Love my guys

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUBYzpCNQ1I&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Lovely winter weekend. A pot roast kind of weekend.

cool at last

i know six months from now i'll be writing about how much i hate cold weather and how i hate the snow.

but for now, i'm so ready for crisp autumn air. today is very grey and drizzly, to be sure. our cookout plans turned into cook-in plans. we even busted out the indoor s'mores maker. but sitting here, feeling the cool air coming in the window, listening to the sounds of the town at night.... love it.

i'm excited to experience this house in the fall. it's the last "new" season in our still-new home. i was very pleased to find Sweet Autumn clematis growing wildly behind the garage. this flower seems to thrive all over morgantown. such a beautiful and abundant flower.

around the house

random day in august...





it really does remind me of a hollywood bungalow.

frontier festival

in our quest to park on grass as many weekends as we can this year, we attended the frontier festival at mason dixon park in mt. morris pa last weekend. ADVENTURE.

a very, very odd assortment of folks and wares. not at all what i expected. not sure what i expected, but it definitely wasn't this:



i did thoroughly enjoy this piece of beefcake, though:



yes, ladies, that's bare arse under that loincloth.

ben got into it and really loved sporting his new hat:



he also loved feeding the alpacas.



i loved this old chevy. cause, you know, cars were really important to the frontiersmen.




what an incredible color, right? the seats were cream vinyl. loved it.

lake adventure

we were lucky enough to have access to some wonderful activities on the lake for my work summer picnic. check out my daredevil conquering the water trampoline and the diving board!

samskaras

i've felt the strongest desire in the past few months to really focus on yoga. something has opened up inside of me. something is craving a path. a strong, well-trodden path to simplicity, happiness, right living. and while i am certainly a christian, something about this particular path helps me to see it and feel in a way that nothing else can. if that is wrong, so be it.

but i don't believe it's wrong. i believe it's very, very right.

i have tried, in my own feeble way, to dedicate myself to practicing yoga every day. i fail, of course. kids, sickness, work, fatigue, sheer laziness. on the days i don't practice it's evident- my body aches, i'm anxious, my mind gets stuck.

read this article at yoga journal and wow. that's me, my thought processes up and down. (i suppose it's all of us). the self doubt. the bad habits. the snowball of anxiety that happens when i let my mind loose.

so that leads me back to yoga- a new samskara. a new method. a new path. a new routine. a new groove in my brain to give me access to calm, reason, sensitivity.

i have practiced yoga on and off for years. but it's never resonated like this. never been such a key to controlling my worry, antsiness and general CRAZY. i'm just glad i have it now and have a family that supports me with it.

it really is all the same. breathe. reflect. pray. reflect. a big open heart of love and caring.

sweet harmony.

how to make a mud pie

ingredients:



mud (dirt + water)
cake pan
1 crazy kid
1 equally crazy mother

squish mud into pan. voila!

please note: crazy mother will most likely need to hose off crazy child after completing the mud pie.