Showing posts with label radical unschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label radical unschooling. Show all posts
Friday, May 10, 2013
what do you want to be when you grow up?
i love how conversations amble along…you start in one place and end up down the street in a completely different neighborhood. yesterday, silas and i had a conversation like that. we were in the car on the way home from the orthodontist and somehow we started talking about moving, i think because scotty is finishing school this year and there was some brief discussion the night before about “what if we had to move away if he got a job somewhere else, etc.” he asked why people always want to move to new york (i had mentioned something about how when i was young i thought i would move to new york and be a fashion designer…you can stop laughing now!). so i told him how a lot of specific culture (entertainment, culinary, etc.) is concentrated in particular areas and if what you love and want to pursue is in one of these places you are likely going to want to go there. like hollywood and new york, they have opportunities that are different than other places. maybe. it really depends on a lot of variables. he asked where you would move if you wanted to study bugs, specifically preying mantises. i said it would depend on if you wanted to study on your own or go to school. in the former you would probably get loads of books and go to a place that had a particularly high concentration of preying mantises, maybe find a mentor to work with/for. in the latter you would want to find a school that had resources and curriculum that appealed to you and maybe that had a very specific and specialized focus on what you wanted to learn. oh i also said at the beginning of the conversation “if you wanted to be an epidemiologist…” and we both were like, wait no that’s not right, that’s skin…and then simultaneously we said “entomologist!!” so there’s that. he said he read that you don’t even get considered for a job as an entomologist unless you have a master’s degree.
then i asked him if he ever thought about these kinds of things, like if he wanted to study something specific one day or even go to school for something. he said he thought about studying bugs (that’s when i said, oh that’s why you knew that about the master’s degree! and he said yeah…). but he said he might just study them as a hobby. and i proceeded to tell him the image that studying bugs as a hobby brought to my mind (it had to do with buggy ickiness and basements and possibly baldness…don’t tell anyone i said that!). and he thought it was horrible and said he didn’t want to be bald OR have a basement…ever. and that he would never even live in a house with a basement. if a house had a basement he would say no thanks. also attics. no attics. no places in a house where you don’t go very often and are dark. and i said you could tell the realtor you would take the house but they had to fill in the basement with cement. and he said no it would just still BE THERE. okaaaay, moving right along…i asked what about garages and he said garages were okay. (i did not say anything about how bugs are mostly in dark places where people don’t go very often).
i think about this stuff a lot…my kids’ interests, their passions. and the question kids get a lot…what do you want to be when you grow up?? i don’t ask that one often. i am really so much more interested in what makes them excited right now. i don’t always ask that one either, but i am always paying attention for signs of it. i think asking “what do you want to be/do?” is often a stumbling block. i’ve seen eyes go blank and sometimes even fear and then shrugs. but ask a kid what they are excited about RIGHT NOW…that gets way more enthusiastic responses. they know the answer to that one. the other is just too far away for some kids to even contemplate. and why should they? there are far more important things they can be thinking about and spending their time doing. right now, the possibilities, discoveries and wonders are endless.
i believe that if kids are let alone enough to explore and supported enough to further their interests that they will come to ask themselves that deeply profound set of questions: “what do i want to do…what do i love doing…what will i become…who will i become…who am i right now??” and that is a far greater thing than any other, to be able to ask yourself these questions and have the space in which to find your very own answers.Share
Friday, June 26, 2009
a long, wonderful week...
has it really been so long since i last updated my blog?? sheesh, time is flying like you wouldn't believe lately!! so anyway...
last thursday (the 18th) we were just hanging out at home, just minding our own business, when the electricity went out...AGAIN!! these storms are starting to be a pain in the ass!! have you seen all the downed trees???? i said to the kids, "let's get outta here!" and so we did. we went to the post office, taco bell, and the library. while at taco bell, i heard the strangest thing...morrissey! on taco bell's speakers!! freaky!
