Rainbow Family of Four

Moving Towards the Darkest Night

2010-12-16T09:24:00.000-08:00

While Yule or the Winter Solstice is not quite upon us yet, I am really struck by how late in the morning the sun rises and how early it sets. Every year this miracle of nature happens and each year I am in wonder of it. Such long periods of darkness could be depressing I suppose. However, there are many things about these long nights that I love.

Since the sun doesn't rise until nearly 7:30, nearly anyone who wants can partake in the beauty of the sunrise. There is no need to arise by 4:00 or 4:30 AM, like in the summer to catch this display of intense oranges, pinks and purples and an ever lightening sky.

We get to close out the day a wee bit early by enjoying the sunset - a similar array of vibrancy in the western sky.

We have long cozy evenings in our homes with the ones we love.

P!nk - Glitter In The Air (GRAMMYs on CBS)

2010-12-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

Music

2010-12-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

So much gratitude for music in my life.

Spirit Sisters

2010-12-06T05:21:00.000-08:00

This morning I'm reflecting on how blessed I am to be a part of a circle of women. We have gathered together for 18 years to share our lives, meditate, share ritual, sing, drum, dance, create beauty, cry, laugh, tell stories. 18 years is a wonderfully long time to journey together - across the differences in our ages, backgrounds bound by our companionship and our shared experience of spirituality. Wow, what a journey - wonder what the next 18 years will bring?

This group has inspired me in countless ways; most recently in writing a call of the directions for one of our rituals.

Welcome goddesses, spirits and energies of the East. Awaken in us the inspiration of each new day’s possibilities. Encourage us to listen for the messages in both your softly breezes and your ferocious winds. Remind us to honor our both intuition and intellect in all of its forms. Blessed Be

Welcome goddesses, spirits and energies of the South. Just as the sun is at its fullest at midday, inspire us to live to our fullness. Guide us to work with our inner fire to use it for good and not to burn in anger. Remind us to honor our passion in all of its forms. Blessed Be.

Welcome goddesses, spirits and energies of the West. As the sun sets in all of its glorious colors, remind us to bask in the beauty around us. Encourage us to find our own inner flow just as the waters of the earth flow from one place to another. Remind us to honor our dreams and journeys in all of their forms. Blessed Be

Welcome goddesses, spirits and energies of the North. During the darkness of night, invite us into quiet reflection. Encourage us to feel the ground beneath our feet and from it draw up our ability to ground and center. Remind us to honor our practical and logical selves in all of their forms. Blessed Be.

As we gather tonight may we each honor the goddess within each of us in our creativity, our strength, our dedication, our wisdom, our humor and our compassion. May we draw energy and inspiration from each other, hold gratitude for our time together and carry our collective wisdom out into our world. Blessed Be.

Full Days

2010-12-04T03:47:00.000-08:00

After two full days of teaching, I am reminded to be so grateful to go the work I love. 24 individuals came together Thursday morning - 22 of them participants and 2 of us facilitators. Over the next two days, hard work, much discovery and warm laughter was shared. So wonderful to witness people stepping into their self-discoveries with grace and curiosity.

The Ship of My Life Sailing Through Softly Falling Snow

2010-12-01T05:39:00.000-08:00

This quote from Maya Angelou spoke to me this morning.

The ship of my life may or may not be sailing on calm and amiable seas. The challenging days of my existence may or may not be bright and promising. Stormy or sunny days, glorious or lonely nights, I maintain an attitude of gratitude. If I insist on being pessimistic, there is always tomorrow. Today I am blessed.

Today, I am blessed! Yep, life has its many stresses. My "ship" has been bouncing around in stormy waters - the normal stuff of life - sick kids, bickering kids, the van needing repairs and new tires, too much to do and not enough time to do it in, the house is always messy, work is full and has its own set of both positive and negative stresses. In the craziness of juggling way too many balls at one time - and dropping a few accidentally along the way - it is easy to pass by gratitude. To let my heart and mind fill up with worry or problem-solving or planning or....

So, taking a few good deep breaths, I create space in my heart for gratitude - to really feel it swelling and scooting the worry and problem-solving aside. To create room to wonder at the softly falling snow beginning to sprinkle itself like powdered sugar on the ground. To be grateful for its beauty and the blanket of protection it puts over plants and the water it adds to the ground. To listen with child-like ears as my girls exclaim "Mom, its snowing!" To bask in the memories for a moment of Rowan, just learning to talk, declaring snow a "big mess." To stand on the front porch for just a minute and smell the snow - it has a unique cold smell. Thank you snow for reminding me to pause in my busy day to be in wonder for a little while.

I am blessed.

Recommitting to this Blogging Thing

2010-11-30T11:11:00.000-08:00

This morning on Facebook a friend shared a link to a woman who intends to post a daily gratitude for each day in December. I loved that and thought "what a good idea" as I realized that I've kind of fallen away from my own gratitude practice. If you want to check it out, her blog is called "Bless Her Heart" and can be found at http://blessherheart.typepad.com/bless_her_heart/.

Then I decided to peek at my own blog - fall of 2007 was the last time I posted!! Wow, guess I'd kind of fallen away from this too - another sort of spiritual practice for me. I somehow got busy, help co-author a two-year spiritual journey curriculum, raised kids, canned food, taught lots of workshops and coached lots of folks - and neglected to take time for my own writing and blogging.

It was fun to wander through my blogging past today, reading old posts, seeing favorite pictures. So, with the inspiration of "Bless Her Heart" and getting reacquainted with my own blog, I will post more frequently than every 3 years. I'm excited!!

Sweat!

2007-11-12T06:24:00.000-08:00

At Friday's UW Badger Volleyball game, our girls went out on the court at the end of the game to join the team in singing "Varsity." This is a tradition and our girls love to particpate. Typically, one fo the Volleyball Women will pick Gemma up and hold her during the singing and more often than not, someoen will throw an arm around Rowan's shoulders.

So, this week Gemma came back to find us after the song was over and excitedly declared, "Mom I have Brittney Dolgner's sweat on me!!" She was just tickled to have a Volleball player's sweat on her! (-:

Did I Mention????

2007-10-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that I think Dog Parks are totally awesome places?!

Look at me - I'm having a great time!! I can run and run and run and there is a fence to keep me nice and safe. I come when I'm called - most of the time - my mom is really working on recall with me.

Last weekend I got to go on my first trip with my family to Washington Island to visit what everyone kept calling "grandma and grandpa." I decided that grandparents are very good things. This set loves English Setters - I guess they've had several of them over the years. So, they know all about my kind of dog!! I was able t work them for lots of treats!! I met their 13 year old English setter, Stormy. He wasn't totally thrilled with me, but he was nice to me.

The best part about the trip is that three separate times I saw pheasants. I went on still point and then waited until I was told I could put the birds up. Grandpa and Mama said I did great! Nobody shot at the pheasants, which is fine by me, since my family doesn't plan to hunt with me. It sure was fun though to find those birds and do my job.

Ok, this is Lance, signing off. It's time to choose on my peanut butter kong and take a nap.

Introducing Sir Lancelot Hunter

2007-09-06T13:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, its been months since I've posted on our family blog - we've had a very full summer, including both kids' birthdays, our anniversary, the start of school, some big family saddness (death of a kind frined), but what do I post about in my first post back - OUR NEW BABY!

He's an adopted English Setter probably about 2-3 years old adopted through the amzing folks at Illinois Birddog Rescue and Midwest Canine Mutts - truly amazing people dedicated to a great quality of life for English Setters and English Pointers. Our boy's first rescue name was Hunter - he was rescued from a kill shelter in central KY. He was named again at his new rescue as Sir Lancelot, a fine name for an noble English Setter. We are choosing to call him Lance - he's also affectionately known as "The Boy" given that he's the only male in the household - oh, I take that back, apparently the hamster is male too, but it sure is hard to tell the gender of a dwarf hamster.

Of course this is certainly not the most elegant photo of this charming boy – it just cracks us up though. Do you think he’s comfortable here? (-: One of his favorite times of day is settling in on our bed while we read and watch a little TV. Lance still sleeps in his crate once lights are out, primarily to give our cats a break. They are much more likely to roam the house when they know he’s in his crate.

Suzanne, his forster mom, described Lance as being a sweet and noble boy. We think her description is 100% right on! Look at this proud and confident guy. He's very handsome too - though he still needs to put on some weight and we are anxious for his feathering to come in on his coat.

He’s doing wonderfully with other dogs too. Labor Day he joined many other dogs at the city’s first Dog Plunge at the city pool – a fundraiser for the police K9 unit. He loved the water and managed to wag his way in front of the TV cameras. He got prime footage on the 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 news on Monday night. Silly us though we were so wrapped up in the festivities that we forgot to bring our camera. In addition to wading in the water he also figured out that he could go up to the vendors and work treats out of them.

Lance has also been swimming at the beach behind our house. Unlike his retriever buddies, he’s not interested in truly swimming and doesn’t like going above his belly in the water. Waves were an interesting thing to manage. We enjoy watching him attempt to leap over them or bite at them. Thank goodness he hasn't attempted to point them! He certainly loves to let us know when he sees squirrels, butterflies, bees and the neighborhood cats!!
He’s having fun with lots of new toys. He thinks sweet potato dog chews are very yummy!! And really nothing can beat a big ole’ soup bone!! He’s a fluffy toy destroyer – working the toy over until he’s extracted the squeaker and flung stuffing around. So, we’ve moved onto rubbery toys – the kong is a hit as is his “tree branch.” The best was his first interaction with his stuffed pheasant – wish we had that on video. He went on point, but couldn’t figure out why the darn thing wouldn’t fly! He kept circling it and looking at it from all sorts of different angles.

He loves his kids!! Both of our girls have their different ways that they each dote on him He walks with us to school in the mornings and would love to just run that playground with everyone – and oh my, all those ball toys the kids play with, how can any dog resist them!! He pays rapt attention to the happenings at both girls’ soccer practices too.

Our family will start doggie classes at Dog’s Best Friend in about three weeks. We think he’ll definitely be well settled and ready for this next level of learning by then. He’s done a great job of mastering “sit” this week and will do it pretty consistently indoors. We're working on good leash walking (which doesn't include pulling the person at the other end of the leash around the neighborhood!) and consistent potty outside. Hot dogs, chicken pieces and dog roll are very high motivators!! Now when we say "good boy" he salivates and looks for hot dogs. Yep, Pavlov could have used this boy to prove his theories.

Shining Solstice!!

2007-06-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

I have finally landed at my desk after a whirlwind week with many projects still spread out before me and just a few minutes before everyone arrives at home. We're about to treat ourselves to a favorite summer time food - sweet corn - YUM in celebration of Summer Solstice.

We've had off and on thunder showers all day - a perfect transitional weather pattern to symbolize the transition of the seasons.

Shining Solstice to each of us as we hold the warmth of the summer sun in our hearts through the year through. May the sun's fire awaken in us our own bright ideas and passions and remind us to spread warm and care throughout our own "corners" of this amazing world.

Blessed Be!

In Other News...

2007-06-16T20:52:00.001-07:00

Besides the excitement of kindergarten graduation, the days proceeding the last day of school were full beyond compare.

Last Saturday incuded Gemma's last soccer game of the season - a tournament between all the teams from her school. Rowan's last soccer game - and the last time their team would be coached by Eric who has been their coach since they were kindergarteners. Then, it was time to pull of those cleats, shin guards and uniforms and don concert attire. Gemma had her Yamaha music concert and Rowan was to be a guest performer. The festivities ended with a late lunch at Noodles & Company.

Kindergarten Graduation

2007-06-16T20:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, it has actually happened - Gemma has graduated from kindergarten!

Here she is - getting on the school bus for the last time as a kindergarten. Thank you to our exceptionally wonderful bus driver, Neil and bus attendant, Sharon, who not only got Gemma to school each day with kindness, care and good humor, they are also the team that drove Rowan to school each morning when she was a Lapham student.

An empty stage, just before it was filled with kindergarten singers as each of the five kindergarten classes took their turns with their songs. Isn't the stage beautiful?

Here she is on stage with her class, singing Love is Like a Rainbow. The pictures of her with the other 75+ kindergarteners, all waring their motar boards turned out a bit too dark to post.

We have many pictures with Gemma and her friends after the ceremony. I chose this one though, because it just cracks me up - each are dressed so formally, you'd think they were going to prom and not kindergarten graduation.

Gemma with her teacher, Mrs. Dickerson - to whom we say "thank you" a thousand times over for her skill, compassion, immense understanding of young children and her dedication to the art of teaching.

When given the choice about where to go for dinner to celebrate, Gemma chose Perkins (-: She enjoyed a high carb supper of rainbow pancakes with bacon, some scary-looking blue beverage and a piece of French Silk pie!

Happy Graduation Day!!

I'll close with the first part of a song the kids all sang together at the ceremony, the tune is New Yor! New York!

Start spreading the news

We're leaving today-

We want to be a part of it - First Grade, First Grade!!

Incredible Timing

2007-06-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

At lunch time today, I zipped over to Gemma's school to join her for lunch. It was her school's cookout after their Field Day events. As the "field" filled with parents, kids and staff, carrying full plates of hamburgers and othe picnic foods, many of us sprawled out on blankets, we became aware of a smell - not the pleasant smell of grilling hamburgers and veggie burgers. A smell that comes after a well eaten meal, if you get what I mean. Suddenly, it became clear to us all - the street work going on a block away had somehow disrupted a sewer pipe. YUCK! We all got treated to the smell of sewer while attempting to down our lunch. What timing!

How Do You Know When....

2007-06-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

your nearly nine year old's underwear has gotten too small?

Well, here's how "we" know - she stops wear it and goes wild and free and doesn't tell anyone.

Over the past couple of weeks, both Jani and I have noticed that Rowan doesn't seem to have a lot of pairs of underwear in the laundry. We both share the laundry duty, so at first just attributed it to the assumption that Rowan's underwear had been in a load that we each had not personally done.

Friday, however, we were doing laundry together and one of us asked the other if we'd noticed that Rowan hadn't seemed to have many pairs of underwear in the laundry lately and we wondered if they'd been in other loads. Hmmm, it became crystal clear as we shared laundry notes, that neither of us had seen barely a single pair this past week.

Inquiring minds really want to know where the underwear is - is it being worn and stashed someplace? Is it not being worn?

Upon asking her, Rowan got very quiet and said nothing. A follow-up question, "Honey, have you not been wearing underwear?" A slight, guilty-appearing head nod. "Honey, you need to wear underwear, because...." Sunddenly it dawns on us, "Is your underwear not feeling good?" Big head nod - jackpot! "It's too tight" was the reply.

Curious as to why she didn't just tell us the undies didn't fit, she just said she didn't want to have to go shopping for underwear (she is very choosy, which I get, who likes uncomfortable underwear). A trip to Kohls yesterday afternoon yielded several pairs of nice cotton undies - Jockey and Bali - without cumbersome waistbands that have the nearly-nine year old girl seal of approval. Today, her bottom is covered by Bali - no more wild and free!!

Plays, Plays, Plays!!

2007-06-08T07:21:00.001-07:00

All the third and fourth grade classrooms in Rowan's school are doing plays as the close of their literature block for the year. They've put on about five performaances, each classroom, throughout this week, to accomodate a variety of audiences, ranging from parents to peers to siblings.

Rowan's class performed two plays - one a chapter from a Beverly Cleary book, Henry and Ribsy. Rowan was cast as Mrs. Huggins, Henry's mom. Here she is below. Cute to see her interpretation of how Mrs. Huggins might look - in a bandana and apron.

The other play was a Tansanian fable. She had wanted to be cast as a villager in the marketplace in this play. However, the villager has a very small speaking part and her teacher (appropriately so in my opinion) gave her a larger speaking part, feeling that she could challenge herself with a larger part.

During set changes between the two plays, kids performed short pieces - joke telling, instrument playing, etc. Rowan and her buddy decided to cook up a little duet - New Orleans Jazz style by playing "When the Saints Go Marching In."

The two were so cute while they rehearsed at our house over the weekend. Each girl is far along einough in her musicanship to really contribute to their shared planning - it was like having a mini "garage" band in our living room. As you can see from the picture, Rowan is playing only right-handed. She dropped the full accompaniment, because it was confusing for her friend to manage the full accompaniment. It came off as a pretty simple piece, melogy alone for each instrument - just great though in figuring out how to duet play with two very different "voiced" instruments.

Tomorrow Rowan is a "guest" performer at Gemma's Yamaha piano concert tomorrw, playing a fun Bach piece.

Where are my IT and Payroll Departments?

2007-06-05T07:03:00.001-07:00

This is my business logo and opening page for my website....

99.8% of the time I love being a samll business owner. I love the work that I do, it has purpose and meaning for me. It's powerful to support a group of people in their learning process and to see them embrace healthy and caring ways of being together and to see them realize that they are able to do it - they are not dependent on someone else! It's great to have colleages, also small business owners, who are my closest friends, who I trust implictedly to do the level of intense work that we do together. I love the diversity of people, groups and cultures I get to interact with routnienly and the diversity of skill sets that I need to have at the ready to do my work well.

