Note to self, things to consider for the New Year

Here is a site I was reading on recently regarding carcinogens and toxins in our daily lives. Those are some fun things to consider for the upcoming year...

Toxins-Everyday Posions

Christmas 07

Christmas this year was great! We had more people than I ever remember having on a holiday ever! It was really awesome that we got to meet Dannelle too. She fits in so well with us. Its kinda like she has been here all along. I really hope she gets to stay for New Years so we can spend a little more time with her before she goes. I am really enjoying our family this year. It seems like we have grown so much closer. I never would have imagined us the way we are now. With the kiddos growing at warp speed and all the new people we have been blessed with, It just seemes like we are whole now. It really is a great feeling.

Mady's Art Progressing

Christmas @ Our House...

was CRAZY! OK. I could go on and on about the day but I will spare readers and let those of you interested know I have added a link to YouTube where you can view short snippets of the day. These of course are all taken from my point of view.

Some of my favorite things this year were:

Meeting my cousin Danniell from Michigan for the first time!
The framed puppy drawing from Mady!
All the family having the best Christmas ever!

When I opened Mady's drawing I just couldn't help but tear up. Mady has been taking art classes for a couple of months. She seems to enjoy it a great deal and I know she has learned more than I imagined she would. The puppy drawing Mady gave to me was a drawing she had done in the art class. When she showed me the drawing after class the day she had done it, I realized you can "learn" art, it's not ONLY a natural talent. I was truly impressed by it. So when I opened the box Christmas morning and saw the framed puppy drawing I couldn't help but tear up with the thought of how much she has learned...and grown.

I can vividly recall the Christmas Mady was 2 in a room piled with pink gifts that Mady never seemed to come to an end of. She ripped the gifts open as fast as she could, threw them down without any comment and on to the next one. That year she was given a Barbie Power Wheels Jeep, yes pink, which she seemed scared of. It wasn't until Niki was 2 that we got our money's worth from it. This year Mady was given some personal grown up girl gifts for Christmas. I can't believe she is growing up so fast. Mady is the sweetest, most tenderhearted, thoughtful little girl I know. I hope I am doing all I can to encourage her to continue growing in the same way.

Merry Christmas!

Niki sings, Ezra dances

OK, I know no one else finds my kids as cute and talented as me but I am posting these videos anyway. I am so happy I was finally able to get the kids on film. Enjoy!

Apparently I took Niki's video sideways??? OK, the videos are not as entertaining as being there bc I only caught them long after these scenes began and as soon as they saw the camera, they become shy, go figure.

Winter Solstice

We have decided that rather than travel 1 1/2 hours away to celebrate the winter solstice, we will have a celebration @ home. I think all the reading and group chat/activities we have participated in this year will be more beneficial for next year's planning. There are so many things to do, there is just not enough time.

The girls were so busy with hanging out with family they decided they didn't want to go eat breakfast with Santa this year. We still have the Nutcracker coming up this weekend. We have done that for the past 3 or 4 years, I think that is a tradition that is safe to say will stay.

Winter Solstice

Happy Solstice

Have you guys seen this?!!

Elf Yourself

Together

What's Goin' On...

Well, I haven't posted in a week I suppose. We have been busy hanging out with the family mostly. Last night we drove around town to view local homes decorated with Christmas lights. How was it you ask? To say it was disappointing would be the understatement of the season. There was one house worth viewing. I think we may drive over to Tyler to see the village of lights that is out there each year.

Unschooling. Well, since unschooling is just living and learning we seem to be handling it well. We did attend a Christmas ballet this season and we are soon to see the annual Nutcracker @ a local theater as well. There is one play I want to take the girls to but I am not certain we will make it.

I know we are visiting different venues and helping the children to be more active in the community but I feel as though something is missing. That maybe something on my end-I will have to talk with Mady about it and see what she has to say. Mady has been playing a ton of computer games trying to make sure she is where she needs to be with her math. We do science experiments and we usually count reading as history though no one has been interested in reading much lately. I am currently reading The Golden Compass to the boys. The girls mentioned they would like to go see it on the big screen but I like to read the original story before we see the movie.

