Sunday with Friends

We had the Sue and Steve gang over today, in hopes we could drop the "hand-made by Steve" canoe into the lake. The weather was un-cooperative, waaay too windy, white caps, actually! So, we just ran around on the beach for a while, just long enough for everyone (except Saylor) to get wet up to their waists/shoulders! And, yes, it was chilly and windy! Kids, I tell ya! :) Didn't phase them a bit. Even when asked if they were cold, it was always a cheerful "No!" Until they really were cold, then they were guided back to the warm cars to change into dry clothes. There was a couple there with their kayaks and the gentlemen offered his kayak to Steve for a quick run out onto the lake, and he jumped at it! He' s water lover, and has made several vessels himself, including a sailboat. Cool guy!

We came back to the bus where the kids ran around outside and played some, and spent a little time watching cartoons back on the big bed, while the moms and dads kicked back and enjoyed some always wonderful conversation.

We headed in opposite directions to attend our UU service, us in Temecula, them in Riverside. Saylor and I were in the program for the Sunday, he lit the chalice and I read the opening words; a beautiful quote by MLK:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness
Only Light can do that...
Hate cannot drive out hate
Only Love can do that...

The entire service was about love and it was beautiful.

Then, we all met back here at the bus and visited for a couple more hours to finish out the day. It was nice and relaxing and I had to chuckle thinking of 9 bodies being in this little space, and everyone just fitting right in with no trouble! Very peaceful and relaxing...

Looks like a Goodie!

This magazine just popped into my life today! It looks wonderful, check it out!

1 Year

It was 1 year ago, today, that the girl with the most unforgettable eyes would leave us all behind. I've been waking in the night with Hannah and her family in my thoughts and in my heart, where they always are. Diana has been such an amazing voice to Grief and Joy and Possibility and things we don't want to think or feel, but know we must. I thank her for taking me on this journey. I thank Hannah for putting up with crazy girls surrounding her, rubbing her feet and singing Bob Marley's Three Little Birds...all the while hoping with every ounce of our being that she would just open her eyes. The Strength I saw from Diana on that night, and every day since then is sometimes so hard for me to fathom. Whew...anyway...I love you Hannah! I love you Hayden! I love you Diana! Thank you all for being a part of this Wild Tribe..............

*You* are *Love*

Got this from a friend, thought it was nice and wanted to send it along...

Enjoy, and Remember...

You Are Love!


It ties in nicely with the Law of Attraction and The Secret. I've been thinking a whole lot about the LoA lately. It always seems to be coursing through my thoughts, obviously meant to be there. Oprah had a panel on last week discussing it, and she's having a follow up show tomorrow, as well. I just watched last weeks show today. I know the power of it is real, absolutely. I've seen it work in my very own life, for the positive and otherwise...sigh... BUT, with awareness and clarity of what it is I want for my life, it's easy to remember to shift my focus in those moments of dwelling on what I *don't* want. Instead, I release that worry/doubt/fear and send positive thoughts and feelings to what it is I *do* want. Magical stuff, I tell ya! (but not really magic, since there is science behind it!)

River has been spending the last few nights with us, or at least until Scott returns home from work in the wee hours. Heather flew back home to pick up their vehicle, and should return tomorrow. River is missing his mommy for sure! So, at this very moment, Stone, Sage and River are sleeping on the back bed, and Saylor is snoozing here beside me. WHAT? Everyone sleeping at this early hour! ;) Yep, I think the baths they all had this evening put the zonk into them! Everyone but Saylor was sleeping by 10:00, so I did a quick tidy job of the bus, finished up the last of the dinner dishes and stowed everything away for the night.

The midwifery legislation was defeated yet again this year...BUT...(see, shifting my focus to what it is I want and *feeeeeling* it happen ;) we've all got a list of things we can do to stay active on this issue throughout the year, so they don't forget about us when next January rolls around! There were 2 bills introduced this year, one for CNM's (certified nurse midwives) and one for CPM's (certified professional midwives). The CNM bill was moved to the 41st day, so didn't make it out of committee, and the CPM bill was defeated in the House. So, we just keep on keepin' on! Change will come, I'm sure of it!

