Medicine

Seasoned tofu, bean sprouts, fish oil, olive oil, all these are healing for a body and are new things we have included in our lives. Wal-Mart and community college=more new beginnings for our family. Dom is finishing up one of two summer sessions while I work at Wal-Mart for a bit. Dom made an 89 in his summer computer class, sixteen weeks in a usual semester crammed into five weeks during the summer, can you hack it? I chose not to. I didn't see enough personal benefit in it worth the stress it would cause our family (you know four kids and mom and dad) and beginning a new job. I prefer my journey to be in a classroom with actual people not people's virtual attitude transmitted to me via electronic mail. Dom felt disappointed for not achieving his goal of an "A" in the computer class. I reminded him of how many projects he did in such a short amount of time, his comment was, "ya, but one week I didn't even do any work..." I asked him if he felt he could have done better and he stated he could have if he had worked a bit more on the big project for which he earned a "B".

One thing I am certain of for my previous semester was that on my history final there were multiple correct answers to the multiple choice questions which would explain for me why I earned a high "B" as my final grade. I did not study many hours for the entire class. My history instructor was an older gentleman and always seemed as though he were truly trying to convey some deeper message to his class. I wrote down side notes which interested me and read up on those while I was not in class. I then passed on fun tidbits inspired by Mr. Tibbitts to my children. I enjoyed the class a great deal, as far as learning from it, I am not certain I learned much more in the actual class than I already knew. Learning for me really has to be something I personally want to learn about. I have no doubt in my mind that Mr. Tibbitts has a passion for history and would love nothing more than to pass on that passion to some pupils that gave a damn, but he has doubt that there is a pupil out there that gives a damn and for this, I am sorry.

Our kids enjoyed hearing about Teddy Roosevelt and the Japanese air raid. After the brief oral history Dom and I gave them we talked while we viewed Pearl Harbor and paused when Dom or I felt we needed to emphasize certain points about the actual history such as true facts regarding statistics. We are currently awaiting DVD's for the History Channel's America: The Story of Us. Dom and I figure we can use the DVD's as a starting point and reference the local library to delve deeper into subjects we want to learn more about together.

Dom and I both have a Government class coming up. Every person I have spoken with has had something to say about a local legend: Killer Miller. I am not sure this instructor even exists let alone instructs but everyone says, "I heard..." no one I have personally met has had anything positive to say about an instructor named Miller whom they've never met.
We will be taking a trip down to Austin this year with Mady to view the capital and maybe some homeschool action or other legislation scheduled to take place. While there, we will of course be visiting our all time favorite swimming hole in the Lone Star State, Blue Hole.
Enough about school. On to play lego's and drink a glass of real sangria before bed. Goodnight!

Beautiful Eyes

Father's day was fabulous. We cooked breakfast, and later dinner, for the dad's in our lives with joy and love on our minds and in our hearts. We printed mushy poems and colored pictures on them while we contemplated what one may see if one looked deep into dad's eyes on Father's Day. It occurred to us dads probably have no bigger dream than to see their families happy and healthy. Happy Father's Day Daddy. We love you.

Not Afraid

Family goals for the summer include:

Complete tiling and painting the inside of the house
Moving towards a healthier lifestyle through changes in eating habits
Being more active in daily life
Family spanish lessons
Volunteering in our local community through Scouts/4-H
Supporting one another in personal goals

We are not afraid to set goals and work to reach those goals, no matter what kind of time frame the goals are set to.

I enjoy observing our kids when they don't know I'm observing them. I think I should make more notes during those times.

