Little Big

- Last Friday I met up with some friends and attended a rainbow prom at our local university. My friend Val is head pastry chef there and she created a lovely rainbow cake for the festivities and invited us to come along as her dates. I finally had an excuse to wear all of my vintage beaded necklaces at once. Before we left for the evening Isobel grabbed my legs in a tight embrace and screamed PIIIIIIIIIIIIIINK LEEEEEEEEEEGS!

- Friday is our ten year wedding anniversary. Ten years of tolerating each other’s neuroses–I mean, wedded bliss. We’ve actually been together since 1998, putting our years together count at fifteen. Anthony is my best friend, my partner in life, and probably the only other adult human I could tolerate living with. We laugh together, cry together, and support each other through hard times. We dream together, we work together, we sleep together. We love together. I couldn’t imagine life without him.

- Over the weekend we decided to take advantage of the windy weather and fly some kites with our buddies the Waltons. It turns out that I have been friends with Angela for almost twenty years and never knew she was a goddamn kite whisperer. Of course, neither did she. After many attempts we finally passed our butterfly kite her way and she got it in the air in less than five minutes. Anthony decided to give Isobel a turn holding the spool of kite string and she somehow let go of it. It blew across the giant expanse of lawn and floated into the sky while Anthony and Justin ran after it. Higher and higher it went until it finally became entangled in the branches of a tree that held other faded kite skeletons in its craggy embrace. Anthony tried to climb up after the spool, which had wedged itself in the crook of a very high branch, but thought the better of the precarious situation. The tree continued to fly the kite for us for over an hour, bobbing and dipping and floating higher than its ever been before. After that, the wind picked up, and Angela said, “Now is when we should have been flying kites,” to which Justin replied, “Technically, we still are flying a kite.”

- I just wanted to say I’ve been floored by the amount of love an support you guys have sent my way. It is amazing to know that people who’ve never even met you in person care so much about you they are willing to send cards and presents your way. Specifically, my tribe of twitter mamas has been such a huge source of support and encouragement, and I wanted to take this time to thank the following ladies: Jett, Laura, Michele, Nadja, Tristina, Natalie, Erin, K, Keli, and Suz. You guys, I can never thank you enough.

- Last week an unlucky bird flew right into our window and knocked itself out right in front of a gaping Squirrelly. The bird was small, so Isobel didn’t notice it in Squirrelly’s mouth when she opened the door and let her in, leading to a minutes-long chase of Squirrelly and the (dear lord, help me) still peeping bird inside her mouth. Finally we chased Squirrelly and her victim into the garage and locked her in there. We were late for a doctor’s appointment and had to leave, and when I returned I expected to find a dead bird but instead found a live bird enthusiastically flying around our garage, looking for a way out. Squirrelly learned nothing from me in the way of murder so she never actually killed the bird. I should see if she learned how to clear the dishwasher instead.

- While waiting at the doctor’s office a woman with very dark skin sat near us. Isobel turned to me and said, “Look Mama! That lady is all brown!” I learned from doing some child development reading that the best way to handle issues of race specifically is to talk about everything openly and candidly. Children need to be explicitly told that differences are only skin-deep, according to the book I read. I told Isobel that everyone has different colored eyes and skin and hair, and although these differences make us unique, we are all the same on the inside. “Yes,” Isobel replied. “Because on the inside we are all red.”

- We have quite a few shades of skin color within our family, after all Isobel is of mixed race herself, so I while we waited I pulled out my phone and pulled up photos of family and friends to talk about their skin, hair and eye color with Isobel. We also talked about how our cats have different length and shades of fur but they are all cats and all love the same thing. Only time will tell if I’m successful.

- I am officially an auntie! Anthony’s sister’s baby, Ryan, was born on May 17th, the same day as my dear friend Melynda. We drove to Modesto to visit them at the hospital but the nurses kept him in the nursery the whole time, so all I got was this completely forbidden photo of my new nephew behind glass. I didn’t get to meet Ryan, but I did get the experience of a three year old shouting “Hey, sexy mama!” at me as I walked down a hall.

- Isobel refers to deli ham as “pig turkey.”

- You may remember my friend Valerie. She has started a blog called After Words chronicling her life after the death of her beloved husband, Jason. It’s about death and grief and life and the precious lessons learned through all the pain. Writing is therapy for her, so let’s give her some support.

Productivity Creepin’: My Tips for Coping with Stress and Anxiety. I share my tips. SPOILER ALERT: They involve cheese.

Scrapbook: San Francisco Daytrip. I love this damn city.

Thrift Store Gore: Sexy Cows. Before you read this let me just apologize.

DIY Microwave Corn Shucking. Shuck you, shuck you, shuck you, you’re cool, shuck you.

DIY Magnetic Periodic Table of Herbs & Spices . This cute DIY celebrates science in the kitchen.

NASA to Fund 3D Space Food Printer. Let’s call a spade a spade. This is a replicator.

Cross-stitch postcards. What a fun project for livening up a postcard.

Spinach Shapes.  I could have Isobel make these with our heart-shaped punch to snack on while I make dinner.

“The way we try to recruit girls into STEM fields is all wrong.” Girls, we need you. We need you to change the future.

Look Rich, Shop Cheap. The if you are into urban street fashion and thrifting, this blog is for you. It’s a gem.

ASK A NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING PHYSICIST! A Nobel laureate occasionally hangs out on street corners, answering physics questions. Via @pourmecoffee

Thrifty Giving: Lupe’s Gift. Vintage wrapskirt goodness.

