I have read so many unschooling books and personal stories at this point that I am 99% comfortable with the idea of letting learning happen as it may as it will.  Hubby on the other hand has mostly been hanging out at a 75% comfort level with certain other relatives weighing in around 10%.  How can they learn, they wonder, if you don’t use curriculum, if you don’t construct lessons, if you don’t MAKE it happen? 

Enter Sister stage left:  “Mom, can you teach me how to play this on the piano…. ” (sings a ditty from Little Einstein’s). 

I don’t know the tune but between Sister and myself and this handy, dandy music notation software from Finale we come up with a reasonable proximity.  We pick it out on the piano.  I explain as best I know how about finger placement and the names of the notes and by the end of the day she can play the piece flawlessly… from memory.

Days pass and the sound of “Firebird Rescue” wafts through the house as often as Sister happens to walk by the piano.  One day the music stops ~ Ah, blessed silence.

Sister’s greets me the following morning with “Mom, can you teach me how to play this on the piano…. ” (sings a second ditty from Little Einstein’s).”  This time, I print out “Ode to Joy“, don my earmuffs, and the cycle begins again.

Now, about four weeks later, the interest is as strong as ever.  We found a wonderful site that provides free sheet music categorized by difficulty and somewhat in lesson form.  Even so, I don’t try to teach it to her.  I interpret as necessary but mostly she prefers to be left to her own devices.  We printed out all the songs from the “beginners” section and put them in a binder on the piano.  She can play about half of them now and is sporadically working her way through the rest.

I suspect that one day I’ll come to her, “Sister, can you teach me how to play….?”

From the depths of my drafts folder:

See the Consumer

bigger, better, faster, more

Product Prisoner

A non-Newtonian fluid is “a liquid that does not abide by any of Sir Isaac Newton’s laws on how liquids behave. Quicksand, gelatin, and ketchup are all non-Newtonian fluids.” And though I’d very much like for you to think of me as a genius-mom who can spew all sorts of facts and resources out at a moment’s notice, I must confess that this particular bit of information came from Joey Green who also provided the following super-fun recipe for slime.  (When your done here click on over for some slimy facts.)

Green Slime

What You Need

• 4-ounce bottle of Elmer’s Glue-All
• Two large glass bowls
• Water
• Green food coloring
• Large spoon
• Measuring cup
• 1 teaspoon 20 Mule Team Borax
• Ziploc Storage Bag or airtight container

What to Do
Empty the bottle of Elmer’s Glue-All into the first bowl. Fill the empty glue bottle with water and then pour it into the bowl of glue. Add ten drops of food coloring and stir well.

In the second bowl, mix the borax with 1 cup water. Stir until the powder dissolves.

Slowly pour the colored glue into the bowl containing the borax solution, stirring as you do so. Remove the thick glob that forms, and knead the glob with your hands until it feels smooth and dry. Discard the excess water remaining in the bowl. Store the Green Slime in the Ziploc bag or airtight container.

What Happens
The resulting soft, pliable, rubbery glob snaps if pulled quickly, stretches if pulled slowly, and slowly oozes to the floor if placed over the edge of a table.

Why It Works
The polyvinylacetate molecules in the glue act like invisible bicycle chains drifting around the water. The borax molecules (sodium tetraborate) act like little padlocks, locking the chain links together wherever they touch the chain. The locks and chains form a interconnected “fishnet,” and the water molecules act like fish trapped in the net.

We didn’t have food coloring to make it green but even so the children had a blast and remained occupied for almost an hour.  Pretty good toy if you ask me.

On a similar note, I came by Joey’s slime via a search for Borax uses of which there are many.  If you don’t have box of this stuff in your house I highly suggest you get some.  Oh and this link is great too … if you’d like to know where borax comes from.

In our unschooling world some days are “thinking” days and some are “watching” days.  We have “listening” days and “talking” days, “game” days and “reading” days, “work” days and “resting” days.  Most days are some combination with a little of this and a little of that but each in its own way is a learning day.  There is no way to know ahead of time what the day will bring and so we simply adopt the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” and hope for the best.  Yesterday was for making.

The children made pictures, hideouts, clay creations, bead bracelets, bird feeders, chocolate milk and a game called “Burp/Excuse Me”, green smoothies, a “magnetorium” (Sister’s word not mine), first words, a treasure hunt and music.

