wrap it up

(do I have to mention that the post date is wrong, again?)
Have I mentioned that I am sleeping about 10 hours a night lately? There has to be some explanation for my disappearance from the blog, the pile of dishes in the kitchen, two overflowing baskets of folded laundry that has yet to make it to bedrooms let alone into drawers, and the general lack of tidiness here at Chez Barnas. Sigh. So here it is, a cursory finale to the roadtrip entries, a quick zip through the last two weeks which will not begin to do it justice, but must be getting on.


We left California with hearts filled with love and a brain full of ideas, and headed straight into the desert to visit my dearest darlings Niko and Kerry and their son Roman. It was a much-needed but too short connection. The children played, we hung out and talked and steeped in the hot-tub under the stars late into the evening. No photos (Niko, send some my way!) mainly because I was lazy and Niko was snapping away.

Around 1pm, way later than our E.T.D., we headed out to drive straight through to Albuquerque. Just so you can appreciate the total lunacy of this proposition, it is approximately 700 miles from Palm Springs to Burque, with the estimated travel time of 10 hours and 17 minutes. Uuhhhh, yeah, maybe but not so much when traveling with the Herd of Turtles Barnas family. At almost 10pm, just before Starbucks closes, in lovely snow-covered Flagstaff Arizona, I called my girlfriend in Albuquerque and said sooooooo, maybe we'll be in by 3am-ish, if I can stay awake and my children stay asleep and she said bring it! So on we did travel. If one does have to drive in the darkness, winding through mountains, one should choose to do it on a clear, cloudless night, with the brightest full moon of the year, through the most spectacular snowy landscape around Flagstaff. My goodness but it was incredibly beautiful. Partially because I was shocked at my good fortune to have clear skies, the "brightest full moon of the year", and a snow covered landscape to drive through and partially because I needed to stay awake, I called everybody that I could think of to share the moment with. That is, everybody that would still be awake and whose number I had already programed in my new phone. That is, to say, my husband.

Now, if there were not a party planned for me at 2pm the following day, it would not have mattered so much that I drive like a bat out of you-know-where straight through, but alas, we do live on the edge.

Maura, Jessica and Chrystyne. Jessica hosted our lovely afternoon soiree, with friends and families we have not seen in over two years, lovely lovely lovely. Lovely food (Augustus helped himself, repeatedly, to a plate of cookies as his main course), wonderful friends in an amazing home. Jessica's homes are always amazing, that is her M.O. Gorgeous man, gorgeous surroundings, and much love to give. We stayed at Chez Chrystyne, in her new digs that she literally moved into the day we arrived, we don't leave any space for error.

Augustus had more fun than you can imagine playing and wrestling and rough-housing with Merrik and Kenny. At one point, they were marching through the backyard and I asked "Where's Magdalena?" "inside, watching football with Ronnie." Yeah, I know, that's my daughter. Crazy, the football fan. All she has to know is who your team is and she is on board. She identifies the teams by color, the red team, the blue team, the guys with the long black stretchy pants...So there she sat, a friend for life with Ronnie, Kenny's mama, watching the game.

Augustus stole the heart's of all the girls, and Beth just could not get enough. She's always been a kid magnet, and mine are no different. The next day Beth lent us the coolest new-style sleds and off we went to a little park on Sandia Mountain for Magdalena and Augustus's first snow sledding oh-so-fabulous experience. We did not go on the big "sledding" hill, no way. Magdalena found her perfect sledding spots on stream beds that were covered in snow, and may I say but it was on! She never stopped, for a second. A natural born sledder, cautious in just the right way, but out there like she was born to it. Augustus, well, he took a bit of convincing, and just kept saying, as I pulled him, "Don't run mama! No!"

Our dear dear friends Lou and Suzanne met us up on the mountain for the sledding adventure, to be followed by super yummy pizza and quesadillas at the bottom of the mountain, a perfect apres-sled snack.

We took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ended up in Santa Fe on our way south to Cruces to spend the afternoon tea with our girl Krista.

We left the great northern New Mexico for southern parts, the last visit before we began our homeward journey. We stayed with our friends Nora, Jon and their children Zephyr and Jubilee. You can read about our stay here:

http://noradawn.blogspot.com/2009/02/and-way-that-i-fell-for-you-ill-never.html
Let me say that staying at Nora and Jon's house is a gift in itself, for the this-is-who-we-are-and-we-live-it comfort vibe, for the matching pajama show at bedtime each night, for the home-made bread served with home-made jam and coffee mornings, and for Kamy living around the corner and coming over for coffee my first, second and last mornings.

