Inventory

This isn't going to be a philosophical post, and I'm not saying that these things are either excess, required, or sparse.... it simply just Is.  For us.
Maybe someone wants to know what or how we do it if we don't do curriculum or lesson plans.  (Though lots of folks around here do things the same way we do, certainly!)

We just play!  So here are some of the things we play with.

Maps.
I'd love a hundred maps up... but I simply am out of wall space. We do, however, have a few displayed.

These are two art shelves - they're in the den.  One shelf holds oil and chalk pastels, a box full of watercolors, Mama's magic pencils -as Maddie calls them- my markers (I need reliable, not-dried-up markers, thankyouverymuch, and  the books are coloring books and art books.

First case (Reading, Peoples)

•  On the top: light bright, number and letter cards, and scrabble pieces with tile stands for Maddie.and a wooden set of alphabet letters.

• Second shelf: a set of books containing stories of peoples around the world.  And our holiday books - there simply because I have no where else to store them!

• Third shelf: bios, places, and culture books

• Bottom shelf: reading stuff - workbooks for pre-k thru 2nd grade, and some classics.

Next case (Art):

• At the tippy-top is chalk, wax for art projects, a box of clays - modeling, heavy, and air dry, a box of odds and ends for sculpting and making collaged art, and a box foam letters, foam shapes, beans, tiny wooden tiles, sparklies, paper mosaic pieoces, those bendy wax-stick thingies, and pixos.

• Shelf #2 holds two weaving looms, a large tray of beads with many different kinds (including different kinds of letters and seed beads), things for sewing, fabric pieces for looms, and wool that we've dyed - some of it spun.

• Shelf #3 : a box with pull-out trays (this one belongs to Mama) - it holds scissors, a compass, glue sticks, glitters, pens and pencils, tapes, tacks, brads, etc.... mod podge and tacky glues also live on this shelf... as well as all of our washable paints and biocolors.  (The watercolors live upstairs, but these down here are used mostly for refilling the smaller bottles and pots, which reside upstairs on the "used every day" shelves.

• Next shelf: paper!  all different kinds and colors of paper.  There are also four containers of craftiness - popsicle sticks, pompoms, assorted stiff paper pieces and shapes, and buttons. The white and clear boxes are also sort of mine - they contain feathers, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, wooden shapes, plastic laces, and pinwheel supplies.

• The bottom two shelves on this case are for Science: 

•  First up is books ... all sorts of books... but certainly not all of our science books - we have several in every room of the house.  On the bottom shelf are our science kits:  

• Magnetism, Static Electricity, and Tornadoes, Clouds, and the Water Cycle
• Magic School Bus "Journey Into the Human Body"
• Physics Discovery
• Chemistry+
• Inventions
• Light
• DNA 
• Awesome Bubbles
• Chemistry Blast!
• Magic School Bus "Soaring Into Flight"
• Visible Man.

Third case (Science):

• On the top is our microscope, a lovely Elements chart, and our human torso (it comes apart).

• Next shelf is a glass milk bottle, a box full of crystal-making kits and supplies, and a box of miscellaneous - eyeclops, solar beads, netting for water/tension experiments, prisms, alligator clips and battery holder, prism glasses, etc

• Next shelf: Four boxes - one has magic sands, instant snow powder, and super snow,one has beakers, ph paper, goggles and chemistry stuff, the third has things that need to be sorted :) (evidently I was in a hurry when I brought them down from upstairs)and the fourth overly-full one on the right is our biology stuff - casts for bones, owl pellets, microscope slides (prepared and empty), petrie dishes, forceps, dna tubes, Eosin Y, and Methelyne Blue.  There is also a stack of goldenrod paper here, for acid and base testing.

• On the bottom shelf are the WildLife Fact FIles - hundreds and hundres of cards on species and ecology.  To the right of that are a few sets of animal cards, and a plant press.

Next case is Math!

•  On the top lives a little box full of weights and dice and jacks... different things to play with on the balance scale. There are a couple of rulers, a timer, our catapult, an abacus, and a box full of various things... rubix cube, rubber bands for the geoboard, the gyroscope, and stuff for math bingo.

• Second shelf is a box full of all different kids of magnets - including a neodymium and iron filings.  There are also two other boxes that have different magnet things in them - shapes and numbers, mostly. The balance scale is on this shelf, as well as two sets of dominoes.

