We went to Nardelli's this evening. As soon as we walked in, Norah tensed up. "Can I see the menu? What are you going to get me? Can I help you choose? Can I go up there with you to order?" She fired these questions at me so quickly and she was so anxious to get something good to eat, she was hopping from one foot to another.

What Norah didn't realize is that I was already holding her meal in my hand, pulling her dinner out of the bag it was in, actually, as she asked these questions, too quickly for me to get a word in edgewise. It was her favorite meal, too; a hotdog from Frankies that we had ordered and picked up five minutes before on the way to Nardelli's. (She had had her head in a book reading on the way, so I guess she didn't notice we stopped at Frankies or she had forgotten about it by the time we got to Nardelli's.)

Anyway, her dad and I knew there was nothing on the menu at Nardelli's that she would like to eat, so we got her the hot dog and then went to Nardelli's for ourselves. Looking into her anxious, little eyes, I told Norah, "Norah, We love you. We know what you like. Your dad and I have already taken care of you. And, you should know we will take care of you by now..." As I said that last bit, I realized something about God...

He loves us. He knows us. He is taking care of us. And, perhaps more than anything, we should know this by now.

I thought of my dad today, felt bad for forgetting my promise to him to put pictures of my kids on here everyday, so grabbed my camera and took some candid snapshots of the girls. I tried not to worry about how neat and tidy the shots were.

Norah happened to be doing handwriting at the time. I told her, "Smile for Grandad."

Avril was watching a movie on Norah's computer. She had climbed up on Norah's bed and was sitting on the edge of it. (Norah sheets were in the washing machine/ dryer.)

It was a gorgeous summer day, but I didn't feel like being outside. I made good use of the afternoon in another way, by mending Norah's quilt and quilted pillow sham. Several of the patches have been pulling apart and this has been happening, with some of the patches, for at least a few years now.


The way I mended her quilt was incorrect, technically... I was supposed to use a seam ripper to pull all the layers of the quilt apart and then mend the particular patches from underneath and then re-assemble the whole quilt again to make it look just like new, but that was way too tedious. So, I just tucked the edges of the offending patches under, held them together tightly and sewed them up.


If you look closely, you can see just how incorrect my way of mending really is. But, I don't mind having a patch work quilt that looks a little more rugged. Patch work quilts, like kitchen table tops, can look even better with imperfections, I think. I am just glad Norah's quilt is in one piece again. When I presented it to Norah and she saw the difference I had made, she was genuinely impressed and just showered me with praise and thanks.

My soul is a dancer.
I've seen her.
He's made her lithe
and graceful,
fearfully beautiful.
She dances now
while I worship
or pray.
And one day
after I am old and gray,
I'll dance with her
through the streets of heaven
in the courts of my king.
But, until then I'll worship
and pray
and practice new dances
to dance with her on that day.

-Veronica Boulden

I took Norah to see an adaptation of The Jungle Book at Library Park in downtown Waterbury.

This was her first live play and she was a little embarrassed when the actors came toward her in character, but she settled into it all after several minutes.

She posed for a picture with the cast afterward.

On the way to the Jeep she said, "They were really good, really confident. I mean, they just kept going and going and they didn't have to say, 'Um.' even once!" and she also said, "I really liked it. I think I'd like to see it again."

The pool at Washington Park opened today. I took Norah swimming there for an hour or so this afternoon.

The crowds weren't too big since it had been raining earlier in the day. Norah made fast friends with two other little girls and they played by racing each other swimming, jumping in at the same time, seeing who could jump the farthest, who could swim the farthest in one breath...

I loved playing at the public pool in the summers when I was a kid. I have the best memories from those days. I was happy that I could watch my kid doing the same thing.

We'll go back soon, definitely.

I keep this and a few other "how-to" type books with Norah's art supplies.


The other day, Norah brought me this book and asked if she could paint this parrot. I said, "Yes. But if you really want to paint a parrot that looks like this parrot, you know that you have to follow the directions." To this, she cringed a little. I told her, "You should follow them at least once... until you have some real experience and you are sure you can paint a parrot... Once you've done it once their way, you will probably come up with another way to do it." To this, she brightened.


Note: Up to this point, Norah has told me she wants to paint this or that... but once she is confronted with paint and an empty page, she has never had the patience necessary to draw the picture in her head before painting it and if she draws it, she will paint everything so fast that her colors blend and the whole thing becomes a brown-grey mess. This has always been frustrating to her.

