I am... a Painter

So, guess what I did today! I painted our kitchen, all by myself! (And I managed to snap this picture of myself without getting paint on my camera, too!)

Bekka was gone all day, and I got so much done. I got a dinner in the crock pot, made sourdough crackers, and painted the kitchen. I even watched A Prairie Home Companion (Bekka put it in our queue, but once it got here, decided she didn't want to watch it) and The Shot (which I'll probably end up watch again with Bekka later).

The kitchen was already yellow, but not the shade I like, and the walls had lots and lots of cracks (and spider webs, too), so I got a richer shade - more orange and filled in all the cracks (and took down all the webs).

Isn't it pretty? It's so nice, we decided to put the love seat in the "breakfast nook" instead of the desk that was there.

And here is proof of both the crock pot dinner and the home made crackers.

I am... Me

This is the first picture of me that I've taken while holding the camera myself that I've ever liked!

And to expand this post - this post about me, I'll share a bit more about myself. (I don't guarantee that I'm not repeating myself from somewhere else on my blog!)

I value connection (even though I don't always know how to achieve it - moving all my life as I have), joy, love, peace (wow, this is really original, huh?), belonging, fun, spontaneity, the environment, resourcefulness, respect, health, growth, thrift, balance, honesty, strength, wonder, and change.

I believe that children should have the same rights as adults. At this point in my life, I do not believe in god, but I do believe in the strength of the human spirit. I believe that love energy sustains us. I believe that everyone is good, but not everyone believes that they, themselves are. I believe a lot of strange things happen to people as they are parented and many, many traditional parenting practices work to break down the good in people - the belief of self that people are born with.

I am working hard to become the person I want to be - the person I was born to be.

Google Image Meme

I've been spending quite a lot of time on the computer the last few days, and thought this looked like fun.

Here's the deal: Type the answer to each question into a Google image search, and then pick an image from the first page of results.


1. Age At Next Birthday: 44.



2. Place I'd Like To Travel: Austria



3. Favorite Place: Our adopted home town - Corvallis!



4. Favorite Object(s):

My laptop:



My Camera:



and my Car:




5. Favorite Food:

Peanut Sauce:



and Chocolate:




6. Favorite Animal: Kittens!




7. Favorite Color: Autumn leaf colors - plummish purple (what's up with all the unschoolers loving purple??), golds, greens, oranges.

Here is the purple:

I don't love this picture, but it was taken on my birthday last year, so what can I say?

and here is what I came up with when I googled "autumn leaf colors":




8. My Nickname(s): Everyone's always thought Joni is a nickname, but no, it's just the name I've always had. So I guess I'll see what happens when I look for my online name, Galavanter.

Well THIS looks like fun!


9. Town I was Born In: Biloxi, MS - haven't been there since I was two months old, though! I picked this image because it was taken on my dad's birthday last year.




10. Bad Habit I Have:

Talking with my mouth full - yuck! I had to pick the ugliest of the images, since it's so gross!



Wanna play? Go right ahead!


Okay - somebody who's done this - please tell my how to get the images so they are clear and not all pixilated!!!

PS - and to kill two birds with one stone, I Image Googled my name and came up with, Ta Da!:

ME! From the Live and Learn Conference website

I am... not a ballerina!

Bekka was anxious to get out of the house and DO something today, so we took the camera and walked downtown. This picture was taken at Central Park.

I had slept in really late this morning - we've been staying up really late (or should I say early, since we haven't been going to bed until well after midnight) and I just couldn't make it out of bed at my normal 9am this morning. (If you don't know, I'm a night owl, and we are radical unschoolers, so we don't have to get up early - well, we really don't HAVE TO do ANYTHING!!) So, anyway, I hadn't realized that Bekka didn't really eat lunch before our outing and she ended up getting really hungry (and as an extension of that, really grumpy). When she gets like that, she can't figure out what to eat - nothing sounds good and she just gets more and more frustrated.

My old, traditional parenting self would have gotten a bit frustrated too, but today I just stayed calm and started taking pictures of the interesting stuff around us while she took the time she needed to work through being frustrated. We stood on the street corner downtown for what felt like half an hour (but I'm sure wasn't), then sat at a local restaurant, then walked over to the bookstore, and THEN she decided that I needed to tell her what to eat! So I took her to Zia, which is a New Mexican place that just opened up. She became much happier, and decided to stay downtown while I walked home to get the car to pick her up.

