Jun. 25, 2007 - Forever 21
A while back I had the making of a blog in my head that never made it to my computer. A very entertaining blog in which I ranted about Forever 21 and sounded like a total old person. It went something like what I said to Jessamyn while shopping there. “ I know I sound like an old person and I can’t believe I’m saying this… but I hate this store. (if you don’t know Forever 21 is a clothing store geared to women who are, well, closer to 21 than I am and no larger than maybe your average eight year old. The floor is embedded with glitter reflecting off the fluorescent lights, the music is a little overwhelming and like most teen stores you’d have to buy several overpriced, cheaply made items to even begin to cover you up-- even if you were a size 1) Anyway, I carried on to Jessamyn, “These clothes are what everyone’s been passing over at the goodwill—Barney purple shirt with multi-colored hearts, brown and yellow banana inspired blazers—who would buy this stuff, let alone look good in it and who would pay this for it? And there’s no organization, it’s a maze of groupings, some by color, some by style –you can’t find anything specific, which is probably the point.” I did end up buying her a shirt there for Christmas, an Asian style turquoise blue that was really pretty. My brother’s girlfriend worked for Urban Outfitters at the time and said many of their clothes were the exact same item as Forever 21, but twice the price! Over the last few months, I’ve gone there several times and have to admit that they have some cute things, esp. if they bring back all your 80’s memories and you call them vintage and you don’t look at the price or size. I did discover in my wanderings the shelves of cami’s that are only $3 and bought one for Peace. Jessamyn bought a pair of long shorts made of brown plaid , which look super cute, but we do have to tease her about.
Anyway, today I have to say, I love Forever 21. And that is because, at 4 this afternoon , Jessamyn came to the end of her search for the perfect pair of jeans. A search which we thought had ended when I found some on clearance at Wal-mart, only to have them shrink. A search that hung over our heads on shop-till you drop day with our cousins in Colorado, a search which lead us to 2 malls today, 7 stores, some sugar and caffeine and about 17 try-ons. If skinny jeans (what we used to call straight leg) are in style again—where are they? The main problem is that her legs are long and she needs long jeans. We did find that JC Penney’s and Kohl's have long lengths, but not in that style. We had to pick through every pair of jeans at Forever and they were in 3 different and unexpected places and they only went to size 7 and they aren’t quite perfect and they cost more than I’ve ever paid for kid jeans—But the search is over and hopefully she can get a lot of wear out of them if she doesn’t grow any taller. Now we can stay out of the mall and recuperate before the next time someone needs to search for the perfect jeans, or worse, bathing suit.
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Jun. 24, 2007 - Seed Packets
When we were looking for ideas for Peace's garden party invitation, we found this site-http://www.geocities.com/siggyrose/
It's full of printouts of seed packages. We chose one and put little matching notes inside. Also, we made one as a birthday card for Grandma.
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Jun. 24, 2007 - Thoughts of the day-June 24
I will be really glad to see Scott when he gets home. This trip is a long one and our anniversary was yesterday—17 yrs! He sent me a letter with a beautiful picture that had mountains and wildflowers and said to think about what I wanted to do for an anniversary celebration when he gets home—My first thought was “ I want to go wherever that picture is” it was so refreshing. Sometimes I don’t get outside enough. I took a nice walk by myself along the river one day last week and it really “renewed” me. Anyway, seventeen years… we keep growing and we have a lot of fun. Being a family is the best thing.
Peace is turning ten this week! We’re planning a garden theme party and it sounds like there will be lots of kids. My goal is to get her room finished up—hem her curtains, hang pictures, a little more organizing.
The girls are having their own Dance Camp this summer. Every week, I get to pick the genre of dance and they will make a performance for us, complete with costumes. We were just treated to a jazz style dance featuring the Pink Panther theme. I guess their dreams to use the family room as a studio are coming true! At least until we get some furniture in there. Next week is Modern. They are also doing Pilates a couple times a week.
Gabriel is working hard at karate since his Black belt test is in Sept. After having different class schedules this year, he’s happy to be partnering with one of his good friends and they can still do their Kata synchronized, he says. He’s going to be meeting up with some kids to play chess at a nearby park, as well.
Speaking of dreams coming true, I am so excited to begin decorating this house. After many years of white walls and gray or beige carpet, it’s fun to be thinking of ideas for this house. And the yard. One step at a time.