But wait, there's more. There's Nora herself, and then there's Jon, and add to that Zephyr who is a buddy of Magdalena's from way back, and Jubilee who joined the family since our departure. When I first met Nora and Jon, I was totally intimidated by them. They seemed so...perfect. Fit, beautiful, respectful of the earth and so much of what that entails, kind, educated, well-spoken, gentle, peaceful, passionate and well-informed. And they did yoga. And they sat up straight! So I thought they might be unapproachable, but they're not. That's the kicker, not only are they all that and a bag of locally grown baked by the sun packaged in a reusable bag of chips, but they are nice, friendly and immanently approachable.

I used to cruise into town (I lived an hour and twenty minutes, door-to-door from Kamy and Nora back in NM) and stay with my midwife and darling friend Kamy and, inevitably, Nora would show up with Zephyr for evening hang-outs and chats, and it finally dawned on me...she's coming to hang out not just with Kamy, but me. Imagine, me. Yes I admit it, I was flattered. Slowly our friendship grew and I realized we had, over sporadic time and space, become dear dear friends. I realized another amazing woman/mama had become part of my life, one of those friends who warrant a roadtrip, one of the folks who make up our extended life family that spreads from hear to California, and on over to Australia.

There is so much more to say about our stay, but really I've already blown my zoom through the last part of the trip, I've been on this post for days now, so I'll let that be enough. Besides, I gave you a link to Nora's description of our stay, so take advantage of it, you can get a taste of Nora magic.

After conveniently locking my keys in the car as I was packing up to drive to Austin, TX, we rambled on out of our old home state and into the wild flat west that is West Texas, and finally, around nine pm, into the beautiful rolling green hills of Austin. We stayed there with Cristina, artist extraordinaire whom I met while living in Granada (you can check out her stuff here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6159789, and her beloved husband Sean. No photos again, sometimes I do just get lazy. Cristina - an art teacher - had the jumbo set of colored pencils and Magdalena drew what is now known as "my favorite drawing that she has ever done that she gave to Cristina", this crazy fish underwater that proves she is a protegee. Sigh. The proof is on the fridge.

After a night of art and revelry, we drove on through to a hotel in Baton Rouge, LA and ya know sometimes, it is just the funnest thing in the world to do, stay in a hotel with two children who have been cooped up in a car all day. Aren't hotel beds designed for jumping? I mean, c'mon, really. As we were wandering the halls looking for the closest ice machine which was not very close at all, as I watched them run and skip down the hall giggling maniacally I thought, this is a moment we will always have. This trip, this place, this hall. My two precious children, all clean and sweet and in their favorite p.j.'s, running ahead of me, ready for the revered hotel room.

Finally, yes I said Finally, the last stop of the trip, Uncle Neil and Aunt Tammy, there in Florida, in the panhandle, waiting for us with (I expected no less) super yummy snacks and love for us all. There was much to see, the preparation of the room for the baby to come, the one nestled in Tammy's baby bump, the handiwork from Neil, the crafty work of Tammy. We hung out, we played, the children rolled all over Uncle Neil, and we relaxed.

And that my sweet friends, was that. We went out to a local diner, the Iron Skillet, for seriously amazing burgers and fries before we hit the road on what was the last push on the last day of our 40 day and 7000 mile extravaganza. We stopped in Tallahassee at our regular Starbucks and did a dance of glee because that was to be our last stop, 2 1/2 hours out of Jacksonville. We arrived home in the nick of time, kissed our sweet kitty Belly, admired the pink tulips Jeanna had awaiting us, and thanked God and the universe for our safe return.

Pasedena part dos and Cali rocks! (or, more bits from the road trip)

(Ignore the post date, that is when I started this entry, today is March 16, and it's taken me this long to actually post)
Again with the no blogging! What's going on here? Well, it seems I have the sleeping sickness. Have you read Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Well I have it. I could just sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep. All the time.
I feel like I am forgetting moments and details, and part of the reason I blog is because I don't scrapbook or baby book or photo book, so if it's not here, it might not be anywhere but in the chasms and recesses of my mind and sometimes, well, let's just say, they are not so accessible. So here is a bit more before it all becomes a fog.

