Boxing Day

Historians say the holiday developed because servants were required to work on Christmas Day, but took the following day off. As servants prepared to leave to visit their families, their employers would present them with gift boxes. Traditional English holiday.
My goal today is to not leave the "compound". I plan on exercising, eating chocolates & leftovers & watching some more Christmas movies. This year the stress of work & Christmas left so little time to enjoy, but traditionally the 12 days of Christmas start on Christmas day & now I have the time to enjoy it.
There are still board games unopened. Adrian got some cool stuff & I haven't heard any dissapointment over not getting an X-box. He got an Erector Set, a snap circuit set, a 1,000 piece Lego set, Blokus, Scrabble, Magnetix, a basketball backboard, Harry Potter movie, a DS game, & killer computer game call Civilization. My only regret is there were no new books, but he visits the library every week & I like geting books 4 the home at sales where he can have many choices when he runs out of library books.
Civilization allows players the chance to lead their chosen nation from the dawn of man through the space age & become the greatest ruler the world has ever known. He will learn so much history from this game. I so wish my family members could understand the greatness of the amount of learning that comes from technology. Our civilization has advanced so much, why do people find it hard to accept that the school learning system is so archaic. Why is it so hard to give up the fact that a kid at age nine can write anyway that makes him comfortable. What is the most I write down these days? My grocery list & sometimes that goes on my Treo too! I can see in no way where he is inferior to his schooled friends. By contrast I see a boy whose logic ,common sense & vocabulary far outrank most of his age. Noooooooo! I must not compare! We all learn what we want to when we want to, no matter how forced regulation tries to change that!

Working for the Holiday

What's this? I am an independant owner of a small company who is to be able to take advantage of much needed time off when ever she chooses!!!! HA! HA! HA! Can I get a : "LMAO"?!!!

I saw pictures yesterday that I found from a link from a former neighbor in St. Thomas who is now on FB. It was photo's of Hull Bay, St. Thomas. My old stomping grounds. During our last month there we spent every evening watching the sun go down on the bay. I'd swim in the Ocean as the sun would touch the water. It was an "aw" moment. Wow! How I miss that beauty.

Today, Chirstmas Day, I had the most wonderful day! It was the first day I've had to do nothing but what I enjoy and love (cooking good food, watching movies and enjoying family) in months!!! Here's how it went down. Cappucinno in fine china.

Drum circle.

As washing machine ornament that lights up and the clothes go round and round for the laundry man!
My annual Gluf Coast ornament. This year the Downtown Cathedral!

MMM! Those chocolate covered cherries

The best gift I ever gave to guys in a family. The cowboy pistols. There have been gunfights all day!

The grande finale. Scallops, Lamb, mashed potatoes, and a salad made with fresh beets, maple walnuts, and my garden greens!

In the moment..

We have a whiteboard on our refrigerator. It always has the days date, but what else goes on there is a random call. Sometimes it's what happened on this day in history, or hints on journal writing (someday I know he'll pick up that book and write for days) or it may have a spiritual quote from a varied of places. I like the Daily Word from Unity Church. I like Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williams and tons of inspirational writers. We never know what is sinking in and sometimes I feel I am erasing it too soon as the new day begins. I wonder did he get that or was that just a waste of my time. But erase it I do and the next bit of tidbit goes up.
This week, Adrian and I were driving home from the show listening to the radio. Adrian made the comment that the lyric "reach down and touch me", should not be in that song. I looked at him and asked if he thought it was a sexual innuendo. He said "mom!". I said "yes". If I had wanted to hear that word I would have said it myself. "Sex" I replied. "Yes" came from his. I went on to explain that I would like to always keep the doors of communication open when it comes to sex. I explained how he'd have sex some day, that it was a natural progression. His remark was once again priceless: "I would rather live in the moment."
Something did sink in.

How Long Has It Been....?

Unbelievable! Really! (I must say that for the sake of sounding hip.) We have been so busy. Adrian usually has a full fall schedule with classes at the local recreation center, but this year there were many classes cancelled, including his past favorite, homeschool science. But unlike past schedules, this fall he was able to take Jr. Architect. It is taught by an architect who helped on several projects in Las Vegas, before retiring to become a full time mom of 3. He has built bridges, arches and roller coasters. Tennis was cancelled, but he has joined a basketball team for the early winter. This is his first team sport. We are all having a ton of fun.

Christmas is upon us! I have to say I am not into it. Paul and I have been working more than overtime for the past month. I would love to escape for the next month in our RV on the Baja. I really want some time to not do a dang thing. But guess what? It's Christmas! And my son is on a team. Team means supporting each other. I really am having a very hard time getting out the decorations. Decoration seems like work. My feet are killing me. Seriously.

So as you may have guessed, I cannot stop complaining, I cannot stop feeling like I would love for us to be any where but here. Yea, I'd like to be somewhere experiencing a different culture or seeing new sites. In the words of my son who was then 5. "It's time to blow this Popsicle stand."

Maybe some spiked eggnog would get me in the spirit. Hmm.... It's not much but here are a few pictures I took this fall.

Why do sugar, salt and bad oils taste so good...

We belong to two homeschool groups. We enjoy both, but usually only get to one. Yesterday we got to the one least visited. The leader is great and always brings snacks for everyone. Yesterday as my son was munching down, I reminded him I had brought some food too. His response, "Yea, but you didn't bring cake and potato chips."
Sigh!

September Adventures

Every year, due to a series of shows, we head to the East Coast for the month of September. Our business started 12 years ago on the East Coast. I considered settling in the beautiful country side of Virginia many times, but Paul really wanted to see more of the West before we made any decisions. I was surprised this year while heading to the Virginia Fall Races Steeplechase in Middleburg, VA when Paul said "It is really beautiful here, but.." and there always is a but, "it gets too cold." I have to say it also gets too wet for his arthritis ailments.

It is an adventure during this time. We stay with friends and in hotels. Staying with friends we eat the best, staying in hotels we sleep the best.

We had some great times visiting east coast friends. We always celebrate Paul's birthday at our friend's "Aunt Mac's" house where she always cooks her delicious crab cakes and we have a chocolate pie celebration! One of our all time favorite shows is the Maryland Wine Festival. We get to work with our friend Sandy and Adrian gets to play with her son Josh. On this trip a friend of ours who is from Germany (and I make this point because I find Germans have the hardest time accepting the concept of homeschooling) commented on Adrian traveling with us. He wanted to know if there was someone we could leave him with so he could go to school. Paul's response was wonderful. "Why would I not want my son with me?" Here's Adrian, not socializing and having a terrible time because he goes to work with us.

We have done a show near Philly forever. It is one of our favorite shows because it is the best Dressage Show in the country! Here's a picture of our shop for the week we are there.

This year we hung around Philly and saw some historical sites. I found this to be such great fun! It was inspiring knowing that we were in the home place of our constitution. I truly felt the earth move while visiting Ben Franklin's grave as he was turning restlessly at the thought of our government today.

In DC we went to the International Spy Museum. What a treat. A really fascinating tour. I just have one question? Why do we prosecute and execute men who turn spy's against US yet pay top dollars to the person willing to do the same against their country?

I had to drag the boys to see some significant sites of DC! You can tell how close we got. LOL!

Is that the Prez?

Another highlight of DC is hanging with our friends Edna and Carsten. The meals are the best home cooking ever and the conversation is inspiring. I loved that Paul got to experience Peggy's front porch. Happy hour is amazing as characters in or combing the neighborhood drop in. This time we were visited by a young retired Marine collecting for Amnesty International. He never asked for money but sat talking with us about a myriad of topics, then their was the couple who had just got back from Tangier. They had stayed a month in a remote part of the country. The hardest thing was the lack of food choices they had. He spoke of how all the money from the US never went to the intended. Wow! After the hour, Paul compared the "Frolic Arms" happy hour to a TV show!

August Highlights

Life is full but here's a few highlights from August.