on friday morning, taylor came over to hang with us for the day. all the kids were still in bed so we talked for awhile on the porch while i tried to also do some cool puzzles from a book i got at the library. finally, i had to get the kids up to get ready so we could head to princeton arts center for our sweet friend iris' graduation from babysitting camp! it was just a small gathering, but iris really wanted sadie to be there! afterwards, we went to dairy queen where i consumed more ice cream than should be legal...i had my big ol' dipped cone and then i finished off audrey's cone AND sadie's blizzard!!! iris came home with us to hang out for awhile before we had to give her back. the girls decided they wanted to splatter paint, so they went outside and painted and listened to music. at some point they thought painting rocks for the driveway would be cool too, then they took to just throwing paint directly ON the driveway. THEN, they figured out that grass could also be painted...that's when the real fun began! all this while i worked on laundry...it was sunny enough that i was actually able to get 4 out of 6 loads of laundry dried on the clothesline!! yeah, that's a lot of laundry, normally i only have 4 loads, but it being so nice out i decided to also do a comforter and all the sheets!!!
saturday was a DO NOTHING DAY!! which actually just means that we didn't go anywhere or have anyone over! what i DID do was finally sucker my tomatoes, mulch the tomatoes and cucumbers, and made granola, then i watched star trek...all this while the kids were still in bed. then later i went and worked on a new painting!! samuel took these:
sunday was father's day so we went to my parents' house to hang out with family for awhile. scotty had to work...yes even on father's day!! we are so lucky to have such a super daddy who does so much to provide for us!! then we went to ren's house for a little solstice celebration and even though scotty was home in time to go to this, he was just toooo tired and so decided to stay home (he did work 18 hours on saturday after all!). we ate lots of good food and hung out with our friends enjoying a beautiful day inside the house and out (where i was chased by a wasp!!) as it got darker, a fire was built and marshmallows were roasted! what a great way to "officially" start summer!! i can't believe i took NO pictures!!!
last thursday (the 18th) we were just hanging out at home, just minding our own business, when the electricity went out...AGAIN!! these storms are starting to be a pain in the ass!! have you seen all the downed trees???? i said to the kids, "let's get outta here!" and so we did. we went to the post office, taco bell, and the library. while at taco bell, i heard the strangest thing...morrissey! on taco bell's speakers!! freaky!
on friday morning, taylor came over to hang with us for the day. all the kids were still in bed so we talked for awhile on the porch while i tried to also do some cool puzzles from a book i got at the library. finally, i had to get the kids up to get ready so we could head to princeton arts center for our sweet friend iris' graduation from babysitting camp! it was just a small gathering, but iris really wanted sadie to be there! afterwards, we went to dairy queen where i consumed more ice cream than should be legal...i had my big ol' dipped cone and then i finished off audrey's cone AND sadie's blizzard!!! iris came home with us to hang out for awhile before we had to give her back. the girls decided they wanted to splatter paint, so they went outside and painted and listened to music. at some point they thought painting rocks for the driveway would be cool too, then they took to just throwing paint directly ON the driveway. THEN, they figured out that grass could also be painted...that's when the real fun began! all this while i worked on laundry...it was sunny enough that i was actually able to get 4 out of 6 loads of laundry dried on the clothesline!! yeah, that's a lot of laundry, normally i only have 4 loads, but it being so nice out i decided to also do a comforter and all the sheets!!!
saturday was a DO NOTHING DAY!! which actually just means that we didn't go anywhere or have anyone over! what i DID do was finally sucker my tomatoes, mulch the tomatoes and cucumbers, and made granola, then i watched star trek...all this while the kids were still in bed. then later i went and worked on a new painting!! samuel took these:
sunday was father's day so we went to my parents' house to hang out with family for awhile. scotty had to work...yes even on father's day!! we are so lucky to have such a super daddy who does so much to provide for us!! then we went to ren's house for a little solstice celebration and even though scotty was home in time to go to this, he was just toooo tired and so decided to stay home (he did work 18 hours on saturday after all!). we ate lots of good food and hung out with our friends enjoying a beautiful day inside the house and out (where i was chased by a wasp!!) as it got darker, a fire was built and marshmallows were roasted! what a great way to "officially" start summer!! i can't believe i took NO pictures!!! monday morning i woke to the sound of talking and laughing coming up through the bathroom floor. it just made me smile. my boys had apparently not been to bed yet and were in their room having fun together. turns out they were cleaning their room and making videos, then they cleaned out the guinea pig cage!! i never even asked them to do any of this. i know they wanted things nice for when duncan came, but i hadn't expected this!
i got a little bit more done on my painting...
and worked i tiny bit on another project too...
this is the original drawing for that painting. it is something i worked up for my friend susan back in february (i think) for a calendar she is working on...
