At the office

It's the PERFECT office for the small amount of time that I need it.  A sensual blend of warm lighting, deep heady aroma of coffee, interesting people-watching opportunities, wide space, and walls covered in great art- this month, some of mine!  This place I call my "office" three days a week is the Middle Way Cafe.  I have about an hour and a half between when I drop Willa off at school and when I have to go to work.  I've become very attached to this cafe/art gallery and I've come to really look forward to my cheap cuppa drip and time spent here with my laptop- editing photos, networking, researching my next art venues, FB'ing, and hopefully fitting in more blog perusing.



My spot under the long "s" painting

  It's been awhile since I've kept up with my blog roll and I'd like that to change.  FB is fun but also a major time sucker for someone with Attention Deficit Disorder.  I love that I have been able to keep in regular contact with SO many people that I probably wouldn't if left to just using snail or e-mail...and it's great for promoting my art, but it can also be so vacuous.  I find with spring here and the summer approaching that I'm missing the plethora of fabulous, ideas and inspiration that I have found within my blog list.  I have yet to see if some of them are even in existence anymore!  Life changed so much once Willa started full time school.  Gone were our days filled with little adventures of discovery, creating and crafts.  Abridged versions of these were relegated to the weekends.  I work more, took on an art career, and weekdays have become so much more busy with daily routine-lots of driving and evenings filled with trying to keep some semblance of tidiness in the home, fixing dinner all while Willa re-loads from a busy social day with some solitary play.   And all of a sudden it's bedtime.   I STILL hate not having her at home.  HATE it.  But she is where she needs to be for her age and is thriving and happy at our Waldorf school.  And on the other end of the spectrum, I'm very happy - and surprised -to have launched my art from the kitchen to the walls of local galleries.  And my work at the clinic is enjoyable, too.  But I can't wait for summer and the chance to get back into the rhythm of the "old days".  Morning walks to see what's new and alive outside, little road trips, picnics, creating outside in the sun, challenge hikes, and that spontaneous child-led learning-for BOTH of us.  I have a need to revisit the places where I have learned so much...about myself, about parenting, about the philosophy of the Waldorf environment, natural learning, ...to where such an  abundance of creativity is.  I've let life get TOO routine, and although the struggle to fit more of the past's routines into the now, consistently, is exhausting to someone with ADD, I need to make more of an effort.  It'll be easier when school is out. 
But for now, time to close down, leave my pleasant office and head to work.

Connecting...

Picking up knitting

again

but I think I can follow through

this time

a comfortingly intuitive

Teacher

watching quietly, acknowledges my aspiration

as well as my tension

validates my pleasure

reminding me to pause, breath deep, relax

~Our emotions come through in our stitches…

My green yarn runs in a gentle arc

from the ball on her lap

to my inner unrest

emerging stitch by contradictory stitch

from the needle-

awkward, contented, introverted, belonging, grateful, tentative, sure, happy…

The connection

umbilical-like

does not go unnoticed.

BTW....we're out of the closet now

Keith Haring painting

When I first decided to start a public blog, I felt it was important to play it safe and keep my family anonymous.  In the following years, I've found this genre of the blogosphere to be a pretty peaceful and friendly place.  I have always found using the aliases on my blog to be mildly annoying so I've just decided to not bother anymore.  Many people out there know who I am already, and the one pathetic creeper I was hoping to avoid found me anyway.

So. We're coming out of the closet of blogging anonymity.   My name is Dana.  My husband is Miles, Dea's real name is Dylan and Lo's real name is Willa.  So nice to meet you! 

Miles's 4 dozenth Birthday party!

Miles enjoying the view, his Mortlach and the awesome sweater I bought him!

We celebrated my Hunny's 48th Birthday yesterday.  Our mountains, resplendent in the glorious sun, played host to many visiting friends,  a toasty warm bonfire, and another memorable party.  Miles's homebrew flowed as everyone weaved in and out of conversation, around food aplenty, and between the chill of outside and the warmth within our home.   The sledding on our driveway, however, was HARSH, and I find myself today nursing a spasming lower back.  And that was only after one run!  We've thoroughly enjoyed almost 4 weeks of booming sunshine and cloudless skies, but not much new snow.  That makes for a hard packed, very slick and unforgiving driveway.  OI, yoi, yoi....

It's now just getting warm enough to sit out on what remains of our deck to enjoy the solar radiation-and we don't even need to bundle up.  Even though we are still surrounded in white, I can just feel the light and warmth quickening our valley....and the life beneath gearing up to POP.

The homebrew menu

Bottling beer earlier in the day.  From the secondary ferment....

....to the (sideways?!?!?) bottles for conditioning (carbonation and aging)

Wonderful gathering outside

Wonderful gathering inside

Dylan and I collabed on Daddy's cake.  Chocolate peanut butter....with Klingon style.

Cold fingers once the sun set behind the ridge

Sweet friends

Ending with a nice Malbec......


Happy Birthday, my sweet love!

ANELIZE

I know you’re lurking… interloping where you have no business.  To evaporate  in cowardice out of a child’s life with no fight, no words of comfort,  offering no closure ... only to blast back in years later -with a FACEBOOK “Friend Request”, no less!- is unbelievably SELFISH, IRRESPONSIBLE, and the epitome of LAMEouze. Did you ever once give thought to how disruptive prying open old wounds can be?  Perhaps YOU would like to foot the therapy bill?!

I believe she has offered her heartfelt FACEBOOK "response".

I wish you the peace of mind you need... and that someday your demons will rest. Always have.
 But find it within yourself...on your own time, your own dime, on your own turf.  Do what's decent.  Stay the hell away from my family.