Fiddling wih Facebook

I told you this was a bit of an obsession. Why not link a cool thing my sister did with my blog and figuring out how things work with Facebook. Elizabeth volunteered on a retreat for a weekend to serve food in the cafeteria. How cool is that. I'd go, in another life, maybe I'll let my kids get a little older.

I've been uploading pictures of the kids to facebook, taking away from the time we usually spend together, the pictures I usually upload for you, but it is much faster and easier there!

Ok, I'll make an effort to never mention facebook again here:-D

Facebook | Photos of Elizabeth Boyd

Facebook | Photos of Elizabeth Boyd

FaceBook

Apparently many people are already addicted to Facebook. I signed up to grab a few pictures of my sister to put on my blog. Well after a month, I never looked at it again, but now, it is a bit of an obsession. If I do forget about it, emails come in saying......so and so added you as friend on facebook. SO you have to go and check it out.... I've 'seen' people I haven't talked with in years. The time doesn't seem too long for me, but when you see the kids! Yikes! I feel like I'm one of those cheek pinching aunts astonished at how old these kids have gotten. Some of these kids have graduated from High School! Seriously, how can I be old enough for this?!?

The Origin of Halloween According to Internet Research

Below are some things I pulled off websites when reseaching Halloween and its origins. Sorry, I didn't save the sources, but if you're really interested, google using some of the words and I'm sure you'll come up with plenty. The different fonts denote coming from different websites. Just some interesting things to think about as we come upon Halloween.


The origin of Halloween dates back 2000 years ago to the Celtic celebration of the dead. A Celtic festival was held on November 1, the first day of the Celtic New Year, honoring the Samhain, the Lord of the Dead. Celtic ritual believed that the souls of the dead returned on the evening before November 1. The celebration included burning sacrifices and costumes. These early events began as both a celebration of the harvest and an honoring of dead ancestors.
Halloween spread throughout Europe in the seventh century. It began with "All Hallows Eve", the "Night of the Dead". It is immediately followed by "All Souls Day", a christian holy day. [By christian here they refer to Catholicism - note by Heidi]
The first lighted fruit was really carved out of gourds and turnips. European custom also included carving scary faces into the gourds and placing embers inside to light them. This was believed to ward of evil spirits, especially spirits who roamed the streets and countryside during All Hallows Eve.
The Irish brought the tradition of carving turnips and even potatoes with them to America. They quickly discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve.
Did you know?!? Americans spend over $14 billion on costumes, decorations, party supplies and other Halloween paraphernalia!!
Bobbing for Apples is a tradition widely popular a few decades ago. It dates back to ancient roman times in honor of the Roman goddess of fruits and apples.

Halloween or All Hallows Eve, originated from the Pagan Holiday Samhain (pronounced sow-wen). Its name means summers end. This spirit connotation originated as the ancient Celtic druids paid tribute with gifts and food (and sometimes it was rumored sacrifices) to the spirit world to insure that next year’s crop would be bountiful. It was a time for communicating with the dead and receiving wisdom from past ancestors to insure prosperity.
When the Christians set about to convert the pagans, some adaptation of these spiritual rituals had to be made to keep the Pagans in the Church. Therefore, November 1st became “All Saints Day” to honor all those in heaven and October 31st was tacked on as “All Hallows Eve” or Halloween, the night when all the dead are remembered.
The Jack O’ Lantern was adapted from the old British practice of carving out turnips or other vegetables to make lanterns. Pumpkin carving remains one of the main attractions at any Halloween gathering.
Since the revival of the Pagan religion, many are again choosing to celebrate Samhain in a more traditional sense with reverence for those passed on, although many pagans enjoy modern day fun as well. And Catholics still celebrate November 1st as “All Saints Day”.


As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there. It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.

The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Chimps that Massage

We went to the zoo yesterday, and I wish I'd taken a picture of the Chimpanzee area.  

It looked a lot like this:

Silas was hanging around me, waiting for his nightly tummy massage.  He's been having tummy aches in the evenings ( I found the source of the dairy).  He's been clean for 2 days:)   While Silas was waiting, he was carrying around a container of coconut oil, since it's a solid, I was cool with that.  I was putting up pictures in the bare hallway, and he began giving my shins a massage.  He stuck with it, then later, had me lay down and gave me a 1/2 hour massage!  It felt good too!  

He said he was massaging like Malachi who has given Silas a belly massage before.  Gotta give credit where credits due!  Yes, I'm braggin' on my babies:)

oops

I am so careful to never send those email stories, warnings.... and other misc. non-personal emails, and I just did one of those things on accident! I've been fiddling with facebook and my friend just told me about a cool feature where you can have facebook go through your emails and tell you which people you've ever emailed or gotten email from, are in facebook. I thought I'd send one to Lawrence, funny.... I unchecked all the other emails......aparently not!@#@$@#% Didn't notice the bar on the side. My confirmation email stopped my breath. SORRY!!!

