Last day of summer

We lucked out ---our day included time at the lake with Danielle and her boys. (The husbands had their annual Pats-Dolphins match up to watch together.)



The boys were bummed about this. In fact, we almost ended up not going because of it. But, Gem's teary disappointment at not going at all changed the kid majority tide.


Owen giving Sag the support he needed.




They jumped and jumped into the shallows with much satisfaction.






They were not posing for my shot!

Hello, L.L. Bean catalog shot.

Making sand angels.

The sky,

the lake,

the non-crowds,

made for an incredibly relaxing and lovely afternoon. Oh the light is bending 'round here...

Home on a saturday

The morning's excitement was this critter hanging out. Sag named it Leaf Bug which seemed quite appropos.

Takai and his family came by in the afternoon to pick up Baxter. We had lunch and played.

("Five little monkeys jumping on the bed...")


(Having a chat about Star Wars.)



Our day ended with the four of us curled up in front of the tv. We watched Surf's Up, a movie the kids have really been enjoying as of late. I like it, too. Some of the animation is particularly fantastic and fun, and the voice work is terrific.

Disclaimer

It has been brought to my attention that some of my dear readers (the count, that I know of, is up to 3) thought that the money pictured in a recent post called "Treasures" was real money.

I wish folks, I wish.

Sorry for any confusion...or horror, I may have caused.

Confession

There's a reason I haven't been waxing poetic about the garden. Or showing off pics of the home grown bounty.

I abandoned it. Yes I feel very small about it.

The way our yard/this area gets infested with mosquitoes played a part. I'd go out at high noon and within minutes would have half a dozen bites. I'm a bit allergic and so these bites would swell and harden and then itch like crazy for 48 hours.

Call me a wimp, but it wasn't worth it.

So I've been thinking about what to do for next year. Bring my herbs closer to me. Maybe some window boxes. Become a regular user of bug repellant (which I have some issues with, like I do with sun block). Create an airconditioned body suit.

But, look what Gem found today.


We had some rain recently followed by some hot sunny days. Mother nature just doin' her thing. This mini-bounty was enough for me to grab the watering cans, snip off the flowered tops of the basil, and give our small patch some attention. We found two green beans. There's a bunch of little green tomatoes that looked promising, as well as, some leaves of spinach.

There's some fresh pesto in my future. Yum.

Long distance friendship

We are rich in friends. Moving about as we do, though, we have friends scattered in far flung locales. Like Connecticut. Massachusetts. Vermont. Florida. California. Japan. Peru.

Last night we picked Janet and Asa up at the airport and had a whirlwind playdate that ended this afternoon when they were picked up by Grandma and Grandpa for a bar mitzvah in Baltimore.

The boys get along famously (as all our college-circle friends seem to do whether it's been 3 months or 1 year or more---what a gift) and enjoyed tv, building, picking the chocolate chips out of the trail mix and playing out back.

Which made for plenty of time for Janet and me to catch up.

This video was shot with barely enough memory in the camera---hence my direction to "just do it" :-)

A blur of a day

I woke past 8 o'clock this morning...the second time in three days. What this means is that the kids have been waking past 8 o'clock. Sag has been sleeping till 9 o'clock or later which is unheard of. Seasonal changes bringing about a hard and deep sleep methinks.


I knit a few rows in solitude, but then the day began to pick up steam and it has flown.

A walk with Danielle in the woods followed by errands in town. (The boys continued work on a stop motion film with Cap.)


More light saber making.

Here's Baxter waiting for something to possibly come his way from the lunch table.

Gem's self-concocted lunch: a spaghetti-ham roll-up. ("I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner!" said he :-)

Trader Joe's "French Green Beans" have been a big hit with my guys. A veggie that tastes good to them.

I'm about to drop them off at Danielle's for a playdate and return here to clean the place up for Janet and Asa who will be here for a quick overnight visit before they are whisked away to a family event in Baltimore.

I had grand plans for a homecooked meal, but like I said, the day has flown by. It's going to be a pizza and sushi night.

