pretty pictures

I've heard a few people lament that we can't put bigger pictures into blogger.
I know that we can change the html code in the layout, but I've messed with mine so much at olm that i'm afraid to do anything else lest it falls apart.

Here's a super easy way! I got the info from Lindsay and the Johnsons, and the link from Nicola at Which Name?

On to it, then.
After uploading the picture -in "large" format- click on the "Edit Html" tab (next to the "Compose" tab in the blogger window.
In there, find the size frame, the html looks like this

width: 400px; height: 300px;"

Delete it all, except for the quotation mark at the end.
Find the code that looks like

s400

-it's right before your picture name and file sort (such as /s400/1.jpg" )
and change it to s640.



640 is the only size that will work, I've tried different sizes, and the pic won't appear when published.

That's it!

I've played with it and tried it a few different ways, and each pic has its own code, and can be altered, or not.
Changing multiple photos gets a bit tricky, as html code is all mashed together, and it can be difficult to separate one picture's code from another.

I plan to put in the pic(s) I want extra large, first, change the html code, then put in the regular pics as usual.

How exciting!

good morning

"Good Morning!", offered the world.


"Thank you for the gift," said I.

moving into

"In the Universe there is an unmeasurable, indescribable force, which those who live of the Source call Intention.
And absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link.
Sourcerers (those who live of the source, naguals, people living at the highest levels of energy) are not only concerned with understanding and explaining this connecting link, but they are especially concerned with cleansing it of the numbing effects brought about by the concerns of living at ordinary levels of consciousness."


Carlos Casteneda The Active Side of Infinity

a month of Sundays

Wait.....
..... that's better. Had to get tucked in outside on the patio for this.

The beauty of living a life of freedom and honoring flow is that you can make up a Sunday whenever you wish.
Sunday is my favorite day.
This weekend -especially since we were all about home and hearth- I figured maybe I'd have Sunday to go through my herbs, clean my room, clean house while riding on a hum.... you get the idea. Delicious Sunday sorts of things.
Instead we played checkers and did things like write alphabet letters.

I need a month of Sundays.
[closes eyes and lays head back against chair.]
I need to fall hard and deep into The Still... so deeply that I can find myself in the bottom of the pit covered in muck and bring Me out into the Sunshine.
Bring Me into the light, pull the webs out of my hair, dowse me in fresh well-water to wash away the goo.

I'm out of tune.
My tone is horrid. Probably more like a (dreaded and embarrassing) screech.
I don't feel that we're miles and miles off base, as the children are doing well.
But I feel like every word out of my mouth has a tone of complaint or accusation. Could be because I started the monthly yesterday, and had previously been looking on the last few days prior to the weekend (uh, particularly Wednesday) thinking what the hell is wrong with me? (Day four or five prior is always That Day for me.) Could be that it has my focus. Some of it's just Mama-talk... some of it's because by nature I'm bossy and exacting (I try to change that many days).... some of it's because I really have a hmmph type of personality (often I feel most like Rabbit from Winnie-ther-Pooh, shamefully enough)... but mostly it's because I'm out of Tune.

The good news is that I figure I'm at the "Ahem" stage.
For some background... the way I see things, when Spirit (and I mean the Spirit/God/Universe connection) starts to head off the trail or toward jumping off the cliff (away from what we most want when we're in The Still), you first get a whisper as a Reminder. If you ignore the whisper, you get a tap on the shoulder with an "Ahem.". Upon ignoring that, you get a tug on your hand to hold you back. If you decide to play tug-of-war, and persistently eventually pull yourself free and continue on the same path-- then you get a brick knocking you upside the head. Bricks are never fun. I try to avoid them.

I've written this explanation before, and when I went to look for it (to link it and not repeat it) I came across a post from two years ago about Recalibration.
Yes!
That's exactly what I'm seeking.
Recalibration.
Harmonizing.
Engaging my heart into the flow.

That wondrous place where there is no offense.
Where judgments (of myself) are quieted.
The place where I see myself as strong and loving and smiling.
That beautiful place where I am Intuitive, Creating, Engaged, and Powerful.
This.

This is the Me I want to live my experiences through.
The one I'm ready to dust off and let Shine.

smarmy farmy: a vent

back from the farmers market.
buy anything?
oh, yes.
purchased some local clean beef.
anything else?, you ask?
no.
No!
organic veggies?
zuc, cucs, tomatoes. yeah. same things as in my garden.
any fruits?
nope.
sprayed.
sprayed, sprayed, sprayed!
(and not even pretty!)

dh tries to hide his laughs from me in the car while I grumble and vent... he says it's more evidence of my idealism.
fine. call it what you will.
i'm not interested in going out of my way to support people who won't even try to do the right thing.
pff. You'd think farmers would be more willing to take care of the earth (and water and air and children), wouldn't you???
I'll just make jam out of my Mirabelle's, can my pears, wait for more raspberries and blackberries, and wait for my cherry tree to grow tall.

I'm going to make a shirt this week to wear at the early a.m. market next week that says "Organic First!" so there.

i'll try to move on, now....

morning

a lovely morning in the Still.

lammas weekend: mellow yellow

in the ways of the Old Country,
it's a holiday.


the first of the harvest holidays

-the summer yellow harvest, i think of it as-


time for jams

and collecting leaves for winter potions


and reaping the wheat.

