And then sometimes...

the costume that your wonderful and deserving son just had to have, (even though it could only be ordered from Hong Kong, with expensive shipping costs) arrives just 5 hours before the big family Halloween parties. We were already preparing him for the let down, because we just didn't think it would make it in time. But, we got it, just now!!! Whew! When your kids are as amazing as ours, it makes you happy when you're able to come through for them.

Sometimes....

situations arise that make us question our choices. I have heard that ignorance is bliss, but I think in some cases you have to know what your missing to appreciate what you have. There are times (particularly bill paying times, but sometimes sick kids times, or I need to get this done and no one can babysit times) when we think it would just be easier to allow others to do the daily grind with our kids. It would be easier to make it through the bills if we both worked, it would be easier to potty train if the day care did it for us. I know that first hand from Taylor. I worked he went to daycare and magically he learned to use the potty. I barely had to participate in the process. I have to be honest, I am not going to divulge my soul here... I will however admit that this week (week and a half, really) was one of those times. For various reasons I doubted my ability to live up to my own expectations. I considered putting Taylor back in school, finding a daycare, and looking for a job. People expect less of you when you just follow the crowd, it is when you try to do your own thing that they expect spectacular results. If I didn't remember how unhappy we were, I'm sure I would have "given up". I actually (on facebook) mentioned that I was "fighting the urge to give up", when someone reminded me that "it must be worth fighting for". He was right. But, as I said, sometimes you question your choices when things get tough. I'm glad I am well informed. If I were ignorant to the benefits, ignorant to the reasons for our choices, or ignorant to the consequences of going back I would have given up. It was our ignorance for so many years that caused us most of the problems that still occasionally show up. It is our conscious choices and careful thought that will eventually get us where we want to be. There are times when we look around and are so proud of our lives, so proud of where we are, and so glad that we are not ignorant. We chose this life, the life we had before was like a pit we fell into. We can see the top now, and it is a ladder of choices we are climbing out on, we left the ignorance and it's "bliss" at the bottom. I will not jump back to the bottom now.

Garrett Lisi on TED...

Just a quick update...

Ok, so where do we stand on the health and environmental responsibility front? Well, although my stand on meat hasn't changed my husband's diet (he still makes me cook a big hunk of meat once a week) he has agreed that if I find affordable organic (and properly raised meat) he will let me buy it. (I have found it already; he, he.) And, since I made my declaration I have eaten a few bites here and there of "bad meat". But, I will not turn this blog into a confessional. I have however had an impact on my older son's diet, as he now tries to go as many days as possible without meat. And has made efforts to reduce the animal products he eats, which makes me proud of him. (He has a toddler developed addiction to fast food burgers. It isn't hard to avoid when he is at home, but certain family members pride themselves on corrupting my kids, so he often "fails" as he calls it when he stays away from home. It is similar to the "homeschooling phenomenon". Taylor knows that he is ahead of his peers in education, but when some "doubting Thomas" quizzes him on obscure facts to test homeschooling, he begins to doubt that we are doing the right thing. It amuses me that no one ever does that to prove that public school is ineffective. Although if my buttons keep getting pushed, I might start.) The babies don't really get a say. If dad is having meat for dinner, they get some. I feed them breakfast and lunch, so they eat what I say most of the time. They don't really seem to care, as long as it is food. I am happy with our progress, however, since the move some old ways have resurfaced. I have been drinking diet soda again (one of my old vices). And, our new county doesn't recycle some types of cardboard, and only picks up 2 kinds of plastic. I had intended to drop off the other things in our old county every Monday while Taylor is in his music lesson. But, I haven't yet and his teacher was out of town, so we missed two weeks. Now, I will have to get that in check somehow, because I refuse to continue to throw away plastic. I think I may try to stop buying things that use the other types where possible. And, while I have several places that I buy local produce, I haven't located a local source of organic produce yet. I have some places in mind, but I need to fit in time to find them. So, while I can't say we have completely failed, I am not exactly happy with where we are. I am also, hoping to reduce the sugar and sat. fat intake of the family a little further, but one step at a time. As far as the garden goes, we have the compost heap started and have enclosed it somewhat, but I need to do some turning and chopping in it. And, I still haven't gotten the planting really cooking yet. So, still lots of work to be done, but, we are at least aware of our shortcomings and we have plans to fix them. I will not truly be content until we find some land, and really get self-sufficient. But, all in good time. Another little aside, I have said that I am "new to caring about the earth" in a post or two (i think) and on my Alt-globe account. But, as I was reading the things that various people wrote in my high school yearbooks, I realize that I once was considered very loud about environmental issues. One friend indicated that she expected to see me protest in front of the white house and fix lots of "environmental issues". That reminded me that after my time in the Navy I had considered studying environmental engineering. Hmm, how life changes you; and, maybe some day.

quick bit of fun...

