February 04, 2009

shopping for girls

February 04, 2009/ molly balint

I just got back from a trip to Old Navy with Emma. Every time I go looking for clothes for her, I come home frustrated and disappointed. She is seven. And she's wearing clothes from the girls' department. Does everything have to have something written across the seat of her pants? Or be cut so low she can't crouch down to play a game on the floor without showing off her undergarments? Or cut so low I'm seeing her bony little bird chest? Or so tight, it's like a second set of skin? Or glittery? Does everything have to be seven going on seventeen?

We left with a few basic tees in solid colors. A few short sleeved tees to layer over them. And a hoodie. No mini skirts. No hip-hugging, thigh-hugging flares. No "too cool for school" logo tees. No triangle-top bikinis.

It makes me appreciate the classic looks of catalogs like Lands' End and LLBean, or MiniBoden, and people like Joanna and other small-scale shops and etsy sellers. Though they aren't always in my price range, they are clothes I feel comfortable with. They are classic. They are made for kids who are being kids. I appreciate that more every time I go shopping.

Where do you shop for your children? Though we're blessed with some really nice hand-me-downs, and some pretty good second-hand shops, sometimes there are still holes in the wardrobe that need to be filled.

But, in Old Navy's defense, I will say that they have carried an amazing line of games and clothes this winter featuring illustrations by Charley Harper. The girls each got something from the collection for Christmas--the memory game, the alphabet cards, the board book and a tee. When I was in the store today they had all the games on sale and I even snagged a few coloring books. I can't get enough. I probably should have stocked up on more games to put away for gifts.

So I suppose in Old Navy's defense, that little score made the frustrating trip a little more worthwhile.

September 04, 2008

The things I'd be blogging about if I could find three quiet minutes in a row

September 04, 2008/ molly balint

Preface: This post has absolutely no inspirational value. Unless of course you find inspiration in stories about chicken hawks, homeschooling pity-parties, and bits about my laundry. Sorry.

++The chicks have taken over the downstairs bathroom and the guineas are outside in a movable wire pen that sits on a grassy spot in the yard. Yesterday I heard them making a huge racket and since I was upstairs with a naked baby, I sent Emma outside to see what was happening until I could get out there. There on the ground beside the pen was a large Red-Tailed Hawk harassing the guineas and causing them to run laps around the inside of their pen in sheer terror. The hawk was absolutely resolute about the whole ordeal. Emma walked right up to him, with just the pen between them. He didn't fly until she really started flapping around and saying "very mean things to him".

I came out moments later after watching it all from the window, to see that he had simply flown to a small tree beside the pen, no doubt waiting for this annoyance of humans to disappear. So, being the quick-thinker that I am, I pulled the big oilcloth tablecloth off my picnic table(the beautiful one from Beth) and began flapping and slapping it around at him until he moved on....to a taller tree just over the guinea's cage. He hasn't been back, but I feel like I may be sending my poor guineas to their death the day they are allowed to roam free in the yard.

++Homeschooling Day 2 was "throw in the towel, put 'em on the bus to school" hard. The first day was marked by Emma saying, "Next year I'm going to real school" every five minutes until she finally asked if she was hurting my feelings. Day 2 was marked by grumpiness, bickering siblings, things being spilled, nothing being accomplished, slamming doors, tears (mine, theirs), naps for everyone, and babies falling off tables.

I suppose every year has its challenges--last year it was lack of space. This year it is Elizabeth. She is the most curious (that's me putting a rosy glow on it) of all my children, a climber, a get-into-everything child. Emma and I sit at a long bench at the dining room table and I spend the whole time removing her from top of the table, and putting her down on the floor. Elizabeth, no. Elizabeth, no. Elizabeth, no.

She brings us tiny counting chips in her mouth and spits them out in our hands. She bites the tops off of Emma's new crayons and brings us the leftover nub. She gives me "quiet" by going into the kitchen, sliding the chair over to the table, climbing up on the table and digging her chubby fists into the boxes of cereal, turning them upside down to get out more and "drinking" the glasses of orange juice left there by mistake. Drinking involves 25% of the juice down her front, 75% of the juice on my kitchen floor--which I now know has a nice little sweet spot smack in the middle where all the juice pools.

++I've had the same load of laundry on the clothes line for three days. This will be day 4 if it doesn't come down by midnight. Upon typing this, it occurred to me that the clothes pins and clothes will by now be taken over by a large population of spiders who find my clothes line the perfect foundation for web-building. The last time this happened the large red striped spider that I brushed (more like a spastic swat) off the clothesline showed up five minutes later on my right shoulder. I almost de-shirted in the yard, I was so freaked out that I didn't get him off. Great.

