Another essay from Kev

I'm full of pride over this last little essay that Kev wrote the other day. Not just because I am a vegetarian who believes in these same issues, but because I haven't pushed these ideas on my kids, although we do talk about them at times, and Kev has become very passionate about some of these things all on his own. I'm proud of him for speaking out about the things he believes in and not being afraid of what people say or think about the issues. So here it is, the first part is an article that he copied and then his comments at the bottom. Pardon the french, he is 14 after all and he feels VERY strongly about this....................................

all this. for food.

(copied from Peta.com)Many people who know pigs compare them to dogs because they are friendly, loyal, and intelligent. Pigs are naturally very clean and avoid, if at all possible, soiling their living areas. When given the chance to live away from factory farms, pigs will spend hours playing, lying in the sun, and exploring their surroundings with their powerful sense of smell. Considered smarter than 3-year-old human children, pigs are very clever animals.

Most people rarely have the opportunity to interact with these outgoing, sensitive animals because 97 percent of pigs in United States today are raised on factory farms. These pigs spend their entire lives in cramped, filthy warehouses, under constant stress from the intense confinement and denied everything that is natural to them.Piglets' tails are cut off and their teeth are pulled out without the use of painkillers.

As piglets, they are taken away from their mothers when they are less than 1 month old; their tails are cut off, some of their teeth are cut off, and the males have their testicles ripped out of their scrotums (castration), all without any pain relief. They spend their entire lives in overcrowded pens on a tiny slab of filthy concrete.

Breeding sows spend their entire miserable lives in tiny metal crates where they can't even turn around. Shortly after giving birth, they are once again forcibly impregnated. This cycle continues for years until their bodies finally give out and they are sent to be killed. When the time comes for slaughter, these smart and sensitive animals are forced onto transport trucks that travel for many miles through all weather extremes—many die of heat exhaustion in the summer and arrive frozen to the inside of the truck in the winter.

According to industry reports, more than 1 million pigs die in transport each year, and an additional 420,000 are crippled by the time they arrive at the slaughterhouse.3, 4 Many are still fully conscious when they are immersed in scalding water for hair removal.(end of copy)




I'm sorry, but that's disgusting. As to how someone KNOWS something like this, but still eats meat is beyond me. Is this worth that double bacon cheeseburger you had for lunch? Or the bacon and sausage you had for breakfast?

I'm sorry, but human beings tend to become disgusting selfish monsters when they aren't informed. And the rest because they have too much pride. Also note, this article was ONLY ON PIGS. There's a lot more disgusting shit out there they do to cows, chickens, even HORSES. And you eat all of it. Congratulations.

Not trying to offend anyone, just being brutally honest.

Next time you decide to run through McDonalds for a quick lunch, remember this. Remember that you're the only reason places like McDonalds still exist.

If you've actually read through all of that, good for you. Either,

a) you'll totally disregard it, because OH GOD HELP YOU IF YOU CAN'T EAT THAT CHEESEBURGER!

b) you'll take this into consideration and do some good in the world.

c) you skipped to the very end of this blog because you didn't want to hear the vegetarian kid, bitch to you about killing poor helpless animals. i'm not gonna say anymore. that is all. =)

Vagabonds

Well, we got signed up to volunteer with the Alaska Dog and Puppy Rescue. They didn't have much for us to do on Saturday but this coming up Saturday they have a bunch of puppies to transport to Anchorage, where they will be adopted out at the PetCo. So we will help transport them to Anchorage and then each of us will be assigned to a puppy to take care of for the day. The kids are very excited about it and Calista asks me every day, "How many more days?"

Saturday night we went to our local coffee shop for some Irish music. We go to Vagabonds every Saturday, in the morning, but we have never went for the local music on Friday and Saturday nights. My friend, Tanya, and her family met us there and we had a good time; ate wonderful soup and pasta and listened to the music.

It is still pretty cold here. It has been around 20-25 during the day. March should be at least 40 degrees and in April 50 degrees is average. I think everyone has cabin fever REALLY bad!! We were dreaming about Palm Springs and San Antonio last night!! The kids were feeling such a strong need to get out of the house that we went for a french fry run at 10:30 last night! We are all just ready to get the rollerblades, bikes, and hiking shoes out. I'm also anxious to get the motorhome out from behind the snow berm.

