Gratitude...

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.”
                                       ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

It's that time of year... my kids come home bearing armfuls of art... reciting pretty prose... and singing seasonal songs... It''s all about Thanksgiving... 

I am not quite ready for 'Tis the Season. My children, however, have been getting into the holiday season and have started decorating. First, they made a table cloth with a piece of old linen and using leaves as stencils, went to town with fabric Spray Paint.

Once that was finished they turned a tree that I have been holding onto - certain it will make a comeback - into what they have named their Gratitude Tree. They wrote all the things they were grateful for on paper leaves and hung them with twine.

It's an ongoing ritual that began a week ago, and I love that nightly dinner conversations have continued to be about gratitude and how much we have to be thankful for.

I found myself telling them that we should be grateful everyday... all year... not just at Thanksgiving time....

I quickly reminded myself what we were talking about and got back to gratitude and was grateful for that moment.

IN THE WORDS OF CICERO, "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others."

 

Beach in a Box

Beach in a Box

The minute conflict erupts in my house, I quickly suggest an art project or activity to distract…

My 9 year old came up with the idea of using old shoeboxes to create a beach in a box… “we can take summer and the beach with us everyday and I can show & share about my summer!”

My 6 years olds agreed, as this was a great Polly Pocket backdrop….

My girls gathered shells & sand from our summer beach adventures, along with pipe cleaners, fabric, paint, glitter, pom poms…miscellaneous odds and ends and went to town…

Tiny fingers swirled together sand, glitter & glue to create a sandy multi-colored ocean floor. Dark blues and purples are painted on the inside panels of the box for the water, sea glass is glued together in groups to create hiding places for magical ocean creatures, hammocks made of fabric scraps are held up by wooden sticks on either side…umbrellas and beach chairs sit in the sand…possibilities are endless.

Pop Up Pied-a-terre

POP UP PIED-A’-TERRE

July 12, 2013 

A few nights ago, I found myself alone at home with 5 girls growing antsy as witching hour approached.

I had ordered pizza in for dinner.

As chaos brewed, I sat staring at the mess in the kitchen. My feeble attempts at making clean up a game were quickly destroyed by my 9 year old letting me know she was on to me.

I reached for the pizza boxes to recycle when it occurred to me…great gift box.  I quickly filed it away in the I LOVE WRAPPING department of my brain.

The girls were fidgeting with the mess on the counter…the pizza boxes ending up on the floor with a 3 year old attempting to fit inside. 

Light bulb went off…POP-UP-PLAYroom.

A few months ago, we were on a real ‘shoe box-doll house making’ roll. The girls made rooms for their polly pockets out of shoe boxes (decorating with tape and stickers and paint and glitter and all of it). We stacked the boxes on top of each other after decorating, creating a house.

Shoeboxes to pizza boxes…Inspiring mind trying to change up the erupting energy, I asked if they wanted to gather supplies to make a Pop-up-playroom or better yet…a POP-UP PIED-A-TERRE for their little animals & people & furniture.

They loved the idea and started decorating away…

Painted floors, glitter windows, a plethora of possibilities…

• We used tape as our flooring for this particular one
• The girls painted white paper to use as wallpaper
• We cut small slits in both sides (in the back) to wedge corners in so our room held itself up
• We painted windows on the flaps
• We used dollhouse furniture, animals & polly pockets to play

The girls took it a step further…Using only furniture and dolls that fit when closed as well. They thought it made an excellent packable playroom. From the mouth of a 5 year old, “look Mom (as she placed the box under her arm and walked away) this is great… I can bring it in the car, to dinner, to play dates and to France… “

The recycled pizza box pop-up pied-a’-terre will go anywhere their little imaginations will take them.

Here's the process broken down by pictures: 

Chicks

           

                              

                                             

Chicks…
June 13, 2013

There are 13 of them in front of me at this current moment… It is 6pm on a glorious Los Angeles evening… The air is cool like an East Coast Fall day. School is out for the summer and I am sitting at my desk (aka the dining room table) observing the estrogen dancing on the deck through the glass doors.

Let me break it down for you:

THERE ARE 7 LITTLE GIRLS: 2 nine year olds, 2 five year olds, 1 six year old, 2 two year olds, 5 three week old baby chickens…and 1 feline pacing waiting for a chance to attack...(not me…our cat Roxy)...

Regardless of their species, they are all animals. I am a girl and I still do not understand them.

They have decided to have a dance party celebrating the end of school… the little girls are mimicking the moves of the baby chicks.

