Dec 9, 2008

Reflections on the Changing Seasons


I have mentioned many times how much we love fall, but I am starting to wonder if it is just the changing of the seasons that we love the most. As each new season comes along there are so many changes and chances for anew.

Though I like this quote -
Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance. - by Yoko Ono

This is my favorite quote about the changing seasons:
Autumn to winter, winter into spring, Spring into summer, summer into fall,-- So rolls the changing year, and so we change; Motion so swift, we know not that we move. ~ from Immutable by Dinal Maria Mulock



As we come to the end of another wonderful Autumn season, I am truly grateful for the bounty we have obtained as a family. The changes that we have made over this past year have been countless. We are more efficient, confident, happier, closer, stronger, kinder, and most of all a more loving family.

Last year on this very date, I was sitting, agonizing over my decision to take KM out of public school. I was petrified, at the prospect of taking on such a monumental task. However I knew, deep within me, that it was the right thing, the only thing, to do that would fix the situation that had been unfolding. Over the next few weeks I was reading everything I could get my eyes on ~ as most of my information I found online. I spent hours upon hours looking at resources and curriculums, finding support groups, asking for guidance from everyone I met and listening to people try to talk me out of it or ask me
"Are you really sure this is what you want to do?"

I have been told by many, that if you had seen me during that time, you never would have known I was struggling with the decision. Apparently on the outside I was sure of myself and I think that was the true feelings shining through. I knew it was the only solution that could fix the things that were going wrong in our home. This is the path we were meant to take.

I know that it is not the path for everyone and there are a multitude of reasons why families can't or choose not to homeschool or unschool, but I wanted to take a second to thank all those wonderful, dedicated parents who have also chosen this path for their children. It can be difficult, it can be challenging, but it is so worth it ~ our children are worth it!

Dec 8, 2008

Tis the Season for...Reading

Each year when we take out all the Holiday decorations, there is one thing that really makes it feel like winter is coming - the book basket. KM and I are rarely without a book, but this basket is special because it has all our holiday books that we read and add to each year. We keep the basket by the fireplace and try to cuddle up there at least once every few days and flip through them.
Some of them have been given to us as gifts, others are favorites from when CJ and I were little, while still others are just fun!

Now that KM is getting older we may need to get a bigger book basket, but for now we have another pile on the hope chest.

Here is the list of our favorites:
  1. Snow Family ~ Daniel Kirk
  2. A Charlie Brown Christmas ~ Charles M. Schulz
  3. Beauty and the Beast: One Magical Christmas ~ Karen Kreider
  4. Snowie Rolie ~ William Joyce
  5. Care Bears: Catch the Christmas Spirit ~ Katie Tait
  6. Hello Kitty: My Little Angel ~ Paul Coco
  7. The Penguin Who Wanted to be Different: A Christmas Wish ~ Maria O'Neill
  8. There Was A Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow! ~ Lucille Colandro
  9. The Christmas Penguin ~ Mary Packard
  10. Gingerbread Baby ~ Jan Brett
  11. Five Little Christmas Trees ~ Lynn Adams
  12. Little Critter's: The Night Before Christmas ~ Mercer Mayer
  13. Strawberry Shortcake's Berry Merry Christmas ~ Monique Z. Stephens
  14. Toot & Puddle: I'll Be Home for Christmas ~ Holly Hobbie
  15. Can You See What I See? The Night Before Christmas: Picture Puzzles to Search and Solve ~ Walter Wick
  16. Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas Present ~ John Burningham
  17. If you take a Mouse to the Movies ~ Laura Numeroff
  18. Snow Magic ~ June Eding
  19. Snowmen at Night ~ Caralyn Buehner
  20. Santa Claus ~ Rod Green
  21. Judy Moody & Stink: The Holly Joliday ~ Megan McDonald
  22. On Christmas Eve ~ Ann M. Martin
The titles that we will be adding to the basket this year include:
The Christmas Book: How to Have the Best Christmas Ever ~ Juliana Foster
When Santa Fell to Earth ~ Cornelia Funke
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever ~ Barbara Robinson
A Christmas Carol ~ Charles Dickens


What are your families favorite seasonal stories?

Dec 7, 2008

Snowy Sunday

We had a great afternoon in the snow.

First we took a walk around the yard to just look at the snow.
Then we made some snow angels and had a snowball fight!
When CJ got home we all made a snowman!

