Progression

Kev, Sarah, and Kevin (K Sam) Dec. 2005

Kev, Sarah, and K Sam Nov. 2006

K Sam, Sarah, and Kev August 2008

Gratitude

I am just completely overwhelmed with gratitude this week! I just have this amazing life that I am so thankful for.

Working at the coffee shop has been just the medicine for me. It gets me out of the house, socializing with people, serving people, and just being in an amazingly positive atmosphere. I love it! I work early, get home just as the kids are getting going for the day, and they don't even notice that I've been gone. It's just been so fun!

I've really been so aware at the things that people sometimes complain about that others would be so thankful for. I wake up every morning feeling safe and loved, I get into my car and have this AMAZING view of the mountains surrounding me, and I have everything I need + a whole lot more. I have these three incredible kids that just make my world go 'round. I am just SO grateful!! Funny thing is that, as far as challenging times, this has been one of the most challenging in our entire married life. We have had a rough year financially and things have not been easy but it isn't even worth comparing to all the wonderful things that surround me!

Something I've noticed this week, that makes me really sad, is this attitude in people now that the kids are back at school. I can't tell you how many people have come into the coffee shop celebrating the fact that their children are back in school. It makes me so sad that more people don't enjoy their kids. I would be so sad if my kids were going back to school. I honestly enjoy being around my kids and we have a grand time together! I don't ever feel that I wish I had my days without them, quite the opposite really. I have moments when I need alone time and that is when I retreat into my bedroom and have my alone time but I can't imagine them being gone all day long. They are often wrapped up in their own projects and games, so it's not like we are constantly interacting, but just having them near me is grand!

"Sometimes we must pause, in our pursuit of happiness, and just be happy."

Vegan Blog

So for anyone interested: I've decided to start blogging at my other blog, about being a vegetarian and my effort to adopt a more vegan lifestyle. I haven't blogged over there at all since last fall so I'm blogging once again. If you would like to stop by I would love to have you for company:) http://veganforamonth-snavleys.blogspot.com

Unschooler Blog Carnival; What does an "average" day look like for you?

Hiking the Butte, what we lovingly call the Butt.

After a looonnnngggg night of questing.

Typical Alaskan sunset. We do live in a beautiful place!!

Calista and Maija experimenting with different smoothie recipes.

Teens rocking out with Rock Band!

Tristan's building project.

What does an "average" day look like for us? That is a good question because I don't think we necessarily have an "average" day but..........................

We definitely try to leave ourselves open from day-to-day. None of my kids, with the exception of Kevin, really like to have "scheduled" activities; meaning they don't like piano lessons, organized sports, etc. My kids really just like to ride with the flow of the day. Kevin is VERY community minded and likes to be involved in community activities. He is involved with AYEA (Alaska Youth for Environmental Action), Youth Court, volunteering at the recycle center, etc. He loves to take music lessons, photography class and other scheduled things.

Tristan is the outdoorsy type so he often wakes up in the morning and heads outside and we might not see him until dinner time. He will build things, rollerblade, dig holes, and anything else you can think of. Sometimes I will take off with him on the rollerblades and we will be gone for an hour or so. He likes to do anything that involves working with his hands and likes to tinker. He is starting to take the roof off the barn, as we are going to turn it into my "yoga retreat". For several weeks he spent many hours in the afternoon doing research, online, about parrots, which led to the adoption of a Caique that we have all fell in love with. Lately he has been doing a lot of online games through X-Box live and sleeping all day.

Calista is kind of in between those two. She likes to have weekly schedule events and talks about joining basketball but likes to be outdoors with Tristan too. She tends to need lots of down time, just reading quietly, watching her favorite TV shows and cuddling with mom. She loves to have friends over too! Probably 4 out of 7 days we pick Rylee up in the afternoon and she will be here until 7 or 8 and often spends the night, or Calista will end up at her house for the night.

I'm not really sure how to answer what a typical day looks like for us. I usually get up a few hours before anyone else and answer my e-mails, drink my coffee, and just putz around. Calista is usually the first one up after me and often gets right on her computer to check up on all the games she plays and send e-mails to Maija. She has recently become interested in writing paper letters to Maija and sending them snail mail. We often will go take hikes, walk the dogs, go to the coffee shop or other such things. In the afternoon the crafts will come out, the books, questions come up and we look things up on the computer. As the boys get older things change but Calista and Tristan used to spend hours playing "bank", "store" or other dramatic play. Now it seems the bird comes out to be played with and conversations ensue in the afternoon. The afternoon seems to be more reflective than the rest of the day and our conversations end up on the computer looking up fun facts. Much of our conversations lately have been based around the Presidential Campaign and environmental issues.

