Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year!!

May we all have a blessed and wonderful new year!

I got this Rumi poem sent to me from one the online nutrition/health emails I get.

She's has recipes for sugarless desserts and a good sense of humor.

http://truenourishment.com/

The poem is a perfect instigator for an amazing new year.

There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that mine.
O traveler, if you are in search of That
Don't look outside, look inside yourself and seek That.

— Rumi.

There is a worldwide meditation for the auspicious date of 1/1/11. For two hours these amazing energy healers will be working to transform the world. I'm going to try and listen and meditate. It's free and they want as many people as possible to take part so if your interested 12-2 est tomorrow. Be there :)

http://www.worldpuja.org/1-1-11.php

ooh another link I wanted to share is from The Tapping Solution blog. Jessica Ortner does a wonderful New Year "What if?"tapping sequence that is like a blessing...

http://www.thetappingsolution.com/blog/

Happy Happy New Year!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Power's out!


Sun is setting!
Quick.
Gather all the pj's, flashlights, nightime drinks, stuffed animals, books and booklight and put them in the living room with the woodstove.

Blow up the air mattress.
Get the blankets and pillows.

Hooray the power's out.
We can all sleep in the cozy living room.




After we were ready for darkness we went out to a fun party. I drank some wine. Kids were wild, actually hanging from the rafters!
Got home and the power was on, Christmas lights blaring from down the street.
The girls and I were disappointed. Rob, who has to work tomorrow, was not.
But we turned off all the lights except the Christmas tree and all slept downstairs anyway.

Snow Day!

Sledding! Finally some snow!
We all got to stay home and play.




Rob watched a bike race in Belgium.
We used cardboard boxes as forts for children and farm animals




Even the chickens were snowed in. They had never seen snow and didn't venture out all day.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve




A trip to Brattleboro and the new coffee shop


















Rob and Lily jumping out to surprise us from a doorway







Rob's favorite coffee at Mocha Joes; he'll use any excuse to get there.
















A walk on the empty NMH campus. A lovely flock of geese overhead quacking toward food water and the light.




Thursday, December 23, 2010

Oh No!























Our sweet chicken Moon was killed by a neighbor dog today.
So sad.
Dear bird.
We have grown so fond of each of them.
Rob out in the yard trying to find the other birds before the dog got them.
Police officer, dog officer, and crazy-bad-dog-neighbor all here at once. Overwhelming.
I had to call in late to work so I could break it to Lily after school.
Not a good day.

ugggh

Cakie says Happy Holidays!

I'm sure she'd prefer a real gingerbread house!

AN OWL!


http://sacredworldoracle.com/


Present Card


(All contents © Kris Waldherr 2008. All rights reserved.

Kris Waldherr, the artist who makes these cards said I could put them on my blog as long as I included this link to her facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/l/;KrisWaldherr.com. )



Glided in front of my car on the way home at midnight tonight.
It was a barred owl I think, difficult to see clearly in the dim light, but it flew low and quiet across the road.

I have been having a hard time.
I find myself frustrated and furious with Georgia when she has been acting out and yelling"I hate you!" grinding her teeth together.
I was so tired from my eclipse vigil last night, so overwhelmed by birthdays and solstice and coming Christmas that I cried in my frustration on the way to work.

I have been dealing with some old anger from my childhood that I realized recently I had never expressed.

Not quite sure what to do with it.

I was feeling some despair today; lonely, couldn't get a hold of Rob at work to say hi.

On my way home at midnight my intuition told me, for the first time, ever to go a different way home, by way of School St and there was an owl!
An owl for me.

It glided in front of the car.

It felt like a gift.


The pure empty peace of the woods around me suddenly became present.
The quiet dark.
A wild animal on big wings.

All spoke sweet comfort to me.

Thank you owl.
I felt, As Teresa of Avila said, 'All is well, and all shall be well, and all shall always be well.'

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Birthday Adventure

For my 40th birthday, a few weeks back, Rob and I went to a cabin at Woolman Hill with a woodstove and an outhouse.

It was a cold evening when we arrived and we were exhausted. I was filled with horror when we walked in the door, because the cabin was FREEZING! It was dark and cold and I could see my breath as I stood there wondering if we would die in our beds.

At warm home all the beds were full of family watching our kids so I knew we couldn't escape there.
It seemed really lame to bail and stay at the Hampton Inn at the rotary.

Rob stayed calm and started the fire that was ready to be lit in the the tiny stove.
Then he brought in wood.
We crossed our fingers and went out to eat at Magpie Pizza.
Delicious, but the whole time I wondered if we would soon be trying to sleep in the cold.
















We got back from dinner and walked through the woodsy dark.
I opened the door and yelled loudly to Rob at the outhouse. "HOT! It's Hot!" I was delighted.

It was hot for the rest of our stay. Luscious dry cozy hang-out-in-your-underwear hot.

We went for a hike.
Took a nap.
Read books.
(Rob's phone was broken. He would have been tweeting, but he had to sit down and open a book. "What do I do with this thing again? He asked of the unopened book in his hands.)





Rob went out early to get coffee and I got to sleep in!
Then I read the paper without anyone talking to me.
Heavenly.

But then we missed the girls.
So we decided to have them come stay the second night, which changed the mood of our small cabin. (I have asked to be reminded to never do that again. No offense, but we had childcare! I could have had another nap!)




I bought a tiny Death by Chocolate cake from Greenfield's Market and blew out the candle.

