Nine hours of sleep-- can you picture it?

Supposedly we should be getting nine hours of sleep as an adult. I wonder how I would feel if I got nine hours of sleep, every night, for a week. Truly, I can't even fathom it. Do you remember that soft, drowsy feeling you had when you got your full complement? The cat stretch in the bed, the slightly confused sensation as you decided whether you should go to the bathroom right now, or maybe {GASP} roll over?



We have some beach shots from after Nick's birthday. I feel like I am "back in business." Being without a functional camera since before Christmas has really left me low. Now that I think about it, I wonder if that had a lot to do with my depression. I couldn't instantly "create," and that is so important to me. There's something about catching that moment, that glint of color, that certain mood. Several of my good friends (online or not!) are all gifted photographers. We are all competent in photography, but we have our specialties that mark our work. I love the cheeks and the eyes; watching the children morph in front of me while I document this version of theirselves forever.

Another friend of mine likes portraiture, but her gift is still life. She captures the mood of an empty room, the personality of an object. You can smell the paint, feel the warmth of the sun in places she has shot just by looking at her pics. Another woman, whose first love is clearly Mt. Rainier, takes mountain pictures that are neither boring nor expected. She uses her photographs to place you there, and she does it well. Yet she took birth pictures for me that outstrip any professional shots I have seen online.

It's all about what you see. I am so grateful to Niki and Fran for loaning me a camera.

Livejournal didn't do it for me

Or anyone else for that matter.

I transferred everything over here, and I hope that this will give me the incentive to actually post in the blog.

Yeah, the blog. Supposedly the way I can keep in touch with my family and friends abroad. Keep track of the garden, the homeschool, life in general.

Ok.

I can.

New Easter Tradition

We're in a different zone now so planting coincides nicely with the Easter week. Today the Easter bunny brought the children each a set of gardening gloves and a seed set. We have planted the sunflower house and now we're onto the butterfly garden! WOOT WOOT!

For you guys who haven't had the pleasure yet of experiencing a sunflower house, here is the book that initially set us off a few years ago:

Bunting 's Sunflower House

Here's my children and a couple of cute guests in a young one we were growing a few years ago, and one of the girlie as well.

And here's some forum discussing it:

Garden Web

It's basically a plot of sunflowers, set in a square or a circle. When it grows, it becomes a playhouse. Similar to a bean teepee (which we do as well), you just grow something they can play with and eat

From a homeschool board

They had a getting to know you day, and this was that post.


ETA my old homeschool page. Haven't really updated with the newer homeschool pix. These are all from our life in Charleston! http://www.wolfmeisters.com/homeschool.html


What are your kids’ ages and pseudonyms?

G – 5.5 ; N – 3.5; D - 15 mos

How long have you been home schooling? Is there a story behind it?

We have been homeschooling for about 2.5 years. When we lived in Charleston there was a public Montessori school for which G was wait-listed. Determined that she would not be out of her element when she started, I researched Montessori and started homeschooling her. When N came of age, (the first sensitive period in Montessori is 3-6 yrs) I pulled him in as well. D has his own little sensory shelf in the schoolroom now as well.

When I started to see G respond to the work, and blossom into this amazing little learning machine with little encouragement or effort on my part, two things happened. I began to BELIEVE in the truth of the prepared environment and the children’s house, and I realized I no more wanted to share watching her learn these things than I did her first steps.

I honestly feel that there are school and environments that could provide G with an excellent education of which I would approve; however, to private school my children would require 1500.00 a month. That’s crazy talk.


Does your home school have a name or a mission statement?

No, but I do fancy the phrase “Free Range Childhood”

What is your general home schooling philosophy?

The child wants to learn, and it is my job to encourage them and assist them wherever their fancy takes them. I want to teach them the facts and the nuts and bolts early so that they have a platform later for philosophy and discovery.

Children are far smarter and more capable than society in general gives them credit for.


Do you use a curriculum?
No. We do, however, pattern much after Montessori. We incorporate Waldorf-influenced art and puppetry, and classical reading. We use Music Together curriculum when we need a structure fix.