tuesday morning i worked in the garden a little and got some papers ready to mail for NBTSC. i picked some cilantro and my first small batch of green beans. i planted 6 times more cilantro and 2 times more beans than last year. i'm so glad i did, really looking forward to having more of each!
then i got the kids up and we headed to asheville to meet with kelly, kelli, and alice (and their kiddos of course!). scotty came with us too!!! we were meeting to pick up duncan to stay with us while ben and kelly are on the blue ridge parkway this week. after hanging out at earth fare for awhile, we headed to the asheville arboretum, they have an amazing bonsai garden there!! but it was pretty hot and the kids were melting down (what few we still had with us...my 3 plus duncan...as rachel and jake had already left to go home with the traaseths) so we headed back to alice's house for a cook out, great conversation, and playing bananagrams. then it was back to jc where i immediately headed upstairs to lay in bed and read (i always say i'm not going to sleep, i'm just going to read and then i fall asleep...so now when i say i'm going up to read the kids say "oh you mean you're going to sleep, good night"). scotty came up and we talked awhile before we both fell asleep...it was a long, wonderful day!! and again, i did not get very many pictures...just the ride there!!
i had taken a self-portrait and it was very boring, i turned around and something sadie was doing made me laugh so i quickly snapped another one and it was much better, more real!
wednesday, i had the pleasure of a long morning walk with my friend deanna! when we got back, scotty went for a bike ride. after the kids got up, i made salsa...i had to wait because the vita-mix is so noisy!! i used cilantro from the garden...yummmmy!!! it was one of those do nothing days again so we could recover from the previous day. the kids had a lot of fun playing games since duncan brought his xbox 360 with him!!
thursday i had planned on having another walk so i could get back into the habit, but i decided to work on my new art blog instead. i moved it from blogdrive to blogger...no ads, unlimited pictures!! taylor and karina came over to spend the day with us and we were all talking and laughing on the porch and woke up duncan. so we all came in and woke everyone else up too!! while all the kids hung out, i played around on the computer and then made some food to have ready to take for our imagination tribe gathering later.
i tried to capture some of the laughter and conversation but, wouldn't you know, as soon as i got out the camera...silence!!!
then sadie let me play with face paints on her...she was wonderfully patient!! she liked it so much she decided to keep it on for the rest of the day! silas took this first picture...
like that cool hat?? the gavins brought it over for him!!
finally, we headed to susan's place for the IT gathering...we had a blast making art, eating food, and talking. the kids had fun running all over the yard and meeting a couple of new friends!! oh, on the way there, karina got a message from 2 different friends telling her that michael jackson had died!! too sad!! so that was talked about quite a bit...me and susan even sang "i'll be there"...but couldn't remember all the words. and it seems i have become too lazy to keep up with my camera when we go anywhere so, again, there are no pix!!
early this morning, scotty and i took a really nice walk around the neighborhood...while all the kids were still in bed!! the rest of today looks like this...a little bit of garden work, laundry, and making food for the camp out on the river tomorrow for NESTA FEST!!
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Monday, April 27, 2009
another update on what we've been up to
once again i have put off blogging for awhile...damn facebook is just so much easier for updating and so addictive! so what have we been doing?...
well, i've been getting the garden going again...it's looking good (even with my failed attempts at transplanting, i feel good about what i've learned from it) with the radishes, lettuce, and spinach coming in. as well as the oregano, thyme, and strawberries from last year filling out again. i've made a lot of changes in how the garden is organized this year. one thing i decided was that i would not try to do corn again (not this year anyway)...it just takes up too much space in square foot gardening. also, i let the strawberries take over one of the 4x4 areas...it was intent on doing it anyway so i just let it. so hoping for lots more strawberries this year. right now they are covered with flowers with little green strawberries popping out the centers. i'm putting in more tomatoes this year too. i started them from seeds saved years ago from an organic heirloom tomato. we'll see how well they continue to grow and if they transplant well, fingers crossed!!
garden pix (most of these were taken 2 weeks ago)
sometimes about all i can do is rely on my pictures to help me remember what all we've done lately and lately i haven't been taking so many pictures....sooooo, i'm having to really think!!
