Nicotine Diaries

My husband Mark is trying to quit smoking again. I have never been a smoker, but I see him struggle so hard with this addiction. I always told myself that I would never marry a smoker because I thought it was such a disgusting habit....but alas love overpowered that and I am very happy to be with him. He has tried many things to help him quit....going cold turkey, chewing on licorice sticks, a nicotine patch, gum, his latest attempt was to eat hot peppers(jalapeno, habanero, etc.) every time he wanted a cigarette to satisfy that craving. It was kinda working. Mark writes, draws, paints, makes puppets ...you name it, to express his own loathing of this smoking habit. He even has an online nicotine diary. His most successful attempt yet was about two years ago and he was able to quit for about a year almost. We actually hired a friend who specialized in video documentaries to come and live with us for a month and document his struggle with quitting. He was also here to do some music video work for my husbands band. Having to talk about it on camera did the job. The documentary was never completed though because the "friend" flew home and never completed editing and has never called us back....an expensive but worthwhile lesson I guess. It got him off the death sticks for a year. But the habit has crept back into our lives and it is really frustrating him that he can't seem to kick the habit again. He is respectful of the children in that he never lets them see him smoke and he absolutely never smokes in the house. I do make him change his shirt sometimes before he holds the baby.
His latest project has been making puppets out of cigarette packs. They are some pretty creepy looking characters. I wouldn't want to tangle with them. I just pray that his newest project will help him get the strength to quit again and for good this time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09jnOMG-70A&feature=channel_page

He often refers to his smoking addiction in his songs as the "Devil" on his back or the monkey on his back.
Cammy thinks that this puppet is the creepiest in the whole gang. She says that"It's a good thing he makes them scary enough for people to quit smoking."

Gross! Yeah I know....this one is vomiting up all the nasty chemicals and filth that the cigarette companies put into their product.
Look at this gang of evil characters. Mark calls them the "Evil Nicoteam". It speaks loads that he can create these. At least he is using the cigarettes in his art instead of smoking them.
Going out to the garage studio these days is like peeking into some kind of freak show carnival...I never know what new character will be sitting on the bench.
This one by far is the scariest to me. He looks like he could really take out a lung! So I hope that this little blog campaign will help to motivate him even more in his struggle to quit smoking.

Fairy feeding time

So, the other day the girls and I had one of those "best day ever" kinda days. We started out the day doing a little yard work....which you can see Karma joined right in on. This kid is only one year old but she has some serious determination to do just what the big people are doing. She actually raked up that pile. Meanwhile her big sister was catching fairies.
Disappointed because all she caught was a stink bug. Yuck!
We decided that maybe if we left the fairies a special treat, then maybe they would come around. So off we went to find the rarest and most delectable flowers and herbs to prepare our special offering. Through the enchanted forest with it's tickling trees and onward.
We had to climb this impossible twisted massive beanstalk to get the magic beans to put in our soup.
We know where the fairies like to picnic....by the spotted orange mushroom house that Cammy made for them. They love to sit on the little brown bench and watch all the bugs.
Cammy made a wonderful soup with a broth of rainwater and tender zinnia petals and a sprinkling of butterfly bush flowers accented with a few chives. She was so proud of her soup..."but it smells bad...like poop" she says to me. I took a whiff and boy it did!!! Apparently along our enchanted forest trek she had picked up something the cat or some other animal left behind. This made for a most unpleasant discovery. So we did a quick dump of the beautiful concoction and a quick wash of the hands and opted for some leftover banana bread instead. She was convinced that the fairies would be satisfied with the bread. It was all gone the next day so they must have liked it.

Magic Peace Kids Band

Magic Peace Kids Band

The Magic Peace Kids Band giving their first concert under the Willow Tree.



Cammy has started a new band. Since there aren't any girls around to play with Cammy has decided that her band name needed a change. The Butterfly Girl Band is sadly no longer in existence and being diplomatic she decided that she should be all inclusive (allowing boys into the band). The new band name is The Magic Peace Kids Band....they still need a little more practice before they can play out but they have been working on it. Sadly Mark accidentally sat on Cammy's strawberry guitar the other day(it was under a blanket on the couch)....boy was she mad!!! She has gotten over it for now but he has to buy her a new one for sure.


Just for nostalgia's sake I had to put in a few pics of the original Butterfly Girls Band. These are from their first live performance ....complete with spotlights per Cammy's request. I just wish I had an audio tape. The songs were so great, something about a field of flowers and fairies of course.