Walking the plank

Our landlord had the old stone flats removed and the walkway paved with concrete. Made me feel a bit rueful, but the way the walkway would slicken, dangerously, in heavy rain (the mud) or wintry conditions, was a problem.

Wednesday in the park with kindred spirits

Watching the fish---muddy colored with sudden glints of silver...

Finishing his book (an Encyclopedia Brown)...


Watching them from afar...I enjoyed not knowing what they were talking about.

Sag was hanging with Kelly and the girls in the playground by this point. But, Gem, give him a stream and rocks and he is in his element.

The flag of a very special place.


Baxter loved the grass and kept licking and sucking. The fur under his mouth actually took on a light green hue...

Pippa turned 2 in August and she is suddenly looking and acting like a girl much older.

Shannon started up a park meet up on Wednesdays. The park is wonderful! It's about a 20 minute drive for us, part of the drive is on a road that cuts a swath through a local reservation. It was breathtaking driving under sun dappled green boughs over hanging and framing the road.

We met some new folks and hung out with familiar faces, too.

What I said earlier about being outside really helping with my PMS? It is the truth. I felt some mild cramping now and again, but my mood was refreshed and really good. Thank you Mother Earth and, thank you, Community.

Waaah

It wouldn't be me and my blog if there wasn't some mention of my period or cycle every now and again.

My period is overdue (I think, I don't really keep track anymore like I used to). And it is really affecting me. Sometimes it's the bloating (like when I can't close my jeans that fit just fine last week), sometimes it's the realization that I feel like I'm waiting for Godot (when I'd much rather be humming along living my life), and, sometimes, like now, it's the tingling all over, in a bad way, feeling like I'm going to burst and dissolve...in shimmery waves quieting a burst of sobs or a scream.

OMG. Fracking start already!!

P.S. Going outside really helps. Having Baxter here has forced me to take walks, the kids and I went to our local park yesterday afternoon, and that was great.

Hope burst

Go here if you're at all worried/depressed/nauseated, etc. about the possibility that McCain / Palin are headed to the White House in '09.

Thanks, Sandy.

Pause

Baxter hanging out. The carpet looks so clean to me :-)

Six totes of home made Ben 10 toys. I bought out the store (which was lying in fallow) to get them out of the kids' room. They were taking up way too much shelf space for my rendering of their new and improved room. Our room, in the meantime, remains a walk-in storage facility.

A recent lego creation by Sag.

A recent lego creation by Gem.

My yarn stash. I'm coming clean. That's a lot of yarn.

I'm not buying anymore yarn in 2008 save for the trips here and here I already have planned while I'm in the Bay Area at the end of this month. The second store is in my old stomping grounds and that visit will be rounded out by a burrito from here, no doubt :-)

I've decided not to take a sock class this fall, mostly for financial reasons, but also time. Wendy offered up the gift of walking me through a pair of socks when we visit them between Thanksgiving and Xmas. So, I'll be on the look out for sock yarn while in CA to knit up while in FL :-)

Once I finish my current, mondo, project, I will move onto some smaller ones: two birthday scarves, a hat for Gem, a scarf for Sag, a scarf for Cap, a caliometry for me... All the yarn for those projects already live in the stash.

The new season of House starts tonight!

Free rice

Go here to check it out. Thanks to Wendy for teaching me about it.

It's monday

We were in Massachusetts this weekend.

I've said it before, but I freakin' love MA. At one point this weekend we were driving from Kingston to Plympton (a 10 minute drive), the windows were down, the wind blowing my hair around, and my senses were just soaking in the atmosphere: the trees, the shingled homes, the scents, the ever familiar bends in the road... It's a craving that I don't even know is there most of the time.

Our drive up was from Hades. We left the house before 4pm and straggled into Karen and Brent's at 11:30pm. Oy. Seriously? Frack.

