{Walt Whitman is my HOMEBOY!}

For all my love of Thoreau, I think it not blasphemous to admit that I hold equal love for another--the greatest American Poet {and yes, in this instance I must capitalize Poet} to ever grace history, Walt Whitman. For all Thoreau's beauty and profundity as an artist of prose, he was a crummy poet. I mean...even in my semesters in Karen Hufford's Creative Writing courses in my college years, I probably could have beat out H.D. in a poetry contest--and I turned out some truly atrocious stuff, I assure you.

However, whenever my want for poetry goes unfulfilled by HDT's heavy handed odes, I can always turn to Whitman and feel my haggard soul rise a bit. Though the two men--who met on occasion and both read each other's works--were ambivalent about one another's writing, I have no trouble reconciling their differences and reveling in each.

And because no post is complete without photos {is it any wonder I prefer the Mister to wear a beard?? In fact...I gotta admit, take a look over there-----> and tell me that there isn't a resemblance. No wonder I think my hubby is such a stud! } :

{photo via BYU}

So, to celebrate Memorial Day, and the birthday of a great American Poet, the man who made the common people his hero, my favorite exerpt from "Leaves of Grass":


A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it
is any more than he.


I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
green stuff woven.


Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?


Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe
of the vegetation.


Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow
zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the
same, I receive them the same.


And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.


Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and
from offspring taken soon out of their mother's laps,
And here you are the mother's laps.


This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old
mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.


O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths
for nothing.


I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men
and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring
taken soon out of their laps.


What do you think has become of the young and old men?
What do you think has become of the women and
children?


They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait
at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.


All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and
luckier.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Whitman! Indeed I rejoice that you live on.

{Nature Walk}

The University has some lovely gardens on the grounds, and the kids and I went for a walk through them in the nice weather. I only had the point and shoot, but caught some fun shots of the kiddos anyway...

We posed:

{Little Bird thought this lion fountain was quite hilarious...}

We hopped and hovered:

We pontificated on the beauty of nature:

We looked in the ponds and in the fountains:

 

And ate flowers...

What more could you ask for in a day?

{Handmade Kitchen Lovelies}

Sometime ago, I gave this virtual tour of our lovely dormitory-style apartment.  While I really do enjoy our apartment, my job, and this adorable (albeit COLD) town we live in, I cannot stand the white cinderblock walls. Most of all, I am made despondent at the painfully white kitchen (white floor, white walls, white appliances, white cabinets, etc) with the burgundy drapes (I really dislike burgundy). So crazy has it been making me that I scraped and scrubbed every corner of the kitchen and then decided to sew up some life into the place, since I can't paint and can't install new cabinets or appliances.

To be honest, it isn't much, but some clearance fabric and some time helped put a little color into the kitchen. What do you think?

{A large view...okay, I KNOW it looks exactly the same as the "before" pictures...but there's a little rag rug and some chair covers and FLOWERS...}

{The chair covers and new valance I whipped up...}

{A white board made from some burlap and an old frame I found at a thrift store...silly me. I thought I'd brighten up a white kitchen by painting the frame white...I think I need to repaint it, and maybe redo the burlap with something a little warmer...any ideas?}

{A bit of Thoreau-inspired vinyl wall art from here.} 

I know it isn't much, but it was budget friendly, all handmade, and I feel so much more charming climbing on chairs to dig through my unreachable spice baskets now.

{And yeah...one of these days I'll take a picture of myself above the knees...but not today. And note to self, hide the crusty 60 year old thrift store crockpot in the background next time you take a picture....}

Have a sunny day!

{Blooming!}

"...unfolding its sweet scented flowers each spring..."

Okay...waking up to snow in MAY is unfamiliar to me, to say the least. I have heard a few residents compare eastern Idaho's weather to Alaska and thought that was a bit extreme...now I'm starting to believe it.

In spite of the fact that we have had some occasional warm days {which are absolutely beautiful!}, those days usually turn back into cold ones. For the last week or two though, things have started warming up and it has lasted long enough for things to actually start blooming. It is phenomenal!

The kiddos and I decided to enjoy the whether while we could (because I hear that snow in June is not uncommon here and snow in July is not entirely unheard of...) and I spent some time taking some pictures of what Nature has to offer right now.

Enjoy!

{Squirrel Lessons}

Tonight, after the Mister taught a Family Home Evening lesson on how to be reverent when we pray {Squirrel is often up to her usual tricks at bedtime prayers--usually jumping on the bed, or whacking one of us with something, or standing on her head, etc}, Squirrel decided to regale us with some wisdom of her own. She informed us that she needed to "tell a lesson" as well. Here's what we learned:

When you feel sad, take a deeeeep breath {insert Squirrel elegantly raising her 

arms while inhaling} and just be happy. 

Also: When you feel sad, pick some flowers {at which she used 

my floral print shirt to mime the act}, smell them, and be happy. 

After you pick the flowers, you can pick a tree's leaves 

and smell them and be happy. 

Then, get some tape and put the flowers and the leaves back 

in the grass and the trees. 

{Is she smart or what? Self-help AND conservation in one lesson.}

{Peeking Out}

We're here! And alive!
After 10 days of a cold turned sinusitis turned bronchitis, I feel like myself again. Unfortunately, Little Bird isn't quite there yet. He spent 2 days with a nasty stomach bug he is still kicking the last of, and is cutting a mean old molar that just won't come through already. So anyway, sorry for our prolonged absence. I'm hoping to be back in the swing of things soon!

Hope your Mother's Day was happy--mine was pure bliss! How could it not be with these two little cuties to thank for making me a mommy?

{Sick...}

...as. a. DOG.