Because the day was full of product, it was easy to see their learning and easy to show others.  It was easy to justify this path that we have chosen.  So easy that I know we must be vigilant lest temptation urge us to turn every day into a making day.

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*Bird feeder instructions can be found in EcoArt an excellent craft book by Laurie Carlson.

**this photo was pulled from my archives because I didn’t have my camera ready to catch today’s version.

I used to have migraines - 3 to 4 day migraines at least twice every month.  They started when I was a teen and continued for many years.  Even after I knew the cause nothing seemed to cure them.  See, I experienced severe anemia during both of my pregnancies and once when I went to give blood they turned me away because my iron level wasn’t even on the chart.  It was after this that I finally realized the headaches seemed to follow a rhythm remarkably similar to my womanly cycle.

I started taking a multi-vitamin regularly and that helped for a month or so.  Then I guess my body re-adjusted because things went back to “normal.”  I added a B-12 supplement to the mix as well as a regular dose of Ferrous Sulfate (yuck! and the warnings? scary!)  Even that was only marginally successful.  Then I found mention of a chlorophyll supplement that supposedly tricked your body into thinking it had enough iron.  Hmm, that might work.  I ordered the supplement and found that over the course about six months (100mg daily) the migraines all but disappeared.  Cool.  Then I got a little cocky and let my supply run out.  The very next month the migraines came back in full force.  Not cool.

So I have a solution to my migraine dilemma but I don’t like it.  I don’t like it because I don’t like being dependent on a product that I can’t produce myself in some fashion.  What to do? What to do?  More research leads me here and here where it finally clicks.  Chlorophyll comes from plants.  I know this, of course.  I even tease about it telling people I drink plant blood for breakfast.  But finally, I actually “get” it.  I don’t need a supplement.  I need a salad.  But a really intense salad.  A 20 serving salad.   ……  Right.  Like that’s going to happen on a daily basis.  But can and it does in the form of a green smoothie.  I’ve been drinking one each day for a couple of weeks now and I feel great.  I’m still taking my supplements but I’m down to 50mg/day instead of 100 so that’s progress.

Anyway, I said all that to say this:  Happy Foody is hosting a 30 day Green Smoothie Challenge.  I’m in and I think you should be too.  It certainly can’t hurt to get more greens in your diet and who knows you might actually feel better at the end of it.

Don’t know how to make a green smoothie?  A quick google will yield some 183,000 results.  Or you could just do what I do.

 *Add about 4 oz of yogurt to the bottom of your blender.  That’s one of those single serving yogurt containers or a couple of large spoonfuls from a bulk container.  I use vanilla but berry blends also work well.

 * Add one long squeeze of agave nectar (or honey.)

 * Add two handfuls of washed baby spinach and one handful of washed and cut kale or turnip greens.  Don’t pack it down.

 (I don’t have a heavy duty blender so the order is important.  It may not be for you.)

* Flip the switch and let it blend until it looks something like this.

*Add a handful of wheat germ. (It should go without saying but … stop the motor first.)

*Add some frozen unsweetened berries to taste.  Mix and match blueberries, strawberries, raspberries etc. or just use your favorite.

*Blend until very smooth.

*Pour and enjoy.

*This “recipe” if I may use that term for such loose instructions tends to yield about two cups or 16 oz of smoothie.

One last note - “green” smoothie describes the leafy content and most likely will not represent the actual color of your drink.  For this reason I only give my children smoothies with lids that hide the sludgy like appearance.   I’m just sayin’.

Some of you who have purchased a new or nearly new car before will laugh at my naivete but the recent price of my Oklahoma tag left me thinking it should look more like this

than this

I knew it would be in the hundreds but when the tag lady requested double what I was prepared for ….. there were no words.  I mumbled something about using a different account as I fumbled in my purse.  Fortunately I knew there was enough money to cover the immediate charge but I sure rushed home and did some fancy schmancy budgeting moves to prevent any *ahem* mishaps at the bank.

Anyway, I’m telling you all of this because it occurs to me that you might like to know what I found out from my sticker shock experience.  Basically, (in Okla) the tag costs 3.5 percent of the sticker price.  Unless of course Uncle Bob gave you a phenomenally great deal then Uncle Sam shakes a finger at you, looks up the bluebook value and you pay 3.5 percent of that.  The most important thing to know though is that you can call ahead.  From the privacy of your very own home you can call the tag office with the VIN # and the current mileage and they can tell you what the charge will be.  The great advantage of this would of course be that you’ll have a sofa handy when you faint.

