Photo Wednesday

OK, it's Thursday. But we took the photo on Wednesday...


This monster-melon weighed in at 14 pounds.

Reflected

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water.
The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken.
Although its light is wide and great,
The moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide.
The whole moon and the entire sky
Are reflected in one dewdrop on the grass.

-- Dogen (Japanese Zen Master)

Alternative Therapy, Aboriginal Edition

Didgeridoo-rapy.

I think maybe it organizes the central nervous system? Or something.


But only if you didgeri-do it right.

Photo Wednesday: Jackson Pollock Edition

Behold, the aesthetic force of a single handful of butternut bisque!



At least I haven't heard her singing "threedy boogie college"... not yet, anyway.


Update: As requested in the comments, here's the recipe for the "paint"/butternut bisque. It's from a lovely cookbook called Simply in Season.

Spin, Spin, Spin Redux (and Photo Wednesday)

Oh, how the plates have been spinning these past few weeks!

In addition to the usual insanity, we've had:

The bells, bells, bells! In the space of 16 days I had 4 handbell rehearsals and 9 performances. The final one for the season was last night. At a retirement center. In a snowstorm. Have I ever mentioned that JoyDad is a saint?


Drop me an e-mail if you want a link to online bell-video...

(spin, spin, spin)

Christmas cards & annual form letters! (No, really. We write a good one. Honest.) We've got so many friends, lived in so many places, etc. Our print run currently stands at 140. No, they are not yet all sent, though we've got a good start.


(spin, spin, spin)

Cookies! For our own faces and extended family, for friends, for office mates, for therapists, for a cookie exchange party tomorrow (I'm going to take Joy to an office party, possibly in another snowstorm, should be a hoot!) In addition to the peppernuts referenced in yesterday's comments, I've also done two rounds of Any Flavor Jello Cookies. Everything's better with butter in the batter...


(spin, spin, spin)

Trim up the tree! And fix up what goes beneath it as well! The Christmas shopping is almost all done... but Rose is the only one who has yet wrapped a present for under the tree. By the way, she figured out Santa Claus this year, but she still wants to hang a stocking to get her full share of loot. How FAST they grow up!


(spin, spin, spin)

So far there haven't been too many plates crashing down, though I failed to read Lynda's note that Joy needed diapers and wipes for daycare...

I'm gonna be really ready for a vacation though.

What's that? No school, no daycare, kids home all day for nearly two weeks? Starting next week?

Augghhhhhhh..... crasshhhhhhhhh

Photo Wednesday: Boundaries

Awwwww!!

That little charmer was yours-truly in 1968, at the age of not-quite-one. Look at all those lovely little icicles on the Christmas tree! So ridiculously tempting! My parents obviously didn't quite trust me not to be too enthusiastic too close to the tree... hence the artificial boundary. (If you look closely, you can see that I managed to snag an icicle or two anyway.)


I didn't exactly imagine that we'd still putting our Christmas tree out of reach with a four-and-a-half year old, but such is the way of things around here. The "safe" place for the little artificial tree (as safe as it gets, anyway) is on top of the stereo cabinet. No glass ornaments, just in case.

And yet, Joy's gotten so much better about boundaries in the past few months, starting with the oft-mentioned fence. It's gotten to the point that we are able to leave doors open to the rooms on the back hallway where she's not supposed to go, and she just... doesn't go there. Her therapists have commented on how Joy has even started to treat the square carpet in the living room as a boundary to be respected:


Maybe if things are going well next December, and Joy's dimmer switch for boundaries hasn't slammed in the opposite direction, we might consider a real tree. It's nice to be able to imagine that from here.

Meanwhile, Rose has been setting some boundaries of her own. Check out their bedroom door: Girls Club! Keep Out! Do not disturb, do not disturb! Stay out! Do not come in!

Photo Wednesday: Wild Woman Edition

Obligatory cautionary labeling:

Danger!
Fire-eating!
Do not try this at home, dear readers!




The year was 1995.

The instructor was Auntie Run-at-the-Mouth, wild-woman extraordinaire.

The trick is to extinguish the flame by closing your mouth around the stick, thus depriving the flame of oxygen.

It's good to have photo documentation of (some, perhaps not all) wild woman moments!

Marzan!

Towanda!