We have a very lively household and usually by 4 or 5pm friends start stopping by and often I end up making dinner for a few extras. The kids will come in and start chopping and helping with dinner and usually the "extra" kids will hang out until late in the night. A couple times this summer Randall has brought out the fire poi and given us a show or we build a bonfire and just hang out. On the nights that friends aren't over we always spend a couple hours, right before bed, watching TV as a family. Our favorite shows right now are The Supper Club; a show where several guests have conversation about environmental issues and there is always a cook on the show to cook a "green" meal, Greenburg; a show about a town that got knocked out by a tornadoe and they built it back up "green", Miami Ink; self-explanatory, LA Ink; self-explanatory, Criss Angel Mindfreak; illusionist, Locked Up Abroad;about stories of real people that comitted a crime overseas and got put in jail abroad. We record lots of shows and the fun thing about it is that one of the kids will see something that is really interesting or intriguing and they will record it so we can all watch it together.

We are a very spontaneous family, because we can be with our schedules so free. The kids will find out about a book they want to read and we will just head over to the book store. Or they get an itch to go bowling or something of the sort and we will drop everything and go. Sometimes we just spend the entire day in our pajamas watching movies and we've been know to spend hours at the coffee shop too.

It really depends on weather, work, etc. as to how each day goes. Up until very recently I didn't work at all but now I'm teaching yoga and working very part-time at a coffee shop, which makes us less spontaneous than we have been in the past but we still have enough freedom to come and go as we please and we are still able to put everything down and move onto something else as things come up.

Post note: I wrote this blog yesterday so I could come back today and maybe add a few things. This morning they gave me a permanent work schedule that has me working every day from 6:30am-11:00am, maybe just until 10:00 am in a couple of months. So our typical day is changing quickly. No more slow mornings, sipping coffee and putzing around for me:) Although, I work in a coffee shop, that isn't too busy the first hour, so I get to sit around and sip coffee anyway! Martin works from home now so he takes me to work in his gas efficient car:) and stays at the coffee shop for a couple of hours working on his computer. I'm really enjoying having the extra money without the kids really noticing that I've been gone. When I move to 10:00 am they literally won't notice that I've been gone because they usually wake up between 9 and 10.

Unschooled V. Schooled Comments

I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to all of your wonderful comments on Kev's blog about his experience with public school, after being unschooled his entire life.

He is completely BLOWN AWAY by all the positive comments, as he thought that the essay was more for me than anyone else. He had no idea that many people were going to be reading it. He is a little embarassed because he just typed it out real quick and never even read through it a second time, so there was absolutely no editing and not a lot of thought put into it.

He is working on a more in-depth essay that is well written and edited, starting from the process that he went through, to decide whether to go to school or not, to his current feelings and what he has decided to do this next year.

Stay tuned:)

Yoga Girls Camping Trip

Had a blast with the yoga girls, this last two days, camping! My first camping trip of the summer because of the stinky weather. We decided to do it rain or shine; we had shine the first day, rain the second but still had a blast.

Sat around by the fire the first day, shooting the breeze (literally) and playing that crazy "bang,bang" game. One of those games that you have to "figure out" as those that already have it figured out play. It was driving me insane! BUT I did figure it out!! One of those great games to play with a big group of people so you can drive them insane trying to figure it out:) When the sun was setting it was sending a reflection on the lake that was stunning and the clouds were following the silouhette of the trees. We took a bunch of pictures of us doing yoga in front of the lake.

On Sunday we spent the first part of the day doing palm reading from a book that Joanne got. I find it all very fascinating and, for the most part, right on. I loved that the book she had was able to separate the "superstitious" part of palm reading from that which is actually real - well, I suppose that is all open for interpretation like everything else.

Sunday night we sat around by the fire, drinking wine and playing truth (haven't played that since what? 16 years old, lol). For some reason the wine didn't sit well with me and I ended up very sick last night and wasn't a whole lot of fun. We went skinny dipping in Nancy Lake (again, haven't done that since, hmmmm, 6 years old?). So refreshing and liberating!

Packed up this morning and headed home. Fun, fun, fun! It was a great weekend!

Back to Work

Well, I just took my first "real" job in 16 years.

I started teaching yoga last fall, and I guess that classifies as a job but for me it is more about sharing yoga with others and it is really only a handful of hours during the week. I guess it was a good transition though. What started out as half a joke, kinda, turned into a job.

It's been a rough year financially, with real estate being pretty flat and we have struggled through it like troopers. Martin took another job, that will start on Aug.3, a good job that allows us to breath and not have to worry about money anymore. The problem is that he will probably only be getting paid once a month, which means that technically we are about 7 weeks without any income. So I thought that maybe I should take a job part-time, to at least give us groceries every week. Some good friends of ours just opened an uber cool coffee shop in town, called Pandemonium. In passing, a couple weeks ago ,I told them that I might be looking for a job and then was in the other night when one of their employees had asked for the night off; he turned to me and asked me if I would like to work and I said, "sure!".

