Bringing Home The Tree

    

I love Christmas trees!  I love trees and all things alive (almost) and plants, but especially trees.  They are my favorite animal.  So I just love having a real tree in the house at Christmas time.  I always felt bad that the tree gave up its life like a picked flower staying alive only from the water in the vase for a few days, in order to have this connection, in order to connect with and love us.

When I was small, I used to dream of building a house with a porch around a Christmas tree, and then we would enclose the porch for Christmas morning, so we could have a truly live tree.  I wanted a real, live not dying, Christmas tree SO bad, but I was told that that couldn't work - so I was happy to at least get dead flower Christmas trees.  I never gave up on my dream, though.

Then, when I met my husband from "save the earth"-ville, he said what he always says, the perfect thing.  His whole life growing up they had live, truly live, Christmas trees, that instead of chopping down a tree for Christmas, they planted one.  Everything I find out about him, and I still am getting to know him better and better constantly.  Everything I find out about him is always better than my wildest dreams. (but that's not why I love him - it just makes it easier to think of something nice to say to him to cheer him up.)

So it has always been especially special for us to get a potted tree each year at Christmas.  I cannot say that this is infinitely better than chopping one down.  I'm sure thousands of trees are planted each year because of the money people are able to make from cut Christmas trees.  Tree farms must be wonderful places, and the whole life of the tree, until it gets to be the tallest most beautiful perfect tree that can only fit in the tallest part of the fanciest house, the whole life of the tree is spent making the world a better place and the air more beautiful, and I'm sure making the lives of those who work on tree farms infinitely better than they would be if they were otherwise stuck in an office or a plastic factory.  Though I'm not against plastic trees, as they prevent trees  from being cut down each year.  I guess I'm only against disposable plastic trees, if there is such a horrible thing.

And not all of our trees have lived.  We have never owned our own land, so we give them away, or go plant them on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere near other trees like them, so they will be happy and have a chance to live.  We are saddened each time one dies.  One time we had no money for rent, and had to move, so we just left our tree in the parking lot of the church with a sign on it for someone to please take it home and love it.   But some we have gone back to find and to visit, and they are still alive!  I just have to remember, it is not bad to die, it is just bad to kill.
And it is the idea.  To me the tree is a living thing.  Not just a living thing, but I connect more to it than I do to a person.  I love trees!  So whatever the best thing to do at Christmas for the greater good of the environment and the world as a whole is, I don't know.  But for the individual tree that we get and love, to be loved and to at least have someone want you to live and go out of their way to have you live and to love you, being a potted tree is the best thing.

One year we were really tight on money, but it has been a tradition to get a live tree and it is my favorite part of Christmas.  So the night before Christmas we went to the store, and they had a little tiny one in a pot the size of a cup, and it was on "we need to get rid of it before Christmas" sale, so we could afford it!  (I think it was less than $1.  That is when we can afford to go Christmas shopping!  It is so fun!)  We put it on top of our windowsill and piled the presents around, and that was the best Christmas!

So yesterday we drove to a little old lady's house way out in the country.  The only place in town where you can get a living Christmas tree that will withstand the winter.  My sister from out of town was like, "Where we live everybody gets a Christmas tree, so you can just get one in any old parking lot.  It's weird so few people here get Christmas trees that you have to drive clear out here."  Then she saw the trees and she was like "Oh!  You mean a LIVE, live Christmas tree!  That is so COOL!"  :)

It was dark, and nobody was there, but we piled out anyway and tried to look at some trees by the light of my sisters phone, lol.  I tied one baby on to me and had another on my hip, and then they saw the cat, and so they were happy.  I love Christmas trees.  I didn't want to become too attached to any one, because I knew we were only taking one home.  But I stuck out my hand and let the pine needles brush me and could feel the tree.  I used to climb trees all the time, and come home with my arms scraped and bleeding.  I called them tree kisses.