I even like doing much of the infrastructure stuff that is required to keep things moving along and have gotten quite adept at doing graphic design for my handouts and other materials, managing software and getting it to do what I need it to do, managing billing and bookkeeping, etc.

However, there are those rare moments when I wish I worked for someone else - where I could turn over some of the infrastructure things. This past week or two has been one of those rare times.

My computer is acting funky. I've done what I can in dealing with the operating system. Now its time to call in the Geek World guys to help me out there and squeak some more time out of my computer.

The company that hosts my business website and controls my domain-driven email went bankrupt two weeks ago. Their services started going off-line left and right. My colleagues and I found out about their bankruptcy only throug a competing company attempting to win over our business. After many attempts to contact our current company, we've found out its true. So, we are each scrambling to move our websites before that service goes off-line, our sites are gone and our clients have no way of contacting us electronically. I've never moved a website before, so I have no knowledge base on which to draw. I suppose it might be easy in theory, but we're each finding lots of snags as we attempt to move our sites - interfacing with the domain holder, the old host and the new host - and all of these folks are the kings and queens of using the jargon of their trade. About Friday afternoon the realization hit me - I could slowly keep prodding through this process, learning as I went and get my site up. However, I'd be learning skill sets I'd likely not need again for a long time. A placed an email to someone lots more web savvy than me and asked if I could hire her to move the site. She's hitting lots of snags too, but at least knows how to untangle them!

Thus I've pieced together my IT department. (-:

Now, onto payroll.

One of my long-standing clients, a state agency, had not gotten me a check in a timely fashion. I give clients the standard 30 days post-invocing for pay me. 30 days came and went, no check, then 37 days, then I make contact with the agency - "gee we cannot find it, let's trace back the paper trail and see what we can figure out." 45 days have now passed, "I think we've found the problem." 50 days now pass and the check arrives happily in my mailbox - without interest for late payment figured in! Imagine, for a moment, those of you employed by someone else - how we just take for granted that our paychecks will be auto-deposited or placed into our hands on the right day and now imagine that employer being 20 days late in getting you your paycheck - this is the one less-than-joyful part of self-employement. Thank goodness for a wonderful internal ally at he agency who kept nipping at the heels of the fiscal agents to figure out where the check-cutting process had goteen caught.

So Monday (yesterday) morning arrived. I am thrilled to have gotten the payment issues worked out, have the website more underway, have a computer maintenance appointment scheduled for mid-week and plan on now focusing on my client work and hopefully getting caught up on time lost dealing with all of the above last week. HA!! We had no electricity for nearly 4 hours yesterday - a good portion of my office work time!! )-: A power pole had caught fire from a falty line in the next block - lots of drama with fire trucks, police vehicles to block the street and utility trucks, pulling out the old pole, putting in the new and restringing wire. I had enough charge in my cell to at least conduct phone business yesterday while I had no computer access (yes, I have a laptop, but my files were on my desktop).

I thought, if I worked for an organization, at least I'd have colleagues around to keep me company while everything was down. (-:

Finally when the power came back on, I had two hours for work until it was time to take the girls to the dentist.

Today, ahhhh, keeping my fingers crossed for uninterrupted work time. I've already gotten lots done and taking time to blog is my little "reward."

I'm back to being happy to run my own business again.....

Voice Messages

2007-05-24T06:31:00.000-07:00

I get home from being with clients all day Wednesday to hear several voice messages...

VM #1 - no big deal - dealt with & deleted

VM #2 - dear friend - they had gotten a puppy over the weekend and we were over to their house, loving up the puppy. Puppy went for first vet appointment and they found out he has round worms - which can transfer to humans and are problematic for kids - vet advised that you all better call your doctor.

Oh joy! Luckly, I'm not too squeamish, so just add this to the long list of "to-dos" - call doctor.

VM #3 - the parent who runs Gemma's after school urban agriculture club - no club tomorrow - his kids are sick. They have chicken pox, despite having been vaccinated - and were at clubs during it turns out during their highly contageous period. So watch Gemma for signs of chicken pox, even if she's been vaccinated.

Lovely - two bizarre disease warnings right in a row.

Still two messages to go - I'm a bit curious to know what the next one will be.

VM #3 - Madison School Community Rec - a cultural arts class that each girl was going to take for three weeks this summer cancelled due to low enrollment. They have other things available for kids Rowan's age - not for Gemma though. What would we like to do?

Oh joy - a three week gap in the summer activities now appears on our calendar with other options filling up quickly.

One message left and I think, "please let this one have some positive closure on something."

VM #4 - another parent - the idea for sharing transportation to and from Girl Scouts for Gemma and her daughter sounds great - we're all square with that - see ya' Thursday.

HOORAY - at least I got positive closure on one of those messages.

Our Neighborhood Schools Dealt a Painful Blow

2007-05-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

Our neighborhood is just reeling after Monday evening's school board meeting. Our state has been severely burdened with a school spending limit (QEO - qualified economic offer) made into law in the 1990's that is now really taking it's toll in the form of painful cuts to children's scrvices throughout the state. Our district has not remained unscathed - we've cut millions from the budget year after year. This year (07-08) requires another $7 million in cuts.

So I don't envy district officials and members of our board of education in their task of figuring out how to manage cuts of these magnitudes. And I've really had enough of politicians who think more about warring with others than about educating young children!!

Sadly, the cuts for this coming year have laid a disproportionate burden on our neighborhood's elementary schools, when there were options on the table which could have shared the impact of the cuts more equitably. My letter to the board post-decision speaks to my concerns for the well-being of our children, their teachers and our neighborhood.

Dear Members of the MMSD (Madison Metropolitan School District) Board of Ed,

I am writing to express my deep disappointment in Monday’s decision to consolidate Lapham and Marquette Elementary Schools into one K-5 school. While the district has referred to this move as a “consolidation,” it is in truth a school closing, as Marquette will now be closed to elementary-aged students. I fully acknowledge the incredible burden placed on the BOE of figure out how to cut millions of dollars from the district’s budget. Sadly, the decisions made Monday night will have laid a disproportionate burden on one segment of the district’s population – families and staff members in the Lapham-Marquette attendance area.

I am a long-term Wil-Mar Neighborhood resident, living in the neighborhood since 1988 and purchasing a home with my partner in 1992, a professional educator and small business owner (my partner is also an educator) and a parent to two daughters, one attending Lapham and the other currently at Marquette. I have a investment in the long-term health and well-being of central city neighborhoods and believe deeply that the re-opening of Lapham Elementary in the 1990s was instrumental to the revitalization of neighborhoods on the Isthmus. Therefore I am profoundly concerned that closing Marquette to elementary-aged students may have a destructive impact on the health of these same Isthmus neighborhoods.

As I assume you are aware, there are many challenges facing our central city neighborhoods these days - very high property values and property taxes as well as the influx of "mixed used buildings" with condos (most units not being adequately sized for families) - factors which potentially make the neighborhood less accessible for families with young children and families with lower incomes. A big draw for our families has been the school pair - vibrant, well-managed and exciting places to learn, geared to the developmental needs of children. Residents have found ways to stay in the neighborhood, despite the high cost of housing to keep our kids at Lapham-Marquette. Removing this pairing and consolidating the nearly 500 children into a small building I firmly believe removes a key attraction to young families.

I'm assuming you’re also aware that placing nearly 500 children in a building which at one point was said to have a capacity limit of about 300-350 means that children will enter the school in an over-crowded condition. If our enrollment increases at all in the next few years, we will be over-capacity and will need to seek yet another alternative for housing these kids. Again, placing children and teachers in a building so that in Year One of the consolidation we're nearly at (or at) capacity seems to be applying a “band-aide” to a problem that requires much longer-term solutions.

As I assume you are also aware, school mobility has a negative impact on children's learning. The children currently at Marquette will be expected to make a school change this coming fall - some of whom just moved to Marquette this past fall as incoming third graders and others who will be moving to Lapham for one year and then moving to O'Keefe the following year as middle schoolers. My older daughter, for example, will make three school transitions under the current plan by the time she enters middle school - once in the 2006-07 school year to transition from Lapham to Marquette as a third grader, next in the 2007-08 year to transition back to Lapham as a fourth grader and then in 2009-10 to transition to O'Keefe as a sixth grader. While I fully acknowledge that they will be moving with peers, the simple fact is that they will be moving three times - even with the best resources to support resiliency, these sorts of moves are extremely stressful for young children and confusing as well - things that are not assets to productive learning.

Another very large concern for me is the rapid time-table for consolidation. A decision of this magnitude that impacts the next school year was made in late April giving very little time for planning for a smooth transition and puts staff under incredible stress. Additionally, it seems that there is not clarity about the security of teaching positions amongst the staff at Marquette - many of us wonder if they will be able to keep their jobs or will be surplussed (yet another stressor for our students, not knowing who their teachers might be next year). We have been given a new principal - one who is not familiar with our neighborhoods, students, families and teachers and who will be returning after a leave of absence, who is now expected to help support this transition. Non-clarity of who will be working in the school, new leadership and a consolidation all targeted at one population at the same time are major detriments to our schools' resiliency and sustainability.

I understand that our current elementary schools with large student populations have assistant principals assigned to them. I am confused and concerned about why no such mention of an assistant principal has been made for the new consolidated elementary school, as it too will now be a large elementary school.

I understand the issues of needing to find a stable home for the affiliated programs housed at Brearly Street and support stability for these students and teachers. I believe some ideas about how to house these programs and keep Lapham and Marquette open as elementary schools have been (or will be) proposed for consideration. I would strongly hope that all board members will actively consider these proposals as they have the likelihood of taking the "higher ground" for the good of all of these children and young people and may provide a more true long-term solution.

Happy Beltane

2007-05-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

Today is the First of May - May Day - Beltane!

It is the mid-point between Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice - the height of spring in the Solar Calendar. Beltane is the last of the three spring fertility - earth awakenings festivals.

Take some time today to help wake up the earth from Her slumber - plant something beautiful, make a May Basket for someone dear to you, dance a May Pole, notice what is blooming in your life (both literally and figuratively) and take time for joy.

Madison Youth Choir

2007-05-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

-dateline, Madison, WI
Sunday, April 29, 2007
1:00 PM
Mitby Theater
Madison Area Technical College

Rowan's Stage Singing Debut with the

Madison Youth Choirs

Last fall Rowan expressed interest in joining the Madison Youth Choir after they made a visit to her school the previous spring. She joined an introductory choir to do some early voice training, learn group singing/choral techniques and gain a basic understanding of conductor's signals. She loved it! The intro class served as her audition for MYC's youngest girls performing choir, Choraliers. She joined forty-some grade 3-5 aged girls in February, thus this is her first performance with the choir. May 9 the choirs will be "touring" various schools and elderly residential facilities and she'll have the chance to perform again.

We are very proud of her. She's worked hard and enjoyed her experience a lot. Their closing song was a beautiful version of Shalom, which she loves. We could really hear her voice blending in with the other girls to carry the melody while two harmony parts were being sung.

We were also treated to hearing/seeing all the boys' choirs and the older girls' choirs through high school aged kids. It was amazing to hear the musicianship of each group and stunning to see how hard kids and conductors alike have worked to achieve what they have achieved. Many of the kids looked like they enjoyed themselves thoroughly, which is also very powerful to observe.

We very much appreciate both Rowan's intro choir conductor, whose gentle spirit, encouragement and skill helped Rowan's interest and love of music grow. And we very much appreciate her Choraliers conductor, who holds high expectations for the girls and gives them lots of encouraging and concrete feedback. Her musical choices were also outstanding. She also directs one of the older girls' choirs and both choirs sang culturally diverse music with strong peace and justice themes throughout.

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer!!

2007-05-01T06:52:00.001-07:00

-dateline, Madison, WI

Saturday, April 28, 2007

9:00 AM

Panthers (Rowan's team) vs. Vipers - Sandburg Park

Lorax (Gemma's team) vs. Merkles - Warner Park

Ah, the Saturday mornings of having two soccer games to attend have begun with Gemma's "season openner" and Rowan's 3rd game of the season happening at the EXACT same time in two different parks. This will be the only time during the spring season that the games are at different times. The other games have some lead time between each so we can make the mad dash to the next field.

Go for it, Gemma!! Don't ya' wonder where the rest of her team is? Most of the time these little guys play in a pack, all hundled around the ball with their arms spread wide. Here's a rare shot of the ball and a single player working it down the field.

Cuteness factor very high all around!! These little guys did great - even managed some passing and several of their goals were scored because they worked as a team. No official score since they do non-competitive play at this stage.

So while Gemma happily kicked and dribbled away, Rowan's team was keeping up their energy a few neighborhoods away against a tough team. They played well, especially the first half, and lost narrowly.

Family Pride

2007-05-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

Want to check out some very cute kid-drawn pictures? Then go to http://www.familypride.org/contest/ where you can see the ten finalists in the Family Pride Coalition's picture contest. Our girls do not have an entry - oops, Mom forgot about the deadline.

The website shows the ten finalists - ranging in age from 3.5 to 12 years, all sharing their pride in the family, which is headed by gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered parents.

Look Who Is Playing Soccer

2007-04-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

Gemma has now joined her sister in taking on the game of soccer. She's expressed interest for awhile now though we had to work through why she couldn't join The Panthers (Rowan's team) who are all 3 to 4 years older than her, much bigger than her and who have all been playing together since kindergarten themselves.

Once we overcame this initial roadblock, she was pretty excited about joining the MAYSA (Madison Area Youth Soccer Association) recreation league. All teams are formed by kids in the same school, so they play with friends and peers and teams often stay together for up to four years.

The first order of business for Gem was checking out the uniforms. Her team name is The Lorax (all MAYSA teams formed this spring are named after Dr. Seus characters). So she thought, logically, that their uniforms should be Lorax colored. However, she approved of the red and black and once satisified with the attire, hit the play field with much enthusiasm.

Post game we went shopping and managed to find itty-bitty shin guards and size 12 toddlers cleats! We often find her these days putting on her shin guards and cleats and prancing around in her uniform.

The kids have another practice tomorrow night with first game on Saturday.

Earth Day 2007

2007-04-24T14:09:00.000-07:00

Our Earth Day morning started out with planting Burr Oaks and White Swamp Oaks and hybrid Burr and White Swamp Oaks along the shores of Lake Mendota at Tenney Park.

The day was gorgeous, sunny, warm a soft breeze - reminding of all of what an incredible home we have and how tenderly this home needs to be cared for everyday.

I will enjoy bringing the girls to check on these trees throughout this summer and years to come.

Tatoo Artist

2007-04-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Rowan worked a shift at Family Fun Night and was a Tatoo Artist. Gemma waited patiently in line to have her sister do her tatoo, opting out of a turn sooner, because her tatoo would have been done by someone else. I was proud of Rowan because she followed through and stuck with her work shift while other kids blew off their responsibilities, opting to extend their own personal Fun Night experience. Rowan still got plenty of time to hang out too as her work shift did not take up the entire evening.

How Much Attitude Can One LIttle Girl Have?

2007-04-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Lots!! She's so proud to wear her school's T-shirt at Family Fun Night.

Little Ironies

2007-04-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

April 9 - 13 is Tornado Awareness Week here in Wisconsin and today we are under a Winter Storm Warning, getting lots of heavy wet snow with blowing and drifting and 1/4 mile visability.

Hey, its the upper Midwest in early April

Welcome Spring!!

2007-03-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday evening, at about 7:00 we ushered in Spring here in the midwest. Our preparations for the Ostara (Spring Equinox) celebration began on Saturday with coloring eggs. Look at those gorgeous dyes - no pre-packaged pellets - just food dye, vinegar and boiling water. The colors were just great on the eggs - soft and new looking - like a water color painting.

Egg dying and decorating is deep-rooted in European pre-Christian cultures as the egg sympbolizes fertility and new life. Women who wanted to become pregnant would often wear a finely decorated egg to help bring about the hope of a new little life. Today, they symbolize the beauty of the season for us and bringing ferility of new ideas, new ventures, new beginnings into our lives at spring time.

And, of course, hunting the eggs is always great fun. Our egg hunt was last night - on our first full day of spring - in Bev and Karen's yard. Their yard and the weather were perfect examples of spring. There were left-over snow piles, all crusty with the melting and refreezing that happens when the days warm, but the nights are still cold. There were mud holes deep enough to swallow a small child from those places where the snow had completely melted and there were barren branches in the trees and bushes, waiting for the new buds. The weather provided lots of spring-time drama with temps in the lower 50's, fog, rain and then a series of good old thunderstorms. We got in the egg hunt between one down-pour and the next thunderstorm.

Of course these eggs were hidden by the infamous Bunny - again this furry magical creature has its roots in pre-Christian and Pagan traditions. The rabbit is understood to be a goddess who has taken on an animal form to bring newness and fertility (think about all of those babies rabbits have!) to the world in the early spring.

Sad

2007-03-16T06:03:00.000-07:00

The U.S. war in Iraq is one of those things that often takes up space in my mind - it is there on a sub-conscious level and on a conscious one - my saddness and anger are quick to rise about it. However, I got an additional perspective on it the other day which blows me away - and saddens me ever further.

