I used to worry about having a tidy house. Not that I ever achieved tidyness, but I certainly coveted it! Wouldn't it be nice (I thought) to have one of those houses where the dishes were always in the cupboard, the floors always looked freshly swept and mopped, and the toys were all in their places? I've gotten over that in recent years, not because I've come to love living in a messy, cluttered house. (I don't think I'll ever get there!) But because I realized what the lack of the"mess" and "clutter" would mean. If the toys were all in their places, that would mean my kids weren't here to play with them. It would mean they were somewhere else, not here with me. Ditto for the dining room table covered with craft projects. And the patio filled with bikes and scooters. And the bathtub overflowing with dozens of rubber duckies wet washcloths. And the sofa covered in stuffed animals while the pretty throw pillows get thrown around the room and on the floor. (Whoever named those things must have had kids!) And, yes, even the sink filled with unwashed dishes! I've stopped seeing these things as just more work for me to do and instead choose to see them as evidence of our full and happy life.
We are surrounded by abundance. We are wealthy beyond belief. Whenever I doubt this, whenever I feel I am lacking anything, all I have to do is look around me. The evidence is overwhelming. We are BLESSED. Not just by things, but by what those things represent.
"Messes", when I look at them in this way, are really AFFIRMATIONS. When I look at the dirty dishes, I see the evidence of healthy, home cooked meals and full bellies. They attest to the fact that, unlike many people in this world, we never lack fresh water to drink or go to bed hungry.
The bikes and the scooters scattered across the patio don't just keep my husband and me on our toes when we walk out the door in the morning. They are also proof of my kids' health. Instead of cursing the bikes as I step around them, I say a quick prayer of thanks because my kids are able to ride them.
The dirt on the kitchen floor? That's just evidence that my kids spent the day running and playing outdoors, in the fresh air, in our FABULOUS back yard. A backyard that, because it isn't "perfect", is absolutely perfect for digging, climbing, running, catching bugs, chasing rabbits, picking wildflowers, and lying on the grass watching the clouds make pictures in the sky.
The projects and books on the dining room table speak volumes about the creativity, passion, excitement, and exploration that my kids and I experience here each and every day. Each time I move the projects, books, and toys off the table as we sit down to eat yet another nutritious meal, I remind myself that there are much worse things in life than a "messy" house.
As I pick up my husband's socks from the bathroom floor, I feel so blessed to have him...so thankful that he chooses to come home at night to be with his family. He's not in a bar, or out with another woman, or any number of other places some husbands and fathers choose to be. I think about the fact that he comes home to his family after working all day to make this life of abundance possible, and that he spends every minute of his free time helping others. Is a perfectly manicured lawn or finished house REALLY more important than that? No matter how much I would like to have painted walls and finished floors, my answer is always "no". I would much rather be married to a man who has spending time with his family at the top of his priority list.
Whenever I find myself wanting to make excuses for the way our house looks, I recite a couple of my mantras:
"Our home is for freedom of expression, not impression."
and
"People before things."
That usually puts my thoughts back on the right track.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Where Did the Time Go?
I just joined a group for mom bloggers, so I thought I should probably check in on my blogs since I hadn't done so in a while. I was SHOCKED to find that I haven't blogged in well over a year! Egads, where did the time go?
The older I get, the more I find myself saying that. When did my son get to be over 6 feet tall? When did my baby become such a wise young girl? When the heck did I turn 40??? Where DID all that time go?
That's the difficult part about truly loving your life, I suppose. It's never going to be enough. No matter how long I live, there will never be enough time to do all the things I want to do, say all the things I want to say, think all the things I want to think, be all the things I want to be. I will never, ever have my fill when it comes to kisses, and hugs, and cuddles, and caresses, and kind words, and loving thoughts. There will never be enough time to LOVE and to LIVE as much as I want to.
I hope I have quite a few decades left on this earth, but even if I get to be 100+ years old, I'm sure my last thought before I die will be "Where did all the time go?"
The older I get, the more I find myself saying that. When did my son get to be over 6 feet tall? When did my baby become such a wise young girl? When the heck did I turn 40??? Where DID all that time go?
