everyone that prayed, sent good thoughts my way when I was due for my heart operation. Whomever you are please pray and send good thoughts toward a little boy named Noah. he is my friend and has to go into have brain surgery soon. we need a miracle, so please pray for one. Noah is in a lot of pain and is having surgical procedures on 3 consecutive days. Please, please pray.

savant

Toly has been planing chess for a couple of weeks. He might have discovered his super power. Now when Tristan beats Toly it is a "Big Deal." Tristan relishes in showing me the complexity of his checkmate piece placement. The standard pick each other down until few pieces are left always ends in a physical battle. This is strangely forcing elegance in the actual play. Berkeley chess club is likely in Tolys future.

We have been stricken with the great sicknesses of 2012. Kassi spent the night in the hospital in I.V. fluids the night before last. I finally succumbed stomach flu portion while Tabitha and Kassi were at childrens hospital. That was some evil business. My throat still hurts and I can hardly talk from the vomiting. I am barely on the mend but must return to work. We really need the money especially right now.

Tristan took care of me and the boys in true big brother fashion. I am so proud to know him, truly a remarkable person. Kassi looks much better but still is having trouble getting her stomach started after the illness shut her down. Toly is teaching Rome how to play chess. It is the cutest thing ever to listen to them. Rome wrote his name for the first time yesterday. He then proceeded to write it everywhere. Luckily it was only in chalk.

Tabitha and the kids are still on deck for baptism this Holy Saturday. This incapacitating illness has kept our attention else. It might be a good thing, but such a high price for distraction. The struggle continues...

Chess has become a favored game in just a week

Toly has learned to play chess in a week. Sure he has seen Tristan and I play many times. About a week ago I sat for the first time and taught Toly all the pieces. Last night he beat Tabitha. He already uses pieces and combinations to achieve a common goal. He sees obvious attacks easily. Since that first game he has played hundreds of games. I see a real competition brewing between Toly and Tristan. Toly might have discovered something he can beat Tristan at with a reasonable amount of effort.

 

Currently the crew is getting sick again. Kassi has a stomach bug. We have somehow managed to keep from getting it for weeks and weeks now. I hope it concludes before next Saturday.

Tabitha, Kassi, Toly and rome will be Baptized next Saturday. Everyone is invited that can come. stnicholasmarin.org. It will be a full immersion event.

My friend Walter at sugar mountain is having a fundraiser. It is a worthy cause if there ever was a worthy cause. kickstarter. click over there and get inspired about an extremely motivated and talented family.

Thank you

I hope to be beginning again in earnest to post to this blog. This past year has been a whirlwind of extremes. With so much drama it has seemed rather soap-opera-ish to talk of our daily lives. Having a dearth of cool projects to pore over and recant doesn't help.

How we are all doing:

My job is amazing! I love it. My spiritual world has amplified such to leave me sated in a way never before dreamed.

Tabitha, my miraculous wife, is doing very well. California agrees with her. She is beautiful and I am certainly only one of the many that think so.

Tristan, brilliant boy that he is, makes me proud everyday. Kind, gentle, fair and amazing are words that others use to describe him to me regularly. Fencing, singing and learning are his world right now. Soon he'll be able to beat me at chess--and I am no slouch. He has a profoundly stronger mind than I and he is only nine.

Kassi, my princess artist, sees the world with such razor clarity. She easily captures the essence of things when she draws or paints. Ballet and art are her world.

Toly, the engineer, is compelled to know how everything works, where every pipe or wire lead. His passion is not of this world yet contained in his strong and able body. The leader of the duo-of-naughtiness--with a will of steel.

Rome, my baby of three years, is the Kwisatz Haderach combining the best of all three of his siblings in a crescendo of sweet brilliance. able comrade in the duo-of-naughtiness--in charge of schemes and conspiracies.

Chess

I am so excited for the day that Tristan really beats me at chess. I can hardly wait... Just in the past few weeks his brain has obviously changed to see many possible futures and how he might affect them. Exciting times at the pile of omelays.

I am sure that fencing (aka: physical chess) is a great contributor to this development.

Monistary visit in Calistoga, CA

The Kids playing by the koi pond

A saint for every day on one icon

Kassi so princessly.

These koi like cheerios

A lovely day in Caliostoga.

The koi were a huge hit.


Then we went on a hike above Calistoga.


the boys and girls have a completely different idea of fun on the trail.

Warm and sunny the first week of February.

The trail head on the way down.

Nicola carrying Rome (his future Godson). I bet Nicola is sore today

We stopped for pizza

Rome trying to steal the car

The kids ate first.

Then it was the adults turn


My work got me a new camera. It is truly a point and shoot. It is fast like the old days of film. Low light conditions are nothing for it. The Icon shot was in a very dimly lit room. The camera is a Canon powershot elph100hs. The interface is the simplest yet. I have taken several days of photos and the battery still reads full. If you are tired of missing those really cute shots because your camera is slow this is your answer...

Tristans first fencing tournament

Tristan in on the right side. his opponent is in foil 3. Tristan just graduated to foil 2. getting from foil 2 to foil 3 usually takes a few years. he really held his own for his first tournament.

It seems that not a day goes by where someone is telling me what a great person Tristan is. I am so proud of him.

Thanksgiving at Mount Tamalpais

Thanksgiving was our one year anniversary of leaving Missouri. Yes, it has been a whole year already. We packed our every possession into a rental trailer and went to our wonderful friends for thanksgiving dinner. Wonderfully bitter sweet, it was to be the last time we would see close friends for a long time. After a delicious dinner we said our goodbyes and headed for the state line into a snow storm.


This thanksgiving we had much to be thankful for. Most especially, that I am still on this mortal coil. My brush with death weighed heavily on our first year here. The financial ruin of being off work for several months will keep us especially humble for years to come. I still see the sadness in my children's eyes sometimes.

This past thanksgiving we spent at church. It is a glorious place--God lives there. After a brief service many of us went to mushroom hunting at Mount Tamalpais water shed.


The kids hiked, played and, frolicked.

Earlier that morning there was a light rain and the woods were magical.
Here we are being instructed about the proper mushrooms to collect. Father Stephan is an expert mushroom hunter.


The trails were so beautiful. Keep up Rome there are mountain lions here...

These are Honey Mushrooms
.

The hike was about five miles maybe seven. Here we are at the top. Toly ran most of the way.


This is the top of this trail where we waited for the clouds to part and reveal the peak. Kassi and Rome flitted around like bundles of energy.


Tristan collecting thatching for a school project.


Just off the trail was quite steep.

But, that was where all the mushrooms were.

Father holding a huge bunch.


Tabitha spotted, hiked down and picked the prize of the day.

A huge lions mane.

After the hike dinner was fabulous, decadent beyond our current diet and much appreciated.

It was a perfect day.

soap making in the city

Our church has a bazaar coming up very soon. Our contribution was teaching soap making and making a bunch of soap. Tabitha put together a whole curriculum.

I made a bunch of soap molds the days leading up to the event.

They needed to greased up and put together.



father Stephan kept dropping in to see what was happening.

Kassi's Godmother sporting the latest in kitchen wear.

It was quite a production.

Not really something to eat.

mix until trace....

The pouring of the liquid soap.



Here is a bunch of cut soap from the day previous--an attempt to teach the whole process.

This soap is set and ready to cut.

Here I am at home cutting the soap made the the previous day at church.



I made this miter-box in Missouri.