Peaceful Protest

Here I am with Karma out in the 90 degree heat of July demonstrating with other mothers to try to get the hospital to reverse the policy they just handed down banning midwives from practicing there anymore. Now I am generally busy enough just trying to juggle being a homeschooling mom and work from home potter among other things....but this new delima in our community cried out for action. After all, both of my babies were born under the best of care from the midwives at the hospital. You can't beat the care and attention a midwife gives you over the clinical approach of an obgyn in my book. I had very long labors with both of my kiddos....we're talking over 36 hours and my midwife stayed with me the entire time. Where else can you get that unless you are one of those brave women who choose to birth at home.

There are a lot of angered mothers here. To start off our hospital has few choices to begin with and now we have even fewer. This decision to ban midwives was definitely a step in the wrong direction.

This sudden policy change ripped the rug out from under many pregnant women....some due in just days or weeks. How terrifying to be so close to the grand finale of your pregnancy and be told that the midwife that you have developed such a trusting relationship with will no longer be able to provide your care or deliver your baby....that you will be handed off to one of the "real" doctors. This is just wrong, wrong, wrong! I disagree with their decision wholeheartedly but the very least they could have done was to allow all the patients currently under the care of the midwives to come to full term and once the last baby on the books was delivered ....then cease the practice.

There were some very brave and supportive new mommies out there sporting their babies who were delivered by the midwives. We were under some very large and shady oaks with lots of cold water.....but this sends a powerful message to see the product of the care and love that these midwives bestow out here for the hospital administration to see. You can't see him but there was a very uncomfortable looking man in a shirt and tie standing on the hill above the oak trees watching the whole demonstration....sweating worse than we were.

I'm so proud of all these strong moms and I'm glad that I took that precious time out of my crazy schedule to be a part of something so important to our community. Please visit any of the links below to find out more about our community's fight for more birth options.

Mother's to be concerned about midwives. An article about the situation

blog post by Karen Brody, founder of Bold, playwright of Birth

You are My Sunshine This is an awesome little boutique in our town that caters to all the mamas that want to cloth diaper and go natural

"Where's my Midwife?"

There are few birth options available in our area and the local hospital just took away one of them. Apparently they are no longer going to allow Certified Nurse Midwives to deliver babies at the hospital. Our community is outraged.....I for one am stunned. Both of my babies were delivered by a midwife at the hospital and it was wonderful. What is worse is over 90 women were left with no advance notice and just handed off to obgyn's . I can't imagine how these women are feeling. It is such an important time in their lives growing a child and putting their trust in their midwife only to have someone say....nope you are going to have to find a new doctor we won't allow yours to deliver your baby. I ask that any of you brave mama's out their who are advocates of nurse midwifery please visit this link and give your support. Mom's in the area are in the midst of planning a peaceful protest for Monday August 10, 2009 and I'm sure they would love to hear some supportive voices from around the world.
"Demonstration Monday to Support Wilmington Midwives"

Where's my midwife?

Miss Spider's Snack

Our resident Miss Spider has caught a tasty butterfly for a snack today. Yesterday Cammy was amazed by this beautiful spider's size. Today upon seeing what a large appetite the spider had she was a bit frightened. It really struck her that a spider could eat something as big as this large butterfly. She got quite frightened for my life when I was trying to get a close up shot....we do not have a powerful zoom camera, so I had to reach up pretty close. We checked on her progress several times throughout the day and by late afternoon there was no sign of the cocooned butterfly anymore. Apparently Miss Spider was very hungry.

Banana Bread and Banana Spiders

Trying to help Cammy catch a toad today in the garden I ran right into this beauty's web. The picture doesn't do her justice. This is absolutely the biggest banana spider I have ever encountered....bigger than my mother's tarantula. She is nestled quite comfortable near the garage and the compost pile near the garden and she is queen supreme. There were tons of baby spiders all in her web. I generally leave all garden spiders alone including this one but I must say the movie Aliens, with Segourney Weaver keeps running through my mind. I had just gotten through with baking up three batches of delicious banana bread when we went out to dump the banana peels and scraps. We walked around the yard and found some other interesting spider hangouts. Take a look at this funnel web.




Let's just say Mrs. Spiders Tea Party was definitely on our reading list for the night. Cammy wants to delve into the world of arachnids now and I'm all for it. I was planning on a worm study to start the school year off but spiders it is.
We already had a few books in the house but we have read them all already so we are in need of a trip to the library.

When the neighbors got home Cammy went running yelling that there was a spider as big as mom's camera. I was amazed at what she already knew....she told me about Anasazi trying to sell wisdom and that spiders eggs can hatch up to ten thousand babies....creepy considering my pottery studio is crawling with them. I usually don't have the heart to kill them. I will usually just try to sweep them out the door.
Well, I'm going to have sweet spidery dreams Anasazi.