++This one's good. Emily and I met for dinner Tuesday night outside Baltimore. We live so close to each other, I love it. You know how when you meet great people blogging and you say to yourself, "Why can't this person live near me? I know we'd be fast friends?" I'm lucky enough to say that I've met a kindred spirit in Emily. Before we knew it, we'd been sitting there so long we both were desperate for the bathroom and realized it was after ten o'clock. To which we left the restaurant and then spent even more time lingering in the parking lot. Next date? Dansko outlet and dinner at Thomas Run--children and husbands allowed.

++This one is also good. Lisa Leonard sent me two beautiful treasures in the mail recently. I was going to share them today, but I don't want to throw their beauty in with all this whining. But let me just preview it all by saying that I love it, I love it, I love it. And the other thing she sent is now going to be my standard issue baby gift--a simple, classic. Stay tuned.

I leave you (if you're still here) with some words of wisdom from my husband, who reminded me last night that things worth doing are usually worth quitting, too. I'm not throwing in the homeschooling towel yet. I liken it to my newborn analogy--those days after the blissful first days are sometimes crazy, you feel like you're losing your mind, how did I get myself into this, when will I ever find a moment's peace, etc. etc. And then the next thing you know, you've found your groove again, your rhythm, and you wonder how you'd ever live your life other than the way it is right now. You can't imagine it any other way. I'm looking forward to that time. I'm hoping it comes soon.

Thank you for listening, or rolling your eyes, or yawning and rubbing your eyes, but making it to this point.

I guess I found my three minutes.

++++++++++
Momformation posts here & here, & here, & here

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August 29, 2008

am I a modern mom?

August 29, 2008/ molly balint

Does your library have these newfangled "playaway" devices? These digital audiobook recordings that you can check out? Well, our library has recently introduced them--a hand held ipod-looking device that has a book already loaded on to it. You just plug in your earbuds and listen.

My children have been hounding me about them since the posters started going up in the library and I've really been dragging my feet. I rarely allow the girls to listen to my iPod, though they beg all the time. They have to be really sick, or really pathetic-looking in order for me to give in. Just the sight of them walking around tuned out to the world, plugged in to something else kind of gets to me. It's similar to the whole zone-out in front of the TV thing.

But last night after a homeschooling meeting at the library, I was browsing for some things to bring home to the girls, and there in front of me was the "playaway" for A Cricket in Times Square, the book Emma and I just finished reading, and another easier-read that Mary would be able to enjoy.

And I folded. I stuck those little devices in my bag and checked out.

You can imagine the squealing and excitement that "mom brought iPods home from the library!" when I arrived home last night before bed. Batteries were checked and replaced, earbuds were untangled, buttons were explained, and "ipods" were set out carefully on bedside tables for morning.

This morning, two girls emerged at my bedside, talking extremely loud with wires trailing from their earlobes. Ugh! Am I a modern mom? I don't think I'm there yet.

I'm reminded of this fantastic post by Stefani. Now I just have to think of my "hook" to bring them back to my "little house on the prairie"-fantasy world that I want to live in.

On a more serious and important note, I hope you will take a moment to check out the important NieNie Auction going on at design mom. Amy asked me to share it with all of you. She thinks highly of you all, my dear readers, and hopes you can take a moment to help out. I was unfamiliar with Stephanie's story until this week. She tugs at my heart and demands my continual prayers. Please take a look.

Wishing you a wonderful, long weekend. xo.

August 19, 2008

a few of my favorite things

August 19, 2008/ molly balint

On Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30 in a panic. Dan was still beside me in bed, I thought it was Monday, his alarm didn't go off, he was late for work. Then I realized it was Sunday. Isn't that one of the best feelings in the world? My body just gets all warm and limp when I realize I can sink back into my pillows and fall asleep.

Except that all this week I've thought it was Friday. Just now, I was shocked when I looked up into the little corner of my computer to realize it was flashing "TUE". Who knew? I think I'd better break out a calendar or something.

Anyway, my favorite things...I went to the hardware store this afternoon to pick out a paint color for the headboard that Dan built for me last weekend. In my mind I knew I wanted a dark-grayish-brownish-goose down kind of color.

I don't waste my time with all the other color providers. I marched straight over to the Valspar Martha Stewart color line and there was the exact color I was envisioning. That Martha, she knows what I like. I had my color and my paint within five minutes.

