A wiggly tooth...

Her third one already... When will it come out?
The Tooth Fairy would like to know...

Update: It came out this morning. She crawled in bed with me, showed me how loose it was and then... she pulled it out. Just like that.
The Tooth Fairy must be on her way now, I'm sure, unless she decides to send over "la petite souris"...

Family pictures :: my mom

I'm still recovering from a bad cold, but feel so much better already. To the extent my fingers itch to do something creative. Not one or two things, but plenty of things. But first I need to get the other stuff done. Not feeling well made me skip chores and now I need to catch up on those, of course. The fridge needs a cleaning - I want to get rid of that nasty Camembert smell and there are some chocolate (?!) spills in it as well and plenty of expired things. I need to catch up on laundry and ironing also. And then there's the weekly returning cleaning cycle. And I don't feel like doing any of these. Instead I want to knit, to sew, to needle felt (haven't done that for the longest time), take pictures,... I want to do anything but the aforementioned chores...



However, before I dive into the work, I want to take a moment to share some very nice family pictures with you. Pictures of my mom this time. My mom as a little girl. And again this was an interesting exercise if only to see how much my youngest one, little H., looks like my mom as a kid. This of course didn't come as a complete surprise, since I look a lot like my mom - and even more so with aging - and people keep telling me little H. looks so much like me. So, there's the link. But it was striking still to see my little girl appear in those photographs (especially in the school picture): same mouth, same little nose, same jaw line, same flimsy hair, though I'm not exactly sure about the eyes.

Did you see the dresses in those pictures? Lovely, aren't they? My grandfather was a tailor - he made men suits. He had his own atelier at home, where he made suits for doctors, lawyers, or anyone who could afford a custom made suit - in those days men would typically have a suit made for the big events in their life which they would wear until it didn't fit anymore or got all worn out. He did pretty well until confection suits took over and incoming orders started to sluggish. He quit the sewing business and took another job at a factory. However, being a tailor he took pride in having his kids well-dressed. The dresses weren't made by him, my mom told me, but by his seamstress. I especially like the pleated one in the first picture, her first grade school picture (same age as little H. now, and in this one the resemblance is quite striking!).



My mom is the middle child of three, with one older brother and a younger sister. The second picture shows my mom with her sister in their courtyard. The dresses, the socks and shoes, the hair: the fifties that's for sure! The third picture is my mom at her Holy Communion. The dress here is simply amazing. And the tulle, plenty of it! She looks like a little angel in that one, though I can immediately add she wasn't (sorry mom!! - the truth needs to be said, LOL!). What I also like are the fancy hairdos in those shots, something my grandmother would take care of. She would use bows, curling tools, braids,... anything that would help to make my mom's hair look less flimsy. Too bad for my girls, but I'm really horrible at this. A pony tail or a braid is about as fancy it gets here...



So, mama, pretty girl, this post is dedicated to you ...
Wishing you a wonderful day!

Hokey Pokey Ladybug

I've been feeling a bit under the weather the last couple of days. It started on Friday night with some sneezing. And then, on Saturday, I woke up with a bad cold and a slight migraine. I have a history of bad migraines, which tend to last four days when not taken care of immediately. The timing of this one couldn't be better, with K. leaving on Sunday for the week. I took some meds, the migraine subsided, but not the cold.
I still felt lousy on Sunday morning, had to lay down for a nap after I finished ironing K.'s shirts. And then, when K. left, M. started crying. The girls are used to their daddy going on business trips once in a while and they're fine with it. But this time M. was really sad and worried. Worried his plane would come down... Poor little thing... I felt sad seeing her like that. I pulled myself out of the couch, took some ibuprofen and then we started on a project she'd been asking for, for a while (more about our little project later this week). Little H. preferred to paint and sat down with us at the table with her paint, brushes and some "pastels gras". And you know what? We had a wonderful afternoon being crafty together like that. Seems like the best remedy when feeling not well is doing something fun and creative.
Things got even better when I spotted this ladybug in our bedroom (at this time of the year - can you believe it?!). Ladybugs bring luck, I told my girls - and M. promptly felt relieved: daddy would be fine!

When later that night I had a look at the pictures I took (of course I did - they're not great, a bit out-of-focus even, but somehow I like them a lot - those legs and that little butt!!) I couldn't help but think of the Hokey Pokey. When M. was little we used to dance the Hokey Pokey a lot. It would make her giggle and feel happy and me too. Baby M., she grew up so fast... Maybe we should just re-introduce the Hokey Pokey - a happy, silly dance for when we feel a little down or sad...
Thanks for the reminder, Hokey Pokey Ladybug!