One morning this week we walked out of our house to get the girls to school to find a flyer from the Madison Area Peace Coalition posted on the telephone pole at the end of our driveway, declaring that there is to be a rally tomorrow (Saturday) to mark the 4th year of the war in Iraq and calling once again for an end to that war.

Fourth year and moving into our fifth!! This war started in March 2003. Gemma was 1.5 years old - she's now 5.5 years old. The magnitude of this has been sitting with me all week. We've been at war with Iraq nearly this child's entire life - and certainly as long as she can remember. This just saddens me to the bone and frustrates me to the quick!

You Are Kermit

2007-03-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

You Are Kermit

Hi, ho! Lovable and friendly, you get along well with everyone you know.
You're a big thinker, and sometimes you over think life's problems.
Don't worry - everyone know's it's not easy being green.
Just remember, time's fun when you're having flies!

The Muppet Personality Test

Introducing....

2007-03-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Peanut - a male dwarf hamster
Adoption Day - Saturday, March 3, 2007

He's not a dog (sniff-sniff from my point of view) though he's darn cute!!!

Rowan has been asking for a dwarf hamster for quite a while. We went to a pet shop we trust - no mill pets there, all hand-raised by the staff. This little guy has the sweetest disposition - very gentle, very friendly.

Look in the foreground - recoginize what those are? Yep, Luna's ears! She's very curious, more so than any of the other cats. After having to survive on small creatures like this as a young cat, I'm sure its very confusing about why we have a rodent in the house that she's not allowed to eat. She leaves Peanut be when he's in his house though - especially given that he's on bookshelf not large enough for her to stand.

The girls pooled their own money to get him and all of his accessories - a very smart investment on their part. He is well-loved.

Welcome Peanut!

Faery Family

2007-03-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

Whose who?

March Maddness - Koester-Jess Style

2007-03-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

It's true
*Madison just hosted state girls high school basketball tournaments last weekend.
*Madison will host the high school boys this weekend.
*Our University of Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team is ranked very high and are headed into NCAA play-offs.

HOWEVER, this si not the March Madness of which I speak. We had our own family version this past week.

First up is Rowan. She joined an afterschool league run by Madison School and Community Recreation. Initally she was hesitant to join the league since its a 3rd through 5th grade league and she hadn't played before, she wondered if she'd feel comfortable playiing with kids with more experience. After reminding her that there would be other inexperienced kids there, she agreed to give it a go, though she wasn't thrilled about the games.

Well...game day came on Tuesday, she started the experience in tears, having forgotten her tennis shoes for warm-up and the coaches not being able to find her team shirt. Her classroom teacher, who is absolutely wonderful, stepped in to help and I had a moment between meetngs, so I ran to the school with her shoes so she could warm up. By the time we arrived near the start of game time, her attitude had done a 180, she was pumped and ready to play. Her biggest complaint about the expeirence was that she didn't get to play enough! Yes, she loved it!!

She's a great runner and keeps up with the ball well, knows when to hang back for defense and when to move in for offense - all skills she's acquired through her years of playing soccer. As you can see from the picture though, her next level of skill development is getting those hands ready to receive a pass or go in to steal the ball. All that soccer training has taught her to keep hands tight to her sides to avoid a handball, rather than to have them up and ready for a basketball.

Not to be outdone by her oldest daughter, Jani played basketball on both Thursday and Friday afternoons. Every year Evans Scholars (http://www.wisgolfer.com/cms/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=249) does a weekend basketball-a-thon to help raise funds for four local organizations, Jani's program, working with homeless kids in the schools has been a recipient for many years. The agreement is that her school host a few teams to play the Scholars -
*one team of fourth and fifth grade aged kids.
*one team of school staff members.
*one team of afterschool program staff members.

The kids typically play the school staff the day before the basketball-a-thon to get in practice. Jani played that game.

She was happy to only have to play for a little while on Friday afternoon against the college folks. Don't you love her basketball playing outfit - as you can see she was thinking she might not have to play at all, decked out instead of a t-shirt in her UW Badgers shirt, jeans and tennies. She kept stats and is show here sharing those with the school's prinicipal who also played.

Now as if that wasn't enough, the girls participated in a gymnastics exhibition on Saturday morning. It was a non-competitive meet where they each got to show off their skills. Gemma's favorite activities are on the bars - the little girl has incredible upper body strength. She's also great at tumbling. Rowan loves and is really good at the trampuline and beam. Here they are getting their trophies at the end of the exhibition. Gemma is so proud of hers. Thanks to cousin Carrie and Marsha for coming to watch this event and have lunch with us to celebrate afterward.

Gosh, it appears I was the only one not doing some sort of sport this weekend. Oh well, now that the weather is shifting into spring I can get back to walking, running and biking. Rowan and I are planning to train for a spring run - probably Race for the Cure, a fall run - most likely the Canterbury Run for LIteracy and an early winter run - the JingleBell Run for the Arthitis Foundation in December.

Tampontification - Donating is Just a Click Away

2007-03-13T05:53:00.000-07:00

Seventh Generation, a company that makes chemically safe cleaning products and dye-free, chemical-free hygiene supplies has a donation link on their website at http://www.tampontification.com:80/donate.php where we each can help donate tampons and pads to women's shelters around the country. Often women's shelters can provide basic hygiene items, but are often in need of feminine hygiene things. I know when Jani collects donations for her families, rarely have I seen these things come in for the moms and older girls. And, these things are expensive and often are not covered by programs like food stamps or WIC. It's a simple way to make a donation and appears to be legit.

Adventures in Felting

2007-03-12T07:17:00.000-07:00

Remember washing a favorite wool sweater in water that was too warm and having it shrink to the size of something a doll could wear and just being bummed to no end? Well, now shrinking wool items is an intentional art form with gobs and gobs of patterns available on "felted" items. Who knew that someone would figure out how to take a disasterous moment and making it into art!

I decided I wanted to try my hand at this - it not only produces cool results, its a great little science project and guestimation process of how big (small) will this thing turn out. I wanted to make felted cloggs (house slippers like the pricey ones you can get at REI), but thought it best to start with a less labor intensive felting project first to get the hang of it.

While surfing the www.knitty.com website one day, I cam across a pattern developed by a high schooler for a felted lunch bag. Here's the link http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTbrownbag.html. The idea of a woool felted lunch bag struck me as both unusual and interesting. The felt would serve as a great natural insulator and it sure could be pretty neat to look at.

So off I went to Lakeside Fibers to get some felting yarn. I settled on Cascade 220. After starting to knitt he base, I could see that the original pattern was just going to be too small to hold a kid's lunch - a high schooler's yes, a kid's lunch complete with soy milk carton and a thermos of soup, no way. So I ripped out, increased the number of stitches cast on and the number of rows. As the bag neared completion of the knitting, it was HUGE - like the size of one of those messh eco-shopping bags and I wondered if I'd made a critical error in judgement by increasing the pattern. Here's the bag before felting.
Here's the bag after felting - about 3 sizes smaller than the original knitted size - lovely, soft and thick - a nice thing to hold one's lunch, good and thermal.

It needs a button clusure yet and then it will be ready to hold Rowan's lunch - yes, she's laid dibs on it which is great because her lunch bag needs to desperately e retired!! She's going to use it for a bit and then we'll evaluate whether it needs a handle. I can easily add one if needed.

I've got yarn chosen to make another of these to donate to the Lapham/Marquette Schools silent auction coming up at the end of April. First though I am making a felted eye glass case for Jani's sunglasses.

International Women's Day - March 8

2007-03-08T09:39:00.000-08:00

Today is International Women's Day. Read more about the day and its history at http://www.internationalwomensday.com/. The above image is from their site.

The theme for this year's IWD is ending violence against woman - wow, I would love to see that happen in my life time.

Irish Hiking Scarf Completed

2007-03-05T06:18:00.000-08:00

On Friday evening I completed my first cable knit project - an Irish Hiking Scarf which is about 55 inches long. I knitted the scarf with wool ease and used a soy/wool blend for the fringe. Thanks to Jani for helping me put on the fringe. The scarf is a gift for our friend, Marsha. Here's a picture of the cables up close. I decided to teach myself how to cable because -
a) I didn't know how, so it was something new to learn.
b) I love how they look and wanted to be able to create something lovely
c) cabling has its roots in Celtic culture, so I liked learning something that is an old world art.

An on-line friend found the pattern at Hello Yarn - web address is http://www.helloyarn.com/irishhikingcarf.htm.

Now I'm on to making a felted lunch sack for Rowan. She is in dire need of a new lunch box - hers has served the family well - having been one Jani used well before Rowan's time. I've not felted before, so decided this was a good project for learning to felt, since the box needs to fit food - but not feet (felted cloggs are also on my list of projects to do.

Club Penguin

2007-03-02T13:44:00.000-08:00

Well...here we go...Rowan is entering into the world of on-line computer games.

Jani just got a call from Rowan, who is at her afterschool program, asking what time we plan to pick her up today. She and her friend want to get to each of their respective houses at about the same time so each can log onto Club Penguin at http://www.clubpenguin.com/ and their virtual penguins can hang out together.

We're fine with Club Penguin (and Webkins for that matter too) in moderation. It just makes me realize though that our little girl isn't so little anymore - she's getting more savvy about the opportunities in the bigger world.

Well, at least she hasn't asked for her own cell phone or iPod yet.

March

2007-03-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

March begins the second month of Imbolic - just three more weeks until the solar year shifts us into Spring Time. Hm, I wonder what spring will bring?

Today began much like a lion - we are right at the freezing line in a big late winter storm - lots of snow to our north and west - lots of rain to our south, along with thunderstorms. We had freezing rain, sleet and snow falling from our skies last night and this morning.

Ever wonder where the old folk saying about the lion and lamb came from?

Some astronomers believe that the answer might come from the stars - coupling the understanding of star movement with weather patterns. Tonight, if it were clear here, we could look to the northern horizon. We would see both Leo, the Lion (in the northeast) and Aries, the Ram (lamb) in the northwest at about the same height, however Leo is rising - and often early March climate in our area comes in rocky - thus March coming in like a lion. And, on March 31st, the night sky isn't the same - the stars have found new positions in the sky - with Leo overhead and Aries sinking into the west - thus going down/out like a lamb.

Well, this year, thus far, the constellation patterns and weather patterns match up, as the rising Aries in the night sky and the Lion of the weather are in cync.

Wow - Idaho!

2007-02-28T05:38:00.000-08:00

On those days when I am bemoaning the state of the political climate in Wisconsin (which hopefully is moving back toward being progressive), all I have to do is look towards Idaho to get some perspective.

A friend on an email list who lives in Idaho shared a news story with us that still leaves my jaw hanging down. This week a committee in one of their state houses killed a measure to enstate minimum safety requirements for daycares. Why, might one ask, would anyone not want to see even minimal standards for the places where thousands of little kids spend their days? Well, several members of the committee felt very strongly that mothers should be home with their chldren and that no child should ever have to go to a daycare. Because their belief in the premise of "the woman's place is in the home" was so strong, they killed legislation to create minimum safety standards for daycares!!

Now usually I work in my life to extent curiosity - to set my judgments aside until I learn more - well, its a little hard to do here as it seems to me a leap of logic that spans the width of the Grand Canyon was made here.

Hmm, if we have substandard daycare, goes the logic, than moms won't want to send their kids and they'll stay home with them and we'll fulfill our "American dream" of the little woman at home with the kids.

I'm quite sure that will work wonderfully for
*single moms who have to work to house, clothe and feed their children - if they stayed "home" with them, home could end up being a homeless shelter.

*two working parents trying to make ends meet.

*women who know they parent better when other parts of their lives are fulfilled too.

There's nothing classist or sexist in this decision is there?

My "favorite" quote from the article was from a Representative who said that he felt children who weren't home with their mothers all day would be harmed by the experience of the separation. Sure, the kids in daycares might be harmed - not from the experience of being away from mom during the day - rather from the potentially hazardous conditions in the daycare.

Amazing!

What To Do with 18 Inches of Snow

2007-02-26T06:35:00.000-08:00

Measure it!
Rowan and Gemma measured snow fall amounts in three places in the yard Sunday afternoon and got an average of 18 inches of snow fall. Our official city total was 15 inches. It wasn't that light, fluffy "story-book" snow - it was wet and heavy. Sunday afternoon's snow came in the form of wet glops that plopped onto our heads!

Sled in it!

Build with it!

This stuff was awesome packing snow - great for making snow caves - here's Gemma with her feet sticking out of a snow cave the girls built.

Shovel it!

It took us about two hours on Saturday morning and nearly 3 on Sunday to shovel. Jani forged a path off the driveway to our garbage cans and recycling bin.

And shovel some more!!

Don't ya' just love the mound of hard pack that the snow plow leaves at the end of the driveway! Impressive pile of snow that Rowan is standing on, wouldn't you say?

Figure out where to put it all!!

Jani is six feet tall, so that gives some sense of how tall our snow piles are. We are due to get more on Thursday. I don't know where to put more!!

And have gratitude for one's situation!!

I'm glad to say this is NOT our car!! There were several plowed in like this on our street. Our college-aged neighbors, snow shovel-less, borrowed our shovels to dig themselves out. They had no shovels. One wonders how you can manage to live in Wisconsin in the winter without a shovel!! Borrow one form your neighbors I guess! Anyway, they did finish shoveling the snow pack at the end of our driveway as a "thank-you" for the shovel loan which was great!!

And celebrate Gemma's Half Birthday!

On Saturday Gemma turned 5.5! We celebrated with her favorite meal - pasta! The table decor is her design - a Halloween tablecloth of black with glittering spider webs, candles, our fancy flatware and her Fiestaware tea service that matches our Fiestaware dishes.

At 5.5, she has lost two teeth (both on the bottom), just brought home a great report card from kindergarten and had a blast playing in all of the snow with her sissy.

Many gratitudes!

While some complained about our big snow fall, I had lots to be grateful for-

*A nice warm home to come to after our shoveling and play time - I got in lots of knitting this weekend!!

*The laughter of kids having a BLAST in all that snow!!

*A healthy body to be able to shovel it all.

*A strong partner to help.

*Above average winter snow fall to help restore our water table, so our mother earth can be beautiful and green in the spring and summer.

*The knowledge that it is late February and Spring Equinox will be upon us before we know it!

A Crafty Weekend

2007-02-14T09:59:00.000-08:00

Despite the dead car battery, leaking pipes and illnesses of the weekend, we had a lot of fun really delving into craft projects.

I finished Jani's cowl/burka. I have yet to get a picture of her in it. Now one of her co-workers wants one - not before I experiment with cabling and make a doll afghan for the girls from some leftover yarn and an Irish Hiking Scarf for a friend.

We also opened the Valentine's Day project assembly line. This year's project - making new crayons from old, forming them into heart shapes. Each girl then cut out paper hearts, put the name of the recipient and her name on each heart and affixed a new crayon to each to gift to school friends and others. All told, we cranked out 100 of these critters this weekend.

Here's a shot of two of them - from the first batch. They are so cute and they color just awesomely - a rainbow in one swipe of the crayon.

Here's one step of the process - after we'd de-labeled the crayons, we broke them into smaller pieces and divided them into like-colored families. We then filled the heart-shaped muffin tins with a combination of colors we thought would look neat together and put them in a low temp oven to melt.

This is Gemma busy at work, putting her friends' names on the paper hearts with the crayon heart attached with tape to the paper.

And Rowan pulled out her new (a Solstice gift) potter's wheel and decided to try throwing a few pots amongst the crayon project. Yes, we managed to keep the wet clay out of the crayons - a melted wax and clay mixture could have been down-right nasty!!

Gemma has taken to authoring many stories lately - she loves her new found skill of managing letter sounds and putting them together into words. She chose to work in the living room to avoid getting clay and wax on her book and is authoring a story about her stuffed animal bat, Batty - appropriately named - discovering gold.

After all was said and done - we'd craft ourselves into a stupor, so enjoyed a snuggly evening on the couch watching the movie, Grease. Yes, Grease! We got into the TV show, "You're the One that I Want" and realized the girls had never seen the movie.

What Do You Get When...

2007-02-12T09:15:00.000-08:00

There have been nearly two weeks of bitter cold temperatures (some days the mercury failed to make it above zero even in the "heat" of the day)?

You get -
*frozen pipes that display their new "holes" when the weather warms a bit and things begin to thaw out.
*dead car batteries.
*illnesses galore from dealing with the temperature extremes.

Yes, we have experienced ALL of the above this weekend!

Friday night, I just about jumped for joy when I could run the dishwasher for the first time in two weeks - the line from the kitchen pipes to the dishwasher had frozen days before. In the back of my mind was that voice that said "hm, after two weeks of being frozen, I wonder..." Well, Saturday morning, there was no wondering as we awoke to a puddle in the kitchen and a slow drip-drop sound in the basement - we seem to have a leak despite reinsulating the pipes a couple of summers ago and tending to them whent he weather started getting cold. So, since we aren't flooded (yet) we aren't on the emergency list for the plumber when I called on Saturday - we should be seen today - I'm awaiting the doorbell's ringing tones as I write.

