Thanksgiving

We had a nice quiet thanksgiving with just the nine of us. Being Dutch and vegetarian, we decided to skip the turkey and eat pad thai instead. Which horrified some people we told about this, that was funny :) But I really wanted to make something which wouldn't take me a lot of time, but still tasted well. After all, I had to make sure to have time to play go too :)

Sylvia is such a toddler now, always on top of things and into things. And she is so convinced that she is always right, that everything is hers, and that we all exist to cater to her wishes. She can be quite loud about it when reality catches up with her :-p

We have had snow last week,the kids really enjoyed it. Did I mention how I am not ready for winter??? Oh well, we'll get through it somehow.

Help!!!

We went geocaching and Sylvia wanted to explore out of the sling. This was in the middle of the woods, while I was trying to find the cache, staying pretty close to her. She was happy for a while, playing with sticks, until she suddenly wanted to be back with me. She very clearly yelled 'Help! Help!' Usually she would just call for mama, so I thought it was cute how she was asking for help :)

The older kids have figured out a new 'game' with her, where they almost fall off the couch and call for help. Sylvia will go over, and push them back, or grab their hair and try to help them get back that way...

I don't want them to talk about me!!!

One of those nights.

Kate running into my room, very upset 'I don't want them to talk about me!!!' After a moment's thought adding ' I don't even want any one to say my NAME!!!!!'

Tara piping up from the next room 'Kate!'

It detoriated from there...

Is it midnight yet, so that this day can be over?

Quote of the Day

Kate yelling at me this morning.
'I wish you were dead!!!'
'I wish you weren't even born!!!'

Ummmm, that makes for an interesting paradox, darling :)

This was when I seperated her from Jane, when she was attacking Jane. A very justified attack of course, since Jane had taken the Pokemon cup today, because it was actually Jane's turn... Kate is sure that if it's not her turn, she has to attack the current Pokemon cup holder...

I Got My Sword!!!!

Yes, at aiki budoin, they have been out of their mind enough to actually give me a huge wooden sword, a bokken, or also called katana. Now all those other people roll and fall and do all kinds of cool things with their sword. I can't even do a roll correctly without a sword. The idea of trying to make a good roll with a sword in my hands is not too attractive to me. Let's hope it's something that won't happen till I am black belt or so...

Talking about rolling and falling, it's amazing how hard it is to do that well. Where the rolls look super gracious and totally natural and easy for the others, they do suck for me. I slap my arms at the wrong time, keep my legs wrong, and do one thousand other things incorrectly. I can improve one aspect at a time, but then forget about the 999 others. Not to mention that I can't just jump up in a fighting position immediately after my fall or roll either. This will take me a while to master!

The kids were super excited when I came home with my big sword. They all had to touch and hold it, even Sylvia :)

Today, after homeschool club, I ended up with ten kids. All the extras went home again though, so the house is nice and quiet now. Hmmm, that might be because it's 4am, maybe I should go to bed :-p

Hurting Everywhere...

and loving it! Last night, I had my first class of aiki budoin. The only thing I worked on was rolls and falls, since they need to be mastered before you can learn any of the other techniques. Boy, it's hard to fall the right way. And the rolls, which look extremely graceful when they do it, were totally clumsy and wrong when I did it. I am sure I very closely resembled an elephant or a whale, at least, that's what it felt like.

Very happy that I made the step to do this though. I can tell already that I am really going to enjoy this, that is, if I ever master the rolls and falls. The sensei told me that it took him a long time to master this, which made me feel a bit better. But still, it just was hard! Today, I can feel that I have used muscles which I haven't used in a long time, so huring everywhere. But it's a good hurt, the hurt you have after a good workout.

Have had a busy weekend, Cees turned 14 years old, go club, homeschool support group, lots of other things going on. Tomorrow is LLL meeting, so maybe I should vacuum the house instead of sitting at the computer. OTOH, better to vacuum later, so that it still will looked vacuumed by tomorrow :) Most of the house is ok anyway, because of yesterday's homeschool meeting.

Tactical Self Defense

I had signed up for a tactical self defense class at our karate school, because it sounded both interesting and useful. Last night was the second class. Wow, i am having so much fun doing it. We are learning a lot of techniques to fight back if you get attacked, but there also are many other things to learn. There is emphasis on personal safety by avoiding violence. The teacher is really good, and has some amazing stories to tell.

This is a three weeks class, but they are considering lengthening it to twelve weeks, to give every one more opportunity to really learn the techniques. Last night we did exercises like standing in the center of a circle of seven persons, who would take turns 'attacking' you (just shoving) and you had to sidestep and attack on his way past you. Pretty hard to have to keep track of so many people and have the possibility of attack from all sides.

Doing this class has me convinced that I am ready to pick up martial arts again, I used to do jiu jitsu and aikido in a former life. Way, way back, when the Earth was still flat and dinosaurs roamed the plains. OK, maybe not that long ago, but it was still in the Netherlands. I only did it for a year or so before life happened, but that was enough to now know that the time is ready to pick it up again. I spoke to my kids karate teacher and got the name of a good local sensei. The only issue was that the class mostly is young, male, college students, so it can be kind of rough at times. I told him that I didn't mind, and he added as an afterthought that maybe this was actually good and would make the skills I learn even more useful in a real life situation.

So going to look into starting aikido or jiu jitsu classes, I hope it will work out. Somehow I feel totally ready for it.

This morning we had the very first local API (Attachment Parenting International) meeting at my house. It was a good meeting, nice people, fun was had by all. I baked my 'famous' cinnamon raisin bread, and had managed to have the house ready and cleaned up, and the bread started at 10am, even after playing go till 4am this morning :D