But, once there, there was a visit to a LYS where I bought a skein of Vermont-made yarn, a wonderful extended family gathering/reunion with Cap's dad's side of the family to welcome and meet a couple visiting from Finland (distant cousins of my fil), and Karen and Brent's hospitality which included a full-on South Indian feast for breakfast yesterday morning (dosas!!) and a post-breakfast kids-and-Brent walk to the cemetery in the rain. (And over an hour of knitting for me Sunday morning :-)

The drive home was notable mostly for the number of times we had to stop for the bathroom. Note to Cap: do not ply the boys with fun water bottles on long drives. There was some traffic, as well, and the return trip to Queens to pick up Baxter took almost six hours. Sigh. So ready to not be in the car for awhile.

Sandy and Mike came over and we all had dinner at Takai's house. Takai, Lisa and Ellie are in Aruba for a week. After the lovely repast we packed up Bax and his stuff and came home.

This morning the air is cooler (it was awful 'round these here parts yesterday/last night) and we've got a full schedule which includes the library and swimming. The first homeschoolers library day is today, but the kids usually shy away from that so we'll no doubt end up upstairs looking for Encyclopedia Brown books (and other stuff, says Gem the over-the-shoulder editor.) Polliwogery resumes in the late afternoon :-)

No pics to share from the weekend! I was too busy being present, which is a nice thing, every now and again...

Treasures

This pail of cash has been sitting in a corner of our home for a week or so. I leave it there, forgotten by the children, because it always makes me smile. The pot at the end of our rainbow.

Sag's new toy. A prop that helps him plumb the depths of his soul with sweeping hums.

A recent Gem creation. The leaf was found while at the playground over the weekend. Modeling clay with Saskia in New Hampshire has sparked a trend back home.

Our red chair. This is where I knit. Gem has barely budged from it today between reading and watching tv.

The original trilogy. On loan from Sandy and Mike (my sister and her hubby). They are on high rotation.

My son the Jedi

Sometimes, I will see out of the corner of my eye, Sag practicing his Jedi moves. He stands on the couch and is able to see himself in a mirror that Sandy gave us, years and years ago, that sits on the mantle.

His face and body in full and supple concentration, he is amazing to watch. But, you have to do that in secret and from afar. Pictures? No way in hell, methinks.

Morning table

Out that window reflected in the digestion tea, a crisp beautiful late summer (portending of fall) morning.

Gem and I had some time alone this morning and I read him some Encyclopedia Brown. His grudging blocking of ears soon turned into interest and before long, I could see dimples forming in those cheeks as he listened while looking out the window. A slice of heaven, sharing a book from your childhood with your kid.

Homeschooling stuff

It's all homeschooling to me, but I am trying some new things this fall. So, here's the latest.

This week's "try something new" will be making cups. Sag's idea. I'm thinking origami and modeling clay. We'll see if it leads to further study ;-) I may also take them to the pottery decorating place in town, which would be fun.

I started "Activity Logs", just on Appleworks documents kept in folders on the desk top. Here in NJ we don't have to account to anyone, but I do have some archivist in me, and so will attempt to document. I refuse to call it a "learning" log because there is just no way you could know on any given day what a child has learned!

I'm encouraging the kids to journal once a week. We're starting in notebooks, big, bold, blank books that Cap gave the kids a few years ago.

Swimming starts Thursday. Sag is likely not returning to drumming this fall.

Rounding out the week is learning the songs for the Finnish relatives, writing some thank you cards, playing, reading, drawing, etc. etc.

Tidal tuesday

In and out, forward and back, today I feel like I am going with the flow. It's an old, primal, comforting rhythm, but there's a dash of excitement thrown in due to the act of letting go, shutting off the mind control.

My younger has lost a tooth. One of the big ones, as you can see. It's only been a few weeks since I last posted photos and he already looks older.

The other night, it was the hush of midnight, I opened a box. Inside was my first ever purchase of a whole bag of yarn. Ten skeins of Noro Silk Garden that I bought (way) on sale. It is such an investment, I may never do that again. But it was sweet to dance with the yarn, celebrating fiber and art in the glow of extreme promise.