Cold but beautiful!

Well, this cold weather is just not giving up!! It has been hanging around 10 and the wind has kicked up again. The wind makes it pretty brutal when the air is so cold. But, again......the mountains have been SOOOOOO beautiful. I just will never lose my awe for their beauty. It is one thing I LOVE about where I live!! Here are some more pictures from a couple of days ago. Unfortunately I don't have a REALLY nice camera and I am not a photographer so my pictures don't capture them quite as grand as they look in real life. Kevin and I are taking a photography class, starting next month, so maybe I can learn to take better pictures.

I have been doing yoga, trying to go at least 3-4 times a week, have made it three times so far this week. I feel so balance and rejuvenated, it's quite addictive. I am feeling stronger and more aligned and quite Zen-like!! I have been mostly doing the Bikraam yoga, which is done in a heated room (about 90 degrees or more) so that is a big plus for me! I love the heat!! My skin has been really clear and soft too, which I think is probably from sweating out all the toxins and opening up my pores.

I have also been going back to the vegan lifestyle. I felt so good when I was eating vegan and haven't felt the same since I went back to dairy so I am trying new recipes and posting them on my vegan blog. Last night was Thai Lentil Soup and fresh rolls.......Yuuuuuuummmyy!

Calista and Tristan are both showing a strong interest in dog grooming so I have been calling around to the dog groomers in town but none of them are willing to have two kids hanging around because of the liability. So I called the Puppy Rescue to see if we can volunteer our time brushing and playing with the dogs and helping out at the adoption clinics they have every week. I hope that it will be enough to fuel their interest at this point. Our dogs have been getting extra attention in that area and Calista has transformed her room into a dog groomers business. I will also have to find some good books on grooming. The kids know how to do the basics but they want MORE.

Other than that, another pretty quiet week around here. We all have cabin fever pretty bad, especially the kids right now. Our local mall is being taken over by Target so all the stores are having big sales right now. Gottschalks will be going out of business here so everything in the store is 70% off. So we went over there yesterday, with our friends Tanya and Sarah. I got some really nice necklaces and earrings for $5 and $6 and a couple of shirts for $6 each, can't beat that. The boys bought tribal pendants (good tattoo ideas) and Calista bought a journal. After that we went bowling, which we haven't done in a while. It's nice that we FINALLY have some income coming in, it's been a few months. Martin has lots of things pending right now, has continued to pend one or two properties every week and has closings scheduled clear up to July so it looks like we are going to be fine! Phewww!! I learned some good lessons, not having money, but it does get old after a while. Definitely nice to not have to continually say no to the kids for everything!

Dharma

In reference to my blog from yesterday (see below):

Rene Guenon, father of the 20th century school of perennial philosophy, said:

It [dharma] is, so to speak, the essential nature of a being, comprising the sum of its particular qualities or characteristics, and determining, by virtue of the tendencies or dispositions it implies, the manner in which this being will conduct itself, either in a general way or in relation to each particular circumstance. The same idea may be applied, not only to a single being, but also to an organized collectivity, to a species, to all the beings included in a cosmic cycle or state of existence, or even to the whole order of the Universe; it then, at one level or another, signifies conformity with the essential nature of beings,(from Guenon's "Introduction to the Study of Hindu Doctrines").


David Frawley, an expert on Hindu philosophy and religion, comments on Dharma as follows:


A universal tradition has room for all faiths and all religious and spiritual practices regardless of the time or country of their origin. Yet it places religious and spiritual teachings in their appropriate place relative to the ultimate goal of Self-realization, to which secondary practices are subordinated. Sanatan Dharma also recognizes that the greater portion of human religious aspirations has always been unknown, undefined and outside of any institutionalized belief. Sanatan Dharma thereby gives reverence to individual spiritual experience over any formal religious doctrine. Wherever the Universal Truth is manifest; there is Sanatan Dharma—whether it is in a field of religion, art or science, or in the life of a person or community. Wherever the Universal Truth is not recognized, or is scaled down or limited to a particular group, book or person, even if done so in the name of God, there Sanatan Dharma ceases to function, whatever the activity is called.


