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 The weather here has just been beautiful, which results in some spectacular skies. I really liked that this shot captured the feeling I had while looking at the awesome sunset.

We had a quiet day- this time it’s E3 fighting off a cold, and unfortunately with the gag reflex my family is blessed with, that means she gets little sleep. Still, it was a fairly productive day. We read, watched way more TV than normal, and invented a cool atom building game using marshmallows, Dots and Jujubes. E2 had asked me two questions a couple of days ago: How does the moon reflect the sun’s light, and why does the earth spin? These started a internet research session on light, and then moved to gravity, then to mass and matter, and finally atoms and elements. He had no trouble comprehending any of the ideas until we got to atoms, but for some reason we couldn’t find just some basic sites about them, at least that resonated with him. Since he is generally a kinesthetic learner, I thought building models with him would help, which evolved into a kind of racing game to build different isotopes. Of course, they kept eating the electrons. 🙂

 Well, this was the first day I really wasn’t inspired all day to photograph anything. So maybe since I did find something, and was actually excited by the idea of it, means that I’ll be able to pull off 365? I guess we’ll see.

My mom’s art medium of choice is fabric. One of the gifts she gives each of her grandchildren is a quilt, designed by her specifically for that grandchild. This is E3’s quilt. The bright colors, with the cartoon flowers, just fits her personality perfectly. It is quilted with swirls and hearts, and even has her name quilted into a corner. The other side that you can’t see is a hot pink color minkee fabric that is so soft it invites you to snuggle into it and smile, which is what she does every night when she goes to bed even if she’s already asleep.

 We all got together at K’s parents’ house, and I guess you could say we continued with our own Winter-een-mas celebration. The kids brought different games out and played all afternoon.

E2 has liked (too tame of a word, really) numbers, patterns and anything similar since before he could talk. As a young baby, he loved clocks. At 18 months old, he would sit on the floor and put jigsaw puzzles together. (His favorite puzzle was a bunch of clocks.) At 2 and a half years old, we would have a hard time taking him to the store because he had to read every license plate in the parking lot on the way inside and back to the car. By 6 and a half, he was working on Sudoku puzzles. So now it’s just a given if something involves numbers or patterns, he will definitely be involved. Tri-ominos, being a pattern game with numbers, is one of his favorites.

 I have never taken good landscape photographs. I don’t know why I cannot get what my eyes see to translate well through the lens. Sometime soon I’m going to have to find a book or website that teaches how to do that better, although I’m guessing one of the first steps will be: Don’t shoot out of the window of a moving vehicle.

I took this today as we were on our way to a “Winter-een-mas” celebration. If you don’t what that is (I didn’t), here is the explanation I received:

What is Winter-een-mas?
Winter-een-mas can be seen as a holiday or a tradition.Originally, Winter-een-mas was intended as a celebration of video games and the people that play them.The idea is that video games are a well loved part of the time we live in. Throughout history games have been the benchmark of family life, social interaction, conflict resolution, recreation, and relaxation. Presently, video games are an undeniable addition to the long timeline of game play. Video games allow us to have experiences that we couldn’t do in real life.

Winter-een-mas is a celebration of more than just video games. It is a celebration of fun, playfulness, and gathering together just for the sake of having a really good time. This celebration was created around video game play, but the holiday extends to games in all forms, and the joy of playing them. Friendship, community, and a sense of ‘tribe’ can be common side effects of playing games… Games bridge demographic gaps and bring people closer. It is no coincidence that games are played at parties and new social engagements; playing games help people communicate and bond.

Winter-een-mas is an anti-commercialism holiday. The tradition of gathering and playing facilitated by Winder-een-mas is spread by word-of-mouth. There are no Winder-een-mas movies… no commercials, no products, and no “wrong way” to the holiday – just like there is no wrong way to play and have fun! No one “owns” Winter-een-mas; it is a holiday given to all that love to play!

When is Winter-een-mas?
The Winter-een-mas celebration lasts for a full week – the very last week in January, the 25th through the 31st. The month of January is Winter-een-mas “season”, a full month to honor games and playfulness.

We all had a really great time, played some fun games, and met some neat people. And now E1, E2 and I want a Wii.

 Music has been a big part of my life as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are sitting by my mom in church trying to sing alto with her, and at home the radio always turned on to the country music AM station in town.