we spent easter with family and friends, lots of good food and easter eggs!! my mom went all out with making special homemade treats for the kids. all of my sisters were there too! it's been since christmas that we were all together. we went to ren's house later for more food and fun. the kids decorated eggs and had an egg hunt where they found lots of plastic eggs filled with candy!! we were really glad for the beautiful day!
easter 2009 pix:
we had a blast at the sofh talent show this year! silas and colin did a little skit, while samuel showed everyone how he uses his drawing software. there was a lot of talent to go around!! as you'll see in the pix slideshow =). after everyone had shared their skills, we went outside for some fun in the sun on the playground.
sofh talent show pix:
the next day, jess calls and asks if we want to go up the mountain and the kids can ride in the back of the truck...and i said "when they get up, i'll ask 'em, but i sure want to go." and so did the kids!! a lot of the flowers were just starting to come out and it was sunny and green. the kids really enjoyed getting bumped around in the back of the truck. jess is some kinda wild drivin' woman! we stopped at one spot and found a really beautiful falls that we climbed all over. we had a really amazing day!
mountaintop pix:
last monday, the kids got a really great surprise from our friends, the traaseths. they got an early birthday present that was just exactly the amount needed to get a new 500 G hard drive for our computer. this computer was given to us by some friends back in 2004, it had an 18 G hard drive then and it was fine for a very long time, but we updated it last fall with an 80 G drive (which my brother-in-law, doug, found and gave to us for free...and installed it too, of course) so we could finally have enough memory to run WoW (which samuel bought with the money he made selling his comic at L&L). but with the most recent WoW patch, we did not even have enough memory to open it to play anymore. this came the day after i renewed their subscription and they couldn't even play!! they were so bummed. so when kelly said she'd like to give them an early gift of being able to get the hard drive we were saving for, it was a welcome surprise!! we had it ordered, received, and installed all by wednesday night (thanks a million doug!). the kids are happily leveling up again!! and i'm getting fringe benefits of a faster computer too, especially when uploading pix to flickr!!! thanks guys!!
wednesday afternoon the kids and i went driving around. we were on lots of windy roads and silas became car sick, as he often does. he could not wait until we got home to stop, so we pulled into the gray fossil museum. we had been wanting to go there for some time but have just never gone out there. i'm glad we finally did. it is a very, very cool place to visit...and that was just the free part that we went to. basically, a few years back they were working on putting a road through and came upon these fossils. the find was so extraordinary that all work on the road was rerouted so they could preserve the site, continue to dig, and a museum was erected. what they found there was so amazing, a miocene site with fossils that date back over 4 million years with an entire ecosystem of plants and animals...even the extinct red panda that shouldn't even be found in north america...which proves the theories about giant connected land masses from europe and asia. it turned out to be a really cool day!
gray fossil museum pix (i took these with my phone)
we've been watching a lot of movies every monday with the redbox free movies on monday SMS messages. here are just a few that we've seen lately, seven pounds, the secret life of bees, marley & me, bottle shock, the water horse, henry poole is here, & slumdog millionaire. that's all i can think of right now. the code lets you get a free movie every monday. you can pass it around to all your friends and they can get free movies too. one thing we figured out is that you can get more than one movie by simply using a different debit or credit card when "paying". it means you have to pick a movie, put in the code, and check out for each movie. basically you can't just fill up your cart with movies and get them all free, you have to do a different transaction for each one using a different card. make sense? we usually only get 3 movies since we generally don't have time to watch them all before they have to be back the next day before 9 pm. if you keep them longer than 1 day, you will automatically be charged $1 each. which still isn't a bad deal...we've only had to take them back later a few times. still, $3 for 3 movies for 2 days is a bargain. oh yeah, we've also been watching "freaks & geeks" from netflix.
we went to ren's house thursday night just for a casual hanging out and eating. it was really nice to just relax and talk...and did i mention eating??? yeah, that too! didn't take my camera, but it was a nice day for it if i had. the kids spent a lot of time on the trampoline (as usual) and hanging out with jared (not so usual) who gave the boys lots of tips on WoW and other cool gaming sites. went home tired and happy.
