my mom is the coolest.

(that's my mom on the left. with her sisters last summer.)

earlier this week i had a conversation with my mom wherein she tried to get me confess that i had plans for a surprise visit to her house this weekend. i had to say "no, i wish i did" about five times. because i really wish i had been able to visit her this weekend.
so since i can't be at home with my mother this mother's day, how about i tell you about her, and great i think she is?
my mom is amazing. she teaches fifth grade in wisconsin's best medium-sized school (i did not make that up. her school really was named the best last year).
my mom raised to really great daughters and has been married to my dad for thirty-six years--and i kid you not when i say that my parents just keep getting happier.
when i was a kid, my mom made our ballet class's costumes for our performance as spanish dancers in the nutcracker.
when i moved to san francisco and found myself unemployed and not knowing a soul, my mom listened on the phone every night--despite the two-hour time difference, and sent me money.
when i signed up for 4-h sewing (yeah, i'm not a nerd at all), my mom was sooo patient and helpful and saw me through pretty much every project, even helping me with hours of seam-ripping when i messed something up.
she was always up for letting me experiment in the kitchen, and was always encouraging about the result (i actually can't remember any horrible disasters).
my mom was the one who kept saying, "don't major in something practical, be an artist" when i was deciding on what to study in college.
she has been my biggest cheerleader and supporter all the way, believing in me when i am not sure i even believe in myself--this still happens.
my mom beat cancer, has broken more bones than the rest of the family combined, and less than a year ago, had a heart valve replaced--she really is a survivor.
i hope that i someday get the opportunity to be a mom, and that i create as creative, positive, imaginative, and loving home for my own children as my mom did for me.

easter weekend.

this weekend was a lot of good food, adorable children, and many rounds of rumikub with the grandma. i feel really sick tonight (is today tuesday? i am so confused). i never get sick, but i have been more sick in the last four months than i have been since my kindergarten strep marathon (nine times in nine months, folks). and although i don't want to blame my new boss directly, or blame anything really, i would not be surprised if my raging headaches, fevers, and nausea were work-stress-related. i hate being sick. i hate not being able to do things, and being forced to lie on the couch, sweating it out. i have goals to work on, people! and here i sit with time on my hands, and no energy to do any of them. grrrr.
also, we have an ant problem that i do not know how to solve. also, our apartment is being shown this week and i have to keep it clean. i feel overwhelmed by life tonight.
hey, but aren't these kids so adorable? let's look at how cute they are:zoey heads up the composition portion of the afternoon while greta and graham assist. i love the little pink dresses and the feet!

grady is totally fascinated with the camera--seriously, this is the most easy-going baby i have ever met.

annika reads to the older baby-cousins while ava scoots around, reaching for her own book. she is the other most easy-going baby i have ever met. so sweet.

and of course, i love me some good midwestern architecture.

my mom is pretty intent on the game, and grandma makes her power play. she's pretty good at rumikub, especially for a woman who says, "now, how do we play this game?" every time the tiles get dumped onto the table. she still wins.

i am inheriting hands that look like this. i think they are beautiful.

one more thing.

phillip toledano's days with my father has been making appearances in some different blogs this week, and it is indeed so touching and wonderful and difficult. i found the format a little confusing at first, but go with your gut and click when you see the little hand and you will find an amazing story about aging, loss, and family.
(i found it originally here and then again here.)

escape.

when i was growing up in southwestern colorado, i remember a bumper sticker my mother had tacked to the bulletin board in her office (also the laundry room/mud room). it said, "escape to wisconsin", words i learned to read before i understood what they meant. our annual summer trips to the midwest did not exactly feel like an escape.
then we moved to wisconsin and the bumper sticker made even less sense.
now that i am grown up and moved to the city, i have a better appreciation for the beautiful green and rolling hills of northcentral wisconsin. i can't wait to escape this weekend.

i am heading to my parents' house for easter and my grandmother's eighty-seventh birthday. i have to say that i really love easter--when i was a kid, my mom would create elaborate hunts for our easter baskets, with full-on riddles, limericks, and crazy clues that sent us all over the house until we found our treasures. one year they were stashed in the dryer. when i was little, it also meant a new dress and sometimes a hat, a one-time-a-year accessory.
but lately, i am just really grateful for a springtime excuse for our extended family to get together. there will be lots of hilarious children, favorite aunts and uncles, and my mother (and my dad. i love you dad! but you all know about mothers. i am proof that you can successfully bond with your child even if you don't spend the first three minutes of her life staring into each others' eyes*).

i have had a really foggy, exhausted week and i look forward to getting out of the city and away from my normal routine. i hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

*i was born c-section. somehow, even though i am far, far away from having children, i am inordinately obsessed with the statistic that a mother and baby bond most during the first three minutes of life.

happy new year!

a lot has happened in the last two weeks! my sister made it safely into town and we headed to wisconsin. we saw beloved family members and ate some great food. i celebrated a birthday and saw beloved friends. here are a few highlights, the rest can be found here.
the end of the year is always an awkward time, it usually seems to drag out a little bit, in a delightful, lazy way. i am excited about the new year--additions i have planned for my etsy shop, getting ready for art fairs. from other blogs i have read, there is a great spirit of optimism out there about the new year. i am excited to see what the year holds!