I haven't posted in a long time.... hhhhmmm where to start? So much has been going on.
I'll start with Happy Hanukkah! This is the first year that I have celebrated the Biblical holidays, and so it's my first time celebrating Hanukkah. Hanukkah isn't actually in the canonized Bible, but it is in the Apocrypha and Yeshua celebrated it. I wanted to get a Hanukiah, but didn't find one that would fit my budget in time. So, all I've really done is a little reading here and then about the holiday and I made challah bread before Shabbot which is SO good and makes great french toast. On Sunday, we're going to a Hanukkah party, and between now and then, I'm going to do some more reading and learning.
E is getting closer and closer to reading. She always asks me to help her sound out words in whatever book we are reading and sometimes on signs and other things. She's got the concept down, but is still learning all the sounds of the letters. She liked the movie The Tale of Desperoux, so I got her the graphic novel. She likes to read the "big words" which are the ones in big enough font that we can point to each letter as we sound it out. So, I read the story and then she reads Oh! Bang! Thump! and the other big comic book words. I'm going to find her some other graphic novels.
She has gotten bored of the kid's anatomy books since we have checked out all the ones our library has. Now we are on to the adult anatomy books and youtube videos of things like brain dissection and angioplasty.
She's really enjoying her hamster and keeps naming it different things. First it was Arala and then Kadias and now she just makes up a new name every day. Poor hamster is going to get some kind of complex not knowing what her name is! lol
I've been strewing in a new way lately. Whenever we are at the library, I randomly pick out a few books without saying anything to E. Then when we get home, I show them to her and sometimes she likes them and sometimes not. When she's interested, we end up reading about all sorts of new things. I got one about faces in art, and it showed everything from stick figures to DaVinci.
L is saying quite a few words now and really coming into her own personality. She's very mischievous and playful! She's always into something, but I find that I am enjoying this age so much more than I did with E. This was the age that I started thinking about "discipline" with E, which really wasn't discipline at all, it was punishment. With L, I can just laugh and pick her up off the table or out of the cupboard or away from the tv or whatever and find her something else to do. Someone commented today on the pen marks on her feet. I remembered that with E, I had made a big deal about "teaching" her to keep the pen on the paper. With L, I've just shrugged my shoulders- she has paper available, she's not hurting anything, she'll outgrow it, it washes off. Not an "issue" that we need to "work on." It frees up so much energy to just enjoy being with them.
And it's great to see E's reaction to her sister- "I know you're little and don't know yet" or "It's ok mom, L will learn. She's a baby." So precious! Not always of course. They fight plenty too! But the better I am about staying calm and working *with* them to figure out solutions, the better E is about asking me for help with her sister and finding solutions on her own.
It's late, my brain is mush, and I can't remember anything that has happened over the last few weeks. I'll try to keep up on posting more often so that I write things down as they happen!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Joyful Breath- first issue!
The first issue of my ezine Joyful Breath is up! It's a very small issue, but I had to just get it out there. The next one will be out in January, and I'm hoping that with some aggressive marketing, I'll be able to find more writers. The website is joyfulbreathmag.com.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Food, choices and joy
I'm finding it so fascinating to watch E's food choices. Today, I made smoothies for breakfast, and I should have made her something else because I know she doesn't really like smoothies, but I didn't. So, she drank a few sips, then wanted an ice cream. So, I got her an ice cream and pulled out some frozen strawberries for L. As soon as E saw the strawberries she said "OOOHHHHH! We have strawberries?!" and put down the ice cream. I thawed out some strawberries and blueberries and the girls both munched on those while the ice cream sat melting in a bowl on the table.
Yesterday, we went to Trader Joe's and E saw a bag of little onions, and wanted to buy them. I had no idea what we were going to do with them, but it's fun to let her pick out her own food, so I let her put them in the cart. Then she saw a bag of little pumpkins and wanted those. I had the idea that we could do a soup with the onions and pumpkin, and she liked that idea. Then she wanted to buy a bag of cranberries. Now I REALLY had no idea what to do with fresh cranberries, but again it's fun for her to pick things out and I knew we could come up with something. Then she picked out cookies and gum and that's all she wanted.
So, today we made the soup together. We chopped up the onions and I cooked the pumpkin and it was her idea to put the carrots and cranberries in the soup. I've never had cranberries in a soup, but I figured what the heck, let's try it! It turned out really good!
After she ate her strawberries and blueberries, she had a few more bites of the ice cream, then put it down again in favor of the soup. While eating the soup, she went on and on about how yummy the soup was and "this makes my body feel good, mommy!" and she put some blueberries in her soup too.
