460: It's a beautiful day!

Baby Bliss and I have a semi-busy day planned.
(What does that mean?  LOL)

We're heading to the library shortly. Later we'll run a few errands.

Home schooling is such fun!

And I'm thankful.

Amen.

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417: for tomorrow.

okay so i got some stuff mixed up for friday's list.

one reason i'm not a "joiner" is because i don't like being on other people's time. but this school year, i thought baby bliss and i could both benefit from being part of a home schooling group. and we have.

but it's also brought some confusion in the form of Events.

i'm glad we found a group for fun and excitement as well as more opportunities for learning and sharing.

how evva, we also joined girl scouts as part of our home schooling group stuff. it's not that i'm trying to do every event or even many of them. the problem is trying to remember which things are home schooling group only and which are girl scouts only.

sigh.

i know me and i know baby bliss. this will either get old by the time the school year ends and we'll take a break for summer. or this will get old by the time the school year ends and we will have had enough by the time next school year rolls around.

i'm hoping the summer break will be enough. i like it that baby bliss has something scheduled to do at least one day of every week. and i've met some cool moms in the group.

actually, the home schooling group events aren't as many as the girl scout events. not that we have to participate in all of those either but i want baby bliss to at least do the ones that involve other troops. i want her to meet at least one person who she can really bond with. that has been an issue with her for as long as i can remember.

i honestly try not to judge people cuz from my own life, i know things are not always how they appear to those looking in. still, there are just certain people/places/things that i don't want baby bliss around.

not that i intend to shelter her. i have seen first-hand how that often turns out to be the very wrong idea. and my momma didn't shelter me. i was allowed to hang out with the cousins who lived in the projects, attend parties with my friends, do sleep overs, etc.

but the world we live in now seems a whole lot different. not to say there were no pedophiles and other nuts hanging about when i was coming up. we just didn't hear about them every day on the news.

and there was no internet so we had no clue what nastiness could have been going on across the street -- and definitely not around the country or the world. now we hear about every raunchy priest, rancid gym coach, randy dad of a best friend. it's upsetting, to say the least. but it's also a reminder to me that as a momma, i cannot be too careful. a thing once done cannot be undone.

any way, i got all off track. this was supposed to be today's to-do list.

and so it is.

1. baby bliss still needs to clean her room!
2. my office looks like several Acts of God have swept through. clean it or lien it!
3. grandma wants to go to Sam's (we both need baking soda)
4. library - return High School Musical 2!
   
5. post office
6. switch baby bliss's recurring monthly expenses to her account
7. compare ins. plans for possible switch
8. sign us up for wellness stuff
   
9. G.S. stuff - check for badge stuff (lists, forms)
10. add G.S. stuff to all calendars
    
11. check out blurb.com
12. scan and print crochet patterns
13. copy baby bliss's blank worksheets
    
14. feed my NeoPet
15. work on kitty's basket
16. start basket for S's kitty
    
17. work on baskets for K's baby
18. work on new bracelet designs
19. continue working on wrap for the show

next week:

1. $$ store - get stuff for Oct. 29 home schooler's fall party (cups, children's bars, water); dry goods for G.S. celebration (utensils, small plates, cups, napkins); 8 x 10 photo frame for Baby Bliss
   
2. call dealership re lost coupon for free brake check
3. call ins. co. for info re submitting proof of payment for medical expenses
4. write commendation letter - Ms. S____
5. write thank you card - library photog

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397: back to school

hey y'all.

tomorrow will be our first day of school for the 2008-2009 year.

i just realized i am missing a few things but nothing major. still, i don't feel like summer vacation should be over already. i know baby bliss feels the same. 'specially since she'll be in bed at 9 tonight.

i told her 10 minutes ago to "get ready" for bed. that means brush teeth, wash face (and other pertinent spots), get clean jammies, and be ready to get in bed at 9 p.m.

she's already given me the evil eye several times since then. as if i care.

