Where Are You?

Did we already use that post title the last time we were MIA? Too much going on here in the lives of these unschoolers.

The election, and outcome, were amazing experiences to share with the kids. The night of the election, Mady and I went to eat @ a local hamburger hot spot. It was packed as usual, and the veggie burger was good, even if that is not their specialty. Mady had an enormous chicken fried steak. The girl can eat! She is getting so TALL. As Mady and I slowly chewed our food, our eyes were glued to the T.V.'s in the restaurant broadcasting the election poll results as they came in. I spoke with her about the meaning of all the data on the screen. She seemed to understand though she wasn't very inquisitive about any of it. I had not spoken much with her about the election prior to that night. She did not seem interested. She was much more interested the night of the election however.

After dinner we made our way downtown for some Swing dancing lessons. Mady had a blast and learned a bit. She also made some new friends. Mady has been much more open to new experiences lately. She adores her animals and wants to be with them all the time, but she has been doing a much wider variety of things lately. I hope I am offering her enough options. How many new people does a young girl need to meet? I always think we have plenty of time to do...whatever. In reality, if I stop to think about it, she is 10. 10 years ago was a another life time to me, but it has gone by so quickly. I have a feeling in 10 years, it will be yet another life time to me. I feel as though I need to help her see all the world has to offer. I know my children do not see the impact they are having on my life, I mean, my learning. I am uncertain I would ever have pursued some of the things I am now pursuing if they weren't my children. I somehow feel more responsible for things that happen in the world with them here.

Niki is almost constantly walking around with a book in her hand. She wants badly to be able to read on her own I think. She enjoys me reading to her. Anything. The girl asks me what every word she sees says. We have several of the little books with all the 3 letter word stories. We look @ them often. I think Niki and Luke and Ezra all enjoy listening to Dr. Seuss the most though. The pictures are entertaining as well. I love reading them, they are fun, and funny.

Mady is having to do some actual book work to appease her father. She hates it. It has proven to be rather easy though. I ordered her a few cheap workbooks. I have noticed her reading much more lately as well. I have been scouring Goodwill and Half Price Books for any book about animal rescue I can find. Mady will read if it is about animals. I read to her (to all of the kids) all the time. Tonight we read the Sunday paper for our town and the larger town near us. I tried to read everything but I did skim some of the thing that didn't appeal as much to me instead of reading them aloud. Dom asked me what I have done to help protect my civil liberties. When my answer was, "I am a citizen. I supported you while you were overseas. I sent care packages for troops. I have been to a few protests. I write letters to our reps in Congress. " It all sounded very defensive to me and I began to wonder if our children knew about their civil liberties and what they could do to help them remain their civil liberties. All this brought on by the California Prop 8 article in the paper. What do other people do? Again, am I doing enough to be an example to our kids? Am I doing enough to educate them?

And Ezra is awake...

Take Me Home, Country Roads

No photos today. I have not uploaded the recent shots to the 'pooter. I have just been hanging out with the kids this week here @ the house, mostly. I wanted to get some of the cute things they do stored so, one day, seemingly far from now, we can all re-read this and say, "Oh yeah! I remember when so and so used to do that!" And smile, or laugh, or cry, or whatever, as we read.

We went to visit a creek located @ a park yesterday. The first thing I would like to note is, while we observed many kids @ the park, after school, we were the only ones in the creek. Not bc none of the other kids didn't want to play in the creek, but because apparently one cannot play in a creek in one's school clothes. I will add @ this point, why doesn't one just remove one's school shoes and school shirt? Surely a pair of school pants can be sacrificed for a glorious afternoon of playing in the creek? I mean, half of my kids were almost completely naked. I don't think some of the parents were happy when I suggested they just take off their shoes and join us. No one did anyway. Luke stripped his clothes off as soon as we arrived and jumped in flinging his shirt around. It was pretty funny. We explored the creek for a couple hours. Then, we went to swing for about 30 minutes. From the swings we observed a beautifully inviting shade tree. We all jumped off our swings to lay under the shade tree and discover huge "water bugs." I think they are really just caca (yes I spelled it that way on purpose) roaches, but some people like to call them water bugs...I'm not sure. Note to self, look that up.

Ezra walked through the creek picking up trash. Niki helped Mady catch minnows. Mady was extremely adament that we all leave her alone so she could concentrate. The boys kept running up to Mady to see the minnows, in the process, they were scaring them away. This was very frustrating to Mady, who is, in fact, very patient with her younger brothers.

Before we even made it to the park some amazing discoveries took place right here in our yard. Mady found praying mantis' mating in the front yard. We watched this for @ least an hour. We saw a special on mantis on Discovery a few weeks ago. We know from that show, that mantis can stay attached for hours. We had to remove them from my truck before we could leave for the park. I kick myself for not putting them in the terrarium we have Then, Niki located some fungus in the backyard. The child is very observant. Our grass is so tall from all the rain, I'm not sure how she located them.

