Mama's Big Ol' Blog

Yesterday was National Coming Out Day, and it has passed by with no comment from me. Not because I wasn't thinking about my beautiful fr...

Pearl, my 4 year old, getting out of the tub tonight: "I feel like a brand new person. Like I've just been born." Maybe so.

Off to find out more about Pearl's suspicious scalp mole tomorrow. I'm only kind of freaking out, not because this one is probably j...

We've been watching Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind at our house these last several days. (yes, in a row. Yes, that is a lot of scree...

I've joined the facebook borg, finally. I resisted for a long time, concerned about data mining and the CIA ties with the founders of fa...

We've decided to open a store called Badwill. Hey, the girls wondered if there was a store called Goodwill, why isn't there a store ...

I played the hand-held plastic version of this as a child. For hours. Obsessively. It's still fun! Simon Says

I've been making mulled wine occasionally over the last week, and I have to say it's very tasty. I use cardamom seeds, whole cloves,...

Ok, so I unearthed piles of crap and found a few christmas cards. Hooray! Too sorry for myself to find them before, I guess. My apologies to...

Christmas! We had fun watching the girls open their gifts, a few of which were from "santa". Now, we don't do Santa - we don...

So we returned from the events down south with much fanfare. Arriving in Madison we encountered the beginning of a blizzard, which continued...

After a couple hard nights, and the morning after we arrived to see him, my father died this morning, peacefully, among family. I was on my ...

We're headed out of town tomorrow for our trek South. We may or may not make it before Dad dies, we'll see. He's off all meds ex...

Promised dog pics. Sorry about the dog eye glare. (Posted as I hear the wall-thumping mice on their interior journeys through the attic. .. ...

Dad's still on the decline. Hospice nurse recommended he get his last rites if he was Catholic, which he is. Lola wants to see him again...

After a few days of decline, Dad is still hanging in there but losing a lot of weight. He's not really eating, and can't really walk...

We have a puppy! Her name is Shadow, and we don't have pics yet. She is a black lab/boxer cross, very cuddly, adorable. Great with the k...

Lola is so excited about a number of things today, but the latest is her Magical Garden, made entirely out of her imagination with little pl...

Well, the tax credit/refund we've been expecting for weeks has yet again not been sent by the IRS. We have been waiting for this for mo...

Just in time for the full moon tomorrow, the neighbors with problems are moving out. I wish I could say "All right! Hot damn!" but...

It's truly Fall now, and I am just so happy to be part of it. The air turned chilly and the nights cold two days ago; the sky is cloudy ...

While removing molded bean plants from my garden, I found this: Pearl said it was delicious.

Spent about an hour outside today gathering pods from mature Ground Beans , (wiki image) which grow in profusion around the back edge of the...

One of the things I love about homeschooling/unschooling is following ideas as they come up in conversation. The latest has been the Holocau...

It was like a horror movie at the bottom of the stairs today. Our cat, Rose, managed to catch and kill a mouse while we slept peacefully in ...

Found this useful, if not entirely updated, site for local farms: local harvest . After searching my area, was surprised to notice way more ...

I will be adding a few new links in the days ahead. Feel free to browse...

We recently got a little upright freezer for the basement and loaded it with all the green bean pint bags I had in our upstairs freezer. To ...

We are all listening madly to the Llama Song . Now you can, too.

As mentioned in a comment to the last post, we definitely live in the land of blood-sucking critters! Leeches, ticks, mosquitoes, gnats, dee...

We convinced the girls to get in and sit in a canoe this summer on our most recent camping trip. From Tata's vantage point: I wish i cou...

Tonight I put Pearl to bed, falling asleep right at the moment the local wood thrushes began their nighttime songs. If you've never hea...

Round Two. FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: The rainwater runway built by the owners, on the side of the house; the curved amphitheater-like back of the ...

I just took a bunch of pictures of the house and I have a minute or two to add them here, for your pleasure. If I can't get them all in ...

