Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone is having a spooky, magickal day! Happy Halloween from the Mother, Lover, Goddess crew





Darth Vader, a Hobbit, and a Squash

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone is having a spooky, magickal day! Happy Halloween from the Mother, Lover, Goddess crew





Darth Vader, a Hobbit, and a Squash

WDI Session in Europe Now Full

The World Debate Institute affiliated program the International debate Academy Slovenia is now full. We have every room in the Hotel Ormoz full and even some additional spaces. Thanks to everyone who has shown such great support for the program. We are at our limit for the instructional part of the program. We are proud that so many have recognized us as the premier Worlds format training program on the globe.

But there is still an opportunity for you to join us and be part of what we are doing. There are lots of spots open for the tournament component of the program. The tournament will be a full service event hosted at the Faculty of Law in Maribor, Slovenia. The program will begin afternoon of 28 and continue until 30 November 2008. Join us for a vigorous and economical tournament. We will offer housing, meals and complete tournament entry fees for 50 Euros per person.

We offer great judging, featuring our remarkable faculty, including:

• Loke Wing Fatt, Singapore: Well known Asian debate trainer, WUDC breaking judge, honorary professorship North-Eastern University China, SAID Singapore, 4th IDAS.
• Jens Fischer, Germany: Berlin Debating Union, Chief Adjudicator at Europeans, 3rd IDAS.
• Sam Greenland, UK/Hong Kong/Australia: WUDC semifinalist for Sydney, Hong Kong world schools coach, 3rd IDAS.
• Steve Llano, USA: Professor at St. John’s University NY, NE USA Director of the Year, USA National Champion coach, 3rd IDAS.
• Branka Marusic, Croatia: President Europeans Council, IDAS Finalist, 2nd IDAS.
• Rhydian Morgan, UK: Chief Adjudicator and Finals judge at numerous tournaments, Welsh Debating Federation, World Debate Institute faculty 2008, 2nd IDAS.
• Debbie Newman, UK: Past president of Cambridge Union, England & Wales National Champion, former Director of Centre for Speech & Debate at English-Speaking Union, England World Schools coach and WSDC world champion coach.
• Alfred Snider, USA: Professor at University of Vermont, Director World Debate Institute, USA USA Coach of the Year, six recent debate textbooks, 6th IDAS.
• Bojana Skrt, Slovenia: Director ZIP, thrice WSDC EFL Champion coach, 6th IDAS.

Book your spot at the tournament now. There are cheap flights to Graz, Austria via Ryanair and other options, with an easy train connection to Maribor.

For more information contact Bojana Skrt at bojana.skrt@siol.net. Bojana can help you with travel arrangements.

The form to apply for the tournament is at http://debate.uvm.edu/idastourn.doc

The general website is at http://debate.uvm.edu/idas.html

See you in Maribor at the tournament!

Halloween / Samahin Happenings

Halloween / Samahin Happenings

This has been one of the most rewarding Samhain seasons ever. The perfect combination ended up being - simplicity, of course! I didn't bust my head against any walls, I didn't hold myself to perfection I didn't tackle a million projects. I choose a few important ways to celebrate the season and tried to keep my schedule as clear as possible otherwise.



Here's some of the fun things we are doing or will do soon:



We went to the local pumpkin patched and picked our own pumpkins, we then carved the of course. There's nothing like harvesting our pumpkin fresh off the vine.



Our homeschool group entered the Pumpkin Fest Parade and we won first place for best float in our division! I can't take any credit for this one it was mostly the effort of other people in the group but I had fun showing up, helping to set up the float and adorning my kids in cute homespun, costumes to wear. It was a lot of fun!



We went to the pumpkin fest, ate a caramel apple and rode the ferris wheel. The key to the pumpkin fest is one treat, one ride and go home before everyone gets cranky. Worked like a charm this year and I spent a lot less money!



We created an ancestor altar in our home. It took only a few hours. We set up some pictures of family who have passed on in our dining room window sill, we then made objects out of clay including skulls, bones and representations of food our beloved ancestors liked.



We are having a graveyard picnic today at 3 PM with some friends from our homeschool group.



Halloween night we are having a party at Nykki's best friend's grandma's house. It's a soup potluck with goulish treats. The idea is classic, simple homemade Halloween. Sure beats trick or treating for junk food my kids aren't aloud to eat or standing all night in the cold and the rain to go through a haunted house or enchanted pumpkin patch. Warm, home based celebrations always leave me feeling resfreshed instead of over stimulated and drained.



Add to that our homemade costumes, which I will post pictures of on November 1st.



What are you up to these Halloween / Samhain days? What is your favorite tradition? Are you dressing up? What will you be? Are you feeling the spirit of the season or are you feeling frazzled?

Halloween / Samahin Happenings

Halloween / Samahin Happenings

This has been one of the most rewarding Samhain seasons ever. The perfect combination ended up being - simplicity, of course! I didn't bust my head against any walls, I didn't hold myself to perfection I didn't tackle a million projects. I choose a few important ways to celebrate the season and tried to keep my schedule as clear as possible otherwise.



Here's some of the fun things we are doing or will do soon:



We went to the local pumpkin patched and picked our own pumpkins, we then carved the of course. There's nothing like harvesting our pumpkin fresh off the vine.