and she thinks she's slick. she came back to the living room, laid in front of her bookcase, and picked up a few books. so i'm supposed to think she really wants to read one. um yeah. i don't doubt it but i know it's a ploy to delay bedtime for as long as possible.

ha!

if she can squeeze a chapter or two in before lights out, she's more than welcome to read anything she owns. i told her to set her alarm clock for 9 a.m. and that's what i meant.

she is so blessed to be home schooled. i have seen small children in this city -- babies, really -- standing at bus stops in the dark. with other little ones, no adults in sight. scary.

aha. she just turned on the telly to watch "deal or no deal". but what do i see? she has on the same night clothes that i told her not to sleep in last night. bad choice baby bliss.

oooh, no she didn't!

when i told her to go change, she got an attitude, rolling eyes, lotsa lip, and stomping. like she pays rent here!

now see...

okay, it's light out time.

i just told her to come back, turn off the telly, and good night.

now.

it's quiet.

mr. bliss got called in around 11:30 this morning and i'm the only one up and around.

ummm, she just got back up to "get some water". and is still wearing the same pajamas!

the jonas brothers posters will be missing when she wakes up tomorrow.

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335: the best of home schooling

this is how we did it...


today. because the weather was beautiful. (thanks God!)


some days we go to the library. some days we camp on the living room floor. some days we do other things, like go to my grandma's or run errands.

today we watched someone from the grounds crew put something in the pond that turned it from a muddy muddy green to a deep emerald green.

i'm guessing it's non-toxic because there are fish in the pond. big fish.

mr. bliss said they're carp. i dunno but they are big enough to provide at least one night's dinner at chez bliss. there are a few golden orange ones, one that's white with brown and orange spots, and many darker colored ones swimming around.

truthfully, i was tired of looking down at the murky brown water.

baby bliss was the first to notice the guy "dying" the pond. then she watched to make sure no fish were floating belly-up. it was funny to see the green moving through the water. it reminded me of the movie "The 10 Commandments" and how Moses bloodied the waters for the unbelieving Pharoah.

248: good intentions

hey y'all. 

top of the morning and all that good stuff! 

i sure did mean to sleep until 10 this morning. but my subconscious mind played a trick on me. or maybe it was something bigger, a Universal conspiracy of sorts cuz i needed to be up early for some (as yet) unknown reason. 

any way, i forgot to turn off my daily alarm on my cell phone. and even tho the phone was on vibrate, it woke me up any way.  :-(  but i ain't mad at you God. 

i cleaned (most of) the bathroom, addressed a mess of envelopes that need to go out, remembered that baby bliss wants to go to Victoria's Secret to get the new Spice Girls CD, and remembered to make a Very Important reservation for tomorrow morning. 

i also had time to think about some home schooling stuff. i don't know if i mentioned this before, but baby bliss loves movies and music. with the same passion i have for reading and writing. so i've come up with a way to bond her favorites with the subjects she likes less (reading and writing). i found some book report templates online and morphed them into movie analysis worksheets; i'm about to do the same for music too. 

usually we do a lot of verbal work with these subjects, which was good because i've been able to document baby bliss's correct use of her ever-expanding vocabulary, her grasp of inference and innuendo, how well she pays attention to detail, and her evolving ability to logically assess contextual circumstances and predict outcomes. 

but the time has come for baby bliss to move in other directions. 

now she'll have to stretch her brain a little more and put it all on paper. i anticipate a little bit of resistance but not much. if she wants to continue watching her favorite movies during the week, she'll embrace the idea. :-) 

and it's not that she won't read or write. she likes reading and writing fiction (short stories) and has been known to dabble at poetry. i also stress the importance of sustaining long distance friendships by encouraging her to write letters to her friends back where we used to live. 

i proof and edit all her works (not for context or content, only for formatting, grammatical and punctuation errors) while we go over the rules for English grammar and punctuation, but baby bliss is responsible for making all corrections. 

