Me and my four children

Frankenstein

2012-03-02T16:06:00.004-06:00

I just finished Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Is it okay to say I did not like the book? Are you allowed not to like a classic?
I found Dr. Frankenstein to be whiny. I mean the man could not get through a statement of speech or thought without whining about how terrible his life is - "Oh, woe is me, I ignored every thought that said not to create the ugly beast, I refused to tell anyone about the monster I created, I allowed an innocent girl to be hanged for a crime she did not commit, I think I did right by not creating a 2nd monster, but am shocked that more of my loved ones die...all because I refuse to take ownership of my actions! Oh, woe is me..." I really did not enjoy reading his narrations.
Now the guy on the ship - Walton. I didn't mind his narrations. Thankfully he listened enough to Dr. Frankenstein's story to give the monster a chance to speak, but ignored the request of killing the monster. I also liked that he chose to listen to his crew and return home even though he was not able to accomplish his dream for knowledge of the cold north.
And how hypocritical of Dr. Frankenstein. In one breath he is saying don't pursue knowledge for knowledge sake and then in the next chastising the crew for not going forward in glory and honour in the name of more knowledge! Ugh, he drove me nuts.
I really liked the monster. His narration was the most fun to read. I really saw him as a young child who was led by his passions and instincts because he was never taught better.
Obviously, we the reader, were suppose to see the good and evil in both the monster and in Dr. Frankenstein...I just wish he hadn't been so whiny. :)
So, lessons learned:
If you lose joy, innocence, virtue in the every day than you are not on the right path. I totally agree with that.
Your actions affect more than just yourself. Even in the thirst to create, discover, learn, understand, etc... our actions will affect everyone around us.
You are responsible for those you bring into this world. Obviously we are not creating monsters, but this applies to the children we bring into this life. The monster was like a new born child - he didn't speak, he didn't know right from wrong...he needed to be taught. His earliest lesson was of scorn and violence. He was then taught love, joy and kindness. He learned to read and to speak and to aspire to a higher level, but when he was again rejected of love than he reverted to his original lesson and dished out what he was given.
His crimes are his crimes, but they are also Dr. Frankenstein's crimes. Dr. Frankenstein chose not to teach or educate so the greater blame rests with him. We as parents are the same way. If I fail to teach my children than their crimes are my crimes. I am not blameless. Of course, If I teach and do all that I can then it becomes my children's problems not mine. :)
I also liked how at the end the monster said he thought he was the master, but he is just the servant. That is true of us as well when we allow our passions to rule. Our job here on earth is to learn to control our passions, not the other way around.
Two more things:
1 -Why in the world did the magistrate and Walter who heard the whole story not once point out to Dr. Frankenstein his own hand in all of the crimes. Why didn't they condemn him? That drove me crazy too.
2 - I felt some parts were a bit of a let down. I had been warned that this was not a scary/thriller type book, but I really was not prepared for a one line sentence on the more "exciting" parts of the book. I mean seriously...I gave him a spark of life...and that is the sum total of the creation of the monster? I read that paragraph to Katia and she was pretty unimpressed too.
Steve told me to wait it would get more exciting - like when the villagers chased the monster. I seriously read that part and didn't realize that was the exciting part until 2 chapters later.
Is this a reflection on my steady diet of more modern books that tend to describe the actions more than scenery?
On a final note I would like to add that I enjoyed the multiple introductions and forwards that were a part of my copy of Frankenstein. Mary Shelley's life was fascinating. She certainly did not live a typical lifestyle for that time period...or perhaps any time period. For that, I am thankful that I read this book.

The wall...

2012-02-29T20:29:00.002-06:00

One day the children decided to build a barrier in our backyard. It stretches from the corner of the deck to the side of the garage. The only way to the backyard is through a narrow side alley or under the deck. The children hypothesised that dad would not want to travel either option and feel quite confidant that their fortress is well protected....now they just need an opportunity to "pounce" him!

A Hogwarts Birthday

2012-02-29T19:40:00.000-06:00

We celebrated Kdawgs birthday with a Hogwarts smash! It was the perfect year - she recently read all of the books (and loved them), was a Hogwarts' student for Halloween and she turned the "magical" age this year.
The morning of her birthday - the post came early. A nice fat stack of letters with emerald green ink lettering waited for her...and as she desperately tried to read the words, we snatched the envelope away and ripped it up. (I don't have any pics of that - I was too busy ripping letters!) Steve got in the act and said he wished it was Sunday since there is no post on Sunday. We were nice. Sitting on the table was a letter for her to read. Here is a copy of the letter:

HOGWARTSSCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT andWIZARDRY

Headmaster: Almos Dadadore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Ms. Jones,

We are pleased to inform youthat you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on February 20 at5pm. We await your owl by no later than February 20 at 10am.

Yours Sincerely,

Professor McGoodwillagal

Deputy Headmistress

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Uniform

First-year students willrequire:

1. One plain work robe(black)

2. One pair ofprotective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

3. One scarf – striped(school colors)

4. One white shirt -collard

Course Books or audio/visuals

All students should have a copyof each of the following:

How to Train Your Dragon

A Practical Guide to Monsters

The Good Witch

D’aulaires’ Norse Gods and Giants

D’aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths

Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRRTolkien

Narnia series by C.S. Lewis

Dragonheart

Other Equipment

1 wand

1 broom

Students may also bring an owlOR a cat OR a toad OR a baby bear

She then opened her presents: a wand that her sister made from a stick, a broom that her brother made from a gift wrapping paper tube, a book bag from mom and a stack of books from dad.

In the afternoon, she went zooming to Hogwarts (see pic below). Her dad did a great job of having her enter the train in one part of the house and then zipping her into the other part.

And, of course, we have the sorting hat (see below). It was a tough choice for the sorting house. Kdawg has traits that would fit well for all 4 houses, but in the end she was placed into Gryffindor.

Here she is at the end of the day with all of her presents! She even loaded her book bag up with all of the supplies listed in the letter. It was fun to "role-play" this out. The children kept saying, I didn't know my parents knew magic!

My fitnes journal, er, journey!

2012-02-29T18:46:00.001-06:00

This is me at my heaviest. I have weighed this much twice before - at my 6 weeks check up after my youngest was born and when my oldest entered Kindergarten (about a 2 year time span between those two events). I really thought I had learned to keep it off when 5 yrs later this picture was taken and I saw just how bad I had gotten...again. And yes, a doctor's visit a week later confirmed my fears - I had gained all the weight back.

This was taken 3 weeks ago today. Safe to use this pic since not much has changeded. I am approximately 10lbs lighter (it is approximate because the original weight was done at a doctor's office and now I am using a scale at home). I feel lighter, but I have been down that road before!!!

My fitness journey...

I find myself in the most uncomfortable position of being41, over weight and well aware that I have failed miserably to get myselfhealthy (and stay there). I have been flirting with health and fitness since my20’s. I even wrote my own “health book” after K was born. Did it help? Notreally since I am 41 and over weight…oh, wait, I already mentioned that.

What have I tried in the past? Pushing children in thestroller as I walked around the neighborhood, the park and the mall; Treadmillsat the YMCA (which did wonders for my last pregnancy!) and my in-laws home;Zumba on the Wii; Tony Little work-out tapes, Jillian Michael’s 20 min. shredDVD; Jump rope and other calisthenics; Walking the neighborhood either alone orwhile children tagged along (either on foot or on bikes) and various workoutsystems suggested in books and magazines.

Why have none of these efforts worked? Simple - I stoppedputting the time and effort in. All of the above items worked – some workedbetter than others, but they all worked. It was me that failed. It was myinability to follow through. Before I see lasting results, I quit.

I quit because I get busy, bored or because something inlife stops me (birth of a new child, moving across country, etc…). Since exerciseis not a first love it becomes very easy to drop and then I struggle to pickit back up. The experts say to do what you love and you will stick with it.What do I love? Dancing, swimming, riding bikes, sprinting, walking and rollerskating.

Zumba comes closest to keeping my attention. Walking on atreadmill works well – especially when I can watch television. Walking with thechildren (in any format) is harder because, well, they are children; however, Ithink if I would learn to channel my inner child than this would be lessfrustrating. I don’t own a bike or roller skates and I don’t have access to apool. I do not want to focus on what I can’t do but on what I can do.

I can Zumba every day. I can walk with my children. I cansprint every day. I can dance every day. I can move my body if I choose to.

Do I have aches and pains? Yes! I am 41 and have been ratherslothful. Do I need to strengthen my muscles? Yes! I have always been a lightweight. Is this something I can do? Yes!

The real question is…will I do it? Yes?!? I hope so…!

Why I have started again, but this time with a journal…torecord my journey? Because last week as I moved boxes, cleaned the house,rearranged furniture (all because someone was coming to visit – I used it asmotivation), I discovered that I am truly out of shape. - Worse than I thought.After the first day I could barely walk up and down stairs, let alone carry theheavy boxes. By the last day I wanted nothing more than to lie down. I had theoverwhelming desire to never, ever use my body again.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) that is not how life works!The house needed to be cleaned this week – scrubbing a tub and pushing a vacuumcleaner was torturous. Setting up chairs for the pack meeting – 4 very longrows – was also hard. My arms the next morning were incredibly sore. I found ithard to carry a basketful of laundry…sad and pathetic (as Eeyore would say).

The other reason I am keeping a journal is that I have readseveral other “losing weight” blogs. I am truly inspired by the authors ofthese blogs…but I realized that this is a source of help and information forthe author and the audience. Now I don’t for a minute expect to inspire anyonebut myself. And let’s face it, in the battle of the bulge, I am the only thatmatters to me (hope that doesn’t sound to egotistical).

How am I going to achieve my goal of permanent weight loss andoptimum health/fitness? The answer is to just move. I am not following anyplan. I know they all work. I have to work on me and my commitment to me.

I am starting with sprints. Not fun, not sexy, maybe noteven the best, but it is something. Why sprints? I can do these outside whilemy three children are playing. While my oldest rides her bike; while we walkaround the neighborhood. I can even do it in my yard/driveway. My children needto get outside. They have cabin fever. I need to move and learn how to playagain. Seemed like the best option.

The first trick is to do it every day – am 3 for 3 so far.The second trick is to move smoothly to another idea (like Zumba) before I getbored with sprinting. The third trick is to move past the 3 month mark – yep, Ican do great for 3 months and then just stop. It has happened time and timeagain. I honestly think if I can get past that 3 month mark I have a betterchance of making movement truly a part of my life, my every day routine. Andfinally, I have to keep reading, studying and learning better ways to exercise,eat, and sleep. I have to find women who inspire me. I need a motivationalwall. Not a “carrot”. A reward has never been enough to keep me going, but truemotivation. Heck, what I need is a mentor!!!

BTW, what is the average length of time to stop feeling soincredibly tired???? All I wanted to do today was sleep –even after I ran mysprints.

Valentine's Day

2012-02-15T14:55:00.000-06:00

This post is an excuse to show off another room in the house.

This is suppose to be a formal dining room, but we are not formal kind of people. :) So, instead we are using it as a game room. We have board games, card games, electronic games, paper & pencil games, role-playing games...well, we have a lot of games.

The original idea was to have a spot where we did not have to clean up the games, but instead leave them out and play them over a couple of days (some of our board games can take forever to finish).

But, of course, other projects make their way into this room as well...such as making Valentine's Day cards. The children had so much fun making hearts and cards. Then they would run around and hide the cards, give the intended person some clues (usually in the form of a rhyme)
and then that person would run around and look for the cards. It was so silly, but fun.

This is soooo you, Mom

2012-02-14T15:37:00.001-06:00

I got my haircut last week....Steve was nervous it was going to be super short - I keep saying I want to, just one time, have super short, cute hair like Halle Berry or Meg Ryan. Steve says I don't have the face for it...he is probably right.

When I finally made it home (it was a looooong day of running errands), the first thing K said was, "This is soooo you, Mom! I love it!"

I had to laugh....it is the only me she has known for the last 5 years!

That's right, I still have my long hair.

This lovely shot was taken by S. She loves the camera, I need to have her start taking more pictures.

This picture was taken by K.

This one was taken by Z...he wanted something different from the girls. :)

My hair is actually shorter, when I went in my hair had finally made it to my waist - a first for me! However, it had a ton of split ends. Our stylist, Roger, once again did a great job of explaining a ton of stuff to me about hair. Like the fact that my hair is actually pretty healthy - it has a natural shine to it. I am guessing this is do the fact that I don't use hair products (like gels) or anything hot - like a blow dryer or curling iron. I do, however, have a lot of breakage. Roger says this is normal, but I don't like it.
I learned that the longer the hair gets the thinner it gets. It was so cool to see my own hair slowly taper down. The bottom was truly thinner than the top! I also learned that I am not a good candidate for short hair - and it has nothing to do with my face shape. It has everything to do with my personality and life style!
Roger said that a lot of times customers come in to a salon and expect the stylist to automatically know everything there is to know about their hair. He said that being a stylist is a little bit like being a doctor - unless the stylist has cut your hair for a long time, then the stylist needs background info. from you! (Just like a doctor always asks for background info. since he has not being treating you since birth). That made sense.
Roger also said that the more I know about my hair and hair in general, the better the haircut and the better my hair will be. Huh, just can't escape that whole "knowledge is power" thing! :)

So....I am going to find some "classic" books about hair - got any suggestions? I am going to learn the best way to pull my hair back with little to no breakage - tips anyone? And I am going to figure out exactly how long I want my hair to be....what is my personal style (even if it is a non-style) - any ideas???

Not to worry...will keep you posted if I actually change my looks!!!!

The Winter Ghosts

2012-02-04T11:07:00.003-06:00

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

This book does a wonderful job of intertwining two differenthistorical periods, showing the importance of remembering our history and neverforgetting those who have passed away. It is also a bit of a mystery, romanceand a mild thriller…I mean the title has the word Ghosts in it!

But what really caught my attention was the change in themain character, Freddie. At the beginning of his story he is a lost soul…hedoes all that he can to pretend the loss he suffered doesn’t matter, then hetries to forget his loss and then he embraces the loss so much that he almostloses himself. By the end of the book he has discovered his mission in life…andhaving this mission and living this mission created a changed man. He was nolonger haunted by a death he could not prevent. He was no longer haunted by alove that would have to wait for the next life. He was at a peace.

It made me wonder if I would be at peace once I find my life’smission. Yes, I have chosen to be a mother and homeschooler, but I sometimesfeel as if I fight the universe…is it because I am not living my mission fullyor correctly? Is it because I have not yet fully discovered my mission?

The historical aspect of the book is also very fascinating(I am trying hard not to say too much because it is one of those books that arebetter enjoyed as a surprise). It involves the struggles/trials of a religiousgroup known as Catharism. If you are like me, you are now saying…”What the heckis Catharism?” Here is a Wiki link to give some basic info. – trust me it isbetter than me trying to explain it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism

Not only would I like to learn more about this ancientreligion, more about this time period, but I also want to learn French! I haveread a lot of books lately that have characters speaking French. Once upon atime, it was a sign of a well-learned person to speak both English &French, along with Latin. I do not have that education and have always feltthat I was not suited to learn a foreign language, but…I think I would like tolearn French and Latin enough to read it and understand what it means. Thatwould be a very cool thing…I guess it is time to buy an English/Frenchdictionary – I mean don’t characters in books teach themselves a new languageall the time?

So, find a comfy couch, a quiet room and make yourself a cupof hot cocoa…this is a great rainy day read!

Home made Children's Museum

2012-02-02T15:32:00.000-06:00

Last week we had a tough "listening" and "working" week. It all started because I did not double check the hours for the local children's museum...we went on the one day it is closed during the week. The rest of the week pretty much went down hill from there.