Our homeschool group entered the Pumpkin Fest Parade and we won first place for best float in our division! I can't take any credit for this one it was mostly the effort of other people in the group but I had fun showing up, helping to set up the float and adorning my kids in cute homespun, costumes to wear. It was a lot of fun!



We went to the pumpkin fest, ate a caramel apple and rode the ferris wheel. The key to the pumpkin fest is one treat, one ride and go home before everyone gets cranky. Worked like a charm this year and I spent a lot less money!



We created an ancestor altar in our home. It took only a few hours. We set up some pictures of family who have passed on in our dining room window sill, we then made objects out of clay including skulls, bones and representations of food our beloved ancestors liked.



We are having a graveyard picnic today at 3 PM with some friends from our homeschool group.



Halloween night we are having a party at Nykki's best friend's grandma's house. It's a soup potluck with goulish treats. The idea is classic, simple homemade Halloween. Sure beats trick or treating for junk food my kids aren't aloud to eat or standing all night in the cold and the rain to go through a haunted house or enchanted pumpkin patch. Warm, home based celebrations always leave me feeling resfreshed instead of over stimulated and drained.



Add to that our homemade costumes, which I will post pictures of on November 1st.



What are you up to these Halloween / Samhain days? What is your favorite tradition? Are you dressing up? What will you be? Are you feeling the spirit of the season or are you feeling frazzled?

Our Anniversary!

October 29th is Seth and I's 4th anniversary!

My beloved Seth where would I be without you? You are my protector, my guider, my lover, the father of our children, my steadfast soul mate and I am blessed to spend every moment that I do with you. My co-creator, my partner, my husband....I love you.

Our Anniversary!

October 29th is Seth and I's 4th anniversary!

My beloved Seth where would I be without you? You are my protector, my guider, my lover, the father of our children, my steadfast soul mate and I am blessed to spend every moment that I do with you. My co-creator, my partner, my husband....I love you.

October 27, 2008 - George Herbert on Prayer

In my study-leave reading, I ran across a remarkable poem by George Herbert. I’ve long admired the poetry of this seventeenth-century Welsh divine. Herbert, a sickly man from a noble family, was ordained a priest at mid-life and labored in an obscure country parish. He died soon after, and would have quickly been forgotten were it not for his poetry, stunning in its imagery and use of the English language.

Reading a George Herbert poem is not easy. Like the scribblings of Shakespeare, his writing is studded with archaic vocabulary. To the persistent, though, what seems dense and incomprehensible at first slowly reveals hidden treasures.

Here’s the poem:

Prayer (I)

Prayer the Churches banquet, Angels age,
Gods breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth;

Engine against th’Almightie, sinner’s towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six daies world-transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;

Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bels beyond the stars heard, the souls bloud,
The land of spices, something understood.

So, what is prayer, anyway? Herbert’s answer comes in the form of metaphors, slung at us readers rapid-fire. Their meaning is so rich, you have to spend a little time with each one, turning it over and over in your hands...

“the Churches banquet” – a biblical allusion, to any one of a number of passages that see the life to come as a rich feast. Isaiah sings of “a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear” (25:6). Jesus tells a parable about a host so determined to fill every seat at his banqueting-table that he throws the doors open to street people (Luke 14:15-24). “You that have no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1). Prayer is a feast, to which all are invited.

“Angels age” – Since Herbert doesn’t use apostrophes to indicate possession, this could mean “angels growing older,” or it could be – with an apostrophe – “the era of the angels.” I think it’s the latter. There’s something timeless about prayer.

“Gods breath in man returning to his birth” – The poet of Genesis sees life as breath: the Creator God breathing life into nostrils of inanimate clay. To Herbert, prayer is a sort of exhalation, an exchange of respiration.

“The soul in paraphrase” – To paraphrase dense prose is to render it understandable. In prayer, the human soul gives voice to its subtlest heartbeat, its deepest longing.

“heart in pilgrimage” – This one’s self-evident. Prayer is a long and deliberate Godward journey. It also suggests that prayer is best engaged as a long-term discipline.

“The Christian plummet sounding heav’n and earth” – To us, “plummet” means to drop or fall, but it’s related to an old word for “lead.” The plumb is a lead weight a builder hangs from a line, in order to build a perpendicular wall. Ancient mariners would fling a lead weight overboard, attached to a line, in order to gauge the ocean’s depth. This technique was called “sounding.” Prayer, then, helps us test the depth of dark and incomprehensible mysteries.

“Engine against th’Almightie, sinner’s towre” – The next few lines are about prayers of lament or imprecation: angry prayers that give honest voice to human pain and frustration. The “engine” is probably a siege engine, the ponderous wooden contraption an attacking army would wheel up against a city wall. Some of these siege engines were so tall, they could be called towers. A woman in my lymphoma support group was speaking recently of how her cancer has led her to ask the “Why me?” question. Cast in the form of prayer, such a question is an “engine against th’Almightie.”

“Reversed thunder” – If God sends thunder and lightning upon the earth, then prayer is our means of sending it rumbling right back. “The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook” (Psalm 77:18).

“Christ-side-piercing spear” – Here, the poet considers the full implication of prayers of lament or imprecation. Such prayers, while honestly voicing human pain, are as the spear that pierced Christ’s side.

