June Begins..

We had a great time at the Dominican Republic and are full-swing into summer.

Things are very busy for the homeschool board with planning for the next year - setting up classes, taking care of legal things, organizing other things. It sometimes ends up being quite a bit of work. I'm a natural introvert, so the calling, meeting and talking with people can be really draining, but it's nice to contribute to a really great group.

I'll be heading to the HEAV convention (a large homeschool convention) later this week and ultra-awesome real-food proponent and farmer Joel Salatin is a special guest. He has four talks going on and I may just end up learning nothing about homeschooling and a whole lot about home farms,  the USDA and reconnecting with my "ecological-umbilical" as he likes to say. I seriously can't wait. I'm beginning to think of homeschooling as kind of like my job now as my kids are becoming school-age, but I still have a great interest in pursuing nutrition.

I will be teaching K-3 Poetry Memorization and also will be a group leader for a Junior First Lego League team for our homeschool group.

D has lately been very, very loving. He comes up to me probably 20 times a day to say either "I like you mom" or "I love you mom." He has a great interest in cars and is very proud of being the only one in the family that's able to do a skin-the-cat. D insists that he is a big-boy, loves to eat avocado and "apricons" (apricots). For the last couple months D has been making up imaginary friends and giving himself and his cars odd names like Rexer and Hex. Today he told me his name was "Scharts." LOL.

L has been very constructive lately. He enjoys inventing ways to accomplish things - coming up with totally impossible solutions. Just as an example, he'll tell me something like we'll build an airplane to fly in using some sticks, paper and scotch tape.. L spends much of his time recreating Star Wars aircraft with legos, doing lightsaber fights, and looking through books. He also really likes to listen to a cd of Story of the World, a world history book written in story-book format for children K-3.

We have discovered Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood after browsing through HULU, and I am honestly not sure if I'll be having my kids watch much else other than that. I really like the messages about feelings and relationships and most of what's on now for kids is complete garbage in comparison (in my opinion). There are great programs out there for learning facts, but Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood is great for life skills and relationships. Wish I'd found this sooner! I love the messages about loving ourselves exactly the way we are. I myself have a problem trying to people-please, resenting that, and then wishing I weren't so blunt, or impatient, etc. etc. etc. I think it would be a great gift to my kids to ingrain in them very early that they are exactly as they are meant to be and if people don't like them just the way they are, too bad! I will spend hours dwelling on something I said that hurt other peoples' feelings even if I was just speaking on something I think is true! Or defending faith! And then I go into a cycle of hating that I even care! It's definitely a mental prison. Reminding myself that I'm made just the way I'm supposed to be and hearing Mr. Rogers say that people can love you in spite of you really makes me feel better. Maybe that's lame or hokey, but it's true.

J is back to work and he'll be continuing on in Drill Team. And, I'm ending this saying that we found out some very good news the day after we got back from Punta Cana. Hoping to see a doc or midwife soon for more and better news.

UHM, It's APRIL!?

I can't remember what happened between December and April, don't ask. I think the husband went tdy for about a month and a half of that, but the specifics escape me.

Right now:
D wears his helmet and a glove everywhere
L is getting to be ridiculously observant and kind.

Right now we're up for another year in the Honor Guard. J isn't sure what exactly he'll be doing during that year: training, drill team, some other stuff. We'll see soon.

What I'm up to:
* Patiently waiting for a tropical vacation
* Teaching L to read, write and add
* Taking over for the vice director position for the homeschool group where we are. My responsibilities as such are supporting the director and performing her duties in her absence, reserving spots for our group activities, overseeing care of the house that the homeschool group has, and running the group's facebook page.
* Playing with my sons as much as possible.

Mainly, I'm writing about my paradigm shift with homeschooling. It started out as a way to avoid sending my kids to the school off base (which I hear has improved lately). Mostly, I've decided to throw out my idea of recreating school at home. I could write the why of this, but it would be a really long read. If you want to know why read: The Underground History of American Education. In any case, I like to start with the end in mind in all things to guide my choices.

Goals:
Raise human beings that are independent (of me and the government), critical thinkers, self-motivated with good spirits and the skills to support themselves (cook, clean, and raise their own food). I want the kids to find and pursue their passions and appreciate what is really good, true and beautiful. I also want them to be capable of communicating and debating well. I want them to be comfortable speaking publicly.