Not wise to give children a sliver of chocolate cake before going to bed in a new exciting setting.









I was up for a while trying to get Georgia to settle down.
Finally she did and I got some alone time in the warm quiet cabin while everyone slept peacefully.


I finally got to finish Harry Potter.

I would read a few chapters and then go out to the starry night to pee and admire the crystal bright stars and get really chilly and then tiptoe back into the squeaky cabin and read some more. Then I would have to tend to the stove. The whole environment meant that I was able to draw out that final book in a deeply satisfying way. I finally went to bed in the wee hours.

Forty years old!
Still not sure what to think of it, but so far it's been pretty nice.









Frost on the car window. So cold outside. All of us so overheated from the tiny hot cabin, the chill was welcome. Never again will I underestimate a small jotul brand cast iron stove.









The Siren Cafe for breakfast.










Getting rowdy.
No more reading the paper.










Wresting at the Deerfield Gym. This is still what happens when I lay down to stretch.
Pounced on by little people.
I'll take it, though.

We went swimming and got to jump of the diving boards and use the hot tub.
Got home tired, but it was a good way to celebrate.
Also, I have informed Rob that decade-birthdays get a year-long celebration with solo mediation retreats and other perks so we'll see where that goes.


Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Happy Solstice!!



We decorated the fairy tree and left some little gifts and a note.

Happy longest night!
Looking forward to the light sneaking in a little more each day.

Lunar Eclipse

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/lunar-eclipse-winter-solstice_2010-12-19


Total Lunar Eclipse Coincides with Winter Solstice

Credit: Jim Fakatselis, NASA

Not a photo of what I saw last night. I stayed up until 3am holding vigil by the woodstove and going out to peek in the cold dark, but by the time the eclipse actually started it was really dark and cloudy out.

I tried to meditate a bit, but of course I was quite sleepy. I read that eclipses have the astrological power to move energy and break through and create needed change (I looked it up on Cafe Astrology http://www.cafeastrology.com/lunationseclipses.html) and I wanted to use the auspicious time to jump start my motivations to live healthier and more balanced now that I'm 40.
Then when I came inside from the cold at 3am, deflated by the dark sky, there was Georgia on the stairs with her sippy cup wanting a refill.
She didn't get back to sleep until 3:45.
I slept by the fire and tried to imagine that the powerful equinox meeting with the winter solstice and the longest night was having magical transformative workings even if I was fast asleep and the sky was covered thick with clouds. Even so, above the clouds the moon was orange!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Lovely song we heard at Revels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tXG-PiF5ro&feature=related
from the program:
"Mystical imagery permeates this early 15th century carol:"For in this rose contained was heaven and earth in little space(i.e. Mary's womb) Res Miranda! (wondrous thing)."

Was wondrously struck myself with the idea of 15th century women singing about wombs as "a rose containing heaven and earth in little space."

It is, isn't it?

Lily home sick


or it is a pajamad penguin making sure every single doll in the house is in the living room?

Sunday, December 19, 2010

The Christmas Revels


























Sanders Theater is one of my favorite places.
The windows.
The lights.
The carved wood.













We danced with the hordes at intermission, what fun!






Georgia was ready to go after the half-way mark.
After an amazing soprano solo by a performer, in thequiet space before applause, Georgia asked loudly, "How many more minutes?"
The bearded man behind us laughed really hard and then whispered to her, "ALOT"


Gorgeous rocks!

At the Peabody Museum at Harvard.

They're huge.
It's so difficult to imagine them under the ground.
I wonder if they miss the dark living earth.
It's a bit sterile in the museum, surrounded by glass.



Jingle bells


on our gorgeous horse on our very abbreviated ride in a surrey. (OK, thank you, I will complain. We waited 2 hours with cold children and I took on-call from work so I could get on the damn free surrey. We were expecting the 20 minute horse clopping ride through the quiet streets that all the patient people in front of us got, but when we arrived at the front of the line he offered us a 3 minute ride through the parking lot or the option of telling everyone behind us they couldn't have a ride at all. It was getting late. I tried not to pout or growl on our very short ride. The jingling was nice.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Happy 5th b-day Georgia!




Sweet girl.
Chicken whisperer.
Growling-teeth-grinding-fury.

Getting so big.
Love you so much.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Amazing link

That has models showing the respective size of the planets and then different suns. So cool.
Lily asked me how many moons could fit in the sun and I had NO IDEA.

72 million! Would not have guessed anything so large.
400 moons would fit around the diameter of the sun. Crazy!

http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm

Friday, December 10, 2010

30 Rock made me laugh out loud.

Avery: Oh my god, are you trying to mentor me?
Jack: Alright calm down.
Avery: I am squared away, Donaghy. I get four hours of sleep a night, eat 1200 calories a day, and my closet has been on the cover of Organized Living twice.

These are the goals of a motivated American woman. My flurry of a closet, thank God, has never been on the cover of anything.

Monday, December 6, 2010

My first craft fair








It went well!
Exhausting, but lots of wonderful friends came to support me and buy my stuff!



I made 471$
That's crazy!
(Really that just pays for my beautiful bottles, herbs, oils, beeswax, glycerin, fabric and tags..)
BUT still amazing.

I was going to buy a sewing machine with my earnings, but I think I'll wait until after the holidays and see if we have any money left over.
(ha ha)


Thanks everyone for all their support and encouragement!

It felt like a big day, coming out to the world as crow lady.