October...What Happened to October?

So, for those 3 of you who have been checking in...I am so sorry that I've been missing. But that is my M.O.! Get comfortable...we have quite a few events to get through.

(This was actually in the end of September but...)Even at the ripe old age of 4 my niece knows where it's at...Times Square in the Big Apple. Yes, for those of you who don't know, there is a new tradition for the little ones in our family. Around the time of their Birthdays they get to chose something fun to do for a day...so my niece chose Toys-r-Us, Time Square. Mainly for the Barbie room but also for the GIANT ferris wheel that takes up the three stories of the store. Needless to say, the Boo can't stop talking about it and we are now in what? Mid-November. Then we walked...and walked...and walked to Serendipity III where we had lunch and the best and BIGGEST ice cream sundeas I have ever seen in my life. The peanut butter topping was literally pouring our over the sides of the glass and yes...the whipped cream was real...god help me! The girl knows how to party, let me tell you.

We started our Halloween festivities for the month when John surprised everyone with a day off to go the pumpkin patch. So, off we trotted down to Buck county to a darling little place straight out of a story book, with a pumpkin patch, a carriage ride, corn maze, and hot chocolate with kettle corn...such goooooood kettle corn. They also had a couple gas engines that powered a corn husker and and grinder...very manly and grunt worthy...John and the Boo were utterly fascinated. All in all it was a very successful trip as we came home with three pumpkins, a large bag of kettle corn, and definite Autumnal spirits.

After picking out our pumpkins, we went that Sunday to Mom and Dad Bayliss' to gather as a family and carve our individual pumpkins together...how cozy. Thanks to Aunt Dana and Maddy who provided some stencils and very helpful carving tools. I was suddenly awakened to power of the worlds tiniest hand saw...God, I spent my youth trying to be creative with a kitchen knife...what a difference the right instruments make. But the surprise of the evening was when Pappy brought out the tractor (a thing worshiped daily by the Boo) that had a small wagon hitched up with hay for Hayrides!!! Yay!! The children were enthralled and even Aunt Dana got in on the action.

The following weekend we made our way downtown for the Annual Bethlehem Halloween Parade to watch the marching bands of our youth walking by with class and style. The children of course are excited for the fact that it's like trick-or-treat, with candy raining down off the many float, except the candy comes to you without effort. All very exciting.

Halloween itself was a very full day starting with a parade at the kids school (yes, the cousins go to the same preschool...very lucky for everyone) which was the Boo's first opportunity to model my "Ode to the Man in the Yellow Hat" ensemble. I wanted him to be recognizable but I didn't want to be so boring as to stick with just plain yellow...I mean I am a fashionista, on the inside. So, the kids paraded around in front of the school and then we all went inside where each class got a chance to sing the "halloween" songs they have been working on at home and in class. I put halloween in quotations because the words may be halloween based but the tune were definitely recognizable..."I'm a Little Tea Pot" came to mind.

Then, after a long nap, we all met down in Aunt Dana's neighborhood for pizza and some of the best Trick-or-Treating I've been a party to since I was little. Aunt Dana had decorated her house to the nines and we sat on the porch awaiting the masses...too much fun.

Finally, it was my turn to entertain. We threw a masked dinner party with rises for the best masks. And some very good fall chili...if I do say so myself, however, I cannot take all the credit since the recipe was mainly Better Homes and Gardens with some dashes of my own. And I would also say I had a very successful first fondant cake ending up the exactly the right color grey I was going for...Bringing to mind Sally Field's quote from Steel Magnolias:"It's got gray icing, I can't even begin to think how you'd make gray icing."

Well...As you can see we've had a very busy Holiday Season so far with only more hustle and bustle to come...I'll keep you posted!

School-Crow

This past Sunday my family and I joined fellow members of our charter school in building a scarecrow for the Emmaus Downtown competition. Since we are a school...children were the obvious choice. But this event gave us the opportunity to meet new people and happily share in a very seasonal tradition...If I wasn't so big in the pictures I would have thought I was in a "happy go lucky" fairytale with children illustrations...damn those fairytale waistlines.

Anyway, it is so enjoyable to be part of a little community...with people who know my name and give me a wave and smile when they see me...enter the "Cheers" theme song and a hardy "Norm" to boot. I just haven't had this for awhile and the last time I did I was a member of a different family...a tag-a-long, a child who everyone knew as my parent's kid. Now, as an adult, the irony is many of these community members...know me as the "Boo's" mom...ha!

I See a Blond Hair and I Want to Paint it Red

Yes, I did it...I had my hairdresser work so hard to get the remaining red from my hair and then....Surprise...I go red again. I am such a wishy-washy person when it comes to my hair. Those who have known me for awhile have seen it in every natural shade and some unnatural ones too.

The funniest part is my appointment was while the Boo was at school, so when I dropped him off it was blonde and when I picked him up well you get the picture. Anyway, he comes out of the classroom and looks at me, pauses with great comic expertise and says "Mommy, you all red!". He does give me a hug though so I'm pretty sure he approves. My niece immediately told me she liked it and she's such a fashionista (at 4) that I'm sure it's a hit. At least with the "under 5" crowd.