Our "Curriculum"right now is focused on building a foundation for these goals. We do not have a rigid, daily plan. It is more of a weekly thing, and if we don't cover everything or there needs to be extra time spent, it moves to the next week.

Weekly:
Memorize 1 new poem (building sophisticated language skills) with daily recitation of learned poems. Poetry curriculum = Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization.

1-2 Lessons from Primary Arts of Language Reading & Writing. This program practices reading, writing, listening and speaking. The details of how it does this would take a long time for me to write up. There are videos on youtube that do a great job. I really love this program, and while it is kind of costly, it is usable for all children with nothing needing to be replaced

1-2 Math lessons from Ray's Primary Arithmetic - this program was popular in the 1800-early 1900's. We'll be starting with Singapore Math in the fall and using both programs together.

Listening to CD's: Story of the World (history), VeggieTales Sunday School CD's, Chinese Children's Classics (just to get an idea of the sound of the Chinese language, I'm still looking for a good Spanish equivalent - I've also abandoned the idea of actually academically teaching either of these languages - at least for a little while).

Daily reading of The Jesus Storybook Bible

Right now we're taking nature walks and every day I ask what the kids observe through seeing/hearing. Learning about different kinds of insects, birds, trees, etc with nature guides.

Near daily reading from The Book of Virtues. Reading as many books as possible from good book lists. There's a great age-appropriate one on IEW's website.


I'd like to end this with the 14 principles of an excellent education from one of Mr. John Taylor Gatto's talks on youtube.

1. Give children an idea of basic human nature - history, philosophy, theology, literature & law
2. Strong background in language arts (public speaking & debate)
3. Insight into major institutions
     - court, corporations, military & details that drive them and why
4. Respect exercises in forms of good manners. Based on the truth that politeness is the foundation of
     all future relationships.
5. Independent Work
6. Energetic physical sports are a way to confer grace on the human presence and practice in handling pain/dealing with emergencies
7. Access to any workplace or person - give growing children the challenge of getting access to political leaders, people of importance
8. Responsibility as utterly essential (chores, leadership of clubs, grab for responsibility and always deliver more than is asked for)
9. Arrival at a personal code of standards
10. Familiarity with the masters in art, music, literature, drama, etc.
11. Development of powers of accurate observation and recording
12. Ability to deal with challenges of all sorts (overcoming shyness or give-it-up attitude)
13. Habit of caution in reasoning to conclusion - resisting propaganda
14. Constant development & testing of judgement.



My choices for L & D's education will always be geared toward developing these things.

So now, I'm off to bed and tomorrow is a new day :)

Our Disney Adventure 12/9-12/14

Our great friends from Germany the Crandalls recently moved to Florida and seeing as how it had been over a year since we'd last seen them, I was looking for an opportunity to visit. Jess threw out that they were planning a visit to Disney in December and I jumped. The timing was right and it had been years since I'd last visited Disney World. To be honest, I wasn't actually that excited about Disney, but I knew we'd have a great time being with our friends. While we were originally planning on driving, when I found out that flying would only cost about $200 more, there was no way I was going to get in the car for a 14+ hour drive.

We started off the trip by catching an early flight out of DC to land in Orlando around 9:40. Then we picked up our rental car, drove to check out the Crandalls' new home and then drove to visit Justin's Aunt Gina. The kids spent time swimming in the hot tub and we ate dinner. From there it was to the hotel. And it was beautiful. I couldn't believe the size of the rooms.. we've paid more for tiny hostels in Europe. I won't be staying anywhere else to visit Disney!

Jess handled nearly all of the planning. She was aware of the sale at Shades of Green (the Disney military resort), so we were able to get our rooms  for 50% off. She had all of the rides mapped out and planned and the bus schedule down pat, which made our trip super easy. We sort of just woke up every morning and followed the Crandalls around. While we did split sometimes, it was always more fun together. Because it was December, there were nearly no lines. Some rides we were able to get on with no wait and for the others we took advantage of Fast Pass.

