Rest

We heard in church, at the beginning of our winter season, about how winter puts a blanket of snow on the ground and the earth goes into a state of rest. Our pastor mentioned how God gave us this gift of winter for us to rest too. It is so true, especially in Alaska where, as my sister puts it, darkness and cold rule the winter, that winter does cause us to slow down and rest. Here in Alaska things just sllllooowwwww down in the winter and the minute spring hits there is an immediate buzz of activity. Our family has certainly slowed WAY down this winter, especially after the extreme hustle and bustle of a six-month long RV trip around the country and then coming back to Alaska and house hunting, moving in, unpacking, getting rid of stuff, doing some home improvement/addition projects and then.................WINTER. I have actually enjoyed just being home with my kids, doing art projects, and generally just resting!

Rest is something our society really struggles with and I am glad that my kids are learning from an early age that rest is a good thing. The last couple of weeks our pastor has talked about how important it is to rest one day a week, or even for a few hours a week if that is all we can muster, if we expect to respond to things with grace. He mentioned how he feels that a lot of the irritation in people these days is a direct result of lack of rest in our society. People just don't know how to or give themselves permission to just slow down. I love this because I really don't think we can be good parents, good spouses or just generally nice people if we don't rest. Martin and I have started making a habit on Sunday to do nothing! Just relax and rest. Of course the definition for rest is different for everyone. We picked Sunday because that is the only day of the week that Martin doesn't work, we go to church that day and it is the one day that no one has anything on the calendar. It has been such a treat to give ourselves permission to do absolutely nothing on that day.

So, this thought process all started for me because I took the dogs out this morning and our snow is melting at a rapid rate. We have had 35-40 degrees all week long with a mild wind blowing fairly consistently, which makes the snow evaporate faster. It made me feel like taking a jog or something (which I may just do here in a little bit). It is just funny how that warmer weather, the smells, something about it that makes us snap out of that state of "rest". This is supposed to last for at least another week for us so we aren't going to have any snow left. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so that will definitely get rid of it but make the roads treacherous, especially for all those commuters going into Anchorage.

My kids will probably be a little sad after working so hard and long on those snow forts in our yard. We haven't seen this much snow since we lived in Wasilla so the kids were actually really enjoying it. But you don't hear me complaining because I LOVE the warmer weather. It is funny how 40 degrees can feel like 70 after 0-20 degrees.

Off the subject.................I mentioned in one of my earlier posts about how I ripped out a bit of the wood from our sauna (it's getting changed into a bathroom) and went to my father-in-laws shop to plane the boards down and cut them to make gates. We have been putting chairs up in different areas of the house that we want to keep the dogs out of. They are still at that age where they get into things a bit so we like to contain them in the main living area so that we can see them at all times. So I finished one gate this week, Martin helped me put them together and Merle helped me a little with knowing how to cut them, but I like to think that this was my project. It turned out rather nice, a little country looking and my house isn't country at all, but I like it. It looks so much better than a chair sitting on its side!

My next project is going to be a puppet theatre for Calista, who has been spending the entire week making puppets and giving us puppet shows. Each puppet has a "personality" and she is more than happy to tell you about them - the "mom and dad" have lots of money but they give all their extra to the poor and needy. They only give their kids what they actually "need". LOL!! I wonder if this is coming from the fact that money is a little tight in our household right now and this need to be frugal is a fairly new experience for my kids. It has been good for our family and I think it has been character building in several ways. It has been a little scary at times but we have yet to run out of food, we still have clothes on our backs, we still have a roof over our heads, and we are both driving cars so we are good!! And...........we have each other!!

Puppies

These two have wiggled their way into our hearts!!

My weirdness???

I've been tagged by Kelli. I'm supposed to include in a blog 6 weird things about me.

Here are the details: Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as clearly state this rule. After you state your 6 weird things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you're tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means. So here goes.

1. I'm a vegetarian (is that weird?). I don't think so but some do :)

2. I refuse to drink my morning cup of coffee until my teeth have been thoroughly scrubbed.

3.I'm ALWAYS cold! I keep my house at 75 and my bedroom at 80 and I still get chilled!..................and I live in Alaska!!