• Next shelf : Jenga blocks (used for lots of different things), and a box of stuff for light and prism experiments.  The cuisenaire rods are here, as well as the wooden shapes for tangram games.  The cards for the shapes, as well as the Mighty Mind kit and book is here... and books for mathy projects.

• Fourth row is our box of stuff from the Build and Learn Geometry kit, a box of one inch wooden cubes (for play and measuring), and some of the Physics kit tools.

• On the bottom live the puzzles and the tangrams set - ours is Parquetry Pals.  The wooden puzzle games also live here with the puzzles.

On the next case
are Zoobs, many collections of ZooMorphs, and lacing cards and extra large beads.
We also have MoonSand, Kid Knex, Gears, and cobbler benches here.

Next is music!

a keyboard, cowbells, tambourines, a spirit flute, a recorder, bongo drums, xylophone, triangles, shakers, whistles, maracas, an organ... lots of different things.

Over here

is a big box of playdoughs and tools, a large collection of storyboard felt things as well as shapes and letters and numbers, a "dig" fossil kit in progress, and these build thingies that are foamy and loopy for making crazy things (Zoobs and Toobs?  Something like that).

phew!

Next we have the building section...

 a marble run (a large set), small legos, lincoln logs, large legos, and a big box of wooden blocks - all shapes and sizes.

Games!

 Oh dear.
These are not all of our games, these are just the kid ones, that our babes are loving right now.

• On the top is a stone and stick game that we made a little while back, a box full of card, matching, and number games, Qwirkle, and another box of bingo, cards, and checker pieces.

• Second shelf is Blokus, a Hex game we made, The Allowance Game, Guess Who, pick-up sticks (that we also made), and Operation.

• Next we have Pirates Gold, Shut the Box, Mystery Garden, Earthopoly, Twister, Leaping Lizards, Lewis and Clark, Subtrax, The LadyBug Game, and BaffleBlox.

• On the bottom we have Cadoo, Duck, Duck Goose, Diego 123, and Cootie.

An' there's dress up stuff (and stuff in a couple of drawers)

and Thomas stuff.

Oh - and a sixty foot time line.  Can't forget that.

Oh, dear Heavens, I forgot about the software.
Good grief...
we have at least six dozen computer games.
I just don't know if I can link all those!!!

And the Magic School Bus videos.  Can't forget those.  LOVE magicschoolbus- you know that, right??

We have two book cases that sit just off the kitchen -

there are a few things that live here permantly - a box of scrap paper for Madd, a library shelf, a shelf with a box of colored pencils, a box of crayons, a tub of markers, the water colors.... there is a shelf for books that we're liking at the moment that usually live upon other shelves, a large box of stamps, a box of paint tools, a box of paints... and a couple of shelves for whatever projects we're working on or loving right-this-minute.

Other than the usual stuff - library cards, small gardens, netflix, memberships to local Cool Places, bikes, barbies, kitchen stuff, rockets, skates, swings, dirt, hands, noses, and eyes,

we have a Mama and a Daddy who like to check stuff out, too.

Ah.
It works.


Guess I'll add this one to the "Things To Do" list.
Add the things you love, too!

what's new? a story of Juice.

Since writing Trev's list (things we have on hand or easy access to for investigations and learning), I have been sifting through the fall catalogs and mailers.  Flipping through to look for things we're missing.
Haven't found anything, really.

As usual, when I get to this "stuck" point of not knowing what to do, I eventually remember to take it to the children.
"Anything you want to learn about Bud?  Any classes you want to take?  Like fencing?  Or dance?  Or soccer?  Or karate?"
He thought for a second.  "Skateboarding!!  I wanna learn to ollie and grind and ride the halfpipe!"
His Dad was a street-skate kid twenty years ago.  "Done!!"
So on Friday we loaded ourselves up and went shopping for Juice.
And we found skate shoes.  (Boys size 5 1/2 - he's officially outgrown me, now, if you can believe that.)
And we picked up some great slam pads - knee and elbow.
And now Trev skates every day - has been for almost a week.  And loves it.  And I love having two little skater kids.  : )

 (They're at the very first stages of learning, mind you - mostly finding their stance and balance, and rolling around on the board.)

So, shoppping!
As I said, Friday we were after Juice.
I had the idea that I wanted to spend wisely and conscientiously.

I already said I ordered Family Math.  I checked it out last year from the library (I had to wait like three months, and couldn't renew as the waiting list is always so long), and think it's something that will come in handy for my family.

