Poetry Friday: An Estate Sale Poem

Happy Poetry Friday to all!
I am off to romp in the yard this afternoon, since it is finally warm enough to be pleasant outdoors with no jacket. Today is little Nib's first birthday so there is lot of celebratory romping to do! We will do full festivities tomorrow when A is off work and we're having a cupcake facial massage show in the morning with full paparazzi documentation. I can't wait to see it! Highlight of the first birthday party for sure.

Image by japi14 via Flickr

This morning I'm sharing a poem I wrote about one of my favorite warm weather pursuits, estate saling. I love yard sales and clearance sales and church rummage forays but my favorite are estate liquidations. I love the age and the warmth all the items seem to have and I love wandering through the home and seeing them in situ. Something very lovely about it all. Am pleased to have the season starting again. Even though there are such sales all year round, somehow it doesn't seem appealing to go unless it is lemonade weather when you can go rolling from one sale to the next with the windows down, feeling smug in front of everyone about the amazing things you have rattling around in the back seat.

Image by Chiot's Run via Flickr

Things Found At An Estate Sale

We step step step up the front stoop and over the threshold

Wanderers on the hunt at a Saturday morning sale

In this old house that smells of honey, salt and years of sunshine.

Before the sink, I  fondle  a sturdy enamel-speckled colander,

The handles worn dull and smooth by years of touch,

And carry it along, tucked confidentially against my hip.

In the faded garage there is a tower of wee, metal berry pails,

The insides filmed with ancient, summer dust.

My son swings two by their handles,

Bopping them pleasantly against his legs as we walk.

In a soft upper bedroom, I find a tiger’s eye ring,

Etched with faded swirls, not real silver, but no matter, it has a quiet glow.

The baby has discovered a black doctor’s bag at my feet,

All cracking at the sides, which wheezes pleasantly when opened.

And here on the dresser, a handful of slim-tipped sable brushes,

Waiting in a pert cluster, for more partnership with paint.

We wind back to the kitchen, because

You never know what you’ve missed in that room.

See what I mean?

There in bent cardboard is a teal-embroidered Pyrex in the old style,

Sturdy and casserole-seasoned just waiting for a rescue.

In the hall closet there is a fishing pole with a warm cork grip,

Complete with brightly painted bobber like an engaging circus toy

That dangles happily over my shoulder as we walk.

There are whole shoe boxes of crisp, lady’s notecards,  

And I take the five inscribed with bright, raised ladybugs,
Their paper gracefully aged from crisp white to golden pearl.

I tuck a fawn copy of Shakespeare under my arm and draw the line

At the little wooden doggy who follows us down the sidewalk on a string,                       His coiled, spring tail bobbing cheerfully as he goes.

Have a little gander at the other Poetry Friday participants over at The Drift Record and feel free to add a link to your own if you've a mind.

Related articles

• Sophie & Isaac's Eclectic Minimal Home House Tour (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Jam's Guide to Estate Sales! (weddingbee.com)

You Can Lead A Kid To His Carpet Square.....

So, basically, what I wanna post about tonight is...how do you make kids sleep? And yeah, yeah, I know that whole thing about leading a horse to water but really. When we're talking about kids, who never seem to want to do the things they need, and when we're sure they still need it...how do make it happen?

Specifics. Dee doesn't like to sleep. Honestly, neither of the two older boys do. Ru tries to stay awake as much possible, but he's slightly more responsive to verbal reprimand. Basically, they both try to squirrel around instead of sleep (at naptime and night), but Ru will listen when I finally break down and give them a good stern scolding. My little Dee on the other hand will not sleep. Until he wears himself out.

At naptime, he will talk and play and sing and shout and walk his feet up the wall and toss his pillow around and anything else he can think of without actually getting out of his bed and only fall asleep after an hour or more of messing around. The other way to get him to go to sleep is for me to sit there in his bedroom and say over and over "No talking. Go to sleep." *wiggle wiggle wiggle* "No playing, lie down and go to sleep." *wiggle wiggle wiggle* "Close your eyes and stop singing, its time to sleep." etc.etc.etc. ad nauseum

I had been doing that, but I'm wearing out. This takes a lot of patience and also a lot of time out of my day since it takes about a half an hour of reminders till he finally goes to sleep.

