Tuesday, August 30, 2011

The Reluctant Home-School Momma, Part 3: Colleagues

Last year, for literature during the second semester, I wanted to focus on the short story. I requested my friends give me their favorite short stories to give me some ideas or else we would have been reading a bunch of nerdy science fiction. Here is a list of the stories we read:
     The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe
     The Girls in Their Summer
                    Dresses by Irwin Shaw
     All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
     Forcing The End by Hugh Nissenson
     The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
     O Youth and Beauty by John Cheever
     The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Basically I win the award for choosing the most most morbid, narcissistic short stories. Not sure what I was thinking, but in almost every story there was a point where we all looked at each other and said, "I feel sick to my stomach."
And I had read most of the stories before;) But, because they evoked such great emotion, albeit bad, they are memorable, and come up in conversation often. It is nice when your children also feel like colleagues working together to understand more deeply and to see more clearly.

Monday, August 29, 2011

My Middle Name is Barbosa

The story goes, my parents couldn't agree on a middle name, so I didn't get one. When I married Chris, I just moved my maiden name to the middle. I think in hopes to keep something I never had a real chance to grasp as a kid growing up, and that was pretty much the Barbosa family.
Due to my parents' divorce when I was six and some various other issues, I only saw this side of my family briefly and not often. Everyone's story is different on this issue and I don't choose to explain it here or now, but what I will tell you is this: The Barbosa's have always made me feel welcome, and like I was never gone for years at a time.
Last week, the patriarch of the family, known to me as Pop- a cigar smoking, tortilla eating, Mexican ballad belting, always-clean smelling, ho, ho, ho laughing instead of ha, ha, ha laughing, hard working, Saturday napping, King Kong and Godzilla watching Grandpa, Louis Vazquez Barbosa passed away.
It was a privilege to watch his family, my family, gather together, mourning while cracking jokes, seeking a private place to cry and then holding each other hard, putting differences behind them, (the man had twelve kids-who could expect them ALL to get along?) and honor their father's memory, continuing his legacy of laughter and love even when times are hard.

Mondays Much Needed Song of the Day: The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie by TRHCP

This song dropped today. It rained today. Coincidence? Maybe.
We were on the beach the day they filmed it. Sweet.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Laytonville Love by Chloe Curiel

Never in my life, have I been treated so well, by people so unfamiliar. God blessed us an enormous amount as we pulled into Laytonville Auto Parts to find Richie and Jr. chilling in the front of the shop at about 7 o’clock at night, our motor clanking and chirping to a halt. A couple of wrong guesses of the problem and finally a diagnosis arose. The alternator was giving way and should not have even made it this far.
We felt invited, so we stayed and talked to these guys for several hours into the night. For a little town it sure had a lot of history that we apparently needed to know. Everyone can safely say they felt welcomed to Laytonville. We parked on the side of the beauty shop and decided to go no further until we could get Jubilee sounding normal again. The next day we shifted our weight onto Dan’s property, the ultimate diesel mechanic in the county, and parked in his driveway. That night we met the broken yet beautiful eight-year-old grandson, Marcus. We instantly stopped feeling sorry for ourselves.
Ending up in this small town wasn’t so bad.
The next morning, my mother and I made friends with Patti, Dan’s precious wife, and rode with her to Ukiah to take her grandsons home. The more time we spent there, the more friends we made, and the more blessed we felt. We attended the “Dome Church” that was in fact a beautiful building shaped like a dome. The believers there were wonderful and nice, and we even got a glimpse of Albert, the one hundred and two-year-old man, who was looking pretty good in my opinion. Later on we got to talk to him when he came for dinner, or more like yell into his left ear, the only one still working properly, and quickly found out that he was quite the roustabout in his younger days.
The hospitality never ended. Richie drove by to visit almost everyday. I found the bright sides quick because there were so many! The people, the country, the mountains, the weather, the new friends, the swing set that I spent hours on everyday, the dinner that was made for us every night, the laughs, the night swims, the camp fires, all of them huge blessings and all of them able to lift burdens.
Today we saw some of the Redwoods, but we couldn’t get enough, so tomorrow we will go back with Patty and Richie and enjoy a true gift of beauty. Not everything has gone as planned or like we wanted, but I can’t wait to see what is ahead on that open road.
Tomorrow marks the seventh day, the official week we have been in Laytonville and I am seeing that God will help us find the home in our hearts so we don’t have to start missing our real one. 