“The six daies world-transposing in an houre” – Prayer actually compresses time, wrapping the six days of Creation up as in a single hour.

“A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear” – There’s an old tradition of singing our way through suffering. Think of African-American spirituals, or the rhythmic chanting of chain gangs. As long as Christians can still sing, as long as they can still pray, oppressors hear and tremble.

“Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse, exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best” – Prayer is power, but also it gives voice to feelings of deep and perfect peace.

“Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest” – Herbert returns to his earlier image of reversal, of dynamic exchange. Earlier, he described an exchange of breath (“Gods breath in man returning to his birth”). Now, he gives us an exchange of wardrobe. In prayer, heaven takes on the garb of an ordinary peasant, while humanity is attired as a grandee. In Herbert’s time, clothing instantly revealed what level of society its wearer belonged to. Laborers who habitually wore “ordinarie” homespun could never aspire to the silk doublets and hose of the nobility, let alone the fine cloth and lace collars of the rising merchant class. Prayer, however, is equally accessible to all. It flattens the most pronounced social division of all, that between earth and heaven.

“The milkie way, the bird of Paradise” – Exotic images, these. Prayer allows us to reach out and touch the unattainably beautiful.

“Church-bels beyond the stars heard” – One of my most enduring memories of my year at Oxford in 1976-77 is the weekly, Sunday-evening rehearsal of the change-bell ringers. For an hour or so each Sunday, the skies above that town of many spires echoed the glorious cacophony of the bell-carillons, their ringers all practicing at once. It seemed like those melodies could reach even to the stars.

“the souls bloud” – Someone once observed that, if writing is the act of transforming blood into ink, then the dramatic act of speaking it aloud is the transforming of ink into blood. As the poet pours out the blood of human experience upon the page, so too does the poet transform “the soul’s blood” into the words, or even the silent communion, of prayer.

“The land of spices” – Another exotic image. To people of Herbert’s time, the far-off Indies, the spice islands, exerted an exotic and compelling pull on the imagination.

“something understood” – Herbert’s final metaphor for prayer is his simplest and most compelling, in an understated way. When we pray, often and with regularity, we gradually come to understand.

Imagine

I thought I would leave you a gift at the door step of my blog today.

I know we have all heard this song before but I can never listen to it without being fully conscious and present. The lyrics pull me into a state of mind unlike any song and that deep place inside me, dark and mysterious as a the waters surrounding Avalon, really gets the message of the song through. Some musicians are more than just musicians, they border on prophetic, and John Lennon is a master of lyrical prophesy.

I found myself singing this last night as I did the dishes after dinner. Singing during the dishes is a ritual of mine - dishes themselves are a sacred ritual, a daily meditation. As the Amish say "Dishes are never a chore." Sing this song the next time you're rubbing, sloshing, soaping and rinsing. Just as burning sage clears the space before a magickal rite, doing the dishes clears the space for our nutritional ritual circle.

Blessings

Psst! For a special geek treat go here and listen to Scott Bakula (aka Sam Becket, aka Captain Archer)'s version of Imagine set to clips from Enterprise. Ohhhh...Scott Bakula *swoons slightly*

Imagine

I thought I would leave you a gift at the door step of my blog today.

I know we have all heard this song before but I can never listen to it without being fully conscious and present. The lyrics pull me into a state of mind unlike any song and that deep place inside me, dark and mysterious as a the waters surrounding Avalon, really gets the message of the song through. Some musicians are more than just musicians, they border on prophetic, and John Lennon is a master of lyrical prophesy.

I found myself singing this last night as I did the dishes after dinner. Singing during the dishes is a ritual of mine - dishes themselves are a sacred ritual, a daily meditation. As the Amish say "Dishes are never a chore." Sing this song the next time you're rubbing, sloshing, soaping and rinsing. Just as burning sage clears the space before a magickal rite, doing the dishes clears the space for our nutritional ritual circle.

Blessings

Psst! For a special geek treat go here and listen to Scott Bakula (aka Sam Becket, aka Captain Archer)'s version of Imagine set to clips from Enterprise. Ohhhh...Scott Bakula *swoons slightly*

October 24, 2008 - Communitarians, Arise

I’m on study leave for a few days, at our Adirondacks place. I’ve got quite a pile of accumulated books and journals to plow through.

The first thing I pick up to read is the September 9th issue of The Christian Century, whose news briefs section cites some political commentary from a column by E.J. Dionne. U.S. history, Dionne observes, is a back-and-forth tug of war between individualistic and communitarian impulses. The Century summarizes Dionne’s argument: “Dionne thinks there is a communitarian correction after a period of time when the individualistic metaphor of free markets reigned supreme. McCain’s notion of honor associated with the military is more communitarian than individualistic, and Obama’s slogan ‘Yes we can’ reflects deep communitarian commitments.”

My generation, the Baby Boomers, advanced communitarian ideals through the social upheavals of the 1960s, then settled in for a long period of individual striving. Many of us traded George McGovern for Ronald Reagan, backpacks and sandals for briefcases and wing-tips. We trekked from Woodstock to Wall Street.

Our parents’ generation, the “Greatest Generation,” traversed similar territory in their time. They cheerfully pitched in with Victory Gardens and rationing coupons during the World War II years, then traded in their communitarian values to raise nuclear families in the up-and-coming suburbs.

