Twilight and H1N1

Yes, I am neglecting my blog. I have been lost in Twilight, as I read through the ENTIRE saga, for a second time, and have now sort of started the first book again, for my 3rd round. I am trying to hide this fact from my husband who is somewhat appalled by my behavior, as am I! What can I say, I get carried away....

Add to this the fact that my oldest son was totally sick last week. We went out only to get movies and return our daily movies. I am cleaning the house a bit now, as I feel we are coming out from a fog of sickness and Twilight.

Yesterday we went to an open house in a neighborhood we love, and a 2 acre lot to die for. Unfortunately, the house was something that would make you want to die. It would require so much work, so much money, and in the end would be the most awesome place to live (it's on the lake, gorgeous). I just don't know if I am up to another project house. The house we are in now was a major project house, and we are within sight of an end (meaning, we still sleep in the guest room while we work on the master bath). Sigh.

Off to get a coffee, I ran out and didn't notice, because I was reading Twilight. November 20th baby!!!!!

My Twilight Weekend

It's true, this is pretty much all I did. I finished the third one last night around 11:30. I can't start the 4th one for at least several hours, as there are no stores or libraries open quite yet. My 14 year-old neighbor brought over the Twilight Movie for me to watch. I will try and refrain from watching it today.......

I am going to be so sad when this is over.

I Started Reading Twilight...

And I stayed up much too late reading, I forgot about blogging, and I have been dreaming of Edward all day.....

This book must be to young females today what Forever was to me (remember being embarrassed when your mom caught you reading that one)!

And I love being carried away by a book when life seems a bit out-of-control and a bit of sadness has touched the people you love.

Hug your kids, love your life and forgive someone (perhaps yourself). It really is much too short.

I recommend....

I have found my game! Tap Tap Revenge 3. Get out your iPhone or iTouch and download this from the app store and grab your 9 year old boys, put it on 2 player extreme and get ready to laugh and laugh and have more fun than you can imagine yourself having with a phone! I broke 200,000 this evening, and I think we are at level 10. Not bad :) (I even played a little while the boys were at art class, but don't tell them).

And once you are done playing, take your boys to the TV, put in My Family and Other Animals, available from Netflix, and laugh some more. You may find yourself going right back to the beginning of the movie and watching the entire thing again (yes, I did).

Good connections going on this week.

Cosmic Rocket

Homeschooling:Year Two

I am amazed almost daily at how different this second year of homeschooling has been. I was so lost last September; I didn't know a single homeschooling family, we weren't signed up for any activities with other homeschoolers, and I struggled to fill our days.

Fast forward to this past month: we haven't had a single day without something scheduled, and many days we have had to say no to activities just to stay home! My older son has several good friends now, and a few others that are not as good friends, but we know them and can occasionally meet up with them. My younger son hasn't made a special friend, but I am not worried about it, he has friends but chooses to be with me and his brother most of the time, he does not need friend time yet.

And then there is me. I have several good friends who homeschool and who I really enjoy spending time with. It has made such a difference for me to have this support. I think when I started getting phone calls from these moms asking if their kids could come over while they had obligations to meet, I knew we had made good friends.

Life is full. It is amazing how full it can get.

Here is a quick list of new words that have come into my life this past year: abundance, manifest, strewing, blogging, peaceful parenting. There are many others, but these are the ones that come to mind first.

I don't know where we will be a year from now. I know that it will be a place that I cannot imagine, as change happens slowly each day, but quickens as the months float by. I do know I would like to work on one particular thing this year. I would like to figure out how to value my time at home with the kids just as much, if not more, than time spent at my career. I would like to feel the same sense of accomplishment at the end of a homeschooling day that I feel at the end of a work day. I would like to feel confident and proud of what I am doing when I run into old friends or co-workers, and feel that same sense of accomplishment and worth. I think if I can start to feel it, then others will start to feel it, and perhaps I can start a small ripple effect for all the moms (and dads) who stay home with their kids.

Ow, that stings.

Here is a quote from a local homeschooling list I am on. The topic of discussion was how homeschooling and parent cooperatives were perhaps not able to both fall under the home school statute, as a co-op was not, by definition, done in the home, although the instruction was indeed provided by parents. I was sort of following the dialogue casually, interested in the finer points of the law and how it is actually applied, when suddenly, out of nowhere came this

"Are unschoolers getting educated by their parents more than 40% of the time? No way."


WHAT? Did I read this correctly? Did this woman just assert that unschooling parents spend less than 40% of their time educating their kids? Wow. I wonder if that is even POSSIBLE???


I was in such a tizzy I didn't know what to do? Should I jump in to this conversation that really had NOTHING to do with unschooling and SET HER STRAIGHT, or should I just let it go? Well, I couldn't just let it go (as you can see). But I have not jumped into the discussion directly, because in all honesty, it had nothing to do with UNSCHOOLING in the FIRST place. But it did get me thinking, "do people really think I am doing NOTHING with my kids all day?" And it made me sad.

