Momto5Minnies’ Neighborhood

We had a really nice Winter Solstice.  My brother and nephew are visiting from Virginia, and my Mom, Dad and sister came down for the day as well.  We had a mellow time hanging out and visiting, while I made chili and corn bread for dinner.  I also made our traditional Midwinter Gingerbread for dessert which was a big hit.  YUM.

The Peeps and I did our usual thing as well... brought it bunches of greens and holly to decorate and built a solstice cave.  This year because of the two feet of snow that got dumped on us, we built it out of snow instead of a cairn of rocks.  It looked sooooo pretty glistening in the snow all night!  The picture I took of it is from our video camera so I'll add that later.  In the meantime, here's a picture of what's left of the Midwinter Gingerbread... I should have snapped a shot BEFORE everyone got to it.  It looked so purty! LOL

And here's a random shot of the centerpiece I created with evergreen branches and holly:

We're back to school for another two weeks before we begin our winter break (to start back up in January).  I'm ready for it!  We took Thursday and Friday off this past week and it was nice; made me realize how much I DO need a bit of respite from school.  I'm really looking forward to all our Yule activities!  The calender for December has really filled up, but without the worry of getting our school work done, I'm happy to be busy with the bustle of the season.

Work-wise we are doing well... on schedule with all of our subjects.  The only thing I'm stressing a bit about is science; we haven't done as much as I'd like this semester.  With that in mind, I've signed us up for a bunch of fun activities and projects at the Nature Center during the month of December.  Though technically we're in the Physics phase, a little nature study will be a welcome change! 

I'm almost done with my shopping... since our holiday is a mish-mash of French, Catholic (DH) and pagan (me) traditions, I find myself in the position of getting a few things to be from Santa (stocking and a few under-the-tree gifts), Père Nöel (a couple gifts under the shoe), and me (on the Winter Solstice I give each Peep a small, usually handmade gift).  We don't go crazy with the gifts... I mean, it shouldn't be about the STUFF, you know??  In the past it was more difficult... friends and family literally inundated the Peeps with toys and trinkets.  After years of gentle persuasion on my part, they've all mellowed considerably in that regard, which I very much appreciate.  A few special, well-thought out gifts are much more appreciated these days, as they've learned to value quality over quantity.

At any rate, for now, we will spend our days the next couple of weeks concentrating on school,  while visions of sugar plums dance in our dreams at night.

Herbs are amazing; they just keeping giving and giving!  I still have most of my culinary herbs going strong in the herb bed just outside the kitchen (most of the medicinal herbs are located out in the garden, which is a bit of a walk).  So, yesterday I gathered a bunch of oregano and white ceremonial sage.   I've been hearing so much about the wonders of oregano oil, especially as it pertains to flu, so I decided to make a batch for myself.  The white sage I've been growing for a while with the intent of making my own sage smudges.  I finally decided to get around to it!  It was pretty easy, and the result was pretty cool.  It's hanging from a kitchen beam at the moment; I can't wait to be able to use it!

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

 

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

The flu hit Firefly Farm last week.  Not sure if it was the dreaded H1N1 or not but I have a feeling it was because of the unusual way it presented:  For Peep #1, it was high fever, nasal congestion, and a cough; for Peep #2 the symptoms were high fever, achiness, and a bit of a cough.  For me, it was achiness, stomach upset, a very dry cough-- but with NO FEVER.  Apparently that is not uncommon with Swine Flu, but it is unheard of in typical flu.  So I'm pretty confident that's what we had.  Regardless, I started us all on Oscilicoccinum at the start of symptoms.  Everyone one got two doses for two days, and I have to say I was amazed at the effect.  All of us experienced only one really bad day with it.  I also plied everyone with plenty of green tea and garlic, so I think that helped as well.

  I really believe in letting a fever burn out the virus, so I will let it go until it gets very high (over 103 is my marker).  At that point I will give acetaminophen or ibuprofen, but I am really loathe to do that.  For one thing, as I just mentioned-- I want the fever to do it's job, but mostly it's all the extra CRAP they put in children's medications!  Red #40, sodium benzoate, ASPARTAME??  Yeah, here's the medicine to fix your main symptom, served up in a bunch of shiite that will poison the rest of you!    It is so typical of allopathic medicine I want to scream.  **deep breath**  At any rate... I am very glad to be on the mend and hopefully past this for the season.  Now we have a bit of catching up to do with school!

Took the Peeps to see a performance of Macbeth this morning.  Let me tell you, eight-thirty is early for Shakespeare, even for the caffeine-fortified!  Still, it was an awesome show, put on by a small local theatre group. Afterward the cast and director sat on the stage, talked with us, and answered various questions on the art of acting and in particular performing Shakespeare. 

The Peeps enjoyed the preformance as well; they had been suitably prepped (I'd hoped).  Last week we read Macbeth from Tales from Shakespeare, as well as a study guide the theatre company provided and character bios.  We also re-listened to the SOTW adaptation from the Middle Ages audio CD.

I don't know why, but I feel there is value in being well-versed (or even partially-versed) in Shakespeare.  The stories are timeless, the writing lyrical, and the characters compelling.  Fortunately for me there are so many wonderful adaptations to gently introduce  younger students to the world of the great Bard of Avon.  Even when the Peeps were little I remember reading them a fantastically illustrated version of a Midsummer Night's Dream that they absolutely loved.  Hopefully, I am instilling a life-long love of his work, if not outright bardolotry.  

ETA:  My favorite quote of the play, spoken by Lady Macbeth to her husband after he has made a scene of seeing Banquo's ghost at his dinner party:  "You have displac'd the mirth."   LOL

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy