Here We Come a Wassailing or a Rockin' Christmas List

(start at about 6 minutes)
One movie I love is Under The Greenwood Tree mostly because of the opening scenes of the "quire" caroling on Christmas Eve. Come to think of it I love Little Women too because of the scene where the girls are marching with their Christmas breakfast and singing "Here we Come a Wassailing" I love caroling and I love Christmas Carols but this year I have been wanting only rockin' music for my holiday tunes. Maybe I need high energy songs to keep up with the crafting fever there is nothign like dancing with a hot glue gun or an Exacto knife.
Here are some selections from my Rockin' Christmas list

(I don't know why Mariah Carey is on here twice I guess her Christmas songs are just better than the other versions.)

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/ We Three Kings - Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan
Cool Yule - Louis Armstrong
Christmas Baby Please Come Home- Mariah Carey
Last Christmas- Cascada
Run, Rudolph Run- Brian Setzer Orchestra (This link is good but the recording we bought on Amazon rocks HARDER)
I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - John Mellencamp
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town - The Jackson 5
All I Want for Christmas is You- Mariah Carey

Fashionista

This morning Nutmeg dressed herself and then came to assist me in my wardrobe selection. While I was deciding on a hair accessory she found this ribbon on the ground and insisted I tie it around her waist.

I think she just eclipsed my fashion sense.

In Which I Come Perilously Close to Becoming A "Look How Smart My Kid Is" Blogger

Last night Nutmeg wanted me to teach her how to knit. The thing about Nutmeg is:
1) She is very persistent as in "This reading lesson will not end until I can read the entire book."
2) She does not like to be helped, she wants to do it herself.
3) She is a perfectionist and gets frustrated and quits. I have seen her crumple up an entire drawing because she made an accidental mark and "ruined" it.
We started out last night with some worn size 13 bamboo needles and some bulky wool. It didn't go very well so I sent her to bed, dug through a foot of knitting stuff to find my very pointy plastic needles size 17 (I think) and some extra chunky acrylic yarn. A much more slippery combination .
Then I turned to that marvelous tool the Internet, looked up "How to teach kids to knit" and found this poem:

How to Knit:
In through the front door
Around to the back
Out through the window
And off jumps Jack

How to Purl:
Under the fence
Catch the sheep
Back we come
And off we leap.

It worked like a charm. She is knitting, alone, gets mad as a hatter when I try to help. One 10 minute lesson.
Watch out world there is a new knitter in town, age 3 3/4.

*At the risk of turning into a silly mommy blog can I just say I am so proud of Nutmeg? I have been looking forward to the day where I would teach my daughter to knit for a long time. Of course I thought that the day would be a little further along down the road!*

Community Autumn Fair at Bethany

Yesterday, we took Nutmeg to an Community Autumn Faire, it was a fund raiser for a local Waldorf school. Knowing that "Waldorf" means nature, fairies and handcrafted goodness I was happy to go.

I have been looking for an Autumn fair to go to ever since Moose and I went to The Feast of the Hunter's Moon back when we lived in Indiana. They are so friendly and gentle. There is nothing like decorating with pumpkins and hay bales with the smell of cider in the air. The fair we went to yesterday was full of families who knew each other and we chatting and having a great time together as a community.

I wanted to do that for my community. So Bethany, Portland, Oregon I want to have a community Autumn Fair next fall. Will you support me in this?

I am thinking about crafts for the kids, apples, pumpkins, hay and cider. Music from people in the community, performances of all types. Maybe the Indian dancing group will preform. Food stalls, and items for sale. Booths hosted by our local shops and institutions. Stalls for learning, places to sit and chat with your neighbors.

I don't know yet if we will just try to break even or benefit a local charity but whatever we do the main point will be becoming a community.

I want to celebrate our community because I LOVE living in Bethany! So what do you say Bethany? Will you support a Community Autumn Fair (and me) in Bethany in 2010?

There is a poll to the right of the blog. Let me know whether I want to jump into this big, scary and wonderful commitment.

Proclaming Liberty Pt. 2

Please excuse all the fabulous pictures of myself. It was just so much fun to pose for them and where else to you show off all the pretty pictures if not your blog?