Hmmmmmm, this is my food for thought today. I think I want to change my name to Dharma. Has a nice ring doesn't it?

My kind of coffee

My friend, Tanya, teasingly calls me Dharma, in reference to the character on the TV show Dharma and Greg. I LOVE Dharma so it is a huge compliment to me. So Martin comes home last night with this bag of coffee, Dharma Beans, "Improve your Kharma, drink the Dharma". At the bottom of the bag there is a little guy that looks a little dehydrated and pathetic and it says "No stale corporate coffee!" Not only are these beans organic but they are roasted in Ketchikan, Alaska. Too cool!! Martin says he just couldn't resist when he saw the name of the roast. I had my cuppa this morning and it was actually really good coffee.

I started doing yoga this week and it feels sooooo good! I took one class that was all about letting go of the stress and was really relaxing. Last night I took a more vigorous class with some difficult positions. I'm a little sore this morning but it is a "good" kind of sore. Tonight I'm taking Bikraam yoga which is done in a room 90 degrees, aaahhhhhhh. I'm definitely going to make this a habit, I feel so much better and centered when I'm doing yoga.

MY dog!

Okay, is this MY dog or what? Kevin can think what he wants but this is definitely MY dog. Does anyone know a dog that gets cold and wants to nap in front of the heater? Calista has been taking this out at night, during the nighttime hustle and bustle in the kitchen, and lies down in front of it in the kitchen. Billie has decided that Calista puts the heater out just for her. Tonight she even had a blanket in front of it to lie on. I guess I never have to worry about her when we are in Texas or California in the middle of the summer! Yay for me!! And actually Dante is the same way because I constantly find him sleeping on top of the heater vent. And this is in a house with a wood stove going most of the time! I love it!

Wow, yesterday was tough. Not only were we in the middle of a nasty wind storm and temps at 10 degrees but I was doing the "dancin with the devil underground" thing again. Whew, glad today is a new day. My kids happen to be very LIVELY children and normally I celebrate and love it, but yesterday I needed a day to return to Zen mode and there was not a silent moment in the entire day! I was grumpy and not very nice.

The day started out pretty good though. Yesterday was Tanya's birthday! We went to the Sports Complex and walked the track for two miles, ahhh that felt good. I have gotten quite out of shape and it is time to get back into shape before I get too close to 40! Tonight we are going to yoga. We signed up for 10 days of yoga for $10 bucks, can't beat that. After walking yesterday we went to our favorite pit stop, Vagabond Blues, for soup and some coffee and then headed over to Bishops Attic for some second-hand shopping. Then we came back to my house to relax and have some tea. But there wasn't any relaxing happening at the Snavley house yesterday! Ah well, I'm glad that my kids REALLY LIVE LIFE!! They are a constant inspiration to me even though we aren't always on the same frequency. Part of it is that they are dying to get out and rollerblade, bike, hike, swim, all those "summer" things. And there is no spring around the corner at this point. We are having pretty cold weather for this time of year and everyone has cabin fever!

Calista has been writing songs, she just loves to sing and play her guitar. She wants lessons quite badly so we are going to look into that for this spring and summer. Kevin also wants guitar, piano, and voice lessons; I want to get back to clogging and taking some guitar lessons also...... so, the question is, where is that darn money tree growing anyway?

This is our week in pictures. We had moose in our backyard earlier in the week, which was a treat because we haven't seen them around the neighborhood since this fall, or at least the kids and I haven't. We went up to Hatcher Pass yesterday, which is a very popular place for snowmachining, snowboarding and skiing, and sledding; we chose to do the latter. We drop the kids off way at the top and let them slide down and then we drive down to the bottom of the road and pick them up (the road switches back). I don't know how long the sledding hill actually is but it is quite a long ride for them. It is always beautiful up there, as you can see mountains for miles! It has been so clear and sunny!