I see that a few of our friends have used this on their blogs. As we are the only ones with older children I thought I'd give it a go and compare to our actual results. Hmmm, maybe I need better pics of us, or perhaps pictures of our DNA. ;)
What do you think about my little new baby tristan?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?
What do you think about my little new baby jessica??
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?

Told you so...

I knew that this was coming; Trent is working everyday again, the game is in full swing, and nothing is on hold. I am trying to do too many things at once most of the time, and there are still things I would love to try and squeeze in. But, blogging is not a priority anymore, and I am not bored anymore. So, now I am faced with trying to continue capturing our life in a satisfactory way without letting our life fall apart. I run the risk of forgetting to mail things, missing appointments, and running in circles if I am not really careful about how I manage my time. So far, I have mastered keeping this big house clean (well, to my standards) and getting enough "educating" accomplished each week. I haven't missed anything important yet, but I expect to stay up all night tonight checking my notebook for every last "to do" and seeing that they are all laid out and ready, or at least starting that process. I just see things starting to back up. I still have only gotten a few seeds in the ground, the compost heap needs to be finished up, there are some appointments (and other various phone calls) that need to be made, and I am behind on the game blog. (Also, a few fun things that I have been putting off; and, I think the kids could use a break from the routine.) I am hoping to run over to MOSI or Busch Gardens or Sea World in the next week or two, but I don't feel ready to fit it in. Oh, yes, and the tree still needs to be trimmed so that we can get some swings up. I've been waiting for some garden picks to update the part two, also, but I may have to just go ahead and do it. We haven't really gotten fond of our new yard yet, and a stop by our old house on the way to my mom's last night made that more obvious. We all seem to miss that yard (and those great trees). Trevor still asks to go to the "old house" twice a week. So, what else is up. Jewel is learning some cute phrases, and gestures. She calls Hogan, and says, "there it is", "I did it", "why did you do that", "oh no", and "no, stop it". It isn't clear, but if you know what she is trying to say it is really cute. Trevor is learning to put the "bother" in "brother". The cymbal video was the end of a long and noisy jam session that drove Taylor nuts as he tried to study. He also tries to make Jewel play just the way he wants, and she gets very upset. And, just in case you haven't heard about his poop enough, he is still not doing it right. The problem is clear now, he doesn't like the sensation of the big poop coming out. So, instead of just going he allows tiny bits to squeeze out in his underwear all day, rather than just getting it over with all at once. Even when you convince him to sit on the toilet and try, he will hold it in and later try to get it out a little at a time. This results in (much frustration for me) about 12 pair of dirty underwear a day. The only advice is to not pay it much attention and not try to force him to go. Yeah right! After 4 "wipings" I am ready to scream, "just sit on the fing toilet and poop". But, that would only make him resist more. So, I take a deep breath wipe it, offer the toilet, and tell him that his butt would stay cleaner if he would just let the poop come out. He disagrees, I go into the garage and cuss, then, try to go on with my day. This is getting old, but as with so many things involving our offspring, there is really nothing that can be done. It is in his hands, well butt, well, you know what I mean. And Taylor, well, he is learning about deodorant. (He actually started asking about puberty this week. No, I didn't cry, but I wanted to.) His feet are as big as mine now. We have jumped to a new place in the game, and now we're studying anatomy among other things. The game is working the way I had hoped, but I am looking at it as a possible item to sell, not just for it's ability to work in our own home. That makes me question parts of it constantly, and I haven't really been able to work on it like I did before the move. I am sure that all these things will fall back into place soon, I just haven't found the flow yet. We are trying out lots of little things to maximize the learning that happens in the house, and most of it works. It is not as simple as "lets sit down and learn something" which was a surprise to me. But, I do feel effective, and as we are already covering things that he wouldn't learn for 3 more years in school, I doubt we will "fall behind". But, simply "keeping up" is not the goal, so I will be constantly upgrading our learning habits. Trent has spent an amazing amount of time on the radio with political shows. He calls in often and has been on air enough that I tease him he should get paid. 820 AM is the station to listen to, well and of course his beloved Bubba show. So, here are the pics. Trevor has a monkey on his back. Jewel stole Trevor's hat. And, the look on my face follows a discussion on the number of things that were broken this week. (Jewel broke a DVD in half in the van last night. It is one of the set of lectures on Music theory, and it will cost almost 200 dollars to replace. Also, the new bunk bed in Taylor's room sustained damage that can't be fixed but luckily doesn't affect the use of the bed.) Kids are expensive little wrecking balls. Morlynn stayed the night Thursday, because she didn't have school Friday. We always love visits from Momo, and not just because she likes to vacuum.

