Mariposa Academy Homeschool

Happy Thanksgiving Happy Black Friday Happy, um, Saturday, everyone! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did. We went to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving dinner. My sister and her family are away on vacation, so it was a small group– just my parents, my immediate family and me, and my dad’s friend. We had a delicious meal. As you might know, Adrian, the kids, and I are all vegetarian. Every year as Thanksgiving approaches, people ask us “What do you eat?” They seem really flummoxed by this question, as if they couldn’t possibly imagine experiencing Thanksgiving without turkey. I don’t get it. I know turkey is the iconic Thanksgiving food, so much so that teh holiday is casually called “Turkey Day.” But really, are these people saying that if the turkey wasn’t on the table, they wouldn’t have anything else to eat? Do they think we are sitting there with empty plates because we don’t eat turkey? Come on! Thanksgiving is one day that a vegetarian is certain to leave the table with a full stomach!

This year we had two scrumptious “turkey substitutes”: a Tofurkey and a Celebration Roast. But even without those, we would have been fine. We started our meal with a wild mushroom soup. I really have to ask my mom for the recipe; it was delicious. Then, along with the fake turkey, there were dinner rolls, cornbread, traditional cranberry sauce, cranberry-orange relish, stuffing, sweet potatoes, braised red cabbage, green bean casserole, and noodle kugel. Trust me, starving we weren’t. After sitting around and letting the food digest a bit, we went back to the table and enjoyed coffee, pumpkin pie, and apple cake. Yum! And of course my mom sent us home with leftovers, which we enjoyed throughout the day yesterday.

Yesterday, rather than taking part in all the Black Friday meshugass, we went thrift shopping. I only found one skirt for myself, but I found a ton of things for the kids. Llani was especially lucky– ten shirts, 3 or 4 skirts, a pair of pants, and a dress. Zeke got two pairs of pants, two button-down shirts, a t-shirt, and two neckties. Yes, my funny little boy who usually looks like a ragamuffin with a dirty face, unkempt hair, and a stained shirt, loves wearing ties. Go figure. Luz just got a few things, one of which, a pink stripey dress, she is wearing today with her rainbow-striped leg warmers. Because babies + stripes = teh cuteness.

Oh, speaking of rainbow stripes, listen to this. My dad just recently learned that the rainbow is a symbol for the gay community. You must understand, this is a man whom I’ve referred to as a “male fag hag” because he always hangs out with lesbians. Even though he is straight and married, he was involved with the Gay and Lesbian Community Center for a while, just because he had lots of friends there. Some of his closest friends here in Charlotte are gay men. But it was only when his friend, a gay male, told him that the rainbow flag means gay rights, that he realized it wasn’t a coincidence– his gay friends didn’t just all happen to love rainbows so much that they put rainbow stickers on their cars! How is this possible?

Today I am thankful:

•That I’ve been able to hold down the fort this week.
•That Adrian is coming home tomorrow.
•That even though I’m getting a cold and am sniffly, stuffy, and froggy, I actually feel just fine.
•For warm clothes, including the babywearing poncho that keeps both me and Goosey warm.
•For food on our table, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads.
•For coffee.
•That I’ve been liking Charlotte lately.
•That I’ve just generally been happy lately.
•That I’m managing to do a weekly meme the third week in a row!

Today I am thankful for:

•the fact that a little girl in Buffalo is hanging in there
•the fact that I finally got my eyes examined and I’ll be getting glasses this weekend
•glorious fall weather
•Adrian’s job
•the ability to pay our bills
•successful knitting projects
•my haircut (yeah, I said it. I know I’m shallow.)

Here’s my dirty little secret: I don’t hate Charlotte anymore. In fact, I might be starting to like it a little. During this recent bank crisis and the takeover/merger hullabaloo with Wachovia, I even found myself feeling a strange sort of loyalty to this place that I’ve been so invested in hating for the past four years. I don’t know what’s happening to me. It’s a bit upsetting, actually. But also nice.

It will never compare to NYC, of course, but Charlotte does have cultural institutions, and I need to start taking advantage of them. It does have diversity– a diversity that is growing. North Carolina has one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the US, and I have noticed its growth in the past four years. I’ve noticed the growth and increased visibility of the Jewish community here, and don’t feel as much of an outsider as I did our first year here. Thanks to the banks, there are people here from all over the world. And, as of this last election, I am living in a blue state– woohoo!! Oh, there are still tons of conservative wackos, child-beaters, and Jesus freaks here. But I simply don’t associate with them. I have made friends here and found my niche, and I’m happy.

