ZIG ZAG MAMA

"A Week in the Life": Friday

1. Woken by loud crash (child climbing on box of train tracks to pull contraband from shelves). Child decides to climb over his waffle breakfast. Child shows me that the banana looks like the moon. I drink two cups of coffee with soy creamer.

   

2. Rush off to get to the delightful Music Together class our friend Maggie teaches. Zeke loves to get his groove on, and I must say, has quite a lovely little singing voice.

  

3. When Zeke realizes Maggie's homeschooled kiddos are hanging out in the next room, he opts to hang out with them for the next 45 minutes or so, discovering all the wonders of the iPod Touch. He also steals and eats one of their apples.

 

4. We arrive home to wash the gargantuan piles of laundry. I'm thinkin' the fireman hat is not so much machine washable.

5. Lunch! Eating the day after Yom Kippur seems downright thrilling. I made paninis with Dubliner Irish cheese on sprouted sourdough wheat. We also scarfed down an organic pear from the box we get delivered by Spud.

  

6. Is there anything you can't do with a silicone baking cup? Today, I filled ours up with high pigment watercolors. Zeke and I painted several pictures in the backyard sunshine.

7. The afternoon feels very civilized, until Zeke runs off with the big water glass and chucks it into the driveway, where it shatters into so very very many pieces.

8. After Zeke absconds with the glass shard filled broom,  he must intuit that I need a freakin' break, because he settles down to build legos on the back porch. He builds while I take a luxurious four (maybe five?) minute rest on the outdoor couch.

9. In the afternoon, we go to "Home School Fridays!", which this week is conveniently located at our neighbor, Mara's, house. When we arrive, Zoe is sewing a Halloween shirt of her own design. Zeke creates his own collage project with a glue stick and some oak leaves.

10. Zoe gives Zeke a tiny baby sling and a little bear to carry. Zeke is quite enamored with it. He can be endearingly loving and compassionate!

11. Mara teaches us how to make ghosts by creating a form and covering it with starch soaked cloth. Ours is small and looks like R2 D2 in a sheet. Malcolm's, however, is enormous and looks awesome. When they dry, the ghosts will be free standing.

 

 

12. Les enfants get restless, so we walk to the park. The kids are all busying themselves with a variety of death defying new ways to use the playground equipment. Zach shows up to say hi, which was great, but then, the un-napped (and desperatly missing his siblings) one, bit Malcolm on the knuckles. We decided it was time to go home, and Zeke had a full scale meltdown.

12. The meltdown ended promptly with the serving of dinner. I made a variation on my Grandmother Theresa's pasta fazool (which in southern Italian peasant dialect means "pasta with beans"). She made hers with elbow macaroni, white beans, escarole, a little broth, and lots of garlic. We would cover it with a snow of freshly grated Parmesan, and it was terrifically soothing. I make mine with whole wheat pasta, swiss chard, crushed garlic, olive olive oil, some of the cooking liquid from the veggies and pasta, chopped tomato, and garbanzo beans. I add little discs of mozzarella directly to the bowl, so that they just begin to melt a little, right before you take your first bite. Dinner went fine, until the milk was spilled...twice. But as they say, there's no use crying...

 

13. Ezekiel asked to call Malcolm to check on him and say sorry. He also called his big brother Forest, and his great-grandfather, Ernie.  For some reason, in this picture, he kind of looks like a long lost member of the Dandy Warhols calling from one hell of a party.

14. Zeke and Papa drive to the video store to exchange the Stanley Kubrick shirt I got Papa for a different size. I stay home and light Shabbat candles. Zach rents The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for later. The boys bring home ice cream and day old brioche.

15. Zeke gets bathed and ready for bed, while I try to upload today's pics and post this monster blog. I am interrupted to help the bedtime process. Boy, I would really really like to watch that movie some time tonight....

