The Green Girl’s Neighborhood

I got my acceptance letter Monday! I'm so escited! I'm going to Barnard College! I've already sent in my deposit, now I'm waiting for my matriculation packet. =)

I have two more days until I here from Barnard unless it arrives in today's mail. This is simply agonizing...

One Lucky Duck products are my favorite raw vegan foods to order online and to have in person in NYC. They even have TWO locations in Manhattan now! Pictured here are two cereals and my favorite way to eat them. I make some vanilla raw vegan hemp milk in my blender and pour it over the cacao or cinnamon crispies and pile on bananas, frozen blueberries, and goji berries. Amazingly delicious and good for me!

I'm expecting my next One Lucky Duck order on my doorstep very soon. This time I'm trying their new chocolate bars (I think I ordered every flavor), two kinds of crackers that I've only had in the restaurant and of course, some cacao crispies! And because I'm on the mailing list I happily took full advantage of some free shipping and free snowflake cookies. Sign up for the treats on the mailing list cause they're changing the specials daily. Happy holidays!

Eliot and I spent some time with this beautiful girl in early October.

She grunted and slept and ate a whole squash while we chatted her up.

Two days before our (bigger) family Thanksgiving the three of us went out to vegan trattoria, Portobello here in Portland for an early feast aka little family Thanksgiving. It did not disappoint. yummmmmm

salad with beets

squash soup with sage

field roast, cranberries, sweet potatoes, broccolini, mashed potatoes & collards and please excuse my camera strap!

I tweeted this last night: ***Holding a space. For forgiveness, gifts, hope, time, prayer and love.*** And this morning this song came on my little ipod shuffle and it sums up how I've been feeling: unfolding.

Unfold by Jason Mraz

Hands in Line
Arms close to my side
I'm fighting tides 
Of an ocean's undertow
And I figure that I might not make it
I'm taking empty but seldom speaking
And the words retreat
Yeah, they breath in histories
Still at ease
And the story's untold
And my arms unfold

My hands are high
And I'm holding on, I'm holding out
And i figure that i
Figure that I just might make it
And I'm waking empty but seldom sleeping
And the words repeat breathing histories
Into stories untold but I unfold

See now quality is what you see now
In the corner of your eye
And don't be surprised
If you hear the bells ring 
As they form from the sky
They sound bong, bong, bong, bong, ba da
Yea yea bong, bong, bong,bong ba da yea, yea

And I'm always holding on
And I'm already holding out
Said I'm holding out your side
And I'm holding out this time
Cause I figure that I, and I figure that I
Just might make it and I'm
Waking empty but seldom sleeping
And the words repeat breathing histories untold
But I unfold

I got accepted to Washington and Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, with a minimum guaranteed half-scholarship. =)
This is my third choice school, I'm still waiting for Barnard. 16 more days....

It's been too long.

Husband and little boy both had the flu and then followed it up with pneumonia and then topped it off with a cold. Five weeks later I escaped with a few days of coughing and runny nose. I think we're all on the mend now.

Eliot is adorable as always and wants to snuggle every morning the same as he's wanted to for years. I find myself relishing in it even more now as he approaches 5 and a half years old! He loves video games on wii, ds and playing on the computer with his daddy. He still plays play-doh, moon sand, tinkertoys, legos, board games, puzzles, builds forts, puts on puppet shows and on and on. It was so scary to see both husband and son so sick for so long that I feel ever so very extra grateful as we approach Thanksgiving this week.

So I wanted to do a quick post and a link to my talented brother's site and particularly to his new festive Thanksgiving song. (If you scroll down there's also a song inspired by Eliot that we love!) http://mchatton.com/2009/11/the-happy-vegan-thanksgiving-s/index.html   Enjoy!

Much love, wellness and warm cozy houses for all this season.

xoxo
Ami

No one gets out of this life alive.  Never is that more evident than in a hospice.  After a painful battle with leukemia, my uncle felt his life forces wane.  The struggle is becoming too great a burden, the treatments seem to be killing him as ferociously as the disease.  His wife’s eyes are reflecting his pain, watching as his body begins to shrink, as the spirit loosens itself from its earthly domain.

I had never been in a hospice before.  I’m not quite sure what I had expected, but I was completely overwhelmed.  As I walked through the front doors, doors that were made large enough for stretchers and teams of medical professionals, I could smell it.  It was the ubiquitous stench of death, and it was part of the tapestry.  Death was engrained in the carpet that we walked upon; it seeped from the walls that protected the patients from the elements for the last time; it was engraved in the paintings that adorned the walls and witnessed countless final breaths; it masked the faces of the staff, etched in the lines of their kind expressions. 

Death was a constant visitor to this place.  He had, in fact, just visited and taken the patient in the room across the hall from my uncle.  The man across the hall was being wheeled out of the room, his eyes open (oh God…why couldn’t they at least close his eyes?).  His mouth was gaping, as though he had been surprised to see Death—or perhaps, surprised by the feeling.  Maybe it wasn’t as he had expected, but this man now knew the final mystery of life, and he was infinitely wiser than I.

And Death, that dastardly being, sat in the corner of my uncle’s room.  He appeared to be patient, but would glance at his watch.  And only he knows how many hours, how many more breaths, remain.  The sole labor of my uncle’s life now is to breathe and each breath is a great work of strength.  And there will be no miracles.  Death is imminent.  It is waiting.