I also picked up a gorgeous Backgammon set - due to the list I comprised last January via John Bennett and Paul Lockhart.

At our local little upscale toy store, I grabbed up a geography game called The Amazing Mammoth Hunt.  It seems like a good way to learn "where in the world" stuff.  (If you wanna see more about the game, go here.)
Seems to me that between that, Carmen Sandiego, our almost-daily globe questions, and our home-version of Culture Club, we're set in this department!

We have three new canvases, and three new canvas boards.  woohoo!  : )

A new set of our favorite magnifying glasses.  Double woohoo!

A new set of markers for Mama (not fancy ones - though I saw some behind glass that were over two hundred dollars!  Bet I'd like those!!), and two new sets for Madd.  One of the smell-good kind.

Ooooh, we got a Metal Art kit that looks interesting.

And a thick pad of gorgeous scrapbooking paper that will be made into all sorts of lovelies.  (But not a scrapbook.  Sorry.  Blogging is more my style.)

And some blank t-shirts for Trev for doing some freezer-paper decorating.  Looking forward to that!

From Steve Spangler Science we are expecting some Jelly Marbles,
a rheoscopic concentrate (should have lots of fun with that!)
four balloon helicopters
and an AirMazing kit.  Which should be loads of fun.

Aside from a couple of new coloring books - one an especially fine one that is made of transparent "stained glass" sheets, oh! and a pretty big box of new glitter glue, I think that's it!

Some interesting new things!
Not much, but varied enough that added to our shelves we'll be inspired, I think.

Wanna share yours, and your ideas?  See what others are up to?
Link up over at the first list - "A 'Things To Do' Curriculum" - I'll be putting Maddie's list up, soon, and will link it there, too.

the nittiest grittiest

I have it in my head that it's best to get up at six a.m. or so, and to have the house clean by 9:30.
I think that maybe it happened once and that I really liked it.
' Course... that doesn't leave room for the morning's meditation sans children.
And since "Aaaah"ing and "Om"ing is difficult to do among screeching and chasing and "I'm hungry"'s and the slamming of the back door... well. 
And it doesn't leave room for an early morning healthy, quiet, get-me-going-in-the-right-direction walk with my ipod and gurus.
Never mind actually checking out what is happening beyond the borders of this small plot of land I call Home.
You get the idea.  Some things just get wistfully sighed over, and then tossed overboard.

This morning I had an idea that I was going to resume the post that I had begun for this month's unschooling carnival over at Enjoy Life Unschooling.
And I really did try.
I was even willing to give it my best 'go' between the quiet hours of one thirty a.m. and about four this morning before I sighed and gave it up.  (I often wake up and wander around in my head in the middle of the night.  I don't mind that.  I'm big on wandering around in my head when it's quiet.)
The words weren't coming out right.
Too scattered, you know.  The concept too big.
This Unschooling Plus! business is complicated, after all.

The truth of it is that My Whole Wide Unschooled, Irreverent, Sometimes Frantic, Non-Conforming, Sometimes-Super-Organized But Mostly Insanely Messy, Unrepentant and Joyful Life is quite complicated.

Yesterday when I began that messy and long-winded post I mentioned, Maddie was singing  "Seven Natural Wonders.... of the world!...." which comes directly from Multiplication Vacation.  We had been listening to it (along with Here Comes Science by TMBG) while we were out shopping and erranding.
She was wearing the sweetest apron while singing - an art smock that I made her a couple of winters ago.  It has a calico kitty, a goose, and a birdie sewn upon the chest.
She also happened to be sporting long brown, pink, and red streaks of smelly marker down her nose area.
They're still there today, by the way.

And that, Friends, is my point.
This life of mine
-and Ours! though I am the current narrator and can only do the Telling from my own eyes and perspective-
 is romantic and disastrous,
serene and chaotic,
messy and sublime.

Yesterday was a "shopping for new Juice" day.
Oh, the Possibilities!
But, no.
With a Certain Age one finally can lay claim to A Certain Wisdom, so let's meditate in the still upon leaving the ego (and the Joneses, though I never pay them any mind, really) out of it, and instead contemplate and ponder the flow of abundance and trust and beauty, shall we?  We'll leave the Good Consumer title there for someone else to pick up on their way past the cash register.  And we'll just order up the superduper cool stuff.

So I ordered Family Math.
'cause we'd much rather be playing thinking games than practicing math drills.

And I've been eying some shinies at Steve Spangler Science, so ordered up those.

