The Way Forward

Tonight is my last chance to sit here and write in this blog for a while. Next week we are moving back East. I have work to do to get ready for the movers over the next several days and then we will be on the road for a week and a half. The house is still on the market, but we got two showings today and one coming tomorrow night, so hopefully that could change soon. Keep your fingers crossed! We are moving back into the house we lived in before we moved out here and are very excited. Life is going to be very different when we get there and I am looking forward to that. We are sad to leave our friends here and are still in a bit of denial. I look forward to new adventures and changes in our lives, like C being home more and living within walking distance to just about everything I could hope for! And the green! I am tired of dried out browns.

Ok, time to sign off. See you in a few weeks!

I Have a Dream

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"I have a dream that one day my... little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King Jr.

Principles, Not Promises

Ron Paul is the perfect candidate for unschoolers. Why? Because unschooling is based on living life according to your principles and his entire campaign is based on sound principles, not the business as usual promises of the rest of the pack, no matter which party. You may not agree with everything he believes in -I don't- but you can't deny that he is a man of principle. He does not have to give you a bunch of pretty sounding promises to get your support because you can predict how he will handle things if you understand the principles that guide him. For example, C had some questions about his stand on bringing the military home from the war in Iraq. I KNEW his answer even before I asked him on Tuesday this week at the rally, all because I already understood his principles. What are those principles? Personal liberty, non-intervention, freedom, sound money, Truth, and the Pursuit of Happiness, to name a few. Sounds an awful lot like the principles of Unschooling to me.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Ghandi

The mainstream media is ignoring Dr. Paul, or outright putting him down as a radical long shot. I read somewhere today that 90% of the people have not even heard of him, but that 80% support him once they do learn about him. All I know is that I am proud to finally have a presidential candidate that I can stomach. And not just stomach, but wholeheartedly support all the way to the end, even if I have to write him in in November. A vote for Ron Paul is a vote FOR someone you can believe in. Not just a vote for the lesser of two evils. All you end up with is evil if you do that. I had a guy at the caucus tell me that Ron Paul can't win because he tells us the Truth. I almost said -but didn't- so, what, you want to vote for a liar, just because he is "electable"? I did tell him I thought the American people were ready to grow up and be able to handle the truth!

I have never voted in a primary election before. I have never donated money to a candidate before. I have never registered to vote under a party affiliation before. And, I have certainly never donated time and effort to support a candidate before. I have done all these things for Ron Paul. I am proud to say that I have done all these things and done them with my children, too.


Putting our sign up in the yard, against HOA rules, mind you!
The girls helped me prepare and distribute materials to pass out to our precinct the day before the caucus. I only wish I had done it sooner and talked to more people!

The girls sitting in a high school classroom during our caucus. Can you guess who they would vote for, if the law allowed them to?

There is a lot of misinformation going around about Ron Paul's platform. This link is to an excellent video that clears up some of the concepts very well. I highly recommend it.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1025709/ron_pauls_foreign_poli

"In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a Patriot." Mark Twain

Are you going to be remembered as one of the brave, or one of the timid?

At Long Last

Finally, the long awaited recount of our holiday travels. I begin the story with a picture of E doing her magic on the drive from the airport to my Dad's on Christmas Eve. She wanted a white Christmas. I wanted a white Christmas, too, considering that I packed all our snow gear!

Christmas morning at my dad's. The kids started with the stockings:

We did not have a white Christmas, except for the snow already on the ground in the woods. Here is E following a deer path on a walk before dinner:

One day we went ice skating:

My brother J and his partner K took us out to eat one night. It was their non materialistic solution to Christmas commercialism. Look how happy doing something good made them feel:

By "us" I mean my (smug?) brother N and his (inquisitive?)wife J:

...my (crazy?) brother N8 and his lovely wife...er, I mean my loving husband C, and little ol' Moi, behind the camera. N8's wife D couldn't make it this trip. But his iPhone came along. We had lots of fun with that!

We captured the cousins and took them to the Sciencenter the next day as the rest of the family slaved away helping N and J move to their new house. Here is A testing the Bernoulli effect, or trying to dry her hair, or something:

The girls had fun in the Japanese exhibit, wearing kimonos and having a tea- or was it sake?-and sushi party:

Afterward, we had pizza for lunch and then killed some more time at the park by the lake. A is standing there declaring herself too big for merry-go-rounds:

We brought left over pizza crust to feed to the ducks:

Hey, kids, turn around and smile so I can get a picture before you fall in and I have to bring you home to your Mama, wet and frozen! Ok, we all stayed dry, but we did get cold.

We woke up New Year's Eve with snow, finally! Just in time to leave my Dad's and drive to visit my friend Cecile. Of course, we had to clear the snow off the car first. That's why I had kids, don't you know?The girls always have a good time with Cecile's sons. A and J spent many hours out in the cold, hanging out.

E and M had a blast playing catch in the kitchen with a glob of flubber. Here they are begging me to throw it to them:

The New Year was rung in with sparklers in the snow:

And then we went home. The end.

Please Watch This

THIS is a great example of why I will be voting for Ron Paul on Saturday in my state's caucus, and again in November, even if I have to write him in!

Guess who...

...we got to meet tonight?

See him back there behind A?

Yep, Ron Paul! So cool. He was very gracious and answered a couple questions for me as I got a picture taken. I think the coolness of the experience was mostly lost on the girls, but they were good sports so I could go see my favorite presidential candidate. I just hope they are as accommodating Saturday morning as I drag them out of bed to go to the caucus. We have to be there by 8:30am, so we'll see!

Maybe someday they will thank me for the window into the political process in this country that they are getting, and will get, this election year.

Snow Day

Today we went up to the mountain to play in the snow with the Life Learners. It was a perfect day for it! The girls had a blast sledding with their friends and I had fun taking pictures with my new zoom lens until the cold killed the battery. I love the picture with the huge tree. The girls look so tiny next to it!

I'll be back soon with accounts of our holiday travel.....