Off to See the Wizard

Ok, not really, just going camping. We will be back on Sunday with a full report!

Happy Birthday E!!!

My baby is SIX today! How in the world does that happen, I ask you? Darned if I know.

Anyway, we had a nice day. C got to take the day off, last minute surprise, so we had a family breakfast of blueberry pancakes and bacon. Then E opened her presents from us and the one from her Aunt K that the mailman dropped off as we were making breakfast . We got her a Groovy Girl, with clothes, and the Barbie Mermaidia DVD. Pretty simple, but what she asked for. She also got, over the last week from other family, a pink Barbie guitar, some kids gardening stuff, some clothing, some cash and a savings bond, and a Littlest Pet Shop set. She is very focused on the gifts right now and was pleased with her haul!

We hung out as a family for a while, then got ready to go out for her big birthday event, the Las Vegas Mini Gran Prix. We were meeting another family there at 5 and of course got stuck in traffic on the highway. But once we got there, the fun began! There were four girls and they all wanted to do everything together, even if an adult needed to go on the ride with them, or the ride only had three spots, instead of four. That was a challenge to be sure, but we managed somehow.

That is E in the middle, racing down the big slide. We all had a nice time and I think E would declare this a good birthday. She is just excited to be six!! I'm looking forward to what this year has in store for her. It will be fun to find out!!

Cards, Cake and Chaos

Yesterday was the Life Learner Exploraganza on Artist Trading Cards. ATCs are little works of art that you create and then trade with other ATC artists. So, we supplied the cards and lots of art supplies and went to town creating some art. The kids had no problem cranking out many wonderful little works of art. Us moms had a considerably less prolific output, to say the least. Anyway, here are the girls and some friends working on their cards:

Since, E's birthday is this week and she is not having a big party with all her friends, she wanted to share some birthday cake with the Life Learners. She wanted a koala cake and that is what she got! I had a lot of fun making it:

She found me a picture I could copy, with some artistic license, and was thrilled with the results! Here she is blowing out her candles:

The chaos part of my title is just how much fun the kids had yesterday! We managed to trash our friends' house, but put it all back in the end. It was a good day. I caught this sunset on the way home, and thought the way the sky lit up was cool:

Around and Around the Loom We Go

Where we'll stop nobody knows. I bought the girls a set of round knitting looms the other day and A took to it like a fish to water. She has made herself a hat, two little hats for her dolls and is presently working on a hat for someone for Christmas. I managed to squeeze in time on the looms to make a hat for myself and E . It is very easy and very fun to crank out knitted stuff so fast! Here is A working away on a hat for her baby doll:And here she is wearing her hat:

She is very interested in handwork right now. The other day she learned on her own to braid and for two days braided everything that would let her. Then she wanted me to help her remember to finger knit, since her friend had showed her but she forgot. So, for a few days she made everyone finger knitted bracelets and necklaces. You can hers on her in the first picture above. At the conference there was a funshop for round loom knitting, but we never made it to that one. Our friends did and they inspired A with their hats, so I got the looms.

It has been interesting to watch the blossoming of her skills, in their all of a sudden way. Kids just become able to do something, literally overnight! Imagine if I had been trying to teach her these things before she was ready! *gasp* I think we would have killed each other. Case in point, before I got the looms, I thought she would be into learning to crochet. So, I tried to teach her. That was a few very frustrating minutes, to the point of C coming in to the room to ask that I back off! She was not interested or capable enough yet and it pretty much turned her off to crochet for a while, I believe. We'll see. She did manage to do a couple stiches, or whatever you call it, and then I had to go somewhere. She was not begging to continue when I got home! Good thing I came home with the looms. And the rest is history...