Why does someone else's opinion about what I may or may not be doing make me so sad? I am sad that this woman is so narrowly defining education. I am sad that so many parents don't see all of the opportunities to share this life that is all around us all the time, with their kids. I am sad to see someone so ready to dismiss someone else's choices so blatantly, clearly without really looking into it. And, I am sad that while this woman was trying to figure out a way to be INCLUDED in the homeschooling statute, she was willing to do it at someone else's expense.

It is 7:30 pm on Sunday night. My husband is reading out loud to the boys (listening skills, perhaps), while I sit here and listen (we will discuss the story later, as this is the 14th book in the Warriors series that we have all read together). My older son is practicing a hand-eye coordination game I brought him back from Honduras (geography, social studies and eye tracking), and my younger son is making himself his own special dinner (planning, organizing and following through with an idea he generated, he is only 7). We are all together, quiet, calm and relaxed (we can go on for as long as we like, this curriculum has no start or finish). I wonder if this counts as part of our 40% educational experience for the day?

Honduras

I know, I have an entire blog devoted to Honduras, but I really want to share this article from Forbes magazine. Understanding the Mess in Honduras.

I am getting ready to go to the volunteer meeting this weekend, where we would normally be finding out what jobs are going to get prioritized this year (Jan./Feb. 2010 trip), but instead we will be figuring out the if the trip can occur at all. It is so sad. And seemingly, it could have been avoided.

We will continue our fundraising efforts this fall, but the money we raise will be covering more basic needs than we had anticipated. The curfews, the fear, the lack of any of us coming to spend our money, means this poor country is getting even poorer. The most needy, the disabled, the injured, are of course, suffering already. The rehab center is open, but many of the patients are not showing for their appointments. The cabs aren't running. The people are staying home.

I will continue to follow Honduras with my kids. We read the news daily and follow the happenings.

A fall afternoon

It was a cool day, a perfect day to stroll around the neighborhood and see what has changed.

The school kids are no longer around, so the neighborhood is quiet. Luckily, our homeschooling friends have returned to check out the go-cart. Yes, the 9- and 10- year olds are letting the 7-year old push them up the hill.
We found a big pumpkin at our neighbors (they weren't home, so we grabbed a picture)!

Along the road.....

Some of our other neighbors are getting ready for winter, the pile of wood has arrived, their teenage son just needs to get busy and stack it!

Other neighbors are a bit more prepared.

Back in our own yard, the garden is yielding some vegetable that we have yet to identify. I planted pumpkins and watermelon, and this is what I got! Did they cross-pollinate? I will eventually cut it open and see what's inside. For now, I am letting it get bigger and will put it out front with the pumpkins.
Happiness can be measured by how many leaves the dog has on her after rolling and rolling in the yard!
Happy end of September, the best month of the year!

A Weekend at Kripalu with Byron Katie

I gave myself a very indulgent birthday present this year, a weekend at Kripalu. Byron Katie was the guest speaker. I enjoyed going to many yoga classes and doing alot of The Work. I drove home with a huge headache, though, as I am not used to thinking such deep thoughts. My days are usually consumed with thoughts like "I wonder if I should do the dishes now, or wait until later" or "is it sunny enough for laundry to dry outside today?". It was incredible not having to prepare meals for anyone, or clean up after anyone, or to go to bed when I wanted and not have to get up in the middle of the night. In a nutshell, I was totally homesick!

I love going away, but not as much as I love coming home. I love coming home to my boys, who all make it known that I am missed. Yesterday, I came home to a house that was clean, several hand-made birthday presents, and chocolate!

I am going to have to process the weekend for a few days before I decide if I would do it again. I do like some of Byron Katie's ideas, but I didn't really agree with her ideas on parenting, at least young children. Perhaps I need to learn more about it all before really making concrete decisions, but I do like challenging my assumptions on my life and my happiness. I like looking at my circumstances in new ways, and finding ways to appreciate what I have. It is true that she has a unique perspective on viewing life, a different lens, a happier lens. I made some peace with my homeschooling/unschooling choices, and that feels good.

Oh, and the yoga! My favorite class was Yogadance! It was a huge class with KDZ, the Kripalu African Drummers! Wow, I can only tell you that dancing to live African drumming is amazing and gives you an amazing workout. I would love to have a class for kids to go to and experience this. I have all sorts of ideas after my indulgent weekend.

So what did I do about my headache, brought on by healthy eating, exercise and mental challenges? I headed right to Dunkin' Donuts for a large coffee and a big chocolate glazed donut. My true nature shines through!

