TWO YEARS??

Holy Cow.....I CANNOT believe two years have gone by since I last posted to this Blog. To coin my favorite phrase (safely)....WTF? Oh, wow, so much has happened......I almost don't know where to start.

So.....I am typing this new blog post on our BRAND SPANKING new SHINY laptop. As such, it has no photos of any kind on it, other than what comes loaded onto it. So, I picked the sailboat because we recently tried, as a family, to bring Mr out on a sailboat since his last foray onto the ocean resulted in his "chumming". Well, the second sojourn onto the water was BETTER in that there was no "chum" involved....but still...not his cup of tea.

What else is new? The biggest news (from Mama) is that I have officially "retired" from any and all activities with the large homeschooling support group I have been working with and for over the pat 6 or 7 years. THAT in itself is a long story for another time, but suffice it to say that the adjustment will be....ah, in a word.....interesting. We are still homeschooling the kids, of course. But now I'll be able to focus my energies toward working on my OWN degrees....that I plan to take to Law School someday.

So, this post and the resurrection of the BLOG was inspired by my quilting and fellow mommy pal, Jake Finch, who spearheads Generation Q Magazine to write about being thankful for cuteness. I'll write about that tomorrow. For now I just wanted to get back into the BLOG of the thing.....

)O( Mama Z.

Winter Holidays 2009 (placeholder)

Heyas! Sorry our recent post was such sad news. We actually had a GREAT time over the holidays. But, we came home to a dead computer, so we are borrowing one temporariliy. We still have to unpack, do laundry, sort out and download all of our photos we took during our trip to Utah and Colorado.

Then,......I PROMISE to replace this boring post with a great one about our trip, complete with photos.

Stay tuned!!!!!!!

Love, The Z Clan!

Goodbye Sweetest Girl

Our dear sweet kitty, Penny, passed away on January 2, 2010.

On New Year's Day we woke up to some odd behavior by her, mainly her eyes looked strange and she was having trouble walking. After a long day spent at the pet emergency clinic and a very long night of wondering and considering, we decided that we could not put her through rigorous testing, poking, prodding or long-term rehabilitation. The family decided it was best to relieve her suffering.

To the best of our knowledge, we believe she had a stroke, a rare thing for kitties, but with a purebred (ragdoll), it is certainly possible. She was having trouble with negotiating the left side of her body and we are certain she was blind and possibly deaf on one side. She also did not respond to her name, something she has ALWAYS done since we adopted her.

Goodbye "Pennies From Heaven". We will ALWAYS love you!

)O( The Mama

Feast or Famine.....Part Deaux....

Yeah, yeah.....I know why aren't we posting to our blog more often? Well, the simple answer is.....WE ARE BUSY!!! The better answer is.....we are lazy!

LOL! Actually, we are not lazy, we just keep moving "update the blog" to end of the list and then onto the next "to do" list and then to the next one....and so on....and so forth.....ah, you get the picture. You are also guilty of that, too, hmmm????

Actually, we are enjoying the summer. We adopted a new cat named Penny. We discovered Facebook a while back and that sort of took over all "spare" computer time.

So, this is Penny. This picture is not one of her best, but it shows her interesting markings. She's a purebred Ragdoll cat; six years old with a championship pedigree. She's pretty cute and quite a lovebug. She's a little bit shy around the kids, but tolerates their love and hugs pretty well.

We are enjoying having a cat in the house....oh, did I mention that she is long-haired? Eesh! Forgot what de-linting is all about.

Well, I've got to run....I'm prepping to go the Ventura County Fair tonight, sans kids, to see Huey Lewis and the News! This should hold everyone for awhile, right? Sending much love to all......

)O( The Mama

The QUICKEST Month

Every February I am amazed at how 28 days can zip by in a blink.

I also figured that neglecting the blog just isn't a very good thing to do. Even before and after February, Life moves at the speed of psycho and the blog is the best way we know how to keep everyone updated (including ourselves.....)