friday i spent cleaning!! it was sooo needed! i did laundry (used the clothesline again after a long winter's break), cleaned the bathrooms, swept and vacuumed, took a bunch of recycling to the drop off site behind kroger's, and made 2 big pots of lentil soup. as i was finishing the upstairs bathroom, "ghost whisperer" came on and i asked the kids to turn it up so i could here it. when i came down i sat and watched it with the kids. we just started watching this again after trying when it first came out and it was too scary for sadie. while we were watching it, sadie asked if i would call daddy and ask him to bring home some ice cream. i told her he would probably like the surprise of her calling him instead of me. so she did and it was really cute listening to her talk on the phone with him. her voice just totally changes. it's too sweet. so he brought home ice cream AND some movies he'd borrowed from a friend at work, van helsing, and 50 first dates. both of which we'd seen before but it was a nice surprise still. i fell asleep within the first half hour of van helsing (not an unusual occurrence actually). so i went up to bed and fell right back to sleep...only to get woken up a few hours later by people screaming on the corner. it was 3 am people!!
saturday, we went to perry's for guthrie's 9th birthday party! it was an all day super delicious celebration! there was lots of jumping on the trampoline, water gun and balloon fights, snacks, and cake & ice cream early in the day. then later we had more food AND music!! we also celebrated doug's (not my BIL) birthday which was the next day, he got a plate of cookies, but he shared them! it was a wonderful day...lots of playing, hiking, eating, and singing (and listening to others play guitar). got in about 1 am...slept hard. got up in the morning to water the garden...
party pix:
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well, i've been getting the garden going again...it's looking good (even with my failed attempts at transplanting, i feel good about what i've learned from it) with the radishes, lettuce, and spinach coming in. as well as the oregano, thyme, and strawberries from last year filling out again. i've made a lot of changes in how the garden is organized this year. one thing i decided was that i would not try to do corn again (not this year anyway)...it just takes up too much space in square foot gardening. also, i let the strawberries take over one of the 4x4 areas...it was intent on doing it anyway so i just let it. so hoping for lots more strawberries this year. right now they are covered with flowers with little green strawberries popping out the centers. i'm putting in more tomatoes this year too. i started them from seeds saved years ago from an organic heirloom tomato. we'll see how well they continue to grow and if they transplant well, fingers crossed!!
garden pix (most of these were taken 2 weeks ago)
sometimes about all i can do is rely on my pictures to help me remember what all we've done lately and lately i haven't been taking so many pictures....sooooo, i'm having to really think!!
we spent easter with family and friends, lots of good food and easter eggs!! my mom went all out with making special homemade treats for the kids. all of my sisters were there too! it's been since christmas that we were all together. we went to ren's house later for more food and fun. the kids decorated eggs and had an egg hunt where they found lots of plastic eggs filled with candy!! we were really glad for the beautiful day!
easter 2009 pix:
we had a blast at the sofh talent show this year! silas and colin did a little skit, while samuel showed everyone how he uses his drawing software. there was a lot of talent to go around!! as you'll see in the pix slideshow =). after everyone had shared their skills, we went outside for some fun in the sun on the playground.
sofh talent show pix:
the next day, jess calls and asks if we want to go up the mountain and the kids can ride in the back of the truck...and i said "when they get up, i'll ask 'em, but i sure want to go." and so did the kids!! a lot of the flowers were just starting to come out and it was sunny and green. the kids really enjoyed getting bumped around in the back of the truck. jess is some kinda wild drivin' woman! we stopped at one spot and found a really beautiful falls that we climbed all over. we had a really amazing day!
mountaintop pix:
last monday, the kids got a really great surprise from our friends, the traaseths. they got an early birthday present that was just exactly the amount needed to get a new 500 G hard drive for our computer. this computer was given to us by some friends back in 2004, it had an 18 G hard drive then and it was fine for a very long time, but we updated it last fall with an 80 G drive (which my brother-in-law, doug, found and gave to us for free...and installed it too, of course) so we could finally have enough memory to run WoW (which samuel bought with the money he made selling his comic at L&L). but with the most recent WoW patch, we did not even have enough memory to open it to play anymore. this came the day after i renewed their subscription and they couldn't even play!! they were so bummed. so when kelly said she'd like to give them an early gift of being able to get the hard drive we were saving for, it was a welcome surprise!! we had it ordered, received, and installed all by wednesday night (thanks a million doug!). the kids are happily leveling up again!! and i'm getting fringe benefits of a faster computer too, especially when uploading pix to flickr!!! thanks guys!!