After the Rose Bowl parade, Magdalena, Augustus and I headed over to my friend Lena's house, also in Pasadena. I met Lena on the Greek Isle of Ios about 20 years ago (what?). We were staying in the same hostel, about $7 American a night, overlooking this insanely gorgeous bay where we could see dolphins or maybe I'm just making that up, but anyway it was idyllic and amazing and looked exactly like every postcard you have ever seen of Greek Isles. I remember telling a friend of mine that I wanted to meet some people from California on the trip so I would know somebody out there to go live with, and whom do I meet but Lena. She stared at me, asked me questions, and I was as intrigued by her as she me. Who was this fabulous woman, travelling with these three gorgeous men? Or rather, back then I would have said who was this girl travelling with these boys? They called us Thing 1 and Thing 2, and we knew we were best friends forever. So off me and my two children go to visit. The last time I saw Lena was about 18 months ago on my last jaunt to LA, we spent the day together at the beach, and I fell in love with her all over again, and with her children, and with Jamie (Lena's best friend who is also my friend from when I lived here) and her daughter Harper. On this trip we wanted more so an overnight date was arranged and glorious fun was had by all.
Lena has two daughters, Juliette and Samantha, or Juju and Sam. Here is the breakdown:

Magdalena hanging with Juju, taking it all in, totally enamored with her older, a bit more sophisticated friend and:

Augustus and Sam, with Sam as big girl in charge and Augustus totally in love with Sam and her special attention. When we were here last time, Sam held and played with Augustus all day at the beach. We were pretty amazed when as soon as he saw here, all this time later, he ran into her arms. Love at second sight, all over again.

In the morning Jamie and Harper came over for breakfast fun and a hang out. We were going to go to the park but the fog never lifted so we took over Lena's house for the day. And Lena just had to suck it up baby. Harper is gorgeous and also took to Augustus, oblivious to her cast and observing no limitations.

Of course because we are in California Lena has an orange tree and a tangerine tree simply loaded with fruit. All the low fruit had been picked, so here are Jamie and I in our tragic attempt to pull down the higher fruit with an orange picker. Not always so successful but we did get enough oranges to have fresh o.j. for almost every person at Jessie's for the next ten days.

Back to Jessie's house and her baby bump, back to our little life in LA, and on with the oranges! There are so many stories to tell, so many moments to remember and cherish! I met Jessica on her 19th birthday, about 18 years ago when I was living in Venice, CA working at a health food restaurant named A Votre Sante in Venice. She came in and baby it was the beginning of something special. We have been in more cities together than almost anybody else I know, save for my family: LA, NYC, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Boston, Key West, Oakland, San Francisco, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Alamogordo. She is my West Coast Jessie, she is my sister in homeschooling, parenting, center-of-the-home-SAHM-mama-ing. When she heard about the trip, she said come here and live for a month! Well, almost, 12 days was what we did. We watched our children play, bond, become friends, and lived together like family. Magdalena and Saiya, Augustus and Cheyenne call each other "heart sisters" and "heart brothers".

On the first Sunday of the New Year, we accompanied Jessica, Saiya, and Cheyenne to a Brazilian dance class in Venice, near the beach. It was a special class to welcome in the new year with a special blessing, then more blessings down on the beach. We wore all white and fell in love with dancing together to live drums. Oh the blessing of dance itself! Augustus, Magdalena and I danced together in the foyer, right outside the class proper. The beating drums, the dancing, the energy was building building building, until the end of the class, where the dancers dance for the drummers, each dancer thanking the drummers with movement. There we joined the entire class in circle and danced into the middle, thanking the drummers with our joy and our dance and our children's movements and laughter.
At the beach we were blessed, again, with scented oil and water, walking down to the edge of the ocean, offering fresh flowers and rose petals to God and the universe.

The children and their after-the-blessing Goldsworthy-esque offering.

My Venice Beach mamas, Jessica and Rana

After a bit of time with our West Coast family, the children found their groove and their rhythm. Augustus and Cheyenne realized that this was how boys got to hang out together, and Cheyenne would call throughout the house, "Augustus Wolfe! Augustus Wolfe!", calling out to his buddy, his boy, his friend. They played together without once -no hyperbole - fighting over a toy or truck or turn. It was unbelievable.