We still talk about moving back to the city, and if the opportunity arose, I’d probably still jump at it. The idea of my children not being New Yorkers makes me sad. But honestly, how would we ever afford it? Here, we’ll be able to buy a nice house, three bedrooms or more, for under $250,000. A halfway-decent place in one of the outer boroughs would cost twice that. I used to hear people talk about moving out of NYC for the “quality of life,” and I used to laugh at the idea. How could anyplace other than NYC have any quality of life? What was a backyard, a big house, or a slower pace compared to everything the city had to offer? I didn’t get it at all. But the other day, I was talking to a NY friend of mine on the phone. She mentioned that she’ll have to go back to work within the next year or two. Later in the conversation, she said that her husband wakes up at 5:00 each morning, and is never home from work before seven.

I realized at that point that I really like the life my family has here in Charlotte. Adrian works from 8:00 till 4:30 or so. That’s a normal day here. In NYC, if you work “only” eight hours, you are slacking off. He gets home each day around 5:30. We are by no means rich, but his salary supports our family. We’re not struggling. We have to economize, but we’re not worrying about paying our bills and we are shrinking our debt load little by little. I’m able to stay home and homeschool my children, and my husband is home well before dinner each night.

I don’t know if we’d be able to have that in the city. It would be very difficult. Adrian would have to find an amazingly well-paying job, and we’d have to find a remarkably cheap house. Even if his work hours were good, he’d probably have a two-hour commute. We’d definitely have to give up something. Now, what are we giving up? Well, we’re giving up living in the city. I do realize that. But I really love our life. I love being with my kids. Adrian actually, for the first time in years, really likes his job. He gets to spend time with his family. Once we buy a house, the kids will be able to play outside without making a special trip to the park. Whenever they’re getting restless and crazy, I’ll just open the back door and send them out to play. We’ll have friends over for barbecues. We’ll have room for all of us and a kitchen that Adrian can really bake in. And when we go out to a museum we’ll have the choice of only a few, and when we go out to a bookstore or restaurant it will likely be a chain, and we’ll probably have to drive. But that’s okay. And Zabar’s delivers worldwide.

Today is Thursday, so I’m doing a Thankful Thursday post. Now, it’s not an official Thankful Thursday post, because that’s a Christian thing, and I’m Jewish (or Jerish, as I’ve been saying lately. I’m a Jer. ) But whatever religion one is, I think it’s important to remember to be thankful and count one’s blessings, and I love the idea of taking one day a week to blog about what one is thankful for. Maybe I’ll call mine Thursday Thanks.

I’m thankful for
•Barack Obama winning the Presidency
•Obama winning NC
•Kay Hagan winning Senator from NC
•The gloriously sunny, warm fall day we had today
•My beautiful family
•knitting
•coffee
•my health
•The smile Goosey just gave me.

There ya go.

I’ve started sewing again. I hadn’t had time to sew for a while. Also (and maybe more significant) I hadn’t made it a priority. It’s so easy for me to get sucked into spending hours online. I have to make a conscious effort to turn off the computer each day. I also have to remind myself how much better I feel when I make things. Knitting and sewing have the amazing ability to both calm and energize me at the same time. Making things with my own two hands focuses my scattered energy and makes me feel more cheerful, empowered, and content with my life. In times like this nervewracking election season, it’s like therapy to me.

I hemmed a pair of jeans. Since I am a smidge under five feet tall, hemming is pretty much a sartorial requirement for me. I can’t believe I used to pay a tailor to do it. Even if that’s all I did with a sewing machine, it would be a good investment. But I also love to actually make things.

I recently bought Goosey two rock-star-worthy GEN-Y diaper covers from Banana Peels

I have some of the same calaveras fabric, so I decided to make Goosey a dress to match the diaper cover. I bought a black t-shirt and cut off the bottom. Then I sewed a skirt of the fabric onto the shirt.

It looked soooo cute, and I wanted her to wear it yesterday when we went to a Dia de los Muertos festival at the Levine Museum. There were definitely lots of mistakes, but the casual observer would not have seen them. Unfortunately, when I tried it on her, I realized that the seam where I’d attached the fabric was too tight. I should have stretched the shirt when I sewed. To make matters worse, as I was struggling to get it on her, she spit up all over it. Blech. I am going to have to do that dress over. Once I get good at that kind of dress, I can make a bunch for Goosey and Llani.

I started knitting a simple coffee cup cozy last night. I just needed something to knit. What I really want to make, though, is the Baby Surprise Jacket. I was thinking of making it for my cousin’s new baby girl. It would make a very nice gift. But let’s be real, I’d never finish it in a decent amount of time. So I think I will make it for Luz and sew a fleece hat for my cousin’s baby. Hopefully this week I’ll get a chance to go to the yarn store. I’m thinking a variegated pink cotton…..

Another think I want to do soon is make some laundry detergent. I used to do this, and then for whatever reason, I stopped. But I was thinking about it the other day. In one of those serendipitous events that happen sometimes, I was watching the Duggars on TV the next day and they were making the laundry soap and talking about how much money they save. Then yesterday, Adrian poured the last of the cat litter into the box, so now I have a huge empty bucket with a lid. I think the universe is telling me I need to make laundry soap!