I had contract employees we haven't used in years that I sent this out to. Ok, that's all that can be done. Hope it goes to junk mail!!

The Sky is Falling!

Some of you avocado lovers out there may be distressed to know, the fruit is falling off the tree now, unripe with bird bite marks. Being inexperienced with avo's this fresh, I'm wondering if they fall off, if they can be ripened? So far no luck. They actually rattle when you shake them, at least one did.... Is there a special trick ripening these ones, magic perhaps?

Oh well, I don't like avocado's myself any way. There is so much fruit in the trees, just maybe some will be spared and last to harvest time, whenever that may be. These are smooth skinned, not Hoss.

I signed up for a facebook account, so I could copy some pictures of my sister for my blog, when she was thinking of going to the DR Congo. This thing has a life of it's own. I find myself drawn to it through emails. So-in-so added you as a friend on Facebook.

I joined my high school network. Bringing back memories. For me, mostly socially awkward ones. I was so overwhelmed with life at home then, I couldn't handle more than one friend at a time. I remember most of the names but most of my memories of them are from classes. I see group prom pictures, no wonder they enjoyed high school, they hung out together. I tell you, high school has very few fond memories for me. I feel a sadness for the lost girl I was then.

I felt the most comfortable in my choir class, that was mixed grades, freshmen to seniors. My choir teacher came to my wedding 15 years ago. I've heard her health declined, dementia. I didn't hear after that.

Isn't it interesting the power your childhood has. I have grown, had children of my own, and yet, I can feel the feelings I felt then when I think of high school.

Did you know, I had no idea I was an extrovert until I was in high school. I know, some of you are checking to see you're reading the right blog:) Maybe that's why I have a big presence now. I worked hard to be invisible in high school, probably life before that too.

Thank God for his grace! It is often said, with little thought I think, Oh, to be younger again. I would never go back. I'll take the physical changes, the grays, and whatever else comes. The teens and 20's were fraught with so much emotional challenge. The thirties came with a sense of self, being comfortable with who I am, and appreciating my uniqueness. Sounds like a psyc book. For me, it just gets better. 50's are the new 30's, so I'm still a spring chicken!

homeschool extras today

I'm so behind on laundry it has started growing things!

Caleb using his homemade bow and arrow.

The mother of all yards, host to the mother of all weeds, host to the AquinoClan

The ice dispenser that started it all! Thank you kids for jamming ripped paper, blueberries, and whatever else you see in there. The consequence for those 2 boys who filled the ice dispenser was to weed 15 weeds. Caleb got on a roll and weeded from 10:30a- 7:30p with snack breaks. That kid is so determined. He got Malachi and me to join in and weed, not nearly the same amount of hours though!

Jumping squirl in mid air (Caleb took the picture) To see you probably have to double click.

Malachi is holding a paper wasp nest. One of the treasures unearthed in the weeding.

Before


After

Doing some washing. Walking the cardboard path through the weeds.

Caleb getting started on turning the dirt for his garden.

Today's Photo Journal

Picking up the trampoline

Last weekend, we bought a trampoline off of craigslist. Great blessing. The woman who sold it to us is a master gardener, so you're seeing her garden around the trampoline, unfortunately not ours. But more interesting to us, an Entomologist! She gave us her insect collection, unfortunately, most was ruined by mites, but we have some cool specimens and great containers, lesson plans ( she's done some teaching). We are equiped to pin and enjoy insects for years to come with what we received. In this collection is a rino beetle. A bit worse for the wear, but in tact enough to get the picture. The kids are very impressed with that one!


Test run. Yup, it jumps alright.

Mckeiver JR here! He actually undid some screws!

A planner abroad returns home

Due to my virus, or my 22,012,893,814 viruses I seem to have on my computer, I have not added my sisters very cool blog to my list yet, but here is a link. http://aplannerabroad.blogspot.com/

Very fun to peruse, pictures, stories. She has made it back home safe and sound, PRAISE GOD for this. Sounds like she had a great time, did some great work, met some neat people, and of course came home with a local dress.

I must have overcommitted my life. I keep no-showing parts of my life. I have things planned every day right now, on top of homeschooling. Things that are set times, not show up if, or when it works. I was so consumed with not forgetting a Thursday obligation, I thought it was Thursday and didn’t drop my kids off at BSF with my mom! Oops. My planning calendar starts today, guess it will be more required than not. Our home is more fun, provides more activities for the kids, there was no “what are we doing today” to get me looking at the calendar. Just working on writing, reading, won’t bore you, school. We no-showed for speech last Thursday.

The house is upside down, hasn’t been put together yet. That will give more peace in my mind once we get to that. Not quite sure when this will work out. Looking for a new dentist, all our dentist appointments are due now, how cool to be able to look locally, change. A bit hard for me.

Just got an email that I can take a look at a trampoline. Hope it works out!