Hamiltopia

Life is at warp speed and I am falling behind at the absolute worst time of year. So I'm just going to post a picture of a recent Hamiltopia as a reminder of the gathering that inspired the name of the blog, and of a pot of the most colorful soup. It was a vegetable curry that included purple cauliflower I discovered at the Farmer's Market. It's just like regular cauliflower but has all the anti-oxidants of other purple and blue foods. How cool! Of course I've put it in everything since then, including the salad I made for Thanksgiving.

More pictures are to come...there have been some wonderful family times lately. Just tonight the girls and I met Mom & Dad and Courtney & the cousins at the mall to have pictures taken with the grandparents. It was the most successful attempt yet--some great pictures and great fun (if the dozen trips up and down the three floors of escalators were any indication. The best part was that the four kids did it wearing bright, striped pajamas in which they'd just been photographed. We were quite the sight!)

Is there a current lack...

...of legitimate things about which to throw a fit? Amelia accompanied me to my school last Thursday, where I was administered the H1N1 vaccine. She observed with interest, held my hand to keep me brave, and then, when it was over & we started to leave, she began to cry loudly when she realized that SHE wasn't going to get one.

It felt just a little strange comforting my child with the words, "It's ok, sweetie. We don't always get everything we want. Maybe the next time you're at the doctor YOU'LL get a shot, too."

Children

I had the most wonderful skype conversation with Jen--it was Saturday afternoon here and Sunday morning there and I could hear the birds singing in New Zealand while she sipped her coffee. During our conversation she asked me about a book I'd had when she & I were roommates. I'd bought it visiting Jon when he lived in Chicago & he'd taken me to the Wheaton College Library (that's where I got hipped to Dorothy Sayers, too.) Anyway, I still have the book and pulled it out and have been enjoying it thoroughly before I send it along to Jen when our friend Laura heads to NZ for Christmas.

It is called "Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC" by Frederick Buechner and was first published in 1972. It is a lexicon, and under the letter C, he says this about Children:

When the disciples, overearnest as ever, asked Jesus who was the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven, Jesus pulled a child out of the crowd and said the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven were people like this (Mt.18:1-4)...He was saying that the people who get into heaven are people who, like children, don't worry about it too much....who live with their hands open more than with their fists clenched...who are so relatively unburdened by preconceptions that if somebody says there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, they are perfectly willing to go take a look for themselves.

Children aren't necessarily better than other people. Like the child in "The Emperor's New Clothes," they are just apt to be better at telling the difference between a put-up job and the real thing.

Now that I have little children, this rings so true. I have a renewed desire to be more LIKE my girls, while praying for the wisdom to raise them to be adults who have childlike faith.

And at the very moment when I was wondering if I had a sweet picture of my girls to attach to this post, Evelyn got up from her nap, came downstairs and announced to me, "Mommy, I just peed in your bed." Well, if that isn't just a quick shake back into the tangible realities of life! :)

When Amelia grows up...

...will she be a photographer? She certainly loves taking pictures (love the self-portrait of her sweater? Or of perpetually nude "Baby Amy?") Maybe she'll be a teacher. The latest dollhouse trend is playing "school"--lining up all the dolls on chairs and singing some sort of hello or weather song.

But as much as she LOVES singing, I doubt she'll choose that as a career, since it is unbelievably hard to get her to do it for an audience. That's why I had to post this clip of her in our neighborhood CVS's card aisle. It's rare footage.

Fall Fun

For once I'll let the videos speak entirely for themselves. :)

If you want quiet...

...you'll have to stand still in the woods at this time of year. My friend, Denise, and I met last week w/our girls at Oregon Ridge for a stroll through the forest. While I'd never trade it for playing indoors, I'd forgotten how LOUD the leaves are at this time of year, not to mention how LOUD the people walking on them have to talk if they want to be heard by each other.

The girls would have spent hours playing, as they were continuously inspired by various things we passed along the way, but they were also excited to get to the playground at the end of the hike. I was just happy to be outside, living in this moment of motherhood with a friend who is doing the same thing.

Denise's daughter, Emma, took the pictures of the trees and of Evelyn, which I thought were quite good.

Holly Happoween

Halloween was quite a joint effort this year. Thanks to Diana, my mom, & Alan, I was able to help w/the Run for the Ranch (raising flood relief funds), take Evelyn to a classmate's b-day party, & get them suited up in their spontaneous costume choices (we are not the plan-ahead types--their preferences change w/the hour--& it makes me uber-grateful for the stash of yard-sale outfits my mom has scored over the years.)

Then, it was trick-or-treating on Tim & Diana's street, with a warm hearth & house full of friends (oh yes, and some good fun!) Amelia got tired & punchy and started saying "Holly Happoween" when folks opened their doors. So cute! Alan & I didn't dress up, but Diana still had our Merry Carolers costumes in her basement & I could pull off Mother Goose w/my glasses. Very fun.

Isn't this a welcoming fireplace? There's a lot of nostalgia in that picture...lots of fellowship has happened in that room.

It's all in a name...

The girls are attending the pre-school and pre-kindergarten classes at a small Lutheran school this year. Amelia, who often requests to be called by different names, told my mom recently that her name was "Anna Lutheran."

I relayed this to their school principal today, who laughed and immediately replied, "And did Evelyn ask to be Anna Baptist?"

Just thought all you church historians would get a kick out of that one.