A Truly Eco-Friendly Playhouse

Check out this eco friendly playhouse for kids, made by artist Judith Needham.
The Dreaming Spires Willow Playhouse is designed to meet the child's need for imaginative play whilst being an attractive feature in the garden in its own right. Handmade in England from natural english willow, the playhouse has impeccable environmental credentials.

At 1200 pounds it's a pricey environmentally friendly play structure, but it sure is pretty.

I wonder if they sell the English countryside to accompany it??

Wove's Etsy Shop Judith Needham's Website

Post Secret....Round Two

Remember back in October when we did the Post Secret thing??  That was fun, eh??

I thought since blogger-land appears to be at a standstill lately, we'd liven things up and have a Post Secret post...Round Two.

If you've never done this, you can click on the link above and read the post from a few months back, but the basic gist of it is that you post a comment anonymously and reveal a "secret" - it could be a thought, a dream, a confession, a fantasy, a fear...ANYTHING that you've never spoken aloud or told anyone else.  The great thing about "secrets" is that everybody has 'em. You just may not realize it or have thought about it before.

The "rules" are simple:

1. Post anonymously - I don't want to know which one of my friends has a secret nipple ring, thanks.

2. No judgments - feel free to comment on other people's secrets - "me too!" or, "I know how you feel" etc. etc... but any comments that are judgmental in nature (I can't believe you did that, You're a horrible person, etc) will be promptly deleted.

3.  The secret must be about YOU - not a global secret that you think all of humanity might have, or something that you think "somebody" must have a secret about - this is YOUR secret, and no one else's. :)

------------

So....do it! I love these posts - spill it anonymously in the comments....I can't wait to read 'em!

And if you want to check out the REAL Post Secret....you can do that HERE. (warning: Rated PG-13)

Using Drawings in Assessment and Therapy

I have a book on our bookshelf left over from my college upper-level Psych days called Using Drawings in Assessment and Therapy (A Guide for Mental Health Professionals).
The basic gist of it, is to use drawings as a clinical tool to help patients express fears, traumas, fantasies, and to help professionals in the diagnostic and therapeutic processes. The book helps to explain and interpret drawings, and gives suggestions for using drawings in pscyh therapy.
It's an interesting book...a lot of it makes me roll my eyes, but it IS interesting and has some merits.
One of the most common assessments is the House-Tree-Person Assessment.

About a year ago, Casey was at our house one night and he saw the book and asked about it. So I did one of the "exercises" with him. I told him to draw a simple house, and that I would interpret it. He drew his house, and I told him not to show it to me. Based on what I knew about Casey, I said, "I bet your house has __this thing__ on it" and " Your house probably has __this item__ beside it". Casey was impressed (if I do say so myself) that I basically described many elements of his drawing before I even saw it.

Cool, huh??
Wanna play??

Here's what you need to do.
Get out a piece of paper and draw a house.
That's it. Your only directions.
Draw a house.

Do It right now.
We'll wait.



seriously.....the "assessment" is no fun, unless you do the drawing first.






--------------------

Okay, did you draw your house??

Here's what the book says about the elements of your house:

"The drawing of a house tends to elicit connections regarding the examinee's home and the interpersonal dynamics being experienced within the family setting."

A Chimney
(symbol of warm intimate relations and sometimes associated with phallic symbol of significance)

(a) absence of chimney - lacking psychological warmth or conflicts with significant male figures.
(b) overly large - overephasis on sexual concerns and/or possible exhibitionistic tendencies
(c) smoke in much profusion - inner tension

Door
(a) above baseline, without steps: interpersonal inaccessibility
(b) absence of door: extreme difficulty in allowing accessibility to others
(c) open: strong need to receive warmth from external world
(d) very large: overly dependent on others
(e) with lock or hinges: defensiveness

Fence around house: Need for emotional protection

Gutters: suspciousness

Drawn on the base of paper: basic home or intimate insecurities

Perspective, from below: Either rejection of hoe or feelings of an unattainable desirable home situation

Perspective, from above: Rejection of home situation

Roof
(a) Unidimensional (single line connecting two walls): Unimaginative or emotionally constricted
(b) Overly large: Seeks satisfaction in fantasy

Shutters
(a) closed: extreme defensiveness and withdrawal
(b) open: ability to make sensitive interpersonal adjustment

Walkway
(a) very long: lessened accessibility
(b) narrow at house, broad at end: superficially friendly

Wall (adequacy of)
directly associated to degree of ego strength

Window(s)
(a) absence of windows: hostile or withdrawing
(b) present on ground, absent from upper story: gap between reality and fantasy
(c) with curtains: reserved, controlled
(d) bare: behavior is mostly blunt and direct

-----------------------

So....did any elements of your house drawing portray you or your home life as stated in the book? Do tell!
And if you think this was fun, we can do the person-tree aspect, or other exercises again. :)

Conceived WHERE?

