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!

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.

Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

This year rather than purchase a Christmas tree from a lot, we decided to visit a farm Haynie's Farm in Burleson since it is right down the road from my sister.


The farm is located at the end of a winding country road only minutes from town. As we approached a gas drilling site, I saw some fir trees in the distance. My immediate thought was, "please don't let this be it." Of course that was the place. We pulled in the gate and drove uphill to a large open pasture area where my sister and I, and the kids, parked. We walked across the gravel drive to the red barn where some of the pre cut trees are located. The house, far away in the corner, appears aged and one can see that the land had been used for some group of animals at one time. This place still has farm qualities from not so long ago, but is now updated to deal with today's modern annoyances which most of our culture calls progress.

We hopped on a trailer loaded with hay, pulled by an older model tractor, to check out the tree field. As we bounced along on our dusty ride on the once tree filled path, I began to notice things that saddened me so much I forgot to shoot photos of the tree field. Power lines cut a harsh geometrical pattern right through the center of the property. The huge century old trees that sacrificed their lives so we humans can live a more comfortable life with the help of nuclear power, lay dead and gray along our path. The photos I did snap are covered in dust as proof of the state of this land. There are no tree roots to keep the land from eroding so, grain by grain, it is blowing away every second of everyday.

Further down our powdered path, I got an up-close and personal view of the drilling equipment. It was massive. What was worse than the massive equipment? The land they cleared for the equipment. What was worse than the greediness of the gas drilling company taking more land than necessary? The fact that when this family purchased this land, it was full of beautiful trees and pastures. Now, only a few years later, companies have destroyed this family's land because they can. Eminent domain. There seems to be nothing we can do to stop it.
Sacrifice the few for the many.
It's called progress.
We have to have these power lines and these drills.

I don't believe any of those statements. I don't think we should sacrifice anyone. I don't believe what we are doing to our earth and the humans that inhabit it is progressive, AT ALL!
What about solar power? Does anyone ever wonder why our government promotes nuclear power while Europe provides subsidies for solar power?

I was deeply saddened, overwhelmed with grief, overcome by tears, and extremely frustrated and aggravated by what I witnessed on the tree farm Friday. If the only difference I make is to teach my children to value our world and all that is natural in it, @ least that is something.

I will support this tree farm until it no longer produces trees even though we just planted some fir trees on our east Texas property. I believe I was so emotional about this farm bc, that could just as easily have been my family. I hope I am never witness to the raping of our family property. I am debating writing to the Fort Worth Star Telegram since that is where I found this tree farm. I cannot believe I have never read about this farm before.

I hope I can make some difference.

Bubbly (Colby Caillat)

Thanks everyone for letting me snap your pix. We have been busy the past week and a half, I just haven't found the time to post. This post took 45 minutes and if you ask me that is too long! I listened to the boys and Niki take turns playing the guitar while I posted it. Niki sang a song for Mady. Mady is @ her dad's. Niki misses her very much. The rest of the fam went dove hunting this morning! Dove for dinner-yummy!

I love the song Bubbly by Colby Caillat. I may try to add it to the blog later. Enjoy the pix of the magical moments with our family and friends from the past week or so. I think that song says it all for these pix.