Four of those five minutes were spent gathering up other color cards that I liked. I love these things. If I could get away with it, I'd stand in front of the display and take one of everything. I.love. color. And the names of colors--book cloth brown, araucana green, evening moth, sycamore bark....

And for the record, the one on the far left--tintype--will be the headboard--though it's looking very black in this light.

The other favorite thing right now? Cucumber yogurt dip.

Our family had dinner with another couple from our church several weeks ago and she made this with her meal. I couldn't stop eating it. I think that it may well be possible that Dan and I were the sole reason the bowl was empty at the end of the evening. Of course I got the recipe and I've been making it in constant rotation, like a chain-smoker lights cigarettes.

Last summer was the summer of tomatoes, basil, mozzarella and balsamic.

This is the summer of Cucumber Yogurt Dip.

Here's my (her) loosey-goosey recipe:

Peel, seed and thinly slice several cucumbers. Salt them and place in a colander to drain off the water. I leave mine for several hours in the refrigerator. To the drained cucumbers, add plain yogurt, a dollop of sour cream, a tablespoon or two of olive oil, a teaspoon or two (to taste) of red wine vinegar. Mix together and add salt, pepper and dill to taste.

I'm putting it on everything--steak, chicken, potatoes, zucchini, bagel crisps. I even eat it straight up. I can't stop. It's so cool and refreshing and summery. Try it, you'll see.

Happy Friday! Tuesday!

August 18, 2008

the care and feeding of guinea keets

August 18, 2008/ molly balint

That's what all my google searches have been about this weekend. You see, three weeks ago, my oldest daughter and her great-grandmother started to conspire together about getting some baby chicks for our new place. The feed mill had a few orphans, sitting in a plastic tub behind the counter waiting for a home. Each week, their price would go down--$3.00, $2.75, $2.25.....

So three weeks ago, my grandmother drove to the feed store to rescue those little chicks and bring them home to my hardly-able-to-contain-themselves-with-excitement little girls. She arrived home empty-handed. The chicks had been bought by some other well-meaning person that very morning.

So instead, she ordered us five Rhode Island Red ladies to arrive the following week.

Let me tell you two things: First of all, my girls were disappointed that they had to wait. But I was kind of glad to see them wait and prepare for the chicks arrival. A little anticipation and patience builds character, right?

But second of all, if you tell them next week, please let it be next week!! For the past two weeks they've been devising plans to get me to the feed mill to check whether the chicks have arrived. We're running out of kitten feed at an unholy rate. We "desperately" need a rain gauge so Daddy knows how much rain we're getting while he's at work. And apparently I need a new pair of gardening gloves because this pair is so (heaven forbid) dirty!

So we've been checking in many times each week. But the little old lady behind the counter has no specifics, no answers. "We don't know when they'll arrive. We don't get any notice, they just show up."

It's little consolation to my now impatient girls. A week is one thing, but dragging this on for three is too much.

Growing up, I remember having guineas on our farm. The round grey birds were always around, making a lot of noise when a car arrived, roosting in the pine trees at night and probably more often than my young self realized, getting carried off by the local fox.

So when I was perusing the "Farm and Garden" section of CraigsList, my new online obsession, and I happened upon "Gary in PA" who was selling guinea chicks, I quickly made a call.

Dan and I had been talking about getting guineas--good for your garden, good for keeping down your tick population, and just plain neat to have wandering around the place. But when most hatcheries require you to order a minimum of 30(!), I knew we wouldn't be getting any.

But good old Gary made it all come together. On Saturday, we drove out to his little place in Pennsylvania, home to a menagerie of chickens, guineas, ducks and rabbits. And drove home with six sweet little guinea keets to call our own.

I've fretted over temperatures, who's drinking, who's eating, who's making so much noise, for the first few nights, but now things seem to be settling down.

To hold them, is to hold a ball of fluff that is all neck. I imagine them to be like a baby brontosaurus. And they use those necks to squeeze and scramble out of your hold. However, if you'll give them a place to nuzzle down, tuck their head, a nice dark spot, they'll quiet down and most likely fall asleep.

So, we've adopted six guineas. And now that they're here I bet you the feed mill will be calling with our Rhode Island Reds tomorrow. Doesn't it always work that way?

And if you come over, and use our downstairs bathroom, be sure to duck your head under the two by four, that's holding the heat lamp over the large tub, that's holding six noisy keets. Try not to get too sweaty in the 90 degree room, or slip on a pile of woodshavings, or knock over the custom-designed tub of chick feed....

You won't mind, will you?