Hockey mom... again

I am now officially back to being a hockey mom for another season.... (this is our fifth, and he is only 9!)

It has been a season of lugging a hockey bag around, but that has now changed as Eli now has a new bigger bag (needed, as his stuff is getting bigger, as is he!) and the new bag has WHEELS.... yeah!!!hockey aftermath...

So last night, Eli wheeled his own bag into the rink. and carried his stick too. Progress. Now if he could only get all of his own gear on... someday..... for now we will just focus on his skating.
Emmett is happy to hang out in the stands and plays with other little siblings. The highlight for him is to watch the Zamboni at the end though.
This season, I will be knitting in the stands though. I have one sweater that I am dying to finish, that I started last spring. One that is for myself, finally! I also have been commissioned to knit a few rollneck sweaters out of beautiful cashmere.... will be a wonderful project! Can hardly wait to go pick out the yarn.

and luckily this winter, Emmett wants to learn to ski.... a child after my own heart.....
So, I guess I will be going to the ski slope nearby after school with Emm, then going to pick up Eli from his bus, then going to the rink after. maybe I can schedule them on alternate days so I am not drivng like a madwoman.

Beautiful view

I would love to be here again....
I can breathe when I have somewhere like this that I can get to.
I need wide open spaces, but I also need to be near people and have community. There is a tour for cohousing that is coming up in a few weeks, and I would love to go on it. Not necessarily to join one of them, but just to learn more about them, and to see them in action, so to speak. I do want to be in Canada for so many reasons, as I am so weary of all of the politics and attitudes, and more, here in the US. I want to start looking in to cohousing in Canada, but also building a house "off the grid". So much research, and things to keep me physically and mentally busy.

It is hard too, as I feel like things here are good in certain ways: I have a yoga studio I love, and a teacher there that I really connect with and enjoy, I have access to some great little ethnic shops that I love to get food in, I have some good friends, the kids have good school situations and friends, within a 20 minute drive we have a ski area, a hockey rink, schools, playgrounds, a great town pool, and more.

But at the same time, I feel like there is so much missing... and there are no wide open spaces around here at all.

I had a conversation yesterday with someone about college towns. There is a vibrancy and energy to them that I love. Usually there are shops, restaurants, and many fun little places to poke into. There are usually some kind of museums or something along that line to expand your mind. There is the opportunity to mesh with the learning that is going on, in some way, shape, or form: classes to take/audit, performances to see, exhibits, places to visit, and more.

Saratoga Springs, NY was a place I called home for many years as I was a student at Skidmore. Loved being there, walking into town, studying, watching the horse races, going to concerts at SPAC, etc. I had taken a few years off before starting there, so I was a bit older than the other students. It gave me a different attitude, and more life experience, to draw on. I miss being there.
......change is a brewing......
just a matter of when and where....
and needs to be more thought out since there are kids involved.....

Peak Oil concerns

I read alot about environmental things.... peak oil... global warming/dimming... and so much more... This morning I came across this article about When Oil Dries Up in the Sydney Morning Herald from Australia. I read alot of things about peak oil, and I think much of it is quite valid, and that not enough of us are taking the steps necessary to plan for this in the future. I do like Richard Heinberg's theories and ideas and agree with most of it.

"It's not just going to be a matter of replacing gasoline with something else and continuing on our merry way. We're actually going to have to change our transportation systems and reduce the amount of transportation that we do."

Heinberg is also skeptical of the prospect of biofuels saving the day. "It's clear ethanol and other biofuels are going to entail a trade-off between food and fuel. If we try to replace gasoline and diesel fuels with biofuels we'll simply fail because we don't have enough land and people will starve in the process."

Nuclear power is similarly dismissed as being fraught with too many technical, economic and environmental hurdles.

If we are to gently surf the downward slope of Hubbert's bell curve rather than precipitously tumble off the edge, Heinberg says, it will take a social transformation of no lesser magnitude than the industrial revolution. "I don't think we are going back to exactly how people lived 200 years ago but we are going to need lots more human labour in agriculture and that means the middle class is going to start shrinking."

Overall population levels will also have to shrink worldwide. On the back of oil's one-time energy dividend the world's population has increased sixfold, creating an unsustainable, self-perpetuating cycle needing more and more oil.