Some of the rides were just not looking like fun to me, so I stuck with Devin for the most part. Justin and Luke really bonded by going on all the scary rides together and by the end of the trip Lukas wanted no part of sitting with me on any rides :) . At 4, Luke made the requirements for all but a handful of rides.. While I thought things like the Tower of Terror would have him in tears, they actually had him laughing and excited to go again which makes me believe that Luke is the perfect age to take to Disney. Devin had fun, but he had a hard time when rides ended grasping that he could go again or that there were other things to do. He also flipped out a couple of times when Lukas went on rides with Justin that he didn't meet requirements for. 

Our schedule was something like this:
Monday - Magic Kingdom
Tuesday - Epcot
Wednesday - Hollywood Studios/Magic Kingdom
Thursday - Animal Kingdom

Each day we packed some food, but ended up eating 1-2 meals at Disney, which was affordable because I shared quite a bit with the boys. Something I learned from the trip is that I'll probably only ever go during this time of year or another part of the off season. Disney was beautiful at night decorated for Christmas and I appreciated the lack of crowds for most things. The weather was still warm and though it rained off and on, there were plenty of opportunities to escape indoors.

The kids' favorites were Pirates of the Caribbean, all roller coasters, parades. My favorite had to be the jungle cruise. It was funny to me and at the end when the guide asked everyone where they were from Lukas shouted - "Washington D.C.!" to which she replied "I'm sorry." Lukas thought she hadn't heard him and didn't get the joke.. which was funny and sad a little. While Devin loved hugging and kissing the people in costume, Lukas crawled around on the floor at them flashing mean looks and hissing. Luke and the kids provided a lot of comic relief. He and his friend Reese decided they were twins since they were both four and born in Germany. They also discussed going on missions to California in sleighs pulled by reindeer and using arrows to kill bad guys. They discussed these missions in detail: from the number of arrows needed to kill the bad guys to the reindeer that would pull the sleigh.

I had a really great time reconnecting with my friends and appreciate those friendships where you can pick up right where you left off no matter how far apart you've been. I loved seeing Luke and Reese connect like old buddies. In the words of the great cartoon character Kai Lan: My heart felt super happy.

Christmas.

Devin was with me most of the time

While Justin sat with Lukas.

 I also learned that I'm totally in love with my husband. While I thought this trip was going to be rough - it's Disney and I usually end up doing the bulk of the lifting with the kids - Justin and I worked like a pro team. I felt like we were anticipating what the other needed and there was balance and teamwork. We both had a really good time! Justin made me smile when I was getting tense from lines and kept things light-hearted. While I packed all the food and clothes and took care of what planning needed to be done, he got the boys dressed and kept them entertained when I wanted to concentrate or needed a break. I love the family we've built and am happy that the friendship Justin and I have continues to grow. I think being married and having kids is really tough and there have been tough times. But, I feel like time and trial molds you and if you have the right attitude those things will make you fit together better. Anyway, super sappy right? Bottom line: I am going back to Disney World. And my kids rock. And so does my husband.

Macy's Day Parade!!

 Our trip to the Macy's Day Parade started at midnight on Wednesday. I had tried to go to bed around 8pm, but didn't fall asleep until sometime after 9:30. My friend's daughter suddenly became ill and they couldn't come, so I was going to make the trip alone with my kiddos.

I rolled out of bed at midnight, packed the kids up and we were on the road by 12:45am. Luke and Devin were super excited to be awake, though both very tired. Devin started saying weird, random stuff like "I like Nana!" out of the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, about 4:45 we arrived at the train station in NJ and encountered no traffic on the way. There was no attendant scheduled until 5:30 and the train was at 5:42. I was hoping to flash my i.d. and get a military discount, but the attendant never showed and I had to rush to get tickets from the automatic machine. We were the first people to arrive at the station, but by the time the train showed there must've been a 60 people on the platform. However, it was not crowded at all the entire way to the parade. At Penn station we transferred to a NY metro train and made it to our stop. After walking a few blocks we got in line for our "grandstand" seats. There were no strollers or backpacks allowed, so Luke walked while Devin rode in a sling meant for babies.. which he wasn't happy about. Lukas broke through the little metal barriers to play on the stands since he was tired of waiting in line - which wasn't allowed. I tried to coax him out, but no luck. An attendant finally showed and Luke glared, hissed at her and ran away while everyone laughed. The people behind me promise to hold our spot in line, so I very gently grabbed Lukas and marched him back to our spot.