4. If I get stressed I start painting walls in my house, that is my therapy.

5. I roll my eyes a lot when I talk to people.

6. According to Sara Hajduk it is REALLY weird that I smother everything in honey-mustard sauce. Ren says that this should be #1 on the list, especially when I start dipping bean burritos in it!

There. :)

I'm tagging:

Heather B.

Heather H.

Vicki

Karen

Maisha

Cara

Dogs, painting, and snow forts

It's been a really fun couple of days.

To start off with Sarah and Tanya came over yesterday and hung out with us because Tanya had the day off. We went for a long walk, had hot tea and did a painting. I brought out a blank canvas and everyone painted one thing on it. The pictures above are of the process and the finished product, in exactly the opposite order that I meant them to be but oh well. It was fun and produced a great memory! I love hanging out with the Smathers!!! It is so good to have a great friend that I can just hang with and she accepts me for who I am, my little strange hippie self, and vice versa.

Sarah loves animals and she brought over a dog book, turned to a page and said, "Heidi, I don't think Billie is a heeler, I think she is a Catahoula Leopard Dog." Funny thing is that we have been commenting lately about how Billie doesn't really look like a heeler, except for her coloring, and she doesn't act anything like a heeler. Our dog trainer has made several comments about her looking like a leopard dog but I passed it off because the puppy rescue 'said'. So anyway, I looked at the pictures and read the description and, ya, she is DEFINITELY a Catahoula Leopard Dog!! I did some more research this morning and definitely no doubt about it! Something else we have made a lot of comments on is how she would make a great rescue dog because she is awesome with sniffing things out and very aware of her surroundings, kind of a sixth sense that is greater than most dogs I have seen. They apparently use these leopard dogs for search and rescue quite a bit because they are so easy to train. We were very excited to learn this new information and I would like to work towards training her for search and rescue, going to do some more research on that :)

We are continuing to get a TON of snow, seems like it just won't stop. Plow trucks cannot keep up and our road is more like one lane now. If they don't actually remove it we are going to have issues soon. This morning Tristan wanted to go out and work on a snow fort that he started yesterday so we all went out to dig. It felt good to use my body and wear myself out. He has a pretty cool snow fort started. We came in for a rest, lunch and some warm tea and then we are going back out to dig some more. I have a feeling that it is going to be hard for me to roll out of bed tomorrow:)

Transcending Culture

The following is Scott Noelle's Daily Groove for today. I just love this because I try very hard to not let societal expectations dictate my thinking or behavior. It is a tough ambition for sure!! So much of what we label 'good' or 'bad' is nothing more than culture, and nothing to do with what is actually good or bad. I believe there really is no reality, only one's own perception of things.

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:: Transcending Culture ::

Imagine you're visiting a strange culture where people's perceptions are quite different from what you're used to.They're offended when you shake their hands, and they're honored when you spit on their feet. They believe that a broken mirror brings good luck, and they compete over who gets the privilege of cleaning the toilets.

After a while, you cease making any assumptions about the goodness or badness, rightness or wrongness of*anything*.

Now you see a little girl start to hit her mother. You await the mother's reaction... Will she be offended?Will she be delighted? Will she be indifferent?In that moment, you yourself have not assigned anymeaning to the hitting. It just *is*.

Congratulations! You've transcended culture and connected with Reality. As you observe your child's behavior today, pretend you're a stranger in a strange land who doesn't know what s/he is supposed to think about each behavior.Then *choose* an interpretation based on how good you feel when you think that thought.

It's been pretty quiet this last month or so. We have been hanging out at home for most of the last few weeks. The weather has actually been quite a bit warmer, hanging right around 30 degrees. It continues to snow off and on, which I am sure is nice for all those Alaskans that enjoy snowmachining. Personally, we are dreaming of warmer weather without snow.

