winter afternoon with my kids

A stroll on the grounds of our favorite hotel, five minutes from where we live. 

and the winner is...

nicola@which name? said...
what a beautiful girl, inside and out. and what an amazing, personal, and special give-away. i feel lucky to have just clicked through on your most recent comment to my blog and happened upon this post!
how did the switch to homeschool go? genuinely interested...
nicola
http://whichname.blogspot.com

Hey that was really fun!  Thanks for playing.  We have many more CDs in this family to give away.  We'll do more.  My husband has more than I can keep track of and Skylar is getting ready to record #4.

corner view~street photography

I love all of the color I was able to capture in this charming, laid back, small beach town, dotted with restaurants, artsy shops, galleries, a health food store, and an awesome brand new gelateria. (Is that a real word Francesca?)

This corner view experience is so much fun, and I have Jane to thank.  To me, every week I am given a creative challenge.  I actually majored in fine arts in college, studying mostly ceramics and metal sculpture.  I took one photography class.  But I was horrible at it because this was back in the days when photography meant making your own cameras, developing your own photographs, darkrooms, etc.  Mine always came out too dark and brooding, not enough contrast.  The technology got in the way of the creativity for me.

Fast forward some years...Enter digital photography.  Enter Theresa having a little free time.  Enter blogging.  Enter Spain Jane, as we affectionately call her.  And now I am blown away by how much fun I am having with photography, of all things!  It couldn't have come at a more perfect time.

Because I don't have welding equipment set up in my garage.  So blogging is my creative outlet.  When we artists are happy and enjoying life, looking to capture beauty all around us, being creative for some time every day, life is so much richer.  My girls are both doing CV as well, and it is becoming such a wonderful family experience.

Have a great week.  If you want to go back one post, we are doing a giveaway of our oldest daughter's music.  We will close it tonight at midnight Pacific time. 

For more corner views of street photography around the world, go to the sidebar here.        

giveaway: running home cd

I would like to offer a giveaway of my daughter Skylar's CD, called "Running Home," a nine song album recorded when she was ten years old.  She started writing songs when she was seven, recording her first CD at age eight.  She writes the songs, plays all of the instruments (guitar, piano, harmonica), and sings.  She is now thirteen, and currently working on her fourth CD. 

Recently she has made a Youtube video, including photos she and I took.  Click here to see the title track of "Running Home," one of my all time favorite songs of hers. 

Sky is home schooled.  We started that last year.  It seems the most natural way to allow her time for her creative expression.  Her songs are about nature, people she loves, God, the universe.  Her voice is gentle and melodic; her songs peaceful and sweet.  To view her webpage, and listen to all of her songs go here.

Leave a comment if you would like to be considered.  Tell me how music is a part of your family life!  If you post a link to the giveaway on your blog I will put your name in the hat twice.  If I can figure out how to pick the winner the technical way, I will.  I will announce the winner one week from today, February 25th.  Thanks for playing!

Lyrics for title track song:
Running Home
Skylar Marks 2007

While gazing up at the stars one night,
I was thinking how small we must be.
And the earth and the trees and our galaxy,
and the smallest of all, is me.

While I laid right there
and the wind was in the air
I thought if there's no time,
maybe we are all a lie.
Maybe we are all a dream,
we're not real.

Running home to you, running home,
going back to where I belong.
When I wake up will I see you?
Or will I fall back to this earth?

Walking through the fields of peace,
I can feel the breeze.
Will I just sit down and cry,
Or will I begin to fly?

CH

above two photos are Sky at the age the CD was recorded

Skylar, now

corner view~wisdom from an elder

My grandfather was a kindhearted, happy, giving man that everyone loved.  He was always patient and caring with all people he interacted with, and I never saw him lose his temper.  I was blessed to spend a lot of quality time with him as a child.  What I remember about him most was that he was always laughing and making jokes.  He had white hair when I knew him, but as a boy he had bright red, curly hair, "so thick you couldn't get a comb through it," he would always tell me.  I think he related to me because I too have red hair.

He played the trumpet, often accompanying my grandmother while she played the piano.  