Red Rock

Sunday is usually the day we have church, but services were cancelled this week. So, we decided to head to Red Rock for some hiking. It was a gorgeous day. We had a great time exploring the rocks and having a picnic out in nature. Since we had quite a big rainstorm yesterday morning, there was water everywhere! The desert was so fresh from the rain. We saw a baby red spotted toad. He was so cute. We let him go after I got a good picture, even thought E wanted to keep him, of course. She loves all things reptile/amphibian. Go figure. My girly girl loves lizards and frogs and snakes. I was tripping over the cool holes that were found in the rocks everywhere. The ones in the picture below look like the face of a laughing ghost. I was really trying to get the holes inside the mouth. They reminded me of the cliff dwellings in the four corners area, in minature. Anyway, it was a good day! Enjoy the pictures:

Ren Faire

We went to the renaissance Faire yesterday with our friends, courtesy of free tickets from the dad's work. The girls had fun browsing the shops filled with all things fairy and fantastic. We did not go in costume, but had fun looking at all the people who were in costume and character. I enjoyed Pan/Puck so much I had to get a picture with him. He spoke only goat, so it was a no go for the girls to join us in the picture. They thought he was weird, too weird!

We got in trouble for taking the picture of E in the witches hat. Oops! Not like I was going to buy it anyway. Geez. They did have a wizard hat that looked just like the Harry Potter sorting hat. That was really cool.

The girls and their friends had fun poking their heads in these cool scenes. That is E the fairy princess and A is the jester. How appropriate.

I was intrigued by the people who were there in costume and character who were camping out in the park for the faire. They were living in "period" dress and everything. We saw Vikings and Pirates and other folk I can't place in history. It made me want to research all the time periods to see what was really renaissance and what wasn't. It was very much a hodge-podge at the faire, but fun nonetheless. I felt bad for them all when it began to rain and proceeded to rain hard for most of the night! Before the rain chased us home, the girls enjoyed watching the belly dancers perform. And , of course, we came home with souvenirs.

I Have a Thinking Problem

I do. I think (there I go again) I have a problem with authority. Certainly all outside sources of authority are subject to questioning, at the least, and outright rebellion, at the most. But what about when you rebel against your own source of direction? I have a battle going on in my head over what I "should" do. That direction of "should" is self applied! I am telling myself what I want to do and then promptly challenging that telling with "I don't have to, who's gonna make me!?" It is maddening, I tell you! Nothing is getting done around here.

And it is all the fault of unschooling. Or I should say it is a result of the shift in thinking that occurs when you adopt the unschooling lifestyle. First, as you begin exploring the concepts behind unschooling, you discover that life is choice-based. That the "have to's" in your head are not really required, unless you need to do them to meet a goal. And that those goals are self chosen. You are nudged to examine the voices in your head that are telling you what you "should" be doing and to get rid of the ones that are not based on your chosen goals. So, I did that. It was great! For a few years. I reveled in the freedom of life on my own terms, which essentially meant I did very little of what I had previously thought was "required", and a lot of what I thought frivolous. And I enjoyed myself.

But now, I can't shut up the voice that thumbs it's nose at my attempts to introduce some structure into my life. You know, like regular yoga/meditation and dinner, or something food-like, cooked daily. Or a craft/artsy thing each day, both for me and the kids. Heck, I'd settle for a garden planted before I lose the window of opportunity for a fall garden. The "fun" stuff is no longer fulfilling my life goals. Shoot, the stuff I want to replace it with is fun, too, but can I convince that tyrant in my head? Noooo. I've swung too far on this pendulum. I'm too far over on the spectrum. I need some centering!

Really though, when I think of it, I am probably not alone on this. It takes a while to get the voices out of your head that try to control your life. I mean, in my 35 years, I have had 26 years of being controlled. Then a few years of going about my business without real thought as to who was in charge, beyond the obvious fact that the Air Force did not control me anymore. So, for one seventh of my life, I have had control. Can you blame me for snubbing the idea of control, even of me over myself? It takes a while to get it out of your system.

I discovered unschooling and the structures I had in my head were torn down, by me, and the party began. I realised I was in control and I could call the shots. That was the easy part for me. Now I desire a change in my life, a breaking of the habits I have formed over the last five years, and a building of new life structures.

Now that I see it, I can do it. If I can shut myself up, that is.

No Worries, Mate

So, you know how the world is going to hell in a handbasket and World War III is on our doorstep? Yeah. Whatever. If we could all stop for a moment, the North Koreans too, and realize what is important in life, all this nonsense would go away. Imagine you were focusing on you and yours, putting your energy into making your life a good one for your family, instead of worrying about what "they" were doing to ruin your life. Taking responsibility for your own happiness, instead of blaming others. Seeing us all as one, instead of separate. I mean, if you saw each and every person on this planet as your family, who would there be to bomb? I may be crazy, but it is the only thing that makes ANY sense.

