Happy Valentine's Day!

This holiday seems to lead to lots of turmoil.  I remember feeling sad not having a valentine to share the day with. Yes, it is a commercial holday.  Yet what hasn't been commercialized? It's pervasive in our culture.  Why not reclaim it to something better.

Ideally we love our boyfriend or girlfriend,  husband or wife, children, friends every day.  How about this be a day that we reflect on love, comapastion and thankfulness. Let it be a day to remember the love we feel and rekindle connection or passion as needed.  Some chocolate and a back rub can certainly help with that!   Make it a reminder to bring joy to others more often to be joyful more often.  If we find ourselves a bit lonely love ourselves.  We are all worthy of love.

I vant to suck your blood....

Gift Giving

Does anyone think that gift giving has gotten out of hand? It seems when I read on some forums that there are people who feel upset when a gift of theirs is given away and especially if it was handmade. I guess if I made something and someone gave it away I would wonder did I make something that they would really like? Was it colors they like? Yes, I might be hurt. I hope I could let it go and do something else for them next year.

I guess what's coming up for me with this issue is, how much stuff does one person need? This one person doesn't need the stuff honestly even more yarn. I don't need candle sticks. I don't really need any more blankets or sheets. We like our minimalist approach.

So what do you do if you get things that just aren't you? I'm 40 plus years old. If I had kept everything people have gifted me in my lifetime I would need at least one if not two storage units. Between my husband I we have all we need. We don't need much more. What we do want is so specif to our interests that I just don't expect others to help me with them. But if you want to I can send you my wish list! (Just kidding, seriously.) Even with my wish list I have been checking things off the list but that's another post.

Happy New Year

I have so much I want to accomplish in the next year, over the next few years really.

Maybe this seems weird but it was so easy to love my kids when they were little. Babies and toddlers are so easy to love, they let you pull them up into your lap and smell their heads. Big kids it's harder, you can't carry them around on your hip and they don't fit in your lap anymore. Sometimes they don't even want to be hugged. So my biggest intention is to fall in love with my big kids.

I want to get inspired in the kitchen again. I used to love to bake and cook. Over the last few years I just haven't managed much. Here's to yummy food and cooking.

I'm getting a new fiber toy very soon too. I can't wait. I'll share pic when I get it. I've made a very long list of the things I want to accomplish crocheting and sewing wise. I doubt I will get to all of it this year or even the next. It's there for me when I need the inspiration or something creative to do.

I want to get more active physically too. So today, dear hubby and I went for a walk.

All is good.

Happy New Year!

Our Winter Soltice

We had a pretty good Winter Solstice. The only challenge was the kids did not sleep well at all the on the longest night of the year so neither did I. So I was not the most cheery or patient mom this year. Let's just say that things did not go all that well. I feel pretty sad about that but it was what it was. We are going to try to do things differently next year. I do not like being cranky mom during the holidays. I want to be magic mom. I like that better.

We didn't make a big deal out of the gifts this year. Partly because that's our goal as we want to focus on the celebration and not the gifts and partly because we really didn't have the money for it. So I didn't make a much of it for the kids to get each other something or us something, let them lead they way with that. Corbin has not been interested in the gift giving so much. This year he made of package for his sister just before Solstice and after Solstice he put some packages together for me and his Dad. It was so very sweet. So much better than taking him to the store to buy something. Jade made sure mom and dad had goodies in our stockings this year. She bought it all with her allowance no less!

We started the evening by lighting our solstice candle, symbolically catching the light to carry to the the new year. The kids lit their own candle as well. It was lovely to see them embracing the season and adding their own spirit to celebration.

We shared a lovely dinner of cheese fondue and chocolate fondue. Everyone enjoyed it. Then each of the kids opened up a small gift, a mini lego kit and and we opened one gift for the family. We usually buy a few games for the family around this time of year. We got Carcassone. We had fun playing a round of the game then Stephen and the kids went to the Yule Vigil with the pagan group we hung out with lots long before kids. I stayed home because I was tired and wanted to go to bed.

The next morning we briefly woke up the sun and blew out our solstice candle. We bailed on our big breakfast we had planned because we were all so tired. So we plan to do something more simple next year and make the big breakfast on another day, maybe New Years.

I was relieved that the kids were pretty happy with their gifts, since we kept it small. Even though I don't want to focus on gift giving I like giving and want the kids to be happy with what they receive. I like surprising them too. We got Jade a cookie press and she has already made some with it. The bummer part is has stopped working so we will return it and see about getting a different one. One that won't break! Check out these trilobite cookies. We made some but I don't have pictures. We used mini m&m's for the eyes. We got Corbin some stickers for his skateboard and some fun leather stud jewelry. He was very pleased. He wants to be cool.

Jade and I spent the afternoon watching season one of Star Trek Voyager. Corbin and Stephen played on the gamecube. We are saving up for the Wii.

Making cookies

We finally got around to making cookies this weekend. We followed the recipes from a Good Eats show here.

