Michaelmas...

Really this is one of my favorite festivals - not just for the fun story telling but for the inner work that magically just happens to come with it.

We had our festival last night with our local group and I forgot my camera... thankfully our dear friends brought theirs. View Tammy's blog with our festival pics.

Banana bread and Grammy

Rotten bananas make wonderful kitchen friends! I had three bananas begging to be baked into banana bread on Sunday morning so I got out my favorite recipe and got to work.
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup honey
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup nuts (we skipped these)

I put the bananas, oil, honey and eggs in the mixing bowl. I sifted together the flour, soda, salt. Mixed it all together and then baked at 325 degrees for about 70 minutes. It smelled soooo yummy.

The weekend also brought a visit from Grammy Pammy. She smushed Sammy's cheeks so much... he is still recovering. Grammy and Sammy.

Resistance...

I had this really big, long post and then I decided it could all be summed up in this song...




I started my day at 3am... woken by the Spirit to learn things I thought I knew. I blanched carrots and potatoes and counted out painting paper that needs to be shipped and then I listened to this song and realized more things that were right in front of my face that I had missed. Today is a wonderful day. I love Michaelmas and the season surrounding it... that battling of inner demons that helps transform us into stronger beings. What a great way to start the day.

Each new day!

I thought since my schedule changed at the school and our mornings are a bit more peaceful I would try to keep some more updates. Last night I was really feeling flustered about my perception of being behind so I took some time to step back, pray and get my mind back on the right track. At about 10:30pm last night, Erik and I prayed together for strength and then he went to bed. I did some praying on my own and got this amazing burst of energy that lasted until 4am! lol... that is usually the time I get up. I slept until 7:30am and woke up refreshed. Prayer works. I got an amazing amount of work done in that time, listened to some incredible uplifting videos on YouTube and really just got myself back into the thing I already know... all is fine, life is great and I am just where I should be! LOL... yeah I have to do that from time to time too! When I look at how much we have grown this year and how much farther I know we have to go, I am so very thankful. We love what we do, we love, love, love being with the kids each day and we love that each day there are new options!

So with that burst... here's some school work:

Harry's has no picture, he is reading Tom Sawyer and can't believe this boy would run away from home and now he's smoking. Harry is just shocked. Speaking of shocked... ok well I wasn't shocked, I kinda already knew but we chatted this morning about a girl at church who he asked if they could "hang out sometime" - oh man his little face lights up when he tells me about her. He said that she loves sports and that since he doesn't he wants to get more fit. I had to laugh. We decided that when he is doing his sit ups/pull ups/chin ups for his scouting requirements that he would think of her pretty face.

Ellie's reading is picking up - the last two days she has asked to do her writing and drawing from the stories in Fe Fi Fo Fum that she is reading on her own. Today's story was the Snow Maiden. I was pretty impressed with what she came up with for her summary, and she doesn't mind doing the writing. I am just letting her be there, I am glad her reading is moving along, she's been so smurfy that I wondered at times if any of it stuck, lol.

Jacob... I'll showcase him today. Today we worked on the compass rose and then he put one on the map he did last week. He wants to join the Coast Guard so he was glad to get some skills that will help him down the road in his career (LOL his words, not mine!) His pictures are on the left, mine is on the right.

Happy Day to ALL my readers!! Blessings.

Folks have been asking...

so I thought I would give a few updates about Harmony House. Things were wonky but now they seem to be trying to smooth out. The first days and weeks were about finding the right staff and helping them learn all they could about Waldorf, now it is about getting them enough training to plan their classes. It was also about finding the right balance for my family - they are not used to being without me and I won't lie, I will be glad when this contract is over, but I think it is good for them too. The children are learning to bond with Erik and mind him without having me there to back things up. At first I was gone in the mornings and that wasn't working so well, for the family or the teachers. The teachers were relying on me too much for their teaching and the children were really missing me. Now we've got an afternoon schedule going that seems to be working better, between that and Emily helping us we'll be in a much better spot.

Thanks to all who have sent us personal emails of encouragement - we have enjoyed them all.


Blessings!

One more picture from our house...

This is the view from the front door... one of the reasons that we moved the rooms around was because Erik has this awesome collection of movie (mostly Star Wars) stuff that was hidden in the TV room (now the boys room) and I started thinking about how much money was in the collection and how it shouldn't be hidden - he loves this stuff and it should be where he can enjoy it... so now Jabba the Hutt lives in the living room. But the gnomes balance him out!

And here is Sammy Lammy Ding Dong's new hair cut... he is full of attitude now. My baby is a big boy WAHHHH!

We finally hired someone!

Well I should clarify so I don't have the IRS at my door... I pay her to run errands for us and take the children with her occasionally.



Meet.... Emily!!! Emily is the daughter of my good friend Tammy she is going to help us lighten our load a bit. She will go to the post office, food co-op, bank, etc. for us a few times a week and take kids with her from time to time - we tracked last week how much time away from working those errands take us and it came up to about 10 hours plus then we end up eating out since we have kids that are fit to be tied from being in the car together for 4 hours! lol. So this will be a HUGE help to us.

Thank you Emily!!