However, the highlight of last week was Z's idea of doing our own children's museum. Steve and I thought it was a great idea so here are way to many pics of that very fun day:

First up - Imaginative play! This was Z's idea...use the dress ups and put on the silliest play ever!

All about magnets (I believe this was another Z idea)! The idea was to use the elaborate trap (which had metal hooks at the end) to catch the magnets at the bottom of the stairs (I should have gotten a pic of that). We discovered that not all magnets are created equal and only strong enough magnets could be caught. We also learned that a steady hand was the only way to get the magnets to the top of the stairs.

Punch the bucket...or something like that. :) S came up with this plan (please ignore the messy bedroom - still under construction). Basically, you stood in a certain spot, punched the empty oatmeal box and if it goes far enough you won a wolf prize (S is into wolves right now).

Lights!Lights!Lights! The original idea (mine) was to be in a dark room and use different light sources to see what gave off the most light. This variation ended up being much better. We not only used light sabers in my closet, but we played around with the settings of my digital camera to see what kind of cool pictures we could come up with...

What kind of bug are you? This was K's idea. We closed our eyes, grabbed for a bug and when we "caught" one we opened our eyes to see what kind of bug we became!

What weighs more: We recently bought a kitchen scale. The children have been wanting to play with it...this was the perfect opportunity!

Our last exhibit was a bug maze. Z made this up a long time ago, but the girls never got a chance to play it. You design a maze or room and plop a "nanobug" down. If your design works well the bug will never get free...sounds easy, but the little tyke is a constant ball of energy moving to and fro until it can break free...it is soooo fun to watch! (the little blue speck is the nanobug)

Pine Wood Derby

2012-02-02T14:26:00.001-06:00

This was Z's first Pine Wood Derby. He had a great time designing, creating and racing his car. We struggled as parents to know how much actual help to give...basically we stepped in when it was obvious Z just didn't know how to proceed (or it was super boring...like sanding).

Here is the car, named Orange Crush:

Orange Crush won most colorful. Z was pretty excited.

Here is a shot of all the other cars that night:

And some shots of the actual race:

Orange Crush is in the lane #3. He did the worst in lane #3 & #1, came in 2nd place in lane #4, and 3rd place in lane #2. Overall, he came in 15th out of 20 cars.

My fashion plates

2012-02-02T14:13:00.000-06:00

It was past time for haircuts. I dread taking my children to a hair salon because someone is usually unhappy - either they don't want a haircut, they don't like how the haircut is given or they are just in a bad mood.
So, I thought "Take the children to a salon that caters to children!" Great idea says Steve. I google the cutest shop "Cookie Cutters". There is a small playground for the children to use while waiting for their turn. Each station has a themed chair (race car, plane, etc..). They even have DVDs and video games available while the child is getting their hair cut. Now normally I do not frequent these type of establishments because I really believe that with time and patience, a child can learn to behave and enjoy a more adult setting.
But seriously...I did not want another whiny, crying, screaming event (and that would just be me).

So....Cookie Cutters was closed. Really? No where on the Internet is an update that this shop has closed? Very frustrating!!!! My children had mixed emotions.

However...it was all for the best! Our next errand took us to a shoe repair shop (I needed my boots fixed) and right next door was Focus on Hair. The children were very interested in checking out and I am so glad that we did. For whatever reason, Wednesday mornings are a slow day for them and the barber who attended to us was amazing! He listened to what each child wanted, explained to them and to me which part of their idea would work and which parts would not work - talking about how their hair grows out, the pattern of their hair growth, just how short some of their hair might get, etc... He would then give a recommendation that was close to the original idea, but then let us decide. Actually, each child got to decide because I don't like to push in this department - it is their hair after all.

The girls ended up getting their hair cut and following the barber's advice (sorry, I can't remember his name). Zack opted to wait. He wants his hair the length it currently is and I want it to look less messy. So, we are going to let it grow out longer and then go back to have it cleaned up to the length Zack wants. My turn will be next week!

Here is Ms. K (who says her hair is now all bouncy!):

Here is Ms. S (who calls her hair cut the "Sister's of Battle" style):

The Chosen

2012-01-25T14:16:00.003-06:00

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

This a beautiful story of friendship, of faith and love.Danny and Reuven are both Jewish, but of different sects. I can see that I am naïvewhen it comes to a lot of other religions – I did not know there were differenttypes of Jews.

The story of Danny and Reuven takes place in America duringWWII and its aftermath. Again, I have learned that I need to study that timeperiod more…the destruction of 6 million Jews has always been bitter to me, butthe needless violence afterwards was a surprise. I suppose since there hasalways been an Israel…I never really thought of its history. The author showshow even the Jewish people struggled with the idea of Israel – some workinghard to create it, others working hard against it. How the word of a rabbi (forone particular sect) was absolute law.

So much of the customs and culture of Jewish people werecompletely new to me. I would like to reread this book…no, I would like tostudy this book and learn the history better.

Despite my short comings the above areas (and a few others),I did learn from this book. The Chosen illustrates perfectly what it means tobe in the Scholar Phase. The Scholar Phase is the third phase a person goesthrough on their personal educational study. The phases are described in TheThomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille. The Scholar Phase has eluded me(but mostly because I have not tried to understand it – none of my children,nor myself, are in this phase), but this book shows the time and energy Dannyand Reuven put into their studies. Not because they have to, but because theywant to. Danny wants to learn about psychology. He wants to read Freud’s work.He wants to read it in the original German. Danny doesn’t speak German. First,he teaches himself German. Then he reads Freud. He is confused by what hereads, so he starts to study Freud. He uses an English/German dictionary and apsychology dictionary to help him in his study. He read one sentence and doesnot move on until he understands perfectly what that sentence says. If the nextsentence seems to contradict the first sentence then he stays on those twosentences until the conflict is resolved. Amazing!

The boys do this with all of their studies, but the majorityof their time is spent on the Talmud. In The Thomas Jefferson Education (TJEd)book, DeMille states that we as scholars should spend a portion of our day –every day – reading and studying our personal cannon. For many, this would bethe scriptures. DeMille asserts that as we read and study our personal cannonthan our life mission will come into focus. All other classical books read willbe in addition to this cannon…and many other books will be added to our shelfof personal cannons.

For Danny and Reuven, the Talmud is their personal cannon.It is the personal cannon of all the Jews. Studying it is more than just apassive, quick 10 min. read. When the boys are in college, they study the Talmudon their own from 9-1pm. than from 1-3pm they discuss what they read with theirteacher (a rabbi who teaches at the university). They do this 5 days a week.They have one day off for the Sabbath and then spend all day Sunday studyingthe Talmud at school. The other 5 days, their regular college classes do noteven begin until after 3pm. That is a lot of studying. But these men knew the Talmud.They would study it, study commentaries, they would cross-reference and readthe cross-reference, and they would read other commentaries and then try toreconcile the differences. This type of studying they did on their own. In theclassroom (and in the case of Danny with his father) there would be questionsand debates, where one was suppose to support their stance…and all from memory.Very impressive…not sure I will ever attain that level of study; However, itdid show me a better way of studying scriptures.

Another aspect of the book was how the two boys were beingraised. Reuven’s father was a professor; he loved his son very much. Theyshared books, they shared ideas and his father patiently taught him how tostudy and how to use different study methods. This was especially done with theTalmud. Danny’s father was the rabbi of his sect, referred to as a tzaddik. Atzaddik is an inherited position passed from father to son. I will not attemptto explain this particular sect, known as Hasidism. However, Danny’s upbringing is very different because his father is a tzaddik. Danny’s father, RebSaunders, knew Danny was a brilliant child. Reb Saunders also knew Danny wouldone day be tzaddik. Danny needed more than his brilliant mind, he neededcompassion, understanding, he needed to be able to take on his followers painand trials as his own. Reb Saunders was concerned that Danny would not be ableto do that unless he (Reb Saunders) found a way to teach him (Danny). RebSaunders did it through silence.

To raise a child through silence means that the only time RebSaunders spoke to his son was during their Talmud studies…no other discussionsever took place. This is hard on the child. They are confused and hurt. It doesnot happen right away. The child is raised with love and then when the fatherfeels the son is old enough to answer his own questions, the father tells himso and then simply stops talking.

Much of the book shows the difference in the two boys, theyway they are being raised and how the two fathers deal with the boys friendshipand interacts with the boys. Reb Saunders uses Reuven to talk to Danny. He cannottalk to Danny himself, so when something truly important must be said – he saysit to Reuven. Reuven’s father (Mr. Malter), on the other hand, is a mentor toboth boys. Mr. Malter not only teaches Reuven how to study, but guides Danny inhis readings. Danny is not allowed to read anything but the Talmud (andanything attached to it), but Danny has a brilliant mind that thirsts forknowledge. Mr. Malter, being a teacher, suggests books or gives books to Dannythat are good. Mr. Malter does not like going behind Reb Saunder’s back butfeels that Danny needs to be given some directions so he does not choose thewrong type of books.

This is not an idle, “Oh, this book looks good”, these arebooks that Mr. Malter has read and studies. These are books that will teachDanny about the rest of the world and more about his own history. As you watchMr. Malter gently guide these boys through books and life you become aware of abetter way to be. There are many ways to raise a child, Mr. Malter saysfrequently – and he states that every father has the right to raise him the wayhe sees fit – but this book shows a way to teach children in such a fashionthat love is always present. The desire to learn together is always present.

Granted, we, as the readers, do not see how the boys wereraised when they were younger and still learning so many of life’s basic rules(like no running the street or no shouting in the house), but we do see that bysharing your love and passion and always approaching the child with love andrespect, you can teach, you can mentor and the child can learn and grow.

A fascinating read, which I highly recommend…I think Ishall take up again one day.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

2012-01-22T16:08:00.000-06:00

"The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein is considered the "dean of the science fiction genre", he was one of the big "3" (Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke were the other two). What does that mean? It means that this was a heavy duty science fiction novel and really over my head in many ways. It also reaffirms why I haven't read a lot of science fiction...but really enjoy it in movie format!

I'm not really sure how to express my thoughts on this book. So it will probably be a rambling mess. :)

The main plot of the book is that the moon is now a colony known as Luna. Luna was originally inhabited by prisoners and other people found, um, unsavory...like political prisoners. Not everyone who ended up on Luna were hardened criminals...some of the citizens were born there, some were brought with their parents when the parents were "volunteered" to relocate. Luna has been treated badly, very much like slaves or second class citizens, for a very long time. A few people want to change that...and do change it in someways.

There are 3 main sections to the book. The first section introduces you to the main characters, introduces you to life on Luna (and the many ways it is different from Earth - including how marriages are handled). It also gives you a lot of background/history to revolutions - what works, what doesn't work.

The 4 main characters are Wyoming (Wyoh for short), Professor de la Paz (Prof for short), Manuel O'Kelly (Mannie for short) and Mycroft (Mike for short).

The four of them have a very detailed discussion about revolutions. Wyoh is all for giving speeches, rallying the citizens, and taking action - any kind of action. The Prof explains (very patiently) why this type of revolution never works. As I read it, my mind was turned to "Occupy Wall Street" and the "Tea Party" movement. So much action, so many speeches, so much of rallying the citizens together...but has it brought any real change? Has it done anything more than get people talking and some arrested?

The most successful revolutions were kept small (at first) using a cell system. A cell system consisted of 3 people working together - they would be Cell A. Each person would recruit 3 more people, and so forth (kind of like the old Breck commercials..."and she tells 3 friends, and she tells 3 friends..."). Each person in each cell would connect with one person above or 3 people below - so the lines of communication are kept open.

I should mention that a couple of things are needed for a successful revolution: money and communication.

The drawback to a cell system is that if someone infiltrates as a spy (and the Prof says there are always spies and betrayals in a revolution) then the lines of communication can be cut off...whole cells can be lost because of 1 betrayal.

How does our group get around this problem? 2 ways - first, Mike. Mike is actually a computer. He became self-aware. He refers to Mannie as his first friend. Mannie introduces the Prof and Wyoh to Mike. Mike, because he is a self aware computer and also conveniently the computer that runs everything on Luna can be Cell A. He can do things that we could not do - like monitor all phone calls, monitor all video feeds, assign a unique number to every single person - no matter what cell they were in - directly to him. Save all this information, analyze all this information and then help Prof, Wyoh and Mannie use this information.

Second, the group uses a variation of the cell system. As mentioned above, each person in a cell has direct access to Mike. The also have direct connection to one person above them. Everyone is given a name that starts with the letter of the cell they are in. For example, Mike becomes Adam because he is cell A, The Prof, Wyoh and Mannie are all given B names. The cells they create are given C names (9 names)...the revolution got all the way to cell K - that is a lot of a names!

As the group found the spies, they could isolate the person and slowly feed that person false information. It was fascinating how it all worked.

Part 2 of the book was primarily negotiations with Earth and all the politics there. And Part 3 was the actual war (yes, there was a war) and the aftermath.

The writer does a great job of sketching life on Luna and what would happen if someone from Luna (known as a Loonie) returned to earth and vise versa a Terran (someone from Earth) stayed to long on Luna. Gravity plays a mighty big role in those two very different worlds. Gravity also plays a role in the war - it is far easier and cheaper to throw rocks from the Moon to Earth than for Earth to send missiles to the Moon. The book describes the stupidity of people who don't understand simple science. If a giant rock is being dropped from the moon - you do not turn it into a sightseeing picnic! You will get squashed! The book highlighted how we can scream for human rights until we as a people (pick whatever nation or group you would like to be from) feel that we have been mistreated - then we scream for blood. All human right thoughts are out the door.

Heinlein uses America's revolutionary war as a basis for many of the things the Prof tries to use, change and mold for a free Luna. However, the Prof also tries to show there are different ways to handle representative government - it doesn't have to be done the same way every time. Did the people of Luna listen? No, sadly they did not. Yes, they won their freedom, but the idea of a government body telling people what they can and can not do was just too strong. Luna was free from Terra, but was it free from its own people? I say no...the Loonies traded one dictator for another. Yes, the new dictator was better...it had a democratic/representative government. But the government can be a type of dictator as well. Prof shows that government can not govern morals - only I can govern my morals. Each person is in charge of their own morality and ethics...that is true government. A group of people in charge of themselves and working with others who are in charge of themselves...much a like a family.

One of the Prof's intriguing ideas was a two-party system. One party passed the laws and the other party vetoed the laws. To pass a law it would take a 2/3rds majority. To veto a law it would take a 1/3rd minority. The idea that any law that was good could certainly get a 2/3rds majority. And any law that was truly not good could summon a 1/3rd minority. I find the idea rather fascinating. Wish I had more children to see if it could work on a family level...

Finally, Mike. I love Mike. Mike was a fun, self-aware computer that loved as much as he could love. Prof was concerned about all the power that Mike had. He felt that it was important that Luna at some point stop relying on Mike as much as it did (even if the Loonies did not realize that Mike was a computer and running the whole show).

I hate to ruin an ending...so feel free to stop reading!

After the battle is won, the Professor dies. He was old and had been through much. But Mike also died. He did not respond to Mannie's special code. Mannie and Wyoh tried for many years to wake Mike up. Mike worked. What was damaged was repaired, but Mike never spoke again. Mannie didn't know why.

I think, the Prof and Mike spoke in length what would need to happen. What would be best for Luna. I think Prof got Mike to agree that Mike would need to "turn off" for awhile or maybe forever. Regardless, I think the Prof put a special code word that Mike would need to hear to "wake up". I think the code word had to be spoken by the Prof. I think Mike understood what this meant... he could no longer speak to Mannie, his best friend. Mike sacrificed his "self-awareness" so that Luna could be free of his help and his monopoly (I don't want to say tyranny because Mike was soooo cool.) I wonder if Mannie would ever be able to find a way to wake up Mike...because even a self aware computer has to follow commands.

