Hiking, (farewell to) Gymnastics, LC Xmas

Ama and Boppa live on the edge of a great trail system. We'll look forward to woods blanketed in snow, perhaps in time for Christmas.











It's with some sadness that we've decided to end the gymnastics era. It's so clearly a sport Portia had a talent for & loved...she'd gotten to a point, though, where the danger factor felt a bit much to bear. Plus, with the next step meaning hours and hours of weekly practice in the gym, it felt like a good time to move onwards. And so to the pool we've gone. She seems to be a natural, like her dad, with pretty much any athletic undertaking, so she's taken to swimming like she took to gymnastics. Selfishly I'd rather be hanging out in pools and dedicating hours to swim practice than cervical spine injuries waiting to happen in stinky gyms.

Why this sport is being replaced with swimming......following this dismount she landed painfully on her head, causing what we feared would be a neck injury...she popped up, though, and said: "ouch, my knee hurts."







A couple of weeks ago we started Xmas festivities with a Lawn Club celebration.

Messiah

It's Christmas time, and that just means I blast the Messiah at deafening levels. In the car, in the house. This is just the only way to fully experience this music. In the car on the way home after a (so) fun couple of hours with my babes on a search for a gift for sister from brother, I not only had Prince of Peace cranked, but I, too, was belting away. I love love love this music. (the awesome recording, courtesy of Marna, only adds to the brilliance of it) I didn't sense that H and P were really getting why their mom was singing away like a maniac in the front seat, probably needing to pull over. So, after Prince of Peace ends, I turn down the music, and, at a stop light, turn around and explain to them that, "This music is transformative, it's other-worldly, it's intense beyond compare, it's so gorgeous that I just have to play it super loudly. It just makes me feel so alive!" To which Hugo, exasperated, says: "But you're already alive, Mama." Not all hope is lost, though, since when we pulled into the driveway, after the 3rd run through Prince of Peace, Hugo says: "I have to admit, Mama, I actually do really like it." And then came the echo from Portia. See, it's all a matter of exposure.

Earlier that afternoon, goofing around in the kitchen, Hugo laughingly says to Portia: "I could take you down if I had a little more fat." I think I did fall off my chair. We're always commenting on how Hugo's a danger to himself what with his bones knocking into eachother. Zero insulation on this child. It's cute when he can poke fun at his own skinniness with comments like 'taking his sister down'.

Happy Thanksgiving!

P's List





H's List



H's Turkey


P's bejeweled Turkeys






These are the lyrics from a song we sang in the school assembly yesterday that stick with me. We here on ERR hope you, too, celebrated a happy Thanksgiving.

May the light of love be shining deep within your spirit
May the torch of mercy clear the path and show the way
May the horn of plenty sound so everyone can hear it
May the light of love be with you every day

May we wish the best for every one that we encounter
May we swallow pride and may we do away with fear
For it's only what we do not know that we have grown afraid of
And only what we do not choose to hear

As we bless our daily bread and drink our day's libation
May we be reminded of the lost and wayward soul
The hungry and the homeless that we have in every nation
May we fill each empty cup and bowl

May nothing ever come between or threaten to divide us
May we never take for granted all the gifts that we receive
Being ever mindful of the unseen hands that guide us
And the miracles that cause us to believe

What to do with that forgotten bottle of Agave Nectar?

Make the tastiest, EASIEST banana bread ever! So happy to have come across this recipe. I've got to share it since I hope it will become a staple in your house as it has in ours. Not only have I finally used up the nectar that sat and sat without a purpose for over a year, I've replenished our supply with the biggest bottle I could find. This is easy, it's great to do with children, and, best of all, it's healthy. Not a given with banana bread.
Courtesy of Food and Wine mag:
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup all purpose baking flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
3 ripe/overripe mashed bananas
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup soy milk, unsweetened
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly oil 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan.
In a medium bowl whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, whisk the bananas with the oil, agave nectar, soy milk and vanilla. Add banana mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 min or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

Easier than easy.

Made one today with H who was home today with a cold. In addition to baking this loaf, we played "Macaroney Club". We had a grand old time hanging out in his loft which he had decked out as a vessel we were sailing around the world in search of the long-lost "macaroney." Turned out to be a sorely needed geography refresher for me. I could now successfully navigate, if I knew how to sail, from Iceland south to meet the Strait of Gibraltar, through the Mediterranean, cruise by Egypt into the Gulf of Aden, navigate through the Red Sea and sail due east to Australia. It was a pretty great sick day.

Halloween 2010

We had a fun, COLD and festive Halloween. A bee, a Jedi, a clown and something scraped together 1 min before the string of pre-trick-or-treating events. It was one of those weekends that felt frazzling before it even got underway. Parties, school parade, one awesome haunted, nighttime, candle-lit stroll through Edgerton and mama's rotting teeth all behind us now. It's the holiday that keeps on givin', though. I figure we've got about 2 weeks to go given the torturous family rule of 1 piece/day. (applicable only to those under 38) One thing we did learn this year: we sadly won't be so trusting next year with the gigantic bowl placed out on the front porch, with the naively trusting words: "Please take only one." We got taken for a real ride. Apparently our bowl was empty by 6:20, 5 min after we'd all left the house for a nearby party in the neighborhood. In the true spirit of giving, Hugo gets the gold medal this year for being the most diligent, polite Unicef collector ever.















Lawn Club Halloween Squash Challenge. H was in a corner somewhere humming with every bite of his chocolate winnings

Haunted Stroll in Edgerton Park







Lawn Club Halloween Parade and Lunch







Ask and you shall receive...he came home that evening with an overly stuffed Unicef box


Another collection!


At Alex and Kate's



Back home, before Nai Nai's departure