I'm extremely UP right now! I usually feel like the Amy Steinberg song says, "i'm either dancin on a cloud or i'm dancing with the devil underground." Right now I'm dancin on a cloud because it looks like for sure that the kids and I are taking the motorhome down in August to do a three or four month jaunt in the motorhome. We may choose to store the motorhome in Seattle on the way up so that we can do this every fall without having to worry about the 2400 miles through Canada. The only downfall to doing that is that we won't have the motorhome in the summer to tule around Alaska.

On a down note, Martin's car is on the fritz. We will have to get that in the shop this week, which means that I will most likely be without a car. Life is full of ups and downs and you just have to go with the flow!

Spring just around the corner?.....NOT!!

Oh boy, we are in for a long week! We are having 0 degree weather at the moment with high winds, supposed to be up to 85 mph gusts. It is pretty brutal out there. Our problem is that we don't have wind directional caps on either our furnace or our woodstove so......the woodstove can't be going because it blows the smoke back into the house, and the furnace blows cold air as much as it blows warm air because it can't prove itself. What a pain!! I will be layered up today and wearing my nice, warm, cozy slippers! This is supposed to last at least until next Tues., could last longer but the weather report only reports that far out.

The Iditarod starts this weekend and the kids are wanting to follow the mushers on the map, as to where they are at and when they are reporting into the different checkpoints along the trail. I am so not into the dog mushing scene but it is part of Alaskan culture. We were hoping to go up to the headquarters today and try to get a map of the trail so we can follow along. There is a museum up there too and we have never been there so I'm sure it will be interesting. I hate driving when the winds are so high though because it knocks you around a little. The joys of living in Wasilla, Alaska!!

On a VERY HAPPY note - Martin and I have decided, if finances allow this fall, that we are going to take the motorhome south again this fall. The kids and I will be on our own most of the time, with Martin flying down twice in the three months that we will be traveling. Our plan is to head to my sister, Ren's, first and attend the Live and Learn Unschooling Conference outside of Asheville and go to the Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough. Then we are planning on traveling down to San Antonio to visit my aunt and uncle, Martin's aunt and uncle, and possibly Martin's sister, as there is talk of their family moving to that area. Then we will head up the west coast towards home with several stops along the way. I am SO excited!! If we can manage this every fall/winter I can handle the Alaska thing for a while longer. The kids are really excited too, knowing that they are coming home, to their house and the things that are familiar, when it is done.

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.

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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.

enjoying my teen

I love and enjoy all three of my children TREMENDOUSLY but, for whatever reason, I am really enjoying the beginning of Kevin's teen years. He puts balance into my life and I just really like being around him right now. He has a really good group of friends too and it is so fun to watch them interact with one another; almost like siblings that get along really well. One of his friends has him as her heroe on her myspace and that really, deeply touched me. He seems to touch people all around him with such positive energy! The following is something I pulled off of his profile on myspace. This is why I like him so much. I like to think I had something to do with it but I think he has taught me more than I've taught him.

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"I have fewer friends than most. Quality over quantity, nothing against those that do though. I'd just rather have 5 good friends than 20 aquantences. Not that I don't know people, but I consider friends people I want to get to know well, not people I only know. Doesn't mean I won't befriend you though! I'm easy to talk to, so don't be discouraged! It's me that has the issues talking, hah.I'm an accepting person, or I try to be. I could really care less about what you do. And as long as you don't try to push it on me, then I'll return the favour. I try to find the best in people, and go by that. We all do bad things, we're only human. No one person living on this entire planet can honestly say they are clean of doing anything wrong."

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Of course I have to add some pro-unschooling comments too. This was written by a child who has had no formal writing lessons. Hmmmm, how do they learn this stuff? Children were born to learn, it is how God made us. They don't need the coercive methods that is so prevelant in school!! Something else that happened last weekend is that he just finished his six week Youth Court class that ended with a "bar" exam. He got a 97%, which was the highest in the class and only one other child got that score. He has never taken a test in his life! Actually, I take that back, he did take state tests when he was 9 years old. When kids are motivated intrinsically, they can do anything!! I guess that nonsense about having to "prepare" kids for tests, college, and the sorts doesn't apply after all!!

Great Day!

