a little too much fun lately

well, first of all, one thing that happened since i last blogged was this:i took that picture of my tv...nice huh?...i loved watching the whole inauguration!!

okay, we must really get a little rest at some point!! just wanted to share glimpses of the fun we've been having with friends. one day i'll post those deep, inside my head, thoughtful posts again. but for now, i'm too tired!!!!

as always, there is a lot of fun with our local tribe:

and some playing in an unexpected dumping of snow:

these were taken the night we got back from my nephew's 3rd birthday party in knoxville (i forgot my camera!!). there was about an inch when we left and none in knoxville. by the time we got home, there was a ton of snow on the ground!!

and some boxing on the wii:

we went to the lovejoys' house last weekend for cameron's 21st birthday party. it was really wonderful seeing so many of our new unschooling friends there! it is always a warm and loving time at their house. a slideshow is needed for that adventure: (run mouse over pix to stop slideshow and to see captions)

the day after returning from columbia, we had some visitors up from alabama...the aycocks!! they arrived just as i was finishing up rearranging all the furniture, i could not be stopped!! an impromptu potluck and lots of laughing and conversation and video games...a perfect evening!! worthy of a slideshow too:

the past 2 days have been spent doing "NOTHING" but watching videos and resting, the boys creating steampunk thingamajigs (here's one on samuel's flickr)...and eating, lots of eating!! and reading and playing with, and me trying to fix, nerf guns. and more eating. tonight we will break our hiatus by going to ren's house for a much needed and missed imagination tribe gathering.

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the chocolates came to town

we had a wonderful surprise visit from the traaseth family yesterday. they were up this way to pick up abbi and decided to look at some houses in the jc area...oooh, maybe one day we will entice them to join our east tennessee tribe (i.e. cult)!!!! i had the most fun though because while the other adults were out looking at boring houses in the freezing cold (and scotty & ren were headed off to work), i was hanging out with a bunch of amazing kids!!! later, jess came by with tyler and aleah to hang out too. when everyone (everyone being kelli, tim, bleu, and austin) was back from looking at houses, we fixed dinner and talked awhile longer before they headed back to georgia (but we kept kyra...mwahahaha...to be returned safely to them next weekend at the lovejoys' house). ren, bleu, jess, and austin hung out with me for a little longer before heading out too. sadie, sierra and kyra had planned a sleep over at ren's but sadie wasn't sure if she would be able to stay all night. she worried she would wake up and want to come home. so we decided to just move the party to ren's house for a little while to see if sadie would either stay or go when the rest of us went home for the night. she decided to come home. good choice because she started sneezing and blowing her nose soon after getting home, not feeling well still.

it was a really beautiful, love-filled day. one of my favorite moments was when scotty and i were talking in the kitchen and all the kids were in the living room around the computer singing at the top of their lungs and completely in sync with one another...a jazon mraz song...and it was so awesome!! i just smiled at scotty, so filled with how much they all just loved being together and having fun. scotty said, "and imagine they might all move here!!" i said to him "you do realize there is only 1 child out there that doesn't live here already?!"...we just laughed, sometimes we forget the huge community that we are now a part of.

and now for the slide show!!! E.N.J.O.Y.

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radio stars

yesterday, ren and i did a radio interview. we had a lot of fun together answering questions, laughing, and learning how the speaker function works on my phone!! we talked about imagination tribe, the radical unschoolers network, our friendship, and a few other unexpected things =). we also discussed ren's book she has been working on for a few years now which she recently asked me to illustrate. we hope to have that together sometime this fall. you can listen to the interview on blog talk radio. afterwards we went to lunch together, something we have never done. i haven't done anything without the kids in a very very very long time, so it was nice and relaxing.

ren and i at atlanta bread company...yum!

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the fun week that ended in a cloud pajamas and rainbow colored body art sleepover

we have been having a fun week hanging out with taylor and karina while austin is out of town on business (i.e. not having as much fun as us!). monday, we went SHOPPING at petsmart, gamestop and then wal-mart...i don't think i've ever spent so much time at any of these places when i had such small lists. kids can have fun ANYWHERE apparently!!! i have to admit it was fun for me too because i played a wii game at gamestop that had me totally hooked (i'm not much into video games really but when i do find one i like, well the children go hungry and the house uncleaned). yesterday, we spent the afternoon at the mall, visiting with ren in the food court and at the mac counter (the girls had her do their make up). then the kids figured out some crazy way to play hide-and-seek...all over the mall...crazy i said!! last night sierra joined us for the night as well and they all put on their matching pajamas (the girls i mean...LOL). we also did some really fun sharpie marker tattoos which we've been debating whether or not is safe and doing some internet searches on it. apparently you shouldn't use it on your skin. hmmm. so we're looking for other markers to use. but in the meantime, i haven't exactly been convinced that it is any worse than some of the stuff we find in our food or air. and we can't forget all the fun playing on the wii..........weeee!! here are some fun pix:


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have you heard about the CPSIA??

