Movin' On

Yepper.

I'm dusting off, pickin' up and headin' out to some new digs.

You can find me here at KaMotional.com

Cowgirl fine art and prints from Donna Howell-Sickles

I'm amazing....

at doing laundry.

It was inevitable. Taking care of a family of four I do at least one load a day. Making sure that the sports uniforms are clean and ready on the days needed. Eric has never complained of not being able to find clean matching socks or clean underpants in his dresser. I even have a system. The whites get washed on Tuesday etc.

Today there is a wintery mix of snow and rain and my family loves to wear fleece jammies and sweaters. I am amazing because I have figured out the perfect laundry system so that everything does not come out of the drier in a giant static ball. I've perfected it this year.

I'll put in a load of laundry before taking Brother to pre-school. Upon arrival back home from various errands the laundry will be switched to the drier for half an hour. I will pull the fleece and other items that are already dry and then reset the drier for another 20 or 30 minutes or so and viola! Clean laundry that doesn't make my hair stand on end and crackle as I fold it!

Blackberry Snaps

Life has been full of the mundane.
Here I share a couple of the moments collected by my camera phone.
My Solstice gift to my faithful readers and true friends.

Lotus Flower at the water garden. Pepsi Co. Sculpture Gardens.

This was a fun day running around the sculpture gardens of the corporate headquarters of Pepsi Co. Children ran in the open fields as "Suits" walked from meeting to meeting. This photo was taken in the courtyard. What you can't see are the many office windows looking down upon us.
This was a rare moment when my children were sitting next to each other. Garrick is exactly half the size of his sister now.

Fiercely Fun!
It's the annual changing of the seasonal garments. This photo marks the day that the box of hats, scarves and gloves were brought up from the basement.


Oy! I'm just a tired Mom. Okay, Son, you can take my picture.



Canoodling in the Kitchen.


My pre-teen rocks out at the Drum Circle. She bitched and moaned the entire ride there. The typical 9 year old track. "I don't want to go there. Why to we have to go. It's boring!"

Hey, I'm an artist and I like drum circles. I want to go so I call it a "Family Cultural Experience" and pile the family in the car. The boys had a good time running around with each other. The event was held in a gym with a crazy indoor football field for training the best of the best.
We all had fun.


I had dreams of carving fabulous Jack-O-Lantern art. Alas, the squirrels beat me to it. I would come home and see fuzzy tails waving out of the pumpkins. I tried to get a photo but the squirrel wasn't having it. I ended up leaving the pumpkins out for the squirrels in the back yard and we watched the pumpkin decompose. It was pretty cool.


I cleaned up my boys (the one in the sweater is my progeny) and a friend (checked shirt)
and brought them to the WAMU Theater at Madison Square Garden
for "Wintuk" the Circque du Soleil Family Spectacle. It delivered.
Bella got to take a "sick" day from school.

The spun sugar delivered these two clowns.

Here is to Fall 2008!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Yoga, Mermaids and Turkeys

Just back in from a Yoga Retreat weekend with a couple of sister friends. It wasn't the meditative restful weekend that I thought I would have liked. Although there was good food, a nice hot sauna, lots of yoga (my arms are sore) and some learning episodes.

It was my first time traveling with my friends Kathy, Lee and Odelia. Each person is very unique and it is very interesting and sometimes frustrating experience to learn about each others quirks. The new and interesting thing is that this ladies are the ones that I practice RC with. We were able to work through some experiences using our RC tools. Someone always had a timer. And the saying of the weekend was, "Would you like to session about that?"

The timer is so that each person takes turns listening and each person gets a turn to be heard.

I did have a cool mermaid meditation. I was a mermaid moving powerfully and easily through the blue green ocean. I discovered an underwater building full of gold coins.

It snowed a light dusting the evening we arrived. But the room was freezing cold and the beds really uncomfortable.

It was nice enough to get out of the sometimes overwhelming routine of kids schedules, obligations and cooking meals for my own family.

Speaking of cooking meals. My home is overflowing with supplies.

Thanksgiving feast will be at my home this year. It will be the first time that Eric and I host his family for Thanksgiving. I'm in a panic and know that I shouldn't be. They will be happy with whatever is there. They are bunch of people with sophisticated pallettes. It's fun trying to come up with creative recipes. So far I've come up with a sweet sweet potatoe souffle and a savory squash and green beans and a tart cranberry sauce. The Turkey will be brined tomorrow.

It was neccessary to purchase two 12 pound turkeys to feed almost 20 people. I could have gotten one larger bird but these birds are kosher. Hey, I live in a place where I can get a kosher turkey. Why not? Kosher meat does taste better to me.

I'll try to post some photos soon.
Peace and enjoy your bountiful Thanksgiving.

Sukkot Dinner

image courtesy kummunique.blogspot.com

Last night our family had the opportunity to participate in a Sukkot dinner. We didn't get to sit in a tent but we did dine al fresco in the cool evening on a generously sized wooden deck.

We were up until 11pm on a school night enjoying lamb and beef meatballs, homemade apple sauce, falafel, pita bread and fruit and chocolate fondue, special cheeses from Argentina and other assorted tasty items. We were tired this morning but energized and happy to have had a chance to get to know some friends better. We did the unAmerican thing of talking politics, religion, shared observations about American culture through the eyes of immigrants.

A couple of the interesting observations were, "Why don't Americans talk politics and religion in bars or at work?" "Why do people go to bars only to get drunk?"

The European perspective was that it was more interesting to discuss politics with someone that you don't see eye to eye with. It makes one think more.

Their idea of going to the pub is; Two drinks a cup of coffee and much debate about things that matter more than a baseball score.

Our hosts are Israeli and we felt honored to be invited to share a bit of their culture. Eric said "That's my kind of holiday; good food; good friends; good conversation."

Fall Ramble

The weeks are a blur. It's that time of year full of soccer games, soccer practice, dance classes, violin lessons and making sure we spend as much time outside in the sun before the cold of winter descends upon us.

We've been apple picking with the kids and some of their friends and have had chances to drink copious amounts of red wine with friends at potluck dinners.

The cotton sheets have been packed neatly away and replaced by the flannel sheets. The Summer clothing has been put away and the sweaters and winter jeans have rotated back into the dresser drawers.

New shoes have been purchased for the kids. The rain boots need to be replaced. Jumping into the puddles is much more fun when your feet can be dry.

Reminds me of the day this past Summer when Sister had to go out in the warm summer rain and jump in the giant puddle that forms in our driveway. (I want one of those paver driveways and am happy to watch the asphalt driveway crumble) She put on her bright red galoshes and jumped in the puddle so hard and so long that she was soaked from head to toe. Much of that puddle ended up inside the galoshes.

Next it's time to get to the basement and bring up the Winter hats, gloves, scarves and boots.

I have my personal professional development project list that I desire to work on inbetween all of this as well.

Upgrades and Slowdowns

Finally upgraded my cell phone. I've been agonizing over the decision for a couple of years. Yeah, go ahead and say it....

Finally chose a Blackberry smart phone. Needed to be able to get email and such but didn't really want to watch tv or do other time wasting things..... 'cept I've been wastin' plenty of time getting this phone together. The task list seems endless; transferring my address book from one phone to another, learning how to type a text message, learning how to sync the phone, setting up email accounts and blah blah blah.

This tool is supposed to make my life easier eh?

Well, it did point out how many pointless emails I receive. This mom does a lot of convenient online shopping....so I spent a good 2 hours today going through my email accounts clicking unsubscribe whenever I could. Goodbye Overstock emails....