Zen and the Art of Peaceful Coexistance: or My Education on the History and Future of Israel in 3 Easy Lessons.

The other weekend we were lucky enough to play host to my father's cousin Elana and her husband David for a few days while the stopped in San Diego during his book tour.

Elana and David Wesley live in Israel, having moved there (as newlyweds in their early 20s) to live on a kibbutz in the early 1950's, in the very early years of Israel's nationhood. Their kibbutz was on land near a village that was taken from the area's Palestinians, and this kibbutz used this village's orchards as their own, often hiring the Arabs who once owned the orchard as over hire employees during harvest time. They lived on this kibbutz for many years, but as their political views began to lean more to the left, their unease about co-opting the village's land began to grow.

Elana had always leaned to the left, politically, originally wanting to live on a kibbutz for its socialist look at things, where everyone was equal. She didn't see much equality for the local Arabs, though. Over time, David followed her beliefs, and today they both work toward a peaceful solution to the ancient strife, if not just for equality among the people of both sides.

David's book is about the difficulties encountered by the Palestinians who live within Israel (not the occupied territories) in their struggle for equal rights and full participation as citizens of Israel, which they are in name, but not in practice. David and Elana are touring America, with David lecturing about the book and their beliefs.

They already had some social events set up so I played their chauffeur while they were in San Diego and got quite an education by being able to participate in some amazing discussions about the history of the State of Israel, it's current dynamic, and possible solutions from folks who's ancestors came from both sides of the situation.

My first lesson was David's lecture at the SDSU Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies and the lively discussion with professors and students that followed.

The following night, we had dinner with a friend of a friend of theirs: (seafood and good wine overlooking the ocean!) and the husband of the couple turned out to have once worked for the Israel office of Foreign Affairs (if I remember correctly) and had quit after a few years because he was being asked to be a mouthpiece for Israel about things his heart no longer agreed with. He moved to America and now lives in SoCal.

And then on the third day, we had been invited to the home of a family here in San Diego, for an afternoon of coffee, cheesecake, and lots of congenial conversation with a group of their friends who were a mix of Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese folks, etc.

We met in the home of Miko Peled, an Israeli peace activist and writer, and son of Matti Peled, who was an Israeli Major General in the Six Day War (in which Israel first seized the Gaza Strip and the West Bank) who himself later became a peace activist, and was one of a group of three generals who had clandestine meetings with PLO leaders, working to bring about the first official dialog between the PLO and Israel.

Miko has an interesting theory about how the conflict should be solved... not through a two-state solution, but through a one-state solution: a secular democratic state where every person, Israeli or Palestinian, is an equal citizen with an equal vote, leaving religion out of the whole affair. He writes about it here.

Among the other people at our little coffee klatch was a Lebanese artist, her husband who is a professor at the Jewish University of San Diego, and also a woman who is a playwright and founding director of a performing arts company here in the city, who has explored the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in one of her plays, in which she wrote my dad's cousin Elana in as a character with a pivotal role.

The talk was lively and friendly, full of lots of laughter and things to consider. I was able to ask questions that most of the folks in the room likely already knew the answers to, without feeling that I was an outsider or should know this stuff already. So it was a really fun and educational experience.

After taking my dear guests to the airport to fly off to the next stop on their American odyssey (their daughter's home!), I sought after and watched the documentary, Six Days in June, about the war in 1967, which filled in some gaps in my knowledge.



Being a mom, one often fills their head with more information about carpools and summer camps than about world affairs, and it was such a wonderful experience, stretching my brain for a good long weekend, giving it some exercise and fresh air for once in a long, long time.

More photos from our weekend can be found here.

What Makes This Night Different From All Other Nights? (It could be the Easter Eggs)

So, if I showed you photos from a holiday that feels like it was weeks ago, would it hold your interest?

Okay, I confess, this post is mostly for the Grandmothers so get over it! Right after the holidays I had some house guests for a few days, and spent a few days preparing for them, so the holiday post went on hiatus.

Michael and I come from mixed backgrounds so we tend to celebrate both Jewish and Christian holidays which can really rock if you like holidays!

And I do!

So, over the Passover/Easter holiday weekend, we headed up to Michael's mom's house. The first night we had Passover and it's traditional Seder dinner. This is a very ritualized dinner, and everyone was very excited to see that Noah was finally able to participate this year by reading the children's part, called The Four Questions.

Noah did a really awesome job and was proud when people praised him for sounding out words like "vegetables", "recline", and "Maror"!

