It's Wild Here

updates

K: nursing less (plugged duct/infection to show for that), talking more, daddy-love all the time, can spend long periods at the kitchen sink playing, never forgets his vitamin.

R: scared of the dark and shadows, enjoying the Baha'i children's class - he does so well in situations like this - so compliant and joiner-y, but in a cooperative, contributing way, very different from at home, where we still experience daily surprises. Learning letters, is remarkably quick to understand simple arithmetic, has had a cold for weeeeeks.  Will not blow his nose ever. Planning to be Jedi for Halloween.

JJ: writing a 4-page story for school, starting a tumbling class at X YMCA with his friend E, spending a lot of other time with same seemingly-best friend, although he assures me his "group" at school consists of about 14 friends :-) 

J: still struggling with sleep, working with AR weekly on amazing sculptures, worked last weekend at her studio for the studio tour, maintaining As and Bs.

J and JJ's team finished in 2nd place in rec league soccer this fall - it was SO close! They tied and went into penalty kicks. Great to see the brothers on the same team again - it's been years since they happened to be in the same age groupings for soccer.

E: traveling more than we'd all like, seems to be weathering the financial situation at work, enjoying participating at the Baha'i Center, listening to Marshall Rosenberg, watching the bizarre foods and fighting shows, cleared out our shed (yay!).  

A: injured back, trying out a new meal routine - repetitive but much easier to maintain, enjoying the NVC group and Threshold Choir, absolutely cannot keep up with laundry, setting goals to hang curtains and art by J's birthday, planning to offer some community service in the form of computer help for seniors, considering whether to homeschool with R next year - kindergarten age.

Spinning/knitting: still working on red sweater, spinning about every other day for 20-30 min. Finished these bullseye mittens a couple weeks ago - yes, the color combo is just as horrid in person.

wind storm

I didn't blog about this, really, so for the record... We had a huge wind storm a couple of weekends ago, and it took out the power for hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio, and we didn't have electricity for 3 days.  It was depressing to lose the food in our fridge, but otherwise not a big deal - we stayed busy away from home. The weather was beautiful. The boys had some days off school. The tree in our front yard lost this big limb - small potatoes compared with some of the other incredible damage in town.

electricity

You have got to love electricity. After nearly 3 days of no power, I'm enjoying the laptop, running laundry, and contemplating whether we've lost enough food to file a claim with our insurance (and whether you can really put a value on all the local organic food that was in my freezer, which I can't replace for another year).  

In the dark, I enjoyed some reading, during the day, we sat outside (weather, thank you for being wonderful) and I did a little decluttering inside. 

The older boys had 2 days off school while they worked on getting power to the schools and fallen trees removed. This morning, most of the village had power but we did not, which felt a little unfair  - particularly for E and the boys who had to get ready for work/school. Fortunately, our water is heated with gas, so no cold showers.

busy older guys

Late last month, J began 8th grade. He's also busy with soccer, the end of the season at the intergenerational garden, catching up on past seasons of Lost, and the beginning of the soccer season. He's also doing quite a lot of painting (post to come), and continues to beg for a fabulous camera like Aunt Katie's.

JJ began 6th grade in public school and has adjusted marvelously. As expected, he enjoys an easy and fun social life. He finds the academic work very doable, although at times not very stimulating. Both boys enjoyed the local blues festival last weekend, where JJ purchased these distinctive shades. He's playing travel and recreational soccer, and continues to be dedicated to our trusty trampoline out back.

wedding

Our well-dressed tree was apparently the location of a recent wedding.  Heh!

One lucky tree

In our lovely village, there is a tree downtown sporting a new sweater. Perhaps you read about it in the news.  I haven't had the chance to add anything to it, but it's a joy to see when I make my trips into town for groceries.

But seriously, if you're at all impressed by this, you will also enjoy this one, crocheted by a woman in Northern Ohio.

After seeing this, I googled around and found this tree sweater, which is definitely good for a chuckle after viewing these huge feats. Be sure and scroll down to see the picture of this baby tree sweater on the magazine, and check out the little orange starburst. I'm dying to know what that article's about.

block party

There was a downtown "urban block party" event in town last week. Jamie's art group set up a booth to fundraise and display art.

There was a very life-like marionette walking around. Kellen was intrigued, but skeptical.

And Ryan said to his friend, Max:  Uh, ok dude, you go ahead. I'll stand right back here.

missing camera

My camera keeps disappearing and reappearing randomly, which really slows my blogging, as I tend to rely on my pictures to jog my memory about blog-worthy happenings. I guess I will have to use my powers of concentration:

The Yellow Springs Art Council youth liason has invited Ja to be a member of a Teen Art Group - this seems like it will be a wonderful way for him to meet other artists, older teens, make good connections, etc.  It sounds like they'll be planning all sorts of interesting events, and the liason, D, is an adult he already knows and likes.

Meanwhile, he continues in admirable commitment to his job at the Intergenerational Garden.  He goes for one work session weekly, and at least one other time to weed and water. I can't wait until we start getting bags of veggies from the garden's CSA.

Ja has also started playing tennis with Grandpa. Grandpa says he's quite good and a quick learner. They'll be going out again Monday, and Ja says probably 2-3 times a week. His soccer season just ended with a tie - the game was 0-0 until nearly the end, and his team scored! We thought they had it in the bag, but the other team scored a goal in the final minutes. It was great playing.

Ja: nearing the end of the His Dark Materials trilogy, planning to read one or both of the upcoming Teen book group selections - Dragon's Keep and Rat Life.  Also, coming up in the next month, Farenheit 451 and Lord of the Nutcracker Men (audiobook).

More updating to come...

Camping out back

Last weekend, Katie and the cousins camped in the back yard as a practice run for their real camping coming up. Their tent was awesome, and everyone played outside for most of the time. We had a fire and made smores, roasted hot dogs, etc.

The next day, soccer was played by all. C and R didn't last long, but F had a grand game. He paused every 10-15 seconds to wave to me.  Can you spot him?

And to finish things off, some sweetness.

and a bit more (in the sweet outfit from Nana)

Library Art Show results

Congratulations to Jamie! The library has chosen his piece to be purchased and included in their circulating art collection. Here's the post about the art show, in case you missed that.

The actual artwork is still not in a digital form that I can post here, but I will have it soon.