I thought I'd heard it all...

Jordan has been waiting impatiently for the second Book of Ember, The People of Sparks to become available at the library. After three looong days it was there today, waiting on the shelf. By the time we arrived home he was already on chapter 2. We walked into the house, and Jordan asked, "Can we not turn the television on? I want to read my book." Knock me over with a feather...

Graduations

It is graduation season once again. Within our circle of family and friends, three young women are drawing to a close one chapter of their lives and moving on to the next. They are bright, capable women, and I know that many good things are in store for them! Many congrats to Colleen, Angie and Amelia.

As I was sifting through the vast selection of graduation cards at the store the other day, I picked up one that played Pomp and Circumstance when you opened the card. I always tear up when I hear that piece. It sounds so majestic and victorious. "Look at me in my cap and gown!" As I was looking at this particular card, I instantly felt a pang of sadness that our children, by virtue of homeschooling, (most definitely likely) won't (endure?) that experience of entering a large arena filled with friends and family and 400 or so of their classmates and walking across a stage to receive their diploma. Looking back at my own graduation ceremony experiences, I'm not exactly sure what they will be missing though. Sure, the music and the speeches are all nice - if you remember it. For my highschool graduation, I walked into the arena with some guy - I had no idea who he was or that he was even in my class. So much for feeling like our class was some big 'family'! With four hundred students in our class - are you kidding me? When I graduated from college, our ceremony had to be moved indoors at the last minute due to an impromtu May blizzard. No pomp, no circumstance, and no dignity... we had to sit on the gymnasium floor because they couldn't gather enough folding chairs in time. At our Mom & Pop Academy for Higher Learning, we could do up a ceremony much better than that.

Speaking of, we have celebrated several of our own graduations are here lately... Jordan graduated in age from 8 to 9. He has earned a little more freedom, and a little more responsibility... Rylan graduated in age from 2 to 3. She moved on from diapers to 'big girl' pants. She's riding a 16" bicycle. She pours her own juice, gets her own snack, helps with the laundry and the dishes... She is quite an independent little girl. Owen has graduated from toddling to outright walking. He can now fall asleep on his own (which is a huge milestone IMHO...). Each little graduation feels good, but it also makes me sad. Every little change marks the passage of time to me - and time is going too fast.

One of the foremost reasons that we homeschool is to keep the kids at home and preserve the years of childhood for what they are - a time to play and be a kid. It may sound overprotective but it is what it is. Childhood goes by so fast and I don't want to miss any of it. I want to be there for every milestone and serve as counsel all along the way. The societal pressures to grow up before the time is right, the mass-marketing of products to children and all things Disney just drive me nuts. (Hannah Montana? Oh puh-leez...) I find that whenever Jordan gets together with the neighborhood kids (public school) or with friends he knows from his short stint in public school, these kids have moved into some dangerous social territory already... The young girls next door challenged poor Jordan to try and hug the older girl across the street. He is naive enough (due to nature, not nurture!) to think that they are just inviting him to play "fun" games with them. They are also working hard to expand his vocabulary. They could make a sailor blush, if they wanted too. All of these kids, when engaged in group play, are nasty, competitive and downright mean. We have had to cut playdates short due to arguments that breakout over the Wii. Now, look at the flip side. In the two years that we have been attending Park Days, I have yet to witness even a minor disagreement. We typically have around 15 or so kids on any given Park Day. On nice days, the number can swell to around 25. They range in age from infant to 12 or so. All of the kids play together - transitioning in and out of different activites with ease. The kids are polite, imaginative, supportive and kind. Now I ask you - which group has been properly socialized?

Graduation implies leaving something behind as you move on to something else (most likely bigger and better). Many high school students are eager to graduate from school and leave "it" behind. I don't blame them. The constant competition, peer pressure and phoniness of it all always bothered me. I don't feel like we are depriving our children of any important, life-changing experiences if they don't go to public school. I think they will be all the richer for having the positive experiences that they are having in our homeschool community.

Book Review: The Year of Pleasures

Sigh. I just love Elizabeth Berg's writing style. It's like pulling a warm, heavy blanket over you and snuggling down for a long nap. This latest read, The Year of Pleasures was sad and sweet. She talks about the ordinary day-to-day stuff, calls attention to it and makes it special. In this story, a newly-widowed middle-aged woman makes a new life for herself in a small town. She is feeling great loss as well as hope as she finds her way again. I love that she never loses sight of who she is or abandons what she wants for herself, in this next chapter of her life. One quote, in particular stands out to me. In the story, the widow, Betta, is trying to befriend the bitter, cotchety old woman from whom she purchased her 'new' house. The old woman refuses to play along...

