Well....I'm 30....

So today I turn 30. I feel as if I should set some goals. You know that New Year feeling. What do I need to work on, what doesn't feel right, etc. I'm sure they will fall by the wayside but whatever. It feels right now.

Most of what feels wrong in my life is the amount of time I spend on the Internet, the amount of time I spend yelling, the amount of time my kids watch t.v., and the way I feel like the day was not well spent when it's time to go to sleep. The last feeling is clearly related to the presence of all the others.

Because all of my time spent on the Internet finding lovely quotes, I give you these...

How ironic, that I want to live by these (up), yet I'm on the Internet reading it.

Excuse the language on this next one, but it is exactly the person I do not want to be!

On unschooling...

As unschoolers I have to be careful that we do not sit around watching t.v. and browsing the Internet all day (the Internet is just as good at wasting our time as t.v.). Otherwise, we are putting our children in a similar situation as the public schools would.....isolating them from real life. This is my fear. I'm not saying give up the Internet as it is the only community of like minded individuals I have and I think sharing is very powerful. I just have to set rules and follow them. With the baby, I have to sit down and hold him a lot and at those times I get on our stupid little touchpad my husband bought. This means I am always online! Then when he falls asleep and I can put him down, I've found something to read online and I continue instead of getting up and doing something....I need to throw the touchpad in the trash.

I guess it boils down to....



My goals:

Internet first thing in the morning with my coffee and at night when the kids are allowed to watch t.v.

No t.v. during the day.

At night, make a list of possible activities to do the following day and then capitalize upon Mirek and Taven's naps. Do activities that would be impossible or near impossible with them awake at that time. Do not get on the Internet!

At night, make a list of what I have ingredients to cook the following day.

At night, clean the house so I have time for other things the next day.

Morning storytime as a group (despite the kids fighting during it) and individual storytime with each child at night (take turns).

Friday game night and Saturday movie night. 

Try and be a more peaceful parent. I yell like a damn crazy person! I try to stop and think about it, but I get so fed up sometimes (a lot of the time) and I can't help it. I'm trying to find out ways to help my kids do less of what drives me crazy (yelling and hitting each other, whining, throwing crap all over the floor and leaving it, not listening the first time I tell them something and having to repeat myself 100 times, etc.) and hoping that helps. I think getting off of the computer and spending more time physically playing with them will lessen my frustration.

Join the Homeschool co-op for my area. They don't start meeting again until September but I'm hoping that I can meet some like minded parents so that my whole social life is not internet based. Oh yeah, and maybe the kids could participate in some fun activities.

And the final goal...I want to purchase a place with land. I'm setting the goal at 5 years. You can check out my About Me page to find out more. I updated it a bit to include a "homesteading" section. I've thought about what we could do to save money and I came up with the idea that I would watch my niece Abigail starting in August while my sister works. I will put away all the money I make from that. Also, we receive a fairly large tax return every year and we could put away a large portion of that. Hopefully, that will be enough.

The homestead is the key to all of my worries here. It will provide real work for us to do, real land for us to walk out to every morning. We will not be cooped up in this house in the suburbs with our laughable yard yearning for something better (a lot of my pinterest quotes have to do with making the best of what we have, living happily with what we have, etc., but I can't help wanting a real working homestead). I know I can't waste away this time here and that is why I am trying so hard to provide my children and myself with a life beyond gadgetry and media. To unplug us just a bit more...and no I cannot get rid of the t.v. or my husband would have major soccer withdrawals.

Well that's it! Happy birthday to me! I will work on these aspects of our lives with all I've got. Wish me luck!

Acting upon our "pinning"

So recently I've started "pinning." I was keeping a to do list in google docs when I realized that Pinterest is basically a big to do list with visuals and instructions. Now, of course, I'm a little addicted. However, I found myself pinning and pinning and pinning, but not actually doing any of the things I was pinning. What a trap! I told myself to STOP! Find some of the crafts or activities, ideas, whatever, and DO them. When I told Eaden we were going to do a craft from a website, she asked to look. I entered in "kids crafts" in the search box and let her browse. She found this and I told her we could make it (since I had never pinned it I couldn't mark it off my list)....oh well. Here is what we made.

We started with simple cone hats.

 Then added Rapunzel hair.

 And then braided the hair. I have to say, the hats have been a huge hit. Maybe I should let Eaden pick out what to pin from now on....

We painted cut up toilet paper rolls.

 To create this wreath.

We made fossil cookies.

And giant feet!

Not found on Pinterest, but crafty, the kids colored some white onesies for Mirek. A friend recently gave us three boxes of hand me downs and inside were about 20 white shirts and onesies (not sure where she got them or why lol).

Now that we are on a roll, I'm sure there will be more Pinterest inspired goodness to come soon.

Back Door Egg Delivery

After finding our first eggs yesterday, I woke up this morning and went straight to the coop. No eggs. So I let the chickens out and kind of kept an eye on them. The gold ones were definitely acting out of the ordinary.

 And I knew when this one headed for the pine shavings (see previous post) that another egg was probably on its way.

 Yep! Not long after she sat down...A warm and shiny egg! Right outside my back door!

If you can't tell, this is all very exciting to me :-)

We've got Eggs!!!! And One Smart Hen!

So just the other day I posted about how one of our hens likes to listen to Taven read. Taven read her a book about a hen named Tilllie that liked to lay eggs everywhere but in the nesting box. Chloe, do you remember this comment you made!?

"Aw! That chicken looks like she's actually listening hard!! Bet you start finding eggs all over the place now on!"

Well guess what?

 I went out on the porch this morning and found this egg on our bag of pine shavings! (which I've learned I am not supposed to use in the coop by the way) I asked the kids why there was an egg on the porch and who put it there. They said no one lol. I thought the hens wouldn't start laying until around August so I have not been checking the coop daily.

 I decided it was about time!

What a smart hen we have! She totally listened and comprehended all of that book! Tillie finally lays her eggs in the nesting box at the end of the story by the way. So awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

This Moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. Thanks Soulemama.

Rainy Days

Well it's been raining here for a week or so I think. Probably flooding around town, but I'm not sure because I don't have to get out and drive in it! Yay! So much better than last year though when we were in a horrible drought. Anyway, we've been mostly inside, playing games and reading books. We played outside a bit, made boats and rode bikes.

 My sister has a ton of limes from her lime tree and so we took a few.

 I've been in the kitchen quite a bit, making recipes with limes, but my food doesn't take good pictures :-) Here is my lunch for the past few days though.

Here is Taven making a boat to float down the street. He put a roach in as his passenger.

 And look! A real roach crawled out of the gutter lol! We caught it and floated it down the river too!

 Rainy day puzzle activity is always fun. Excuse my wall. Remember the wallpaper I posted about a while back (see here)? We couldn't take it anymore :-)

 Bingo.

 Anybody have tips for playing games with a 2 year old around? I've tried distracting Taven with something else but he always seems to have his mind set on destroying the game. Here he is putting the Bingo markers in his mouth.

 And spitting them out into a bowl.

Ah well (seems to be my new thing to say).