That's the difficult part about truly loving your life, I suppose. It's never going to be enough. No matter how long I live, there will never be enough time to do all the things I want to do, say all the things I want to say, think all the things I want to think, be all the things I want to be. I will never, ever have my fill when it comes to kisses, and hugs, and cuddles, and caresses, and kind words, and loving thoughts. There will never be enough time to LOVE and to LIVE as much as I want to.
I hope I have quite a few decades left on this earth, but even if I get to be 100+ years old, I'm sure my last thought before I die will be "Where did all the time go?"
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Kids Teach Themselves to Read
I just read a really good post on how unschooled children teach themselves to read that I just had to share. I usually like his blog anyway, but absolutley loved this one entry particular.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201002/children-teach-themselves-read
I loved the article in its entirety, but my favorite part has to be when he states that "Children learn to read when reading becomes, to them, a means to some valued end or ends." YES! YES! YES! People need to hear this more. I have said that same thing over and over and over again, and not just about reading, but about everything - math, grammar, writing, geography, history, EVERYTHING. A person will not truly *learn* something until they have a *reason* to do so.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201002/children-teach-themselves-read
I loved the article in its entirety, but my favorite part has to be when he states that "Children learn to read when reading becomes, to them, a means to some valued end or ends." YES! YES! YES! People need to hear this more. I have said that same thing over and over and over again, and not just about reading, but about everything - math, grammar, writing, geography, history, EVERYTHING. A person will not truly *learn* something until they have a *reason* to do so.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Organic Sprouted Grain Kefir Brownie Recipe
Our new and totally AWESOME brownie recipe!! We at the whole pan in about two hours.
1/2 cup butter (preferably from grass-fed cows)
1/4 cup organic cocoa powder
1/2 cup water
1 cup organic sprouted wheat flour
1 cup organic unrefined sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt or Real Salt
1 egg, slightly beaten (ours came straight from our backyard chickens!)
1/4 cup dairy kefir (we make ours out of raw milk from grass-fed cows)
1 tsp organic, fair trade vanilla
Mix the butter, cocoa and water in a saucepan and bring just to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir together flour, sugar, soda, and salt. Mix egg, kefir, and vanilla, then add cocoa mixture. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. Pour into a greased 9x9 pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.
1/2 cup butter (preferably from grass-fed cows)
1/4 cup organic cocoa powder
1/2 cup water
1 cup organic sprouted wheat flour
1 cup organic unrefined sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt or Real Salt
1 egg, slightly beaten (ours came straight from our backyard chickens!)
1/4 cup dairy kefir (we make ours out of raw milk from grass-fed cows)
1 tsp organic, fair trade vanilla
Mix the butter, cocoa and water in a saucepan and bring just to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir together flour, sugar, soda, and salt. Mix egg, kefir, and vanilla, then add cocoa mixture. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry and mix well. Pour into a greased 9x9 pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
My Son, the Writer
A few days ago I was just talking (typing?) on one of the unschooling lists about children what they need to learn, when they need to learn it, and about how there is no need to force them to learn certain subjects or study them on a regular basis. People, including children, really will learn everything they need to learn when they have a reason or desire to do so. My kids have given me lots of living examples of this over the years, but now my son has given me another BIG example for me to share with everyone. People seem to be able to grasp that younger kids can learn on their own without a curriculum or formal schooling, but they have trouble with the concept with older kids. If I had a dollar for every time I heard "But what about algebra/calculus/chemistry/high school?" I'd be a very rich woman.
My son, Cameron just turned 13 and he's always been unschooled. Cameron recently decided he wanted to write a book. Not a picture book, not a childrens book, a chapter book. He came up with a unique idea several weeks ago and has been talking about it ever since. It's top secret stuff, unless you are one of the chosen few that have been privy to the basic plot, so I can't tell you what it's about other than to say it has vampires in it. I will say I was very impressed at the amount the depth in the story idea and the amount of detail he was putting into it. It was obvious that he had been mulling this story over for quite some time and was putting a lot of time into thinking it through. This week he decided to start putting his ideas into writing and he's already a few chapters into his book. He's been sitting at the computer for HOURS every day tapping away at the keyboard. He'll come ask me how to spell a word or ask me if I will proof read what he has so far, but other than that it's a very solitary pursuit.
