(Birth)day

 

I am brimming with love and gratitude.  He is Fire.  He is creative, energetic, lively, loving, passionate, musical, artistic, sensitive, expressive...  He is his own Self.  He teaches me every day.  He has given me so much...from the moment I discovered he was Here, inside me...on that March day when it snowed in Cambridge.

Fantastic cake

Look at that cake.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  It's a Lego brick and it was TASTY.  GFCF yellow cake and a delectable self-created strawberry frosting.

Cap, you take the cake.  :-)

(More pics tomorrow or Monday.  Gotta get the kids wound down and off to sleep.)

Hasty tasty round up

We've been busy.  And excited.  Super excited.  About a certain 8th birthday.  (This Äiti will be happy when the weekend is in the rear view :-)

Here's an assortment of recent delicious moments we've enjoyed...

There's nothing like chilling with best friends, watching a favorite show (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and enjoying some yummy snacks.

 

Sag has lost two teeth in as many weeks.

From Cap.  There's a second haiku on the other side.  A clever frame for a wonderful homemade gift.  Thank you.

Sag has been boning up a bit on Egypt, specifically hieroglyphics.

Gem in a contemplative moment...working on something about sharks or early American history.

At 10pm last night, inspiration struck: Gem sewing his "Gem Man" symbol patch which he then planned to sew onto the shirt.

Some Wintuk snowflakes made their way home with us.  Thank you to Baba who treated the kids and me to a spectacular show.  And to NJ Transit who continues to refuse to charge me for the kids when we train it in and out of the city :-)

 

 

An impromptu play date today with Tiina and the kids.  Spending time with kindred spirits...such a special treat.

Japanese Monk

Some aural beauty.

Insomnia during the night=late and slow moving morning. We're rushing about cleaning and having breakfast before an impromptu playdate with Tiina and her kids.

Birthday weekend ahead. (Sag turns 8!) Blogging may be spotty, but rest assured we will be having crazy fun. :-)

The incontrovertible yawn

I practiced Qigong this morning for the first time in nearly a week. 

(Vinny and I mused to each other yesterday about why, why, why do we not (more regularly or when we can really use the boost) do things that we know make us feel better and are good for us?)

I always yawn at some point while practicing.  When, like this morning, it's been awhile, the yawning is powerful and frequent.  The yawns will seize my body from the inside and release the stagnation.  The immediate surge in of energy and universal Qi is like a contact high, but actually even better, because by practicing I am actually increasing the Qi in my system on a deeper level.

My awareness of this physical manifestation of energy work sparks something back to life within me.

For Mary C.

The best part is at the end...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Excitement Over Sarah Palin's Book Release
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Wordless Wednesday

Sun lingering

Cap took Sag to art class which allowed Gem the whole day at home to recover from his accidental gluten ingestion.

We wrapped some birthday gifts (Sag turns 8 on Sunday!) and then took a walk.  I did not have my camera with me during our walk, but grabbed it once we got home and headed back out for a few minutes.

The leaves this Fall have been green, yellow and brown for the most part.  Not the reds and oranges that I tend to favor.  I have been appreciating the yellows.  Especially when the strong afternoon light hits and the leaves become pools of bright and profound wonder.

I just asked Gem if he was having a good day and he gave me a contented smile and the tiniest nod of his head.  Then, he reached for me and held me.

Trial to tribulation tuesday

Today will be about cleansing the palette.

Gem had an accidental ingestion of gluten Sunday and the havoc has begun. His feelings and his body get messed up and he is very vulnerable. (The culprit? Hero brand jam and their glucose syrup: boo!)

Discovered this French frisson early this morn. It helps put a smile on my face.

Day's end

Tonight, a video of Calexico with Iron and Wine. Quieting.

(We saw Joey and John of Calexico open for Neko Case last night. They were amazing. Watching two people draw forth such a wall of sound...astounding and beautiful. And kind of the opposite of 'quieting' :-)

The Simpsons

Simpsons Treehouse of Horror by Sag.

He looooves The Simpsons.  We own Season 1 so we watched a few episodes together, but I just had to hit "pause".  Unlike Gem, Sag doesn't quite get sarcasm yet...  His brain still waves strong in the realm of innocent.  There will be time for snarky snorting later.

So.  In the meantime, he feeds himself with Simpsons comic books and his memories of the episodes he has seen, as well as, memories of Jamie's big Simpsons book which he pores over whenever we visit.

Increasing literacy

In this case, mine :-) 

Research supports the use of games to facilitate learning, if not outright teach.  The kids have been making me Word Searches lately (fun for me since I was very wee) and I am quickly mastering the vocabulary of Lego Bionicles.

Of course, their literacy is being strengthened as well.  Every time they read or write anything, or think about reading or writing something, synapses are firing and literacy is developing.

Good morning

Woke up to this, my first "Art of the Day" (which truth be told is "Art of the Refreshed Moment").  I love it.  I think about Magritte only when I see a painting of his...kind of like Dalí (some of whose work I also love.)  Surrealism.  Something to learn more about.

The Omnivore's Dilemma for young people (ages 8-12).  Interesting.  Gem is of an age/developmental place now that I think he may enjoy a book like this or Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States.

Yesterday I finally got off my mental ass and helped Sag get started with completing one of his stop motion movies.  We had run into a snag in production months ago when it was realized that iMovie 09 (the version that came on our new computer) does not support the making of stop motion movies (you can't get the frames to less than 1 frame per second).

