I’m that Mom

July 27, 2010 – 9:53 am

Joining in on an awesome, impromptu blog carnival over here.

(I am deliberately not reading everyone else’s until I have finished writing mine, except for the 2 I saw that made me realize that this is a cool thing that I actually want to join in on because I suspect a lot of us overlap and I want to share who I am without worrying about that it may be a “YEAH, ME TOO.”)

I am that mom who, when the kids ask if we can please go visit our friends 5 hours away tomorrow, says yes, starts packing, and goes.
Rachel and Kayla

I am that mom who upon finding out the the oldest’s best friend (who lives 2 days away) might be able to come stay for a week says YES.

I am that mom who on 4th of July goes fireworks chasing with the kids, driving all over tarnation looking at everyone’s awesome displays,  instead of taking them to sit in a huge crowd and watching one display.

Fireworks

I am that mom who would rather take the kids to the pond to swim or sit and watch hours upon hours of anime, Dr. Who, favorite movies, or As Time Goes By with the crazy, wonderful kids than worry about what the neighbors think of her children’s nearly dead flower/veggie garden and too tall grass.
I am that mom who when the kids decide to build a tent/tree house/whatever in the back yard says nothing or helps them find the needed materials, knowing that again the neighbors will wonder about the people next door ruining the view from their perfect yards.

I am that mom who runs outside with the kids in the pouring rain to look for rainbows.
rainbow


I am that mom who, when the kids find their long lost roller blades and ask if they can go somewhere to roller blade, suggests they roller blade in the house on our fake hard wood floors and allow them to continue to wear them for everything for the next week.


I am that mom who lets her kids turn her entire kitchen into a restaurant for days at a time and play with their food.
Larry the Cucumber

I am that mom who, when her son asks to take all the blankets from all over the house and use them to jump on, says yes.

I am that mom who takes a camera wherever her kids go and takes pictures of all the awesome things they do.


Super straw

I am that mom who, when her kids want to mow the grass says yes and then says nothing about the stripes of extra tall grass left behind and the odd, rather like a maze, style of cutting grass her oldest prefers.

I am that mom who, when a kid says “come see this cool thing” stops what she is doing to go see (and it always IS really cool!)

green

I am that mom who realizes that her middle child loves the stage and when she asks signs her up and takes her to a performing arts camp the very next week.

I am that mom who still loses her cool, who still gets frustrated when the kids have totally trashed the place (not a problem) and then don’t clean it up (a problem), who has bad days and does not cope so well when the kids are fighting, again.
Issac room

I am that mom who still has a long way to go but loves where her kids are exactly where they are regardless of the stage they are in, loves being with them, and thinks they are totally awesome and fun.
Alameda Park 2010
Yes, this is an extended version, I got started and kept going (which anyone who knows me in person knows this is VERY typical.)

By Heather | Posted in A Day in the Life, Books, Community, Day to Day, Education, Educational play, Movies, Photos, Untraditional Education, Untraditional Living | Tagged , , , , | Comments (4)

Stuff.

July 26, 2010 – 12:52 pm

I believe all the craziness might possibly be over for the time being.  I can finally slow down and relax.

My brother’s graduation party and the visit with my other brother and his wife are over.  It went well though it was hot, hot, hot outside.  We are talking absolutely melting.

Esther’s performing arts camp is over.  She loved it, did well with the final performance (which I will share if I can figure out how to deal with the movie transfer).  We have found that it was “fun” for her but definitely not a passion.  She loved every minute, wants to do it again, but didn’t spend all her time practicing, memorizing lines, etc.  Getting her to tell us about what she liked and didn’t like is like pulling teeth.  It isn’t that she doesn’t want to talk about it, she has just already moved on to the next thing (mostly relaxing and reading lots of books now that the chaos is over.)  When asked if she wants to be in the the next musical she said absolutely yes, knowing all the work it takes. So, we will see where this takes us.

Rachel’s piano lessons are going well.  She loves it and we found out that the new best friend Essie made at camp has a mother who teaches piano and has openings for the fall.  So, when Des goes back to school Rach will start taking “real” lessons (as in cost an exorbitant amount of money for a half hour lesson.)  Oh and Rach has now indicated that she wants to be called Ray.  Si in the future when I say Ray I mean our eldest.  If only I could remember to call her that.

So now, as we recover from all the busy-ness, I am spending lots of time reading (mostly James’ graduation presents that I have yet to give him because I intend to read them all first since we share books anyway.)  I want to review all of them, so far they are awesome.  In the meantime the kids and I are compiling a list of homeschooler/unschooler friendly books over at the Facebook Christian Unschooler page.  Eventually we will put on the CU site but this is good for now.

