75 years

This year is the 75th anniversary of our local Quaker meeting. Tonight there was a sort of kick off celebration. I was, of course, late (with very good reason and totally worth it!) but I arrived in time to hear a song written about our meeting.

Now some background. For those of y'all that haven't moved around a lot, let me just explain things to you. In my experience at about the six month mark of being in a new place you begin to miss the old place very very much. It sort of, well, eats your soul this deep longing for the old place. Now add, I don't know 3 or 4 old places and one begins to feel a bit chewed up inside. To say the least it is unsettling. I miss Wales like you wouldn't believe. Seriously. After the Arizona shootings I spent the day crying in the bathroom wondering what kind of messed up country I had moved my family back to. (Ok, now hormones did play a small part in this day of bathroom weepiness. Not to mention the 2 hour podcast on the subject I kept listening to.) Before that we had traveled down south to see family and to Indiana to see chosen family. So I was in a bit of a post holiday meltdown of missing people and places. (I'm also, strangely enough, homesick for Ireland a place where I spent just a week. And that week we were mildly ill with mono!)

But I digress, tonight at the 75th Anniversary kickoff, this wonderful singer songwriter sang a song about our local meeting. When in the first verse he mentioned the name of our town a bit of warm hometown pride started spreading in my heart and by the last verse I was weeping happy tears. You see, now I do feel like I've found a new home. Does this make Memphis, California, Wales, or Indiana any less home? Nope. But it does add a new home to the list.

Soon as I got home, I did what I tend to do when a musician inspires me, I pulled out my guitar and sang. I sang and sang. I sang the songs that made my mind visit the lands I longed for, songs I had kind of shelved for a while. Below you'll find one of those songs. I am forever grateful to the members of my community for bearing with my homesick longing for Anywhere but Here. And with love I offer this song, from a land I've yet to visit (but is at the top of my list), to all of you.

Diolch yn fawr i bawb

Now Westlin Winds

Technology mishaps

I'm not sure if I've mentioned here about the death of my iPod touch. It actually happened twice, only the first time was my fault and I got it repaired. But the second time, well I just figured it's not the right time in my life for a tiny gadget that costs over $100. The little girls dropped it in a bucket of apple cider vinegar. Now, granted, there are plenty of times when I wish I still had that iPod touch, but overall I think it's one of the best things to happen to me. I no longer have that constant temptation to just "real quick" check email or facebook or whatever.

I do have an iPod now. I use it for music and podcasts. It's one of the earlier nanos. As for all the notebooking and stuff I did on my old iPod, well now I use a notebook. Yep, I've gone old school. I have a notebook and calendar. If I need to remember something, I just write it down.

One of these days, perhaps I will do a long notebook post.

Then more recently my laptop bit the dust. It's salvagable. I mean, we are pretty sure the info stored on it can be retrieved, but it will need a new hard drive. We don't have the extra funds at the moment to do this, but we will do it eventually. For now I'm on the Lord of Sound's computer in the evenings or on weekends, and those aren't the most convenient times for being online so my online time has really gone down. This is a very good thing! If I need to "look up" something, I just write a note and do it later. This has also cut back the boys' computer time. They think this is a bad thing but I think it's good. It means more time outside or reading a book or playing legos together.

I'm rethinking my usage of technology and trying to find a balance that fits my life better.

I did get a nook for Christmas (comes with insurance so if another Apple Cider Vinegar Incident occurs, I'm covered) and I'm LOVING it. I'm finding myself reading more. That's always a good thing. The Artist has been reading a bit on my nook, too. I think he may need to get one next Christmas.

Fairy doors and Winter Wonderland...

Last week the little girls and I went to a fairy tea at a local bookstore/coffee shop. We drank tea, ate biscuits (when you have them with tea, you call them biscuits not cookies), read fairy stories, and saw a very funny magic show. It was very fun, but would have been more fun with friends. We will be sure to bring friends next time.

On the way back to our car, a shopkeeper told us about these little fairy doors all over downtown. Here is one we found.

And now, after much anticipation, we have snow! Lots of it! Of course, since we are homeschoolers, I can't make the boys walk uphill both ways to school in the snow like I had to, but they did walk uphill in the snow to go sledding on Sunday afternoon.

Wordless Wednesday

This is our house in Indiana. Those little boys are ours. I forgot how little they once were.

Too bad it doesn't snow in Michigan. At least it doesn't stick.

Why Quakers don't celebrate Hannukah

To conclude our Hannukah study last night, the boys and I planned on making latkes. Since I had forgotten (what with sick kids in the house and all) to light our menorah the past few days, yesterday afternoon I thought I'd light it to get the candles all lined up how they are supposed to be. Thing is, I forgot about it and the whole thing went up in flames!

So then we have our traditional type meal we have when we decorate our Christmas tree: cheeses, meats, vegetarian meats, crackers (Corn Thins actually), and lox. I serve the latkes with this. Since the Explorer won't eat lox and barely touches cheese I let him choose his meat earlier that day in the grocery. True to form, he chose ham. It didn't dawn on me, the whole ham is not kosher thing, until after we ate. Not that I was going for kosher, but it still seems sort of wrong somehow to serve ham with latkes the same evening after you set fire to a menorah.

We did play dreidel, only without the gambling aspect.

So, it was a sort of Hannukah study that would be unrecognizable to any truly devout Jewish family. But we still learned a lot and had fun.

(And the advent wreath still stands!)

my friend is giving away something!

My friend is hosting a giveaway on her blog. It's a lovely blog, it is. I have enjoyed it for years and frequently (as you can probably tell if you read both) "borrow" ideas from her.