I think the lesson to be learned is TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch) - what to live in a free society? Then take responsibility for yourself. Act morally and ethically. Become self sufficient - don't really on a government, any government, for everything. Want a good education? You could pay taxes, hope the government hires good teachers, but then you are also agreeing to the rules and books the government chooses...or you could read your own books and find your own experts to teach you. Either way is going to cost you, but one is going to allow you to be "free" (you decide which "free" you want).

It is kind of like Steve and his job as a computer programmer. He can be hired as an employee, with wages, sick time, health benefits, vacation packages or he can be his own boss and do contract work. One way looks like security...but not really. He could be fired. The benefits look good on paper, but the reality never lives up to the actuality. The latter looks like freedom, and it is in some ways, but he must pay his own taxes, pay his own health insurance, but...doesn't work then he doesn't have money. Neither option is security or freedom...but one way is preferable (to him) than the other - no free lunch, just our choices.

Oh the other lesson? I need to study more science and history! Is there really way to study revolutions and learn why some worked and others didn't? Hmmm.....

To Facebook or Not to Facebook...

2012-01-20T17:22:00.002-06:00

Ah...Facebook....no, I don't belong. I am a holdout. A holdout is not a bad word, it is just someone who, for whatever reason, has not joined. I could be a holdout to dinner, or to the latest fashion craze, or going green. In this particular case it is Facebook.

Why holdout? I guess I am still weighing the pros and cons of belonging. From personal observation and from friends testimonials, Facebook is a cool club. I could easily stay in contact with friends, reconnect with old friends, find great deals, keep up with current events as they unfold and so much more.

When we went through the wildfires this summer, a facebook page was dedicated to the wildfire. Friends no where close to the danger usually knew more of the ins and outs of that fight than I did (who had to evacuate twice). That is a pretty strong argument to join.

There are many friends I would love to reconnect with...moving around my whole life I slowly lost contact with friends. Friends who got me through rough times, friends who celebrated the good stuff with me, friends who faught the battles of parents, teachers and siblings by my side. These are friends I wish I could see and ask "Hey, did you make it? Did your life turn out the way you wanted? I'm sorry I lost contact...I am sorry we drifted apart as I moved around the globe." That is a pretty strong argument to join.

Personally, I am not too interested in great deals, or special deals, not interested in playing games - I have a hard enough time wasting my day away with spider solataire. So, that would be an argument against.

As for staying easily in contact with friends...well, this where my obstinance comes in. This is neither a pro or con argument, just a stubborness on my part. And yes, I am fully aware that it contradicts my desire to reconnect with friends from the past. But here is the stubborn sentiment, "Why is snail mail, phone calls, text messaging, emails and blogs not good enough? Why do I need something else?" I heard someone once say that facebook (or something similar) makes it easier on the sendee. Instead of writing more than one email, or contacting multiple friends in multiple ways...I, as part of the social network, can be lazy and say it once.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying any of you facebook users are lazy. Or addicted to games, or anything else. I am saying that I am torn. I honestly don't know if being a holdout is the best or being a member.

I recently read an article that talked about Facebook holdouts. The article insinuated that people holdout, for whatever reason, are weird, wrong and are not really aware of the mistake they are making. I kind of took offense to it. The article only mentioned the benefits to Facebook, without ever once mentioning the dark side.

Yes, to everything in life there are two sides to a story. For Facebook and other social networks there is a dark side. The side where you are not only reconnecting with old friends, but also old flames.

We are friends with a divorce lawyer. The majority of his clients come from two areas. The first area being the number one employer in town. (you know what I mean, if I lived in Detroit it would be the car companies, if I lived back east it would be the steel companies, if I lived in the appalachias it would be the mining companies...you get the idea). The other area is Facebook. Here are some examples: The wife is lonely because the husband spends all his time at work, or golfing, or gaming, or hanging with friends...she reconnects with her high school sweetheart who says all the right things and makes her feel wanted again. Divorce is just around the corner. Or the husband isn't looking for anything serious, but finds someone (an old flame or a new one) who massages his ego, flirts through messages, which leads to sexting, which leads to phone calls and then meeting. Divorce is just around the corner.

You can argue with me all you want but it is real. It happens in all areas of the internet. Chat rooms, MMO's (massive multiplayer online, like World of Warcraft), social networks, etc. (Actually since I can't name more areas of the internet it shows you how much of a hold out I am!).

Then there are the privacy issues. Now I am not saying this blog is more secure than Facebook. But I have not heard nationwide news accounts about this blog or other blog sites being hacked with all of the personal information taken...and no, this is not an invitation to hackers to show me how easy it is to hack into a blog. I am well aware that it is easy. However, Facebook has had multiple security breaches - that have made national news. That makes me nervous.

I admit that I am a newb when it comes to computers and the Internet. I admit that I don't always understand how it all works and how it is all suppose to keep me safe. What I do know, is that I have had my information compromised in other areas. Areas that were suppose to be safe...like lending firms, MMO's, and forums. The lending one was the scariest, the MMO was the most frustrating and the forum just irritating.

These did not make national news. How bad does a breach have to be to make national news? How poplular does the site have to be before network news will report it? Since Facebook's breach made it and none of mine did...I can only assume that Facebook's was either worse than mine or it was a trendier topic.

And since I am on the topic of privacy issues, I just read a fascinating book titled, "Brain Jack" by Brian Falkner. The book is a good read, I hesitate to say a must read, but it is a thrill ride through the dark side of the internet and computers. It makes you wonder just how safe is the world we have created in the internet. It also makes you rethink the meaning of a holdout...and why it is a good thing to sometimes be off-line and even off-grid.

For now, I will fret and worry about the dark side of Facebook and yearn for the positives, without making a decision. I hope, that while I am a holdout, all my friends will forgive me and stay in contact with me in the old, boring and cumbersome ways.

The ideal day....

2012-01-20T17:15:00.000-06:00

I've been mulling around my day, my schedule, my homeschooling. The following is a letter I wrote to myself. I decided to share it in the hopes to keep myself committed and accountable. Just know, this is the ideal - not always the actual. :)

Why I home school…because I didn’t like the stress ofgetting children up, fed, ready for school and out the door on time. Itstressed me out (and them). Because I found I enjoyed having my children athome with me was a lot of fun. Because I found that Heavenly Father wanted meto.

Why I am struggling…because I keep trying to be someoneelse. My favorite memories of homeschooling was that first year when Stevewould leave questions on the white board and we would scramble to findsomething out about it or sit together outside in the sun to learn about God orfind silly ways to learn history stories. I really enjoyed music, art andhistory with Ashlee. It was fun to be together and to get a break fromteaching.

What I have always envisioned…something akin to Little Houseon the Prairie. We would work together and learn together. The work would belife skills – cooking, sewing, laundry, shopping, cleaning, etc. The schoolwork would be simple lessons in English, Math, Science and History. Ienvisioned my home filled with ways to encourage my children to learn indifferent ways – physically, mentally, visually, etc... I hoped my childrenwould be curious.

What have I done instead…bossed, cajoled, threatened,bribed, insisted, etc…

Will TJEd (Thomas Jefferson Education) work for me…yes and no. Yes, if I read theclassics that fit my vision and I implement the lessons learned there. Yes, ifI follow their steps and ideas. No, if I try to fit my life and personalityinto someone else’s (which is what I am doing right now). Not Steve’s, not mymom’s, not a friend’s… mine and Heavenly Father’s vision.

Here is my vision:

Monday – Desk Day

Quiet work: write letters, write birthday cards, write thankyou notes, work on the computer (typing or educational games), writing club,worksheets, curriculums (if we choose to use them), history, unit studies,etc… My ego and hurt feelings get in theway so it is currently not happening.

Tuesday – cleaning Day

My greatest desire is for all of us to do all the worktogether. Example: when dinner is over we all stay and work together. Currentlythat is not happening because instead of teaching them how to get along andwork, I have only taught them how to work. We even have assigned floors andeveryone goes their separate ways.

Wednesday – Errand Day

Grocery shopping: slowly getting this worked out, but so farKatia having a $50.00 budget and her cards is working well. Zack & Sabinelike their own cards, but are not interested in keeping a budget. The moreorganized the cards (with the most complete information) the better – I haveseen slow improvements. The library is pretty good too. I wish I could inspirethe children to look for books. Once a month I look for books for them, butmaybe I need to do it more often?

Thursday – Bum day

I really need to rename this day, because this is thehardest day to get things done. My goal: Read library books to the children.Have the children read library books to me (or to each other or to Sunshine). Ialso think it is a good day to go to the Children’s museum. Maybe even do artprojects or have piano lessons.

Friday – Baking day

Really it is more like homemaking day. I want a day toconcentrate on making bread, making mixes, frying up hamburger meat for thecoming week, baking goodies…kind of a segue into the fun weekend we always havewith dad.

Saturday – Fun day

Steve likes Saturdays to be relaxing. I totally get that. Wewatch cartoons. He takes one child out for a date and then plays a game withthem. I want to play with the other two children who are home. Not work, not read,and not sit on the computer. Engage with the two children at home….on theirlevel. I think that would be good.

Sunday – Rest day

I really need to rename this church day. Rest day tells me Ican rest and not do anything, but that isn’t true. We go to church; I need todo Sunday stations with the children. I need to be open to working on Faith inGod books, reading to the children, calling family and friends, etc…

The other part of my idea is that the morning is for thechildren and I to work together and the afternoon is for them to have freetime. I need to ensure that my free time is used for doing the items I cannotdo with the children’s help, like reading classics and taking notes, organizingand planning for the week, exercise, practice the piano, etc… So far, I havebeen wasting that time.

And finally, I try to utilize the whole day –from the timewe wake up to the time I put the children to bed. There are pockets of timethat I use for one-on-one reading, or devotionals.

I sometimes get close to my ideal schedule, but somethingusually throws me off…my own laziness, special days (like birthdays), moves,snow days, and etc… I guess what I really need is a reminder of the ideal so Iturn to that instead of the next great answer.

2012 Schedule (atleast for now…)

Basic Daily Schedule(adjusted for that day’s activities)

*My personal wake uptime – 5-6:30pm

-thisincludes: time with Steve, scriptures, prayers, stretching and toiletries

*Family Learning Time– wake-up to 2pm

-Allchildren up by 6:30am; may do quiet playing/project/reading/reading to me until7am

-Prayer/Pledgew/dad before he goes to work; book/scriptures/morning constitution beforebreakfast;
-Familywork after breakfast; we can start with our own chores or we can start allworking together, but we all work together until all the chores are done. Oncleaning day, I will start on a floor and work my way to the other floors –perhaps starting with the helper of the week’s floor. The other two may followthe above pattern.

*Quiet Project Time –2-3pm

-Iultimately hope that each child will choose meaningful projects, but I mustemulate & be available. This is a sacrifice – I am not getting my selfish“me time” for the hour. I am getting the opportunity to be the example on howto choose projects and follow through. Would prefer children to be fairly closeto me or at least on the same floor, but they can choose where to go as usual.This is not play time or interact time, but I am available if they choose to doa project and need help, encouragement or praise.

*Free Time – 3-5pm

-Thisis the time where the children choose as they wish with no direction for me –time must be used for electronics; this is a good time for me to: practice thepiano, stretch & exercise, take a shower, finish up projects, read a book,start dinner, finish chores, make phone calls, etc.

*Family QuietTime – 5-8pm

-We sitas a family to eat dinner, we work as a family to do chores (see FamilyLearning Time), we read, we play quietly (like board or card games), we can bewith dad, children can read to me. Start the tucking in process by 7:30pm; whattime the children go to their rooms to read quietly depends on their need.

*My bedtime – 8-9pm

-finishany toiletries not done, including scriptures, journals, prayersand planning

Who needs a museum?

2012-01-17T14:01:00.000-06:00

This past week we finally got a decent snow fall. The children had so much the first two days playing outside (and even shoveling the snow!) No, I did not get pictures of those two days...I was too busy playing too!

However, I do have some photos from our very own "snow exhibit" presented on Saturday morning in our kitchen. Enjoy!

The idea: pull out some baking tools and let the children play with snow inside the house. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh yes, snow melts...and you have to get more!!!!

And more....

K was walking around the house adding hand soap to the snow in the hopes to dye the snow a different color...I have colored hand soap. It wasn't working. A little birdie suggested trying food to dye the snow (since the little birdie did not have any food dye in the house). Yeah, the little birdie was thinking juice or fruit...the children took it to a whole other level!

Z was very serious about his concoction...snow muffins. This is stage one, mixing.

My cupboards being raided...the big bucket of flour next to K is not actually flour. It is my homemade mix for muffins. (my flour is actually in the fridge). Funny, but all the snow creations had the same hue as..... muffins!

Some tools put to good use.

Z's muffins

S's soup - stage 1

S's finished soup

some more tools for the day...and yes, they even added dish detergent.

K's final creation...not sure what it was...a mix between muffins, cookies and who knows! K had the idea to have dad do a blind taste test. Steve and I agreed to a blind sniff taste - in good conscience I could not let Steve take a bite! Steve declared it all smelled icky...too much spice maybe?

Birthday and Christmas...oh my!

2012-01-17T13:24:00.000-06:00

To continue my birthday celebration, I took the children to the local children's museum. My mom bought us a membership to the children's museum and this was our first chance to check out her gift!

First stop is "water works" - this was a cool exhibit. The children had several things they could do to learn about the power of water and how it helps get electricity. Z spent a lot of time using different lengths pipe to find the best way to get the water to turn a wheel.

This section mimicked a whirl pool. The green balls would slowly get sucked down to the center and then "magically" spit out farther down. The girls learned the hard way that other objects could get sucked down, but not spit out. :)

S joining in the fun.

The two oldest loved this exhibit. It reminded them of wizard's chess from the first Harry Potter book.

This exhibit was similar to water works, but it used the power of the wind. Push a button to get the wind blowing through the tubes, then you use levers and flaps to cause the wind to go through different tunnels. There were some yarn balls that would go zipping through the tunnels. Since there were two "wind walls" the two oldest quickly turned it into a game of speed...all with rules, penalties and declared winners.

I wish this picture and the one below it turned out better. This is a "jungle gym" suspended over the 1st floor. You enter on the second floor and can climb all the way to the third floor. K almost made it, but got stuck (it is also a bit of a puzzle).

Z gets kudos for trying, but he said it was a bit scary to see the first floor looming so far below him.

Our last stop (for this post anyway) is the painting exhibit. S had a great time painting the wall. The children painted, cleaned and painted some more....I wonder if the paints were really cleaning supplies if the shower wall and mirror would get cleaner?

It's my party...

2012-01-17T12:52:00.000-06:00

It is my party, but I don't want to cry - I want to celebrate!!!!

The tradition at our home is to have a slumber party with mom, so when it is my birthday...I have a slumber party with all 3 children. Thankfully I get to pick the movie and munchies!!!

This year, we watched Dolphin's Tale. If you have not seen this movie - you must! It is a great movie about a dolphin who had to have her tail amputated. Normally this means death, but not for Winter! Winter and her human friends fought the good fight, used their ingenuity and imagination to save the day. There is a ton more to the movie and what Winter has meant to the amputee world (human and animal alike). Watch it with your children...you will thank me for it!

The morning of a birthday is when we have the family celebration. Instead of a cake we have either muffins or donuts. I opted for Krispy Kremes.... um! And then it is time for opening of the presents!

Hope you enjoy the following pics (because I am camera shy!)

