Apr. 5, 2006 - Sweet baby snores

I wish I could invite you all over to my house first thing in the morning to witness the beautiful expression of contented peace on my baby's face when he wakes up surrounded by those who love him. When Baby Jah-jah wakes up, he opens his eyes, and looks around, and there's his whole world right there with him: his family. He doesn't have to worry if anyone is going to come back. He doesn't have to cry or be frightened. He doesn't have to wonder where everyone went and why he's all alone. He doesn't have to be alone. And why should he be, after being an actual part of my body for 9 months, and the hard work I went through to do my part to bring him here, why wouldn't I want to keep him close, have him with me, keep him right where he's supposed to be?

This is coming from a momma who wasn't always a co-sleeper and used to be proud of her non-co-sleeping status, who used to be a let-them-cry-it-out-er. *shudder* From a momma who isn't going to tell you it's the easiest thing in the world. From a woman whose husband isn't the biggest fan of co-sleeping, but what a good man he is to let mom and baby follow God-given instinct.

http://www.petitiononline.com/moo1234/petition.html

Mar. 31, 2006 - Wear your baby!

I discovered the coolest website the other day. I am having a blast experimenting with a "spare old piece of fabic!"

http://www.mamatoto.org/

As I see it, a cuddled baby is a happy baby and a happy baby equals a happy momma and a happy momma equals a happy home; and happy homes equal world peace! I think this is the cure to all the world's ills.

:)

Mar. 31, 2006 - Holey moley

DD4 noticed a hole in her pants, and said, "Maybe a goat ate it!"

Mar. 31, 2006 - Homeschool

Many of DD4's freinds are getting ready to start school when they turn 5. She has been talking about how she needs school when she turns five, and I've been explaining to her that she has school at home, and as a matter of fact, she already does school!

So, this morning, I was telling the kids to get dressed and they could go outside, and DD4 said, "Going outside is my homeschool."

Yes, it is!

Mar. 24, 2006 - Bweakfast

The other day, DD4 told me she was hungwy and wanted bweakfast. I asked her what she wanted.

DD4: I want Waisin Bwan.

Me: Waisin Bwan?

DD4: Mom! It's not Waisin Bwan. it's called Waisin Bwan.

Me: Waising Bwan?

DD4: No! Not Waisin Bwan; Waisin Bwan!

Me: Waisin Bwan?

DD4: MOM!!!

Me: Okay, okay.

Sometimes I just can't help myself.

Mar. 19, 2006 - Our neck of the woods...

We have been on the look out for a plot of land to build ourselves a little house to live in with lots of nature for the kids to run around in everyday.

And we just found it, the perfect place for our little family. It's 2.5 acres of woodland, a rare find in this area, Cornfield Land. There are little trails going here and there, there's a hill, there's a stream, there's a river nearby and a turtle pond. The neighbors are nice.

Yesterday, we went out for one more looksee, and DD4 wanted to stay, and kept walking around, yelling, "Come on, Mom! Come on!" I watched her stand there, dwarfed by the sky high trees in that vigin wood, completed enveloped in nature, completely at home.

We will make an offer tomorrow. It's perfect.

Mar. 17, 2006 - "I just realized I should have told you..."

Perhaps I am just weird about this, but I think it's just common courtesy to let someone know that you kids may have rotavirus (or the stomach flu or chicken pox or strep throat or lice or pinkeye or the croup or whatever else is floating around out there) BEFORE you drop them off at someone else's house. NOT when you run into someone again, later that evening.

And then, someone could (would) have said, KEEP YOUR KIDS AT HOME.

But now, someone is doing loads of pukey laundry and cleaning diarrhea off the rug and scrubbing projectile vomit out of the car.

If it isn't common courtesy, IT SHOULD BE!

All I can say is thank goodness for SuperDad.

Mar. 14, 2006 - The First Reading Lesson

"It is sad to see an intelligent child toiling over a reading lesson infinitely below his capacity––ath, eth, ith, oth, uth––or, at the very best, 'The cat sat on the mat.' How should we like to begin to read German, for example, by toiling over all conceivable combinations of letters, arranged on no principle but similarity of sound; or, worse still, that our readings should be graduated according to the number of letters each word contains? We should be lost in a hopeless fog before a page of words of three letters all drearily like one another, with no distinctive features for the eye to seize upon; but the child? 'oh, well––children are different; no doubt it is good for the child to grind in this mill!' But this is only one of many ways in which children are needlessly and cruelly oppressed!"