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Jun. 19, 2007 - Summer
Mmm, Summer morning, fresh and clean and blue. The last weeks, months have been quite full of activity, and it feels so good to have less on the schedule for a while.
We enjoyed the girl’s dance recitals and Jessamyn was in a play.
We took a trip to Colorado and helped with Scott’s cousin’s wedding. She was our flower girl, so that was special.
We don’t have a lot of plans for summer. Scott’s sister will visit in July and his parents in August.
We have a lot to do around the house, getting settled and hopefully some decorating.
We planted a little garden—Peace picked out flowers and a few vegetables and I put in tomatoes and lots of basil.
I plan to get things started with the process of adopting through the state. The first step is to take some classes.
And , maybe, I’ll get to the computer to write and e-mail a little more than I have been!
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May. 11, 2007 - Dream
I woke up from a very vivid and strong dream this morning.
I’m in the front seat of a car, my mom is driving and the kids are in the back with one empty seat. It’s black night, cold and rainy. We pull up to a stop sign. Suddenly a woman opens the back door and pushes a girl into the seat. She’s about 10 and completely unconscious, as pale as a sheet of paper. I’m not even sure she’s alive. The mom says “You have to take care of her, I can’t”, and runs off. We pull the girl to the sidewalk where she lays in the rain. People come running. I’m trying to call 911, but it’s hard to make my voice come out.
Then, we are at our house, our old house. We lay the girl across some chairs and keep checking her pulse and breathing. Paramedics should be on here any time. There’s a circle of people around her.
A knock at the door. I reach for the deadbolt, but it turns from the outside. I am terrified as I open the door and there’s a man there. He seems to fill the whole door with evil darkness and I know he’s there for the girl and we have to protect her. I realize this is a battle, not just to keep her body alive, but a spiritual battle over her. I think,’ I have been asleep, spiritually, it’s time to wake up, to fight”. I begin to pray out loud, to say the name of Jesus and the man is pushed back by my words.
I tell everyone we have to pray. People begin to dance in circle around her, singing and crying for God to save her. I notice a few people who are crossing the circle, blocking the way and I ask them to go to another room if they aren’t there to help.
Another knock at the door. A different man there to take her. This time, I’m not scared, I’m angry and he easily gives up. “Oh, God save this child’s life, protect her from evil, heal her…”
And I wake up, very shaken. I dream a lot, weird and adventurous dreams. I have woken my husband many times calling Help! (although in my dream my voice won’t come out), because someone is breaking into our house, because a monkey or cat is biting my hand. I dream of rescuing children in other countries, of flying. I have had several dreams that had meaning to me, in which I had to kill spiders, representing something bad. Often, my dream are entertaining, but when I have one like this I usually wake up and know it meant something.
We want to adopt a child or children, probably through foster care. Although, I think of this as exciting and challenging, I haven’t really thought of it in terms of saving their life. That, like in my dream, we will receive a child whose parent can’t or won’t take care of them, that we need the help of our family and friends praying with us, that we will be in a battle to save this child’s life—maybe physically, but definitely emotionally and spiritually. Since we are looking at children a little older, they are already born, probably living in this community, already experiencing what will lead to them being taken away from their parents. This is really serious and our prayers are so important—for the protection of the child right now, wherever they are, for our family as we adjust, for us to be awake spiritually. For God to use us to be part of saving a child’s life.
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Apr. 14, 2007 - Spring Pictures 2007
Here are a few pictures from the last couple months-
Peace goes to a Civil War Dance in the dress we made
Jessamyn gets her Black Belt
Gabriel turns 12 (with his traditional Mexican sodas)
Last day at our old house
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Mar. 23, 2007 - Simple Things
Tonight I'm feeling so content and happy about these simple things:
a day to stay home, with no hurry
cleaning up the kitchen after dinner and feeling at home, like the view out the window is familiar and this house is starting to feel like home
my niece and nephew having races across the back yard and their shrieks of jopy at finding a ladybug
blooms of color in all the trees and tiny pale green leaves, seeing what everything is at this new house
getting back to our book study (Prince Caspian)
making a big pot of soup and having all the kids say they liked it
that life has so many possibilities, that I can be content, but also inspired and interested in learning new things
color in the sky, stars in the night, the breezes bringing spring, and laughing together
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Mar. 9, 2007 - Surprise!