 By the time we sat it was around 7:30. The parade didn't start until 9, so I let the kids watch the four shows they had picked out the night before in anticipation of our long wait. I was a little concerned about the amount of sitting in one spot the kids would have to do, but they did great other than a little kicking of the people in front of us and Lukas yelling every five minutes during the last half of the parade that he WANTED TO GO HOME!! That was all great and stuff, but there was literally no way to get out. I felt bad for the guy sitting right in front of Luke, but everyone seemed to be great sports.

We also lucked out in that our section was super cheery! Everyone was happy to be there, cheered and whistled a lot, and were happy to chat. The couple behind me was retired Army from Florida and the couple next to them had driven up from Georgia picking up their adult children along the way to attend the parade. One of the kids lived in Washington, D.C. and I felt their pain as they described traffic driving up to NY the night before Thanksgiving. I was so happy to be around people that were excited to be where we were. It made the experience that much more pleasant and I didn't really feel alone there.

The kids both enjoyed the parade - Devin more than Luke. Devin loved the clowns and sat on my lap almost the entire time looking at everything passing by. He even told me as this float passed by that the person was "just a little tired." This float was a bit weird.. We saw a few famous people - some of which we didn't realize who they were until they passed. I watch almost no cable t.v., so I don't know what the artists look like. The most famous ones - that I did recognize - were Carly Rae Jaepson and the U.S. Olympic Gold Medal Gymnastics team! Oh, and Jimmy Fallon, but he never looked our way.

The sleepy float

I decided it would be best to record Justin, since it's more fun to watch videos than look at pictures in my opinion. I taped the Honor Guard passing, but they were going at a almost a sprint and we were on the complete wrong side of the street to see Justin. It was a little sad that I was only really able to catch a glimpse of him. Lukas ended up deleting the video from my iPod on accident, which made it even more sad.. I'm looking forward to the Macy's Video that we're going to order and hopefully there'll be some closeups of him from the military photographers that went.

In any case, Justin didn't get to see this super awesome float:

Justin was jealous

So after about an hour of Lukas telling me he wanted to go home, we finally were able to leave. Luke was really wanted a hotdog, so we stopped and the kids ate Thanksgiving Lunch on an NYC doorstep.  The promise of that hotdog was one of the few things that kept Luke seated and quiet during the parade, so I couldn't renege. I was surprised that Luke was the one giving me difficulty and Devin was perfectly pleasant. 

Anyway, the kids finished their hotdogs and Devin popped up to announce he had to pee!! He hadn't gone since before the very first train left at 5:40am. I rushed to get him to the metro stop, but there were no bathrooms and it was almost too packed to move. We had to wait for 2 or 3 trains before we made it to one that had enough room on it for us. People started packing in and yelling at each other, but we lucked out, got a seat and squeezed together.



We finally got to Penn Station and I definitely lost my cool. There were so many people it was hard to breathe. We finally found a bathroom for the kids, but Luke began to fall apart and I lost my patience with him. The signage was terrible and the line for tickets took me about twenty minutes to get through. There was no way to leave this line and keep my place if the kids decided they wanted to run around, so I was very short with them.. Also there were no marked maps of the routes and Lukas lost the one I had printed, so I started asking strangers. We found someone who knew where we were going and we realized a train going that way was leaving in 4 minutes. The next one wasn't for twenty minutes. I practically dragged both kids to the train 400 meters away and poor Devin started crying. Although it's hard to realize in the moment, both kids did so fantastically well it was hard to be angry they were dragging their feet.

People were packed tightly into this one and it was about 20 minutes before the crowd thinned out enough that I could get seats for us. I finally felt like I could breathe again and Devin fell asleep on my lap.. he didn't wake up again four about four hours.

Seats finally! On the last train home.

Unfortunately this greeted me when I left the train station:

I almost felt like crying when I saw this, but I turned up the music and used the time to think. The real challenge was staying alert on so little sleep. We made it home safely around 5:30pm, which was just after Justin got home. I was starving (I had literally had one lara bar and 2 pieces of sausage since midnight) and exhausted and there was no food.. so we hopped in the car, picked up some friends and drove around looking for somewhere that was open. The only place we found was Cici's pizza and it was terrible - but, we ate our fill, went home and slept like rocks.