' Picked up some gorgeous papers, because Maddie and I love creating lots of different things with paper.

Ordered a couple of new dinosaurs to go with the new habitat that Trev is building in the backyard - a river area, this one.
Not because nearly a hundred prehistoric creatures isn't enough... just because they bring with them (those dinosaurs) so much Imagine, and Joy.  And I'm big on Imagine and Joy.

Checked in with the children a couple of days ago.
"Missing something?  Want a schedule?  Want to know what's going to happen when?"
You know-- just to make sure they're not out there feeling like they're flailing and lost.
"What??" said they.
"Want a plan?  We'll do this at this o'clock every day?  Now it's time for this.... here's the list?"
"No."  Unequivocally.
No - they didn't want that.
They are perfectly content with the current rhythm of our days, and don't need to calibrate with clocks and day planners.
Well.  Maybe they were born to the right Mama, then.

Now that's not to say that we don't enjoy an inspiring list, as you may recall.
We're very fond of passing our earliest morning hours by our individual selves (I think of it as waking up and into our selves), and then coming together to share news and ideas of how we'd like our day to go.
We come up with lots of things to do together - baking, games, walks, bike rides, fieldtrips, romps, visits, art projects... whatever sounds like a good idea for the day.

But in all of this choosing and projecting and hemming and venturing,
there is always room for the Whatever.

There's room for the mess,
and there's room for the frantic tidying up.  (Er... that would mostly be Me.)

We make room for the practical,
and we eagerly attempt to chase down the icecream truck.

We're quite alright with A Plan,
and then we're happy to ditch it if it just isn't jiving with us.

' Might leave grocery store bags (non-perishables) on the kitchen floor for a couple of days because we can't tear ourselves away from the new library books or the new glitter glues.

All things considered, I s'pose others might look at our life and say that we're chaotic or lazy.
But I'll tell you... it sure doesn't feel lazy.
It feels Happy.
It feels Engaged.
It feels Thriving.
And it feels free
and friendly
and open
and abundant
and peaceful
and safe
and loving
and joyful
and big.
Yeah - it feels Big.

And I s'pose that's what Unschooling means mostly to me.
I'm not overly attached to the word, but I don't know of a better one that describes the why and the how of our Life.
'Cept maybe Heretic. [Grin.]  That seems to suit us pretty well.

But this isn't a post about rebelliousness,
or nonconformity,
or obscene gestures flipped to the Status Quo.

It's just a slow, smiling meander through our life... our collective days.

In a conversation with my sister the other day, I irreverently excused my (slight) tardiness with a quip of "That's what you get when you hang out with Unschoolers!  They think they can make up their own rules!"
We had been discussing the How of home education.
And then I stopped, and thought about what I had said.
"Of course," I continued, "Everyone is free to make up their own rules... it's just that some folks know that."

And there you have it.
As Maddie paints and sings to herself, "...Mercury!.....Venus...." (from They Might Be Giants), I can only smile, and think that this life of mine
-this big, big life-
has room enough and Love enough
to embrace and enfold whatever it is we need
in order to to continue to grow
and Become.

There is always Enough,
and,
since this life is ever expansive,
there is always room for more.

yup.

I forgot to mention this....

Monday evening when we were at the park for the last concert for the summer, Trev and I were walking together.

I looked at him, and thought I'd mention, as I sometimes do, "Your shirt is inside-out.  And backwards."

As you can plainly see in almost all of our daily posts, this is a very usual thing.

"I know."  He says, as he often does.  And then, "I'm starting to consider it to be my personal style."

I smiled.  There you have it.

two days

letter hop

prehistoric draw, play!

dinosaur swatch game

Diary of a Wimpy Kid  (a novel!  as in Fiction!)

cousins

mucho deep cleaning

detailed reorganizing

Brownies (the creatures)

chocolate chip cookies (not creatures)

swinging

learning about spiders and their webs

wii bowling

music

icecream truck

neighborhood walks

Evolution -

Eustreptospondylus, Edmontosaurus, Hadrosaurus, Proterosuchus, and Massospondylus

starfall

research

more seasonal cleaning and reorganizing

mancala

Sprouts

pick up sticks

the ladybug game

painting

and an evening bikeride

under

Shall I tell you all about how our day was spent yesterday?
That Trev read for hours and hours,
and that Eric and I spent the day cleaning carpets, and cleaning out under the kitchen sink and behind and under the washer and dryer?
No??
We'll skip it, then....

