It's pumpking carving time

On Monday, when Jason got off work, he went to the store to get PUMPKINS for he and the kids to carve together. This is something they usually do without me. Carving the pumpkins isn't something I get in on, it seems like all just have such a good time with it that I leave it to them to do with their dad - you know that creating memories thing. They have such a great time telling Jason what they want their pumpkins to look like and drawing it all out and getting all sticky... I just leave that to them, but I watch with great amusement as it all unfolds and look forward to what the pumpkins will end up looking like. Now with the weather as cool as it has been they went ahead and built a nice rip roaring fire in the chiminea to keep warm. Jason got the tops out of the pumpkins and left the kids to get the guts out! Here is a picture of each kid working hard and quick to get their guts out because whomever gets done first gets their pumpkin carved first...

Here's India working super hard to get everything out. She already knows what she wants hers to look like.

Here's Kalib. He got his done first this year, so they started with his.Here are the guts of their pumpkins. Jason ended up sorting out most of the seeds and baking them in the oven for snacks (I think think this is what Kalib most looks forward to. He loves some roasted pumpkin seeds)And the drawing begins... I always wonder how he's going to make the teeth look that good, but he seems to pull it off every year.Kalib's Pumpkin finished

It got too cold outside - even with the fire, so they had to bring it all in to finish up. Here's India's pumpkin. She was going for a Day of the Dead feel. This year, hers is my favorite of the two.

Two happy kids with two well carved pumpkins!

october trail keepers

Another month has already flown by and we hit the trail on Sunday to do our monthly pick up. As always, the trail was pretty clean with very little trash and with so many of us looking and picking up it always seems like we do so little. The kids really look forward to this treat each month. They run way ahead of all the adults and do more than their share and get to shed a lot of energy. Here we are organizing and getting ready to head on down to do the work...

The thing I noticed the most about the trail this month was the leaves. They are falling everywhere and there are just piles of them all over the place. I love it! There is so much color, but color that is different than in spring. Fall is exciting like Spring in that it is the precursor to something new. You know things are changing. The days are getting shorter, the light looks different and the colors of everything living are getting darker and we are reminded that we are moving inward to tending to our families and keeping warm and taking care of ourselves. Fall always excites me because it is a time of getting ready for work on myself. Life slows down and we aren't so busy, so the things I need to work on about myself and the changes I want to make in my life I can get ready for in fall and settle into them in the winter months.

After the trail, we all headed over here to have some pizza. The kids spent quite a bit of time running around on the ramp (most of them are not into trying out the skateboards - even though their folks were here - it's a little more intimidating when it is dark outside.) They also had a dance party. India got some great footage of it on the video camera. They covered themselves in sheets and were shaking it up to the Beatles.

kalib vs the giant

On Saturday the kids were in a Tae Kwon Do tournament at the Y. India is a blue belt, Kalib is a purple belt (one belt below India). When it came time for them to be divided up into divisions, India opted to go with the girls who are all higher belts than her, so she was competing against girls who have way more experience than she does. She ended up not placing in the tournament, but she tried hard against unfavorable conditions. She says looking back on it, she should have gone with the boys because she knows she could have won. She brought home a participation medal. Next time she will know better what to expect and I know she will do very well. I've seen her in action and she rocks. Kalib on the other hand, brought home a bronze medal in his form and a gold medal for sparring which then qualified him to fight in the Grand Championship which is the overall competition in fighting. He was super excited about that. There was also a competition where you could challenge anyone there to a fight called Top Gun that he chose to fight in, but because he is so small there weren't a lot of other kids willing to fight him, but he did get in on a few. He won a few and lost a few. When things finally got around to the the Grand Championship, there were 3 black belts, a black belt recommended (almost a black belt) a red belt (3 belts higher than Kalib), Kalib who is a purple belt, and a green belt (a belt below Kalib). The green belt bowed out of the contest because he was too small, but Kalib really wanted to enter the contest, and with the advice of his former instructor Mr Hill, we agreed to it and Master Castro assured us he would not let Kalib get hurt. The way the fights work is if you win you go on to the next round until there is a winner. Because Kalib was odd man out he automatically went on to the 2nd round. When it came time for him to fight, he was fighting a red belt who was twice as tall as he is. He put up a really good fight even though the odds were against him, he scored a point and held him off until time ran out. The other kid won by a point, but you are supposed to score 3 points before time is out and he did manage to keep that from happening and you can see in the video he worked hard and wasn't afraid. (I sort of wish he had been a little more afraid than he was, but he had a good time) When the fight was over he was drenched in sweat and upset because he got hit pretty hard, but he knows that goes along with it and he's ready to do it again. So... here's the video of him fighting the very tall kid (he is really tall even though Kalib is so small he towers over all the other kids too). Be sure to notice Kalib successfully gets a few good punches in.

