Friday, January 30th, 2015
I haven’t posted in a while even though I think about it each day. I just get side tracked. Here are some things to catch up on or that I’ve wanted to note:
Scottie “When I’m in Scotland I’m ‘Queen of Scotts,’ but when I’m in Spain I’m just a kids.”
We took the kids to a free concert of Beethoven’s piano sonatas at Levine a week or so ago. I loved being there with them. Despite a little squirminess they were great. Yes Nelly stood up and danced at parts, and Charlie was playing with his hood, and Scottie was under a chair sometimes, and Teddy was chatting, they really enjoyed it. We left slightly early when they got extra wiggly so as not to disturb anyone, but not before hearing the second longest sonata in the world. At the end everyone was shouting bravo to the female pianist but Teddy said “It’s ‘brava'” My heart skipped a beat. Oh observant Teddy. And Charlie brings up every so often “Remember when we heard the second longest piano sonata in the world?” and is proud of it. I wish more people felt free to bring children to concerts like this. If you expect the most of them they rise to the occasion and if they don’t behave remove them immediately. Same thoughts for dining, museums…
I am so pleased and surprised each day by how the children are so articulate and eloquent. So many children have so much to say.
I toured the new addition of Mann and love it and love seeing our house from the windows. It is sooo lovely to be so close to where the children spend their days.
I’ve been playing “Pizza Fairy” at school, dropping of pizza lunches for kids whose parents brought in donations for the auction. I want to figure out how to get pizza to all kids. We did tell them they could bring in donations like mother’s helper, or teaching jokes, or whatever skills they had that they wanted to donate…
Pokemon madness has taken over our house. I want to be Poke-mom and my name will be Espadrille and my power is throwing shoes at bad guys and giving shoes to all who need them.
I recently read-I think on Teddy’s teacher Darrell’s blog (more on that later because it is my favorite) maybe, that all you need to do it is “give attention to kids to have them flourish and shine” and that this is our role as parents.
We had fun the week after Christmas going to Runnymede to exchange kids and hang out. The children loved going and getting attention from Kitzy Cat and even grandpa John was fun. I wish there was more of that.
I like to honor the children by wearing the necklaces they make me when I go out.
I need to write more notes about my feelings about Grandma Barbara for the children. I was going to do it on Epiphany but just haven’t had it in me. I hope to one day make sure they know I think about her so often.
I need to start recording stories the kids tell me.
We had a really fun time sledding at BK a few weeks ago. It was great to introduce Ale to sledding. And great to be able to walk over to that amazing hill with our sleds. I LOVE sledding.
MJ and I watched a documentary on Ginger Baker the other night and I thought what would I make a documentary about and I thought one about the dancers who performed with Fela Kuti would be interesting. I wish I had time to make that or someone else did.
I wish I had more time to do more oral history interviews.
I loved going to Kripalu with Carolyn. She was a great traveling and yoga companion. We slept in bunk beds in the dorms (so relaxing in the simplicity, so nice to see you need so little, so nice to be part of a larger group despite little interaction), ate vegan in the cafeteria and had silent breakfast (so nourishing and centering), laughed at some of the goings-on (so much fun), laughed at but thoroughly enjoyed yoga dance/drum circle during which we had to dance up to strangers and tell them they were adorable or awesome, took two amazing guided hikes through the snowy forest and out onto a frozen pond where fisherman were ice fishing, had incredible yoga classes, bought peace in the gift shop in the form of buddhas, more mala beads and stones (though I wear my original mala beads from almost two years ago and never take them off-they make me remember to be peaceful), wandered the empty ground of Edith Wharton’s home The Mount, peaked into Canyon Ranch (not as nice a vibe as Kripalu), had a delicious lunch in a small cafe…it makes me feel relaxed just typing this.
One thing I was thinking of as I was thinking about being mindful while I was at Kripalu is that every moment of your life is important and is not just a moment on the way to another moment, thus wherever you are at any minute means that that moment is an important part of your life, thus you belong wherever you happen to be at that moment. This is a very convoluted way of saying that one should never feel like they don’t belong somewhere or aren’t meant to be somewhere–wherever you happen to be you should feel comfortable. So one should never feel they aren’t good enough to have dinner with the queen, or that climbing Mt Everest for others-if you can be there and want to be there/do that, well that that is for you and you are meant to be there.
Sometimes you meet people who right from the outset make you happier, make you want to be a better person, make you smile and your heart sing. Teddy’s teacher Darrell is one of those people. He just inspires me and I am so thankful to know him and count him as a friend. And Teddy’s teacher Maggie as well. What a lucky boy Teddy is to spend all day every day with them.
