The Magic Mushroom

Well, it's been quite a while, and we've been going through lots of big changes on our little hill. I won't apologize for not writing or spend precious paragraphs categorizing the many reasons why. Simply put, I'm back, at least for this moment that is quietly slipping away.

I'm sitting beneath a lovely duvet I picked up cheap during the hot weeks of the summer. I just found a cover for it a few days ago - little lavender paisleys. (I was about to sew a couple of sheets together and have done with it.) I've never had a duvet before, mostly because the good ones are made of feathers, and I just couldn't (wouldn't) purchase one. However, this one was sitting unpretentiously in a Goodwill, sandwiched between a couple of terribly ugly polyester bedspreads, a $10 tag dangling from its side. I couldn't pass it up. And, I know my money is going to a good cause, rather than to murder birds. Win-win! I never knew before how warm and comfortable these sorts of blankets are. How did I live without one for so long? Next on the list - a duvet for K who loves snuggling down in his blankets.

So much has happened over this past year, I have no real idea where to begin. I guess I'll start with the big stuff. We're at the tip of a new adventure, standing at the top of a mountain with a snowball and a smile. We're applying for a business loan and dreaming of a coffeehouse. I finally finished the business plan a few weeks ago (!), and we're ready for the banks (!). T and I once owned a coffeehouse, though it was a ramshackle, glued-together affair. We opened it with my tax return of $1400 and the innocence to believe we could. It was housed in an old downtown hotel in Wichita Falls and was more popular than we ever could have dreamed. Now, we're dreaming bigger. Much bigger.

I want The Magic Mushroom Coffeehouse and Cafe to be the "Third Place" we've been searching for. I want K to spend his adolescent years in a bustling, friendly, everyone-knows-your-name sort of hippie hang-out. I do. At the old coffeehouse, when I was pregnant with K, I had dreams of bringing up a little one there, surrounded by people who cared for us and in the center of an ever-swirling whorl of activity. I think this sort of "Third Place" is almost a necessity for the unschooler. For many, their "Third Place" is also their home - filled with all sorts of folks at all hours. Not us. Almost no one visits us on Tangled Hill. This has never really bothered me, though, as I'm a fairly private girl, and I hate cleaning for company. Still, I think K has suffered a bit, and the coffeehouse should help with that in amazing way.

Also, the coffeehouse, by all accounts, should make reading our bank statements a bit more enjoyable. We've lived a simple, quiet life for a long time, now, and we've needed very little money to do so. We work to live, rather than the other way 'round. Still, money equals choices, at least to a degree, and there are a lot of choices that haven't been available to us. I have always wanted to learn to pot, and I'll be able to take classes. K is thinking about Aikido or theatre. Perhaps both. T mostly wants computer gadgets. And, we'll all be able to attend concerts, festivals, and what-have-yous. Yeah, I'm allowing myself to dream a bit.

I have so much to say about the simplicity I wrapped around myself here, but it just doesn't seem to fit this post. I guess I'll save it for later - perhaps tonight. I'll pour a cup of hot tea, pull my sweet little duvet over me, turn on some Iron & Wine or Hem, and consider this past year.