Saturday monring we awoke to temperatures above zero - first time in a long time to not see a negative number of the thermometer. However, the car battery didn't care. As we headed out the door to pick up another child, take Gemma and the little guest to gymnastics and drop Rowan off at a birthday party, we could progress no further than the sad clicking sound of the van attempting to turn over with no juice in the battery. So a visit from AAA got the van running enough to get it to the garage for a new battery. I ran Rowan on foot up the street to converge with two other families whose kids were also going to the birthday party and who were also walking since they too were carless for the day. So Rowan got a 13 block walk in to get to the birthday party. Thankfully we had wheels again by the time the party ended, so took all the kids home to parents who were thrilled not to have to walk the journey in reverse. Sadly, we couldn't pull off getting Gemma to gymnastics.

Now for the germs - ah yes, strep and croup seem to be the bugs of choice for our family. Rowan had strep - it was one of the many "freebies" she got at a recent Girl Scout sleepover involving 45 girls with more than 50% of them all getting sick post-slumber party. Then it was Gemma's turn - she's been barking like a seal and spiking a fever one minute and having normal temps the next - sure sounded like croup to our ears - doctor confirmed it yesterday during a trip to acute care. Gemma tried school today, but the infamous call from the school nurse came through when her fever shot up this morning. Now she's a couch resident as I type. I'm on my way into the clinic for a throat culture later this afternoon as my throat feels like I swallowed fire. My trip to the clinic comes after Jani's trip to the dentist for a crown on a broken tooth.

Ah, the joys!

Plus, just think about how much $$$ we got the "opportunity" to spend in the last few days -

car battery + plumber visit + tooth crown + meds = $$$ - fun, fun!!

Oh well, the "goodies" of the cold have been -
*time to hang out together at home, playing board games, reading, watching fun movies and knitting (for me).
*and we have gotten lots of time to enjoy our new living room furniture since we've been camped out in that room of the house.

A little silver lining!

Gotta run - the princess patient beckons!

Breaking News from the Koester-Jess Home

2007-02-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

dateline - Jenifer Street

Gemma Rose has lost her first tooth at just a couple weeks shy of 5.5 years.

She first announced that the tooth was loose in mid-November and the dentist confirmed it during a check-up a week later.

We all started predicting when it would come out. She, of course, anticipated it would be out in just a couple of days. Rowan, Jani and I - all more experienced in the tooth-loss arena, cautioned that it might take a bit longer. But the three of us all predicted it was likely to be out within the month.

Would she lose it by Solstice - a new tooth for the Sun's birthday? Nope, the tooth was not yet ready to depart its first home.

As the days neared for us to leave for Florida, the tooth was still in place - getting ever so much more wiggly.

Maybe she'd lose it at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Will the tooth fairy find her there? Yes, the tooth fairy is wonderfully smart.

Nope, no tooth loss at Grandma and Grandpa's. Will she lose her tooth at Disney World? Maybe - yes the toothe fairy will find our hotel.

Nope, no tooth loss in the Magic Kingdom, so not all dreams come true there.

Great concern had now developed in the mind of this small girl - will her tooth "ever" fall out?

Rowan, the big sister in the know, told her that perhaps the tooth fairy was behind in her work after the holidays and perhaps put a spell on the tooth to hold it in place until she'd caught up on her work. This sounded quite reasonable to Gemma, given that Rowan's tooth loss resume certainly is far more extensive than her own.

Yesterday, the small girl appeared in front of me complaining that her tooth really hurt and was bleeding. Hm, could this be the moment of truth? Let me see, could I just give it a little twist? Oh no, off she ran, back upstairs to stare into the mirror somemore at her mouth. A few miinutes later she marched back into the living room, very excited and holding a tiny bit of calcium in her hand - the tooth was out!!! She's attempted to brush it and popped it right out. Her immediate declaration that the tooth fairy must have lifted the spell!!

Now, a new concern was voiced. Was it too cold for the tooth fairy to fly? No, we reassured her, it will be fine. How do we know? Hm, good question, should we google it? No, email her mom. Ok, let's see. We've discussed before that there are multiple tooth fairies, because its too great of a job to handle singly and that our area's tooth fairy has a name (Jenny, Jessie was her predessor) who is the Jenifer Street Tooth Fairy. Surely her business email address "must" be toothfairy.com. So we sent off a cyber connection to jenny@toothfairy.com asking if she could make a switft reply.

Thankfully, Mama J checked email at bedtime and got a reply from Jenny's secretary, saying Jenny had already left to start her route and would be at our house as soon as Gemma went to sleep. Never in the nearly 5.5 years that this child has been on this earth have we seen her go to sleep so fast!!! (Too bad she doesn't lose a tooth every day!!).

She awoke at 1:05 AM, yes you've read that correctly, to check her pillow. Us mamas were all snuggled in with cats all around us when an excited voice penetrated the quiet stillness of the sleeping house to announce that Jenny had come and left her a whole dollar and a letter. The letter said that Jenny was so excited she'd finally lost the tooth, yes she could fly in any weather and just had to beat her wings faster to stay warm. The letter was sealed with love and fairy kisses.

Another Knitting Project Complete

2007-02-06T06:42:00.000-08:00

I finished it last night and got to wear it to my first meeting of the day this morning. We're experiencing warmer weather today (only -4 right now) so I am back to my usual winter dress of a warm shirt, my fleece vest, a cowl and gloves.

I altered the pattern pretty significantly to give it more shape, rather than just a large tube and am very pleased with my alterations. The yarn is so snuggly - its a chenille, so soft and not at all itchy and warm!! Next its on to working on one for Jani using these new alterations.

My Knitting Portfolio

2007-02-05T08:21:00.000-08:00

Last night I photographed and uploaded pictures of my knitting projects to share with friends on an on-line knitting list. I thought I'd share them here. The things pictured are the projects I've made since Thanksgiving. I've also done ponchos for the girls, but don't have them photographed as they are in the "spring/fall coat" storage box right now.

Here is a scarf and headband set I made in a couple of evenings for a friend's birthday. The pieces are done in a novelty yarn called Lion Boucle and the color is Wild Berry.

This is a cowl/hood thing that I made for Jani's Solstice gift. It's kind of neat - its a round scarf, done on circular needles. You can pull up the back of the cowl scarf to form a hood for colder weather. This one is made with a novelty yarn - Lion Boucle. It's too wide for Jani's liking, so I am modifying the pattern and shaping it a bit more and will make her another one in a chenille yarn. Rowan has laid claim to the cowl once Jani's new one is done and I've been wearing it to test it out and figure out how to modify the pattern. Jani's sister Sue wants one done in this same yarn and I've already made one for Jani's mom in a teal chenille yarn. I have a cowl/hood for myself still on my needles - hope to finish it today so I can wear it!! I've shaped the piece more than the instructions called for and am using a different stitch pattern, so we'll see how ti turns out - so far it looks great. Mine is done in a brown chenille with flecks of color.

Here's a hat I made for Rowan. I also made a second one for our 12 year old niece, Marissa. It's done in a rib stitch and then a stocknetter and then seamed. I made it using "Rowan" yarn which Rowan loved!! If I make more of these, I will do them on circular needles to reduce the number of seams.

Gemma's hat was also made with Rowan yarn too. I also made a second of these for another niece, Alyssa who is soon to be six. This one is all done in garter stitch with a gather at the top to "poof" it out and a chain stitched tie.

Projects on deck-

*another cowl for our friend, Marsha.

*Fiber Trends felted clogs - for something new to try!

*new afghans for the backs of our new couches (couches are sage green microfiber - they get delivered Wednesday!!)

*a few baby afghans to donate to St. Mary's NICU - since Gemma was a resident there and we appreciated how homely they attempt to make it - complete with little knitted things - I wanted to make a couple of blankets to donate.

Cold Day Experiment #2

2007-02-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

If you put two bowls of water outside which we freeze faster at -13 degrees F? One bowl is made of metal, the other of plastic. The plastic bowl has a wider diameter than the metal bowl with more surface area exposed to the cold.

Rowan's prediction - the water in the metal bowl will freeze faster, because metal is a better conductor of heat/cold than plastic.

My prediction - they will freeze at about the same rate, because the larger surface area of the plastic bowl will equalize freezing time with the conductivity of the metal bowl.

After 15 minutes of the bowls being outside on our front porch, each bowl has about equal thickness of skim ice.

At one hour, both bowls are nearly frozen - starting at the top first and then the sides with open pools of water in the middle. However, the open pool in the metal bowl appears smaller than the one in the plastic bowl.

Our two hour mark will be here in 1/2 an hour, so we'll see what the bowls look like then. So far they seem to be freezing at a pretty similar rate.

How Cold Is It?

2007-02-05T05:33:00.000-08:00

Cold enough to freeze boiling water drop-lets in mid-air!!!

When we woke up for school/work at 6:00 this morning, it was -16 degrees with a windchill of -38 degrees!! Yes, that's darn cold!!

As we watched the school closings scroll across the bottom of the TV screen, one of the station's meteorologists walked outside, threw a cup of boiling water into the air and filmed the result - water droplets freezing in mid-air and hitting the ground as ice crystals.

Not wanting to miss the opportunity for a science experiment, I ran downstairs to put the kettle on for hot water. A few minutes later, we headed out to conduct our own experiment.

With me as the water tosser-

Rowan is the outdoor observer and Gemma as indoor observer-

And Jani as photographer-

We too were able to toss boiling water into the air and watch it freeze in mid-air and hit the ground as ice.

And - it was also cold enough to freeze over our antique windows. The girls are loving the chance to carve designs into the frost - it brings back memories of reading "Little House in the Big Woods" with their frosted over windows. The other windows in the house have been replaced with energy-efficient ones, but we kept two of the anitque decorative ones.

Also, two major miracles today -

1. The Madison Metro School District actually CLOSED school today - this is a major feat as we typically don't close, even when all the districts surrounding us are closed.

2. Our kitchen water pipes DID NOT FREEZE!! I was able to fill the tea kettle with water from the kitchen sink. In years past, before we had the pipes all re-insultated, we could expect our kitchen pipes to freeze over on a night like we had last night - even if we left the heat up and opened up cupboards. So I was thrilled to having running water this morning and not need to head to the basement with a blow dry to defrost pipes. Now the dishwasher is another story - the connection line between it and the sink has been frozen for a few days, so we have to do things the old fashioned way - wash by hand - not a bad feeling though since the hot water warms the hands nicely.

It's now 7:49 AM and we've warmed up to -13 degrees!!

Blessings to All at Imbolic

2007-02-02T07:50:00.000-08:00

When most of us in our mondern, Western world, think of February 2, images of ground hogs often come to mind. We think of the old legend that if the ground hog comes out of its burrow today and sees it's shadow, it will be startled and retreat to it's burrow for an additional six weeks of winter. Well, it really makes little difference if the little guys see their shadows today or not (other than being a fun thing to note), because we are at the height of winter and it will be six weeks until Spring Equinox (the first day of spring) shadow or no shadow.

My ancestors throughout Europe, especially those in the north, honored this day - the half way point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox as sacred with the Celts calling it Imbolic.

At Imbolic, like all the nature based sabbats, it is a time to honor the natural world and appreciate her changes. I have been very aware of the changes in our sunshine. At Winter Solstice, when the sun is being born a-new, it hangs low in the southern sky and its light is weak, even at mid-day. Each day over the last weeks, I've noticed our daylight returning later into the afternoon and the sun shines with great strength. Despite our bitter cold today, the sun is shining in all of his glory on our beautiful white snow that sparkles under the sun's kiss.

I am grateful for the bitter cold of the day, for it truly feels like winter with our blanket of snow and near zero temperatures. I hope it will serve as a reminder to many of the precious gifts of winter and how these could lost as our world climate continues to change.

Candles and fire were blessed at this time of year - as they brought light and heat into dark homes and were needed to sustain life. It is wonderous to light a candle and watch its flame dance and ponder what are the "lights" and fires in our own lives that we want to tend and bless on this Imbolic.

Young children were honored at Imbolic for they represent the continuation of all life and they hold the promise of spring. The goddess herself is in her maiden form at this time of year, waiting the bright blooms of spring and baby animals. Our two maidens of our home made "maiden muffins" for our family last night to feast on at breakfast time to bring us time to ponder all the wonders that young children bring into our lives.

And - how cool is this - the moon if full today. So not only do we get the bright, ever-stronger growing sunshine in the day, we get the glow of the moon, reflecting off of our snow and making the world a wonder of bright light mixed with dark blue shadows. As we returned from our women's group last night, I was moved by the night beauty of the season. I was very moved by the metaphor of light and shadow interplaying through the snow and moon.

So warm blessings to all who read this today in the days to come. If you wish, take a moment to ponder the wisdom of the season, learn about Brigid, the goddess of fire and metal crafts who is a guiding teacher at this time and enjoy the beauty of our Earth, cimmitting to care for her in all seasons as the Wheel of the Year keeps turning.

Blessed Be!

Clowing Around

2007-01-31T06:55:00.000-08:00

I'm just beginning to organize our hundreds of Florida vacation pictures. This one caught my eye this morning. Jani took it at Downtown Disney outside some shop. Very clever of Rowan to sneak under the hand of the statue and don't you just love Gemma's Snow White finery with her fanny pack? (-:

Fondue Feasting

2007-01-30T12:57:00.000-08:00

I don't think it was a desire to relive my youth or join the retro craze that inspired me to host a fondue party for my 44th birthday - it just seemed like a blast of an idea! It turned out to be a blast in reality. No not "that" kind of blast - thank goodness, though one could fear that with nine cans of denatured alcohol and sterno all burning at once - the kind of blast that means very fun!!

Nearly 20 friends gathered to help celebrate, all gathered around nine pots of simmering goodness, laughing and having a grand time. It was great fun!!

We feasted-
*two cheese fondues - one of them made of soy to pleast our vegan friends and dairy-allergy daughter - I gotta say though that soy cheese fondue is rather scary - tasty but a bizarre consistancy.
*two Mongolian pots - one vegetarian with tofu and veggies to cook in the boiling broth and the other meat based with marinated chicken and veggies to cook in the boiling chicken stock.
*two B-B-Q pots - one tofu and one meatball.
*three dessert fondues - a dark chocolate with cinnamon, a white chocolate and a respberry.

Guests brought the dippers and I got the fun part of preparing the fondues. It was fun to mix 1970's cuisine with the dietary needs of our times (vegans, dairy-allergies, wheat/gluten allergies and a desire for a bit more healthy, whole grain foods). Jani and our friend Marsha were marvelous su chefs at my beck and call to get all the pots lit (yes, that's right nine flames all going at the same time) and set pots out.

Now where would one gather NINE fondue pots you might ask. That's a story in itself. I posted an email to my extensive connections here in town soliciting pots and really scored. We had one of our own - one I"d acquired at an auction at Rainbow Family Camp last year from a gal who'd gotten it as a gift and never used it. A friend lent us her original 1970's pot in its lovely orange color complete with wooden lazy susan to set the pot and sterno upon. Other friends let us their pot - a commitment cermony gift they'd never used and barely recognized as their own at the party. The best part was getting a lead on six pots from another lesbian couple we don't know who used them at their commimtent ceremony to hold soup at each guest table. They'd bought 18 of them on QVC!! They would have happily lended more, but six seemed sufficient to me!! They heartily encouraged us to give away a few of their pots as "door prizes" as they really couldn't imagine what they might do with 18 fondue pots!!

And, the great thing - the sterno doesn't have the pungent odor I remember from the 1970's. Some used sterno and most of the posts used denatured alcohol which had no odor.

We now have a Melting Pot restaurant in town, but I think our fondue feast surpassed what we would have experienced there with gathering so many of us together all amazed at what we could do with nine fondue pots, cooperative efforts and good compnay.

Rowan's Version of the Old "I Used to Have to Walk 5 Miles to School Uphill both Ways"

2007-01-30T12:38:00.000-08:00

Last night we were preparing Gemma's wardrobe for today's trip to the nature center with her kindergarten class to see animals in winter. Her teacher had sent home a picture of a line-drawn kid properly attired for the trip with notes in the margins to help bring the kids on board with taking responsibilty for their own preparations with adult support.

Rowan saw the drawing on the bathroom counter and piped in with a voice of utter indignation - "Hey, when I was in kindergarten we had to DRAW our OWN picture of what to wear. These kindergaterners have it so easy. Their teacher gave them a picture already drawn. I can't believe it." This comment from a kid who loves to draw so I'm guessing she wasn't under too much stress when she had to draw her own picture.

I replied, "So, I suppose you had to walk to the Aldo Leopald Center too - 5 miles in the snow, uphill both ways." Clever to catch on to such teasing, Rowan replied with equal indignation as before, "that's right Mom."

Gemma, hearing our conversation got all worried. "You mean we have to walk there. I'm too little to walk there. I don't want to go! It's not fair to make kindergartners walk 5 miles."

We cleared that one up (hopefully). So we'll see if Gemma asked her teacher if they had to walk to the nature center today. I can imagine her relief when she saw they were going on school busses.

Perfect for You-Tube

2007-01-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

You know there are those moments when I really wish I had a video camera at the ready...