Cranky Cammy Sandwich

Sometimes when Cammy gets cranky we make a "Cranky Cammy Sandwich". Today was one of those days and let me tell you it was a deliciously fun sandwich to eat. We have some exercise mats that have alternate uses as either forts or bread depending on the need at the time. Throw in a slice of Cranky Cammy a few socks from the laundry pile for worms or onions. a pillow for some tomato, a blanket for some mustard or mayonnaise, a few stuffed animals to make it interesting and your sandwich is complete. She always comes out giggling hysterically and wanting to be a burrito next or lasagna. Karma even got into it today ....actually eating it. Here she is biting the mat. She just doesn't understand yet....you don't actually eat it.
Some of Cammy's favorite books are the Sam's Sandwich series of pop up books filled with gross and funny fillings. We also like the book Pete's Pizza

Tea Party with Daddy

My sweet, sweet husband had a tea party with Cammy and Karma today under the willow tree in the front yard. Cammy had earned her ten privilege pebbles and chose to have a tea party. I am working really hard on a bunch of pottery orders before the fall season starts and he has been spending so much good time with the girls. I love it, he loves it, the girls love it! Homeschooling is going to be so much fun.

Bad Hair Day

Ok, so I have been a little overworked trying to get ready for the school year and trying to get all of my fall pottery orders made and get enough inventory built up for the fall shows. I get a little silly to releive the stress. We have tons of fun around here playing dress up and donning various wigs. It's great for a full blown belly laugh and that relieves a lot of stress. My family are all accomplices, or victims however you want to look at it....they don't seem to mind. I was looking through all the photo archives and put this together to amuse myself and hopefully you as well.




Hey! Who put this thing on my head? What is it anyway?









Oh! I actually look pretty good like this...Do you have one in pink?









Why yes we do...you can borrow your sister's wig.










Cammy the clown. She is always up for a good wig show. Quite the entertainer just like her daddy.














Cammy actually performs with her dad from time to time and her favorite song is "Mikey the Monkey"














Yes, we even put wigs on our art!

I'm gonna go eat worms:)

Earthworms Unit Study:
Vocabulary:
worm, compost, wiggle,
Music:
Singing Herman The Worm and I'm gonna go eat worms
Science Activities:
Set up a worm habitat for composting and viewing
Investigate the garden for any wormy activity on the vegetables(Have Cammy dress up like a detective and be the client that wants her to find out who is eating her prize squash)
Math activities:
Dig up and measure some earthworms for your habitat and graph their lengths
Do some yummy math with gummy worm subtraction or addition.
Art activities:
Form Drawing do an s laying down and an s standing up also do a w for worm.
Do a glue resist drawing of worms in the ground.
Make a coil pot
Make a worm puppet from some old socks and put on a play singing Herman The Worm and go present it to Jubilee or Milestones and Hope.
Cooking: Spaghetti of course and flower pot cupcakes and spaghetti squash
Movement:
Host a wiggle worm contest(could make this into something bigger like the insect olympics for playgroup friends with events like cricket hopping contest, Spider crawling contest : only your hands and feet can touch the ground and you race to the finish line, have a dung beetle ball rolling contest, maybe a rolly polly contest where they have to roll up and stay still the longest ,

Wiggle on the floor like a worm make a sam's sandwhich with the mats and put Cammy in as a worm
Gummy worms for math and of course eating

The Last Of The Blackberries

I think I like these....what did you call them again......Blackberries.














OH ! These blackberries are sooooo good. YUM!










What do you mean there aren't any More Blackberries????

KARMA KONG and the puppet show

Cammy entertained the family this afternoon with a delightful puppet show entitled "Everything You Can Think Of In Fairyland"...and yes she came up with the title and yes it did have everything you can think of. I kinda went nuts making felt finger puppets this winter when it was too cold to go out in the studio. The cast of characters included a polar bear, a zebra, a frog, a dinosaur, Fluffy the hamster and others. The show was going well until baby sister Karma wanted to join in the fun. Her nickname these days is "KARMA KONG"
because she delights in knocking down block towers and pulling books off shelves. There were a few tense moments but Cammy rolled with it and included her in the show changing the plot line to include her sister. Apparently the fairies were taking care of the giant infant child who was abandoned in the woods. Can you tell she watched Mowgli recently? She proceeded to get out the wooden play food and the fairies spent all their time feeding the human child who was lost......gotta love it! Sisters working it out, sort of.