We had a lovely Halloween thanks to a wonderful friend who put on a fantastic party. It's so nice to spend holidays with so many. Though we were a bit of a mob going around trick or treating LOL. Olli loved it when people asked "Are you a hot dog?" and he would scream in fear "Don't eat me!!!" Always people cracked up! He is soo much like my Dad,he loves to make people laugh.

Sadly I don't have any group shots in other years we did it inside so I didn't grab my flash. So nothing really came out well,oh well. I could of pulled out my phone if I hadn't lost it again.... Darn thing I need a tether for it.

Found a great blog this past month. It has monthly units. I love when units are all put together for me so helpful when I'm schooling so many. So here is a shout out to website that the units look great want to try!! I'm entering their contest and hope I win!

http://www.celebratetherhythmoflife.com/p/monthly-guides.html

Check them out. :)

October

Well it's amazing how things change in no time. It's pretty likely that we will be moving to Australia! The movers were here today for an estimate. Chris is currently out getting paperwork for our visas. We have a few more hurdles. One the offer the company gives us. They do really want him there so probably it's going to be a wonderful offer. Hopefully they will finalize the details this week. I know we will have to agree to 4 years at least. Then there is the visas. We are older so that might be issue but probably wont. Soo... it looks like we might be living on the other side of the world.

I never would have thought a month ago that our lives would change so much so quickly. Our lives seemed to be plodding along a certain path. Before all this happened I saw this quote that just really spoke to me. It made me hungry for an adventure...

And then the next thing you know our world is being turned upside down.Chris and I believe it might be an answer to prayer,prayers we've been praying for a LONG time.

I love this one too ,so perfect for how I feel right now

I know everything isn't going to be peachy in Australia. It will be ups and downs just like here. We might be taking a chance where we will get more downs then ups, but then again it might be the most wonderful experience in the world. Either way we are up for it!

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As usual this month we did a LOT of walking. Nadia took this one. She's been really pushing to get me in more photos. Ugh!

The month started out with a lovely vacation up in NH. We leaf peeked,picked apples,went on hikes,tubed the river,fished etc... Unfortunately all the pictures from the vacation I'm having a hard time removing so I'll be back in another post hopefully with some.

I did not take really any pics of what we did this month.

I need to get better about taking pictures. So all I have is a few and a shot of the alphabet pictures I've been drawing. I am planning on doing some thing with them, for Olli when we're done. I'm not sure yet what but I'm taking pictures anyway. :)

That is it for now hopefully I will be back with NH pics and stories!

Fall is here

LOL not a post all summer. To be honest this is the first summer ever I am ready to move on. I spent most of the summer sick and in pain. It was a really depressing summer. I finally feel like a some what normal person and I'm ready for a change. So for once I'm ready for fall,school,snuggling in,all of it.

Ike is gone. He went to Liberty University in Virgina,a part of 72,000 students! 'm beyond excited for him. He's loving the college life so far. It's cool with google skype we've been able to see his dorm room and "meet" his roommates. We didn't go down with him. He went down with a friend who is also going there. He's greatly missed!!! I joke though with friends that I cried on and off after he left until.... I cleaned his room! OMG years of hoarding even after he "cleaned" his room it took me two days to get the thing fully cleaned.

It's kind of funny we started going back to the church he continued to attend(after we left) but now he's gone and we are there. That was also part of my sadness this summer. I love that church and think the pastors there are fantastic,people fantastic. But... we never really had the connection we had with our old church. So we looked around a bit and never really found a place we could call home. We stayed at a lovely church for over year I think almost two, but in the end decided to go back to our old church. The old churches style of teaching really works for us ,we learned so much there. Life changing stuff, we missed their bible studies a lot. So I feel a bit like I'm taking steps backward but it's the best choice for us right now. The sad thing is now we're going to miss seeing some of the people we met when were at that church we went to for a while. Life is never perfect it's always messy. I'm so grateful for all 3 churches and their ministry. Just really missing how church felt more like a family and we really knew each other. We've talked to so many people who left our first church and we all say we can not find the same connection again. It's funny the longer I'm around the more I realize that every church has it's strengths and weaknesses just like people. So all three churches now have a part of my heart and I will miss the ones ,we aren't attending.