We were at Disney. It was the end of the day - about supper time. An announcement came over the PA system about that evening's light parade. The annuncement ended with a tag line about Disney being the "happiest place on earth."

All around me there were scenes of less than happy Disney visitors. Kids of all ages who were over=stimulated, hungry, tired - some crying and some begging and some defying any parental requests. There were over-stressed, over-stimulated parents - some threatening loss of privilegs to their small charges, others railing their discontent to their life-partners. All with the PA blasting the line of the "happiest place on earth."

Hmmm...

So is it
a) Disney - the happiest place on earth?
b) Disney - the most over-stimulating place on earth?
c) both of the above?
d) none of the above?
e) some other reality?

I heard from a couple of folks that the link to the Diseny Poto Pass pictures I posted yesterday doesn't work. )-: Sorry about that. Disney and other Florida pictures to come.

Disney Pictures

2007-01-09T14:31:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!

My goddess, its been a busy month - ranging from Solstice planning, to a religious discrimination issue with Jani's employer over Solstice (again this year - we have engaged an advocate and are moving forward to hopefullly resolve this once and for all), to heading to Florida to visit my folks in Naples and then head to Disney..WOW!!

I have many reflections about all of this - and of course limited time to post. So for now, here's the link to some pictures we had taken at Disney on our Photo Pass. http://www.disneyphotopass.com/photoshareviewer.aspx?share=ce3c46cd-8f09-4818-a13f-3738be11f1f4

We have oodles more that we took of both the Disney part of the trip and our visit to Naples, so will get those in an on-line photo album in the next couple of weeks.

LIttle News Tid-Bits

2006-12-04T07:09:00.000-08:00

dateline - Madison, Wisconsin

Our second floor (and part of our first floor) wall repair, painting and wood work refinishing is done!! It looks spectacular!!!! Our bedroom is a very soothing muted sage, girls' bedroom is a relaxing sky blue and their playroom is a vibrant purple. The back stairs and first floor hallway have had major plaster repair and replacement done and are painted a creamy off-white. Of course, now we just want to keep going. One project leads to another...and another...and another in these old homes.

We are reassembling the house. Our bedroom is bad together as is the bathroom (also repainted a bright laurel green). The girls playroom/bedroom flip has not yet happened - we are making strides in that direction though.

Roofing isn't slated to start now until January or February.

In other news, the WI Women Volleyball Badgers won both Friday and Saturday night's first and second round NCAA play-offs. GO BIG RED!!! We were treated to a very exciting game in the Field House on Friday night - especially game one where Notre Dame stood their ground and we had to go to a 36-34 game to finally pull out the win. Saturday night found us adults at Kathy's birthday party at a lovely Bed and Breakfast Inn and Organic Farm in the country, dining on a scrumptious pot luck vegan supper. A good portion of the crowd are v-ball fans, so at 7:15 we flipped open my laptop and watched live feed of the game - even projected it on the wall using a power point projector. We watched a 3 game victory for the Badgers. We all seriously comtemplated hitting the road for Austin, TX for this Friday's game, but decided to settle for meeting together at someone's house with take-out food and our laptops and projector to watch the game together. I would like to now humbly retract any smart-ass comments I've made about people watching sports together in someone's living room, yelling with jubilation at the screen, since I have now joined the ranks of this crowd. If the women manage to make it all the way to the finals, we are actually seriously consdering heading your way, Sonya, as the finals are in Omaha!!

And last headline, I ended up in the ER on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving with a severe allergic reaction - eyes swollen shut, fat lips and tongue, still breathing, but not as easily as usual and hives everywhere. To what you ask? I have NO IDEA!! I'm still coated in hives after a week of prednisone and am now on new meds until I can see my doctor next week and get an allergy appointment on the books. I'm now the proud owner of an epi pen. I feel like I'm playing a game of chance, wondering what set off the reaction and what might set it off again.

Why We Arenb't Fans of The Pciture People

2006-12-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

We like studio shots every so often - for birthdays and a family picture once every couple of years. We've lucked out with a fantastic local place where we end up with about 50 (literally) 4x6 shots as proofs to keep no matter what we order (for the $25 sitting fee). In the past year or so we've been less pleased (after they switched to digital) with the quality and the photographers seem less inspired (a couple are down right cranky...and our kids aren't hard to photograph, so I can only imagine them with a wiggly toddler). We talked with the manager, who apologized profusely and sweetened the deal with free this and that.

Then Picture People came to town, so we thought we'd give them a whirl. I was appalled to find out that they THROW AWAY whatever you don't buy - and they seem to print the entire package (four or five sheets per shot). The waste seemed horrible to me - not at all green!! So I talked to the managere and told her we'd be willing to try them IF they printed us a proof sheet and not all the wasted prints. Anxious for new customers (as they had just opened) she agreed. She took the pictures herself (nice energy and good photographer). We were very pleased - got the prints we wanted with minimal waste and didn't pay an arm and a leg for stuff we didn't want. We felt good about the experience.

So, we went back this weekend. I talked to the same manager gal as last time to ask her to take the pictures - sure, no problem. She was less inclined to print the proof sheet (they're well established now with booked appointment schedules, so less willing to court customers). But she agreed not to print full photo packages of each print and took way more shots than their usual handful. We were very happy with the pictures - she has a great repport with the kids and a good eye for poses.

The appointment to pick up the pictures SUCKED to put it mildly - we met with a different gal (our gal was off that day). High pressure sales - complete with the attempted guilt tripping for not wanting to buy the tri-print combo with frame. The pose they'd picked for the 10X13 they were pushing was our least favorite (we all had our heads titled - looked like we'd just come off some ride at Disney World). The woman was a really pushy - barely breathed as she's trying to talk us into prints. I finally asked her to step back, so we could think (luckiily we'd looked at our prints on-line so we knew what we wanted - and we'd also figured out who we were buying for ahead of time, so we weren't buying more than what we needed). Gal was p*ssed that we weren't all "ooo and aaaaa - we need 42 of these and 16 of these prints). We got holiday cards, so it wasn'tl like we didn't spend a chunk of change.

Then it came time to get our prints - we left the store, ran an errand and came back in the designated 15 minutes time to find red lines in our prints. Did they bother to proof the pictures before they put them in the envelope? Apparently not. So when our overly-pushy sales gal opened the envelope to review the order, there were these lovely red lines through our prints - not acceptable. So, she hasitly apologized and said she'd have them done again. Just another 10 minutes please. Now our window of time was quickly closing until we needed to hook Gemma up with a friend to go see the Nutcracker and we had to leave - should have left earlier. This now means another trip out to the mall to pick up our prints. Neither Jani nor I are fans of malls - I'd rather walk through hot coals than be in the canned music-filled mall, especially this time of year. And its a 15 minute drive - so not an efficient use of our time or fuel for the van either.

So a call to the manager about our expeirence is on the docket for today - especially given that we need to drive back out to pick up our prints. So I'd love to have pictures to show you all - however its not happening today.

Will we go back to the Picture People after this - NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cupcakes

2006-12-01T14:44:00.000-08:00

Our school district has a new "health" policy - healthy and nut-free snacks for classrooms, no candy or other junk foods for rewards - basic logical stuff. One day this week I sent a left-over cupcake in Gemma's lunch, figuring she'd love a little treat. That night, the cupcake came home untouched in the lunch box.

Me: "Gemma, you didn't eat your cupcake?"

Gemma: "No, because the prinicpal was in the lunch room and she looked at me funny, because I didn't have a healthy food in my lunch."

Me: "Did you ask the prinicipal if the cupcake was ok or did you just assume it wasn't because she looked at you?"

Gemma: "No, I didn't ask. She just looked at me."

I reassured her that an "every once in a while" treat of a cupcake in her own lunch was not a violation of the health policy. I put the cupcake back in her lunch for the next day.

That night, the cupcake was still in her lunch box. Repeat the above dialogue, only this time it was the classroom teacher that Gemma perceived was angry about the cupcake.

So I again reassured her that I couldn't imagine the cupcake would be an issue, though I suggested she eat it at home after supper before it got stale - it was getting a bit banged up with its many travels to and from school.

I decided it might be time to give the principal a ring to see what her insights might be. Of course it was just as I had imagined - a cupcake in one's own lunch box is not a problem.

The whole incident was just such a reminder to me that
a) these little kindergarteners are still just babes - and so literal in their interpretations - if a grown-up at school told her that they could only bring healthy foods to the classroom, then it must apply in all situations at school.

b) that we need to work with her on how to check out assumptions, rather than rely on a small tidbit of information, with her so she can avoid assuming something that really isn't there.

I felt badly for her, thinking about her trying to quietly slide her cupcake back into her lunch box to avoid getting in trouble, though the story is terribly cute. The institution of school is such a big and some days overwhelming place for these little ones.

Knit 1, Purl 2, Knit 1, Purl 2

2006-11-29T13:00:00.000-08:00

I learned to knit when I was Rowan's age - during Junior Girl Scouts with our "knitting grandmas" (older women from our community who had generously donated their time to teach a bunch of girls this carft. I loved it then, my hands wobbly and unsure, yet excited and my eyes big with anticipation about what my first piece would look like when finished. I still remember, it was a medium blue scarf, all done in garter stitch. We dontated them to folks who needed warm winter outter wear as a service project.

Through high school I kept knitting, until I thought I was just too cool for such things and preffered partying with my friends over the click of the needles. While teaching elementary-aged kids, I often taught circles of kids - boys and girls alike - to knit and loved watching their faces as the wonder of those threads of yarn came together into an actual product.

But I haven't made anything really for close to 30 years until I took inspirtation from three women - all of whom sat in community together in the Facilitating by Heart workshop series I co-facilitate. Each brought her project with her, needles flying as we did intense work on deep listening, working through conflict and living and working from a place of integrity when working with others. Their work - both in their knitting and the profound personal work they did during the workshop series - inspired me to pick up my needles once again.

I've been having a ball, surfing the net in search of patterns for things. Lion Brand, bless their hearts, provides many free and lovely patterns. A great place to start for a re-committed stitcher. My first projects were hats for the girls, as we approach this cold time of year.
As I walked into the yarn shop (a local place - I much prefer local over chain stores), my heart just sang. The shop is tiny, a narrow strip of a place, the left and right facing walls are filled with skeins upon skeins of yarn from the top of the 10 foot ceilings to the floor. The smell and sight of it all is intoxicating. I quickly zoned in on the type of yarns I needed for the hats - thick, chunky stuff - and selected colors just right for each girl. I happily proceeded to the counter to purchase it and needles like a kid in a candy store.
My Thanksgiving weekend was filled with hat making. A pink one for Gemma (of course) a blue multi-colored one for Rowan and then two additions for two of their cousins. I thought Jani had gotten a picture of the girls in their hats, but can't find it in our photo files, so we'll have to snap another.

My next project - a hood for Jani. She just needs to choose her yarn and a stitchin' we will go.

Go Bucky

2006-11-29T12:46:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for us this weekend, look no further than the University of Wisconsin Field House, because our Badger Women's Volleyball team was awarded the privilege of hosting the first and second rounds of the NCAA play-offs.
We'll be happily snuggled all up in our RED
While visions of POINT WISCONSIN and victory dance in our HEADS!!

Our Family

2006-11-29T06:09:00.000-08:00

Photo taken at Thanksgiving at Jani's folks' house in Freeport. For those that don't "know" us - (from left to right) Rowan, age 8, Jani, Denise and Gemma, age 5.

'Tis The Season

2006-11-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

...for remodeling!!

As we enter into the dark days and long nights of late fall before the Winter Solstice, we decided it was time to turn our energies inward (inside the house) and start another remodeling project in our much-loved 1886 Queen Anne house. This one is a tad simpler than the last - it involves no moving of walls, rewiring or new plumbing. We are having most of the second floor rooms repainted.

As the sun gets ready for his re-birth on the Solstice, we are excited to begin a-new in our more intimate living spaces - the bedrooms. The girls are leaving their current bedroom (a small and cozy space) for a larger room with a bay window. We offered them each their own room and they declined, saying they[d be too lonely at night without the other. A very sweet sentiment to be remembered in those moments when the sister spats are running high. Their former bedroom will become their playroom, thus relegating toys to a more enclosed room. Anyone who has ever set foot in this house knows the kid-energy is everywhere - the place looks like a Waldorf school - with kid-created art adorning the walls and little alters of stones and feathers on any horizontal surface available. However, it will be great to have the toys (all those fairy villages, Barbie condos and My Pretty Ponies) residing in their lovely new purple playroom. The girls decided to keep their night sky ceiling (a dark blue with stars) in the playroom. It will be interesting to see how the purple and blue go together. Their bedroom will be a medium blue (like the twilight night sky). They want murals of trees painted on the walls, so it looks like they are sleeping outside. Mine and Jani's room will be a sage green.

We've hired a paint crew to do the work. As much as I love hands-on things, left for us to do, it just wasn't happening. Too many other things marched themselves higher on the priority list for weekends (like playing and having a good time with the family). It was very important for us to hire folks with really nice energy, as not only do they leave paint on the walls and woodwork, they leave their energy print too. These guys are very sweet and are doing a great job. Yesterday's task was the woodwork and it looks extrordinary!!!

We're also getting a new "lid" (aka roof) on the house. Any day now the roofers should arrive.

Pictures will come as the rooms are completed.

Swim Meet

2006-11-15T09:48:00.000-08:00

Rowan

Rowan with her Second Place Ribon for her 25 yard Freestyle and Third Place for her 25 yard Breast Stroke. Her favorite part of the meet - swimming - she wished she'd signed up for more heats.

Gemma

Gemma wearing her achievement metal after her non-competitive swim. Her favorite part of the meet - standing on the dias to get her picture taken.

Point Wisconsin!!

2006-11-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

Yes fans, we are at the height of University of Wisconsin Badger Volleyball season and those who know us, know that you'll usually find our family at the Field House on Friday and Saturday nights cheering on these women. One of the favorite parts of the volleyball experience for me is the grace of these young women after the games - singing Varsity surrounded by their young fans and hanging out on the court to greet people and sign autographs. Caty DuPont (a freshman outsider hitter) has scooped up Gemma to hold while singing Varsity and generously allowed a picture afterward. She's scooped up Gemma on more than one ocassion post game.

I also love the game for its wonderful excitement and upbeat fans. It would be hard to imagine being bored at a UW volleyball game and I appreciate that the fans take the emotional high ground, cheering on the team with enthusiams - rather than complaining or criticism.

Now one might say its easy to be enthusiastic, because the Badgers are doing quite well!! We are tied for the #2 position in the Big Ten Conference with the Minnesota Gofers. Our last loss was against them on their home court on October 18. Now they visit our home court on a rare Wednesday night game tomorrow night. Forget swimming lessons, piano practice and any of that usual mid-week evening rituals - we are off to the Field House for some fun and excitement!

GO BIG RED!!!!!!!! We're looking for sole posession of that #2 spot right behind Penn State!!

Scootering for Social Justice

2006-11-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

The weekend before the election, we walked a suburban neighborhood with the Fair Wisconsin Get Out the Vote Campaign. Rowan's task was to find the "no" vote identified houses (we had a list).

On a More LIght Hearted Election Day Note

2006-11-08T12:03:00.000-08:00

We were at the polls last evening to vote. We always go to vote when we bring the kids, because we hope to instill the behavior of voting in them from an early age and because they love to go with us. Gemma usually stands on a chair, so she can see the ballot. Typically our voting booth conversations with her have consisted of how the marking pen works, how the computer records the votes, etc. Well, that was all before she learned something about reading. As I marked by ballot on the four yes/no questions, I hear her sing out loud enough for most everyone to hear "Mom, how come you marked "no" on those two questions and "yes" on those other two?" I hear lots of adult nuffled chuckling going on around me and think "oops, we didn't have that conversation about keeping one's votes private while at the polling site." This all led to quite an interesting discussion about why we make our opinions very apparent with our yard signs and with working on campaigns, but keep them private while in the polling area. Never a dull moment around here!!

Standing in the Threshold: Reflections on the Morning After Wisconsin Passes a Constitutional Ban Against Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Unions

2006-11-08T10:26:00.000-08:00

Bittersweet would be the simple and rather cliché way to describe how I’m feeling o this post-election morning. I’m experiencing feelings much more intense and complex that can be captured with just one word – proud, angry, grateful, grief-filled, hopeful, rage-filled, heart-broken, exhausted, and enlivened.

My pride is huge. Even though our constitutional ban passed, my pride in the citizens of Wisconsin fills my heart. I am proud that

Ten thousand of us stepped forward around the state to volunteer - take time off work or give up our free time to make phone calls, walk door-to-door, enter data and basically do whatever was asked of us.
450,000 Wisconsin citizens voted “no” on this constitutional ban.
The Fair Wisconsin campaign ads were positive and conveyed a sense of compassion and dignity – not fear and manipulation.
Our straight allies “outted themselves” publicly as allies and saw this issue as one of basic human rights; not just a “fringe” issue.
Many of us had difficult and moving conversations with friends, family and complete strangers about our private lives – our families – to help build understanding, open the doors to communication and dispel the myths.
Such a diversity of people stepped forward to say no to discrimination – a diversity of ages from our eight year old daughter riding her scooter ahead of us to point out which houses we needed to visit on our canvas list, to the high school aged students working the phones after school, to elderly folks who’d never worked a phone bank in their lives – across race and disability and class – amazing!!

