What's Up???

I've been remiss on posting lately, I think I'm going to join the Blogging without Obligation club! It's been cold, rainy, and dreary, eww, it's getting to me. If you can't tell by previous posts, this weather gets me down. I've come to the conclusion that I need to either move to where it snows a lot or move somewhere where it is nice all year round. I do kinda want to go skiing, but I think that's because I've seen two really cool ski flicks in the last couple of days on Encore Action. We've been hanging out at the house a lot lately, watching lots of movies (and ski flicks) via cable and netflix. Along with ballet, clay, and painting classes and Friends Meeting, and Eclectic homeschoolers group, and various other activities. . . maybe we're not so boring after all!?!

Naomi's first pot in clay class, lovely.

We've been keeping Camden, aka Cam-alama-ding-dong, aka sweetest little boy in the world, my BFF's little loverboy. Don't you want to eat him up???
Watching movies and loving Cam-alama-ding-dong and reading Maus for the at least the fourth time.

Cam loves the remote too, we gave him his very own. Also, notice the sweet potato nose!Dancing. . .

Return from the underworld Persephone!

It's been cold here lately! Please return from the underworld, Persephone! No snow to speak of, so completely not worth it! Today the girls were pretending to be goddesses who turned into animals. They're competing on who could be queen of the kingdom. . . the queen will be named Athena. Jayda is Persephone, and Naomi is Gaia, mother earth. Here is the story of Persephone, in case you're wondering, and thus the name of this entry. Our days have included a lot of this. . .

Staying in pajamas much of the day, playing video games, watching movies and tv, reading books. Not really that bad, if you think about it, but. . . mama is not a fan of cold weather and is desiring spring. After a while, tired of being stuck in the house and unmotivated due to cold weather.

Speaking of Greek mythology, here is a cool picture of the Parthenon (in Nashville) I took a few weeks ago with my new camera.


And since I'm posting cool pictures, here's one that Bobby took on my birthday of an unbelievable sunset.

Isn't life amazing!

OH NO!!!

It couldn't be! Our president wouldn't lie to us!

Study: False statements preceded war

Winter in Tennessee at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens

Admission to Cheekwood is only $1 each during the month of January. Why? Because January in Tennessee means plants look dead (I know they really aren't) and everything is just kind of drab. But, we took advantage of the last few global warming days this past Monday and Tuesday, and enjoyed the outdoors, parks (Centennial and Bellevue) one day and Cheekwood Gardens the next day.

Here are some photos illustrating the drabness of Tennessee in January illustrating why I have SAD each year and rejoice when spring comes once again!

Here, according to Naomi, is the "Garden of Little Plastic Signs," with an obligatory picture of the girls acting goofy:

Here's another picture that illustrates the drabness of winter:


Here's a picture of the Cheek's (the rich people who owned the house, of Maxwell House coffee fame) pet cemetary:


Ok, I know, enough bellyaching. There were some beautiful and inspiring sights to behold. The bamboo thicket in the Japanese Garden, always lovely.



A splash of red.


Jayda in a moment of repose with some lovely greenness.

Mags

Please keep your seatbelt fastened at all times while the vehicle is in motion.Heelys and Maggie-walking go hand-in-hand.

Book Worship

I love the irony of this photo. I also love used bookstores that are stacked floor to ceiling, every nook and cranny with all kinds of books, old and new, rare and common. I've always wanted to have a million books in my house, but have to curb my book-hoarding tendencies. . . books are really hard to move and plus I don't need more stuff!

We are a family that enjoys comic books. Art Speigelman, Garfield, Gary Larson, manga (see previous post) for Naomi and Jayda. We bought two books by Matt Groening, "Childhood is Hell" and "School is Hell." From Newsweek: "Hilarious, wise, and slyly subversive." He, he, I love sly subversiveness. Groening is the one who writes "The Simpsons," btw (it took me a while to put that together). Funny, funny books. I highly recommend.

Calling all Manga Fans!

Anyone who knows Naomi knows that she loves to draw, especially manga characters. Naomi has been spending a lot of time lately working on her website. It is all about Tokyo Mew Mew. Check it out, it showcases some of her art as well as her passion for manga. Don't forget to leave a comment! She will also be glad to design a character for you!


Naomi's web site

Here's a sneak peak:

sisterz

The Lahring sisterz.

The Morse sisterz.


The Srmek sisterz.

I love my family!

Read this to be enriched!

Here's a great essay about the essence of unschooling. Long, but very worth it, you will be enriched and enlightened!:

Songwriter's Notebook: Raising Leila

Snow!!

The girls, my mom, and sister went to Michigan on this past week. We got about 3-4 inches of snow on Friday, and it was nice and wet, good snowman making snow. The girls seemed like they were old pros at building snowmen, they went to it and we had it up in about 20 minutes!



He's so adorable!!