After the Rain

Wow! It rained all day yesterday and it felt wonderful and Wintery. And then today was sparkling and bright so Annie and I took lunch and warm drinks to the beach. Ahhh! It was so bright and pretty, for about an hour, then it turned bitter cold so we had to roll up in our beach blanket and snuggle. I was hoping to get a beach picture that could be used for our holiday card, but nothing is really screaming out at me. These four are the best. Do you vote for any of them?

Yesterday the Homeschooler Craft Fair went really well! Annie almost sold out of her watercolor cards and I sold stuff too. We'll definitely do it again next year. I was pleased that the soup I made for the soup sale was one of the first to sell out! Yeah! I am feeling much gratitude for the homeschool mom's who work hard at organizing the many wonderful events here in the Bay Area. I'm glad to be a part of it all!

Chinese Brush Work

Here are some samples of characters and animals Annie has been practicing. There is a character for Ann, one for tiger, and the rest, I don't know.

Greeting Cards

Annie and I are selling our wares at the homeschool craft faire and these are some of the greeting cards she has made. She use salt and watercolors. Part of the proceeds go to support the Berkeley Women Homeless Drop-in Center. We're also donating a big pot of turkey soup we made and froze after Thanksgiving.

On the Ice

Annie has dreamed of ice skating, so we finally went and she is starting to get the hang of it. It feels scary to be on such a slick surface with thin metal blades because you get going fast very quickly and you need a lot of strength and balance. We are working on it.
She wore her "cat spirit" hat (from Northern China) to help her with her bravery and balance. And to keep her warm!

Thanks Mr. President

Annie received a response to the letter she sent President Bush. He didn't address her concerns about the war, or the environment. He did enclosed a photo though.

metamorphasis

First they came as small caterpillars, that climbed to the top of their jars,
then they each created a chrysalis around their bodies, and started to transform themselves,
then they hatched into Painted Lady Butterflies which we enjoyed for a few days, then released!
Annie documented the stages with these drawings.

"I Feel Christmas in My Bones"

It took most of the day, and into the night, to set up our multi-generations of ornaments, knick knacks, and treasures! This year Annie did a bunch of the decorating herself, and nearly matched me in my excitement and enthusiasm. She whistled, sang and danced around most of the day, driving us a little nuts, but mostly delighting us! We still have a few areas to finish, plus knowing us, we will keep on shifting things around until we're satisfied!

At one point Annie said "I feel Christmas in my bones!" She comes from a long line of women in my family who LOVE Christmas. My Grandmother and my Mother would have been so proud. I am.

So far we/I have plans to;

Go ice skating today!
Annie and I are in the Homeschool Craft Fair
Have a kids holiday party
Have a neighborhood, more grown up get together
Annie wants to go visit Santa
The Meyers' homeschoolers are coming to visit
Sara & Ezra are coming to visit
Grandma & Grandpa are coming to visit
Tuesday playdates with Ilana
Thursday playdates with Lily

Annie and the Earth

We had a very sweet weekend. No plans really. Just one moment to the next. Yard work, pet care, a real date, a few open houses, a little Christmas shopping and a bunch of prep for Thanksgiving. Whew! Now that I read it back, we did a lot! One thing Annie and I did was get tableware and linens out for the big dinner, and I attached a small fabric tab with each persons initials on it, to each napkin, so our guests can use the same napkin for all meals we have together over the holiday, which in our case will be four or more meals. Annie and I have been talking about the enviornment and how we all make an impact, either positive and negative. So on that note, we also found a grease pencil to mark glasses so the kids don't need a fresh one for every drink they need. We started to calculate all the resources for each new glass or new napkin for each meal and how much energy is used, human (wash, dry, put away) and earth (water, electricity, etc.). When I think of the amount of waste around Thanksgiving, I really want to be mindful about how we care for the earth!

Albany Bulb?