Kevin's computer quit on him a few weeks ago so we have had to share my computer. Then Tristan got into playing World of Warcraft and last week got the expansion pack. He wants to be on the computer all the time, especially since his cousins, Sierra and Jared are usually on there playing too. We have had to work out a computer schedule so everyone gets their time. It has been a little challenging but the kids worked through it and its turning out okay. I don't get much time on it but oh well, kind of comes with the territory sometimes.

I've been wanting to get some gates, for different areas of the house that we want to keep the dogs out of. My friend, Connie, made some for her house that look really nice so I decided that maybe I would call around to some of the construction companies and see if I could scrounge up some scrap wood. The other day when I was downstairs doing laundry it dawned on me that the sauna wood would work great. We had already decided to rip the sauna out so that we could have a bathroom downstairs so what great timing! So this week I ripped some of the boards out and went over to my father-in-laws shop and planed the boards down, cut, and sanded them. Now they are just ready to put together and voila, I have my gates. I have found something that I really enjoy doing too; something about being in the shop and working with the wood, listening to the hum of the machinery. I just really enjoyed it and look forward to some more projects. I have a lot more wood to use up too!

Ice Age

That is what it feels like anyway! Yesterday's official temperature was -31 degrees. We broke a record! We have been indoors for an entire week and the dogs are getting more restless than the kids. Today the temp.'s are climbing back up and are supposed to be back up to 15-20 by tomorrow night. We have never seen it this cold in the almost five years that we have lived here and everyone else, that has lived here longer than us, says the same thing. The record for today hasn't been broken since 1955 so I imagine the record for yesterday was pretty old too. I want to get out and take some pictures today because the snow is still stuck on the trees. This area is so windy that the snow rarely sticks on the trees for very long. The wind is supposed to start up tonight so I better get out there and do that today.

Kevin has been busy doing Youth Court cases every week, he seems to really enjoy it. He starts up choir rehearsals again, starting tonight, with concerts both this Sunday and next Sunday. In February the choir goes on a tour through SE Alaska. Tristan has been busy playing Fantasy Star Universe, a new game he got with some of his Christmas money. He found Sierra on WOW last night so I imagine he will be playing that quite a bit over the next couple of days. Him and Calista have been most effected by the cold weather because they like to get outside. I took them to the lake the night before last and they made it an entire 10 minutes, it was even too cold for the two of them!!

Calista has taken a liking to prom dresses and has found thousands on e-bay. She bought one for her Halloween costume and wears it quite a bit around the house. The other night she found a beautiful white one, that almost looks like a wedding dress. She bought it with some of her Christmas money and is now asking me several times a day when it will be here. I think we are going to have a little "bride" around the house for the next few months.

We are working on our little projects around the house. We finished the main part of Kevin's room and got it painted. We still need to get the floor in and the trim up. He is sleeping in his room now so I'm sure it is nice for him to be off the couch and at least have his privacy. The next project is moving the laundry area to the area by Kevin's room and then turning the existing laundry room into a full bathroom. Most everything is in place so the only thing we have to purchase is a lavatory and a bathtub; the plumbing is all there. The main problem is finding the time because most of Martin's work hours are in the evening. Money of course is a little bit of an issue too since Martin hasn't had a paycheck since November; a little scary to be on this comission thing. He has one that is supposed to close next week, cross our fingers. December was pretty dead, with the holidays and everything, but they are starting to pick up quite a bit and he has quite a few things in the process.

Cold Week

Been a pretty quiet week around here. Temperatures have dropped below zero!! I know, you are secretly thinking, "Why would anyone live in Alaska?" This week has been the coldest or at least one of the coldest times we have seen since we moved to this area. Along with the really cold weather we have also gotten a TREMENDOUS amount of snow. It seems we are shoveling every day. This is definitely the most snowfall we have seen since living in Wasilla. We will have a wet, muddy breakup for sure.

Calista is back in the kitchen today, experimenting away. She made a snickerdoodle, cookie-like batter and put it in the bottom of a bread pan. I said, "This is very interesting." She replied with, "That is what I am all about, being INTERESTING!"