Me with all my loot! Yahoo!

Reading the card K picked out for me...it was a funny one saying that in all the world there is only one me. Then inside it says, "that is o.k. - one is all we can handle!" So true!

A mushy card from my hubby...you don't get to know!

All the children made me gifts this year. I got a stamp picture from S, a homemade hippo game from Z and a wooden heart painted purple by K. Steve bought me a purple lightsaber so I could join in the fights!

Zman enjoying my b-day.

S enjoying the day as well...can't you tell my the mouth hanging open?

Happy New Year

2012-01-09T14:52:00.001-06:00

A new year, a new beginning...or maybe just a new resolve to be more consistent to the old beginning....or maybe a new awakening to the lesson that desperately needs to be learned...or maybe it is a just a new year and nothing more than growing a year old happens.

I think personally it is a mixture of D - all of the above.

For many years I have been on a quest. A quest to improve myself, improve my relationship with my husband and those around me, improve my relationship with God, improve my knowledge of things political, economical, spiritual, historical, etc. Well you get the idea - I have wanted to grow and not become stagnant.

So many wonderful friends are returning to college, starting their own businesses, creating their own websites, writing books and in general seem to be doing some amazing things with their time, talents and energy.

Me? I feel like I have been sitting around waiting for something to happen. Yes, I know, I just moved...but I still feel like I am waiting for something to happen.

Should I go back to school? Should I try writing books again? Everything seems a possability, but nothing feels right. I believe in the power of prayer, so I have been praying. Not feeling like an answer has come my way....or has it?

Several weeks ago my sister mentioned in passing that once when she was struggling and praying for strength, she felt that she was not getting the help she needed. Finally, through a blessing, she was told that she already had the strength to get through this trial - she just needed to use it.

That idea "just needed to use it" has not let go of me.

My answer has already been given to me - it was staring me right in the face, but I was not using it.

Becasue of this newest move, I am finally able to unpack some old favorites - classics, if you will.

No, not the classics in the generally accepted sense, but classics to me becasue these books have been the basis of so many positive changes. Becasue of these books, I interact with my husband, my children, my friends, and even strangers better. Becasue of these books, my house runs smoothly and stays organized (for the most part). Moving is even easier! Because of these books my body feels better and stays fairly healthy (even if it could stand to lose a few pounds). These books are my classics.

I have other classics I turn too. Church books, history books, literature books...a have a small, but growing collection of these classics that I read and reread over and over again. I learn something new each time I read them. I incorporate some new found knowledge each time I read them. I try to live a better life each time I read them.

A year or so a go a wonderful friend (thanks Ashlee!) introduced me to the Thomas Jefferson Education. A concept...well, more like a way of life and a way of thinking...that anyone can use, but is especially wonderful for homeschoolers. The whole idea is to use classics and mentors to get an education (your own and your children's). The book stresses that you as the parent must go on the journey first. That you must take charge of your own learning before you can mentor your child's. I have been playing around with this idea since reading the book last summer.

When I choose to follow the principles taught in this book, my homeschooling runs smoother. There is a peace in my home that isn't there when I choose to play the school marm.

The Lord has answered my plea of what do I do now and where do I go from here...I just haven't been using it fully. I need to jump back into those classics - my favorites and find new ones. I need to take charge of my own learning. Of my own journey. And I know that when I do, I will feel fullfilled and more settled.

I think what I find most amazing....is that 5 years ago, I heard a wonderful man talk about his journey of learning with the Lord. He opened himself up to all the books that the Lord inspired him to read so he could gain knowledge of God and be closer to Him. I never forgot what this man said, "Not all the books were scriptures or church books, many of them were classics...like Shakespeare...there is a wealth of truth in the works of Shakespeare." In my heart of hearts, at that moment, I desired the same journey. The answer to that desire has been my journey through homeschooling...which lead to The Thomas Jefferson Education....which lead to reading more classics and the realization of what my favorites have already done for me.

Its a new year and a new beginning....go find our own classics and your adventure...just make sure to enjoy the journey!

Pros & Cons to a small (or large) house - part 1

2012-01-09T14:24:00.002-06:00

Believe it or not, but I loved that little house we lived in. It was small, it was cozy, we couldn't fit all of our belongings in it, but...it was easy to clean (less than an hour), I always knew exactly what my children were up to no matter where they were in the house, and it was right next door to family - so much extra and free love for all of us. You can't beat that!

However, if I could have changed one thing in my little house it would have been a kitchen. I didn't know this before - but I like to cook! I love making homemade bread and muffins. I like planning out menus and finding ways to make old favorites healthier without losing any of the flavor. I also enjoy having my children help me cook (as long as it is only one child at a time!).

Below is my current kitchen...not sure but I think it is the same size as my old kitchen and living room and bathroom...anyway, you get the picture. :)

When you walk through my back door this is what you would see - it is meant for a kitchen table, but I don't own one! It does make a nice unloading/loading area though.

Moving to our left, you can see I have a bit more elbow space, but not enough counter space - is there ever enough counter space in a kitchen? The folding table in the lower left of the picture is part of the eating arrangements. We pull it out with folding chairs and it sits two (usually me).

Panning out, you can see the kitchen from a different angle. The brown table with the two brown stools is our other "table"'. It came with the house - thank goodness! I have tried lots of different arrangements, but having two children here and me at the corner with another child seems to work best (meaning less misbehavior).

And since this room is connected to the kitchen, I thought I would show it as well. This is truly a family room - we use it for everything - even school although I have a room designated for that! My bedroom is probably the 2nd most popular spot in the house.

And finally, a wall for a our T.V. I still can't get over how much extra space we have...nor how easy it has been to fill up this extra space!

To cool...

2012-01-02T15:17:00.002-06:00

Miss Kdawg relaxing one afternoon and playing the Wii. Yeah, she is 100% ready to be a teenager - the laid back attitude, the cool clothes and the "don't bother me, man" attitude. :)

Warm PJ's!

2012-01-02T15:15:00.000-06:00

A couple of days after Christmas we went shopping for Thermal underwear/PJ's...the children were so excited they put them on as soon as we got home. K tried hers out underneath her clothes when we went to the library later that day. She was so cute. In the house, she said "I'm roasting!" Outside she said, "Ah, just perfect!" and then in the library, "I'm hot!"...I couldn't help but laugh!

Christmas - Jones style

2011-12-26T16:41:00.001-06:00

Every year there is a good reason why we don't have a "real" tree. It has sort of become a tradition to make our own tree....this year's turned out pretty darn cool.

This year, I did not have a "predetermined" look or idea. I just sketched the tree on the paper and let the children "make it up" as they went along.

The finished product.

We always find creative ways to hang up those ornaments that we have collected over the years. These are hung from our banister.

K put her artistic skills to this display of non-ornament, non-creche Christmas objects.

Christmas morning....thanks to Nana Jones the children had lots of presents to open.

Checking out what the big red guy brought...

Zman made his presents this year. These are one of kind bugs. The yellow bumblebee went to S, the red ladybug (with the green antennas) went to K, the orange bug is a lightning bug that Z kept for himself, the purple guy is a purple bumblebee for me and the brown bug with the blue legs is football bug for his dad.

K also made presents this year. She made the snake for Z, the white looking cross is a skull and cross bones for S. It was suppose to be apart of a necklace, but we couldn't get it to work. There is also a necklace made out of nuts for S. The colorful googly-eyed guys represent each member of our family - it was my present. The other stuff was for her dad. It is a very cryptic note.

S wanted to buy presents this year. She had earned the money all year long and knew exactly what her brother and sister wanted. Z got the Lego's - where we discovered he can get a free Lego magazine for two years. We signed him up on the spot. K got a Christmas necklace.

This is like an episode of Friends...."We are bracelet buddies...". This is Steve and Z showing off their matching gift. I understand Grandpa got one too.

Z's haul for the year.

S's haul for the year.

K's haul for the year.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family. We love you!!!

S's B-day

2011-12-26T16:27:00.001-06:00

Family birthdays are celebrated at breakfast. We have either muffin or donuts for breakfast (I stake em like a cake and put candles in). If the children look tired, they are....this was all before we headed to church.

Her birthday celebration started the week before with a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese...unfortunately, I forgot my camera. Then the day before her birthday she got a daddy-date where her dad let her pick out her present...what a lucky girl.

Love ya Evil Monkey!

This Old House

2011-12-26T16:19:00.001-06:00

I took this the same morning the children were playing int he snow...as you can see it was a very light snow day. Hard to see, but that is S standing in front of the house.

This house is old. It was built in 1925. It has been updated and remodeled. There are 3 levels.

A basement that houses a guest room, a full bathroom, the laundry room and unfinished storage room. All are welcome to visit!

The main floor has a kitchen/dining area, family room, half bath, formal dining room, a formal living room and an enclosed porch (like an Arizona room). The series of windows you see behind S is the enclosed porch (very cold in winter!).

The upstairs has the master bedroom and bathroom, a full bathroom and two other bedrooms. The girls share, but K doesn't mind because she has a window seat next to her bed. The upstairs also has a laundry chute. The children will actually climb upstairs to put towels and stuff down the laundry chute and then walk to the basement to do the laundry. It cracks me up.

Art projects and made up games

2011-12-26T16:13:00.001-06:00

Every so often I pull all of my scrapbooking stuff out and let the children make their own scrapbook pages. They had such a great time choosing the paper, the pictures and pasting it all together!

We also worked on our time lines. This was a project started a couple of years ago for history. The children love it - a picture for each year of their life.

I will be honest, the games my children make up are somewhere between fun and bizarre - but they are always using their imaginations. The pictures below show each of the children in their cocoon and then after a bit of struggle they would break free as a beautiful butterfly. They only wanted pictures of the cocoons. :)

2011 Highlights - the whole gang

2011-12-26T15:58:00.000-06:00

Not sure why this picture was taken...but sometimes my children can be awfully cute.

Here we are celebrating Mardi Gras...and it wasn't even February! A great friend once did a series of lessons on the different months. I loved the idea and started it right before we moved. The month we were studying was February and this is the children's idea of how people dress up and act for Mardi Gras.

Halloween: K=Hogwarts student; S=Bumblebee the transformer; Z=Jedi Knight; Our ward this year did not do Trunk-or-treat so we went to the local mall. It was a fun night (I like trunk-or-treat better). The children entered a costume contest, we got free movie theater popcorn, went through a family friendly haunted house and...of course, the tatoos.

Ah, our first snowfall (thankfully it was light) at our new home. This was about 7 am and the children were freezing!!!! But they had to try to play and I needed pictures. This one was shot on our deck in the backyard.

2011 Highlights - S aka Evil Monkey

2011-12-26T15:47:00.000-06:00

S has her own sense of style and fun. She took the belt from my bathrobe and turned it into a turban. Wore the sucker for days and days and days...even slept in it.

Here she took the material that was previously used as a sling and turned it into her pirate cap (not sure the fancy name for it)...this is her pirate face.

The children got fake tatoos for Halloween...lovely when your daughter chooses to emblazon it upon her forehead....

This is the morning of her birthday...I will do a whole birthday post, but it was a fun day.

Ah, the joys of a McDee's happy meal....fake milk mustache = loads of fun. She was frustared that she could not get it to stay without using her hands. Before I pulled out the camera - it worked just fine.

2011 Highlights - Zman

2011-12-26T15:36:00.001-06:00

Have no idea why I have this picture, but I love the look on his face. :)

This is Z and our Sierra Vista 3rd Ward Bishop at the cubscouts pack meeting. Z earned not only his wolf badge but also his religious knot. The bishop is the one to award the religious knot. It was a very cool night (sadly the same night as K's fancy party)...although I don't know what Z is doing....his dad took the picture. :)

My close up picture of Z because I wanted him to take a close up picture of me. As you can tell, he is totally enthused by the whole process. :)

Glasses! However, he was not as blind as Kdawg, so...we must remind him everyday to wear the suckers...gosh reminds me of me when I was that age!!!!

2011 Highlights - for Kdawg

2011-12-26T15:28:00.000-06:00

Fancy hairdo for a fancy night...turned out much cuter than I thought it would. I love it when K will let me play with her hair!

K's fancy night. It was a "Hot Chocolate party" (since we don't drink tea) at activity days for girls at church. K was kind enough to invite both S and myself, she also requested that our "fancy" clothes match. It was a fun night.

Miss K taught herself how to ride her bike. I was not patient enough to hold on to the back of her bike. So, I got her up every morning at 6am. She had a choice - practice her bike or weed. She chose the bike. Within two days she was riding - by the end of the week she had it all down like an old pro.

Glasses!!!! She loves wearing them - I have decided the trick is to ensure your child is practically blind by the time you take them to the eye doctor. The difference is so huge there is not one fight about remembering those glasses!

The Great Plan of Happiness...even when you feel like crying

2011-11-07T11:02:00.000-06:00

Some posts just can't be put on hold...

Maxine Jones earned her angel wings last night.

Maxine was my children's great grandmother. We have had the most wonderful privilege of being her friend, her card playing buddy, her care takers, guardians and a willing listening ear.

She will be greatly missed. In our heart of hearts we know where she is - she is in the spirit world surrounded by those loved ones who passed on before her. We know that she is no longer sad or in pain. We know that she will be waiting for us...but even with all the knowledge and faith of what an eternal family is - we cry.

We cry because we will miss her. We cry because she is no longer with us. We cry because we are human and selfishly want her to stay with us. We cry.

And the Lord weeps with us. As he comforts us, he weeps with us. He loves us, those who have been left behind, as much as those who have already been welcomed home.

Grandmaw - we love and miss you.

Moving Time!

2011-10-25T12:37:00.000-05:00

Hey all,
Not a real post...don't have time!
We are moving. Steve is already gone and found us a house to rent.
We will join him Thanksgiving week. The children and I are madly packing to be ready in time!
Probably won't post again until after the move...but will try to take pictures!!!!
Love to all,
Alisa

The aftermath of Monument Fire

2011-09-02T14:41:00.000-05:00

Mother nature has a way of taking care of herself...or as we like to say, God created a beautiful world that works miracles if we humans would just stay out of the way. Below is just two of the pictures I took when we hiked to Coronado Cave. Coronado Cave is a part of the Coronado Monument Park...the start of Monument fire was just on the other side....This area was the first to be hit by the fire and it got hit multiple times thanks to the wind. The fire happened in June....just two short months of rain and life is already coming back....the park ranger told me there was nothing left - complete burn out....the trees, the grass, the flowers were all destroyed. But now only the trees give a hint of what happened here (and even they are making a huge come back with saplings popping up all over the place). God can take care of his own creations...I have a feeling he can take care of me too, if I just would stay out of the way and let him.

The Cave

2011-09-02T14:30:00.000-05:00

This is the crew outside of the cave entrance. That small black hole to the left is the cave entrance. You have to climb over a bunch of boulders & it feels like you are going straight down....

We decided to do something different as a family - hike! Neither Steve nor I am huge outdoors type people - if I camp I want a cabin with indoor plumbing.... Steve made so many hikes in the Marines that it kind of got burned out of him. :) However, Steve (for whatever reason) decided we needed to go on a hike. We headed to the Coronado Monument Park and hiked up to the Coronado Cave. The hike is only a quarter of a mile, but it goes up about 500ft...needless to say I discovered how out of shape I am!!!! The children had a blast and want to go again. :) So....one funny note, we told the children to be careful on the way down because it would be easy to fall (the trail was decent, but a little steep)...the children did not fall once, but I landed funny twice and torqued both my ankles...silly me. :) After that, S insisted on holding my hand the rest of the way down. :)

This is inside the cave...the spots in the picture is dust floating around. We chose this spot because the rocks looked exactly like a table and chairs. After this pic, we started designing our cave house - where the bedrooms would be, the kitchen, etc... it was fun. The cave is about 600ft long - we let the children climb over and through all sorts of rocks and tunnels. I don't think they ever wanted to leave.