Kalib in his sparring gear

A proud boy with his medals!

India getting ready to do her form

India's first fight of the day.

A workshop

I am so behind on getting around to blogging. Life has me in a total whirlwind right now, so what little spare time I have, I've not been on the computer. I'm falling behind on e-mails... groups... blogging... you name it...

On October 14th I took a workshop with quilt artist Frieda Anderson. She is a nationally known quilter who was recently on the cover of Quilting Arts Magazine. I loved that quilt when I saw it and I had no idea she was coming to the Cotton Patch Quilters for a workshop at the time. I am generally not too good at keeping up with names of all these nationally known quilters. I do my thing and I'm not so good with names, so when it was announced at the meeting it really had no meaning until I saw that it was that quilt on the cover of the magazine that I put it together. So, I decided to do her workshop. We didn't make the quilt on the magazine, but that was OK, we made her quilt Laughing Leaves. She is from what is called the fusing club of quilting where no sewing really happens until the very end everthing is fused together with some form of adhesive. I don't fuse much. I do use some adhesives, but I mostly use them to hold my pieces together while I sew them. I like sewing and making the pieces fit together, it is a big puzzle for me that I enjoy, but her technique is interesting and I appreciate how it all comes together. I usually have an idea of what my pieces are going to look like before I cut the first piece of fabric, but with her technique, you figure it out as go and the way my brain works, it just overwhelms me... All the decisions you have to make as you go. I found it really stressful for me, but I can see how I can use it later on in a piece I'm hoping to start in the coming months. All in all, it was a fun day spent handling fabric and exploring new ideas which is always a great thing to do. Here are a few photos from the class.

This is someone else's piece, I didn't get this far (due to all the decisions I had to make - I know it was good for me, but hard... I do like what I ended up with though and I will use my blocks somewhere along the way.) Everything is cut and fused. We learned how to make the leaves and then what we did with them was up to us.

Again, not me, but here my friend Pat is considering her color options. Frieda hand dyed all the fabric we used. It was impressive the shades she was able to create in one piece.

This is my pile of scraps I brought home to use somewhere down the road. I'm so insane with it all that I just keep them... You never know when you might need a really small piece in a certain color...

This is the sample we worked off of to get our ideas. The one thing I really liked the most was learning about the different blades you can buy for rotary cutters. I can definitely see me investing in some of these along the way as I think about them and ways to use them. I did buy a pinking blade and I'm going to be making some more cloth napkins for us with that! Talk about cutting straight lines made easy... Even left handed folks can use rotary blades with no problem.

All in all the workshop was money well spent and Frieda was very nice and willing to be helpful when ask. Now I have to decide whether to take the next workshop the guild offers. It is with Joyce Becker another nationally known quilt artist.

Friday Dance Party...

Jason and I were flying solo this weekend. India and Kalib went out of town with my folks, so we made some big plans. On Friday night, he and I went to the COUNTRY ROCK, yes folks, that is right, the COUNTRY ROCK. I even wore my boots. We went to dance because evidently that is about the only place left in town to dance at. We got there at 10 pm and stayed until 2 am when the doors closed. Jason and I both danced more than we have in years together. I can't believe I'm saying (and Holly would certainly be laughing and saying I told you so), but we had an incredible time. Dancing is such freedom and the mix of people there was just awesome. The music was... not so good... but it didn't matter. We were there to shake it up and we did. Jason was even doing splits by the end of the night and I did a line dance. That's right... I said it. A line dance and laughed through the whole thing. The whole night was just a well deserved blast. Of course, Saturday, we had to sleep all day to catch up on sleep, but it was still worth it. We are ready to go again.