Earlier in the day, Mima took the kids (and Michael) to the Noah's Ark exhibit at the Skirball Center which is an awesome display of hands-on kid-friendly exhibits including dozens of animals made out of everyday objects like violin cases, toilet plungers, springs, oil cans, bicycle horns and the like.

I went shopping.


That evening, after the Seder, we put the eggs and the baskets outside for the Easter Bunny so he could hide them in the backyard after filling them with... you know... KOSHER candy!

Uh huh.

That's how we roll.

Last Child in the Woods

When you were a kid, did you have that special place you would go, somewhere in nature, back when kids were allowed to roam free without telling their parents EXACTLY where they were going? A place where you felt you belonged, a place you claimed as your own? A place in the woods? The edge of a creek? A great climbing-tree? A large bush, even, with a hole you could crawl into and hide?

Do you remember how empowered and peaceful you felt hanging out all by yourself or with your friends in nature?

I've been thinking a lot about this lately...

Has it ever occurred to you that we have taken this amazing experience away from our children in just a couple generations? With all the fear of kidnapping and molestation at every turn, we are prohibiting our kids from walking home from school, having free range of the neighborhood or even leaving the front yard, much less giving them the freedom to explore the few wild places left near our homes.

Kids nowadays, I assume because of the media-instilled fear of predators, are no longer allowed to wander through their neighborhoods.

When I was 8, I had free range of a two block radius, including every backyard, and we could also go anytime we wanted to a quarry, a creek and a train track down the road from my house.

The quarry had once been a swimming hole where you could still see a frayed rope dangling from a bar placed there so kids could swing out over the water, let go, and drop in with a splash. In my time, we were told the water was not clean, but it provided lots of stone-skipping fun, and one could walk around it on a path through some trees.

Most kids in my neighborhood used to have to come home when the streetlights came on. One girl's family had a large farm bell on a tall post in their backyard that they would ring if it was time for her to come home, and it could be heard for blocks. Her parents trusted her not to leave the area in which she could hear that bell.

We played alone, in pairs and in packs. In the summer, we played outside from morning until dinner time, and then we often went out again after dinner. We would play "Ghost in the Graveyard" for hours, hopping neighbor's fences and hiding under bushes. We stole the sugar bowls out of our kitchens into which we dipped stalks of wild rhubarb to make them sweeter.

I suspect now, in my old neighborhood, most kids are allowed to play only in their yard (the backyard, of course, as the front has CARS driving by!) unless they get permission to go to another kid's yard, with that other kid's mom's permission, passing the protection of said child from one responsible adult to another. If they want to go down to the end of the road, I am guessing they go with a parent and are not allowed to place pennies on the railroad track, much less throw rocks into passing train cars or cross the tracks and wade in the stream, jumping from rock to rock catching crayfish.

The field there is now a tennis court, and a city-built skate park. The quarry has been filled in and the ring of wild trees around it has been cut down. It's a flat mowed lawn now.

Last week, I had the opportunity to see a lecture given by Richard Louv, the author of the book I am currently reading called, Last Child in the Woods. Louv argues that children are spending less and less time on unstructured play in nature, at a time when it is critical to do so, and their lives and the future of our planet are being severely impacted. When children are outside, it is usually in scheduled, structured team activities, or on playgrounds with soft turf, short slides, and rubber around the chains on the swings.

Children are more obese, less creative, less active, less pro-active, more fearful, less knowledgeable about the natural world than their counterparts were just a couple generations ago: kids who played in their local ravines, caught tadpoles in the stream, and played in their forts in the nearby copse of trees at the end of their streets.

*************************************
Consider this:
· In 1971, 80% of 7 to 8 year-olds were allowed to walk to school on their own, whereas just 9% could do so in 1990.

· In 1990, only half as many 7 to 11 year olds as in 1971 were allowed to go to places other than school by themselves. What do you suppose it is now, in 2009?

· The age at which children are granted specific freedoms increased—the freedom permitted to a 7 year old in 1971 was permitted to the average 9.5 year old in 1990. It's been two more decades since then.

. Between 1981 and 1997, children’s free playtime dropped by an estimated 25%, and this change appears to be driven by increases in the amount of time children spend in structured activities. Their unstructured play time is mostly spent indoors with some sort of electronic media.

