IT SNOWED!

Finally, at long, l-o-n-g last we got some real snow. Okay, it was mixed with sleet at times so we only got 6 inches, but boy we've waited a long time for some fun in the snow. We had a wee bit, like 3 or 4 inches maybe about 3 weeks ago and that's it! Some winter in New England, eh?

This is our brook, just prior to the storm...it's been pretty cold here, and the brook froze solid, which has been a source of neverending explorations for Robbie. In some places it was 3" thick!

Well, now that it's snowed, I'm ready! We had a flock of Robins in the yard today, poor dears. If they are here, this means Spring is just around the corner...snow today, crocus tomorrow!!

A gift from Auntie Diana!

Oh What Fun! We got new socks from Auntie Diana in Michigan where they know from cold weatha, don'tchaknow! Aren't they spectacular? They go with all her outfits, which are not, despite rumors to the contrary, all pink. Nope, I can honestly say that she has 2 yellow outfits, one aqua green outfit, and um...oh yeah, all the rest are pink. She might still fit into her purple sweat pants, but it's doubtful since she has now topped out at 13 pounds!

Thank You Auntie Diana!! We'll have warm feet that are way stylin'!!

Wordplay, M, N, O...P?

In the interest of catching up, I'm going to post smaller entries to multiple letters...I hate leaving things undone...so here goes...

...M is for Momma, aka MumMum, and MOM-EEEE, all 3 names I have from KC, with mummum being my favorite

Man...my eldest son is a Man, while Rob is nearly a 'tween, and KC is still a wee laddie

Moon...I love the Moon, have many memories as a young tween myself, hanging out my bedroom window midsummer trying to catch a glimpse of her. My two youngest children were bathed in full moon light the night we came home (and isn't that a kewl coincidence? full moons when both kids came home?)

Mom ... my Mom, who will be gone 11 years this March, who I miss so much, but who I see manifest herself in things I do for my kids

Money...sometimes I wish we had more, but we have enough to get by and that is okay.

Modeling clay...don't you love squishing this stuff? Making up things from your head that your hands complete and voila! something exists that didn't, before

N is for..

New...new children, new day, new possibilities, new foods, new. I like new. But I also am very connected to "old" stuff, too.

Noodles...love 'em

Nancy, my beloved Aunt, my mom's sister. She was so 'hip' when I was a teen and would go up to visit her on the north shore area of Mass. I'd whine, and help work in her garden. I never realized how much she taught me about being healthy, being organic, and making a gentle footstep on this earth until I was *ahem* in my 40's! I *always* knew how cool she was, though!

Naked. I sleep this way every night, no matter how cold it gets. I only wear jammies when I am desperately ill. Naked is good.

O is for...

Oranges, which will be horridly expensive on the east coast here, but I have a new recipe for orange marmalade which I must try!

Oprah...I respect her but nearly never watch her show

Open...part of a ditty we do at children's story hour at the library, "open shut them"...which is KC's favorite rhyme

optimistic...working on that one

optometrist...yay for them, they caught Robbies glaucoma early and this early treatment will help preserve his eyesight as he ages in later life

Oven...something I could not live without long term

Olive oil...so good for you, I use it in everything.

P is for...

Provincetown, we hope to go back here again See pic at top of list for a nice P-town shot

Pie...make a good crust, I do, but I'm not a big fan of pie, myself

persnickity...I love this word! it describes me well, just ask my family!

persimmon...what the heck is this? a berry ? a fruit? a Sherwin Williams paint color?

Public...glad my job is not dealing with 'them' anymore, lol!

pubic...when my eldest first got hair there, he called it public hair which sent us into gales of laughter, poor kid!

pools...like to swim in them sometimes but prefer the ocean or a lake

pancakes...oh, yum! 'specially Swedish pancakes like my mother made

I'm Ba--aaaa--ck!

Wowsa, what a busy fall and Holiday season. Here's a major reason why Moonsinger wasn't singin' online...

