Happy Day

Happy Holidays Y'all! I sit and write from my mothers house. I bought a computer (!!!) but have not yet decided on the internets. May the new year bring more blog posts.. I am doing well and think of 'you' often, and hope that you are all well.


And I continue on my path which continues to bless us everyday, in so many ways. The property manager gig has been keeping me quite busy. I have been doing repairs on the other cabins as well. We had to replace the floor in one of the houses. Rather than spending the $2000 that was spent on the previous kitchen floor replacement (under previous management), I did it with help from friends. We used all found, donated and salvaged tile that we of course promptly broke and mosaic ed. Its beautiful and totally in keeping with the art of the cottages. All told, for sub-flooring, grout and mortar I believe we spent about $120.

We have also put in a beautiful vegetable garden and are learning to grow our own food. I spent $250 to have a dump truck of compost and dirt delivered. Though I continue to compost i didnt have the quantity available that we needed to get this garden going. My pal Eli from Urban Eco Farms hooked us up with many of our plants and worked alongside us in the rain whilst sharing his knowledge. We have broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, kale, parsley, spinach, onions, beets and more plus, herbs going. It is a big, beautiful round garden which i hope to post pictures of soon. Eli also hooked us up with his girlfriend Valerie who has been living, working and playing with us for a few weeks. She was my giggling, cohort extraordinaire on the mosaic floor. January 1 she will move to their soon to be urban perma-culture homestead two blocks from us. Such awesome people out there. People that inspire and teach, to do more, grow more, learn more. Thank you. Also around the new year our work traders will be leaving us for still warmer weather. Sam, Stan and their son Johny have been living in one of the more "rustic" houses in exchange for working on the property. They have cleaned, scraped, garden, torn up, raked, painted, built, cooked, cleaned and just been generally awesome. They will be missed. Their latest project was building a kitchen cabinet for the newly mosaic ed kitchen. They used all salvaged wood (we are total garbage pickers around here) and cabinet doors we found in the shed here. Two old cans of stain left by a previous tenant were mixed together and a lovely new cabinet was built for $0.00. Yay! Rock on Stams.

We are learning as we go. Lessening our impact and doing our best. Having a good time and doing good deeds as we go along.

I continue to volunteer at my children's school, in the classroom and for the environmental club. The children continue to adjust to public school. They are doing well. Good kids with good grades and now they have friends in the neighborhood. So once again we have children running through the house. Bonfires and pizza parties. So much to be thankful for.

So, its Christmas. Our big present was snow. Not in Florida but an impromptu trip to North Carolina. The kids had never seen snow and when I heard they were getting it in Charlotte I called a friend on Friday, we hopped in the car on Saturday morning and at 6pm my kids were seeing snow for the very first time. Snow with Children is greater than any snow I experienced as a child. Sunday, both families piled in one care and we journeyed to Blowing Rock, NC. 15" on the ground, snow falling, giant icicles and the best snowball fight ever. Just outside a gas station because on the way back to Charlotte (after snow play and lunch) the untouched fields of snow proved to be too much for my son. Face pressed to the glass, mom, Mom, MOM! Crawling the walls of the car, nine years old, that boy needed more snow. So ensued the great gas station snowball fight of 2009. I laughed so hard I cried and that night when I tucked them into bed, he told me "I wish we could do this whole day again"..

Oh so yeah, Christmas. On the way to NC I told the kids "so this is pretty much it you guys, our present is time together in the snow'. To which they responded "Awesome! That's great mom"! And it is great! Its great that at not quite ten they can see it. We can appreciate what we have. We have everything we need. Food, beverage, home, clothes to wear, books to read, games to play, friends to love, each other. We've got it. And yes there are some presents under the rotating, vintage aluminum Christmas tree. A few presents from the thrift store wrapped in old maps and as requested, some wrapped in comics as well. Were cool. We are rich in love and life. We are blessed and hope that you are too. This day and always. XOXO