since i don't sell items for children, i guess this one went under my radar. but now that i've found it i want to spread the word. i'm not so good with the words when it comes to legal schmegal stuff so i'm gonna leave it to one of the best posts with helpful links that i've found so far:

http://www.5minutesformom.com/5127/cpsia/

help out any way you can, there are lots of links to get you where you need to be, at least sign the easy easy easy petition here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/economicimpactsofCPSIA/index.html

click the bear button below for even more details and links (and add this button to your blog or website by pasting in the code from this link):
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the holidays are over!!!!!!!

i woke this morning to the sound of the loudest and longest thunder clap i think i have ever heard in my life. i thought "well, i'm awake now. i might as well update my blog!" LOL, no!!! that is not what i thought...but it IS what i'm going to do!

i'm so relieved to finally have a few days of simple quiet. it's been a busy busy holiday season for us this year. if i thought our thanksgiving weekend was wild, i was sadly mistaken. it was the solstice/christmas/new year that was wild!! we started out with our homeschooling group making christmas crafts and hanging out talking and laughing and eventually heading to austin's house afterwards where i made 2 big pots of vegetable stew and got to hang with alice, rachel, and jake awhile. on the 20th, after samuel spent the afternoon at the comic shop drawing and meeting other local artists again, we drove down to columbia for a wonderful weekend spent at ben and kelly lovejoy's place for a house concert with danny schmidt and carrie elkin. their music is amazing and soul-satisfying...the stories they weave are rich with intensity and life. and their voices, well you'll just have to go listen. the kids had a great time with their friends and i had a chance to get to know my fellow unschooling moms a little better...and of course learned so much from them. like that going swimming in a freezing pool is really okay, really, it is OKAY!! thanks for the perspective kelli!! there was not a lot of sleeping that went on. too much excitement for that. i think silas was up for almost 36 hours or more straight (mostly playing "halo" i think) before he just crashed! we were supposed to go to the zoo for christmas lights sunday night but the kids were so tired they did not want to go anymore and so we went for ice cream instead on probably one of the coldest nights ever. you've never seen such a fun and full marble slab with all of us unschoolers in there making merriment. oh and i almost forget to mention the sasuke costume that kelly gave to silas...he was sooo excited about it that he even wore it to austin's christmas eve party thinking we were going to a halloween party, he was getting in the car when he suddenly realized it wasn't halloween but decided to wear it anyway. thanks kelly, he just loves it!!!

we spent christmas eve and christmas day with friends (oh you know who you are!) and then headed to my parents' house for christmas supper and presents. my family pooled together to get us a group gift this year...the wii. the kids had known about it already because we had been planning it ourselves until my mom and sisters decided they wanted to get it for us instead. so they've been busy with the wii ever since christmas so there hasn't been much tv watching going on. they really like making miis. especially of famous people and political figures. they've made miis of the clintons, micheal jackson and some others i can't even remember right now. they are hilarious. i find myself wondering about this avatar making thing. it's always fun to find a site that you can make one on, meez, gaia, yahoo...what is it about making a cartoon of yourself that is so fun?? i also wonder if someone else might be able to make a better one of you than you can. i'm going to test the idea today. i think maybe we'll make miis of each other and see if they look more like us than the ones we made of ourselves. if you are not confused yet, you are probably more awake than i am right now and not listening to oldies love songs, typing, and uploading pix to slide.com for your blog. oh yeah, my little sister has started giving out lottery tickets each year on christmas and this was the first year anyone got anything...samuel won $27 and sadie won $2!! samuel ordered art supplies! i think sadie still has her money in her purse...for a rainy day i'm sure. i also have to mention here that austin got lots of really cool and colorful plastic dishes for his party...just like kelly lovejoy, because she is so very cool!! i took pictures of them to show her so that is why you will see images of dishes that make absolutely no sense...ha!!

anyway...moving right along...we spent a really nice afternoon last sunday with the gavins who took us out to the movies as a christmas gift. we saw YES MAN. it was hilarious!! can you say "unschooling"...yep, it reminded me of my own journey towards YES and away from NO!! karina and i both agreed that it was one to add to the library.

then there were new year's celebrations and birthdays at the allen's and the gavin's houses (happy bday taylor and trevor...woo hoo...and i forgot to mention that we celebrated rachel's birthday on christmas eve too...see i told you we were busy). and going ice skating and to the speedway in lights (thank you to deanna for our free ticket) on new year's day and freezing our asses off! and suddenly i am too tired to recount all the FUN that was had this last week (yep, there was some snark in that comment), and i don't think i even have any pictures of any of it...i seem to have stopped taking them sometime just after christmas...oh well, enjoy the 3 million pictures that i do have (there are a lot so i set it to go fast, if you want to see a picture real well just run your mouse pointer thingy over the slideshow and it will stop):

and as i was finishing this up, i noticed that the rain had stopped, the sun had come out and was shining in the window. i opened up all the blinds and it is bright and warm inside. i think there is a book calling my name...Share