Nothing really exciting happened this summer with the kids. We started a tree house. Francesca learn to ride without training wheels. I feel like it was a bum summer for them too because we didn't do nearly as much as we normally do. We are going camping soon so at least we did manage that. Camping in the fall seems to becoming a tradition with us anyway. It's a really nice time to camp. But we didn't make it to six flags and barely went to the beach. The meds I was on really caused me to burn ( I wasn't even supposed to be out in the sun...) even with high sunblock I really had to watch it. We do have a pool so at least there was that. The kids had a blast filling up the blow up pool I bought and putting it at the bottom of the slide. They spent hours and hours with that. They helped me in the garden quite a bit,even starting their own plants this year. Oh we now have chickens! They have started to lay so it's really fun to go out everyday and get the eggs.
Favorite book for the summer,This Life Is In Your Hands.

It's a biography about Eliot Coleman written by his daughter. If you don't know him he's a gardener whose research and methods are really changed the way people farm organically and seasonally. I've read a number of his books so I was curious. It's funny before I read the book I read some reviews and it's really interesting how differently people think. The reviews I read made them out to be the worst parents really neglectful and weird. Franky I agree with a lot of how they parented. I think kids should have lots of down time and freedom especially outdoors. I've always been accused of being a "hippie" with weird ideas so I guess I can see part of where they were coming from. I don't agree with all they did. I think some of their lifestyle was bit much for kids but I think I would rather have my kids growing up around that then the close minded box type people. I think the thing that really touched me about the book was the mom's story. You could tell in the beginning they were so hopeful. They wanted a beautiful life for their family. But then life crowded in and things became too much for both of them. It's sad to see a family slowly fall apart. Sad that in part it was their desire for a perfect life that brought it about.

My favorite Movie of the summer,The Music Never Stopped.


Pretty much a movie about learning to listen ,really listen and how much you discover when you do. I think so often we think we are listening but aren't. Sometimes it's hard to wrap your head around someone else's thoughts specially when we have preconceived ideas about them. I hate when people think they have you pegged. Please you see me maybe a few min every week and you think you know me? But the worst thing is I consistently catch myself doing just that! I love movies that inspire me deeply and this one did.

Favorite new album of the summer, ugh hard to choose!! I guess Ben L'Oncle since he was my go to album LOL The great thing is he's recorded both in french and English.

BEN L'ONCLE SOUL from yamoy on Vimeo.

BEN L'ONCLE SOUL -SOULMAN- English Version (Official Music Video) from // Videodrome on Vimeo.

Been searching for some Christian music I would like and found some great ones. I am kind of sick of the life is hard but I love the lord anyway theme. I mean you could get depressed listening to Christian music really! But I can connect with this one so, one life is tough song is ok sandwiched in between my happy music.



Out on the farthest edge
There in the silence
You were there

My faith was torn to shreds
Heart in the balance
And You were there

Always faithful, always good
You still have me
You still have my heart

I thought I had seen the end
Everything broken
But You were there

I've wandered at heaven's gates
I've made my bed in hell
You were there still

Always faithful, always good
You still have me
You still have my heart

You have me, You have me
You have my heart completely
You have me, You have me
You have my heart completely

You have me, You have me
You have my heart completely
You have me, You have me
You have my heart

You have me, You have me
You have my heart completely
You have me, You have me
You have my heart completely

to end it right a happy Christian song. :) Nadia is so sick of this one... I've way over played it! LOL

Update a tiny bit

Well thank goodness it's summer! My garden got a real slow start this year. First I hurt myself and couldn't work,then we went away for a vacation and then I hurt myself again. But it's getting there...
I expanded the flower beds around most of the house. Put in four more veg beds and two lazy beds. I'm trying my hand at upside pot gardening. I think they look ugly but I found some kits really cheap so I thought what the heck. The kids had fun planting them. They loved how the soil grew ,coconut compressed soil you add water to so it expands into a growing medium.
I'm putting in a lavender bed in the land before you hit our flower beds that divide the front.I think it will do really well there,lavender loves sunny dry soil and if it does I'm going to go ahead with my meadow front yard plan. I am soooo sick of grass it just doesn't grow well on the cape unless you really work at it and I'd rather spend my time growing other things. I've been reading a few books and I think it will really suit both my style and our environment. The picture below you can kind of get the idea of what I am thinking but I'll use plants mostly native to the Cape.