I have had tons of posts floating around my head but no time to write and even now my brain has lost all the posts in just trying to get a little bit organized.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer.  We are getting to that place where we are looking forward to school starting so we can go to all the cool places we like and not deal with crowds.

I am also working on my big art project that we want to publish in the fall.  Most of the work is currently in my head, because that is how I work.

We are also purging the house of stuff everyone has outgrown.  I have a HUGE bushel of shoes for the thrift shop–the kids grew out of all the shoes I got them last month.  Sigh.  I have a brand new, worn once, pair of size 1.5 black boys high top shoes that I really hope bless some kid because my boy suddenly wears a 2.5/3.

The kids and I are also preparing for a trip east and then south to visit friends in Eastern PA and then Virginia.  If you live in Eastern PA or Virginia and want a visit let me know and we can see if we can hook up.

By Heather | Posted in A Day in the Life, Day to Day, Untraditional Education, Untraditional Living | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

A Bend in the Road

July 13, 2010 – 12:39 pm

We are entering a new stage in our life.  Up until now we have very deliberately avoided multiple external engagements.  Since we are home all the time we try to live loosely, avoiding things that insist on our time.  However, we have now, to borrow from Anne, come to a bend in the road that we can’t quite see around but since God is involved and giving us peace we know that this is a good bend and at the very least will be interesting.
Carnegie Science Center
Recently we have made several observations.  One major one involves Esther who, it has suddenly occurred to us, loves the stage.  And when I say loves the stage I mean she adores all of the performing arts and especially being in front of a crowd.  The thing about that is that she didn’t know there was anything special about the fact that when at VBS and everyone is embarrassed at having to do very silly movements and sing an even sillier song in front everyone she happily puts her whole heart it into it, belting out the words and doing the actions perfectly.  And there are many other similar moments that we finally put together before we asked her if studying the performing arts or trying out for a play would be something she would be interested in.  She was surprised that there was even something like that out there available to her.  But she also hates being busy and likes to spend lots of time reading and with her siblings so we decided to have her attend a one week, morning only camp where they will be writing a story and lyrics for a musical, and learning basic dancing, acting, and singing to see whether she would really like to continue and if she has the talent to do it.  This will mean waking early each morning for our sleep in till noon child and me spending my mornings taking her to and from the lessons.
Carnegie Science Center
Another revelation and potential change is that our 12 year old has been watching what God is doing in her life, exploring the desires He has given her, and decided to try out some and see what she finds out.  First off is piano.  She passionately wants to learn piano and has taught herself some of the basics, enough that she feels she needs someone who knows better than I to encourage her forward.  And so she has asked the daughter of a friend of mine who plays beautifully to help her learn.  And we have decided that if she proves that she will follow through  and if God provides the money then she can take lessons in the fall when our friend goes back to college.
Rachel
Next is that she wants a job (babysitting), or two (delivering newspapers).  Now it is pretty tricky for a 12 year old girl to find a job but she has two leads as of this morning.  A friend of mine (another daughter of the same friend) delivers newspapers–lots of them, and knows the manager so said she would ask about local to us routes.  She also has two boys Esther and Issac’s age and offered right off to have Rachel stay with them while she is out delivering papers.  Of course this means more driving on my part (I like driving but not constantly and I have taken on more work projects and would prefer to be home working by my hubby.)
Swimming
A friend, who has kids who have always gone and gone and gone gave me some pointers, especially since both activities are in the same general location which means I can take some of her suggestions for things to do while I wait, and I always have a book and not enough time to read it, so that is something else.  But it is interesting to watch them grow and change and finally solidify some of their desires, or at least find ways to test them to see if that is really what they want.

By Heather | Posted in A Day in the Life, Day to Day, Education, Educational play, Photos, Untraditional Education, Untraditional Living | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Rhythm to our days

July 12, 2010 – 7:07 am

Our family does not live by a schedule in any way shape or form.  None of us like them– our whole family gets horribly stressed with a schedule.  I know there are people out there who NEED a list or schedule, who thrive if they know what is going to happen today, tomorrow, next week. We are not those people. Knowing I have to do something at a specific time next week stresses me out for the whole time preceding that activity and I find it impossible to focus on the other things I need to get done in that time.

However, we do seek patterns, rhythms that help us discern what comes next depending on the season we are in.  The times change as does the order but there is a general idea in everyone’s head as to what is likely to happen on any given day.