16. Seriously thinking that next weeks project should involve far less photography and far fewer words.

"A Week in the Life" : Thursday

1. Woke up, realized that it was still Yom Kippur, and not only could I not have breakfast, I could not have coffee.
2. Established that my husband was, in fact, essentially taking the day off, but was not fasting, due to illness. This meant that I got to smell his coffee.
3. Realized that we were out of diapers.
4. Went to Whole Foods to buy the hippie brand of disposables.
5. Took Zeke to the park, ran into the photographer from my sister-in-laws wedding.
6. Zach and Zeke were hungry, watched them eat some fast food. Moron at the table next to us was spouting off anti-semitic b.s., grumbling about "the Jews," and how it was ridiculous to let kids in public school out for Jewish holidays.
7. Resisted urge to smack him the back of the head.
8. Took Zeke to his therapy session.
9. Rested my fast dizzy head on my husband's knee, on a bench, outside of the clinic.
10. Watched the Food Network (sick, I know) while Zach took Zeke to pick out a Halloween costume (he'd been begging for an "ostoom " all day).
11. Grinned at Zeke's hand-picked selection...Yoda (complete with ears).
12. Piled into the car, battled rush hour traffic, and arrived a wee bit late to a radical Jewish taschlich ceremony in front of the Israeli consulate. It was a lovely ritual,  in which the participants threw crumbs of bread into water to symbolize casting off the sins of the Israeli government and the oppression of the Occupation. They then cast off off their own personal weaknesses and drew in positive qualities to develop over the coming year.  After finishing, we regrouped at Canter's Deli to break the fast with enormous quantities of traditional Ashkenazic Jewish food...latkes, blintzes, bagels, egg creams, and, of course, matzoh balls.

 

13. On the way home, Zeke began begging to see his brothers and sister (as he's done everyday this week). We called them on the phone, and he was thrilled to tell them two important things..."You know what? I LOVE YOU!" and "I eat matzoh balls!". That's the relic of some kind of prune rugelach on his chin, by the way.

14. At home, Papa and Zeke jammed on the piano with their rendition of "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen.

15. The grown people bickered about the finer points of the small person's insurance policy.
16. And, the day ended in the usual way. (Did I mention that I can eat now?)

"A Week in the Life": Wednesday

(forgive my ever changing "week in the life" format...i'm formatically restless).

Wednesday was, to put it mildly, a difficult day. We bumbled our way to a visit at the local co-op pre-school. They have agreed to accept Zeke in January, provided I stay right with him at all times. It's a pretty mellow place with a great emphasis on non-violent parenting and communication and a totally free-choice, play based emergent curriculum. Many folks homeschool their kids after they "graduate" and use the school primarily as a way to form community. So...we're visiting one day a week, to get ourselves acclimated. Zeke seems to really like it there. He enjoys the wandering desert tortoise, the swings, the sprinklers and pools they pull out on hot days, the dress up clothes (notice his lady bug wings), and the fun open ended art station (today they could free paint, draw, or dip cars in paint and drive them across the page...he did all three), but he is especially fond of the organic nutritionally balanced snack time (blueberries, hummous, and veggie dogs, being his particular favorites). It would have been a great day, but the kid was just sooooo agressive, it took a maximum amount of energy just to make it to lunch time. The combination of sleep deprivation, papa deprivation, and sibling depravation, compounded with chronic constipiation, is really taking its toll on the little guy. Even with extra vigilance, he pushed and scratched several kids, and bit three others. I just wanted to cry, and by around 4:30 I did.

 

  

After we got home from school, his agressive behavior actually ramped up, with me (and the house, including my Jerusalem pottery, as the target). I was running around like a crazy person, trying to cook, shower, dress for the Yom Kippur Kol Nidre service, and fit in my final meal before the fast. My husband was stuck in a staff meeting, and I was none too happy about it...After Zeke bit me for the third time (and pulled out a chunk of my hair), I called my neighbor (whilst sobbing), and she came running over to help make sure I got fed and dressed before services. Hubby walked in just in the nick of time, and I did, in fact make it to the church, er a, synagogue on time.

The Kol Nidre service is long, but moving. It is a beautiful process of confession, but as a community, rather than completely as an individual. It feels like such a safe and supportive way to release the mistakes of the past, and to call upon the mercy of the divine (however we may envision it). On Yom Kippur, we fast to help focus our intentions, and we do not wear leather, or makeup, or do anything that serves vanity and would detract from a spirit of humility and repentence (hence the shot of me, taken prior to services, make-up free, with head covered in the traditonal white).  Although I am by no means strictly observant (i.e. I fasted, but drove my car and turned on the lights), taking photos and blogging seemed like real creative pursuits, on thus in conflict with the spirit of Yom Kippur. So, I took my last photo just prior to sundown, and resumed photography after sundown the next day.

"A Week in the Life": Tuesday

1. Effing trash day! Small boy jumps on my bed at dawn to look at the trucks. Plop him in front of PBS, until I realize that I have to pee, and might as well get up. Boy plays with play-doh while I make breakfast.

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2. Make a wild attempt at some cleaning and picking up.

   

3. Try to get Zeke in car seat. Big battle, as he tries to wedge coins into the only delicate parts of my car that he's left unbroken. Finally head to drop videos at shop, three of which went unwatched. Train gets in the way of my gas guzzler!

