Who knew?

Okay. So one of these days I may get around to getting my food blog up and running... we'll see. It's so interesting - today's world of food. What is even more astonishing is just how much I didn't realize until I started reading. It has knocked my socks off... I literally dread trips to regular supermarket (and now with Azure Standard I won't have to go much at all), bc I don't know if there's much in the way of food there. Honestly, there isn't much. Not real, whole food anyway. We are basically a nation of chemical consumers and genetically altered "food" junkies ... and it's no wonder we feel the way we do. The thing is, many people haven't even given it much thought.

There are lists upon lists of ingredients found and consumed by the majority of Americans that have been scientifically linked to cancer, hyperactivity, anxiety, insomnia, depression, weight gain, headaches, poor vision, balding in both men and women, hormonal problems, infertility, alzheimers, and the list goes on and on. So what do most Americans do about these health concerns? They seek healthcare providers. Who mean us no harm, but what they have to offer, typically doesn't do us as much good, or may have better effects if only we'd make changes in the way we think. And go a step further in allowing that shift in thought to permeate and change our behaviors... And I'm not only talking about foods...

We live in a culture that is so busy running here and there - we live by an overly filled schedule. I am all too guilty of this, too. And in the process, we give little thought to some very key areas of our lives... we're just too busy to add one more thing to our lists of things to think on awhile. And somewhere we get this notion that , "we're young and this is what we do in our 30s and 40s, right?" But then, what really lies in store for us in our 40s, 50s, and 60s? Are we so caught up in the "I'm here and want it now" consumer culture that we really haven't stopped to see what might be coming ahead?

Today's babyboomer generation is seeing record numbers of cancers, heart disease, etc. And the age of those effected by the same illnesses are dropping. In a study found in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (vol 27, no 17 (June 10) 2009) they are projecting a 45% increase of confirmed cancer cases in the next 30 years. And that is only one study I looked at recently. Could it be this harried lifestyle coupled with not so great exercise habits, stress-filled lives and no-thought eating habits and consumption habits (like lotions, etc.) could be causing our bodies to say - "Whoa, I can't run on this or like this anymore."

Okay. Enough soapbox chatter. All I meant to get on here to say was that I recently borrowed a cookbook entitled Nourishing Traditions. Now, I have been interested in eating well, healthy cooking, and getting back to the old way of doing things for awhile now... This book neatly packages it into one book. I think it's great for the beginner. So today, I decided that the Cream Cheese Pastries sounded good. I don't much in the way of sweets in our home. I avoid white sugar at all costs. In all seriousness, that stuff will kill ya - right along with canola oil and other vegetable oils... But I digress.

So I have been in the mood for something with cream cheese. I didn't have any on hand today.... which always gets me thinkin' how people made the item prior to it being in a consumer-happy package at the local market. Well, I learned today you can make homemade yogurt very easily and for cheap. Esp if you have a crockpot or a dehydrator. Yep, and you take that freshly made yogurt and hang it up. Mine is currently hanging from my microwave (it's a much better use of it than using it for cooking/heating anything) and once the whey has stopped dripping, you have cream cheese. With more flavor (and mine is raw milk so it has all the needed enzymes for lactose digestion and processing along with a lengthy list of minerals and vitamins) You get the added benefit of the whey (which also has a bunch of uses, I'm learning) with which you could make homemade ricotta cheese.

Who knew? My grandma probably. Man, in looking around the store, my kids' friends may one day think it novel to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch. I mean, they now make a all in one package of dump and stir) I wonder if our grandmas were disillusioned by boxed brownie and cake mixes? I'll bet they were. Hmmmnnn and we're trading all this rich tradition and know how for chemicals that are making us tired, making us obese, and making us ill...

That's some food for thought today. :)

Can we get back into the swing of this, please?

Okay. So this whole blogging thing is funny. I don't really have time for it, but if I don't write something down, I fear I will miss these funny chronicles later. So for the record, today I learned that school in the afternoon needs to be VERY light for a 4 and 5 year old. ;)

I had given a brief, 3-second thought to doing a few school-type things with the girls this morning before leaving to meet Eric for the behind the scenes shark tour today. Then I had this funny feeling that if we didn't get there right at 10am when it opened, we'd be sunk. So I got the five of us fed and ready and in the car, grabbed some gas, and headed to the sharks! Only to wait in line and miss the tour cut off by two people. Bummer. We did thoroughly enjoy having Daddy come and see all the things we have been learning at the aquarium. It was fun. I always like having Daddy along for activities. Then we had lunch together...another fun treat we try to do together when we can. Especially during the week before Daddy leaves us for another long business trip.

