Well, as predicted and promised, I got my new tattoo (or the outline of it) done today. I’ll go back and have the color done in 2 or 3 weeks.
You can find the rest of the photos on my Facebook album.
Before I went and got my tattoo, The Gyres and us all met up at Affogato and had lunch.
Tonight, is ‘date night’. We’re going to go eat sushi.
Birthday week is going well so far.
Wednesdays are ‘date night’ for my husband and I. We drop the kiddo off at some friends’ house from 7pm until 10pm. We usually go have a bit to eat and a few drinks. It’s nice to have that time. Time to reconnect a little, to unwind a little and to just focus on one another for a few hours.
Do you have a regular ‘date night’ and what do you do during your time together?
On an slightly related note: a friend who knows I’m big on Hot Toddies, passed on this fantastic looking recipe.
Finally, Spring is in full effect here in the ‘burgh.
We’ll be having Pancakes at Midnight tomorrow night to kind of kick things off, if you will.
I’ve got seedlings who need to get into the ground.
We’re working on getting some poorly placed and unsightly bushes removed to make way for some blueberry bushes and a nice little sitting area, complete with bench.
We are stashing money to attend the Northeast Unschooling Conference. My in-laws might actually be joining us this year — will be great for them.
We’ve completely rearranged the first and basement floors of our house to suit our needs better. The flow of the house is SO much better now. The second floor is going to have its time at well, but not quite yet.
I’ve been contemplating what needs to be done out in our backyard to start to set up a permaculture garden and forest (to incorporate the small white pine forest that we already have).
I am becoming more and more in love with the concept of yardsharing. I have some lovely friends who might be game for sharing yard space and or having produce swaps.
We signed up for a different CSA this year. Instead of going through Kretschmann’s Farm, we’ll be going through Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance. We just wanted to try something different this year and save a little money in the process. I’m sure I’ll be doing my best to take and post pictures of our weekly shares.
I am going to try to start having unschooling park dates again, but over at Brighton Heights Park and not up in Sewickley. This park is just up the hill on Benton Avenue from our house on Parviss Street. It just got too difficult to organize transportation to make it to Sewickley once a week, among other reasons for me stopping the meet-ups last year.
Elijah has been using WarioWare D.I.Y. to make a bunch of microgames. He’s becoming quite the game designer between D.I.Y. on his DS and Little Big Planet level editor for PSP.
Elijah has also found a love for the periodic table of elements…I hung one up and he’s been looking at and studying it ever since!
I’ll be selling some of my handmade goodies and clothing at a neighbourhood flea market on Saturday, June 5th.
Our street (3800 block of Parviss Street, 15212) will be having it’s street-wide yard sale on Saturday, June 26th.
We’ll be hosting the 2nd Annual Ice Cream Social Warfare at our home again this Summer on Sunday, June 27th and we hope to see you there!
Back in April, we went to Oklahoma City, OK to visit friends and family that we haven’t seen in almost 5 years. It was nice to see people, but I don’t miss the place at all…I’m quite at home here in the ‘burgh.
There’s more. There’s always more 
Lately, there has been quite a bit of chaos (extra chaos) in our home. It’s the kind of chaos that I welcome. There have been people. A steady stream of people in & out of our home. I’ve mentioned several times in past posts that I am NOT a people person. While I might be generous with my things, food & love, I’d rather just spend my energy on my family most days. I have friends that I love & love them dearly I do, but my tolerance for being around other people is small and often forced past my comfort level — fake it til you make it, right?
This past Fall, I decided that I was going to make huge strides in being a more social being. I started off slow, but come Winter Solstice, I had a house full of people, children being loud & dirty dishes being found four days later in the oddest places. I want the house full, crazy & never clean, because there’s always people living here, not because I’m just a lazy ass who never cleans!
I figured if I could rediscover that flexibility that I used to have before I became a parent, I might learn something, find something, over come something & get myself back on the path I had fallen off of. Since the beginning of the year, I don’t think we’ve gone more than three days without there being someone at our house & often unexpected (the BEST kind of visitors). I’ve enjoyed this immensely. The more days we have with people in our house, the more I crave for people to show up & eat. AND eat they all do…man, I miss feeding hoards of people — I love it, I crave it.
This constant flow of people in our home has caused me to relax more, get over or confront some of my most insane OCDs. Yeah, I’ll admit, in large, it’s been about me…it’s been therapy for me. I’m eternally grateful for the awesome people who are in my life & who have been making all this possible. I’m also forever indebted to my Dear Other Half, who thankfully is the patient, tolerant, flexible person who loves me, inspires me, puts up with me, goes to work for me, makes every day magic real for me & most importantly (as far as this post is concerned) encourages the chaos from the constant flow of people coming in & out of our home — he’s the best.
This year just seems like it’s going to be busy: awesome new neighbors (hi there Gyres), births to attend, gardens to tend to, meals to be cooked, mouths to feed, parties to play at & more chaos to be created. This year is going to be magical (in every sense) and for once, I’m NOT dreading it. I’m not being pulled along kicking & screaming.
Strangely, I am welcoming it all with my arms flung wide open like a little kid about to run in for the hug.
Peace & Love
Michele
Elijah turned 6 years old on September 18th. Yeah, 6…it’s craaaaazzzy. His “birthday week” stretched from Sunday, September 6th until Sunday, September 13th. Here are some highlights…
Mr. Freaky Pants the 1st
stained glass
homemade Lego kits
E's first set of wheels (not counting my old trike); courtesy of my parents.
pirates! (dead ones at that)
extra snuggles with his favorite person
wine cork blow dart guns
people & somewhere there's pet rocks
new Legos
musical entertainment
cake, candles & wishes...there might have been some ice cream too!
I mentioned cake, right?
The following picture pretty much summed up the entire experience for Elijah.
WTF guys?
It was a LONG week. We cleaned. We ate. We shopped. We made stuff. We cried. We screamed. We made new friends. We learned a lot. We saw people. We broke things. We fought over toys. We bitched about random occurrences. We loved. We laughed. We got tons of phone calls. We opened gifts from many miles away. We sang (but not “Happy Birthday”). We will do it all over again next year…all while simultaneously hating & loving it!
Many “happy” returns, Elijah.
:: gaming ::
:: play/dress-up room ::
:: Beautiful Flower ::
:: Photography Funshop ::
:: Robot Arm ::
:: The Free Runners ::
:: Sleeper ::
:: Bananagrams ::
:: Killer Pompoms ::
I went through all 900 pictures that I took and picked out a few good ones and some random ones. This is part 1, part 2 can be found here and the picnic can be found here.
"Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it." ~ Brene Brown
