holy hard & worth it!

The list of 'what-abouts' and 'yeah-buts' is slowly growing.  We have 'local' peanut butter, peanuts grown where (?) company located here & sold at the Food Co-op, where you can get oranges, lemons, bananas... I have to remember that our goal is to shop from specific location who mainly support local growers & vendors, such as food co-ops, farm stands & markets, locally produced &/or recycled goods etc no big grocery chains or restaurants.  What about ginger root?  What about a basic cooking oil?  I didn't clear out the house when we made this pledge (as it were), we simply began.  So there is a lot of, let's call them Big Brands around.  But a week or so later there are less of them. I keep a list in the kitchen & as I think of or use an item I don't know where it really comes from or how to get it or if we even need it I write it down for discussion & research.

Right now I am trying to decide the 'value' of cold cereal (Willy Wonka: Do you have any idea what breakfast cereal's made of? It's those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners.).  As a Diabetic, it has very little value to me personally & if you uncover the origins of it all you will see how cold cereal is an American-ish twist totally in the wrong direction of what was a rather good idea before we got to it: mixed grains, fruit, & a protein.  'Yeah-but', emotionally I love cereal, so do the kids, and my homemade ginger snap granola (which is very good) is not a substitute for Frosted Mini Wheat's.  Here is the thing, if you get rid of say delicious Frosted Mini Wheat's you open your mornings to creative alternatives like zucchini muffins, cornmeal pancakes, homemade sweet rolls...  It isn't about what you are giving up, it is about what you are making room for: a rather indulgent restriction if I may... 

Take potato chips for example, when I made elk burger sliders I usually would pair it with a good bbq chip and a salad but this time armed with co-op produce I sliced vegetables to go with it.  No one missed the chips. Next time I might make potato wedges or sweet potato fries anything but a bag of greasy potato chips.  Is this making sense?  Without getting too hung up on one item or another the bigger picture is already paying off.  We see our food very differently.  We are more careful & thoughtful.  We eat less because the quality of food is higher in just about every way you could count. 

       

This answers the cereal question, yes we can walk away from prepared cereal BUT not from ginger root.  In fact we could leave almost any finished products behind (glad we aren't) but we want/need some basic 'exotic' ingredients.  And that is my line, any basic I need to cook &/or bake with (which I can't find at supports local market) goes on the Costco/NPS List and I'm not going to worry about it.

This is actually the best home school project I never planned.  Each food choice is researched, examined, evaluated, and then sent to family trial. Next on the docket: snow cones...is a snow shack a local business?  and no, I am not buying a snoopy snow cone maker if it's not. 

yep. she's a little bit split...

Okay, so I feel bad doing this yet again but if I don't I feel like 'we' might miss out on something cool... 

no sew pencil rolls



I obviously have a case of split-blog syndrome.
So do me a favor, if you like the stuff I'm linking over from my home school blog  dust fairies & darwin then please become a member! 



paper V-day creations





           If nothing else, do it for the pom-poms...

 pom-pom pocket pals



fuzzy fun

Don't miss these little guys on my home schooling blog at dust fairies and darwin.  

eye popping history

Probably bad timing on my part,

Salem Witch Trials and googly eyes on the same day..

That's some great hair going on there too!

check 'em out

Don't miss the V-day paper creations over at my home schooling blog Dust Fairies and Darwin.  

great news from the middle

Hiking without happy meals now has a companion blog Dust Fairies and Darwin dedicated to Home Schooling through the middle years.

Plan on seeing more art, science, projects, sewing, plans, classes, good foods, great reads, reviews & hints, Slow Family Living, & of course lots of stories from life with that crazy Beach. 

So check it out.  I would love for you to join us there too at http://dustfairiesanddarwin.blogspot.com/2012/01/welcome.html 

the heart & soul of why I homeschool

The subject is art but it could have been anything. 

It is 9 am on a Sunday morning.  I'm sick & she is still in pajamas.

We pile into my bed to read. 

I have a standing date to meet my gym buddy at the gym at 10. 

I thought of not going but realized I would feel worse if I missed her.

 An hour in bed reading is perfect before I go.

An hour that rushes by, the whole time spent in one book about art.

She picks what she likes & asks me to show her the ones I like best. 

I sneak in the information I think she needs reading the names & styles so they become familiar to her.

"I can't live without this one, mom," she says about a Monet 

& a few pages later again this time about a Miro.

I see the clock 9:58- shit! I have to go.  I am scrambling to find my gym clothes.

"Mom, can I keep on reading?"

"Of course you can."

