Seriously, we had a fanTAStic time and I had just enough time with the kidlets and just enough time with the hubs and just enough time with MYSELF that I feel like all of the bits and pieces of me that were pulled too tight or worn thin or fitting oddly around the edges are all smoothed and polished and clean again. Yay!
Along the way, I listened to and watched and discovered and read some really cool and amazing and inspiring things and...I wanna tell you about them, mkay? Mkay.
- R.E.M.'s new album, Collapse Into Now ~ I've been an R.E.M. fan for going on twenty years now. I've danced like a crazy person to their songs, and written short stories with them playing in the background, and cried at the first notes of them when my heart was broken. This album sounds, to my ears, like all of their albums fed into a blender, whizzed together, and poured out as something new and golden. The jangling guitar-driven beats are straight from Life's Rich Pageant and the mandolins remind me of Out of Time. The song "Oh My Heart" slays me, especially when Stipe's voice soars plaintively like in days of old. Er...you know, like, fifteen years ago. It's definitely an album made by men who have been doing this rock star thing for a long time, and who are contemplating legacy and purpose. I love it. Luff it. Looooveee it.
- The Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv ~ If there was a theme to our Spring Break, it was the reinforcement of the idea that we needed to spend more time together outside as a family. I'd heard about this book in the past and when Will and I spotted it at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island, we snapped it up. I've only read a few chapters into it, but already I'm feeling more and more supported in my idea that being inside all the time is HURTING my kidlets. I'm looking forward to the sections that discuss the concept of being in nature as a means of treating ADHD. Not necessarily a cheery, upbeat tome, but an important one, I think.
- Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee ~ It must be said that when Will announced that we would be going here for two days during our vacation, I was less than thrilled, particularly when he nixed the idea of going to the Smoky Mountains National Park for a hike--or even Cades Cove. I did not want to spend two whole days hanging out in theme parks getting slimed by strange kids. There. I said it. However, with the help of some sweet cousins, we were able to rent a cabin and score tickets to area attractions at VERY reasonable (read: cheapola) rates and so we were set. First, we went to Magiquest, which...y'all. I think I have told you of my love of Dungeons and Dragons as a tween and the fact that, even now, I am drawn to fantasy literature, right? Right. So let me tell you that when we peedoodled up to the faux-castle facade of this place and picked out our own interactive wands...well, the fantasy geek in me might have squealed a little. We had a great time running around solving puzzles and tapping things with our wands. Jeffrey was in hawg heaven and perfected his wand-flourish lunge. Here's a picture of him solving something or other:
4. Garden and Gun magazine ~ Have I mentioned my love for this magazine? I adore it, and for the past few months I've lived without it because it was one of the things that we had to trim from the budget. It's like the New Yorker for Southerners: you can read about hunting, cooking, artists in the South, regional travel destinations. It's printed on lovely, thick paper and almost always features something that I love. I missed out a couple of months ago on The Avett Brothers, but I picked up this month's copy before Will and I headed to St. Simon's Island for our get away and was treated to a story about Gregg Allman, one about a potter in Mississippi whose works grace my library and kitchen, and a recipe for something called bacon crackers, which is a piece of bacon wrapped around a club cracker, can I get an AMEN? Oh, and there was an article about Shelby Foote! Love. (Also? Will totally just subscribed to two years of it--yay for tax refunds!)
5. O Magazine's April issue ~ Listen, a lot can be said about the ridiculousness of Oprah Winfrey's magazine and even, in some cases, Oprah herself. I mean, I have snorted LOUDLY at the pricey jewelry and shoes and makeup applicators I've seen grace those pages. However, this month's issue features POETRY in a large way and that, my friends, is a beautiful thing. There is an interview with Mary Oliver, a Pulitzer prize-winning, fiercely joyfully-living and writing woman whose words I'd only given a passing glance to before. There are snippets from Maya Angelou and W.S. Merwin and thoughts on what poetry is from Margaret Atwood and Bono and Ashton Kutcher. There is also a list of important works of poetry and I am tickled to say that not ONLY do I own many of them, the Rumi translation by one of my creative writing professors from UGA (that would be Coleman Barks) is on the list. Hee. Given that this is National Poetry Month, I say "Huzzah." HUZZAH, I say. You can poopoo Oprah all you want for her lavish giving and huge personality and Tom Cruise bouncing like a mongoose on speed all over her couch, but the Truth is that the woman has brought the written word to housewives and couch potatoes all over this country and I'd like to give her a big fat hug for that. (Do I need to tell you that Mary Oliver mentions in the interview how humans are losing touch with Nature and what an awful thing this is? Note to self: write a letter to Mother Nature thanking her for the gigantic nudge.)
6. The Driftwood Beach on Jekyll Island ~ Listen, y'all. Jekyll Island ain't got much. It's got some big fancy houses that a bunch of rich folks in the early 1900s built and called cottages, and that's pretty much it. No glistening white beaches; the beaches here are brown and flat and unstirred by the waves that churn up shells and sharks teeth farther south. There aren't many restaurants and there's a convention center and...um...yeah. Jekyll has always felt stale to me. Sort of...."Hunh...well, THAT was a horrifying suspension bridge to cross for a lot of nothing." But a few weeks ago, I came across some pictures taken by somebody at a driftwood beach on Jekyll, and they were gorgeous and I thought, you know, maybe it was something we could check out while we were there.
Y'all. I can't really describe the power of this place. Basically, the water and wind and time have ripped up and tossed around huge old live oak trees, driving them into the sand and turning them into sculptures that are feminine and stark and...wow. Just that.
This one was my favorite:
Seriously, I couldn't get enough of her. I couldn't stop myself from whispering to her, leaning against her. I could have spent HOURS trying to find new angles from which to film her. Sighhhhh. I luff her.
7. Also, I love this guy:
Seriously, how can you NOT love a pirate, looking at forty?
8. SPRING!! ~ As long as I focus on overlooking the fact that awful storms are approaching from the west, I can be giddy with the feeling of sinking my fingers into the dirt, watching River hug an azalea bush, listening to Jeffrey laugh as he flies a kite in the pasture behind our house. A few weeks ago, I was going to take down the Winter wreath of roses and rosemary that had hung on our front door since December. I was planning a Spring lavender and egg extravaganza, but when I opened the door, a flash of red swooped away from me. Turns out, a pair of house finches decided that my wreath would make a perfect house site.
A few days later, I found that Mama and Daddy House Finch had been busy:
And when we got home today, we discovered this:
Oh, sweet little fuzzyheads. You remind me that there is so much hope and newness and fragility in our world, and so much safety and warmth to be found in a cozy house filled with love.
It's a Love Fest, y'all.
Consider yourself hugged.