sometimes one letter or story takes a few hours but it's okay. for us, home schooling is all about taking the time to get at least a basic understanding of one thing before we move on to the next. so i don't feel like i'm coercing her. i'm just helping her understand that movies and music can be tools for education as well as entertainment.    :o) 

247: wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew

did y'all hear that?

it's my big sigh of relief.

the worst is over with the Main Project. we have a 4-day lull before Stage 3 kicks in.

today was fairly quiet but i was on edge most of the day, wondering if i'd forgotten to foist off any piece or part of the Main Project to the next person in line.

then later, there was Something but it was Something i had no previous knowledge of and so i didn't have to worry about it. (thank you Father-Mother God/Goddess/Universe.)

but i did worry. i e-mailed and called, to see if there was something i could do to help. there was nothing. (thank you Divine Energy that lives within us all.)

so the ball rolled back to someone else's court and i went back to being jittery bliss.

it felt weird not to be getting several e-mails an hour, making back-to-back phone calls, writing drafts between tossing loads of laundry in to wash or dry, helping baby bliss with math while uploading photos to the FTP server...

i don't expect to hear anything tomorrow (fingers crossed) and i'm planning to sleep late. at least until 10.

224: write when you get work

well y'all, i've been looking for work.

every so often, i get the urge to do something more. usually cuz i need/want more $$ coming in.

last week i talked to a small business owner who wants art for her shop. i e-mailed her photos of the baskets, hoping she'd be interested in them. she liked them but wants them bigger. much bigger.

so i started a new basket this weekend. i'm gonna see how wide i can make the base before it gets weird.

i also have a meet-n-greet/interview with the CEO of a regional magazine later today. i got the hook up from a family member but my editing/writing skills got my foot in the door. i know that what is for me will be mine and i'm thanking God in advance for this wonderful opportunity.

i'll be able to work from home (with occasional forays into the corporate office) and they know i home school so baby bliss is welcome to tag along.

what more can a momma ask for?

this all means we'll have to learn to adhere to something called a schedule.

it's not like we've never had one and don't have one now. it's just that looking at our lives before and after home schooling is like comparing a Picasso painting to... one of my baskets. they're both beautiful but totally different in form and function.

but one thing i've learned over the years is that no matter how full my life seems, there has always been room for something else. as if by magic, some thing--no longer necessary to my existence --just fades away.

speaking of fading away, i've gotta get some sleep. the wake-up call shall ring in at 9 a.m.

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220: news of the "varied" sort

hey y'all!

how was your (collective) weekend?

mine was busy. baby bliss and i semi-house/dog sat for a friend. i say "semi" cuz we didn't sleep over at her place.

thank God/Goddess/Universe for friends with pets. baby bliss has been begging for a pooch for too long now but a weekend of keeping up with somebody else's lil pooper was all it took to convince her that no four-legged critters will inhabit her immediate future.

hallelujah!

the entrepreneural (is that a word?) baby bliss was paid for her services but i'm willing to bet she won't want to work like that again any time soon.

the most valuable part of the lesson: cleaning up pee pee and poo poo comes with the job.

for today's language arts assignment, baby bliss will draft then finalize a short story about her experience.

we now move on to the news.

* * *

ladies (and gents too), if you have chaps working fast food, tell them to be careful!

a 20-year old young lady was arrested for "over-salting" a burger. yes, you're reading it right. and you can read the full story here: Well That Wasn't a Donut!

why this strikes me as unjust: not only cuz it's stupid but why wasn't the manager arrested too? my interpretation was that the manager was more concerned with store profits (why not add more meat to counter the extra salt?) than the customer's taste buds/health.

i smell an overly salty lawsuit coming.

* * *

if nudity offends thee, don't move to Oakland, CA where one man has a judge's okay to work naked. check out the full story: Shouldn't You Cover Your...