So we listened to which tree was ours, counted our cash and thought of just taking the tree and leaving the money, but the lady showed up. (We hadn't known it was 10% off, so it was nice she came.)  Then we brought our tree home.  It was kind of like adopting a cat.  Now it feels like Christmas!  All the stress of the last year just disappeared and it was like we were celebrating the bringing in of the tree into our home.  Celebrating the start of a living thing with us, like the start of the Saviors life.  Whether we have presents or decorations doesn't matter anymore.  They are still fun to do, but only for the fun of it.  The real joy of Christmas is already within our home, and we don't have to do anything else to try to get it to come.  We are having a Christmas, and those are just accessories, ones I really love and are my favorite things in the whole world, but not ones Christmas depends upon.  I love a tree in the house.  There is a certain feeling that comes into our home with it, like there is a certain feeling in a home when a baby is born.  The kids played on it all day, having their fingers climb up it like little people climbing a giant redwood.

Then we sang Christmas carols to it all together as a whole big family, and there wasn't anything better in the world.


  " In all our trials born to be our friend"  - Oh Holy Night!


   
        free



Little Women

     free

 

The Path

About 2 blocks from our rented ticky tacky cookie cutter house is some "unimproved" land owned by the city.  It is a small hill.  It is about half a mile to walk to the top of it.  At the top, right before the "improved" land is where the city dumps all the yard waste.  The presence of this hill, where we can go and play without park toys and grass telling us what to do, has saved my life.  I can go out on it and look at the sky and breathe freely. 
I was walking down it the other day in the dark, and I lost the little trail that our feet have worn into the side of it.  I knew it was too cold for snakes or spider, yet I was looking for a trail.  What happened to the me that would joy in the freedom of not having to look before I leaped.  Why wasn't I running down the hill at top speed waving my arms unrestrained.  I had always thought that the way people on the Titanic were portrayed was sad.  If I was on a ship that I knew was sinking in freezing salt water, and we wouldn't all survive, I would have so much fun.  I could do any dare devil thing I wanted.  I could not only not put "safety first", but I could do away with it completely!  I could swing on the chandeliers or jump from the railing and feel the experience of freezing cold water engulf my body!  I would have so much fun!
So here on the hill, knowing that this time of year there really wasn't anything there that could hurt me, why was I looking for the path, like the old worn tame mommy that I am?
It reminds me of stories I hear about slaves who wouldn't be broken no matter how many times they felt their master's whip.  I don't read stories about slavery to my kids very much.  It just disturbs them too much, and I figure why focus on a bad thing.  There are some beautiful books out there, like

              

  Henry's Freedom Box      and       The People Could Fly

but I couldn't bring myself to read them to my kids - I didn't want to.

Then I was thinking the other day, especially with some of the older ones realizing what a not free world we live in, how what we really need is the wisdom and help of people who have dealt with the difficulties of a severe lack of freedom.  I realized that stories from these now angels who could help us, these ancestors who fought the inner turmoil of freedom and the outer fight for the world.  We need these stories and wisdom to get us through these times where the govt. tears families apart. 
So we have been reading stories of hope.



          Moses




        Minty




Who Owns The Sun?



I went with Happy to the hill one day at dusk when it was so foggy you couldn't see 3 feet ahead of you.  She trudged on ahead in her happy way, off in her own world of birds and leaves and fresh air.  I love watching the joy she gets out of life.  Not once did she wonder if she was going the "right" direction.  When she came across the path, after walking sideways for quite a while, she just stopped, after mostly crossing it without noticing, and her boots first pointed up it, then back towards home, as the rest of her was obviously preoccupied with happier thoughts.

Potato soup

dont eat potato soup with a straw if it has peas in it

what if it has corn in it ?