Yesterday afternoon, I heard a loud pounding at the front door. I opened it and there stood my 4 year old nephew, Joseph—from ALASKA! He was grinning and holding a daffodil. Then my brother, his dad, came around the corner and all the kids came running and there were lots of happy hugs. My brother had told us he couldn’t get time off work until April, so this was a great surprise. Unfortunately, his wife couldn’t come because of work. They’ll be here for a week and it’s so good to see them.
This isn’t the first time Jacob has surprised us. Before he was married, he’d just show up once in a while when we least expected it. Once Jacob and Rebeca (our sister) came up from California and walked into church one night. I think when Rebeca was in Thailand, she knew Gloria (other sister0 was coming, but was surprised by Jacob, as well.
I think really we like to make our parents cry. It’s kind of a contest. Mom bursts into happy tears when she sees you at the door. Dad might hold back until were all around the table for dinner, when he looks around and sees the circle growing larger (like one of his favorite movies Raising Arizona when the dad has dreams of children and grandchildren filling the table and the future) and tears roll from his blue eyes. I imagine they think back to just starting out and how the years have flown and you just don’t know you would love them this much and, yes, there have been really hard times, but we have each other. I only imagine this is what they’re thinking because that’s what I think sometimes when my family is gathered around the table for dinner and I look around and say-we’re all together and the kids laugh and say I’m just like Papa.
Scott and I surprised my parents once. We were living in Colorado and they were in California and we hadn’t seen them since our wedding 6 months before. We had no money, so we ate pancakes and mac-n-cheese for 2 months so we could save up for gas. We drove through the night, munching corn-nuts and green apples to stay awake, probably listening to Whiteheart. We were about three hours away when our car broke down in the freezing desert(same place it broke down in the heat a couple years later) and I had to call and tell my dad” The good news is we’re coming for Christmas, the bad news is we need you to come and rescue us.” We did manage to surprise my mom at the door and that was great.
Once Scott called me from Boise (I thought) and then walked in the door. I expect our kids will carry on the tradition.
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Mar. 3, 2007 - Getting Settled
Moving to a new house after nine years in the last one… it’s just a little like having a new baby-very exciting and happy ---but also tiring and stressful at times. We’ve been here for three weeks now and have settled a few rooms so we can live in them, tried to keep the boxes in one room out of the way. We’ve has to shop for a lot of things—window coverings, towel bars, thermostats, lamps, etc. The kids are enjoying their new rooms and busy getting them fixed up. We’ve had a couple fires in the fireplace.
The neighborhood is very quiet, mostly older people. I hear a lot of birds and we’ve taken a couple walks to the river. Today is really warm and sunny and Peace and I went out and tried to see what colors all the azaleas and rhododendrons will be when they bloom-mostly pink, it looks like. One night we saw a huge raccoon roaming through the yard.
It great to have so much space. To have people over and have room to spread out. We have been so happy to hear our friends say it already feels cozy. I’m really thankful and sometimes it still feels hard to believe we’re here.
There’s still a lot to do at our old house. On top of our lives already being so full of other activities. But we’ll get it done and have already been blessed by help and a couple delicious meals brought to us (just like when you have a baby!)
I’ve been really sick the past few days. I haven’t had a sore throat and cough like this in years. I feel a little better this afternoon, and hope no one else gets it. I had a couple good books to read, so I’ve been camped on the couch as much as possible.
I know I always say this but I want to write more. The first night we were here I woke from a dream and I was praying in my dream and God said, “ Did you think the journey ended with arriving at this house? Of course I have a plan for you once you’re here and it’s to write.” And I woke up. Write what? I don’t know, but my blog is a good place to start. And for us it’s always been—we’ll get a bigger house, then we’ll adopt. So we’ll get settled and see how we want to start the process with that.
We’ve started back into our Narnia study this week, after a couple weeks of just doing the school basics. A couple of the kids have been pretty emotional lately—all the changes, I guess—and they seem to have grown taller every morning when they get up.
So, this is a time of transition, not nearly as much as if we’d moved to a new town, but lots of work and decisions to make. My brain can only deal with so much unpacking at one time, so I have a goal each day to even get one box unpacked or packed up from the old house.
