Summer was busy...so busy the blog was left to sit inactive. We did a lot of camping, traveling, hiking, and had the privilege to hear some great live music.

I finally went to Tanglewood and saw Wait Wait Don't Tell me. Which was a hoot and fanatic. I loved all the stonner jokes and it was a perfect combo of having the "Space Man" interviewed with asides from the ridiculous cast.

Noah is in 10th grade homeschool. He has been seeping his spirit into his fender guitar...making it an extension of himself. He is concerned with "feeling", wanting that to come through in his guitar playing. He is still devoted to Pink Floyd...but now is opening up to Phish, Derek Trucks. He is in the rock school and in a band working towards a performance date. Noah is also getting into the lap steel guitar. I love listening to Noah play music. The dogs are well...and monstrously amazing. Hole digging love bugs. Zoe is still kicking it with us like a champ. She does elderly so well, besides getting confused every so often and sleeping a ton, she is healthy and happy.

Josh and I have spent a lot of time working on the family environment as in...he has been doing some really cost effective yet big changes to the house to make it feel just a little more....modern but keeping it's old charm. I have been learning more about cooking and working hard at understanding how to homeschool Noah in a way that caters to his personality and my own. It's been a challenge on all fronts in some ways...because this house is sometimes...to small with 3 dogs...not storage...a home business...a home school and an active community of comers and goers in and out. Though it has been a challenge we move forward and he finds ways to do the upgrades while we all still manage to live in the same space.

Its been fun having a second bedroom in the attic. It's been a belly laugh of a time piling 2 dogs along with Josh and I into our bed.... high above the trees. Mostly because we have all claimed multiple flights of stairs to ascend to our club house of twinkling lights and peace flags....to stare at the tea trips and dream we are in a tree house, while dogs goofily make blanket next...and play with old sock...tossing them into the air with a playful spirit of youth. On the friendship level things have been delightfully.... NORMAL AND CALM. Thank the divine. Normal and drama free.... Folks acting normal.... minding there own lives and business... people with maturity and wisdom. How many years have I waited to find my "tribe'...well seems to be all coming together. I seriously could not handle one more failed friendship of broken, addicted, overbearing, crafty or vengeful folks. It's been a wild ride... a real wild ride of learning all about people and myself from every possible mismatched directional pull and push amount energies i have mingled with. There are 'normal' balances out there... and some of it is me...being older... more connected with my inner self... more accepting of myself while less...curious about knowing others... plus I am almost 40.... and seems even the late 20 something I spend time with are a bit wiser and old soul type. Any who... the point of this paragraph is... I am joy filled to be where I am now.

Another joy filled be here now...be....here.... Is that Josh won't be traveling as far away a much at least for right now. Which is better for Noah and I, on the day to day stability of routine. I might have been a bit bitchy on how I felt about his travel (at times, though not every time) due to the fact that for weeks and even a month strait I was doing all the parenting and disciplining holding on my own while he was away and Noah was being...very ah, 16, which is trying for any parent. Sure there are plenty of single parents doing it alone, but I am not single I am married with a partner and part of the reason we even got married to be honest is so we could both raise Noah together... And so that is actually what I expect, togetherness and doing it together. So I say 'why do it alone ?', if I don't have to. He is only young for so long, and then he will be on his own so to speak. So on to the being bitchy... which is not necessarily loving per say ( I am aware of my limits and shadows)... and I wish I was more just accepting per-say ..loving bold with no demands, that's not where I am in this family nor is that actually the way to maintain the family unit, some things need to be anchored...sometimes demands are okay when it comes to partnerships.... I figure if we can all work on being together more... i.e. homeschool, building a great family compound i.e. the home... well then once some head way is made towards maturity and getting Noah to where he needs to be before he is on his own...as well as more time for the old wounds and hurts (tricky beasts to contend with when Ashley and her family came into our lives) as well as past transgressions of variations of poor choices on our parts and that of of folks we invited into our lives ...here we go AGAIN....yada yada referring to paragraph above on mature folks in our lives now...{digressing now....onward.... moving on to the next statement , giddy up Patience} ...purposely trotting along with Achilles Tendon fully in working order, that be trotting with purposely placed feet not because of some tampered lack of motion by another's hand (the layers of social dynamics, personal choice and the atrocities of why a trotting horse trots, woven here for my own delight and acknowledge disgust...i.e. i choose to trot...the other has no choice) ...->.... Once we are whole, healed and healthy and Noah is more mature... Travel is totally golden for Josh. And well ah, so be it... and be it so.

I only have like 2 more weeks till the Marathon. I have one more long run which will be between 18- 20 miles and then it will be full on tapering. I was suppose to tun the long run this morning but due to a wedding this afternoon I have to put off and do a night run. I need to try and make most of my runs early morning runs since the Marathon is a super early run... that's one thing I need to prime my mind and body for that I haven't been doing... is running training sessions the same time as the race. The half marathon I ran a few weeks ago was early morning though so that can count as a training early morning run. Just last weekend I got to stay for free at the beautiful Manchester Inn for 2 nights. This is a free perk of Josh doing work for a company who had a gig in Vermont. As free lancer he gets a lot of variety and self selective options in his work week. Which is nice and something I don't want to take for granted, as I would never be able to afford to stay in a place like that for two nights. Many of the shows I get to go to and the various other little neat aspects of our life are directly related to Josh's hard work, perseverance, talent and give and take between the relationship we are building and the family life we are working to make and maintain. I made a concord grape lemon tart for our CEO Sabirna's birthday. I bring this up now, because I spent a better part of yesterday de-skinning grapes, making dough from scratch...making my first vegan lemon curd (no one in the office is vegan I just wanted to try and make this version)... And the damn thing is as ugly as ever. I hope it is at least taste good. Because everyone is polite... they may not be honest with me on how it truly tastes. So... be it and be it so. The effort was my message of gratefulness... the finish product...well.... it is what it is because I had left the pie pan at my sisters, the crust is gluten free...and the curd melted the cooled grape filling. I should have waited for the curd to cool before I dumped it into the thing. I wanted it to be layered yellow on top purple on the bottom, as I believe she likes Syracuse sports teams and that would have looked cool. Now it looks pale yellow purple- ish....twisty. Oh well. Another awesome aspect of this Autumn season that is upon us... is APPLES. Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to Indian Ladder Farms with my compeer match Amanda. Super fun, they have so many yummy food items, none of which I tried but after the marathon... I am going back and trying them! Today Christine and Joe get married at a waterfall.. Josh and I are elated. I'm off to get ready. Peace and blessings.