Today has been a great day! Yesterday we met some fellow unschoolers; Connie and her daughter, Hannah. We spent the afternoon at their house and were so inspired. Just a great kid-friendly, fun, creative house with fun, creative people living in it, which is exactly what I needed to get my head out of the sand. They have a swing, trapeze, and climbing rope right in the middle of the living room! So guess what we are building this week? You got it! A swing, trapeze, and climbing rope!

We woke up this morning to a little bit of snow on the ground. Winter is officially here! I was surprised at how well I handled it. It actually felt very refreshing. It always makes the air smell and feel really clean. Connie and Hannah came over to our house this afternoon and the girls had a blast. Lots and lots of noise filled our home today!! Tonight we had our puppy class and then we came home and had a snowball fight. All that running and cold air burns the lungs I tell ya but it was fun!! We came in and made homemade hot chocolate and now the kids are watching Smallville (one of their favs).

We ordered, and received, some woodworking books and are going to get started on some projects tomorrow. We also have a sewing project book on the way so we will have plenty to do over the next couple of weeks. Martin almost has Kevin's room and craft area done; we just have to get it mud and taped. It will be so nice to have a craft area that we can leave messes out in. We have lots of projects in mind but all our project stuff is still in boxes waiting for that area to get completed. My sister, Ren, just unpacked their last boxes, after one year of living in Jonesborough so I shouldn't feel so bad :) .

AhhhhHaaaaa

Last night was one of those AhhhHaaa moments for me. Tristan was beckoning me outside where I thought him and Calista were playing football (at 10:00pm). He had actually been out there showing Calista how to shoot his BB gun. He taught her how to scope it, aim and shoot. She was hitting the cans they had set up every time. He would say, "Calista, be patient, if it takes ten minutes it is okay. Make sure you get your aim and then shoot." She would shoot and hit the cans and Tristan would say, "Good job Calista!! Isn't she good Mom?"

Now, this might not seem like such an AhhhHaaa moment for most of you but for me it was huge!! You see Calista and Tristan are the exact opposites of each other and, consequently, they get very frustrated with each other and spend an incredible amount of time bickering and criticizing. Sometimes I go to bed totally exhausted from it. So to see the two of them being so sweet and patient with each other; encouraging and cheering one another on was HUGE!!! I went to bed with a BIG ole' grin on my face!!!

Betty and Veronica

Calista's bosom buddy, Maija, flew down this weekend to spend some time with Calista. It has been almost one year since they have seen each other so this is pretty special. We dubbed them Betty and Veronica when they were quite young and you can see from the picture why. They have been singing, applying make-up, watching TV, and all the other things girly girls do. We are going neon bowling tonight. Calista is going to feel the void when Maija leaves tomorrow night but, thank goodness, we aren't too far away anymore and can see her pretty often. Her mom is my bosom buddy and she couldn't come this weekend :( so I will be anxious to get up to Fairbanks soon.

Some fellow unschoolers, the barenaked family, were on Nightline last night. They have lived in their motorhome for five years now and they were featured on the show for that reason. I dreamt about being back in the motorhome last night and it is just starting to sink in for me that I am going through a grieving process of sorts. I know that sounds a little much for just moving out of a motorhome but I REALLY love the lifestyle and I am longing for it right now, wishing all my kids were still on board. There are some good things about owning a house but I am quickly discovering that I would much rather be in the motorhome. I refuse to allow discontent to settle in again though so I am choosing to be happy and saving the road living for another day, hopefully not too far in the future. It might work out that we can still keep the house and travel in the motorhome in the winter months so that everyone has what they want. I think we have decided that we will actually try to sell the motorhome and maybe in a year or two buy a bus, which is what we have always wanted. After doing some searching online we are very sure that is what we want to do.

