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
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
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.
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.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
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
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
Monday, October 31, 2005
Happy Halloween!
Eagerly anticipated, long awaited, happily prepared for, Halloween finally arrived. A few weeks ago, I took them to the thrift store and let them go wild in the halloween sale. They all put together all kinds of interesting costumes, and Tara made sure Sylvia got a cute costume too. Over the last few weeks, Kate kept losing parts of her costume, swords kept being broken, but eventually all costumes made it more or less to Halloween.
This morning, we carved pumpkins. It is nice that most of the kids are starting to be old enough to do it without much or any help. The only thing I did for the older ones, was to cut off the top. They were quite creative in their carvings. Kate me a sunflower with a square sun (I had told her that curves are hard). Jane made a rat on one side, and a face on the other. Tara meticulously carved the word HATE in her pumpkin... @_@ Tim and Erik made more standard jack-o-lanterns. The boys went trick or treating with a friend, in a different neighborhood. I dropped them off, came home, and found part of Tim's costume in the car... So I had to go back and get it to him. The girls had a friend over to go trick or treating with them, they had a blast. Dh and I were out with only the little ones, weird to suddenly be a two kids family. We almost looked normal! Sylvia figured out fast how to behave when trick or treating. She would ring the bell, and the moment the door opened, she would eagerly hold up her halloween bucket, looking expectantly at the person who opened it. She often tried to push open the door, making it go faster.
Erik kept talking about all the humans we were trick and treating at. 'Let's go to that human's home now!'
Now every one is in bed, not necessarily asleep. It was quite an interesting evening with eight kids on sugar highs... Kate totally lost it before she finally fell asleep. She kept crying about nothing, over and over. So every one was happy when she went off into dreamland. Most likely filled with lots of candy :)
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Geocaching
Did some geocaching maintenance today, replaced the cache with the dent, which didn't look like a moose accident after all. The dent was such that I think it might have been there anyway, but I assumed that an ammobox would be waterproof, not realizing that this slight dent would break the waterproofness of it. The cache had been totally filled with water, but dried out by a nice geocacher. Now I put it in a new ammo box, so it should be fine.
Also did maintenance on my Peace Cache which had gotten wet. Hmmm, sense a theme here? Maybe it just rained way too much lately. Sylvia helped out a lot putting back the cache, insisting on putting it in the wrong container, but at least, it was in the right location. She was so totally convinced of this being the way things should be, it was cute.
Of course, before I went out caching, I had to play just one game of go. Ended up being a half pointer, I won by half a point. Somehow the victory seems sweeter if it's a halfpointer :)
Also did maintenance on my Peace Cache which had gotten wet. Hmmm, sense a theme here? Maybe it just rained way too much lately. Sylvia helped out a lot putting back the cache, insisting on putting it in the wrong container, but at least, it was in the right location. She was so totally convinced of this being the way things should be, it was cute.
Of course, before I went out caching, I had to play just one game of go. Ended up being a half pointer, I won by half a point. Somehow the victory seems sweeter if it's a halfpointer :)
One of Those Nights...
Last night, I stayed up way too late to play go (not unusual for me :-p) and fell asleep immediately when my head hit the pillow. Only to be rudely awakened a few hours later by Cees 'Mama!! Tim just puked all over his bed!'
So much for sleep. Spent a lot of time cleaning up, making his bed, getting him comfortable, and by that time, it was too late to go back to bed. Luckily he was fine after a few hours, but now I am wondering who else will get it.
Last farmer's market of the year. Did I mention how I am soooooooooo not ready for winter? Maybe I should live somewhere else, somewhere where there aren't nine months of winter. After the farmer's market, I planted some bulbs for a friend, and dug up my rosemary and sage to take in the house for the winter. I found two plastic cereal bowls outside, we seemed to be having less and less of them. I wonder where the other missing ones can be. If they are outside, we'll lose them under the snow soon.
Go club in the afternoon, always fun. Sylvia enjoyed herself for a while eating an egg roll and drinking some chocolate soy milk. Then she suddenly wanted to nurse, now!, and happily fell asleep on my lap for a while. Nice relaxed playing that way, didn't have to keep track of her.
Tonight we'll have an extra hour, when daylight savings time ends. Will I spend it on the go server, or shall I use it for sleep? :)
So much for sleep. Spent a lot of time cleaning up, making his bed, getting him comfortable, and by that time, it was too late to go back to bed. Luckily he was fine after a few hours, but now I am wondering who else will get it.
Last farmer's market of the year. Did I mention how I am soooooooooo not ready for winter? Maybe I should live somewhere else, somewhere where there aren't nine months of winter. After the farmer's market, I planted some bulbs for a friend, and dug up my rosemary and sage to take in the house for the winter. I found two plastic cereal bowls outside, we seemed to be having less and less of them. I wonder where the other missing ones can be. If they are outside, we'll lose them under the snow soon.
Go club in the afternoon, always fun. Sylvia enjoyed herself for a while eating an egg roll and drinking some chocolate soy milk. Then she suddenly wanted to nurse, now!, and happily fell asleep on my lap for a while. Nice relaxed playing that way, didn't have to keep track of her.