They decided to make him skiing!

We ended our day listening to "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by the fire with some Hot Cocoa!


According to the weather it sounds as though Mr. Snowman will be sticking around for awhile!

First Snow Fall -

I love waking up to snow!!!

Seeing it on the rooftops, decorating the trees,


and catching the perfect tracks!!!


Rex was the first one out this morning and I had trouble getting him back in! He was running around in circles, hopping around and howling.
Guess he was excited for the snow as well!


Dec 6, 2008

18 days Til Christmas -

and my bedroom was transformed into Santa's Workshop this morning -
Align CenterI put on some old Wintry/Christmassy movies and got all the presents that have arrived wrapped.

Packages are ready to be shipped out
& the tree looks perfect!


After I had gotten all the presents done, KM started asking about the different symbols and where they come from - I knew a lot of them, but there were a few that I was surprised by. I went in search of and found last years December issue of Pagan Moonbeams written by TristA & Shannon Donaldson. It had a great list of traditional symbols and explanations of where they derived from.

Here is the article's list:

Bells–
Pagan. Bells were used to drive away demons which surfaced during the dark time of the year.
Candles–
Pagan. Candles were lit to encourage the sun to shine, especially during festivals.
Candy Cane–
Christian. Peppermint leaves and teas are Pagan, however the candy cane was invented by an American confectioner using a Christian symbol.
Carols–
Christian. Carols were introduced in the fourth century by the Catholic Church.
Elves–
Pagan. The Norse land of Alfaheimr (land of the elves) was inhabited by spirits that created the sun.
Evergreens–
Pagan. There is evidence of different Pagan groups throughout history decorating evergreens.
Gingerbread–
Christian. The Crusaders started this tradition by introducing ginger, and gingerbread. French and German bakers united to make the gingerbread into a man.
Holly–
Pagan. Holly began as a symbol of rebirth and friendship for many different Pagan religions.
Lights–
Pagan. For many centuries homes were decorated with light to frighten negative entities and urge the sun to shine.
Mistletoe– Pagan. Believed to first be used by the Greeks during winter ceremonies. The Druids are the ones who gave it sacredness and special meaning.
Ornaments–
Pagan. Fruits, candy, cookies and flowers were all used to decorate trees by the Germanic people.
Poinsettia–
Christian. An old Mexican myth of a poor boy wanting to buy Christ a gift for Christmas made this magical flower appear.
Reindeer–
Pagan. These magical creatures were derived from the Goddess Freya Stags that carried her chariot or symbolizing Cernunnos, a Celtic god.
Santa Claus–
Pagan. Either from the Norse sun-god or the Aryan god Odin.
Sleigh–
Pagan. Definitely from the Norse god Freya who spent 12 days after the Winter Solstice in her chariot drawn by stags. She gave gifts and goodwill to the good and misery to the bad.
Snowflakes–
Pagan. These represent Demeter’s tears when Persephone descended to the Underworld. The symbol was also used by Pagans throughout time to represent love.
Stockings– Christian. They fall back to a story of women who were worried about living a lone and of St. Nick leaving presents in them one night when their windows and doors were locked.
Tinsel–
Christian. A story of spiders wanting to climb on the tree and not being permitted so the Christ child allowed them to go on the tree anyway. They wove webs that covered the tree which delighted the child and he turned them to silver so they would always be there.
Tree–
Pagan. Decorating a tree began back with the Egyptians and Babylonians. Decorating a tree during this particular holiday came from a version of this practice used by the Germans, who got it from the Romans.
Wassail–
Pagan. The Anglo-Saxons started this ritual by sprinkling trees with eggs, apples, cider and ale to insure a good apple yield for the coming year.
Wreath–
Pagan. The Greeks picked the circle because it was a symbol of life (death, rebirth, death, rebirth, etc…), like the sun in the Pagan religions, then covered it with greenery and used it for decoration during their Sacacea festival.


If you know where any other Holiday symbols come from please let me know, I would love to add to the list!

Dec 4, 2008

National Dice Day Part 2

We had a great Dice Day - we started by making our own dice out of ...
Recycled Juice Cartons.

Then we made a game board throughout the house.


SC had a blast throwing the dice all around.

We also spent some time playing some oldies but goodies like Yahtzee, Pig and LCR!
Hope you had a great Dice Day too!