This is Elisabeth, all dolled up in her "girlie" dress, courtesy of Auntie Lynne! She is 7 weeks old in this picture, and she came home to our family on 12/19/06.
It was an unexpected blessing to have a new baby in the house the week before Christmas! We'd just been told about 10 days prior that we'd likely be linked to a birthmom in the late winter or early spring 2007, when suddenly she was born and her birthmom wasn't linked to any other prospective parents. Wow! It was an adventure getting our family of 5 to Chicago in less than 24 hours, but we did it. Stayed at the Residence Inn in downtown Chicago, and we highly recommend them! The staff was wonderful and accomodated our every need.
We managed to get home after some snaffu at the airport...they would not let us on the plane because their regs stated a baby had to be 10 days old and Elisabeth was just 5 days old...so we thankfully had not yet turned in our rental van, and we went and resigned the paperwork so we could go out of state, hopped back into the van and took our new family of 6 on a 19.5 hour oddessy, driving from Chicago's Midway airport, back to central Massachusetts. We made it, obviously, despite the two older boys having a contest to see who could stay up the latest . I napped at rest areas while people had pee and coffee breaks, and actually drank a coffee myself but boy it kept me going at 3 a.m!
As I get more caught up, I'll post more pictures, but let me add one more, from our hotel room in Chicago, between the buildings that's Lake Michigan!

Wordplay, L is for...

Lambs, they truly gambol about in the spring!(this one was born at Wachusett Meadow Audubon Sanctuary, in Princeton MA in early April)
Love, the biggest L of them all...and Lee, the Love of my Life...
Lynne, my Little sister, another love...
Lights at holiday time, something I look forward to seeing but not putting up (those dratted extension cords!!)
Living room, one of the most under-utilized rooms in my home, the kitchen should really be called the living room as we spend so much time there...
Lancaster, the next town over where my son got his first job at age 20 and I'm so proud of him...
Leominster...the city I reside in, but not the place of my dreams, still not bad for a city of 45,000 residents. We have a Lovely home, and a nice yard for the kids.......
Land in Maine, where I want to retire to, someday, with a smallish house and a sewing room all my own and enough room for 2 or 3 Irish setters...
Labels...sometimes I do, sometimes I don't
Lucky...in love, in joy-factor, in my family...ya, I'm lucky!
Limo...never been in one!
Lime, a wonderful color. My smallest size jeans so far are lime green.
Lentils, what we had for dinner tonight! yummy and sooo good for you!
Limerick, one of my favorite kinds of poems,
Licorice...yuk. 'nuf said.
Limber,,,something I've never been, really.
Loons...I remember the first time I heard them, on a lake in New Hampshire (not Golden Pond! but near there)
Lions...ya, I love those big furry kitties.
Limp...with fatigue...time to go to bed!

Wordplay, K is for...

Since I'm working on keeping up my blogging, I had better get going on my Wordplay obligations! I'm so far behind that ...well, enough of that...let's get on with my favorite letter in the alphabet...

KC...my special wee lad...he's growing up so fast!

K- I just love the way a cursive K looks on paper. Especially expensive paper. And done in calligraphy

Kirsty- well, there'd be no moonsinging blog without her, right, lol!?!

Kooky--something I am always being accused of...and so what if I am?

Kinky-now, you may enjoy kinky stuff, and I will confess to seeing some (can you believe what you can see on the internet for FREE?) and I confess to trying to not be like my mom and be a prude at 47. I'm not particularly comfortable discussing kinky things, but still I think many of us are curious about it.

Kittens...it;s been a long time since I had a kitten. I love them. and when they grow up to become Kats, I love 'em too...but there's something innately fun about having a kitten. Or two. or...

Kale...we've gotten a ton of kale in our CSA farm boxes this year. You can do alot of things with Kale, including freezing it so you can deal with it later and not become overwhelmed by it. But it's good, and good for you, and great with farm fresh eggs...mmmmmm!

Kirk, Captain, leader of the first Enterprise (not counting Christopher Pike, you Trekkers who will quickly correct me!) we saw on tv. To Boldly Go...my oh my, I had a thing for him...

