So we're trying this thing called pre-school...

...which is actually kind of a funny term, since I'm of the opinion that life is school and we're all learning all the time. But I digress! Finn has asked a couple times about school, so we decided to try 2 days a week at the park district for 90 minutes a session. I'm pretty sure he thinks "school" = the playground + a new backpack (which he received for Christmas). We still plan on home-schooling, unschooling in fact, but as long as he's happy he's welcome to go to school.

the dragon backpack


inside, ready to go, with little sister


outside our door, ready to go


Finn was happy to see Brian, the little guy in the foreground, who was in his tumbling class last semester, as well as Miss Patty, his tumbling teacher


Zel got her Starbucks on with us during class


after class, with some papers for us and holding his backpack like a big kid


Just to recap, then:


and now:


It goes by way too fast. Way too fast.

Happy New Year

My morning coffee to start off the year: a vanilla soy latte with whip.

Glad to have gotten that online as it's 11:57pm. Ha!

what I've been up to

In a nutshell, making cookies...


meatballs...


and figuring out how to make this thing go from robot to truck


Someday I hope to be able to make it go back to robot as well. Baby steps.

Happy New Year!

Yum.

Finn & I started on the Christmas cookies yesterday. The first batch is always the "test batch", which is another way of saying they'll all be gone in 24 hours. On another note, I discovered some store recently called Dollar Tree. I guess everybody else in the world knew of its existence. Anyhow, the deal is, everything in the whole store is One Dollar. Crazy! I found stainless steel cookie sheets for a buck, so I bought two and they're actually really good quality. At least they're not warping in the oven and tossing cookies off mid-bake so far. Sweet! I love a bargain.

Happy December

Christmas is right around the bend, so there's that. It'll be a nice Christmas, considering the economy and whatnot. Where my head's at right now though is thinking about how truly weird people can be. Not weird like "let your freak flag fly", but more like WTF?! weird. I suppose, no I know, people have their reasons for doing what they do (I know I sure do), but some things I can't quite wrap my head around. Dave had an odd thing go down [you can read about it here, his 11/30 post], which got me thinking about all sorts of existential stuff. When do you let things go? Where do you draw the line? We've all got our own personal comfort zone, our limits, as well as our limitations, but still...

I have a friend from Back In The Day who recently told me about some other folks from Way Back who've blocked him on Facebook. Facebook is weird that way. On the one hand you have the Friend Collectors: they "friend" every person they've even had a passing interaction with and usually have like 500 "friends" listed.

Then there's the rest of us, just happy to catch up on what's going on in people's lives. 99% of the people I run into on FB I'm totally delighted to see that they're happy and thriving. The other 1%, sorry if I don't exactly remember you, but I'm also happy for you and yours. Your name sounds familiar though! My memory just ain't what it used to be and I've lost my yearbooks somewhere in the last 20 years and dozen or so moves we all did in our twenties so I can't look you up. Happy Holidays anyway.

Deepak Chopra, the Dalai Lama, Andrew Weil... they all stress the importance of not letting the mind run wild because it can negatively affect the body. I believe it; I've felt it happen to me and really, I can't afford it health-wise. So I'm making a resolution early: I'm letting that stuff register (because it does exist) and then pass through me (because it doesn't have to take root). Life's too short. Om.

taking care of business

Planning. Planning seems to be in the air all around me. Practical, long-term-type planning, too, not mundane stuff like what to make for dinner. Think wills, living trusts, power of attorney... Anyway, I came across this and thought, geez, if they can barely keep track of where the truly well-known are, what chance do most of us have for being kept track of? Now I'm positive I'd like to be cremated. Scatter me to the four winds and be done with it.

I'm thankful I have the luxury, right now today, to think about this stuff and get it order so that (hopefully) years (and years and years...) from now nobody else has to.

On a lighter note, Finn is so enamored of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I'm thinking of decorating this year so that home resembles Christmas Town. Yay!

something old, something new

This kind of stuff fascinates me. I can barely keep track of pairs of anything these days: earrings, socks, shoes, kids...

On the homefront, Zelda is now expert at climbing in and out of her highchair. Which is actually the highchair-chair with the tray attached, so it isn't very "high", per se. But she still needs a step to get up to it.







She is quite proud of herself, as well she should be! Go, baby girl, go.