fridays with nick

oh, you're gonna hate me a little bit today. maybe even a lot. you see - i've cleaned every window in the house. every single one! the secret is the amazing microfiber window cloth. i'm probably the last person in the country to discover these (i'm not really that into cleaning. ahem).
if you don't feel put off by that, i can add that i've also:
- removed the big carpet in the 2.nd floor kitchen/livingroom
- pulled out the sofa to vacuum behind it
- scrubbed the floors
- put on a new/old, smaller, and easier to remove carpet
- put up 3 shelves in said room and tidied all the clutter
- washed the dishes - twice
- dusted the freaking plants (!!!!)
- had a shower
- changed the kids' bed linens, washed and hung them to dry
- popped out to the clinic and seen a client
- made dinner
- had a 10 minute nap
- emptied my knitting basket, dusted it, and organized the yarn
- and best of all, i've found a place to hang some of the lovely prints that i bought through etsy a looong time ago

i stopped my cleaning spree when i caught myself sitting on the toilet, picking up my sons dirty clothes from the bathroom floor, emptying the pockets and tossing it in the laundry basket - while peeing.

so yes, i think i deserve this invitation from nick today!

in which i have no title

on sunday, we visited my brother, his wife and their children - 3 of my kids' 5 cousins (to say that we are a small family would be an understatement). i thought we were done with the easter candy, but my brother had arranged for a quiz with prizes - we left from there with a whole bag of leftover candy. thank goodness they're back in school with wholesome lunches, so i can eat all the candy while they're away :)

the photo turned a bit pale, but here's wholewheat couscous, organic scrambled eggs with herbes de provence, tomatoes, cucumber, organic paprika, soy sauce (in that cute little fish bottle that comes with store bought made sushi), a small slice of organic bread with organic peanutbutter, and a tiny container with nuts and dried fruits. phew. all that 'organicness' should make up for some of the candy.

here's the hankies that i sent off to robinsunne. i made her two, both from vintage pillow cases. i added a definately non organic ginger and lemon chocolate. i hope she liked it.

bye bye easter

{our eggs turned just as pretty as last year}

{after the egg hunt: wet note cards, wet eggs - blue eggs dued with blueberry, yellow with onion}

great food, great friends, and a welcomed change of scenery. we did our egg hunt in pouring rain. the girls didn't seem to notice; they were too busy solving the riddles that would take them to the next egg, crawling under stairs, tripping in the mud, happy and eager and probably already knowing that there would be a candy filled easter egg at the end of the hunt.

but when you're as tiny as this little fella, you're happy with an egg filled with raisins, cookies and strawberrys.

now i'm actually looking forward to the routine that school provides to our chaotic family life. some people struggle to get out of routine, we struggle to obtain it. i'll miss the sleeping in, though..

bad, bad mothering

my soon-to-be-13 y.o. son has taken a big interest in horror movies lately. every weekend, he begs for one to watch, and every time, he's turned down. until a couple of weeks ago, when he tricked me into (read: i didn't check the movie first) watching doomsday.

oh my gods and goddesses and kings and queens, lord of hell and the devils grandma.

there wasn't really much i could do (was it?), as we were sucked into the story from the first scene, paralyzed by the action and unable to move except when we had to go pee - together. we clung to each other the whole movie through, and laughed with relief and adrenalin still pumping when it was over. that was one hell of a ride.

maybe i should tell you that i don't like horror, splatter or thriller movies. i never watch them; i'm too easily scared. i have very clear memories of heavy nightmares (even during the day, awake) as a kid, not from seeing such movies, but from just hearing about them. luckily, my son is different. when the LOTR movies came, i decided to read the books to him before he got to see the movies, but i gave up. the language was too detailed and boring and the books far too long for him to keep his interest up at that age. when he finally did get to see the movies, he wasn't scared at all. neither was he scared by harry potter or other similar movies. in fact, the scariest movie he has seen is 'the day after tomorrow'. "because it's so real, mum - this could actually happen".

thank goodness he's put together like that. when my husband found out what we'd been watching, he said "you won't let him watch mad max, but you'll let him watch that?!?" (we'd had a discussion about the mad max movies, which our son had heard of somehow and wanted to watch, but i said it was too violent).

needless to say, i was ashamed. i made him promise not to tell anyone at school that i let him watch it. pathetic.

and he? he loved me more than ever. he really enjoys a good scare. but i'm worried that now that i've (accidently, but still) pushed that limit, i have to deal with more begging for horror in the weekends. my husband thinks i'm over protectice, and are more than happy to share stories of what he and his friends did at the age of 13. i shut my ears.

if you have kids at a similar age, how do you deal with this?

(on a sidenote; even for me who don't like this genre, i have to say that doomsday was an extremely well made adrenaline rush and even funny. and i do love bob hoskins, i really do:)

fridays with nick

now you see me, now you don't...
i was going to post the original video for cave's 'stagger lee', with a warning about 'foul language, violent and sexual content, and a touch of homo erotic dancing' (i love contrasts - and evrything in between :D ), but it's gone from youtube. it was there a few days ago. so i leave you with another one of his dark tunes instead.

windowsills

abundance

{she's a rascal. can you see that? with a way too huge gum in her mouth. and gigantic teeth.}

my mailbox held a new gift today - the handrolled hankie and poem from robinsunne, my swap-choo partner. i opened the letter and saw the first line of the poem she chose. my heart started bubbling and i laughed out loud.

leonard cohen. and that song!

cohen's music is part of my upbringing; it's in the livingroom of my parent's house, it's daylight and my happy daddy dancing with me standing on top of his own feet. this made me joyful today!

robinsunne is a fiber and mixed media artist, and the text was written on a card of her own design. the hankie was made of a fabric she dyed herself. i can't beat that one. and of course, it was beautiful - thank you, robinsunne!