Do you or your children have any special interests or hobbies that influence your home schooling?
Music is a huge focus in our house. The children are learning instruments and constantly enjoying music. We are currently discussing with them what outside classes they want to take, such as when G took ballet for a year. We are looking into a homeschool scouting group that is forming here.

What is your typical daily routine? weekly routine?
We act like unschoolers. I am dismayed that their best work cycle appears to be in the early evening, when I am most tired!

On Mondays, it’s totally a no-structure day. They get carte blanche TV time and whatever they want goes.

Tuesdays is farm and friends day and we usually go out for lunch.

Fridays are usually play dates of some form or another.



Do you have any special methods/tips for planning? household organization? storage? record keeping?

We do not keep records, other than the whole brag book kind of thing. G was never registered for schools so we are completely under the radar until she is 8.

I do keep manuals here for how to introduce the Montessori materials, and we try to plan ahead to participate in community festivals and holidays as much as possible. We maintain memberships to the children’s museum and the science center.

We have a room that is solely for the school materials and my desk. It’s way cool and we decorate the walls with the alphabet and with their art.

Tell us what you did today!

Today they all have colds so it’s a down day. They made paper crafts just after breakfast, we made crayons with the crayon maker. Later they will finish painting some wood crafts we bought, that they have already primed.
Yesterday G counted to one thousand for the first time.

Me? It’s laundry running day!

Thank you!

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I belong to Montessori makers ( a yahoo group) and yes Michael Olaf is a hero. I purchased the insets, the sandpaper letters and some golden bead material, but everything else is either made or tweaked to the purpose. I use Le-Chin's Montessori notebook and Montessori's Handbook.

I think the pure education aspects of Montessori work in our home--the analytical thought, the child-led curiousity, the older child-younger child modelling, etc-- but the reason I say we are Montessori based is because I cannot sustain the peaceful environment we're supposed to have. My house is not always chaos, but it's definitely not neat and clean on an hourly basis. It's not quiet, and it's not usually beautiful.

You have really given me some placenta guilt for not showing what they're doing lately. I need to get a new page up!

But I don't want to move to Massachusetts

I seriously doubt it would happen, but a job dh wants opened up. It's open NOW and we didn't think it would be open for another 5-10 years. It's located at his company's HQ in Marlboro, MA.

So I am stuck between dh's dream and what is best for the family as a whole. I honestly feel like I have had enough personal sacrifice this decade.

He's like "I wouldn't get it. I am not qualified." but he said that about this job, and he was their way favorite candidate.

I have a friend coming in from NY

We've never met but we've been friends for years and years. She has two boys the same ages as my big two, and she is due with baby three.

I've been trying to keep up with motivated moms, but we moved in to this house last fall and I am still not unpacked. Today was not a good day. I did laundry all afternoon and would so be done but I had extra to manage (see the poop story).

This evening though, my daughter reframed everything. EVERYTHING. I told her that it was past her bedtime and she needed to go to bed. She asked why I wouldn't go to bed with her, and I gestured at laundry piles and said "Honey I have got to get this done. I do not want to be embarassed tomorrow!"

She replied, very matter of factly, "Aw Mom, your friend knows how messy a house gets with with kids. She know it's embarassing to have kids."

First, I was awed by her trying to comfort me, and that for the first part she was right. My friend DOES know how it is. Then I felt pretty deep shame for her thinking for even a second that she embarasses me. I held her and let her know how grateful I was for her trying to help me out, but that I was in no way embarassed by my children.

Man. Talk about a REFRAME moment.

I caught poop

In my hand.

Fresh from D's air-drying undiapered butt, I caught poop.

Then, while I tried disposing of the poop, the toilet into which I deposited the poop I caught in my hand...overflowed.

I am not making this up.

Poop. Water. Everywhere.

I had barefeet. I had poop in my hand. I had an overflowing toilet.

--------------------------------------------------

Fast forward to the cleaned, scoured and now dry bathroom. To the tired Mom, listening to the whir of the washer and dryer with all the loads of poopy bathroom towels and robes. Listen to the three year old voice pipe,

"Mommy I pooped my pants."