The boys are practically living outside these days. Niki loves everything Nick (as in Nick.com or TV shows.) I don't. I feel some of these shows effect her attitude. I watch them with her, even though I dislike them. We talk about the shows, but I must be missing something bc she likes to portray some of the persona's she witnesses on these shows. I am sure these are my own issues I need to let go of. It is difficult sometimes though.

We took some cues from some of our friends and cleaned out the kids closets as much as humanly possible so they can use them as places of peace for themselves. The boys love it. The girls don't seem to care so much. We had fun doing it though!

Ezra is very serious when he explains things to us. Much of what he says sounds like jibberish, but it is very important, I can tell. Luke is taking toy cars to bed with him. He is constantly talking about modes of transportation. I think it's pretty cool. He points out every tractor between our house and Jessie's. I wasn't aware of how many there actually are in the world until my 27 month old son began pointing them ALL out to me. When he begins talking to you about tractors, you get that feeling you get when you are watching a fire. @ first, you look @ it bc it is so interesting and pretty, it pulls you in. After sometime, you realize you are just looking @ it bc you have some inner burning urge to stare.

More of my amazing kid observations recorded later, after a nap maybe.

Where have you been?

We have been busy and I have been taking pictures-lots of pictures as a matter of fact. I have also been busy learning how to manipulate the software to do what I would like with the photos.

So, you ever get in your vehicle to head out on an adventure with your family and think, "Gee, the whole world smells like french fries!" Once you arrive @ your destination you of course realize it must be your vehicle. My truck doesn't have any trash in it @ this time. We have committed ourselves to taking everything out of it every time we leave it. It hasn't been vacuumed in months however. I am thinking I must have some stow away french fries between the seats somewhere!

We have been busy. This week we had some friends over and we visited some friends. We also watched Dinosaurs @ the newly renovated Imax near us-I couldn't tell it had been renovated. There was new paint! We have been pet sitting one of our friends' dogs. Our family has tiny dogs. Our friends' dog is much larger. He is still a puppy and very playful. He desperately wants to play with our little dogs, they however are extremely intimidated by a dog 10 times their size, go figure!

Mady had her first vet tech event to attend yesterday. The group visited a vet's office in a nearby town to learn about e-rays and sonograms. Dom took the girls shopping yesterday and to watch a movies. Once Mady was home she was excited to tell me all about the visit. The kids viewed e-rays and sonograms of dogs. She had pictures and the vet's office gave the kids the office web address so they could visit the site and read the information they had been presented with that day as well. There is a huge homework section, which, initially, I was concerned about. Mady seemed excited by it, good for her. Last week she thought she wanted to expand her pet siting business and this week she said she just wants to do one a month or so.

Niki signed up for soccer! We have been watching the olympics and discussing how much time, effort, dedication, and love of a sport a person must have to go so far. We looked up Michael Phelps bio and read it. He began swimming @ the age of 7 only bc his sisters were doing it. You should read his training schedule-now that is dedication.

In other news, our family has been talking a great deal about people around the world-spured on by the olympics. We have decided to attempt to meet people with more diverse backgrounds. We know many middle class, white folks, we think it is time to meet some different people and see how they live. What they eat, how they celebrate their country's holidays, their roles as family members, and members od society. I think we can meet many people @ the UU church about 40 mintues from us. We are planning to begin visitng next weekend.

In still other news, my sister gave us invitations to her graduation! I cannot believe it is already here! I am so proud of her. I am interested to see which direction she will go in the future. There are so many opportunities in the criminal field. She has always been interested in forensics, it fascinates our entire family. I think maybe bc our dad was a medical examiner when we were young. We were privy to pictures and stories most kids our age never thought of. I think many people are grossed out by stories of severed heads in vehicular manslaughter cases,for some reason, they were intriguing to me and my sister. Congratulations Aunt Jessie! I will be there with the camera!

The boys have been chatting up a storm. We read everyday, so I attribute their vast vocabulary to the 2 years of stories we have under our belts. Ezra is sitting here in my lap as I type this-maybe he will pick up on that soon as well! We have been playing scrabble often too. Yesterday the boys were helping me pick-up the pieces, after Niki decided she no longer wanted to play, and Ezra handed me a tile. As he handed it to me, he said "T!" I took the tile from his tiny fingers and was surprised to see the letter "T!" Maybe not so surprised. We have been playing it often with the boys around. I just didn't realize they had been paying so much attention. Ezra put on one of his dinosaur t-shirts the other day. When he walked out of his room he pointed to his shirt and said Trisaratops! Luke can count to 2. Anything he sees there are 2 of he has to tell us!