I think the hardest part for me is walking by mirrors, it's like "woh....whose that" and then I hear my son's voice in my saying "Dat's my mommy". And it's true no matter the shade of my hair, the size of my waist or the color of my toenails, he will always call me mommy. As Martha would say..."It's a good thing!"

“A Sunday well-spent brings a week of content.”

I go to church on Sunday...well not your traditional church but it's my church. My church consists of a slab of cement approximately 120 ft by 80 ft. which acts as the Emmaus Keystone bank parking lot the other 6 days of the week. But on Sunday it houses one of the most sacred of places in my life, the Farmer's Market. Here I find everything I would at your traditional church....These are the stained glass windows. Their colors truly from God and the inspiration for them straight from his/her hands. The four "walls" are filled with these bright hues and their tones change with the seasons. They are a true artwork each with it's own shape and size, carefully crafted by it's "artists"....The farmers are doing spiritual work. They carry hope that the earth will pour it's nutrients into the small seeds that will grow to fruits and vegetables. They have faith in their produce to provide sustenance for their customers who will therefore provide means for their family. We are the congregants, the buyers who find fulfillment in spending a morning with our families, smelling fresh scents and finding true treasures. We find community on our shared tarmac, listening to our children play, sharing stories while waiting to buy our goods, having comradery in the similar goal of supporting our town and feeding our souls with natures bounty. We share prayers with every apple and hear the moral in the sermons our consciences preach weekly about organic food and healthy living.

So, if you're ever looking for me on a sunny Sunday morning don't waste your time at the stone walls of the local Cathedral with it's repetitious prayers and hymns. Come on down to the Farmer's Market where I'll be sitting with my cup of Chai tea and my fellow worshipers participating in the joy of earth's rewards.

The Mommy Chain

I think one of the reasons I decided to return to my blogging and change my approach is the inspiration I got from the tragic story of Stephanie Nielson. For her story:

But they now are republishing her archived posts on her everyday blog (NieNie Dialogues) which is how I'm getting to know her since I have only discovered her recently in a news article about the accident. This quote is one she published in a post she entitled "Basket Head Mother":

“The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."(Anna Quindlen, Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11)

It's nice to be reminded to slow down and remember how fast it all goes and how quickly it can all change.

Let Me Tell You Bout My Best Friend

The truest of friends live in my house. They giggle together and eat cookies like they were potato chips and gulp juice at crazy speeds. At night I will go to take a bath with the understanding that one will make sure the other gets to bed, only to come out and find them both asleep on opposite ends of the couch. I will get on the computer to do the bills and discover a whole photo session of crazy faces. They egg each other on and speak in similar tones almost like it's a foreign language.There are moments of hero worship... or, for The Boo, truck and tool worship. They wait to see each other at the end of the day and moods shift from bad to good when they finally get together. Standing in the room you can feel the vibes change from end of the day "blahs" to "what's next, what did I miss, what can we do". Its hard not to get caught up in it.

There are times that I stand back and am jealous. I wish that I could be a part of the joke, and other times I'm pretty sure I am the joke. I definitely have moments of feeling left out even though I'm sitting in the same room. But as I'm coping with my moment of self pity and isolation, The Boo will look at me and ask "What's your name?" and I'll respond "I don't know" to which he'll smile and say "You're my Mommy" with a level of confidence and joy that can only secure my position of importance in his life. And John looks over at me with a smile and I am reminded that though I may not always get the joke or participate in the moment...I am fortunate to be at the center of these two "friends'" worlds. And all is well in mine...

Ok, it's time to get my act together.

So...I've been REALLY absent from the blogging community. I think everyone's given up on me... but can't I blame them. I really should write some long diatribe about where I've been, being a mom, and personal growth but instead I'll sum it up in a short list:

• Had huge anxiety issues last fall that required focus and attention which took a little while.
  
• My son, hereforth referred to as The Boo, is 2 almost 3 and full of activity and questions and craze.
  
• I cut my hair.
  
• Took a painting class.
  
• Opened a shop on Etsy....www.ValnotteStudio.etsy.com
  
• Rearranged the livingroom... 3 times.
  
• Gave up on my gardens.
  
• Dropped The Boo off at his first day of PreSchool...Moms, you know how hard that is.
  

I'm sure there's more but those are the really important ones. I don't think becoming a mom happens the way we think it does: You have sex, get pregnant, get BIG, give birth, and love the baby. Yah that's all dandy, but the process of creating a new person, which doesn't end with the "delivery", actually is creating 2 new people. The second one being you, because you will never be the person you were again, physically or emotionally. I'm sure this isn't a new concept but it's new for me and is quite the journey.

So, I think that means this blog is going to head in a new direction. More of a journal for my journey (ha) than an outward expression of my views on the world we live in...Not that I'm not going to talk about that stuff... don't get me started on Sarah Palin....I'm just not going to focus my energy on that which I can't help. Since that which I can is so exciting and happening all around me in my own little world here in Eastern PA...which, by the way, is about to turn the most beautiful autumnal colors you'll ever see.