A lot of our rhythm focuses on my husband and where he is in his odd 26 hour day wake/sleep cycle.  When he is sleeping from 4am to 12pm our rhythm as a family is different than when he is sleeping from 4pm to 12am.  It also focuses on how many hours he is working.  When he is working 40 hr weeks (almost never) our family rhythm is different than when he is working 60 or 80 hr weeks (as he has been for the last 12 months.)
rainbow
There are also certain elements that are always included in our family rhythm while others are seasonal.  Always included of breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack.  Always included is a daily reading of the Bible as a family.  Those are givens though sometimes breakfast is the big meal while in other seasons snack is and in some seasons we read just 1 chapter of the Bible quickly with little discussion and others we read many and discuss every few seconds of reading.  Of course one other given is sleep.  We all need a lot of sleep (with the RA I need about 10 hrs) so sleep is always a given.  On a weekly basis our rhythm nearly always includes a trip to the library, a trip to my grandmother’s (1/2 hr drive away and takes most of the afternoon evening), a trip to the thrift shop (or three), an hour of everyone cleaning up the house so that we can all move without stumbling on things left behind, and a trip to the grocery store.

Right now we are in a season and look to be shifting to a new one because of changes in weather and hubby’s sleep and changes in which days he has “off” (from his programming job so he can work on his writing which is his other job–he only takes 1 day off completely a week– Saturday which he jealously guards).  It is also changing because I am working about 20+ hours a week on various projects.
rainbow
For the past week our rhythm has included me making all meals (because of re-instituting the Candida diet), driving to the pond to swim twice a day (because the afternoons are way too hot and one hour swimming in the morning and one in the evening have been working well for the kids), a quiet time in the afternoon so I can work and run errands because the kids are worn out after all that swimming, and  an evening reading of the Bible before we head back to the pond.

Right now we are in a state of flux.  Hubby’s sleep has shifted again, I have work to get done, the weather has cooled a bit so that an afternoon swim is probably the best choice, we would like to fit a trip to one of the Pittsburgh museums in on a weekly or at least biweekly basis, Rachel is going to be working on piano with a friends daughter, and Essie wants to go to a performing arts camp next week (I am praying they have an opening–have to call today and find out), and the kids are settling into the Candida diet and getting comfortable so I don’t have to fix their every meal.  It will be interesting to find the next pattern, to see the next rhythm.
rainbow
Already the kids are staying up later and sleeping in longer so they have more time with Daddy while he is awake but I happen to know there is a game on his computer that ONLY works on his computer that we are all aching to play and that some of the time he is asleep is going to be spent playing it.  Already they are asking less to go to the pond for a swim and instead are spending lots and lots of time drawing or playing with Legos (Issac is trying to design a robot that utilizes water in its design– inspired by Falling Waters and a water works plant that has a huge built in waterfall on the side on the way to the Science Center.)  The girls are spending a lot of time playing with friends on Build-a-bear and Skype and reading.

And so we will see where it leads and what God has planned for us next.  Regardless, it won’t be boring which is great because I hate too much repetition and adore change and the good Lord knew that when He gave me this wonderful, ever changing family.

By Heather | Posted in A Day in the Life, Day to Day, Education, Educational play, Photos, Untraditional Education, Untraditional Living | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Science Center

July 10, 2010 – 11:47 am

So, having received a gift membership for the science center we of course had to go the next day.  Which we did.

As I have mentioned before, five years ago or so we had a membership. We loved it but we had a car that broke down all the time and seemed to have the attitude that the further from home the better. I also have no sense of direction and tend to get lost easily (though I refuse to call it lost– “I” may not know where I am but God does so I know I am not completely lost. Plus, I usually know where I am and where I want to be, just not how to get from here to there.:) So we call them adventures.) And the Science Center is kind of tricky to get to and leave unless you know Pittsburgh really well (which I don’t) or have a GPS (which I didn’t). So between getting lost and the car breaking down in weird out of the way places we didn’t actually make it to the Science Center that often, instead choosing to go to the Art and Natural History museum which is easy for me to find since some of my early driving experience was in that part of town.

So this time we are determined to get full usage of the Science Center as well as the Art and Natural history Museums.

Carnegie Science Center
To start, Issac insisted on going to the 1st floor stuff for a short visit (because the girls wanted to go to the Sports Works first). Rachel and Issac decided to start with the earthquake simulator. Did you know it is really hard to take a decent photo in an earthquake? Just saying. Read More …

By Heather | Posted in A Day in the Life, Day to Day, Education, Educational play, Photos, Untraditional Education, Untraditional Living | Tagged , | Comments (1)

  • Meta