. I'm going to try to make it there :)

meanwhile

I've given in to orange - just a little. Because...
We've reached the finals of the Soccer World Cup 2010!! For the third time in history!! I've been around for all of those, but this is the first time I care ;)
This Sunday, July 11th, we're facing Spain!!

bumps

A couple of weeks ago, I tumbled onto Sara's blog, FULL HANDS. She writes about incorporating bicycling into her daily family life. Reading and clicking around a little, I got the impression that cycling is pretty much an alternative lifestyle to many Americans, and there seems to be a thriving community of people on bikes connecting through blogs!
Pretty cool to read about, and at the same time so alien to me! Over here, in this flat little frog country, everyone (apart from the newest immigrants) learns to ride a bike early on, and most of us stick with it throughout life. In many instances, it's much easier to grab the bike than to go by car, and this country is geared to cyclists - to the extreme! You'll find bike lanes and separate paths almost everywhere, and riding a bike is - pretty much - as safe as walking the sidewalk (I guess I have to add that walking is quite safe here, too).
Now I'm an oddity in my own right for not knowing how to drive a car - but that's a different story :-)

On Sara's blog, I read this post. It's not so much about riding a bicycle, although the author of the excerpt - Joe Kurmaskie - is taking cycling to a whole nother level, even for a weathered Dutch girl like me! But what he writes about raising children, exposing them to the elements, so to speak - that is so true, and really touched something!
There is no way for children, or adults for that matter, to experience only the good. To protect yourself and the people you love from all possible mishap means you'll miss a lot of beauty, too. Besides, there is no way to stop bad things from happening altogether...

When I read that post, my punchline was going to be about Squirt taking a nosedive over the side of the couch, and quite possiby swallowing my nose stud. As you do. About how I didn't imagine Kurmaskie was talking about those particular life experiences, per se.

And then, life happened a little, again, and the post didn't get written. Until today. When Squirt fell down the stairs; backwards to start off with. Top to bottom, hitting all 13 steps on the way down. Ending up with two bumps, bruises and a friction burn on his forehead and chin... And thank the little angel on his shoulder, that was all. Well, that and a severely shocked mamma. Who can't get over how unbelievably stupid it was not to close the perfectly fine baby gate for whatever, whatever reason! And who really doesn't want to think about how much worse this could have been...

Resulting in the - not so much punchline, more like stern warning that there is a lot to be said for experience and against overprotection, and I agree. But not taking basic measures to prevent calamity from happening is plain stupid. No one can argue with that!

Okay. That wasn't funny. At all. I'm going to get me a cup of coffee and try to get the shakes to stop! Squirt was checked over by a doctor and pronounced 'fine'. He's sleeping off his own hangover of sorts - probably deciding when it might be safe to trust the female parental unit again... ;-)

greens

Brussels sprouts for dinner. Just to see.

The smell of childhood indignation, despite the garlic.
The taste of remembered frustration in the face of vegetable injustice.

Not a good way to end any day.
I still say "No!" to Brussels sprouts. And stamp my feet!
And feel very lucky for not being forced to eat as many as my age this time around ;-)

Squirt ate more than his fair share without protest. He even seemed to like it! Funny kid. Taste is not genetic, but food unfairness might be. No Brussels sprouts for my kid. Ever (again).

"Mom, why don't we ever eat Brussels sprouts?"
"Because we DON'T, in this house - go wash your mouth out!"
"But MOM! That's not FAIR!" (stamping feet stomping off)

Mamma's vegetable revenge could just end up being Squirt's injustice in reverse!

chowder

The first - amazingly intense - week of my four-week e-course Inside Out by Shannon is over. To be accurate, the second week started today. But I'm still dealing with the fallout from week one. No small matter.

Remember what I said about anticipation? I've come to realise what it means and why I do it. It feels good: anticipation. Like the world could very well be your oyster! All you have to do is: get up & get it!
Which is where I'm stuck. Right before 'getting up'. Scared the oyster is just a mirage. Or it really is a bad clam & gives you acid. Or you can't open it. Or you can, but find out you don't actually like oysters. See, I don't know this. I never tried one... OR, you get up & get it, you paint it really nicely and hang it as a decoration and it starts to smell, after a while!
As long as you just anticipate - enjoy the idea of it & what you could do with it if you decided to act on your desire - you're safe. Nothing ventured? Nothing spoiled!
'Nothing gained, either', you say? True, I suppose. But who really wants a smelly painted oyster taking up wallspace?!

See, this is why I need to do this course! I like safe. But I also feel a really deep need to find out if it could work, me & oysters. Find life-changing revelations, or simply for future reference.

Here's to week two!

enough

This is the photo I took of Squirt, right before we turned around & headed back to the car on our walk last Friday.

"Listen, guys, thank you for bringing me outside. I honestly appreciate it! But now I'm cold, I'm tired, and I really think this was enough fresh air for one day. Can we go home now? Please?"

wonder week

From Monday through to Wednesday? Not so great. Squirt was so obviously not himself. Yes, we'd both had colds, and no, Squirt still isn't totally over his, still coughing (when I prompt him, so cute!) and leaking from all orifices, but that really wasn't all that was plaguing him.

He was playing with his food, refusing to drink, suddenly off tomatoes ("bah!"); he was driving his cars all over the coffee table, pushing them off on purpose - refusing to pick them up himself, crying till I did it, and then start the whole sordid game again; he was frustrated whenever he found a toy upside-down; didn't want his diapers changed; cried in the shower; he was naughty x 2 - playing with the potted plants, not listening to my protests till I reached my 3-warnings-quota and plucked him away from the mess he made, which made him cry and do it all over again - of course; no sleeping at nap time; crying; waking up at night, multiple times, crying, refusing to go back to sleep; crying... The list is longer, but I'm guessing this will do ;-)

I got so tired of it. Only intermittently successfully not showing it. At some stage I pulled back into the kitchen, telling Squirt Mamma had 'gone fishing'. For a bit. In the sink. Or something. Anything to reclaim my nurturing side.