I had a hard time sleeping that night thinking, "what in the hell did I just get myself into", but it is all good. I will mostly be working early morning or late night shifts so my kids shouldn't notice too much that I'm working. I worked a 71/2 hr shift last night, since they are opened until 11:00. It is really fun and doesn't really seem like work. I was pulling shots all night, talking with people, listening to live music, I mean how much better can a job get? And the great thing about it is when money starts rolling in from Martin's job I am going to have a wallet full of cash from my job that allows the kids and I to just play with! And shop with:) And maybe put away some for retirement, haha.

The great thing about last night also was that all my good friends, my husband and kids all hang out there for a few hours, listening to the live music. It's not like I could sit and visit or anything but just having them there was awesome!

Kev's Blog

So, everyone seems to enjoy Kev's writing as much as I do so I thought I would post a link to his blog. He was laughing because he really didn't think the following essay was that great; he said he didn't edit or spend much time on it, but it did a good job of expressing his feelings about his experience. Warning to meat eaters: He is a STRONG advocate for animals! Just so you know ahead of time:) He does post some great stuff though so enjoy!

Unschool v. School

I've been asking Kev, for a few weeks now, if he would write a blog about his experience with school, after being unschooled his entire life. This last year was his first year in the public school system, as a freshman in highschool. So the following is his perspective on the matter. I regret that he felt that I talked about public school as a "bad thing" because I really didn't mean to portray it as "bad". I often countered (or defended) my stance to unschool and often mentioned some of the negatives about public school and he took that as my thinking it was ALL bad. But, in the end he made his own decision anyway, which is exactly how we expect him to live. We honor and support our children and know that they are capable human beings and can make their own decisions.

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Education From the Free Eye
Written by Kevin Snavley

All my life I have unschooled. The only thing that could be remotely considered school that I attended was pre-school, and of course, that was all fun and games. That was just life, how things were. I always wondered in the back of my head what it was like to be there, in a school building all day. How horrible it was to sit there for hours on end being lectured by crazy teachers and doing hours of homework. And then somewhere in between most of my friends going to school and me wondering, I got caught up in "catching up" to everyone else. For a while, around age 12, I always wanted to be on-track with the kids at school. It was probably because I felt stupid or less intelligent than them, which really wasn't the case. They just knew more meaningless facts than I did. It took me until last year to finally realize that, and to truly understand the reasons and joys of unschooling. Why it really is so much better than public school.

For as long as I can remember I have had friends that have gone to public school. Always. I've never actually had true unschooling friends aside from my cousins. So in a way, I sort of grew up with slightly hybrid thinking. One defending or longing to be in public school, and one completely against it all with pro-unschooling opinions. My parents always told us why public school is bad, but of course as a kid I'm not really going to understand. I never had the experience to. So I just kind of accepted that it was a bad place that I shouldn't be until I was about 14. Because I didn't go to school I always thought I had horrible writing abilities, and a bus load of other things. I finally made the decision to go to my freshman year of high school so I could figure it all out. Why is public school widely considered better? Why do my parents and unschooling parents everywhere preach it's a bad place to be? Why is unschooling so much better? I got all of my answers.

I would be lying if I said I went 100% percent for personal reasons. I had one friend in particular who was pro-school completely and thought I was wasting my life. In a way, I wanted to prove to her that I could do it, and if/if not it was better than unschooling. I guess up until I started writing this I had forgotten about that completely. I kind of kept the fact that this whole thing was an experiment in the back of my mind. I mean, it did feel nice to be "normal". But is it best? For the sake of writing this I'm going to skip through the school year and spare you the details of explaining the entire 9 months. School was exactly as I expected. Well, the whole face of it was anyway. It wasn't as close to as horrible as my parents said it was. The days went by pretty fast, it wasn't horribly boring, and I got to see my friends. The one thing I noticed the first day though, was how little "socialization" time there is. That's one thing all the kids say, "I get to hang out with my friends!". Definitely not the kind of "hanging out" I was used to. At that point it seemed like a stupid reason to want to be there.

After being there a few weeks, I started to realize the being I truly am. I wasn't stupid, not even close. If anyone was stupid it was the other 90% of the kids that were there. Everyone raved about my writing, my honors English teacher included. I did good in all my classes despite NEVER having a formal lesson in anything. That's when I realized that me, an unschooler, never been "taught" anything that these kids have, is doing better at the game than they are. Pretty ironic, no? Some of my favorite classes were Honors English 1, Japanese 1, and Jazz Choir. Those were the best.