. Students in outdoor science programs improved their science testing scores by 27 percent (American Institutes for Research, 2005)

. Researchers at the University of Illinois have shown that the greener a child’s everyday environment, the more manageable their symptoms of attention-deficit disorder.
*******************************************

Richard Louv made a comment that really struck me during his talk. He said that most every environmentalist and conservationist working for change today had a transcendent experience in nature as a child. In a time, when we really need to change the way we live in order to make a healthier environment, we are prohibiting our children from having any kind of transcendent experience in nature.

If kids don't spend time in nature, they won't have the desire to take care of the environment, except in the abstract sense, and we don't have time for the abstract anymore.

While Louv feels that getting kids back outside at all is great progress, what he is really advocating is getting kids back to wild nature. Not soccer fields, not playgrounds, not landscaped parks, but woods, ravines, rivers, rocks, trails, lakes and beaches.

And he wouldn't mind if some of that time was alone time for the kids who can handle the responsibility.

Louv wants to get a grassroots movement going in America, much like playgroups and book clubs have taken off in the last few years. But he would like this movement to get families out into nature in groups, to make it more fun, more social, and more common. He calls them Family Nature Clubs. He wants groups of friends and neighbors to scoop up the kids, and meet somewhere out in nature on a regular basis, explore and just have fun together.

A light bulb went on for me when I heard this. My family does go out and walk one of San Diego's canyons on occasion, and we hike occasionally when my parents visit. But I had this thought a few months back to get a friend or two and their families out to the woods, at a day use area for a long afternoon of just hanging out, talking and letting the kids play in a natural environment. Climb on some rocks, wade in a creek. Get dirty. Richard Louv got me thinking, "why can't this be a regular thing?" And why just one or two other families?

So, if you are a friend of mine and live locally, don't be surprised if one day in the near future I invite you and your kids out for a day of rest and play at the day use area of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park or one of the other Day Use Parks in our area.

I am picturing everyone bringing sandwiches or campfire/barbecue foods for their own kids, a dish to share with everyone else, some camp chairs for the parents to hang out together. We would come out sometime after breakfast, and get home around dinner time. Lunch will be had in the out of doors. The kids can play, explore and climb, some folks can take a short hike, the adults can get some much needed social time with each other, and a good time will be had by all.

And if we like it... maybe we could do it every few weeks or so.

What do you say? Are you game?

Are there cool natural spaces you can take your kids near home? Like the idea of hanging with your friends and their kids once a month? Want to commit to vacationing someplace where you plop down in nature someplace and stay awhile instead of visiting amusement parks and cities?

Thoughts? Ideas?

Happy Birthday, Big Brother

Today is the 45th birthday of my brother, David. It kind of freaks me out that he and I are now firmly entrenched in our 40's. It probably freaks my parents out even more.

I want to thank David for sticking by me all these years... for letting me hang out with him and his friends in the backyard, even if I always ended up hurt and crying after a rough game of "Smear the Queer" (not that there is anything wrong with that).

He also taught me how to build an actual space rocket (a three seater!) in our local junkyard when I was in first grade that would have actually flown to the moon if only the vacuum tubes we could find scattered between the junker cars had not all been broken minus one.

He didn't freak out at all when I dated his roommate my first year of college, nor did he yell too much after I pulled all the unpaid pink parking tickets out of his glove compartment and spread them all over my lap while looking for the car registration for the cop that had just pulled him over (He might not have been so understanding if the cop had understood what he was looking at).

So, Happy Birthday, David. I lucked out when I got you as a big brother. I hope you have at least another 45 good years ahead. I love you.

Someone's Been Sitting in MY Chair!

It's vacation time again! And I don't even have to travel!

My parents have arrived for their bi-yearly visit, and have settled in nicely. I get to act like a tourist in my own town. It's nice to have a good kick-in-the-butt to get out and about with and without the kids.

We've done a little hiking in the canyons, done a little browsing through the art galleries...

Getting online to TELL you about it is going to be another story all together. The twins have discovered the computer, and are turning out to be as geeked out as the rest of their family. The light bulb went on about what the mouse does and how to use it. So much so, in fact, that we needed to bring Noah's bedroom computer downstairs so that the kids can play their games (educational of course) off of our computer!

That doesn't stop one of them from sliding into the seat when we step away for awhile. We will often find them installing obscure programs they got online by clicking on advertisements (no! I am not kidding!). We finally had to put a password on our screen saver to stop them from randomly clicking on things!

Aside from having to wait in line for our turn to use our computer (what?) the office is also our guestroom, so the ol' blog, which usually gets updated post-bedtime, is now in a sleeping room post-bedtime.