So we arrived home this afternoon and my first thought was to grab the latest read-a-loud book, head for a bed to rest and read together. Then the girls started asking for school bc we hadn't done any that morning. They really wanted to do math games. I love that they love them! So I pulled out the "Weekly Schoolwork" bin, and rummaged to see what I thought we could mentally handle this late in the day. Ainsley found a few worksheets I had printed off that were a sample from a 2nd grade Math workbook. I knew that they would take major mental energy, so I mentioned waiting on them until tomorrow. Nope. Now there was a challenge on the table and she was all about setting out to see if she could beat it. Well, it did take awhile, but she completed it all on her own. I just want to say I was pretty impressed. So when I went to do something else, she said her brain hurt. I'll bet it did.

Emmalyn was eager to work on reading again, so I told Ainsley to grab a novel to read while Em and I worked through a page or two in her book. Emmalyn sailed through like nobody's business. She might be a kid who actually reads better after a morning of getting out the wiggles, whereas Ainsley and I like to start fresh and rest later on. This could make for some interesting dynamics. :) Oh, the fun!

All in all, I must say that things around here seem to run much more smoothly in the morning hours. I think most of it comes from the familiar routine we have established. Ah, the power of habit formation... I so need to re-read the Laying Down the Rails book and see what other fun things we might practice. Anyway, so I learned lots today... I learned that it's probably a good idea to stick to using the car-schooling ideas on our trips about town and to come home and spend the afternoons reading together. Ah, I love homeschooling. I really, really do.

I truly am blessed to be a mama who gets to educate her kiddos at home. It isn't always the easiest, but it is SO rewarding. I couldn't imagine life any other way - I've tried, but I can't comprehend it. Maybe that's God's doing, I have no idea. I just am grateful and humbled.

I don't think there will ever be enough words to express all that I feel about homeschooling - it's just beyond words. Perhaps until one starts the journey into exploring the world of home educating, it can't really be understood. I'm not sure. All I know is that I certainly didn't understand it before I was led to consider it for our family. It used to be so foreign. Although, I naively thought I had at least the major viewpoints figured out.... ya know, the "whys" of choices of homeschooling families. I still couldn't understand what would draw people to it in the first place. I thought they were mostly comprised of families who didn't want to be separated from their kiddos all day... or families who home educated bc they wanted to be the only major Christian influence in their kids' lives...or families who really wanted to see their kiddos grow in their knowledge. The truth is, all these things fit somewhere into the mix, but that's not the heart of it at all. Not for us. It goes SO far beyond that. It goes SO far beyond even educating... but falls more along the lines of life-training and rich family connections and moving beyond the fast pace of our culture... and, really, so far beyond these reasons. Like I said, it's just beyond words - but the feeling I have of immense gratitude and humbleness... It's tangible. Gosh, that God would lay this calling on my heart and give me all that is needed to step out in faith each day. Why would he chose to bless our family in such a way is beyond me. That He promises to take us step by step through this process, astounds me. I am nothing. I have nothing to give. He is everything.... and I get a front row seat. It's pretty incredible.... No words.

I am constantly amazed by how many blessings I have received in and through the process of our journey in beginning home education. I could have never, ever imagined walking this road even 5 years ago. I couldn't image my life any other way, today.

So among the many lessons I learn each day - from my kiddos and along side them. I am constantly reminded of how little I really know and how much of God I need moment by moment. I think that might be the richest part of the blessing - seeing in many, many details how much I am in need of God and His grace and guidance to get through each day.

Yep, I learned much today... I love my life. I love my hubby and family. I love homeschooling...and I really need to work school into the fabric of our morning routine if possible, but also that flexibility in all of life is a skill and a gift - one that needs embracing regularly.

So, all in all, it proved to me another successful family home educating day...

and we even got in Math and Reading even. :)

Off to read our read-a-loud to my giggling gulls in the other room. I love hearing their laughter. It truly makes me grateful to be their mama... living a full life - with lots of laughter. :)

Hope your day is filled with the awesomeness of God and His amazing grace and goodness...

Lisa

Maybe I can get back to journaling a bit of our homeschooling again...

Okay. So things have been WAY crazy around here the last few months... and while we're still crazy with all that is happening, I've decided that it's easier to get back to a more "normal" day - and get into the habit of school a bit more.

Now, the Charlotte Mason philosophy suggests kiddos don't officially begin educating before age 6 or 7 - meaning they don't begin with such things as narration. Now, we all know kids come in all shapes and sizes. Learning styles and what they show readiness for, of course, all vary as well. So, we recently started with narration of various types with Ainsley. It's definitely is a skill to be learned and a great life skill to possess...but I digress.