And, since all my sweet boys are off to sleep so early, it also means an early rise, so I'm saying goodnight! (FYI, our laptop is still set for RC time, so when you see the time posted, it's really an hour earlier here...I'm not that much of a night owl, and why I thought I needed to explain that????uh???hmm??? not sure!)

Say Good-bye to SHOULD! --what a weird word, anyway!

THE DAILY GROOVE ~ by Scott Noelle
www.enjoyparenting.com/dailygroove

:: You "Should" Follow Your Bliss! ::

Imagine a world with no shame and blame -- where
it's impossible to be "bad."

Imagine a world where people can stumble, make
mistakes, and sometimes even hurt each other, but
they are never deemed "wrong."

Errors are noticed, and course-corrections are made,
but blame and shame never enter the picture.

In this imaginary world, the word *should* is
obsolete. Think about it: the force behind any
"should" is almost always fear of being judged
(which includes self-judgment).

So, in our shame- and blame-free world, "should" has
no teeth, and you're free to follow your bliss.

Fortunately, the things that *really* matter to you --
like contributing to your children's well-being --
feel blissful when you do them, so you *want* to do
them. No "shoulding" is required.

Today, pretend your world is free of blame and
shame, so you have no reason ever to "should on
yourself." :-) Start following your bliss and soon
you won't be pretending anymore.

http://dailygroove.net/follow-your-bliss

Feel free to forward this message to your friends!

Wild Animals and Valentines

Just a quickie of a post about our last couple of days. We went to the Wild Animal Park with Sue, Steve and kids on Tuesday. Spent a good part of the day there, and saw everything there was to see and more! The weather was perfectly cool, so the animals were out and playing and happy. The humans did well, too! Each of our boys got a little treasure from the gift shop (uggh, as much as I don't like gift shops, but as a non-profit, I can hope our money went to something worthwhile!) I have pictures of the day, but they are on the camera, and the camera is on the dashboard of the Suburban and the Suburban is parked in John's work yard...you get the picture! I'll post some soon!

And for today, Valentine's Day, I put together a little scavenger hunt for the boys. They discovered all of their little goodies; some candy, some chocolate, some little toysie kinds of things. John even had a special Buddha waiting for him at the final destination. He loves it, and so do I. He's perched Wisely upon our little altar (aka: dashboard) with the special rock Rebecca gave me when we headed West and a candle holder my sister gave me a few years back that says 'believe, dream, celebrate'. John's been reading _What Would Buddha Do_ (thanks Sue!) so when I came across this little charm, I knew it was meant to be his.

We also went to the library today and loaded up with a back-breakingly heavy bag of books and some DVD's. We had a few things around here we needed to donate, so we dropped those off to the local thrift store and found some great things while we were there, too! Of course! I picked up two books I've been wanting, actually on my list and everything! _Wherever You Go, There You Are_ by Jon Kabat Zinn and _Blessings_ by Anna Quindlen. Saylor found a lone ski pole that he thought would be the perfect hiking stick, and Stone found a little character from Brother Bear. John scored the biggest, though! While he was out unloading our stuff, someone was there ready to unload a rack that hooks onto the hitch for the back of a vehicle. He's always wanted one of those! The guy said, "Do you want this", John say, "Ah, Yeah!" and so it was.

Hope you all had a lovely, loving Valentine's Day!
XxxXXxXxxx
OooOOoOoO
(if you are a Nacho Libre fan, as we are, you'll get the significance of the upper/lower case hugs and kisses! heheheh! We **heart**jack black!)

John's 15 Minutes

This past June, John was an extra in a documentary the BBC was shooting near Rapid City. For more information about the content, you can check it out HERE! Just click on the Wild West link and read all about it!
We're looking forward to seeing it, because John even had a short line! Should be fun to see him if it wasn't edited out.

Morning Song Farm Photos

More photos from Morning Song Farm!Sage in the chicken coop, looking for eggs.

Stone making a friend!