Manufacturing will again become a local business in the post-oil era as the interdependencies of global trade are unwound. International trade will continue but it will be restricted to luxuries and exotic items. People will work and shop close to home and even grow some food in their own backyards - just as many of our parents did.

"I think that's going to be good for people and good for communities," Heinberg says. "If the transition is accomplished in a co-ordinated way it's going to mean more jobs and more satisfying jobs for people.

"If you look at the end of the process it's not hard to paint a fairly attractive picture. The problem is how we get there - very few communities are planning for this transition. [But] if we just let market forces rule, the result is going to be economic, political and social chaos in the intervening period."

The sociologist mind that I have really likes this part about it being good for communities. I feel the world needs to get back to this more.

Wearing hats

Trying to balance. So hard, always fitting into different hats. The Mommy hat, versus the Lindsey hat. Somehow they should be the same really, but I can't seem to get them on at the same time. I also have the house hat, where I clean/organize/grocery shop/pay bills/do laundry, and those kind of 'house' things.

I love being mom, and I also love knitting and being able to create things that way- but don't seem to find the time lately. Love to write, but feel like even posting has been far too brief, I don't get a chance to really write and express- frustrating, but feel like I will get time when the kids start back to school, and we can all have some kind of routine established.
I like my photographers hat alot, and have enjoyed getting back to it. I also am enjoying trying on this new hat for creating henna designs which is a whole new way to express myself. I really miss my riding hat, and would love to wear that again, but somehow it doesn't seem to be the time yet... which frustrates me.

Underpants dancing

This is a video I made a few weeks ago, inspired by keri smith (from Wish Jar Journal) using my new MacBook, and the software in it for iMovie. (Adam thinks I did too much with the stills, and maybe I did, but I was learning and playing with the program) .
Emmett is a pretty funny kid. He did "underpants running" all winter last winter, and I was lucky to get some footage of this too....

Some Maine photos.....

Some random photos I like from our trip to Maine....

more henna

I got a little squeeze bottle that I hoped would be easier than using the 'cone'. So I tried it on the inside of my wrist and I am really proud of how it came out so beautifully.

Then last night, my neighbor and her daughter came over and I did arm bands on each of them.


I definitely need practice, but already have people asking me to do work on them, and do parties too! cool! Now I just need a name for my business, some business cards, and more supplies, definitely more practice... and I'm off!

My first henna~

I have been intrigued by henna for years. Why I have never gotten a henna tattoo I don't really know, although I suppose I just never had the opportunity.
A few months ago, a woman came into the yoga studio I go to. She had just gotten a beautiful henna tattoo on her hand. It was amazing and intriguing and I craved info on it. I was fascinated. I wanted one.
Then I painted that kind of henna design on the shell up in Maine, without really thinking about it or realizing it then or after for a while. Somehow I have been sucked in and obsessed with it in the last two weeks. I have hunted down tons of info and designs and websites with fabulous photos. I bought a book and have studied it cover to cover, immersing myself in it. I went to the indian market nearby the other day and bought some henna (mehndi) powder and a ready-made 'cone'. I have read that the cones only last for a day or two, but thought I'd try it anyway. I'll try making my own paste next.

I have been doodling designs for a few days, and tonight I used the henna in the cone to create a design on my foot. It came out okay, but I will have to wait a few more hours to see if the henna was actually viable. I will scrape the paste off and hope for the best. If nothing else, I got practice doing a henna design.
I am so intrigued by the whole thing though, and I am thinking that it may be something I can do to make some money. As a result of me being me about it (ie: when I am intrigued by something I become passionate in telling others about it, and turning them onto it too), I have a plethora of people who have volunteered to be practiced on for me to devlop my mehndi skills. I have 2 people who have already suggested that I come to parties they are having to do it there! and I haven't really started yet!
Funny when something seems just right. and it strikes me as I am on the right track, partly in light of my recent post about my creativity and where I am free with it. hmm... maybe I am onto something..... and I am enjoying it!

creativity unblocked

Somehow I am totally not creative when it comes to creating a painting or something similar. I was in an AP art class in high school. I was considered very talented.... not by me, but by others. I won a scholastic art award in 8th grade.
I do think that I am talented with a camera and how I see things. But painting and drawing.... uh, no.
BUT... I seem to be free when it comes to painting on rocks and shells. I somehow am not confined in my head by anything preconceived. I don't feel I will be judged, or that my perfectionistic side will flare up.... it's just a rock. And somehow I am more free to be creative. A few years ago, I bought paints, acrylics, to paint on the plethora of rocks we find when we are in Vinalhaven. Activities like that are great when we are there and whiling away the days. I am peaceful. Maybe I am also just more free when we are there too. But I think it is partly the medium and the form of expression.

