looking back on 2009

I always love it when a new year is upon us.  I like the anticipation of new experiences, opportunities, and seeing the growth of the kids.  I also just love it when the numbers of the years change.  So with this attitude I welcome 2010.  Here are some of the highlights of the past year:   

In January, we began a new lifestyle, of home schooling our daughters.  This continues.

I continued writing projects.

I attended several retreats, including a trip by myself to California.

And I prayed a lot.
I took lots of photos, and continued my blogs.
We made some new friends.
I expanded my vegetable garden.

I designed the cover of my daughter's cd.

I expanded my tulsi garden and began to sell tulsi plants.
We traveled to see family in New York in the summer.

We vacationed in Italy...

 ...and France.

We road tripped to Washington, DC to see old friends.
We spent a month in northern California.

In the fall, we enrolled our son in public school, first grade.  We found a great new teacher for the girls.
Two months later I began a part time job teaching first graders at our home on their days off of school.

I had a Christmas party and sang carols.
And for the most part, we slowed down the pace of our day-to-day life.
All in all, a pretty good year.

holiday celebration

We had a wonderful Christmas.  We enjoyed good food, good friends, and good fun.  There were lots of homemade gifts, dishes, and of course, music.  I am still singing Christmas carols as I hang the laundry on the line to dry. 

happy holidays

This is my save-a-tree version of a holiday card.  Hope you are all blessed with health, joy, abundance, good spirits, grace, growth, and love in the coming year.

Theresa, Gary, Skylar, Annabel and Shawn

the days before christmas

Wild pointsettas that grow to several feet tall and red berries on a bush, seen on a country drive, wrapping gifts and making handmade ornaments for Kelly (created by my daughter Sky and me), mini trees that the kids get to decorate, and a few other things that I get to put up.  Tonight -- a quick garden harvest to add to the salmon -- Swiss chard, basil, parsley.  While I was outside I noticed the spontaneous poolside art.  School is out and this is what December looks like in our neck of the woods.

corner view~books

Is there anything better than a great book?

At the ripe age of eighteen I met a woman named Mimi Mills, she was the widow of a famous author, she was close to ninety then.  What I remember most about her was her books.  Every room in her house had books, piles of them -- even in the bathroom.  The first time I was in her home I was struck by the fact that I was in a place where books were sacred, they were loved, they each had a world within them, and likely, many memories associated with them.  Mimi used to write to me while I was away at college, notes on scrap pieces of paper, napkins, anything she could find, usually just a few lines.  

I love books.  In my dream house there is an entire room dedicated for reading, a library with floor to ceiling built-in shelves, comfortable chairs, fluffy pillows, a coffee table for tea, a working fireplace, plenty of windows for natural light, a Tiffany floor lamp.

I read books to inspire myself, I read to get lost, I read to laugh, I read to think and learn, and sometimes I read to stop thinking.

I have kept journals since I was a child.  I am teaching my children the same, for sometimes the stories we tell, the books we write, are most important for our growth.

I am very proud that my husband is a published author, and he continues to write more and more novels daily.  I hope to publish my writing someday.  I am also proud that all of our children write stories - 30, 40, 50 pages long.  Because everyone has a story to tell.

To see more views about books from around the world go to the sidebar here at Jane's blog.  Top photo by my daughter, Skylar.

garden herbs

I have been using wonderful fresh herbs from our garden in my daily cooking.  Things grow so fast here, it is rewarding, especially to have the plants year round.  I have several types of basil to choose from, plus fennel, dill, oregano, sage, rosemary, parsley.  Gotta find me some thyme, so I can sing Scarborough Fair.

There's fruits and veggies too - chard, kale, all sorts of lettuces, tomatoes, broccoli, caulifower, several types of peppers, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, papayas, lilikoi, and of course, my favorite - arugula.  I also have tulsi (holy basil) -- a whole garden area dedicated to this special plant.  I am beginng a small nursery and selling off tulsi starts to fellow gardeners.  It is very popular dried as a tea. 

 

For more on our family's gardening and my other green pursuits see my other blog, "The Green Mama."  http://greeniemama.blogspot.com/

I have been writing this blog for about a year.  I post here less frequently than I do to All of Us.  I am trying to decide whether to keep it or to combine them into one blog.  Any comments? 

my kids rock

What can I say?  I appreciate them.  After I went away they really saw how much work a mommy does and I think they are trying to pitch in more because of that.

corner view~evening

photo by my daughter, Sky

Happy week everyone!  Here are some of my favorite evening photos taken over the last year.  There are images of tropical evenings, mixed in with summertime after dinner strolls through Venice and Paris.  I generally do best shooting with natural light so evening for me and my camera means sunset, or right after.  For more perspectives on "evening" throughout the world go to the sidebar here at spain daily.

And, to celebrate winter, I will leave you with one of my all time favorite poems, which is about an evening jaunt...

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
by Robert Frost


Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

perfect timing

The girls have each advanced another belt in Taekwondo.  They are working hard, and getting strong.  Poor little brother has been a little discouraged.  He is naturally quite competitive, so imagine the challenge and some of the dinner conversations in our household.  But yesterday he came home from class all excited because he was chosen by his instructors for "Junior Student of the Month."  Listed on the official certificate were the qualities "honesty, patience, perseverance, loyalty, respect, indomitable spirit."  What a great sport for them all.