Obeyment

This was a conversation I had with Butterfly today after we talked about how important it is to obey. (Especially in the parking lot.)

B: Mommy, the baby Bunny always obeys the Mama Bunny. It's called obeyment.

Me: Wow, that's a great made-up word, ButterflyB.

B: I didn't make it up.

Me: Where did you learn it?

B: I learned it from myself. It's not like a mint that you eat. It's like agreement or _____.

(It was some other word ending in 'ment' -- like agreement -- that perfectly fit, but since I apparently gave all my cognitive abilities to her, I forgot it.)*

Me: Oh, I understand.

Daddy (upon hearing the story): Maybe she won't need school.

*UPDATE: I asked Rob what the other 'ment' word was, and it was compliment. (He didn't have to give his brain away to make hers....)

A Book Lover's Paradise

(This is for all my bibliophile friends, who will certainly appreciate my glee. It will bore the rest of you to tears.)

On our quick trip to Rob's grandmother's house last weekend, we had a chance to go through his late grandfather's extensive and dusty library and take home whatever books we wanted. It was magnificently fun.

A little background: Mr. H -- actually Lt. Colonel (retired) H -- was an officer in Army intelligence during the Cold War and learned Chinese and Russian. He also served in India, Burma and Algiers in World War II, as well as Korea (after that war). The family lived in many exotic places during his career, including Okinawa, Thailand and Germany. Needless to say, his library was fascinating and diverse.

Here are the books we brought back with us. The majority of them are very, very old. (I included some very fun chapter titles for a couple of them.)

BOOKS FROM THE GRANDFATHER'S LIBRARY

The Song Of Hiawatha (two copies - an extremely old one and an even older leather bound one)

American Poetry (1671-1928)

The Year Out Of Doors

The Boat United And Other Poems, a translation of Tang poems in wood with original poems in Chinese Calligraphy (this book has some incredible artwork in it. I'll have to scan some.)

Joseph Wood Krutch Herbal

Driving To Biloxi (poems by Edgar Simmons)

Scribner Magazine, Winter 1996

Ducks At A Distance, a waterfowl identification guide (small booklet)

Guide To Spirits and Liqueurs

Riley Songs Of Home (by James Whitcomb Riley)

Ginseng And Other Medicinal Plants

Translations From The ChineseT(by Arthur Waley)

Heidi (children's picture book version)

The S.D.N Theory Of Music Rudiments

Webster's New World Vest Pocket Dictionary (so tiny & cute)

The Grapes of Wrath (by John Steinbeck)

Nicholas And Alexandra (by Robert K Massie)

Marie Antoinette, The Journey (by Antonia Fraser)

In Dubious Battle (by John Steinbeck)

The Six Wives Of Henry VIII (by Alison Weir)

An Introduction To Bird Life For Bird Watchers (by Aretas A Saunders)

Volumes II, III and IV of The Harbrace History Of England

Pigeon Flight (by Mary Stolz) - a juvenile fiction book

The Boy's Book Of New Inventions (Harry E Maule) -- check out the chapter titles

The Aeroplane
Artificial Lighting Made And Harnessed To Man's Use
The Motion Picture Machine
The Tesla Turbine
The Romance of Concrete
The Wireless Telegraph Up To The Minute (What would they think of Twitter??)
Steel Boiled Like Water And Cut Like Paper
New Engines Of War (aeroplanes, balloons, submarines)
Les Miserables (by Victor Hugo)

The Conquest Of Everest (by Sir John Hunt)

American Boy Adventure Stories

Foxfire 4 (includes fiddle making, springhouses, sassafras tea, etc.)

Basic Russian Book 2 (we got book one last time)

A Practical Guide For The Beginning Farmer

Haji Of The Elephants

The American Boys Handy Book (chapters below)

Novel Modes of Fishing
How To Camp Out Without A Tent
Home-Made Boats
Knots, Bends, and Hitches
Practical Taxidermy For Boys
Snowball Warfare
How To Make Various And Divers Whirligigs

Tracks And Tracking (by Josef Brunner)

Count Of Monte Cristo, Illustrated (by Alexander Dumas)

World Enough And Time (by Robert Penn Warren)

A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court (by Mark Twain)

The Tale Of Mr. Tod (by Beatrix Potter)

The Pilgrim's Progress (by John Bunyan)

A Wrinkle In Time & A Swiftly Tilting Planet (by Madeleine L'Engle)

Hamlet (very small & cute book)

Modern American Poetry (copyright 1921)

Poetry Of The People: Ballads, Lays of Heroism, And National Songs

How To Live On Nothing (by Joan Ranson Shortney)

The Stranger (by Albert Camus)

Flowers, a Guide To Familiar American Wildflowers

Clocks And Watches

Unfortunately, we had to leave hundreds and hundreds more behind. He had so very many about World War II, including official Army booklets analyzing the battle strategies on the different fronts during the war. It was amazing.