Ronald Reagan’s political revolution was an emphatic, angry resurgence of individualism. The recent near-collapse of the financial markets – brought on by the absence of government regulation – is the natural conclusion of the Great Communicator’s program. These developments have exposed the central economic dogma of Reaganism – that unfettered individual striving will result in “trickle-down” communal benefits – as a fraud. Greed has done what greed always does, left to itself. It has nearly wrecked our society. Now, as Dionne astutely observes, both presidential candidates are speaking communitarian language again. The one who is most adept at it – Obama – seems poised to win the election.

The other night, I attended the monthly blood cancer support group sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. What could be more communitarian than a bunch of people sitting around in a circle, sharing their stories and seeking to uphold one another? It would seem the way to health – for us as well as for our nation – lies in facing the beast together, rather than alone.

D and C. 42:43 Herbology

"And whosoever among you are sick, and have not faith to be healed, but believe, shall be nourished with all tenderness, with herbs and mild food, and that not by the hand of an enemy." D and C. 42:43

Herbs are a rich tradition of many faiths. Trusting in our own saints, prophets, medicine people, healers and above all our own personal understanding of God is a crucial part of our health.

In my tradition Apostle Willard Richards prophecied that the principles of herbology "would never die out or cease until it had revolutionized the earth." (Priddy Meeks Journal, p.31 as cited through Ogden Kraut's 95 These)

I encourage you to seek out the tradition of herbal use in your own faith, to trust in what the earth provides us to heal and to join the revolution :)

D and C. 42:43 Herbology

"And whosoever among you are sick, and have not faith to be healed, but believe, shall be nourished with all tenderness, with herbs and mild food, and that not by the hand of an enemy." D and C. 42:43

Herbs are a rich tradition of many faiths. Trusting in our own saints, prophets, medicine people, healers and above all our own personal understanding of God is a crucial part of our health.

In my tradition Apostle Willard Richards prophecied that the principles of herbology "would never die out or cease until it had revolutionized the earth." (Priddy Meeks Journal, p.31 as cited through Ogden Kraut's 95 These)

I encourage you to seek out the tradition of herbal use in your own faith, to trust in what the earth provides us to heal and to join the revolution :)

October 22, 2008 - Keeping Faith in Anxious Times

I’ve just finished a 3-part sermon series on living with anxiety. What I had in mind, as I preached these sermons, was the current economic situation. After enduring the one-two punch of collapsing real-estate values and the Wall Street meltdown, the American public has been living with high levels of anxiety.

Here’s a short excerpt from the first of these sermons, “KEEPING FAITH IN ANXIOUS TIMES, I: REPAIRING THE CISTERN”:

“Some psychologists – borrowing language from medical science – draw a distinction between acute anxiety and chronic anxiety. Acute anxiety, they say, is related to some immediate threat. If you step out of your front door, for instance, and come face to face with a grizzly bear, that’s acute anxiety you’re feeling. No surprise, there. Yet, if you wake up each morning with a sense of free-floating dread – but have little idea where these dark feelings are coming from, nor any idea when or how you’ll break free from them – then, chances are, you’re a victim of chronic anxiety.”

Acute anxiety, anyone can understand. A newly-diagnosed cancer patient, getting ready to scoot over onto the operating table or receive that first chemo treatment, will quite naturally feel anxious. It’s the patient in remission, or maybe – like myself – out of remission but in a long-term watchful waiting regime, who feels chronic anxiety.

Here’s another excerpt, from the same sermon:

“The word “anxious” is historically related to a Latin word, angere, which literally means “to choke or strangle.” If anxiety gets its bony fingers around your neck for any length of time, you’ll soon be gasping for breath. There’s another English word that races its lineage to the same Latin root. The word is angina – which, as you surely know, describes the sharp, piercing pain that precedes a heart attack. Angina arises when one of the coronary arteries is choked off by arterial plaque, blocking oxygen from reaching the heart muscle. Anxiety, in other words, can kill you.

Another English word that grows out of this Latin root, angere, is “anger.” Anxious people, as it so happens, are often angry people. They sense the breath of life being choked off from their soul – and so they lash out, flailing wildly in an effort to remove the threat, whatever they imagine it to be.”

I borrowed some of this stuff from Peter Steinke's book, Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times (Alban Institute, 2006).

I was preaching, that day, on a passage from the book of Jeremiah. The prophet blasts certain faithless people: who – in his eyes – “have forsaken [God], the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)

I think that cistern image has a lot to teach us. If the spiritual sustenance God provides for us is like a spring of water, then religious practice is a method of gathering that water into cisterns. It’s a beautiful thing when God provides us with what we need, spiritually, right on the spot, but it doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes we need to rely on water stored in the cistern. If we neglect the regular practice of our faith, we can end up with “cracked cisterns that can hold no water.”

Many of us cancer survivors live with chronic anxiety every day. A significant step in the journey towards healthy survivorship is learning to recognize it for what it is, and name it – but not letting it master us.

I don’t think we ever solve our anxiety, or cure it. We’ve got to learn to live with it.

Much as we learn to live with our cancer.

WDI Announces 2009 Dates

2008 t-shirt back

Here are the dates for the 2009 World Debate Institute programs at the University of Vermont.