So, sigh... you are more likely to find out what me and my folks are up to by checking my Mom's far more popular than my blog. She seems to find a way to squeeze some blogging in between kid's computer games, and gets her blog updated, even if she has to sit on a squat little kiddie chair to do it.

Restful

Wow, I have really been loving all the comments and I thank you all for popping in and making my day. You know, I sent out this mass email to all my old friends and family (the ones who DON'T come here) and reminded them about this here ol' blog thing, and I am hoping that even if they don't comment, they might still stop by on occasion.

So, I guess in return, I ought to at least update you all once in awhile. Maybe one more before the turn of the year?

Things have been really low-key here in the Shama-Lama household. The hubby is off work for quite a few days in a row (a sudden "use 'em or lose 'em" ultimatum with days off by the end of the year), and we didn't even travel anywhere with all that free time.

Noah is, of course, off of school and the twins don't have "preschool" (air quotes intended since I go with them to preschool) until January. So we have been just snuggling in, being a stay-at-home family.

We did go up to Mima and Papa's house for Birthda-Christm-ukkah over a two day period, but since them, we have just been hanging around the homestead enjoying each other's company.

In desert-y San Diego, winter is the most green and verdant time of year. It's our spring. Today, since the rains have dried up, we tossed everyone in the van and went to do a family hike. San Diego is riddled with these cool canyons all through the city, and most of the ones near our house have trails through them. We took a new one today and ended at a shady little oasis with a sturdy board-bridge six feet above a deep, cool creek. The kids threw rocks in the water and Michael and I flitted around trying to prevent toddlers from sliding down the embankment. Then we balance-beamed our way across the bridge and back a few times before heading home.

It was so nice having family time with all of the family.

I suppose with the new year, I ought to be making some kind of resolution. I don't have it all laid out in proper words, but I think it has something to do with having more moments like this. Less errands and more rock throwing. Fewer schedules and more pointing at moths and saying, "Mommy! Butterfly!!!" Less being too busy and more wondering what we should do with our time.

Something like that.

What is your resolution?

A Shama-Lama Christmas Morning

Christmas morning with little kids is SOOOOOO much fun! It was the highlight of my day to see the kids all excited as soon as they woke up. I took a decent amount of video and am posting some of it here (mostly for the grandmas). For those of you not too into home movies, the first one at least is the one to watch.

Noah asked Santa for Trolls. You know... those ugly little 1970s dolls with the long hair. He LOVES them and spent his own money for some at a garage sale. It seems Santa found a dusty box of Trolls in the back of the workshop and since Noah was the only kid on the planet who wanted Trolls, he brought Noah all 28 of them. It seems he snuck into Noah's room and planted the first one in Noah's pile of clothes for the day. This is him discovering it at 6:30 when he woke up. Sorry it's a bit dark.




If you are cool with home movies, here is another. Not sure if I will post all four or not, but here is Ethan looking down at the tree (before coming downstairs the first time) and counting the presents. Kinda cute...





I hope you are all having a lovely holiday. What has been the highlight of your day?

A Welcome Invasion

Mama: Okay, so on Thursday afternoon, Mima is coming for a couple hours with some friends of hers that Daddy knew when he was going to school in Yugoslavia. They are coming a long way and I want you to be on your best behavior.

Noah: Uh-huh.

Mama: Then on Friday, my friend Dan is coming for a couple days, and he might stay at my other friend's house, or he might stay here. Either way, I am probably going to go out and visit with my friends for awhile over the weekend.

Noah: Uh-huh.

Mama: Then, on Saturday, Daddy's Aunt Elsa is coming to visit for a few days and she is going to be sleeping in the office, so that will become her room and I don't want you guys playing in there all the time when she is here, okay?

Noah: Okay.

Mama: Okay.

(beat... beat...)

Noah: So... what's next? A zombie invasion?

Wordless Wednesday: Nothing So Good as Visits from the Grandparents

Check out other Wordless Wednesday Participants here and here.

For those just popping in, my blog is about raising my three sons, two of whom are twins who are well into their terrible twos, and the other a five year old who just recieved a diagnosis of ADHD, and all of the craziness that goes with both of those things.

It's also about my love for photography, photoshop, and my sweet husband. I grew up in Findlay, Ohio and now live in San Diego with my happy chaotic family. If that sounds at all interesting,

bookmark me and stop by again sometime!

I know...

yer busy WW-hopping right now.

Me too!

PHOTO ESSAY: What I Did On My Summer Vacation or "This is boring and walking is tooooo haaaaard!!!!"