Kill Bill...someday I'll see the movie. Until then I'll just be intrigued by the clips I see now and then.

Kiss...I love giving and getting kisses.

Ken, Lee's stepdad, is 93 and having a hard time with the daily grind. Still, he was pretty good the last time we saw him, and although getting frailer, still had much to contribute to our conversation...and we wish him many more !

Kringle, Chris...oh, one ofmy favorite Xmas specials, right up there with Rudolph!

KC and the Sunshine Band...that's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh!

Kool aid...many fond memories of Mom making Kool aid for my sister and I when we were little.

...and finally....Keepsake Quilting....need I say more?

Summer's Last Hurrah

It's been nearly a month since my last blog update, and since I last wrote, we've been camping 3 times! We just got back a few hours ago from what was our final camping expedition of the 2006 summer season. We've explored our wee state from one corner to another, from Cape Cod to the Berkshires. Our last two campouts,however, were within 15 miles of each other, in Old Orchard Beach and Ferry Beach (Saco), Maine.

Our kids love camping as much as Lee and I do, accepting heavy morning dew which drips on their head as they wake up, sand in their sleeping bags, which is my personal bane (ugh, shudder), and tree frogs singing the night away. We've had rainy days and hiked anyway, sunny days to play in surf and sand, hot days and cold nights. More importantly, we've had time off from the regular day to day ' stuff ' that seems so important when it's there in your face, but, once freed from the restrictions of day to day living, seem so trivial. Who cares if you rememberd to go to the bank when you can watch a spider wrap up its meal over by the pine tree? I wish that every day could be spent watching spiders and dragonflies, smelling pine trees and ocean air, seeing the Milky Way in the dark night sky at the ocean's edge, and the calling of tree frogs. But life does come back to reality, to laundry and phone calls and tidying and banking and all the other work that gets left behind when we head off to explore, pulling our trusty camper behind us.

So, here we are, home again, tired in body, but restored in spirit. I finally feel that I'm ready for Autumn, for our many tree's colorful transition to their resting time, for raking leaves and trick-or-treating, for pumpkin and apple picking, and all the rest! But I've promised myself that I'll look for those spider webs in the bushes, do more than simply glance at the sky when I hang out that last load of wash after dark but really take a few minutes to look in awe at all those worlds up there, and smell the wonderful scents of autumn. And that's a resolution that I plan on keeping!

Wordplay, J is for...

Jars and Jars of freshly preserved peaches which I will so enjoy opening in the winter
Jam, which was also freshly made this summer
Jingle...the sound of coins in one's pocket, or Santa's reindeer bridle bells
Joan Jett..I love rocknroll, put another quarter in the Juke box, baby!
Jump...KC's favorite mode of moving from place to place these days
Jumpers, my favorite kind of dresses when I was in my 20's
Jungle Gym...we have one but Rob never plays on it, sigh.
July.. love going to the beach, 4th celebrations, hate the deep humid heat
June...a wonderful month...full of getting-there gardens, warm days and cool evenings, the first day of summer, beginning of the camping season
Jupiter...wish I had more time for stargazing
Jupiter II...from Lost in Space, I always wanted to take a ride in it
Jangles..the sound of wearing many bracelets together
January...new year, absolute darkness at the start of the month so early in the day, with a gradual, noticible lightening by the end of the month, stark contrasts of white snow and dark limbs, cold breath from the north and west, and the amazing
January thaw...that gives hope that spring *will* come back!
and I'm sure there are a Jillion more that I'll think of when I'm done!

Wordplay, I is for...