A List Of Thoughts

Outside my window...

I hear A Duet For Mower And Weedeater playing

I am thinking...

about organizing my day

From the learning rooms...

Moonlight Sonata, To A Wild Rose and Notturno await me

I am thankful for...

an enchanting little girl who kisses me a hundred times a day

From the kitchen...

the dishwasher is begging me to unload it

I am wearing...

a dark-brown, ankle-length, tiered skirt and a dark-brown tanktop

I am reading...

The #1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

(recommended by my bookworm in-laws)

I am hoping...

for more light and less fog

I am creating...

a gift for a beloved friend

I am praying...

for light to shine from above

Around the house...

there are toys everywhere

One of my favorite things...

is my midi-interfaced, digital, hammer-action piano with a Steinway digital sample

A few plans for the rest of the week...

laundry, cleaning, birthday party and a fun Saturday brunch

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

(Topic borrowed from The Simple Woman's Daybook via Walk Slowly, Live Wildly.)

Those Crazy Words

Butterfly hates getting her hair washed.  

In retrospect, I regret being so careful with water when she was a baby, never letting it get in her face and eyes.  I thought I was being kind because I don't particularly like water in my own face, but I realize now that I missed my opportunity to desensitize her to it.  Now she hates the thought of a single drop getting near her face, which will be a huge problem when she takes swim lessons.

Sometimes when her hair gets dirty, I will just put it up in braided buns (aka Bear Ears) and put off the drama another day.  She has started using this as a negotiating technique.

This conversation occurred a few weeks ago, and I just came across my written record of it.

Mommy:  We are going to wash your hair today.

Butterfly:  I just want to have bear ears.

Mommy:  No, your hair is very very dirty and we have to wash it.

Butterfly:  I am going to be very unhappy if you wash my hair.

Mommy:  You shouldn't say that.  You should say, "I am going to be so happy because we are washing my hair, and my hair will be silky and clean."

Butterfly:  I'm just going to leave because you are saying those crazy words to me.

For Daddy, On His Valentine Birthday

I had never imagined

not once

until yesterday

that those magical days

of wandering

through the woods

with an all-day sucker

staying in earshot

of the chainsaw

and later

the axe's chop and clack

exploring the mysterious

dark creek down in the

bottom

I didn't know those moments

could be remembered

as anything but

adventurous, luxurious

exciting

but now

I think of your freezing hands

your aching muscles

lifting the axe above

your head over and over

all day long

I see the mountain 

of triangular logs

in the back of the trailer

heaped high for us to sit on 

as we dodged low-hanging

branches on the way 

home

and I realize

only now

the neatly stacked

pile of wood

warming us through the

winter

was the fruit of 

a day of labor

and not 

a day of fun

The Anthem Of My Fierce Heart

"From A Wigwam" was the first song I learned to play on the piano that I really liked. It was on the last page of the book Teaching Little Fingers To Play, and it was a 'hands-together' song. Not only that, but my left hand played two notes at once for the entire song. Those two notes provided the Indian drum-type rhythm while my right hand played the 'Ba ba, Ba ba-ba bam' part.

It was very fierce sounding to my young ears, and it pleased my fierce little Indian heart. Deep down, I knew I was an Indian, and finally I could express my wildness in song.

I was almost certain I was an Indian because my cousin Mark was a real, 100% Indian. Since I was related to him, it was only logical that I was at least part Indian, despite my pale skin, green eyes and un-black hair. Mark, on the other hand, had jet-black hair and skin as brown as the moccasins he wore every day that summer.

According to Mark, the ultimate proof of authentic Indianhood was the ability to find arrowheads, and he had found many along the gravel road leading to my Papaw's house. I was awed by those finds, and I would imagine bows and arrows and feathers and scalps as I smoothed them in my hands. But I always had to give them back, which was woeful since, to my great consternation, I had not found my own yet.

My lack of success did not stop me from looking every day, my eyes glued to the ground. I never stopped believing that one day I would find my proof, and everyone would know that I was a displaced Indian princess, wild at heart and worthy of the anthem in my beginning piano book.

*Disclaimer: when I was growing up, the political (and geographically) correct term Native Americans did not yet exist, so we did not yet know we were supposed be playing Cowboys and Native Americans.