Gratitude

I started this list of some of the things, that really stood out this week, that I am really thankful for or moments that stuck out. I think I need to make a list, before bed , every night so that feeling of gratitude is fresh in my mind when I wake up in the morning. These are just a few of the things that I thought of, as my list would be miles long if I wrote everything down. It is amazing how much you find to be thankful for when that is your focus - oh, how I need to take my focus off the things that bring me down. So here goes.................

*COFFEE

*the heat coming from the wood stove while the temps outside are hovering close to 0 degrees.

*the smell of woodsmoke.

*homemade guacamole and organic blue corn chips.

*"Mom, I love you! You are the best!"

*"Simon says act like a mom."............................."Oooo, gross, I'm not going to do that!" (That would mean that moms give too many hugs and kisses!! lol)

*sunshine, bright blue skies, and white -magnificent mountains.

*puppy snuggles.

*a clean house.

*a messy house.

*a visit from two very DEAR friends..........thank you Sheli! And Maija!! We love you!!

*a husband who works on over-drive to assure that his kids will always have a mom that is available.

*the beautiful Christmas lights on the banister that I am never taking down.

*The Four Agreements.

*courage.

Terabithia

So many thoughts, feelings, and ponderings this last few weeks and just don't have what it takes to put them all into words that will be easily understood. I wish I had the words and honesty that my friend, Diana, has or the ability to even sort out what it is I am thinking and feeling. Too many years of being forced to shut it out I guess.

One of the things that has touched me A LOT is the book, The Bridges to Terabithia. We went and saw the movie last week and I was actually quite impressed with how well they did sticking to the story. You don't get to know the characters quite as well but you never do in a movie. They left out some minor things but nothing too disappointing. The one thing that did get left out is a few paragraphs at the very end of the story that deeply touched me.

I suppose with my thoughts on Diana today, who lost her daughter one year ago today, it caused me to want to post this very special exerpt from the book:

" He thought about it all day, how before Leslie came, he had been a nothing - a stupid, weird little kid who drew funny pictures and chased around a cow field trying to act big - trying to hide a whole mob of foolish little fears running riot inside his gut.

It was Leslie who had taken him from the cow pasture into Terabithia and turned him into a king. He had thought that was it. Wasn't king the best you could be ? Now it occurred to him that perhaps Terabithia was like a castle where you came to be knighted. After you stayed for a while and grew strong you had to move on. For hadn't Leslie, even in Terabithia, tried to push back the walls of his mind and make him see beyond to the shining world - huge and terrible and beautiful and very fragile? (Handle with care - everything - even the predators.)

Now it was time for him to move out. She wasn't there, so he must go for both of them. It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.

As for the terrors ahead - for he did not fool himself that they were all behind him - well, you just have to stand up to your fear and not let it squeeze you white. Right, Leslie?

Right. "

Mom

I haven't had the emotional bearings to blog this last two weeks, too much swirling around to even put into words.

First of all, the anniversary of my mother's death was last Monday. I don't know how the body, mind, and soul can sense those moments approaching but it does. The week before I was having dreams about here EVERY night; I dream about her often but this was EXTRA dreaming about her. I wondered why and then realized what time of year it was.

She was a librarian and she collected childrens stories. She often went to book signings and then kept the books on a shelf and when special moments approached she would give them to the kids. At the time of her death she had several on her shelf, and the one with Calista's name in it was "The Bridges to Terabithia". She had mentioned this book to me and told me that she was going to give it to Calista when she was around the age of 8. Ironically, we had taken it off the shelf here a few weeks ago and started to read it; we were getting towards the end and had cuddled up on Monday (the day of the anniversary of my Mom's death) to finish the book. I was sobbing so uncontrollably that I couldn't hardly read the darn book! I didn't realize it was so sad, and now realize why my mom thought it more appropriate that Calista read it when she was a little older than 3!

Grieving is not an easy thing, it takes a lot of work, and it doesn't seem to get easier with time; less sharp, yes, but not easier. At the same time, so many REALLY GOOD things have taken place in my life that probably would not have happened if she was still living. Yet there is that feeling that I want her to see how my life has taken shape; knowing how proud she would be of where my life has gone and where it is today. And every milestone in my childrens lives I want her to experience, because she LIVED for the kids, it is what kept her living as long as she did.

Okay, so now that I have gotten back into sad mode, I think I will go shower for the day, have a good cry and blog about the rest of my week later.

Happy Birthday Jalen

Today is my nephew, Jalen's, 6th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Jalen!!

I called Jalen last night because I knew he had his party last night, even though his birthday is today. I said, "Dude, you are old!". He replied, "Auntie!, it is NOT old, it is older!! Old is when you are about to die and you are all spiffy!" I assumed spiffy meant that older people "dress up" more than us younger generation and didn't say much more about it, just got a good giggle. Later I was talking to Ren and she asked Jalen what spiffy meant and he said it meant saggy! I thought I was going to pee my pants from laughing. Oh, from the mouth of babes!

In other news...............we have had this little squirrel visiting our porch so the kids have been putting seeds out for them. Tristan remembered that Grandma and Grandpa used to have a box, hanging from a tree in their yard, that the squirrels nested in. He decided he was going to make a house for the squirrels so him and Martin spent their evening last night building a squirrel house. And it isn't just a box! This squirrel is spoiled, he has a HOUSE with nice pine chips and a deck! Tristan was so tickled and now has to find a place to put it where we can observe from the house.

Last night, on my way to take Kev to Youth Court, the full moon was out and sitting right on top of the mountains. It was absolutely one of the most beautiful things I have seen. It has been really clear so the sky is bright blue. I tried to hurry home to get my camera but since I was 7 miles away it took a little time and by the time I got the picture it was darker and the moon was much higher but, you can see by the picture, that it was still beautiful! My camera isn't as good as some so it doesn't do it justice but I am grateful to live in a place where this kind of beauty absolutely SURROUNDS us.

It has continued to stay between 40-48 degrees and everything is melting fast. It feels like spring but I'm sure it is just a tease, it is only February! The wind started blowing pretty good today and it makes the snow and water evaporate fast. We will usually get this kind of weather for a few days here and there and then dropping back down to 20 in between but this is just lasting for a very long time. I love the warmer weather but sad to see the snow go.

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


:: 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!