In the last week we have been to the Christmas party (which I didn't take many pictures of for some reason,) made bird feeders from pine cones, prepared ingredients from a 60 year old mincemeat pie recipe from our Grandma Ann,visited the zoo on the last warm day of fall, been to art lessons, played the guitar, and chatted with a Jewish friend about Hanukkah. We went shopping for some of the family and Mady spent the night with two different friends. Niki has had to stay home lately. I think spending so much time away from home has contributed to her recent uncharacteristic disposition. Life in itself is just busy, even if you don't take in account all the holiday activities we have still been with our extended family most days.

Our family recently purchased about 20 acres in a remote part of Texas so we can have somewhere to go to decompress without the usual daily distractions. I am excited to take the kids out to see it-and camp! It is too cool for camping now but as soon as the weather is about 70 again we will head out so we can mark the spot for a future cabin of sorts.

Plans for this weekend include a local play, spending the day with Pam on Sunday for her birthday, hanging out with the rest of the family, and breakfast with Santa @ a local business on Saturday morning. We have to get started wrapping our Christmas presents! How long will that take? Uhg...enjoy some pix of all the holiday activities.

The Story of Stuff

I know some people who laugh every time I mention that I clean my house with vinegar, baking soda, OxyClean, and water. We have been trying to live a cleaner, more natural lifestyle for a bit, it was easy for me to find these natural solutions to cleaning without chemicals on the web.

OxyBoost/OxyClean

Today after we returned home from our group trip to a small ballet production of "The Grump" based roughly on The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, I began reading again. Tonight I was reading some of our group posts and found The Story of Stuff. I wanted to share it in case some of you haven't seen it or read any of the information anywhere else. I know I am really preaching to the choir here since I am sure anyone reading this blog is into some kind of natural living. People amaze me. Every time I try to enlighten someone with a suggestion about simple cheap ways to go green, I get shut down. I would think that if for no other reason than saving money people would want to @ least try to use something besides chemicals to clean their homes.

The Story of Stuff

Chemicals in your Home

Have you ever had the feeling...

you were destined for greatness? Have you ever thought, is this what my life of greatness is suppose to look like? Why can't I just do the things I think I want to do?

I have and I do still. I was conversing with a friend via e-mail when it suddenly dawned on me I can just do whatever it is I think I want to do. The lifestyle we are currently living is new for all of us. Our family has only been unschooling since August and I only began reading on the topic of unschooling shortly before we began, or stopped (traditional school methods) as it actually is.

I had been living with the notion that there are certain things one does not do with their children. The more reading I do, the more things I have become interested in experiencing first hand. A rainbow gathering or drum circle for instance. I do plan on taking the girls with me. We all enjoy live music and I think this would be a great place for Niki to hear original pieces from other people and possibly be inspired to do more with her talent. Not sure I mentioned it before but our little Niki is a budding song writer. I have been trying for a few weeks to catch her on video but she seems to loose her train of thought every time she sees me reach for the camera.

What does all this have to do with greatness you ask? I have put limits on myself. If I limit myself I may never experience what it is I am to be great @. If I limit myself, how can I inspire my children to adventure out into the world to try new things? The more time I spend with our babies (not all are little any more) the less I want to be away from them.

I will post more @ the end of the week about our contrived suburban adventures.

Chow dahlings!

How do you tell your children...

you, as a parent believe that "BIG BROTHER" tries to control the masses by manipulating our unconscious desires? How do you communicate to your 4 year old that the reason her favorite cartoon character is plastered all over any unhealthy food and plastic toy on every isle of the local Wal-Mart is to have her want to purchase it? Well, don't ask me, I haven't been able to help her to understand it yet!

More and more lately all I have been feeling is how I hope my kids will do a better job than me @ taking care of Mother Earth. I hope I can help them learn to take less and give more. Maybe I am rambling. I have been slowly moving toward a more natural lifestyle for sometime. Once in awhile on our journey, something will spur me along, an article, an ad or commercial or billboard. Today one of my relatives made a comment that Christmas was all about spoiling the kids. I highly disagree with that. I love the relative very much and made no argument with the comment. It did start me thinking that I certainly hope our children do not think Christmas is about being spoiled and recieving all their hearts tangible desires. How to know? Ask.

I did ask Niki what words she thought described Christmas for her. Here they are in the order they were given:
FUN
JOY
GREATNESS

What is your favorite part about Christmas?
The whole part! I like to play with all the presents too!

So, I think she sees some of what I see @ Christmas time...or she has already heard too many Christmas songs this season!

Here is a link to more about control over the masses from the Information Liberation site.

Controlling the Masses