We bought a Dyson. It's a wonderful vacuum cleaner made in England. Many users love them, some proclaim it's all hype. I did some research and initially bought a Kenmore (way) on sale, but it didn't cut it.

Kelly lent us their Dyson and I was sold. Cap wasn't completely sold, but enough that he agreed to the switch. Kudos to Sears for taking the Kenmore back without charging us a restocking fee. And kudos to Bed, Bath and Beyond and their 20% off coupon. In the end we paid $80 more, but it already feels worth it (with no sales or coupons the Dyson is $50 more than the Kenmore).

I love my machine. It makes one want to vacuum often. It's relatively quiet, easy to handle, and man, does that thing have suction.

Here's to a cleaner home and less compromised immune systems this fall!


Cap had the kids this morning. I went to Target with Danielle and then she drove me over to the garage where I picked up our patched up car. Target, Target. I really have a love/hate relationship with that store. I love some of the designs and graphics, but hate that nearly everything is made in China. I tried on a trench coat that I liked a lot, but at $40 full price, it wasn't worth it.

I tried on some other jackets, but felt like a Project Runway judge as I found flaws here and there, auf'ing them right and left. What made it in the cart and home were some thermal shirts and sweat pants for the boys, a toy light saber for Sag (barely worth the $8, even for him, though in the end he decided to keep it---there's a $120 one he'll be praying he gets for his birthday :-), and some melamine plates and bowls that I could not resist. Monsters with the biggest smiles on their faces on the plates, the word "yum" in the bowls.

Oh, and a box of legos. I had a $5 promotional gift card from our last visit so applied that to the legos. The boys are loving themselves some legos these days.

I got the car back. I love our car. The master switch was replaced so now we can open the driver's side front window again. For over six months we haven't opened that window. Because if you did, you never knew if you'd be able to get it back up again. The left front wheel bearing was replaced, too, so now it doesn't make that weird, trying-too-hard, clunking sound when you turn.

I'm hopeful that we will be able to move forward with our computer purchase despite the bill from the garage today. Hoping is free :-)

I took the kids out to lunch after we dropped off Cap at school. Going with the flow. I had skipped breakfast and was hungry, we didn't have much in the house, it was a rare treat. It is the time of year when, if the kids and I are out and about during the day on a week day, that folks get curious about why they aren't in school. People around here are polite and pretty easy-going, so it's cool.

Gem wanted to walk over to the book store after lunch and I couldn't resist. This book store is so nice. I step into the store and the scent of the place is like nectar to me. It temporarily stuns me and I inhale and gulp as I rock back on my feet. Every time.

The kids browsed and browsed but came away empty-handed which is almost unheard of. I, on the other hand, tapped into the flow and picked up a collection of stories for children by one of my faves, Neil Gaiman, Howl's Moving Castle (the movie was so entertaining), Encyclopedia Brown (with Gem in mind), and The Magician's Boy (with Sag in mind).

The books are so pretty. The covers are so smooth. I love new books. (Of course, I love library books and used books, too, but there's something wonderful about splurging for some new books---you know, it's that back-to-school fall-is-here feeling that is seeping all over and in me).


Off to practice "You Are My Sunshine", "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" and a Finnish children's Christmas song about piggies. We are singing for/with some Finnish relatives we'll be meeting for the first time this weekend up in Plympton.

Lars and the real girl

...was crazy wonderful. Moving, thoughtful, intuitive, funny... I'm so glad I sat down, without any knitting in my hands, to watch it tonight.

Sleight of hand

Cap's taking Giles (our car) into the shop next week before our "meet some Finnish relatives in Plympton" weekend. There's some stuff awry. Like when you press on the brake and it feels like any resistance the pedal should be giving you drops off and that the brakes are failing. Stuff like that.

So, the new computer looks like it may turn into an automotive repair bill with the whoosh of a magician's silk. Dammit.