Till the penny dropped. This has happened before; whenever Squirt 'plays up' (baby/toddler-style) for more than 48 hours, it hits me. I've got this book. A book I certainly don't use as a Be All & End All, but one still pretty handy to have lying around. Whenever I think something unusual is up. And I'm always dead-on. Which means, of course, the book is. Really. Or at least, the book is right, too ;-)

It's a book by Frans Plooij & Hetty van de Rijt, and it has been around for centuries. At least. I would translate its title ('Oei, ik groei!') to 'Wow, I'm growing!'. I get that that might be too literal, but it sure ain't worse than its current English title 'The Wonder Weeks'. Which is lame.

But that aside, this book is good! Not because of its patronising tone, so much - jewels like this one: "But Mother doesn't mind that the child is crying, because she knows something amazing is going on in her little one's head!" (not quite literally, but along similar lines) pop up every so often. But all condescendence aside, it's true! As soon as I realise Squirt is taking one of his 'Predictable, Age-Linked Leaps in Mental Development (Characterized By The Three C'S (Crying, Cranky, Clingy), A Change In Perception, And The Development Of New Skills)', all is fine with our little world again! I don't need to read the whole chapter; I'm amazed at Squirt's development on a daily basis! But it puts the whole episode into perspective again.

And the funny thing is, as soon as I've uncovered what's going on, Squirt is back to his happy, funny, cute & cuddly self again! I'm not sure whether that is because I'm so slow - finally grabbing the book when he's worked through the whole mess all on his own - or because I relax once the 'problem' is identified, but we're having fun again! Anyway, since the book is talking in terms of weeks, and Squirt is always pretty much back on track within around 72 hours, we're not doing that badly!

So. Momma put the fishing rod & tackle box away again. Only one leap left in the book, but I'll try my darndest to read through it before the need to go fishing arises again :-D


N.B. The Dutch version talks about 10 distinct leaps, the English version only explains 8. Either Dutch kids are amazingly slow, or we develop beyond everyone else. I think it's the latter. But then, I would ;-)

tomato

Squirt eats a tomato with his lunch every day. He loves them. But to be honest, he's not that fussy about food in general. Yet. I'm knocking on unvarnished wood here, like mad.

Yesterday, I gave him a couple of Pure & Honest brand cherry tomatoes. To be fair, they were really good! No cheating, ingredient-wise, when it comes to tomatoes. Squirt was chew-suck-chewing quite seriously. Not a smile to be coaxed from him. He was looking at me accusingly the whole time.

I swear he was thinking, in so many words: "Where have you been hiding this good stuff all of my life?!"

tall tales

Squirt is a very talkative little man. He babble-babble-babbles away, and he's not shy about it either! This past week, at least three passing strangers asked him what he was trying to say. I told them that I would very much like to know, too. But that was form. I didn't want them to feel silly about not understanding. It's all a matter of being plugged in, you know! Yesterday afternoon, for example, he told me he loved the new Moke CD (The Long & Dangerous Sea), but wasn't too sure about Muse (The Resistance).
You're thinking that's all just projection? Not true. I liked both CDs on first play.

homely

I'm drinking lemon scented tea... I'm wearing a scarf! And eventhough it is freezing outside, I'm enjoying the tea, and the scarf is - horror! - purely for decorational purposes!
OMG! I'm turning into an actual, real-life mother!

sheer brilliance

Just now, Baby Boy said "hé dikke!" ('hey, fatso').
Either that, or he said "Heidegger".
I'm going with 'Heidegger'. I'm calling it early-onset genius.

aftermath

Baby Boy was here!

cold

From watching too many Detectives, Thrillers, and other edifying death-related television shows, you get the feeling only dead bodies spend time in the morgue... Not so: Michael Jackson did, too. He was buried last night. That means he spent the past 11 weeks in one of those drawers.
That really does send shivers down my spine!

(Don't even get me started on burials. I saw 'Return of the Living Dead' at a way-too-tender age - I was 10, I think - and have never gotten over it, really...)

monster

I finally found out what this is. And it's a bit of an anti-climax.
My parents have an ancient paper encyclopaedia. And under 'beetles', there it is. Apparently, it's so common, that it features in the only picture accompanying the beetle-entry, comprising about 15 drawings of beetle species (considering that 30-40% of all insects are beetles, that's not a lot). Now that I know what it is, I have googled it. It is said to be so wide-spread in European gardens, that I can't believe no one I showed it to has ever seen one before! It's not like it's tiny to the naked eye or something. The encyclopaedia is rather exact about it; it measures 2.9 cm. But hey, that was back in 1975 (as I said, the encyclopaedia is ancient). I'm pretty sure this one - and the one that passed through Tuesday a week ago, because once you see one, apparently, you see all! - was much bigger. At least, and I say at least, 3.1 cm.

It's a devil's coach horse beetle. Which does juice up my imagination. More so than its Dutch name, which is, literally translated, the smelly short-shield beetle. It's not poisonous, but its bite can be painful. Poor Baby Boy...

& did he learn a valuable lesson? No, he didn't. This is him trying to lift the glass off last week's visitor (before you worry, my hand is firmly on top of the glass, taking the picture with the other hand, doing what a mother does best: multitasking!).

Anyway. Mystery solved!