-Charlotte Mason

Mar. 6, 2006 - So, we've proved we can do everything men can do...

So what?!

Linda Hirschman says we should only have one child, and get our butts back to work!

We are letting all women, and our daughters, down by staying at home, according to her.

I just want to know why we think we have to do everything that men do? Why do we have to have high power careers? Why do we have to sit on the Supreme Court and be professors and run companies? Why must life be "complicated"?

Don't get me wrong. There's nothing BAD about those things. There are many women who are not blessed with children in this life. There are many women who do chose to only have one child. There is lots of life to be lived after our children are grown. Whatever floats your boat.

But what is up with this idea that we MUST do these things or we're letting everyone down? Why are we always expected to live up to someone else's expectations? Is that really what life is about- making money? Does money hug you back? Sure, it's something we all need, but do we really need so much of it? Is making money the only way to be fulfilled in life?

Am I really to leave my child to be raised by some under-paid under-educated stranger? Will they love my child like I will? Do they have a vested interest in my child's well-being and future? Were our children meant to be raised by glorified babysitters?

Are you kidding me?!

This is my life's work! This is my lasting contribution to society. It surely will last a whole lot longer than the money I might have made.

One last thought. So the feminists have won the fight. We can do everything men can. Big whoop-de-do.

Now who is going to do OUR work, namely that of MOTHER?

Mar. 6, 2006 - Where to get an old typewriter...

If anyone is searching for an old typewriter- check freecycle- that's where I got ours. I had several responses. Also ask around to older relatives, freinds and Grandmas.

:)

Mar. 4, 2006 - Clickety-Clack

I finally got my hands on an old mechanical typewritter for the kids to play with.

They LOVE it!

How very John Holt of me, eh?

Mar. 4, 2006 - Speaking of labels...

So, in my last post, I threw a big fit about labels.

Today, I realized I needed to update my profile, since I now have four children, not *almost* four, and I saw there is a place to choose what category my blog goes in... Well, I chose unschooling, as misunderstood as that label is.

The most important part of our Real School is that we follow our interests and are led by our curiosity. Our approach first and foremost child-led. We focus on classics. I'm a huge Charlotte Mason fan. We believe in leadership education- in mentoring. We fit into several different categories, but none of them really say who we are or what we are about.

I probably should have chosen "child led." But if you're child led, you're unschooling. Being child led is by definition the very opposite of schooling- it is UNschool. It's too bad that unschooling has come to mean, for many people, un-rules, and un-schedules, and un-chores, and un-work. Un-learn.

Mar. 2, 2006 - There is a season...

I look down at this little (big) baby sleeping in my arms, and he's growing up so fast. And he wants to grow up as fast as possible. He wants to stand, he wants to crawl, he wants to speak. He wants to see the world and take it all in. He wants to look people in the eye and find out what it's all about. He's ready to go!

But he doesn't want me to put him down yet... Not for more than a few minutes, anyway.

DD4 is amazing me everyday. We have begun to memorize things together, she and I. We started memorizing scripture. She amazes me. We are memorizing a poem this month. Today she got the first stanza down, no problem- "How doth the little busy bee." It was the one she wanted to learn. She is ready to learn. She IS learning! She can choose what she wants. She can tell me what she thinks about everything. She gets taller every single day, and she has this big beautiful curly hair and lovely delicate features and is so girly, but she can't wait to go outside and climb a tree or dig in the dirt, and then she hugs me, and I just love this girl!

DD3- my sweet little goose. My girl- she does what SHE wants, and nothing else. She won't talk, unless she wants to. But she can talk- and she gets her meaning across, no problem there. She plays games where she makes it clear SHE'S in charge- tell her to touch her nose and she will touch every other part of her body, EXCEPT her nose, and then she touches YOUR nose! They've tested her and have decided that she is at 6-9 months in her speaking skills, 12 months in her comprehension. That's nonsense. So she didn't want to put your stupid little toy where you told her to put it. So she didn't want to play your game the way you wanted. So she wouldn't touch her nose when you told her to. Severe speech DISORDER? Why does everything that is different or out of the ordinary have to be a disorder, a disease? SuperDad says I'm being too sensitive about this, but I won't label her. So she needs so help learning to speak, we will help her. But I don't want to label her, or try to force her to be somebody or something she's not.

DS2- I love him with his sunglasses on all the time- his future is so bright, he has to wear shades, right? My little boy, so proud of himself in his new underwear. (YAY!!) Mr. Candy-boy- sniffs out chocolate better than a hound. He's my boy. He's growing up so fast too, but still, he has his blankey that he holds to his nose, and he sucks his lip like he has since he was just a little guy, and slowly, slowly, his eyes close, and he drifts off to sleep.

