Currently Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time By Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin see related

Garden goodies and more...

For some reason I've had a helluva time uploading pics. I can't seem to get them uploaded now with this new camera and it's driving me crazy! My garden is bursting with all of the rain we've had here in New England. The bok choy, the spinach, broccoli, snap peas....Oh it's all so yummy. My herbs are beautiful and bushy. My pineapple sage is taking over the world (I love it chopped and sauteed in turkey burgers) A new addition is lime basil which is good in salads and anywhere else really. I tilled a strip on the other side of the pond over in the back field and we've got some giant sunflowers growing. I wanted to do the sunflower house for the kids but this will have to do.

I'm breathing a giant sigh of relief that summer is here and I envision blissful days gardening, kids fishing and catching turtles and frogs. Just mellow.

E has started a new job working for the global headquarters of a big company in Hartford. So far so good and I feel so thankful. I have a whole new level of humility from surviving this past year. We're stronger, I'm stronger. I feel good. I feel focused and I'm loving my family and friends. Everyday is a blessing-truly.

Currently Our Endless Numbered Days By Iron & Wine see related

Ugh...suburban helllllll.......

A walmart and PTO and organized sports rant...beware the anger is flowing this morning!!! Bear in mind, I come from a Waldorf background and whatever you personally feel about that is fine. We Waldorf kids like to take things slow and easy. Like, don't push your 3 yr old to learn to read OK? She's not ready! I'm pulling my kid out of preschool because they don't want to keep her back (budget cuts) and I feel she isn't ready-socially not even so much academically. I'm sorry, but my child will not suffer because of your budget cuts. How about pay to play sports?? There have to be other ways to work the budget-education needs to come first! And the older kids? Let them be kids for Gods sakes. Walking into the middle school and seeing fifth grade girls with makeup on and a cellphone is not what I consider being a kid. What are these parents thinking? When my children come home from school they play outside, they play with the turtles and frogs out by the pond, they help us in the garden, they play on the swingset, they turn the compost, they haul sticks with the tractor. Ya know? They don't come home and watch five hours of TV and plug into the computer or their DSs and call their boyfriends on their cellphones. Why the rush to grow up? There is a mother here who has two girls, twins. She is apparently training them to be Olympic figure skaters. They're 9. They get up at 5am to go practice two hours before school. Practice all week and then competitions of some kind on the weekends. ????? Now, I realize that by putting my children into a public school environment that things will be different than homeschoolers or alternative schoolers. But that doesn't mean I like it. I think the majority of the women I've met here are catty and delusional. I'm sorry but it's true. I've made very few real connections (Thank God for LLL) and it makes me so sad. I've tried to attend PTO meetings and functions because I want to be involved and have a say in my children's futures, but it's run by a clique and they are less than friendly to outsiders. I've pissed of many people with my outspoken politics and honestly I don't have to agree with everyone, really it's OK to have differences and to discuss them as adults. The town selectman has put people on these boards- Economic Development, Board of Finances, Planning and Zoning, that will directly profit from this monstrous 160,000 sq ft big box store. Do you know that Walmart repeatedly violates environmental code and just pays the $5million fine and then turns around to do it again? We taxpayers bleed money to cover health insurance for these employees because they don't earn fair wages and they aren't covered by Walmart's insurance policies. It's ludicrous. I've been on the property where they plan to build.There are vernal pools, there are osprey nests, there are bricks with slave fingerprints on them from the 1600's. This is not historic property??? Come on people-WAKE UP!! It's called a concrete jungle and you live in one. It doesn't have to be this way.

Orgainzed sports...my girls play soccer. The program is run by a corrupt bunch of hooligans who could care less about building our kids up. It's all about the competetion and who can run fastest and who has the footwork and who is a friend of the coach's family and blah blah blah. I can't fucking stand it! I'm so sick of these people! Where are all the good people? Are there any here because I sure as hell can't find them. When we get together with firends, we like to have a couple homegrown beers with a fire in the pit, kids running around nekkid and happy, free. When these women get together with friends they go out to bars and clubs dressed up like hookers and hitting on men (married women) until 4 am. What the hell?

Anyway, rant over. I'm sorry-I had to get that out. I'm having a hard time here lately, can you tell?

Currently Zen Ties By Jon J Muth see related

No words, just pics.

OK a couple words. Spring. Is. *ALMOST*. Here.

Currently Adieu False Heart By Linda Ronstadt, Ann Savoy see related

Pics from the homestead.

Family project a recycled swingset! 

Finished!

Em loves the swing!

A mango popsicle at the coop.

Egg dying ROCKS!

Av contemplating her design...

H drinking her tea, just like her mama!

Currently On Beauty By Zadie Smith see related

April rains...

The grass is getting green and with all of this rain we're having everything will be blooming soon. Bring it on!

Our garden is GINORMOUS this year! I hope we can keep up. E is out of work still and we're hoping to supplement our meager unemployment money with some garden goodies. We've done a huge sunflower plot out in the back field and I'm hoping to sell some bundles with the veggies and possibly some homemade soap as well. I'm experimenting now actually. We'll see how it goes. We've been wanting to invest in some soaker hoses, which we found cheap on ebay and we also found a solar water pump cheap!! We'll pump water out of one of the pond drains for the main garden not sure what we'll do with the sunflowers. That may be us hauling buckets from the pond. I actually have some nice, usable compost this year too! I'm really happy about that. I would never be able to buy enough to boost the soil by bag. I'm hoping I can get the kids to help me rake it all in this weekend if it ever stops raining. On the biodiesel front, we're moving our tanks and equipment back into the garage and will start producing as much as we can ASAP. We'd like to sell some on the side if we can. The kids will get some good lessons when the equipment comes home. The funniest thing is E just found a free golf cart on Craigs List and he's planning to attach the trailer to it for garden work. That should be interesting.

I also have a brand spankin' new camera so I'll be posting an assload of pics soon enough. Can't wait!

On the kid front M is SUCH a boy. I don't buy into all the stereotyping but damn the kid is a handful. He's 3 girls put together. Very mischevious and likes trouble. Thinks it's funny actually. He likes to dropkick people for the hell of it and we've had some big bruises on these girls from his roughhousing. Crazy energy. Only stops moving for the boobie. He's an addict and still wakes up a couple times a night to nurse. I can't say I mind though. He's the last and I'll nurse him until he's 10 if he wants!

Things are still uncertain, but in so many ways we're more rooted than ever. Life has been simplified for us as so many other families these days and it's actually very satisfying. E not attached to his computer and cell phone is a rarity. I figure we need to make the most of this time we have together, it won't last forever and these kids are growing like weeds.

Hope alls well in xanga world......