   

4. Proceed to local shady park. Stare at my very old, very blue shoes while Zeke eats an apple. Notice that there are far more nannies than moms at the park (nine: three). Zeke attacks some poor kid, and then another one. We leave, but he is not happy. After several tantrum filled minutes, the kid is strapped in his seat. An elderly black woman comes to the car window and offers me a piece of gum (that weird pic) so I can "chew the stress out." Bless her.

 

5. Drop Zeke off at his grandma's school, and speed to the nearest corporate coffee house for what passes as nourishment. Drink way too much caffeine.

6. Make my way to Japanese Garden. It is sizzling outside, so I wander into the adjacent (and air conditioned) water processing plant. There is a guy feeding all these swarming koi. Sit and read a really good book, until my back starts to hurt.

    

7. Start feeling restless and aimless and indulgent. End up at some nothing coffee shop. Stave off a rapidly building  panic attack with mineral water, some sketching, and a call to report my identity theft to the FCC. Take self conscious picture in the bathroom, starting to loathe this project.

8. Pick up a very dusty Zeke. Grandma Carol reports that Zeke has exhausted her. I believe this.

   

9. Assemble vaguely nutritious meal of brown rice and homemade green bean- tofu curry. Follow it with the popping of corn and the melting of (not quite as nutritious) butter, in preparation for the presidential debate. 

      

10. We start off watching as a family, but even though Zeke can chant "Obama" with the best of them, it became clear that the adult folk would have to watch in shifts.

   

11. The un-napped child is bathed and falls asleep by 8:30. Computer time for the 'rents, which will be followed by a smidgen of reading in bed...right about, NOW.

p.s. for a closer look at pics, just click. and do post links in the comment section to your own "week in the life."

"A Week in the Life" : Monday

If they were handin' out grades in blogville, I think I'd be pulling a solid D, maybe a D plus. Nonetheless, I trudge on, my masochism getting the better of me. Like today, for example...

I decide I'm going to follow scrapbook blogger Ali Edwards' challenge to document the minutia of a week in my life. (You can find the details of her idea, here.)

Only problem is, I've got mama brain. I keep forgetting to photograph, just about everything...The older kids went back to their dad's last night, so at least I've only got one kiddo to document.

Maybe tomorrow will be better, here's today's results.

The Photos

The Summary

1. Woke up to Zeke's usual early morning pronouncement, "The sun's out. Wake up!"
2. Plopped him in front of PBS, while my sore bones warmed themselves in bed for a few more minutes.
3. Talked my sniffling husband into going to work.
4. Stumbled into the kitchen to make Early Grey and oatmeal,  and blare Kate Bush. (I need my morning music).
5. Sent hubby off to teach.
6. Dressed myself and Zeke, and headed to a gritty, aging nearby park.
7. Stopped in at Whole Foods to buy water (my Kleen Kanteen was fermenting something), a pear, and some kind of barley grass and seed bar for lunch.
8. Took Zeke to occupational therapy.
9. Rode the exercise bike there for twenty minutes. Remembered to take pictures of OT. Realized that I actually can manually focus my camera, spent next twenty minutes photographing small things up close (hence, the wedding band photo).
10. Munched our snacks in the car, then headed for Descanso Gardens because A. Our Arboretum membership gets us in free there. B. Zeke loves it. C. Thought he might fall asleep in the jogger and I could read in an oak grove. D. It would be lovely to photograph.
11. Realized that I left my membership card at home (but they let us in anyway).
12. Realized that I left the camera in the car, about a quarter mile away.
13. Zeke (who's been fighting constipation) had a victory poop in the Japanese Tea House.
14. Read a borrowed copy of Clifford the Big Red Dog on a bench by the Japanese maples. Read it the requested five times. Zeke yawned, but two and half hours later...was still awake.
15. Drove home. Pulled to the side to snap a pic of downtown in the distance. At home, ate aged Halloween gouda. Watered the very thrirsty lawn and garden.
16. Hubby came home from work, and I finally stole a shower.
17. Re-assessed my veggie chili dinner plans, upon realizing my can of black beans was actually refried. Made quesadillas, beans, and lemon kale instead.
18. Played with Zeke outside while Zach washed some dishes. Bribed him (Zeke, that is) away from the ice cream truck with some frozen homemade smoothie (Mara's idea).
19. Zach left to go back to work for a meeting.
20. Gave Zeke a bath, tripped out on the ceiling fan, begged him to get into his monkey jammies
21. Zeke pulled out every Jewish child's favorite tome, Green Eggs and Ham. Thankfully, Papa came home and took over.
22. I rushed to the computer.
23. Will most likely end the night with a little laundry folding and hopefully some reading.