Wishing you all a happy, healthy week!

Cheers,

P.

Bachten de Kupe

glasses, glasses, glasses...

"Bachten de Kupe" is a small area in West-Flanders, Belgium, pinched between the river the "Yser", the Northsea and the French border - literally it means outside the river bed. We spent most of our Sunday afternoon driving through rain and wind, exploring that specific area and that's how we ended up at the "Bachten de Kupe Openluchtmuseum", an open air museum I never heard of before, but which we'll visit again I'm sure.

The museum consists of small houses that once stood in the area, and which have been reconstructed at the museum's site. Every house is dedicated to a particular theme (a shoe repair store, a doctor's office, a school, a presbytery, a hair salon, a grocery store, a post office...) and harbors a great collection of items from the old days. This place is a little gem, really!

My girls just loved it and not just because of the Halloween-themed search game.
M. fell in love with the school building and back in the car she kept on repeating she would like to go back into time, just to be able to go to a school like that and to be able to play in the fields in summer with the other kids of town...
She has some very romantic ideas of what life must have been like back then!

Of course I took a million of pictures - and not using a flash gave the pictures that little bit of grain, which kind of suits the subject ... Well, that's what I keep telling my self when looking a the blurry ones...
For more pictures, feel free to visit my Flickr photostream.


medicines in the typical brown bottles which I even remember from when I was a kid. I just love those labels where the pharmacist would write the dosage on...



Isn't that poster funny, right above the obstetrician's table...?



these look so much nicer than the alarm clocks we have nowadays - maybe one of those would get me out of bed in the morning...



It's not a Jean-Paul Gauthier, nor did it belong to Madonna - I've no idea what it is, but we found it at the butcher's...


Vlees geeft kracht - Meat gives you strength...


M.'s favorite class room...


teaching supplies

A not so good day...

Went to bed way too late - woke up early - my wristwatch showed 5:50, the alarm clock said it was 6:55. The alarm clock was right - so something's wrong with the new battery in my watch - no way I could return to the warm sheets...

I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Outside my window: gray and cold weather, threatening clouds.

I think I'll move to Australia.


Took the kids to school, came back home and still felt tired and cold.

Didn't feel like doing much. Decided to get creative. Maybe that would help.

Took out the lino pad I got last week and the carving tools that came with it. Let's do some lino print today!

Couldn't find the tracing paper - had to look everywhere - found it in M.'s room. Wasn't very inspired for a great design and ended up with bubbles. Traced them onto the lino. Started cutting and carving. And just when I thought I had it down the carving tool slipped into my finger: one bleeding thumb.
And I mean b l e e d i n g!

It was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Went to the bathroom to take care of my finger - couldn't find the sterile pads nor the band aids - found the band aids in M.'s room on the floor.

Went back to my project but really careful now. Wanted to try out the design with paint on paper - couldn't find the special rolling brush to apply the paint - found it in a forgotten tool box.

Applied paint, printed - nah, still some lines where I didn't want any - more carving - black paint all over my hands now and the band aid.

It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Cut out too much so the lino got all floppy - needed a block or a support of some sort to glue it onto - didn't have anything useful - and if I would have had something to glue it onto, it wouldn't have been much of a help anyway as I couldn't find the hot glue gun's electricity cord. Should be in our wall closet, but in order to find it in there I would have to clean up/ clear out the entire closet.

Next week, I said, I'm going to Australia.
End of project...

Since M. had her first gym class that night and I also had another PTA-meeting at school and K. had to go out for dinner for work, I decided to prepare dinner early. Popped the green beans in their microwavable bag in the microwave, set the timer, took them out, cut open the bag being careful not to get burned by the hot steam, tasted one and noticed they were not done - at all... because the microwave was still on low.

Did I tell you , it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day?

Picked up the kids from school, met with K. who took them home, I stayed for the meeting, rushed back home so K. could leave for his meeting. There was no time left for dinner for me. Took the kids in the car and drove off to gym. Ended up behind the trash truck, couldn't find a parking spot. So M. was late for her first class.

I was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, I told the kids.

Waited with little H. until the class was over. Talked to the gym teacher, who I was glad to see again. Asked her about her mom, who had been sick for the past six months. She didn't make it and passed away in August. And she misses her tremendously, she said. Devastated, I hugged her. I just wanted this day to be over...


My mom says some days are like that.

Even in Australia.


Italics are excerpts from Judith Viorst's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No good, Very Bad Day.