"There is a story about a Navajo grandfather who once told his grandson, "Two wolves live inside me. One is the bad wolf, full of greed and laziness, full of anger and jealousy and regret. The other is the good wolf, full of joy and compassion and willingness and a great love for the world. All the time, these wolves are fighting inside me." "But grandfather," the boy said. "Which wolf will win?" The grandfather answered, "The one I feed."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0812970993/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link

Breakfast...

Most mornings it takes us awhile to get the mental motors running... We go through our morning routines of showers and dressing and a few chores before we even sit down at the table. Today we managed to begin eating around 10 am. Which is on the late side for us, but we all got up late this morning.

Jordan - Jordan is eating Rice Crispies (which he served himself, which is kind of a new thing...) scrambled eggs (which he cooked and served, also a new thing...), and a banana. He is not happy about the banana because there is just a slight green tinge on a portion of the peel. He will begin the whole dramatic scene of pretending to gag, shortly. He is reading his latest Garfield book (from the library) while he eats. He is also taking every opportunity to antagonize his sister, who is sitting next to him. (We really need to separate them at the table...

Rylan - is eating on the run. She has been busily cruising around the house, working on her banana. She does not care about the color of the peel, but does not like it when I forget and leave the sticker on. It must be removed before she will eat it. Her eggs are now ice cold... I mooched some of them to give to Owen, who scarfed his first helping down. Abby is circling the table, anxious to claim the rest of them.. which will be imminent. Rylan also just discovered that she can (by using the double step stool) reach the top cupboard of the pantry. That means that there are no longer any safe cupboards in the kitchen, save the one above the fridge. I guess we will have to find a new place for the candy stash... Currently Rylan is sitting in her chair, and is staring at me in challenge as I am requesting for about the 30th time that she eat a bite of her remaining scrambled egg.

Owen - Owen ate most of his banana, until the eggs were served. He promptly shoved most of the banana off of his tray and worked on the eggs. Then he drank some milk, and then flung his bottle a good 10 feet across the kitchen. Atta boy! He is always the first to finish, so to keep him entertained, I put little plastic animals on his tray. A brown and white pony is currently tromping through the remaining banana.

Me - I can't stand eggs, so I had a bagle with peanut butter and banana. It was the last bagle in the bag, so it is a little chewy... now on to my second cup of coffee. #1 was at 7:15 this morning, when I stole an unexpected half-hour (!!!) of quiet to visit my favorite blogs. Owen is usually up by then.

What we are listening to: We are listening to Keb' Mo' (self-titled album). Owen really likes Keb' Mo' He is bouncing in his chair to the beat. There isn't much that Owen doesn't like. Little Boots is also a favorite.

What we are doing today: As soon as breakfast is done, we are off to Target to get Owen some diapers. He is currently wearing his last one, so I hope it holds. His last package went very quickly and took me by surprise last night when I realized that we only had two left... oops.

Then it will be the usual Thursday school routine:
World Geography (Canada), World History (Sumerians), math (working with data in graphs and table to discern minimum, maximum, median, mode, and mean), life science (the circulatory system), handwriting (cursive - writing out the months), spelling (short 'e'), reading skills (will be covered when we read about the heart), writing (combining sentences), read for 30 minutes (he is reading Prince Caspian), Art (making May baskets), piano practice, and a walk to the park later today. Whew! Rylan will busy herself with sorting, coloring, cutting pasting, and putting together puzzles. Potty training is essentially done - we just work on the hygiene thing... Owen will practice his walking and digging out in the sand table. And me? My job is to look up different building plans for garden beds. We will be building them this weekend, come hell or highwater!

Now, what to do first? Oh yeah. My nose just told me the answer...

The slipper in the dishwasher

I found Owen's little brown slipper in the bottom of the dishwasher just a few moments ago. I had been searching for it earlier this evening. Never could I imagine I would find it there, as I was loading the dishwasher before heading to bed. Yet there it was. Small, soft and velvety, it fits in the palm of my hand. He grinned at me from his highchair (we keep odd hours, I know..) as he finished his late night snack. Now he is sleeping, as a snowstorm rages outside.