Camel's Hump

My older son seems to have inherited my love of hiking. Today we took on Camel's Hump, the second highest peak in Vermont (4,083 feet). The smell of pine fills your nostrils as you push your way up the final half mile of the hike, and as you notice the treeline fall behind you, you see that you have indeed reached the summit. There is no way to the summit except for the hike, making this a unique experience. There are no cars or chairlifts bringing tourists up for a peak. Everyone up here has completed quite a rigorous ascent.

There is a 360 degree view, here we are looking across Lake Champlain to the Adirondack Mountains in New York.

Just the two of us. We took our time, but after hiking for about 5 hours we were ready to get back to the car. We sat and had a little snack before finishing up the final 1.3 miles (it was 6.8 miles round trip).

My son is tired, but eager to take on the highest peak in Vermont, Mt. Mansfield. I am not sure we will get to it next weekend, but I promised him we will try and find another picture perfect day to hike once again.

Gentle Encouragment

I try not to over schedule my kids, and I also discuss potential activities with them before signing them up. Sometimes they are interested in the activity, and sometimes they are not, and sometimes they don't really know enough about the activity to make a decision.

This fall, I found a one-day-a-week outdoor survival skill school that I thought sounded AWESOME. They weren't all that sure. We talked about it, and although they had reservations, they agreed that participating in a trial period would be OK.
As expected, they love it! See, here they are happily smiling for me as they head off to school!

The classroom display.

Show and tell (dead flying squirrel found in someones driveway that morning).

Shelter, and whittling with friends.

We are all so pleased with our decision to do this "school". It fits us perfectly. No indoors, no bathrooms, shoes optional, running and asking questions encouraged, no writing assignments, but above all, experiences beyond what I was able to provide. I felt the kids needed some extended amounts of time with other kids their own age, and they also needed some adult points of view other than mine. I want them to know the world is full of different people and different perspectives.

The other activity that I signed them up for that they were not totally excited about, but agreed to go to one practice and one game before withdrawing, was soccer. They are both really great athletes with lots of energy, and I felt if they could learn to channel it somehow they would find it quite fun.

You can see there is very little fun going on here:)

Or here, definitely not the hair of a happy kid!

I love how both kids are going at this full speed!

And finding yourself in this situation is always sort of fun!

There have not been any tears about either of these activities, nor would I make a big deal about it if they decided either of these activities were not working out. I feel you need to give something a try before deciding it is not for you, and it is my job to make sure there are lots of things to try. I will not try and bribe my kids to finish the season if at some point something changes. We would discuss the effect on the team of not finishing, but it is ultimately their decision.

I think that by allowing my kids to make these decisions, they will trust me more in the long run. They will know I am looking for interesting activities, and I think they will be willing to try more new things because they know that if they really don't like it, they can get out.

And to completely shift topics, we turned on the heat this evening. Brrrr, low of 40 tonight. I really feel for Idzie, she is NOT going to be having a good time at the NBTS camp I'm afraid:(

Lego Fun

We attended the Northeast Unschooling Conference several weeks ago, and by far, the boys FAVORITE activity was the Lego Funshop (too bad it was the last day). I have been on a quest for more legos since we got home, as I really want to host our own funshop type of thing with our friends and try and share some of the fun we had. The problem is how to get enough legos to actually justify hosting our own co-op class. But I have started, and here is my first eBay lot of 1,500 legos!

It really was very fun. We sat and sorted, constructed, compared and swapped legos for over 2 hours. Our neighbor (who came home from school "sick" at noon) also joined us, as we listened to an audio book and played.

I am pretty sure this is the type of afternoon that homeschoolers envision, but that seldom actually works out. I felt peaceful and happy watching them today, a feeling I hope to carry with me more often and more intensely.

News or Not News

Are you ever overwhelmed with the amount of NOT NEWS that we are bombarded with on a daily basis? For instance, Kayne West and his lack of etiquette or any type of self-respect, is not news. Obama's comments on a fool like West are not news. Kate Gosselin wearing wedding ring or not, NOT NEWS! The list goes on and on. It won't be long before People Magazine is rated the number one source of news information in the U.S., and actual news magazines fold. This nation of fools somehow seems proud of their ignorance. Worse yet, the majority of these fools aren't aware of their own narrow minded, shallow and offensive behavior (see South Carolina elected officials for the cliff notes).

I best stop before getting myself too worked up to sleep tonight.

Play on

I am a firm believer in play, physical activity and the outdoors. Here is a sampling of what we experienced today. Soccer practice.

Tire swing.

Jumping and jumping on the pogo stick.

More jumping.
I am not sure this is all that physical, but it is fun and it is outdoors.
Off he goes.
And lastly, if anyone wants to buy a one year old Honda Fit, email me! I love my little orange car, but alas, I really don't need it (I have a big mini-van, is that an oxymoron)?
Oh, I will be so sad to see you go little orange car. Maybe no one will want you.