My gratitude flows right from my pride. I am profoundly appreciative of –

The people we may have contacted numerous times through phone and door knocking, who treated us with dignity – thanking us for our dedication – who didn’t feel compelled to be slam down the phone or the door, who opened their hearts no matter the number of contacts.
The organizations that offered their space so that phone banks and staging areas could be set up around the state.
The religious leaders who spoke out against the ban – naming the truth about what really threatens Wisconsin families – poverty, unequal access to education, addiction.
The people who brought us food, coffee, water and soda as we spent hours with phones glued to our ears.
Those who find this work so very challenging – right out of their comfort zone – who did it anyway because they understood why it had to be done.
The young woman who called me while I was making phone calls. I had called her to remind her to vote. Shortly after we’d hung up, my phone bank extension rang – not a typical happening. When I picked up, it was the young woman, asking where she could go to help.
The poll workers who had a long day too – with our city voter turn-out high, they saw a steady stream of voters and got very few breaks in their 13 + hour day.
The staffers at Fair Wisconsin and Action Wisconsin who have worked insane hours, often running on empty themselves, to keep things moving.
The young woman who worked our call site, who enlarged all my phone lists to make them easier to read, found comfortable seating for the person with her leg in a cast and open space for someone else in a wheelchair to accommodate or diverse needs so we could be effective in what we were doing.
Those who I know and those who I've never met who donated money and sponsored house parties as fundraisers.
Again, those known to me and those not who found their center and their courage to talk about this issue and whose stories we may never know.
The friend who sent me a beautiful Maya Angelou poem this morning that really speaks to the bittersweet ness of this day.
The other friend who called to offer her support as I go into another day tomorrow of meeting new clients and working with them around the importance of respect and care of differences.
And still another friend who I swapped stories of pride with about our two different campaigning experiences.
My partner and my children – just because they are my family.

Often the big picture optimist, I also feel hopeful, because –

The issue of fair treatment of Wisconsin’s gay, lesbian and bisexual citizens and our families is no longer a “closeted” issue and that we have gained some amazing allies along the way.
I believe the tide may be turning – albeit if slowly – on our political climate. I feel hopeful to see our democratic governor re-elected, see us gain some seats back in our state legislature and see the House of Representatives again turn in a fair-minded direction.
The candidates here who aligned themselves with our issues were elected handily to their offices, despite being told that they would be committing political “suicide” by standing up for “gay rights.”
70% of voters under the age of 30 voted against the constitutional ban.
So many young voters turned out at the polls, many voting for the first time in their lives. A friend who worked a polling place on the University of Wisconsin campus reported taking many pictures of students voting (at their request) for the young people to text message off to friends and family – very proud of themselves for voting.

Along with these feelings that fill my heart co-exist the ones that sadden and burden my heart.

I am angry, because –

The Associated Press called the results early in the game – before our polls were even all officially closed! We had one polling site still open under a judge’s order. The site (a high school on our side of town) had received a bomb threat earlier in the day. The building, including the 2,400 students, the faculty and all pollsters had to be evacuated. All voting machines were moved outside and voting continued while the building was searched for explosives. The site was allowed to stay open an extra hour to accommodate the transition out and then back into the building. That site still had ten more minutes to accept voters by the time the AP had called the election.
The State Elections Board distributed voter registration information that was unclear and confusing. I don't believe this had anything to do with the outcome of the election - it just troubles me greatly that with something so important more care wasn't taken in conveying a complete and accurate message.
The “yes” campaign” people would not let any press into their “victory” party last night – while I try very hard in my life to not run up my escalator of assumptions too quickly, it does beg the question of why this was a “closed door” event.
Despite having record turn-outs in many places around the state – particularly in our county which was really pushing for the “no” vote on the amendment, we still saw only about a 50% turn-out and we think this is “good.” There are places in the world where people travel miles to vote and risk their lives. There are countries that declare Election Day as a holiday to create more equal access to voting – and we’ve become so complacent that if the weather is bad, the lines or too long or we’re just “too busy” we don’t step up to participate in the political process.

My anger taps into my rage – rage that

This ban was even put forth in the first place – that key leaders used a “hot button” and emotional issue for their own gain. While the voters of the state of Wisconsin are starting to see these people for what they are (some of most hateful people lost their seats), they have carved out their legacy and it will take time and energy to undo the damage.
Fear was the motivating theme used by the “yes” campaign.
Ignorance of the law was used to manipulate voters. In Wisconsin before the constitutional amendment even passed, it was illegal for same-sex couples to marry and our state does not recognize civil unions granted in other states. This constitutional change just thickens the layers of pollution – illegal is illegal. And it risks the benefits we do hold through domestic partnerships.
Despite many logical and well-researched arguments from diverse communities (business leaders, educational leaders, some religious leaders) that this ban would be bad for Wisconsin citizens in the end, people either operated out of fear or didn’t fully examine their decision and voted “yes.” So much for logic and deductive reasoning.
Discrimination based on people’s differences continues to exist at all and that homophobia through jokes, slurs, emotional and physical violence is still allowed to exist in our society – in families, schools, work places and the larger community.
People use their religion to wield weapons of hatred. My understanding of Jesus’ teachings is that they are about acceptance and compassion (perhaps I missed something at Vacation Bible School). I can’t help but think Jesus would be jumping off his cross in a fit of rage to witness the hatred all wrapped up in his name.
The true threats to our families – poverty, discrimination, unequal access to education and chemical addiction still exist and people still wring their hands over what to do about these issues.

I have incredible grief and heart-ache when –

I look into the big round bewildered eyes of my daughters as they try to comprehend why people would even want to create a ban against our family in the first place and then why people would vote to constitutionalize it. Our older daughter questions why we say “liberty and justice for all” during the pledge when we vote to make sure it is not true.
I think about the elderly woman I talked with yesterday who said she’d already voted and that she’d voted for the ban – using a tone of voice that radiated “so there you go missy” and I think what her life must be like if she takes pride and finds satisfaction in the disparaging and unkind way she talked to me. Is her life experience so disempowered that she needs to take solace in making sure she lets me know she has treated badly (I am less troubled by her vote than her behavior on the phone).
I think of the countless hours spent defending people’s basic human rights when we could be doing other things – like caring for the sick, teaching, reading to our children, caring for the environment, singing, walking in the woods, enjoying life.
I think of the tens of thousands of us who dedicate our professional and personal lives to social justice as we witness backlash moments like this. To quote myself on something else I wrote awhile back “it’s like spitting in the ocean and expecting the pH level to change.”

I feel exhausted –

My ears literally have sores on them from holding a phone to them for hours/days on end.
My eyes are tired from reading lists of numbers and addresses. I have renewed respect for those working at substandard wage, whose livelihood is dependend on telemarketing, after all of these phone calls.
I’m tired from sleepless nights wondering what the day-to-day ramifications of this will be – will we lose my health insurance, will we lose Gemma’s

And amazingly, I also feel enlivened to keep going, to take what is hopeful and what I’m proud of to gather those allies and to hitch a ride on that hoped for turn of the political tide. Often when I introduce myself to new client groups I tell them that I do this work because of my daughters and all children – that I want to help hand them a legacy where compassion and respect for all people are the norm – an everyday occurrence. So as one friend said to me this morning, “we stand at yet another threshold” and I wonder how will be walk through it and which path will be follow.

VOTE TODAY!! TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7

2006-11-07T06:27:00.000-08:00

Been to the polls yet today???

If it is before 8:00 this evening it is not too late!!!!

Not sure where to vote?

Not a problem. Call your local League of Women Voters or your City/Town Clerk's Office to find out where your polling place is. In Wisconsin you can register at the polls. Just bing proof of residency with you if you'e never registered before.

Not happy with the way things currently are in your town, city, county, state or country?

Then register your desires, wants, needs through your right and responsibility to vote.

Want to do more than just vote, but you assume it is too late to volunteer??

It is quite likely that you can call an organization or candidate's office of your choosing and help them out with phone calls, door-to-door Get Out the Vote canvassing or driving voters to the polls. There is always work to be done and it is fun!

...I'm off for another day of Get Out the Vote Phone Banking!!

...And I'm keeping my heart open and fingers crossed that a FAIR WISCONSIN votes NO on the CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to BAN Same-Sex Marriage and Civil Unions.

Halloween Costume Parade

2006-11-01T20:48:00.000-08:00

Gemma as Professor McGonagall in Cat Form

2006-11-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

Here is Gemma in costume 657!! She's ranged this Halloween from the Easter Bunny, to a "fashion witch" to an old-fashioned girl, to a cat to Professor McGonagall transfigured into a cat!

Rowan as an Animungus in Bat Form

2006-11-01T12:43:00.000-08:00

Ok let's try this. I've posted the pictures on flicr.com and am uploading to the blog from here. Yes, some day I will have this technology figured out!

Here is Rowan in her self-designed bat animungus costume, spreading her wings.

Happy Halloween 2006

2006-11-01T11:47:00.000-08:00

**Pictures will be posted whenever Blogger decides to cooperate**

It’s been a fun-packed Halloween weekend and start to the week with plenty of costuming opportunities!!

Friday night and Sunday afternoon were home University of Wisconsin Women’s volleyball games where fans were encouraged to wear costumes. To Friday night’s game, Gemma wore her Easter Bunny costume (yes, she’s been planning for months to be the Easter Bunny for Halloween!). Rowan decided to go as an animungus from Harry Potter fame (you know a human that has the ability to change into an animal). She was in her witch form on Friday night and Sunday both. Gemma was a “fashion witch” for Sunday’s game.

My folks accompanied us to Friday’s game. They were visiting from Washington Island on their way to a family wedding. They (and we) were treated to an AWESOME game with Wisconsin winning over #2 ranked Penn State. The Field House was ROCKING with excitement and I nearly lost my voice from cheering. We won on Sunday too, though it was a far less dramatic game against Ohio State.

Saturday brought us to a Halloween party hosted by friends with a daughter Rowan’s age. So there were lots of kid-friendly things to do, including decorating cookies and gourds and listening to “spooky” stories. Gemma dressed as an “old fashioned girl” for this event while Rowan continued her animungus witch/bat theme.

Trick-or-Treat evening brought yet another costume alteration for Gemma – of course. If this kid doesn’t work in theater someday, I’ll be stunned! She decided to go with the Harry Potter theme, abandoning her bunny attire and dressing as a cat – no ordinary cat though. She was Professor McGonagall in her cat form, because you see Professor M has the ability to transfigure herself into other things. Rowan took on her bat form, wearing a cape she’d made herself. And yes you can see that the girls’ normally lighter colored hair is darker than usual – thanks to black hair spray. You should have seen the ring that and the face paint left in the bathtub last night!!!

Gemma’s comment this morning as we were getting ready for school was “it’s so long until next year when we can celebrate Halloween again.” It is truly a beloved holiday for our family. It’s a good thing we are hosting a Samhain gathering on Saturday night, so we get to extend the fun (and remember the true meaning of this harvest festival) for just a little longer.

Closing Out the Fall Soccer Season with a Bang!

2006-10-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

A true testimony to how much Rowan loves soccer - her two closing games for the fall season were played in weather that is best described as "nasty." Saturday's game (pictured above) was played in rain with temperatures just slightly above the freezing mark. Even in these conditions, you can see she still has a grin on her face. Later in the evening we were treated to 2.3 inches of snow!!! A record for southern Wisconsin in mid-October. She played again the next day in just above freezing temperatures in a field where some of the snow had melted and left behind large mud holes. Today we washed the uniform, cleats and shin guards and then we washed the washer to rid it of mud and grass.

Her team, The Panthers, won both of their games. Hard won victories by both kids and fans alike.

Ah, now just wait until those early spring games in April where we could end up repeating the whole scene.

School Violence

2006-10-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

Recently, there was discussion on an email list to which I belong about the recent school violence incidents around the country. Below is my reply on the discussion. I chose to post it here to have a copy for my own remembrance and to share it with anyone who might find it something to think about.

I'm well beyond sad - I have huge rage about school violence. It's awful and I feel like it points to much wider societal issues that we as a people have to acknowledge and not be silent about. In this case silence truly equals death.

We've had two incidents here in Wiscosnin this school year. One in the Green Bay high school where three kids were planning a Columbine-like masacre - they had dozens of guns and bomb-making material. Another student tipped off school officials and the police were able to intercede before anything happened. The masacre was planned for the day after the student came forward. Last Friday a student in a school in a neighboring county to ours brought guns to school. Staff were able to institute a lock-down of students, but the prinicpal was killed. Then couple in the Amish school incident and the recent Colorado one. I hadn't heard the stat on 17 school incidents thus far in the school year, but sadly, I would believe it.

Does it p*ss me off that my two little girls have to practice "lock-down" drills at school? YES!! Do I want them to know what to do in case a gunner comes into their school? Of course. )-:

The Colorado and Amish school incidents disturb me a lot, b/c these were adults. It is a real indicator for me that our society still operates off a notion that adults have the right to have power over children and that males have the right to have power over females. If this cultural assumption didn't hold true, these men wouldn't have chosen schools as the places to take their "stand."

In one of Wisconsin school incidents the kid who used violence, said that he'd had had enough of being bullied and ridiculed. He indicated that he'd been called "fag" and "queer" by peers and that he'd gone to school officials and gotten little or no help. Of course his method of resolving his anger is unaaceptable. The issue of bullying is huge in schools and is a product of wider society teachings, esp. around issues of sexual orientation. Adults in schools still routinely, routinely turn their backs and rarely put their feet down abot the use of "faggot" and "queer" as slams, b/c wider society still gives lots of permission to ridicule people assumed to be LGBTQ. Walk down the hallways of most middle and high schools in this country during a "passing time" and you'll comonly hear "that so gay" or other put-downs.

And, in all of these incidents, there has been a desire on the part of the shooters for retaliation, punishment, revenge. From the get-go our society models revenge and retaliation - haveing someone to blame when things don't go the way we want them to go in our lives. LIttle kids wittness their parents blaming their bosses or co-workers for their unhappiness at work. They're in the cars when someone cuts off their parents and the parents blurt out some choice words. They watch other kids blame someone else for their bad behavior on the playground. They see people on TV (news and programming) take their frustrations out on someone else - including much of the programming geared toward kids (someone is often trying to "get even" with someone else) and they see our government take revenge on other countries. Collectively, we are a very "eye-for-an-eye" society. Sometimes I wonder if we are living in the 21st century or in the "wild wild west."

Then add mental illness to the picture, which I believe is probably a factor in all of these incidents...wow!

Sociatal beliefs that some groups "deserve" to dominate others + a reteliatory attitude + easy access to guns + mental illness = violence directed towards those most vulnerable in our society

The only way I personally can think of managing the rage is not to contribute to the above formula, which on the surface seems easy, but in fact is harder in real life. Of course not doing the big stuff is easy, but its the subtle stuff that underpins our societal assumptions that I have to really slow down and notice. And, for me its about "outing" the crap that goes on here in the bigger picture ways and not just wringing my hands after incidents like these and saying "wow, how could that happen" but working every single day around these issues professionally and personally. Even on those days when I feel like the efforts of my work are like spitting in the ocean and expecting the pH levels to change.

A Fair Wisconsin Votes "No"

2006-10-20T17:49:00.000-07:00

We are 18 days away from our November election. For many of us living in Wisconsin, this day holds much importance. Wisconsin residents will be faced with many crucial ballot questions. One of which is whether to amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage and civil unions (both for same-sex couples and opposite gender couples). We stand at a profound threshold - whether Wisconsin will continue its legacy of progessive-minded equity towards diverse populations (we were the first state in the nation to add sexual orientation to the legal definition of protected class) or whether we use our Constitution to legislate discrimination.

I have been profoundly moved by witnessing our straight allies - family, friends and strangers - around the state, step forward in support of defeating this amendment through holding house parties to raise funds for campaigning and education, door-to-door canvassing, making donations, making phone calls, talking openly with family and friends about the implications of the passage of this amendment.

Wisconsin is poised to make history on Nov 7. We are being looked to as the first state in the nation that may be able to defeat a constitutional ban. Interesting, Wisconsin has been pegged as the new "Peoria." Meaning that based on our diverse ideologies here, we have become the political pulse point on many issues for the entire nation (what happens in Wisconsin has the likelihood of replicating itself elsewhere politically according to a recent National Public Radio story I heard). What legacy to we want to be ours here in Wisconsin? My hope is one of acceptance for diverse families and compassion for all people.

It's not too late to help. If you are wondering what you might do, you can visit Fair Wisconsin's website at www.fairwisconsin.org for
*a list of talking points for conversations with family, friends and co-workers.
*a list of regional offices around the state where you could volunteer an hour (or more) of your time.
*a link for making donations. Heck, you don't even have to be from Wisconsin to donate!!

Be sure to vote on November 7. Know where your polling place is. If you don't know, call your city or town clerk's office. They can help you locate your polling place. If you need to vote absentee for any reason, requests for ballots to be mailed to you must be received by your city/town clerk no later than 10 days before the election.