We have lived up the street from this place for 11 years and we have never stepped foot in there, but now that we have, I feel sure we will go back. Talk about serious stereotyping... I spent all these years assuming it was not a place I could have fun being artsy fartsy as Tracey calls us, but I have been proven wrong and am thankful for it. Truth is, whatever you are doing can be fun if you have the right perspective... At least most things can be.

So, we slept most of the day on Saturday and hit the grocery and came home to snuggle up and watch movies. Another much needed night, and Sunday, we cleaned and culled through again and got the house back in almost tip top shape except my desk, which is just a lost cause.

All together, it was a great weekend full of snuggles and smooches and FUN!!!! We all need more fun in our lives!

A new friend and other things...

On Monday, we went shopping in Commerce with my mom. She bought the kids a ton of new clothes and I got the kids new shoes. It is a lot of help that my folks help us out with buying the kids clothes. There are not a lot of 2nd hand clothes out there for boys I guess boys are just harder on clothes and they probably don't have as many clothes as girls. I know Kalib certainly is. They were both totally thrilled with everything they got which of course makes me very happy to see our kids happy.

On Tuesday evening, we went to Oglethorpe Elementary where we met India's new friend Ella and her mom and her 2 sisters. (She met Ella at ACE and through Hazel) I was unaware of all the trails behind there, but we are definitely going to make a point of getting over there more often. There is an old playground with real deal monkey bars and all kinds of things to climb on not just run around on. You remember the kind you always stressed your kid falling off of and breaking a leg? Well, the kind our folks worried about us falling off of. I love it! It was nice to see the kids so in their bodies as the flipped on bars and pulled themselves around on them. And it was nice to connect with another family and India is excited to have another friend that is homeschooled and I'm excited to have another mom friend that I can talk to about homeschooling and life.

We also are very proud of Kalib. He has officially caught the reading bug! He just can't enough. We worried and worried (such typical parents) if he would ever join the rest of us in this house and really enjoy reading and he officially has. I picked him up some graphic novel choose your own adventure books last week and he has already gone on every adventure in both of then, the on Monday while we were in Commerce we stopped off at a bookstore and I picked him up a whole bunch of books and he is just a little bookworm and of course I love that, being a bookworm myself. He goes to bed reading and wakes up reading and it is such a joy to see him lounging around with a book in hand. GO Kalib!

the road less traveled?

On Friday, Jason took the day off and we took a drive to the mountains. We stopped off at Tallulah Gorge for a short break at an overlook. Our intention when we left was to go to Three Forks in Clayton, but once we reached the forest service road that takes you up the mountain to the beginning of the trail, we discovered the road was closed. (Should have checked on line first, but we didn't) Thankfully, there was someone on the mountain with a map of other roads that we could use to get there. The thing was that it was 5 miles back the way we came, then a couple miles up a forest service road and then we had to turn onto another forest service road that was definitely NOT traveled much. It was bumpy and there was grass growing in the road. We are troopers though and took it to see where it led in hopes of making it to three forks. After a while, we sort of realized we were probably a long ways still from the trail head, so we found a nice spot to stop and got out. It was a campground that someone has used somewhere along the way. We are thinking we might try to go back there some day. The first thing we noticed about this spot was the mushrooms. I took pictures of at least 12 different mushrooms. It was so cool and damp and there was water. I kept thinking the bears of the mountains were eating really good here... It was nice to be away from the sounds of people on a road few travel.This is a picture of the stream that ran by the campground. This place was riddled with mushrooms. They were everywhere. We really had to watch our step to not crush them and I'm sure there were plenty of little ones we didn't see.The kids and Hubb appreciating a giant tulip poplar. There were also some Black Walnut trees that were huge. I sometimes forget how big trees can get with little human interaction...
Tree Fern. India set Daddy right on this one. She's obviously learning something in her plant ID class at ACE. He thought this was moss, but she told him it was tree fern. At closer inspection, she was right. Go India!This is the largest mushroom I have ever seen. The picture really doesn't do it justice, but it was about a foot across and the stalk was about an inch thick.One thing I can honestly say about India is she loves to be in the woods. She is super at home just exploring.Kalib liked the shadows the trees were casting on him.

Tree pose... honoring the magic and wisdom of these ancient ones...Mom wishing Daddy wasn't taking her picture.