After the meadows then the front flower beds and trees (which I might eventually turn into meadow too)come my vegetable beds and the finished plan is to kind of look like this when it's done. I want to put in a very small shed for my tools and a potting bench. I don't like sharing a shed with the boys they are messy and I have to climb over all their junk to get to my tools.
I want to put in an herb garden on the left side yard. I've been drooling over a local musuem's circular herb bed for years now and really really want one of my own! I have some herbs nestled among the perennial beds but I really want to add and learn more about medicinal herbs. I haven't worked out the design yet,something along the line of the garden below but less rigid. I might splurge and get bricks for the path,they remind me so much of my Grandma's garden.

We're also bringing down the big trees right in the front (all but Francesca's climbing tree and replacing them with dwarf fruit trees but I probably wont' do that till spring because I want to put in a greenhouse this fall and I can't over load Chris with too many things.

So that is all nothing hugely interesting going on right now. Just that life is soooo sweet despite all it's imperfections!

beautiful people or nonentities

This post started out as a sharing at Facebook. I started sharing a Jason Upton song I love (which I was reminded of by this post Unconditional) and well my thoughts just got longer and longer so I decided to post it here instead.
video I was going to share





I love Jason Upton's words and spirit. He's the only Christian artist that I really can connect with. I don't even really like his style of music but it's his words that move me.
He sings about the biblical God one that is close ,quick to forgive not wanting to judge. Instead of the usual rhetoric of a far away huge God that you should feel obligated to sing worship songs(ugh hate most worship music!!!!) to, a God that is just waiting for his chance to stomp on you at the judgement day... or sooner.

Jason sings of a God that doesn't call you to some "christian mold" but one that celebrates diversity,isn't afraid of it,he created it. The live living exciting God of the bible. True Christianity that forgiveness/love is the core of. His music calls me back reminds me that I am never more like God then when I forgive and love. I'm not saying I'm there (all loving the perfect Christian haha what a thought!!)but rather that I am reminded of it and it changes me.

" We love because he first loved us."" Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love "1 John 4
When I look up the definition of love, it isn't trying to mold people into what your idea of the perfect Christian is. It's looking for and seeing the beauty,the worth of another and because of that insight, you naturally would care what is happening with them. A huge difference from the usual indifference from much of the church. On Sundays,people file in and people file out or maybe even worse is deciding who someone is based on your pea sized experience of life,not really getting to know them.
My daughter's boyfriend was really impressed when a local church (he had to visit different churches for a paper he was writing for school,Christian college) cared enough to ask Tommy about his life. Though the guy needs to work on his listening skills. Tommy didn't need to pray but he was dragged up to the altar anyway. Still I don't think people have to be perfect ,Tommy sensed the guy meant well and that was enough. He cared enough to ask Tommy for his number and actually followed through calling him. Chris and I have been to churches that no one even said one single hi.
It was heart breaking to me when I read a quote by Vincent Van Gogh

"What am I in the eyes of most people - a nonentity, an eccentric or an unpleasant person - somebody who has no position in society and never will have, in short, the lowest of the low.

All right, then - even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart.

No one during his lifetime saw his beauty,his unique worth. Even now people say his work was demonic which is amazing if you really knew his life. He only painted when he was sane. He killed himself,heartbroken at the peak of his abilities. So many masterpieces the world will never know because we didn't value ,love etc.. We look at life and people by the molds that are currently valued. Van Gogh during his time, didn't fit the currently favored values. Are we really seeing what is valuable or missing so much of it? Please don't think this is a preach at you thing it's a preach at me. I'm often so quick to do exactly what bothers me the most. Ironic isn't it? It's seeing,remembering my own failings that despite them God still wants to know me. That is what makes it easier for me to forgive,have grace.