Raised by sprouts

Footprints

Walking in the snow this morning, I came across footprints that must have been made last night.  Little barefoot footprints running out across the front yard, and then back to the house.  I am quite sure Happy did a happy dance in the snow.  :)
Finding unexpected little bare footprints reminds me of one time when we broke a window in our old house.  It was leaning sideways, and so put pressure on the glass making the windows really easy to break even if they are just touched too hard.  Anyway, we replaces it with crooked plexiglass (to match the lean of the house).  It came with a clear sticker coating over it that we didn't take off until after we had put the window in.  It was the top half of a rather high window, but the next morning I noticed a little bare footprint, on the top of it. ;)

My mom's cooking

The problem with my mom's cooking is she does not want to use ingredients, or the right ones anyway

This is a peanute butter coookie recipe i found my mom and here is what she did

http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/928/classic-peanut-butter-cookies

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup Land O Lakes® Butter, softened

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 Land O Lakes® All-Natural Egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

 

ok now lets put the  not so packed brown suger in it, noo maybe we should only have half a cup

and we should not put the butter in it becouse that has a lot of fat and so we should substitute

for fresh crab apple sauce and mabye  we should put in pumpkin insted of peanut butter beacouse it has VIT um...  ABSDEFG in it!  i dont know what that is but it must be healthy. and oh look we are out of eggs we just will use um um... ground up soaked flax seeds.

and then we should not put in very much vanilla because i read on the internet that it made your um, some part of you body, not as healthy. and we like heathy! and lets not put in flour;  we should put in ground up sprouty rice flour in instead  of all-purpose flour and we dont want to use baking soda or powder we will use will catch our own yeast from these rottn um um.... fermented broccoli
and then we dont want that much salt we should not put salt in becouse that would make ths yeast that we put in not work as well so we wont use it all done

-Raised by sprouts

"Just Memorizing Books"

Today the baby started to learn how to walk, so we removed everything like a couch or an end table from his path so he wouldn't just become dependent on them and never learn how to really walk on his own.
Unfortunately, I have actually attempted to do this to my kids when they were just starting to learn how to read.  I wouldn't want them to just memorize a book and turn the pages and "pretend" to read.  If I didn't make sure it was a book they didn't have memorized, they would never "really" learn how to read. 
Reading is the process of constructing an intended meaning from something, even if the person who intended the meaning is not there.  So when a child looks at a picture of the Grinch, and says "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess", they are technically reading that picture.


How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Now that I've seen it, I can't imagine anything so wonderful as seeing your child curl up with their favorite book that they've had memorized for years, and start to match up the words.  This is "Grinch" here, and that's "Grinch" there too!  That whole moment of discovery is my favorite thing in the world.  And they are reading, not because they can't get the information any other way, or to be as smart as someone else, but for the sheer joy of reading.  Just like dancing for the feel of dancing alone.

Merry Christmas!

Youtube: Hobbit "Good Morning"

When I say "Merry Christmas!"  I mean "I am excited about Christmas because I LOVE Christmas and I am so happy that I am about to burst!"
I do not mean "I think you should believe in my religion/like the same kind of art as I do/eat as much candy as I do!"

There is a manger scene display out on the grass of a small park by a road I drive on.  Their is a sign almost as big as the display saying "THIS IS NOT PUT UP BY THE CITY AND THE CITY DOESN"T INDORSE OR OPPOSE IT!"
So instead of this good happy "Somebody is celebrating something that is making them really happy" feeling inside when I see it, all I get is this "we better make laws to prevent people from being rude about their religion!" feeling.  I think people are people, whether they are babies or adults.  I know with babies that if you expect them to be evil selfish little things and treat them with that in mind, no matter how kindly you treat them or how much freedom you refuse to take from them, they will not let you down in your expectations.  I am pretty sure adults act that way too.
I just want to put one of those "THIS IS NOT PUT UP BY THE CITY AND THE CITY DOESN"T INDORSE OR OPPOSE IT!" signs up on the ridiculously garish piece of modern art in the park, that destroys my view of a peaceful wild river.



Modern Art Sculpture by Jon Allen