Snavley Freebirds

Wow, that was a long dry spell! Kelli just posted at her blog about not blogging also, writers block she said. Or is that bloggers block? She mentioned that just because her blog was quiet didn't mean her life had been quiet; ditto!

It seems like we've had a real good balance of busy/fun to quiet/chillax. We have had plenty going on but plenty of down time to wander around in our pajamas.

Kev is busy with his usual activities; swimming, youth court, teen political talk, model UN, etc. He keeps himself pretty busy and all I can say is thank goodness he is driving himself now. I thought it a privilege to take him to all his wonderful activities but driving taxi took up a tremendous amount of time so I'm thankful for the relief.

Tristan and Calista are thankful also, as they were tired of either being in the car or at home waiting for me to get home. They started a homeschool open swimming session once a week. Calista is also doing swim lessons three days a week for the next few weeks. She has decided to join swim team and the coach is encouraging her to learn the techniques of the strokes before she starts. So she is hoping to be on the team within the next couple of months after she gets the strokes down.

Kev, Calista, and I are continuing with our guitar lessons and having so much fun with it! Martin is talking about maybe taking up bass guitar and with Tristan playing drums we might just have a family band coming up:) We've been going to the weekly concerts at Make-A-Scene. Our guitar teacher and good friend, Josh Fryfogle, owns a music venue for local (and some non-local) musicians. He holds weekly concerts that are great fun.

I'm starting two new yoga classes come January; one is a teen/parent partner yoga class - encouraging trust and harmony in that particular relationship, and a kids yoga class for 8-12 year olds. I'm really looking forward to it, especially the partner class. I'm also looking forward to some advanced training workshops that are coming up after the holidays.

Our family vehicle finally bit the dust, for good, here last week. We have a Windstar that has gone through 4 transmissions in the last three years and it gave up again. We aren't going to put any more money into it so we are sharing Martin's car and the Cadillac that my grandparents gave us. Two days after Kev got his license one of his friends backed into him in another friends driveway so that has to go in the shop this next week to get fixed, which takes us down to one car. It's a little inconvenient, especially the days Martin is commuting into Anchorage, but we will manage until there is enough cash to buy a new car. Next summer we will be enjoying our bicycles more than usual.

On the plus side, our year-long remodel project in the basement is finally coming to a close and if everything goes right the kids should be in their new bedrooms before the holidays. Yay!! It's been a slow project, as Martin only has so many hours in a day, but we are at the end of it now. The kids have a pretty nice setup down there to hang out in, just keeping our eyes open for a decent priced sectional on Craigslist and it will be complete.

We've also been planning a Winter Solstice party for all of our friends. We aren't big on all the commercial holidays and Christmas seems to get worse every year, with all the consumerism, so we are making our own holiday traditions. Getting back to good old pagan traditions, the roots of which Christmas actually grew from. If most Christians new what they were celebrating they would be horrified but then again most religions wouldn't exist if people knew how to think for themselves. Anyway, we are having a party into the night with LOTS of candles and a big ole bonfire. I may even try to talk Josh into some great live music:)

Hope everyone is enjoying life as joyfully as we are!!

Namaste'