Snow and Bread

Butterflies, Fairies, and Peaceful Protests

There is so much excitement in the air with this upcoming inauguration. Andrew was just saying today that if John McCain had been elected this inauguration would not be half as publicized or festive. It would have just been another rich, white guy in the white house. People are excited because Obama represents the hopes of many of us who felt underrepresented in the past. And that's great. But he can't do it alone. On that note...

For those of you with a yearning to get out of your house and shake things up...there is a massive peaceful protest being planned in March in DC to put the word out about the nasty effects of coal mining. This includes such major issues as global warming and mountain top removal. Andrew and I just might do it...let us know if you're going, too. I've included a link in the post below to the Capitol Climate Action website for more info.

Here in our lives the kids could care less about politics. Crafting and dancing have been all the rave. We worked on a large butterfly mobile today and collected supplies for making little flower fairies. Ramona has become quite the prima ballerina and was doing some lovely ballet performances to the new (and wonderful) Bob Dylan album "Tell Tale Signs" tonight...she's very postmodern! She called her performances "the butterfly dance" and "the fairy dance". We've also managed to spend fun times outdoors, despite the cold front. Today we were walking through the neighborhood and stopped to watch the street maintenance crew. They dumped a load of gravel into a huge hole with a dumptruck and scraped it neatly into place with a bulldozer. Ramona loved it and said that she would bring her cousins and some of her Asheville friends to come and watch next time.

Capitol Climate Action

Homelife, Career, and ..... more?

It feels good to be home. Today felt like our first "normal"day in weeks. Andrew had class, the girls and I stayed home baking and reading books, then some friends came for dinner...ah, the good life. We did enjoy the holidays. The week before Christmas was busy with preparations for travels, visits with my family, and work. We spent most of Christmas week in Pennsylvania with Andrew's family where Ramona and Astrid had a great time playing with their six cousins. We were home long enough for me to work a couple of days and then off to Athens to stay with my parents for a few days. Then a couple of more days of work and that brings us back to the present...just where I want to be.

I was talking with a friend tonight about how difficult it is to find a balance between cultivating a meaningful lifestyle (which for me includes much baking, cooking, gardening, active time with my family, reading, and exploring the outdoors), working for a living, and maintaining an active involvement in community and civic action. Since becoming a parent I find myself reading and thinking about the changes I would like to see in my community and the world, but I just don't have as much free time to volunteer, or be part of a protest, or organize a community group. I had planned to volunteer at a non-profit health clinic, only to come to the obvious realization that I would need to pay for daycare for my children in order to go volunteer. So, I have been trying to incorporate my visions and hopes for my community and the world into my everyday life and work. Instead of driving to work in a rush and just going through the ropes, I walk there. The moon and stars are out these winter days as I leave for work at 630am and they remind me of all those reasons I wanted to be involved in women's health, the changes I hoped to make, and the support I hoped to provide. I arrive to work ready to do my basic job and hopefully a little more. One of my friends that came for dinner tonight is very involved in educating others and organizing against mountain top removal for coal mining. I am inspired by her energy and courage. She is presenting to a Yale law conference, creating school age curriculms, and planning to be part of the organized civil disobediance (protest) in DC this march. At the same time she is a mom, a full-time graduate student, and has just moved to a new city. It feels good to find a friend that inspires me to not stand back and hope, but to actively work with others to create a change. On that note, I feel very hopeful about our next years as a country under the new guidance of our President Elect, Barack Obama!

Happy Holidays!

We have been busy with holidays, final exams, work, and on-going house renovations and I feel like there is quite a bit of catching up to do here on our blog.

We are moving Astrid and Ramona into a different bedroom that has more windows. We talked to Ramona about the move and she requested that their new bedroom be "sparkly princess pink." I told her that we were planning on painting it yellow. So, she said, "Can it be princess yellow?" Of course!

I am proud to announce that Astrid is going to bed so much easier now. We decided to "train" her to go to sleep on her own, rather than holding her until she was asleep and then putting her into bed. And it worked!

We have been reading Ramona "The Wizard of Oz" at bed time. It's her first big kid book, with only a picture on every other page and lots of words, and chapters. She seems to be enjoying it. I had never read "The Wizard of Oz", only seen the movie, and there are some differences. For example, Dorothy's shoes are not red, they are silver. Nevertheless, Ramona will wear nothing but her red sparkly shoes that Mumsey gave her.

Andrew and I have been daydreaming lately about moving to Hanover, New Hampshire. There is an ornithologist there at Dartmouth that studies the effects of global warming on migratory songbirds, which is exactly what Andrew would like to study if he enters a PhD program. The state of New Hampshire is also a great place to study and practice as a midwife legally and socially. I think about 25% of pregnant women give birth with a midwife there and homebirth midwifes have a lot of freedom in their practice. So, we've been daydreaming, even though we would be very sad to leave the close proximity to my family. Guess we'll just have to see where the wind blows us. In the mean time we'll be here in Johnson City for another year and a half while Andrew finishes his graduate degree.

Andrew finished his finals about a week ago with straight A's and is now on break through the second week of January. So, he's been spending lots of time with the kids, feeding the ducks, baking cookies, swimming, taking walks, and going to get treats at the store. I'll have to admit, he seems to get so much more done than I do when I am home all day with the kids. I get home from work at 730pm and he has the kids asleep, dinner made, the house clean, errands run, a batch of homemade cookies, and stories of what fun things the kids did that day.

We spent Thanksgiving with my family here at our house and had a wonderful time.

My sister and parents spent the night, we played at our favorite park, ate a little roasted chicken and some other yummy food, watched a very cool documentary on Andy Goldsworthy called Rivers and Tides, and just enjoyed hanging out together.

Ramona made this artwork titled "I Am Thankful".

Here's a little close up of "At the playground with Grandpa sliding down the twisty slide"
and "strawberry ice cream" and "jumping on the couch"
We will be spending Christmas in Fenelton, PA with Andrew's family out in the country. Ramona loves getting together with her cousins and has been talking about this visit for months. I think there may even be a surprise visit from Santa Claus and Mrs.Claus when we're there! Andrew and I have been looking forward to this visit, too, and can't wait to see all of his family and celebrate the holidays with them.

I hope that all of you are have safe and happy holidays with your loved ones!

Happy Birthday, Ramona!

Ramona turned 4 years old on December 6th. She is sure that everything about her is larger now, even her teeth. She had four friends over for a dress-up birthday party. There were, of course, presents, cake, games, and lots of running around and laughing. That night Ramona got to stay up late and get all dressed up to see a ballet performance of "A Christmas Carol" with her Mumsey (my mom) and me. I think it was a wonderful birthday!

Late November Snow

Waking up to snow is so peaceful and lovely. We were in the midst of falling leaves and now they are all raked away and snow is in their place. It happens so quickly...just as I'm finding this peaceful and lovely and (and sometimes maddening) time of life with our children is passing so quickly. Astrid began walking yesterday and Ramona is turning 4 years old in a couple of weeks. She still asks us to carry her and we complain, but we love having her so close, her head on our shoulder and cheek.

Here are some images from our week of hiking, baking, and greeting the snow and here's the link to a song by Ferron that I love, called Girl on a Road.