Monday, August 22, 2011

Monday's Much Needed Song of the Day: You are the Moon by Hush Sound

Sweet little song Rosie mentioned in her blog. Makes me think about our love affair with the moon. Who doesn't feel like this sometime? Who doesn't need to be reminded we have beauty in us. We have love to give.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Greenhouse (Part 2)

This is the second half of our awesome interview with Shun Lee and Caren Bream. Sorry for the delay. I had computer difficulties, as usual.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Monday's Much Needed Song of the Day: Everybody's Free (To Feel Good)

Chris took me to see this movie on my 25th birthday. It wasn't planned. I didn't want to see it because I thought Leonardo DiCaprio was a puny choice for Romeo. By the time Romeo entered Juliet's tomb  I was a fan and Chris was wincing because he realized he already knew the ending. He leaned over and whispered loudly, "Ugh, this sucks."
Not the movie, just the way it made him feel. Hopeless.
This song however doesn't make me feel that way. Enjoy.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Tonight . . .

I am remembering to be grateful. Good worship service and dedication of friends' new baby. Beginning a new resume'. Some hang time with Mimi. A lot of chauffeuring my kiddies-(Hey, they're liked!) Constant love and rubs on the back from Chris. Encouragement from a good sister and at least six friends, some of whom weren't even aware I needed it. Some of Chris' awesome chicken wings and Aurelia's gumbo and Virginia's brownies and Aubin Hospitality. And Twinniemoo telling me the highlight of her trip to the east coast was flying her princess kite. Guess what I'm hoping to do tomorrow?
Thank you Lord. How could I ask for more?

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Greenhouse Interview: A Hollywood Ministry

We met Shun Lee Fong and Caren Bream when they were visiting the One Thing Church in Hollywood.  Chris explained what we were doing in our interviews and they were happy to allow us to ask questions and pick their brains. about a ministry they run for artists in Hollywood called the Greenhouse and another ministry they partner with, Hollywood Connect.

I strongly encourage you to check out their website as well. Inspirational stuff.

http://greenhouseproductions.com/Greenhouse/home.html

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Patti Vanoven

Patti and I spent about six days together and became fast friends. Before we left for our journey home, I caught some video of her in her sewing room. (Jealous;)
I like the reason why she quilts. Not just to make something, but to give something tangible, that brings comfort and warmth.
She did that for us for a week. Thanks Patti!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Monday's Much Needed Song of the Day: Extraordinary Machine

I'm not the baby of the family, but this song is for me, today.
Making the most, of the most of it.

Bus Clean Up. Pee-eew!

Second and third day in Laytonville, CA and we needed to do some clean up. We actually needed a hazmat team, but we were too far away from civilization;)

Before:


After:

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Today: August 1st

Chris and I had a sweet time this morning before starting up Jubilee and heading out. We were going the opposite way of traffic, thank God! We made it to the suburbs and stopped to grab some transmission fluid when we stumbled upon Ramona, also known as Moca D, who seemed skeptical but said she had asked for discernment and the Holy Spirit told her to say " alright, tell me the story. What's the story
behind the bus."
We talked for an hour and were mutually encouraged. She was spreading the love to us on our last legs of this journey.
She almost convinced us to stay in California and gave us some cool ideas for raising funds. Her family has a website called eotm.com. They mainly encourage entrepreneurs. Which is awesome because I am coming back with a new version of an old idea.
Down the road a ways Chris saw a young girl hitching a ride, so we turned around and picked her and two friends up.
They were fresh off a cross, cross country trip and had finally given up on their VW van that they flipped into the side of a mountain in San Francisco. We know about some hills after this trip. We decided to see San Francisco another time;)
Riley, Joe and Tim hopped on with their Dog Brody and we were off to Flagstaff!
It got really HOT for awhile , but we knew we were headed for mountain weather;)
Our conversation ran the gamut. Rainbow Gathering, God, organic farming, bus flipping, busking, books, music, dominoes, body funk, the runs, and peace which seemed to fall over us all as Jubilee climbed the mountain into the cool mountain air.
We let our riders out on the edge of Flagstaff, and said hello to Spencer who we met on the way to Cali. He gave us se cantaloupes and headed towards McD's and free wifi. We arrived to find no outlets and with our ghetto copyists that wouldn't fly. We were able to loan Lyle some jumper cables for the short time we were there and headed to Bookmans where I had the best bookstore coffee house service and coffee and we ran into a youth group from Carrolton, TX.
Weird. I told them if they saw us on the side of the road they had to pick us up. They laughed.
I didn't.