I have been putzing around getting rid of a ton of stuff. We are going to have a great garage sale this summer! I'm determined to get the house the way the motorhome was, with just what we need, no more- no less. I'm starting to feel centered again, just getting the clutter out of my life. I think it would do me some good to learn a little about feng shui.

The Holidays

We had a very quiet, simple holiday season this year...........just the way I like it! We woke up Christmas morning and the kids opened their stockings and the few gifts that they got. In the afternoon we went to Martin's parents house for dinner. Uncle Tony took Martin and the kids out snowmachining for a while, which was a treat since we don't own snowmachines.

New Years was just as simple. Our friends Allen, Tanya and their daughter, Sarah came over to ring in the New Year with us. We ate, played a game and watched the ball drop. Kev had his friends Kevin and Sara over and they were on a mission to do an all-nighter. Kev passed out in the early morning so I fed Kevin and Sara crepes around 10:00 and then they quickly passed out.

Tristan, Calista, Rylee, and myself went to Fairbanks last week for a few days. My cousin, Jason had bought a compost toilet off of Craiglist and since it was in Palmer I picked it up for him and took it up to Fairbanks. We stayed with our good friends, the Hajdukovich's, more like part of our extended family. Thursday we spent the afternoon with Jason and his new wife, Molly. It is always such a treat for me to hang out with him at his house. He lives more the lifestyle that I dream of living; simple with just the things he needs and just the amount of space he needs. It just seems when I leave there I feel centered, the way I felt when we were living in the motorhome. It was good to meet Molly and to see Jason so happy, not that he isn't all the time but he just had an extra "sparkle". Friday night Sheli made one of her BIG meals and Jimmy, Michelle and their kids and Kelly and her husband and kids came over. Always fun to hang out with that very large Hajduk family! We found out on our way back home that Jonna came down with the chicken pox so we could have a fun week next week if our kids catch them! I guess I would rather them have chicken pox now than when they are older. Kevin had a light case when he was young (we think) so he may be safe.

While we were at Jason and Molly's, Sara took Tristan out for a little dog mushing. Sara has been taking care of some husky dogs for a friend and in exchange she gets to mush them. Tristan had a good time and it was something different for him that he had never experienced before. Friday the kids spent the day jump roping and sledding while Sheli and I spent almost the entire day watching back-to-back episodes of Law and Order. We had to crawl out every so often to turn the jump rope or put some food out but it felt so good to just veg. I desperately needed my Sheli fix, especially since we haven't seen them for over a year!! That was a record for sure. We usually get to hang out with them every couple of months. We did get to see Maija when she flew down several weeks ago but she came alone so it was good to see the rest of the gang.

One month of being vegan

Like I mentioned in my last post, Kevin and I are going to do one month of being vegan. We have been vegetarian for several years and want to see what it is like being vegan. We will blog that entire month (January) about our feelings and our daily menu as some have been asking what the heck we would eat. As I mentioned before, I don't think it will be that much of a swing as we are just removing dairy and eggs. The egg thing might be a little challenge as it is in so many things so we will get good at reading labels. So here is the link to our blog for those interested in following: http://veganforamonth-snavleys.blogspot.com

SNOW

We got dumped on with about 18 inches of snow this week. The kids are in heaven but the roads get so bad. There have been several accidents, some of them fatal. The wind has kicked up so the trees are bare once again. It sure is pretty when the trees are drooping with snow but it never lasts long here.

The last couple of weeks have been so busy between me over-socializing and Kevin having lots of choir performances, many of them 35 miles away. I love to be social and entertain but I seem to overdo it. I am now in disengage mode. I just need to shut down for a while and not have a lot of people around me. I am also having another one of those weeks where I am aching to be on the road. I'm just longing for simplicity right now. I feel like we have gone back to the very thing we were trying to leave behind when we pulled down the Alaska Hwy. in our motorhome. We live a little more simply but I long for REAL simple or as the White family calls it......................BARENAKED. I am going to start with removing anything out of my home that complicates my life more than it does enhance it. I just need to find my center again.

