Canning Togetherness

This autumn my family invited friends to join us in gathering other friends' abundance of fruit.  My children helped harvest, sort, and wash fruits.  While three-year-old Liam sorted supplies, seven-year-old Hannah helped cut fruits and stir pots of sauces as we canned plum jam, crock pot applesauce, and tomato sauce.  Thanks to my daughter's helpfulness, we shared humor, sweat, and learning while preparing edibles for our family.  Her gift is a gift for us all.

Canning togetherness

Saint Louis, Missouri

When I was four, my family drove to Colorado to spend a couple weeks with my dad's four siblings and their children.  The decades ticked by and I've only seen a handful of them once or twice since then.

I've been training for the last two years to become a shamanic practitioner.  In this training, I focus on appreciating my ancestors and this life they made possible.  Also, in sharing stories with my children of their ancestors, I realized most of my family stories were not positive.  I intentionally choose to share the love, joy, and positive intentions of my ancestors with my children.  On this search, I wrote a cousin to ask for positive family stories.  Each time I received from her a new story or photo, I burst into tears of appreciation at having something new to know of myself and to share with my children.  This cousin connection led to a wedding invitation, much debate on my taking my children with me or not, and Hannah and I attending my cousin's wedding.  Making space for this time with my daughter allowed my husband and son to have their own awesome boys' weekend at the coast.

My daughter was thrilled to fly in an airplane for the first time in her memory.  I adore flying.  We met so many of my aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, and family friends.  Our time together was an incredible love fest.  I felt incredibly known and loved in our circle of family.  In the faces of my relatives, I see my deceased grandparents, I feel the love they shared, and their commitment to their children.  I see the humor, the open hearts, and also the walls and defenses.  Hannah and I stepped into Uncle Bill's home and were immediately embraced, welcomed, and felt like we'd always been a part of the family.

After returning home, I still feel the love we shared with family.  This newborn love of my extended family stays with me.  I am so in love with these beautifully detailed, well-intentioned, loving people with whom I get to share ancestors.  What a gift to know such love and to return to those feelings with intention and an open heart.  Giving myself and my daughter this gift of loving family has been beyond my wildest dreams.

Saint Louis Airport right before I realized I'd lost my driver's license

In the Gateway Arch's tiny elevator

On top of the world in the Gateway Arch

Inside the museum under the arch

The arch was our only tourist destination for the weekend.

Time for a wedding

Orcas Island, Washington

My family took a summer trip to the Orcas Island, Washington.  In the busyness of daily life, I hadn't asked anything about our destination when my husband planned the trip.  Most our trips revolve around places to eat and visit, often in cities, so I assumed we were going to another city with pretty scenery.  

When I stood near a bay, watching my children muck around on a seaweed beach, as we waited for a ferry, I knew this trip was going to be extraordinary.  When we arrived on Orcas Island, like so many other tourists, we asked each other, "How can we move here?"  My friend who recently moved full-time to Orcas Island asked herself that same question on her first visit a decade ago.  

It's blissfully beautiful.  The water and trees are happy and healthy.  We went on some awesome adventures and cherished one easy day at the beach.  We made the time to spontaneously play for a few hours with new friends from Wisconsin.  ("There are no strangers here; Only friend you haven't yet met." -William Butler Yeats)  Orcas Island is a paradise we look forward to experiencing again soon.

Assembling puzzles with new friends on a ferry to the islands...

A day on the town

A view of Canada

Walking in the woods alongside the water

The happy sadness of discovering a washed up jellyfish

Seattle 2014

Our family treasures time with friends playing in Seattle each year.  It's a big city with so much to do.  We have our usual haunts, such as Dick's Drive-In, Pacific Science Center, Gates Foundation, Pike Place, The Seattle Great Wheel, and the University of Washington.  We also made return visits to Archie McPhee, Green Lake, and Crab Pot.  I like to freestyle flow through vacations, so my plan-every-detail husband reveals his secret itinerary (of eight to ten stops we made) at the end of each day.  I love unknowingly flowing with his ambitious plans for each day.  We love our time in Seattle.

Dick's ice cream

Archie McPhee

Sitting on Pike Place's Rachel the pig

Crab Pot

Taking in the details of a city view

Green Lake

University of Washington's red square & library

Meeting UW football players

Van Gogh Paint Set

Cousins so generously shared a paint set with Hannah.  Using one stencil and a variety of oil pastels and paints, she followed step-by-step directions to paint this beautiful Van Gogh Starry Night all by herself.  With these supplies, little brother Liam will paint his own Starry Night and Hannah will paint another.  We are choosing Van Gogh books at the library to learn more about this artist's life.  We are now inspired to recreate other famous paintings, to learn about other artists, and to create our original paintings.  Following our painting bliss is quite an adventure.

One of our artists in residence

High School Options (SE Portland)

In talking with friends about high school options for homeschoolers, I came across information that may be useful for someone.

Resources:

• ORVA
• ORCA
• First Class Clackamas Teens
• Clackamas Middle College
• Connections Academy
• Online Charter School Alliance Charter Academy in Oregon City
• HSLDA (for information on homeschooling laws in Oregon)
• Information on Community College websites about dual enrollment
• Estacada Early College: Kids dual enroll. They take all classes at CCC, Mt Hood CC, and maybe PCC. Choose one. They get highschool and college credit at same time.

What would you like to share about local options?

Shimmery Shoes

We have many creative friends.  One artistic friend came to play with us this summer to make art shoes.  We used glitter, fabric paint, buttons, word magnets, googly eyes, beads, and pompoms.  These were supplies we already had in our art box.  We invited other children and applied some or all of the supplies atop our shoes.  What fun!  Here are the results! 

Cupcake shoes

Liam hard at work shimmering his shoes

Rainbow shoes

Swirly shoes

Googly eye shoes

People shoes

Monster shoes