Week 2 March

It's so nice Spring is in the air. The kids were so excited to see our pussy willows bloom soon the flowers!!!!!

We're studying Ireland,St Patrick,owls (fiar Owl moon) and still the Little House Series. We'll be dissecting Owl pellets as soon as the kits arrive. Glad Chris is looking forward to the pellets. We did them with Ike and Nadia yuck!
Here is a playlist I created for owls
Click here to view playlist



and another playlist I created for the movie Patrick and other St Patrick's day videos. LOVE this movie it's such an eye opener about who Patrick was.
Click here for Playlist




Some crafts and cooking we did.



Irish stew,interesting titbit about it. We found out the reason why the Irish stewed a lot was they were hiding the meat under the vegetables so the tax collectors wouldn't see all the meat. Apparently if you were rich enough to cook with meat,you had to pay more taxes. Also our normal cornbeef and cabbage St Pat meal is an American dish. LOL Irish immigrants mixing with Russians in America is how that dish came about.



Planting our shamrocks.

Trying to blog more about our days, hopefully I will. LOL (Shaking our homemade butter above.)
We are using eclectic bit of curriculum right now. We usually do bible together, Maxwell's bible story. I had a set of them when I was a child and enjoyed them. Then first language lessons, poetry, scripture memorization, then reading a chapter-book together. Right now the book we are reading is Little House in the Big Woods.
We use our chapter books as a jump off for more thorough research. So from The Little House in the Woods book we have studied a number of different mammals, Andrew Johnson, Georgia O'keefe, Wisconsin, Pioneers and more.
Sebastian on his own is doing Sonlight's Introduction to American History part 1. He usually asks me about things he's interested in, and we do research on them using the web and the library. For Ollie and Francesca we're using Sonlight's "Explore God's World" and "Introduction to the World Cultures". I'm also using Waldorf (Enki LOVE it!!!) methods to introduce letters to Ollie.
Here we are making homemade butter. Yum!

Corsets were mentioned in little house and the kids were curious so we watched this video on them. They were horrified! LOL They also thought it was horrible the rules for Sundays back then,no moving,no smiling,cold food etc.. So we talked about cultural Christianity vs real Christianity.


One thing I really like about homeschooling and having access to the web is pretty much instant access to information. We watch a lot of little videos. Not so much to teach, but more to pique their interest.
Our school day is usually much longer then I plan because of all the questions they ask. We try to jump off and follow their interests.
For instance Ollie right now is big on tracing. He spends most of the day tracing different images. What a great way to work on small motor skills and I never have to say finish that paper.

I've been using this http://www.abcteach.com/free/b/book_littlehouse_bigwoods.pdf for study questions.
Francesca keeps asking for a pioneer dress so I ordered off a pattern today. I think I'm going to involve Nadia in the making of it. I keep telling her how easy it is to make your own clothes but she feels overwhelmed by it. I think she would enjoy creating her own. I used to sew a ton of clothes. It was a great creative outlet.
We're also learning how to square dance
http://www.videosquaredancelessons.com/lessons/m01a.htm

I've already taught Francesca how to knit. She taught Ollie how to finger knit. They made blankets and pillows for Francesca's "little house". We found a beautiful old doll house at the thrift store. We made little house on the prairie dolls for it. We picked from here and there to create ours.
We've enjoyed some Laura's music thanks to youtube






We watch this nature series and other animals mentioned in little house in the big Woods.

Because Little house in the woods took place in Wisconsin. We're studying Wisconsin. One of the famous persons from Wisconsin is Georgia O'keeffe.
We watched this video,very interesting.



We studied Robins
great site we checked out
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Robin/videos

Here are some unedited images I took nothing special but you can see some of the things we do.

lapbook

Georgia O'keeffe was known for her large Flower Paintings so we did some of our own.
Of course flowers weren't up Sebastian's alley so imitating O'keeffe's style he painted Ollie's ear as a close up paying close attention to shapes. He is such a crack up!

Some of our art work from the last couple of months. We do a lot of paper arts,modeling and painting.