wednesday afternoon the kids and i went driving around. we were on lots of windy roads and silas became car sick, as he often does. he could not wait until we got home to stop, so we pulled into the gray fossil museum. we had been wanting to go there for some time but have just never gone out there. i'm glad we finally did. it is a very, very cool place to visit...and that was just the free part that we went to. basically, a few years back they were working on putting a road through and came upon these fossils. the find was so extraordinary that all work on the road was rerouted so they could preserve the site, continue to dig, and a museum was erected. what they found there was so amazing, a miocene site with fossils that date back over 4 million years with an entire ecosystem of plants and animals...even the extinct red panda that shouldn't even be found in north america...which proves the theories about giant connected land masses from europe and asia. it turned out to be a really cool day!
gray fossil museum pix (i took these with my phone)
we've been watching a lot of movies every monday with the redbox free movies on monday SMS messages. here are just a few that we've seen lately, seven pounds, the secret life of bees, marley & me, bottle shock, the water horse, henry poole is here, & slumdog millionaire. that's all i can think of right now. the code lets you get a free movie every monday. you can pass it around to all your friends and they can get free movies too. one thing we figured out is that you can get more than one movie by simply using a different debit or credit card when "paying". it means you have to pick a movie, put in the code, and check out for each movie. basically you can't just fill up your cart with movies and get them all free, you have to do a different transaction for each one using a different card. make sense? we usually only get 3 movies since we generally don't have time to watch them all before they have to be back the next day before 9 pm. if you keep them longer than 1 day, you will automatically be charged $1 each. which still isn't a bad deal...we've only had to take them back later a few times. still, $3 for 3 movies for 2 days is a bargain. oh yeah, we've also been watching "freaks & geeks" from netflix.
we went to ren's house thursday night just for a casual hanging out and eating. it was really nice to just relax and talk...and did i mention eating??? yeah, that too! didn't take my camera, but it was a nice day for it if i had. the kids spent a lot of time on the trampoline (as usual) and hanging out with jared (not so usual) who gave the boys lots of tips on WoW and other cool gaming sites. went home tired and happy.
friday i spent cleaning!! it was sooo needed! i did laundry (used the clothesline again after a long winter's break), cleaned the bathrooms, swept and vacuumed, took a bunch of recycling to the drop off site behind kroger's, and made 2 big pots of lentil soup. as i was finishing the upstairs bathroom, "ghost whisperer" came on and i asked the kids to turn it up so i could here it. when i came down i sat and watched it with the kids. we just started watching this again after trying when it first came out and it was too scary for sadie. while we were watching it, sadie asked if i would call daddy and ask him to bring home some ice cream. i told her he would probably like the surprise of her calling him instead of me. so she did and it was really cute listening to her talk on the phone with him. her voice just totally changes. it's too sweet. so he brought home ice cream AND some movies he'd borrowed from a friend at work, van helsing, and 50 first dates. both of which we'd seen before but it was a nice surprise still. i fell asleep within the first half hour of van helsing (not an unusual occurrence actually). so i went up to bed and fell right back to sleep...only to get woken up a few hours later by people screaming on the corner. it was 3 am people!!
saturday, we went to perry's for guthrie's 9th birthday party! it was an all day super delicious celebration! there was lots of jumping on the trampoline, water gun and balloon fights, snacks, and cake & ice cream early in the day. then later we had more food AND music!! we also celebrated doug's (not my BIL) birthday which was the next day, he got a plate of cookies, but he shared them! it was a wonderful day...lots of playing, hiking, eating, and singing (and listening to others play guitar). got in about 1 am...slept hard. got up in the morning to water the garden...
party pix:
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
radio stars
yesterday, ren and i did a radio interview. we had a lot of fun together answering questions, laughing, and learning how the speaker function works on my phone!! we talked about imagination tribe, the radical unschoolers network, our friendship, and a few other unexpected things =). we also discussed ren's book she has been working on for a few years now which she recently asked me to illustrate. we hope to have that together sometime this fall. you can listen to the interview on blog talk radio. afterwards we went to lunch together, something we have never done. i haven't done anything without the kids in a very very very long time, so it was nice and relaxing.
ren and i at atlanta bread company...yum!