I have spring fever so bad

SO BAD SO SO SO SO BAD

I have put in two bare root roses, and a transplant from a friend.

I took the over-wintered herbs out of their box (they thanked me profusely) and have them in their own spots in a nice area.

We bought this house in August, and the front yard was professionally landscaped with attractive native plants. All the weed guard vinyl is down, all the mulch is down. I am in heaven. HEAVEN.

WOOT. I think I am going to start seeds this weekend. YAY.

Chicken Skin

I remember being a child with crystal clarity. There are gaps of blank time, but on the whole I remember it well. These flashes of memory come and assault me when I least expect them; tonight's came while I was preparing my shopping list.

My-mother-in-the-kitchen is a whole category of memories, most of them good. I learned to sing in the kitchen. My mother would sing while she cooked, or washed dishes, or baked. We were poor and in the South, so there were no convenience foods. There was no air conditioning. For many years, it would be my mother, the heat and me. The back door was off the kitchen and the screen would keep out the mosquitoes but let the breeze in.

My mother would skin chicken she'd bought from Winn Dixie. It was nasty work, but she didn't seem to mind. I am sure my constant chatter was annoying, and to pass the time she'd say "open your hand." I would, every time, full well knowing what was about to happen. I would open my hand, knowing but simultaneously hoping that maybe THIS time it would be different, and it would be a candy or a ....something. Into my hand she would drop raw, tepid chicken skin. I would shriek and it would fly up, up into the ceiling as I threw it away in disgust. She would grin or shout at me for dirtying the ceiling, alternating her reactions depending on her mood. This was our dance, and it passed for intimacy between us. And it got me out of the kitchen, out of her hair.

I remember loving her in a huge pulse, even and especially then, because it WAS the routine. It was a sure thing. I remember the high-pitched creaking of the screen door as it would open and out I would fly, leaving the hot kitchen and the dead chicken behind.

I guess in one way this memory is a gift; I can turn it around and believe that surely G loves me this passionately, and her love is a something to be protected and appreciated. In another, I never skin chicken.

The newer van.....

The one we bought to avoid the problems like this....

That one....

Won't start.

Sigh.


One day sooner than later, we will kill all our consumer debt and be able to afford new vehicles. Or at least easy-to-maintain vehicles. I was really committed to driving one vehicle for a long, long, long time but the Windstar just costed itself out.

We have a friend coming over tonight to look at it, verify whether it is the alternator. If it IS then we are lucky and got off easy. If it isn't then we will have to look into busting out the powertrain warranty and hoping it is covered.

I have always wanted a T&C and I really like this van, but it is still an older model (97) with the little issues that go along with it. At least it's cute. No one would confuse my teal green Windstar with cute.

Birds and Elk and Husbands Oh my!

The bird feeder is an amazing success. The kids are LOVING it, the birds are loving it and the husband is engaged. We printed out the pdf book from Seattle Audobon and the children are using the field guide to (correctly) identify what they're seeing. Black capped chicadee, Steller's Jay, Spotted Towhee and Song sparrow are the most frequent visitors. They've gone through 2 pounds of sunflower seed in 24 hours.

G has been inspired to pull out the zoobooks library and has now found the ornithology magazine and is absorbing that. In the meantime, P and N were looking through the rest of them. P brought me a picture and said, "are these the deer you saw on nikirj's street?" and indeed they were...I'd seen a herd of ELK.

I am so not in SC anymore!

Yesterday I installed some natural light bulbs. It helped with my mood a bit, but the glaring sunshine today has gone a LONG way towards lifting me up.

Yesterday while we were at Home Depot buying the bulbs, we spied some birdfeeders. They were very inexpensive so we snagged two and Voila! instant homeschool project for today.

We got a feed sock like this one http://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/img_p/WLA-S-10015-APP2_200x400.jpg and a tube feeder. We're going to discuss which bird feed we bought (thistle, sunflower seeds) attract which kinds of birds, placement of the feeders, and the anatomy of a bird. I am using zoobooks as source material and coloring pages from enchanted learning as action materials.