This is what we made on day one of cookie making:


Corbin's cookie creations


Jade's cookies creations. I ate mine already so I don't have pictures to share.

The decorationg of cookies:




I made some too and dear hubby even took the picture to prove it. Usually I'm the one on camera duty.


The feasting of the cookies:




Here's what we accomplished on Day two:


The peppermint pinwheel cookies. I don't care for them much but I'm not a peppermint candy fan. I like peppermint tea and that's about it. The dough was a bit too dry so the cookies aren't as pretty as as they could be.


The cookies Jade's decorated. I don't have pictures of the cookies Corbin decorated because he ate them already.


These are the ones I decorated.

Enough is enough and some fun too

I am so done being sick! I'm currently sniffling through my second cold, maybe even my 3rd cold of the season. Done, I tell you. Finito. Enough said.

Yesterday, I manged to have some fun finishing up an audiobook. I'll tell you more about that when my head clears. I've also read a few other books along with crocheting for the the holidays, visiting with family, and buying a yule tree.

This is what I had fun doing Thursday between coughs an sneezes:



The star in front, I made with xmas cards I found at the thrift store. The star the farther back, I used pages from a flower arranging book.



I found the pattern for it here from a way cool craftezine found here. I see lots of possibilities in the future.

I used double sided tape to put the points together and most of the base. I finished off the base with hot glue. I used hot glue to glue the points to the base.


Corbin insisted I take a picture of him holding the stars. The first one he is practicing what I think is his punk look. Below a smile for me.

The getting of a tree

This is the one!


Cutting it down


It's my turn now!


Everyone takes a turn carrying it back to the car, everyone except me. I'm on camera duty.







Corbin takes a break to be cool dude with the scarecrow.


All decorated.

It's beginning to look....

a lot like Christmas everywhere you go.....


The first try at decorating the mantle



Looks even better after jade added more to it.



Our Nature Table displays some of our favorite books for the season and a few gifts.

Decorations on the tree:

flower fairy


Indian corn and shell bead ornament


Peace Dove made with flower and salt dough painted silver.


Sun ornament made with yellow and orange paper pulp


tree made with flower and salt dough painted gold


Christmas Spider

Some Favorite Winter Holiday Books

Some of my favorite books to read at this time of year.

The Table Where Rich People Sit by Byrd Baylor is about thankfulness which is a great thing to be any time of the year. The illustrations by Peter Parnell are superb.



The Christmas Spider by Shirley Clim is another one of my favorites that inspired me to make several Christmas spider ornaments one year.



While the Bear Sleeps is beautifully illustrated with stories from all over the world and from all religions.

The Children's Year is a craft book with suggestions for celebrating several holidays.

Lumina: a story for the dark time of year by Bridgitte Weninger is a sweet story of hope.

King John's Chrsitmas by A.A. Milne from House at Pooh Corner which as many more fun poems to enchant children from 1 to 91

Before I forget - Our Thanksgiving

We had a relaxing thanksgiving. We had planned to hang out and eat some turkey at my moms. Mom wasn't feeling to well so we canceled. It was a good thing because Corbin and I were still recovering from our colds too. So we had a quiet day at home.

The kids did some Thanksgiving drawings:




(Yes, those are guns coming out of the turkey. Maybe it's a turkey revolt)

Corbin dressed up for the occasion:





We did not cook up a big holiday meal but Stephen did make a quiche and some apple pie (my favorite.) Jade made a pumpkin pie to take with us. We packed up the car the next day to go visit the in-laws.

Holiday Planning

Now that all the birthdays are done (until next year that is) and Thanksgiving is over, it's time to plan for Winter Solstice. We have some traditions we've created over the years and it's time to start some new ones.

Last year after some discussion on my local homeschooling list about our holiday traditions, I was freed from feeling this ridiculous need to fit it all in on the actual holiday. Over the next few weeks there are some things I hope we get to:

• Holiday cookies
• Winter Solstice Cake or something else to honor the dark of the night
  
• This year I want to make some suet cakes for the birds. In years past we have made pine cone peanut butter bird feeders.
• Make holiday cards for close family and friends. I did a yule tree theme last year, not sure what my inspiration will be this year. I'm leaning toward a snowflake theme.
  
• Decorate the house with snowflakes and wintery things.
• Finish up on holiday gifts. I'm making lots of crocheted items. Jade wants to make fancy soap again so I picked up some more melt and pour glycerin soap and we have plenty of essential oils to add to make them to make the soap smell good.
• Some years we have made our own paper but we might not this year it depends how much of a crafting mood I will be in. I also love it when we have find some vintagey paper at the thrift store.
• This year the kids want a real tree but we have budget concerns so me might not.
• Plan our Winter Solstice meal and breakfast meal. In years past we have done cheese fondue to represent the light and chocolate fondue to represent the dark. Last year we did something different so we might do it different again this year but who knows.
• Inspired by the others traditions, this year I hope to get lots of balloons and blow them up to surprise the kids solstice morning or maybe we'll do it together.
  