Then, later, she wanted some of D's soda, and she asked me to mix it with water, which I've never done or suggested to her. So, I did, and she took a few sips and didn't drink anymore.
We went to Whole Foods to do some shopping and on the way there, she ate two bananas. Her special request while we were there was gum, because the gum she had gotten from Trader Joe's was spicy and she didn't like it. She also asked for crackers, but I said that we'd have to buy them somewhere else because their prices are crazy. She was ok with that. I got some coconut milk and coconut oil because I wanted to try out this vegan pancake recipe. I made the pancakes when we got home, and she ate 3 of them with honey.
This evening we were out of the house again, and D wanted to stop at Arby's. We rarely eat out, but he was craving something there, so we went through the drive through. E asked for a milkshake and we got it, and I split it with her. She took a few sips, then wanted some sandwich and ate half of that. Then took a few more sips of the shake, then ate the rest of the sand which. She barely drank half of her half of the shake. Before bed, she snacked on some apple slices.
Yesterday, we went to Trader Joe's and E saw a bag of little onions, and wanted to buy them. I had no idea what we were going to do with them, but it's fun to let her pick out her own food, so I let her put them in the cart. Then she saw a bag of little pumpkins and wanted those. I had the idea that we could do a soup with the onions and pumpkin, and she liked that idea. Then she wanted to buy a bag of cranberries. Now I REALLY had no idea what to do with fresh cranberries, but again it's fun for her to pick things out and I knew we could come up with something. Then she picked out cookies and gum and that's all she wanted.
So, today we made the soup together. We chopped up the onions and I cooked the pumpkin and it was her idea to put the carrots and cranberries in the soup. I've never had cranberries in a soup, but I figured what the heck, let's try it! It turned out really good!
After she ate her strawberries and blueberries, she had a few more bites of the ice cream, then put it down again in favor of the soup. While eating the soup, she went on and on about how yummy the soup was and "this makes my body feel good, mommy!" and she put some blueberries in her soup too.
Then, later, she wanted some of D's soda, and she asked me to mix it with water, which I've never done or suggested to her. So, I did, and she took a few sips and didn't drink anymore.
We went to Whole Foods to do some shopping and on the way there, she ate two bananas. Her special request while we were there was gum, because the gum she had gotten from Trader Joe's was spicy and she didn't like it. She also asked for crackers, but I said that we'd have to buy them somewhere else because their prices are crazy. She was ok with that. I got some coconut milk and coconut oil because I wanted to try out this vegan pancake recipe. I made the pancakes when we got home, and she ate 3 of them with honey.
This evening we were out of the house again, and D wanted to stop at Arby's. We rarely eat out, but he was craving something there, so we went through the drive through. E asked for a milkshake and we got it, and I split it with her. She took a few sips, then wanted some sandwich and ate half of that. Then took a few more sips of the shake, then ate the rest of the sand which. She barely drank half of her half of the shake. Before bed, she snacked on some apple slices.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Typical Day
I haven't written about a "typical" day for a while. I think it will be fun to look back in 10 years and see what our days were like.
So, today I slept in late because I was up late last night working on my ezine (which is almost done!). D got up with the girls and made them breakfast, while I laid in bed and read my Bible. E usually likes to watch a movie when she first wakes up, and this morning she put on Shark Tales. I got up around 10:30, and she was about 20 minutes into her movie. I told her I was going to take a shower and asked if she wanted to take a bath, which she did.
After our shower/bath, she wanted to play "Don't Get Away," which is a game where I hold onto her and she tries to get away and I say "NO! Never! You'll never escape!" but of course she always does, and then I pretend to be sad that she got away, then she comes running back and we do it all over. Or sometimes she runs around me getting just close enough where I can almost grab her but I MISS. Or I pretend that I don't notice that she has escaped my arms and I go ON and ON about how she'll never get away from me, when she's already on the other side of the room. It's a great game for getting out big energy! Then L and D joined in the fun and we had a big tickle fight.
Then I offered to read some books to her, and she said that she wanted to read them to me. So, I suggested one of her "easy reader" type books with big, simple words that I could help her sound out, but she wasn't interested in those. She wanted to read A Snack for Phillip, so we did. She asked me to help her sound out the words on the cover, and then a few words on the first page. Then she wanted me to read a page to her and then she would "read" it after me. She started doing this a week or two ago. It's funny because when I first told people that we were going to be unschooling, someone asked me "so are you just going to wait and hope that some day she says 'hey mom, teach me to read'?" and I said, no, I think it will be a process of slowly picking up on words and sounds and making connections as we go through a word-filled life. I'm totally ok with her not reading until she's 8 or 10 or whatever, but here she is at 3 saying "mom, show me how to read." LOL
So, when she was done trying to read, I read a few books to her and then put on some music. E and L danced while I cleaned up the house. E's been asking for ballet lessons, and I'm not sure how I'm going to swing that financially, but we'll figure something out. Maybe not ballet exactly, but some kind of dance.