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Feb. 7, 2007 - Our New house-For real this time
A month ago I posted this about our new house, but took it down because we thought it wouldn't work out. After many phone calls, e-mails, communications through Scott (who was out of town for a couple weeks) and i and 2 real estate agents and the sellers, and getting more information (some of the problems that showed up on the inspector's report weren't as bad as they seemed, and some were the fault of the electrician who had done the remodel) we have finally completed the process and taken ownership of OUR NEW HOUSE! We are so excited and thankful. we have lots to do at both houses, but we are going to take our time on the transtion.
Here is the original post (written a month ago):
For many years we have been dreaming of buying a house, and now it’s finally happening! Our hope is to adopt one or two more children and we needed to be able to move to a place that would have enough room, as well as access to move Scott’s home office (a small building he built next to our house.)
Six months ago, we found this house and we both thought it was perfect for us. We looked at it on a Wednesday, and were talking seriously about making an offer on Saturday. Within 3 days, our real estate agent friend quit her job and the house went off the market—so it seemed the door closed. We decided to wait and work at getting some money in savings.
The house went back on the market at a lower price and one day my friend sent me an e-mail with a link to it, saying she thought it looked like a great house for us. And no one bought it… I would check to see or drive by once in a while. I also was looking online and driving by others, but this is the one that stood out to both Scott and I. They lowered the price in October… we kept thinking about it….then over the holidays we started thinking that maybe we should make an offer and see. I kept thinking someone’s going to buy it—another of our friends even considered it but decided not to move.
So, last week on Wednesday, we viewed it again with another friend, a real estate agent, who also leads our kids youth groups. The things I had liked about it, I liked even more and the drawbacks (pink bathtub!) didn’t seem as bad as I remembered. Thursday we wrote an offer, expecting a counter offer. Our agent presented it to the sellers on Friday night and they accepted the first offer!! We are so excited and thankful and as long as all goes well with inspections later this week, we will close at the end of the month. Lot’s of work to do, but we are all looking forward to it.
These are the things I’m thankful for:
That we waited, because the price came down so much
It’s a large corner lot
Some landscaping and trees, but Scott will have fun doing more
All one level
Very practical layout
A living room and family room
New roof, paint, appliances, door, lights, windows etc.
Fenced yard
Easy place to move the office
Quiet street, nice older neighbourhood
A couple blocks to the river (we have miles of bike trails)
Our first offer was accepted
Five bedrooms!! And 2 baths(now we have 3 and 1)and 2 fireplaces
It’s a lot closer to everything we do-very close to my sister and the girl’s dance studio
It’s very bright
It has attic storage and a shed, but we will build a garage eventually, as the garage was remodeled into a laundry room and two bedrooms
We are blessed to have so many friends and family that are so happy for us and share in our joy and prayed for us through this (and hopefully will [s]help us move[/s] come for dinner once we’re settled.)
There are a few improvements we want to make as we are able—new kitchen counters, update bathrooms, the garage and then of course, things like decorating and landscaping. I really look forward to making it our own and staying there for a long time.
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Jan. 30, 2007 -
I love it when the kids get going on something and end up playing it for a long time. Yesterday , Gabriel and Peace set up this ramp/matchbox car race thing and they were being announcers and racing the cars. i didn't even want to stop their fun when it was time for schoolwork, because it was so nice to listen to them laughing, and not fighting, and playing with something imaginative. I don't mind some time on the computer, but I like to see them playing together with toys, as well. Some of the cars were Scott's when he was a boy. Sometimes when they leave a game like that they try to come back to it and it just isn't the same. They've done that on long car trips where they had some elaborate thing going with "super water bottle girl", etc and it was so fun, bu the next day it just wasn't the same.
We are enjoying the sun and having Scott home. A few of us have had colds, but not too bad compeared to what I've heard of around here. I don't remember the last thing i wrote abou the house (the one we tried to end the deal) Well, it turned out that a lot of the electrical just needed to be fixed by the company that did the remodel and also the plumbing wasn't as bad a we thought--so, we have a couple more details we're waiting on, but should be closing soon, hopefully this week! Communication can be so frustrating when it all has to go through so many people. I'm glad we're about to the end of the process.
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Jan. 25, 2007 - Really Random
My sister, Rebeca, called this morning to tell me she saw I had been selected as random blogger of the week. But what was really random is that this very week she and her husband donated the prize from their business, Viridian Coffee Roasters! Isn’t that funny?