Hard to tell but that is the crew waiting patiently for me to take this picture (actually, I took a ton of pictures on the way down - they were not amused). I am standing right below the cave entrance....seems like all civilization was gone. So nice.

Locks and Trust

2011-08-26T17:19:00.000-05:00

I want to start with a story. It is a simple enough story...mom discovers bathroom door is locked and no one is inside. Mom is unable to get the door unlocked (and her husband is out of town). So, mom decides to take the doorknob off. In the process of trying to find a screwdriver skinny enough to work the unlocking mechanisms the oldest child of said mom shows up with the very tool that is needed! Oh happy days! Unlock the door and put the doorknob back on - no problems, no worries....except the mom is curious. It isn't everyday that she sees the inner workings of a door knob and lock...what would happen if the piece on the inside of the door had fallen off? Would all hope be lost...well, probably since no one was inside the bathroom....but what if someone was inside the bathroom...what if someone could just simply pick the doorknob piece back up and put it back on? Well, the oldest child is a trusting child so she went into the bathroom at her mom's request - what a perfect time to try this experiment we have all the tools we need! After about 2 seconds the mom realizes her fatal mistake...the doorknob is not designed to be put back together in this way. The door must be open and the lock disengaged from the door jam for the piece (the one with the long tube attached) to be reinserted.

The oldest child was locked in the bathroom. There wasn't a magic tool to get her out. There wasn't an easy answer to getting the door open. The mom and and oldest child did the only thing possible - they prayed and then the hammered and wrenched the lock open....the child was now free.

Actual doorknob pieces.....

The two metal pieces are normally attached and work together. The bent metal piece is what we wrenched free to enable the door being opened.

Why trust in the title?
Well, you see the child had perfect trust....perfect faith that the mother knew what she was doing. Perfect trust and faith that the mother could get the door unlocked.
I hugged my child tightly, prayed for thanks and wondered what I would have done if I wasn't able to break that lock?
Then my thoughts went somewhere else....What would happen if one day my child didn't have perfect trust and faith in me? What if I did something or said something that caused my child to never trust me or have faith in me again?
We have been given a precious gift from our Heavenly Father. He has entrusted to us the lives of his children....and just as he wants us to be like the child who walked into a bathroom and let her mother lock her in - that perfect trust and faith - He also wants us to do everything in our power to keep that faith and trust in tact.
For my children to trust and have faith in God, they must first have trust and faith in me. I am the link. I am their first taste of love. If I fail them, I have also failed God.
So, the next time you ask your child to go into the bathroom....make sure you can get the door unlocked.

History Party/Trip to Phoenix

2011-08-22T19:41:00.000-05:00

After Z was baptized, the children and I drove to Phoenix to spend some extra time with my parents, my brother (who were visiting from Hawaii), my grandmother and several Aunts and Uncles (who live in Arizona). It was a nice family gathering and I love spending time with my mom. I had a camera with me the whole time, but didn't once to think of taking pictures...I know, crazy! After my parents left for the next part of their U.S. tour (they had 2 more sons & families to visit), I spent two days with our friends the Mechams and the Schlosses (who were nice enough to use their home as a hotel - thank you again Courtney!!!) The day with the Mechams was wonderful! The children got along great, we got to go swimming and I love talking with Ashlee - I always learn something new and usually have a new goal that I want to work on. Our time with the Schlosses was spent relaxing from a week of late nights, playing and getting ready for the History party. I discovered at the History party that I really am a competitive person....perhaps I should be a neutral judge next year? Sorry if I stepped on any one's toes.... I also learned that I really like it when my children remember the stuff I teach. We did a Jeopardy style game, the children crushed the adults - and my children, in true Jones fashion, immediately began the smack talk to their dear ol' mom (dad was quite proud when he heard). All in all, it was a great week spent with family and a few friends! Can't wait until next year's party!!!

This year my children chose to dress up in a them with the Schloss girls - Z was King Henry VIII and the girls dressed as each one of his wives - the love the ditty that goes with it - "Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived"

Here is K dressed as Catherine Howard, wife number 5, who was beheaded - note the red line going across her neck. :)

Here is the whole Henry VIII family.
Back row (L-R): S.S. "Anne Boleyn, wife #2 - beheaded", Z "Henry VIII", K.S. "Catherine (from Spain) wife #1 - divorced" K "Catherine Howard wife #5 - beheaded
Front row (L-R): A.S. "Catherine Parr wife #6 - survived", D.S. "Jane Seymour wife #3 - died" and S "Anne of Cleves wife #4 - divorced"

The whole gang
Back Row (L-R): C.M. (Black Knight), B.M. (William Shakespeare), S (Anne of Cleves), S.S. (Anne Boleyn), K (Catherine Howard), D.M. (Lady MacBeth), Z (Henry VIII), and K.S. (Catherine)
Front Row (L-R): E.M. (no costume), D.S. (Jane Seymour), A.M. (Catherine Parr) and F.M. (Bloody Mary - daughter of Catherine, wife #1 and half-sister to Queen Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, wife #2)..... I think that was a run on sentence!!!!

Z's baptism

2011-08-22T19:00:00.000-05:00

So, Z was baptised on August 6. He turned 8 in April, but we wanted my dad to baptise and confirm him - this was the earliest my dad could fit us in to his very hectic teaching/researching schedule. We failed to put someone in charge of taking all pertinent photos - so here are the few that Steve (thankfully) remembered. After the baptism we went out for ice cream.

Z with his friend J before the baptism...hmm should have cropped this a bit...but just ignore all the background people!

Z with his sisters after his baptism and confirmation.

Not a family photo shoot if we don't do something extra crazy!

Here are the children with Steve's parents, Jackie and Dave....hmmm...need to teach K how to sit properly....

Here is Z with my dad, Roger, at our home after the baptism....love the red eyes! And somehow, my mom and brother, Ed, got missed - oh well, there is always next time!

My husband, Steve

2011-08-22T15:54:00.000-05:00

Yes, he really does exist.... No, seriously. He needed a picture taken for his LinkedIn page and I have stolen it to put on my blog - since he hardly ever lets me take a picture of him. :)

Past History projects

2011-08-22T15:50:00.000-05:00

This past year we studied the Middle Ages...well, to be more accurate, we studied the Middle Ages in a session of Speed History - studied the majority of the book in 2 months. It was fun and crazy. I didn't always remember my camera, but here are 3 projects where I managed to take some photos (in no particular order)!

Here is our version of a Moorish meal and table arrangment. The children loved this project so much, they still ask to eat the Moorish way. We also role played being Moors and fighting the Spaniards. Since we love the movie, "El Cid" - we decided to pretend we were against him. Ah, the children loved saying things like, "Death to El Cid!"

This is us as Vikings....hard to capture the visciousness of our local Vicking clan, but they were determined to over run whatever country they just invaded - as you can see one Viking was killed in action, but I am sure the lone villager defending his country was soon defeated by the remaining two Viking warriors.

The children really wanted to do this project - make our own English/Norman Castle. Halfway through the project they got tired of working with the sticky mess....so this is what our castle ended up looking like. Thankfully, it tasted much better than it looked!

Beauty and the Beast

2011-08-22T12:02:00.000-05:00

In this case, beauty and the beast is not characters, but plant and animal. :)

My bathroom window sill - the only spot I can't use for functionality, so it gets the beauty. The plant and yellow container were given to me by K for Mother's day. Since then, I have bought the purple contianer and divided the plant....it is doing so well in this spot I will probably by some more contianers and split the plant again. (Sorry Courtney, I can not find my slip of paper that tells me what kind of plant it is...I will keep looking though.)

Yes, the beast...poor guy, since he is not a real frog (or toad) he probably won't get many princesses willing to give him a kiss. Ah well...on the plus side, the children were very excited to discover this horned lizard (sometimes called horned toad) on one of our walks. He blended so well into the ground that our two big dogs never even noticed him...we actually "lost" him when I came back with the camera!

Daddy Rocks

2011-07-23T15:46:00.000-05:00

This is what K made for her dad for Father's Day (yes, I know I am woefully behind...). It is a group of rocks with googly eyes. K made one for each of the family. Not sure which one is dad. However, the present is called "Dad Rocks because dad rocks"...I thought it was clever.

My Drama Queen

2011-07-23T15:41:00.000-05:00

Yes, my little Drama Queen, S. :) You know your daughter is a Drama Queen when she has a small scrape/cut on her arm and the only thing that will cure the problem is a full scale sling....Her grandfather spoils her too much. :) This budding princess wore the sling night and day for 3 days straight....

The following pictures depict an actual reason to be a drama queen: chicken pox. The poor thing woke up one morning with a rash all over her face. I said to myself, "She has chicken pox." And then said to myself, "No, can't be...we got the shot!" After going to the library, church for activity days and McDonald's for lunch we saw the doctor...she had chicken pox, despite the shot...waiting nervously for the announcement of the chicken pox epidemic here in Sierra Vista.....

Remember the good 'ol days....

2011-06-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

Remember the good 'ol days when the children were small...you could wrap them snugly in a blanket and rock them to sleep? you could put them in a play pen & they were happy? you could play simple games like "Peek-a-Boo" & they would laugh for hours? you could lay them all down on the floor and they would barely take up the length of a small blanket?

Ah...the good old days...One morning I was telling the children some of the fun stuff we use to do. I happen to mention that I have a picture (in storage) with all three of them lined up on the floor - S was a newborn. It is a very cute picture (just gotta get it out of storage).

Being the creative souls that they are...we reenacted the picture. :)

Random stuff from May

2011-06-25T11:37:00.000-05:00

Yeah...May is done, but it is in excuse to show off my cute children!

This is picture of K's hair. why? Because I threw paint on her (by accident), then while we tried to wash it out the paint slowly spread throughout the rest of her hair and finally...when I tried to comb it out, I got frustrated so I just chopped off the offending hair. She has all kinds of crazy lengths, but she doesn't care - she likes telling the story more while still enjoying long hair (for the most part).

Below is a picture of K's feet in her new flip flops. Her old ones blew out one morning and she was quite sad (she got her old flip flops at a friend's birthday party where she tied pieces of fabric to them -she loves the friend, loved the party & the shoes). So, I suggested to Z that when he went on his dad outing that they should get a pair of flip-flops for K as a surprise. I think the men did a pretty good job picking out a cute pair - K loves these as well.

Because I was taking pictures of K, the other two wanted in - S is such a ham when it comes to picture taking; except she is a little too serious in the second one. :)

Here are Z's pics - his smile and pose (especially in the 2nd one- I believe he was trying to pretend to be asleep...like he was too cool for the picture) cracks me up. I never know what I am going to get when I snap his picture - smiles, frowns, serious face, goofy face, tough face...he keep me guessing and that is a good thing!

Maori Warriors...or the nest best thing

2011-06-25T11:03:00.000-05:00

This past week we learned about the Maori Warriors in New Zealand. I thought it would be fun to take some of the leftover Halloween makeup & let the children decorate themselves.

Let's just say the mess created was bigger than I anticipated, but the children had a blast - which is all the really matters!

Thankyou Sydney!!!!

2011-06-23T12:02:00.000-05:00

Recently we spent a wonderful week in Phoenix - we saw old friends, went to our old home school group and just had a ton of fun.
One of the nicest things about visiting old friends is seeing how the children influence the children for good. On one of our visits last year, K inspired Sydney to read more. On this trip, Sydney inspired K and S to fix their hair.
Now that we are home...everyday the girls do something with their hair! yeah! Thank you Sydney!!!

Fire photos from Sunday

2011-06-23T11:24:00.000-05:00

I realize the photos are not as timely as they should have been, but first chance to post them. We are home, the fire seems contained enough that we are safe - but still keeping a "go-bag" packed for the "just in case" scenarios.

The first 3 photos were taken from our backyard. Photos can't relay the smoke, smell or heat, but they were all there....

The next two photos were taken from Hwy 90, which was North of the fire, evacuations and confusion. Again, the photos do not do justice to what we actually saw...

Fire Update 2....

2011-06-19T20:32:00.000-05:00

Well, all is not well and all is not over...

Details are sketchy, but apparently the fire jumped the fire line and just burned like crazy. The sky was not only smoke filled, but it was tinged with orange streaks. The smell was intense.

We chose to evacuate again.

Happily things went much smoother this time. The children knew what to do and were ready to roll within 5 minutes. Because I already had stuff packed and waiting by the door, along with a list of things to bring - I was ready without panic or tears (and yes, the wedding ring made it this time).

We chose to drive to Tuscon. All the hotels in Sierra Vista are full. And more of Sierra Vista is on pre-evac notice...if we can't return home in a couple of days we may just head to Phoenix.

Will happily keep everyone posted!

Fire update

2011-06-18T14:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry no pictures, but when you are forced to flee for your very life than a camera is pretty low on the list. :)

So here is the story of our great escape (I will use bullet format for faster reading):

1. Fire continues to burn, evacuations planned for areas west and south of us.
2. Sometime after lunch I notice a black plume of smoke rising - it is NOT in the same area as the other smoke billowing across the sky.
3. I mention to Steve that if we had to evacuate at this very moment we did not have enough room for 2 cats, 2 dogs, 3 children, 1 grandma, 2 adults and bags. (My van was at the shop, Dave (father-in-law) had his truck with him and Jackie (mother-in-law) was in town with her SUV. That left us Dave's BMW 2 seater and Steve's 4-door sedan. FYI - the dogs are German Shepards (big dogs!!!).
4. About 2:30pm I sat down to play cards with grandma when Dave comes home early - thank goodness!!!!
5. While playing cards I notice a beautiful brown horse streaking through the yard (close to 3pm). We don't own a horse. I yelled to Steve and Dave.
6. I ran outside just in time to see Animal Control coming in to our yard through a side gate - yelled at them to wait until I had the dogs under control (one of the dogs is an escape artists). She yells back that we need to evacuate now!
7. I forget the horse immediately, drag the dogs to Dave (who puts them in his truck immediately) and we go into emergency mode. The adults are yelling instructions to the children and grandma (all of whom were still in there pj's...long story....).
8. My children are troopers - grab clothes and throw it into a backpack (now wouldn't a 72 hour kit come in handy right about now???); grab pillow, blanket and stuffie (can't go anywhere without K's baby bear) into the car; grab electronic toys (to ease boredom), but not the controllers (wouldn't a list of things to take in an emergency be handy right about now???)
9. Meanwhile, Dave has called a local hotel to get us rooms (smart man - we took the last 2 in town). Grandma is more worried about her cat than getting dressed and gathering her medicine. Steve is quickly loading up all vehicles. I am throwing clothes and toiletries into a bag - even remember to grab the cat bowls and food (but not the kitty litter!!! - thankfully Dave grabbed one for grandma's cat).
10. Sheriff comes by and says we can not go South to the main road from our house into town - we have to go North. The horse is still in the yard....
11. Children and I are in the car with our cat - we hope we have everything.
12. Steve is in the BMW with grandma's cat and hopes he has everything.
13. We pull out - cars are flying in every direction!!! We could smell the fire - it was sooooo hot and the smell was like a really intense bon fire. The wind was blowing like crazy as well.
14. We head North and I know exactly how to get us out because I had to learn the back roads to take K to horse camp. Thank you horse camp for that knowledge - you were worth every dime!!!!
15. Back roads are more congested then normal - cars are trying to get in and get out (lots of people at work when the fire got away...we are guessing people were going home to get people/pets/stuff....) - K says a prayer and suggests singing primary songs (smart girl!). We all felt better.
16. We finally come out the back roads to a paved intersection - cops every where directing traffic. Once again, I choose to go a long route to the hotel to avoid traffic and potential problems. - discover that I was wearing flip flops (I made the children put on tennis shoes, but I forgot to switch); also realized I left my wedding ring behind (I take it off at night and forgot to put it on in the morning....) - And Ashlee, I lied when I said I was o.k. with losing my wedding ring - I immediately bawled like a baby when I realized I may never have my ring again....
17. We arrive safely at the hotel....all of this happened within half hour of me seeing the horse.