High School

• World Schools Debate Workshop July 25 - Aug 7
  

College

• National College Policy July 25 - Aug 7
  
• College Parliamentary Debate Workshop May 18 - 22
  
• College Parliamentary Debate Workshop Aug 1 - Aug 7
  

Teachers, Coaches

• Debate Coaching Workshop July 25 - 31
  
• Parliamentary Debate Workshop Aug 1 - Aug 7
  

World Debate Institute Kicks Off First Debate Tournament in Venezuela

Participants in one of the semifinal debates

Hello from Venezuela. I am Alfred Snider, director of the World Debate Institute.

I am in Caracas, which is supposed to be the city of eternal spring, since it is near the equator but in the mountains so it always has that spring-like flair.

It is lovely city, nestled between mountains that separate it from the Carbbean sea. The "Avila," or lovely moutain range, separates it from the ocean. It is nice, but the traffic is unbelievable and hostile. There are obviously too many cars, and it has the worst traffic I have seen in the known world. The people are friendly and the climate is friendly as well.

I am here for the first ever Venezuelan university debate tournament. I had a great lecture opportunity on Thursday afternoon at a local univeristy and about 90 people showed up to hear me talk about debate as a teaching tool in non-debate classrooms (literature, history, political science, etc.). They were attentive and seemed to like me, asking lots of questions and staying involved. Local organizers said it was a big success.

Friday the tournament started. They have had a lot of debate workshops here but never a tournament. Students seemed excied and ready. I judged four rounds today and have the following observations:

* Students seemed more ready that most beginners, because many of them have had model UN experience and have been to workshops held by the local organizers and staffed by excellent Spanish-speaking trainers from the USA, includling Luis Magallon, Brenda Montes, Kenda Cunningham and Sandra Maroschka. .
* I was pleased with their knowledge of the topic area, which is expanding representation on the UN security council. While not omniscient, they knew quite a lot.
* They had a very good idea of what the important issues were in the debates, going right to them and spending time there.
* They seemed really into it and are highly motivated.

The tournament completed successfully on Sunday with a rousing final round won by USB MN on a 5-4 decision, with some of Venezuela's top citizens judging.

Congratulations to Rita Moncada, organizer trained at WDI, and everyone who participated. WDI will be there to support you in all of your future efforts!

Homemade Halloween

A cool autumn evening, the sounds of laughing children playing as the golden sunlight drifts away over the mountains and onto some red paradise - a needle darts between my fingers, a cup of tea at my side, I sit and create magick.



The tradition of dressing up in sacred garb for Samhain, otherwise known as Halloween, is a practice as old as the bones of my ancestors. As the veil between the our world and the world of our beloved dead grows thinner I relish these special moments were, even in this busy season, I manage to carve out the time to place love and care into every stitch for my family.



When your life turns with the seasons and you walk the path of the old ways, something as simple as a Halloween costume becomes an enchanted gift, a holy tradition that you carry forth into the next generation.

Homemade Halloween

A cool autumn evening, the sounds of laughing children playing as the golden sunlight drifts away over the mountains and onto some red paradise - a needle darts between my fingers, a cup of tea at my side, I sit and create magick.



The tradition of dressing up in sacred garb for Samhain, otherwise known as Halloween, is a practice as old as the bones of my ancestors. As the veil between the our world and the world of our beloved dead grows thinner I relish these special moments were, even in this busy season, I manage to carve out the time to place love and care into every stitch for my family.



When your life turns with the seasons and you walk the path of the old ways, something as simple as a Halloween costume becomes an enchanted gift, a holy tradition that you carry forth into the next generation.

Love Spiders

I always take note of the spiders who come to live in our home. If my research finds them to be dangerous than I relocate them, or in extreme cases squash them. If I find them to be no treat I leave them to their spider business. We had a pair of harmless spiders hanging out in our bathroom, above our shower.



At first each spider had it's own web on opposite sides of the ceiling. Then a few days later I notice that one spider had moved into the others web. I observed them for a long time. They seemed, to my human concepts, to be in love. They would rub their legs together, and even seemed to hug. At first I was sure one must be attacking the other but none of the actions seemed to harm the other.



The next time I came to take a shower they had gone.....I wonder what happen to them. Perhaps they are on their honeymoon.

Love Spiders

I always take note of the spiders who come to live in our home. If my research finds them to be dangerous than I relocate them, or in extreme cases squash them. If I find them to be no treat I leave them to their spider business. We had a pair of harmless spiders hanging out in our bathroom, above our shower.



At first each spider had it's own web on opposite sides of the ceiling. Then a few days later I notice that one spider had moved into the others web. I observed them for a long time. They seemed, to my human concepts, to be in love. They would rub their legs together, and even seemed to hug. At first I was sure one must be attacking the other but none of the actions seemed to harm the other.



The next time I came to take a shower they had gone.....I wonder what happen to them. Perhaps they are on their honeymoon.

October 16, 2008 - Got Dem Watchful Waitin' Blues

Today I run across a couple new 3-minute web videos on the Lymphoma Research Foundation website. Several of them seem more or less made-to-order for my situation.

One focuses on twenty- and thirty-somethings with indolent lymphoma. I don’t fit that age category, of course, but I’m still younger than the average lymphoma patient. It’s a pretty good discussion on indolent disease, and how different it is, conceptually, from other cancers:

Click HERE.