So, finding out I was Random Blogger of the Week was like when someone calls and says they’re right down the street and can they drop in for a visit. I’m always glad to have company, but there’s that flurry of thought- do I have time to tidy up? Bake some cookies? In blog life that meant-have I even written anything about Homeschooling lately? Anything deep or spiritual?
So if you are dropping by from the random route-I’d like to say Welcome and please leave a message. I would like to be making more connections here. I read a lot and write a little. I like that there is such a community of homeschool families here.
In case you don’t already know me, My name is Alyssa. I’ve been married to Scott for almost 17 years and live in the Pacific Northwest. We have 3 children-14, 12 and 9 and have always homeschooled them. Scott works from home and our life is very family centered. My parents and 2 sisters live in town and we are blessed to have many Homeschooling friends. As far as curriculum goes, we have used an eclectic mix of things and are pretty relaxed. The have a lot of activities that keep us busy, some through a homeschool resource center here—karate, dance, chess , youth groups, field trips. They all really like art and writing. Some days are challenging and I think that I mostly enjoy reading blogs by moms who share their challenging days and how they survive them! I love that keeping the kids home has been so good for our family and we look forward to many more years of learning together.
I also want to welcome one of my best friends and kindred spirits, Autumn, to HSB. Also, two of my children have blogs going , as well.
Don’t forget to check out Viridian Coffee Roasters!
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Jan. 24, 2007 - Homecoming
Scott is on his way home tonight. He called as he passed Mt. Shasta. This trip has been the longest we’ve ever been apart-16 days.
Our lives are so interwoven as we go through our days, since he works at home and most of what we do is centered around our family. I took a little walk this afternoon, it was crystal clear and the sky was turning pink, a moment of stillness. Thinking about who I am, who we are together. How sometimes I get caught up in doing things for people, esp. Scott and the kids, trying hard to keep everyone happy, and I forget that they love me for who I am, not just what I do. I need to remember that. That even though we are all so entwined in each others lives, we are each a thread of a different color and it’s our uniqueness put together that makes the tapestry of family.
Sometimes I’m really hard on myself, I get caught up in accomplishment and perfectionism and “not good enough” This year I really want to challenge the thoughts that lead me down that path. The essence of my faith is that I am in need of grace, and the wonder is that it’s right in front of me at every step.
The past two weeks have felt like forever. We are back in process of trying to buy this house—negotiating who will pay for repairs—hoping it will work out. Keeping busy with the kids activities. Conversations that make me think and define my beliefs to my kids-and listening as they learn to think for themselves. Guiding them in how to relate (how can siblings who adore each other find so many things to fight about?) The joy of some really wintry days, snow and icicles and then these days of sun—lots of walks and thankfulness my foot is so much better after two years of dealing with pain. Peace camping out in my bed, which brings back memories of how we would do that with my mom when my dad went on a trip—she’s cuddly, but she kicks too much! My sister and her husband losing another precious baby. We don’t understand and are so sad for them. Getting rid of a lot of junk and organizing around the house—inspired by the possibility of moving-that has kept me busy and is very satisfying.
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Jan. 15, 2007 - Not the Greatest Weekend Ever
It was quite a weekend for me-beginning with a conversation with Scott who's still in California on a business trip. We got the inpection report from the house and sadly had to make the decision that there is just too much there that needs work and we won't be buying it after all. I think it's a wise decision, but I had gotten so emotionally attached to this house and everything had been going so well (if you read the now deleted post called "our new house" in which I praised it's many wonders.) So, here i was with tears of disapointment, half packed boxes all over the house and the dining room starts flooding-water is pouring through the cieling fan and in around the sliding glass door.. Gallons by the time it was all over. The afternoon and evening consisted of me emptying buckets, tracking down the landlord who couldn't get ahold of the roofing people and so he came over and shoveled the snow off the roof. My sister came over to hang out and by then i was just a mess. "why can't this happen when my husband is home, at least he's not in Iraq, I should be able to handle this, there will be other houses, now this bucket is so full i can't carry it, but I wanted that house, at least i can get ahold of him on the phone, I never would have made it as a pioneer wife, why does the landlord have to come through the house when it's littered with packing boxes, now I have to unpack"..... well, i ended up telling my dad about the leak and he suggested it was the water line running to our fridge and sure enough, it was. Not the snow melting on the roof, but the water line had frozen and burst. iI felt so bad to have to call the landlord and tell him it was out fault after all the shovelling, but he was really nice about it. So the flood is over, the sun is out on the snow, I signed to terminate the house agreement and it's a new day. Only ten more until Scott gets home.....