That brings me back to Baby Jah Jah, sleeping in my arms. The whole house is asleep, four little ones snoring softly, SuperDad slumbering after working so hard to take care of our little family, providing us with a home to love each other in, and a life where we can all be together and our children can have everything, everyone and all the time they need.

Sweet dreams.

Feb. 21, 2006 - Literally

DS2 cracks me up sometimes. He takes the things I say to him so literally.

I tell him to hop in bed when it's time to go to sleep.

He does. Literally. He hops into his bed, then he hops around in the bed.

I hope he takes it the same way when I tell him I love him.

Feb. 14, 2006 - The mothership has landed

DD4 has rigged up a blue metal toy top that we have, with some pink yarn, so that if she holds one end, it is suspended from the stair railing in the entry way on the other.

She sings:

(to the tune of Blue Bird Through My Window)

Alien, Alien

Through my window

Alien, Alien

Through my window

Alien Alien

Through my window

Oh, Alien, I am sleepy.

Feb. 11, 2006 - Tagged!

Let's see if I can play this. I got tagged twice, so I better do it!

My life in fours:

Four jobs I've had:

1. Newspaper carrier

2. babysitter

3. Barrista- you know, people who make espresso.

4. Lab tech- I worked in microbiology in the hospital lab before I had my first baby

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Tommy boy- yes, I know. And I'm sorry.

2. The Hudsucker Proxy

3. The Wizard of Oz

4. Back the Future

Four places I have lived:

1. Illinois

2. Anchorage, Alaska

3. Illinois

4. Illinois

Four tv shows I like to watch:

(Since we just got rid of the contraption, this is especially torturous, but I will percevere!)

1. ER

2. The Office

3. My name is Earl

4. Wife Swap. Again, I'm very sorry.

Four places I have been on vacation:

1. Fairbanks, Alaska

2. Seward, Alaska

3. Valdez, Alaska

4. Lake Illiana, you guessed it, Alaska

Four websites I visit daily:

1. http://misssnark.blogspot.com/

2. http://lds.org/ (we listen to a hymn from here everyday, and I use resources for teaching the kids, myself, and my class of girls in our church youth group)

3. http://www.google.com/

4. Blogs blogs blogs!

Four of my favorite foods:

1. Chocolate

2. Hearty homemade spaghetti and garlic bread

3. Cheesecake (the real stuff)

4. Hearty homemade potato soup

Four places I would rather be right now

Four others I tagged

1. doulos

2. mommashepherd

3. gottsegnet

4. endoftheroad

Feb. 10, 2006 - Hypnobabies

Since it's been a few months since I was pregnant, I haven't had a chance to gush about this wonderful, fabulous, life saving, healing, birth reclaiming program. It really works. It really was wonderful. The human mind and body are SO powerful!

http://www.hypnobabies.com/

Feb. 10, 2006 - NO TV!!!

I am so proud of us.

We have gone no TV.

You see, we were addicted. TV can be a great tool for education, but for us, well, it was burning brain cells.

And now it is gone.

Really truly. We have not watched television since Sunday.

But we still have the computer, obviously, to watch movies. And check email. And read blogs.

I will miss the Office, My Name is Earl, ER (dispite my distain for the medical community, of which I used to be a part,) and Arrested Development.

But I will survive.

Feb. 10, 2006 - I'm not afraid...

DD4 just informed me that she is not afraid of monster poop.

Or dinosaur poop.

Or little baby poop.

Or horsey poop.

[Lots of hysterical laughter.]

Who says they need to go to public school to become educated in the subtle nuances of bathroom humor?

Feb. 10, 2006 - But how will they ever learn to read?

DD4 has been obsessed with pretending to write, and has been asking me what letter different words and names start with, and she asks me to write things and read them for her.

We have this game to match upper and lower case and pictures that start with the letter. DD4 has picked up most of the letters on her own, and asks me the ones she doesn't know- this activity is completely self-initiated and self-directed, by the way. She can match most of the letters and the picture on her own.

She is loving our story times and has started following the words I read with her finger.

Yesterday, I watched in amazement as she suddenly fell in love with the rhythms of poetry. What a blessing to see the lightbulbs go off and the beautiful young mind turn on.

I'm really not worried about learning to read. I'm really not worried about her learning anything she wants to learn to do.