I started piano lessons on January 29, 1979. I loved playing the piano, although I wasn’t always so wild about the pieces I learned in my lessons and didn’t always practice like I should have. There were times my sight reading improved faster than any other single part of playing, simply because sometimes when I played the assigned piece for my teacher it was only the second or third time I had looked at it, and I wanted to play it really well so she wouldn’t know. Still, I’m sure my teachers knew when I hadn’t practiced. As I got older, I did get much better about practicing, for the most part. I loved music even more, and even started college as a music major.

As an adult, it seems music has been pushed way down on my list of things. A couple of years ago, K (being the wonderful giving person that he is) gave me a digital piano. After years of not having a piano to play, it has been so wonderful. The digital part is especially nice, since many times the only times I can play is when the rest of the house is asleep, so I put on my headphones and play as loud as I want. The kids also really enjoy it- and the headphones are great for that too. We have some beginning piano books that E1 is working her way through, mostly on her own. E2 prefers to sit down and try and figure out the notes to songs he knows, and once he does he never forgets. E3 just plays random notes as fast as she can, but seems to really listen to the way different notes sound together. When they want formal lessons we’ll do that, but for now it works with our unschooling to just follow their lead. Actually, E1 told me the other day that she is wanting to take voice lessons, so now I’m looking for a good children’s voice teacher. I am fairly sure that they will all want music lessons of some sort at some point, but I’ll try hard not to take it personally if none of them choose the piano.

 It was a gorgeous day for January: 45 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. We took advantage of the fact we live in a city that has the most parks per capita and walked to the one two blocks away. There are two separate play areas in this 50 or so acre park, and of course the kids’ favorite is the far one on the other side.

This was not the best picture that I took, but I liked that it had both E1 and E2, and it showed how much fun they were having. For some reason any picture I take with motion blur just looks out of focus.

  E3 is almost always playing with dolls. From the time she gets up, she has at least one with her at all times, usually two or three. One of her favorites is one we got for E1 on her first birthday, which E1 named Paprika a couple of years after. Another favorite is Jacklyn, a Cabbage Patch Doll E3 got for Christmas a year ago from her cousin A. The others don’t have names that I know of, half are called “baby,” the others “sister,” and the terms are never exchanged.

Part of our bedtime routine includes running around trying to find all of the dolls scattered throughout the house in order to snuggle with them. There is always too many for her to carry at once.

 I realized I didn’t have a picture of this pair of knit longies I made for E4, and since she seemed to be in a pretty good mood, I thought I should try. I wasn’t impressed with the pattern I used for these- there’s no difference between the front and the back, so in order to fit across the diaper in the back, the rise has to come up to her armpits in the front. The yarn, however, is the best: Irish Baby Knits in Peregrine Merino, dyed in the Aidan colorway. This yarn is soft, yet sturdy. If I thought I could get them done before she grew out of them, I’d be really tempted to frog them and knit them again, but using a different pattern.

 Today is a first- I couldn’t decide, so I posted both pictures. I’m not sure which direction to take with these photo-of-the-day pictures. Part of me wants to focus on snapshots of the kids and sort of document our days over the course of the year, but the other part wants to experiment more with the artistic side of photography, different types of subjects, light, etc. So probably what will happen is I’ll bounce around between the two, and hopefully become a better photographer of both. I guess that’s the advantage of having 365 days in a year.

 When it comes to baby things, I love all things Classic Pooh. To me it represents sweetness and innocence and fun. It’s somewhat ironic, because as a child I can remember not liking Winnie the Pooh books all that much.

All of the kids as babies have received something in the Classic Pooh theme, either as a gift from someone close, or something K or I found. This mobile is one of the things E4 has been given; it was a Christmas gift from K’s parents. We use it on the changing table- from the time she was born, E4 has liked to kick and push with her feet so much she’ll kick her whole body right off of the diaper I’m trying to put on. So we wind the mobile, and she’ll sing with me and the music and watch Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore while I race to get the diaper on before the song runs out.

 It’s the end of another week, and I have to say I’m glad it’s over. Everyone is finally asleep, I’ve got laundry washing, and I’m sitting down at the computer with my cup of decaf coffee to plan my weekly grocery shopping at The Grocery Game.

This is one of my favorite times of the day. Everything is still and quiet, and I have just a few minutes all to myself. And yet I can’t keep from going to check on the kids several times, just to watch them sleep.