Sunrises and spells (Week 2)

I am very familiar with sunrises this week. I’ve seen one every day. Here’s the story. I’ve been struggling with sleep and mood issues these past many months, and the past month I’ve been waking up at 4:30 am for no reason, and can never get back to sleep. I’ve been reading lots of books and websites to learn more (who knew there was a deep limbic system?) and create my own plan to get better. It’s a combo of daily exercise plus specific supplements and some dietary changes. This all happened at the same time as a friend told me about a fun contest she and others are doing. It’s called Commit To Get Fit. You do a series of fitness tests (push-ups, sit-ups) go home and work out, and then three months later you do them again, and compare the numbers to see how ‘fit’ you got. I love a physical challenge, as you know, and it fits in with my need for daily exertion. So I joined and worked out how I’d do this. My plan was to get up at 6:30, do weights and then walk for an hour. As it turns out, since I can never sleep past 4:30, I don’t need my alarm. My weights are done by 5:30 and I head out in the dark. By the time I reach the top of the hill 25 minutes later, the sky is a glorious orange, the Olympic Peninsula in silhouette across the water. It is beautiful. I get home while the house is still asleep with a smile on my face. I dream of more sleep.

A friend of a friend had a slightly busted and very scratched iPod to pass on, and since I’ve yet to dive into this side of technology, it ended up in my hands. It is exactly what I’ve needed! I don’t listen to music on it, I listen to podcasts from CBC and unschooling radio shows. I take it on my morning walks and listen to The House (politics), Quirks and Quarks, Wire Tap, Q, comedy stuff, Vinyl Cafe and Humans Being. It is the perfect thing for a solo moment, when I can connect to my own interests on my own schedule. Yay for the generosity of strangers.

I also found something to bring some more balance into my life. I signed up for piano lessons. I've fiddled with it ever since I was a kid, but I’ve never been able to find lessons that were geared towards a by-ear-player like myself, but through a series of coincidences I found one just last week. I have homework and am being challenged by the practicing. It is a perfect me-time activity, because it’s not too long a commitment (1 hour a week for 8 weeks) and it’s something I can work on with the kids around. Things are looking up.

Alright already, on to the kids.

Hannah searched our weed-ridden front yard for a 4-leaf clover. She found one.



We’ve always told the kids that (besides Star Wars) any great movie started out as an even better book. And they’d need to read said book before they could see the movies. Yes, we dropped the ball there on the Narnia series. They were so not into the books, and then the movie came out and it was so good! But, we held firm with our next challenge, Harry Potter, and we have success! We read the first book out loud together and then got the movie. They loved it. They watched it 6 times in one weekend. Then they asked about the next movie, and I pointed to the next book. Leif had finished his Geronimo Stilton series by then (he read all 32 books this summer!) and started to read the second Harry Potter on his own. He has now moved on to the third book, waiting while we read it out loud to Hannah so they can watch the movie together. This new storyline has spawned many a wand-making session, choosing fallen branches and painting them, gluing shells to them, duct-taping them back together after a particularly harsh magic session. Leif has created the perfect dementor costume and hannah has discovered a pair of glasses that complete her Harry Potter look. She wears Kit’s old cub scout belt with the little leather pouch, where she carries her crystals. A backpack with flashlight, notebook, pencil, gold coins and her wand, she runs through the house yelling “Expecto Petronum!”. Here is Leif as Professor Quirrel:





I took Leif on eBay.ca to search for old Harry Potter Lego. We found a set in the 2nd hand shop years back and now he wants more. We had lots of chats about how eBay and auctions work, about factoring in shipping, and my own sure-fire tactics for winning something. Early one morning he found a set he hadn’t seen before, we discussed what he was willing to pay for it, how much it would cost to get here. When the auction was in its final minutes, we threw down our bid and won. He ran through the house waking everyone up with his news. Now he asks me every day “When will it get here?”.

The kids have been doing experiments in the freezer. They fill cups or containers with water, and try to catch them when they’ve started to freeze, but are not yet solid in the middle. Then they sink Lego guys into the centre, let it freeze, and then add more water to seal them in. The freezer is now full of little Lego skeletons and storm troopers looking out at me from their icy graves. It’s cool and creepy, and certainly adds some flair to an otherwise blah freezer decor.

We took in a few relaxing days in Tofino this week (pics to follow). Kit’s parents have found a nice house to rent on the beach that can fit all of us. We did puzzles, Kit tried his hand surfing and Leif and Hannah spent hour racing back and forth in a big tide pool on their boogie boards. They dug canals and built sandcastles. It was great. Leif and I had to leave early to get back for a class he had the next day. As we headed out along the winding hwy road, we talked about how he’d gotten so carsick on the trip up, because the last 2+ hours are nothing but winding roads. It’s rough for him. As we drove along the dark and deserted hwy he asked why was the road so wind-y? Why did they not just put it in straight? And why are all these mountains so pointy? So we talked about geological shift and how the earth’s surface is made up of plates. He’s heard this before, but now it has a practical application. That when the plates come together and buckle, you get mountains. How you can see long mountain chains on a map, and roads need to find the flat valleys between the mountains to travel along. So the earth’s shifting makes you carsick.

And a black bear walked across the road in front of our car, which was way cool.

Here’s the jellyfish I mentioned earlier. We saw lots in Tofino as well. I’ve found a great site called The JellieZone (love it!) but I can’t find this guy:



But from the little I read online, Jellyfish are amazing creatures! Hopefully we'll find time to learn more about them.


Hannah loves watching tv. We don’t have cable, but she gets a regular supply of dvd’s from the library. At first I picked stuff for them, because I’m a snob about good movies for kids. There’s so much crap out there. But once we exhausted my choices, and she still wanted to watch, I realised I had to let go. And now she’s discovering not every dvd is a good dvd. But she still wants to watch it. She’s a champion zone-out-er, and if I don’t pull her off it she’ll watch all day. After a marathon morning of tv, she was sad, hungry and bored. We talked about how tv does this to you, that too much can just mush your brain, and make you frustrated with life when it’s turned off. It’s just the first step, but then we can refer to that concept the next time she’s on tv overload. She’s more receptive to shutting it off now.


Hannah has discovered a style of book she likes to look at. We’ve been watching the fabulous movies of Hiyao Miyazaki for the past few weeks. They are amazing stories, some way violent, some not, all about the spirit and the soul, with strong male and female heroines. We’ve since discovered that his books are at our library. They are comic-style, and since Hannah’s seen the movie she can tell what’s happening in the story. They read right to left, which Hannah is proud to explain to others.


Leif stayed up with Kit and I to watch a great film by Michael Franti, “I Know I’m Not Alone”.
The kids are familiar with his music and his band Spearhead. We play his albums a lot and have been to many of his shows with them. Leif was interested in why he travelled to Baghdad and Gaza, and asked the obvious questions as he listened to Michael talk to the soldiers and the people. “Why are the soldiers still in Iraq if they’ve done what the people wanted? How can they not have electricity? Why don’t they stop building that wall? Why do they think Palestinians are bad? Why does Canada side with Isreal when they are being so mean to the Palestinians?”. Yeah, we had to get into suicide bombers and Allah. I think coming from an atheist family it is hard to grasp the idea of faith in a God, especially to such extremes. A big topic for a little dude.


And here's something you don't see on your front steps every day:



Yes, when we have so much on the go, we've started project #200, ripping up the front walk to fix a crack in the foundation. Man was it loud. That's Kit in the machine. He bought a Bobcat in the spring, as his jobs are getting that big. He does beautiful work, although it's loud and makes a huge mess at first. If you come by, use the back door.

C