It's taken me a long time to get past that obstacle.  It hasn't stopped him from shooting his movies, but they've all been languishing 'on the shelf', so to speak.

Googled for info and discovered there's freeware called "Frame By Frame" on the Apple site.  Downloaded that and uploaded "Indiana Jones and the Hunt for the Crystal Skull" in (Barbra will be excited to know it is the one she directed :-)

Once you get it to the frames per second you want, you then upload that into Quicktime.  And from there, you can upload it into iMovie to add various audio and visual effects.

All of which, Sag did.  He spent a few hours, on and off, on this project yesterday.  Cap helped him navigate through Quicktime and iMovie, and I helped him find and upload some sound effects (check this site out for free sound effects!)

Sag was soaking it all up like a sponge.  I anticipate a slew of Sag productions coming our way for Holiday 2009, into 2010, and beyond :-)

Cap and I are going out tonight.  Dinner (restaurant TBA) and Neko Case at The Wellmont (a local renovated theater).  Looking forward to it!

Low high tech fun

I've learned how to take a screen shot (click on shots below to embiggen if you want to see the whole shot.)

So.  I can show you I've discovered fun gadgets I can add to my iGoogle homepage.  While at Jamie's I noticed her "To Do" list gadget and liked it.  When I talked to her about it, I thought it was a widget she had added on her own.  Turns out there are many, many, many Google-specific/friendly gadgets you can add on to your homepage with a click.

My manatee moniker is fitting.  I've been on Google for over a year and I've been using iGoogle for well over 6 months.  I move slowly...but savor what I find along the way.

The "Donguri" theme ('acorn' in Japanese) is not new.  I figured that one out early on.

Current moon phase.  To Do list.  Art of the day.

Date and Time (I like to have analog clocks wherever I can...it's a dying visual form.)

Weather.  Google calendar.  Quotes of the day (quotes are new appreciation for me.)

Fish.  Wikipedia.  Hamster.

Today's horoscope for Aquarius.  Google translate.  Google reader.

Directions by Google maps.

NPR Topics: news.

Gmail.  How To of the day.  My Google groups.

Facebook.  Mario Starcatcher 2.  YouTube.

What do you have on your homepage fellow iGoogle users?

Hand-y

Some things we made with our hands today.

The kids have been making Lego mini-figures.  Today's creations: Gem Man and Sag Kid.  I loved the capes.  They are made of paper.  Colored with marker, cut by hand, hole-punched just so, and attached between head and body.

Our friends, Pippa, Lila and Kelly, came over for some onigiri-making.  Lila has been wanting to learn and we finally had our day today after much anticipation.  Lila and Kelly were fast learners and made beautiful and delicious onigiri.

Cap made the gorgeous loaf of French bread for dinner.  It is one of his specialty items :-)

Just amazing

Take a look at this photojournalism piece. It is visually interesting and the words of the tenants say so much about how to live life and what is important.

Love this

Loney, Dear is Emil Svanängen.  A Swedish multi-instrumentalist who records his music at home.  Solo.

Naming

• Poetry is a way to name emotions, events, experiences...  I've been turning to this art form...this way of expressing...these communications to one and all.  Poetry is not easy for me.  When I was little I appreciated the simple forms of haiku and limericks.

Poetry has been on my periphery though.  My partner writes poetry.  I have close friends who are poets.  I have an ex who wrote poetry (a poem he wrote for me remains to this day one of the greatest gifts I have received.)  My favorite author writes poetry.  My favorite songwriter has introduced me to poetry.  (Songs are a hybrid of prose and poetry, no?  Well, with an aural component all its own, too...)

I am circling poetry anew lately.  I wrote a poem.  And I kind of want to write more.  So I thought I should read some poetry.  Educate myself.  Step in and get a lay of the land.

I requested two volumes from the library: E.E. Cummings and Hafiz (avoiding Daniel Ladinsky for now).

I've started with E.E.  I'm reading Collected Poems, which was published in 1963.  The poems aren't doing much for me, though I am learning something about flow and energy...there's something there.  However, his words in the introduction touched me...blew me away.

"...If mostpeople were to be born twice they'd improbably call it dying---
       you and I are not snobs.  We can never be born enough.  We are human beings;for whom birth is a supremely welcome mystery,the mystery of growing: the mystery which happens only and whenever we are faithful to ourselves.  You and I wear the dangerous looseness of doom and find it becoming.  Life, for eternal us, is now; and now is much too busy being a little more than everything to seem anything,catastrophic included..."

• I am in the process of discovering what it is I will name my photographic self.  I am not thinking of going into business, but it has been brought to my attention that my photography may have a place in commerce.  I have started making cards (for non-commercial reasons) using my pics and I thought it would be fitting to have a name to place on the back of the cards.  Something creative and catchy :-)

The top contenders at the moment are: Glimtphotography and Lumisensephoto and See or Be Seen.

If you have a suggestion or two or three I would love to hear them.

• Cap brought me home some tulips yesterday.  Move over Iris, there's a new flower in town.  These tulips had my name all over them.

Wordless Wednesday

Let's go sailing

A new-to-me singer/band and song. Enjoy.

Feeling a bit better this morning. Qigong has warmed my body and I am aiming to spend less time in front of the computer screen.