On the way home from dropping AJ at preschool, the radio DJ's were talking about baby names. The one DJ said something about how some people name their kids based on where they were conceived - either the city, or elsewhere. He called out the other radio DJ and revealed that his son would've been named Datsun 280z.....and his would've been named Embassy Suites. LOL

So I thought it would be fun for a little reveal......what would your kids be named if they were named by place of conception?? Anything interesting out there?
Or....if you're unlucky enough to know: What would YOUR name have been??

Be anonymous if you want...but, this could be fun. :)

And that picture--->?? It's a petri dish. You never know.....

Copyright Ramblings

In light of the thing that happened with the Albany Journal swiping content off my friend Amy's blog, I thought I'd share something fun with you.

Most likely, it won't apply, but it's fun just the same.

If you go to CopyScape.com, you can enter in your website's URL and it will scan the internet for other sites that have the same content that you do. So if, for example, someone saw my bio on my website, and decided to steal it and use it on their OWN website, then Copyscape would find it, and then say something like, "Copyscape has found 47 of your words on the following website:" and then you can click on the website and it copyscape highlights the words for you.

Probably a tool more geared towards writers and whatnot, but still fun to see if anyone out there has stolen your intellectual property (your blog words).

Now....if your stuff is taken by people and put in the newspaper....I can't help ya there.

Videos for your Tuesday Morning Viewing Pleasure

The Train Depot (a.k.a. the boys train loot on Christmas morning):


More Trains:


And some Dancing Videos:

Weird Tuesday

How 'bout some weird things to amuse you this Tuesday morning?

I've said before that I love me some Etsy. You can find all sorts of awesome handmade stuff on there (I should do a post JUST on Etsy sometime), so don't let this taint your view of it. But in case you have cats, and are thinking they might enjoy a Knitted Tampon Catnip Toy....well, you can find it on Etsy.













Let's see....then there's the man who carved a carrot into a clarinet and then played it. Why spend money buying your kid expensive instruments when you can just make them yourself from produce??




I don't even know WHAT to say about the Fetus Cookie Cutter. What are they trying to say? Is it some sort of political statement? Just had a whim to create a strange shape with which to cut your cookies?? Weird, Weird, WEIRD.

And then there's this. Our dear friend Clint - who's apparently played one too many games of Guitar Hero. And I'm quite certain that he wasn't even drinking when this photo was taken. He's just that weird.

(Thanks to Cassie - I swiped the pic from her Facebook profile. :)


That's all I've got....got anything weird to add?

That Face Looks Familiar

Today was the volleyball river party and of course I took my camera. Last time, there were some different members of the volley-family there, and this time...some new faces.

Here's Maggie on the tube today.....





And as she was holding on for dear life and grinning like a crazy leprechaun, and shouting out "Oh crap!" as she bounced over the waves.....I couldn't help but think that she looked an awful lot like her dad when he was doing the same thing just 2 short years ago.

don't you think so? LOL

What A Shocker

Ha! Saw this over on 'Ness's blog so I gave it a try....you can do it too (even guys):

37 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!

This Made My Day

BoingBoing is this blog/newsfeed that I subscribe to that's really random. So it suits me perfectly, no?
Their tagline is: A directory of wonderful things

Earlier this week, they had the following video on there and for some reason it warmed my heart and made me smile and laugh. I hope it will you too.....

The story behind the video:
Matt is a 31-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames. Matt achieved this goal pretty early and enjoyed it for a while, but eventually realized there might be other stuff he was missing out on. In February of 2003, he quit his job in Brisbane, Australia and used the money he'd saved to wander around Asia until it ran out. He made this site so he could keep his family and friends updated about where he is.

A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said "Hey, why don't you stand over there and do that dance. I'll record it." He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It's actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

The song and it's meaning had me wondering what it was all about, so I found out this about it:
The lyrics of the song are based on part of the Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore. The poems won the Nobel prize for literature in 1923. Here is the poem used in the song:

"The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life. And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment."

----

Whatcha think of it?

It's Addicting I Tell Ya

I swiped this pic off of Cassie's Facebook account, for all the blogosphere to see.
It all began with Casey, who roped Lisa and I into trying out a yoga class.
10 Downward Dogs and 8 Pigeon Poses later, and we had Steve-o, Clint, Amy, and Cassie at their first yoga class.

You should give it a try!

Good times, good times.....

:)

OH, &*$S%#!

