Rachel is 14

So today my oldest turns 14. I find this mildly shocking, but in a cool “wow, she is pretty awesome” way.

I am loving seeing her mature into a fun and funky young woman who knows what she loves and is comfortable with who she is.

Posted in A Day in the Life, Education, Photos, Untraditional Education, Untraditional Living | Tagged | 3 Comments

Provision-y stuff and an Octopus

Rach proudly holding the homemade marzipan octopus she sculpted.

We are busy cleaning and packing plus doing Hanukkah (not to mention family Christmas stuff.) In the meantime God has been blessing us in a variety of ways, including the above marzipan recipe which makes it much cheaper and thus lets Rach sculpt to her hearts content.

It's a Calvin octopus.

Some cool God stuff that has happened:
  • We managed to get rid of 6 garbage bags full of sheets, blankets, and books– which means less stuff to pack!  YAH!
  • The kids have been a great help with packing things up, especially since I keep getting minor injuries that are forcing me to stop and rest.
  • We bought the kids 1 gift for each day of Hanukkah and it has been so peaceful and enjoyable.  Instead of a pile of presents the kids are really focusing on their one gift and enjoying it, which has been a huge change of events.  In the past a stuffed Mario or book would have been tossed aside when the bigger, cooler gifts come out but this year they are enjoying each to the fullest.
  • The peace that Hanukkah has brought has especially blessed me as I normally go crazy during the holidays, preferring to hole up in a corner with a book and avoid all the chaos.  This is especially good considering all the other stuff going on.
  • The Lord is continuing to take care of us financially.  We have been waiting, praying and trusting and He is making our money go much further than we could have imagined.
  • I got a God-gift today (usually around the holidays and my birthday the Lord blesses me with something that is exactly what I wanted, something just perfect that blesses me in a huge way– I always call them God-gifts…because they are obviously a perfect special thing just from Him to me.)  Today, Rach and I ran to the thrift shop to drop off the bags of stuff.  While there we were checking for something she was looking for and while she was looking at something else she ran across a food processor in the wrong spot.  We had just been talking about how little time this one has left (I have burned them out in less than a week and our current one is used and was missing the shredding/slicing blade.)  The one she found was a perfect match to my current one (which was a thrifted gift from a friend) and it included a non-broken bowl and the blade I needed.  This means I can use the current one till I burn it out and have a backup.  Plus I now have two bowls and mixing blades!  We are all so excited because I have been wanting to make sauerkraut and other ferments again and really needed that blade (due to my RA cutting and grating are pretty much out so without a food processor that works well I can’t make a lot of our foods.)   Someday we will have the money to get me a good one again (I killed my Bosch after 9 years of daily use) but for now I have a backup that does what I need!  So excited and blessed that God would provide this for me in such a way (and I think the kids are as excited as I am– we all love God-gifts and get excited about them together).
  • The sign is up in front of our house to let people know it is for sale.  Today someone stopped and asked about it (we are appointment only because we are all home all the time and I am not sure if we will have sheets to give out or not– we don’t right now which is what he was asking for.)  I am just feeling really encouraged that someone is even interested at all.
  • When the bank called today they suddenly said that we DON’T have a sheriff sale date.  Not sure if it changed because the house is now for sale for real, if he just didn’t see it, or what but he was pretty sure we didn’t have a date for sheriff sale which is interesting because last week they said January 6.  Either way we are encouraged again that something is happening and God is moving.
  • After the thrift shop Rach and I ran into the grocery store nearby to pick up a few things we needed.  On the way out they had a huge pile of excellent boxes (banana boxes and egg boxes which are super strong.)  I had totally forgotten that  when I had called they said Thursday was their shipment day and that they just put them on the ledge in front for people to take.  So Rach and I filled the minivan up with boxes and we now have plenty (I think) for what we need.
Posted in A Day in the Life, God's Fingerprints, Untraditional Education | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Where we are: December

The girls with some activities friends sent while Rach was sick.

It has been a long couple of months. Two months ago we set out to get the house ready for sale, hoping we could do a short sale or maybe even sell for full price before the foreclosure went through. (We have been able to pay everything but the mortgage for 2 years now– there has been no question of foreclosure and since the Lord was providing and ONLY provided the funds for everything else we have been waiting and trusting. Up until 2 months ago we have not had any peace about attempting sale.) Then Rach got seriously sick for a month, and when she was finally better Shamus got sick and was unable to work. Now here we are, finally with a date for the sheriff sale (January 6) and finally listing our house for sale tomorrow. If a sale goes through before the foreclosure then it will be an absolute miracle.

So that is where we are. Three weeks from sheriff sale and still looking for a place that is safe for Shamus to live that we can afford. We have a couple possible solutions and are praying about each– we figure there is no point in jumping in if God isn’t in it and that He will provide the best situation to suit in His time.

Shamus’ first book (the autobiography) has been published and all the odd circumstances recently have kept his fiction novel from getting ready for print so we are again waiting on God there (which also means waiting on the potential funds that will bring.) God has very obviously been at work in every aspect of all of this so we are again in a place of trusting and waiting. We have had a small group of friends praying for us but due to the circumstances didn’t feel right about sharing with a larger audience until things got closer and possibly we had some answers about the next thing. Still no answers but we have peace that He is at work and will take care of us as He has up until now. Now, finally , we are feeling led to share more publicly in a way that others can be sharing in our prayers for wisdom, peace, and a home that is dander-free and suitable to our family. None of our family has a safe place for him to be so that is out and it will be interesting to see how He solves this one.