Now, Magdalena and Saiya, well, they fell into a bit of a different rhythm. Is it a girl thing? Is it a first born thing? Is it a four and five year old thing? Is it a personality thing? Probably all of those things, or a bit of each, but man oh man, we had to intervene more than once, and the level of joy experienced by those two dear girls was equally matched by the level of desperate heartache over a doll or dress or spot on the bed. In their defense, it is not often that a four year old girl has to all of a sudden share everything, and I mean everything - her mom, her space, her brother, her toys, her dress up, her art supplies with two marauding interlopers. Nor is it often that a five year old girl is on a six week roadtrip, without all of her own familiar things life events family. We knew that on days when they woke up and were on from 8-ish in the am till 7-ish in the pm, with a homeschool coop date in the middle, or maybe just a swim in the backyard, or a trip to the beach, (which was every day, by the way) well we knew that a few breakdowns here and there were not only fine, but barely a blip on the radar of our time in general.

We all fell into such a blissful, tangible love and easy friendship that it was hard to imagine that we hadn't always been there, and wouldn't be there forever.

blue sky, outside and strong girl

Really? It's been that long? February 17? Wow. I feel like I went underwater there for a bit, and have resurfaced, thank you very much.

We went to the library a week ago Friday and then down to Hemming Plaza for lunch al fresco and a bit of the old urban experience. We'll take it where we can get it here. It was one of those magically beautiful winter Florida days, blue blue sky, warm sun, cool air, perfect. The children couldn't have been more beautiful, more fun, or more darling if they'd tried.

Today my darling children took the art table out back for some al fresco painting and drawing. It was, of course, another perfect winter Florida day. I was talking to a friend of mine up in Iowa City and I said, you won't believe this but it's like 75 degrees here. I forget how warm Florida is compared to most of the rest of the country. She, however, did not. Anyhoo, we were busy doing chore type stuff, just having a home day, and Magdalena and Augustus were having the ultimate day of free play. The art table soon became a soaked by the water colors, and then it morphed into an experiment involving tensile strength, water and butcher paper, then a clean up project, all with zero input from the mama.

I was with a friend back in NM and he asked me, as he watched M. and A. run around giggling maniacally and having a ball with each other, "do they always get along like this?" to which I answered, yeah, basically. Don't get me wrong, they do fight a bit, but for the most part, they are best friends. Magdalena announced the other morning, as she hugged Augustus on the couch, that she loved him the best of all. Better, she made sure to qualify, than me, than papa, than abuela, than anybody. Yep, that was the verdict, Magdalena loves Augustus best of all. To which I say bravo.

And finally, what Magdalena has dubbed "strong girl". As in,"mama watch. I'm doing strong girl". Which is her shimming up the door jam, a la a rock climber in a chimney, until her head reaches the top. My oh my, but what a strong girl.

2009 and a Pasadena day

Have you seen the Rose Bowl Parade? Maybe on TV? Maybe you've been there? I'm sure, at some point in my life -surrounded as I have been by my football fan family members - I've seen the Rose Bowl Parade on TV, but I don't have a specific recollection of oh wow, it's New Years Day, time to turn on the telly and watch the Rose Bowl Parade! So when my dear darling friend Jen of Jacksonville Beach heard of our travel plans and invited us to the actual Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, I thought, yeah well... we'll see, I dunno, I couldn't imagine waking up early and schlepping the children from the west side of LA all the way to Pasadena in traffic at 7:30 in the morning. I did not realize the magnitude of the invite. Jen's family lives less than a block off the parade route, her father spends the week before the parade keeping his chunk of sidewalk and median clear of interlopers by spray-painting a boundary line around their family spot, then the night before - New Years Eve, of course - hearty family members actually spend the night out there, camping out in their spot.

It is, as I found out, a huge deal to have the kind of access to the parade I was being offered. At the homeschool coop party the day before, I met a mama who planned to wake her family up and be out the door by 5am to get a decent spot and watch the parade. All I had to do was be in Pasadena by 8:30am, go directly to the corner of her street, call Jen and tell her I'm there, and let the policemen know that yes I can drive down this street, my friend is bringing my pass. And voila, it's like a backstage pass to the most anticipated parade of the year. We arrive at Jen's house and are ushered back the long driveway of a terribly sweet California ranch house, draped with Christmas lights and fronted by (what else?) rose bushes, and squeezed into the tiniest space we can get into in the back yard to maximize parking, in the yard, did I mention that? We found ourselves in the midst of an annual family extravaganza, the matriarch from Mexico, the patriarch from France, five daughters, dozens of cousins, brewed Starbucks coffee with heated cream and raw sugar, and a card table set up at the parade route with more coffee, local doughnuts and wonderful pastries. Who knew?