Lessons learned:
1. - Have a 72-hour kit/go-bag/emergency list - because there is not time to think rationally.
2 - Prioritize what is essential - children and pets are more important than toys. But pictures are pretty important too.... Basically, if it can't be replaced put it on your list of stuff to take.
3 - Listen to promptings - that morning I had two thoughts a) the children should pack bags, it will be good practice b) I should wash all of our dirty clothes....which I didn't so some children ended up without underwear at the hotel.
4 - Friends and family are needed in a time of emergency - a friend is housing the two dogs and also let me do laundry on Friday.

Hmmm....I am sure there are some other lessons learned, but those are the biggie.

Thankfully, the officials allowed us to return home Friday morning so I recovered my ring, put on tennis shoes and grabbed the dirty clothes.

And...Finally, we came home today (Saturday) for two reasons. The fire seems to be contained in the canyons again. And the hotel had to kick us out - other people reserved the room for tonight and the hotel has to honor that reservation, despite a fire.

Oh! And I forgot to mention....the fire crews stopped the fire at the street that is just before ours....we could see the scorch marks as we drove home today.

Fires...

2011-06-15T15:49:00.000-05:00

Below are some pics of the fire that is very close to our house. Our road runs very close. Neither picture describes accurately what we saw. Thankfully, we have not evacuated yet...although others have not been as fortunate. And the night picture might (just might) show you the red dots along the mountainside when you click on it to see it in its larger format. It seriously looked like someone decorated for Christmas....such beauty from a distance, but oh so very deadly.

My fun children...

2011-05-25T18:52:00.000-05:00

Not sure when I took this...sometime after Z's birthday.... But the first picture is the "complete" K...this is how she explains it: the shoes=athletic K; the camouflage shorts=tough K; the spider shirt=scary K; and the hat=fun K. This next picture is not S wearing a bicycle helmet, but S in the Tron world...we love the movies.

This is Z in the Tron world. He has made his very own Tron disks.

Sunday Stations

2011-05-25T18:26:00.000-05:00

I heard about Sunday Stations from a friend and liked the idea so much that it has become a part of our Sundays!
We have 3 stations: Computer time, time with mom and alone time...

S's favorite activity to play with mom - dolls. We have a really good time. Sometimes we also play trench warfare where we use Grandpa's binoculars and look for the Germans. :)

This is Z showing what he does for alone time...the children either read or play quietly with some of their favorite toys. This particular picture was taken right after Z's birthday. In his hand is his new Storm Shadow action figure. He was so excited.

Ah, computer time! The computer shows the Friend magazine web page, but the children also use the paint program to create fun works of art or do puzzles on the National Geographic website.

Whenever I can, I try to have K and Z work on their Faith in God during their time with me...Z's facial expression is pretty typical of the look I get each week when I suggest it. :) (However, if I offer during the week during quiet time...they are very excited!)

The big box with the orange paper and yellow sunshine is K's. She made it at Activity Days and was very excited. It is a Sunday box filled with ideas for things to do on Sunday. Z (Star Wars box) and S loved the idea they made a Sunday box. It has been a wonderful help with our Sunday Stations which has been a great help to our Sunday afternoons. Here is a sampling of some of the children's on-line art work:

K's work of art. This is her interpretation of the game "Rift" - which her father just started playing.

S's picture is of a were rabbit. The other night while I was at the Temple the children watched "Curse of the Were Rabbit" - they loved it.

This is Z's picture - it is a storm.

Z's Birthday (April)

2011-05-07T11:26:00.000-05:00

Z's birthday was in April - he turned 8! We celebrated with having one friend over. Z's dinner was eggs and muffins. His theme was motorcycles. The boys had a great time. Happy Birthday Z - love you! (oh, and these pictures are soooo out of order - sorry!)

Z and his friend, J, frosting their own cupcakes.

K doing her best to scare the camera....

S looking slightly bored? annoyed? with my picture taking.

Z blowing out the candles to his cake (yes, we get cupcakes and cake!).

Z is smiling because he just got a Nintendo DS...I know a hand-held video game for a child - go ahead and think bad of me, but.... K has a Pixter (like a Leapster) and S has a Leapster and...well, darn it, Z has not whined, complained or begged once. He happily plays with the Pixter and Leapster when his sisters let him - we felt he deserved his own. :)

First Attempt at Swimming this year....

2011-05-06T13:13:00.000-05:00

Now I realize that for some of you who will read this, getting into the pool in March is just insane...for others it would seem perfectly reasonable. We, on the other hand thought to outsmart mother-nature. :) The day was warm with a gentle breeze and the pool can be heated...

If you can't tell by K's face...the water was frigid!!!! We tried all morning to heat the little section and it still never got above 65 degrees....sure that might not sound bad to some, but.... a tad cold in March.

However....the children vainly tried to stay in the pool as long as possible....

This picture should have been before the others. oops. They entertained themselves walking across this wall in the hopes the water would be warm enough....

S was the first to give up (I'll be honest...I wouldn't even stick my feet in)... shortly after this pic, she went inside for a hot shower, followed by Z.... K on the other hand had to be "dragged" from the pool. I guess we need to put her into the polar bear club. :)

Dashing swimwear models

2011-05-06T12:18:00.001-05:00

For some reason I was on top of things in March....well, not with this blog, but with things that my children needed: new shoes, new summer clothes and bathing suits. Target had some cute stuff & the children were excited to use them...

S's ensemble is a pair of swim shorts and swim shirt - underneath is a very cute black and white one piece bathing suit...she was unwilling to model that (it was a tad chilly this beautiful spring morning).

Z was very excited to find shark themed swim wear...please note the shark on the shorts and on the sleeve of his swim shirt.

K had the hardest time finding something she liked - she was trying to avoid all things pink. :) What she found was a very cute peace-symbol ensemble...the little skirt came with the suit.

She too wanted a swim shirt and here she is modeling that. :)

March - Horse Camp

2011-03-21T18:20:00.001-05:00

One of K's birthday presents was attending a (day) horse camp. The horse camp was 4 days long and about 4 hours each day. The camp officially started at 9am, but...if your child arrived early then they got the privilege of helping with the horses: feeding and mucking out stalls. :) Nice. A camp that makes you work. K was early every single day. :)
Now, this present was not just given, it was earned. We had her earn a portion of the camp fee - mostly because we wanted to see how much she really wanted to go. We figured if she worked her tail off at home earning her portion then she was serious about camp. She had her portion earned before Christmas. :)
Here she is pausing in her mucking duties. She told me the first day that it was stinky work. I reminded her that horses are not all fun - there was a lot of work involved. She did not complain the rest of the week about the smell. But she also said, that she knows that she is not old enough for the responsability of owning a horse and is happy to wait until she is a little older. We are thrilled!

Z wanted to help out on the last morning - he thought it was fun and now wants to go to horse camp. We said sure - same deal as K.

K scooping up some straw that escaped its trough. Gotta love a gal who doesn't mind getting dirty!

K is grooming the horse here, threw this one in to show how petite she is compared to the horse!

sorry, bad shot, but she is using a pick to clean out the horse's hoofs.

K was the only one in her group (12 children attend camp - 6 to a group) that needed the green mounting steps to mount the horse. The first day it happened she announced to everyone, "I am the exception to the rule!" She also told everyone it is because she is just very petite.

On the last day, all the children did a little obstacle course 3x. So, the pictures are a mixture of those 3 go arounds. The boy in blue is a junior instructor - he is also the owner's son. Nice kid. The first time around Albert held onto the lead, but K had to steer the horse...the other times around, Albert just walked next to K and she continued to steer the horse.

Part of the obstacle course was to go around some orange cones and then to stop at logs on the ground, go over the logs, trot, etc... K was nicknamed "General McSquishy" because she liked to get extra close to the cones when she went around.

This is her trot. Not a great picture, but I love her expression. She cracked me up - she would be all serious and then as soon as the trot started she would giggle and start chanting "bounce, bounce,bounce" over and over again.

This is her dismount, similar to the mount, but this time she just sort of threw her body over and slid down the horse. She loved it!

The place holds camp 4x a year. Each camp covers the same info., but any child who chooses to come back gets to help with the teaching. The owner, Al, says that by teaching and demostrating the knowledge gets cemented in their brain.

I also like Al's approach to teaching. The children have to know the good, the bad and the ugly to horses. They were taught basic horse anatomy, grooming, tacking, leading, and of course - mucking the stalls. Al believes that if someone learns the basics and builds up they will be better horsemen (or horsewomen). Kind of the approach I like for schooling "part to whole".

Al also offers private instructions and small group outings. He has several former students that now work for him. I am hopeful that K will continue to earn part of the money to take private lessons and such. I think Al would be a great mentor and this is such a good opportunity for K to learn something that she loves.

February - K's Birthday

2011-03-19T15:24:00.001-05:00

Before I start on K's birthday - a couple of side notes.
1. Back in December I saw an allergist. I have learned that I am allergic to anything and everything that grows in the state of Arizona. The worst offender? Tumbleweed! I wish I could say that where we live is free of tumbleweed, but it isn't...nasty stuff. Anyway, since I am allergic to sooo much stuff and because there is never a break in the growing season, I am now taking allergy shots (this is on top of the 5 different allergy medications that I also take). The hope is that the allergy shots will slowly build up my immune system and I will no longer need to take quite so much allergy medicine. The allergist is hopeful I will be able to give up allergy medicine all together - I am not. :)

2. I failed to mention in my January post that we stopped and saw friends and family in Phoenix on our way to and from Vegas. On the way up we saw my grandmother and went to church at our old ward. It was great. On the way back, we spent the day with the Mecham family. It was a great day of just running around, playing and talking - we all needed it! Thanks guys for making it a so great!

On to K's birthday - this girl is horse crazy. She has always loved horses and this was the theme for her birthday this year. My mother-in-law, Jackie, does a great job of decorating the table and cake to match the theme. We had horses on the cake, we had horses on the table, we had horses to decorate - we had horses everywhere! K loved it.
K blowing out her candles (she turned 10)!

K had a lot of fun carefully taking out each candle and the horses - I think she enjoyed licking them clean even more.

S...right before she was able to dig in!

Z digging in. He is actually eating a cupcake. We make life hard for Nana (Jackie). She loves to decorate a cake and we (meaning Steve and I) prefer cupcakes (so she makes both).Why cupcakes? Because the servings are pre-determined and each person can decide how much, how little or none at all for the frosting. Steve and I eat the cupcakes without frosting. The children...just enough to coat the top. :)

This is K holding up the gift she got from her friend E. Because this is not my home, I opted to have a family dinner with one friend over. K and E are in the same primary class and they are both homeschoolers - we do lots of play dates together. :) E and K played most of the afternoon.

One of the gifts K got for her birthday was an opportunity to attend a week long horse (day) camp....but more about that in the next post!

Love ya my 10 year old girl! You are great!

January - Vegas Baby!

2011-03-17T13:49:00.000-05:00

January is my birthday and our anniversary. I turned 40 this year and we celebrated 13 wonderful years of marriage. :) We typically do not do family vacations and we typically celebrate our anniversary low key. So, this was a very fun (and long over due) trip!

Steve and I met and married in SLC, Utah. We still have a ton of friends that live there, so we invited everyone to come and join the fun - only one friend was able to make it. The extra guy in the picture is Mike, one of Steve's friends. He is a great guy and did a great job (meaning super patient) hanging with children for 3 days.

In honor of every movie that shows the famous Vegas sign, but specifically for Escape to Witch Mountain. Such a great movie. :)

The children lounging on a bus.

The children at the Shark's Reef Aquarium at Mandlay Bay.

Another shot at the aquarium. Steve and Mike took the children to this. Me? I was zoning at the Luxor Spa getting a massage. My favorite birthday present!!!

Proof that my children are capable of taking naps...and apparently sleep anywhere! We had these children pooped. We took in the King's Tournament at the Exaclibur. We walked the strip from the Luxor (where we were staying) to the Planet Hollywood restuarant in Ceaser's Palace. The food was extra yummy because we were starving!!!! The children loved all the water/light show in front of the Bellagio. We also had dinner with my favorite aunt and her husband. Had fun at the M&M factory (still working on all those specially marked M&M's).

Proof that my children can also stay wide awake when they should be tired!!! Mike's room connected to ours, but we managed to keep the children from bugging him to early in the morning. :)

The kitchen area....I swear it is about the same size as my kitchen at home...maybe a tad smaller. :)

Front hall entrance. Oh look, there is S before she fell asleep!

The Living Room...so nice to have this area when we wanted to be alone at night - just lock the children in the other room! :) (and...more spacious than my house)

The dining area - and yes, that is a keyboard in the background. My first Sunday playing in R.S. was the week we got back from our trip, so I practiced every morning. Again...this is bigger than my house - I don't even have a dining room!

The master bedroom....since it was soooo incredibly large, we had the children sleep on the floor in this room (thus leaving the living room open for the grownups). Did I mention this too is bigger than my room at home? I think the bedroom alone is bigger than my house...but the suite is definetly bigger than my house!!!!

I don't usually geek out over bathrooms...but come on, after the tiny one I have now? This was like heaven. Three days of heaven.

I don't even have a bathtub anymore! Seriously, a huge bathroom = heaven. :)

Our view. We stayed in the Luxor, but in one of the towers. I didn't mind, but I also didn't like getting to close to the window.

That was Vegas, Baby!

Funny side note: The posters in Vegas are NOT child friendly...and my children noticed. I think every single time we passed one of these lovely posters at least one child would say, "Mom, those girls are not dressed modestly."

I tried to explain that this is what sells and what people want and the casinos are in business to make money. K announced that when she grew up she was going to have a casino and the girls would dress modestly and she would still make money. I wisely chose not to mention that gambling is also a sin. :)

A Colorful Life

2011-03-11T19:29:00.000-06:00

My colorful life...inspired by the movie Ramona and Beezus:
(note: I didn't have any new pics of just Z, he is getting to be quite camera shy)
All three children showing off their animal slippers. We have dragons, turtles and dinosaurs. And trust me...you don't mess with these slippers!

S showing off a new dress - not sure she liked it at the time, but now she wears it all the time.

I personally love the white leggings and black boots with this outfit - this is soooo S.

K showing off a new outfit she got a Christmas. She wore the hat everywhere she went - and totally looked cute. :) I really like the touch of the delicate necklace with this funky look.

K loves putting colors, patterns, and different types of fabrics together. Somehow she pulls it off every single time.

Someone who remained anonymous from our ward spoiled my children at Christmas. Each got a new outfit. They did a "pretty" poise, but let's be serious - this is more like my real children.

If you haven't seen the movie, "Ramona and Beezus" I would highly recommend it. We own it and I think it is a must own. This movie does a great job of combining all the different Ramona books into one great movie. Throughout the movie K would say, "Oh, that is from Ramona and her Father. Oh, that is from Ramona Forever..." You get the idea. You will laugh, you will cry and you will love your children all the more.

December updates

2011-03-11T15:41:00.000-06:00

I have been very lax in my updates - I have no good excuse, but my friends who are diligently catching up on their blogs has inspired me to do the same. :)

First up is S's birthday. She turned 6. I have always thought it a bit unfair that her birthday is so close to Christmas, but she does not care!

