Thanks for the New Song K!! :)

Happy Valentines Day

Abby in her new 10 year old room

Wes intentionally making his chair fall over and cracking up

Bro and Sis

Crescent Beach

Wessy Boy

Homemade Teeter totter

Goofy Abs

Where are We?

Year of the Snake

                                                             Happy Chinese New Year!

The Year 2013

This year is feels like it is a drastic jump from the feeling of the end of the year and "winding down" to the beginning of the next.
This year feels above all Hopeful to me.
More love and compassion for each other and the world.
In my mind today.....
Clarity
Love
Grace
Breathe
Act
Create
Beauty
INSPIRE

Kingsolver

I figured out what I adore about her and why each novel is awaited and savored from me.  She is so real and genuine as a writer, things I love about people too.  She writes about big topics and doesn't dress them up.  She doesn't give you a packaged ending all tidy, she lets it out, the nitty gritty of how life goes.  How some things you don't get to chose and some you do.  That we are all human, living here, and it isn't pretty sometimes but resiliency abounds and in the face of great pressure and sadness there is also so much beauty.  

Stunning.  Tickets to see this are very expensive but Angangueo is on the LIST! 

From inside our cozy warm house, the kind of night that you get to hear the wind blow through the stove pipe.  Something that I read and couldn't pass up. 

an excerpt, Nina Simons, from Moonrise: "The Power of Women Leading from the Heart."

This is no time for small talk
This is a time for myth making
This is a time for epic poetry
This is a time to tell the tales of life, love, and resilience 
that will become our compass for the days ahead.
A time to remember the grace and celebrate the magic
that infuses and informs this world.
We live on the only planet where an eclipse is possible.
Doesn't that seem like instructions to you?
To awaken from this self-induced slumber, to emerge from this 
     contracted isolation,
we've got to drink down the darkness and dive to our deepest 
    fathoms.
Peel off our fancy garments of presumed protection,
to land at the bottom, naked, cold, and bruised, with nowhere 
   to go but up.
Time we shed the venom that got us here, the twisted rage of
   blame and shame,
And choose instead the anger that rises, pure and clean, up through our feet,
That draws us to our full height, knowing what must be done,
clear about what has to stop, igniting us to stand for what we 
    love.
How else can we begin the healing?
The web that holds our world together is tattered,
And all our hopes and dreams are suspended in it.
No sutures, butterfly closures, or Elmer's glue can fix it.
Only our tears can begin to mend its torn strands, 
tears and giving ourselves to feeling, loving, and losing.
Mourning how much is dying, mourning so that the light can return.
The revolution must have dancing; women know this.
The music will light our hearts with fire,
the stories will bathe our dreams in honey and fill our bellies with stars. 

Harvest

November 11th- the last harvest from the garden.  Good night garden, have a good winter rest....

As I just finished voting I can't help but wonder on the night before Election Day,
What if we all just thought about the world we want to live in, how we want to treat each other and the planet,  what type of world we want to nurture.
What if we all just thought about the best possible outcomes, not the drama, the worst, the scariest, but the best, regardless of political party.  What could happen?
I continue to believe in the best in people and to have the utmost hope for our country.
I do feel a little like hiking or being outside tomorrow, not watching the drama that is sure to ensue on both sides.  I'm off to bury my nose in some good ole' escapist fiction. aahhhhh...

My heart feels conflicted
My mind with more energy than my body
I need to move... to be outside to clear the space
To laugh, a bit more light, and some quiet

The Autumnal Equinox

Be Well.

Equal equal for one day

We begin to fall the other way

Hold on to yourselves

Your spirit and wit

Hold on

With all your might

Be Well.

First day of 4th grade for Abs.  She had a great day seeing friends and getting back into the swing of things.

Abs saying hi outside of the boat coming into the marina.

Little Captain Wessy looking out toward Protection Island

Tonight as Wessy looked up and saw the moon.

Wes: " I wish the moon was my mommy."

Me: You do? why would that be good?

Wes: " Because then I would have wings mama and I would get to fly like an eadle (eagle)."

Me: giving him a big smooch... "Yes, that would be nice baby. How about the moon can be your mama too."

The past couple weeks have been busy, have been trying to make the most of the sunshine or the rain-  at this point just trying to go ahead and do our plans. :) Tons of bike rides, early mornings, picking berries, making jam and pies, sleeping in the tent reading books and books and books, 4-H, soccer practices, late night friends and running around in the yard until dark, beach trips and lying on the warm rocks, movies, some laughing and fighting and tons of time outs. :)

Sunrise at our house....aaahhhh

Graysmarsh berries and jam.

fixing the new horn

One pies worth of  cherries from our yard.... lovely.

This is quintessential Wes since he was old enough to move things around, playing on the ground watching the wheels turn.  Sweet boy who is almost 3, can hardly imagine.

Sound

ughgh... those days when your head is banging up against itself and rattling, rattling,
the kids banging against the walls and the sound so loud it becomes total.  All you can do is just keep breathing because that is all you can be sure of really.

Before work today.....

Me:    Abby, do you think I should wear my hair in braids today or down?
Abs:   Braids mom.  It doesn't look as professional but (she pats her heart) that doesn't matter right here.

What a nice start to my day...