I think what I need is an unschooling conference right now!! I need to be around people who are sweet and gentle to their children, people who embrace the good things in life, people who are loving and tolerant and.....FREE! April is just around the corner right? Life Is Good Conference here we come!!!

Kevin and I are about to experience one month of being vegan. We are both vegetarian but we would like to experience being vegan so we have both agreed to a one month comittment. I am also going to give up my coffee for one month to see if it makes a difference in how I feel. I have been fighting acne on my chin for four years now and I also have TMJ, which can be very painful. Apparently caffeine irritates the TMJ so I am going to see. We are going to blog about our experience on a different blog. I will post the link as soon as I get it started. Our start day is Jan. 1.

Readers Digest Interview With Will Smith

These are a couple of questions from an interview that Readers Digest had with Will Smith. I think he is an unschooler and doesn't even realize it :)



Interviewer: Have you ever thought about going back to college?

Will: The things that have been most valuable to me I did not learn in school. Traditional education is based on facts and figures and passing tests – not on comprehension of the material and its application to your life. Jada and I homeschool our children, because the date of the Boston Tea Party does not matter.

Interviewer: But there are some basics in education that need to be taught.

Will: Of course there are. Reading, writing and arithmetic, because those are the languages of our country.

Interviewer: So, you don’t see any reason to go back to a formal education yourself?

Will: I know how to learn anything I want to learn. I absolutely know that I could learn how to fly the space shuttle because someone else knows how to fly it, and they put it in a book. Give me the book, and I do not need somebody to stand in front of a class.

Interviewer: They put physics in a book, but I know I could never be a physicist.

Will: The first step is you have to say that you can.

busy, busy

Wow, what a busy week!

Wednesday was one of those days that the kids just wanted to experiment all day long! It was great! Calista painted and blew up her volcano. Of course, we couldn't just do it once, we did it over and over until we were out of vinegar. She wanted to know how volcanoes "really" blow up so she checked out a National Geographic video this weekend. Then the kids started playing with cornstarch and water, one of their favorites that we call oobleck. Calista wanted to see what happened when you cooked it, so she made pancakes out of it. We learned that it makes a glue, of sorts. You will notice in the pictures that Calista was too busy to even get dressed, she just wore her jammies all day.

Tristan LOVES to cook so he started getting a bunch of ingredients out to make some things. He had seen someone eating chocolate covered raisins so he thought he would experiment with different ways to make them. They put the raisins in with a bunch of chocolate, in the saucepan, while the chocolate was melting. That didn't work so well but they thought it was pretty tasty. They also made some chocolate chip pancakes. Tristan has been doing quite a bit of experimental cooking lately. One of the things he made last week was eggs with cheese, green onion, and celery, it was actually quite good and we have eaten a lot of them this week. Maybe we will have a chef in the family :)

Calista has been into running businesses. In the last couple of weeks we have had a mail order business, a video rental, a bank, a restaurant, and a coffee shop. She takes it quite seriously, there is no pretending! Cash register, money, adding machine w/receipts, packages that are wrapped and taped, menus, real food, the whole nine yards!

Kevin has 1 1/2 weeks of concerts starting yesterday. They gave a concert at the Anchorage Museum yesterday afternoon. They had the choir lined up the grand staircase overlooking a pool thing. It was a beautiful concert and a beautiful setting. They have two school tours, another concert that is part of a nativity celebration, and three full concerts (three hours long). In between they have rehearsals, including a four hour one! It is amazing to me what these kids do but they love it. I will post pictures soon. I didn't have my camera yesterday but a friend of ours took a bunch so hopefully I will get some this week.

Martin's car is in the shop this week, getting repaired from a hit and run. Since he has to use my vehicle this week we will be able to do some stuff for Christmas. The kids and I are busy making little gifts and we plan on making a gingerbread house this week.