Some of my best memories of growing up were the vacations I took with my family. We were the ones who would load up the back of the station wagon with big canvas tents, sleeping bags and coolers, always leaving long skinny space in the back of the station wagon to curl up and sleep at night, because you were allowed to do that back then.

I have very peaceful memories of laying back there, listening to my parents talking quietly, my brother asleep on the back seat and me in the far back looking up through the windows into the night. The reflections of the streetlights on the car windows looked like jellyfish tendrils passing our car from one streetlight to the next, on down the highway.


My parents made a vow that they would take us somewhere every year, even if that meant camping. And we traveled all over this great country, down south, out west, the east coast. It really instilled a love of travel in me that I want to pass on to my children.

But with twins, you often get into the habit of staying home too much. That “not being able to do some things because I have a baby” goes on a lot longer with twins than it does with one baby, and you begin to develop a habit of staying in because its easier than taking everyone out somewhere.


But we have been getting better at it, and we have all gotten better at moving as a group through public places without losing each other; or having to bring a diaper bag the size of a suitcase with us.


So, it was time to try a vacation together.


We want to become a camping family and take our boys to nature as often as possible, but we weren’t ready for cooking over a fire with wandering toddlers around or not having access to bathtubs quite yet.

So, we rented a cabin at Evergreen Lodge just outside of Yosemite National Park for three nights. It was a lovely old-fashioned Yosemite experience that reminded me a little of what those family resorts in the Catskills must be like minus the talent shows and dance lessons.

It was a little neighborhood of cabins in the forest, some as old as seventy-five years. There was a Rec. Room and a Lodge, where you could find internet access (at times) and shelves full of games and toys for the kids. There were ping pong tables and carved animals to climb on. Noah learned how to play Battleship (and won!).


We went on a little adventure each day that usually culminated in throwing rocks into water. We rarely hiked over a mile, but were able to find wild streams to wade in, lakes to swim in, tunnels to explore, forests to have picnics in, and meadows to wander through.

It was so wonderful being a family unit for once! We spend so much time splitting up the kids, one of us taking Noah out somewhere, or the other taking the twins on errands. And the kids just loved it too. Noah did find the walking “too hard!” and Luka burst into tears every night when we pulled up in front of the cabin instead of his house, but hanging out around the rivers and lakes and all those rocks? They loved every minute of that.


We are thinking of trying our luck at real camping next summer. With tents. Without bathtubs. Without walls.

I think we just might be able to handle it.

Just maybe.

And On the 11th Day, She Rested

Wow! That was fun!

My parents and nephew, Sam, left early this morning after a whirlwind trip through the touristy sites of San Diego! It was fun getting the kids out of the house nearly every day and off doing fun summer things.

I jokingly ordered an earthquake for my visitors before they left today, and it arrived about 4 hours after they took off! Ahhh, heck, I didn't feel it down here anyway, although lots of other folks did.

So let's see... we went to Old Town, the Midway, the Zoo, Sea World, a couple museums, heard some late night music at a coffeehouse, walked the boardwalk, drank some margaritas, took a harbor cruise, and just hung out together!

It was great getting to be around Sam again for the first time in nearly two years. I was his nanny when he was less than a year old, and now he is a young man of 14! He is secure with himself already, has a very dry and droll sense of humor, and is so easy going with Noah and the twins AND is an easy fit hanging with the adults. He can take a joke and gives as good as he gets. The kids just loved him.


So do I.

There is a boatload of photos over at my flickr page of their visit here. I haven't photoshopped any of them so they are off color and too dark or light in many cases, but I thought it would be fun for you all to see all the fun we had.

Oh, and if you want to read REAL blog posts about the things we did, you should head to my mom's blog.

Ten Fun Filled Days of Adventure!!

So, my parents have arrived! And with them, is my brother's son, Sam, who is 14 years old and amazing. We are going to have a blast doing all the touristy things there are to do in San Diego.

We knew they would be a bit haggard on their first day in, so we kind of took it easy around the house, and went through the list of all the stuff to do here, which we wanted to do, what days to best do them, etc. We made a schedule. We have a plan of attack. Watch out, San Diego, here we come!

Our first couple days out, we decided to take it easy and ramp up to the big stuff. So we started with Balboa Park where we took in the Air and Space Museum (I wanted to see the Star Trek exhibit but no one else was into it... I am such a geek!) and also the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center which is an awesome hand-on museum for kids that Noah has been begging to go to since his first visit months ago.