In light of the fact that terrorists are plotting to destroy me at this very moment, and nuclear disaster is now again a real possibility, do you think I am losing any sleep over that? Not one second. You know why? I might as well die right now, if I am going to stop living. I should just end my life and take my family with me, if I were to let the threat of anything stop me from living life to the fullest. And for me, worrying about ANYTHING is not living to the fullest. Worry is life sucking. I can hear the sound of life being sucked down the drain right now. Stop worrying and keep on living! I'd rather live my life, creating joy and sharing love, up to the moment the bombs drop on my head, than to waste a second of this life I have been blessed with.

For me, I had to lose someone I loved to get this perspective on life. Don't wait for that to happen to you. Trust me and learn from my experience. You CAN do things the easy way. Not an easy lesson for me to learn (obviously), but maybe for you it will be. So, skip the loved one dying thing and go right to the life is precious, don't waste a second outlook. You'll never regret it.

Rainbow Delight

We woke up to rain today for the first time all year. I swear it has not rained till today, at least not on our house. It was lovely.

A had fun with the umbrella and they both enjoyed bouncing on the trampoline in the rain with the friends we had over today.

After the friends left, while the sun was going down, Mother Nature put on quite the show for us.


First it was double rainbows:

Then this spectacular effect with light rays and rainbows at the end of them:

And then the sun went down and the sky lit up orange and the clouds raced across the blue sky behind them:

What a show!!

Highlights

I have been such a slacker lately about blogging, but wouldn't you know it life has happened even if I did not record it for you. So... I'll give you a synopsis of our past few weeks since we returned from the conference.

In the midst of recovering from the conference trip, I had work to do. I had less than a week to send in my article for the Connections ezine so I of course put it off as long as possible and then in a moment of inspiration, whipped it out and sent it to the editor. After a round of editing and revising, it was good to go! I was very excited to be asked to write for the zine, and look forward to contributing more in the future.

One of our big days lately was our Annual Talk Like a Pirate Party for the Life Learners. The girls and I were happy to host the party in our home this year, since we felt more free to really dress up. Last year we had it at Red Rock and climbing took precedence over pirate fashion. I think our costumes turned out pretty good, even if we did throw them together from stuff we had on hand. They added lots of jewelry to what you see here, including hoop earrings. No pictures of me, but I was all dressed up, too. We went online to the pirate name generators and all got ourselves a proper pirate moniker. I was Cap'n Jezebel Slaughter, A was Cap'n Scurvaceous Faye Sparrow and E was Cap'n Sara Hook.
For food, we had moldy hardtack (sugar cookies with green icing) , dried meat (beef jerky), lots of tropical fruits like we'd find ashore in the Carribean, and other stuff I forget right now.

It was a grand party! One of the moms brought blank flags for the kids to decorate, and much fun was had playing with our treasure chest full of coins and beads and jewels. I believe our trampoline became a pirate ship and they all got seasick bouncing around in high seas.

This week our Life Learner event was a day out at Red Rock. We usually go to this one spot that has picnic tables by some cool rocks with a spring coming out. There are trees and wildlife all around and it is really nice. The weather was gorgeous, cool and a few clouds in the blue sky, and we had a nice time. The kids crawled all over the rocks and us moms had fun chatting and watching the kids explore. Many of the kids, A and E included had fun climbing up this tree that was growing out of the top of the big rock they played on.

The kids found tiny snails and leeches in the pool of the spring. Oh, and little black water bugs swimming under the water. We saw a huge blue wasp-ish bug with orange wings, pretty black and orange and yellow butterflies, and some kind of bluejay. At the end of the day when it was just us and one other family, we heard the quail, but they did not come down to drink with us there, like we have seen in the past. A came out of the bathroom and scared a lizard so bad he dropped his tail! Or so she says. He certainly lost his tail, but I think she stepped on it. There was quite the ruckus over what to do about that lizard. They ended up putting him back near where they found him, but away from the bathroom door.This is a picture of A with one of the tiny snails on her finger. She really liked the snail, she was just making a face because I needed her to hold still for the photo and she wanted to go play!