* * *

the final story is of particular interests to parents. think long and hard before you let your chaps ride out with your family, friends, or neighbors. some of them might have secrets that could lead to this: If It Ain't Paid for Ya Cain't Keep It

personally, i think the guys lied when they said they searched the SUV first...

212: thinking about re-posting old posts...

hey y'all. how's your thursday going so far?

baby bliss and i are in, watching movies. we just finished Monster House and it was good but kinda scary. who the heck wants to think about being eaten by a house? i don't... i'm just not into scary movies any more.

now we're watching Tremors with Kevin Bacon and that mucho cute guy who plays Remo Williams. i know this is an old one but i've never seen it. i guess this one might be scary too but i'm hoping it's funnier than it is scary.

so far the scenery is pretty. it's desert and mountains, and once again i'm missing my old stomping grounds.

baby bliss said we should go to the gym today. she's right but i donwanna. i'd rather do yoga and said so. baby bliss agreed so i guess it's a yoga break after the movie.

any way, on to today's topic.

i have some posts from another online site i belong to. it isn't a blogging site but in the time i spent there, i used my page as a blog. the page space was limited though so stuff rolled off the end of the page if y'all know what i mean. i've been hoarding the older posts for several years now and i'm thinking about re-posting them here.

except i don't know how to fit them in here...

in the meantime, i'm gonna organize them when i have time. they are all in word docs that are several pages long and span various amounts of time. i'm thinking 'bout 1-year file folders, 1-month sub-folders, and note pad docs for each day.

with all the stuff i need to do to get ready for baby bliss's "first day of school" next week, i'm not sure when I'll get to that other stuff.

just another thing to add to my to-do list... "-)

205: not in front of grandma!

baby bliss had a question about conception the other day y'all.

grandma was riding with us so i'm guessing b.b. thought she should moderate her choice of words.

i think b.b. was asking if it was possible for a woman to give birth to a set of triplets and a set of twins when giving birth to five babies at once.

the other part of the question was how a woman got pregnant with five (or more) babies at once. she wanted to know if the same sperm did it, if there was a separate sperm for each egg, or some other combination of workings.

but she didn't want to say the word "sperm" in front of my grandma so she said "the creamy white stuff".

well i didn't like the way that sounded and i tried to get her to pipe down until after we dropped grandma off. but wouldn't y'all know it, grandma heard her too and asked baby bliss what creamy white stuff was she talking about.

at that point baby bliss dissolved into a mess of convulsive giggles and grandma saw fit to interject her medical expertise about the subject of multiple births.

which means we'll have to do our own research some time this school year to undo grandma's good intentions.

203: back to school

hey y'all!

how's your weekend going so far? mine is going... i've been sleepy most of the day. maybe cuz i went to bed with a headache last night. i'm not sure...

the chaps in our county start school on monday. lucky baby bliss, being homeschooled, her momma decides when she starts back to school. i've decided to go with the traditional day-after-labor-day for our official first day of school.

in preparation, i'm relaxing and she's trying to cram as much fun as possible into her last days of summer. i don't know why cuz home schooling allows her to learn at the pool if she so chooses. maybe it's her way of commiserating with her friends who attend "regular" school.

in my travels on the web, i've come across some interesting home schooling/unschooling resources that i'd like to share.

the first is the NW Unschooling Conference. it's being held next year, in the NW united states. go
here for more info. thanks to Amanda for posting a link on her blog. although i probably won't attend, i'd like to spread the word. :-)

oops! i was gonna post more stuff but it would actually be links to the presenters and other info for the above-mentioned unschooling conference. y'all can go check that stuff out by following the link for the conference.

even if you don't have a clue what unschooling is or have some kinda bias against the granola-eating/pierced-nose/hippies/save-the-earth/hybrid car-driving people who educate their children at home, go check out the conference stuff any way.

trust me when i say you'll see something that interests you on the website.