It has certainly been interesting from an unschooling perspective– we are all learning a ton about many things. :)

In the meantime I am doing everything I can to make this house sell-able and be a good steward of the house He has given us up until now. We are also packing things up and getting ready to go when He says go. In other words, I am exhausted so prayers for energy and wisdom to know the next thing and to know when to rest would be a lovely addition to the prayers for a dander-free home that we can afford (and the finances to pay for such a place.)

Posted in God's Fingerprints | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Not House Beautiful

A discussion on the Christian Unschooling Facebook group got me thinking about my kitchen and how, as unschoolers, it gets and stays relatively clean.  We still don’t do chores though we all pitch in once a week for Sabbath prep (we all take a room and clean up– not perfect just make it nice and put things away so we can have a Sabbath without concern for messes or things not put away.)  There are no battles about it, the kids all choose what they want to do and help since they know it makes things nice for Sabbath and they love showing off their work “Mom, I did the living room!  Come see how nice it looks!”

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One of the keys for me personally is trying to keep clutter low (I go through and get rid of when I notice things accumulating.  Sometimes a kid helps and sometimes no.)  Another trick has been having enough storage and it organized in a way that it is simple to put things away.  Part of that for me is NOT having cupboard doors.  When I have doors I hide things behind them which means mess lurking where I don’t want to deal with it.  My kids are the same way so we use the cupboards below the counter minimally  other wise they turn into insta-traps.

I have this whole out of site out of mind thing that is kind of irritating– if I can’t see it regularly and store it in my brain that that is where it is I forget and can’t find it.  And being the person that everyone looks to when they can’t find something I need to know where things are and remember where I last saw it.  Instead of trying to make things beautiful we aim for convenient and neat looking.  When I make changes I discuss them with the family (you wouldn’t believe the grief I got for MONTHS for changing the silverware drawer without discussion).


We don’t have a lot of spare change for organizing things so I use things I find on clearance (like the baskets in the other photos), at the thrift shop, or things that are free like the clementine boxes that are my spice racks.

I also use a lot of hooks and jars (I don’t store in plastic).  I keep things I use regularly out where I see them  so I can easily access them because then I am more likely to use them (for instance baking and cooking happen more often when I can see my favorite pans and bowls without having to search the trap which is the pan cupboard down below.)  Also keeping things near where they are regularly used makes it easier for everyone.  Utensils for cooking and knives are readily available near the stove.  There are plastic cutting boards everywhere that people tend to cut (which eliminates cutting marks on my counter since they will automatically cut there whether there is  cutting board or not.)

The teas we drink regularly as well as the coffee are by our water heating tool (aka microwave).  We use fancy canning jars as drinking glasses since they are cheap, easy to hold, and have lids for quick storage when someone realizes they don’t want what they poured.  Also cool is the ridges at the top are perfect for a colored pigtail holder  to keep track of who’s cup is who’s.)
I keep my dish washing stuff close at hand since then I and the kids) am more likely to remember to do dishes and use the dish drainer and brushes (the brushes are in the pitcher on the window sill.)

Another view of our dish and tea cupboard.  We have a shelf on the counter as it is easier for the kids to put dishes away if they can reach.  Our dishes are all mismatched sets  and most of them are ones Rachel bought me for my birthday or ones given to us by a friend.  I have a thing for square plates and rice bowls so we have an eclectic mix of those.  Also we each have favorite types of coffee/tea cups so those all hang  even though we don’t need so many (no one is willing to give up their favorites.: ))  The jar set on the second shelf was made by my grandfather and is kind of tricky since some of the lids don’t fit perfectly and fall off at random– this would be why they are sitting straight up instead of at an angle.  Nothing like nearly being clonked on the head with a large wooden and porcelain lid.

The front pantry is an old metal medicine cupboard that was my grandparents.  The basket on top is full of our daily supplements, the little cups to the right are tomorrows vitamins  for the family, the red overnight suitcase is our medicine cabinet of various herbal remedies and the brown basket below is full of herbal cough drops for the cold that has been circulating our family.  This cabinet has whatever is in use daily– nuts, dried fruit, homemade grain free granola, and chocolate.

Our homemade back pantry.  Growing up my grandparents and my parents both had an awesome walk in pantry and I have been wanting one for forever.  I finally took the metal shelves from the girls room and made a red-neck version so I have a place to store all our teas,orders from Amazon, my milk run cooler, empty jars, kombucha, and other ferments.

The baskets on top of the fridge have Shamus’ pretzels and other foods that are just his so the kids are tempted to eat his stuff (still on the GAPS diet and they requested that things like that be out of site.  The two fridges hold our beef, raw milk, and ferments.  The one on the left is the regular fridge where left overs etc go, the one of the right is overflow and storage.

And if you are wondering…yes, I cleaned up and did the dishes before taking photos though no deep cleaning.  Sorry, you, dear reader, don’t warrant a deep cleaning.  I needed to clean anyway since tomorrow is Sabbath Prep so now I have one less thing to do.

Posted in Day to Day, Frugal, Photos, Untraditional Education, Untraditional Living | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Shamus’ Autoblography

Things are crazy busy around here but I wanted to hop on and point out (for those who don’t already read Shamus’ site– though I know most of you do) that Shamus has been writing an autobiography of sorts on his blog. A lot of it explains why we specifically unschool and how his particular view of the US education system formed through his own experiences as well as how we met (today’s post was about our first date.) You can find it here.

That is all.

Posted in Community, Day to Day, Education, Geeky Stuff, Learning Disabilities, Untraditional Education, Untraditional Living | Tagged , | 1 Comment
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    Elasah Art by Heather Young