She's still in a bit of a funk, and I'm still happy! Life as a peaceful parent is, well, peaceful!

We have clean clothes!!!

And I didn't even have to go to the laundromat!

See, our super-duper washing machine has been "not working" since just before I got back from the GUTS retreat. Steve narrowed it down to "not the fuse" and I did an internet search and found out all about motor brushes (they look nothing like brushes and do something really important so that, when they get too short, the motor doesn't work at all). Then I ordered the parts and fixed it all by myself!

The reason I'm so proud about this is that most people call a repairman and most repairmen, when faced with "the motor won't work" will install a new motor to the tune of $300 plus labor. But, we aren't most people - we are UNSCHOOLERS! And we think, "How hard can this be if a skilled laborer can fix it?" So, our 11 year old Asko washing machine, which I do believe to be the BEST washing machine ever made, is now happily spinning away with all the laundry that's been piling up and I'm doing the "I saved at least $400" happy dance!

Surfing the Blogosphere or Where did the last 5 hours go???

Okay, I've been indulging myself and surfing some new blogs (not that I need any new blogs to read - I don't even keep up with the ones I already KNOW I like!). I just can't believe how much time I can spend on this!

You really do find some pretty cool people by surfing the unschooling blog ring, but why, oh why do people join this ring when they don't unschool??? I swear, every other one is blogging about school, or curriculum, or making their kids do this or that! Maybe I need to stick to the LIFE is Good and Live and Learn rings. Yeah, or maybe I need to get off the computer and DO something!

Last night I got all caught up in the HBA controversy - and why would I even care??? It's all Caren's fault - she linked me to this really great blog, which linked to some blog award thing, which linked to more blogs, which I ended up following to "the controversy" (which I won't bother linking to).

Now tonight I have my super cool, eco-friendly paint from Your Green Home sitting here staring at me, along with the dingy kitchen walls and the cracks I have yet to fill, and I'm surfing the unschooling blog ring! Yikes!

I am... a Cook

This is a very candid photo of me - Bekka, being the intelligent person she is, figured out, after the first day that I needed her help with my daily photo, so she picked up the camera while I was making home-made mac n' cheese last night. It makes me laugh 'cause it looks like my arm is coming from somewhere other than my shoulder!

I resisted the urge to get a better picture taken. Hey - they can't all be good!

I am... Virtual!

Here I am as a Meez - it's surprising how much you have to define yourself when making a virtual version!

While my hair is currently much shorter, it WILL grow! The rest of the style is all ME!

I am... Someone who knows her desires

One of our GUTS retreat homework assignments was to decorate our Desire Box with magazine cut outs that we brought to the retreat. It was so interesting to see our desires manifest on the outside of our box!

Here is the top of my box - it says "Gathering" and has a picture of child with a ginormous bunch of sunflowers. On the side of the top is says, "Art of Living" and on the side of the box is this thought, "I want to see our communities get more and more localized, with more local food produced and consumed,more local goods bought and sold. I want to see local entrepreneurship and craftsmanship encouraged. I want a renaissance of the hands, so that we use fewer electrical gadgets and motorized tools."

On this side of the top is says, "we chose the liberating joy", and wrapped around the corner, "self-portrait as revealed by" and a picture of sunlight through the storm clouds.

These quotes are, "Capturing the character" and "Whether we be heads of state or directors of organizations or worker bees or armchair cheerleaders, we in the choir are leaders and role models. We, of all people, have to show that life can be lived differently, and that the reimagined life can be beautiful, functional, and overflowing with rewards none of us expected."

This last side is serene - a picture of a candle in the window with the quote, "transform the way we live" and on the top, "Are we being change, or are we just talking about change?

I love my desires box! Someday soon I may even share what's inside the box!

I am... a baker

We've gotten into a baking kick lately. Not the normal holiday baking, no! Yesterday we made Sourdough Crackers (that didn't really turn out) and Mint Chocolate Cheesecake (which isn't done yet - it bakes for about an hour, sits in the oven for about an hour, sits on the counter for three hours, and in the fridge for 24 hours!).