Day 11

First, just a quick note. I originally expected to play a "day" a day. It seems however that the game "day" has too much material for a real day to handle. I could reduce the material, but we really like all of our requirements and so we have agreed that the game "day" can take as long as it needs. Now then, that silver glow was in fact a silver space. However, the jump wasn't as easy as the first jump. Taylor is a level 2 now, and so the rules have changed a bit. Fees are higher, help is not free, and in general things are more challenging. With the increased difficulty I have added more "rewards". There aren't really rewards, but the fun things are allowed more time, and in other ways there are more privileges. For instance, he is allowed to hand in pages of notes for points. They can be notes from any of the resources that we read, watch, or listen to together. Today he created a page of notes by drawing and labeling a brain, then describing the regions and what they do. If they don't relate to the place we are in they are worth less, but still acceptable. Now then, where are we now? In Shinken. Taylor has been asking what the name means for ages. I finally told him (it means "real sword" and comes from the preface to the Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi) and we read a bit from the new books related to this place. In Shinken it seems that the focus of the people is on martial arts, anatomy, and the history of China and Japan. We have begun the Ten Terrific Weeks Adventures in the Human Body, a lapbook on ancient China (from HOAC) and began building parts of the body with a Scholastic book titled Easy Make and Learn Projects Human Body. Today we made a "body book", and using a few additional Usborne books not included in the TTW program (all with internet links) explored about 10 different websites about anatomy. They were all very interesting, we even got to kill cancer with radiation. We also colored in our Anatomy coloring book, by Margaret Matt (we have another called the Gray's Anatomy fact-filled coloring book from Start Exploring.)

Taylor was quoting things he learned all night (every night). We also found a fantastic algebra game that is similar to Pacman, and we learned how math and medicine are related. In our study of music, we learned about some of the instruments popular in ancient China, and we watched a lecture on pitch and mode, which led to an indepth conversation on fractions. We also used the internet links in the Usborne Encyclopedia of History (and the text, too) to learn about the Jomon culture. We also read from the About.com newsletter about Japan's history and another that teaches one new Japanese word a day. We finished the day by starting a book we were waiting to read The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. With so many wonderful things to read and study it is amazing that we remembered that we are here to organize the knowledge for the people of Know, but when the tax man came around to collect the fees for the night's lodging and transport, we remembered to turn in the Webreport we created from the slips of knowledge gathered during the interviews in this amazing new place. Taylor earned 41 Knollars and 7 knows. He also has begun to earn dexterity points for math worksheets or notes, earning 3 points today. Like the bravery points that will cause his Bravery rating to increase, dexterity points will be combined with strength points to help his strength rating increase. This will have the potential to help him but also challenge him further when he faces another enemy battle. I have been writing down "battle" questions from each day as we learn and study, and now I have a very thick battle book to draw from. This will be a great way to see if he is really "learning". Also getting thick is the "scrapbook of knowledge" as we have been making portions of lapbooks and creating our own notes on the notebooking pages that relate to the various topics we have studied. We are hoping to organize it into related topics and perhaps alphabetize the topics.

Day 10

Today we ran into Sr. Espanol. We took advantage of his presence and translated part of "Donde Viven Los Monstruos" by Maurice Sendak, and we studied lesson one from the byki program. We spent several hours playing on various sites from the Usborne Internet linked Encyclopedia of World History, and the TTW program. Our favorite game was called Time Pirates and we learned so much from it. We also played on a site that was about Mary, Queen of Scots, and was extremely interesting tying in nicely with the studies of Martin Luther from day 9. (I will not provide the list of sites as I am sure some copyright applies, but the book is worth the money.) We added a few more pieces to the castle, including a hilarious privy. We read a few more tales of King Arthur and added some dates to the timeline. At the end of the day, Taylor has earned 60K and 12 knows. That moves him to a level 2. Now he gets to add one word to his character's name of description. He added wolf. He is now a wolf scholar. Some of the rules change for level 2. One change is that help must be purchased. Also, fees are increased, and jumping is more difficult. Another slight change is that the required tasks will be "required", we had been allowing passes based on time limits. Additionally, Taylor has added Bravery to his character. He rolled a 6. It will take 100 bravery points to move up to a 7. (Bravery points can be awarded however you see fit.) I awarded him 3 points for walking through the dark to toss out the smelly food into the compost (he doesn't do well with smells) and plan to offer them when there is something that is challenging for him to try. I have added Strength to his character, but he will start at one. This will work the same as bravery, with points given for strength building exercises, like gardening, running, and (for our family) wrestling. Looking ahead, from the window of our lodging for the evening, we think we see a silver glow. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Just an idea...

Reliable Penn...

Just some stuff...

Just Jewel and Dad...(saturday night) We went to the park in the back of our subdivision with Tish and her babies...(sunday afternoon) The trampoline...(sometime last week) Jewel brushing her teeth...(saturday) And, some pics from the surprise visit and first time I babysat for Tish. I haven't done this for a while. But, it was only for a few hours. ("Thank goodness", said Taylor.) So this is what it would be like if I had given birth to twins both times. Our children are months apart and in the same order. Boy then girl. (minus the 10 yo). I recorded a great little video, but something happened and it didn't save; and guess who took the first pictures. (hint: he's very short.)