Sunday, July 22, 2012

Wild

It has been a wild summer.

Lots of good.
Camping,
 Pottery (sales), 
rivers,
pools,
New York City,
Friends,
working,
more friends,
more rivers, and pools and thunderstorms.

The boys have been like thunderstorms.
Beautiful but hard.
Unpredictable.
Ferocious.
Loving.
Calming.
Explosive.
Battling Brothers.


I have been looking inward a lot.
Reassessing.
Questioning.
Reading.
 (lots of parenting books)
And gathering ever bit of patience
from every corner of the globe.

I have not been taking care of me.
That is the key.
Now to do something about it.
Right now.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

4 days and 3 hours

Summer is here.
Did you get the memo?

4 days and 3 hours more.
Of school.
Of my days potting, 
well, partially anyway.

I am taking deep breaths and 
creating
joy.
Seeing the joy that will be.

Imagining scenarios where I can 
do pottery
go swimming
hiking
adventuring
brother refereeing 
celebrating our time,
our time together
while they are still
celebrating time with me.

and still doing pottery, for me,
while they are home.
My mission.

I will achieve it.
I am certain.
It may not look pretty in the beginning
but it will end up beautiful.

Here we go.
Seven, Ten, and two Forty-three year olds.
We will make magic this summer.
With the help of our community,
of hard work,
and hard play.

Deep Breath.
and Summer.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Wow... I have been gone a long time.

It is darn warm out there if you didn't notice.
I am making it warmer by firing a bisque.
It should be up to temperature in another 30 minutes or so.

So, while I was gone....

I fractured my right hand (by hitting a chair when I got too angry),
and no I would never have hit my child, I was just at my limit and had to hit something. 
In my defense, I did choose a cushy armchair, it was just not cushy enough.

So while I was moaning about not being able to run in my one and only marathon,
I decided to do something anyway.
I decided to make hand-built functional pottery.
I haven't stopped since and it has been almost 8 weeks.

It seems that wonderful things really can come out of rotten situations.
It is hard to see it when you are in it. For sure.

I am cast free, throwing and hand building and trying, for the first time in my 25 years of living with clay, to make a go at it.
I mean to make a it a way to supplement my families income.

I am not delusional. I understand how hard this is and how many hours it takes and most of all that I might actually have to learn the business part of all this mess.
But I am excited. Like want to be in the studio all the time excited.
I am firing almost once a week and am working on a "line" that I feel proud of 
and that I hope will enrich people's eating experiences.

I have continued being a mom, which tends to happen when you have two kids who are 7 and 10, and have struggled with rebellious, confused, angry children. 
Not every minute, of course, but enough for me to anticipate it happening every day.
I am officially reading Love and Logic: Teaching Children Responsibility.
The premise is to hold them accountable for their actions with consequences while maintaining empathy about the situation they are in. 
The empathy part is quite challenging. :(
This could all be applied to other people I know and love and live with too ;).

Well, life is about learning and it is about being the best person we can be for those we love.
So here I go, trying again, like I will, over and over.


I have been cherishing my friends as of late. Well, I always do, but sometimes you
just realize
they are incredible and they make
the days
so much more
incredible
and 
meaningful.
So thank you 
friends.

So I am potting, parenting and partying 
(not really partying just sounded good)

Oh and I have a new pottery blog... like really new, as in only one post new

freemanclayworks.blogspot.com/

Come visit and see my new pots and leave comments on how they can make you happier.

Happy almost summer. Only 23 more days of school. Yikes.

Monday, March 5, 2012

it's all in a name, or is it....

Several months ago 
I was thinking about names.

Names for my potter studio.

At one time I had, I thought, 
cleverly named myself 

Functional Earth

That name does not suit me now.

I thought maybe I wanted a funny name.

I am finding that I am way less serious
about life in general then I used to be.

Several friends offered great ideas,
suggested I ask my kids for help,
and after plotting and thinking 
and scheming 
and wondering,

I think I will just be
me.

Andrea Freeman.

Now should I be: 

Andrea Freeman Pottery

Andrea Gardiner Freeman Pottery

Andrea Freeman Studio

Andrea Freeman Works


Not sure.

I want to figure it out soon. 
Like Yesterday.

For my blogger friends,
I had my first batch of earthenware pots come out of the kiln.

They were very exciting to me and have put some
embers burning in my soul!

I will post some photos later!

So here I go. 

Next a tax number,
a light box,
and batches and batches of slip tests.

Including some terra sig, I hope!!!

Whoo HOOOOOOOOOO~



Tuesday, February 21, 2012

innocence, power and perspective

I would much rather be me now
43, 
married with two children, 
then that 20 something year old who felt the world so hard and so deep.
I rarely miss being young and unencumbered. 
But I do miss the wild passion and the endless thoughts that swarmed my 
head.

I wrote two short quotes, way back then, that have stuck with me,
have stayed with me and are still me.


~ Be open to unthinkable wonders

~ The Spirit runs silently on

Although these have meant different things to me over the last 20 something years
they have continue to inspire me and make know that I am okay,
that I have a lot that is worthy inside of me and that celebrating that
is what makes me a better Human, better Mom, Friend, Wife, Alien (in case I ever get to travel out there in that magic).....