Kevin's essay

Kevin, Hope (a friend of Kevin's) and I got to talking about the Green Day song, American Idiot. We had a discussion about being controlled by the media. The following is an essay he wrote that I thought was thought provoking:

Controlled? by the.... Media

The media. Is America controlled by it? Most would say so, and others might argue. But the truth is they do, in a big way. One of the largest ways the media affects adolescents & adults in the US, is by pressuring us into changing our appearance. Perhaps a famous actor or actress has a specific hairstyle the catches the media's attention, if that occurs there is a high chance that will explode into the latest style. But why are we so concerned with it, that we let them control us? The fact of the matter is, everyone wants to be accepted in life, and the media takes advantage of that.

Some other forms of control would be marketing/false marketing ads, (example) where in they convince you to buy something, explaining how great it is, and the reasons you should choose their product over the next. Another example of control would be fear, they instill it in every one of us which causes anticipation of a certain result. And, last but not least, inflating issues. Overstating facts and incidents that have occurred, causing gossip and rumors throughout America. This is the most effective technique, and used more often than any of the previous. This can appear anywhere from PEOPLE magazine, then all the way down to your local newspaper.

In the big scope of things, we may not consciously realize that we are submissing to exactly what they want, but if you look hard enough, you will find that the media attempts to control us in all aspects of our life. All the way from our dressing habits, to the homes we live in. Once you start to realize this is the true, the more you will see it happening day to day... but...

Is this avoidable? That is for you to decide.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful and pretty quiet around here. We are used to BIG Thanksgiving gatherings and lots of noise and activity. This year was quieter than usual for sure! Spragues (Martin's sister and family) were sick and Robin and her family celebrated with the in-laws. So it was just Merle and Lois (Martin's parents) and our friends, Kristi and Jeff Hurt and their three kids, Brenden, Maggie, and Lena. Hurts had to leave after a couple of hours because they had some other rounds to make. After they left we watched a special, on the History Channel, about the Mayflower. Lois had an ancestor on that ship who's wife gave birth during the voyage. It was a very interesting program.

It has continued to be rather cold here. Today it was sitting at 9 degrees at our house but it was -1 at my friend Tanya's. I've had the wood stove cranked the last couple of days. I believe it is about 80 degrees in my house................Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

Tristan and Calista are busy making "campaign speeches". It never ceases to amaze me the things they come up with and learn through. The two of them have been getting along quite well the last few days. Calista told Tristan today, "When we laugh together it makes me feel really good because it makes me feel like you really like me." Ooohhh!! They are usually at odds with one another so maybe we are turning a new corner here.

The pictures I posted are of the mountains that surround our house. We were on our way home from our errands and pulled over to snap a few. Our home is about 1/2 mile from where we were at.

Unschooling In Action

These are the days that just confirm to me how well unschooling works and how natural learning really is. Calista started a "mail order business" last night and she was having us all mail packages to people. She works on her adding machine and has a cash register when you are ready to "check out". I had a knock on the door while I was doing dishes this morning; a package delivery that I "mailed" last night :). When Tristan woke up, the "mail order business" turned into a video- rental-by-mail business. Tristan decided he was going to be the bank so people could come pull their money out before they paid for the rentals. After a while Tristan says, "Wait a minute, how does the banker make money if the customer puts their money in and makes interest?". So I explained how the bank invests the money so the bank makes more interest than what they are paying the customer.

He wasn't sure how he was going to put that in action as a pretend thing so I suggested that maybe in another area of the house he create a "stock account" and for every dollar that someone puts in his bank he takes a percentage out of the "stock account". That was the best way I knew to do it for pretend.

After a while the two of them started talking about the richest people in the world. Tristan decided that he doesn't really like Donald Trump so he was going to be Bill Gates. He was bragging about all the cars he had and a house made of gold, etc. Calista pipes up and says, "Well, I live in a cottage because I give my money to all the poor people that are hungry!". Way to go Calista!!

It is so fun to sit and listen to the exchange. It so naturally progresses and this is how learning should be. Kevin has been doing a bit out of a curriculum because he wanted to do more like what they do in school. It has been so difficult for me to find a rhythm to it because it is so unnatural. He wants to see what highschool is all about so he thought he would do a curriculum first to work his way into it. It's funny because he says he wants to do it but when we actually do it he has a hard time getting into it too. So much of it is not relevant to his life and it is just NOT natural. When we get into the things that mean something to him it is like a light bulb goes on and he gets excited about it. It will be interesting to see what he thinks of school when he gets there. I have a feeling it won't last very long, but then again, he may love it because he is a very confident kid who knows who he is and doesn't care what anyone else thinks.