So with that said, we started "back to school" which is such a funny notion for me at these tender preschool years. The last three weeks have been more "formal" than anything we have done so far. I mean, I really only did anything that was formally planned for about 2 months last fall! Even still, these more formal weeks still wouldn't much resemble anything you'd find in a traditional classroom. Well, maybe the fact that we gather around our kitchen table for part of it, perhaps.

For us, learning time has been averaging about an hour a day. I'm just going to go through what we have been doing so I can look back and chuckle as we make changes and things progress... If anyone else ever reads this, you just get the bonus or boredom of hearing what we have been up to lately...

We begin our time with reading straight from the Bible and chatting on it awhile. My favorite is listening to the prayers of my kiddos as they ask God to help them with the lessons we've listened to and how we might apply them to the day. Some of the applications the kids come up with are hilarious! This sets the tone for all that comes next.

After Bible, we read from one of our FIAR books. Not everyday, bc the girls know the story and basically tell it back to me without even hearing it again. Which lets me know they really know it. They often share new insight into various lessons or new ideas that pop up from just seeing the book again. If we read a book, we often do a short activity that relates to the story... depending on the day, it would cover geography, language arts, science, math or art.

Following any FIAR discussion or activity, Ainsley works on copywork that I have taken from a portion of a hymn. I used to take the StartWrite program every once in a blue moon and have her do her name and some numbers and some letters. How boring is that??? Who wants to spend time making ten "t's" - certainly not me! I have found that she is delighted to see what the next part of the hymn will be for that day. She's seeing news words such as "ransomed" and "reconciled" and it has provided a great springboard for some discussion on meanings of new words. She loves it. Often, she asks to start with this before anything else. I've found she really works to do her very best for the ENTIRE time she's working, because she doesn't become bored with the endless repetition of something that, to her anyway, seems to possess no practical application. While she works on that, Emmalyn and I have started work on reading. She's reading the beginning Bob Books (which are probably twaddle, but she feels successful and that's what I'm going for!) and some of the early readers from Abeka. I didn't do any phonics with Ainsley, but picked up an Explode the Code book 1 for Emmalyn. She loves reading the exercises and she likes the idea of having her own "school book" so we do a page or two in that together. I think it is beneficial bc of how quickly Ainsley took to reading. This gives Em a chance to have her own thing with me and she thrives with that. It takes the competition out of it and for my very competitive child, this is a great thing!

So that takes about ten to fifteen minutes or so. Then we move on to Early American History or Science.We alternate days unless the kids ask to read from both books. We are currently reading and narrating episodes from either the D' Aulaire book on George Washington or The Burgess Animal Book for Children. The kids love it! They were enthralled with the fact that a woodchuck (Marmota monax) is a member of the Squirrel family. It's great to curl up on the couch to read from these books...the girls continue to amaze me with their ability to recall what we have read from past days and also share their excitement and insight on what we read that day together.

We usually end with Math. I use a couple of things: Math U See and MEP and mostly just a whole lot of games from a Math Game book for elementary kids. This week we started with beginning place value concepts. Ainsley has been building numbers through 35, but wants badly to build up to 100. I told her we have to get really good at this part first. It's a fun way to make this concept easier to grasp. It's also a game that reinforces one to one correspondence in counting and a great deal of the other basic skills. The other game we just started has them using manipulatives (noodles, acorns, puff balls) to add and subtract numbers which is reinforcing their addition and subtraction of numbers 0-9 but also branching into the two-digit numbers as well. It's nice to see them starting to do math in their heads as we continue to practice in these concepts in a fun, game-playing manner.

So that's about it. We read from one chapter book in the afternoons - not everyday, but many. We also have one going for evening reads... Many times, Ainsley takes the one we haven't done together yet, and goes off to read it on her own. I am really having trouble keeping her in good chapter books....and we have quite a few around here. I feel like I am constantly running to bibliomania for some new books for her....which I am not at all complaining about!

