happy easter

Every year the Easter Bunny hides the baskets in more complicated places.  Especially for the oldest kid in this family.

Spring is about renewal, beginnings, budding newness.  Happy Spring wherever you are!

corner view~what's for lunch?

Annabel's specialties, curry tofu and French bean dish

This year both of our girls have been home schooling.  One of the sweetest parts of this experience is that we all get to share lunch, often with Dad too, as he works from home.  This year both girls have gotten into cooking, and many times they have made me some pretty great lunches! 

Although today it was hot and there were some sore throats to soothe, so after eating some leftovers we made "strawberry snow" in the juicer with ice, frozen strawberries, and agave nectar.

shawn is 8

Party weekend!  The Saturday before Easter we had a group of kids over to celebrate Shawn's birthday!  I love when my kids all help set up the house for a party.  Annabel's tradition is the veggie plates.  This year we had ice cream cakes, (2) from the local gelateria, for the first time.   I miss making the cakes, but this is cool Mom, I was told.

Fun fun fun weekend, but I am tired now :)

little missy lou

 
Little Miss Annabel recently won a contest where she got to meet with a person in the entertainment business.  This woman not only offered to try to get Annabel the autograph of Julie Andrews, because she "knows Julie," oh my! -- but she encouraged Annabel to reach and grow as a singer.

"Sing something you would never ever do, and send it to me," was the assignment.

So for the last few weeks Missy Lou, as I often call her, has been studying Chaka Khan, one of the world's best vocalists.  She picked one of my favorite songs to sing, which is a very challenging one, because of the voice range it covers.

Gary plays the piano on this one.  Sky and I made the video of photos we shot of the Missy.  I am learning to use iMovie, it's so fun!!

Here it is: "In Love We Grow."

creative friday

Starting a few weeks ago we have changed the home school schedule.  If the girls work hard Monday through Thursday, they get to focus on creative things on independent study Fridays.  It has been wonderful.  And they are working hard.  Sewing, sculpture, reading, acting, singing, recording, photography, practicing instruments, filming, and making videos.  There are a couple of people in the entertainment industry encouraging and pushing them to grow.  And it has very good for them.  Lest you think my oldest is miserable, she is not.  I have never seen her happier.  In the last photo, she is acting.  Did she fool you?

corner view~home

After several moves and subsequent years of reflection about the meaning and feeling and experience of what is home, I have come to this conclusion.

External home is not just a place, but also the people inside.  Those relationships and the memories we make.  The feeling of comfort and relaxation inside a dwelling.  Sharing meals, holidays, struggles, growth, laughter and tears.  Home is the love of family.

And being at home within oneself is perhaps the greatest task of all.  Somewhere in the silence of it all, I am home, no matter what the external circumstances.  A lofty goal, yes.  But I have had glimpses. 

where do memories go?

I have always been a person who loves the way that photographs mark both the present moment and also mark history.  I have been revisiting our years past in both a memoir I am writing, and in our old photo albums.  And I was looking back through digital photos taken just a couple of years ago, when I first started my blog, before I had more than a few readers.  We took the kids to Europe for the first time.  What a magical, special time we had.  We were in France -- Paris and Sarlat, and Italy -- Venice.

That summer I posted many times and shared many photos about our trip (look at June, July, August 2009 if you want to see), and am a little sad since I didn't know many of you that I didn't get a chance to share these photos with you.  My favorites.  I have this thing about posting photos on my blog.  I don't like to use the same shot twice.  So the above ones are from the unused archives. 

The first trip to Europe was at Gary's urging.  The kids were finally old enough to travel.  I felt ready to venture that far with our brood.  Gary is a huge fan of all things French, eclairs, croissants, art museums, the language, the architecture, you name it.  And Venice.  No cars.  Boats everywhere.  The colors of the buildings.  The water.  The spaghetti!  The magic in the air.  I never saw my husband more happy than when he was in Europe.

Guess what?  We are going back to Europe in a 2 1/2 months.

And guess who's excited???  Not just him!

and now we have a...

drummer girl!

One of the things I love about home schooling is that the girls have more time to devote to other interests.  Skylar has been studying drums.  She has had a few lessons from Shawn's teacher, and she is a natural!   The only problem is when they both feel like playing at the same time!  Never a dull moment over here, I tell you.

corner view~time

Where does the time go?  What happened to the 20-year-old me?  How will our children change as they become adults?  What a trip it is to become older.  And what a blessing time brings.  Wisdom.  Patience.  Understanding.  Reflection.  New experiences.  Surprises.  Change. 

These are the time-related questions and thoughts I find myself contemplating these days.  The older I get, the less I realize that I know for certain. 

I think my husband described time well in his song, New Life:

"Time is an illusion
But it still feels too short to me"

CV lesson of the day for me, and maybe you!  Seize the moment.  Seize the day.  Love the time you have to experience the gift of your life.  And happy Wednesday, April 6th, 2011.

swami's visits

This year Swami visited a couple of times, but he didn't stay with us.  He stayed a walk from our home at a friend's house, so we still got to spend quality time with him.  There were inspirational talks, a day retreat which I helped run, a visit to our local homeless shelter to cook a meal, lots of tea, seeing some of our old friends (who came with him), and even a cake for Sky's birthday.   There were a couple of informal dinners where we got to ask about his work overseas in Haiti where his organization has set up an orphanage.  The girls learned a meditation technique, all of the kids got a harmonium lesson, and well, of course there were some mean matches of fuseball.  Because contrary to popular opinion, some swamis are pretty good. 

Swami is an Indian monk, and his teacher is Amma.  While Amma's organization, "Embracing the World" continues to help the Haitian people, and thousands of others through their vast worldwide outreach programs, they are also helping the people of Japan.