Grandpa, as we called him, made friends with everyone.  He was forever helping people in need, and loved hard work.  Many a tree was trimmed, many a driveway plowed, many a field mowed due to his generous spirit.  He lived in the country in a rural neighborhood, and took it upon himself to take care of all of the open space in this neighborhood.  In the winter he would take us into the woods and we would pick ground pine that he would make into beautiful wreaths.  In the summer we picked wild berries for hours, our arms and legs covered to protect us from the prickers.  Each summer I spent a week by myself with him and my grandmother, and after supper every night we would take a walk.  We would be out for an hour or two, until twilight, as so many neighbors would come to say hello to their neighbor, "Bob."  He was the most popular person in the neighborhood.

"Look at this girl turn a cartwheel," he used to brag.  Sometimes he even asked me to do it in stores, or parking lots.  I was always happy to oblige.

Grandpa didn't discriminate much with friends, and some of them were more colorful than others.  He had a knack for making friends with people with the strangest names.

Flick Haley
Mike Ice
Uni Gagen
Clarence Kinyon
Timothy Splitfinger
Turd Willager
Ferman Sweetapple

The wisdom he imparted was by example.  However he did have a few classic sayings that we heard many times growing up.

*Money is like manure.  It's no good unless you spread it around.
*It's good to get together with family for awhile and have happy times.  It doesn't cost anything to laugh.
*A bottle of beer is okay once in awhile but you don't have to drink the whole case.
*If you listen to your mother you'll be all right.  If you don't you won't.
*Do you live to eat, or eat to live?
*That woman hates beer more than the devil hates holy water.
*It doesn't cost anything to be nice.

The most important lesson he taught me was to be happy and enjoy life.

Thank you Jane, for giving me the opportunity to choose this week's corner view.  For more wisdom from elders all over the world, go to the sidebar here.

I want to welcome my other daughter, Annabel, to corner view.  She's 11. Check out her post today.

Also please check back this Thursday, as I will be doing a surprise giveaway.  My first.

happy

Valentine's day.

balance

Family life.  Three kids.  Husband recording this week.  Next week too.  Dinners to make and dishes to wash and laundry to hang and floor to sweep.  Bugs to pick off some of my plants and neem oil to spray on them.  A spread sheet for 2009 to finish asap.  Carpooling to Taekwondo.  Sprinkler pipe broken underground.  A garden to water by hand all week til the gardener returns to fix it.  And this past week there were two extra days off of Shawn's school for teacher work day and government furlough.  

Calgon, take me away. 

I tweaked my back a couple of weeks ago and unlike my typical rehab (stretching, taking it easy for a day, good diet and rest) it wasn't getting better.  I went to a physical therapist this week who works holistically, incorporating pilates and "energy work" into her practice.  She was very good.  She said, "you need to strengthen your abdominals.  Me who had washboard abs in high school.  Me who did press handstands in college.  "Do some yoga lunges," she said, and she showed me an isometric stomach exercise to do as well.

Ten years ago I learned yoga in a class with ten other people and a sweet, smiling forty-something red headed teacher.   Most people in the class were regulars.  Irma was the oldest student.  She was 85, really skinny, and always frowning.  She was stiff and grumpy.  But she came to class, every time. 

"How are you Irma?" Lahar would ask. 

"I'm here," she would always answer. 

I remember thinking back then, "This is a great sport.  I can do this for the rest of my life."  (I thought of yoga as a sport).

Then we moved and I found another yoga teacher, a man about my age who was fit, gentle spirited, and funny.  I went three times a week for three years, often my husband would join me.  The class was hard work and we did the handstands differently than in gymnastics, but there I learned the principles of alignment and although I never saw myself in this light, it was there that I began to become a yogi.   Eventually the class was twice a week, then once, then the teacher moved away.  I tried to find a teacher I liked as much as him to no avail.  So I joined a gym, to make sure my heart rate was up to speed.  I still did yoga stretches there, but it wasn't the same.  I always ended up on the treadmill, watching television.  I walked and ran hard for an hour but it wasn't yoga.  I did this type of exercise for a couple of years. 

I found out a month ago that my first yoga teacher just died.  She was only 50.  She ate organic food, was a vegetarian, practiced yoga her entire adult life, and was a very giving soul.  She died of a brain aneurism.  I hadn't been in touch with her and didn't get a change to say goodbye.  

We never know what our destiny really is and when our time will be up.