Then E fed her rat, and talked to it and both girls watched it. E got out a book about rats that we had gotten from the library and looked at the pictures. Then she wanted to play on the computer, so I set her up with the paint program. When she was done with that, she asked to type and did that for a while. Then she played uptoten.com. She printed a coloring page out and I helped her and L get set up at the table with paper and crayons.
I have a "strew basket" that I put new things in and rotate old games and puzzles and things. While they were coloring, I put the basket out on the table. E noticed her memory game and pipe cleaners and played with those for a while.
I made stir fry for lunch, and E ate just the broccoli and then asked for more. When we prayed, we talked a little bit about Yahweh being God's name. This is a little confusing for her still, because we use "God" and "Jesus" around most people, because they wouldn't know what we're talking about if we said Yahweh and Yeshua. But at home we use their real names, when I remember, since I'm so entrenched in the habit of saying God and Jesus after a life time of Christian church.
Not long after lunch, she told me she was tired and asked me to lay down and nurse her. So, we all laid down for a while. L fell asleep, but E got up and D put on Open Season for her while I read some of my book. I got up after 15 or 20 minutes and then E wanted to play Don't Get Away again, so we did. Then she wanted to hold her rat and watch Little Mermaid. While she did that, I did yoga and we talked about that movie and the rat. The rat fell asleep in it's box and E covered it up with a blanket- so cute!
Little Mermaid barely made it past the previews before D asked E if she wanted to go outside with him. So she played outside while he worked, and I got some work in the office done. When they came inside, E and L played together for a long time, then E took another bath.
The evening crankiness came and went without too much fuss tonight. She's at a point where she usually doesn't take a nap, unless she falls asleep in the car. But in the evening she gets cranky. When I remember that tireness is the reason for it, and don't get bent out of shape myself, it goes pretty smoothly. I laid down with her and nursed her, and then she felt better. I still had office work to do, so D played with the girls for a while.
Then we made a late night decision to go get a redbox movie. I thought the girls would fall asleep in the car, but they didn't. We got The Tale of Desperoux and it was pretty good. I think it's based of a classic book, so now I want to find out for sure and read it. After the movie, D and already sleeping L went to bed, I got on the computer and E watched a few minutes of a Dr. Suess movie before falling asleep in the living room.
All in all, a wonderful day! I wish I would have gotten myself outside though. I need to make sure to go out for a long time tomorrow. I get cranky if I'm inside too many days in a row. I wonder what tomorrow will bring....
So, today I slept in late because I was up late last night working on my ezine (which is almost done!). D got up with the girls and made them breakfast, while I laid in bed and read my Bible. E usually likes to watch a movie when she first wakes up, and this morning she put on Shark Tales. I got up around 10:30, and she was about 20 minutes into her movie. I told her I was going to take a shower and asked if she wanted to take a bath, which she did.
After our shower/bath, she wanted to play "Don't Get Away," which is a game where I hold onto her and she tries to get away and I say "NO! Never! You'll never escape!" but of course she always does, and then I pretend to be sad that she got away, then she comes running back and we do it all over. Or sometimes she runs around me getting just close enough where I can almost grab her but I MISS. Or I pretend that I don't notice that she has escaped my arms and I go ON and ON about how she'll never get away from me, when she's already on the other side of the room. It's a great game for getting out big energy! Then L and D joined in the fun and we had a big tickle fight.
Then I offered to read some books to her, and she said that she wanted to read them to me. So, I suggested one of her "easy reader" type books with big, simple words that I could help her sound out, but she wasn't interested in those. She wanted to read A Snack for Phillip, so we did. She asked me to help her sound out the words on the cover, and then a few words on the first page. Then she wanted me to read a page to her and then she would "read" it after me. She started doing this a week or two ago. It's funny because when I first told people that we were going to be unschooling, someone asked me "so are you just going to wait and hope that some day she says 'hey mom, teach me to read'?" and I said, no, I think it will be a process of slowly picking up on words and sounds and making connections as we go through a word-filled life. I'm totally ok with her not reading until she's 8 or 10 or whatever, but here she is at 3 saying "mom, show me how to read." LOL
So, when she was done trying to read, I read a few books to her and then put on some music. E and L danced while I cleaned up the house. E's been asking for ballet lessons, and I'm not sure how I'm going to swing that financially, but we'll figure something out. Maybe not ballet exactly, but some kind of dance.