At bedtime, forget it. The boys both fuss and cry and ask for one more drink of water FOREVER...we just go to bed and ignore them at this point. I hate it but, we have no idea how to teach them to go to sleep.

I thought that if I sat with them at naptime and used those verbal instructions: "Close your eyes. Lie down. Go to sleep. This is a time for rest...etc." They would start to do it without being told and I could give fewer and fewer reminders and basically pull out and see them go down easily after a fashion. No dice. Part of what is wearing me out is that there seems to be virtually no improvement.

You might say, "Maybe he doesn't need to nap anymore?"

I can't imagine that being true. By dinner time with no nap he is a freaking basketcase....out of his mind with bad behavior and over-emotionality, and he's also only two.

So, yeah...whaddya got? How do you all make kids sleep?

One of Those Days.....

Oh man. It's one of those days.

Sorry for being MIA last night. It was another in a long string of over-extensions and I'm afraid I've been pushed right over the brink. No more teetering precariously, I done fell! Last night I went on a manic errand run after dinner and came home just dragging myself up the back steps. I put groceries away for a while and then I heard a thin manic wail from Dee's room.

Yeah, and then I was up for four hours, pulling my hair out, trying to figure out what in the world was wrong with my evil-minded son. Who would only tell me that "nothing was wrong" through his continuous howl. Urgh.

Yeah. And then A relieved me and he told him that his ear was hurting. Blast.

This morning I woke up beyond tired and possessed of a throbbing head, achy limbs and a sore throat. There's only so much abuse a body will take.

I just couldn't bring myself to post last night and honestly, I feel even worse tonight...and so this folks is my cop-out missive.

I love you all but tonight, I need a bed.

We Arrived!

Well, here it is...officially, technically Saturday but, I'm still calling it Friday in order to say that I posted my five consecutive weekdays. I think that counts, don't you?

We made it. It was a long flight (two layovers and three different airports) but, one pair of wet pants, two crying sessions, a squished pear and an almost battery-less phone later...we're all tucked into bed at our hotel in Medford. I have tried to explain to Ru that we're in Oregon even though we're "going" to California for vacation. That was a little hard to get across. All that powering through security screening, chatting up stewardesses and living with all the wrong picture books that Mommy picked out to bring and we're not even in California now? The lower lip began to tremble and I gave right up and erased the whole idea with a bright smile and told him, no worries. California. I promise. K?

We're all super bushed and have started to slightly lose our minds a bit. Its amazing how wearing it is psychologically to travel with two small ones on airplanes. I wonder if we'll be brave enough to do it with three kids. Whew. Sounds intimidating. By the time we were in our last flight, Dee insisted that A read the flight safety information card to him, over and over, and over...I heard four rounds before I fell asleep. A was a hero though, it was the only thing that would keep him from screaming. My picture is a little blurry but, I think you can catch a glimpse of how intent and serious he was about the whole thing. Such a silly little engineer of a boy.

The other thing that was really a huge hit was the in-flight headphones for listening to the ambient music seemingly pumped into the arm of your seat. So cool. Dee was hooked and asked immediately for his headphones to be hooked up and propped on his head before he was even actually seated. Yet another silly thing that stopped tears well. Its all about learning to read your kid.

We stopped for diapers and a few breakfast items on our way from airport to hotel just now (love those 24hr groceries) and A picked up our first batch of strawberries. We plan to taste strawberries wherever they show up and tempt us all the way down the coast. These are gigantic, priced at a dollar a pound and grown right in California! Its like the first real taste of summer! Breakfast will be good.

The Day My "Studio" Ate

Am having a painfully explosive artistic day in which my boxes of stored fabrics and markers and ironing board and all manner of threads and beads have vomited all over my bedroom. I have been frantically wading through oceans of inspiration and ideas and manically throwing things together all day. Am now exhausted, too exhausted to go downstairs and get the camera and upload the pictures of said creations. I promise a photographic tour on Monday.

But now...my bed awaits.