Niki, Luke, and Ezra were on the patio this afternoon when Ezra ran inside and exuberntly yelled, "Watermelon! I want watermelon!" We had some small seedless watermelons in the fridge. I asked Ezra to please get one watermelon from the fridge and set it on the table for me. Once Ezra set the melon on the table, I began cutting it up, he ran back outside. I took the melon out to Niki, Luke and Ezra on plates along with chocolate raspberry smoothies (which they tasted and quickly spit out) and went back in the house to look up recipes for dinner. I cracked the window on the patio so I could hear the kids. Since we are doing a bit of remodeling, somethings from the house are outside on the patio. The kids asked if they could play with the things from the house. I let them know that was fine as long as they were careful and put everything back when they were done. I listened as Niki asked Luke and Ezra to put all the things away so they could eat watermelon. Niki handed out slices of watermelon to Luke and Ezra. Ezra wanted to selected his own slice so he told Niki, "No thanks, I'll get one."
Luke, being Luke, took the slice Niki selected and took a bite. He decided he didn't want any melon and set his piece back on the plate. Luke went back to the bathroom cabinet we have on the patio and climbed inside. Ezra finished his watermelon and walked over to the cabinet and knocked on the door.
"Pooka, can I have a turn please?" I smiled when I heard this and had to peak out the window to see what would transpire.
Luke, opened the door and asked Ezra to get in the cabinet with him. Ezra did.

I know to many homeschoolers/unschoolers this is a typical scene. Our family has local friends that attend school. Each time I am with them I personally witness siblings fighting, almost the entire time we visit with them and if they are not arguing, one of them is telling the other "get away from me." It leads me to wonder how these children treat other children when adults are not around?

Our family was recently at a state park for the weekend. We decided to pack up camping gear and head to the lake to grill and swim, then hit the road. I forgot our raft as I was packing up the car. Everyone was waiting on me to leave. I retrieved the raft and asked the group of people next to us if they would like to have it (it cost $3) because I did not have time to deflate it. Two families told me no. I was really perplexed by this. We have shared the little bit we have and have been given so much over the last two years with unschoolers. Even when we were out as a group of unschoolers, we shared with anyone around us, even if we didn't "know" them. This was the first time in a long time when I tried to share something and someone refused. The last family told me to just leave the raft, they were sure someone would use it. I didn't want it to end up being litter and I didn't want it to go to waste so, the kids suffered through as I deflated the raft. It was a fun weekend. Everyone enjoyed the park.

All or Nothing

People maintain blogs for many reasons. The purpose of this blog originally was to have a record. On and off we have managed to do that. As I was taking pictures of the family this week I began to reflect on what should be in our blog. I write the entries most often by myself. I have been wondering if other family members would enjoy contributing otherwise, our blog is only my perception of events, my view.

Our family is together all day almost everyday ( I love our life and I am proud of it) and while we make efforts to practice alchemy with no budget to speak of, not every memory is a happy one. Dominic and I have recently talked about weather or not love really is just revenge. Fortunately, we have decided it is not and we are both worth more than the way we have been behaving and treating one another. Our children should know that relationships are not always fun and easy. I believe it is not too difficult to build a bond that will last a lifetime, but it is also not too difficult to leave kinks in your chain that will leave a relationship weaker if those places are toucheed on later. So be careful with people's hearts, and the golden rule is always a good measuring stick, everyone is someone's dad, mom, sister, or brother, think of how you would have others treat your family members and have at least the same amount of respect. These are some of the values we are passing onto our kids everyday.

In a little while...

Creating flower fairies at midnight by glow of computer light while motorcycle parts flash across the screen and a Lego XBox game fills the living room with those bizarre outter space sounds. These are the things I am grateful for.
Dom and I visited the ever popular local hangout, yes, you guessed it Wal-Mart last night, originally in a search of long jump ropes. Of course we found none. Where does one purchase these?