The learning is clearly happening. Still the issues with Dominic continue. I have agreed to meet him in the middle. The middle wasn't a problem. Now he is really pushing it. He wants to see papers. I think I am going to get some printer paper and begin making a portfolio. I am not going to subject the kids to sitting @ a table doing paperwork. I don't feel our children are going to be missing some vital skills in their adulthood bc they didn't sit @ a table and do papers. I feel they need to be incorporated in the "real" world in order to acquire the skills they need. Dom has agreed to take them shopping which will help with there math.

Picture Problem Resolved (Not a song title)

I had the picture quality set wrong on the camera. I figured this out the night I posted about the other pix I couldn't post. Unfortunately when I reset it that setting was not one that Blogger supports. I am looking for a site that will host the format and am having no luck, I can't even put them on Flickr! I have it set to the correct picture quality now-no really! These are the best pictures I have taken yet so I am disappointed I can't get them onto Blogger. Maybe with a little more research I can find a site to host them. While this new super camera takes great pictures-they are meant for editing with some photo software-which I have not purchased yet so I cannot convert this format. I have not had good luck with Google's Picasa either.

So back to storing them in 2 formats on the computer...Dom, we're going to need another hard drive.

Accidents Can Happen

I have been lacking in content lately, not for lack of things to post but rather lack of time.
Here's the scoop. My loving father facilitated a purchase of 20 acres in East Texas for our entire family to use as an escape from the rest of the world. (The cabin will be used weekends and vacations, not a permanent day to day home.) Since we officially signed the papers a couple of weeks ago we have been camping @ the property on and off during the process of building a small cabin. Dom is unable to help since he is still under Dr.'s care after his back surgery so my dad and Brother Beal have been doing the work.

This past weekend we all ventured out to the cabin to do some "work." My sister came with us for the first time (YEAH!) and we camped for a couple of nights. There is no running water @ the camp and no electricity. There are plans for a small hand dug well but I am uncertain how long it will be until an indoor outhouse will emerge!

Jess and Niki and Luke and Ezra and I explored as much of the property as we could this weekend. We discovered 1 awesome deer blind and 2 small deer stands as well as some animal scat trails and many freshly dug animal dens. The property is overgrown with briars and thorny raspberry bushes (note to self-add machete to the camp box for next trip.) We had a bewildering time finding our way back to the cabin once we ventured off the road. Our saving grace was the dead tree about 50 yards northeast of the cabin...oh and my dad cutting a path with the chainsaw after we were yelling Marco Polo to him! The weekend was relaxing and full of educational opportunities, right up to the end, even the part where someone nailed their own thumb to the top of a corner post of the cabin. I have debated about posting this for many reasons, one of which is I didn't want to appear to be an irresponsible parent because I had the kids around a construction zone. In the end, I have to post this because this is our on-line scrap book and without the picture and this post, part of this history would be missing...not that any of us could ever let my dad forget he nailed his thumb to the cabin. Now it truly has his blood, sweat, and tears!

In other news, my sister made it into the police academy. Today was her first day and she said it was what all the cadets expected with the trainers yelling and having cadets stand @ attention for half the day. Jess does not recognize what a unique individual she is. I am uncertain what the statistics are but she is in the small percentage of Americans who have never tried any illegal narcotics, doesn't drink, doesn't lie...she is a shining example of a good person. I am the mean big sister! Everything bad that has ever happened to my sister started out with my handy work. It's ok, I have accepted my role in the grand scheme of things! LOL!

In still other news, Dom has re-enlisted in the Army National Guard for another 3 year stint. He is still on Medical Hold after the back surgery so he will not resume his duties until he is released. Once he is I am certain it is off on another deployment he will go. Secretly, well not so secretly now, I kinda want him to go active so we could travel. We would probably be stationed somewhere nasty @ the end of the earth so maybe it's for the best.

Yes, more news, Mady has her first job. She is scooping dog poo for a whopping $100 a month! This is an awesome job. It is one day per week after lunch and shouldn't take more than an hour. Mady is excited! Of course she is already speculating about her extravagant purchases. Her 10th birthday is this week as well. Wow! 10! Where does the time go? I am so thankful we started this blog so I can keep up with day to day happenings. I like to reflect on what we have been up to. Even though we haven't done much with our homeschool groups lately, I still feel so busy. Niki has gymnastics, Mady has art and the rabbits with 4H, the cabin, now it is time for our garden, and the boys are talking a blue streak. Luke and Ezra repeat every word we utter lately. The rate their vocabulary is growing is amazing. Each of the boys recognize and respond to everything we request of them as they mimic every action any adult around them is engaged in.

Enough rambling. Here are some recent pix.