Saylor and Maddy and feathered friend!
Mulching the potatos!

A Really Full, Fun Day!

Whew, still catching our breath here after a long day that began with me having to raise sleeping children out of bed (but they wanted me to!) We went on a field trip to an organic farm that's structured as a CSA (consumer supported agriculture). By supporting a CSA, you make a commitment to the farmer by signing up for a weekly 'basket' of fruits and veggies, whatever is being harvested at the time.

Farmer Donna did an outstanding job showing us around her most gorgeous Morning Song Farm.
The kids were able to gather macadamia nuts, throw them into a big nut cracking machine, then sort them from the shells and bad nuts. Oh, yes, and they got to eat a bunch too! One of their main crops is macadamia's. They crack them on Sundays and ship them out on Mondays. Ya don't get much fresher, organic, raw macadamias than *that*! They were so good, and really the only way to improve them would have been to cover them, of course, with some nice dark organic chocolate!

She had the kids plant some high quality heirloom seeds, the only kind Farmer Donna uses, in some little starter trays. Saylor and Stone both planted Black Beauty Eggplant. Thinking of how these seeds began, with my boys pressing them into the soil, and knowing they will end up on someones plate someday, was really something cool to envision. I wonder who will eat "their" eggplant? Then, we all made the trek down a steep, windy road where the children mulched a large heirloom potato patch. (is that what they're called? a farmer i'm not...though, this would be so much fun to do, i'd just have a whole lot to learn!) We picked kumquats, my favorite! right off the tree, saw avocados and lots of other exotic fruits that I've never heard of but would love to try. We were all able to meet her exotic chickens and llama's and hear so much great information on what it takes to operate a farm and why she chooses to do things the way she does. It was truly very inspirational and such a beautiful, peaceful place. I'm thankful I was able to see this 'side' of California. Perfectly breathtaking...

After the 2 hour field trip, we met Sue & Steve at the park, had a fast food picnic and watched the kids play for another couple of hours. And then, as if we hadn't already played our little hearts out, we went to their house for a while and enjoyed the late afternoon sun and played a few rounds of a card game, which I'm not forgetting the name of...something like Spite & Malice. (i think?) Whenever we go there, Stone just disappears with Harry and they play and play and play. We never see them, they're just off doing their thing together and playing so great. I'm happy for Stone to have this, because it's generally always been Saylor who's had the 'buddy', and Stone gets to tag along as best as he can. Now it seems the tables have turned a bit, as Maddy isn't always quite as eager to play with Saylor as Saylor is to play with her. But, there's something to be learned from this experience, so it's all good!

Now, I've got lavender in the diffuser and a sleeping babe at my side. What a way to wrap up a glorious day!

Such Extraordinary Friends

That's what I always tell people...that my friends are so far from ordinary! They're wonderful, loving, compassionate, wise and generous. We are Blessed and Grateful everyday!

Today, Saylor received the "MOST COOLEST EVER" package from his best buddy back in Rapid City! Well, really, they are all of our best buddies. There's the mama, whom I love dearly, and then there's the 3 boys, whom we all love dearly!

Thank you Kendra, Cole, Zachary, and Luke (and Dic!) for the funnest package ever! There were beautiful pictures colored by each of the boys for each of our boys, handcrafted necklaces, a special nature book for Stone, a shirt for Sage, a sweet hand-made-by-my-special-friend mini notebook for me, a Flat Stanley book, lots of beautiful pictures of them all, some ponderosa pine seeds to plant...and finally, since it was intended as Saylor's birthday package, a rockin' hot shirt and a fun tv/dvd Over the Hedge game that we've already played and love!

Here are a few pictures of all of the fun stuff. Saylor has on his new shirt that Cole picked out for him (excellent choice, Cole!) and you'll notice Sage's necklace made by Luke, and Stone is holding his beloved book which he's enjoying very much, as well as the special card that Zach made for him.

The package itself was almost too precious to open! It was *PLASTERED* front, back and sides with all sorts of pictures of them. We're going to hang it on the wall for a while! What a wonderful idea!

