Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

I've been meaning to post this and then saw that SouleMama, who has a great crafting blog, had posted about her tomato canning. She inspired me to get my pictures up. The tomatoes we so beautiful!

My friend Deborah moved this year and gave me all of her canning supplies before she left. What a great gift. I went to a canning party earlier in the month and we canned apples, tomatoes, and blackberries. Then it was the 30 pounds heirloom tomatoes I brought home from the farmer's market, and the peaches for peach jam and apples for apple butter. Such a satisfying thing to be saving this food that's ripe and in season. I just want to avoid eating that tasteless produce the grocery store sells year round.

The kids had a great time with the tomato canning. They cleaned (and threw) and weighed the tomatoes and handed them to Jevon and me to process.

Lots of work but well worth it.

VOTE

This is such an important election. I personally have never cared about politics until the last 8 years and this election, especially, has me reading the news constantly.

It's our right to vote. I hope all of you out there are registered! There's no reason why you shouldn't be:
http://www.voteforchange.com/

I find this such an important issue that I've even been volunteering for this election, bringing the kids along and all.

I've had this song in my head for days now. It's Power to the People by John Lennon. I've got the cover version of it by the Black Eyed Peas on the Instant Karma Save Darfur album. Here's the original--a great video from You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wos-dDxpJlQ

I get chills when I hear it. Makes me sad that this video was made 37 years ago and people were fighting for the same things we are now. Change has to be coming, doesn't it?

This campaign is giving me hope that the world will really be different and that the visions of people like Martin Luther King and John Lennon will come true.

The Haunted House Halloween by Kai

Gigi [grandma Debbie] sent us some stuff. I got a skeleton, some springs, some Halloween clothes, some socks. Then I put up a skeleton in my haunted house room. That's all I wanted to write.

Kai

Happy First Day of Autumn!!

We're heading out soon with a picnic and a blanket in search of a pile of leaves! Have a great first day of autumn!

Final Days of Summer

Summer is almost over. Sigh... This year the end feels even closer because August has been so cool. And while I am not the type who can tolerate heat very well, I am still sad to see summer go. I will definitely miss peaches, blueberries, and blackberry picking (but not what happens when kids eat too many blackberries--FYI: blackberry leaf tea is the antidote to blackberry diarrhea). Tea got her first haircut, which looks adorable. That was a big milestone. Now she seems so much older!
Kai's been drawing all the time, as usual. That's exactly what I loved to do when I was little--that and reading and riding my bike. He's also been loving learning about dolphins, armadillos and is learning how to swim! I just wish we would have spent more time at the pool. I can't believe school has started and the pools are closed. Luckily we have a great indoor pool that's open year 'round and a lake nearby that's open until the end of the month. Tea loves to play with her dolls still and do anything Kai is doing. We checked out some board books on tractors for her at the library. She and Kai LOVE kitties and our neighbor has two new kitties that we visit as often as we can.
The start of fall immediately made me want to start crafting, especially after I got my fall issue of Living Crafts magazine. They had darling felt crowns in there, but my kids didn't want a king or queen crown or even the toadstool crown. They had their own requests. Tea wanted a ladybug and Kai wanted a crab.
Kai and Tea aren't much into posing for pictures lately.The sun was also very bright that day.
With fall comes peace, which I can feel in all aspects of my life but the kids are showing it too. The stillness is wonderful and overwhelming with the open windows and quiet that comes when the air conditioning is off (what an annoying sound it does make!).

There's so much more to write. I will just say that I am very thankful for my family. We had a camping/canoeing trip that nearly ended in disaster, with me grabbing Tea and getting out of the boat before it went under (not without getting a big ol' bump/bruise on my leg--Tea was unharmed). We were rescued by some lovely people while Jevon held onto the boat and tried to grab out things. Kai was in another boat with friends, thank god. Needless to say, I will not be doing that again. I have always been afraid of water and am not sure why I wanted to go on a river in a boat when neither I nor Jevon knew what we were doing (although I thought he did know how to float in a canoe--he later admitted he didn't).

If my DSL weren't so slow I'd write more now and post more often but the kids were only happy for so long and now it's time to go outside!

My Sister Lisa!!!

A hole in my heart is finally being repaired. I was reunited with my half-sister Lisa last month after 16 years! We have only met twice in my life--once in 1987 for a few hours and once in 1992, again for a few hours. The story about my half-sister and half-brother is a murky one. They are from my father's first marriage. All I know is that I didn't grow up with them and that filled me with great sadness.

In January of 2007, Lisa and I started writing regularly via email and discovered we had a ton of things in common and raise our children with the same values. Lisa has an 18 year old son Ryan, a 15 year old daughter Allison, and a 4 year old daughter named Sophie. She and my half-brother Robert have an Aveda salon in Denver, CO.


After what felt like an eternity, Lisa and I were finally able to get our families together in South Dakota last month. So much has happened since we started writing and I'm glad we were able to share so much about our lives with each other through the internet since we couldn't see each other in person. Sadly, Lisa's mother had an aneurysm last October and then went into a coma and never came out. Her mother passed away on March 8, the day before Lisa's birthday.

I can't tell you how wonderful it was to give her a hug, meet her family, and just hang out with her for a few days. We got along wonderfully, as did our children. Kai and Sophie were best friends immediately and her older children and husband Justin were such kind, wonderful people to be around.



Lisa and I are tossing plans around about someday moving our families to the Black Hills and buying a big plot of land. Lisa wants to raise alpacas and make sweaters from their wool. She also wants have an orchid greenhouse. I want to have greenhouses and grow herbs so I can make flower essences and herbal remedies. I also want to have massive gardens, especially gardens of medicinal flowers.

Notice any resemblances? Lisa's hubby Justin thinks we look alike. And one cannot miss the striking similarities between Kai and Sophie! In some ways, I feel like Lisa and I are like twins separated at birth (as far as our personalities, interests, etc go). We have so much in common even though we have not grown up with each other or even really had any contact with each other until 2007. Oh, and we are both left-handed but cut with our right hand. Bizarre... It's such a blessing to have been reunited with her!

Jacque Kaisteau and Tea Mayol

Do I even need to say anything? This cracks me up! Gotta love those nylon stockings from Gigi!

Stay tuned for more posts. I've got some pictures my half sister (some of you didn't even know I had a sister). We were recently reunited after 16 years and it was wonderful!

And, at this very moment (Wed, June 9) my little brother Anthony Murray is in the World Tournament of Poker in Las Vegas (event 54) and is probably just finishing up his second day of playing. He placed 44th out of 2000 people the first day and was around 86th overall. He has a chance of winning hundreds of thousands of dollars! The pool is $66 million. I'm so proud of him!!