Another describes the Watchful Waiting approach to treatment:

Click HERE.

“That’s one of the differences about indolent lymphoma that’s difficult for people to get past,” says one indolent lymphoma survivor on the Watchful Waiting video. “It’s always a present tense.”

Indeed it is. Other cancer survivors are either in treatment, or in remission, or they’re cured. They get some sort of resolution eventually. We indolent lymphoma survivors live in an eternal present.

The trick, I suppose, is to find some way to get our future back again, to escape that eternal present.

(10.15.08) Recommends:

Wild Sweet Orange at the Hotel Cafe.

We're lifting our head above water here to let people know that tomorrow a blog fave band, Wild Sweet Orange, plays at a blog fave venue, Hotel Cafe.

Here's some WSO tunes to get you in the mood.

Wild Sweet Orange -- Ten Dead Dogs -- mp3.

Wild Sweet Orange -- Either/Or -- mp3.

---

Previous write-ups on the band can be found here and here.

Previous write-ups of Hotel Cafe can be found here and here.

Canning

"I feel like if I know how to can. I can take care of my family." - Quote from a dear friend of mine.



I've been canning recently! It's my first year of canning! Whoo-hoo!







The tomatoes and tomitillos really came int his year so I've been canning away, I have 3/4 gallon worth of salsa still to put up and the tomatoes are still producing of course :)







This to me feels like true security. A gift I give to my family all year. I can't wait for winter soups stocked with garden grown veggies. Yum!



Do you can, if so what are you putting up these harvest days?

Canning

"I feel like if I know how to can. I can take care of my family." - Quote from a dear friend of mine.



I've been canning recently! It's my first year of canning! Whoo-hoo!







The tomatoes and tomitillos really came int his year so I've been canning away, I have 3/4 gallon worth of salsa still to put up and the tomatoes are still producing of course :)







This to me feels like true security. A gift I give to my family all year. I can't wait for winter soups stocked with garden grown veggies. Yum!



Do you can, if so what are you putting up these harvest days?

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We are very blessed to be able this year to go to a real pumpkin patch and pick our gorgeous squash right off the vine! Such an enriching experience it is to be able to participate in the fullnes of food. As the sun shone down on us with it's weakened rays we delighted in the colors of the season, plucking hearty squash, just as our ancestors have done, to sustain us through the winter time.







Nykki pulled Ronan in the wagon







We stopped to say hello to the Bee Goddess, working hard to gather pollen, continue our way of life and provide us with sweet treats, thank you Mama Bee!







A glimps of unspoiled earth, invaluable







Best friends choose a pumpkin. These are the memories I hope to instill in my child. When Nykki looks back on his childhood, I want moments like this to be his foundation.







The star of the show!

Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

We are very blessed to be able this year to go to a real pumpkin patch and pick our gorgeous squash right off the vine! Such an enriching experience it is to be able to participate in the fullnes of food. As the sun shone down on us with it's weakened rays we delighted in the colors of the season, plucking hearty squash, just as our ancestors have done, to sustain us through the winter time.







Nykki pulled Ronan in the wagon







We stopped to say hello to the Bee Goddess, working hard to gather pollen, continue our way of life and provide us with sweet treats, thank you Mama Bee!







A glimps of unspoiled earth, invaluable







Best friends choose a pumpkin. These are the memories I hope to instill in my child. When Nykki looks back on his childhood, I want moments like this to be his foundation.







The star of the show!

Ahhhh-Choooo!

We caught a virus, a computer virus that is. I'm playing catch up with my online life. I'll be back to posting soon. In the meantime if you live in the Lake or Mendocino county area and you are homeschooling please check out

The Homespun Homeschool Network

Peaceful Monday....

Ahhhh-Choooo!

We caught a virus, a computer virus that is. I'm playing catch up with my online life. I'll be back to posting soon. In the meantime if you live in the Lake or Mendocino county area and you are homeschooling please check out

The Homespun Homeschool Network

Peaceful Monday....

(10.08.08) Recommends:

This American Life's Exploration of the Financial Crisis.

We've extolled the virtues of TAL on the blog many times. Most likely we're just preaching to the choir when we say it's one of the most important cultural voices coming out of this country. But their handling of the current economic crisis -- breaking it down into understandable terms -- exceeded even our expectations of what we thought the show was capable of producing. We don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that these two episodes might be the most important pieces of journalisms we'll consume this year. If you haven't listened already, you really need to hear these.

The Giant Pool of Money. This is the original episode; originally aired 05.09.08.

Another Frightening Show About the Economy. The follow-up episode, created due to the overwhelming popularity of the first episode; originally aired 10.03.08.

Continuing Drama...

So I need a spell work, advice, prayer, meditation, something....life is so busy!



So I attended the La Vida homeschool charter school board meeting last night in the hopes of giving the school the new breath of fresh air it needed to survive and again, I, like many parents before me, was not taken seriously and nothing got done. At this point some of the parents and former staff are so outraged it's gone legal and I have no hopes for the school's survival so I'm feeling like I need to step aside for the moment because my being dramatic about everything doesn't help the situation or myself. So that's that.