National Dice Day


This is a great one and we have lots of games planned. Here is a wonderful list of dice games on Wikipedia. I will let you know which ones we play and if we come up with any of our own!

Dec 1, 2008

I don't like packing....


I just don't like! Even when it is only for a one night trip, I just don't like it. I always pack too much, but manage to forget something that we NEEDED! I dislike packing even more when CJ is coming somewhere with us, because he takes literally 2 seconds to throw four things in the bag and then complains at how long it takes me to pack!!! Well gee - I have to remember all those little things like toothbrushes, hairbrushes, goggles, bathing suits, hair ties...on and on....on and on... the list goes on and on until it looks like we are going away for a month!
I can't even imagine how parents of 4 or more kids do it!!!!

Nov 30, 2008

Decking the Halls....With Sponge Bob?

We were a bit late this year in getting our decorations up. Usually we do it the day after Thanksgiving, but CJ was working and we had to get a new tree....CJ went to the store to pick up new smoke detectors and some extra lights and when he got back, went into the crawl space to get the tree out - we suddenly remembered that we had recycled the 6 year old tree last year - as it had just served it's time! - and had planned to grab one during the after christmas sales - OOPS!
It took him along time to pull those branches apart, but in the end it was worth it.


They decorated....

while I nitpicked...

and hung the stockings, doodads and boobles..

and it turned out beautifully!

We decided to put the Spongebob that is usually on the porch indoors this year.
I don't know how well SC is going to do with it, but it will be fun to see!

When do you do your decorating?

Nov 28, 2008

27 Days Til Christmas!!!!



This is my FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR!!!
I stumbled across this site that looks pretty cool!
I am so glad that I have SC around to keep the Santa Magic going!


Nov 27, 2008

A Wonderful Thanksgiving

We had such a great Thanksgiving! It was the smallest that I have ever done ~ there were only 7 of us ~ and we actually got to eat at the table family style, instead of doing a buffet line!
The turkey came out perfectly!


The kids played "Boogie" on the Wii for a bit after dinner.


Then we headed over to MC's new house for desert!
The girls hung out and watched some TV.


While the parents got a bit silly!

We were most grateful for the wonderful family that we got to spend the day with!

I am hoping that all of my visitors had a great, wonderful and safe holiday as well!

Happy Thanksgiving!


Hope everyone has a wonderful, peaceful, enjoyable
Turkey Day!


Nov 26, 2008

National Cake Day 11-26

While Googling images for this post...these were the 2 I liked the best...

I always wondered what the smurf cake was made of!

We will be getting ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow, by making several different cakes and breads...came at a perfect time!


~~~~updated at 9pm on 11/26 ~~~~~~I had high hopes that I would get some sort of cake baked today, but it just did not happen! I did cook, bake and prep all day though...that should count for something. I will make sure that for the next odd holiday we get something done!!! Thanks for stopping by and Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 25, 2008

EcoZone Visit

This week we have been on a very light "schooling" schedule because the holiday is coming so I thought another field trip would be a great idea. Since we have been studying Biology and Life Science, I thought a trip to our local Natural Science Center was the perfect fit!
We had such a good time and the whole place to ourselves! Love when that happens!
Here are some of the cool things that we discovered...


some rather interesting plants...

This one above, we could not identify, any ideas?


Some small, delicate skeletons and a visual of the turtle that has cleared up the confusion KM was having with the structure of it...

SC's Favorite thing had to be the log tunnel, that had neat windows along it so that you could see into the water on each side.


Most appropriately timed pic of the week...


They really are ugly birds...when I was on the phone with LP the other morning, she was cursing at the dozen that were on her front lawn and KM said, "but they are soooo cute, how can she be mad that they are on her lawn?" REALLY she thinks THAT is cute!?!?

Nov 24, 2008

Turkey Day Prep part 2

After yesterdays Turkey Day Prep post, I got lots of emails - and even a few phone calls - from some of my friends who are starting out with the holiday responsibilities, looking for suggestions for turkey recipes. So I figured I would take a few minutes this morning to post the recipe that I use.

Here is Giada De Laurentiis' Turkey with Herbes de Provence and Citrus Recipe. I follow it to the letter, as it has always come out PERFECTLY! I stumbled across this a few years ago on the Food Network site and have just never strayed from it, cause it truly comes out sooo good! I cannot rave enough about it and if you don't believe me just look at all the incredible reviews she has gotten on the site as well!