Something I really began to hate about the school days was waking up at 6:30 am, staying there for six hours, then swimming for another 2, before going home to do meaningless homework. The first semester I got pretty lazy, and ended with a 3.3 GPA. Still, better than most kids, but not my best. Second semester I ended with a 3.8. I couldn't stand the fact that I was surrounded by unmotivated, stupid (not the academic way, the general manner they acted) people. Another trend I noticed was "can't". EVERYBODY used that one. The whole 9 months all in all were good for me. Negatives and positives. I learned that what I was doing before was BETTER than what kids at school get, I learned that what my parents told me wasn't completely heresy, I experienced something that I had never done before, the mystery was gone, and best of all, I can now defend the unschooling philosophy without any doubt in my mind and be credible at the same time. I also understood why public school kids act like they do. It's called loss of motivation.

I quickly realized that if I had to endure that shit for 9 years, I probably wouldn't be the person I am today. Friends have told me "you would have been a complete honors student!". I say no, I would've have been a lazy ass bum that wanted nothing more than a couch in life. (Which, I might add I learned a lot from TV. But you get my point. ;P) The thing that made me responsible, smart, and motivated was my unschooling life. And as stupid, annoying, unmotivated, whatever most of the public school kids are, you really can't blame them. While the other public school kids that can relate to me somewhat complain about them as well; they don't understand either. You never really can unless you have lived a free life. (Something else that I realized were the people that I was already friends with, were some of the most intelligent people in the building. How's that for coincidental?) Some personalities are different and can endure 12 years of school plus college, most cannot. Between teachers telling them they're not good enough, and wasting years of their life on something that doesn't really matter, they get fried. Most of the time it goes unnoticed too, you just kind of evaporate. I started to feel the same thing happening to me just in those nine months. Every thought you have, dream you want to fulfill, inspiration that strikes you, it all goes on the back burner, and eventually you just forget how to live any other way altogether.

Would I recommend sending a kid to school? Absolutely not. It's much too easy to lose your way. One thing I would advise though is to find unschooling friends. Would I recommend any other unschoolers go to school? If it's going to do them good like me, sure. If they want to see what it's like, sure. Otherwise, it's going to be a shit hole. Plain and simple. It would be beneficial for everyone to see what it's like, but not everyone can go through it with the same view point. So like everything else in our lives, it's up to us to make that decision. But now here I am, the year I thought would never end completed, and I have to decide what I want to do for the remaining 3. Over the last few days I've really been reflecting about what I truly want. Is it to finish high school, deal with everything I don't like, and benefit from the things I do? Or stop and go straight to college, and focus on what I want with life? That's something I'll be thinking about for a while.

Wow, I just don't seem to be inspired to blog for the last six months or so. It seems like I just blogged and I look to see that it is always 2-3 weeks or more in between blogs.

Everyone seems to have adjusted to Socky being gone. It seemed very ghostly downstairs for the first week. He used to pop off the couch and meow at anyone that came downstairs and now when you go downstairs there is just a hush.

Our weather continues to be cloudy and gray. We had a few days around 70 degrees but that is it! It's tough when you wait all winter for this beautiful summer and then you don't get one. It still feels like spring around here. We've hardly done any hiking although, it's not because the weather, because this is great hiking weather (besides the mosquitoes coming out when it is cool). We are talking about maybe hiking up a few miles up Pioneer Peak today with the dogs.

So, I am on day four without coffee. I've done this before for up to a week and just couldn't stand it because I really enjoy the ritual of coffee drinking. I've decided that I have a "jacked up" personality without coffee and I'm just getting tired of the constant ups and downs throughout the day. I feel "jacked up" all the time and just felt the need to be a little more even keeled. I do feel a lot better, a lot more centered and mellow. I'm trying to replace my coffee ritual with a tea ritual and so far I feel fine without the coffee. I had a terrific headache up until yesterday but today I am headache free. It actually really scares me when I experience a headache like I did on Tuesday because you realize how addicted you are to it and how toxic it really is.

So, not a whole lot of excitement around the Snavley house. We had a 4th of July party and bonfire. Debbie bought a bunch of fireworks that we lit off - fun, fun! It's always fun to hang out with friends and the teens always come to hang out too. They like hanging out because we are "chillax", according to them. One thing that was really enjoyable for me this summer was when Randall, a friend of Kev's, came over and gave us a fire poi show. I didn't know anyone here did that. I just happened to have a pair, that I got as a gift a few months ago, and gave them to him so at least someone is using them. I don't know when I would ever use them! The following is the video of him doing fire poi. It would have been really fun if it was dark. We don't get dark here in the summer though so it definitely puts a crimp on things like fireworks too. This video was taken around 11:30 pm, just to give you an idea of Alaskan summers.

Summer, you call this summer!!???

I'm really, truly trying to stay positive here but apparently, in Wasilla, summer has decided to not make her appearance. I'm not entirely sure what we did to her to deserve this kind of treatment but we haven't had but maybe three days over 60 degrees. It's the end of June for goodness sakes!!! I've never, in my 36 years of living, experienced a summer like this. I was so cold at music in the park tonight that I had to come home so I could take a hot shower. Aaarrrrgghhhh!! I know, I know, at least we aren't having any tornadoes or floods but there are lots of places in the US not experiencing tornadoes or floods but at least they aren't shivering their arses off!!

