Serendipity

Our morning view in North Carolina

Alright, I'm sure you're wondering if I was on overdrive at the conference or something, what with the pictures of my over-stuffed van, new blog posts appearing every day, culminating in photos of me plucking feathers off a dead chicken. If it makes you feel any better, I'm wondering what's up with me, too. And if I find out, I'll be sure to let you know.

Here are the facts:

1. The over-stuffed van was from our camping trip to Jesus-Land the Cornerstone Festival. Our van was NOT that full on our way to NC. I repeat - Jonathan did NOT have to breathe through plastic tubing because he was buried under 115 lb. suitcases. This time.


2. I wrote all those blog posts before leaving for our trip, and scheduled them to post one each day. I repeat - I was blogging when I should have been packing.


3. My sister - aka the President of the Corporation (ya ya) - made me pluck feathers off dead chickens. Alright, so she didn't make me; but you know how it is, when someone uses that tone of voice that says something entirely different from the actual words they're speaking? "We're having a plucking party. You don't have to come, but you're invited. There's a lot of work to be done. But only if you want. Feel free to come on over. If you can." I read ya, I read ya.


4. I've finally quelled my gag reflex, and no, the food at the conference didn't help any.

So we're back from our kick-*ss road trip to North Carolina. The drive was beeeeautiful - Jonathan exclaimed, more than once, "I want to LIVE in Tennessee!" - and the conference was... well... life-changing. But if you're going to ask us what Asheville, NC is like, don't bother; we just whizzed right on by. We've traveled a lot this summer and we're .flat.broke. so we didn't build in any extra vacation time on the front or back of the trip like we usually do. I didn't think it was the end of the world.... until....

The author of one of my all-time favorite blogs, 37 days, recently published a book titled Life is a Verb. The premise of her blog and book is answering the question, "What would you be doing today if you only had 37 days to live?" as that's what happened to her step-father - he died 37 days after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

She did a count-down to her book's publication, publishing one reader essay on her blog each day for 37 days. She chose my essay for.... Day One! The final day of the count-down! I was beyond flattered.

But here's a nasty little rub... the author lives in Asheville, North Carolina...!!!! I could've stalked met her! AND, I could've shown up unannounced met her on the day my essay came out! How cool would that have been? All the way cool! Alas, I didn't even know I was within miles of her home until I returned. Rats rats double-rats!

Ah well, the news came at just the right moment. I was wallowing in post-conference pity, that I was no longer surrounded by vibrant unschoolers and was back in, well, a cornfield. (I know, I know) I was having one of those "I look fat in all my photos" kind of moments when I opened the email from Patti, telling me to take a look-see.

Ah, I love the way the universe works! Nothing like a good ol' dope slap upside the head!

Go get yourself one of Patti's books. Your life depends on it. Yes, really. Now Go!

Weigh In, Would Ya?

My sister has a farm question for y'all, and as the secretary of the corporation ('Madame Secretary' will do), I'm doing my part to collect some informacion. So hop on over there and weigh in, would you?

If the answers are favorable, you just might get to see me doing a lot more of this:

And this

And even see Jonathan doing a bit more of this:

And if you're really lucky, and you ask nicely...

I might even do it on roller skates, like my niece.

When I Wasn't Looking

Speaking of wood, could someone please tell me when my son got old enough to do this?

It's Not What It Seems

Not Klu Kl*x Klan in training.

Just laundry.

Bonfire Wars

We've embarked on a project this week that we lovingly dubbed, "Burning the Crap."


Eloquent, I know.

You see, we have a woodburning stove and we heat our house with it all winter. Which means we spend all summer building up our stockpile of wood. The kids love helping to build the stockpile of wood. Ok, no they don't. But along with lots of good wood, we tend to collect the occasional bad hunk of wood in our firewood forays. These logs are known as "crap." So for the past several nights we've had big ol' bonfires to use up the "crap."

Rob was working on a pile of "crap" back yonder there. Wait, that didn't come out right. Wait, that didn't either! (Oh, you saucy little double entendres!)

Anyhow, Jonathan wasn't content to let Rob have all the fun. He decided to build a fire of his own.



Listen, I live in a house of boys. Anything can be turned into a competition: eating, running, racing from driveway to house, passing gas, and burping, (I win the burping competitions. Ahem.) just to name a few. And now, fire-building.

Look at the concentration on Rob's face. "Jonathan is soooo going down. My fire is bigger."

But Jonathan was on a mission. "I will not stop until my fire is bigger than Dad's."

He scouted the piles for the biggest pieces of crap he could find and lugged them over to his fire pit.

He did this over

And over againOnly resting occasionally to admire his handiwork and take a swig of his soda. Then it was back to work.I would've helped, but I was busy doing two things.

This

And this.

What finally tipped the scales in Jonathan's favor, however, was the addition of this door, which fell off the chicken coop the other day.

It was so hot, Jonathan could no longer get near enough to add more wood. Success!

And we have that much less crap sitting around. And if you ask me, the less crap, the better. Don't you think?

Bad Wife

There's something I forgot to tell you. I'm a bad wife. Well, that's not what I wanted to tell you. That's my lowly opinion of myself after forgetting to tell you something. See number 7812 there? That's my husband. My main squeeze. My consort. The yin to my yang. (Or is he the yang to my yin?) The bacon to my eggs. Ahem.

He ran the 1/4 marathon in Madison, Wisconsin a few days weeks oh hell months ago. And I didn't blog it.
Do you see him? Because I don't. He's in there somewhere. Oh wait - no he's not. He's there, in the long line for the porta-potty. The bucky. The loo. The stink tank. The one-holer. The sh*tter. Ahem.

Hurry, honey! The race is about to start!

He was registered to do the 1/2 marathon, but because of a little thing called a ruptured disc, he opted instead for the 1/4 marathon. Only 6.55 miles or so. A stroll. A walk in the park. A wee minor jaunt. (I'll stop.)

And if forgetting to blog about it wasn't enough - how's this: It took longer for the kids and me to find a coffee joint, grab a cuppa, and find the finish line than for him to finish the bloody race. I'm sure it was a great finish, honey! I'm sure you looked strong at the end! I'm sure it was very, very exciting!

If only we'd seen it.

Don't feel too badly honey - I missed the end of Jonathan's duathlon, too! Does that make you feel better?

No?

Oh.

Does apologizing in front of my readers reader help? Because I'm really really sorry. And we're proud of you! And I'll start working on my coffee-fetching time right away. I'm sure I can shave off a few seconds if I start training now and work really hard.

Ahem.

Cringe-Worthy Post

We saved this spider from death-by-pyre yesterday.

Even though he caused a full-body shudder to overtake us from head to toe - several times - we saved him. We felt badly that he'd built his beautiful web right above the pile of old wood that was destined to become our bonfire.

But seriously, I can barely look at these photos.

Can you view these pictures without cringing?

If you can, you're stronger than me.

*shudder*

Abundance

What garden goodies are gracing your dinner plates?

Live & Learn or Bust!

We're going to the Live & Learn Conference in Black Mountain, North Carolina! WooHOO! We leave tomorrow at 4am (thinks Rob).

I should be packing!

I should be printing directions!

I should be painting "Schools are for FISH" on my van windows!

Naturally, I'm blogging instead.

I work well under last minute pressure.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.