time sure flies when you're alive

blue today, in honor of blue mountain school. we had quite an anticlimactic end to the school year, as three days of the last week were snow days. we've exhausted all of our appeals and all of our creative ideas for getting around this or that to allow us to remain open as a publicly funded school...so we will not be re-opening after the winter break. instead of using up all of the foundation's money, and all of our physical/mental/spiritual energy "fighting" for our right to exist in this district by going to court and maybe winning, maybe losing, but certainly spending every kind of energy we have...we've decided to focus on re-opening in the fall in another district. somewhere within a fifty mile radius of here. there are small districts about who desperately need the money and don't have whatever bad vibe this district has about us. i'm confident we will find one more than happy to soak up our extra funds and, for the most part, leave us alone. so now there is lots of leg work to be done finding a district, finding a building, writing proposals and contracts and whatever else. and homeschooling our kids. wheeee! it sucks and it's sad, but in the long run, will probably turn out better for us, as whatever district we can find to take us will certainly be closer to eugene and will vastly increase our pool of prospective students. so, i'm hopeful--and confident--that we will re-open in the fall bigger and better than we've been in the last couple of years, and i'm grateful for that. besides, it'll be nice to have the girls around for a few months. we can do lots of sewing and cooking and various projects, and i can help the girls hone their math and reading skills (and hazel wants to learn french!). that's all the blue mountain news for a while.

on the homefront...
i've been toiling away sewing all my gifts and thinking up new and hideously long and complicated projects to work on. i've got *almost* all my christmas gifts made and wrapped up and am looking forward to distributing them and visiting with everyone, weather permitting.
i sewed hazel an apron out of one of the sheets-turned-tablecloths from our wedding, it's orange and flowery and, if i do say so myself, adorable. i shall have to post a photo of it once she's opened it up. and sewing other things which i cannot yet mention. sadly, i did not get to make jubal's stuffie book, but will be doing it for his birthday. i've been making something else, which i also can't mention yet, but i'm really excited about them and will reveal all once the holidays are passed--i can say, however, that i think this item is a good candidate for my etsy.com shop, which i will be focusing on in the new year. rodney and i need to figure out a way to get high speed internet, as it will be quite a headache to work on the etsy shop using dial-up. just the thought of it gives me a headache. of course, if all goes well with the shop, hopefully it will easily pay for the extra expense incurred by upgrading the internet connection.
i spent some time and energy house cleaning in the kitchen today, which feels great. time devoted to all the holiday-related sewing and crafting has taken away from my already "relaxed" house-keeping and it felt good to see the kitchen looking donna reedish again, if only briefly. tomorrow it's the bathroom and a pile of laundry to fold, then i quit all but routine maintenance until after christmas! (yes, i realize that a clean bathroom and folding laundry IS routine maintenance, but just let me have that feeling of relaxed i-don't-have-to-clean-anything!-ness for a minute).
because of all the snow, we brought the outside rodents (clover and nickles--a bunny and guinea pig) into the house and the girls set them up an elaborate tarp-bottomed corral in their bedroom and i must admit, i love having them inside! they are so accessible for cuddling and since sweetie died i have really missed the "weep-weep!" of a guinea pig. i'd like to figure out a safe way to keep them inside all the time...maybe something in the laundry room? another thing to put off til after christmas.
i hope you are all enjoying the holiday season, visiting and baking and gift-wrapping. try to relax and love it, it's supposed to be a pleasure!

i am grateful for:
creativity
silver linings
fun
craft supplies
textiles

oh, and p.s. i sewed jubal's stocking and it is soooo cute! it's green flannel with bugs and bees on it, all brightly colored and cute and he really loves it. i hung all the stockings above the living room window and he keeps pointing at it and saying, with a huge smile, "what's that?!" he's so great.
AND! how could i not mention this?! he's been using the toilet!!! it's so awesome. he feels great about it and loves to be able to flush afterwards, then wash his hands and play with his toothbrush, which he likes because it has a picture of elmo on it. he loves elmo for some reason.