Breathe......................breathe........................inhale, exhale...............................OMMMMMM. I will survive but I'm sure going to be complaining when winter decides to hit us. I think I will go stay in my aunt's guest house, in San Antonio, from August until November when my grandma gets there and kicks us out. At least I will feel like I got a summer.

Exhausting Weekend

Well, we had quite the weekend!

Grandma Sally came down to Anchorage to have her Pacemaker replaced so we spent three days in Anchorage with her, keeping her company. On Thursday Martin and I went in, after all of her pre-op paperwork, and took her shopping. She wanted to go to the furniture stores so that's what we did. It's always fun to have a look around! We went to dinner and then got her back to the Hickel House, where she was staying, on the hospital grounds.

On Friday Robin, the kids, and I went in again and was with her at the hospital while she came out of recovery. The awful thing was that they left her in the recovery area ALL DAY LONG!! There really wasn't enough room to sit and visit so we mostly sat and waited, going back to the room every so often to make sure she was doing okay. They didn't get her a room until 6:00PM!! What a drag! The kids were getting pretty cranky by the time we headed back home for the night.

Friday morning, before we left for Anchorage, Kev had brought the cat up to me, concerned that something was wrong with him. He set him down and Socky wouldn't walk. I was afraid that maybe he had a stroke. I went to pick him up and I could feel every bone in his body. Something was seriously wrong. I told him to lay him down in my room and if he was still looking bad when we got home that we would take him in. When we got home at 8:30 he hadn't moved an inch. He was in the exact same position as when we had left at 7:00 am. We rushed him to the Animal Hospital where they confirmed our worst fear- renal failure. They could have done diuresis but in the shape he was in he probably wouldn't have pulled out and even if he did it would have just bought him a little more time and hundreds of dollars in cost. The vet said that either way he would die, there is no cure. So we had to make the awful decision to put him down. I called Martin to bring Tristan and Calista down since Kev was the only one with me. It was absolutely heart breaking to see my 15 year old sobbing so hard that Socky was literally soaked by the time we even sedated him. And then to have the other two come in, uugghh! They all snuggled around him as the doctor sedated him and then gave him the injection. We got home at 11:00 and, of course, no one was going to sleep. We all snuggled in my bed until there were no more tears to cry.

We paid the extra money to have him privately cremated and they will give us a little print of his paw. Each of the kids will have a little urn of their own with a copy of his paw print. It may seem ridiculous to those of you who don't own pets but it's HUGE for the kids. We have had that cat for 13 years and they really just become part of you. It's a tough, tough deal, losing a pet.

Then on Saturday I had to teach a class, which I didn't think I would get through but it was actually a great distraction and I felt much better after class. After class Robin, Martin and I went back into Anchorage and sat with Grandma until she was discharged. We got her back to the Hickel House and then came home. Some friends picked her up on Sunday and brought her to the airport. It's the first time she has had to do something like that alone, since Grandpa has Parkinson's and is to the point that he can't manage. Auntie Karen stayed in Fairbanks a little longer (she is visiting from San Antonio) so Grandpa would have some care. Grandma is definitely moving into another phase of her life but she has a great attitude. People can't believe she is almost 82 years old because she acts and gets around more like a 40 year old! She is a really amazing human being!!

Meme

I stole this from Heather's blog. I like this one:


Accent: People say that some of the words I say make it sound like I'm from North Dakota, I guess that is because my grandparents are from there.

Breakfast or No Breakfast: Breakfast. Piece of toast and coffee, every day.

Chore I Don’t Care For: Laundry. Just not my favorite thing. Sometimes I will leave a load that I ran in the washer for days and I will have to wash it over a couple of times to get the smell out.

Dog or Cat: Dogs. For sure. I have a cat but I'm not especially fond of him. I have three dogs that I adore!

Essential Electronics: I really love my computer. Don't know how I got along without it:)

Favorite Perfume: None. I really try to live a toxic-free life. I use Scent of Samadhi, a powdered incense, when I want to smell good.

Gold or Silver: Silver.

Handbag I Carry Most Often: Changes with my mood.

Insomnia: Almost never. I'm at peace with myself and my life and don't stress about things unless I can change them. If I can change them I take care of them before I try and sleep:)

Job Title: Domestic engineer and yoga instructor. Wouldn't change a thing!

Kids: Kevin 15 years old and male, Tristan 12 years old and male, Calista 9 years old and female.

Living Arrangements: Happily married for 17 years, living in a house, on one acre, with my three lovely children, three lively dogs, 1 stuck up cat, 2 cuddly hamsters, 1 talking parrot and 1 fish.