Right on the shoreline where Berkeley and Albany meet the ocean there is a place called the Albany Bulb. I remember it as the place where people made sculpture out of driftwood and found objects that had washed ashore. I clearly recall zooming by it from the back seat of the family car, trying to take in all that I could of this interesting "hobo" type art. Well, Bill, Annie and I went over there today for a hike and after a disturbing and creepy two hour walk around the entire area, found out the Albany Bulb is the old Albany dump. And yes, there are some wonderful, imaginative and innovative sculpture and art pieces there, but all made from, and atop, a ton of toxic garbage! Depressing amounts of broken up concrete, all kinds of batteries, hoses, sharp and dangerous metal scrap, wire, glass and I can only imagine what else. Yes, much new life has grown over the top of this teeming mass of waste; cattails, scrub brush, blackberries, pyracantha, copious amounts of fennel, and many other marsh growing plants. Despite all this growth and renewal, I felt a deep sadness seeing all of this waste so close to the water, not to mention the alarm of having Annie (and us) romp through it all. Having said all of this, I guess I'm really starved for clean, open spaces. I feel so restored and hopeful when I walk through trees, fields, beaches and wild spaces and I know I'm just mourning the many close and breathtaking spots we used to frequent in Santa Cruz. Even from our bedroom we could hear elephant seals barking on the shore. I know there are many places of beauty here in the Bay Area, now we just have to find more of them, and make them our own.

And to end on a more uplifting note, Annie collected "stuff" along our hike at the Bulb and she was insistent on creating a sculpture of her own. She called it a "Tree Shrine" and we three added to it, fully knowing that the cycle of life and trash is in each of our hands.

REDUCE

REUSE
RECYCLE

RETHINK

Mandarin Jack

Annie's Mandarin teachers keep commenting on how well her prounounciation and accent are! I hear it too. She seems to get a lot out of the class, and seems genuinely glad to be there, as compared to the majority of the class who don't seem to be there out of full choice like Annie is. I have to admit, I'm picking up some too, with all the repetition.

It was a really hot day today here in Alameda, and Annie's been wanting to have a lemonade stand since we move in three months ago, so today we finally did it! Business was bustling! Annie made almost $10, so at a quarter a glass, we were busy. We used more than a dozen lemons from our tree, and Papa and I washed a lot of glasses because Annie wanted to "care about the earth" and not use any plastic or paper. It was a great way to meet people in this town. So many people saw us and had to come back for a glass!

Spider Making

Annie had a Halloween party. We popped popcorn and made low-sugar cupcakes, and the kids helped me whip cream to plop on the tops. We played a game of Eat-the-Bat without the use of hands. Then the kids disappeared into the backyard and played fill the cooler up with weeds and add water to it a made a huge gunky mess. Whoopee! Oh yes, and we made spiders.

Matlan's

Annie loves to buy Madeline cookies at the cafe nearby. She did this drawing (top photo) and wrote out the name M-A-T-L-A-N and asked if we could make them. Took me a minute to figure out what she wanted. We hadn't made them in a while so we had a go at it. She helped me prep, measure, use the electric mixer, plus she expertly cracked each of the eggs, and licked the spoon a lot. We thought they could have baked longer since they were moist, not that dry, dunkable quality. Next time, longer. Not that that stopped any of us eating them!

On the Bay

Annie had her first sailing trip on the Monterey Bay recently. We saw 18 Moon Jellyfish, many pelicans, and learned how to walk around on a moving craft. The captain explained how the ship has a very long rudder that goes deep into the sea, and the sails catch the wind and push it along instead of a motor. She loved it!

Trylobite

Annie and Pop have been collecting rocks, fossils and anything petrified since, well, she was born. She really loves them and knows a lot about them. Here she's done a drawing of a trilobite. She saw a photo of one like she has in a dinosaur book, found hers and drew it.

Counting

Some interest in money, including coins and paper money. She's trying to understand different values. Lesser versus greater. The blocks helped.

Happy Meal? or Don't Look Vegetarians!

Annie loves to go to Chinatown and visit this one, out of the way, "fish store" where they sell live fish, turtles and frogs for eating. We were having a pleasant "embroidery" morning, *just imagine sweet classical music playing* when she asked if we could go over to Chinatown and get a fresh fish for dinner. O.K! Why not? *now can you hear the Jaws theme?* So we gussied up and drove over the bridge to Stockton and Jackson, had a light nosh of delicious dim sum near Portsmouth Square, then hoofed up the steep block to this whole-in-the-wall shop. The busy clerks pretty much ignored us, thinking we were just tourists, and helped numerous Chinese customers, which was perfectly fine with Annie, since she loves seeing who chooses what, how they kill it (right in front of you with a wooden club) and how they clean it. It also thrills Annie to no end to round up any turtle or frog that is trying to escape and return it to it respective enclosure. *imagine the thanks she getting from the animals!* So, can you guess which of God's creatures we had for dinner tonight? Look for the one that has the really scared looking expression on it's face.