***FYI - the tag numbers have been changed to protect the innocent.

I am not the only person who takes pictures with my camera so at the end of each month when I go through the images often I find a picture like this

and think “What!? Why?” because I know it was taken by Will.

Or I see one like this

and think, “How cute.” because I know it was taken by Brother.

Or I see one like this

and know it was taken by a crazy woman who actually sent her husband to the local butcher for a bag of “backfat” and gave up a whole Saturday to make a batch of lard which she has yet to use.  And I know that same crazy woman took the picture thinking it would make a good blog post about making lard but it didn’t because lard making doesn’t need a whole post.  It can be summed up in one word ~ Don’t.

Got this questionaire in my mailbox this morning and thought I’d share my answers with you.  (Basically, I didn’t have enough time for a real post so this is what you get.)

1.What time did you get up this morning? 6:22

2. Hunting, Fishing or sitting in front a computer? Blogging, reading books aloud with Sister, cooking

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Juno … Excellent!

4. What is your favorite TV show? No cable around here but I am going through Joan of Arcadia via Netflix and Lost Season 3 is next in my queue.

5. What do you usually have for breakfast? coffee, english muffin, egg and then around 10-ish a green smoothie.

6. What is your middle name? Renee.

7. What food do you dislike?  lima beans? Really I’ll eat most anything that’s been cooked properly.

8. What is your favorite CD? It changes. Right now - Glory Revealed or the Soundtrack to Juno

9. What kind of car do you drive?  A sporty black 2006 Mazda 5 (Yes, after many years I finally have a new car.)

10. Favorite sandwich? Grilled Cheese made with Guyrere and Ham on fresh sourdough

11. What characteristic do you despise?  I-Must-Be-Right/Win-Syndrome

12. Favorite item of clothing? A pair of St. John’s Bay jeans (comfiest ever!) and my L.L Bean mocs which my mother made fun of because she said they looked just like a pair of shoes her brother used to have but which happen to be the most comfortable and versatile pair of shoes I’ve ever owned.

13. If you could go anywhere on vacation where would you go? Ireland … on second thought a vacation sounds like a lot of work.  Maybe I’ll just lay in my bed for a week. 

14. What color is your bathroom? The walls are taupe. The décor is lime green, teal, orange, yellow and red ‘cuz I’m just wild that way.

15. Favorite brand of clothing? Life is Good.

16. Where do you want to retire to? anywhere my sweetie is

17. What was your most recent memorable holidays? Will’s grandmother’s 90th birthday - just this past weekend. Lots of family, friends and people whom I have no clue about. Oh, and great music. Can’t go see the in-laws without some serious (and not so serious) guitar pickin’ happening.

18. Favorite sport to watch? Figure skating or sumo wrestling…. it’s a tie, really.

19. Furthest place you are sending this? don’t know

20. Who do you least expect to send this back? no expectations

21. Person you expect to send it back first? see above

22. Favorite sayings?

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philipians 4:13)

“You can lead a child to school but you can’t make him think.”,

“Something is only work if you’d rather be doing something else.”, and

“If there is a better way, find it.” (Thomas Edison)

Not to be confused with my “most frequently used sayings” which would include: “No”, “Please, don’t hit your sister.”, “Not yet.”, and “I love you.”

23. When is your birthday? October 9, 19mhmmh

24. Are you a morning person or a night person? It seems to alternate.

25. What is your shoe size? 7 1/2

26. Pets? 1 feline and 3 humans

27. Are you reading any good books right now? Just finished Me, Myself & Bob by Phil Vischer, working on Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, almost through The Black Stallion with Sister and just started The Pendragon Cycle by Stephen Lawhead.

28. What did you want to be when you were little? a horse

29. How are you today? cold

30. What is your favorite candy? DARK chocolate

31. What is your favorite flower? red or orange gerbera daisies

32. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? May 11th - I’m not sayin’ why.

33. What church do you attend?  When we go - B’ville First Assembly though mostly we are doing church at home these days.

