A New Year, New Dreams

I started actually writing down some of the things on my 'bucket list' today (they're in the left-hand column, with links). Beginning a new year is a good time to make big dreams and think about the future, don't you think?

I'm so curious about what will happen this year! So many people hated 2009, but despite our unemployment issues, 2009 was very good to us, and I will remember it fondly. Next year is a huge mystery, with big questions about employment and where we'll end up living. I'm enjoying Gwynnie so much, and it will be a delight to watch her grow this year.

I worked on dolls today, which always feels good. I hardly made any mistakes, which was surprising, since four of the dolls needed embroideries on the backs as well as the fronts, and that's a tricky business. :)

Currently reading: Anne of Cleves, which I am really enjoying. She's my favorite of the six wives, and there's not a ton to read about her!

New Beginnings on the Solstice

I changed the name of this blog to reflect a more positive attitude. I will probably always be fairly sarcastic and acerbic, but I am consciously putting forth a new positivity. Plus, since I hardly ever use this venue to rant about conformity (like I thought I would), it makes more sense to have a name that  points to more "day in the life" sort of things. (I do reserve the right to rant now and then though, heehee.)

Most people who might find themselves here (you three know who you are, lol) know that the baby *did* finally arrive. Here's Gwyneth at almost five months.

She is, quite literally, Perfection. :)

I came across this blog "challenge" while reading my friend Claire's new blog, and it looks pretty fun. I haven't officially signed up, but I might. Creative Every Day

Again, to the handful of friends who have followed me here it will be obvious that "every day" is probably a stretch (understatement can be amusing, eh?), but we'll see what happens! :)

clearly I am a terrible blogger

Has it really been 14 weeks since I promised a photo and update? LOL.

Okay, well forget the 26-week photo, since I am now 40 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Baby seems comfy and uninclined to make an appearance any time soon. Well, I'm sure it will be relatively soon, but probably not today. Rhanna is hoping for tomorrow (the 19th) since her birthday is September 19th. :)

The picture here is from two weeks ago when I was 38 weeks. We had such a nice family hike that day.

Life seems pretty much on hold while we wait for baby to decide to be born. Abe has been home for the last couple of months after being laid off in May; it's been great having him here for the end of the pregnancy and will be even more great having him here while baby is new. Today Rhanna is making a triple batch of pancakes, Thane is dreaming of snowcones and has learned to tie his new golf shoes, and Emrys is inexplicably calling everyone in the house "old potato!" while wearing sunglasses and a superhero cape.

I did get a few days of good nesting in (finally!) and was happy with the progress I made on my selected projects. If my hands weren't so numb all the time I'd have been able to do so much more! As it is lately, I find myself doing. . .well not much of anything. I'm sure that will be changing very soon!!

unmotivated!

Just saying hello today. :)

Thane is teaching himself to play the recorder, Rhanna is reading about Elizabeth I, Emrys is having a low-blood-sugar day and isn't doing much at all (but at least he isn't whining, either), and I am sitting here mentally doing all the things that need doing. Not *actually* doing anything, but thinking really hard. In my MIND, the closets are reorganized, the garage is cleaned out, all my doll orders are finished, and I have a freezer full of meals all ready-made. Wow, in my mind I am SOOO efficient!

Here was my belly about 2 weeks ago at 24 weeks - I'll post a 26-week photo in a few days.

Ares and Cerberus

Wow, twice in one day! That must be a record for me, lol.


I've been looking at a lot of homeschooling blogs lately and it's really fun to see what goes on in different homes. As unschoolers though, we don't have too much to report, usually. I mean, I guess there's a lot going on here all the time, but it's not structured, so I don't think of it in terms of lists I can really report. One thing we see a lot of is crafts and crafty expressions of what the kids are interested in in any given moment. Thane has been fascinated by Greek and Roman stuff lately (he asks me to call them Centurion Rhanna and Legionaire Thane most of the time) and he just made this great Cerberus helmet for Emrys I had to share:

All those dog heads get thirsty! :) Thane's is an Ares/Mars helmet. I love seeing what these kids imagine and create all on their own!

Wonders of Nature

We were out enjoying the latest snowfall a few days ago when I startled this great blue heron. I was so lucky to have the camera ready! It seems that I get a good wildlife photo once a year (last year it was a bobcat in a tree). I feel so lucky to live in this environment!

Fun learning!