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Jan. 7, 2007 - The Coziest Time of the Year
The season from Thanksgiving to New Years was full of activity, with moments of reflection. I’ll try to capture a bit of it for my blog.
Our Thanksgiving trip to Portland was fun. We arrived at our hotel to find they had pipes burst and had to turn off the water, so we were sent to another one. It actually turned out to be better. We had Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant- kind of different, but we realized most of us aren’t really that into the traditional meal anyway. (we had curry for our dinner with my family before we left) We had lots of time to relax and swim at the hotel.
We spent a day at the science museum-mostly at the Star Wars exhibit. I’m not that much of a fan compared to the kids, but I liked the interactive “scientific” part of it. We plan on going back to see more of the permanent exhibits later on, since we got a year’s pass.
We met up with sister’s family at our brother’s house. He just got 2 Chihuahua puppies, so the kids had fun with them and we went out for dinner.
The next day we did some shopping, went downtown and took the kids pictures to send out with our Christmas cards. Then we went to visit and have dinner with our good friends who used to live here.
Peace was in a dance production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She was a Flower and Celebration dancer. Several members of our family and friends came to watch. There were 3 shows and they worked so hard. I wish I could capture the joy on her face when she dances! I helped out with costumes and hair and make-up and that was fun, but we both were so tired by the end of the week….but she can’t wait to do it again next year!
"The Flowers Rejoice "
Jessamyn’s swing dance class performed at the “Nutcracker Remixed” (they had all styles of dance) Their song was “Hot Chocolate” from “The Polar Express”. They all did great and the audience loved it.
Gabriel had the chance to go to “Chess Camp” for four afternoons and loved it. He and Scott have been going to a couple different places to play and it’s been good for them to have that time together. There are several tournaments coming up in the next couple months.
Christmas was very nice. Scott had two weeks off (his work took shut-down time) so we had lots of time as a family. We went to see the movie Eragon, made gingerbread houses, admired our tree ( quite possibly the most perfect ever). Christmas Eve we helped decorate the Lamb’s Cottage and put on a nice dinner for the people who come to my parent’s Sunday night group. Some are homeless, or just needed a place to go. We sewed 25 fleece scarves and were able to contribute to the gift table. It was a blessing to us and to the guests—although really, we were the guests because they always meet there on Sunday nights.
cutting out scarves
The rest of the time we spent with my family--- eating Mexican food, playing games, giving gifts. I treasure the moments—from the chaos of it all, to the times when I stop on the way back from the mailbox on a cold clear night and look at the lights shining out and just take in that stillness, the hopefulness. Lighting a room with just candles and playing carols. Kids being surprised. The smell of the tree and cinnamon. The excitement of secrets. How thoughtful the kids were when they filled our stockings for the first time this year. And best of all—the Greatest gift.
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Nov. 19, 2006 - Fall 2006
This week is Thanksgiving and we will be going on l a little family getaway. We have gone somewhere a couple years and we really enjoyed it and would like to make it a tradition. One year we went to the mountains and played in the snow. One year we were in Mexico and this year we're going to Portland. We plan to visit friends and go to OMSI. I have always wanted to take the kids to this Science Museum and this is a perfect time since they have a "technology of Star Wars' exhibit and the kids are big fans.
School is going fine, fallen into a nice routine. We have found some interesting things to do in our Narnia study, including:
Visit all the Planets in a Day
(we went with our friends who are doing the same study on a Planet Tour. Along the river here, there are scale models of the Sun and all the planets spread out over a couple miiles. It was a fun afternoon)
English Tea Party (very proper and very delicious) with friends and my sister and kids. Wwe had scones and shortbread and cucumber sandwiches and clotted cream and lemon curd and ,of course, tea.
Gabriel and Peace enjoyed making clay models of some of the statues- a giant and a Nyad. We sampled Turkish delight and made a meal of Fish and bread and a "marmalade roll" like the beavers served in our book.