We made home-made Shrinky Dinks there! Did you know you can use Sharpie Markers, #6 plastic (the kind of clear plastic boxes sandwiches and strawberries come in) and a toaster oven set to 350 degrees for 30 seconds to make Shrinky Dinks!??? I am SO gonna make some more of these!

Today, Michael had to work, and we decided just to do some shopping and we plan to see the sunset at Sunset Cliffs tonight. Tomorrow is a big day. Not for me, but for them...

Tomorrow is Viva le Mexico day!! The last two times my parents visited, I left Michael home with the twins and took Noah and my parents down to Ensenada for strong Margaritas, funky trinkets, and cheap lobster. But Michael has never had the opportunity to go. So this time I am going to stay home for a long day with the twins, while my family and my hubby head south for mucho fun south of the border.

I have (finally) added some pictures from their trip so far at my flickr site so that Sam's parents can see that we are feeding him and taking good care of him.

Come Blow Your Horn!

Today is my sweet niece's 11th birthday! Ain't she a doll?

She lives way over on the other side of the country from our family since we came back to California, and we miss her dearly.

She and Noah had a great kinship when they lived near one another. You can just see how sad he is that they will be separated soon, in this picture taken in the last month before we moved.

Erin rocks. She really, really, does!

Go check out my mom's blog for an awesome tribute to Erin (that I could never out-do so I won't even try!) complete with "then and now" photos.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl! We miss you BUNCHES!!

As If She Didn't Have a Bazillion Things On Her Plate Already

My Mom started her own blog a few months ago, describing her life on Sanibel Island in Florida, and hers and my Dad's volunteer job with C.R.O.W. actually rescuing injured wildlife from dumpsters and bridges.

What a lot of folks don't realize is that one of her great loves is genealogy, the tracing of family trees. She has been doing our family for MANY years and has literally taken a couple of the lines back to the year 400. FOUR HUNDRED! (Have you heard of my great-gazillionth grandfather, Charlemagne? Well, he's probably your ancestor, too, cousin!)

In a late night epiphany, my Mom decided to start a new genealogy blog called Branches and Roots, where she will tell about our family, be a resource for others searching the same lines, and give help where she can.

This photo is of her parents on their wedding day in 1926. My grandmother, Opal, graduated from high school the very next day.

Why don't you head over to her new blog and check it out!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggedy-Jig

Well, we are back home, safe and sound. At least for the next seven days or so...

Hawaii was a blast. I figured getting photos up was going to be next to impossible because I didn't have the best setup to get photos off my camera, into my laptop and onto the blog, but I figured I could at least write a bit about our days.

The hotel's in-the-lobby wireless connection was sketchy to say the least. A lot of long waits for page loads ending in failures. A distinct lack of uploading short videos of our time there. So I eventually just gave up on the whole Internet/keeping-you-guys-in-the-loop thing, and just had a good time.

The first half was go-go-go and then I started taking y'alls advice about slowing down and relaxing. We saw volcanoes, went down into deep valleys, saw waterfalls, did the luau thing, hung on the beach, went snorkeling and took a real submarine ride! And *I* had a lovely massage, to boot!

The twins seemed very happy to see us, still well adjusted and seemed to make it through six days without us just unscathed, (although Ethan once brought the phone to Mima saying, "Daddy? Daddy?" and was rewarded with a little chat with Michael).

Now, I need to warn you... and I thank you, dear readers o' mine, for sticking with me through house-hunting, vacation planning, and then the actual vacation, while I write a few piddly posts here and there to keep you appeased and from running off and cheating on me with some other mama-blog... but I am going to continue to be sketchy about making blog posts for another 10 days or so while I pack up my house, move to the new house, try to unpack a little in the new house while simultaneously not being totally negligent to my children.

And I will try to work on that problem with the run on sentances, too.

I do have about a dozen little videos from my trip I had PLANNED to upload while I was there. Maybe I will appease you with one of those on a daily basis.

We shall see.

Stepping Outside the Chaos

I haven't been posting much lately because we have been so harried... what with finding a new place to live, planning how to do it, doctor's appointments, registering for day camp, making lists, planning for Hawaii, and just trying to live our regular lives which always seems to go a hundred miles an hour.

I keep imagining that one day, when we have older kids, a big enough house, no toddlers, whatever, that life will be slower paced, a little more peaceful, less frantic. That I will be able to make projects (organizing things, decorating a room, purging things we don't need anymore, getting the whole family to the dentist, for G-d's sake!) and follow through on them.