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Sunday, January 04, 2009
the holidays are over!!!!!!!
i woke this morning to the sound of the loudest and longest thunder clap i think i have ever heard in my life. i thought "well, i'm awake now. i might as well update my blog!" LOL, no!!! that is not what i thought...but it IS what i'm going to do!
i'm so relieved to finally have a few days of simple quiet. it's been a busy busy holiday season for us this year. if i thought our thanksgiving weekend was wild, i was sadly mistaken. it was the solstice/christmas/new year that was wild!! we started out with our homeschooling group making christmas crafts and hanging out talking and laughing and eventually heading to austin's house afterwards where i made 2 big pots of vegetable stew and got to hang with alice, rachel, and jake awhile. on the 20th, after samuel spent the afternoon at the comic shop drawing and meeting other local artists again, we drove down to columbia for a wonderful weekend spent at ben and kelly lovejoy's place for a house concert with danny schmidt and carrie elkin. their music is amazing and soul-satisfying...the stories they weave are rich with intensity and life. and their voices, well you'll just have to go listen. the kids had a great time with their friends and i had a chance to get to know my fellow unschooling moms a little better...and of course learned so much from them. like that going swimming in a freezing pool is really okay, really, it is OKAY!! thanks for the perspective kelli!! there was not a lot of sleeping that went on. too much excitement for that. i think silas was up for almost 36 hours or more straight (mostly playing "halo" i think) before he just crashed! we were supposed to go to the zoo for christmas lights sunday night but the kids were so tired they did not want to go anymore and so we went for ice cream instead on probably one of the coldest nights ever. you've never seen such a fun and full marble slab with all of us unschoolers in there making merriment. oh and i almost forget to mention the sasuke costume that kelly gave to silas...he was sooo excited about it that he even wore it to austin's christmas eve party thinking we were going to a halloween party, he was getting in the car when he suddenly realized it wasn't halloween but decided to wear it anyway. thanks kelly, he just loves it!!!
we spent christmas eve and christmas day with friends (oh you know who you are!) and then headed to my parents' house for christmas supper and presents. my family pooled together to get us a group gift this year...the wii. the kids had known about it already because we had been planning it ourselves until my mom and sisters decided they wanted to get it for us instead. so they've been busy with the wii ever since christmas so there hasn't been much tv watching going on. they really like making miis. especially of famous people and political figures. they've made miis of the clintons, micheal jackson and some others i can't even remember right now. they are hilarious. i find myself wondering about this avatar making thing. it's always fun to find a site that you can make one on, meez, gaia, yahoo...what is it about making a cartoon of yourself that is so fun?? i also wonder if someone else might be able to make a better one of you than you can. i'm going to test the idea today. i think maybe we'll make miis of each other and see if they look more like us than the ones we made of ourselves. if you are not confused yet, you are probably more awake than i am right now and not listening to oldies love songs, typing, and uploading pix to slide.com for your blog. oh yeah, my little sister has started giving out lottery tickets each year on christmas and this was the first year anyone got anything...samuel won $27 and sadie won $2!! samuel ordered art supplies! i think sadie still has her money in her purse...for a rainy day i'm sure. i also have to mention here that austin got lots of really cool and colorful plastic dishes for his party...just like kelly lovejoy, because she is so very cool!! i took pictures of them to show her so that is why you will see images of dishes that make absolutely no sense...ha!!
anyway...moving right along...we spent a really nice afternoon last sunday with the gavins who took us out to the movies as a christmas gift. we saw YES MAN. it was hilarious!! can you say "unschooling"...yep, it reminded me of my own journey towards YES and away from NO!! karina and i both agreed that it was one to add to the library.