and if you don't, please let me know so i can tell you how you if you're willing to expand your horizons just a lil teeeeeeeeeny bit more, you'd be surprised at what new things you'll come to enjoy.

namaste. '-)

189: meteor shower - part II

okay y'all.

i done been outside quite a few times now and ain't seen not one falling thing.

baby bliss abandoned the land of the wide awake several hours ago. she's sleeping peacefully on the living room floor at my feet. she's wrapped in a snuggly-soft fleece blanket with her head perched on the large throw pillow we keep for floor huggers.

she and i went out a few times, once out front and a few more out on the balcony. we did notice that the sky appeared lighter and brighter--an almost reddish glow--close to the edges. we talked about it and i thought we might be experiencing an optical illusion.

but lil smart girl that she is, baby bliss said she thought the glow was related to the meteor showers and asked me how i knew it wasn't. i told her i would check.

and sho nuff, she was right.

so did anyone see (or hear about) the meteor shower?

175: fish tales

do y'all know sylvia? she's baby bliss's pet beta. we've had her since winter. she's our ongoing home schooling project.

she's pretty and funny. a beautiful shade of cobalt blue that stripes when she's scared or (i think) mad.

when we got her, we didn't know a thing about raising fish. she was a totally spur-of-the-moment purchase. once we got her home, we were afraid she'd die on us so i did lots of online research.

a few of the things i learned:

1. betas like greenery in the bowl. usually to hide behind.
2. if the fish rub against anything sharp, they can be injured and could die.
3. sea salt is good for them. celtic salt is better.
   
4. they like to eat spirulina and it's a nice treat for them.
5. their little bellies are about the size of one of their eyeballs, so it's extremely important not to overfeed them.
6. they can go a week or two without eating cuz that's what sometimes happens in their natural habitats (shallow puddles in Thailand)

we had my bamboo plants in with sylvie when we had her in her first container. but that was a vase that wasn't very roomy. and the glass was frosty and so i thought sylvie might feel a lot lonely not being able to see us clearly.

we moved her to another home and put the bamboo back in their original vase.

baby bliss and i thought sylvie might want some decorations for her new home. we already had some glass pebbles here that we weren't using. they now line the bottom of sylvie's third (and final) home, an oversized brandy glass we got at walmart a few months ago.

sylvie's home could still use a bit of greenery but we haven't been able to find anything without sharp edges. i was feeling bad about that tho it wasn't my fault.

then the other day it dawned on me. sylvie could have something other than greenery if we so chose. while we were in walmart, i decided glass would be a good choice for sylvie's almost-empty nest.

it took a while to decide between several options. baby bliss thought my final choice (a small fish bowl with fluted edges) would be too big to fit in sylvie's bowl. mr. bliss agreed when he saw it.

wouldn't y'all know it? momma knows best cuz that little fish bowl fit nicely in sylvie's brandy glass. yeah, it's sticking out of the water a bit but that's good. i don't think it should be totally submerged cuz sylvie goes to the surface every so often. for air or to be nosey, one. i'm not sure which.

at first she seemed put out by the new accessory but now she seems to love it. we've seen her hanging out in her new fixture lots of times already.

163: what i'm reading

it's been a book-lovers summer in my neck of the woods y'all. i love to read as much as i love to write but it had been a long time since i've had time to read like i used to back in tha day.

it's really been my own fault tho, not taking time out to curl up in the sun with a good book. so i remedied that as soon as we were officially done with our schooling.

i've been taking every opportunity to read, mostly at the pool while baby bliss keeps her tail wet.

in the past 2 weeks alone, i finished three books by an author i totally dig.