Infinity....where this picture is focused on
Ice cream--'specially chocolate chip cookie dough
Igneous--I love the name of this kind of rock!
Igloo--I've always wanted to build one, and this winter I have "plans" on how to build an adaptation for one, if we get enough snow
Iguana--had friends who had a mega-sized one..ugh!
I--a word I use too much sometimes, and too little other times. It can be so hard to find a balance between the I and the them. Especially when one of the 'thems' is 2!
Ipod--don't have one, don't plan on having one. I'm a technological ....I was going to say throwback, but I'm not certain that's the right word. I have a computer, well, we actually have 2 functioning ones in the house, and a DVD/Video player and TV sets (4 in the house, but only 2 used actively) and even a digital camera. I guess the Ipod/cell phone thing is because I want to feel that I can have quiet around me and be okay with it. Sure, there are times I wish I had a cell phone with me, but mostly, I do without or make my own decision rather than calling home to say "did you want fresh Parm or canned" from the grocery store. I don't want to be reachable everywhere, every place. . . and I don't want to always have music/movies/internet available at my every whim. I love to listen to the cawwing of crows, the scream of a hawk as it soars overhead while I hang my laundry, the squeal of the laundry line wheel as I overload it with wet towels, my neighbors cutting grass. Okay, so I'm a throwback!
Irresistable--see number 1 on my list...and fabric...ya, pretty irresistable too!
Irritated-I get this way when I'm driving and someone cuts me off and there was NO ONE behind me...and they slow down to 20. I swear I have a sign on the front of my van that says "go ahead and cut me off"....
Irrational--my fear that someone will steal one of my kids...or is it?
Independant--yes, that's me!
Ivy--I love to see old stone buildings with ivy crawling it's way up them. I know it's bad for the mortar, but I love the look of it anyway!
Indigo--the deepest of clear blues...a mountain lake at sunset, the sky in midwinter just before the sun breaks the horizon
Impatient--I wish this wasn't me...but it is! Life is too darned short! HURRY UP!
Invisible....I have always wished for this ability! It would be totally cool to be invisible at one's whim...just not for all times!
Italian--some of my favorite foods are Italian....
International Adoption...our first son came to us via this route and he was born in today's last word...
India

Spit in the sink...

I'll just bet you're wondering about the title for this blog entry, right? It's not an order, like "will you puleeze...spit in the sink". Oh no, it's much more of a whinnnnnne kind of statement, as in "for Pete's sake ...."
Boys chant "Who's Pete?"
Chet says "and what's he doin' in our bathroom?"
Rob says "someone named Pete is in our bathroom?"
Mom says "one of you guys left spitty toothpaste globbies on my clean sink! Don't you know I spent 2 hours cleaning the bathroom on Wednesday?? Can't you two just keep it clean for 24 hours??????"
Chet says "well it was clean for 24 hours, if you cleaned it on Wednesday, and today is Friday"
Rob says "you just said Pete did it"

and so it goes....

Wordplay, H is for...

This is totally random, no particular order, just as they pop into my tired brain...so here goes, and I'm Hopeful that I will catch up to all the other Wordplay folks who have been so dedicated and interesting!
Happy...how I feel when I'm with my family
Hotdogs...why I'm only a 99% vegetarian. I just love 'em.
Hamburgers...I only like the veggie kind now.
How...KC's newest word
Hair...well, you've read my blog. I'm Hair obsessessed!
Holy Cow Batman! One of my favorite campy shows from my childhood...with all the variations on Holy they came up with!
Hash...I've not had hash since I was 18 and still living at home. I loved when my mom made it.
Hugs...something I love giving and getting. I'm a very huggy person.
Hail...I'm fascinated by weather, and hail is right up there, no pun intended!
Harrowing...I love that word in novels...along with Heroine and Hero
Halloooow...the sound that comes out of a cave when you yell into it!
Healing...I believe in healing touch and Healing energies
Hope...one of the most powerful and underutilized words in the English language.
Hazard...listening to the radio to one of the pop stations with your 10 y/o son in the car....
Hills...I live in hilly country. I don't know how people live in the plains...there is so much space there...
Hiccup. The baby and I just laugh and laugh when one of us gets them.
Hilfenger? I am so not into designer jeans and clothing
Hillbilly...going to her website (hillbillyhousewife.com) has helped me get some wonderful ideas for doing things on the cheap, despite our obvious religious differences, she has great recipes and ideas for saving money.
Heeheehee....ya, you get it!
Hush...the sound that happens now at 5 a.m when I'm walking the dog in the darkness that comes with late summer
Hangover...been so long since I last had one I have nearly forgotten how bad it used to be, lol! except for the throwing up. I still remember that.
Here...where I wish my mom was
Heaven...where I know she is
Haven...what I hope my home is for my kids, always.
Hollyhocks..did not do so well in the garden this year
Hummingbirds...we had one in the yard in the spring but Haven't seen him since.
Hate...something I wish I could wave my arm and abolish

August...