So, if you hadn't guessed it already, today I jumped from an airplane with our babysitter and friend, Erica. We actually got E a gift cert to go skydiving for her birthday a few months back and i volunteered to go with her, seeing as how I needed to cross it off my bucket list anyway. Because I'm a giver like that.
So today we drove to Plattville, Al'BAMA (because that's how you say alabama in the south) to the Alabama Skydiving Center for our tandem jump. I actually did NOT bring my camera (*gasp, choke, cough from the audience*) but I brought the Flip.

When we arrived, Erica was mildly concerned over the dissarray in which the skydiving "center" looked....meaning, she wasn't very comforted by the fact that the office/"lounge" looked like a college dorm.
After a rave.
Didn't faze me, but I thought the people who were running the place looked like they stepped out of some sort of sitcom. They were all good friends, aged 19-27 (with one guy who looked to be about 35, but acted like a 17 year old), adrenaline junkies, some of whom probably still live with their parents, ranging from very good looking to the guy who looked like he just rolled out of bed (because he probably did) and hadn't shaved in 2 weeks (because he probably hadn't). They looked like those kind of college students who never want to get "real jobs" so they make it their job to go skydiving on the weekends. A bad thing? Whatever. They were cool.
And annoying all at the same time.

When we got there they were taking a group out for a jump, so after we signed all our waivers (can't sue in case of dismemberment, death, etc.) we stood outside to watch the group land.



Then it was our turn.
We suited up, got about 5 minutes of instruction, watched them finish packing up our chutes, and we headed out to the plane.

Here's some still shots from the video camera a few minutes before we boarded the plane....




I thought my orange prison jumpsuit was hot 'n sexy....


so did E....



Then we boarded the plane. The very SMALL plane.

This would be a good time to mention that Erica has never even BEEN on a plane, let alone jumped from one.
So as the plane lurched into a tight angle into the sky I heard Erica beside me say, "oh shit" and I looked over to see her eyes wide and knuckles white from gripping the plane bench.
I wish I had THAT on video.
I kept the video going for a few minutes, but to be quite honest, I have this "thing" with heights. Meaning that they mildly frighten me. Not so much if I'm safely strapped into a seat in an airplane or behind sturdy glass in a skyscraper, but being 2 feet away from an open door of an airplane as the ground gets further and further away... NOT belted in, with nothing to hold on to, straddling a vinyl bench. So after this little video...I turned it off:



Actually, this was only about 45 seconds into the climb and we went up for about 15 minutes, to about 14,000 feet (about 2.5 miles), which looks something like this:


The instructors reminded us what to do one more time: toes on the edge of the door, thumbs tucked in your harness, arch your back, feet up. And just fall out of the plane.

Erica went first. One minute she was at the door, the next minute she was gone.
Then I was up. Oddly, I felt no butterflies, no nerves. Just anticipation. I expected my stomach to drop, like when you're on a roller coaster, but it didn't. It almost didn't even feel like we were falling. It was AMAZING.
Absolutely amazing.

and windy.

and amazing.

and loud. I couldn't even hear myself scream so I figured, 'what's the point?" and shut my mouth in case there were any bugs flying around at 14,000 feet. Erica said that she went through a cloud and she could feel it. FEEL a cloud.

amazing.

We were free-falling for about 60 seconds, then the shoot opened (with a mildly uncomfortable tug of the harness in the hoo-haw area) so I scooted the leg harnesses down under my butt until I was in a sitting position (as the instructor had told me to do). And then we just drifted down to earth for about 7-10 minutes....and it was so quiet, and so peaceful. And did I mention it was AMAZING??

And we totally want to do it again. That....or bungee jumping.

Who's with us?

Cross That One Off

Well, it approximately 16 hours I will be able to check an item off my bucket list.

Any guesses what'll it be? (no fair if you already know, so no cheating and spoiling the surprise! And no, it's not the one about the nudist colony either) :)

I'll try to blog about it tomorrow night if I'm not too tired.

Hope you're all having a great week.

Flashback

About a month ago, Owen the Insomniac was up at about 11pm and sitting on the couch with daddy watching t.v.
As Steve-o flipped through the channel guide looking for something to watch that would be appropriate for the O-dawg to watch too, he saw that the old school Star Wars were on. He excitedly flipped it over and the two of them watched together as Hans Solo tried to save the universe from the Dark Side. Owen was enthralled, but I'm not sure who enjoyed watching it more. :)
Since then, the boys have developed a healthy obsession with all things Star Wars (favorite movie: Episode I...because it has the pod racing scene with young Anakin Skywalker). I scored about 20 action figures off ebay for about ten bucks so that helped to get a little collection going. Trains and Cars still get some playing time, but Star Wars are the toys of choice for right now. All stickers/reward chart money and piggy bank money go towards purchasing more "rocket ships" and "bad guys" and "obi-kanobi"...although R2D2 is definitely the crowd favorite right now. Imaginary play with light sabers and "the force" is commonplace.