Armistead Maupin has a series called Tales of the City. it's one of my favorite serials. some of the novels have become PBS and ShowTime mini-series.

i actually saw the mini-series before i read the books so i didn't bother to start from scratch. when i heard there was a new book out, i decided to start with the previous two books in preparation for the last one, so i wouldn't miss anything.

it was needless frettin' tho cuz all the books were stand-alone material.

the three books were Significant Others




Sure of You (Tales of the City series, V. 6)
Michael Tolliver Lives (A Novel)








Michael Tolliver Lives is supposed to be it for those wacky san franciscans but i sure hope not. i'll miss those lovable, every-day-people characters who i love like my favorite comfy undies. and i've been meaning to send Mr. Maupin an e-mail about that last book. he got me all worked up with some of that stuff and i ain't been the same since.

i started Pigs in Heaven (the sequel to The Bean Trees) by Barbara Kingsolver a few weeks back but got distracted by my friends from Barbary Lane. not that Pigs in Heaven ain't a good book. it just starts kinda slow. i'm sure i'll enjoy it just as much as i did the first book.







but i've become so engrossed in The Hindi Bindi Club that i know i won't get back to Pigs in Heaven til i'm done with this one. i love learning about other cultures and i have a real live person (my downstairs neighbor) who i can quiz on the veracity of all the yummy recipes and Hindi customs.

when i'm done with those two, i have about 12 other books waiting for me to dive into 'em. some fiction, some not.

that reminds me that i need to check my library account online to make sure nothing is overdue. :-) i'm sure i've paid at least $50 in late fees since we moved here.

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146: the diversity of people who school at home

we are people who haven chosen to school at home.

when we share this information, it sometimes provokes strange reactions in the hearer. usually, the first response is a question. the question: what about socialization?

well, what about socialization? i was very social in school and it got me into a lot of situations i could have done without. like being threatened with butt-whoopings after school by the bully chicks and report card write-ups from concerned teachers (______ is a very good student but she talks too much).

baby bliss has had no problems following those stellar examples. but she's been able to get away with a lot more than i did. it's cuz she has a pretty face that you either love (cuz it's so pretty) or you hate (cuz you just don't like pretty people).

back to the question of socialization...

there was a whole lotta socialization going on in baby bliss's classes. so much socialization that the learning began to lag. it alternated between second and third place on the chart, depending on how much time had to be spent on discipline on any given day.

baby bliss is a fairly intelligent mermaid, being blessed to have smart genes on many branches of her family tree. excessive socialization aside, she was doing great in "outside" school. minus assorted assaults by class bullies (being poked with pencils and pushed down the stairs), teachers who refused to give the children bathroom breaks at the halfway point of an hour-long class, and a few teachers who watched baby bliss get injured and neglected to send her to the school nurse, i felt blessed to send my daughter to several highly regarded charter schools in our old hometown.

the thought of home schooling wasn't on the horizon until we decided to move.

the idea of home schooling didn't raise any particular images in my mind. i couldn't recall knowing anyone who home schooled and the few times i'd heard about it were only vague memories. i had no pre-conceived notions other than the one about my daughter driving me crazy from too much together time.

i realized i wanted to find others who had more experience because i usually learn best from hands-on assistance. so i set out to research home schooling and maybe find people us who had made the transition.

i learned a lot about home schooling and those who choose the option. one of the first things i grasped was the number of ways people do it and the different names it goes by. some folk use store-bought lesson plans; some get free materials online; others may do a combination of the two or something else all together. some people say the home school; some choose to unschool; some don't call it school at all but the children (and the parents) learn just the same.

i'd have to say one of the most important things i learned is that home schoolers are people like me: ordinary folk who for what ever reason(s) chose to teach their children "at home". in other words, folk who want the best for their children and are doing all they can to make it happen.

but i realized sometimes that's where the similarity ends.

home schoolers are truly a diverse group of people. other than the incidental or coincidental likenesses to be found in members of any group, we're no more homogeneous than the residents of a new york city apartment building.

i like people who understand this truth. it happens that i think 98% of those people are home schoolers themselves.

so i'm gonna do my small part to bring more understanding to the world.