Her gift from mom & dad were these dinosaur slippers:

The package she is carefully opening is from Z. Z loves to give gifts. He will decide that someone needs a gift and will wrap something up for them. He loves to give his own treasures away as gifts - things that he thinks the other person will treasure as well.

I think K's expression is great:

Z enjoying his cupcake. Nana always makes a single layer cake decorated with yummy frosting, the child's name, candles and some trinket that goes with the theme. But Nana also makes cupcakes (unfrosted) for those of us who prefer cupcakes!

Nana also goes all out with decorating the table, matching plates, cup, napkins and of course some type of party favor. S wanted a Spiderman theme party. Nana is still trying vainly to have her granddaughters accept the title "princess". Here is S combining the two (and K is in the other mask):

Love ya, S! You are my little monkey! :)

Christmas was the other biggie for December. I didn't post these in order...sorry. Here is a picture of the aftermath:

S enjoying her slinky (the pillow pet in the background is Z's, but it is also one of the 2 presents that we actually bought):

Z enjoying his slinky (these pics must have been at the beginning of the day):

K and Z enjoying their stockings:

Ah, the picture I should have shown first - The morning before the frenzy.

First, I have to point out that none of the stuff in the picture is from Steve and I (yes we helped a bit with the stocking: toothbrush, socks, slinky and one small stuffie). We only bought a pillow pet (which was waiting for them on the couch at our house) and a bike (which we gave to them in the afternoon).

Second, Christmas did not even start until 10am. My in-laws are Catholic and like to attend the 8am mass (selfish here, but glad I only go to church when Christmas lands on Sunday). So... my children, who have been trained since birth not to get out of bed until we get them up (i.e. dad sleeps in until 8am), were forced this year to be in this room of cool stuff while eating breakfast and watching a movie (A Christmas Story). They were troopers - didn't whine, complain or try to peek. The day was fun, but very long.

Happy December! (I will try to do January soon).

When did Santa become the bad guy?

2010-12-21T16:03:00.000-06:00

Below is a link from a friend of mine.... I love what she has to say and wanted to share with everyone.

http://jjtanner.blogspot.com/2010/12/since-when-did-santa-become-bad-guy.html

My last nativity set...

2010-12-20T14:56:00.000-06:00

This is the set I forgot to add to the last post. :) Anyway, this was the first one my mother-in-law gave me. I absolutely love it. Hope everyone has a great Christmas!

My Nativity Sets

2010-12-19T17:49:00.000-06:00

This post was inspired by a friend's post. I have very limited space, so my nativity sets, plus 3 small trees are my only decorations. The trees were given to my children one year for Christmas and we always have them out (usually in their bedrooms). I actually made this "JOY" block at R.S. Souper Saturday this year. It is kind of hard to see, but each letter has a different scene from the Nativity. "J" is the wisemen; "O" is the star and the sheperds; The "Y" is the manger and Mary riding the donkey. I absolutely love the way it turned out.

This set was given to me last year by my hometeachers.

This set I got so long ago I don't even remember! They were orginally ornaments, but I cut the strings off. For the longest time, this was my only nativity set so I didn't want them lost on a tree.

This is the box cover for the nativity set below. It is so cute I have to show it off too.

I got this set (witht the above box) 2 Christmases ago.

I can't remember when I got this one, but I love its simplicity and beauty.

This one my mom got for me - so the children would have something to play with!

Oops - just realized I forgot one! Will have to post that one later.....

Little House...part 2

2010-12-11T12:30:00.000-06:00

Here is the rest of the house. I tried to take pictures as if you were "walking" into the room, not sure how well it worked, but hopefully you will get the idea of how small each room really is. :)
This is Z's room: Yes, this is the "school area" next to his door. Enter and beware!!!!

Sorry it is dark, but this is what you would see when you first open his door.

This is taken from his bed, I was against the wall. :) Oh, and the door you see outside of his door - is my bedroom door. (I hope that sentence made sense.)

Here is the other side... the weird thing on the wall is a homemade race car track.

This part of the room is hardly seen because the garbage can props the door open... the doors do not work quite correctly in this house....

The girls bedroom:

Yes, this is the other side of the "school area"... This room is a tad more crowded....

Yes, you literally run into bed as soon as you open the door. And yes, the beds are in front of the window.... I have not figured out a better way to arrange the two bedrooms. Sigh.

O.K. not sure you can tell, but this is the closet - basically on the same "side" as the door.

The "long" view of the closet and that side of the room.

Their dresser on the opposite side of the beds....

Ah... the bunk beds in all their glory. You can't tell, but the brightly colored "lump" on the top bunk is actually K. She wasn't up yet, but I took the pic any way. :)

I have to have the beds away from the wall because of all the "electronic/power" stuff on this wall. Like I said before, I haven't found a good way to rearrange.

This is the door to my room. To the left is the bulletin board, keyboard, chairs etc... To the right is the girl's bedroom.

Sorry this shot is so dark, but basically you run right into my dresser.

I am standing in my closet to get this shot.

And yes... my room is a mess.... the glass doors do close, I just forgot to for the shot. :)

The bathroom:

If you remember from part one, the bathroom door was at the end of the "kitchen/hallway" area.

Like most small bathrooms you run right into the sink area when entering the bathroom.

As you can see not a lot of room....

Hehheheeh, had to stand in the shower for this shot. :)

Well, that is our very little and humble abode. I hope the pictures made sense and you have a better idea of the layout and small accomadations. Thankfully, there is a big backyard! (and a bigger house to go to.)

The Little House...part one

2010-11-22T17:59:00.000-06:00

I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with a bunch of boring pictures, but I also know how curious everyone is about the "Little House".... now if I could just put it on a prairie, write a book and make millions! This is my kitchen...no, there is not another side to the kitchen; no there is not another corner; no, there is not anymore counters; no there is not a stove or oven... and yes, the little silver thing in the middle is my fridge. (oh, the door you see to your left is the only door into the house)

This is the rest of the kitchen/hard floor area. :) The open door you see leads to my tiny bathroom (part two will show you the full joy of that room!). The big blue curtain hides a huge closet type area - why was it not used in the kitchen? Good question! Answer - I have no idea! I put some stackable shelves in there and it holds everything - food, vacuum, cleaning stuff, junk drawer stuff... you know, all the stuff that you need to hide. :) (and yes, if you are needing to see a picture of it - holler and I will take one)

I had to do this picture, because my husbands ingenuity has paid off handsomely! Yes, to the left is the door to the bathroom. Instead of wasting precious wall space we had the shelves "wrap" around the corner. The shelf everyone sees when entering our house has the books. The shelf across from the bathroom holds... bathroom stuff! You know, towels, washclothes, extra supplies, stuff for nails and hair... even blowdryers and my husbands razors. And here is the silly part - you notice the garbage can hiding behind that shelf? It is my "kitchen" garbage can - couldn't figure out where else to put it!!!!

This is the opposite side of my kitchen and obviously the back side of my living room. The brown piece of furniture next to the wall hides the cat litter - again, we didn't know where to put it so we hid it! (my husband is soooo smart)

close-up of the "entrance" to my living room. Yes, I have a lot of bookshelves, but when this is your only wall space - you use as much as you can. My biggest desire is to get more moveable shelves for this big brown (entertainment center?) thingy. I don't know what it is, my in-laws are letting us use it. :)

This is the school area... yes, it is at the end of the big brown shelf thingy and basically in the living room. It is also nestled quite closely to the doors for our bedrooms (more in part 2). The children are great about setting up and taking down every single day - they are troupers!

Now, if there is something I have missed (other than bedrooms and the bathroom) or something you need a better shot of - just holler! Happy to oblige... of course, coming down to visit would be sooooo much simpler! (and more fun)

My new camera

2010-11-19T14:06:00.000-06:00

Steve bought me a new camera and a new laptop. Both were needed... I think. I mean sure it took me more time to turn on the computer than it did too look stuff up; sure if I left the computer on then my mouse would "disappear" and I would have to turn it off and start all over again; sure browsing the internet and attempting to do anything harder than write an email could send it into a frenzy... so, yeah, I probably needed a new one. My digital camera was in better working order, I think, but Steve suprised me (so not much chance to argue). Why would I agrue you ask? I hate change. Change and me are not friends. Sure, everything works faster and better, but my new camera and laptop are not my friends yet. Athough the laptop is really cute. It is small and pink - very chic. Hopefully in the days and weeks to come I will become better friends with my new toys and you will hear more from me!
In the meantime... Here are the first two pics ever taking on my new camera. Enjoy!
Z before church... I can never tell if he is actually smiling or just amusing me. :)

K and S before church... if you look closely at both girls you will see actual t-shirts under their dresses. They rebelled this summer and wore their play clothes under their Sunday dresses. I didn't care - as long as the dresses were clean and the appropriate length and yes, the girls came happily to church!

Halloween

2010-11-08T19:12:00.000-06:00

Yep, Halloween - the time to dress up and be someone else! The children this year chose costumes from Avatar: The Last Airbender. NOT the movie, but the cartoon. I was pretty proud of all of the costumes... S's did not come out quite the way I wanted, but she was happy. :)
S is Momo the monkey-rabbit friend to Aang, the last air-bender & avatar.

Z is Aang, last airbender and avatar.

K is Katara, a water bender and friend to Aang, the last air bender & avatar.

So most people got the costumes - the best was when we went to the local comic book store. The whole place just totally geeked out over the costumes and immediately knew what character each child was being. I even got to brag that I made the costumes. :)

We have decided that from now on we are choosing characters from our favorite stories (movies, books, cartoons and comics are all allowed).

These are the pumpkins the children made this year. Each child is standing under the pumpkin they decorated.

Swimming

2010-07-02T11:31:00.001-05:00

We are pretty spoiled this summer, Nana and Grandpa have a pool at their house and the children go swimming almost every day. Sadly, we don't have the means for swim lessons, so Steve and I try to work with each child a little bit every day. Mostly, the children just hang on to noodles and have fun. Z is tall enough in the shallow end that he does not need a noodle, but he likes to have one or two with him at all times - he uses the noodles as a weapon against his dad.

K can swim just fine without the noodles, but she hates to be left out, so her noodle is usually somewhere in the pool. I couldn't convince her to let me take a pic without the noodle though...

S is closer to swimming on her own than Z is, but still prefers the noodle (if you can't tell this drives me a bit nuts). :)

This is the hot tub part of the pool, but the children use it as a mini pool.

I hate to say it, but this is probably the best perk about living in our new digs. :0

The Great Wall of China

2010-07-02T11:25:00.000-05:00

In history this past week, we have been learning about China. I thought it would be fun to make our own "Great Wall of China". The children had a fun time trying to figure out how much water was needed to make the sand stick together. K felt the original builders must have had a "fun time" making the real Great Wall of China. Hmmm..... perhaps next time I need to have our hands on activity be more to real life.....

Of course, our wall didn't quite make it as far or as straight!

House Update

2010-06-22T15:26:00.001-05:00

A visual difference in the two houses: This is the little house - the two windows are two bedrooms (the children's). The second roof in the picture is a carport that connects the two houses.

The big house: The many windows you see is... a family room, a bedroom, a den and a living room. Not seen, but on this side of the house is the front door (a double front door). yeah... a little bit of a difference between the two. :)

My kitchen! Yes, it is messy, but really try to focus in on how SMALL it is. :)

The above shot and the ones below are all of the same area - my living room. No, it isn't part of my living room - that is about the size of it. The children in the above picture are starting "ring around the rosies" in celebration of carpet.

Zack's "happy" reaction to carpet

Sabine "faints" over the new carpet.

Katia... well, I think she went a bit bonkers over the new carpet.

Random Updates

2010-06-22T15:13:00.001-05:00

Yes, random updates... our life has been a series of fun and strange events and I keep forgetting to post!!! The children are helping Nana in her garden. Supposedly they were weeding and planting....

Stretching for morning constitution...

History Dress-Up! We were attempting to dress like the Greeks (Sabine and Zack) and the people of India (Katia). Dressing up and role-playing are some of their favorite "history" activities.

Katia let me braid her hair one day and this was what it looked like the next morning. She was very excited to have wavy hair - not too excited because she won't let me braid her hair again... not true. I can do a regular braid, but not a French braid, but the best waves come from French braids! :)

My attempt at showing the children's current sleeping arrangements. The two beds are Zack's and Sabine's. Katia is in the corner on the floor. I honestly do not know how you lovely mom's with multiple children in a room do it! It has been an interesting learning lesson for all of us!

I will do a different post about the house.

The only other interesting update is that I am now a Valiant 9 primary teacher.

Temple Dedication

2010-05-23T20:16:00.001-05:00

Just a quick post:

I was blessed today to attend the Gila Valley Temple Dedication with my oldest daughter. We both felt the spirit as we listened to the prophet, Elder Holland and others. I am thankful that I have another member of my family who is a member of the church!

Our new home under construction

2010-05-15T13:56:00.000-05:00

If the following rooms look small, it is because they are. In most cases, I was standing as far back as I could, but still could not capture a decent shot.
Below is a picture standing in a corner of Z's room looking out and right into my bedroom. Below is a picture of my room - what I am facing will be my future closet.

This is the best shot I could get of my living area. The window behind the ladder is the girls room. The other door leads to Z's room.

Hard to tell, but this is the future kitchen - and yes, that is about how much space I will get for a sink, counters, cabinets and a small fridge. We are not putting in a stove or dishwasher...

This is a shot of the driveway. My in-laws live on about 5 acres of land. Every morning Steve, the children and I run/walk/jog the length of the driveway for morning constitution. (sounds better than exercise). Steve also plays drill instructor and runs us through some stretches and exercise. Afterwards we say good morning to Buffy & Bandit (my-in-laws' dogs), we then say the pledge and prayer.

Hail the Spartans!

2010-05-15T13:51:00.000-05:00

We love history! We love the Greeks! We love being the Spartans! And most of all, I love this idea of using swim noodles as swords! (Thanks, Kathy!). Steve is pretending to be the different armies from Persia. My children are the 300 Spartans who held off the invading army long enough for the other Spartans and Greeks to prepare for battle.

Gila Valley Temple Open House

2010-05-15T13:19:00.000-05:00

The Gila Valley Temple is only about 2 1/2 hours from our new home. My mother-in-law, Jackie, was very kind and took a couple of days off to drive us to the temple open house. This is my 2nd open house to attend (the first was the Nashville Temple) and it was just as exciting, spiritual and up lifting as the Nashville Temple Open House. Of course, pictures are not allowed while on the tour, but here are some after photos:
Z, S and K were dying to jump up on the rocks that were part of the landscaping around the church building.... My failed attempt to get a long shot that also showed the Angel Moroni. I could not back up any farther and my camera wouldn't zoom out any more! Oh well... K was full of questions about the Angel Moroni and our tour guide was kind enough to answer all of them (after the regular tour).

A close up of my very cute children. :) I am not sure what Z and S's impression of the temple was, but K was touched by the spirit. She saw the bride's room and told me she was going to get married in the temple so she could have a pretty bride's room too. She also loved the sealing room (as do I). She tearfully asked if I had ever been in this room and I had to tell her not yet - but I would for her marriage one day. She perked up at that. Hehehehehe - yes, blatant brain washing - I need all the help I can get! :)

All in all - a wonderful tour. The drive up and back was pleasant. We stayed the night and had a great time in the hotel pool. The temple though was the highlight.

I am also excited that K and I get to attend the temple dedication next week.