In addition to that I'm battling Med-i-cal who has not payed medical bills from April they were suppose to pay. I'm filling out new paperwork and calling the collection company nearly everyday with updates in the hopes that if they see I'm trying to pay my bill they wont put it on my credit report. I can't have $3,000 worth of medical bill right now on my credit when we need to rent a new house by december. So in the meantime I'm juggling the billing at the hospital, the collection agency and social services. *sigh*



On the other front my student loans through Citibank were consolidated through the government loan consolidation program for student loans however Citibank is saying they never got the check from the Educational Department. So now I have two bills, one from Citibank and one from the Ed. Dept. saying I owe them both money this month! Citibank is calling nearly everyday and I'm like "Dudes, I don't freakin' have a loan with you anymore, I don't owe you money." Ugh.



When do I get time to homeschool, when do I get time to nurture, when do I get time to sit and read stories with all this drama? It has to end and it has to end now. I refuse to let the world as it is destroy my peace of mind. I want to step aside but sometimes it's hard to figure out just how to do that. I can't just let my credit go south and I can't not pay my student loan bills.



I hate credit. Boy how I wish I didn't have those student loans. College should be free in the this country, or very cheap, like Europe.



The prophets of the Mormon church have always advised their members not to go into debt except to buy maybe a house or go to school. I agree and I live this life principle but I still have debt that I can barely control - debt that the managment thereof is like a full time job.



I'm always looking for the root of issues, to stop then at their germination, not just to prune them once they've overgrown. What do you think is the root of all this?

Continuing Drama...

So I need a spell work, advice, prayer, meditation, something....life is so busy!



So I attended the La Vida homeschool charter school board meeting last night in the hopes of giving the school the new breath of fresh air it needed to survive and again, I, like many parents before me, was not taken seriously and nothing got done. At this point some of the parents and former staff are so outraged it's gone legal and I have no hopes for the school's survival so I'm feeling like I need to step aside for the moment because my being dramatic about everything doesn't help the situation or myself. So that's that.



In addition to that I'm battling Med-i-cal who has not payed medical bills from April they were suppose to pay. I'm filling out new paperwork and calling the collection company nearly everyday with updates in the hopes that if they see I'm trying to pay my bill they wont put it on my credit report. I can't have $3,000 worth of medical bill right now on my credit when we need to rent a new house by december. So in the meantime I'm juggling the billing at the hospital, the collection agency and social services. *sigh*



On the other front my student loans through Citibank were consolidated through the government loan consolidation program for student loans however Citibank is saying they never got the check from the Educational Department. So now I have two bills, one from Citibank and one from the Ed. Dept. saying I owe them both money this month! Citibank is calling nearly everyday and I'm like "Dudes, I don't freakin' have a loan with you anymore, I don't owe you money." Ugh.



When do I get time to homeschool, when do I get time to nurture, when do I get time to sit and read stories with all this drama? It has to end and it has to end now. I refuse to let the world as it is destroy my peace of mind. I want to step aside but sometimes it's hard to figure out just how to do that. I can't just let my credit go south and I can't not pay my student loan bills.



I hate credit. Boy how I wish I didn't have those student loans. College should be free in the this country, or very cheap, like Europe.



The prophets of the Mormon church have always advised their members not to go into debt except to buy maybe a house or go to school. I agree and I live this life principle but I still have debt that I can barely control - debt that the managment thereof is like a full time job.



I'm always looking for the root of issues, to stop then at their germination, not just to prune them once they've overgrown. What do you think is the root of all this?

October 8, 2008 - Better Living Through Web Crawling

There have been lots of technological developments in recent years that have revolutionized cancer treatment. One of the most revolutionary of all, though, is a change whose impact is indirect, even as it is massive.

You’re participating in it right now, as you read these words. It’s the Internet.

A September 29th article in the New York Times highlights the many different ways patients deal with this vast ocean of medical information at their fingertips:

“Information gives some people a sense of control. For others, it’s overwhelming. An acquaintance of this reporter, a New York father coping with his infant son’s heart problem, knew he would be paralyzed with indecision if his research led to too many choices. So he focused on finding the area’s best pediatric cardiologist and left the decisions to the experts.

Others, like Amy Haberland, 50, a breast cancer patient in Arlington, Mass., pore through medical journals, looking not just for answers but also for better questions to ask their doctors.

‘Knowledge is power,’ Ms. Haberland said. ‘I think knowing the reality of the risks of my cancer makes me more comfortable undergoing my treatment.’” (Tara Parker-Pope, “You’re Sick. Now What? Knowledge Is Power,” New York Times, September 29, 2008)

My personality type is obviously closer to the second of these two patients than to the first. One of the first things I did, even before my diagnosis was definite, was to high-tail it to library. What I couldn’t find on the library shelves, I began searching for – voraciously – on the internet. Before long, I had a basic knowledge of lymphoma and the underlying biological systems that are affected by it. My doctors know vastly more than I, of course – I never pretend otherwise – but at least we’re able to converse together with some degree of mutual understanding.

Not everyone’s like this. I know some fellow patients who put themselves, wholly and completely into their doctor’s hands, saying, “Please don’t overwhelm me with details, Doc. I trust you, and I trust you to tell me what I need to know about my condition.”

There’s no right or wrong here. It’s a matter of style.

Vive la difference.

The Little and Big of Life's Dramas...