****My super secret mission has been completed. I was asked to write something for a specific news outlet but it was decided that the article would go in another direction. The good news is (thanks to the ineptitude of Microsoft products) you now get to read this HERE on the blog!***I rode my bicycle bedecked with red, white and blue flowers and ribbons up to the staging area for the Hillsboro Independence Day parade. I was late, I have 3 kids, a mother can't be standing around for hours waiting, an hour is all I could spare for waiting. 200 people were milling about chatting in what would be the largest entry in the parade. I scanned for people that I knew but couldn't find them amongst the crowd. I signed in and located my neighbor and her 14 year old son and a friend who had brought his wife and four children. Everyone else was a stranger. As we talked many people noticed my sash that read "Samurai Mom" and congratulated me on my great post and for giving it to Wu. We made the acquaintance of others in the group. A successful marketer and graphic designer offered to help us with a project we are planning. A man who installs siding and roofing talked about how hard it is to get business lately. An immigrant woman who said that she already escaped the Soviet union and didn't want to have to escape again. There was a great sense of camaraderie in our desire to keep our freedoms. Most of us knew only a few in the group but we fell in together shoulder to shoulder as we made our way along the parade route smiling and waving.

Nestled amongst the flowers and ribbons in my wicker bike basket were 130 copies of The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution, I planned to hand them out to people along the way. It was my way of saying "Happy Birthday America, I know why we have fireworks and parades on this day."
At first I just handed my gifts to people on the street but soon I started asking the question "Why do we celebrate the 4th of July?" as I handed them a copy. I asked young kids, older kids, teenagers, adults of all ages. To be fair, they didn't expect a pop quiz when they came to the parade but I was amazed at the shrugs and blank looks. Many people said "Our freedom," "It's our country's birthday", and "It's Independence Day." All true and good answers but only 3 people said "The signing of the Declaration of Independence." Most received the booklets without a word but many expressed genuine gratitude for their very own copy of two of the most important documents ever written.
One man didn't like our group, I saw him across the street wearing a frown and giving us a double "thumb's down" sign. I crossed and offered him a copy of our founding documents and he shook his head and refused. "You don't like our Constitution?" I asked, dumbfounded. His head was still shaking his refusal, thumbs still pointing down. "Why is this man at the 4th of July Parade if he doesn't love the Declaration of Independence?" I asked myself as I pedaled down Main Street. I realized with sadness that this man was so opposed to what he THOUGHT our message was that he didn't even understand what I was asking. His politics made him dig in his heels and refused to see what I was offering. He refused to listen to a fellow American.
That is why I fight for my country, why I teach my children about their country, why I gather at Tea Parties and rallies, for that angry man and for all of those smiling faces who might be reading the Declaration of Independence right now...

Proclaiming Liberty

My last post has caused quite a stir. As they say "Sometimes stating the obvious is revolutionary." (anyone know where that came from?)

I passed the post on to a few friends and before I knew it Lars Larson was reading my entire post on both his local and national shows, the phone was ringing off the hook, I was getting telephone calls from people I have voted for in the past. Talk about pressure. I feel obligated to make profound political statements in every post now. I was also given a super secret assignment.

Part of my assignment involves me going to the Hillsboro Parade and the Tea Party Rally in Hillsboro tomorrow. I couldn't just march in the parade, opportunities like these don't happen every day, and so, Liberty Bell and I will be at the parade together.I have spent the better part of the day reorganizing our Independence Day Celebration plans, planning my costume and decorating Liberty Bell for the Parade. I will of course be handing out free copies of The Constitution and The Declaration of Independence.

Shout out "Samurai Mom" if you see me!
Here's hoping my curls hold.

****There is now video of the Town Hall meeting with Congressman Wu here and here****

Samurai Mom Goes to Washington

...or to the Sherwood Town Hall meeting with Congressman Wu to be precise. The questions were not pre-screened.