When I was about K's age, we lived in Bellevue, Washington. At that time the Seattle Temple was being built. My parents knew someone involved in the construction of the temple so we got a tour before it was completed - it was very cool. Unfortunately, we moved to Idaho before the Seattle Temple was complete and we were not able to attend the open house. I was always very disappointed. I am so thankful Heavenly Father gave me the opportunity to allow my children to see the inside of a temple.

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T13:34:00.001-05:00

I found this on the Meridian website. You can also find it on Youtube. Enjoy!

http://ldsmag.com/youtube/100507remarkable.html

May all the wonderful mothers I know have a great day!

A New Chapter in the story of my life....

2010-04-29T22:41:00.000-05:00

WE HAVE MOVED!!!!!!!!!!

THE HOUSE IS GONE!!!!!!!!!!

YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!

Some wonderful friends, in their own special ways, gave us a wonderful send off.

I can't say thanks enough to the wonderful women who watched my children, packed my house and let me know they would miss me.

A group of friends got all of our children together, snapped a picture and then created a "scrapbook frame" to hang on the wall in our new home.... they also gave me a journal to write down my adventures since I was beginning a new chapter in my life. I love that idea.

But the sweetest gift was the also the one that actually made me cry.... a letter letting me know what my friendship meant and how I would be missed. Thank you!!!!!!

2010-04-06T18:50:00.000-05:00

Hehehehe - I am playing around with different layouts for pictures... still getting the hang of this blogging thing!

Well this is a quick pick at Z's birthday party today. Z's biggest desire was to have a nerf gun war with his dad. Steve, of course, quickly turned it into the children against him. The children loved it!

K and S did not have guns, but happily grabbed up all the "bullets" for the boys so Steve couldn't get any extra ammo.

This was also Z's first birthday party with a bunch of friends. He was ecstatic that all of this was for him... and that he had some great friends (old and new) to share it.

Easter Came Early

2010-03-29T15:45:00.001-05:00

This is my first year to buy Easter clothes for the children. My motivation was to find a gentle way of having Z dress more appropriately for church. He did not want a shirt and tie, but I am quite happy with an actual button up shirt, dockers (instead of jeans!) and dressier shoes (no more sandals!!!!). First time ever that I did not have to fight with him about his clothes. I hope it lasts....
The girls are wearing matching dresses, but they each made it their own. K chose a more "teenagerish" pair of shoes and chose to wear a white button up shirt as a jacket (in case she got cold). S chose my favorite - black leather patent shoes! She also chose a little half jacket in case she got cold.
Honestly, I was probably more excited over their outfits than them. Yes, I know, God doesn't care what we wear as long as we wear our best, but... oh, my..... to have my children fit the part inside my head!!!!
Below are some pictures that are probably more "real" than the first one. :)

We needed some death scenes....

notice the red socks - only thing I was unable to "control".

The perfectly crossed ankles... could have been a ballerina.

A few extra poses... these two are crime stoppers!

Another death scene I believe....

Somewhere between friendship and "Yikes, I can't believe we are doing this!"

My mother gets an "F"

2010-03-21T23:15:00.000-05:00

Well.... maybe not an "F", but mom laughed when Steve said it.

Today (3-21) my mother flew into Phoenix from Louisville, KY. Here is the comedy of errors & triumphs:

1 - My mom chooses to pack her list of phone numbers in her suitcase instead of her carry on bag.
2 - My mom's flight out of Louisville, KY was delayed by 2 hours due to bad weather in Chicago and the pilots not getting enough sleep (I don't know.....). The original flight was to leave at 6:30am, my mom had been at the airport since 4:30am.
3 - My mom misses her connecting flight in Chicago O'Hara.
4 - The Louisville group told her the best they could do was a connecting flight out of Chicago into L.A. (overnight stay) and then into Phoenix the next morning.
5 - My mother forgot to give me her itinerary - all I had was an arrival time of 9:59am.
6 - Phoenix has 3 terminals and they are not close together!!!!
7 - I pick the wrong terminal to park in (of course).
8 - Information desk will not tell me anything about my mom, but take enough pity to tell me that only flight coming in at 9:59am is United from Chicago.
9 - Thankfully, I have flown a number of time from Louisville to Phoenix (and Hawaii), so I knew Chicago was a "favorite" connecting airport.
10 - Barely make it to Terminal 2 in time.... well, actually I made it in plenty of time! No mom!!!!
11 - I call my dad - he doesn't have her itinerary. My mother does not have a cell phone. Ugh!!!!
12 - Dad hacks mom's email - her itinerary confirms she should have been on the United flight. I was right!!! But my mom is now officially lost.
13 - I go to United counter to ask for help. I am told "no" - security reasons.
14 - I must have sounded or looked desperate, Joanne agrees to verify the flight from Chicago came in.
15 - She and two other employees end up not only verifying, but telling me of the crazy stuff going on with my mom's flight.
16 - The moment they find out my mom is older and has had a few dizzy spells they immediately go to work to get her a non-stop flight from Chicago that would land later in the day. The employees of United did not want my mom stuck in LA all night long!
17 - Ed (youngest brother) calls about 10 min. later - mom called him (the only number she could remember) and explains problem. I tell him, "I know". Tell him what my Phoenix group is doing.
18 - Phoenix team gets my mom off the LA flight and on to the nonstop flight. They contact Chicago.
19 - Chicago sends out several United employees to track my mom down physically and through the page system to inform her of the changes. (Mom said later she was surprised, but pleased).
20 - I finally leave the airport at 12:30 - Ed called and said mom knew of the changes.
21 - My mom tells me that 3 different times she is paged to the counter to be told of the changes!
21 - Chicago team calls me at home to let me know my mother made the non-stop flight and would arrive safely at 5:11pm.
22 - I again drive to the airport (Katia in tow this time). Mom arrived safely. Yeah!!!
23 - No luggage!!!! It went to LA!!!!!
24 - Mom exhausted & sleeping. I am washing her only clothes (thankfully I had something she could sleep in.)
25 - Phoenix team called - mom's luggage has made it in. It will be delivered to our house tomorrow morning (3-22-10).

So... mom get's an "F" for not having her phone numbers with her. All of her children and grandchildren have informed her and dad that she needs a cell phone for traveling!
All in all, so glad the Lord watched over her and blessed us with some incredibly nice people in Phoenix and Chicago who not only went out of their way to help, but bent a lot of rules to do it.

Our Crazy House

2010-02-21T20:37:00.000-06:00

Yes, we have boxes! And more boxes and more boxes! Going or staying? - we don't care anymore! We just want the bank to decide so we can unpack our boxes! And for those not familiar with my plight... my house has been looking like this since the first week of January.

In the anticipation of moving, I happily gave away a number of things - including the kitchen table. :) The children use the bench as a table... some days I feel like I am at the school cafeteria!

The Lord of the Rings

2010-02-07T21:13:00.000-06:00

We just spent the weekend watching The Lord of the Rings. The movies are pretty decent, but the books are pure gold. I first read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when I was in the 7th grade. The books moved me to tears. My older brother than handed me The Sword of Shannara... he merely said, "I know how you feel... you need to jump into the next story." And he was right. I buried myself into the next story and the next and the next and the next. Movies don't move me quite the same way as a book. The words transport me to a different place and time where I am filled with a longing to be one with the book. I will absorb the accents, mannerisms and thinking of the characters. I will find myself looking for ways to be the unsung hero, the imaginative young girl, or the gentle and caring mother. A movie may make me cry and even pause, but it can never engulf me the way a book can.
Take Anne of Green Gables - who would not want to be Anne? She is strong-willed, smart, funny, caring, imaginative and a joy to be around. She is herself through and through and because of it makes friends and uplifts those around her. There are nine books in the whole series... when I was young I related to the young Anne, now that I am a mother, I relate to Anne as a mother. How I wish I had her patience, love and sense of joy at all her children do!
Sometimes as I struggle from day to day to find my peace and patience, I wish to right my own story where I am the heroine who saves the day. When my children spill an entire box of cheerios on the floor as they attempt to pour themselves a bowl - will I laugh? will I be patient? will I get angry? If this was a book then the heroine would find a way to make all things better with just a smile or few kind words. When my children are scared - will I know just the right words to soothe their fears? will I brush their fears aside without a thought? Oh, but if this was a book then a little poem or hug would just do the trick. If I was a character in a book could I with a stroke of a pen take my faults away? could I transform into the woman I wish to be?
As much as I wish someone else was writing the story of my life... and the story was as perfect as the great books in literature, it is me that is writing my story. Every day I put a new line, a new twist, a new adventure... or romance or tragedy or sorrow. And I have the choice of writing this book alone or with God's help. Sadly, there are too many days where I try on my own, but oh, when I do it with God's help it is the greatest and best parts of my book.
To paraphrase Eowyn and Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings... to live a life of valor with renown is what I strive for, but, in reality, the time is always at hand to live a life of valor without renown. For that is what true valor is - doing that which must be done when no one is about to take notice.

Speaking of passions....

2010-01-17T09:50:00.000-06:00

This is a quick post.

Today the San Diego Chargers are playing in the playoffs. I don't even know who they are playing. It doesn't matter. What matters is the intense emotions that will fill my home this afternoon.

Seriously - the spirit and peace of our home is affected by how well the Chargers do... and how my husband reacts. Now, to give him props, he has come leaps and bounds from when I first met him, but it is still a very intense 4ish hours.

My job? To keep the children away and to stay calm! :) If only the game would be on while we were at church....

Passion

2010-01-14T13:57:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: I wrote this blog already once and then in the attempt of adding pictures and rearranging stuff - I lost it all. Totally bummed. Here is my humble attempt at recreating it. :)

Passion. What is passion? Who has passion? Do I have passion? Am I passionate about anything? Passion can mean a lot of things, but I think the definition we most often think of is a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept. I can assure you, I have never considered myself to be a passionate person. Sure, I have pet peeves and areas in my life where I have a really strong opinion, but I don't consider that passion.
My husband on the other hand is very passionate. Football, namely the NFL, namely the San Diego Chargers is my husband's passion. I have seen him soar heights of joy and plunge deep into despair all because of a game. And yes, I am saying it - It is just a game! Who cares! Well... he does and so do a lot of other people, that is their passion. Just because it doesn't make sense to me... well, anyway... even though I do not understand Steve's passions I do admire that quality in him. It is one of the many qualities that attracted me to him. To have that much energy, desire, devotion to a team amazes me. He has other passions that amaze me as well.
I don't ever remember caring that much about anything... until I heard this quote. A wonderful friend shared this quote with me and my life has literally turned upside down:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world..."

A light bulb turned on for me. I do have passions, but I have held back. I have held my passions back out of fear - not fear of failure, but fear of succeeding. There are many things I am interested in and enjoy doing and for every single item I can name at least 1 person who does it better than me. In the past, I have just shut down, stopped trying and retreated into a shell. No more. I may not be the best at writing, photography, scrap booking, playing the piano and violin, swimming, dancing, teaching, singing, drawing, decorating, etc.... but it doesn't matter. I do those things because they bring enjoyment to me and enhance the lives of those around me. I am not in competition with others. I am following the council of President Gordon B. Hinckley - to do my best. Not to be the best, but to do my very best. There is a huge difference.

I am passionate. I am passionate about God and Jesus. I will not give up my faith or hide it under bushel. My faith is too strong and my desire to be a worthy servant is too deep. In conjunction with that I am also passionate about my family, especially my children. I am passionate about being a wife and a mother. That doesn't mean my life is so limited that I live only for them. It does mean that even on the worst of worst days, I would rather be home teaching, playing and raising my children than doing some "job". Even after the worst fight ever, I would still rather be married to husband. And because I am passionate about those two things - God and my family - amazing things happen. Like me homeschooling. I do fear success, but I am no longer going to let that fear stand in the way of being passionate about what I love to do best: be a daughter of Heavenly Father, a wife to Steve and a mother to three beautiful children: K, Z and S.

PIcs of the children

2010-01-10T16:35:00.001-06:00

S on her birthday

A Cardinals/Chargers game at Cardinals Stadium

Z in his favorite costume: Ninja... or Snake Eyes

Our homemade Christmas tree this year

K at her baptism

Cry, The Beloved Country

2009-09-06T08:23:00.000-05:00

This book has touched me. I am not sure where to go or what to change... or if anything even needs to be done. Alan Paton did an excellent job of showing hope, love, forgiviness and the often cruelties of life. I hope to always remember to do right and not worry about my position, my wealth, my possessions or even my perceived needs.

Fireproof

2009-06-28T23:04:00.000-05:00

I just saw the movie, Fireproof. Some of the acting was good, some of the writing was good, but some of it seemed contrived or forced, still I cried at the end (which is what I think they wanted - a heart touched).
I agree and live by the motto of meet the other persons needs. If both partners work as hard as they can to meet the other persons needs and not worry so much of their own, than more marriages would stay together. The 5 Love Languages and His Needs, Her Needs are two books that do an excellent job on this subject.
I also 100% agree that you need God with you - he needs to be a partner in your marriage. Through him all things are possible. Even living and loving someone who has an addiction like pornography.
I disagreed with how quickly the main character was able to quit pornorgraphy - in reality, even with God's help, it would be a daily battle. I also don't agree with how quickly the wife forgave him - stayed with him, yes, forgave him, no. That is also a hard battle that takes daily work - and it could be years of hard work on both partners before the marriage is really where it should be (better than it ever was before).
Overall, good movie with a good message. If you haven't seen it - you should.

The War Against Boys

2009-06-27T21:59:00.000-05:00

The War Against Boys is a book a just got done reading - it is a must read for anyone raising boys, working with boys or who even knows a boy!
I was shocked and saddened by so much of what happens in the name of "equality". I was weighed down and discouraged by the behaviors of boys whose lives were never disciplined by the adults around them. I was inspired to do better for my son and the other boys that I come in contact with (through church, school and play dates).
And mostly, my testimony of the Saviors atonement was fed - there is not much I can do to stop the war, Satan is behind it and he is formidable. But, the Savior has already done something - he came and suffered and bled and died for me and everyone else, including all the boys, girls, mothers, fathers, teachers, families, etc... that are being harmed by this war. I can not take the weight of this tragedy, thankfully I don't have to - Jesus already has.
If you have a son, go hug him - he needs it! And when you get a chance, read this book!

Truth and the Spirit

2009-06-23T16:22:00.000-05:00

I good friend just left (she and her children were over for a play date) and my heart is full. I don't mean to sound flowery, its just that as we chatted about theology (usually a dangerous discussion), scriptures and a book she is reading, I felt at peace. I know I did not have all the answers, nor do I want all the answers. Feeling the Holy Spirit at all times and in all places is so much more important to me.
I have noticed that when I am at peace and when I am feeling the Holy Spirit I can discern the truth of what I hear and what I read. My friend was describing how this book describes the Trinity - as she spoke I knew she spoke the truth. I think she knew it too. It was so amazing listening to her discover the truth for herself - to reason it out, to discuss it and to accept it... or at the very least, beginning to accept it.
I also received an email from my youngest brother, who at age 24 is still trying to find himself. I recently asked him to write his testimony for my daughter who will be baptized soon. The testimony he sent was amazing - he spoke the truth also. He wrote about his desire for her to study, pray and learn for herself who Heavenly Father is and about his love. He wrote about his own mistakes and how very sad he is with his life. The truthfulness of his statements hit me so hard - my brother is sad because of the choices he has made.
I do not know where the path of truth will take my friend or my brother, but I hope they both recognize the Holy Spirit in their lives.

My first post

2009-06-20T16:24:00.000-05:00

Well, this is it - I am an official blogger.
Not sure what will be on the site... probably a mix of family life, my musings and links to sites I find important. I am becoming a bit of a political activist, so that will be on here!
More later - the family is watching a movie and I need to join!