Boo-Whew

Last Sunday at the library we spied this lovely cardboard castle atop one of the bookcases.  We should make that Beach had said so we did.  We didn't announce it would be a haunted castle we just knew it would be.  All our castles are haunted!

What happened when the ghost asked for a whiskey at his local bar?
The bartender said "Sorry sir, we don't serve spirits here"!

Why did the cannibal live on his own?
He was fed up with other people!

Why does Dracula have no friends?
Because he's a pain in the neck!

Why did the witch go over the mountain?
Because she couldn't go under it!

What do demons have on holiday?
A devil of a time!

Why didn't the skeleton go to the party?
He had no body to go with!

(...sorry about the bad jokes I'm running a pretty good fever this morning!)

the day that turned around without asking

I suppose I called an end to the productive day a bit early because after yoga for mom and a movie + bubble bath for Beach we both managed to find our feet back under us.

A good lunch, some great reads, a game or two, a phone call (happiness), & we are both getting ready to hit the gym.  Beach to her gym and me to mine.  

 

I didn't see that coming.  It is a good thing I always keep our bags packed.  Life cracks me up...send new running shoes.   

under the covers

Goosebumps. That says it all, right?

voices from the land of yeti

"Beach, I have some items to pick up at the store, do you want me to wait to go when you are at gym or do you want to come along?"

                                                "Can I get something?"

                                              "No, but you can read all the prices out loud."

                                                        "I'm listening."

                         "But you are going to have to be very patient while I look for what I need."

                                "Oh that's not possible.  You'd better not take me with you."

                                                             "Are you sure?"

"Don't kid yourself mom, if there isn't anything in it for me why would I be patient?

>huff< Honestly, mothers..."

her people

Beach came home from grandma's with a magic act. 

It has a few coin tricks and some magic cloth action.  What I like best about her show is her showmanship.  I don't care for magic but hearing her say 'the french drop' and watching her bow deeply with a sweeping arm makes me smile. 

So while me and my new young magician set out to get passport photos today for 'dad's dream mexican disaster' we stopped in at the other grandmas for quick hello & a few magic tricks.  We left with a long piece of billowy yellow fabric which I will send back over to the other grandma to sew into a magician's cape for Beach.  

The lady taking our photo's told Beach not to smile.  Beach wanted to know why?  & like I said on fb all I had time to tell her was it was for the government.  Beach stewed over the answer all the way back to the car.  "Why does the government want us to be unhappy?  If I was in charge I would want my people to smile."  She climbed in little red.  "This country needs more magic, mom." 

 "Yes, it does.  That's what kids like you are for."

We drove to a local international charity store where Beach preformed magic for the sweet old women working there.  They loved her, smiles right through the roof.  Then she bought a little Yeti with her allowance. 

We moved on to a thrift store loaded up with new-to-us books and games.



Checking out she did some magic tricks for the clerk, all smiles.  And the unfortunate people in line behind us, smiling too.  I hope they weren't in a hurry.

We stopped at a market for noodles and yogurt.  She did a few magic tricks for the clerks who only stopped giggling to ask me if Beach was for sale.  She even did a magic trick for the car stopped next to us at red light driving home.  I realized this after they pulled up next to me waving and smiling, pointing at the backseat window.

                                                        Hey Beach, guess what?

                                                      Your people ARE smiling.       

driving the machine

Beach is on a learning leap again.  These seemingly magical stretches of the natural learning cycle amaze me.  They consume me.  I am reading four novels at once and none of them are mine.  Learning leaps are kind of scary too, like driving a boat really fast through choppy waters.  Are we making it?

Yesterday in calm the hot water of Crystal Hot Spring with my Educational Partner in Crime T from over at Joyful Liberation, we touched on the foundations of why I am here at all & where do we see the little scientist going in the future. 

Of course it is all speculation on the parents’ part but neither of us sees them going a traditional route.  And T is old hat at this, she would know. 

That vision of my life kicks the doors wide open. 

We are here now & we maybe here for a long time.

It is working.  It is more than working. 

She’s happy and learning. 

I like what I see and feel, yet I am missing the world I left behind to be here. 

It feels like a lost first love that hospital on the hill. 

Life is about choices. 

I know I need something more than I am getting here.  Am I not supposed to say that? Hum, I wonder.  So it is time to make a short list of what I need; a list that would work from here/now.  That works with what is already working & with my role(s) here.  I’m not wishing to over turn the boat I simply need my own flotation device.  I need a life vest.  Maybe one day I will have my own seat too, it's a mom thing…