Be sure to vote on this amendment. In Dane County, the amendment will be printed on the backside of your ballot, so please be sure to flip the ballot over and mark your vote. This may also be true in other counties with large numbers of offices up for re-election, so please look carefully.

Our family is directly and deeply impacted by the outcome of this election. We are hopeful that you will hold us in your hearts, minds and spirts as in walk into your polling place and cast your ballot.

Super Music Student

2006-10-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first of four awards assemblies at Gemma's school. She received the Super Music Student Award from her music teacher (-: Upon hearing that she was to receive the award, Gemma decclared "oh I feel so good about myself." The proud parents were there to see her receive her award and enjoy each of the award recipients. (As the school year passes, each child receives an award from her/his classroom teacher and some kids get them from the specials teachers.)

Below are two pictures - one of Gemma holding her large C Clef Sign shaped award, wearing her favorite pink velour pants outfit (not what "I" would have chosen for her to wear - but its not about me -right!). The other is a picture I came across in our photo files of her ready to leave the NICU 14 days after her birth at 3 lbs 10 oz (birth weight of 3 lbs 4 oz). I was stunned when I looked at this picture five years later and loved the contrast of seeing baby Gemma and kindergarten Gemma - both with those wonderous and intense blue eyes staring out at us.

Five Year Old Kindergarten Gemma

14 Day Old Baby Gemma Leaving the NICU for the First Time

First 5K

2006-10-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

Rowan ran her first 5K yesterday (Sunday) in the Canterbury Run/Walk for Literacy. She's pictured above before the run with her friend, Courtney. We'd signed the girls up as walkers and they were going to walk with us moms. They wanted to run, as they both need to log 60 minutes a week of running for soccer training. I didn't anticipate that they'd run the whole 5K though. They did great, coming into the finish a few minutes before us. We walked it at a good clip. While I've become Rowan's running buddy for soccer training, I am not up for a 5K run yet; a good fast 5K walk was my speed.

As I came across the finish line and saw our rosy cheeked girl, calmly sitting on the curb, eating a banana and drinking water, I thought "wow, what a kid" and also thought how lucky she is to be able to try these things out and notice her own successes.

She wants to know when there is a run for math literacy (there is one called the Pi run in the spring) and she wants to be signed up as a runner, not a walker next time.

Last Days of Summer

2006-09-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those fall days that is a sweet reminder of all that is great about summer - warm (not blistering hot), sunny, breezy and filled with boundless play and uninterrupted time.

We spent the afternoon with friends at their new home. They recently moved out of Madison, to a small community where you can get a lot more house and land for a reasonable cost - much more reasonaable than in the city. Their new digs include an inground pool!!

Rowan and Willow invented a game, using the little yellow boat, they named "Old Bessy" (where they got the name, is anybody's guess), lining it up with the water slide, sliding down the slide and into the boat.

Gemma did spurts of time in the pool. With no body fat to speak of, she chills down pretty quickly. The water slide was quite a hit for her.

All four kids are incredibly good friends who instantly bond, even after weeks of not playing together. Gemma and Sage have promised to marry one another when they grow up. Unless of course one gets mad at the other, at which time the angry one says in a definitive tone of voice "That's it! I am NOT marrying YOU!"

A good time was had by the grown-ups too. We talked non-stop, whle watching the kids have a ball, eating corn chips and guac and enjoying a couple of ice cold wheat beers.

By Tuesday, we will be looking at a high temperature of 55 degrees, a far cry from today's 80 and a true taste of fall.

First Week of School

2006-09-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, how did it get to be September already??!!

Both Rowan and Gemma started school this week. It's been a big week for our entire family!!

Gemma is in KINDERGARTEN! The little gal just turned five on August 24 with a party extraordinaire - high tea served on china we acquired at St. Vincent de Paul for 25 cents a piece and a visit from a fairy (a wonderful children's entertainer) and now she's off to the Big K! We pondered waiting another year, given the lateness of her birthday. Our pondering time was short though, given that she seemed very ready emotionally, physically and cognitively for this next step.

It's been a big week for her. Overall she is liking school a lot. She loves the stimulation of her classroom. Her teacher, while new to the school, is a veteran kindergarten teacher. The classroom design and layout is lovely - lots to do, very kid-centric and very literacy rich and still lots of toys and games and blocks!!

As anyone who knows Gemma is likely to guess, she has her opinions about her expeirnece thus far. When we asked her after day one how things went, here was her reply -

"Well, I checked it out and I won't be going back."

When we asked her more about this, here were her complaints -

First, rest time (mandated by state law) is a "waste of time" because she wants to be up doing things in the room and not laying there on her blanket. The room is too cool to be doing stuff in it.

Second, she thought her teacher had "tricked" the kids when she told them they could look at books during rest time if they didn't want to sleep. But when Gemma forgot to get a book before going to her blanket and then wanted to get up and get one later in the rest time and was told she needed to stay put, she was sure she'd been duped.

She's displeased with the fact that she can't keep her magnetic mirror on the front outside of her locker. Her plan was to have it at eye level, so she could look at herself and check her hair whenever she walked by. Having to keep it on the inside of her locker door just messes up her whole routine.

Lastly, she was peeved that not every center in the room was open on the first day. When we explained some of the possible reasons for this, her reply was "Mom "I" can handle lots of choices. All of the centers could have been open and I would have no problem making a choice."

Luckily, more centers opened on days 2 and 3 and she has figured out to get herself books before going to her rest blanket. The mirror/locker issue sitll remains a bone of contention (-:

She is making friends and enjoying her time more each day. Today was teary - probably a "Friday" issue of just being maxed out.

The girls are not in the same school, as we have a K-2 school and a 3-5 one. So Gemma rides the bus in (as her school is across a major street. Rowan walks to school. Her school is physically further away, but no major six lane streets to cross.

Rowan has entered third grade with a lot of grace. She seems to have made just another huge leap in emotional development this summer. I also think the independence she got to experience within the loving and watchful suppport of Rainbow Family Camp also bolstered her confidence greatly. She's looking forward to many of the things that an "older kid" school can offer, like the opportunity to run for student council, help running the school store or serving on the spirit committee. The school will run/walk a mile together sometime early this fall as a community-building activity which seems really fun. Given that she needs to run an hour minimum a week for soccer training, the mile doesn't seem too cumbersome to her. She's loving the opportunity to walk to and from school. A parent walks with her - either me or our backyard neighbor and her daughter or she gets dropped off on rush-around mornings. I think she likes the opportunity to walk and talk and process her day. It's really nice for me to get this time with her too - I can tell it will be treasured time for us both.

Our Family's Chatter Bug

2006-06-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

Gemma is our famiy chatter bug. She has very easy access to her auditory self!!

Last night I was prepping several things for our new in-home summer childcare provider and Gemma was at my elbow the whole time, talking away. I'm a good listener and can hold a lot of words, but I was getting pretty fried. Finally, she said "mom, I'm talking so much that I even forgot what I was saying!"

Along the same theme, she graduated from preschool recently and said she was so glad to be "done with that." I was suprised, as she just has loved her preschool, so I asked her more about it. Her reply was "I don't like quiet time because I can't talk then and you know how hard it is for me to be quiet!"

I can just see next year's report card with the "code words" for letting us know she's a chatter bug
*Gemma has much to share with her classmates.
*Gemma is very social.
*Gemma has a lot to say.

Family Update

2006-06-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

I started an "update" post two weeks ago with the grand plan of doing a family update and an update on each girl, complete with picturs. HA! What was "I" thinking that I would have time to finish that in a timely fashion!!

So I've posted the family part of the update and will get to Rowan and Gemma soon. Rowan's birthday (she's turning 8!!) is in just a couple of weeks, she's finished second grade and has had lots going on that I'd like to reflect upon. So my commitment is to share about her on or before her birthday!!

Picture taken Memorial Day Weekend in Freeport, IL with some members of Jani's side of the family after we rode the antique railroad.

Our Family
After about 3 months, Jani's whooping cough is starting to mellow!! In China it is often referred to as the "One Hundred Days Cough" and I can understand why. It's interesting that I'm opening my post by talking about Jani's whooping cough. I think it has had a mucher larger impact on our family this spring than we imagined it would. I can now understand why it is considered a dangerous disease. My perception is that Jani is physically exhausted from the bouts of coughing that take her breath away or send her to the bathroom, vomiting. My heart just breaks every time she starts a coughing bout and its a relief to me to hear it not sounding so deep and chesty. If the illness is that straining in a healthy adult, I don't even want to imagine it would do to a child.

This winter/spring, we also experienced the impact of having both of our sets of parents go through medical challenges. Jani's folks are doing well. Her dad has healed from his knee surgery and the more impressive part of his story is that he (along with Jan's mom as support) has modified his eating and exercise behavior so that he can be off of all diabetes medications!! There was speculation that he'd be on injectible insulin the remainder of his life. Nothing like developing a good knowledge base and setting one's will and intention!! They leave for two months in Laos later this month. One might say they are nuts to go with their ever-changing health status and being in their late 70s. I think its pretty darn amazing.

My folks have finally returned to Wisconsin from Florida, a month later than usual. I ended up making an emergency trip to Naples in April to help out when Dad landed in the hospital again and it looked like surgery might be on the horizon. After nearly 5 months post-injury, he is healing, responding to physical therapy and has gotten his blood thinner medication re-regulated. He was not able to work most of the winter and after a long battle with Florida's workman's comp, they have been reimbursed his medical expenses and lost wages. Now that he's back in Wisconsin, hoping to get his own business back up and running, his good friends have offered to help him in whatever ways he needs. This really touched my heart to know how much his friends are willing to come to his (and my mom's support). So, they've closed up the Florida house, hurricane shutters and all and they'll hope for a better hurricane season this year (they sustained a lot of damage last year) and are happy to be back in the midwest.

Now that school is out and summer is upon us, we once again face that on-going challenge of how to manage summer childcare. We don't want to send the kids to full day center-based programs as it seems really important to have a change of pace. I still work full time and Jani has lots of summer-time school-related commitments so we still need care. A friend suggested nanny-sharing with another family, so that is what we're doing, with close friends. Our younger kids have been in care together since infancy. Our new provider started Monday and she and the kids are working through routines and boundaries this week. It's a pretty wild time. Gemma is less than pleased and is finding lots of ways to challenge D (the provider). We've been supporting D (hopefully she feels supported) with lots of strategies and I think (hope) that things will mellow once Gemma realizes that D is the provider and that she (Gemma) is not running the show!!

We'll take some time to go to Washington Island this summer to visit my folks, other family and friends over the Fourth of July. I'm really looking forward to this. I booked two weeks of vacation into my schedule in August, one week we may go back to the Island and the other will be spent at Rainbow Family Camp in northern Wisconsin.

March - More Like a Lion Than a Lamb

2006-03-31T11:07:00.000-08:00

It has been six weeks since I last posted here!! Just a "few" things going on around here - HA! I'll update for those who are interested and unload for myself (-:

So the old addageof March being like a lion or a lamb has new meaning for our family as the whole month (and the latter part of February) has had its share of "lion-like" moments (not weather-wise), rather event and circumstances.

Both Jani and I and the kids typically have cast iron immune systems. If we get anything..colds, flu..it is typically short-lived. Even Rowan with her asthma, has a solid immune system. Well, apparently, this was the winter/spring for the creepie-crawlies to find some small crack in those cast-iron immune systems. We have spent the better part of a month with each of us down for the cunt somewhere along the way. Gemma with a stomach bug and then a cold. Rowan with a nasty virus with a five-day fever (she missed an entire week of school). Me, with just my regular sinus crud (keeping fingers crossed and a bottle of Lysiene at the ready). Jani wins the prize though with stomach flu, the dreaded virus and whooping cough!! She was "thrilled" to find that this can last up to ten weeks!! The rest of us are all being treated preventively since its so contageous.

Rowan has won the prize for the greatest drama though. Yesterday morning, while fixing herself some breakfast (yes, she wants to do her own breakfast..part of that desire for independence), she decided to vary from the pre-approved menu and helped herself to a container of chicken and rice soup. As she was opening it, the pull tap broke off and the metal lid sliced into her thumb. When Jani came into the kitchen, she was greeded with lots of blood, Rowan running her hand under water to try to clean it and stating, "Mom, I think this is bad." So off to Urgent Care we went. To ours (and hers) happiness, the cut was such that they could use skin glue, rather than stitches. So she is wearing a pressure bandage and has her arm in a sling for a few days to keep the hand above her heart to help the glue set and the wound stay closed.

We have also begun to experience the "sandwhich" effect of having little kids and aging parents. Jani's folks, in their early 80's returned last summer from several years of living in Indonesia to a rather cascading effect of health issues. Her dad had developed untreated Type II diabets which the family didn't know about until he started suffering some post-operative isues after knee surgery on Valentine's Day. So, he's recovery from the surgery (had to have a second surgery about two weeks ago as the first one got infected) and learning how to manage diabetes, diet changes and insulin shots. Amongst all of his stuff, Jani's mom had severe belly pain which resulted in emergency abdominal surgery for her. Jani spent four days with them after their return from the hospital, helping them re-acclimate to life and we've been down as a family to visit and help out. Current things seem to be calm on that front.

My folks have nearly completed all of their home repairs post Hurricane Wilma. Amidst dealing with their insurance company claims and finding a contractor to do the work, Dad fell at work in January and got a severe hemotoma which landed in in the ER three or four times and finally an extended hospital stay. Mom just called a few nights ago to inform us, that after six weeks of looking like he was finally healing, things regressed again. He's back in the hospital, getting his blood thinners re-regulated and hopefully rehabbing his hip/leg soon. The best we can do, given that we're in Wisconsin and their in Florida is give my mom an emotional outlet and keep dad company over the phone and send down goodies and grocery store gift cards.

Throw into the mix the fund-raisers I coordinate in the spring..Girl Scout cookies for Rowan's troop and a plant/flower sale for Rowan's school, preppring my taxes for the business and our personal taxes, a heavy travel schedule for me for work..and just an added treat, having one of my client groups appear on the front page of the paper..twice..and not for good reasons.

There have been wonderful moments woven into these past six weeks....

Rowan's school choir sang at the State Capitol..some wonderful peace and justice music. Very proud Mama moment!!

Gemma is registered for kindergarten..holy cow how did THAT happen that this child will be going to kindergarten in the fall?!

Jani and I have managed to preserve our Thursday night "dates" amongst the mayhem, so we still get lovely couples time. Last night we saw a friend, a jazz muscian perform while having an outstanding dinner and dessert.

Rowan's second grade has an art show premiere in a couple of weeks in a local coffee shop.

Jani and my women's spriituality group is organizing an art show of our collective works after 13 years of being together and creating art that comes out of our ritual. This is a very exciting step for us. Art show is in mid-May.

We feel well-blessed by the friends who have been so helpful to our family in these past weeks.

So..we're under a high wind advisory today...hopefully blowing the winds of change through out lives. March can march right on out of here like a lion and we'll gladly welcome the warming days of April with our baby plants peeking up through the ground, reminding us about the wonders and mysteries of life.

Million for Marriage

2006-02-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Today seems like yet another perfect opportunity to remind folks about the importance of equal rights under the law for all people in our country. As many states work to ban same-gender unions and others work to legalize same-gender unions, our nation is experiencing an intense "push-pull" of beliefs and assumptions. If you have not yet signed the Million for Marriage petition or educated yourself about marriage equity, please create a place of love and compassion in your heart for all and take a few minutes today to learn more about this issue, how marriage equity can benefit us all (not just LGBT people) or renew your commitment to this work.

You can check out http://www.millionformarriage.org/ for more information.

Facilitating by Heart

2006-02-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

Generally I don't post much about my work life on my family blog, though I love my work and it definitely shapes who I am as a parent and a partner. This morning I'm inspired to share a little something about a project I'm so proud of and engage in a little shameless self-promotion. (-:

More than eight years ago, before Rowan was even born, some of my most dear friends and colleagues got together to develop a workshop series focused on what it really means to facilitate groups of people with care and compassion (i.e. from the "heart"). So many of our clients were (and still are) doing such important work in the world, environmentally, socially, poltically, medically), but they frequently ran into road-blocks about how to really get down to "it" so that their groups were not only productive, but sustainable, full of life and respectful of all involved. So we decided to bring together componants of our very best thinking and work into a 10 day (orver six month) experience of Facilitating By Heart.

I like to think of the series as having the longest gestational period known to human and animal kind, because it took four years from conception to birth. Rowan was not yet born when we had our intitial conversations and Gemma was 8 months old on the workshop's birthing day as we stood before our first group of 26 participants. Now, the thing is a preschooler. We begin our fourth year of offering the series in April, always to a full house with a long wait list. And, we've been able to raise enough funds through donations to sponsor 5 scholarships so folks from the struggling non-profit world can join us, besides keeping the fees very low compared to othr such endeavors done by different instructors.

And, its so powerful to keep in touch with our graduates, to hear how their lives, not just their work lives, but their home and family lives have been enhanced through their experience.

So 2.5 months before we start this year's series, I wanted to step back and admire this wonderful child of ours as much as I love and admire the two children who are a part of my life everyday.

