May 2025: A Wild Ride & Minimal Pottery

May was filled with lots of family togetherness. It was wonderful and fulfilling and tiring all at once. Without weekend childcare to give us the 8 hours or so of free time we’re used to every Sunday to tackle all that we hadn’t gotten to during the week, it felt like we were constantly addressing the latest thing without progress getting on top of things. The days were long, but the month flew by as they usually do, and I feel so accomplished to have done anything at all in addition to parenting.

The biggest event on my calendar this May was the release of Pre-K offers in NYC on May 13th, when we learned where Jasper will be going to school in September. This lottery system has put me through the wringer once already, and I’ll have a few more bouts with it for kindergarten for Jasper and 3K, Pre-K, and kindergarten for Rowan. There’s a lot of commiserating with other parents and resignation over the ranking of assigned lottery numbers, but still there was a tiny spark of hope that I held onto between the time I hit the Submit button on the application and the offer release.

I was in the office when the results came out. Jasper received an offer from our top choice, a statistical improbability - miracle even - given it is out of our zone and the fact that 90% of students had a more favorable lottery number. Since getting this happy news, it still comes to mind regularly and I feel anew the immense relief and gratitude and luck and happiness that I felt in the moment.

I was in the office because I’m there a lot more lately. Starting May 5th, my company requires us to come in four days a week. Almost immediately, I got shingles. Coincidence? Anyway, shingles really sucked, and I’m glad it’s behind me.

In sad news, on the morning of May 31st my father-in-law found their dog Madison had passed in her sleep. Maddie was brought home in 2009 by my SIL, Kev, and me after picking her out from a litter that a friend’s dogs had birthed. She was the cutest puppy who grew into a sweet, gentle, low maintenance girl with funny quirks such as being afraid of faces and disliking cuddles. She stayed with Kev and me for several months during a renovation at my in-laws’ home and I loved waking up to her snuggled against the top of my head, a rare honor. We will all miss her and are lucky to have had the many years of joy that she brought to the family. Incredibly, the next time we dropped Rowy off for the day, they texted us that he was looking for her. Although he won’t have lasting memories, I’m glad they got to meet.

We’re also at the phase where Jasper is asking about death and grappling with this big scary concept. I myself have lots of fear about death and it has been challenging but perhaps healthy for me to parent the both of us on this topic. The nightly conversation has subsided for now, but I know he’s still thinking about it from time to time. He’ll frame statements as questions as a way to reaffirm his understanding and feelings: “Oh, is Maddie dead?” “Do you miss her?” “Will she come alive again?” He’s cried, I’ve cried, and then I hold his hand until he falls asleep.

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Pottery

Spring Bulb Vase

By now it may not come as a surprise when I say that it was tough to carve out time and find energy for pottery. Still, I completed some coil built pieces, working in the tiniest of increments. I also threw three porcelain vases for my dad to paint upon his return. Somehow, slowly and not-so-steadily, I made enough to fill a kiln.

I finished glaze firing the first batch of Bamboo Brush vases painted with an expanded color palette as well. I can’t wait to see what else my dad will paint as he fully incorporates the new underglazes I got him.

I worked with Kentucky Mudworks Big Turtle clay, a first for me. This is a mid-range body that, according to photos and my experience with the speckled version, fires a few shades darker than my trusty Standard 112. The color in moist form calls to mind earthenware from Mesoamerican cultures, and I was accordingly inspired. One of the pieces in the next bisque firing is a tall boy trapezoidal vase with soft edges, two windows, and two offering cups.

I’d hoped to have more porcelain vases awaiting my dad, but I needed to move onto throwing with darker clays, specifically the very dark Standard 266, if I was going to come close to hitting production goals for my Ghost Parade Mugs before the fall. Porcelain has been stretching and testing my technique for a lot of this year thus far, and I plan on returning to it in between big batches of mugs so I can keep up the wheel practice. I could feel a difference in my form already when I switched back to less finicky stoneware.

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Gardening

Gardening has given me new appreciation for rainy days, of which there were plenty. With all of that precipitation, my plants have been thriving - growing and spreading with little intervention required. I’ve been weeding, transplanting, and staking here and there. Sadly, I’ve lost several seedlings to our landscapers’ indiscriminate weed-whacking. I’m most rueful about my specialty zinnias from Floret and my cranberry double-click cosmos from Scribner’s. Those seeds were precious among my collection and I’m very bummed about losing those plants.

The tulips came up with stilted success, but I got several gorgeous blooms, enough for a couple of arrangements. Our lilac bush once again did not bloom, but I still got to enjoy their gorgeous fragrance from my neighbors’ plants on those aforementioned neighborhood walks as well as at the farmers market.

Irises followed tulips quickly, more quickly than last year, and with them my last spring blooms came and went. As I watched them blossom in vases with their delicate petals shivering in the breeze from our open window, I was compelled… to drop a couple hundred bucks on new iris rhizomes. I’m super excited for their arrival later this year. The varieties I chose are gorgeous, and I hope they take as well to the garden as the ones the prior owner of our house left us.

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Photo Diary

A year is short. I’ve so loved this spring season, and I look forward to the coming summer as I watch my garden grow, my boys run and waddle around the house, and the evenings stretch longer with golden light. Below, some pictures from the month.