quickie blue mountain update

the ODE let us know they are issuing or requesting a new PFO (which is the thing the hearings officer wrote) and will base their decision on that. that seems good to me because the PFO was confusing before--basically mostly approving of us, but deciding against us for unclear reasons. no matter what the new PFO says or what they decide, the school will stay open and funded for the whole school year. it appears we will not get a decision in time to request a renewal (which doesn't matter much because why on earth would the school board who hates us vote to renew us?!). but the good news is we get to finish the year and have time to figure out "the next step"--whatever that's gonna be. thanks for the interest and support! xoxox

spring "egg"quinox

hooray for spring! last night i tried to stand an egg on end--a feat you are supposed to be able to accomplish on the equinoxes because of the precisely balanced way the earth is spinning at the exact time of the equinox...and this is something i have wanted to try for years, but either didn't know the exact time, or didn't have an egg with me just then. so i knew the time and i had the egg...drumrolllllllllll please....okay, it would not stand upright on a hard flat surface, but it would stand on end on the flat of my hand (my hand was NOT cupped!) and the egg honestly felt different than usual. the yolk was *different* inside of it. i consider the experiment a partial success and it was definitely exciting. (note i restrained myself from saying "eggciting"! hahaheehee)

so spring means lots of rain, which means i've yet to plant my potatoes...but lots of stuff is planted: greens, 2 successions of peas, radishes, carrots, beets, onions...and lots more stuff inside. peppers and kale and flowers (hazel picked hollyhocks and vesta picked sweet red peppers). i'm running out of room on my window sills.

i'm fairly exhausted lately. jubal's putting out teeth like the marsh marigolds put out runners. it for some horrible reason involves an important ritual of waking up to either cry or just mess around at crazy times like two in the morning. this ritual does not get in the way of the rest-of-the-night ritual of constant nursing and needing to shift sides. for the record, it isn't literally constant, but it feels that way to me and my hips, which tire easily of lying on my side. six down, a helluva lot more to go...it seems like they settle at twenty for a long time. so fourteen to go. for now.

i am still struggling with the way i want my life to be versus the way it really is. all the secret details most people don't know. yup, even i have them! the things i want and don't want and how to achieve or avoid. what to accept responsibility for and what others need to own. spring seems like a good time to deal with some of that *stuff*...you can use your planting and weeding to do little rituals of nurturing or releasing--saying again what you want to grow in your life and what you won't allow. what needs serious boundaries and what is free to blossom wildly. and anything you don't want you can compost.

happy spring everyone!

gratitudes: !) eggs. are you kidding me?! they are amazing! chickens lay more than they need and we can eat 'em. you don't even need a rooster! and my neighbors will be pleased to learn that you can have three chickens per household in the city limits (but no roosters). @) patience. somebody somewhere has some, and i'm glad. #) asparagus. yum. $) the library. i love that place. they have everything there. %) my kids. they are really amazing and resilient and creative.

i got gocco

yyyyaaaaayyyyyy! the gocco arrived right on time--it's my latest art tool for printing stuff--a little screen printing device that is popular in japan and which seems to be booming in the american art community lately, as well. i'm totally stoked to try it out, BUT, all the instructions are in JAPANESE!...so i have to find a good online tutorial (i'm downloading a you-tube piece featuring la gocco as we blog). anyways, i'm excited. it's a new tool and a new toy and a new way to express myself and make cards. so: yyyyaaaaaaaayyy!
when i figure out how to do it, and get my master image all drawn out, i will send you a card!
grateful for:
life
love
goccos
ink
dirt
earthworms

the slow spring clean

well, i've recovered from mom's visit. we love having her here, but it's tiring and i need a day or two to recombobulate afterwards. i've been making baby steps in the office, and already it feels like a mountain has been moved. i'm still not sure where it went, but i can *almost* use the office efficiently as a workspace. today will involve more office arranging, the folding of yet another pile of laundry, and the ever-famous White Shelf Clean-Up...anyone who has visited my home knows about the white shelf in the main room that no matter how many times i clean it off and swear to behead anyone that henceforth uses it as their piling station, still! becomes covered in masses of little kid crap like beads and sculpey items and anything else that can fit in the hands of a child. i must be more vigilant!--ahem...
the seedlings are all doing well. i've created shelves for them out of old beams and bricks and jars supporting narrow cuts of plexiglass. there are only three pots out of the 40 or so that i planted that did not sprout. amazing. the borage seedlings are positively huge, considering...and if a couple of you out there need borage plants let me know, i'll have a few extras, barring unpredictable cataclysmic seedling events.
jubal just woke up, so i'll close for now. i hope everyone has a marvelous day!
today i am grateful for: 1) love, in all forms and expressions 2) all my wonderful tools of the craft (sewing machine, block printing goodies, waxed book linen thread, etcetera... 3) having a roof over my head and walls to protect us from the elements 4) time (even though schrodenger's (no way i can spell that!) cat could argue successfully that it doesn't exist) 5) a super exciting presidential campaign.

just say no to no

there is a certain somebody in this house who (almost) always says "no" first--literally AND figuratively. if you need help with something or need a little positive reinforcement...you'll always get a negative joke or a downright NO first. and while they usually end up helping nicely afterwards, it just sort of ruins me for them for a while. if i'm asking for help it's because i need it. you can bet it's been a long day with jubal, full of chores and tasks and half-finished-need-to-get-back-to *stuff* and i wish people would consider the other person before they just say no, or say something negative. i'm probably tired and i ALWAYS benefit from a kind word and a supportive gesture.
it seems so much better to me to be positive as much as possible. i try and do that in my daily interactions--i don't always succeed! but i do try. there's so much in the daily grind that wears a person down, whether it's a long day at the office or jobsite, or a seemingly endless pile of laundry and not enough hands to prepare dinner with. at the end of the day, it's so nice to have a partner and a family to relax into. i encourage everyone to make a soft place for your loved ones to land. help out with a smile. surprise someone with a nice rub or a break from making dinner. do that chore you've been putting off that's driving your spouse nuts. just say something kind and unexpected. right now.