But there is balance in the universe. Cap and I are going out to dinner tonight before seeing Steve Earle play right in town. I've never seen Steve Earle live and am very excited. Dinner will be at our local, lovely, Ethiopian restaurant.

What, grown-up alone time, dinner and music? I know. Whoosh.

Shared items

I forgot to mention that there's a new feature on my blog. The shared items are sent over from my Google Reader (where I get automatic feeds from my favorite blogs and websites). If I've shared it, it either made me laugh out loud or moved me in some other way (ie. brought a tear to my eye or a happy rumble to my stomach :-)

On the one hand, who needs more stuff to read, but on the other, it's nice to be able to share. Enjoy!

5 things

...I've been loving:

• GF pasta with GF bread crumbs, garlic, veggie(s), and olive oil

• Mad Men and Project Runway

• my Addi Turbos

• the cool nights and early mornings

• decaf green tea on ice with a hit of agave

What are you loving these days?

NBTS

...stands for Not Back To School in homeschooling lingo.

But for this schooled girl, there is something about the beginning of September that pulls for change, promise and anew.

So, we're starting off with doing something new every week. To get us to consider things outside of the box. To push us to just try it, whatever it is. To check things off the list of places to see and things to do instead of letting those slips of paper twirl off towards the horizon of oh-we-never-did-get-to-that-did-we.

This week, the kids are exploring no time limits on the computer. They are able to get deeper into their games by having the time to advance through more levels. They are going back to old games and tripping down memory lane. They are discovering new aspects of familiar websites.

It has been interesting for me that I haven't been able to jump onto the computer as I would normally because of the heavier traffic. This has actually been good for me. I've been redirected to stay the course on my own stuff.

Oh my

A bit ago, I was in the kitchen. At the counter just about finished with the post-dinner clean up. Gem came in and quietly hugged me from behind. With feeling. This is much more of a Sag move and I thought at first it was him.

Then, before I could exhale my swift intake of breath, kisses. He planted kisses along my back horizontally.

Never. Honestly, I think never before has this child done this to me. In his eight-plus years.

I wrapped my arm back and held his arm. "Hey, honey..." was all I could muster before he was gone. As swiftly as he had come, he was gone.

Long weekend

It feels great to be having an unscheduled weekend.

The kids' room is nearly done. Cap did me a big favor by going out to Ikea last night and picking up a shelving unit which he put together this morning. It looks a bit industrial (it's meant for garages and basements), but it uses the space it inhabits perfectly with shelves and storage from floor to ceiling in a 3 foot wide space.

The Poang chair was on sale so I had him pick one up for me. It's great for knitting in and he's always moving his chair about to work in quiet places in the apartment in the evenings, so I decided to go for it. Mine is red.

The kids and I went to Lila and Pippa's birthday party today. It was mellow. As, usual, the company and food were great. Gem started feeling unwell though and we ended up leaving after a couple of hours. Highlights included handling monarch butterflies with gentle wonder and hearing Lila squeal loudly from the next room, "Mom, Playmobil!", as she opened our gift :-)

I watched The English Patient tonight and thought it was very good. I didn't know Juliette Binoche was in it till I was watching already and was excited. I've always enjoyed her craft and had recently seen her in Dan In Real Life (which was also quite enjoyable in its own right).

Got some knitting time in while watching the movie tonight. I am really digging knitting these days. (These projects need to be kept secret for now. The reveals will come when they can :-)

Tomorrow I start two months of no meat, no gluten and no casein. I need to cleanse and break some habits. Not all habits though, I'm leaving the sugar in.

Planning on spending some time either finishing up the living room or getting started on our room.

Hope you're enjoying the three-day weekend wherever you are.

P.S. Had an issue with iPhoto and my New Hampshire pics. So those are not going to be up for awhile. We're pretty close to buying a new computer with our economic stimulus check. The top contender is the iMac with 24-inch screen. As the kids would say: "Sweet! Sexy!" If and when this happens, my photo storage and organization capabilities will change drastically and it will be so...sweet!