• We plan to keep the gift giving for our family to a minimum partly because I want to focus on celebration rather than gifts and we don't have a lot of money for gifts this year.
• Jade wants to leave out sun cookies for the sun. So we will try and make them on the longest night.

As luck has it, Stephen needs to take time off this month or lose his vacation time so we will get to do more of the these things together as a family.

Happy Holidays

Thoughts on Thanksgiving - NaBloPoMo#23

Thanksgiving can be a tricky holiday when you aware of the history behind all of it. At the same time harvest celebrations have been around for a long time so why not reclaim the holiday in that light. It's a good time to recenter ourselves and remind us to be thankful.

Here are some tidbits to learn a bit more about thanksgiving that you can share with your family iffin' you want:

Dear dh found this website here with some thoughts on thanksgiving from a historical (and moral maybe?) perspective written by a teacher with Native America Heritage. I found more of the same here but a little bit easier to read and another article here.

A Native American shares her view on Thanksgiving here and why she celebrates it.

Sarah Hale wrote letters to the President(s) for 17 years to get a national holiday started. Finally in 1863 President Lincoln made it so. Before that Thanksgiving was celebrated intermittently as a national holiday. I've never heard of Sarah Hale and her connection with thanksgiving. It figures what we learn is school is HIStory.

Roosevelt tried moving Thanksgiving up one week to bolster the economy. So the idea of shopping early and consumerism was alive in well even in the depression, sad to say.

On a some what silly note, each year there is a turkey who is granted amnesty and gets to live the rest of his life luxury.

Where did I find out about most of this? Watching Good Eats with Jade.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In Honor of Halloween

I wrote this last year on my Confessions' blog and It's appropriate now.

I want be happy and I know I will be but it IS awful cold, wet, and dreary outside right now.

In honor of Halloween my son wrote a song. I'm kind of torn about the song he wrote. It's very dark but I also value his creativity, the joy he had singing it, and seeing his pride in his work. I added his picture to remind myself that he is a very sweet loving boy who is processing life,death, what he's heard about heaven and hell, and having some fun with the dark side of Halloween.

Bloody skull and bloody eyeballs
Death, death
Death, death, death
The after life

The grave, the grave
The after life
Die, die, today

Bloody gravestone, in the grave
Death, death
Death, death, death
The after life

Zombies, skeletons, ghosts
And much, much more
The after life, the after life
Heaven, hell
Each kid sorted out


Happy Halloween

Happy Mother's Day

I didn't realize how many of these mother picture I have here include breasts. I was shocked myself. I'm posting this anyway because I truly believe that breast are more than actually, MUCH more than something sexual. Breasts contain a magic elixir than not only feeds our babies but it calms them and nurtures them.

Here's a visual feast honoring all the mothers I know

A sculpture given to me by a friend that represents Gaia, Mother Earth, mother of us all:



A mural I found when Stephen and I lived near San Francisco. I was pregnant at the time with my first, Jade. This mural really touched me because it celebrates life, children, mothering.




Using the above photo I made this Art Trading Card

Celebrate Mothers - Celebrate Life



And a re-run picture here to all the moms who are nursing and nursed your kids. More power to yah! Got milk?

Happy New Year, Solstice, and I'm back

I had planned to share about our Solstice celebration a long time ago but after I rested up from not sleeping well the longest night of the year and helping the kids put together things they got for Solstice I got a kick me in the pants cold. All I wanted to do was snuggle on the couch, rest and watch movies. So that's what I did. Then after I got a bit better we were on our way to celebrate Christmas in Columbia with Stephen's family. Then I got distracted with my new toys from the holidays: decorative scissors, a wire art kit from Jade, and money for yarn! I have been crocheting lots now that I feel better...that could be a whole 'nother post:)

Our Solstice night was pleasant. The kids made s'mores by the fire while Stephen and I made dinner. We had a lovely meal of butternut squash soup(although not my favorite), cornbread and pizza for the kids to remind us of the sun. After dinner we played a few new games together: Whoonu and Farkel. Then we were all very tired so we made up a big pallet on the floor in our family room to snuggled in a wait for the suns return. Stephen told us a bedtime story about winter and the suns return. The story put me to sleep I was so tired. I didn't sleep well which was good because I had gifts to put under our Yule tree from the sun and to fill up our stockings.



Soon the kids were awake and ready to wake up the sun. Although before that the kids dug into their stockings.


Waking up sun! Wake Up! (I think it worked.)

Corbin got a Lego Dino Attack helicopter from one of his grand dads. While I helped Corbin build the helicopter Stephen go to work on breakfast brunch: Gingerbread Waffles with mulled maple syrup (real maple syrup) and whip cream with some sausages on the side. The sausage weren't the tasty which could have been because we substituted pork instead of using chicken. I think if we have this meal again I will buy premade sausages. The Gingerbread Waffles were fantastic. I wouldn't mind some right now. We made this hot cocoa a few nights before Solstice which is also divine. I plan to have some tonight while we finish the last of the gift giving season celebrating New Years Eve at my moms.


BLESSED SOLSTICE

The Sun is Back

and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!