then there were new year's celebrations and birthdays at the allen's and the gavin's houses (happy bday taylor and trevor...woo hoo...and i forgot to mention that we celebrated rachel's birthday on christmas eve too...see i told you we were busy). and going ice skating and to the speedway in lights (thank you to deanna for our free ticket) on new year's day and freezing our asses off! and suddenly i am too tired to recount all the FUN that was had this last week (yep, there was some snark in that comment), and i don't think i even have any pictures of any of it...i seem to have stopped taking them sometime just after christmas...oh well, enjoy the 3 million pictures that i do have (there are a lot so i set it to go fast, if you want to see a picture real well just run your mouse pointer thingy over the slideshow and it will stop):
and as i was finishing this up, i noticed that the rain had stopped, the sun had come out and was shining in the window. i opened up all the blinds and it is bright and warm inside. i think there is a book calling my name...Share
i'm so relieved to finally have a few days of simple quiet. it's been a busy busy holiday season for us this year. if i thought our thanksgiving weekend was wild, i was sadly mistaken. it was the solstice/christmas/new year that was wild!! we started out with our homeschooling group making christmas crafts and hanging out talking and laughing and eventually heading to austin's house afterwards where i made 2 big pots of vegetable stew and got to hang with alice, rachel, and jake awhile. on the 20th, after samuel spent the afternoon at the comic shop drawing and meeting other local artists again, we drove down to columbia for a wonderful weekend spent at ben and kelly lovejoy's place for a house concert with danny schmidt and carrie elkin. their music is amazing and soul-satisfying...the stories they weave are rich with intensity and life. and their voices, well you'll just have to go listen. the kids had a great time with their friends and i had a chance to get to know my fellow unschooling moms a little better...and of course learned so much from them. like that going swimming in a freezing pool is really okay, really, it is OKAY!! thanks for the perspective kelli!! there was not a lot of sleeping that went on. too much excitement for that. i think silas was up for almost 36 hours or more straight (mostly playing "halo" i think) before he just crashed! we were supposed to go to the zoo for christmas lights sunday night but the kids were so tired they did not want to go anymore and so we went for ice cream instead on probably one of the coldest nights ever. you've never seen such a fun and full marble slab with all of us unschoolers in there making merriment. oh and i almost forget to mention the sasuke costume that kelly gave to silas...he was sooo excited about it that he even wore it to austin's christmas eve party thinking we were going to a halloween party, he was getting in the car when he suddenly realized it wasn't halloween but decided to wear it anyway. thanks kelly, he just loves it!!!
we spent christmas eve and christmas day with friends (oh you know who you are!) and then headed to my parents' house for christmas supper and presents. my family pooled together to get us a group gift this year...the wii. the kids had known about it already because we had been planning it ourselves until my mom and sisters decided they wanted to get it for us instead. so they've been busy with the wii ever since christmas so there hasn't been much tv watching going on. they really like making miis. especially of famous people and political figures. they've made miis of the clintons, micheal jackson and some others i can't even remember right now. they are hilarious. i find myself wondering about this avatar making thing. it's always fun to find a site that you can make one on, meez, gaia, yahoo...what is it about making a cartoon of yourself that is so fun?? i also wonder if someone else might be able to make a better one of you than you can. i'm going to test the idea today. i think maybe we'll make miis of each other and see if they look more like us than the ones we made of ourselves. if you are not confused yet, you are probably more awake than i am right now and not listening to oldies love songs, typing, and uploading pix to slide.com for your blog. oh yeah, my little sister has started giving out lottery tickets each year on christmas and this was the first year anyone got anything...samuel won $27 and sadie won $2!! samuel ordered art supplies! i think sadie still has her money in her purse...for a rainy day i'm sure. i also have to mention here that austin got lots of really cool and colorful plastic dishes for his party...just like kelly lovejoy, because she is so very cool!! i took pictures of them to show her so that is why you will see images of dishes that make absolutely no sense...ha!!
anyway...moving right along...we spent a really nice afternoon last sunday with the gavins who took us out to the movies as a christmas gift. we saw YES MAN. it was hilarious!! can you say "unschooling"...yep, it reminded me of my own journey towards YES and away from NO!! karina and i both agreed that it was one to add to the library.
then there were new year's celebrations and birthdays at the allen's and the gavin's houses (happy bday taylor and trevor...woo hoo...and i forgot to mention that we celebrated rachel's birthday on christmas eve too...see i told you we were busy). and going ice skating and to the speedway in lights (thank you to deanna for our free ticket) on new year's day and freezing our asses off! and suddenly i am too tired to recount all the FUN that was had this last week (yep, there was some snark in that comment), and i don't think i even have any pictures of any of it...i seem to have stopped taking them sometime just after christmas...oh well, enjoy the 3 million pictures that i do have (there are a lot so i set it to go fast, if you want to see a picture real well just run your mouse pointer thingy over the slideshow and it will stop):
and as i was finishing this up, i noticed that the rain had stopped, the sun had come out and was shining in the window. i opened up all the blinds and it is bright and warm inside. i think there is a book calling my name...Share
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