So now Calista just came up to my room. She says that my room is now her house because she is using her "cottage" for her store and she needs a little bit bigger of a house. Martin wanted to know if she was still giving her money to the poor and she said, "I'm not giving ALL my money to the poor, but I am giving a lot of it!". Too funny!

Quote for the Day (or maybe a week)

We are not here solely to work and produce, manufacture and market. We are here to listen, contemplate and understand.
Michael Lewin, from an article on The Simple Living Network

REALLY Brrrrr!!

Well, yesterday started off with a nice, strong windstorm (they happen fairly frequently in our area during these winter months). Last night we had some very strong gusts, probably up to 80 mph, as was predicted. It felt like our house was going to fall over! We woke up to the house at 65 degrees because our furnace pilot keeps getting blown out, due to improper installation (yet another project for Martin). No hot water for a shower and, because our stove isn't working properly, we couldn't really start that either. I actually broke down and started one here a few minutes ago and so far not too much smoke in the house. The wind must be blowing in the right direction today :)

I got a phone call that kept me on for a while, during which the kids were fighting in the background. I came upstairs to two big forts that take up my entire living room and quite a bit of mess in the kitchen. When I logged on to my e-mail this is what was in my inbox, from my subscription to Scott Noelles daily groove:

:: Life Is Messy... Get Over It! ::In man's quest to conquer nature, our culture has developed an unhealthy aversion to the natural messiness of life.Heaven forbid you should eat an apple that isn't nice and round and free of bug bites. Those get made into applesauce so we never have to see their messiness!And if our high-tech, Star Trek fantasies were real,we could avoid the messiness of birth and simply"beam" babies out of the womb -- without a drop of blood in sight.Even if you're a "crunchy" parent who's not afraid of nature's messiness, there may be other kinds of messes you abhor, like the messy ways children learn,explore, and process emotions. Or the messy way *you*grow through parenthood.Today, whenever you feel bothered about anything, ask yourself, "What 'messiness' am I resisting?" Are you not allowing your *own* process to be messy?Well, get over it! Life IS messy. :-)Let life's messes remind you how good it is to be ALIVE!

Oh, isn't it funny that we receive exactly what we need, when we need it, when we just open ourselves up to it. Life is messy!! Learning is even messier!! How blessed I am!!!!! I have kids that are creative and love to explore. Kids that know how to cook their own meals and love to experiment. Yes, life is messy but how wonderful it is!!!

BRrrrrrrrrr!!!

Oh golly, it has been cold here!! For much of this last two weeks it has been sitting around 10 degrees and a bit of wind. It is howling out there right now, and my woodstove was never installed correctly, so I can't start a fire or the wind just blows the smoke in the house. We had a couple of days at 35 degrees and then right back to the cold. I've hardly opened the door today. These are the days I really wish we were still on the road! But, I have to say that our lives are quite full right now so I am not noticing the weather as much as I normally would.

Tristan and I have been working on bird feeders and bird houses; painting and making them "pretty". Him and I decided that we are going to make a bird sanctuary outside our dining room window so we can watch all their activity. Much of it will have to wait until spring but we will at least get the bird feeders out there so the birds will come and feed.

The entire family got involved in a tie-dye project and I think we did pretty good for our first try at it. We did some bags, shirts, and socks. Even Martin got in on it. It was so much fun we need to go find a bunch more white stuff to tie-dye next week!!

Calista had a tea party on Friday. She had Rylee and two other friends and they had a grand time. It is nice to see everyone settling into life in our new home. We have had lots of friends over and everyone seems to be quite happy. Martin is so jovial that you sometimes think we won the lottery when he walks through the door! He REALLY loves his job as a realtor!!

quote for the day

The roads less traveled can be lonely and unpopular....and yet so often I am compelled to choose them.