Just for my own need to recall where we were at such and such time, Ainsley has read Beezus and Ramona (not a living book, but fun anyway) and Farmer Boy, in their entirety, this week. She also has read large segments from In Grandma's Attic and one of the American Girl doll books. She would bring a book everywhere she goes if we'd allow it. She plays tons (often reinacting parts from the Bible or books she's read or reading) but often I'll find her riding her bike with a book under her arm or playing play dough with a book tucked under her seat. After awhile Il'l find her laying in the grass or on the floor reading. Now, we aren't ones to squash her love of reading, but we do curb it a great deal most weeks. She'd have her head buried in a book for hours and hours every single day (and she's known to take her head lamp into her closet to secretly read after we have put her to bed). I do ask that she comes back to tell me about her favorite parts of the books she's reading. She could rattle on and on for hours about various portions of the books. I try to keep it light bc it's pleasure reading, but I want to be sure she's gaining skill in comprehension - which I guess is silly, she wouldn't read it if she wasn't understanding and comprehending it. Anyway, I hope that passion for reading never leaves her.

So that's what "school" has been shaping up to be so far. Sounds far more involved than it actually is. We love it. The kids beg for it. The other moments of the day are spent hearing them laugh and use their imaginations in play (and fight and pull hair and hit) and they are often collecting tons of crazy stuff outside to draw or paint in their nature journals. They are all out and about - pulling out crayons and paper or using puzzle pieces as "food" for picnics.

Oh, I almost forgot... This week, we chatted about watercolor medium and the kiddos painted for a good while. I had them paint something from at least one of the books we were reading. The rest of the time was spent painting rainbows and butterflies and flowers. We also did artist study for about 10 minutes one morning at breakfast. I have some prints of Jan Vermeer up on clipboards near the table, so we shared some funny conversation (little kiddos have some amazing thoughts about art pieces in my house!) together. I share a few tidbits on what I read about the artist that struck me just as some added FYI material.

Yep, that's what we did... and well, this week we didn't do anything but read a loud on Tuesday and only spent 40 minutes on Wed. We're not hard and fast about this. I just like having things planned out so that we can utilize our time and move with ease through the day - esp when it's hot and being so pregnant, I don't much want to be outdoors. I have been trying to do something in the realm of "school" daily. Just to get myself in practice for more work/structure/subject matter next spring as we continue to move into more and more areas of learning. It's truly relaxing and has offered much in the way of interesting dialog between my wee ones and me.

Now, I'm primarily working with Ainsley with all of this, Emmalyn just comes to do what she is interested in. Micah comes and goes - he's mostly in for the Math games - but we spend time counting something or another together. The boy doesn't get a bit about colors... but no worries, he's either color blind or it just hasn't come together. It will eventually. I don't push. If any of my kids aren't feeling like doing what I have planned. They are still very young and I don't push it. We just find something in the bin they might be interested in. Once we start on that, I like to work at increased attention span, but if I sense we're on the verge of losing interest, we move on or end.

So this is a post mostly for my own benefit. I'd like to look back and see where we've gone from here...

I did make some scratch pumpkin bread this week using a friend's pumpkins. I also made approx 10 gallons of beef stock for use in my marathon cooking adventures that will come next week - I hope! I think Sat will be the day for roasting 8 chickens... and then Monday will be fixing chicken stock from the leftover bones. So by the following weekend, I'll have much done. With hubby traveling in and out and all around, I have to be far more prepared than I have ever been in the past. Mostly bc I'll have the 4 peanuts around while I try to get this process underway. It's also more work this time, bc this will be my biggest cooking event yet. Meaning, I'm cooking more meals this time than I have tried before. I just don't feel like cooking when it's hot. It's only getting hotter. I also don't like to cook at the end of my pregnancy. So I don't want to cook come Sept. That leaves me with cooking now.

So, maybe it won't be so long till I post again. Maybe I'll include some photos of the giant cook-a-thon after my Azure Standard order comes in! I have my second freezer all ready to go. Who would have thought I'd be where I am today - homeschooling goodness, freezer giddiness, and all my little helpers under age 6? Certainly not me... but I seriously couldn't be happier or feel more blessed than I do right now.

Thank you, Jesus.

Sunrise of your Smile

I first heard this song when I was sick back in high school and early college... I remember tryin' to tell my mom about it because the words had really touched me. Anyway, months, maybe even a year passed, when she found the Scribbling in the Sand album by Michael Card. I remember she had left it for me with a blank sticky note that had nothing but a smiley face on it... my mom always used to put a smiley face on her notes... and even still, almost always does...

Well, I was just cleaning out a drawer in the office and found it... and thought it might be a good one to post simply for my own benefit... :)

If only hugs could stretch miles...maybe life wouldn't feel so disconnected...

Holding on to the only One I can...

when only God knows...

Have you ever felt that no many how many words you spill forth, no one understands where you're comin' from? That's how I feel most days lately...

So maybe I'll find some truth in myself that resonates with the words of song... and feel understood...

So thankful that God understands me even when I can't find words enough to bring understanding...this world can sure be a lonely place sometimes...