I always feel like I just try to manage getting through the day, until Michael gets home, then with TWO adults I will be able to get something completed, but the moment he walks in the door, its dinner, and homework, and clean-up or baths, and the minute they all get put down to bed, the last thing either of us wants to do is be productive.

I read blogs like Owlhaven, this woman who had four kids and then adopted six more, and while her life seems a bit manic, she always comes off sounding so serene. She never mentions wanting to lock herself in the bathroom and cry, or having to walk out the door for 10 minutes and pace back and forth in the alley until she is able to come back in and pretend she is not stressed.

I have this fantasy that everything will change when we move around the corner to our slightly larger house. This desire to purge all the extraneous STUFF we have around the house is growing again, and I hope it lasts through the move. I imagine that if I can get rid of lots of the stuff we never use, freecycle it all away, that I can reward myself with a beautiful new bedroom set, and a lovely dining room table which will magically make my family have peaceful family dinners with no throwing food on the floor, no crying, no "I don't WANNA have family dinner!!", no hysterical toddlers having to be forced into their booster chairs.

I know this kind of chaotic life can only be changed by me, or Michael and I, changing our patterns but I almost feel like I am too busy, too crazed, to sit down and figure out what needs to be done, what needs to be changed, what I need to change into. Figure out what words to use to make it all calm. Make everyone behave better.

I need to step outside of it all, get off the hamster wheel, stand outside the circle and look in.

Maybe five days in Hawaii will help. But I know me and short vacations. I will likely need a vacation from my vacation because we will be trying to squeeze all the cool touristy things in to those few days. But I will have to come home and go into full packing mode, and move to the new house in 7 days.

Then it will all get better.

...right?

A Little R. and R.

You know one of the best things about going to visit my mother-in-law’s house? I get to shower every single day! It’s awesome! There are enough adults there who love and care for my children that I actually get to bathe and eat on a regular basis!

And this weekend, which was spent at this little paradise up north, at first felt like it was going to be just more than I could manage with what little energy my virus-battered body had left. But the hubby drove us up there, and his mom and siblings pitched in like they always do and while Ethan and I spent it in a fever-induced haze, we had a very pleasant and relaxing time.

I even got to go up into our room and have the first nap I think I have had since the twins were infants. Not that my sinuses would allow me to sleep, but I got to close the door, read a chapter of my latest book, and then doze under this amazingly cloud-like down comforter that poofs up a full two feet higher than your body when tucked around you, resting on pillows just as fluffy. It was warm and quiet, and while I don’t believe I slept, I did get to think, experience some quiet and experiment with how different positions allow my sinuses to flow slowly from nostril to nostril like some syrupy ocean tide.

I almost didn't want to go to sleep, for fear of missing out on all that "laying around knowing I don't have any responsibilities for an hour or so".

When you are a mom, and a sick one at that, you usually have to put aside your own weariness to comfort the other little patients around you. It was such a luxury to just lie down and let go completely and rest and not worry about the tears and tantrums I occasionally heard coming from downstairs.

That afternoon ended with an offer of babysitting so Michael and I could go see a movie together. I figured I could lie around at the house, or I could lie around at the movie theater. Why not see a good movie? So we did.

Sunday morning we packed to go, but not before lighting candles on a belated birthday cake for Mima and having a little celebration. Noah and I made a necklace for her (he helped string the stones and beads) and the sibs all pitched in for some much-needed carpet cleaning (caused mostly by our tenure living at her house with our brood for a few months).

More photos of her little shindig can be seen here on my flickr page.

After the festivities, it was back in the van for the ride back to San Diego.

Today, being President’s Day, is a day at home for all of us. Hopefully, some recovery will be had all around. And Michael and Luka, God-willing, will remain with only some weariness, stuffy noses and light coughs, and not the full brunt of this nasty thing. And here's to this virus "not letting the screen door hit its butt on the way out".

As it were.

Where Have All the Blog Posts Gone?

Oooh, it's been a busy week in the Ding-Dong household!!

I think I might have mentioned that my parents are here visiting for ten days! We have been doing lots of touristy stuff, packing it all in before the expected rains come, and getting lots of good camera-candy for my new Digital Rebel!! Not very artsy-fartsy, but here is an obligatory tourist pose of them on board the Midway!

Wooot!

I think I have taken about a thousand pictures this week!

But, we tend to make it home late, are tired, need to get kiddies into bed, and then there are 3 or 4 of us who want to check their email. I haven't even begun to go through the vast library of pictures and get anything together to show you.