Something else that is really bothering me right now is the over-abundance of STUFF that we have. I went through so much when we left last year and thought I was getting rid of SOOO much but I am finding out it wasn't near enough. When we were in the motorhome we had exactly what we needed and it was so freeing to not have a bunch of stuff to take care of. So, I have decided that every day I am going to get rid of two things. It is easy to part with two things every day and I will do that until I am down to just what I need, and what the kids absolutely think they need. It was so easy to keep focused on the simple life while we were traveling and so easy to get caught up in the not-so-simple-life while living in a house. So I have to constantly remember that I am comitted to living a simple life because it is so much less stressful and so much cheaper!! I want to spend my money building relationships, not decorating a house. Not that there is anything wrong with making your house pretty, I just don't want to get focused on that. There are a lot of better ways I can spend my money, for sure.

this and that

When I blog I realize how different our lives are now than they were on the road. Doesn't seem quite as exciting! :) I read about my friends that are on the road right now and get a little sad, as I am really missing the lifestyle. My kids are extremely happy though so I am good. My Dad and his wife hit the road a few weeks ago also, in their fifth wheel. They are in Oregon now and seem to be enjoying it as much as we did.

We made it through the first week with new puppies. Pheewwww! This is hard work, I think more tiring than having a baby. Things are going really well. We had a couple small issues come up so I called my "dog lady", Claudia, owner of Better Companion, and got some great advice that has made a difference. The boys start puppy class with them on Oct. 12. We had the puppies together in the same crate and that was causing some issues. She told us to keep them as separate as possible, as much as possible, so they will make a stronger bond with us than with each other. Last night was their first night in separate crates and they were having some separation anxiety. I was up at 5:00 practically rocking Billie to sleep. After 15 minutes of that she calmed right down.

Haven't made it up to Fairbanks yet, to see all my friends there, but hope to in November. Kevin's schedule has tied us down a tad bit. He has choir on Friday and Youth Court on Saturday, and is trying out for a play this week, so it makes it hard to go on weekends. He is bugging me to get a work permit for him so he can get a job and also ready to get his drivers permit. He is growing up fast! I am enjoying this stage of his development tremendously, he is such a joy to be around and has so many interests and passions it is hard to keep up with him sometimes. I love all the stages though, they have all been my favorite.

Tristan is starting to settle in also. The first couple of weeks in the house seemed to be a hard transition for him. Go figure! Sometimes it is hard for me to determine what is going to set him off but transitions are always difficult. Two of his friends knew what neighborhood we had bought a house in so they biked over and spent 1/2 hour searching for a house with a big motorhome in the driveway. They found us and rang the doorbell. Tristan was feeling pretty good that they would spend that much time searching for him. He is taking the puppy care very seriously and I have hardly had to do much with Dante, as he is right on top of it. He was also very excited to find out that our local bowling alley opened back up after being closed for a few months. We all love to bowl, especially Tristan, so we have been spending a bit of time over there. He has been happy to have his drumset back and is getting quite good on those too. Somedays we have to put up with a lot of noise but it is actually good to hear it again.

Calista is keeping fairly busy keeping Rylee entertained and vice versa. Rylee is attending public school so we don't see her as often as normal but enough to suffice Calista. She bought a pretty fancy, working cash register with her PFD (Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend), that us lucky Alaskans get every year (this year is $1100.00). We have had a bowling alley, a store, and a few other things. We are directed to purchase things so she can check us out. She had our friend, Mary, renting bowling shoes and a ball and bowling in her homemade alley, which consisted of cups, plates, and anything else she could find to stack up in a triangle. She even had bumper pads (wall shelves). She is feeling a little left out with the boys getting puppies. She wants a Pomeranian and actually made arrangements to get a puppy from a breeder that has two females ready to breed. I am hoping that the training with Dante and Billie go well enough that I feel up to bringing another one into the home but I am being cautious. She did a good job of "babysitting" a friends Pomeranian and I think it was a good match for her but I don't want to have more than we can handle either.

Martin is as busy as ever. He continues to love the realty thing and is selling a bit of property. Apparently he is really good at the people side of things, according to the those who have seen him in action. He has gotten compliments from clients who are impressed with his knowledge! lol. So far no one has asked how long he has been doing it and he hopes it stays that way. He has been busy trying to get Kevins room completed. We are to the sheetrocking stage now and had a friend offer to do the mudding and taping for us. Yaaaaa!! Martin hates that part of the job! We will have to trade for something else for him. His room should be done in the next week anyway and I am sure Kevin will be glad to have a bed to sleep on again, as he has been sleeping on the couch. I will be glad to have the living room back too!

