element bending...fun for the whole fam-damly

A few weeks ago he comes home and says to her, "a girl at work recommended a series to us...sounds fantastic!"

hmmm, she thinks. She is leery. Its the whole TV thing...she loathes TV, most anything associated with TV.

They go to their local super cool video store (not a big chain and best selection anywhere, hands down!) and he shows her the case.

double hmmm...she sees the nickelodeon symbol, the animated cover looking rather fierce.

Nope. flat out not interested. (she is stubborn...did I mention that?)

He walks away, ever so slightly crestfallen. He decides to check out youtube...see if they can find an episode to preview.

(she is also VERY picky about what her wee kiddos watch, did I mention that??)

He finds an episode online, watches it. declares that it was amazing and that she is going to love it and should just trust him already. (she does trust him, and loves that he would preview it for them...feels all beamy and weak kneed)

So, they rent it. Book 1, disc 1 (she loves that they call them "books" rather then seasons!)

They watch it. They love it. actually they LOVE IT!!!

She extra specially loves it. Why you ask? well, because it speaks to her soul connection with most anything to do with the elements and finding balance. because she is kinda old school spiritual and loves that the main character is likened to a Buddhist monk. she loves that so many great subjects are touched upon...deeper then one might expect from a nickelodeon "cartoon".
she loves the idea of element bending...has already decided that she would be from the water tribe and would be a water wheelin' healer. (of course she'd be a healer, as if you had any doubts) she loves the way her whole family gets giddy at the thought of a movie night. the way they all pile onto the bed, snuggled together and eagerly await the next turn of events.

She thinks, wow, how did this magic come to be?

she is grateful and fully into the wee bit of escapism that these movie nights afford them.

what she does not like, not even in the slightest, is what happened when hollywood got their hands onto it. what disgusts her is how, yet again, hollywood has done an amazing job at whitewashing a uniquely Asian series. what makes her feel ever so slightly ill and even more mama bear-ish is that each and every one of the main characters somehow managed to be white....oh, except that the fire nation somehow looks middle eastern. (grrr, that's a whole other post)

why mama bear-ish? because that's the part of her that clicks into high gear when she senses injustice, prejudice, racism...

check out this article, written by a 12 year old girl who was adopted as an infant from China. It was originally published in Adoption Today, a magazine dedicated to international and trans racial adoption.

also check out Racebending.com, advocating just and equal opportunity in television and film

So, they will continue their way through the books, disc by disc...but support hollywood racism? no, they'll take a stand, as a family and say....

~We be Jammin'~

♪I like to jam it wich you♪♫

*plum jam actually...lots of plum jam*

We headed up to pick plums at a friends before the killer frost hit. I was shocked at the sheer amount of fruit still on the trees when we got there! So, our clan of 6 and most of their clan of 7 went at it in the late afternoon sun, picking until we could pic no more.

This is one of the treasures of this life. The unexpected call "the temperatures supposed to drop to -5 tonight so please come and save as much of this fruit as you can!". We, rosy cheeked with wind tousled hair, happily obliged. The children helping until the urge to throw the rotten "bombs" at the wood pile over powers the urge to help with the harvest. Giggles, barking dogs, neighing horses (happy to be tossed the occasional plum), hollered conversation from one tree to the next..."I had a great name for a construction company that kinda works with this...Dead Plumb" laughter and then more laughter at the silliness of us.

Bliss I tell you. Bliss.

We returned home happy. Chilled fingers wrapped around steaming mugs of ginger tea and coffee. Eyes gazing at the pile of boxes. The bounty of the harvest. The nearly excessive bounty.

So what do we do with all these plums? We rolled up our sleves, got out our boxes of jars, handed out knives and cutting boards and 2 days later : 26L jars of halved plums, canned. 16 jars of ridiculously yummy jam. 5 jars of tangy plum sauce. 3 dehydrator loads of dried fruit. 10 bags of frozen plums, pitted/halved and awaiting a moment when making jam doesn't seem quite so... well...overly plummy.


Feelin' good I tell you!