We are an amusing sight: tired, overwhelmed mom typing clickety click on the laptop, looking over at the kids on the couch facing the deskto...

We are getting the truck tomorrow and are again feeling craziness. We plan to load everyhting we can until we pass out, and then do it again...

We close tomorrow afternoon, walk-through is late morning. The kids are so nervous and excited, Lola can hardly stand it. They're coming...

We are closing on the house next week, the 26th. In a week! All the inspections are done and we're good to go. Now we are packing, sorti...

Our offer has been accepted, and we are on our way to owning the house. Hooray! I am beyond happy and relieved. I can email y'all with t...

The seller evidently had two offers to buy! So they offered counter offers to both of us. We have until Saturday to respond. Once we accept ...

We're making an offer on a house. Really! More details once we are in acceptance stage. Only 2 acres but maybe more in the future.... Cr...

A friend recently alerted me that it's been quite a while since anything has happened on this blog. Well it's true, life has indeed ...

If you are thinking about pouring undiluted bleach on an intensely gross, 18-inch diameter cat poop and pee spot on a concrete basement floo...

We are still south, some of us. Dad is in a nursing home, receiving care and lightly medicated. Yesterday I thought we would be here a long ...

We all survived Yule and Solstice and Christmas and the coming of the new calendar year. But my dad is not going to live long in to this new...

We don't "do" Santa around here. This means we don't lie to the children and tell them there is a jolly fat man with a whi...

I recently discovered Portishead's Third . It's like the old 80s underground, electronic (some), sonic youth, stereolab, and more! S...

The good news is that BIL is not getting laid off. The other news is that he is not able to get a loan until after the middle of December. S...

It's Holiday Helper time again! Over at the Mothering discussion forums, members (and moms) organize an annual giving program for famili...

Now BIL might get laid off. We don't have enough money to get us through our gas and non-food purchases this month because Chris worked...

We're all scrambling like mad over here, trying to figure out how to purchase a house and some land. That's right, we're mad scr...

You can laugh. It's OK. Brutus is her rubber chicken. And a fine name for a chicken, it is.

We're heading down south again, next week. Just the girls and I. we won't be staying too terribly long, but we will get some quality...

For a long while, I have been plagued by an action-stopping sense of shame and guilt at my life’s turning and my body’s changes since having...

Getting a big birthday hug from Lola:

I’m kind of at a loss. Chris and I have a date this Thursday - a real date. Friends are watching the kids during the best hours of the day ...

Today I am officially one year from 40. We are celebrating by eating a breakfast made entirely by Chris, the girls are dusting the house, an...

Some recent photos of the girls: At our wedding party: At the Wisconsin Ren Faire Posting these took nearly 20 minutes; I'm done for now...

Argh. I just lost a long rant about an unexpected 6 year old guest that left a urine-soaked futon in her wake, discovered only recently - on...

"There's been entirely too much independence around this house lately." - Me

There are times I forget my children are not adults. Recently, Lola and I are reading another Arthur story, one about Arthur buying a Treat ...

We'll just have to drink all that mead without you. Viking Brewery makes awesome mjod - a honey brackett, really, but tasty stuff. Sorr...

I've noticed it's been weeks since I've posted. Naughty Mama! But I have good reason - I've been busy. My eldest has started...

by Kim Blue “Never name the well from which you will not drink*,” warns Marion Zimmer Bradley in her classic book, The Mists of Avalon . Nev...

It's true. My next post will be a little essay about that very thing. If you know me you are invited to our outdoor potluck party on Jun...

Tata has a blog!!! Check out my sexy honey's writing here: http://tata-23.livejournal.com/

Know anyone who would hire me to do stuff for them that won't kill my wrists or involve heavy lifting, and that pays $10 per hour or mor...

So we have all been crappy sick for days. It's been well over a week that no one has had any kind of contagious, wearying, hacking, feve...