HOME and the book's done

We're home safely with few problems, after driving straight through from St. Louis on Monday. After seven days of intense activity (counting the travel time) it was quietly and wonderfully peaceful to just be home. That's me and Holly, anyway. Keith went back to work Wednesday, as did Kirby. Marty worked a couple of half days.

This book is finished and for sale at this site: sandradodd.com/puddlebook



Tadaa!!

Fifteen moonflowers, leaving town

The moonflowers aren't leaving town; we are. Soon. Driving to St. Louis (which is easier to say and remember than "Driving to a place in Illinois that's basically in St. Louis").

Fifteen moonflowers, which is very exciting, and now we'll miss them for seven or eight nights. Friends of ours will see them, though; part of the benefit of housesitting. (Small but unusual benefit.) And barring any freak early-October freeze, we'll see lots of moonflowers when we come home.

It's fall!

Leaves are actually falling, as though calendars mattered to my yard. There will be hundreds of moonflowers. I'm kinda stunned. There have been thousands of morning glories and that didn't surprise me. They're in eight different places, and a couple of those places pretty extensive.

We have ten days before we leave for the Live and Learn Conference. I've been doing pretty well this time about being ready early, but by "ready" I mean keeping my last-minute list to a manageable level.

For me, it's easier than for Keith who has to take time off during a pressing project at work. Kirby and Marty have arranged to take off too. That's a lot of people's days off. And we're having two housesitters to share the load here, and they might subcontract to other friends in that group. Sometimes I wish for the ease of just locking up a one-bedroom pet-free apartment and getting a ride to the airport, rather than all the whole-family, four-pet, yard-watering planning. Six pets--forgot the rats for a moment. But in the "at least..." department, at least we're not on the Gulf coast and we don't have milk goats.

The conference details are here, and I'm speaking or leading games or music seven times. Nothing really difficult, just a lot of it.

http://www.liveandlearnconference.org/

Next year it will probably be in Albuquerque! Much less prep if so!

Moonflowers! (and a mystery flower)

Yes, a moonflower bloomed, and dozens more are building up blooming. This one's about ten feet up, so we couldn't get a clear shot (and it's not quite fully open at 9:30, either, but I have hot tub and sleeping-like-a-rock plans because I have a cold).

And then there's a mystery flower came up yesterday and bloomed today. It might be a bulb, but it came up pretty suddenly and without any blades or leaves, just the stalk (about ten inches high) and a freakish, elaborate bloom like the tails of five exotic cartoon birds. Does anyone know what this is!?

Book, French and more flowers

I've spent many (many) hours lately working on a book. Keith spent many hours too. Had it not been for my respect for tradition, I'd be long done. Seems to me, though, that each chapter (in this case, each essay) should start on a right-hand, odd-numbered page. Seems simple enough. Only thing is the essays keep coming out to three pages long. Or worse, two and a half. So they need filler. Photos of the kids seemed like good filler. Forty-eight essays. Some don't need photos. Some need more than one.

Luckily, Keith knew some good formatting tricks, and that's good.

And for more international credits, Sylvie Martin-Rodriguez has translated three of my essays into French and you can get there from here: SandraDodd.com/french

My moonflowers are going to bloom. They haven't yet, but when they do I'll bring a photo. And that's the news of August 31. Thanks for reading!

Bush Morning Glories

When researching for my page on morning glories, I read about bush morning glories. I'd never heard of them, but one article said they grow in New Mexico and come from a bulb or tuber or something. I bought some seeds and they just looked like kinda pitiful little weeds and I was afraid they'd never come to anything, but TODAY! Today is the day.

I saw the little furled-umbrella looking thing early today, and 11:30 when I got back from errands it was open. There are five others ready to open in the next few days. Pretty exciting.

Lunch with Carol

My friend Carol Rice graduated with a degree in psychology and art, in May, and though I had intended to go to her graduation party, I missed it by a day and was sad and embarrassed.

I took her out to lunch earlier this week, though. To Garduño's on Montgomery. We talked some about art therapy (which she intends to study in Santa Fe soonishly to get an MA degree), and some about alternative psychology, and some about kids and some about just the little fluffy stuff old friends talk about.

Carol was one of the La Leche League leaders who made such a deep impression on me. When I met Carol she had three children and I had one. Now she has four and I have three, only none are "children," because they range in age from 13 to 23 now. Of those who weren't born yet when we met (Marty, Julie and Holly), they hang around together weekly or so, watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer in full-DVD sessions. Renee and Liam (twins; toddlers when I met them) are over here from time to time for parties or games.

When I met Carol, Kirby was an infant and school or not-school was far in the future. By the time Kirby was five, I had seen Carol and her co-leader in LLL, Lori Odhner, and their growing families and their unschooling lives for many years. That's helpful. That (and some other personal experiences and factors) made unschooling easier for me than it could have been, and easier than I know it is for many others, and I've been grateful to Carol and Lori always for the benefit to my family from my having seen theirs. (Kathy Hoag was helpful too, with the early-childhood parenting, but Kathy's kids all went to school and the wedge eventually made the separation too great for the kids to hang around comfortably. I still like Kathy lots when I see her, but can't claim the same lifelong relationship of kids-to-kids.)

Frequently when I've spoken or written I've named Carol and Lori as mothers to whom I'm indebted, who influenced me and gave me tricks and treasures to pass on to other moms, so here's another credit, homage and tribute to Carol Rice. I thank you again, and not for the last time.