Sometimes, you can’t help feeling glad that you missed the shot. That you had the wrong lens. That the picture came out blurry.
Sometimes, the screwed up shot is a gift.
Archive for the 'Photos' Category
Whatever you do…don’t step on the bunny.
Published July 11, 2008 Photos , Stuff I Think About When I Should Be Sleeping 9 Comments
Drawing chalk bunnies may not seem all that interesting. But it does add a whole new dimension to jumping rope on the back porch.
But that’s not what I wanted to tell you about, really.
What I wanted to tell you about, really, is these dresses. Don’t you love them? Aren’t they just gorgeous? Isn’t the fact that my 7-year-old actually put one on amazing?
These dresses come from a thrift shop close to home. A kind of thrift shop that gives all its proceeds to a battered women’s shelter. So, if you shop there, not only are you Not Buying Some Unnecessary New Clothing Item that only adds to the depletion of more resources and exploits a third-world worker, but you’re also helping women in the area who really need some help.
Did I mention to you that it’s my favorite clothing store?
These dresses cost $3.00 each. The hat was $1.00. The green top was $2.00. But so what? The best part of buying them was just going into the store with my daughters and browsing around for a good hour, trying on all the funny “old lady hats” and squealing over fabulous finds. That red dress is my 5-year-old’s favorite item of clothing. (My 7-year-old hasn’t worn her dress since this day, but that’s okay. If she needs a dress, at least she’s got one.)
Look how beautiful these dresses are. Look at my beautiful children. Look how easy it is to shop without hurting anyone. Look how political this post became.
We’re way far off from jumping over chalk bunnies, now. But chalk bunnies are still a great summer diversion. Go on out and draw one yourself. You’ll see what I’m talking about.
Here’s a few shots of what it looks like up in the Baca Grande country, for those of you who are wondering.
Here’s a picture of the dormitory:
Here’s a shot of one of the peaks that surround the little valley:
This year, for the first time ever, we had a large herd of elk move through. We saw them every evening when we went out walking, but they were quite shy, so getting in close enough for good pictures was really difficult. Here they are from a distance:
The usual Baca routine goes something like: Wake up. Have coffee. Write a little before anyone wakes up. When they do wake up, make more coffee. Drink more coffee with friends. Have a little breakfast. Then, get dressed. Write some more. Go for a walk. Have some lunch. Write all afternoon. Then have dinner with everyone. After dinner, go for a walk to watch the sunset.
Here’s what the sunsets generally look like all the time:
You can see why we always like to go walking around this time of evening.
After the evening walk, we’d all go back inside and listen to the coyotes wail for a while. We’d make tea or pour wine, and talk and talk and talk. And then we’d all go to bed and get up in the morning and do it all over again.
Hmmm…. I’m sort of already looking forward to next year. Can you blame me?
There’s no place like home…except for that other place that’s like home, that is.
Published May 21, 2008 Country Living , Photos 7 CommentsI see, according to my stats, that many of you came looking here yesterday to see if I’d posted. Many apologies for the delay. We spent all day travelling yesterday, and it went fine, except for the fact that my 5-year-old left her Leapster L-Max on the plane, and we didn’t realize it until we were almost home. (sigh)
After a long day of travel, we ordered pizza and got everyone to bed. Then, today, it was all about bathing the girls, doing laundry and shopping for groceries. It has also been all about listening to our old cat complain ceaslessly about how absolutely BORING it was here all week without us around to let her in and out every 45 seconds. She’s outside right now, but any minute she’ll be scratching at the door to be let back in, because cats honestly believe that that’s what humans were put on earth for: to open things for them. Like doors. And cans of tuna. And pretty soon, a big giant can of Whoop-Ass if she doesn’t KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY.
Anyway. The trip was fabulous. Of course. Five glorious days in which I sat around, eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, writing, gabbing with my girlfriends, walking, sleeping. And yes, I got a massage, but not from that nice young man. One of the participants this year was a woman who recently got her CMT license, and she brought her table and set up in the library on Saturday. IT WAS JUST AS GOOD.
It was still wintery there this year. Most of the time, it looked like this:
Wintery, but nice. Yes?
I spent a lot of time feeling a little homesick. Looking at the mountains, and the wide open spaces, and the way you can just SEE for miles and miles, I just LONGED to move back.