She had to draw the parrot a few times before it was the one she wanted. Then she had to paint one color, wait for it to dry, go back, mix paints and paint more colors and then wait for those to dry, etc. It took her three days to do this project. But, she followed directions and did this entirely on her own. I only helped to keep her space neat. I am very proud of the patience she showed. I think she's learned the important lesson that some projects take longer than one day to complete, but they are worth the wait.

Norah's participating in our library's reading program again this summer.

I saw another Camp Wanna-Huga-Squirrel billboard on Meriden Road today! Norah's going to this. I am going to volunteer (if they'll have me.) Are your kids signed up yet?

Norah did a narration of the Magic Tree House book Knight at Dawn today. I wrote down her words as she retold the story and I'll type it out and print it some other day. (It's really long.)


Next, Norah drew a scene from the story using a book I bought her at the thrift store 1-2-3 Draw: Knights, Castles and Dragons. This helped her draw the knight on horseback and the castle. She was thrilled to be able to draw the pictures in her head.


Knight at Dawn is one of almost thirty Magic Tree House books that Norah has collected and the she reads over and over and over again. I am thinking of asking Norah is she wants to make a "collection" of these "book reports." She could do a narration of each story, draw a scene from each one and collect all her work in a binder. If we end up doing this, I'll take pictures of Norah's work and let you see how the collection goes.

I asked, "Where's your belly??" She found it...

then she showed me where it is.

Norah's still doing her "The best part of today..." book. Yesterday's entry read, "I liked going to the park with Jack and Sophie."

Norah built the first problem on her math assignment with her Math U See blocks, but as she progressed through the lesson, I noticed that she wasn't changing those blocks and she still managed to solve all the problems on her page. I asked her to show me how she was doing it. She struggled to explain it on her own but with some coaching from me, she shows you in the video how she can use the same few blocks to solve all the different problems.

Avril watches Toy Story on Norah's computer before bed.

"Melon! What did the gods ever invent that was better than a melon, eh? Except two melons..."

-A quote from the character Siduri in "Gilgamesh the Hero" by Geraldine McCaughrean

I have a very distinct memory of being with my fifth grade class on a field trip to the library that was located inside our school. I had never been to the library in my school before that day because I came on the bus in the morning and left school with the buses after school and I had never been given permission to visit the library at any other times during the school days.

My class was herded in. The librarian seemed highly irritated with us. (I think we might have been highly irritating back then, though.) She shushed us constantly and she tried to lecture us on how to use the card catalog (we used real cards in drawers back then), where to find the fiction and non-fiction books, (what fiction and non-fiction meant to begin with), etc. Then, she said that we were allowed to look for one book to check out and... to take home! I couldn't believe it! I was thrilled! That was the first time I had ever been able to check out a book of my own choice!! I was so interested in books, those glorious, mysterious things...

I was inspired by that library. I liked the sun beaming through the windows, so many windows, all of them with wide window sills big enough for you to sit on, the spotless, cheerful carpets all over the floors, the private study spots everywhere, the broad, clean tables, and most of all, the cozy, funky chairs that sat on the floor just inviting you to sit down with a book. I had never seen chairs like those before. I decided that's where I was going to sit once I chose my book...

I was confused that day, however, because I had a hard time using reading in the real world: reading the words in the card catalog, finding the right section of the library from the signs, looking for the books in alphabetical order, etc. All the confusion was humiliating, but I kept that to myself.

I ended up choosing a book that had a nice cover. I got in the long line to check it out, waited and waited and waited and as each kid ahead of me went through the line, listened to more lectures about the importance of bringing books back on time, taking care of them, etc.

But, when I was finally through the line and free, I found one of those cozy chairs on the floor. I was thrilled that one of those chairs was still open because the line had taken me so long. This was going to be great! I just knew I would love this reading thing. I had seen other people doing it. I read with my reading group everyday, but this was so different. I opened the book and started to try and understand what I was looking at when the teacher yelled,

"Times up! It's time to go back to class!"

I was devastated. (I'm not exaggerating.) I was devastated, heart broken, angry, frustrated, so frustrated that I started to cry. I think I might have protested to the librarian and to my teacher, but any argument I managed to utter before being silenced was dismissed and rebuked as rebellion. Of course an immature fifth grader wanted "...nothing more than to waste more class time reading," etc. etc.