Anyhow, we did purchase all sorts of fun dollar items to drag to my sister's house today. My sister purchased an above ground pool for her new house and fun in the summer sun! I am unbelievably excited. I think it is because my sister has her own home now and when we were little, and summer came around, we always wished we had an in ground pool. Thankfully we didn't, we would have had more crazy shenanigan's while the parents were off to work! I have not let the kids in on the new pool purchase yet. I thought it would be fun to surprise them. Dom woke me up early and I have been thinking about that pool ever since I got out of the shower.
Mady mentioned she was bored yesterday, something she hasn't mentioned in a distinctly long amount of time, for Mady that is. I let her know we have stocked our home with at least 1,000 fun, interesting, entertaining things to learn and occupy ones self. If the books were counted in that list there would surely be over 2,000 fun, interesting, entertaining things. She wasn't interested and said I was a boring adult. Once we brought somethings home to make flower fairies I was no longer boring. Niki and I listened to some John Mayer and made flower fairies and laughed while Mady tried to repair the "Turtle" necklace she purchased last summer on our exploration of Texas swimming holes. Mady was upset when I suggested she restring all the pieces on a new jewelry wire. She said the necklace wouldn't be the same. I told her it would still remind her of all the wonderful memories we made that summer if she let it and it was perfectly logical to restring the necklace so it would be stronger and not break again. While I understood her emotional attachment to the necklace remaining in exactly the same state in which she purchased it, I think it would be easier to restring the necklace. This is how many people would see it I suppose. I don't want Mady to be upset if the necklace breaks and the pieces scatter to the four corners in some store or restaurant but Mady remains attached to keeping the necklace in the exact state she needs it. I educated her on some of the possible outcomes from not restringing the necklace and told her the logical course of action for most people. Ultimately it is her choice, her joy or her pain which affects me if I allow it. I could have restrung the necklace myself after she fell asleep, I could have purposely knocked the necklace off the table in effort to prove my truth but that would only have upset us all. This seems like an opportunity for Mady to learn and grow. My truth is that Mady, and all our children, will learn all they need to know to thrive in a world from these small opportunities to learn and grow and discussion about them.

In a little while we will be sipping tastey drinks in the summer sun while floating peacfully in the cool of the pool with my sister. I'm sure there will be some crazy splashing episodes as well ;-)

Prizes, drawings, and posting 'Oh my!'

Visit Ordinary Life Magic (Too) for a chance to win this fun book!

"The World" Elizabeth Mark's 1st recorded poem

The sun rises because you rise
The earth turns because we turn
and We rise like the sun rises
and We turn like the earth turns
The world starts to shape
but all that is left is you and me.

Elizabeth Mark (pseudonym for our 7 year old daughter, I have an Inkling about why she may have chosen it.)

Niki has depths she doesn't realize. I'm thankful for abundance.

"Photosynthesis, Photosynthesis!"

Niki walked in the house today and proceeded to tell me about an observation she had made while watching the grass.
"The grass bends when the clouds move," she said. This of course led to a conversation about photosynthesis which led to the computer and reliable sources of information about photsynthesis. This of course led to another Spongebob episode. Thank you Spongebob, you are part of the warm loving center of our world!
Can we take a poll and ask kids if they have ever seen the grass bend? Does it make sense to some people to learn about somethings by observing them ourselves? If we took a poll about watching the grass bend, would it be ok for us to ask the kids that have never witnessed the grass bending toward the light, if they believed it does? (Of course it would be ok, it's our poll!) by Niki

Here Comes the Sun

Chuck-E-Cheese playing, creek exploring (a new section thank you very much,) bird watching, helping Daddy with the house, birthday celebrating, insect finding, dog training, house painting, fossil hunting, cabin staying, State Park hiking, Aunt Jessie visiting, park day skating, homework completing, jewerly store inventing (pretend,)life learning, photo taking, song singing @ the top of our lungs in the truck, family. Sure would be boring without our whole family to live, love, laugh, and learn every day! Nothing is perfect, but it sure is fun to appreciate all we have @ the moment.

Stereotype?

It may seem, to some, easier to be a statistic than to rise above what the general public now accept as the norm. Why is it so much easier to be (stay) a statistic? Why does it seem so easy to follow mainstream beliefs always, instead of investigating something for ones self? Why does the mainstream feel so wrong to so many? Why do so many go with it anyway?
Merriam Webster defines mainstream as : a prevailing current or direction of activity or influence.
If people truly begin to question the statistics we are fed by media, university's, and our government, and take a good look at the numbers, maybe we would begin to look past the numbers and see the people these numbers represent. Where might this get us?
Be more kind than necessary. Remember that everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.
Photos to follow.

Journey

Gotta love blogger. If you are looking @ this post, the story begins @ the bottom, so scroll down and check it out.