the bougan

the funky bean

i'm bored

Not really a bad bored, but kind of a 'selfish' bored. I get like this now and then, I guess. I was at a friend's house the other day and she had a new painting up on her wall. It was beautiful, to me. The scene was a rural farm with big, brightly colored trees and lush green hills and. . .the ocean. This particular friend is from Hawaii so I thought the painting might be from there. It was from Nicaragua. In any case, I felt like I wanted to ball my eyes out and jump in the painting. Just a few days before this experience, me and the Super G were shootin' the breeze. We have both lived in other places and think CO is the pits. We were discussing architecture and landscape and how suburban CO ain't where it's at. She and I would both like to escape the barren wasteland and she said that one thing she is sick of is 'ticky tack', by which she was referring to the layer upon layer of tract homes all similarly decorated. Yo tambien.

So, I realized that my boredom is really due to the lack of bouganvilla around here. I'll have to imagine some in my head for now. As for the rest, Anna is growing at a rapid pace. Funny little thing. She looks like she might have a shade of red in her hair and her face looks just a little different from the others. She has dimples. Never had a kid with dimples nor does anyone on either side of our family have them. Super cute. She has a tiny frame, reminiscent of Iona and the typical West baby small head. The other night at dinner, the kids were discussing the fact that she really doesn't have a nickname yet and Wyatt said, 'Aren't you going to call her 'funky bean' or something?' So, there it is. She will forever be the funky bean. PoPo continues to entertain. He is the most 'Type A' child we have. He is EXTREMELY particular. But super cute and hilarious. The kids have little toys called 'Super Hero Squad' and PoPo likes to play with them. He likes to jump around calling himself the 'Hyooppo Squadow'. So funny. I think I'm also bored due to the lack of sport. I really enjoy watching my kids play sports. They have such a ball and they're quite good at what they do. Basketball starts next week for Wyatt and swim team will start for Iona a week or so after that. Rowyn is highly anticipating turning '7' so she can swim. Morgan is a funny fellow. He does not like to play organinzed sports (I'm sure I'm repeating myself) although he is sneaky out on a field. He has been playing football with some neighbor boys and the word is that he's compact and fast. He finds the holes. Jim has been playing basketball with the boys and they're starting to womp on him pretty hard. Same story with Morgan: fast and sneaky. I'm chomping at the bit, waiting for the games to begin.

The Nativity Fast came upon us really fast. I did not prepare at all. We just started discussing the Jesse Tree today which I always like, but this year things are still chaotic with the Funky Bean being so teeny. I'm totally digging what 'Charming the Birds from the Trees' has on her website with regards to the Jesse Tree and curriculum for Orthodox pre-schoolers.

So that's the story from here. I'm feeling like the CO landscape: dull, dry, and flat.

winter. . .i mean fall. . .i mean winter. . .i mean fall

So, on the last day of summer. . .it snowed. No, not a real snow, but flakes fell out of the sky for a good 15 minutes. I died my official death. I won't come back for a good 7 months. Good bye.

On the other hand, I have lots of reading to do. I read some great books over the summer. 'Devices of the Soul. . .' was a great surprise. I found it at 'Eighth Day Books' and it sounded interesting, but I had no idea that it would exude fabulousness. It is a great read for anyone who is interested in the education of their children (which should be everybody, right?). It has a lot of info regarding the affect of technology on education. I have a million quotes to share, but I can't find the book!! I've been rearranging my 'stuff' and I think I might have put it in a box already. Oh well. When I find it, I'll divulge. As for Eugene, he ended up being a pleasant surprise too. He can be a bit touchy feely for me, but then he'll come up with a whopper like this:

Belief cannot be forced. If we are bullied or seduced or manipulated to believe, we do not end up believing, we end up intimidated or raped or used. And we are less, not more.

and

Without wonder the motivational energies for living well get dominated by anxiety and guilt. Anxiety and guilt restrict; they close us in on ourselves; they isolate us in feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness; they reduce us to ourselves at our worst. Instead of being formed by the Spirit that hovered over the waters and raised Jesus from the dead, we are malformed into lives of moral workaholism or pious athleticism.

Wendell's book was excellent. One of the better ones I've read. The book about St. Tikhon was good, but, again, I have problems relating to the foreignness of it all. That's why I picked Dorothy Day to read. I'm white. She's white. I can't help it. She can't help it. I don't need to comment on Ron Paul's book which I finally finished. I've given it the 'must read' light already. Solzhenitzyn's book was excellent. A series of speeches he gave in the 60s and 70s to England and America. Sometimes I wish I had been paying attention to the goings on in the world 20 years ago.

