When the wind changes.

Greetings! I am back! 

So much has happened since my last post. I will give you the nutshell rendition and slowly peel it away for future posts. First off, we decided to sell our townhouse in April when our already too high taxes were assessed for double. Selling a house is quite a chore. I had to empty it out, it has to be sparse and clean at all times because you never know when an agent will be requesting a viewing or an open house. It sold fairly quickly and we began our search for our next home. 

After viewing many homes, we decided to rent instead of buy. We began to feel strongly that we may not want to buy in NY again. Like Mary Poppins, the winds are changing and we want to be free and flexible to go.

We moved into our wonderful rented home in August. It suits our needs so well, my girls for the first time each have their our rooms. The grounds are beautiful, butting up against woods, lots of big rocks, moss and lichens, which I am crazy about.

During the moving/settling process these things occurred:

My younger daughter was found to be Lyme free!! After a year of unrelenting treatment that was amazing news. (This is a story I must unravel for you in future.)

My older daughter "graduated", finished her homeschooling. 

We had no fridge for a month.

My sister and her son came to stay with us because she has a chronic disease and needed help and care.

Almost every weekend we had out of town visitors sleeping here, before we even had furniture. One airbed...and it leaked.

We don't know where we will end up, but for now Halloween 2017 we are all together and well and happy. The foliage is spectacular. I will introduce myself to my new neighborhood as Mary Poppins tonight. My daughter just informed me that she is going to bake some black pretzels.

Life is good and this is where you will find me...until the wind changes.

 “The wind blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:8  

Spooky

Our Halloween...

There was a ghoulish girl,

a guinea pig with bat wings,

and a black pie. 

Halloween and black donuts

I have always liked all things spooky. Bats, spiderwebs, Frankenstein and green glowing the dark aliens. But each year I see more and more gore and horror popping up in our local Halloween events. I won't participate in this kind of entertainment. I won't shop in a store that has severed limbs and decapitated heads hanging around as part of their decor. I'm all for make believe and fantasy. But murder is real, and should not be part of any celebration. 

That's why I love my daughter's Dark Elf. It's a good example of how you can have fun, be creepy and still bring beauty and light to the world. People always respond in a positive way to her costumes. It makes them happy, they can't help smiling. They ask to take pictures with her and give her lots of encouragement.

Now on to other dark things. My 11 yo said she wanted to eat black food. I was making donuts, I said if you can come up with a way to make black naturally we'll do it. She immediately said "We can use activated charcoal." She was right! It worked. I mixed some into the donut glaze and it turned extremely black. So now we have a tasty donut that can absorb any toxins from your digestive system!

She was very pleased with her black donuts and now wants a black pumpkin pie. I'll let you know how that turns out.

p.s. Creepy clothes pins painted by this happy girl.

Adventures of an Elf

Yes, I know it has been quite a long time since my last blog post. I have been rather preoccupied with "real" life. Life is interesting, life is unpredictable. Life gets in the way of  blogging, blogging will never get in the way of  my life. There is so much to do, to see, to try. Sometimes I admit...I just forget to blog. The longer I stay away, the harder it is to come back. Today I'd like to recap a little of the past month while the memories are fresh. It has been a very exciting and fun time.

My daughter has been writing a story about a dark elf/Drow who because of complicated circumstances is being raised by her wood elf grandfather. This week she finally gathered all the necessary pieces to dress up as her elf counterpart. The autumn colors made for a perfect elf walk and photoshoot. It seems like only yesterday that she was a tiny girl devising a way to attach hair to her Frodo feet. She insisted on going to church that way, barefoot in very cold weather. We compromised with flip flops. She was born with a wonderful, brave, adventurous spirit and many times I have had to look away and just let her do things that worried me rather than crush her spirit.

 A year ago she began earnestly asking if I would let her go on a mission trip to Cambodia.  My husband had been to Cambodia in 2011. He met some amazing people there whom we have become very close with. They run a church and orphanage in the city of Phnom Phen called Water of Life and they are doing miraculous things in their community. 