Homeschool budgeting just doesn't get any finer than that. For less than ten dollars, we have lessons for the day and enrichment for home and education for the rest of the YEAR.

Looks like this may be the week we get it allll unpacked. We have both been focused on purging the useless, cumbersome and out dated. I have joined an online challenge to rid the home of 500 items in January (post taking down Christmas decorations) and we've been slogging it out. I think husband gets frustrated seeing the garage but if we got the stuff out that's scheduled to get OUT, then he would be a m a z e d.

Overall, we had a sunny day yesterday after 26 days of straight all day rain. I felt like I was in the movie Groundhog day. From dawn to dusk, it remained the same 46-degree, blue-gray cloudy light, raining day. The only difference came at dark when it was the same 46-degree, DARK raining night. So yesterday we spent a great amount of time OUTSIDE.

We also found a church we may enjoy. Choir rehearsal is tonight, so I will see how that goes.

I didn't do it to YOU!

"Nicholas...do NOT pull the baby's hair!!!!" said I.

---

"I didn't do it to YOU!" he replied, surprised.

Dirty Boy

ok so tonight, N passed out at his usual bedtime. ~G~, who had gotten weirded out by Harry Potter, lay down with D-babyin our bed, who has a hard time falling asleep without P-Daddy (who is out of town).

I go in there after a while to check on them. Since ~G~ has magic D-baby powers, I assume I will see sleeping angels. She is under the covers, fast asleep while D-baby is nodding off, standing up at the side of the bed..... covered in dirt he'd been eating from my potted plant.

He outlasted her.

Le sigh.

My boxes

WOOOOOOOOOT

For years, it was just get it labelled. I was satisfied because I had a ginormous garage. But now it's consolidate. woot woot. Keep it neat, keep it clean, minimize.

We bought two large sterilite tubs from Target on their day-after Christmas sale, and from Michael's we purchase a gift-wrap holder and an ornament holder.

Because of these purchases, we got rid of NINE smaller cardboard boxes and a LOT of ornament-holding boxes.

It fee;s good to get rid of that stuff and have only four, contained holiday boxes. It's all green and red so we know without even thinking where it is. I am so happy.

HAAAAAPPPYYYY



BUH BYE BOXES.

N's Johnny Song

N's Johnny Song

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N has a Johnny song some of you may have heard:

(he wrote it himself)

Johnny went in the woods
Johnny went in the woods

Johnny saw a dragon
Johnny saw a dragon

Yay Johnny

(second verse)

Johnny went in the woods
Johnny went in the woods

Johnny took out the dragon
Johnny took out the dragon

Yay Johnny


well this morning he invented a new verse
which is between the other verses

Johnny went in the woods
Johnny went in the woods

and the Dragon said

'Oh shit!"

The Rainbow cometh!

When Paul and I decided we would be moving to Washington, we sat Graham down and asked her what she thought. She didn't think much of having "some volcano spitting rocks at me!" so we told her that if we moved, we would buy the kids a Rainbow. Finally, we've been able to do just that.

They knew we bought it, but thought that the unit would be delivered the day after we knew it would be. I really would rather not have spent the day saying "no it's not here yet."

Click the link for pictures.

When Your Baby was Born....

What was the first thing you noticed?

For me,

~G~: her ass. I had a hospital / epidural birth and didn't feel her come out. I saw her floating in the air in front of me as they pulled her out. I say floating because all I saw was HER; her impossibly red, impossibly tiny little butt.

~N~: How fat he was. He had enough chub coming out that he looked like DD at one month old. He was also a precipitous labor so he had horrible skid marks on his face.

~D~: HWB. First thing I noticed was his hair. We were underwater, I felt the ring of fire, and I reached.... to this day it is like a [pleasant] scar-memory. I can recollect at will the exact feel of his head crowning; how soft his hair was, how warm his head. Just that little piece of baby in my hand.

Confetti Farts

So this morning, ~G~ was changing a diaper...and she says to me:

"Mommy he made a little fart! And paper came out!!! And a piece of my shoelace!"



At least now she will UNDERSTAND why we beg her to pick her stuff up off the floor!