Their laughter is contagious…they are pure joy… and then someone screams and jolts me back to another reality… it is like the matrix…different realities all going at the same time. Today I am moving gracefully between them all… the tears don’t phase me… the screams don’t phase me. I remind myself that this is life, the pain… the joy…

Something silences them and they call for me…

“Mommy, Mommmy… come quick….the chicks are all ganging up on “Butterscotch” (our littlest chick).

I laugh to myself at the irony of these little girls, beside themselves at the pecking order and family dynamics going on between the chicks.

I have questioned myself many times since the chicks arrival… WHAT WAS I THINKING???

Sanity check… like I needed any more poop to clean up!

However, here in this moment, as I watch my girls learning so much from our five newest additions learning to get along… I am in love with these cute chicks! I listen to the girls talk amongst themselves and to the chicks, “you must not hurt your sister… you will feel better if you take care of her…” as she pushes another kid out of the way to get a better vantage point.

At what point do they learn that if your gonna do the talk you gotta do the walk?

The chicks are learning to fly and I see them flutterring away from the grasps of sticky hands and kids all up in their business.

“Be gentle with them…” someone yells.

“Listen to her...she is telling you she wants to get down… listen and you will here what she wants!” as the chicks are tweeting away frantically.

These five little chicks arrived in our home three weeks ago at a day old (I wanted to make sure no Roosters were included…)

A day old and already away from their Mom's…two were from one home, two from another and one from another. We have watched them navigate their first three weeks on their own and create a family unit.

My girls have assumed the role of Mother hen and I find it quite amusing as I watch them explaining the game of life and how to play it to these tiny little chicks (who are probably thinking, “HELP I’VE BEEN TAKEN BY AN ALIEN!”)

“Lets all take a walk and clear our heads…” I hear these words and shift realities… Who said that?

I look out on the deck and see the human girls all in a line. They are attempting to wrangle the chicks to follow their lead…

“It’s important to let each go their own way…” The nine year olds are attempting to share their years of experience with the little one’s…

“Watch… some will lead and some will follow…”

The humans stop the line dance and sit… the chicks all scurry about as the humans simply sit and observe…

Just as I am doing…

Observing, listening and learning so much…

Neighborhood

Neighborhood…

Monday, March 18

Studio City, CA

When I hear the word neighborhood, I immediately hear “wont you be my neighbor…” being sung to me by Mr. Rogers himself and I am a kid again, happily perched in front of the TV…

Webster’s defines Neighborhood as a “geographically localized community within a larger city, town or suburb. Neighborhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members.”

In most places right… except here in LA…

Or so I thought before I began an exploratory exercise with my kids.

After many conversations about “when I grew up… and

neighbor dates not play dates “

My children were determined to get to know the streets of their hood.

So we set out on a crusade… our own walk about so to speak.

In doing so…

We have fallen in Love with Studio City and its surrounding streets.

Studio City has everything a girl, boy, mom, dad… anyone could ever need.

Great hikes in Fryman Canyon and bike paths along the LA River…

One may find hidden treasures in small shops like Entertaining Elephants and Inventori or fall into The Gap and other larger chain stores moving in.

Studio City Farmer’s Market is a Sunday am ritual.

My favorite florist is Marks Garden.

Great vintage finds to be had at Playclothes and Suzanne’s.

I could go on and on… but for now here are

Our favorite local eat/drink establishments to date:

Favorite Smoothie

Aroma

4360 Tujunga Ave 


Favorite Burger

LAUREL TAVERN

11938 Ventura Blvd 


Favorite Ice Cream

Gelato Bar

4342 Tujunga Ave

Favorite Popsicle

SUCK IT

4361 1/2 Tujunga Ave

The name alone makes me smile…

Favorite juice & salads

Royalty Florist and Cafe

12019 Ventura Blvd

Favorite places to pick up dinner when this Mom is not in the mood to cook:

Harvest Moon Kitchen & Marketplace

12456 Magnolia Blvd

Village Gourmet

4357 Tujunga Ave.

They carry our favorite Heirloom lasagna cupcakes

Via our quest for neighbor relations… I realized how much I missed the interaction of others that happens on foot and saying hello to a stranger. Living in LA has us in the car… a lot! Our walk about has inspired us to access what’s in our own backyard. Oh what a difference a walk makes.

Lunartics

Lunartics

Sunday, February 3, 2013

11:10 pm

February 3? Really? Already?

How did that happen?

I take a deep breath…

The thought of time fleeting tightens my innards.

Stay in the moment Kimberly… don’t future fuck yourself (excuse my French, I shall use FF from here on out).

I seek refuge in the quiet of my house. 

All are sleeping, but me… I am restless… consumed with to do list’s: nary a sugarplum dancing in my head. 

