Oh, Hey There!

Wait, has it really been FOUR FLIPPIN' MONTHS since I've posted here?! Holy Crimeny. I'm sure y'all have given up on me by now. So if a blogger blogs and no one's there reading it, does it really exist? Who knows...

Anyhoo. I have been posting EVERY FRACKIN' DAY over on the other blog. I can't guarantee how often I'll come back here to visit. I just couldn't handle a daily photoblog AND a mommyblog. I guess I needed a break. Posting a photo without having anything meaningful to say about it was a lot less stressful than talking about my life, I suppose, although I seem to have slipped more into that on the new blog as well.

Sorry if I've been out of touch. Part of is the other blog. Part of it is trying to spend less time blogging and more time w/ the family.

Hope y'all are having a splendid 2009!

I May As Well Give Up

I'm kinda sucking at this blogging thing lately, aren't I? I think my post this past Sunday on Shutter Sisters may explain a little bit of it. And I do still have my daily photoblog. Still, I feel like I've really dropped the ball around here, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to recover.

Nevertheless, time keeps marching on. And this is a photo of the last hug between Cadence and Rudden as pre-preschoolers. Rudden started his first full week of school this week, and Cadence will start going to a homebased preschool on September 30th.

My baby ain't a baby any more. In two weeks, she'll be 4. No longer a prime number. It's bittersweet, this growing up thing.

At least she still eats donuts on a Sunday morning walking around in her underwear.

And she still loves to play peek-a-boo, although usually in the more grown-up form of hide-and-seek.

We leave for beloved Seattle on Saturday morning. Things will be busy before, during and after. I'll try not to totally give up on this blog, but I can't make any promises...

Alright. Where Did I Leave Off?

Ah, yes. My cousin Inho was in town, and the cousins got together at his parents' place. His mom cooked a gourmet feast, and we stuffed ourselves silly. Inho comes to town about once a year, so it's a big deal. Cadence obviously had fun.

And here she is playing Uncle Inho's cello--upright bass style. I used to play the cello when I was in high school. It's something I'd like to do again someday. It's one of my favorite instruments, right there behind the melodica, banjo and accordian.

This is probably one of my favorite Cadence outfits. It's what Ted dressed her in on Friday. Those pants are around 6 inches too long (and probably 6 inches too wide too), and that's why she looks like a stackabones. Oh, and she actually ASKED me to take a picture of her picking her nose. She is obviously not embarrassed by it, although we're TRYING to get her to be a bit more private about it.

Friday night, Cadence and I went to a get-together at our friends Ryan and Jan's. Jan just got back from Portland, OR, where she was a Band Manager and counselor for Rock 'n' Roll Camp For Girls. We got to see a couple zines the girls had made, as well as photographic and video footage that Jan had taken. All I can say is, I'm definitely sending Cadence when she's old enough.

Saturday was our friend Mikey's big Graduation Garden Party. He recently finished Rolfing School in Boulder, CO, and is now back in the Chicago area.

Also gracing us with his presence at Mikey's party was Jozka in his mighty spiffy suit, all the way from Ann Arbor, MI. He brought the suit at my bequest so that I could have the pleasure of shooting photos like this one.

And this one...

And this one...

Plus I finally got to meet Leonard up close and in person. No, Leonard is not Jozka's twin. It's his mustache. What? You don't have a name for your mustache?

The prize for furthest travel to be at the party probably goes to Phil, who hitched a Craiglist ride at the last minute from Portland, OR. Yeah, he made that face right when I clicked the shutter. Impeccable timing, as always.

We had some kickass dueling gyile duets by Mikey and his friend Gina, accompanied by various people on the bell.

Even Cadence got to get a little gyil action in. She likes playing her little xylophone at home, so maybe she'll get into the bigger wooden pentatonic one when she's older.

So yeah, good times, good times. I was partied out by Sunday and skipped out on yet another party that evening at our friends Nathan & Bryn & Fischer's. Ted and Cadence went, though and stayed out past her bedtime. Of course, since I wasn't there, I have no photos to show for it. Well, at least I did some laundry, the dishes and vacuumed Cadence's room in anticipation of Uncle Erik's arrival Tuesday night.

I'm Choosing Grace

I realize that it's been a while since I've updated this blog. I feel kind of guilty because I've been posting something EVERYDAY on my Other Blog. I guess I find the One-Photo-One-Paragraph-A-Day thing a tad more manageable. Well, like the title of this post suggests, I'm rejecting the guilt and I'm choosing grace for myself on my laziness around here, and I'm not even going to try to catch up. Thank you all for understanding.

And it seems that my laziness has spread from the world of blogging to taking photos of Cadence. Have I already mentioned this? I don't even remember. But yeah, it's true. I looked through my flickr stream and these are the the only photos of her I can find from August. I better get on the ball with that, or August is going to look pretty bleak when I make my annual calendar for the grandmas.

Well, I do have a few other shots of her, but they're set to private because they're part of photoshoots I did that I've chosen to keep private for the sake of the other kids in the photos. This one happens to be from last week's VBS at our church.

I know I said I wasn't going to try to catch up, but I did want to mention that we visited Scotch Hill Farm last Sunday to help weed the vegetable patches and to hang out with Tony and Dela, the farmers, and their CSA subscribers. Spending a few hours down in the dirt amongst the prickly squash plants pulling weeds with your own bare hands (although I recommend gloves) gives you a new perspective on something that seems as ordinary as putting food on your table.

And then I happened to pick up Wendell Berry's novel Hannah Coulter for my commute last week, and I felt that familiar lump in my throat and aching in my heart for a slower, more connected way of life.

And then while researching cooperative nursery schools, I stumbled upon this website that sparked the hope that our family might actually be able to participate in a housing cooperative someday.

Daydreams, I know...But I'm thinking of writing all of mine down in one place so I can refer to it regularly and keep hope alive...

Perpetually Behind

I've been in class all week and haven't had the time or energy to post here, so I apologize. And as always, there's so much that's been going on.

For starters, Rudden turned 4! Do you know what that means, folks? That means that Cadence is running around with FOUR YEAR OLDS and that she TOO will be FOUR YEARS OLD in less than TWO MONTHS!!! Yikes...

The party was a blast. My friend Amy went all out with some of Rudden's favorite things, including a Robot Parade, a Buzz Lightyear cake, a group singalong of Yellow Submarine (complete with trumpet solo by Rudden's Uncle Don), bubbles, sprinklers and a kiddie pool.

There's a lot more stuff, but I am seriously too exhausted to get into that. I'm learning to stop and take a breather from blogging when I get this way. I just get so monotonous and I can't stand the sound of my own typing.

FYI, I do post a photo every day on my other blog.