YES!YES!YES!

Forest Kindergartens

I felt very motivated today to make changes but when I get home from work and put the kids to bed, I don't WANT to exercise. I'm TIRED. and HUNGRY. Eat after 8, put on the weight? I want to eat rocky road ice-cream and Tyson chicken strips. Instead I am eating slightly stale honey nut cheerios.

This weekend, we unwittingly began to unravel the sweater that is our bathroom. I coerced Chris, slightly against his will, to bring home the tub surround we'd picked out. I didn't mean he had to start right away, but he did. After an excruciating day and a half of trial and error, it was concluded that the surround would never fit over the current yellow tub. (Honestly, I'd always hoped to get rid of it anyway.) But in the process, we learned that our pipes were all corroded, the drywall was mush, and the house isn't insulated. That explained a lot. (this house is SO cold.) So tomorrow, the ugly tub gets sledgehammered out. I also learned that obsessively peeling off cheap tile and smashing soft drywall is way more fun than trying to fit a round tub surround into a square hole.

The cheerios are gone.

Bumblebee feels in a state of chaos. Our routine has not been recovered since the move. The TV keeps coming on. I feel too much in a flat spin to fully take charge. This vague sense of panic is probably my disjointed way of worrying that the budget is supposed to come out tomorrow and we may lose our jobs.

I need a cleaning schedule.

An expense paid working week in Japan for June was presented to me today. I'm afraid to embrace it because I don't want to be disappointed. But... I think I'll dig out my nihongo books. I wrote an artist bio for the project. It's hard to write about yourself as an artist when you've been too busy to make anything lately. Perhaps part of this panic is that disconnect I feel from not making art.

I need a studio schedule.

My sister is becoming an international business woman and I know what I'm doing as a homeschooling mother is important, but it's hard not to question it a little when I see what could be. I start to panic when I worry I'm not living up to my potential.

The latest thing I'm looking into is Waldorf style homeschooling.

There is nothing I dread more than dishes

I'd rather go swim with the fishes

Sneak ice-cream instead

Then crawl into bed

Right! Me wash the m0-fucking dishes.

There once was a woman so lazy

Company tomorrow don't faze me

I sit here online

Poring over design

Driving my poor husband crazy

There once was a man with a daughter

Who ate rocky road like her father

Can I get you a bowl?

So you won't eat the whole...

Just eat from the carton, why bother?

velvet on grey silk

these are for the living room

(anthropologie)

long turquoise wall

from front room to dining nook

a robin's egg blue

perhaps a sofa

I'll remember Aunt Therese

long and yellow silk

escape escape escape

Oh god I'm so jealous of this woman. She's so talented and has twice as many kids as me. Look at her blog. I love her work.

I like these.

halloween homeschool skate party

I want this fabric for my kitchen curtains.

So we moved to the new house two weeks ago. It's really great. I still love the wood floors. The new paint was little more than a selling tactic as it's flat and already covered in grubby handprints. Last week things were normal enough that we showed up to both unschool gathering days. It was really great to see all the friendly faces we hadn't seen in a while. I had an interview for a local culture magazine as the featured artist today; I mostly enjoyed the company of the writer - I told her I'd found my tribe in unschooling. I sound like a missionary. Speaking of missionaries, I had the opportunity to attend the last day of the Weston Price conference yesterday. There was some review on diet on a budget, some great info on running a buying club, and a lot on the legal disputes over raw milk. One of the speakers made a crass joke at the expense of Mexicans and he caught my eyes while I was melting him with them. I thought this was supposed to be an educated and ethical group. Also can do without the bowing down to Sally at the closing. Overall though it was an inspiring experience and I was really grateful to be there. I bought a couple bottles of THE ONLY SUPPLEMENT YOU NEED at a great discount. Do yourself a favor and get the cinnamon tingle.

I made cookies for the girls' Liberty Belles meeting tomorrow and they are so good I can't keep my paws off them.

Ok. there are now only enough for each girl to get one instead of two.

is there a post partum depression for house buying? I love the house.

Last Sunday morning Chris and I and the girls went for a walk in the woods and to the park and for pastries. It was so nice out. We collected leaves. It was magical to be out there alone in the autumn woods on the river. We were all happy and Chris was part of it. I swung with the girls - they giggled and om'ed and held out little yoga meditation hands. I closed my eyes and the sun shone through my lids and I let go of my thoughts and felt an uncommon peace.

This Sunday morning we are moving to our new house. Our first house. We're mostly packed and a lot is already there, but the hot mess just keeps flowing from nooks and crannies. We've been here for four years.

We had a nice Halloween yesterday. We went trick or treating in the old neighborhood with Ray and Nicole and Dad and Violet. I said goodbye to Phyllis and Pam. Then we met Dan and Tania and Dad and Violet came with to trick or treat in our new neighborhood. There are a lot of cute elderly ladies there and a nice couple next door. Aunt Chris and Aunt Lisa and Brittany dropped by and they all gushed about our new house. I was happy. I'm glad they liked it.

We went to a memorial for Grampa's first birthday since he died. It was nice to spend the time with family. Can never pile too much onto one day. Still emotionally exhausted from the closing the day before. The seller was so scary. The girls went trick or treating with mil at the old ladies' club while we closed. Then right after, my mom and I trucked them to the woods, in the rain, to trick or treat with the unschoolers, where I dropped my camera and broke the lens.