Today it's Streusel Coffee Cake. It's currently in the oven, but it smells wonderful!

I am... a knitter

In an attempt to picture myself this month - here I am, knitting one of the pair of socks I'm working on. These are cotton/bamboo - so great to work with!

We saw the Golden Compass!

It was one of the best book to movie movies I've seen in a long, long time. The casting was perfect - especially Lee Scoresby and Mrs. Coulter. And we all loved Lee's daemon, Hester.

The only big variant from the book was the end, and I don't want to say too much as to not spoil the movie for those who have yet to see it.

As with all movies based on a fabulous book, they had to cut out lots and lots of potentially great scenes, and I think they did a great job with their choices.

Bekka was, of course, disappointed with what got left out, but even she was happy with the movie. She finished rereading the book as we were walking into the theater!

GUTS Homework - I am... a blogger

On our GUTS support call yesterday, Reggie challenged us to get at least ten pictures of ourselves in December. The thought behind this is that most women (especially middle-aged moms) don't have many pictures taken of them - lots of the kids and pets and other stuff, but they are usually absent in the photos (I'm usually taking ours). I decided that I would try to post a new picture of myself on my blog every day for the rest of the month.

This is really for my own amusement, trying to capture myself in different roles.

I thought this first one should be me, writing my blog, so that if some poor soul is actually reading this, they can see what I might look like right now, typing this out. (Bekka's comment, it's not very exciting.)

Hazelnuts

Bekka skins the hazelnuts
Last week, Bekka and I decided to roast the hazelnuts that Steve picked up in the hazelnut orchard a while ago. This required lots of hand-shelling - ouch!
Shells!
We had shells going everywhere. Would have been hard to find the shells all over the kitchen if it weren't for Lyra - she would dash over to the latest errant shell so I could pick it up before she tried to eat it.

Chocolate Covered Hazelnuts
Once they were roasted, Bekka asked if we could dip them in chocolate. Yum!

Yea! I have SOCKS!

About a year ago, Steve and I went to Ashland for our anniversary and I did a lot of shopping while Steve geocached.

I love to wander around cute towns poking in and out of fun little shops by myself and they have one in particular that I've always wanted to check out, but my kids and Steve were never interested in at all. And I would SO rather be alone than with someone who doesn't want to be there!

So I wander into The Web-sters, which is pretty much a yarn shop with these really wonderful woven items on display in the front window. While looking around, the Magic Loop display caught my eye. It is a way to make socks on one long set of circular needles. I was intrigued. I asked the very nice sales girl about it and whether a true novice could knit a pair of socks. (I had knit two of three scarves and that is all the knitting I've ever done!)

She warned my about second sock syndrome, which I could completely see myself suffering from (where you knit one sock and forever have only one sock because you can't bring yourself to do the exact same thing over again to knit the second sock). So I purchased my size 0 (about the diameter of a tooth pick) Addi Turbo 40" circular needles (because I'm the Princess and the Pea when it comes to my feet and the smaller the needle the tighter the sock and the less you feel the bumps of the knitting), found some beautiful soft wool yarn from Lorna's Laces and way too much money later, I'm on my merry way.

I went back to our room and started working on my socks. I got them cast on (four or five times), knit two, and then, uh-oh! I couldn't remember how to purl! The yarn shop was closed by this time so I switched to reading the Yarn Harlot and laughing 'til I cried! The next morning I returned to the yarn shop for a quick tutorial and a basic knitting book and I was on my way.

On and off knitting (more off than on) and LOTS and LOTS of help from some very wonderful, and very generous knitters (thanks Nan (helping start the heal), Monique (general oops control and sock anatomy understanding), Anne (helping me rip out too many rows - wow - that was scary!), Ginger (heal shaping and into the gusset), Sheila (teaching me how to unknit), and Amy (early help and toe and finishing help), have resulted in a finished pair of socks!!

My first pair of socks!

I'm so excited and ready to start my next pair (toe up, two on the same magic loop, self striping)! There are many who think I'm crazy!

Golden Compass Controversy

Like many others, I received an email about the Golden Compass from a friend – it’s been circulating via email. I thought I’d share my thoughts. If you have not seen the emails circulating around, you can find a version here. For the record, I think the snopes research on this one is quite lacking.