please visit my "check 'em out y'all" links and drop in on the happenings at the Life Without School blog. specifically, check out the Celebrating Diversity post. maybe you'll learn something new and interesting. i did. :-)

108: Something I made that I was REALLY proud of...

hey y'all,

i signed up for the crazy hip blog mamas ring. i've never been part of a ring before so i'm not exactly sure how it works. i'm still getting the gist of it. mostly i'm checking out the pages of other members. some of them are sooooooooo cool.

any way, i stumbled my way onto the actual crazy hip blog mamas blog and i saw that i've been missing out on good stuff. they have all kinds of fun things for us crazy hip mamas to participate in.

so here's where i get on: something i made that i was REALLY proud of.

i've been making baskets for about a year now. i found the directions online when i was looking for cool arts and crafts stuff that we could do as part of our home schooling activities. it would have to be relatively simple and easy stuff tho cuz although i read and write pretty darned good and i've always scored off the charts in reading comprehension and on all my standardized exams, somehow i can never quite follow the written directions for the crafty stuff i love to do.

i'm a hands-on person and i need someone to show me in person, so i can actually see what's going on. in that vein, a few friends have tried to teach me to knit over the years and even tho it's been up-close-and-personal instruction, i have yet to catch straight-needle fever.

i've been a crochet-er for over 30 years. and all my experience aside, i can count on one hand the number of items i've made that resemble the item in the picture. my finished products usually look like the fun house mirror version of what ever i was 'sposed to be making.

but i'm a persistent hooker. i continue to seek out patterns, hoping that one day i'll find one that will help me take the world by storm. i'll stitch up a pattern so intricate, it'll auction at sotheby's for 1.5 million . :-)

that was my dream.

my reality came with the baskets. i printed the directions, gathered my supplies and sat down to see if i could get a sample basket done before confusion set in.

my first basket was a bit of a mess but not too bad considering it was my first. my second and third baskets were better. then i began experimenting with the materials. the subsequent baskets are cute but lack the simplicity of the originals.

each basket is beautiful in a wabi-sabi sorta way.

each one is different in shape, design, or style. the basket decides which shape it wants to be as i work. the only thing i decide in advance is what color(s) the basket will be. -)

the yellow and brown basket is one of my earlier ones. being able to see the pattern is soothing, somehow.

the yarn i used for the later baskets was a fuzzy wuzzy kind. it comes in gorgeous colors but the fuzz obscures the wrap pattern in most of them.

this particular basket has a handle which wasn't part of the pattern. but some baskets thought they would look nicer with handles so i decided to add a few. it was trial and error getting a good handle technique down.

i guess making the basket qualifies as needlework cuz you need one of those big curved needles to wrap the yarn.

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69: there's a moon out tonight...

a blue moon.

y'all know what a "blue moon" is? it's the second full moon in a calendar month. and it happens every... blue moon. '-)

baby bliss and i read about it on the internet (where else? LOL) earlier in the week. tonight we made sure we were outside to see it.

we went out shortly after dusk and there she hung in the purple-blue evening sky, a bright disk swathed in orange sherbert. (orange sherbert is one of my favorite desserts, by the way.)

she was stunning. beautiful. breath-taking. exuberant. ethereal.

for more info on the meaning of "blue moon" and the frequency of blue moons, check it: http://www.space.com/spacewatch/070525_ns_blue_moon.html

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65: summer time

it's official y'all. we are enjoying our summer.

my child completed her end-of-grade testing -- as well as her required number of school days -- last week.

now we can get busy at the pool (her swimming, me writing), at the park, continue at the library, etc.

what a lovely life we have.

thank you God/Goddess/Universe!

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43: working girls

originally posted Tue., Oct. 03, 2006; 3:19 a.m. EDT

i finally found a(nother) legitimate job that allows me to work online from home. another reason to be thankful. (thank you God)

with all the killings going on in schools this week, i'm thankful to still be able to home school my daughter.

amen.

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