Lulu, Magdalena, and Augustus

watching the parade, sometimes napping

A couple of hours after the parade, after feasting and playing, we walked the two blocks over to the area where the floats were and with the tickets Jen's family had because they live there, we went and checked out the floats up close. That was anticlimactic at best, but the real treat was the climbing tower. Oh. My. Goodness. They're so so cool, and best of all it was free! Just requiring about a twenty minute wait in line and they were off!

Lulu took to the wall like she was born to climb, Magdalena put her skills to use, getting about 1/2 way up, and I had to cajole Augustus to actually get on the wall and stop using the harness like a bungee jump.

The best part of all of it, better than the parade, better than the coffee (and it was good), better than the rock wall, was the joy of a west coast playdate with one of our favorite families, some of our dearest buddies from Jacksonville all the way out there, in the middle of six weeks away from home. That was the best part, spending the afternoon sitting on the front porch with Jen, watching our children play their creative games together, and later, inside, singing songs and taking turns telling stories and listening to the children's stories. Just like home, just like life, out in Pasadena.

happy Saint Valentine's Day to you

The work of Valentines is all about love, glue, cardstock, chocolate, sweet confections, flowers. This year, we managed to hit all the notes. Friday I was caught! No lace doilies, no red construction paper, no glitter! So we did it a bit different, and water colors, water -color paper, cardstock, glue and a pack of alphabet stamps later, we had our very own gorgeous Valentines.

Magdalena did each step of hers herself, the hearts, how she drew on them and decorated them, cutting them out, and designing her cards and gluing them together and they are stellar. I drew the hearts on water color paper for Frida and Augustus, they painted what they wanted - Augustus filled in every square millimeter, Frida doodled and did light gorgeous painting - then I cut out the hearts and they designed and glued them on. We don't have a shot of Frida's, but you can imagine them from her watery-blue painting, they turned out luminous and lovely. Inside, using letter stamps, they put their messages of Valentine love.

My Valentines came a day early, from my hard-working man. He came home early, we were all a-twitter, and he went back out to the van, returned bearing gifts - classic, Valentines bring-home-to-the-wife gifts, crazy beautiful arranged flowers in a speckled pink glass vase and our favorite box 'o chocolates from a local chocolatier. The chocolates were gone in a short order frenzy, and the flowers are just getting more beautiful as the flowers open more. Jeanna came over today and said, "oh my God! Look at your flowers!"

(notice, in the bottom photo, under the fern, a tiny Our Lady of La Leche statue, from my mom! I just had to sneak her in there. She brought her to me after she visited the shrine, she said Our Lady's dedication to motherhood reminded her of me. Ok, I'm faclempt, talk amongst yourselves.)

Today we were dedicated to the task of making our Valentines celebration of love and sugar complete with chocolate covered strawberries (Florida winter strawberries, from Plant City, are really some of the yummiest strawberries on the planet, except maybe for some summer strawberries I had in Vermont many years ago). And while I was busy in the kitchen putting together the cake, so I have no photos of the process, the children did these strawberries under Tita's watchful eye. They turned out so perfect, and the babes had a ball doing them, so proud they were of their handiwork they even waited until they had finished cooling off in the fridge before devouring them. Of course the evening was to be topped off by the yummy buttermilk heart-shaped cake with a beet-juice pink cream cheese frosting, lightly sprinkled with red sugar, homemade vanilla ice cream and homemade chocolate sauce but we were thwarted. At 7pm my man got a work call, 7pm on a Valentine's day Saturday. Sigh. Life calls. Anyhoo, the children are in bed, he should be home soon, and we'll have a late night dessert, together.

Happy Saint Valentine's Day to you all.