34. What are you listening to right now? I did have The Backyardigan’s Super Secret Super Spy but now as I am proofreading the house is quiet which makes me think I better go check on the kids.

35. What was the last thing you ate? a ham & cheese sandwich

36. Do you wish on stars? No

37. If you were a crayon what color would you be? Apparently purple though I would have picked orange myself.

38. How is the weather right now? Deceptively sunny.

39 Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Someone whose voice I didn’t recognize so I passed the phone off to one of the in-laws.

40. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Sure do. But I have to ask are there people who actually answer “no” to this question?

41. Favorite soft drink? No. My drink of choice is good southern sweet tea.

42. Favorite restaurant?. Mimi’s Cafe

43. Hair color? brown with a few stray auburn wanna-be’s

44. Favorite day of the year? Will you think me completely selfish if I say Mother’s Day?… because what I really meant to say was Thanksgiving or you know, President’s day.

45. What was your favorite toy as a child? A little ragdoll with pink braided hair and and blue floral dress with matching bonnet. Her name was Abigail.

46. Summer or winter? Winter until just a few weeks before spring when I have had quite enough of muck and mud and frozen fingers.

47. Hugs or kisses? kisses

48. Chocolate or Vanilla? chocolate

49. Do you want your friends to email you back? no preference

50. When was the last time you cried? Hmm, when I took some blog reading time on Thursday. I’ve got some pretty phenomenal writers on my blogroll or maybe I’m just an emotional freak.

51. What is under your bed? The floor.

52. Who is the friend you have had the longest? My sister.

53. What did you do last night? Drove home from Grandma Mary’s 90th, unloaded the car and wished I were back where the buffalo (used to) roam again.

54. Favorite smell? Orange spice or mulled cider

55. Plain, buttered, or salted Popcorn? Popped on the stovetop in coconut oil and lightly salted.

56. How many keys on your key ring? 4 - his car, my car, house & gate

57. How many years at your current job? Wife–9+ years. Mom–6+ years.

58. Favorite day of the week? Wednesday - otherwise known as “no obligations day”.

59. How many towns have you lived in? 7 including the oldest town in Texas

60. Do you make friends easily? nope.

61. How many people will you be sending this to? Don’t know yet

62. Who has the cutest kid in America? I do of course. What a ridiculous question. Again, I have to ask. Are there people with children who pick someone other than their own offspring?

Before this post will make any sense you’re going to need some backstory… I was born in the small town of, no wait, that’s too far back… Sister was born… yes, that’s about right….

Before Sister was born my main concern about having a new baby was loss of sleep. The holding, the changing, the loving, the nursing, I knew I could handle all of that but sleep was on my top three list of things I loved (right after God and my husband) so I was highly concerned potential at the loss of it. That is why for about six of my nine-ish pregnant months I did research and developed a plan. I came across a very intriguing book that promised a new baby could sleep through the night by six weeks or so if only you would follow the directions to the letter and not grow discouraged when things didn’t seem to be going well (You know like if your child was crying their eyes out begging you to, “Please come pick me up already! I’m a baby and I NEED you.”) The book laid it all out and before Sister was born it seemed like the perfect solution to my fears.

This is why a couple of weeks after we brought Sister home I briefed Will on “The Plan” and we began. Early success encouraged us and so we continued. (We didn’t realize that most newborns sleep all the time with or without a “Plan.”) As time went on successful sleep times grew scarce and crying became the norm. We were baffled. We followed the directions perfectly. Well, almost perfectly… we “gave in” occasionally and held our weeping daughter close until she calmed and then wept ourselves at the “failure.”

It took too many months before we snapped out of that “I just do what I’m told” stupor and started thinking for ourselves as parents. If I remember right it was not long after the night we heard Sister outside our door, whimpering, needing comfort and yet afraid to come in. One of us stumbled out of bed, went and gave her a hug then sent her back to her room, still whimpering. Yes, it was after that we declared, “This is wrong!” We moved Sister’s bed to our room and when she woke 3 and 4 and 5 times each night we reached out a hand to hold hers and we whispered sweet thoughts and slowly … very, very slowly she learned to sleep.

I am not trying to start a debate here on nighttime parenting. If you trust your instincts I’m sure you will find the right solution for your family. But I want to say very clearly is that we did NOT trust our instincts. And because we did not, we taught our child to fear the night and to fear being alone in a way that went far beyond normal childhood fears.