But then, when we got back home yesterday, the most interesting thing happened. It felt like home. Even though the trees grow tall and close in, like this:
This felt like home. This, and the way that the sun doesn’t bake you to a crisp when you’re outside. The way the breeze has a little bit of watery weight to it, and how everything smells so lush. This also was home for me. And I was glad. Because really…how lucky am I, to feel at home in two such different places?
I’d write more and more on this, but let’s face it: I’m home. And there’s things to deal with. Like the fact that during the time it took me to type this up, the girls had some sort of argument that resulted in my 5-year-old slamming her door hard enough to make the smoke detector above it go off. So, in between paragraphs I’ve been getting up and dealing with the EXTREMELY LOUD BEEPING SOUNDS and handing out a few stern lectures about door-slamming. And finally, I had to take the dectector off the wall and remove the battery just to have some peace and quiet. And now, rest time is over. It’s time for a snack and a favorite TV show before swimming lessons. Then I’ve got to rush around getting a late dinner on the table.
Yep…. We’re definitely home.
One of the biggest traps in homeschooling, if you ask me, is the constant pressure to Do Things With Other People. Just this morning, in my email, I finalized plans for friends to come over on Friday afternoon. As I was finishing that, the phone rang, and it was more friends asking about getting together for a day trip to a museum soon. Or, if not that, at least a play date. Or how about the zoo? What are you doing this weekend? Do you want to check out my co-op? It goes on and on.
And believe me, I’m not complaining at all. It’s good to have all these friends. It’s good to get together. But it’s also good to just not get together sometimes. And for me, being new and still sort of defensive and insecure about this whole homeschooling thing, I have to remind myself a lot to Not Always Be Getting Together With People. My previous post, in which you all were so kind as to reassure me that my friend was not exactly being friendly, is an excellent case in point. I could have said no when that woman called and asked if they could stop by. I should have said no, in fact. We were all tired. I’d spent the day sorting toys and catching up on laundry. I wasn’t in the mood for this woman at all to begin with. (Because honestly? That afternoon tea was only the tip of a very large iceberg. The woman’s got some ISSUES, is all I’m sayin’.)
But the thing is, I exist on the defensive most of the time. When people find out we homeschool and start in with the endless questions on socialization, I want to be armed and ready with a Packed Social Schedule. It’s ridiculous and exhausting, but it’s hard to stop myself. And I’m not the only one who does this. Most of the women I know here are much more busy than I am. They’re stretched thin, and ragged, and possibly on the edge of burnout. I can see it in their eyes. And listening to them, I’m learning to simply say No to the endless stream of activities available to us. But when someone who isn’t a homeschooler starts asking THOSE QUESTIONS, I’m always quick to tell them all the millions of things we do all the time, and then having told people that, I begin to think that I’d better ramp up the social schedule, just in case those people with absolutely no experience homeschooling whatsoever are RIGHT and my kids NEED to be surrounded by other people 24-7.
And the truth is, we need LESS people around. We need some space. We need at least one day a week where we don’t go anywhere or have people over. For us, that day is Wednesday. And I guard Wednesdays fiercely. But maybe, I’m thinking, we need more than just that one day.
Today, it was just the three of us. We did some schoolwork, and took a quick run to the local elementary school so I could cast my vote in the primary. Then, seeing that the weather was good, we decided it might be nice to grab some sandwiches from Subway and go on over to the local lake and just hang out and see what there was to see.
And this is what we saw*:
And the thing is, it was JUST US. We didn’t bring anyone else along. We didn’t have to synchronize our watches or sign up on a Yahoo message board or coordinate with half a dozen other people via email to have this day. We just got ourselves some lunch and went. And I didn’t have to talk to anyone. Or entertain anyone. Or encourage anyone. Or listen to anyone else’s bullshit. Or worry that my kids weren’t getting along with someone else’s kids. Or worry that the mom I was with had the better curriculum, or theory, or hairstyle, car, shoes, magazine subscriptions or WHATEVER. I just had to sit back, relax and take some pictures.
I think we need more days where it’s Just Us. I think that may be another way to take better care of me and my kids.
*WordPress has this new gallery feature. I’ve spent some time dinking around with it to see if it’s worth using. What do you think? Is it too much clicking? Or do you like this layout? Comments on this will be appreciated. 
This isn’t the most spectacular picture I’ve ever taken, but I just love it anyway. There’s something about the color scheme that makes me want to sit down and drink tea and sketch things all day long.