Tonight we'll have an extra hour, when daylight savings time ends. Will I spend it on the go server, or shall I use it for sleep? :)
Friday, October 28, 2005
Finally!!!
Finally I got my act together enough to post a picture of all of them. This one was taken in September.
We had homeschool club this morning, the kids had fun doing all kinds of Halloween activities. We are now the proud owners of a bunch of grave stones and of stained glass pumpkin decorations... I was smart and had brought my go books, so I could do problems while the kids did their thing :)
We came home with one extra kid, so we are up to eight kids for the night. They are sewing something now, I think a Halloween goody bag or so. I got a new sewing machine last week, when the old one broke. I haven't even used it yet, but Tara is very happy and has made a bunch of simple things already (pillow, blanket) The sewing machines has fancy stitches, and she thinks that that is really neat. I would like to make something on it, but not badly enough to actually sit down and do it.
We had homeschool club this morning, the kids had fun doing all kinds of Halloween activities. We are now the proud owners of a bunch of grave stones and of stained glass pumpkin decorations... I was smart and had brought my go books, so I could do problems while the kids did their thing :)
We came home with one extra kid, so we are up to eight kids for the night. They are sewing something now, I think a Halloween goody bag or so. I got a new sewing machine last week, when the old one broke. I haven't even used it yet, but Tara is very happy and has made a bunch of simple things already (pillow, blanket) The sewing machines has fancy stitches, and she thinks that that is really neat. I would like to make something on it, but not badly enough to actually sit down and do it.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Snow!!!!
I am sooooo not ready for winter. Today we got hit by lots of rain, the basement was partly flooding again, and then it started snowing! Blech! Cold and nasty. And our dishwasher is broken too...
Sylvia enjoyed the snow, she was walking outside, half naked, wondering why the rain had turned white... She is getting more and more verbal, adding important words like 'No!!!', 'Blech!', yummy, and open to her vocabulary. She is so able, she can do ANYTHING. At least, in her humble openion.
We got boo-ed last night, one of the neighbors left us a Halloween basket with treats, the expectation is that you boo two other neighbors in exchange. So my girls are out now, boo-ing people, they had lots of fun putting baskets together.
One of my caches was totally dented in and full of water, it's in the middle of the woods, not even that close to a trail. Our theory is that a moose must have stepped on it, how else could an ammobox get destroyed? We also lost a micro in the woods, which was hidden in another tree. This time we are blaming a curious raccoon, or a pesky squirrel :D Those blasted critters, messing with our geocaching!
Sylvia enjoyed the snow, she was walking outside, half naked, wondering why the rain had turned white... She is getting more and more verbal, adding important words like 'No!!!', 'Blech!', yummy, and open to her vocabulary. She is so able, she can do ANYTHING. At least, in her humble openion.
We got boo-ed last night, one of the neighbors left us a Halloween basket with treats, the expectation is that you boo two other neighbors in exchange. So my girls are out now, boo-ing people, they had lots of fun putting baskets together.
One of my caches was totally dented in and full of water, it's in the middle of the woods, not even that close to a trail. Our theory is that a moose must have stepped on it, how else could an ammobox get destroyed? We also lost a micro in the woods, which was hidden in another tree. This time we are blaming a curious raccoon, or a pesky squirrel :D Those blasted critters, messing with our geocaching!
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Quote of the day
'MAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is touching a new piece of food before he has finished chewing his last one!!!!!'
Yes, Tara really expected me to micro manage the way my kids eat... Tim was eating cookies faster than she did. Mind you, there were more than enough cookies for all to eat as much as they wanted and then some. But it's the principle of the thing. Touching food before properly having chewed your last bite... Horrible!
Yes, Tara really expected me to micro manage the way my kids eat... Tim was eating cookies faster than she did. Mind you, there were more than enough cookies for all to eat as much as they wanted and then some. But it's the principle of the thing. Touching food before properly having chewed your last bite... Horrible!
Monday, October 17, 2005
Good News and Bad News
We had a homeschool support meeting today, so we spent yesterday getting ready for it. Kate was vacuum cleaning, and Sylvia was 'helping'. After ten minutes or so, Kate came over to me 'Mama, I have good news and I have bad news! The good news is, that Sylvia now can turn the vacuum cleaner on and off. The bad news is that she is doing it all the time... ' :D
Homeschool support meeting was fun. Not many people, but had a nice chat with the ones who did show up. Afterwards, I did some go studying, and had a friend over for a few hours.
We saw the sun today!!! I almost had forgotten what it looked like!
Didn't do much (if any) around the house, but at least things were cleaned up for the homeschool meeting, so it's not too bad. Maybe I'll get myself to unload / load the dishwasher soon. Maybe :)
Homeschool support meeting was fun. Not many people, but had a nice chat with the ones who did show up. Afterwards, I did some go studying, and had a friend over for a few hours.
We saw the sun today!!! I almost had forgotten what it looked like!
Didn't do much (if any) around the house, but at least things were cleaned up for the homeschool meeting, so it's not too bad. Maybe I'll get myself to unload / load the dishwasher soon. Maybe :)
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