The "Back" Dance

Ballerina by day..... rocker by night?

For breakfast?

We are loving all of these things lately. Stay warm everyone!

Books

Is she our kid or what? THIS melted my heart.

Questions

What if our religion was each other
If our practice was our life
If prayer, our words
What if the temple was the earth
If forests were our church
If holy water - the rivers, lakes, and oceans
What if mediation was our relationships
If the teacher was life
If wisdom was self-knowledge
If love was the center of our being.
Ganga White


I do the nursery at our church once a month. Sometimes we go more, sometimes we do not.
Sometimes it feels right and sometimes it doesn't.
Today I asked Abby while she was in the tub, " do you like going to church and talking about God?"
She shakes her head no but quickly says, "well, I do like church but I wish we could just talk about, (pause)..... animals or something."

Gardening in January?

Well this is a little hard to see in this smaller pic but Mt. Baker was out and beautiful and today
I attacked the sunflower patch. It was looking like something out of the dinasour age.

This is what doing no fall clean up looks like. It was actually not stormy, windy or rainy today so I bailed outside and attacked part of the beds around the house.





Here one side is looking MUCH better!











This sweet fairy who has been lost in the sunflower patch is now taking residence in an area that our dogs keep laying and digging so hopefully she will whisper to those dogs to stay out since my scolding doesn't seem to do a thing. :)

Material

Does anyone know of any good online fabric shops. As we are a bit isolated with only Joann's to chose from in the fabric department, i'm wondering about online shops that have good material?

The Knitting Circle

I just finished reading this book that caught my eye at the library in the New Books section. It is called the Knitting Circle by Ann Hood. It is a gut wrenching but lovely book about life, grief, and moving past it. The one thing that really hit me in this book is how women need each other. We can have supportive partners, families and kids but we NEED other women period. What would the world be like if every woman had a place to go to be themselves, be creative, at the same time feel supported no matter what was going on in their lives. It used to be women got together to quilt, what do we all do now? I guess we have coffee. :) I've said this before but we are too isolated in this society, we're all afraid to depend on each other. This life is as beautiful as it is horrifying, anyone out there up for a knitting circle?

Christmas 2007

Abby on her new bike, Christmas morning!

Abby, Joe and the dogs

Dad and Luke on our family Christmas Eve get together.

Abby snugging her uncle Anth, whom she just adores.

This Christmas was a great one. I hope that everyone was able to be with those they love and have a fun day of family and being together, oh and presents of course! It is so fun Christmas morning now having an almost 5 year old who thinks is all so magical and that the reason why she didn't get Ratatouille from Santa is that, "she told." and if you want something from Santa apparently you can't just go blurting it out. Abby says you just have to think and wish your hardest. When mom pointed out that Santa did get her a bike which she "told" her wish she muttered, "oh yeah, hmmm , it must be just for movies I guess."

Tree Hunting Expedition

This is our only picture of our tree this year. It turned out good for sure, a little less charlie brownish than last years!











Joe and I after Abby picked the tree at her Grandpa Peep's farm but for some reason was too crabby to be in the picture.

The only pic of Abby on the tree hunting day.

It was definately a I'm not having my picture taken day today. Geeezzz. what could be the problem with hunting for your Christmas tree?

The Nutcracker

Abby and Elena in the car on the way to the Nutcracker, soooo excited.

Abby and Elena waiting for the show to start! Elena came with us without her parents which is all very exciting for almost 5 year olds. She (Elena) whispered when the show had been going for about 5 minutes that " I love this!" with great expression.


We had a crew to see the Nutcracker this year in Port Angeles. Jenny, Mom, Courtney, Angelina, Abby, Elena, Joe, and myself. We thought seeing the slightly lesser version was good for this year, that the girls wouldn't know it wasn't the big Seattle production and maybe when they are a few years older we can fork over the money and do Seattle. I have to say that mostly I wanted to do this for the girls as they are very into ballet and LOVED the sugar plum fairy but it did put me in the Christmas mood. The music is lovely, dressing up and seeing a ballet that your kids are excited about was pretty fun.

Sweet Abby

Now most of you know that read this that Abby can sometimes NOT be so sweet. But here was tonight's conversation after I took a nap on the couch for 2 hrs.

Abby: But mommy I'm really worried about you.

Me: Oh, thanks Abby I will be o.k.

Abby: Do you think maybe you just need to poop?

Me: No, (chuckling) I don't think so sweetie.

Abby: Well what kind of tummy hurt do you have? like you are going to throw up mom? (her

face all worried.)

Me: No just hurting.

Abby: Well, are you on the edge of the bed.

Me: Yeah, but I'm not going to fall off

Abby: Mom, please scoot over, I have a lot of room, remember your tummy?

And that was it. Her little 4 1/2 year old sweetness sometimes just makes me smile.

A Good Book

Its never good when you are thinking about folding laundry at 1am or when you are posting to your blog for that matter. I'm not feeling great tonight and am kicking myself for not having a good book at least to distract me. Somewhere in this house is The Call of the Wild but for the life of me I can't find it. So i'm posting for a request. If anyone has read a great book lately, like the page turning, i can't put it down, the cheerios are in the cupboard- sure you can get it yourself Abby, kind of book. That would be great!

Friendship

You all are what makes this world o.k.
Thanks.

Christmas, etc.

So, I'm not one of those people that is totally into Christmas. I mean I love the idea, the parties, and Christmas itself on the day, and the day before.
We are that family that puts up the tree the week before Christmas and doesn't really decorate until that time, too. I've only just started shopping in the last two days and for some reason feel all this pressure about it. Good God people, why do we have to start shopping a month away, the day after Thanksgiving- which I've never done. People's reader boards in town have the countdown of shopping days. The consumerism/marketing of it all just makes me crazy a little. Makes me want to take all the money we'll spend and give it to Heifer Project International and just stay home. Now some of you reading this are probably shaking your head saying, geez Wendy don't take it so seriously. Maybe I shouldn't but for some reason it really makes me crazy and takes the fun out of it. Ok, not so negative.

The Good Things About Christmas
- I like unpacking the ornaments and getting a new one each year.
- I like singing Christmas songs
- I like finding a present that you know someone will love
- I like frosted Christmas sugar cookies
- I like Christmas Eve service
- I like having tea with honey and milk in it on Christmas morning
- I like Abby's sleepy eyes and messy hair when she gets up and sees the tree and all the presents.
- I like being with my family
- I like how the Christmas lights look in the dark

That's all for now. Happy Shopping everyone!

Abs and I tired after a full day of fun at Animal Kingdom.















All decorated for Christmas the Monday after Thanksgiving, weird if you ask me.






Abby at Splash Lagoon- went on it about 152 times!

Coming into Disney World- Abby was almost done asking are we there yet for the 25th time in 7 minutes.

This is Abby posing with Minnie mouse (one of her favorites) and apparently Roy Disney, Walt's brother. Random but cute.