This rose...

 

...is in the neighbor's parking strip. Last night I walked over to take photos of it, and I'm going to leave a note introducing myself so I can find out what it is. It's a nice-enough looking rose, but the scent: like rose and citrus and everything beautiful. When you smell it, all's right with the world. What a nice way to meet the neighbors!

happy family, beautiful light

Another instance of needing to go in and grab the camera:

Wordless...Sunday: Poppy

Oh, who am I kidding? I can't do wordless anything. I was on my way out to go running when I saw this, went back inside, and took pictures instead. I think I made the right choice.

Toddlers in Tow

Today Christy, Amber, Anneke, the world's most photogenic child, and I went to The Bishop's Close for a photography field trip.

I call this one "Longing" or "I NOT-A-SHARE my umbrella!"

So there was a lot of camera-fiddling and a surprising amount of tech talk for, you know, a girls' trip (jk, Tallgirl).

We mommies were most absorbed in finding just the right shutter speed/aperture whatsit to get that cool streaming effect when photographing this waterfall.

So absorbed that one of the toddlers plunged head-first into a foot of water right above the waterfall while we snapped away. Sigh. Who knew the Bishop's Close was so treacherous?

Coast weekend

Just got back from another weekend at the coast with the whole (Portland) fam-damily. My mother-in-law found a big, comfy house in Arch Cape for us to rent for the weekend. We had a wonderful time at the beach and a wonderful time together as a family. But what was the best part about this big, comfy house? Keep reading to find out!

But first: the Clam Report. We still don't know how to dig for razor clams. What was more annoying this time around was how everyone else on the beach had already "limited," which is clamming talk for...reaching the limit of clams you can dig. Stupid smug probably native Oregonians. But watch out. Back at the house, we researched how to find them on Youtube, and now we are pretty sure we are going to regulate on some clams next chance we get.

We did all earn our tidepooling badges, however! When I was a little girl I grew up learning about all sorts of Arkansas fauna, like water moccasins and armadillos. Anneke gets to run her fingers over sea anemones and starfish. I want to do what I can to make sure she's not squeamish about all of these amazing critters and creepy-crawlies. A tidepool would have seemed like a dream come true when I was little. It still does.

There was much gluttony, including mounds of my mother-in-law's wonderful sausage rolles and the 2010 cake #3 (counting the pecan pie): The Scarlet Empress, a la Rose Levy Berenbaum. Technically, it's a charlotte. It was in honor of Dave's birthday.

And the best part about the house? A SECRET TUNNEL TO THE BEACH! We were all musing that the only drawback to the house was the distance to the beach, up a hill and across the highway. Then a neighbor clued us in to The Tunnel, down a little trail at the bottom of the hill. It felt very James Bond/The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Head trauma

Anneke got her first owie that almost required stitches. Actually, when we took her into the doctor the next morning, said doctor very gently and kindly indicated she might have taken her own two-year-old to the ER that night. Hmph. Well, we called the on-call doctor right after it happened, and she said we could probably just bring her in that morning. Faced with the prospect of waiting in the ER for someone to stitch up a cut between our daughter's eyes about two hours past her bedtime, followed by a $400 hospital bill, we opted for the laissez-faire approach.

Oh, how did it happen? Umm, she tumbled head-first out of the shopping cart after I told Dave, "oh,we can let her ride in the basket as long as we don't let her stand up. It'll be fine." That's how we all rode around back in the 80s, right? Well, no more shopping cart monkey business for this 21st century girl!

Easter

Easter again! This year's was very nice. Anneke and I went to church and got there early enough to have a seat, so it was maybe the most enjoyable Easter service I've been to in years. Also, I went in with an attitude adjustment. It's awesome that my church is overflowing on Easter. Welcome, everyone!

I have a lot of complicated feelings and thoughts and beliefs about the Easter story, and I don't think the mommy blog is where I feel like incoherently exploring them. But Easter means something different to me every year. This year Good Friday got my attention in a new way. I read about the events that lead to Jesus execution, and I recognized the fear, greed, selfishness, laziness, apathy, and all those other ugly things about human nature--not to be dramatic, but I related to it.

But on Sunday morning I felt my bone-deep faith in the power of redemption and forgiveness, and I felt so glad to be there, sharing it with Anneke who did her "wheels on the bus" dance to "The Strife is O'er" and once again splashing her hands in the Baptismal font.

But before the Easter Bunny comes, eggs must be dyed. With a very enthusiastic daddy who draws crayon snoopies on said eggs.

Thanks, Easter Bunny!

and thanks, Grandma, for a fabulous Easter brunch!

And April's cake is...the Lane cake--apparently an old Southern recipe, but one I have never eaten before this. Must be an east of the Mississippi thing. White butter cake filled with cherry preserves, coconut, pecans, and bourbon. yeehaw!