We have been to the Wild Animal Park, the Midway Aircraft Carrier, Ensenada in Mexico, Encinitas near San Diego, the Swami Meditation Gardens, Old Towne, Heritage Park, Presidio Park... is that all?? I think so...

My mom wrote a blog post or two about our trips so I am not going to be too redundant here. But I am beginning to think my photos are going to get together as long past my folks' departure as my Christmas pictures went up past the new year!

Sorry!

But know that we are having a crazy, chaotic, rockin' good time!

Tomorrow, my mom has offered to let Michael and I go out for a long lunch date while she stays home with the kids. YAY!!

Sushi sounds good...

My Guiding Light!

Hey Everyone...

I have all of 30 seconds to write this as we are heading out the door to go to the Botanical Gardens and Swami's Meditation Gardens up in Encinitas.

BUT!!

My Mom turned 70 today! I don't have time to find some great picture of her, but PLEEEEZE go over to her blog to wish her a wonderful birthday!! She is an awesome woman! She and my dad, in their retirement, have become wildlife rescuers on Sanibel Island, Florida. They are active travelers and have a great life.

And my mom ROCKS!!

Gotta go... we are piling into the car!!

Go say happy birthday to her.

Go!!!

Belated Photo Essays: Twas the Night Before Christmas...

All right... moving on with the belated photo essays of our family at Christmas time!

We last saw the family gathered round the noble fir (okay the plasticky flame resistant fakey tree) decorating and adorning with abandon. (Okay, maybe not the whole family... we purposely leave the twins out of a lot of things. Its amazing what gets done around here at nap time!)

I am mostly disappointed with how these photographs turned out. But I have to blame half of that on the fact that I STILL hate flash photography and its unnatural look, and so I tend to go without. So my pics either come out garish or yellow and blurry.

The other problem is I have recently upgraded to the ultimo pinnacle of Photoshoppy goodness, Photoshop CS3!!! And I have since downloaded a plethora of brushes and actions. What are actions, you ask? Let me tell you! It seems you can record some of the steps you take to "shop" your photos to make them look a certain way, and if you seem to take the same steps over and over, you can record the steps as an action, open a photo, press one button and a dozen or so steps can play out right before your eyes!

Of course, I downloaded nearly every free action I can find, so I have been playing with them all, and all my pics now look WAY over processed, and likely will for awhile until the fun of new actions wears off and I go back to a more natural look.

So, anyway, where was I? Ah, yes, the night before Christmas. Christmas Eve! We tried to gather the three kids beneath the tree right before bed, just after baths. We even plied them with ginger snaps and sugar plums. This was the best picture out of 4,237. And it shows why I hate flash photography.

Then we tossed the babies placed our sweet angels lovingly into their snug little beds. It was time to get ready for Santa! So, we read Santa's blog one more time, saw he was in South America and heading north, and that he wanted carrots placed out for the reindeer as well as cookies in every home for himself, the tubby little elf!

So, we got Santa a few cookies, picked out a green plate for Santa and a red bowl for reindeer carrots, because they were Christmas colors, and Noah poured the milk by himself down there on the floor and placed them all on the hearth. Then, we moved the out-of-reach stockings and hung them by the chimney with care.

Lastly, we cleaned the living room of toys, so that Santa wouldn't be appalled with how we sometimes live, and we headed upstairs for a long winter's nap.

I read Noah the Night Before Christmas story, and stopped repeatedly to explain things like kerchiefs, and sashes, "stirring", and "wondering eyes". Kinda ruined the flow, but what can you do?

Then Daddy and I drifted off in bed for a little while before waking and heading downstairs to place our presents to the kids under the tree, but would you believe Santa had come and gone already?? There were only crumbs left on the cookie plate, and there were a few toys scattered around the tree.

Santa had even left Noah an unwrapped Razor scooter and six little Nutcracker soldiers. Noah has been so taken with nutcrackers the last two Christmases, we knew he would love having a few of his own. Santa is so smart.

The stockings were stuffed, too (some much more than others) and all was well.

Michael and I sat ourselves under the tree around midnight and set up the camera to take a couple pictures of ourselves in our rarely quiet home.

It was so much fun, seeing the magic through a child's eyes who was finally old enough to really understand what magical things were about to happen in his very own home that night, and really believe. Its going to be triply fun in a couple more years, I believe.

And probably triply expensive.

But what the hell? It was so worth it!