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Saturday, 11 April 2009

crazed

Abbie called this morning to say she wanted to come for Easter. Both the girls insisted on going with Dean to pick her up and so suddenly I have an hour or two of guilt free time to myself. I'm stunned. I don't think this has ever happened before. Ever. I can't decide if I should:
sort the Frontier order
assemble the Easter baskets
go shopping for Easter treats for Abbie
sweep and mop the kitchen
clean the playroom
vacuum the living room
make smoothie pops
do the taxes
nap
sit on the couch and read a book
watch the netflix I got a week ago
pack for our trip

I'm sure if I kept thinking there would be more! So what I'm doing instead of all that is blogging. ha!

Here are some of the things we've done lately:
squeezin

queasy bake oven mud cake bakin'

quesy bake dog bones in "blood" eatin'

hikin'

paper dyin'

mixin crazy stuff

dancin'

mixin'

partyin'

lovin'

and chillin'

Thanks for visiting! Sorry I'm such the turtle paced blogger. love peace and light!

Monday, 19 January 2009

tree of happiness award

Jean from Heart Rockin' Family gave me a tree of happiness award. You can see it over there on the right. Doesn't it look happy? So I'm supposed to write six things that make me happy and then tag other folks to do the same. I have to limit it to six? Man, that's tough. To help me focus, I think I will go with a modified theme of six things you can fit on a pinhead that make me happy. Now I can begin to get my brain around it. Let's see.
1) Freckles. Yes indeed. I visited Jean recently and let me just say, her family's faces made me very, very happy.
2) Snowflakes. Can you believe them? I mean, no two are alike? That has to be untrue. Think of the history of snowflakes. There must have been at least one repeat! I think Mythbusters should investigate.
3) Sand. Oooh, that's a good one. Sand is awesome. I love to get my feet buried in cool sand on a hot day. Or warm sand on a cool day. Sand castles rock. Beaches. The idea of the amount of individual sand grains out there. Something about bounty just tickles me.
4) Pinhead. The word itself makes me happy. huh huh huh, pinhead.
5) Rods and Cones. Truly a happifying thing if ever there was one.
6) Bifidobacterium. Really, they do.

I just have to add one thing. Selena has the greatest laugh. She has been enjoying making me laugh lately and when she does her laugh this one particular way it sends me in fits. It's kind of like Jerry's laugh on Tom and Jerry... quick and low and... kinda like Woody Woodpecker... and it kills me. I love it and I've been wanting an excuse to mention it here.

So, I'm tagging people/blogs that make me happy:
Jill, because I was so happy to meet her and am always happy seeing her blog,
Ellen, who I know reads my blog (since she leaves me comments) and because I think she should start a blog of her own, it would probably make people everywhere happier (no pressure though!),
sloggy, who recently commented and I'd like to read more from her,
Dayna, because she's awesome and I wish I knew her better,
Nancy, because I love her blog and I'm always happy when I read it, and
Galavanter, who recently was really helpful to me on the phone and I want to say, HI!! And thanks. :)

Thursday, 15 January 2009

freedom in school

Recently there was a discussion on my family's website. My nephew had posted that he was on the debate team at his high school and he was occasionally required to debate the opposite point of view to the one he holds. One example he gave was why high school students should not have freedom in school. Apparently he won that one. I think that's great. It's always fun to debate and play devil's advocate; it's fun to be persuasive and to really get into a different perspective. Plus, he's my nephew and there's that pride thing.

One of my nieces, his cousin, said something to the effect that there isn't much of an argument for why students should not have freedom in school.

Freedom in school. It cracks me up. Well, freedom in high school does anyway. Freedom to...? What? Leave? Speak? Eat? Pee? Laugh? Learn? Oh, I see, freedom to choose between American History and World History (from an American perspective). No there's not much of an argument when there already is no freedom in school. I agree. It's interesting how self-evident truths, written into our constitution and protected with the lives of thousands of men and women, can be suspended for the cause of public education.

I'm remembering now my decision to reduce the level of complaining going on in my head and focus more on what I want instead of what I don't want. So, let me live freely, learn when and how I want to, be human, pee; and let my children too.

Thursday, 01 January 2009

chicken soup or ice cream?

A while back I caught pictures of the girls eating ice cream cones and chicken soup at the same time. I seem to come across many discussions in the unschooling lists about food and what our kids eat. Lots of parents have trouble trusting that their kids will still eat a variety of nourishing foods if they let them have the ice cream and cookies whenever they want.

Sometimes the girls eat ice cream first thing in the morning. Sometimes a couple times in one day. Often they eat less than half of what they ask for and we throw away the leftovers. Or another one of us might share it... But when there are many choices available to them they do inevitably choose something I consider "more" nourishing. Dean makes awesome chicken soup with organic broth and natural chicken, sometimes we'll make our own bone broth from a farm fresh organic chicken we bake the day before. We add carrots and spaghetti squash and none of us can resist it. So here is an example where I think they asked for ice cream before I realized they were hungry so I just set bowls of soup down next to them and they ended up choosing to have some of that too. I have the same photo of Nena that I hope to upload soon.

Thursday, 06 November 2008

"What I like best about you."

A while back Selena and I were headed upstairs to bed and she asked me to stop. She put her hands on my cheeks and looked into my eyes and said, "Mom, do you want to know what I like best about you?" And I, of course, happily said yes. And then she began an incredible list of things beyond her years that brought me tears of joy. I thought she was going to say my nose or my ears or something. But instead she said, and I'm not going to be able to quote it in full of course but I stamped the moment in my brain as it was happening so it will be close, she said:

"What I like best about you is that you listen to me and that you try to keep me and Sam from fighting, and that you say 'Let's wrestle,' to me when you know I need you to and that you try not to get mad at me, and I really think you need to work on that more, mom, OK?, just don't get mad at me because I'm just not that meaningfulish, and what else I really like is that you really liked my painting I made, see this one right here, where the red is the land and the blue is the water and the yellow is the sun and this little green spot over here is the lily pad and how you really liked how it looked, and I really like how you got me two guinea pigs instead of one when I wanted one and how you listen and we have fun and stuff and what I really like most is that you help me and Sam. I love you mom."

Oh, my gosh, I remember in the middle of it thinking, remember this, remember this, this is your life, now. Be here, always. I know I've forgotten parts of it, and I can't relate how long it took her to say it all, or how she pauses and thinks and kind of licks her lips, and the way she nods her head and all the other beautiful details.