On the way home we stopped off at our favorite (everyone but India's) BBQ place. Oinkers. The BBQ there melts in your mouth and the people who work there are all so nice. If you are ever up towards Clayton and you like good BBQ...it's towards Athens on 441 just south of Clayton. Just thinking about it makes me ready to take another drive back up there just for the BBQ...

To see the rest of the pictures and the many mushrooms we saw you can click go to our picassa web album

and the weekend...

On Friday of last week, I went to Lake Oconee with some of my favorite women. We stayed overnight on both Friday and Saturday and had such a wonderful time. We spent most of Friday night down by the water talking about letting go of things in our life which needs to be released and as we journey into the fall and winter and as the earth slows down, it is a good time of year to be focusing on what needs to be let go of and what we need to put to sleep. I love thinking about life in terms what is natural in this world. We put all our stuff on the table and as a representation of our letting go of whatever is holding us off our paths, we fashioned a little boat out of a paper bag (well, Sarah Cook did) and then we filled it with items representing each of the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. The earth we placed in it was leaves and bark and a sweet gum ball. It was a gorgeous representation of decay. Then we placed a beautiful seed pod that looked like a feather with seeds that were taken away when the air blows in it. As we set it in the water, we lit it on fire (which proved to be difficult, for some reason it didn't want to light - I guess we could see that as our resistance to holding on to these things, but we finally got it lit and set it on the water). It was beautiful and I'm thankful for the peace it has already brought into my life because when I feel burdened, I can let go and remember the boat. On Saturday, we spent the day on the water taking in the last of the sunshine for the year. Some of ladies decided to get into the water (it was really cold). Here's Jennifer contemplating the water... It was tempting. I ended up getting in on Saturday night, but I didn't get in beyond my hips because it was too cold... Something else I always appreciate about our overnights is the food. There is always so much of it and such good food and foods we would seldom treat ourselves to. It is all about gluttony and allowing ourselves the freedoms we wouldn't normally let ourselves have. It is all about letting go so that when we come back, we are refreshed and remember why we make the choices in life we make even though sometimes they are hard choices...
On Saturday night, we got around to playing cards (poker and I'm no good at it) and having a dance party in the living room. Talk about some serious letting go. I love the release I get from moving my body and doing it while with such great ladies is even more of a treat. There are no rules and nothing to hold us back, just moving and whether we dance good or not doesn't matter, we just move and feel our bodies. That was a treat I really needed. I have been missing dancing and we danced for a very long time.

On Sunday, while cleaning up, we all congregated in the kitchen while waiting on the dishwasher and the sheets to dry. Just talking... talking... talking... connecting... clearing space and our heads... That is what it is all about. Getting in touch with ourselves and reconnecting to the self which so easily gets lost in Babylon and motherhood.

Thank you beautiful women for sharing your time with me and for all the cleansing I got so I could come home and return peaceful and be the best me I can be.

On Friday morning...

We met Rachel, Grace, and Luke at Memorial Park to play on the playground. Now that I am working more, I am trying very hard to get us out of the house in the mornings to do fun stuff since our afternoons are filled with being in the office. The geese at Memorial Park are almost overwhelmingly (is that even a word?) tame. You feed them or act like you are going to feed them and before you know, the whole flock has surrounded you and they are following you around the park. I had just been to the grocery store to pick up a few things for the weekend, so we happened to have bread... the geese's favorite food, I think. The girls walked around the lake to chat it up while Rachel and I chilled on the picnic benches. The boys slid down the big hill and did some swinging. Later Alexa and her babes joined us. India is helping Alexa out one day a week by watching her kids while she gets stuff done around the house. India even gets paid for her babysitting. Talk about learning responsibility and doing a good deed. After Alexa got there, I looked up and heard the sounds of a skate board (A sound I know well) and there came Hubb skating down the hill towards us. Talk about a treat! It was a fantastic morning leading up to a fantastic weekend which I will get to tomorrow...

Here's India feeding my brown sugar and cinnamon bagels to the geese. (she ended up running from them to get away when she was done because they just kept following her around.)

On the swing...

Wishing Luke didn't have to go and wanting to walk with the girls around the pond, but they needed to have their time to talk about whatever it is they spend so much time talking about.

Hubb swinging with Luke

The Girls playing with Abram. Elli somehow didn't make it into any of the pictures.