Catching up!

The past month has been a busier than normal month for us, thus the reason I have not been posting!
Keeping Evan on track with his lesson's has been a major issue for us all here, but we all started thinking that this is WAY to much like school...that we homeschool/unschool for a reason, and this is one of them! Stress! Making sure that he has ALL assignments done by a certain deadline. This is stressful. He also does not like that fact that he has do to work that is something he completed 3 years ago! Math they make him show them his work, that has never worked for Evan, he does not use paper to figure out problems...more stress. So we have pulled him from the online k-12.
We had a snowstorm here, last 3 days, and in the Pacific Northwest that is a long one! In one day we had 9 inches fall!





It was a lot of fun for us all! We also made snow ice cream, built a snowman, and snow angels. A blast!
I have a new sewing machine coming in a few days, and I hope within the week we will have a mini-van or car.
We signed another years least on this house, so that is good! Just can not believe it has been almost a year since we left New Orleans! I miss it, but I know that this was right for us at this moment in time.

My Laundry Soap Recipe

Homemade Laundry Detergent
(makes 10 gallons: 640 loads for a front load HE washer, 220 loads for a top load washer)
4 C hot water
1 bar Dr. Bronner soap, grated
1 C Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
1 C Borax
1 C Arm & Hammer Baking soda
1. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt together the grated soap and water until the soap is completely dissolved.
2. Fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of hot water. Add the washing soda, Borax, baking soda and melted soap mixture. Stir well until dissolved (I used a broom handle).
3. Fill the bucket to the top with more hot water and stir well. Cover and let sit overnight. The finished mixture will resemble a loose, liquid form of Jello. At this point, you can add 50 drops of the essential oil of your liking to the soap. (I don't add any to mine)
4. Fill your soap dispenser (I use a rubbermaid container with a pour spout) 1/2 with water and half with soap. Shake well before each use. For front load washers, use 1/4 C - 1/3 C per load. For top load washers, use 1/2-5/8 C per load.

Passages

Today has been an emotional day for me. I learned that a friend of mine lost her husband, he was in his late 30's, they just moved into a new home, they have 3 children, and another on the way.
How is that life can change that fast for someone? How can it be that one moment so many wonderful things are happening, and the very next you have lost your best friend?
I do not even know what to say to comfort her, "sorry" sounds so wrong, because "sorry" is for when you break something, or make a mistake...but when your best friend, the person you loved, and shared your life with is taken suddenly from you, and your children, sorry does not even come close!
I can not even imagine what she is going through right now, I know it must be like a nightmare that you can not wake from, that everything you knew id gone just like that!
This has made me stop and think about everything...presents for Christmas are now not so important...if I have the people I love with me, that is all that really matter, and what I want my children to learn from this.
It is getting to me even more because of the fact that he died on the 6th year anniversary of the passing of my Mom, December 11th. Her death was not a surprise, but a death just the same.
Rest in peace Ed, you will be missed, and we are sending so much love to your family!

Tis the season

It is that time again when parents all over the world hear their children talking about what they want for Christmas, or in our home Yule.
This is when many parents start to stress, and worry about if they can afford these things that their children so want.
I am one of those people, we are a single income family, not totally by choice, but it is there. We really do not have a 'full-time' income.
Why do we do this, and why do we allow ourselves to be stressed year after year?
I know that many will stay that it is because we love our children, but I must ask, Do we really think that our children only feel that we love them if we buy that IPod touch?
I know better, but I also know that I love it when they open that special birthday, and you see it, that wonderful, magical look in their eyes, the look of "I really got it" The happiness you know that they feel at that second.
So I ask, how do you do that when you don not have the money to obtain the "it" present?
This is my quest this year to find a way to give them the happiness, but without needing that much money!

Collecting leaves

When to roar

At the start of this new school year we decided to place Evan in the online k-12 program called WAVA, this was done with much thought and mixed feelings.
At first he was doing well, doing his work, and then it was like a wall came up, and it all just stopped. Evan stopped logging on, and stopped completing assignments. Emails, and call ensured, and then came the threats that they would remove him from the program.
This is not a happy Mommy. I am not a tough Mama, my kids are not ever forced to do anything, but when it comes to this, we have to do something. Evan is 16, he needs to understand that the choices he makes now will impact him for the rest of his life.



But...how do you do that? How do you convince someone that is of the age where they know everything?
So, I roared, and I will keep roaring until he gets it. I have no choice in the matter. I want so much for him, and I know that he also wants a lot for himself, so if I have to be the mean mama right now, so be it!
I do unschool/homeschool for a reason, but we feel that this is the best option for him at this point. He would like to become an attorney, that is a lot of work, and this is the work he needs to do now, so that way he can become what he wants.
So the roar will go on, and the battle has just began...and I hate having battles with my kids!

Garden endings....

Today I went out and started gathering much of what was left to gather from the garden. A few more pumpkin's, a huge amount of tomatoes, some really tiny carrots, and lettuce. We had a nice salad with our lasagna tonight!


Chloe helped her Aunt make the lasagna...we had a friend over for dinner, and had a great dinner with amazing company!
The girls are doing well on the reading program that I started with them, it may get boring for them after awhile, nut they will learn more, and retain more of the information. We read the same story everyday, with certain "power" words that we use in so many ways. I think that it is helping them.