scary witch

howdy

sorry about this very generic photo of pastorino's pumpkin patch. but look at the pumpkins! the hills, the mist? the cute children! and what about this creepy creepy witch? maya listened to her gravely and then bravely posed for this photo.

this is the time of year when we are confronted with lots of images of death--graves and bones and ghosts and leaves that have fallen off the trees. the whole cycle of seasons feels a little strange here, because there is no winter. no cold dead time followed by spring. instead there are days of gloom and days of sun with holidays that evolved over thousands of years in very different climates attached to the calendar on the fridge.

sometimes i think not having the progression of cold to colder to coldest to warm to warmer to hot to cool, with accompanying holidays and natural events to celebrate (light returning ,winter solstice, various religious holidays with candles etc. , harvest festivals and feasts when there really was a crop t0 harvest, egg focused holidays in the spring when birds build their nests)--really throws us all off here in san francisco. seems like food is always growing, and it is pretty much never the dead of winter, and birds seem to have babies any old month. maybe there are more rhythms but i am not feeling them. maybe this is a problem with city living.

there were many memorable thoughts and quotes and vignettes since i last wrote, but none so memorable that i actually remember them. too busy with work and work and kids and driving all over the city and picking up kids and work and dishes, and walking dogs and putting kids to bed, making lunches, iep meetings, driving, work, picking up kids, dropping off kids, work, meetings, making dinner, you get the picture.

last night we saw a huge yellow moon in the sky and talked about how big the earth is compared to the moon and the sun. miles stated that "we learned about the solar system today" and then proceeded to share some vague information and some false information. they are not learning much science at school, and although miles is definitely able to read to learn at this point he mainly reads to learn more about the world of manga soccer players. we googled image comparisons and the kids were impressed with the size of the earth and the sun. it got a little cosmic. maya found out that we are in just the right position from the sun to be alive. miles said something about the earth moving two inches around the sun each day which was a little frightening to hear. i guess that will have to do for now and i will have to relax about my 5 and 8 year old not being able to find good jobs when they grow up.

i am tired of seeing worksheets. i am ready to throw all the worksheets in the recycling bin and teach my kids something about the world,but then i would have to be a non-working homeschooling mom. which is something that does cross my mind occasionally.

i read in the paper today about rick perry making a big deal about expanding offshore drilling, repealing environmental protection laws, etc. a nice republican lady i know mentioned those crazy environmentalists and i just held my tongue. i had heard obama talk about his jobs bill the week before on the radio and had stupidly thought it might go through. it made sense to me.

andtoday a kid was being mean to other kids at soccer practice, again, and we graduate school trained adults just didn't know how to deal with the problem, again. because it is a hard problem to deal with.

how smart are we peoples?

anyway, tomorrow i am going to sonoma for a ladies overnight getaway. can you believe that? at bedtime i got many extra hugs and i love yous from my wonderful children, which i enjoyed. i will miss them too.