I have fun just exploring........

Glass bottles

These were kind of cool......
in the pantry on Vinalhaven......

Tag Sale craziness

post note- having written this, and then later rereading it, I wonder why I feel like I need to say this to anyone else. Why do I think my way is so good for anyone else? I know I do a good job with it... why do I think others want to read about how I do it? I do have people who ask me how I make so much... but that doesn't mean I need to preach. Why am I like this? Don't have a good answer. Read it if you want to. Leave it if you don't.

Yesterday I had a tag sale. It was my third one in 3 years. They are a ton of work, but if you do them right they really can pay off! I have been told that I have great ones, and people seem to be surprised with how much I make. My friend Jonni gave me some tips before my first one, which I think really helped, and have guided me to bigger payoffs.

She started by telling me not to price anything. I think this is the most important thing, because that way you find out if someone is interested. If something is priced at say $4, and someone walks by, likes it, but would only pay $3, they might even say anything and just walk by. But if there is no price, they ask you... you know they are interested, and you suggest a price, and go from there, until you settle and they take it, and money is in your pocket!

I suppose the real thing is do you really want to have things gone and are you willing to let it go? if so, then do it. Let it go. I didn't think I had alot this time, and I made almost $300. Last year we had a few big things, and we made around $600! My first year - my rookie year - I made about $250.

A few key things are important too:

• Good signs!!! Make them big and easy to read. Just the important stuff- day and time, street address. Then smaller ones at each turn to get to your house without getting lost. Try picking a color that is bright, and make all of the signs the same color.
  
• Presentation. Make sure things are clean, have them up on tables (people will buy more if they can pick it up, without having to bend down onto the ground).
• Put labels (easy to read) on things so that people don't even have to ask what something is.
• group things together ie: kitchen type things on one table, toys on another, books in a box so they can be looked through but still stay organized for the next customer, garden things on another, clothes on another, furniture together.
  
• make sure all things have all the pieces, otherwise you should not have it there.
• Label clothing with sizes on tape, so that people don't need to unfold and make things unorganized for the next customer.

The other thing I do is go out early and get a big thing of coffee from Dunkin Donuts. I sell it for $1 a cup. People seem to appreciate that you have it, not trying to make money on it, but just nice to have there if you have time. I always bake something the day before also: muffins or scones or banana bread. I put it in a nice basket, with napkins and sell them for $1 each also. I always sell out, and start with maybe 2 dozen. Just an easy way to increase your profits and make people remember your tag sale as different, and they are more inclined to come back if they see you are having another some time.
This year it was hot, and I had a big jug of Ginger Peach Iced tea that I made and sold for $1 a cup also. I sold alot of that too!

Hot!! Need water!

It's been about 100 degrees for the fourth day now. Ick. Humid and sticky. Wish I lived in an igloo! okay, not really. but right now it would be nice to visit one. Actually, I'm fine in the heat as long as I get a pool or lake to be in. And last night I did. We went to the open house at Eli and Emmett's day camp and got to use the pool there. It was wonderful.

Emmett

I love their camp, and so do they. It has been such a good thing and finally Eli's swimming has turned the corner. He has gone from a kid who was unsure of and hesitant in the water, to a kid who is having fun playing in it, swimming underwater, diving for things, jumping in from the side, and doing different strokes. YEAH!!!! finally! so psyched!

Eli !!

Nice not to have to worry about a kid in the water, and to have him enjoy being in it, especially on hot days! We were all in the pool for about 1 1/2 hours before heading home, and rolling into bed. Today had to pack them off again in thin shirts and hoping they don't get too hot.
But again, I'm not worried as the camp is really good about keeping them in water, and drinking it too- even to the point of handing out water on the bus ride home! So nice to have this camp around!