Lots of kids probably go through a phase where they write stories, so some of you may be wondering what the big deal is. The "big deal" is that he is doing this without EVER having been *taught* how to do the things he is doing to write this book. He's never been interested in knowing how to punctuate sentences, had no interest in writing anything, let alone a full book, and didn't give a hoot about spelling. He was also a "late" reader by school standards and didn't even start reading chapter books until the last year or so. He's a very auditory learner and still prefers to listen to audio books rather than sit still and read, yet he's WRITING A BOOK.
He started by coming up with the basic story. That part took a couple of months. If some of the critics of unschooling were correct, he should have stopped right there. I mean, he hasn't been taught how to write, didn't know how to spell, had never studied grammar, etc. But he *didn't* stop. He kept going because he was doing something he had developed a passion for and he was fully engaged in the process. I could literally see the excitement, the fire, in his eyes when he talked about his book, and that light stayed there even when he got frustrated, or tired, or ran into a problem. I'm honestly not doing the process he is going through any justice. You would just have to see it for yourself to understand how *driven* he is right now. It's been fascinating to watch.
Next, he decided to study the parts of a book. I don't mean he did worksheets where he filled in the blanks with lines pointing to the physical parts of a book like I've seen school kids do. I mean he sat down with a stack of his favorite books and started really *looking* at them. He paid attention to all the parts, including those he probably skipped in the past. I'm willing to bet that he was doing the same with the audiobooks he listened to lately too, but since I can't get inside his head to know for certain, that part will remain a mystery. Then he took his stack of books, placed them by the computer so he could reference them, and started writing. First he wrote a teaser for the back cover, then he wrote the prologue. (I didn't even know he *knew* the word prologue!) That was when I got my first glimpse at his book and my initial reaction, to be totally honest, was utter shock. I had heard the basic story and knew a few details, but I had NO idea all of this was going on inside his head! It's already a really GOOD story and he hooked me with the first few lines. I could tell that he *gets it*. He's never written a book before, but he knew, from years and years of listening to stories and now reading them himself, that he needed to grab the reader's attention right from the beginning, and that's exactly what he did.
**Hitting the virtual pause button for a moment to admit to my wee bit of jealousy as well as huge amounts of admiration. My first attempt at writing a book was a complete disaster. I was so traumatized by it that I didn't attempt to write another story for pleasure again until just recently. That first attempt was 30 years ago!**
I won't say that his writing was perfect. Far from it. But he was open to learning how to make it better. He asked me to help him with the spelling and punctuation, so I told him how to spell the words he got wrong, showed him how to punctuate dialogue, and corrected a few homonyms. He took the criticism without the slightest bit of irritation, then sat down and got back to work. Over the course of the next couple of days he worked off and on, only coming to me when he couldn't figure something out on his own. I haven't been invited to see the latest chapter yet, but I'm really looking forward to it!
Will he finish his book? I don't know. Does it matter? I don't think so. Lots of professional authors have multiple books that they've never finished. Finishing really isn't the point. The point is he's doing something he's absolutely passionate about at the moment, and in the process - purely as a byproduct of following his passion - he is learning things in a matter of *days* that, had he been in school, he would have spent *years* studying over and over and over. He is proving, once again, that compulsory school is both unnecessary and monumentally inefficient.
My son, Cameron just turned 13 and he's always been unschooled. Cameron recently decided he wanted to write a book. Not a picture book, not a childrens book, a chapter book. He came up with a unique idea several weeks ago and has been talking about it ever since. It's top secret stuff, unless you are one of the chosen few that have been privy to the basic plot, so I can't tell you what it's about other than to say it has vampires in it. I will say I was very impressed at the amount the depth in the story idea and the amount of detail he was putting into it. It was obvious that he had been mulling this story over for quite some time and was putting a lot of time into thinking it through. This week he decided to start putting his ideas into writing and he's already a few chapters into his book. He's been sitting at the computer for HOURS every day tapping away at the keyboard. He'll come ask me how to spell a word or ask me if I will proof read what he has so far, but other than that it's a very solitary pursuit.