Jessamyn has been working really hard at Karate, since her black belt test is in 2 weeks. In between that, she's been researching for her fashion design class, started Spanish (Rosetta Stone, which seems good so far) She likes her new youth group and all the social things about being a teenager. Scott did the sound for the Homesource school dance and everyone had a good time. There was a little of everything-- from swing dance lessons, to Latin to Hip Hop to the Limbo and even the Virginia Reel.
Gabriel has been playing chess a lot and Scott has, as well--lots of friendly conmpetition! Gabriel went to a tournament and won his division yesterday -He was really excited to come home with a trophy! He's also working hard on his brown belt and learning to play basketball.
Peace is taking a writing class and loving it-I want to help her get a blog back up so she can "publish" her work. She is going to be in her dance studio's production-- Adventures in Narnia as a flower, and she's very excited about that. She has stopped karate for now because she wanted to dance more.
Scott's been really busy with work, but has also had some fun chances to run sound for some of his friend's band around here and a few nights out of town as well. We have both been pretty busy ans that will continue for a few weeks, so we got away for a nice relaxing lunch this week. We were talking about how we've been together 1/2 our lives this year.
And that's what we've been up to this fall. The next few weeks are busy and then we look forward to a nice break. And Christmas, the coziest time of the year....
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Nov. 13, 2006 - Gentle-eyed Dude
Bob Welch wrote a column this week about my Dad and how he cares for his homeless friends. You can read it here. It's an inspiration to give for the right reasons and to live our lives how Jesus lived His.
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Nov. 10, 2006 - November
The clouds have swept in and the rain begun. To me the first few days of rain can be depressing after the beauty and color of October-- but soon we'll be seeing Christmas lights and then the rest of winter I'm just used to the darker days. I try to make it feel cozy, with candles and cocoas and ciders and soups.
Today was a day with nothing planned until this evening, so it's been a much needed day of rest for us. I made some calls to locate cookie donations for Peace's upcoming dance performance. Our favourite bakery, The Sweet Life is donating $30 worth of cookies. I feel like such a soccer mom. I got some costumes packed up in the garage and made a menu and grocery list for the next 2 weeks. I like to get the kids input on meal ideas (cream of celery soup, chili and cornbread, soft tacos) I ended up filling my spice jars from my bulk bags and it was nice to have the time to do that little job. The smell of all the spices together reminds me of my early years here in Oregon, being a mom of babies and toddlers, staying home, taking care of my house, making meals on a meager budget..... those are cozy memories, and feel like so long ago. My life is busier, fuller now, good in different ways....but I realize I enjoy homemaking when it's not so rushed it becomes a burden. It's very fulfilling to me.
Lots of things have been coming to mind that I want to write about. And if anyone reads this and wants to comment, you can leave a comment as "anonymous" and just sign you name You don't have to set up an account to comment.
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Oct. 22, 2006 - Jessamyn's Dress
Jessamyn went to a Civil War dance last year and had so much fun that she wanted to make a dress for it this time. It turned out really pretty. She didn't think she wanted to have a really big skirt, but after seeing how a hoop skirt swings around while dancing, we decided to make one for next time. Then I found a huge crinoline at Value Village (with the costumes) yesterday and it will probably work out just right. It was fun to watch the dancing. I wish we had more dancing in our culture that's fun for all ages like that.
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Oct. 15, 2006 - Back to Blogging
I can't believe it's been so many months since I wrote anything in my blog. I have started a few things and written a few in my head... but, the more time has passed, I have put off writing. So, rather than try to catch up on all the news of the summer and fall, i'm going to try to start writing again. I've also been readng a lot of blogs and tryiong to decide what I want mine to be-- a journal, family news, a little of everything? Do I want to maintain both blogs i have? What things do i need to learn how to do to make my blog what i want? Is it important to me to get involved in other peoples lives by commenting on their blogs? I'm still thinking on these things, but in the mean time, I want to return to my main purpose, which is simply having a place to write.
My son, Gabriel, set up this new custom background for me- I guess being influenced by the fall season, I was drawn to these colors, warm and creamy,like a mug of tea or coffee, something cozy. i told him I will probably want to "redecorate" each season!
Welcome to anyone who reads my blog--please comment! - Hopefully, I'll be back with some more to write about soon!
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