When my husband first went it was scary to think about the strange and dangerous things he was doing. Twenty-six hours of travel each way, oppressive weather, strange food, anything goes traffic, trips into the jungle and dangerous slums. Our friend Holly is a missionary who runs a home for vulnerable woman and girls called House of Refuge. Sometimes girls come to her for help, sometimes she goes out and finds them. Holly took my husband to a horrible building used for human trafficking where she and her girls frequently go to talk to girls and offer them a way out. The people are so poor that many of these girls have been sold by their own families.  My husband was horrified at the misery and filth of the place. One of the girls they spoke with that very day did come to live with Holly and her girls.

 Knowing these things and then hearing my 13 year old daughter tell me how much she wanted to go of course made me anxious!  My little girl! On the other side of the world!

 She started having dreams that she was going to Cambodia, that she was there with Holly.  In my gut I knew then that she would go.  If God was setting this up for her, then she would go. How could I keep her from something that meant so much to her? To hold her back might even kill the fire in her forever.

 My husband was eager to go back to Cambodia and reconnect with the friends he had made. When a group from church planned another trip he took my daughter with them.   The children there need money for food, medicine and vitamins. But they also need mentors, adults that they trust who can guide them and give them hope for a better life. We stay connected with them through the internet and are hoping to arrange more visits going both ways.

Our team ended up at three different orphanages. My daughter taught jewelry making to the older girls while another woman did a craft with the little ones.  They were long, hard, hot days but she did a great job. That's her in the purple shirt. Dara, the boy in blue translated for her.

Only after they came home did I hear about the crazy stuff.  How they had to stay at the Water of Life orphanage instead of the hotel one night because of terror threats against Americans. How their tuk-tuk got stuck in the mud and almost tipped over. How they were threatened with bodily harm and spiritual curses when they tried to help a young street hustler. How my adventuring elf went for a joy ride on the back of Holly's motor bike. She said it was like Indiana Jones. "We drove through a crazy market that had huge pieces of meat hanging from hooks and chickens were running out of our way!" On their way home they got caught in a flash flood. The water was up to their thighs so the moto's engine flooded. They had to push/carry the moto for two miles. When she came home I unpacked her boots, they were soaking wet and had mold growing over them.

When people ask my daughter what her favorite part of the trip was she always says,

 "THE FLOOD!"

Grabbing at Summer

The last couple of weeks we have been running here and there grabbing at the last drops of summer. I am a follower of seasons and traditions, I don't want to miss out on anything that a season has to offer. Even though I'm just as crazy about whatever season is coming up next, I need to soak up everything, feast my eyes on what is here, RIGHT NOW. I had my last look at the water lilies at the Botanical Garden. They have some of the most beautiful I have ever seen, deep burgundy and apricot. My nine year old snapped this picture. I think it is pretty good,  it's funny how they go for the pink at this age.

That same daughter has a certain hamster toy (named Cream Puff) who has crossed over from inanimate object to vibrant member of our family. She goes everywhere we go. Which means I end up driving back to where we just came from because she somehow gets left behind. I can't tell you how many times I have asked God to lead me to Cream Puff when she has been lost in the woods, restaurant, library, church,  or store. Once I even had to go through a public garbage can to get her back. So far she has always come back to us.

 My daughters get in a tizzy when they think she may be gone for good. I guess it's because there are so many memories of every place they have gone and everything they have done over the last four years. I think she should be retired and made to be house bound. But she is a wild adventurer, always tempting fate, floating in the ocean, getting thrown into trees, being buried in snow. We celebrate Cream Puff's birthday each year, another of our summer rituals. This year she had a party with a blue layer cake, human friends and their hamster toys. 

As long as my family is able to visit a beach, we will. The ocean can take us away from the everyday sometimes petty thoughts that life can bring. It is so big, so deep. Every drop is teeming with life. Any bit you take home with you becomes a treasure. It is both calming and terrifying. There is nothing that compares to the wonder of the ocean. I feel extremely fortunate to be able to share these summer days with my girls.

My elder daughter has been looking forward to The Ren Fest and it has finally come. Another summer treat. She has developed a new character for herself, a gypsy-ish wood elf. She came up with a pretty convincing costume that included latex elf ears, crazy contact lenses and a dagger.

Now I can say that I am officially done with summer. I am ready and excited to welcome autumn. I will now start pulling my favorite fall books. The ones that inspire me to make, cook, and knit all things cozy!