I have never forgotten that experience. I couldn't articulate what I thought was wrong with my world back then, but I am glad I have the time and freedom and ability to express myself about it now. So, with all that in mind, you can imagine the joy that I felt today when I came walking around some book shelves and saw my daughter in a funky library chair, reading the second book of her choice since the time we had arrived at the library. (Insert a deep, satisfying sigh of relief here.)

Some pictures for the grandparents:

Avril insists on watching Cars at least once a day. She loves that movie. If you offer to let her watch Tangled or How to Train Your Dragon or anything else she makes it very, very clear that any other movie won't do. Above she's watching the movie and then she caught me taking her picture, so she smiled for the camera.



I bought two Frosty key chains a while back (Wendy's was doing a fundraiser of some kind) and as long as I buy one Frosty of any size, the girls both get a kid's Frosty for free. The key chains last through the end of this year, so this makes trips down Wolcott Road very exciting.

This painting hangs in the Mattatuck Museum. It's called Pine Hill and was painted by Peter Poskas in 1974. Poskas was a realist, so he didn't cover his subject's eye sores: the tops of Waterbury's buildings, cables, smoke stacks, the barren landscape, etc. Never the less, I thought this painting was beautiful, so I took a snapshot of it.


I began to wonder if it would be possible to find the place where Poskas had stood when he painted this. With a little research and a phone call and some legwork, I believe I found the exact spot where he stood. I took a picture.


Things have changed a bit since then, but Waterbury is still beautiful and flawed at once. What you don't see in Poskas painting are the other views he was afforded from this spot when he turned around in a full circle. Here area few of them.






Where Poskas stood (or where I think he must have stood), there was even a wide pillar a little more than waist high. I think this is where he might have set up his paints, etc. I rested my forearms on the pillar, leaned there and just took in the view.


With the cross in the center of the horizon in front of me and my hands folded like they were in prayer already, it seemed like the perfect place to worship. So, I pulled out my phone and played the song "Rooftops" by Jesus Culture, a song I heard for the first time only yesterday. (God is so cool.) I sang along to the song as loud as I could but with the traffic all around me and the people busy on the streets below, my voice was totally drowned out (at least to human ears.)

Listen to the song (especially the chorus) and tell me if this was not the perfect song to offer from that spot, from that particular point view.


I thought it may also be a good idea to read some Scripture. (A good friend of mine had told me that she did this once before. She found a high place overlooking the landscape and read Scripture out loud as a blessing and a prayer over the land, so that gave me the inspiration.)

I typed "Psalm 60" into my phone. That number just came to mind. But, when the words came up on my phone, I was blown away by how fitting they are for the city of Waterbury, where the addicted and destitute roam the streets, where the buildings that were once the center of produce lay in ruins, where many magnificent churches that could hold thousands stand cold and empty, where people try and try and try to make a difference through human effort, industry, development, investments, but nothing ever changes...

I read this entire Psalm aloud as a prayer and blessing for this broken city. But, here are some of my favorite parts of the Psalm.

-

You have rejected us, God, and burst upon us;
you have been angry—now restore us!

You have shown your people desperate times;
you have given us wine that makes us stagger.

But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner
to be unfurled against the bow.
Save us and help us with your right hand,
that those you love may be delivered.
Is it not you, God, you who have now rejected us
and no longer go out with our armies?
Give us aid against the enemy,
for human help is worthless.
With God we will gain the victory,
and he will trample down our enemies.

June 2010

June 2011

I've gotten a lot of books in a span of twelve months. I need to stay away from the thrift stores.

I captured some precious moments in photos this lazy afternoon.

My sister gave us a few blank notebooks on one of our visits to South Carolina. I knew we'd be able to put them all to use, I just wasn't sure how we'd use them all at that time. I turned one of them into a "sketch book" on one of the long drives home (when Norah's Nintendo DS was out of a charge and she and I both were desperate to find her something to do). This kept her occupied for at least a few hours and even since we've been home, I will often catch her drawing in it while she has free time. She will draw with markers, crayons and colored pencils elsewhere, but she never uses anything but a pencil in this book. She seems to enjoy the fact that this book is set aside for simple drawings that are just supposed to capture the ideas in her mind. Here are a few of the pictures inside.