Here's the great WB:

The most insistent and formidable concern of agriculture, wherever it is taken seriously, is the distinct individuality of every farm, every field on every farm, every farm family, and every creature on every farm. Farming becomes a high art when farmers know and respect in their work the distinct individuality of their place and the neighborhood of creatures that lives there. This has nothing to do with the set of personal excuses we call 'individualism' but is akin to the holy charity of the Gospels and the political courtesy of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

On to the pre-winter reading. The list is up. I've already started reading Gatto. I enjoy him. This book is particularly enlightening. And big. And revealing.

Take at hazard one hundred children of several educated generations and one hundred uneducated children of the people and compare them in anything you please; in strength, in agility, in mind, in the ability to acquire knowledge, even in morality- and in all respects you are startled by the vast superiority on the side of the children of the uneducated generations.

Count Leo Tolstoy, 'Education and Culture'

So, good-bye summer. Hello death.

bedlam

Chaos. Mahem. and general disorganization. We started school yesterday. I am generally a relaxed, pretty laid back person. However, school is an area where I try to be totally organized, controlling, and rigid. It ain't workin' that way at the moment. I'm trying to take deep breaths and give it a month. Oh yeah, and then winter will be here and nobody will be able to go outside and I'll have to freak out all over again.

Education does not commence with the alphabet; it begins with handfuls of flowers in green dells, with birds' nests admired; with creeping ants, and almost imperceptible emmets; with pleasant walks in shady lanes, and with thoughts directed in sweet and kindly tones and words to nature, to acts of benevolence and virtue.

Anonymous

have a blessed liturgical year

The fulness of the liturgical year has to be thought of qualitatively and not quantitatively; it is achieved if, on any day whatever of the liturgical year, whichever it might be, we are capable of grasping- through the particular event which is commemorated- Christ as a whole, the whole of his life, the whole of his work, the whole of his word. Each feast, and even each day of the year thus becomes the fulness of the whole liturgical cycle. This cycle never repeats itself; each one of its aspects reflects the inexhaustible depth and fulness of Christ, and, as a result, becomes new for us to the extent that we understand it better. The liturgical year is a prism which receives the white light of Christ and splits it into different colours. Christ is the year.

From, 'The Year of the Grace of the Lord' by a Monk of the Eastern Church

Anna Brigid Marie was born August 20th. A little early. A little late. 8 pounds 15 ounces. Pretty easy labor. Maybe the easiest, actually. The bad part was only about an hour. She has already fooled me. I think I have my kids figured out and then. . .they do something I wouldn't expect them to do. Anna came out light. She was supposed to be dark. Kids #1, 3, and 5 are the light ones. #2 and 4 are dark so I figured #6 would follow suit. Not so. Don't let that funky baby dark hair fool you. She'll be blonde. She has blonde sideburns and blonde eyebrows. And her hair is that funky brown. It was supposed to be black. Her eyes are that funky baby blue/gray so I expect they'll be brown. Anyway, that's the short of it.

fight

I hope those of you who read this are fighting this healthcare bill tooth and nail. This bill truly has nothing to do with 'health' and everything to do with government control. Parents should be particularly alarmed at the consequences of a 'yes' vote on this bill. Here's a blurb by Chuck Norris, discussing the fact that parental rights will be severely violated by this bad dog.

http://townhall.com/columnists/ChuckNorris/2009/08/11/dirty_secret_no_1_in_obamacare

Honestly, Hitler would drool over this bill. Stalin, Lenin, Chavez, Castro, etc. They would totally dig it. I don't understand why the non-vaccinating community isn't freaking out about it. Part of the bill includes 'home vaccinations'. The part that Norris exposes is the 'home visits' where the government can come into your home and 'educate' you on how to be a good parent. This might seem nice and voluntary at first, but it won't last. It will, like all government intervention, become mandatory. I can imagine that I only do about a gagillion things of which the big bad government would not approve. Can't wait for the day when they can invade my home and take my kids. This isn't an exaggeration either. It's not a fear tactic. It's not a myth. It's in the frickin' bill which few people are reading. PLEASE contact your congresspeople using all forms of communication and tell them to stop this thing.