I'm that mom...

...who began this lovesome cascade of family!

Thanks Ronnie and Flo for the fun idea!

Our Hunter is 10!

An apology

" 'Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.' "
— Doris Lessing (The Golden Notebook)

A picture is worth 1000 words. Or maybe 204 words. Maybe 6.

Many of my friends don't send their kids to school. I like that, so I collect items to illustrate the point. (Okay, okay, I do it for everything I like!)
Arranging (or not) pictures and decorating them with words (or not) entertains me, which is the main reason I have a blog to begin with.

Every now and then...

...we need to hear a good cover.
Fifth graders from PS22 in Staten Island do Fleetwood
Mac's "Landslide."

Is it working yet?

On this day we again honor all the (mostly) men who fought in US military actions. But shouldn't we thank everyone who has fought to advance all just causes? Here's a wonderful, educational website to put it in perspective...

http://www.warscholar.com/Timeline.html
(Updated to 2009)

I'm so glad the next war, like the last war, will be the last one. I'm fresh out of thanks.

Cocoon

See more of Tracy Raver's baby photos on Like Cool.

Birthday Boy!

Flowers for me!

From my darlin SarahJ and John

Happy Mothers Day ~ Sarah, Jean, Ann, Tracey, Raylene, Steph, Ronnie, Mary, Marie, Jobeth, Maritza, Flora, Hilda, Emily, and Vicki!

Penguin

Mary mentions on her blog that both she and MJ love penguins, so I'm posting this oh-so-sweet pic for them.

Birthday Girl!

Nothing in the Verse Can Stop Us!!

Suggestions of slackery!?

The suggester shall remain nameless, but I can tell you that s/he is very "busy" watching Indiana beat Green Bay (so far), and that s/he has no blog. hmph! Not to mention that I BWO!!

When last I blogged, we were looking forward to Sarah's visit. She arrived on September 29 and was my birthday present this year! We had many adventures during her stay. Herewith is our digital diary:

We hiked up the Middle Oconee River in Ben Burton Park about a mile from our house. (The Middle Oconee runs through our backyard, too.)

Sarah and Rick discovered a smallish water snake trying to make a meal of a catfish half its size. We watched for about half an hour then decided to leave it to its lunch and we continued upriver.
About 15 minutes later, I saw a much larger snake with a smaller fish. We stopped to take pictures, but it soon found a place to hide from us and have its lunch in peace.
Rick spotted several shed skins among the river rocks we were walking on.

By now, we were sort of nervous about the snake population and left the river for dry trails--but we couldn't resist going back to check on the progress made by the smaller snake. It hadn't moved, but the fish was definitely lunch!

We checked the Internet when we got home and found that the snakes were harmless (to humans) brown water snakes.

Rick and I “found” the Elder Mill covered bridge while we were house-hunting and we always take visitors to see it. The Georgia historical society plaque tells the story. In addition to the general splendor, we saw crawdads and a few nice-size fish in the clear, cold pools.

Of course, we showed off as much of Athens as we could.

Best of all (I think) was our trip to Helen. It’s a tiny Alpine-flavored town in the Blue Ridge surrounded by some stunning scenery.

Before settling into serious tourist activity in town, we drove a few more miles to Ana Ruby Falls. The walk to the falls is lovely (and easy!) Two large creeks come together right before they spill over the rock face. It must be thunderous in the spring. We had hoped to see some fall color, but the locals said we were a couple of weeks early. We certainly weren’t disappointed by what we saw, though!

On our way back to Helen, we stopped at Lake Unicoi—also very pretty.









Alas, Sarah has returned to San Diego, but there are secrets in the works that may bring her back!

Oooo, look at the beautiful children!

And my thanks to John, the beautiful photographer :-)