Most Admirable Trait: Very giving and making people feel at ease by my talkative/outgoing personality.

Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: We will not talk about that. As a young child was not "naughty" (I hate that word by the way) and we won't talk about the teen years.

Overnight Hospital Stays: Tonsillectomy and first two births. The third birth I smartened up and gave birth at a Birth Center.

Phobias: Rodents, yes that includes hamsters. I observe a lot but don't get too close.

Quote: "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Getting ready to have that tattooed by my butterfly.

Reason to Smile: This could be a whole 'nother blog. Mostly my kids, husband, sisters, friends, the sun that is shining today, the liveliness of my house.................................

Siblings: 5 - four sisters and one brother.

Time I Wake Up: 7:30 - 9 a.m.

Unusual Talent or Skill: Unusual? Hmmm, don't know.

Vegetable I Refuse To Eat: Beets. Yuck, yuck, yuck! I am not a picky eater by any means. I eat foods that some people would not even try. But I cannot eat beets. I will gag every time.

Worst Habit: Chewing on the sides of my cheeks. I know, weird.

X-Rays: More than is healthy I'm sure.

Yummy Stuff: Oh..........coffee, Thai food, chocolate truffles

Zoo Animal I Like Most: monkeys

Our Summer List

So last night we went into Anchorage for our nephews birthday and on the way in Tristan and Calista were fighting like cats and dogs. I was about ready to lose my mind! On the way back home they started in again so I distracted them with "What kind of things do you want to do this summer?" It worked fabulously and we came up with a GREAT list! Of course most of this is pending finances:) As always! So here is our list:

* White water rafting in Denali and the kids want to either take a tour bus up or the train. They are feeling envious of all the things the tourists get to do that we never do:)

* Tristan wants to float down a river either in a kayak or canoe and camp out "in the middle of nowhere", it doesn't count if it's a "touristy" thing. He would like to do a 2-3 day trip.

* I want to make wine. We have a place here to do it and you get 25 bottles for every batch. We are going to get together with a bunch of friends to do a few batches so that we all get 5-10 bottles of different kinds. So be expecting wine for Christmas this year!

* We want to hike, of course! But we want to do several new hikes that we have never done before. We live in hiking central and there are hundreds of hikes that we have never done. One that Martin and I would like to tackle is Pioneer Peak but we aren't sure if Martin's hip can handle it so we might have to wait post-hip replacement. It's a 12 mile hike and fairly challenging so it is going to take some training up and down Lazy Mountain and maybe Mat-Su Peak.

* The kids and I decided we are going to go into Anchorage one night and feed all the homeless people we see. We are going to buy like 25 sandwiches at Subway, granola bars and oranges and pass them out. Tristan suggested it might be a nice gesture to pass out blankets. Him and Kev's friend, Kevin Sampley, slept outside the other night (I know, I have crazy kids!) and he said, "Mom, it's cold! I feel really sorry for the homeless people now". So that turned into, well, maybe we should start getting people to donate their old backpacks and stuff them with blankets, food, and some other treats and pass those around. Could be a fun endeavor!

* Martin and I want to get down to Homer for a motorhome camping trip. With the cost of gas we won't be doing much of that but Homer is only 3-4 hours away and a very fun place to go. And they have a beach!! A real beach, not just an Alaskan rocky beach!

So these are our goals this summer. Along with MANY trips to the lake. We have DOZENS of lakes EVERYWHERE here in the valley. You can't drive one mile without passing a lake, literally! So we usually hang out at one of them most of the summer. Both my sister and us have lake accesses in our neighborhoods too and we are on opposite sides of the same lake. We are going to cross the lake to my sister's house a few times this summer just for kicks.

And of course, I need to get up to Fairbanks at least once to see Grandma and Grandpa, Dan and Brenda, and my cousins. And SHELI, of course!!! We haven't been able to go much since returning from the motorhome trip so I'm long overdue.

Happy Summer everybody!!!

Here are the recent "going ons" in our life lately......

Tristan has been talking for some time about really wanting to get a macaw and has done a bit of research and saved quite a bit of money for the endeavor. He (or should I say we) signed up to be a foster family for the rescued birds from the Alaska Bird Club. We got a call a couple weeks ago that a bird needed fostered and, of course, we jumped on the opportunity. They brought the bird to us last Wed. He is a beautiful green, orange, and yellow Caique and if we want to keep him he is up for adoption. He talks all the time, whistles, and laughs. We haven't figured out everything that he says because it is a little robotic sounding, kind of like trying to figure out someone's strong accent. Some of the things that we can hear are "pretty boy", "pretty bird", "I'm a good boy", "what are you doing?", and "hello". I'm sure eventually we will figure out the rest, along with the new things that he is learning in our house. Any time the dogs get too close he will kind of peck their nose and then burst out in laughter; it is quite entertaining. Martin and I have decided that we will go ahead and adopt him, being that it is only $50 and he comes with a $500 cage!