Two days ago I got out my yoga mat and put it on our back porch while Gary and the kids were at Taekwondo.  It was five o'clock, and cloudy.  The neighborhood was quiet, just a gentle breeze of palm trees and a few birds to keep me company.  I gently practiced yoga for 1/2 hour, my back going into spasms if I pushed too hard.  It felt great.  Everything came back to me and I found I could "teach" myself.  Today Gary took the kids out and I got two hours alone in the house.  I practiced yoga for an hour, tuning in to whatever area of my body wanted attention, and remembering a pose to suit that need.  I remembered a pose that I did with Lahar, and held that for awhile.  I looked out at the orange cloudy sky and thought of her, getting a strong sense that wherever she was now, she was at peace.   

Today my back has stopped the spasms.  I feel stronger.  I have been doing the stomach exercises.   I see the PT this week again.  I wonder if she'll notice the change I feel.

When I was young I was a jock and I had so much time to practice all sorts of athletics.  Now I have to create time for exercise, when I need it most.  But I am determined to continue with my yoga practice.

 

Rest in peace, Lahar.  I'm glad you were in my life. 

 

a date with my boy

som tam

 

Som Tam (green papaya Thai salad)

1 green papaya, peeled and shredded

1 tomato, cut into strips

3 green onions, cut in strips

1 cup basil, chopped

1 small red pepper, remove seeds, chop finely

dressing (vegetarian)

3 tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tbsp. liquid honey (or cane sugar), 2 tbsp. olive oil, 3 tbsp. fresh lime juice

combine all ingredients and serve with chopped peanuts

I love that I made this entirely with veggies and herbs from my garden (except the lime).

The online recipe is here, in case you prefer to use the traditional ingredients like fish sauce and dried shrimp.  Sometimes they also use a salted crab.  Here is a video to see it done traditionally in Thailand.  In this case she also used green beans. 

corner view~repurposed

Before the children were born (when I had more free time) I got really into making mosaics.  The strawberry pot, pictured above, was my first piece.  I also made a scene above my bathtub with broken tiles and plates, and covered a long wall in the backyard with pieces of marble, slate and granite.  I befriended a woman who had a tile store and she used to give me all of her old samples, included rare marbles from Italy!  I made tables and picture frames and flower pots.  We don't live in that house anymore but once I master scanning old photos I will share them.

Francesca's theme really got me thinking about making something old into something new.  For me, it's second nature.  My parents loved antiques, and I grew up surrounded by old things often made into new things.  Being of a thrifty nature coupled with the joy of discovery, my dad and uncle once jumped into a dumpster to get an antique wood treasure.  They beautifully refinished all of the wood pieces they gathered, and now their homes are filled with them, and many have been passed on to their children.

For me, repurposing seems to encourage not just reuse, but creativity.  A few years ago we had a tree trimmed and I fashioned a trellis out of some of the thickest branches.  The bark is now peeling, and the beans that grew up it didn't do so well, but it still sits in the garden, smiling down on the peppers and Swiss chard, beckoning me to remember that no matter how busy I am, I am still an artist.

To see more corner views about repurposing, go to the sidebar here.  And be sure to check out my daughter Sky's corner view. 

celebration

This past weekend Annabel had a bunch of her friends over for a birthday party.  They were such a sweet group - they had a lot of fun swimming, eating pizza and cake, and goofing off.  We even had a mini concert and a few children sang, including the birthday girl herself.

happy birthday

To our sweet girl Annabel who is eleven today.  May all of your dreams come true.  We all love you!

corner view~sweets

In our house sweets are treats, and something we don't have every day.  It makes it more special that way.  Ever since the children were little I have baked for the family.  I would cut the sugar in 1/2, and often use honey, maple syrup, date sugar, or what I have recently discovered, agave nectar.  I wanted my kids to be able to have a cookie, but not to have it too sweet.  Up until a few years ago their concept of a good cookie was a scone.  But then Dad has introduced root beer floats and they had a few too many pieces of taffy and birthday parties and now reality has set in. 

We do alot of baking, and have made a tradition of homemade unique birthday cakes, always made by me until the past year when my oldest has taken the lead for her siblings.  In the last couple years the kids have convinced me to get "regular" candy to decorate their cakes.  I liked it better when I used fresh flowers. 

Ice cream at Grandma and Grandpa's is of course a treat, or s'mores around their firepit.  Decorated graham crackers with my home school group made last week very fun.  And then last summer we just had to go to France where the treats are works of art, displayed in cabinets to cause the most possible temptation, and introduce me to my most favorite treat of all -- meringue.  Oh dear.    

For a visual and mouth watering journey of people's favorite sweets around the world, go to the sidebar here.