So if you read my homeschool blog you know that we had to pull Nykki from onsite classes (twice a week) at the homeschool charter school we participate in and switch to strictly at-home only. This means we still use Oak Meadow first grade and we still check in with our educational coordinator every 20 days however Nykki no longer is going twice a week to onsite classes.



The basic drama is that his school is violating a lot of conditions, promises, etc. There are also some legal issues going on. I've decided to put myself out there and fight to save the school and restore it's once solid reputation but during that time I felt like Nykki was taking the brunt of the drama. On Wednesday he developed a really sore mouth and headache from dental work he had done the day before and they sent him to the music room to lay down on pillows - they never even called me! And then one teacher had the nerve to come at me for Nykki's "lack of participation"



*rolling eyes*



It's interesting to me how the seeds we plant don't always come up the way we hoped and fall seems to be the time to deal with them whether positive or negative. Fall for me seems like time of balance, the bad gets worst and the good gets better.



During this time of year, when the wind gets crisp and the light turns golden I can't help but love the good at it's best - sewing Halloween costumes, pumpkin patches, friendships new and old and the taste of the harvest....it's all worth it.

The Little and Big of Life's Dramas...

So if you read my homeschool blog you know that we had to pull Nykki from onsite classes (twice a week) at the homeschool charter school we participate in and switch to strictly at-home only. This means we still use Oak Meadow first grade and we still check in with our educational coordinator every 20 days however Nykki no longer is going twice a week to onsite classes.



The basic drama is that his school is violating a lot of conditions, promises, etc. There are also some legal issues going on. I've decided to put myself out there and fight to save the school and restore it's once solid reputation but during that time I felt like Nykki was taking the brunt of the drama. On Wednesday he developed a really sore mouth and headache from dental work he had done the day before and they sent him to the music room to lay down on pillows - they never even called me! And then one teacher had the nerve to come at me for Nykki's "lack of participation"



*rolling eyes*



It's interesting to me how the seeds we plant don't always come up the way we hoped and fall seems to be the time to deal with them whether positive or negative. Fall for me seems like time of balance, the bad gets worst and the good gets better.



During this time of year, when the wind gets crisp and the light turns golden I can't help but love the good at it's best - sewing Halloween costumes, pumpkin patches, friendships new and old and the taste of the harvest....it's all worth it.

October 6, 2008 - Got Cancer? Better Keep Your Job.

This excerpt from a recent news article tells a story that’s – sadly – all too common today, in the dysfunctional world of American medical insurance:

“Most experts acknowledge that people who have cancer or have recently beat it have a tough time finding individual coverage – a fact Angela Clay of Atlanta discovered the hard way.

Clay, 33, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma eight years ago, while she was living in South Carolina. She survived, thanks to a regimen of chemotherapy, radiation and stem cell treatment, for which she was covered through her job at the time. After she moved to Atlanta in 2001, she had coverage through her job as a teacher in a day care center.

Then another center offered her an assistant manager position in 2004 – a step up with better pay but no benefits. Clay figured she'd simply buy insurance. ‘I'd go online once a month and fill out applications,’ she says. The numerous insurers she has tried turned her down, she says, and one told her she had to be in remission for 10 years to receive health insurance. ‘I've got more than two years to go,’ Clay says.

Clay still has no coverage and so must put off nonemergency medical care, including the follow-up she needs to be sure the cancer hasn't returned. ‘I'm very worried,’ she says. ‘I know I need checkups for my health. It makes me feel vulnerable.’ She sees a doctor only for emergencies, such as a severe boil she developed in January. (She's still paying off the $800 it cost to have the doctor drain it, at $20 a month.) Clay fears the stress of living without insurance will further harm her health. ‘It's hard for me to focus because I have this on my mind,’ she says.” (Jonathan Cohn, “When you are denied health insurance,” MSNBC.com, October 6, 2008)

This is a difficult position for cancer survivors to be in. You’ve gone through treatment, you’ve been declared to be in remission, you’re feeling fine – but, you’d better think twice about taking that new job, because it means switching medical-insurance carriers. You do that at your own risk – maybe even at risk of your life. Once your new employer’s insurance carrier gets wind of your medical history, they’ll drop you like a hot potato (or, they’ll accept you only if you agree to a hefty pre-existing condition exclusion – which amounts to pretty much the same thing).

Cancer survivors in remission yearn for nothing more than to get on with their lives. But, if they are in an occupation in which advancement typically happens by switching to a new employer, getting on with their work lives may be an impossible dream. Because of the pre-existing condition shell game, their cancer history has effectively doomed them to give up all hope of advancing in their profession.

It’s just one more example of the numerous cruel “gotchas” that are lying in wait for cancer survivors, in the dark recesses of our broken healthcare-funding system.

I’d love to hear the Presidential candidates respond to a case-study like Angela Clay’s story, explaining how their respective health-care plans will prevent this sort of abuse from happening.

The bailout and what we can do about it...

So, here's my favorite article on the approval of this raping of the American poor our government is calling the "bailout".



I believe we are heading very quickly toward a facist country. I truly believe they, read: gov't/big business, want total control of us. The best way to fight is to take the control out of their hands and put it back in the hands of the people.



Build our own homes



Grow our own food whether we live in an urban area or in the country



School our own children



We don't need to fight - fighting makes them stronger - we need to withdrawl from their system to limit an/or completely take away their control.



Peace