California begins

California, we have arrived! There was much woo-hooing and cheering and ballyhooing as we passed from Arizona into California, coast-to-coast, we were there! We drove an easy straight shot into San Diego and wanting to take a break, have some food, get gas, and have some run-around time, we pulled off the 805 freeway having no idea where we were, just looking for food and green space. We promptly got a bit, well not lost but confused because there were no gas stations in sight, only crazy urban suburbia spreading out before us. We persevered, found a gas station, asked the attendant the fastest way back to the freeway because we could not get on going north where we got off, and he pointed due west, said you can't miss it. Right before the freeway was a grocery store, bingo, now for that green space...well, let's just drive over the freeway a bit and see what we see...and we saw heaven. A huge park, a playground, and children running and jumping and playing. And ya know what? There was also a Starbucks right around the corner, ha! Boy do we love California.
The park was so classic California, a cross-cultural slice of our dense American pie. We set up a spot with our blanket and fruits and cheese and popcorn and sparkling water and off my little ones went to join the ruckus. Across the playground were concrete picnic tables, where the "old world" contingent of the large group of Muslim families set up. The older women were fully covered in flowing black robes and head scarves, faces covered except for their eyes, the younger women, with white or black scarves, still covered their heads but not their faces, had long robes on also, reminding me of the nuns I grew up with. Then young women, teenagers, hip young mamas, where wearing head scarves with beautiful, fitted long tops, but very hip jeans underneath, and the youngest of all, the little girls and boys, were running around indistinguishable for their clothes from the rest. There were hibachis and coolers, plates, cups and napkins, and I imagined a bit of oh-so-yummy food from their table, but I don't think they were looking for company, so I kept to my fruit and cheese.
Directly in front of me were the Latina mamas, big sisters, aunties watching their little ones. A row of gorgeous, young, dark haired and perfectly olive skinned women, in tight jeans and tighter t-shirts, laughing and watching, all heads turned toward me when Augustus falls, and I didn't even think they knew I was behind them. They knew, they clocked us, they knew who those little ones belonged to. There was a group of Asian-American families, the mamas following their little ones through the playground, pushing the swings, and finally, us and a few other random families, mamas with one little one, or one baby, taking it all in and really marvelling at who we are.

Then Los Angeles proper. Below are the principles of the homeschool group we slid in with whilst doing our LA gig. Saiya, Magdalena, Blossom and Maddy. I say principles because they were the big girls, the almost five and five year olds, the grand dames of the group, as it were. Some time last fall, Jessica, the mama/dear friend/partner in mama-ing, who we were staying with in LA, called me not completely convinced that this homeschooling thing was going to work out. She couldn't find the families that clicked, she was checking out park days, going online, but hadn't yet met her tribe. Trust, I told her, Trust. I was exactly the same - who were our friends going to be? Where were the mamas, the babies, the big kids that I was going to do this thing with? Who were we going to create this life with? And then, voila, at the library one day I saw them; I said, there they are, those are my people, those mamas and babies and big kids are the ones, and they were. So I said to Jessica, Trust. And she did, and they came. She called me thrilled one day, saying she had met two mamas who she got, who she knew before she even met them! She even said "I met my west coast Connor! She's lived all the same places as you, she totally gets me!".

Our first full day in LA (Culver City/Mar Vista-ish, feeling very Venice Beach) was New Years Eve, so off we go to the New Years Eve homeschool coop afternoon party at one of the family's houses. And doncha know, as I'm backing the Mitsu up to park and unload, out there, on the street, in Venice, CA, welcoming us to her house, was "the west coast Connor" and doncha know, as I stick my head out the window to ask for some guidance into the spot, I hear "Connor?" and I say "Claudia?" and who knew that the west coast Connor was an old friend of mine, actually, the woman who was partners with a really old friend of mine from Atlanta in owning the Three of Cups restaurant I bartended at back on 5th and Avenue A in Alphabet city, in NYC? Really? Come on, no way. Way. WOW. We both laughed at who we were and marvelled at who we have become. She said, did you ever figure me for a homeschooling mom? I never imagined you as one. I thought, but didn't say out loud, shoot, who knew I'd even survive NYC, let alone thrive? Will the miracles never stop? I'm betting on a lifetime of them, miracles that is.

a bit from today

No photos, I was a bit of a lazy mama today, but it was just such a lovely lovely lovely day at the zoo that I want to say what a lovely day it was! Funny, but I still feel like we're "getting back into the swing of things" and here we've been home for three weeks! No, wait, today was the first day of week four being home. Doesn't it feel like we should be well into the swing? I dare say, time does fly by. Ok, whew. I just checked the calender and today is the first day of our third week home, that doesn't feel quite so slow off the block to me, not quite as sluggish, if you know what I mean. Well, wrong again, it is the first day of our fourth week! Good heavens! So I have been home a full three weeks and still figuring out where stuff goes! But in our or rather my defense, we did bring home an entire car load of stuff that we did not leave with, which means an entire car load of stuff has to leave to make room for the car load of stuff that came because in somewhere around 850 square feet of living space there is not room for the new without letting go of the old.