On to today!!!

saturday in august

The babes began their day with drawing chalk art on the trampoline.

I began mine by picking twenty pounds of organic, tree-ripened peaches. 

Soon after we got the playdough, and had some creative fun with that.

Since my thoughts on Spain last night, I've been pondering a sort of "culture club", but home-style, instead of with other homeschoolers.
I had an idea that we could each research aspects of a country that appealed to us - food, habitat, native animals, prehistory, buildings, folklore, games the children play, popular toys, et cetera.
So I gathered my family around, and presented the idea to them.
We decided that it's something we'd like to do. We're starting with England. (Trev chose it initially, and then we spun the globe, and with closed eyes he landed on it - so there you have it.)
Trevy is starting with dinosaurs, Eric is starting with raptors, falconry, and owls, and I am starting with myths and legends.
I guess we'll just take as long as we like - a fortnight or month, maybe, depending on how much we find that interests us.
The key will be for all of us to stay interested and happy in it - I don't want it to become a chore or a burden. (Thus we each choose what interests us to share with the others.) I'm looking forward to it... we'll see how it goes.

imaginary play.
dragons

and princesses with swords.

dinosaur research.

day mapping -
lots of interesting things on our list today. : )

building and measuring,

(with one inch blocks)
and then just building.

hybrid making with zoomorphs.

swim!
(sheesh it's hot today!)

tracing
and playhouse play
and games, games, games.

marble run!

For a couple of weeks now we've meant to do a triple decker- from the patio table, down and around to the chair or a bench, and then down to the ground.  Usually we do three or four tracks - this one is all one line!
Super fun.
Maybe our next project will  be down the stairs.

cannonballs part ii.

reading to little friends

There was a story about Spain - and it's love of music and dancing

and jumping, swimming, and togas...


an' all the rest looked like dinner
and Loves
and peanut butter cookies.

Lastly my three loves -for a little sunset adventure- went for a long bike ride and Explore.

Nothing extraordinary.
Still,
all is right
and fine
and good.

Friday, the 20th : Connect

sigh.
oh, goodness-- where to start?

Our tea comes from the garden.

Well, today was "children's museum" day.
Aunt Robyn was coming into town with The Cousins to go to the museum before their membership expires (and ours, too), so of course we were gettin' in on that action.

To the museum!
After a (reasonably long) while, Megan and Trev were looking a little bored - this fabuloso place is pretty much geared toward those 0-8, I'd say.
Oof. Praying for a Science Museum!!!
"You guys gettin' bored?" asked Aunt Stephanie.
"Mmm, yeah - a bit."
"Wanna go over to the Planetarium for a change of scenery for a little while?" It's super close. We can walk.
"Yeah!!"
"Kay - go ask Aunt Robyn if you can go over there for a few minutes with me."
Trev and Megan ran off - turns out, the whole crowd was up for the trip.

So off we were!
Museum shop tours and ogling.
Spending energy to turn lightbulbs on - experiencing firsthand wattage and what-age.
Walkin' on the moon.
An' Mars.
"Where are the footprints on Mars like the Moon?" asks Madd.
"No one has walked on Mars, yet," informs Natalee.
Note that, thinks Mama.
Weight comparisons on other planets in our solar system. Group and individual weights were checked.

After checking out our upside-down continents and the current surface temperatures (in celsius) of the world's oceans,
and a slushee
and a pretzel
and popcorn
we head back over to Discovery Gateway for a few more minutes. That's our other museum.

How to build a three-story tower of light-weight blocks?
Aaaaah.
So gonna try this at home. Just gotta figure out where. Genius!

"We've started School," says Aunt Robyn. My sister. Both my sisters are homeschoolers, if you can cotton that. "Things are sooooo much nicer." Smooth, is what she's trying to say. Quiet. Organized, I suspect. Reverent. Well behaved.
"I get up at six," says Megan. She doesn't care for that part. Well, I don't much like that part, either. If anyone gets up at six, it's me -and only me!- so that I can have some Mama Quiet Time. (I prefer mine in the a.m.)
They (Cousins) do school 'til one or so.
I'm pretty sure I looked at my sister cross-ways over that one. Even the official (as opposed to me and mine) homeschoolers I know call it good after three hours or so. I mean-- come on. Personal, one-on-one, quality edjy-kashun in an actual schoolhouse will only really get you an hour or so a day at best, right? Could be there are breaks, regular reading, and home ec things in there.
"Well," says I. The big sister. "I wouldn't know anything about any of that."
"It's nice." Says the baby of the family.

