About Me - No Offense

I just figured out how to create a navigation bar up top on my blog and so created a little "About Me" button. I kind of like what I wrote and so here it is :-)

First of all, please don't be offended by anything I say. I love you all! (lqimh - laughing quietly in my head)

I left my job as a librarian in January 2011 in order to stay at home with my three kids (Eaden-age 5, Naia-age 3, Taven-age 2, and Mirek-born June 12, 2012). It is the best decision I've ever made and although money is tight, life is good! We are an unschooling family with apparently no method to our madness. However, I am patiently working toward creating a more self-sufficient, slow, and full life for my family and loving every second of it. Quit your job! (if you can of course) Create a home! -Megan

   Interests:

unschooling, homesteading, camping, backpacking, parenting, sustainable living, natural living, gardening, reading, cooking, beer, wine, bioregionalism, living history, thrift stores, baking, outdoors, music, family, sewing by hand, tom hodgkinson, libraries, Texas, sewing with a machine :-), slow food, urban chickens, wildlife, the simple life, family, crafting, making art, handwork

Homeschooling:

My thoughts and beliefs are constantly evolving on this issue, but as of right now we are unschoolers. I like some Waldorf ideas, handwork primarily, but I think the obsession with gnomes and fairies is a little weird :-) I'm not too into Montessori mainly because what I see is a lot of time spent on little activities meant to teach things kids will learn anyway (colors, numbers, shapes, etc.). Now I am by no means an expert on any of this, maybe not even a little knowledgeable....And I am talking about young kids here. I like a lot of the Charlotte Mason type stuff I see, but mostly as it pertains to older kids. However, I've stopped planning so called learning activities for my kids as I have found it is not really time well spent (for me or them). We just live and learn.

Pretty and Expensive Toys:

Listen, I love pretty toys. I understand when people talk of buying less, but buying higher quality. It all makes sense. But in my experience, it kind of gives me heart palpitations. I bought my daughter the expensive Stockmar crayons and felt like I had to watch her with them at all times. I followed her like a hawk. Don't break those! Put them all back!. Let me put them up! Then, the horrible horrible moment...she broke one! After one day! I couldn't believe it! Then I bought the kids a few very expensive handmade wooden toys on Etsy. Well guess what? They broke those too! The durable wooden toys that are supposed to last generations! So the blogging community made me feel guilty about not having handmade beautiful toys and I was a sucker! No more! We get our toys as hand me downs or from the thrift store. That's a "greener" solution anyway, in my opinion. Plastic baby dolls for everyone!

Birthing and Breastfeeding:

Do whatever the bleep you want! If you want to give birth at home, fine! In a hospital, fine! Epidural? I'm sure the majority of pioneer woman would have had one if available! Vaginal birth? Fine! C-section? Okay too! Do you want to breastfeed until the kid is 8? Fine by me! Formula until they are 9? Alrighty then. Just do what makes you feel comfortable and what is right for you! It's no one's business but your own!

Living with what I have:

My house is not an old redone farm house, I don't have antiques, we all are not running around in beautiful handmade clothes all of the time (we get those from the thrift store too mostly), we don't have cows and chickens and goats (but we do wish for them), or acres and acres (or one acre) of land. However, we do our best, we are happy with what we have, we are thankful, and we do not try to hide our lives. We (I) do seek to capture the beauty in our lives, but I do not wish for this blog to be all about perfection. We have ugly plastic things in our house, we have dirty carpet, dirty walls, hideous paint and wallpaper on our walls, and we watch t.v.. But guess what? We are very "green," (nearly everything is bought secondhand or given to us by others), we try our best to eat local healthy food, and we are attempting, little by little, to become more sustainable. We do not have a lot of money and that is okay. We have chosen this life and we are so very thankful for it.