Moving and Hatsuhinode

So we moved, just a few miles away. Moving is terrible, I always forget. We knew this move was on its way so I had been ferretting things into boxes for months. It didn't make much difference: it was painful. We couldn't have done it without all the help from our friends. And our shows.
Moving day extra-stellar parenting here:
In a fit of madness, Rosie and I tried on fancy trendy clothes at the quicksilver store. I tried on skinny jeans. Then I almost fainted from the laughing. So, I know I'm only 30 which is not so old that I should wear sweatshirts with sequined kittens, but ixnay on the inny-jeans-skay. We didn't get anything because I'm not 16 years old but isn't rosie cute?

I believe in recreating the ancestral environment in my child-rearing. My children have to compete for food with predators.

A nice thing about moving house: big areas of floor open up, and so do box-canvases.

And this is Maile on the day we moved. The mosquitos got her. People avoided us on the street. She looked terrible, but didn't scratch at them too much... I was glad to get out of there.

We have a family tradition of watching the first sunrise of the New Year: Hatsuhinode. We moved to our new place December 31 so our first morning up here we got to see this:

And here are our chickens, on their last day of life, before they were savagely eaten by a wild dog. I HATE having to buy eggs from the store, and even though they weren't our pets, I miss them.

So moving, readjusting to a new situation, it can seem grating. But kids on a farm? What could be better.

It was touch and go with the cats-- they both acted like death at the new house. But after four days of hiding motionless under the bed, they came back to us. Here they are sliding down the railing.

Kids and mud.

RJ and friend T

Brrr, it's so nice to be cold now and then.

MP is a climbin' fool. She loves to escape out the door and climb up and down the porch steps. She especially likes scraping over the rusty rebar.

And here's our Surinam Cherry hedge. Neat, huh?

 Some small water issues at first, but most everything is sorted out. As is, now we have water. Even hot!

Long lost blog. Christmas. Yes, it's february.

Oh, hello.Was my last post really about Thanksgiving? Oh dear. Sorry, sorry. Here's the recap since then:
1. Thanksgiving.
2. Christmas
3. New Years
4. Matt's Birthday

See, this is why we have holidays. Without annual celebrations, we would lose sight of the larger cycles of life-- passage of time, reaffirmation of our connection to our communities, ethnicities, and species. Also, cameras. If I don't have a picture of it, then it never happened.

So here are some pictures of things that, apparently, happened:


Rosie is a very patient big sister and puts up with a lot of abuse. Focused, sharp-fingernailed abuse.

We went to the Kauai Coffee Christmas thing where Rosie rode a horse around and around and Santa creeped us all out, Rosie and Maile both in hysterics but Rosie determined to get close enough to the guy to earn a candy cane from the attending elf-lets. It's enough to turn me into a Santa-hater.

Helping me make bread.

And sinterklaas came! His horse even took a big bite out of a carrot. (Yes, I like Sinterklaas more than Santa. More Chocolate).

Hm, where's RJ? Ah yes, the mini-gaga in green with the orange hood, and the bold intersection of black and purple ribbon. That's her.

A friend has the genius Christmas tradition of a kid cookie decorating party. Sheer sugar-maddened genius.

Oh, and here's our would-have-been christmas card! If we'd ever gotten around to it! Sorry ya'll, merry Christmas!

Maile loves other babies. Sometimes she pats them nicely, but often she gives them wet open-mouthed kisses that turn into 4-toothed chomps.

Christmas at the beach! The kids all dressed up and we put on a Christmas pageant at a pavilion at the beach. :) :) :)

Little Mary and baby J

Rosie as an angel

And SANTA CAME!!!! To the beach! In a canoe! With that great beard and those hard core tattoos! All the kids got candy canes and they blasted tinny "rudolph the red nosed reindeer" from an on-board boombox. Best Santa Ever. So much for my, "Santa is based on the story of a man named Nicolas who lived a long long time ago, and who was very nice to a poor family." No, now Rosie knows the Truth.

Thanks Santa.

Christmas morning face:

The boxes are the best part!!!

This is perfect RJ: princess crown and gumboots.

Cats and babies, in the cupboards...

Our newest Christmas tradition: after the morning excitement was done and the green eggs and ham were discussed and not eaten, it was 80 degrees inside. So we drove up to Kokee where it was so cold and arctic that I probably should have brought a sweater! Like, 60 degrees! Heaven! But it was nice to cool down a little bit on Christmas day, we'll try it again next year.

An auspicious sign: Christmas day Fairy rings.