Meditation for World Peace

Another year is coming to a close and a new one is just waiting to begin.Let's give Peace a chance to grow in our hearts and minds.I invite you to join me for a sunrise meditation at The Theosophical Societyin Wheaton on 12-31-2009. Everyone is welcome and you can find moreinformation here.

http://www.theosophical.org/events/nationalprograms/index.php

Meditation for World Peace

Thursday, December 31, 6 - 7 a.m.Peace

This is a yearly event in which people use their concentrated thought powerto help generate energy for peace. Coinciding with group meditationsthroughout the world, we meet to help heal the sense of separation amonghuman beings and to release light, love, and spiritual energy. Refreshmentswill be served after the meditation.No charge. All donations, monetary or canned/paper products, are given tothe Humanitarian Service Project for people in need.

Feel free to contact me kimisutra@comcast if you are interested in assisting in the meditation.

Let's all do the Holiday Hustle :)

Whew! What a weekend!

I can’t say it started at all pleasant on Sat morning when I had to say farewell for now to a dear friend who was visiting :( nor was putting up with DH as he made his usual disgruntled morning sound disturbances.

So, it is no wonder that my girl and I headed out ASAP! First, we went to the library open house, followed by a visit to Grandma’s house, a shopping trip for snow boots, and dinner at our favorite Asian Restaurant. Throw in a few other quick stops for rushed covert gift shopping and we ended up with a late night stop at Cosley Zoo’s Festival of Lights.
http://www.wheatonparkdistrict.com/pgs/parks/cosley/events/special.html#pumpkins_scarecrows

We walked along the duck path delighting in the animal shaped light displays and enjoyed a few more along the deer path. Most of the bird exhibits are closed for the winter but we spent some time chatting with the great horned owl and then wandered among the sweet smelling evergreen trees gathering scraps for crafts.

We got home hours later than planned and had way more fun than our usual weekend errand running and shopping trips. The night ended with ‘The flight before Xmas’ and hot cocoa by the naked tree.

Sunday morning we woke and hurried out the door to church. Thinking we were late, we walked right in to the sanctuary to find that we had arrived RIGHT in the middle of the early service. We obviously had read the clocks wrong. It is really funny in retrospect and it turned out to benefit the rest of the day in that we may have started on the wrong foot but we kept dancing and danced all day right up to bedtime.

That afternoon we decided to take a quick trip back in time to the 1890’s for Christmas at the Klein Creek Farm. http://www.dupageforest.com/NewsReleases/Holiday_Celebrations_at_Kline_Creek_Farm.html

Touring the elegant simplicity and festive decorations in the farmhouse and the quiet beauty of the winter wonder land was like jumping into a story or walking into a painting.

We went to the house first and were just in time for the tour which started in the kitchen, through the dining room, and ended in the parlor for a holiday carol and a cookie. Outside we smelled wood smoke and followed our noses to a big pit of delicious cider and more caroling.

Feeling full of Christmas cheer we then made our way back to the visitor’s center where volunteers had set up a craft table making cornucopias or decorative paper cones. As luck would have it Santa had made a surprise visit and my girl got a photo op with him in his sleigh.

Just as we were leaving we noticed a pair of ponies being led to a hay filled sleigh and we were invited to the first sleigh ride of the afternoon. We saw pretty cows that were all pregnant, a lot of Canadian geese taking a break from their long flight, and a small lake that is slowly growing the first crop the farm will harvest this winter season. What grows in a lake in winter? Why, ice; of course!

Finally, we made our way home this time before dark and laden with groceries. While dinner cooked and holiday music played we finally decorated the tree. Family bonding ensued as bedtime passed us by while we basked in the glory of our beautiful tree sipping more hot cocoa.

my sweet girl

I sent amber outside this morning to test the weather and whether her outerwear was enough to keep her warm. When she came back in she had picked me some of the last of the mums growing out front. They are really cool mums that start out white and then the edges turn purple instead of brown as they start to wilt. She even filled one of my colored water bottles with water and arranged the flowers on the over the sink shelf. my sweet girl.

She's been home sick since Friday. Lots of cold symptoms, no fever, but I kept her home cause I wanted to protect the world from the miss cranky pants she can be when she does not feel well, not to mention the arsenal of snot pouring from her nose had potential to infect the nation. I kept her home on Monday last week but sent her to school on Tuesday as I waited for more symptoms to develop. which happened later in the week so I kept her home Friday and over the weekend. She was really bummed because she had been signed up for a cool program at the library (comic book drawing) and had been invited to a birthday party on Sat.

A local mom friend who wanted us to join her for some monkey joe's kind of fun (also on Sat) acted like I was crazy to keep her in if she did not have a fever. I'm sure she was just acting like that out of dissapointment but still, it bothered me. In my world, we keep our germs to ourselves, even if they are just measely viral infections and not the big scary bacterial flu infections.

