No wind, All rain; Ark-building

Ugh. Eight solid days of rain here. I am noticing arks going up in backyards around here... Next hope for sun isn't for about 5 more days. Feelin' soggy!!! I am grateful to live UP on the ridge.

Ok, so here's what's going on around here lately. Kiddism: (overheard from bathroom) MOM! THERE'S POOP ON THE TV! Mom's thinking OMG, WHAT has happened to my bathroom. I go running in and the little stinker is referring to a politician - ROFL. Papa has some strong opinions about politics, and they are catching on!
Learning has been getting increasingly fun around here. We have put our curriculum on hiatus while we focus on lighting fires instead of filling buckets. And when the learning is fun for them, its fun for us, and the lovely cycle continues. When they get closer to high school we might get the buckets back out. Hopefully by then the learning will be self-motivated. We've turned to lapbooking and their creativity has just exploded. When I told them we'd be looking into the constitution this week because last Thursday was the anniversary, they decided we should make our own constitution up for our family. How cool is that!?

The biz is still hangin' in there. We got a few new shirt designs up on the site from the Michigan connection: check them out. Also check out their site direct: www.westcoastcustomtshirts.com
I have tons of ideas for designs to get out to you, and I'm hoping to get them up soon. Running out of sample materials.
We would like to hear from you: what's the best bumper sticker you've seen lately? Send us the bumper sticker slogan and the best one from this week will get a free shirt!! (Winner announced October 1.)
So here are some goals for us too: You Tube - hoping to get our current ad polished up and also to add some more. Research - getting more marketing research reading done. Everyone seems to want to sell you something, so we are looking for the most objective course, as well as the cheapest/most effective. Development - hoping for some more feasible and durable jeans designs options. Although the screen printing is incredibly durable on the denim, it is sometimes not perceived as such.
Mostly our goal is increased design quantity. If you fancy yourself an artist, send something our way.
Waiting on the next West Pole Wind to bring sunshine... Tchau!

PS: Some totally random needs we have: mannequin (top half and bottom half) for a really good deal; jeans for samples and product testing (if you have some that don't fit anymore and want to just get rid of them).

Stinging Winds: The Reality of Mortality

Most of us have noticed that a lot of high profile folks have passed over the last several weeks. Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Walter Cronkite, Billy Mayes, Ted Kennedy, Ed McMahon, Steve MacNair, and the list goes on. Some young, some very old. Many of the celebrities were baby boomers. My parents were part of the last few years of that 'boom.' In my head I still feel 19. My parents are still young - aren't they? My kids are still babies. Am I really going to be a member of the 'sandwich generation' soon? Taking care of my kids and my aging parents at the same time?
Alas, the beating of time marches on. Friends, parents, in-laws, celebrities, friends' grandparents, my grandparents (and myself!) are all aging. Illnesses that I saw while working at the children's hospital that were generally speaking cured, are taking lives at that later end of the aging spectrum.
The other fascination I have is the legacy that these folks are leaving behind them.
One leaves behind crushed little girl emotions and a legacy of abandonment. The abandonment continues in the family's complete denial of her existence, along with her 4 children and 3 grandchildren.
Another will leave behind decades of dedicated service to God, hundreds of beloved church members, dear children and grandchildren and countless ones who were like 'one of his own.'
Another will leave sooner than she should, and she won't even know why or who is even around her, most of her memories erased.
And despite the fact that I have learned over the years of my life - even from the age of 6 - how to deal with death of close loved ones and family members, I am not sure how to handle this part of life.
I don't know how to do this part. I feel like the little girl sitting at the kitchen table struggling with math homework, only its much more important than that. And I feel like there is no one to guide me to tell me how to do this one. I really have to figure it out for myself. And I want to cry. I want to go out to a cold and stormy ocean pier and let the stinging winds beat against my face in a cathartic exercise seeking relief, seeking a way to order this grief and find a way to go on with life.
But the teachers that I once had did give me one thing: Christ. They may have failed in their humanity to live perfect lives. They may have dealt with their own difficulties, and not always risen to the occasion. Sometimes they made the wrong choices. But gratefully I accept the one theme that repeated itself - himself - through the corridors of time. Christ. This is the guide that they learned to turn to, and the One that I need to seek more often than I do. As these folks coped they turned to Him, and it worked, just as He promised it would. He was there for them. He is there for us, and for me.
So, Teacher, how do I do this part?