Thank you dear friends! You made us all smile today and brought a whole lot of loving friend energy into our groovy little bus! Ahhh, happy hearts and good friends, the best things in life!

This NEVER Happens...

That Sage falls asleep all by himself! He was watching The Wild; something he requests to do many times a day. He loves it. He doesn't watch the whole thing every time, but just loves to say "wan watch the wild". So, we put it in, and he watches it until something more exciting comes along, usually just a few minutes. So, this evening before John left for work, he got him all set up and I was cleaning up the kitchen and looked back, and there he was, my sleeping little angel!

We went to the sports day today; a weekly event organized around a particular sport, baseball right now. Our boys chose instead to play at the playground and found some others who were doing the same; soon they were all off and using the walkie-talkies and having a good time.
Naturally, Saylor wanted a couple of friends to come home with us, so we made quick on the spot plans to have dinner with them.

Sean and his 12 year-old twins, Dakota(g) and Zach(b), came over and we cooked up some brats and other goodies. Heather joined us and fixed a plate to take back for Scott who was napping with River.

Before, during and after dinner, the kids rode bikes, played flashlight tag and did lots of other running around together. Stone and Saylor (Sage, too!) really enjoy hanging out with Dakota and Zach, and they are both so great with the boys! They're sweet, and patient and genuinely enjoy playing with our guys! So very cool! They are just the sweetest kids! Evidently, all that excitement was the catalyst for Sage conking out without being attached to me.

After John left for work, Heather and River came over to watch the Wife Swap I'd recorded from Monday. I knew Heather would be interested because one of the wives was Pagan who worshipped the Earth Mother, and the other family was heavy into motocross. It was an interesting show, but we seemed to have more fun watching River eat popcorn by the handfuls and try his hand at drinking out of a real glass for the first time! Too cute! :)

Then...just as they were leaving, here comes John walking in! Huh? Well, they got 'fogged out' and couldn't work tonight. He will get paid for 4 hours, and now he's cozied up on the couch watching Jewel of the Nile. Good for him, he deserves it.

We're thinking of going swimming tomorrow over in Temecula at the recreation center. Stone's been jonesing for some swim time, and since it's an outdoor pool (heated) we'd rather go on a day that's leaning towards warm. Should be fun!

Running Through the Sprinkler!

It was a gorgeous day here on Sunday, actually, it's been in the mid 8o's for the past several days. So, on Sunday, we ran through the sprinkler! It was fun, and Stone was the wettest of us all. I've got some nudey pics of Sage, but didn't think they were prudent to publish for the world to see! I'm sure he'll thank me for that someday, too!

Friday 2/2/07

We had a nice time with Sue, Steve, Maddy and Harry yesterday. Upon arriving, Saylor caught a lizard that was sunning itself on the south wall of their house. He admired it for a while, and then returned it. I had to 'bribe' him with a promise of going to look at and probably buy he and Stone lizards today. My sister and I had newts when we were younger and they were fun to have. One of ours escaped it's little home and I found its skeleton months later in the laundry room and felt so bad about that. At least here, if they do escape, they'll hopefully just join the other lizards of California and have a happy life in the wild!

We made 6 loaves of zucchini bread while we were there and got to bring a couple home with us. Well, actually Sue and Maddy did most of the 'making', but I did put them in the oven and watch the timing for the baking, as Sue had to leave for a bit to meet a client for a massage. Aside from making the occasional pouch of cookies, we haven't done much baking, so what a treat to have some delicious and very healthy zucchini bread! Yummy!!!

Steve and John helped the kids make oars to be used with the canoe that they are hoping to bring along with them when they come here for a visit again. While we waited for the coals to get hot for the burgers and dogs, we had an impromptu drum circle. It's always amazing how beautiful and musical it really ends up sounding!

Of course the kids each exhausted a pair of pants during their creek play of floating boats and watching lizards (plastic ones) bob down the way. It's the perfect water play, because the creek itself is only about ankle deep, maybe a bit more, when the kids stand in it. Helps to subside the fears of having someone 'swept away', the danger just isn't there, so instead, they get uninhibited creek time!

We got home just in time for John to brew up his coffee and head to work. The boys and I read for awhile, then Stone wanted to write, so we all got out papers, pens and markers and wrote and drew pictures together. Stone drew a sad face with blue tears coming from his eyes and said that's how he was feeling. ....BECAUSE...he and Sage had an unfortunate head dive off of the chair and onto the floor. They were playing and laughing, and they were both in the chair, and Stone tried to pick Sage up, but then lost his balance and I looked up from watching Saylor play with the calculator, to see them both heading for the floor. They were both crying, and I did my best to scoop them both up, Saylor helped. Stone felt soooo bad that he "couldn't protect Sage and keep him safe". I hugged him and loved him and assured him that it was ok...accidents happen...

Saylor made eggs for he and his brothers while I made hot chocolate for Saylor. They watched Looney Tunes for a bit while I re-e-mailed a bunch of legislators about the nurse midwife homebirth legislation. Out of the blue, Saylor asked me if people can ever run out of tears? I did my best to explain what I knew. Then, Stone and Sage were zonked and so we all headed to bed. Saylor asked me another out of the blue question about how many layers of skin we have. We'll be looking that one up today. It's fun to be alongside my boys watching them think and discover and figure things out! They're so stinkin' cool!

PUSH for South Dakota's Mama's!

This is moving along, we're all crazy busy writing to the legislators and making phone calls! If any of you feel so inclined...

Go to WomanKind Midwifery and there are loads of details right there on the homepage, with a simple 1 click to write the legislators your very own message! And who cares if you aren't from South Dakota! I think it'd be groovy for them to know that others are watching!

Home Birth is Safe and Beautiful...Every Woman Deserves this Option!

And as it stands now, SD is blatantly saying NO, and that's not cool. This has got to change.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for those who take a couple seconds to shoot out an inspiring message to the folks in Pierre! :)

Pretty Day

It was a pretty day here, though it was a little overcast and cool. I guess I thought it was pretty, because everything flowed well, people were happy, stuff got accomplished and all that good jazz.

I woke up to Max's tail thump thumping, his cue that he's ready to go outside and whiz. So...after I realized John wasn't budging, I got up and let him out. Then, had a cup of coffee, checked e-mail then Sage awoke. He and I went for a walk around the campground, the WHOLE campground, and he walked the entire time. We visited with Nile and Linda, our camp hosts, saw a cat which was quite nervous because of Max so went up a tree. Sage thought that was pretty great!

Then, back at the bus for another cup-o-joe. Stone was awake, and John joined me for a cup and we had a few minutes to chat. Saylor slept way in today, until 11:00! Wowzer...although, it was 12:45 last night when we were brushing and prepping for bed...YIKES!

I made big deli looking beautiful sandwiches for lunch, then Sage, Stone and I loaded up all of our bedding and went to wash it. While it washed, they watched a Dr. Seuss video in the car, and I read Free At Last, a book about the Sudbury Valley School in Framingham, Mass. I'm not reading it in its entirety, just choosing the chapters that interest me. Very cool, though. And while our bedding dried, we slid on over to a little mexican bakery that's nearby the laundromat and got some yummy pastries to nibble on. Stone commented on how everyone in there "speaks Spanish because they don't know how to speak English". Weeelll, I say, that's not necessarily true because the lady that helped us spoke English just fine. So then he deducts that they speak Spanish to each other and people who know how to speak it and then speak English to those of us who can't speak Spanish. Yep, that's about how it goes!

When we got back to the bus, Stone and I played some tennis. Sage was outside with us, but he was playing with us and playing with his own big blue ball. John came out with cups of hot chocolate for everyone and then I snuck off for a shower. Nice, long hot shower. Oh so nice!

Then, (are you bored yet?!?) we watched the Illusionist, had left over spaghetti and John left for work. There, I wrapped it up all nice and neat for you! Heather is coming over tonight to watch Grey's Anatomy (she was here last night to watch last weeks DVR'd episode). We're planning on spending Friday with Sue and her gang.

And, that's it for now! Adios!