Somedays we just need to celebrate parts of ourselves, 
mostly because we don't want to 
but
really, truly 
need to.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

hearts and me

Today is heart day. 
The kids made awesome valentines for their friends,
I bought the token small(est) Whitman's heart shaped boxes for my boys.
a  "special" beer, mint cookies and sourdough bread for my man
and in turn he gave me my best give ever... 
he bought art supplies in my name for kids who need them through
Oxfam.
I loved this gift so much. He thought about this and really showed me
how well he knows me.
In turn I realized this would be the best gift for my (other) MOM on her
most special birthday.... 75 years. 
 We love art. 
She taught me to love art 
and I could not think of a better gift to share with her.

Also for heart day Max's class were privileged to have an awesome
SURPRISE
Party.
While they were gone delivering Valentines to their newly adopted older adult friends...
some parents decorated the room and brought lots of special things in...

SURPRISE!
They really were surprised.

Rohan was so excited to have a party too... he said,
"Hey, would you rather get candy or no homework?"
His friend said no homework.
He said, "We got both!"
Oh Joy.

So that sums up our heart day. It was lovely.
(poor jay is working tonight so we will go out tomorrow night
to the new neighborhood restaurant: 
Walk.
We will walk there, of course.



Onto me... wallow, wallow~ 
I will start with the good and end with the good.

I ran today. It was beautiful. It sleeted for a while.
It was with a friend. 
Friends make running better. 

In between I will discuss my bleeping part of my day

and well, frankly, my life.

Those who know me well know I suffer from minor headaches.
So I spare you from reading this....

In my early twenties I began getting headaches regularly..
I call them sinus headaches.
They tend to be a dull but aching pressure on my forehead
and by my nose and sometimes behind my eyes and back of my head.

Okay so why am I talking about this now?
I have had these every day for at least 14 years.
I know.... why in the bleep have I not done anything before now?
Not sure.
I really do have them EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. 
Some days and weeks are harder then others.
But they do not go away. 

So, Just so you know, I am finally doing something about IT!
I officially do not have allergies,
I do not have a deviated septum or any other ENT issue,
so now I am on to the neurologist.
They certainly are not migraines, I function daily with these...
I am just finally tired of it and think that I just might end up a
better, funnier, and more exciting
 Mom, friend and wife 
if my head cleared up even for a few days a week.
(wink and smile)

This day, heart day, my headache left me feeling lonely for no reason.
It does this at times.
I guess lonely can come in many forms.
Headaches can deter me from doing things I  really want to do:
like studio, garden, play with kids, well, anything.

BUT....
Some times a phone call from a friend who is willing to listen to you grip and
moan and bitch...
makes you feel better 
makes feel like you are not crazy
and that 
this is an amazing and beautiful thing we are doing....
living.

I am looking forward to finding out what is causing my daily headaches but until then
I will try to keep my bitching down to a minimum. 

Happy Heart Day to you ALL 
And to ALL
a Good Night!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Like my brother-in-law David, I blame it on the moon

Sometimes we need no prompting to dwell on a subject.
Other times one word, a glance or a breeze can
bring on the flood.

I am consumed with parenting at this. moment.... or rather
what I am as a parent. 

What I am modeling, teaching and demanding as a parent.

Looking up some inspired quotes today, these spoke to me deepest, funniest, or
truest:


The trouble with learning to parent on the job is that your child is the teacher.  
~Robert Brault

If you have never been hated by your child you have never been a parent.  
~Bette Davis

Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.  ~Robert Fulghum 

The quickest way for a parent to get a child's attention is to sit down and look comfortable.  ~Lane Olinghouse

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. 
 One is roots. 
 The other is wings. 
 ~Hodding Carter, Jr.

The thing that impresses me most about America is the way parents obey their children.  ~Edward, Duke of Windsor, Look, 5 March 1957

Do not ask that your kids live up to your expectations.  Let your kids be who they are, and your expectations will be in breathless pursuit.  
~Robert Brault


As I go about this day tasking  it away ,
It occurs to me that this life I have chosen,
 (some of us do choose our lives, some do not)
so complicated
and wordlessly beautiful,
has beings, two of them, growing up before my very eyes,
and counting on me to be what they need, 
which changes
virtually everyday.

Right Now I am working on being a role model,
 one that they can respect, admire 
and sometimes get pissed off at.

And I am going to the studio this afternoon
whether they like it or not.













Monday, January 30, 2012

I want to be improbable


Lots to celebrate.
Running.
Messy hands.
Good friends.
A wonderfully loving in supportive family.
Having what we need.

I want to be light 
and Frolicsome.

I want to be improbable.....

Oh this needs to be painted on the wall of my studio

REAL BIG.

(p.s. This wonderful photograph/wood print is taken from Pinerest!)


Friday, January 27, 2012

10 year~ Holy Camoly

ROHAN LLEWYS QUINN MYERS
JANUARY 27TH 2002

A glimpse of the boy wonder:











Rohan turned 10 today at 12:06 am. 
He woke at 3 am, 5 am and waited until 6:10 for us ALL to get up.

This vibrant, creative, eccentric, loving, thoughtful boy is now 
double digits. 

To see more of the Rohan Journey go to

https://picasaweb.google.com/102230359588005491523/HomageToTheLifeOfRohan


He sure does keep us on our toes and makes us prouder then he will ever know.