If you're curious to learn more about "Facilitating by Heart" you can check out this link at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Department of Continuing Education's website (they are our sponsors). http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/pda/facilitating.htm

And check out two other workshops we offer through this same department:

Listening for a Change
http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/pda/hhi/listening.htm

Perceptual Thinking Patterns: The Mind at Work
http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/pda/hhi/ptp.htm

Is It Funky, Eclectic or Just Plain Kitsch?

2006-01-31T08:18:00.000-08:00

This morning as I walked onto my front porch, after dropping Gemma at preschool and taking my morning walk, all ready to start my work day, I got a good look at our front yard and just had to take some pictures. With the assortment of things, I wondered what passers-by on the bus, in their cars, on bikes and on foot think as tthey go past. Or perhaps that is just terribly egocentric of me to assume that anyone even notices (-:

So here are some pictures from our front yard. You decide, is it
*fun and funky, a reflection of our love of diversity?
*terribly eclectic?
*totally kitsch? In case you don't know what that means, its German, meaning weird trash.
*some bizarre collision of holidays?

First, there is the playhouse, which stays up year-round , because the girls like to refer to it as Little House in the Prarie and like to have adventures in it throughout the year. As some of you know, our front yard has been converted into natural prairie, thus the girls love to imagine that it is Little House on the Prairie. Rowan plays Laura and Gemma plays Mary, to correlate with their hair colors, not their ages. Since Rowan understands from the books that winters on the prairie were harsh and dangerous, she loves to go out to the little house when it snows and imagine that she is a child of the prairie in the 1800's.

Those of you who know me well may be surprised to know (or perhaps not surprised) that I'm the one who initiated having the inflatable Valentine Bear in the fornt yard. Yes, its embarrassing to admit, I love those darn inflatables. I rather liked the big inflatable heart with the huge smiey face on it (yes, quite tacky), but was over-ruled by the rest of the family who liked the bear. I really like the bear too, so it wasn't a big deal to let go of the Happy Heart.

Then there's the "few-silly" which hangs off the cast irno archway, which is adorned with rainbow colored star lights. The "few-silly" is an acquistion from Door County and it spins like a corkscrew in the breeze.

Our kitty cat Santa flag, ahhh yes, I know we're well past Solstice and Christmas. Gemma loves this flag and has bawked at taking it down. I think a Valentine's Day flag "might" be in order.

Now, this lovely artifact is completely Gemma's doing. She even spent her own allowance money to purchase this chicky of melted plastic pieces. So our front yard even has a hint of spring.

Spanning the holidays from Winter Solstice through Spring Equinox.

Why Do They Skip 15?

2006-01-30T08:47:00.000-08:00

When both girls were learning rote counting, they both skipped "15." Why? This is one of those parental mysteries, probably not easily explained by child development or perhaps very easily explained by child development. (-:

Gemma still leaves out "15" if she's tired or in a hurry. Poor "15" hopefully doesn't suffer from too many self-worth issues for being neglected. (-:

"...10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19..."

Quote of the Week - Audre Lorde

2006-01-24T07:04:00.000-08:00

The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.

-Audre Lorde, self-described "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet"

When I thought about what I needed in my life this week, the notion of joy came into my mind right away..the power of joy to fill up those spaces of exhaustion or frumpiness, to remind me of what really matters. And joy has a contageous effect when shared lovingly, of building connections between people who know they are connected and between people who never imagined they could be connected.

Audre Lorde is one of my most treasured teachers. While I was never lucky enough to see her in person before she died, her words have touched me on a personal level and through my work in many, many ways. If you would like to learn more about Audre Lorde, you can check out this link which has a short biography and samples of her work. http:///maximum.lambda.net/lorde.html

What brings you joy today?

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

2006-01-23T12:30:00.000-08:00

Hooray!! Hooray!! Blogspot is cooperating and I can get pictures to load!!

This is the picture we chose for our "holiday" cards, aka "New Years" cards, aka "you'll get a card from us soon" cards! I just love this picture, taken on Washington Island at our favorite tree (a yearly tradition for us to visit this ancient tree and take family pictures there). I don't know why we had such a hard time selecting the picture this year. This one just melts my heart. Now that the cards are printed and I have a new printer to print the letters, we "should" have them out soon.

I have a cousin who often sent hers out around Valentine's Day. I like that tradition. I think we might adopt it ourselves.

What a Diva in Training!! On my birthday, Rowan and Gemma treated Jani and I to a breakfast of muffins and a show. They hung a clothesline from their bunkbeds to their shelves and slung a sheet across it. Rowan was the backstage crew, running the boombox and the lights and Gemma did the song and dance routine in her gymnastics leotard.

Next, they were off to decorate the cake they'd baked earlier that monring under the careful supervision of Mama J. It's angel food (which I LOVE!). Can you tell they like to use sprinkles??!!!!

Later that evening, we had a dinner party of "small dishes" with everyone bringing a favorite appetizer. We sang and played the new piano, drank good wine and ate, and ate and ate. We topped off the evening with a swiss chocolate cake. Believe me, both cakes were fantastic, though I'd had my fill of cake by the end of the day.

Rowan, playing Musette at her concert. I wondered about this choice, as it wasn't introduced in class until mid-December, leaving just a bit more than a month (plus the mayhem of the holidays) to work on the piece. But Rowan knew the first time she heard it, that this was the piece she wanted to play. And she did great!! There is that strange feeling when you kid is doing something big, pride, a bit of nervousness, feeling yourself in their shoes, but knowing its their own shoes and not yours to stand in. Big stuff.

The heart melter moment of the concert was when they sang a song about mothers and gave each of us a flower in recognition of all the support and work we as parents have put into helping our kids along this musical journey.

January Happenings

2006-01-23T10:13:00.000-08:00

(pictures to come when Blogspot lets me upload them).

Well, so much for the ease of December, when my client load is lighter and I have time to actually attend to my blog on a more regular basis and even time to read the blogs of friends. HA! Now, its January, my client load is huge, I've got end of the year bookkeeping to do, we're in the midst of a big house project, I'm the chair person for Rowan's Girl Scout troop's cookie sales, so my blog sits neglected for weeks at a time. I thought I'd start out the week with an update and a couple of pictures at least.January rolled in with unusually warm temperatures and we lost all of our beautiful snow. So gone were the days of ice skating and sledding. We got a couple of inches of snow on Friday, but nothing compared to what we had in December. While the warmer weather sure is nice on our heating bill, it leaves me wondering if this is just a fluke of nature, a bigger climate shift or global warming. It's just not typical.
(image placeholder)

January also brought about the celebration of my 43rd Birthday. The girls had a ball planning their surprises for my special day, complete with making breakfast and a cake. Rowan gave me a box of "wishing stones" so that I could pull a wish from the box anytime I wanted. I decided to share my wishing stones with our dinner guests later in the evening, figuring why it would be fun to share the wishing wealth on my birthday. I think we've started a new family tradition with the wishing stones thanks to Rowan's creative mind and generous spirit.

Turning 43 hasn't had any major implications..doesn't feel terribly different than turning 42, or 41 or 40 for that matter. It's all relative at this point. I seem to have walked my way, in the past year or so, into perimenopause. I recall commenting awhile back that I hoped to embrace this time with lots of good spiritual energy. HA! I'm not liking the "symptoms" of perimenopause much at all and am fairly p*ssy about it..Hm, I guess therein lies the spiritual challenge, doesn't it.

A new piano has graced our home. We've been talking "piano" for a long while now and finally made the leap this month. It is really fun to hear the house filled with the sounds of a real piano! Rowan was resistant at first, in tears at the showroom, not wanting to give up her old friend of the keyboard. We left the keyboard up for her during the transition phase, but she hasn't touched it since the arrival of the piano. Gemma's feeling out of the loop, being the one family member who doesn't play and has asked to start Yamaha lessons.Rowan's "graduation" from Yamaha was yesterday, celebrated with a concert and party to follow. It was a very bittersweet day for Rowan, her teacher, Jani and I and the other parents/kids and their teacher. These kids have been together for three years!! The program began with four classes of ten kids in each and over the years 10 kids have stuck with it and made outstanding progress in their musicianship, their friendships with each other and their connection to Ms Susan. I felt so proud of Rowan, who confidently sang out on all the vocal pieces, played her solo at the big grand piano, played an original composition and played the co-lead on an ensemble piece, as well as did an improv jazz piece with four other kids. This is huge, compared to the rehearsal for the first concert where she was a puddle of tears, totally intimidated by the performance atmosphere and the grandeur of the stage. I also felt sad as this part of her musical life draws to a close and she says good-bye to kids she's seen once a week for the past three years. My hats off a zillion times to their teacher, who through her love of music, her compassion with young children and her skill of teaching, allowed each child to blossom in her or his own way. Now we're on to to private piano lessons, sad to leave behind all of that great ear training, voice training and cooperative ensemble playing and excited to find out what the next chapter is like.

Rowan's also been busy with musical stuff at school. The company, Opera for the Young, came to her school to do a performance of The Barber of Seville. Rowan and several other second-graders were in the on-stage chorus. It was a very funny rendition of the opera, with Figaro portrayed as a 1950's motorcycle-riding barber and Rosalina as a poodle-skirt wearing teeny-bopper. The chorus members were each dressed as fellow teeny-boppers, Rosalina's friends, complete with letter jackets. Rowan's been singing the songs for weeks!! I really enjoyed watching how much she was enjoying herself while on stage.

Quote of the Week - Rowan, age 7.5

2006-01-06T05:54:00.000-08:00

2006 Resolutions

At school:

I will raise my hand when I have an answer and not be scared.
I will make new friends.
I will hold my pencil correctly.
I will be safe and respectful to all.

At home:

I will not complain when I practice piano.
I will help moms set up my playroom.
I will not yell at Gemma.

The End!

-Rowan, age 7.5 (school writing assignment)

Post-Vacation Blahs

2006-01-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

We are on day 2 of returning to work and school after the winter holidays and I think everyone here is feeling like they are moving through sludge. Yesterday, we all coasted back into routine with what seemed like ease. Everyone was awake and out of bed on time. Clothes had been chosen the night before by the youngest member of this family, so no clothing crisis in the morning. Rowan was even ready to head out the door nearly 15 minutes before her bus was due to arrive. Things went swimmingly!!

Today, I think the reality hit..."oh yeah, we're back to the day-to-day routine." Getting the girls out of bed was like waking the dead. We had forgotten to pick out clothes last night, so a potential clothing crisis loomed on the horizon with Gemma, thankfully averted with a quick grab on my part of her new princess sweatshirt and sweatpants.

One thing remained constant though, Rowan was still ready to catch her bus 15 minutes early.

Oh and did I mention, we haven't seen sunshine here since pre-Solstice, a good two weeks. We have lots and lots of grey-shine. Also, the temperatures wamed up, unseasonably, we got tons of rain and the snow is all gone. We are looking at brown ground. Looking outside if like looking at an old cepia photograph..very romantic on photographic paper, very dull in real-life.

Am I trapped in an old episode of Northern Exposure?

Quote of the Week - Gemma, age 4

2005-12-29T21:39:00.000-08:00

"Santa visits the Pagans first. Then he goes to the Christians."

-Gemma, age 4, to her preschool teacher while describing some Solstice traditions

Quote of the Week - Anne McCaffrey

2005-12-23T08:32:00.000-08:00

"Make no judgements where you have no compassion."

-- Anne McCaffrey
fantasy and science-fiction writer

Happy Winter Solstice and Seasons Greetings to All

2005-12-23T08:31:00.000-08:00

Girls With Santa on Solstice

Hello and Happy Holidays!!!

This is been a wildly busy week, with lots and lots of memorable moments. I'm sure I'll post about some of these in more detail and with more reflection after the holidays.

Rowan has a great sense of humor. Can you read the sign?

Our week included:

a Solstice gathering at our home over the weekend with friends and chosen family in attendance.
experiencing a performance of the Nutcracker on Sunday afternoon.
a continuing process in regard to Jani's request for Solstice as a religious holiday which may end up in Federal court as a religious discrimination suit..time time tell.
a wonderful Solstice eve candle-lit dinner and a viewing of the movie, The Polar Express.
a gorgeous Solstice day, begun with a sunrise walk out on the frozen lake with the kids and a "sunny" brunch of all yellow foods with a dear friend.
Gemma's ballet recital, the 4-5 year old version of the Nutcracker.
a visit to Rowan's classroom to share about Solstice and do a comparative analysis with the kids about Christmas, Solstice, Chanukah and Kwanzaa.
dinner out with the wonderful partner..kidless!
tommow we are off to Jani's folks for Christmas Eve and Christmas day and plan to take the kids to see Narnia.

Here are some pictures to enjoy.

Warm Wishes to All.

Gemma, post recital, dressed as Claira from the Nutcracker.

The girls at the beach on Solstice morning. We weren't greated with a sunrise, though the frozen lake was stunningly beautiful.

Gemma's Endocrinology Appointment

2005-12-20T13:49:00.000-08:00

Gemma had her six month endocrinology appointment yesterday. She was happy that it was a "just talking" appointment, no blood work, she just had to get measured a zillion times.

She's still growing, but at a slower rate than we'd hoped, so even on the growth hormone she's slowing down again. So, the doc asked us to up her dose. He reviewed her blood work that we had done prior to the visit and that coupled with her slowed growth, showed that she could use a bit more of a boost to keep t hings going. She is still making progress though, so that is really good.

For her, this won't mean any changes. We dose her injection pen each night by clicking a certain number of clicks, each click signifies .1 mg of hormone. She'll go from 3 clicks to 4 and could get headaches for the first couple of days, but after that there should be nothing. It just means "we" have to remember the new dose and it means running for refills every 15 days, instead of every 20..not a big deal.

So her "official" stats (and boy are they official..they take each measurement several times for accuracy) are...

At age 4 years 4 months she stands 37.75 inches tall and weighs 29 lbs and 13 oz, which is 5th percentile for height and 3rd percentile for weight.

And in personality and energetic height she stands about 6 foot 8 inches and fills the room!!!

You Know You're Experiencing Perimenopause When...

2005-12-19T07:05:00.000-08:00

The ouside air temperature is below zero (not counting the wind chill), the "after-bedtime" set-back temperature in the house is 60 degrees and you dream that we are experiencing a bizzare December heat wave of 90 degrees and wake up sweaty with the blankets kicked off.

Telephone

2005-12-17T07:07:00.000-08:00

This morning when the phone rang, I picked it up while upstairs and Gemma grabbed it at the same time downstairs. She loves to talk on the phone. After finishing the conversation with the caller, I hung up and could hear that Gemma was having difficulty hanging up her phone, so I went downstairs to help her.

As I entered the playroom I heard the automated sound of the operator saying "if you wish to make a call, please hang up and try again." I next hear Gemma say to herself, "Who is that lady? She always talks to me."

Hm, makes me wonder how many times Gemma attempts to make calls!!

Quote of the Week - Marion Wright Edelman

2005-12-16T11:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, as I was preparing for our women's spirituality group (we celebrated our 13th anniversary of traveling a shared journey together this fall!!), I ran across an outstanding collection of quotes by influential women at the National Women's History Museum, at http://www.nmwh.org/home/quotes.htm.

After reading the quotes I felt inspired to share one here each Friday. I'll begin with the one I chose to read last night, one which really rang true for me and is part of my on-going spiritual work about being an agent of change without having to control the outcomes.

"If you don't like the way the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time.""You're not obligated to win. You're obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day."

Marion Wright Edelman (1939- ),
Attorney, civil rights advocate and
Founder of the Children's Defense Fund

Rowan's World

2005-12-15T08:09:00.000-08:00

Rowan with her teacher, Ms. Jackson who she just adores!!

Rowan has had quite the busy week. We are so proud of her. She's growing into quite the older and more centered/grounded kid!!

One of the rites of passage at her school (a primary K-2) is for the second graders to have the opportunity to join choir or the drama club. Rowan chose choir. In the past week, the choir has been called into service a lot. They had two concerts, one in the afternoo and the other in the evening (during yet another snow storm) for full concerts and they sang at the school's annual Holiday Luncheon on Tuesday. Rowan's school has a music teacher extraordinaire!!! The kids love her and she is able to guide them to find their best voices!!

Another "rite of passage" is for the second graders to make the centerpieces for the holiday luncheon tables. They are ceramic, glazed, adorable!!! The school's art teacher is also wonderful!!

Rowan was also Star of the Week in her classroom, which involved inviting Jani and I to school while she shared parts of her life with her class through pictures. She opted to just bring a picture of Gemma to the event, knowing full well that her little sister will do just about anything for an audience. Smart move on Rowan's part to not be upstaged by her little sister.

Last evening, in yet ANOTHER snow storm, her Girl Scout troop took off for a local retirment community to decorate cookies and sing with the residents. One leader said she was so proud of the girls for all of their kindness and openess to the el

Wisconsin Volleyball Season Ends on Saturday

2005-12-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

For anyone who's been following my women's volleyball updates, I'm sorry to say that the Badgers lost on Saturday night. Us fans are darn proud of these young women for playing well and making it to the Elite Eight!