As usual, we had a bunch of friends over on Saturday night for a good time. It seems lately that almost every weekend we all get together somewhere; either here, my sisters, Debs, or somewhere else. It's one of the things I love about my life here- all the wonderful people that surround me.

Mother's Day was fairly uneventful, as we aren't too fond of all these stupid commercial holidays. I tease that Mother's Day is for mothers who aren't appreciated every day of the year, as I am! My kids do special things for me all the time, love to hang out with me, and tell me how wonderful I am so I don't really need Mother's Day. I do enjoy spending time with family though and we went over to Martin's parents for lunch with Martha, Tony and the kids and another couple that are friends with his parents. Martin worked most of the day but sold a nice priced house so that was nice. Lord knows we need it right now!

We've been enjoying some warmer weather, although the last two days have been a little chilly. It's always nice to drive without slick roads, to see the green on the trees, and to spend time outside. The kids are looking forward to some lake weather so hopefully it will warm up a little more soon.

Our basement project is coming along. One more wall to put up (the boys closets) and then we will be sheetrocking. Martin is going to come home this afternoon and spend some time down there getting it done. Tristan is ready to move into his new room and Calista is REALLY ready to have a room, as she has been sleeping in the loft. I'm looking forward to not having to step on Barbie's and clothes on the way into my own room, lol. When it is done I will also have a yoga room so am looking forward to that!

I am also no longer teaching at Blue Mountains Wellness Studio. Things got a little weird there before I left and I am sad that I don't have the best feelings towards the situation but it is time to move on to better things. I will be teaching at the new Studio, The Anjali Yoga Room, starting June 2. I'm going to be teaching two Astanga/Vinyasa style classes. The nice thing about it is that there we are sub-contractors so it is our own business. I get to work on building my own classes and making my own money, rather than make an hourly rate. The name of my business is Dharma Yoga- surprise, surprise! For any of you that don't know, there are several meanings to the word Dharma in the yoga world but some of the meanings are "truth", "virtues" , "righteousness", "to fasten, to support, to hold" (my favorite), and "something established or firm". It also refers to the teachings of Buddha, which any person of any religion has to agree that his teachings are beneficial to the human race. Good energy to all those definitions so I think it is a good name for a yoga business. I'm still teaching my classes over at the SportsCenter too. All my classes are on Mon. and Wed. night so I will have lots of free time to play with the kids this summer!

My Daily Affirmation

It's been a rough week and it's so easy for me to spiral down to a very low place. I got my affirmation cards out last night and here is my affirmation for the day, written by Louise Hay:

Every thought I think is creating my future.

The Universe totally supports every thought I choose to think and believe. I have unlimited choices about what I think. I choose balance, harmony, and peace, and I express it in my life.

She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing "yes" in the sky.



Monique Duval

For the last several months I've developed a passionate interest in dreams and the meaning of my own dreams. Realizing that the meanings and symbolisms of dreams are going to vary greatly from person to person so you can't really go by all those dream dictionaries and such. I've been journaling my own dreams so that I can begin to connect patterns and meanings.

So last night I had this dream that a tattoo artist tattooed an armadillo over the sun on my forearm. He tried to convince me that the armadillo represented the sun so it was all the same. I remember the feeling that I had in my dream - a deep sadness that my sun was gone because I LOVE my sun and moon tattoo's, and that I was stuck with this greenish/bluish armadillo for the rest of my life! I found it interesting that I dreamt about an armadillo since I have only seen a couple in my entire life, and as of the last two years I haven't thought about them, I haven't seen a picture of one, nothing about an armadillo has entered my life.

So I looked up the symbolism of an armadillo today since "when we come across certain animals in our lives it can be an indication that they are put in our path to give us messages from Spirit about what it is that we need to focus on in our personal healing at that moment in time." (taken from one such website). So here is what they say about an armadillo:

ARMADILLO - putting up boundaries. We learn from the armadillo - which, by rolling into a ball, can be completely armored against attack - how to consciously define our own emotional and physical boundaries. Carrying our protection with us and using it when it is necessary for our well being.

I won't get into detail but there have definitely been some things in my life where I definitely need to put up that shield of protection. Very interesting.

This will brighten up anyone's day!! Incredible!


korean baby singing hey jude

Well, I decided to scratch the Meme because I can't think of anything wild and crazy about me. I know some of you are thinking, "what? Everything about Heidi is wild and crazy!" I know, I know, but most people that read my blog don't think those things are so different from their own lives because I have a bunch of wild and crazy friends, lol. I asked Kev's friends what they thought was wild and crazy and they all came up with things such as our unschooling lifestyle, our relaxed parenting style, my funky fashion style (I don't think it is that funky), I didn't look like a mom (translation: you are really cool! :) ), and some of the guys thought I was hot (didn't really think that was appropriate to blog about). So anyway, I guess I will just have to start blogging more regularly for those of you that love to hear what is going on with our family.