At the end of the day, when driving home, we had to stop to see this wild burro. I have never seen one this dark! They are usually a lighter gray. He was with another normal colored burro and he really stood out. Seeing him was a cool ending to a cool day!

Today, we had some friends over for a playdate. Actually three families, with a total of ten kids from 11 down to 2 years old. Chaotic fun was had by all! I'm amazed I'm blogging at all. C has the next four days off, so we should have some good family time coming up. I promise I'll be better about blogging....

Have You Ever?

For my long awaited blogging return, I bring a little blog fluff for your enjoyment. I'm not gonna tag anyone, just do it at your own desire and let me know so I can read yours. Bold is stuff I have done:

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink 02. Swam with wild dolphins 03. Climbed a mountain 04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive 05. Been inside the Great Pyramid 06. Held a tarantula 07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone 08. Said “I love you” and meant it 09. Hugged a tree 10. Bungee jumped 11. Visited Paris 12. Watched a lightning storm at sea 13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise 14. Seen the Northern Lights 15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards) 16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa 17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables 18. Touched an iceberg 19. Slept under the stars 20. Changed a baby’s diaper 21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon 22. Watched a meteor shower 23. Gotten drunk on champagne 24. Given more than you can afford to charity 25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope 26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment 27. Had a food fight 28. Bet on a winning horse 29. Asked out a stranger 30. Had a snowball fight 31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can 32. Held a lamb 33. Seen a total eclipse 34. Ridden a roller coaster 35. Hit a home run 36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking 37. Adopted an accent for an entire day 38. Felt truly happy about your life, even for just a moment 39. Had two hard drives for your computer 40. Visited all 50 states 41. Taken care of someone who was drunk 42. Had amazing friends 43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country 44. Watched wild whales 45. Stolen a sign 46. Backpacked in Europe 47. Taken a road-trip 48. Gone rock climbing 49. Midnight walk on the beach 50. Gone sky diving 51. Visited Ireland 52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love 53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them 54. Visited Japan 55. Milked a cow 56. Alphabetized your CDs 57. Pretended to be a superhero 58. Sung karaoke 59. Lounged around in bed all day 60. Played touch football 61. Gone scuba diving 62. Kissed in the rain 63. Played in the mud 64. Played in the rain 65. Gone to a drive-in theater 66. Visited the Great Wall of China 67. Started a business 68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken 69. Toured ancient sites 70. Taken a martial arts class 71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight 72. Gotten married 73. Been in a movie 74. Crashed a party 75. Gotten divorced 76. Gone without food for 5 days 77. Made cookies from scratch 78. Won first prize in a costume contest 79. Ridden a gondola in Venice 80. Gotten a tattoo 81. Rafted the Snake River 82. Been on television news programs as an “expert” 83. Got flowers for no reason 84. Performed on stage 85. Been to Las Vegas 86. Recorded music 87. Eaten shark 88. Kissed on the first date 89. Gone to Thailand 90. Bought a house 91. Been in a combat zone 92. Buried one/both of your parents 93. Been on a cruise ship 94. Spoken more than one language fluently 95. Performed in Rocky Horror 96. Raised children 97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour 99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country 100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over 101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge 102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking 103. Had plastic surgery 104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived 105. Wrote articles for a large publication 106. Lost over 100 pounds 107. Held someone while they were having a flashback 108. Piloted an airplane 109. Touched a stingray 110. Broken someone’s heart 111. Helped an animal give birth 112. Won money on a T.V. game show 113. Broken a bone 114. Gone on an African photo safari 115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears 116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol 117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild 118. Ridden a horse 119. Had major surgery 120. Had a snake as a pet 121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon 122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours 123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states 124. Visited all 7 continents 125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days 126. Eaten kangaroo meat 127. Eaten sushi 128. Had your picture in the newspaper 129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about 130. Gone back to school 131. Parasailed 132. Touched a cockroach 133. Eaten fried green tomatoes 134. Read The Iliad 135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read 136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 137. Skipped all your school reunions 138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language 139. Been elected to public office 140. Written your own computer language 141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream 142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care 143. Built your own PC from parts 144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you 145. Had a booth at a street fair 146. Dyed your hair 147. Been a DJ 148. Shaved your head 149. Caused a car accident 150. Saved someone’s life