Friday Fill Ins

Thursday, September 11, 2008
Friday Fill-Ins #89



1. I enjoy being naked.

2. House paint colors is something I wonder about often lately.

3. In your heart, you knew what only you could know.

4. Take kids, add a little garden hose and you end up with shreiking laughter that makes the neighbors curious.

5. Life has gifted me with a better family than I ever could have designed.

6. The beach house is an instant vacation.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to some personal grooming (epilating my legs), tomorrow my plans include Maya's swim meet in Hilo and a trip to the astronomy center afterwards and Sunday, I want to see my husband!

Our Family and other animals

Since watching the movie version of "My Family and Other Animals" the kids and I have talked a lot about how much we loved all of the outdoor spots that the family ate and relaxed and hung out. We have decided that we want to create a bunch of places to do just that at our new house. And yesterday at the beach with the cousins I walked down to find this:

A game of Apples To Apples on the beach (and later a huge tray of pupus and drinks arrived thanks to Auntie Katherine - who is seated in this photo).

Look who earned her "lellow" belt today!

A big day here- Asha tested for her yellow belt!








Ta Da!! (and look how well it goes with the carpet!)

New season begin

I really liked the sight of the 3 of them today all geared differently and off to their respective sports. (And no, Cyrus is not upset about having his picture taken or pissed off about anything for that matter. On the contrary, he is thrilled to be geared up and starting a new season again so soon! I mean are you KIDDING ME? This is BASEBALL for crying out loud!! And he takes his baseball very seriously!!... and seriously, that is fun for him - trust me:). I am often overwhelmed keeping up with all of the scheduled activities. I would not choose to have so many, but the kids all choose to do these things and really enjoy them. I had a fellow homeschooler ask me not too long ago how I dealt with it when the kids didn't want to go to their "lessons". Once I figured out that she was not talking about school lessons I told her that we almost never have that scenario because the kids choose and enjoy all the things they do. Occasionally someone doesn't feel like going because they are tired or involved in something else, but that is rare and when it happens we just skip it. There have been things that they have tried and then stopped doing too. This Mom then told me she wanted her daughter to continue the activity (in this case aikido) because she was sure she would be happy that she'd stuck with it and was so good at it once she was a teenager!! Her daughter is 7!!! I couldn't help it, I said, "I doubt I'd enjoy anything after years of being told I had to go when I didn't want to" The Mom's response was, "Yeah, maybe you're right. I sometimes wonder if I should just let her take a break." At which point I had to excuse myself before I got all worked up in front of her.

So we are really busy and my ongoing challenge is finding my joy in that. I just remind myself that this lifestyle is what brings the kids joy right now and I also allow myself to realize that it may not always be so easy to meet their needs for this kind of involvement and level of organized activity. We are pretty blessed to have so many quality options available living in such a remote and lightly populated area!

A new favorite quote

I was reading (through my tears - the good kind - the happy, laughing, OMG I really need to pee!, kind) at theblogess.com which I found by following a link from Mary Gold at zenmommasgarden because she said it would make me laugh and I trust her judgment on that. I read this and appreciated it enough to quote her here:

"It was awesome and terrible. Like a tornado filled with glitter and pretty shoes."

And really, that is just what I need, another blog to read....

But who doesn't need to laugh more?

Ohana Fishing Tournament

This weekend is the Ohana Shoreline Fishing Tournament. We went Friday afternoon to Coast Guard. Auntie Julie wanted to try for menpachi because it was going to be a full moon. Cyrus had some buggers with his line and lost several hooks. It was pretty to watch him cast out in the dark though with the green glow stick on his line and then to watch him reel it in through the water. Alas no menpachi were on the menu.

Asha was fishing for a while next to a small blow hole that would shoot up a small geyser any time a good set of swells rolled in.

It was refreshing in the heat of the late afternoon and really funny when we didn't realize that Billy was straddling it when he came later toward sunset. Maya said it sounded like one of those bumble bee fireworks that jump into the air.
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There were lots of small tide pools on the rocks and the most shallow ones were left with only sea salt:

Auntie Julie is so good to our family. Her and her husband, Uncle Paul, take Cyrus fishing almost every weekend. Those two embody the Aloha Spirit! Not to mention all of the yummy Filipino food that Auntie Julie shares with us!!

Asha was the only one to catch fish. And it was her very first time fishing! First she caught a small rock fish:

Which we held in one of the tide pools.

She whispered to me after a while when no one else was catching anything, "If they don't start catching something soon I'm afraid dinner tonight will leave us hungry!"
She cught it on a bamboo pole:

Then she caught a kopipi. Here she is with it today after her soccer game when we met Julie and Cyrus and Maya at Keokea. Maya caught a little rass while we were in Waimea for the game:

It was a beautiful sunset and the evening was really warm -even I thought so and didn't put a sweatshirt on 'til after 10pm!

There was a beautiful full moon which always takes my breath away when I spot it for the first time:

Can you see it directly behind the palm?

It would have been smart to pick up and gather our things together before the sun went down! As it was the moonlight was nice and bright which meant we only needed our flashlights for tying line and baiting hooks, but we lost the scissors and never did find them... good thing we had Cyrus' teeth with us!

After that gorgeous, calm night last night Julie tried to take Cyrus and Maya back to the same spot today, but there was surf and it was a little sketchy so they packed up and went to Keokea, but Maya was too freaked by the size of the waves to fish bamboo and Cyrus had more trouble with his line in the rocks, so we may try one more outing in the morning to see if we can catch anything else we could take to the weight in in Waimea at noon.

A cozy spot

Thursday night while we watched the Olympics Asha disappeared and this is where we found her... fast asleep:



One of the things I like about this photo is the variety of the things on top of the coffee table.