Wow! It's August, and here I'd promised myself that online journaling was going to be easier to maintain that handwritten posts...ah, well. July was filled with great memories, and lazy days that were too hot to do more than hang out on the couch and read. We went to the beach and Cape Cod, took nightly family walks around our neighborhood, watched sunsets come earlier than we wanted them too, and celebrated the opening of our black eyed Susan's and echanachea plants.

Now when I take my morning walk with the dog, it's officially in the 'predawn' hour. This morning, August 1, we witnessed our first PMF...Otherwise known as a premigratory flock! Canada geese were honking and heading south. I know they were headed to the local small pond near my house, but still, it is very early to have them flocked in a V group that way. Oh my, and I just got used to walking in the dark! Now I'm seeing signs that the turning of the wheel is very evident and I'm feeling ambivalent about it.
I've come to a place in my life when I feel the wheel, live the wheel, accept the wheel. I love each season, and the changing process too. So I'll grab photo's of my flowering beds, remembering summer digitally, and look forward to the cool whisper of fall as she peeks in the door during this last full month of summer.

A Day at the Beach

On Monday we went to Maine to visit Nana, and spent the day out at the beach with her. KC enjoys the waves at Ferry Beach in Maine! He loves jumping into the water each time we come here! This is a UU conference center at mid-coast Maine, with low surf and a lovely beach. He just runs into the water, no fear, not bothered by the chilly Atlantic water, which was around 57 degrees!
Here's Nana, Lee, and KC, who was on a mandatory "warm up break" and not liking that one bit! Robbie also loves the beach this year. A year of swimming lessons at our local 'Y' has helped him to feel more confident around water.
So confident he can walk on water now!! LoL! The wonders of digital photography! I have never managed to capture a shot just like that before, and frankly, I'm quite pleased with myself! This last picture is Robbie and KC playing in the beach sand. Old Orchard Beach, Maine, with it's amusement park rides, large crowds, fried dough and pizza, and many shops, is the spit of land to the left of Rob's head, but there were many miles of tranquil beach for us to enjoy!

Wordplay, G is for...

Gratitude, what I feel each time I look at my family,
Grapes, which I like sometimes and other times give me indigestion!
Goldfinches, quick splotches of color and song that wing through the trees
Goddess, She who surrounds me with love and power
Good, something I strive to be, sometimes, and sometimes I just can't be!
Gavel, I always wonder why they hold such mysterious powers
gravel, that which I fell upon when I was 5 and got stitches in my chin from
ghosts, seen some, felt others
granular, I just like saying that...it rolls off the tongue so nice and roundly
graduate, did from high school and was it really *that* long ago?!?
glom-on, what the baby does when he doesn't want to be put down
green, my mothers favorite color
gardens, something else I got from her
gaggle of geese, kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it?
glisten, the sparkle of morning light on frosty windows
gleem, something my kitchen floor does not do, currently
garbage, a chore my son's take care of now, yay!
grandiose, my sewing plans fall into this word, often
goodnight, some times it's just time for bed...

Been that kind of week....