I have a lovely weekend planned for myself -


gathering calendula petals


a trip to the farmer's market

and i've got my eye on a powerful potion...
Mirabelle Brandy.


aaah, bliss.

a lovely weekend to you, everyone.

Juice and Worries

So I scooted off to the store this morning to get a couple of book cases.
My philosophy is that if it's in cupboards and storage boxes we don't see it, and therefore can't be Juiced (inspired) by it.
So our materials (art, science, crafts, and obviously books, etc) are on shelves.
Often in little plastic cubbies. And they get rotated through different areas of the house and bedrooms.

So.
Back to the Rumpus Room.
It's been a disaster for months.
Since about the time I decided I needed the shelves for upstairs... as an extension/shelf area of our kitchen table magic.
You know... science projects, ongoing craft projects, stuff we've been diggin' lately, etc. Things that we don't want looming on the end of the kitchen counter for weeks at a time.
So I dumped off one case full of musical instruments, and another one with dress-up things, puppets, and all the paraphernalia that go in that particular imagination station.
So... the room got messy.
Chaotic and crazy and a dumping ground through the holidays, etc, etc.
(The room is in the basement, and we never spend that much time down there, anyway.)

But...
The last little while I've been feeling the need for Juice.
Things seem a little stagnant-- certainly not particularly sparkly.
Always, when we clean and re-organize and shuffle things around, we get totally jazzed.
It's like we're seeing things for the first time-- or at least the first in a loooooong time. (Which, admittedly, is sometimes the literal truth.)

Today as I was cleaning Maddie was super eager be down there with me, and was so excited!!
She built with a wooden carpenter set, played Ned's Head, played with stickers, made lots of different music, did different puzzles (that are not currently residing in the livingroom cabinet), all kinds of things!
She was exploring and discovering and creating and having a wonderful time.

As I watched her, I started getting a little worried.
I was reminded that while this room and its materials is a paradise for a little one, we have another whom is quickly outgrowing such things.
Oof.
That sort of stopped me in my tracks.
I thought about how he isn't quite as crazy about our Children's Museum anymore.
I started thinking about how he has spent his last three days.... conquering his new game.
In a decidedly dedicated manner.

I got a little panicked.
What for Trev?
What for Trev?

What's here that is interesting and educational and intriguing and inspiring for an eight year old boy?!?
What kind of supplies can I buy?
Do I need to completely re-do things???
I called for Trev to come downstairs so I could feel him out a bit.

While I was waiting for him to answer my summons, :), my head went immediately to taught school subjects.
Reading.
Pff. Check. (I'm not worried even a little about this.)
The technical side? Language Arts?
No problem! We'll just break out the Mad Libs. 'Got plenty of 'em. And the child speaks beautifully and has an outstanding vocabulary... not a problem.
Math.
Seems to be interested and asking questions... don't think this is something to be worried about. What else ya got?
I started settling down quite a bit at this point.
Science?
Pff. Even my questioning self says Piffle to that. Not even on the radar. We breathe science around here.
"Trev?" he was with me, now, "I've been thinking and worrying a bit, and I'm wanting to know if there are things you'd like to know about or are interested in that we don't have." Which is kind of a silly question, a bit like asking "what don't you know?". But still, he had something to offer.
"I'd like to study cells, and play with Dad, and you know. Do things like that."
"And experiements?", asked I. "And still learning about interesting people, like Davey Crockett, and Helen Keller?"
"Yeah. Is that all? I'm done with this icecream, and wanna put the rest in the freezer, and get back to my game."
"Yeah, okay."

I looked at the shelf that I was sitting twelve inches from, and saw an American Heroes book called Daniel Boone. And one on Thomas Jefferson. And I thought of Captains Courageous that was sittng upstairs. And I spied our books on explorers, and I thought of the huge Historical Timeline book that I just re-discovered yesterday (purchased several years ago for my own studies).
And I thought of my book on kings and queens of Scotland and England, and DaVinci, and The Dangerous Book for Boys.
And I started to really settle and become still.

I'll teach him to play Othello.
And we'll read Shakespeare For Kids. (He loved Midsummer Night's Dream.)
And we'll put Edison on the timeline... and John Henry and Lincoln (favorites of his).
We'll read about kings and Ghengis Kahn and put more dinosaurs and mammals on the timeline, too.
We'll check out cool cdroms from the library, and buy JumpStart Third Grade.
We'll keep looking for new games of Carmen Sandiego, and play Math Blaster, and I'll wonder how soon I can introduce him to the game Master Mind.
We'll read our books about weather, and read again How Mountains are Made and The Spaceship Earth and all the other Let's Read and Find Out books we enjoy.
We'll continue to go to the planetarium, and the natural history museum.
We'll ask questions and watch you-tube and National Geographic videos.

:) We'll take chances, make mistakes, and get messy.

So, then.
We'll continue on.
Same as today.
Tomorrow does not come unexpectedly and disconnected from Today.

There are lots of interesting things and books lying about this home.
And we'll continue to bring in other, new things as we discover them.
It's no different.

So then,
All is well.