gratitude abounds: 1) thanks to rodney for rubbing my tootsies at the end of the day 2) thanks to wyatt for learning "sit" like *that*! 3) thanks to vesta for helping out with the baby and the piles of laundry 4) thanks to hazel for spontaneous, beautiful gifts 5) thanks for my bed, in which i am going to sleep very well tonight.

spring fever

okay it's been a month since i last wrote on here. i've been BUSY. jubal turned one a couple of days ago. one! i cannot believe it. he's amazing as always, and teething again. but still mostly happy. we put the raised beds in, and my first green seedlings are up and growing. i direct-seeded arugula, corn salad, and italian dandelion seeds. i have also started the following seeds in the house: broccoli and cauliflower, chives, burbank slicer heirloom tomatoes, borage, catnip, epazote (the add to your beans herb), german winter thyme, skullcap...and maybe a couple others i am forgetting right now. but everything is labeled and dated, so i'm on top of it. i got this handy tool that makes starting pots from old newspapers that i totally love, because you can sit around watching t.v. or listening to music and grind out a million little pots super easily and don't have to deal with finding, cleaning, and disinfecting the leftover plastic pots from last year. now i just need a greenhouse!!! where to put all my seedlings once they sprout?! we have some great southfacing windows in the office, but frieda goes there a lot, so i have to figure out how to keep her from dumping them. my broccoli seeds came up already and they have been moved to the kitchen window. it's so exciting. really, it thrills me. every year i am re-startled by the simplicity of seeds and life and watching the whole process unfold. and then you get to eat the results! how totally perfect.
i am still in the midst of trying to organize the office, but am making little progresses every day and find that satisfying enough. it will get done eventually.
we got a puppy a few weeks ago. he's a rottie-black lab mix who i named wyatt wayne, cuz he's a little cowboy toughie. i know, i know! i really needed something else to clean up after--but it's not too bad and he's awesome, a perfect addition to the family--though hazel may have her doubts, as he targets her for roughplay...i guess he considers her the other puppy in the house, having already realized he will not be allowed to play with jubal that way.
overall i am pretty dang happy with my life and my family. loving being busy and having fun with everything i do. i've been able to work a bit on my bags and cards and even found a potential outlet for sales...anyone out there heard of etsy.com?! it's an online marketplace for crafters of all kinds and is so awesome and inspiring. if you feel like shopping for some amazing handcrafted goods, please do go there. i will, of course, alert you all when i have my own etsy "shoppe". be well and know you are loved.
five things to be grateful for today: 1) seeds! 2)the library 3)my dad--he helped me the other day when my car wouldn't start in town--i was stranded with the baby AND the puppy and dad helped me figure out what to do and even took the puppy around with him so he wouldn't be stuck for hours in the car. it was so great 4)my kids who are so well behaved and sweet and genuine 5)the new grill! the tax return money has come and gone, but it left a new grill in it's wake and i so love it. and what the heck: 6) the new FRIDGE! it doesn't freeze the lettuce and spoil the meat! no pool of mysterious goop on the bottom of the fridge growing science experiments! i am truly grateful for it. and i bought it at ferguson's and while the in-store guy is a bit surly, the delivery guy was funny and nice and set it all up for me. woohoo!

blue mountain is beautiful

as most of you know, blue mountain is still struggling to stay open...lots of complicated details which i won't expound on here, but all hope is not lost, so keep us in your thoughts and prayers and checkbooks, and hearts.

i know it is hard for people to understand the kind of education we've chosen for the girls--i know it is radically different than traditional schools and some of you are confused or frightened by it. i hope that you all have faith in my abilities as a parent to make the right choices for them. and i appreciate all the support we've received from you.

some of the things i love about blue mountain are:

kids are immersed in democracy. it's the true foundation of our country, what we all love about living in America--freedom of choice and the resulting personal responsibility--they LIVE it every school day. they attend meetings to make real decisions about the school and how it is run and what will happen there--through that process they are able to see that what they want IS possible, that their voice is equal to every other voice, that they are not less important just because they are children (a word which some people say with such disdain, unfathomably), that they are not MORE important than every other person and that they are accountable to their community--they can better it or worsen it by their choices and actions, that some things they want may not be what is best for the community as a whole--they can recognize and respect that! it's amazing to me.

they participate in judicial process, known as JC (judicial committee) at blue mountain...where kids are held accountable before their peers for their actions. what better way to learn accountability, fairness, responsibility, and an understanding of the system that turns the cogs of this amazing nation?!

they are able to pursue ANYTHING they want! if they are passionate about a topic, skill, or art (etc.) they are free to immerse themselves in it until they are satisfied. if they find they don't love it as much as they thought, they are not judged for "wasting" time, money, or energy. and they are not left wondering "what if...?" if they do love it as much, or more! than they imagined they would, they are able to explore every facet of it, to practice and perfect it, to go as deep as they like for as long as they like. this is a part of the blue mountain school experience that i am quite jealous of!

at blue mountain, they learn HOW to learn. WHY to learn. how and why to THINK. and through the pursuit of their interests, they learn all the necessary basic skills of life. math, reading, asking, teaching, maps, measuring, compassion for others, problem solving...etc., etc., etc. this paragraph could go on and on and never cover everything they learn.

i just love it so much and am so deeply grateful for the time they have spent there. all my gratitudes go to blue mountain and the staff and community today. gratitude times five and squared.