I have just been trying to get the house in order, which is no easy task having two puppies! I had my "old lady friends" over for lunch on Tuesday. It is nice to be back surrounded by all these wonderful people! My "old lady friends" are some older ladies from church that, for one reason or another, I have bonded with. They are like my adopted mommies. They uplift and encourage me and I am lucky to have them in my life. I am also back to clogging. For those of you who don't know what clogging is, it is a dance that could be likened a little to tapping. The shoes and steps are different but there are some similarities. I didn't get to clog at all while we were traveling and was just itching to get my shoes on again. It is so much fun!!

Again.............................Life is Good!!

Well, I feel like I am back to a calm and centered state of being now. I just needed to slow down and take a few breaths. Monday was so beautifu,l and we know that our "warmer", sunny days are slowly coming to an end, so we took advantage of the weather and drove to Talkeetna. We ate lunch at a little Italian/pizza place and then went down to the river and played. My friend Tanya has been making Talkeetna zen gardens so we collected more sand for her gardens and found some pretty rocks to add to them also. Rylee insisted on collecting quite large twigs, which she could barely hold in her arms. She had quite a pile and it took a lot of convincing to get her to leave some of them behind. It was so calming just to be down by the water, relaxing with the kids. It was exactly what I needed and I was fighting a case of the sleepies on the way home.

I met Tanya through the theatre camp that Kevin attended. Her daughter, Sarah, attended also and we just hit it off immediately. It is so good to have a friendship again that has flow and doesn't seem like we are working at it. I feel like I have known her for a very long time and we have been having so much fun. We had Sarah for four days last week, while Tanya went to be with her husband, who was working up in Fairbanks. She brought along their little Pomeranian dog that we babysat too. We had a lot of fun and it was kind of our test to see if a dog would work in our family with Socky (our cat). The cat couldn't of cared less so that was a good thing.

Which brings us to yesterday. Tristan and Kevin have been scanning the internet and newspaper for a puppy. They really wanted to rescue one instead of going through a breeder. Yesterday morning when they checked the Puppy Rescue website there were three of them!! We went and looked at them and ended up coming home with a heeler and a husky mix. Martin and I have been reading up on dog training and behavior because we feel like we have failed a couple of dogs and we really wanted to make this work. So far, so good. The potty training is a lot of work but, surprisingly, I feel quite relaxed about the whole thing. We are pretty determined, as we see this as a lifetime commitment. We love dogs and want a few as permanent family members. To top it off, Socky seems to be fine with it. He is not hanging out with the dogs or anything but hasn't hissed or swatted at them. He is more like, "You little twerps, I think I will go hang out upstairs, thanks."

beautiful fall!!

What a beautiful week it has been! We went from a soggy summer to an absolutely sunny, beautiful fall. There wasn't a cloud in the sky yesterday which just makes the mountains surrounding us magnificent! Yesterday we walked down to the lake (we have lake access in our neighborhood) and collected things to look at under the microscope. One of the things that we ended up looking at was a piece of Lucky Charms cereal (not from the lake :)). All you could see in the microscope was sugar crystals. The kids were really grossed out. And to think that is the "healthy" part of the cereal.

Last week I was feeling quite stressed and wishing for my life in the motorhome again. Owning a house has its benefits but it is just so much more to keep up than our motorhome. Then I was reading about friends that just hit the road and remembering all the fun times we had and wanting to start all over again. Part of it I'm sure was the chaos that was happening around me. Not only are we still not done unpacking but we are in the middle of a construction project and I was finishing up some painting downstairs so that we wouldn't have to move the hundreds of books we have off the shelf to paint later. The kids were also bickering at a new all time high level. And I also spent a lot of time sulking because I wasn't at the Live and Learn Unschooling conference with the rest of my unschooling tribe! So now the painting is done, the unpacked boxes are neatly in one room, the construction project is coming along, the weather is beautiful, the kids seem to be settling down a little bit and I am not so stressed anymore. Although, I am still sulking about not being at the conference, especially looking at everybody's pictures. :)

Oh, and Martin is starting to sell houses!! He wrote up an offer yesterday and looks like he will be writing two more today so it appears as if we won't be worried about starving, at least not this month! He is really enjoying the realty thing. He makes his coffee in the morning and leaves practically singing and comes home all chipper. I haven't seen him like this in a long time..........actually maybe never. He was able to find a car for himself and we paid $2,000 less than we had budgeted for so we were happy about that. He isn't home much and that has taken some getting used to but seeing him happy makes it all worthwhile. The kids and I have adjusted our schedules a little so we can wait until he is home to eat dinner. We like sitting down at the table as a family for dinner. We sometimes don't sit down until 9:00 so I have been leaving lots of snacks on the kitchen island for the kids to nibble on throughout the day.