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the minute details in our day to day lives that we feel absolutely must be completed or.....or what?? It's been that kind of week for me. Every day I've run errands, picked up some of this and some of that, been out and about from one of town to the other, and here it is Friday night and wow! I feel like I've gotten next to nothing done, except for yesterday. Yesterday I treated the family and myself to many, many and did I say, many flats of flowers. Robbie and I spent about 4 hours planting on the side of the house, the front of the house, the perennial garden at the end of the driveway, my wee garden outside the kitchen door, which we call the Kitchen garden, but isn't in the tradition sense of providing herbs or food for the body, but does provide sustanance for the spirit. We've weeded, and planted, organized, arranged, filled planter boxes on the back deck railing for our al fresco dining pleasure, and generally spread beauty around the space we call home. I made a small cobblestone walkway in the side garden, the path the dog takes to go from the front door to the backyard, as the kids do, of cutting the corner and going through the garden, sigh. But, I solved that dilemma by putting a curved path with various ground covers between some of the rocks that can tolerate some foot traffic. Lovely! Once it stops raining I'll run outside and take pictures and post them. I was too tired to push the button on the camera once all the gardening was completed! It's supposed to stop raining next Saturday, so you only have to wait 8 days for pictures. Such is life in New England this summer, and who knows, we could well get a break of sunshine that will surprise us all.

Anyway, I wonder often how important all that "stuff" we do, is? Sure, getting to the post office, and work is important, but I just know I can do better getting organized, and keeping to my vow of having two no-driving days each week.

Sometimes I need to write it down, say it out loud, post it on the fridge, and write in on the white board in the kitchen to remember, but taking time to be with the kids, which is why I'm home in the first place, is the most important thing on my "to do" list. Rob and I had a blast planting together, with lots of conversation, and laughing. It was a real growing thing for us both, no pun intended!

It's Done!! Bar's quilt top is done!

Up close images of Barbara's dogs, my first time using my computer printer and iron-on transfer paper. It came out wonderfully, after my having been so scared to try this new technique! Full-on view of the quilt top. Note the green pinwheel quilt in the background...my very first quilt!
The backing will need to be assembled, but I know what I want to do for it, and it's simple and hopefully quickly assembled. The sandwhich-ing come next, and then quilting. . . and it's not even July yet! It's been so cool here in New England that quilting is a comforting warm thing to do!!

MORE rain????

Oh, I can barely stand it! It's been raining forever! or at least since a week ago Sunday night, that would be the last 9 days, no sunshine. I need sun! I need dry air! Okay, our drought is over, enough already!

You can just see through the trees the wee brook that runs through the side of our backyard...it has whitecaps on it! This thing is usually a trickle, but this past week it has been roaring....that is not to compare it to the Merrimack which is just flooding terribly. This is a whine, not a panic call, after all. The folks on the North Shore are really deluged. We've had 5 or 6 inches of rain in central Massachusetts, but the north shore area and southern New Hampshire and Maine have been inundated with over 10 inches of rain since the weekend.

So, no more rain, gracious Goddess. We're full up!

Why Quilters Never Sew Clothing With Quilting Fabrics!

If you are the chief cook, bottle washer, and Ironer in your family, think twice before you make an outfit from quilting fabric. Oh, sure, it looks cute. Yes, the colors coordinate well...after all, they're meant to. But quilting fabric is 100 per cent cotton. And cotton, well, let's just say it doesn't come out the way it went it.
The person who receives the outfit will most likely love it. So if you wash it on Friday, Iron it on Monday, you can be sure that by Tuesday or Wednesday, it will be worn again...only to repeat this vicious cycle in a homestye version of "Groundhog Day". Don't understand the reference? Google Bill Murray, and you'll see!

Saturday night....

...and nothing much is going on here. But I have a few minutes so I thought I'd catch up. Oh. Wait. There is nothing to catch up on....it's been raining here in New England for about forever. We even got 3 addition inches today to add to whatever has fallen since last Sunday. Whoopdie doo. That would be a full week of rain, with more rain forecast for tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday. What a drag. The weeds in the backyard are looking like they are heading for the house with evil intent. The brook is flowing at capacity, any higher and I could lose a blueberry bush. The blueberry bushes are blooming, that's the photo you see at the top of the page, but with all the rain the bee's are not out to fertilize. Wonder how that will affect the apple crop this fall, too.

Okay. That's enough whining for one night! Moonsinger out!