There is about 2 inches of snow on the ground outside. My two year old just came downstairs, sipping her apple juice, and threw up on me. Now I must put Rylan back to bed, with a towel and a pan. I'll get to rock her to sleep and listen to her soft breathing. I'll go to bed and snuggle up next to my husband to ward off the cold of the blizzard raging outside these walls.

We choose to hope

Our family is so excited by the change of leadership in Washington! It has been a long, long eight years and it now feels as though a dark cloud of fear, suspicion and deception has lifted. Never before have we (Dean and I) been so moved as to take part in the political process. I served as a delegate for my precinct at the Larimer County Democratic Convention. I had to bring little Owen with me, who was only 5 days old, because I was determined to be there. We donated money throughout the campaign, sported multiple bumper stickers on our cars, and spent several weekends during late fall canvassing in various neighborhoods. Since our house is situated on a busy neighborhood corner, we felt that 6 Obama signs were sufficient as well as one for Markey, Udall, Eubanks, Hoffman and Kefalas. I even painted a huge Obama symbol in our front window, just to get the point across in case there was any confusion. As we trick-or-treated our neighborhood, we could hear comments from passing families about the 'crazy Obama people' on the corner. We are loud and proud!! On election day we stood at a busy intersection and waved signs at passing motorists before Dean left for work. The excitement of the day was incredible! As the final election results were announced, I opened the front door and shared with the neighborhood how pleased I was. I have no shame.... :) What a journey for our family! It has been wonderful to be able to share this with our children, to let them take part in the political process and to experience it all first hand. We can only hope that someday in the next 4/8?? years that we might get the meet the man himself! Congratulations Mr. President!

Our collection of signs in the front yard. We had more on the corner and around the side of the house, as well as on the back of the house. We suffered a few losses but always had a spare sign to replace them.

The Obama rally on The Oval at Colorado State University. We waited in line for about 3 hours, but it was worth it!

Sign waving early in the morning on election day. Owen slept through it and Rylan started crying after grandma Judy drove by, honking and waving. Jordan was keeping count of the number of honks we got during the hour we spent there. I think we made it to 130....

The day after the election. One tired but happy family! I used Crayola washable paint to make the window design.

Morning of inauguration day. Much to our neighbor's delight we put our Obama yard signs back in use. All of them. :)

What a country!

The New Normal

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, savour you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it will not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky, and want, more than all the world, your return.
-Mary Jean Irion

Have you ever just dismissed today because you choose to think about tomorrow instead? It's one thing to prepare for things that are to come and quite another to never live in the moment and experience what is happening in the present. I'm a chronic worrier. Even if things are going well, I just create new worries so I can sustain a low hum of mental mayhem. I don't seem to feel productive without it, but it drives me crazy that I do that. It is hard work to quiet the nagging voices of unfinished business. For instance, I'll be engaged in some activity that I really should be 'present' for, like driving, grocery shopping, nursing the baby, or reading and doing schoolwork with the kids and have found it difficult to not think about everything else that is going on (ie; it's time to start dinner, the plants need watering, did we pay that bill??, I should be finishing --fill in the blank--). I just need to internalize the wisdom found within the words above: there is no telling what tomorrow will hold, but in the quiet comfort of a 'normal' today, where everything is as it should be, I should rejoice that it is so.

I am not the only one in our household who cannot live in the present. Jordan always has to be in the know of what will be happening next. Even when involved in some highly engaging activity (like enjoying a day at the zoo), he wants to know what are we doing after we are done. Can he play the Wii when we get home? Can he invite a friend over to play? When are we going camping? What are we having for dinner? Is it time to go yet???? I worry (see, I told you I was a chronic worrier!) about how much Jordan misses out on by never being in the present. I hope that some day he figures it out.

A 'normal' day for us does not involve alarm clocks, a frantic dashing out the door or driving in heavy morning traffic. We don't pack lunches or bookbags. We don't stand on a corner waiting for a school bus or drop off kiddos at daycare. We don't scramble to make afterschool soccer practice or struggle through piles of homework in the evenings. We don't impose a strict bedtime. We sometimes (gasp) spend our entire day in pajamas. Our version of 'normal' is vastly different than what the majority of American families experience. This is relatively new for us though - we have only been homeschooling for one year. We love our new normal though - it has brought us all closer together.

Here are a variety of 'normal' school days:

Normal can be pretty wonderful. :)