Most of you know that the "mama" took a gigantic leap into the thespian category (it's about time since Boy and Girl are both going to be seasoned Shakespearean actors by the time summer rolls around) and landed a very special first role on a stage. Check out the "MAMA" blog, for the full story on that.

Mama also took a new quilt class. This time using a pattern with "points" (which means "triangles"). Here are two blocks that are being made:

(Mama switching to talking in the first person now--)I started out on my usual wonderful sewing machine that really got me started and gave me the room to really appreciate sewing. However, the precision that this particular pattern required was far beyond what my "basic sewing and mending machine" was capable of handling. Part way through my classes, I began to realize that I really needed to upgrade my machine.

I had been thinking of doing this anyway as early as several months after I began quilting and realized that I absolutely LOVE to do it. Literally, for the past year, I have been wanting this machine:


It's a 2008 Heart Truth from Janome, which is a pretty good name in the quilting realm. But the best part is that DS saw how much trouble I was having with getting this quilt together. So.......he gave me the money, just before V-day, to buy it as an early anniversary gift (10 years next week). Isn't he the BEST!? I was able to nab ONE of the final TWO in Ventura County. I brought the "new baby" home on February 13th and spent the weekend playing with it and loving it!

DS is the BEST gifter.

While my project was begun on a lower-end machine and that still presents a lot of challenges, I am now planning to finish it. (More details about that on Mama's Blog

Another, very sad event took place at the end of February, really the beginning of March.... My Uncle Harvey passed away. Here is a very small part of his life:
"Walking in Multiple Worlds"

Daddy continues to work hard and hunt gophers. The kids continue to play hard and grow their brains (here's a few photos on that):

and life is as grand as it can be out here in the West.

We miss you all every day.

)O(
~The Mama
MNMS

Yes! We are STILL HERE!

I can not believe it has been more than six months since our last post here.....We've done A LOT! Black Belts for Mom, Dad and Boy in October....the holidays.....quilting projects....family adjustments (not the immediate....nobody panic)...wondering about the state of Countrywide/Bank of America.

I've picked up the responsibility of Chair for California Homeschool Network's Legal Rights Advocacy Committee.....I am also running for a seat on the Board of Trustee's for CHN.

We bought a new car--2007 Kia Sedona.....unexpected right before Christmas (on the Winter Solstice to be exact) because Frankentruck was pissing all kinds of fluids at every turn.

We continue to live quietly wondering who Countrywide/Bank of America will decide to keep on their payroll lists (hopefully MY husband!!!!!).....

Lots of things.....none of them Earthshattering or really important enough to have neglected blogging......just.......Life.

)O(

Whenever Schooling

Sometimes it's hard to believe that time flies by as fast as it does. The "school year" ended mid-June for most public schools in this area. It also seems that a lot of homeschooling families also choose that time to "break" for the summer. Perhaps those that "break" are actually home schooling through the public school districts Independent Study Programs.

EQL Academy (that is our private school) is a "year round school". We take "breaks" whenever we need them. Since we are constantly learning all of the time, we don't feel the need to count only certain activities, times of the day or days of the week as "schooly".

These photos were taken as the kids were learning about physics. There was a question about reflection (what makes mirrors) and then why they couldn't sit comfortably on the top of the couch. Traditional lessons? Hardly. Fun and laughter? ..... TONS!

If our children embrace the love of learning, they will outstrip us in every way possible. Their success will be endless.

Speaking of success....I'm off to teach us all how to compost.

)O( Mama

Video Killed the BlogStar?

I figured out how my nifty little "EnV" phone takes videos. I have a 512MB card in the phone and can store LOTS of photos and videos. So, here's a video of Poodle in one of her "shows" for her dance class. It's an informal recital for the parents. It's less intimidating than the other dance studios that perform their recitals in a HUGE auditorium in front of a few thousand people.

So, let's try this. I'm not sure the sound quality is that great. But....here it is!

~~Mama )O(