I walk outside with my computer under my arm and find comfort on a sofa with a view.  My right brain says “work”, but my left-brain is too distracted.

The San Fernando Valley sparkles in the distance with what looks like a half moon sitting high in the sky amidst the stars.

What a difference a week makes.

Last Sunday’s full moon and it’s residual effects reeked havoc all around me. The ‘lunartics’ were out in full force.

It seemed as though everyone I encountered was possessed. Not to mention: our home alarm kept going off, the toilet malfunctioned, my washer exploded, the phones didn’t work, the baby sitter was sick, my husband was away, sick kid, had to cancel meetings… I had to do it all…

And that’s not even getting into how the moons cycle directly affected me. Takes a ‘lunartic’ to know one!

I have to admit finding grace in the middle of the chaos was challenging (to say the least).

The moon holds a mystical place in our history and it effects each of us. Werewolves and lunacy and our minds heightened activity… oh my!

I found myself at a Krispy Kreme drive thru… The moon made me do it!

My 5 year olds words went from “I want a new mommy” to “You are the best mommy in the whole galaxy” in less than 5 minutes… moon speak!

It’s the heightened ‘moontivity’ in my mind that gives necessity to repeating the words  “STOP FF’ing yourself”. My mind combined with the situations that kept presenting themselves, reinforced the need to stay in the moment. It’s how our glorious universe works.

I found myself sitting on a weeks worth of laundry with a sick little girl burrowing beside me; we were laughing and laughing. Not a care in the world, simply because I was in the moment. Me and my girl and nothing else mattered… no cancelled meetings… no broken appliances… no shortage of time. 

Just the two of us, in the moment is all we needed. It’s usually all we do require to get back on track and allow life to become simpler… easier. 

My girlfriend who was visiting said she would have been crying to the laundry pile. And after the ‘lunartic’ plumber declared, “he had never seen a toilet do that…” She exclaimed she needed a drink. I had to laugh… I can’t control the lunartics, but I can control how I react to them. 

FYI… the Next full moon is on February 25^th.

My quiet is interrupted by a pack of noisy coyotes… Bottom line is, full moon or no moon, we are all ‘lunartics’! 

Looking For Mr. C. Grey

Had no time for summer reading thus far and September is approaching...conversations last night turned to Christian Grey so due to a special request for a repost...

Mini Mall Parking Lot

Studio City 

7:32am on a Tuesday

26 June 2012 

I have run out of milk and I race to the closest grocery store to find it opens at 8. I am back in my car after a peek through the closed doors revealed a guy cleaning the floors and beyond him racks of Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker & Fifty Shades Freed…It’s EVERYWHERE…It haunts me…He haunts me…I can’t get away from it…even at the grocery store…It is a phenomenon…

I too have fallen prey to Christian Grey… and I continue to ponder WHY?

It took a minute to get into the first book… I think I picked it up at least 8 times and just could not get past the first few pages. 

But at my friends persistence and women everywhere talking about CG. I picked it up for the 9^th time and for whatever reason it kicked in…It took me over… I could not put the book down…For 3 days, 3 books it was me alone with Christian Grey…I felt like I was cheating on my husband.

This is no literary piece de resistance…In fact, I admit I skipped over parts and the redundancy became exhausting.

But the fact remains, I cannot stop thinking about CG…he consumes my thoughts. I am obviously in need of a distraction at this particular moment in time, for why else could I possibly be so taken by this man…the red room…I even have found myself checking my lingerie in the mirror…do I care if he rips this pair?

I hear a helicopter in the distance…Is it Charlie Tango?

I see a jogger pass by…The sun is beating down and creates crystals on his glistening, ripped body… Is that CG out for a morning jog?

How can I not think about him…everyone is talking about him.

I hear Bob Marley,  “Everything is going to be all Right” blaring as a car pulls up next to me in the space beside me. It is an Audi…I mean really.

I find myself looking for the jogger will he pass back my way on his return home?

It is now 7:52…The shop opens in 8 minutes…

8 more minutes to daydream about CG…Snap out of it…You are a 45 year old, happily married mother of three, working, busy and YOU ARE OBSESSED.

A great escape is how recently summed it up to a friend in Chicago having her own CG moment.  Who isn’t in need of a complete lobotomy now and again? That is what these 3 books have achieved… Call it a beach read…call it what you may…the bottom line is...It’s like a good movie, a great 2 day spa escape…a Calgon moment…It took me away for a moment…

Or two…

I see the store is now open…I have groceries to buy and 3 hungry kids and husband (who I now refer to as my 100 shades of black) waiting for me at home…