Nature in our yard

Look what was making herself at home by my front door…. These are called banana spiders. The North American banana spider (as opposed to the South American one, which can be deadly) is not aggressive. They build their large, intricate webs near my house all the time and sometimes we let them (depending on how close they are to our doors) and sometimes we remove the web with a broom, careful not to harm the...

Mom, Would You Mind If I Failed?

That’s what my daughter Shawna asked me last night. My daughters take CCD classes at the catholic church near us. (don’t ask me what CCD stands for because I have no idea) This is the church we recently had my mothers funeral service at. For any new visitors who don’t know much about me, I was raised Roman Catholic but have been agnostic my whole adult life (I’ve recently become drawn to Buddhism but...

November is almost here..

…and that can only mean one thing. Black Friday. For those who may not get out much, Black Friday is held the day after Thanksgiving and retailers across the country sell at a discount to start the holiday shopping season off. You have to know your prices though and most major retailers will offer a selection of products at considerable discounts while others are priced as you would find a weekly sale item. It pays to...

Plane Ride

Our recent trip back home to NYC for my mothers memorial service (we moved to Florida in ’02) was my daughters first time on an airplane. My husband & I have flown many times and don’t think it’s a big deal anymore, but seeing it through their eyes was great! We flew out of Orlando….Jacqueline & Shawna in the airport waiting to board. Billy took this picture of us on the plane: Jacqueline took...

Not-Back-To-School-Pool Party ’07

On August 20, we hosted the 3rd annual Not-Back-To-School Pool Party at our home. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have it this year because it was so soon after my mother passed away (I hate typing that-it always stops me for a minute). After going back & forth, I decided to have it. My family was fine with whatever was going to make me feel better and they would go along with what I decided. We had a bunch of local...

Greenwich Village ~ NYC

Here’s more pictures of our recent trip home to New York City. We made a stop at my favorite place in NYC….Greenich Village. I worked and hung out there for many years and to me, it’s just the coolest place in the city. (Dive) bars, (hole-in-the-wall) clubs, CBGB’s, Rocky Horror, punk rock stores. I was so happy to see my favorite clothing store Trash & Vaudeville was still open! I had to take my...

Love and Lying

Shawna lied to me last night. It’s not important what she lied about. What’s important is how I handled it. And I feel pretty good about that. We went outside on the deck, just her & I, and spoke about how difficult it is to have a trusting relationship with someone if they lie to you. I asked her if she believed me when I tell her something and she said that she did. I asked her why. She thought for a moment...

Mindful Parenting

Mindful ParentingBy Stephanie Renfrow Hamilton Somewhere between the lullabies and your child’s first driving lesson, parenting becomes your spiritual practice. It’s tempting to wax romantic when I think of my earliest days practicing yoga in the verdant hills of St. Croix. But the fact is, I would have done anything just to get out of the house. My husband and I were living in the U.S. Virgin Islands and I had...

Garden Totems

A while ago, I came across something called garden totems on a gardening site but it wasn’t until recently that I decided to make some. I’ve been thinking about ways to use my mothers glass and flatware items and decided to try and make a couple of them yesterday. What I did was gather a bunch of items (bowls, dishes, candle holders, etc) and arrange them. I used clear GE Silicone 2 to attach them and let it dry...

Unschooling Squidoo Page Updated

Just a quick post to let all of you know I just updated the Squidoo page on Unschooling and added all the pending comments and links. If you haven’t yet added your unschooling link, feel free to do so. You can add the link to your blog, myspace page, website, yahoo group etc…any site that is unschooling….commercial or non-commercial. Share