I have two friends whose blogs I follow, you can check them out, they're both on the side bar, who recently posted about their weekly schedule. Hhmmmm....weekly schedule...hhhmmmmm...weekly schedule...yes, yes, uhhh, yes I do believe I've heard of those things, like, where a person or family or group of people do a similar thing each day or week together or separately, yes, I do believe I am familiar with that concept. Familiar, mind you, not a working knowledge of, but yes, familiar. HA!

But I digress. I was talking about today, the loveliness of today, at the zoo, with Eleanor and her two daughters Allie and Kimberly, Bianca a recent addition to our group of mama/women friends, Rose with darling sons Dominic and Franco, Shazza with her sweet Trinity, and clan Barnas (us, of course, sans Frida). It was mostly our homeschool crew from last year, minus a few, with a few new, and it was a gorgeous winter Florida day - bright blue sky, warm sun for the bones, and a bit of heat truth be told, I was starting to almost sweat running up and down the slides in the play area with Augustus. We all kept saying, oh how we've missed this! The familiarity of our children all running together, the mamas lagging a bit behind, Allie reading all about which exhibit we're coming to (her reading is off the charts!), feeding those crazy giraffes of the extra long blue tongues, just being together.

So there is my impetus, my directive to "get back into the swing of things" and pronto! We do want our homeschool life back in some semblance of order. There is laundry to be done, ground to prepare, a garden to begin, sewing and stitching and counting and art and craft to be done, and still the re-connecting continues. But then it just seems to be about seasons and reconnecting with life and patterns and rhythm. There was so much that I learned on the roadtrip, so many lessons I want to bring home into our life, such richness to add to the already-richness of our life here in Casa Rosa, casita rosita, the sweet little pink house. It's all here, it's waiting, it's all ready.

a few more bits from the road

But wait, I'm only like, halfway through the roadtrip, there's more! Like Christmas! Once we picked up Ethan in Texas, we were on a schedule and the trip seemed to jump into hyperspeed. We hit the ground running and didn't slow down for one second.

Christmas morning is just like, well, Christmas for the babes. They were so excited I thought they were going to jump out of their skin! Here they are with Auntie Delia, who, by the way, is the most wonderful 18 year old Auntie on the planet. Magdalena and Augustus are smitten, I say Smitten, with her. The sun rises and sets by her and she shines her love all over them.

After Magdalena and Augustus had their fill of good morning Christmas candy, off we went for a visit with the Huffman's for a bit of old friend/family love and hanging out. Gregg and Janet are two of the most beautiful parents we know. I've watched their children grow from little little people to college students and wild and woolly high-school students and am always inspired by how wonderful they all are, together, as a family.

the God-father, the papa, the daughter

Magdalena and Augustus helping Janet feed the fishy in their Christmas finery. Why is girl finery so much finer than boy finery? I see a velveteen jacket in Augustus's future Christmas wardrobe...

After Christmas in Albuquerque, we hit the road for Yuma, AZ to spend some time soaking up the desert sun with our Yuma family, Grandma Fran and Grandpa John. We spent one entire day at a park by Colorado River, it was an awesome, sprawling park, one could not ask for more than this park offers.

We had a wonderful morning, outside, playing at the playground. We spent the afternoon by the Colorado, looking across this small part of the river at California, getting our feet wet and standing under the train trestle, our ears covered against the deafening roar, watching as the trains passed overhead.

Yuma is where Ethan left the journey, heading on back to Texas to finish tech school. We stayed on and went on a perfect desert mountain hike with grandma Fran. Let's see...who's the seasoned hiker in this photo, and whose children look dressed for a party? Discuss.

Magdalena and Augustus had a high time with grandma, in her sewing room, designing their pillow cases custom made by grandma Fran. One minute, there is white fabric, then voila! Grandma Fran works her magic and we have custom "quillow" cases for all!