So today the thing that is on my mind.......................... I have had several things happen in the last several weeks that has taught me to 1) not make assumptions about ANYTHING 2) Don't judge a person by what someone elses experiences with that person are. There are always two sides to every story, always someone's perception on the situation or the person. 3) Stop talking about people and talk about dreams and ideas. I was reminded again that there is NO REALITY, only one's own perception. I want to remember this as I continue to go through life and just simply LOVE!!! To let go, accept, tolerate (people, not necessarily behavior, as there is a difference), learn how to separate the person from their behavior, to truly understand our connection with one another.

So that said, in the last couple of months some of the things that have been going on in our family life: Martin turned 39. Tristan made an absolutely BEAUTIFUL cake for him while we were at yoga. He is becoming quite the baker. He figured out that if he pours hot fudge over the cake that it is impossible to eat only one piece! So we now eat chocolate cake with hot fudge, forget the frosting:) And Martin has one more year to enjoy in his 30's.

I gave my notice with the Blue Mountains yoga studio. I really want to have a less chaotic summer so I can focus on my kids and there were things happening that caused me to want to leave before I began to feel too much resentment. I still have two classes at the new SportsCenter and it looks like I may pick up two more classes at a new studio that just opened. I meet with the owner today to discuss details. We (yoga teachers) have had the privilege of meeting a Swami that works in an Indian restaurant here in town. He has offered to teach us meditation and we will meet with him for the first time tonight. I am very excited, especially since I have asked the Universe to bring me a teacher. Not sure if he is the one but I am excited to meet with him.

Kev got to go to the Jazzfest in Fairbanks, with the highschool Jazz choir. He had a BLAST and said that home seemed boring after that. He is really enjoying the choir and Japanese at the school. He has competed in two different Japanese speech contests and had a great time. He has decided that he is going to do correspondence next year and just take the choir and Japanese at the school. He still is able to swim on the swim team at the school also, so all the things that he likes best about school. The great thing is that he gets an allotment with the correspondence that will pay for him to take college classes that will apply to both his highschool and college transcripts. Basically, he could have his first semester of college done by the time he reaches his senior year. He is pretty sure that he is going to take English at the college and possibly his geometry class there, as it is going to be a little harder for me to help him in that arena.

Tristan has decided that he is going to get a macaw. He has saved $700 for the endeavor so far and is pretty determined. He has spent a lot of time researching and even learned that non-stick cooking pans cannot be used in a house with a macaw, as it is extremely toxic to them. Wow, wonder what it does to a human. It is fun watching him fix his attention on a goal and go for it. He is a good saver and we have even talked about handing the bills over to him because we would probably have a lot more money if we did. I may start working on showing him how to do everything over the next year and then possibly giving him a small salary for taking care of our finances. Now that is something school doesn't teach them!! I love unschooling!!

Calista used some of her money to buy two hamsters last month. I swear were starting a farm here! She has been taking full care of them so I'm okay with it. As long as I don't have to touch them! I'm not a big fan of rodents, although they are fun to watch. They are a little humanish. She also bought herself a computer, with her Alaska Permanent Fund money, and is learning how to navigate around the internet. She also ended up buying herself a camera so she has her own little setup. It has definitely helped with fights over computers so I'm happy about that. She likes to play Club Penguin, Toon Town, Ty Girlz, and Simms, especially when Rylee, Haley, Jalen or Sierra are on there at the same time as her.

I know I've blogged about Christa before but she is my adopted daughter. We were introduced to Christa back in September through friends of Kev's. She has slowly made her way into our hearts and home. She has been in and out of the house all winter and is now living with us full time. She will be living with my sister, Robin, this summer to be her nanny. She comes from a split home, lots of alcohol problems and mom is completely emotionally detached. I think it is a bit of a challenge for Kev but it seems to be working out okay. Rylee adores her and I'm sure it will be a great summer for her not to have to wake up so early to come to my house in the morning.

Oh, and my sister, Robin, had a big bonfire this last weekend that was loads of fun. Robin invites her friends and people that she works for and then those people invite friends and we invite our friends. It is an eclectic group of people and it just works. We all stayed until midnight and it was full moon, just beautiful!! I'm lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life!!! The picture above is some of us at the bonfire. I'm in the middle, top row, in the tan sweater and my sister is the one directly in front of me, as if you couldn't have guessed. My best friends Debbie and Tanya are to the right and left of me and the others are my sisters friends and friends of theirs.

Well, this has gotten a little more lengthy than I had intended. That is the gist of what is going on at the Snavley household. We are definitely enjoying our warmer spring weather!!