Hmmm.

Of course she took off with her brood directly after this short conversation... and I was left to go hunt mine down.
Found one, then lost the other in the interim.
Back and forth that went, for a while.
Sigh.

' Course, me being Me, my head started Supposing 'bout all this stuff.
Not in an "I suck" way, you understand... too wise and rebellious and confident for that nonsense ; ).... more like a ...... Hmmmm.

It's the Hmmmm's of Life Everyday (or maybe not quite every day) that keep us on our toes, to my thinking.

Huh.
Enough?
Willing seven days a week, 24 (or, let's be honest, I'm not very willing 24, so let's say 16) hours a day... every minute, any topic, let's do it!..??
Can we call that "Good"?
I mean - I don't make A Lesson out of cutting every pizza pie.
My voice doesn't take on an authoritative, We Must Be Accurate tone when we're baking.
I don't walk or type or speak or dictate or do anything with precision, regularly, in a "Pay Attention, Hombres!!" sort of way.
Sheesh. Am I fooling myself?
Am I the worst Unschooler ever?
Could be.
Hmmmm.

To home we go, then.
Trev starts asking questions about Spain while making the short trip home.
Five minutes after we get home we are scheduled to pick up a couple of Little Friends for a sleep-over.

To that, then.

Babes and chaos and play.

Home designing.

Mama starts thinkin' again.

Wait. Maddie was asking about spiders. (She's making friends with them.)
We have a book on that.
Oooh - Yeah. Yesterday - Garbage Truck Day - Madd was asking questions. Where's that book?
And while I'm getting those out, as per "walking on Mars" today, Mars... Mars... Hey! - Mission To Mars - we have that book! Fetch that one, too.

The babes were asking about the Apollo space mission suit in the planetarium...... Yes.
Netflix. Time again for Fly Me To The Moon. Netflix has it in the instant queue.

When we (friends included) were reading "Where Does The Garbage Go?" tonight, accordingly, every couple of sentences were interrupted by inquiries. And gasps of disbelief.
And interjections of Recycle!.
And shouts from mine of "Compost!!"

Soon enough we came across paper matters,
and of course I remembered that "making paper" has been on my "medium" list - if not quite yet on the short list. (It's been moved, now.)

Pool time,
make believe,
Dragon Pep-Talks/Training for little grasshoppers,
dinner,
reading stories to friends,
coloring,
and finally,
getting tucked in with Fly Me To The Moon.

I don't share these happenings in the name of "extraordinary".
In fact, it's pretty much the way things go around here every day.
But once in a while one (a Mama, for instance) gets to think and suppose, instead of just Do. That's what all that hmmming does for us, I guess.

Tomorrow I think Spain.
And Mission To Mars.
And quite possibly paper making.

Somehow, I think we'll be alright.
I mean... Yeah.
Right?

sweeping through

We've been sweeping through our (at home) vacation.
Hmmm -
much like we've been sweeping through our Summer, I guess.
There have been an awful lot of "absent" days around this olm blog, yes?

I was thinking the other day that I think this is my Very Favorite Summer.


I wouldn't know how or even where to begin to properly explain the whys.
It just is.
I think instead of trying, I'll just stick with that.
Just Is.

This morning a cool breeze arrived.
It brought to these desert lands
our old friend, Rain.

We threw open the doors
and windows
turned off the noisy, synthetic fans and coolers
and invited the whirling,
twirling winds in -
to re-arrange
and sweep
and cleanse.

And we helped.
Gladly!




Aaah,
Mama has finally moved on to the second half of the house, then. :)


Downstairs?



Check.

I tell this tale today,
not because I suppose it's interesting,
but because it exemplifies the way Life has been this last week.

Piddling,
meandering,
disconnected,
ultra-connected,
in pieces,
pieced,
and in Peace.

Yeah.
Just Is.

Fireside and poolside
and friends and cannonballsmusic
mayhem
and blank canvases...
we've welcomed the all of it.
There have been prayer (meditation) beads restrung


green beans unstrung
worms under the microscope


and Spirits connected in the macro-scope.

Earth
Wind
Fire
and
Water.

Meditations in utter calm and Still
and meditation by the swingin' of an axe.

Crazy?
Maybe.
Probably.

But that's the way of it, still.


Unusual, and usual.
Still, and chaotic.
Crazy, and Same.

And good.
It's all still Good.

So,
so good.