It’s been almost 5 years since our parenting ephipany and in that time Sister (and Brother) have mostly slept with us. In our first home we all shared a room. At Grandma’s we had the mega-bed. At the loft apartment there was no choice but to be together. Then we moved to our current home where the rooms are small and it made sense to divide our beds among them. At first, sleepless nights were chalked up to the change in location but as time passed they grew more frequent and the terror behind them had a central theme. “I don’t feel safe without you.”

We talked about these concerns during the day and we prayed them away each night but fears are not logical. They can’t be explained away. Fears have no faith and without it they can’t be prayed away. Sometimes what fear really needs is a tangible hand to hold and a voice that confidently says, “You are safe.”

So we combined our beds together once again; completely filling the little room they are in. It looks strange to say the least. I wish I could say that the ensueing peaceful nights made up for the strangeness but alas, no. And here is where this post really begins.

Will had surgery about three weeks ago and while he was recuperating he slept on the couch. It was easier to get in and out of (Our bed is on the floor.) and he was already resting there during the day. This created an empty space in the bed beside me. An empty space quickly filled by the enterprising Sister. She moved in her pillow, her blanket, her water, her books and a number of other critical items. Finally settled, she slept. Really slept. For the first time in months. The next night she casually inquired where Daddy would be sleeping. Told he would remain on the sofa, she settled in again and really slept. So it went to the end of the week when Daddy was finally well enough to leave the couch and join us in our “bed” room.

Sister roused us a couple of times the first night, three times the second, four times the third… see a pattern? We switched the room’s configuration twice so she could be closer to our bed hoping that would help. It didn’t. The wakings escalated until more time was spent with eyes open than closed. Will and I sleepily discussed the issue each morning. I googled “six year old insomnia”, among other things, searching for solutions. But Sister could and did counter every suggestion or reason we presented about why she should go to sleep. (I’m thinking someday she could have a very lucrative position in sales.) The morning after bedtime was at 9pm and Sister went to sleep at 3am, we laid down the law. You can stay awake as long as you want but you will not do it in here. We went on to explain that she was welcome to get up quietly to use the restroom or get a drink of water but if she insisted on keeping us awake she would be asked to sleep on the couch for the remainder of the night… alone. We stuck to this plan for two nights. I wish I could say that it worked but if you read through the whole backstory you know it didn’t. It didn’t work because in all that time of discussion and solution searching we never truly considered Sister’s needs. We thought we did. We talked about what we thought she needed. We psychoanalyzed her behavior and reached psychoanalytical conclusions. We thought we considered her but once again what we were really considering was how she could conform to meet our needs. Fortunately, it didn’t take months for this second parental epiphany to occur.

The next day we tried a new approach. We asked her what she thought a good solution might be and we really listened to the answer. Then we talked about what was realistic and what wasn’t. We found compromises and real solutions and that night we all slept more and the next night a little more and last night all the way through to 6am.

The problem with fear is that it keeps you from seeing the other person’s point of view. It keeps you closed, separate, and alone. But trust is the opposite. To trust someone is to say, we can do anything together.

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A cup of water

Blankie, Story, Goodnight Kiss

Please go to sleep now

Don’t forget to submit your haiku to Leslie… one more day!

On Monday Ann Kroeker reminded me how to make Cootie Catchers or as some people call them Fortune Tellers. The children and I have had much fun since then creating and using our own. A big square of scrapbook paper is perfect for this and makes them so colorful. Anyway, it occurred to me that since you could write just about anything inside that perhaps they would make a good Valentine gift. So that’s what I’m making for my sweetie this year. Hopefully, he won’t read this post before I actually get to give it to him - or maybe he will and he’ll smile at the thought of what’s coming. ;)  See, I’ve hidden phrases like ” ‘K’ is for …” or ” ‘H is for … ” inside so if he picks one of those I will give him a “K”iss or a “H”ug.  Make sense?  These examples are pretty benign (This is a family friendly blog after all.) and are not actually in my fortune teller. For my hubby of almost 10 years I came up with some more lover-ly phrases.  Phrases which I expect will lead to much satisfaction happiness at the Simple house.

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shadow play of love

only a candle watches

rhythmic forms dancing

Have you written your haiku yet?