Partly to cheer her up for missing the festivities of the weekend we put together a preliminary xmas wish list. making the top of the list is an easy bake oven. she is finally ready to give up her disney princess play kitchen for the next step as she calls it. The big blue tub of Legos made the number 2 slot w/the Star Wars lego kit as number 3. Leapster games, science kits, and a hot wheels race track are nos 4, 5, & 6. Then came Miyasaki movies, Ravensburger games, and cds by the jonas bros, bon jovi, and micheal jackson. I made her an Amazon wish list for the occasion because that's where we did most of our 'window' shopping. I am hoping it will come in handy when my in laws and extended family ask after gift ideas.

we all fall down

well, summer in Chicago is spent and gone by the wayside making room for the return to school daze of September. Yet, not once did I check back here with details of our exploits or adventures. my apologies.
In truth there weren't many exploits or adventures. Without a car and in the heat we did not go many places or do many things. Throughout the days of June and July we went to the park, the library, and the nature preseves we could reach by foot. And, in the evenings after Scott came home we roamed a little farther but mostly the two of them went bike riding or walked around the block.
Amber HATED the new gymnastics teacher and a few of the fellow students who were down right mean to her. It was a disaster but the money was spent so I insisted she keep trying. Even though she was a trooper and kept going I did not enjoy watching her begin to dislike the sport so I finally relented and let her bail on the last two classes.
Near the end of July I had dental surgery and I am just now days away from full recovery. 7 weeks on liquid/soft food diet with the reward of a 20 lbs weightloss. While that is fantastic I still do not enjoy mushy food. I am so stoked to finally be able to eat grains again and have been perfecting my risotto.
School started a few weeks ago and we've already battled the first set of cold bugs. Yea! for airbourne, I really think it was the major factor in our speedy recovery. This minor illness prevented Amber from being in school the day of the controversial presidental speech. And, although her school did show the speech they limited it to grades 3 and up so she would have had to view it at home with me anyway... But, still I'm kinda irked that her absence could be ASSumed as a protest on my part.

I feel the summer rolling into Chicago full of swimming, cook-outs, camp-outs, lazy days, fun days, and sweltering muggy heat days. days that make you thank goodness for AC :)

I've got plans for us this summer. Amber will revert to an evolved form of our old homeschool patterns, schedules, and routines. Except, I have a feeling that my role this summer will more resemble that of her social secretary, ha. Lately, I've been wondering just when do parents but out of playdates schedules and let our kids arrange their own social life? The summer gymnastics class is only $30 so I am fairly sure I can find a way to swing that. A week with beans instead of meat should suffice. There's a week long intensive day camp at the Animal Shelter for $75 that I heartedly wish I could swing but, in reality hinges on a hope and a prayer along with a pool membership and lessons.

Her HS schedule will involve printing practise, every day art or craft, and she prefers the routine of worksheets over the discussion of math and science. So, I thhink I am going to try to add some practical with gardening and cooking. I've let her have free reign with her chapter books and books on tape all school year but, over the summer I'm going to introduce reading lists. And, really try to encourage more active discussion about the stories. Maybe, since she really enjoys worksheets maybe I will make a form sheet for her to use to review or report on each title. If nothing else, that will provide fodder for disscusion. For her extra-curriculars, we'll be doing the 'passport to adventure' on the free days, going to the festivals and fairs with my p's, and of course, having playdates. A LOT of this stuff will be around town on foot or using public transportation. We have the PACE bus system and the NW Metra Line.

For me, it's all about improving my health. Even tho, our budget calls for me to cancel my gym membership I know can be active anywhere. Because now, my body is no longer revolting and I feel so much stronger this spring. I am actually looking forward to the added exercise that not having a car induces you to walk everywhere. Plus, I am really hoping to get a bike for my bday. It is seriously the only thing I want, except for maybe a flight south to see my whit. I am finally covered by the state insurance so I am going to get some if not all of my dental work done. And, I will finally fill out the paperwork needed to complete my last class in the fall to receive my library science certificate from COD in the winter.

For Scott, well, I have no desire to make S's summer plans nor would he want me to. I am pretty sure he doesn't wish to do anything different than he does right now. Except for seeking relief from the heat and setting the AC at 50 something degrees... brrr! However, I am planning at least 3 family campouts and I know and will need constant reminding that even if he grumbles the entire time (sigh) he will take from the experience mostly happy memories of stoking a fire and being with his family.

I am terribly excited about these campouts! We camped a lot when I was young and now I know why my family did it so often. It's is the cheapest vacation EVER. And, many camp sites have loads of extra amentities for not much more than the same cheap rate of more rustic sites. We are going to do some back to basics at Blackwell, a coushy stay at the TS, and then one more maybe out west near Starved Rock later in the summer. I am still vetting details for the last campout and pulling some strings. My p's have a pop-up camper we can borrow, but my car has no trailer hitch, and I am waiting for Scott's vaca time slot to be approved. What I would like to do is do a week long vaca with a scenic drive and a few days days camping either at one lovely palce or a few nice ones along the way.

We also have the 3 storms of chaos aka my family's 3 annual summer cookouts. Memorable Memorial Day is fast approaching this Sunday, then there is my Beautiful Bday on the Solstice, and the bombs of the 4th. Please note, all of these events involve larger and larger quantities of wine consumption as the years progress and therby, making each event more and more exciting, ha!

What are you and/or your family planning this summer?

Every Day can be Earth Day.

think about the simplicity of the idea. even small steps to reduce, reuse, and recycle by everyone can lead to a much better future for our Earth. go plant a tree, pick up litter, unplug your appliances, walk instead of drive, something, anything...

should I or shouldn't I?

I'm considering making the plunge and switching from LiveJournal to Blogger. There are still many LJs I will continue to read and of course, there's the Face Book fans to keep up with...

This blog will be geared for distant relatives and friends to keep up with the McDuffee-Dotson family adventures. I plan to post date past entries and also plan to attempt some weblog scrapbooking, so check the archives if I forget to remind you of something new that is also something old.

My nine year anniversary is in 2 weeks and I created a lil photo album thingy on photobucket. I was inspired by the ease of it and now I am planning on putting together a collage of me and scott photos as my gift to him. Not sure if it will be created electronically or on paper. My dilema comes from having both print and digital photos of that time. I wonder if I should print the digital or scan the print. Maybe, I should do both, what do you think?