Near the end of the meeting I was called on. I reminded the Congressman that he had not answered the gentleman's question about whether or not he had read the "cap and trade" bill before he voted on it. I also reminded him that he had not answered the lady's question as to whether he would commit to reading the health care bill before voting on it. I then said that I would like to know if he read any of the bills passed recently that spent gigantic amounts of money and that I would like to know if he would to commit to reading all future bills before voting on them. Then I said
"As someone that votes and sends you to congress I expect you to read every bill before voting. If you cannot do so or don't have the time I expect you to abstain or vote "no." If you can't do that, if you think that that is to much of a work load then maybe this isn't the job for you."

Wild applause from the audience.

He insisted that he had kept all of his campaign promises over the top of people yelling "Answer her question!" He did not, and I am still waiting for a satisfactory response, Congressman.

I was lucky that he called on me, I owe it all to my youthful and demure appearance Appearances can be deceiving as Congressman Wu found out. He went right back to asking questions of the frail looking elderly who were angry but a little more reserved and less pointed.

After the meeting was over I was congratulated many (20?) times, had my hand shaken repeatedly, was called a patriot and was accused of being just 18!

There were oh, so many other things I wanted to chastise him for but this one is what fit with the meeting. I am amazed that the thoughts came out so calmly, clearly and in order. I didn't lose my head and I didn't call anyone names! I was so angry but I don't think I gave that away in my voice.
The beauty of what I said is that it runs across the board. EVERY voter wants their congressmen to read bills before voting on them. No one but congresspeople think that not reading bills before passing legislation is OK. I realize that it is probably impossible to read every word of every bill. That just makes my point; the bills are too long, too complex, too full of pork and there are too many of them. If people refuse to support a bill until they have read it thoroughly then eventually the "way it is" will change!

As we heard tonight, Congressman David Wu has repeatedly refused to commit to reading bills before voting on them.

***This video will be active shortly, as it turns out it remembered it fairly well, and honestly, people did yell for him to answer my question.***

Random kauai

Some Random Thoughts from Kauai
-I noticed that even in paradise there is always a line for the ladies' room. When will builders learn? I did not appreciate spending my precious Hawaii time waiting to use the facilities.
-Moose picked flowers for me, it was so romantic and probably not lawful.
-Geckos are cool.
-The restaurants on Kauai were always empty. We could not figure out were everyone was, the food was good. It remains a mystery
-At the Luau we sat next to a nice couple from Chicago. Then we saw them the next day coming off of Captain Andy's boat as we were boarding. Then the next day they were kayaking down the Wialua River as we were kayaking up it. It started to feel a bit creepy.
-Apparently Mark Twain visited Hawaii and had a great deal to say about it. I am afraid I had no appetite for "The Innocents Abroad" once I knew that I COULD have been reading Twain's reflections on Hawaii.
-There is this run down wreck of a hotel on the main road in Kauai called The Coco Palms. You can tell it was quite a place in the 50's, apparently Huricaine Iniki really did a number on it and it didn't bounce back.. We kept saying we should buy that place and fix it up.
When we got home we learned that The Coco Palms was THE place on Kauai, it is quite famous and we are not the only people who want to fix it - we are the only people who don't have the millions upon millions it would cost to buy and restore it. The last 20 minutes of Elvis' film Blue Hawaii is filmed there. Check it out.

Organizing

My neighbor and I had decided to finally branch out and get to know our neighbors and to organize them into a neighborhood watch.
She made a cute flyer with a row of different houses on the bottom. I told her it looked great but to be accurate for our neighborhood, they should be the same house repeated.
Here's hoping the dessert potluck meet and greet/neighborhood meeting goes well and that no one gets into a fight with the guy who leaves his hug delivery truck parked on the corner blocking traffic.

"I woo'd thee with my sword, And won thy love, doing thee injuries; But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph and with revelling."

Last night I dreamt there was an invisible beast roaming the neighborhood. We discovered him after 2 white and one black sheep came to the door. We followed the trail of chickens, half chickens. He was invisible, a special effect movie's dream beast. Sometimes you could see invisibility moving, occasionally he lost his cloak and you could see a flash of white with spots, like a dalmatian/ polar bear/ tiger.
I vanquished the foe by using Tanya's cross bow that was more like a long bow than a cross bow, a long cross bow of sorts with only a splinter of wood for an arrow. I shot him in the back of mouth piercing him fatally. I am Diana, an Amazon, protectress of the land.