Happiness is not a destination it is a method of life. Life is good!!!

Getting settled

Got to catch up on the blogging I see. I will back up to my birthday on August 23. We had been having a ton of rain and some horrible flooding just north of us. I woke up on my birthday to the sun shining; what a wonderful change of scenery. My friend Tanya and her daughter, Sarah, met us at the motorhome so we could go on our favorite hike up the Butte (see photos on our website 5freebirds.com). She brought me a zen garden that she had made out of Talkeetna sand and a rake made out of local branches; too funny! Later that night Robin brought me cozy slippers, that I had been eyeing from a local store in Palmer, and a cake. The night before Martin and Calista brought me a funky purse and a cd player for my car. I have a van that has auto doors but no cd player and I have been wanting one for a while. It was a great day!!

On Thursday we closed on our new house and met the moving vans there early Friday morning. It has been an exhausting week with all the unpacking and in the process we are also building a bedroom for Kevin and doing some painting so we can put the bookshelves in place and not have to worry about taking books off later to paint behind the shelves. I like to save myself the time later. As I was watching all of our stuff get unloaded I was really wishing we could just stay in the motorhome. I saved WAY too much stuff and here I thought I had done so well getting rid of stuff before we left. So I am weeding out more as we unpack. I LOVE my house though and it is nice to have more space again. The kids are really happy and it is especially nice to see my Tristan boy back to his normal, mostly happy self.

The kids have gotten so used to being packed like sardines in the motorhome that they are not liking being spread out at night, all in different areas of the house. We have never had a problem with co-sleeping, since we have done it their entire lives, but Martin and I are really craving alone time so have been encouraging them to sleep somewhere besides our room. One morning I woke up and they were all curled up together in the living room. Another morning they were all in Tristan's cubby hole of a room. And some nights they curl up in our room too since we love having them nearby. I should actually back up and say that it is Tristan and Calista; Kevin is quite independent at 14 years old and does not need us very often and certainly would not sleep with us at night. He would die if I was telling everyone that he needed to sleep with us. He has been very tolerant of the other two curling up with him at night though. We are all adjusting to our new lifestyle quite nicely.

Martin passed his real estate exam and his licensing came in last week. He spent last week going around with Kevin Crozier and some buyers, observing how things are done. He will be on his own this week showing houses. He is really enjoying his new career and is happier than I have seen him in a very long time. He is in Anchorage today trying to find himself a car. It is not easy finding a cheap car that looks decent too. We are determined though and he will find what he is looking for. No car payments for this family!

Yesterday we took advantage of our still sunny weather and hiked up Thunderbird Falls, with our friends Tanya, Allen and Sarah, in search of a letterbox (go to letterboxing.org for more info). Unfortunately the letterbox was gone but we had a wonderful hike. It was beautiful out!! The leaves are starting to change and the air is crisp and cool. We are planning a bonfire on Friday to burn up all our moving boxes and scrap wood laying around. Great weather for a bonfire!

Your children are not your children

I just had to share the lyrics to this song that I got off a good friends blog (thanks Karen). The lyrics to this song expresses what shapes our parenting philosophies and what motivates us as parents. It is from Sweet Honey In the Rock, called "On Children" .........................absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and the daughters of lives longing for itself.
They come through you, but they are not from you.
And though they are with you, they belong not to you.
You can give them your love, but not your thoughts.
They have their own thoughts, they have their own thoughts.
You can house their bodies, but not their souls.
For their souls dwell in a place of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You can strive to be like them, but you cannot make them just like you.
Strive to be like them, but you cannot make them just like you.