Jalen turns 8!

My Groundhog baby turned 8 last week, he shares the day of his birth with Ben Lovejoy...pretty cool. We had a smallish affair, because that's how he wanted it.

Trevor came home for a few days, so he could help us celebrate.
We didn't get very many pics while he was here, but this is one of them...some things never change eh?;)


Bleu was partying hard:


Good times, good friends...




The birthday boy lights his candles...


...makes a wish....

...then blows with all his might.


"What did you wish for?" says I.
Because I like to know these things and have no silly superstitions in my head about wishes not coming true. Because they do ya know.

"Happiness" says the boy, then carries on with his night.

It took my breathe away, for reasons I can't even begin to write about tonight.
But there he is, looking as happy as a boy can be.







I had started to write a post about his birthday, but ended up never finishing. Here's what I had written many days ago...I'll let it be the end to this one:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Let me be remembered...
....by my company of friends."

That's the lyrics La posted over at her blog. I was very moved by Danny Schmidt's lyrics and ventured over to his website for a listen. So I sit here listening to his beautiful and moving music, reflecting upon friends and community once again.

Jalen turns 8 years old tomorrow. We celebrated his birthday tonight with some of the friends I believe I will know until I die. If they are the barometer of how well my life was lived, I have lived well indeed.:)

My groundhog finishes his eighth year on this planet tonight. After he blew out his birthday candles we asked what he wished for. One simple word was all he spoke.
"Happiness".

A little man who is often at odds with himself, who finds this world a bit overwhelming at times...wishes for happiness. What we all want. A wise wish indeed.

So here's to friends and family and happiness and the mess of being human and being alive. Here's to enjoying all of it. Happy Birthday sweet groundhog! You are loved beyond measure.

Come chat with me...

...on Thursday!

Sandra Dodd has a chat room and I've been invited to be a featured guest chatter (or whatever it's officially called).
What IS the proper name for that anyway?

Well anyhoo, I'd love to see/hear from some of you and know that I'm not alone in cyberspace. So stop by and let's have some fun. The chat is scheduled for this coming Thursday, February 12th at 12pm EST.

If anyone has topics they'd like to see addressed, please let me know here or by email! Feel free to share with your lists and friends if you think they'd be interested. I'll feel weird if I'm the only one that shows up y'all.;)

Sandra's got all the info. and a link here. Happy chatting!

Connections Ezine

Connections Ezine is now free and available to anyone! I meant to post this a long time ago, but such is life. Go check it out...lots and lots of articles by seasoned unschoolers. Be sure to look at the archives for lots of issues. Good time of year for hunkering down inside with some hot tea and a good read.:)

Thank you Danielle, for making such a great resource available! I'm sad it's no longer operating but happy to see the free access. Very cool.