It's fun to watch your kids play with stuff from your own childhood. While the original Star Wars came out before I was actually born, it was a media phenomenon in the decade after I was born (as I'm sure many of you remember). I was never really all that into Star Wars, but my brother was and so was Steve and his brothers. So if you've got some old Star Wars stuff hanging out in your attic or basement somewhere, send 'em our way....I know two little boys who would love to play with them. :)

This is Too Fun....

Check out my Meez, a fun little avatar that I made up of myself (thank to Casey, who showed it to me - check his blog out to see his little buddha-belly yoga-ing self).....

You choose body type (believe it or not, my Meez is plus sized), hair color, eye color, clothes, accessories, etc and you've got yourself a fun little animated version of yourself. Try it! It's fun!

How would YOU spend the 3 Trillion?

This is a fun site....

go decide how YOU would spend the 3 Trillion Dollars that Bush has spent in Iraq.....

The $3Trillion Shopping Spree



Here's what I bought:

Darfur Peacekeepers

QUANTITY: 1
PRICE: $2,600,000,000.00

End hunger and poverty related diseases QUANTITY: 1 PRICE: $195,000,000,000.00

Clean drinking water for Africa QUANTITY: 1 PRICE: $3,000,000,000.00

End our Dependence on Foreign Oil QUANTITY: 1 PRICE: $500,000,000,000.00

finish repairing the damage done by Katrina QUANTITY: 1 PRICE: $200,000,000,000.00

Switch to Solar QUANTITY: 1 PRICE: $420,000,000,000.00

Eliminate our debt to Japan and China QUANTITY: 1 PRICE: $1,000,000,000,000.00

Food for all poor hungry people in the world QUANTITY: 1 PRICE: $200,000,000.00

TOTAL: $2,320,800,000,000.00


Looks like I had some leftovers. You try it!

Our Garden

New feet within my garden go,

New fingers stir the sod;

A troubadour upon the elm

Betrays the solitude.

New children play upon the green,

New weary sleep below;

And still the pensive spring returns,

And still the punctual snow!

--Emily Dickinson

Ingredients Needed To Make a Garden:

1 Rototiller
2 Virile Studly Men (to operate and transport said tiller)
2 large bags of time-release fertilizer/garden soil
Seeds
Previously soiled children
Sunshine
Patience

AJ's First Soccer Game

AJ had his first soccer game this morning, so we can officially join the ranks of "those people" who do the whole "Saturday a.m. soccer-parent-fanatics". I guess I'm literally now, a soccer mom.
Anyway, AJ did GREAT and Steve and I had a great time at his game and we laughed A LOT. Watching a group of 6-12 4 and 5 year olds chase after a soccer ball is funny stuff. Seriously.

AJ even got to kick off the game. Here's his coach telling him what he's supposed to do.

And yes, their jerseys are SALMON. Not pink. Not peach. SALMON. And they are, without a doubt, the ugliest jerseys EVER. Really, they'll make your eyes bleed. At least we won't lose him in a crowd.

Anyway, he got right into it....




Then he morphed into a chimp. I'm not sure what's up with the monkey face, but maybe he's just REALLY concentrating.



Owen cheered for AJ for a few minutes, reminding him that there's "no crying in soccer and you have to score a goal, okay AJ?" and then he wandered off to play in the dirt for awhile. And by "awhile" I mean the rest of the game. Hey, dirt is a RIVETING substance, man.


Kick'n some girls butts in a race to the ball....



He would occasionally get caught up in admiring his own shoes and cleats while he ran. It IS a rather handsome get-up, don't you think?
Notice in the background, the team whiner (see previous soccer post)



Fighting it out with his own teamate for the ball. This is the kid who we originally labeled the "the super athlete" in the first soccer post, but we have since renamed him "the mean kid". More on that later...


Notice his stature. He's just slightly er....smaller than the other kids. By an average of 2-6 inches. But he hangs with 'em just fine.

He even scored a goal.


Hey, when you're freaking awesome and you know it, you just have to celebrate it.


Love that kid.

On the Merry Go Round

Last week....

This is Supa Cool

Just saw THIS on the Ellen show and I was absolutely FASCINATED. Seriously, it's like the coolest thing ever. Go watch it and then let's all pitch in for about 2000 boxes of cornstarch and give it a try, okay?