A friend of mine on Facebook posted a link to this and I just love it!!! You can play (and learn) vocabulary, grammar, art history, geography, foreign languages, math and more, which is totally up my alley. I found it hard to stop today, lol! (Plus, you are apparently donating rice to hungry people. . .I never know whether or not to believe stuff like that, but this was fun and educational enough that I felt happy to pass it along - if they are really donating food, then that's a bonus.)

I've been pretty out of the loop lately; we have had about 6 weeks of illness being passed around here. First the kids all had colds (I escaped!), then a new one hit and they were all sick again, and that one didn't miss me. In fact, mine escalated into a sinus infection and pneumonia, which has been about 3 weeks of misery for me. I broke down and accepted some antibiotics for the first time in about 17 years which sort of makes me angry, but I was at the end of my rope. The plus side is that since my body doesn't "know" these drugs, they worked pretty quickly and I am finally on the mend. Baby seems to be doing well - my belly grew 3 inches in less than 3 weeks and my lower back is feeling it, lol! Imagine how huge I'd be in 20 weeks if I kept growing at that rate! LOL! Abe was able to feel some tiny flutters last night with his hand on my belly, so that's exciting. It's always so nice to be able to share that magic with the family.

More reasons I am anti-school

Is this supposed to be inspiring?? Based on commentary I have seen in various places, it appears that most people think so. Which just goes to show you how brainwashed our society is.
Let me let you in on how MY brain works when I see things like this.
What jumps out at me is that these school children are suffering from three main things:
1. Boredom. Their teacher (and the subject matter) is dull, tedious, monotonous, and a complete waste of their precious time on this earth.
2. Condescension. Due either to the ineptness or disinterest of their teacher, the subject matter being presented to them is far below their capacity, as evidenced by the obvious intelligence shown by the boy in his note. Thus, being forced to sit in rows and listen to this stupefying information is completely condescending.
3. Humiliation. The teacher's use of public humiliation as punishment is wrong and uncalled for. No one should be treated this way. She seems gleeful to have caught someone she can disgrace in front of the class (perhaps she was just glad for the interruption from her own boredom), which is just sickening. Why adults feel they have the right to prey on children this way is beyond me, and it's a TERRIBLE example being set for the rest of the children in class as well. Their reaction of anticipation shows that they already enjoy watching peers being publicly humiliated, and explains why peer activity in schools is so cruel and insensitive.
A potential #4 is that children this age should be enjoying their childhood as children, not playacting at adult romantic relationships, but this falls under the Things-Wrong-With-Mother-Culture category more than the category "Reason-#1094-I'm-Relieved-My-Kids-Aren't-Wasting-Their-Childhoods-In-School," so we'll leave that for another day. ;)

So I finally saw The Business of Being Born last night - I know, old news, but it takes me a while to get to movies, and we just finally joined Netflix. This was the first movie we got through them, actually! I suppose it was a good film for the masses; there was a lot of good information there that people not already involved in this homebirth subculture would benefit from knowing. And it's always a pleasure to see Marsden, Michel, and Ina May impart their wisdom. :)

BUT. REALLY. Did Abby and Ricki not see the irony of ending their women-don't-need-to-be-saved-by-doctors movie with a woman being saved by a doctor? Or did they just not care? Or do they really not get it, or what? Maybe someone (Linda?) better involved with the forum circuit when this actually came out can let me know if they had a comment about that. Sigh.

Personally, this film made me once-again-relieved that I've never had to experience a hospital birth, and also really solidified my belief in unassisted birth. The homebirths were good to watch, but I was frustrated watching Ricki, during her homebirth, ask for PERMISSION to push. Clearly her body was pushing on its own, and still she looked to an authority figure for permission. Argh. There will not be true empowerment until women can understand that this is something they have the power to do themselves! How on earth can someone standing next to you know what's best in your own body? People have lost the ability to hear what their own bodies are telling them (in many more ways than just birthing!)

And I was very uncomfortable seeing the poor dad in one of the homebirths (it might have been a birth center?) totally pushed to the side by the womenfolk, intimidated by these in-charge midwives to even be near his birthing wife, so hesitant to claim his place at her side, or to even touch her or their baby. This is a travesty. Fathers need to be empowered by this experience too! I think this happens a lot, where the women in authority come in and assume this is a women-only event. This should be a COUPLES-only event. . .that father planted this baby-gift and it's his place to receive it along with his partner; I really believe that this practice of negating the importance of fathers at birth is compromising the ability of fathers to attach and bond easily with their families, and it's just a huge sadness for me. I believe this negatively effects our whole society - how can it not? The family unit is the basic building block of everything, and it is diseased. We must bring health, empowerment, confidence, and love back to our homes, and it will radiate from there out into the world.