Recipe: Orange-Almond Creamsicle. Last year Isobel fell in love with the creamsicle.

Thrift Store Score: Golden Candle Holders. I feel in love with these candle holders.

Reuse Roundup: Thrifted Art Supply Storage. Thrifting wins again.

I answer a reader question once a month. Do you have a question for me? I’d love to answer it! If it’s a short one I’ll answer it here. If it’s more complicated, I’ll give it its own post. You can leave your question in the comments, @-reply me on twitter, email me or send me a messenger pigeon. Don’t actually do the last one, though. My cat will eat it. Be sure to let me know if you want me to include your name and link to your blog or shop. Anonymous questions are fine, too.

- Anthony is down to his last few days of work and we are hanging in there. Thank you so much for all the nice letters, emails, and even in a few cases, presents(!) that you have showered upon us lately. We’ve really needed those good vibes to keep motivated and I feel like we have a whole cheering section behind us with family and friends and long distance friends we’ve never even met before encouraging us t0 keep going. Anthony and I have both experienced many ups and downs throughout this whole process, and some of the lows have been really low. But we have great momentum and a plan and we’re going to go from here. I can’t really say much specifically, other than Anthony has had several interviews with several more lined up, and he’s been busting his ass filling out application after application, even after putting in ten hours on the job beforehand.

- The other day Isobel was pretending to cook food for me, and at one point she handed me a teacup and said, “Here is your yummy hot smoothie, Mama!” I need to teach her how smoothies work.

- Last weekend we accompanied my Mom to a family reunion and we got to see copies of my great-grandfather’s marriage certificate, naturalization papers, and engineer’s license. My Grandma had been keeping them safely in her filing cabinet drawers this whole time. While there Isobel got to meet one of her cousins for the first time and then all the kids jumped in the pool, even though no one brought their swimming suits. We could hardly blame them – the reunion was outside and it was 90 degrees in the shade.

- Speaking of hot weather, we endured the winter without a heater after it broke sometime after Halloween. I can’t say we were comfortable but we only had a few hard freezes so we made it through. We dreaded, though, that a broken heater meant a broken air conditioning, and after trying to use it unsuccessfully we’ve officially announced it DOA. It’s already in the mid-80s Fahrenheit inside in the afternoons. This summer is going to be awful.

- We celebrated a quiet Mother’s Day with a dinner with my parents at our place, and it was so nasty hot we moved the whole party outside and ate on the patio. That was lovely, and it was overall a great day, but both of us were pretty preoccupied with job worry.

- Among the plants we’ve been growing in the garden we have a basil plant that’s doing quite well. Isobel has picked up the habit of plucking an emerald leaf from the plant and shoving it in her mouth each time she walks by. My Mom got such a kick out of this she told me that my daughter smells like an Italian–or in other words, delicious.

- Occasionally Mom will tell me about something cute one of our cats did and she will end the story by saying, “You should write about that on a cat blog. I’ve seen them on the internet.”

- My lovely friend Laura sent Isobel this fantastic tutu and the fantastic Jett sent us this gorgeous handmade bedspread, which Isobel confiscated immediately and dubbed “the rainbow blanket.” I’m not sure what Isobel loves more, getting presents (because, let’s face it, that’s up there), or getting mail.

- Last weekend we celebrated a double birthday for friends Melynda and Lupe and Mel made herself a rainbow cake. There was some hand-wringing and worry involved since at first the layers seemed to be dull and brownish, but fortunately that was just part of the crust, because the moment we cut into it a goddamn rainbow came out. It looked fantastic.

- I heard Isobel lamenting to one of her classmates, “I only have four kitties.” Poor, poor thing.

Reuse Roundup: DIY Heart Clip. This was a great clip because it took about five minutes, cost barely anything, and Isobel loves it.

Scrapbook: My Mom. A baby photo of my mother looking absolutely terrified. It’s adorable!

Little Big’s Thrifty Mother’s Day Gift Guide. You don’t need to wait for a holiday for these babies.

Little Big Bazaar: The Best of Little Big Sponsors.

Oakland International Cat Video Film Fest. There goes my productivity for the rest of the year! Thanks, Anthony.

Showjumping Rabbit Videos. For when you’ve run out of cat ones. Via @markasaurus

The most important thing men can do to end rape culture.  Via @99golems

NASA TV. “Why watch sports when you can watch this?” I used it to watch the Soyuz touch down safely. Via @kellyasterisk

Don’t make fun of renown author, Dan Brown. “And that, ladies and germs, is how you review a Dan Brown book.” Via @halcyonsnow

Snapshot 05.30.12 - I’m like Bruce Banner, except my secret is I’m always tired.

Recipe: Sweet Seaweed Popcorn - This is really delicious. You’ll have to trust me.

Scrapbook: Melynda’s DIY Murder Mystery Party – This was lots of fun.

Snapshot 5.23.13 – Last year at this time Anthony had his first surgery.

I answer a reader question once a month. Do you have a question for me? I’d love to answer it! If it’s a short one I’ll answer it here. If it’s more complicated, I’ll give it its own post. You can leave your question in the comments, @-reply me on twitter, email it to me at alittlebigblog@gmail.com or send me a messenger pigeon. Don’t actually do the last one, though. My cat will eat it. Be sure to let me know if you want me to include your name and link to your blog or shop. Anonymous questions are fine, too.