The next morning we put up the Christmas decorations and went over to a friend's house for a homemade Thanksgiving dinner :)

I spent the weekend shopping for deals online, which is what I'm doing today - along with rendering some suet into tallow in the crockpot! Happy Thanksgiving and cyber Monday :)

A terrible movie and ice cream

 I really wanted this movie to be good. I thought it was going to be amazing, but I should have known better since nobody was really talking about it. The action sequences were ridiculous, the acting was ok except for the main character (who was really bad), and the plot was just weird. If you're looking for a popcorn movie that is a cheap red box rental, then go for it, but don't expect anything amazing.






However, if you're looking for something truly amazing.....

This stuff is the devil. It's the best ice cream I have ever eaten, by far and it lives in the Safeway freezer. Justin has been late home many a time to surprise me at home with some of this amazing amazing stuff. I guess I wrote that like he does it solely because I love this ice cream, but really he is addicted too. Seriously, though, once you've eaten this ice cream everything other desert will taste inferior. I warned you.....

A new Prez + Another week

Carefully chopping veggies

 Tuesday saw the announcement of the reelection of Obama, which was a bit disappointing for me. But, he's our leader and won a clear victory both by popular vote and electoral college.

We had PT again for Devin this last week and I forgot to bring his day brace, which the therapist wasn't happy about. I have no more appointments for November since she books up so quickly, so I guess she'll have to wait until December to see it. I'm hoping she'll tell us no more day brace for Devin.

Luke has lately been a great help and now makes us a salad almost nightly. He's very proud of his creations and both boys are now eating salad with gusto even with the oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Justin left for the weekend to go to a CrossFit Olympic Lifting seminar. He came home super excited about increasing the amount of weight he is able lift in different ways.. I was just happy that he managed to miss out on an almost week-long trip to Miama, Florida with the drill team because of the seminar. He is currently trying to get the boys and I grandstand seats for the Macy's Day Parade.. more news on that as it gets closer :)

Anywho, no exciting news. We went to the library today for story time and the boys each made little Indian pouches. Luke told me that his pouch "really came together" and then spent some time outside of the library collecting small things to put inside of it.

Looking forward to a nice relaxing week ahead with NO TDY'S and no plans.

A Fierce Bad Rabbit

 About two months ago during a trip to NY, Luke received his birthday present from his Aunt & Uncle. It was a beautiful gold collection of Beatrix Potter stories. When I cracked it open, I wasn't sure that Luke would like it because of the old language and lengthy stories. HE LOVES IT. He has made me read it probably seven times over now and it is thick. My favorite story is the very last title "A Fierce Bad Rabbit." Basically a super mean bunny comes and steals a carrot from a gentle bunny and scratches it meanly in the process. While hiding, the gentle bunny gets to see the fierce bad rabbit running by after a hunter shoots off the its tail and whiskers.

Saturday morning was Devin's first dental appointment. I asked if he would cheese for me. At first he said no, but then he shot me this look:

He did GREAT! Not only did he let the dentist scrape all of his teeth, he sat through having all of his teeth polished. The dentist was really shocked and so was I. Maybe my wiggle worm is settling down :)
He lately has been taking joy in helping me do things like cook or clean the toy room and then proudly announcing that he helped. He's giving kisses freely and often pretends to be a kitten.

I took this picture for proof!!

Saturday I made two new good recipes. One from my brain that I created and call Bacon Chowder and the other from Primal Palate called Infamous Bacon Cookies. The bacon cookies were pretty good. Not mind-blowing and I think the batter was better than the actual cookies. I also think that candying the bacon with maple syrup was a bit too sweet. 

Bacon Chowder

1 head cauliflower

Half stick of butter

Tsp or so of salt to taste

Tsp or so of garlic powder

3 green onions chopped

3 or so pieces of bacon cooked and chopped

Put everything in a pot and cook until the cauliflower is mushy. You can either mush it with a fork or do what I did and use an immersion blender at the end.

Add one can of coconut milk. Taste and see if it needs more butter/salt. Do not cook down the liquid or it'll be more of a puree. For one batch I had to add another can of coconut milk, because I did that. Anyway, I think it's super good and I've made it twice now. I will probably double the recipe later because it only goes for one meal with two small kids and two big people.