Lots of kids probably go through a phase where they write stories, so some of you may be wondering what the big deal is. The "big deal" is that he is doing this without EVER having been *taught* how to do the things he is doing to write this book. He's never been interested in knowing how to punctuate sentences, had no interest in writing anything, let alone a full book, and didn't give a hoot about spelling. He was also a "late" reader by school standards and didn't even start reading chapter books until the last year or so. He's a very auditory learner and still prefers to listen to audio books rather than sit still and read, yet he's WRITING A BOOK.
He started by coming up with the basic story. That part took a couple of months. If some of the critics of unschooling were correct, he should have stopped right there. I mean, he hasn't been taught how to write, didn't know how to spell, had never studied grammar, etc. But he *didn't* stop. He kept going because he was doing something he had developed a passion for and he was fully engaged in the process. I could literally see the excitement, the fire, in his eyes when he talked about his book, and that light stayed there even when he got frustrated, or tired, or ran into a problem. I'm honestly not doing the process he is going through any justice. You would just have to see it for yourself to understand how *driven* he is right now. It's been fascinating to watch.
Next, he decided to study the parts of a book. I don't mean he did worksheets where he filled in the blanks with lines pointing to the physical parts of a book like I've seen school kids do. I mean he sat down with a stack of his favorite books and started really *looking* at them. He paid attention to all the parts, including those he probably skipped in the past. I'm willing to bet that he was doing the same with the audiobooks he listened to lately too, but since I can't get inside his head to know for certain, that part will remain a mystery. Then he took his stack of books, placed them by the computer so he could reference them, and started writing. First he wrote a teaser for the back cover, then he wrote the prologue. (I didn't even know he *knew* the word prologue!) That was when I got my first glimpse at his book and my initial reaction, to be totally honest, was utter shock. I had heard the basic story and knew a few details, but I had NO idea all of this was going on inside his head! It's already a really GOOD story and he hooked me with the first few lines. I could tell that he *gets it*. He's never written a book before, but he knew, from years and years of listening to stories and now reading them himself, that he needed to grab the reader's attention right from the beginning, and that's exactly what he did.
**Hitting the virtual pause button for a moment to admit to my wee bit of jealousy as well as huge amounts of admiration. My first attempt at writing a book was a complete disaster. I was so traumatized by it that I didn't attempt to write another story for pleasure again until just recently. That first attempt was 30 years ago!**
I won't say that his writing was perfect. Far from it. But he was open to learning how to make it better. He asked me to help him with the spelling and punctuation, so I told him how to spell the words he got wrong, showed him how to punctuate dialogue, and corrected a few homonyms. He took the criticism without the slightest bit of irritation, then sat down and got back to work. Over the course of the next couple of days he worked off and on, only coming to me when he couldn't figure something out on his own. I haven't been invited to see the latest chapter yet, but I'm really looking forward to it!
Will he finish his book? I don't know. Does it matter? I don't think so. Lots of professional authors have multiple books that they've never finished. Finishing really isn't the point. The point is he's doing something he's absolutely passionate about at the moment, and in the process - purely as a byproduct of following his passion - he is learning things in a matter of *days* that, had he been in school, he would have spent *years* studying over and over and over. He is proving, once again, that compulsory school is both unnecessary and monumentally inefficient.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Box Elder Bug Coinkidink
I just walked into the bathroom, saw a cool looking bug hanging out on our shower and wondered what it was. We just happened to be looking at science blogs at the time. I was about to open a new window to look up "my" bug, but decided to click on one more science blog entry first and, lo and behold, there was "my" bug on the computer screen! LOL What a coincidence! So, the boxelder bug gets our nature find of the week award thanks to a well timed entry on a blog around the clock.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Cameron's Recommended Books
The Mistmantle Chronicles by M. I. McAllister
Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S. Tolan
The Redwall Series by Brian Jaques.
Anything by Neil Gaiman!
The Oliver Nocturne series by Kevin Emerson
The Skullduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy
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