Natural Attachment

August 24, 2009

Northeast Unschooling Conference 2009

We will set out around midnight Tuesday night on our drive to Wakefield (Boston), MA for the Northeast Unschooling Conference.

We’ll be checking in one day early on Wednesday, so if you are checking in early too and want to hang out or nap together (!), look for us…we’ll be following a wild-haired 5 year old boy who will most likely be in striped pyjamas…oh, wait, doesn’t that narrow it down to most unschoolers?! I’ll be checking my email until about 5PM Tuesday, so if you want my cell phone number to track me down in Boston, drop me an email (PghMidwife @ naturalattachment dot com).

I’ll try to blog at least once during the trip, but no guarantees. I will do some tweeting (though only with my phone & I only follow William on my phone…don’t think I don’t love you if you don’t get a reply from me personally). We’ll have tons of photos & film footage to comb over when we get back, but don’t you worry, I’ll post up highlights of our trip and plenty of memorexed moments.

We’re looking forward to this conference. I am going to get to meet a lot of really awesome people in the flesh. I won’t be checking my email, so you’ll just have to wait, because this is one week of my life that is more important than just about every thing else that goes on in the rest of the world. Getting to spend almost an entire week with nothing but famlies living their lives in Freedom, Freedom from school and mainstream parenting…purely heaven. It will be nice to not have to explain myself or my choices every time I turn around…instead of preaching to the choir, I’ll get to sing with them and Shine with them.

Can’t wait! Hope to see you there.

August 14, 2009

:: Monkey Platter :: Museum :: Mindfulness ::

...

Cats Crackers*, Almonds*, Raisins* & Toasted Nori*
Blueberries*
Black Beans* & Black Olives
Vegan Griller Patty & Ketchup*

Elijah & Collin

Elijah & Collin

On Tuesday, we went to the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum (where one of the staff recognized me & mentioned that she loved my challenge that I sent the museum) with our neighbor and her grandson. We had a pretty good time and I got to spend some more time with my neighbor who is one hip lady!

Our neighbor said that they were going to go home, eat and then go to the store…once we were dropped off and getting food around for ourselves, Elijah said, “do you really think Collin wants to go to the store with his grandma…we should see if he can play Legos with me while she shops”. I called and it was a done deal; Collin skipped over after he ate dinner and the two boys played Legos, built with blocks and did a little drawing.

This is a perfect example of kindness & respect begetting kindness & respect…I know that I’ve mentioned before that Elijah doesn’t like going to the grocery store (or any major shopping place for that matter), because it is literally an assult on his senses. I arrange my shopping plans so that I get everything done on William’s days off, so that Elijah can stay home with him or so that they can be dropped off somewhere to hang out while I get business taken care of. Elijah thought it was only fair to extend that arrangement to his friend while our neighbor went shopping. I think it was a very kind & compassionate moment for Elijah — he didn’t want to see his friend have to endure (I’m assuming he thinks most kids are effected by stores the same way he is) going to the store when there was a clear option for him to avoid it.

I love my son :)

August 10, 2009

Warhol & Waterfalls

Saturday we went and ate lunch at the Andy Warhol Museum

veggie soup, doggie cupcakes (theyre sugar free & people friendly) & Izzies

veggie soup, doggie cupcakes (they're sugar free & people friendly) & Izzies

After lunch we went to the Weekend Factory. One of the things Elijah made was an album cover.

fellin blue...

felli'n blue...geti'n rid of the blues...no one want's the blues (I LOVE his spelling & punctuation)

screen printing the record on

screen printing the record on

cut : paste

cut : paste

When we were done we walked down the river trail and found the waterfalls everyone has been telling us about.(here’s another picture I found online)

August 2, 2009

5th Annual Anarchist Picnic

Yesterday was POG’s 5th Annual Anarchist Picnic in Pittsburgh, PA. We had fun, though I didn’t find it as enjoyable as last year. I guess mainly because the location changed and it seemed like fewer people came out.I’ve got a few pictures for you though…

group photo

group photo

the future belongs to the daring

the future belongs to the daring

I just got hit with a water balloon thanks to Elijah!

I just got hit with a water balloon thanks to Elijah!

water balloon fun

water balloon fun

more water balloon fun

more water balloon fun

Elijah getting ready to launch a balloon

Elijah getting ready to launch a balloon

Tragedy struck shortly after the water balloon fight…Elijah was headed off to go play with the other kids again and he stepped on a bee. Somehow, I just knew that’s what he had done. I ran over grabbed his foot and used to my finger nails to tweeze out the stinger without squishing the venom sac and forcing more into his foot. Then, without even thinking about it, I sucked as hard as I could on the spot and spit to get out as much venom as I could. No big deal you say, but I am allergic to bees…like hand me an epi-pen or I’ll die allergic to bees. It’s been around 18 years since I’ve been stung by a bee and I have no idea how I might react.

Elijah ended up in pain a bit, but no swelling and no other ill effects. I had a numb mouth, lips, slightly tight throat and a really fuzzy head. No one went to the hospital, no one died and we learned that Elijah isn’t allergic to bees. As for me, well, if getting a little venom in my mouth can cause the reaction that it did, then I don’t think I want to get stung any time soon. Unfortunately, we did have to leave before the piñata fun, but we were able to raid the piñata for a couple goodies for the ride home — no one likes to see a sad/hurt child.

Here’s our moments of fame from local media…
KDKA Channel 2
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Channel 11 News came out, took some pictures & filmed a bit, but apparently we weren’t “radical” enough for them to put us on the TV

July 9, 2009

Sweet Eldridge’s Ghost

Filed under: Entertainment, Family & Friends, Media — Tags: , , , , — michele james-parham @ 10:58 pm

William and I are in a movie…short film. It can be found here. William is Lotus and I am behind the counter in the coffeeshop.

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