The email I got had this added at the top, “So many things today are darkness concealed in what appears to be innocent.” My first thought was, I don't think Philip Pullman has tried to conceal anything, and certainly not "darkness concealed in what appears to be innocent" by titling his trilogy, "His Dark Materials".

I've been highly recommending this trilogy for years - and always add the caveat that the books will challenge your belief in God. I'm always confused when people never want their beliefs challenged. Being a humanist in a Christian society, my beliefs are always being challenged, and every time I reach more clarity in what I believe, not less. If Christianity is a firmly held belief, then I would think that these books would clarify their beliefs and strengthen them, just as being bombarded by biblical teaching clarifies mine.

In researching this controversy, I came across many interviews with Pullman that clarify his beliefs (as much as possible, since he isn’t entirely sure himself – and certainly not to the point of being a militant). The interview that best addresses the issues raised in the circulating emails can be found here.

And, to miss this movie, you will be missing the strongest female lead I've ever come across - and in an 11 year old girl, no less! At least, I hope the movie is true enough to the book to maintain Lyra's strength.

I'm sure my girls and I will be at the first showing - we can't wait!



Writing about the Golden Compass (by people who have actually read the books and done some actual research) can be found here:
hisdarkmaterials.org
margheim.net

Some other interviews with the author:
From the British Humanist Association website
The Guardian BooksTalk
kidsreads.com
Philip-Pullman.com has many more links to interviews and well as the author's own presentations of his works.

What do you think - is my daemon right?

We are SO EXCITED that they've made a movie from one of our favorite books! We can hardly wait until the release date!

GUTS Retreat is coming!

I am SO EXCITED! My life coach, Reggie Adams is hosting her second GUTS (Giving Unbelievable aTtention to Self) retreat at the end of this month and I just can't wait! The first retreat was three or four years ago and it totally changed my life and helped me make great strides to being, living, who I want to be.

I will be spending a weekend with 20 amazingly real women, all of whom are working hard to be who they authentically want to be. I just know this is going to be magical and life altering.

My wonderful friend, Carole will be sharing this experience with me again and on her 50th birthday no less! The day after the retreat we are moving to a fabulous spa in Calistoga to celebrate the wonderfulness that is Carole.

This is just going to be the BEST weekend!

Frustrations!

Ugh! Sometimes I just want to flail about kicking and screaming - why, oh why am I taking so long to be the person I want to be???

Why can't I just always be respectful to everyone and totally shut down those tired, old, judgemental voices or reactions?

How come I can't just accept everyone as they are and be that loving, caring person I SO want to be???

I want so many things about this world to change that I get impatient with all the little things and speak out inappropriately. I get frustrated at the unconscious rudeness all around me and I end up being rude to someone who just hasn't thought it through - how ironic is that??

I guess this is why it is a journey, rather than a destination...

Can anyone relate?

It's Kitten Time!

A Kitten Puddle!

For the last couple of months we've been fostering four of the cutest kittens ever for the humane society and they are almost ready for adoption. They were found in a cardboard box in front of the downtown Safeway and weren't weaned yet (yuck!). Now they are healthy, happy kittens in need of homes. All of them absolutely adore people. If you are interested in adopting any (or all) of them, let me know ASAP!

So meet the kittens:

Krinkle

Krinkle is a fun loving spirited girl. She loves people and loves to play, play, play.

Lyra

Lyra (named for the strong, female main character in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy) is a smart, loving girl. She loves to give LOTS of kisses. She has her moments of wrestling with the others, but as soon as you pick her up she settles down and purrs. She is very petite, but she is always the first to learn new things.

Chester

Chester is a wild little kitten. He loves to run and play and he is oh-so soft!

Teddy

Teddy (or Teddy Bear) is SO SOFT and cuddly! He is also HUGE! He is a total cuddle-bug who is destined to be a large cat. He always melts in my arms every time I pick him up - even when he is in the middle of a wrestling match and he purrs like crazy. (He also always squints his eyes when we try to take pictures of him - he really has gorgeous round eyes.) If you want a totally cuddly cat, Teddy is your guy!