Then E fed her rat, and talked to it and both girls watched it. E got out a book about rats that we had gotten from the library and looked at the pictures. Then she wanted to play on the computer, so I set her up with the paint program. When she was done with that, she asked to type and did that for a while. Then she played uptoten.com. She printed a coloring page out and I helped her and L get set up at the table with paper and crayons.
I have a "strew basket" that I put new things in and rotate old games and puzzles and things. While they were coloring, I put the basket out on the table. E noticed her memory game and pipe cleaners and played with those for a while.
I made stir fry for lunch, and E ate just the broccoli and then asked for more. When we prayed, we talked a little bit about Yahweh being God's name. This is a little confusing for her still, because we use "God" and "Jesus" around most people, because they wouldn't know what we're talking about if we said Yahweh and Yeshua. But at home we use their real names, when I remember, since I'm so entrenched in the habit of saying God and Jesus after a life time of Christian church.
Not long after lunch, she told me she was tired and asked me to lay down and nurse her. So, we all laid down for a while. L fell asleep, but E got up and D put on Open Season for her while I read some of my book. I got up after 15 or 20 minutes and then E wanted to play Don't Get Away again, so we did. Then she wanted to hold her rat and watch Little Mermaid. While she did that, I did yoga and we talked about that movie and the rat. The rat fell asleep in it's box and E covered it up with a blanket- so cute!
Little Mermaid barely made it past the previews before D asked E if she wanted to go outside with him. So she played outside while he worked, and I got some work in the office done. When they came inside, E and L played together for a long time, then E took another bath.
The evening crankiness came and went without too much fuss tonight. She's at a point where she usually doesn't take a nap, unless she falls asleep in the car. But in the evening she gets cranky. When I remember that tireness is the reason for it, and don't get bent out of shape myself, it goes pretty smoothly. I laid down with her and nursed her, and then she felt better. I still had office work to do, so D played with the girls for a while.
Then we made a late night decision to go get a redbox movie. I thought the girls would fall asleep in the car, but they didn't. We got The Tale of Desperoux and it was pretty good. I think it's based of a classic book, so now I want to find out for sure and read it. After the movie, D and already sleeping L went to bed, I got on the computer and E watched a few minutes of a Dr. Suess movie before falling asleep in the living room.
All in all, a wonderful day! I wish I would have gotten myself outside though. I need to make sure to go out for a long time tomorrow. I get cranky if I'm inside too many days in a row. I wonder what tomorrow will bring....
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Bingo!
I found this website that I thought was cool. http://www.dltk-cards.com/bingo/
It has printable, customizable bingo cards. E has been having fun learning how to play bingo and picking out what she wants to put on the cards. She really liked the sign language option.
It has printable, customizable bingo cards. E has been having fun learning how to play bingo and picking out what she wants to put on the cards. She really liked the sign language option.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Mice, ants, grasshoppers, and worms
After the death of Arasa the mouse, E has been trying to find herself a pet. We have promised to get her a pet for her birthday (probably a rat, but she might also choose a fish or hamster or guniea pig), but until then she's been improvising.
She found some ants outside the library, and asked to bring one home. I had a tupperware container in the car, so we put the ant in it. Unfortunately it died on the way home. So, I helped her find another one in our yard and we brought it in the house. Then I accidentally squished it while transfering it from one container to another. So, we went back outside and found a worm. She kept it on the table in a bowl for a few hours- until L got ahold of it. We think she ate it! It was a *very* tiny one. E ate one a lot bigger when she was L's age! LOL
She had a pet grasshopper a few months ago. It rode home on our windsheild all the way from our garden co-op! She let it go in the grass and later found a dead grasshopper on the steps. We don't know if it was the same one, but she think so.
Most recently, she had a pet spider. She asked me to catch it for her and I put it in a glass jar with some little holes poked in the lid. When we went to bed that night, she gave the jar a hug and told her spider goodnight. Then right before we went to sleep, she asked if the spider could sleep in the bedroom with us- so I put it's jar on the tv by the bed. She tried to give it a spider friend, but it ate the friend. She caught a bug for it to eat, but it wouldn't eat it. I told her that if the spider didn't eat, it would die and that it would probably be much happier outside. It would raise up it's front legs and bang on the side of the jar if we bothered it. So, she let it go outside and is hoping it will build a web on our porch.
She said "Mommy, all my pets die! My rat died and my grasshopper died and my worm died and my ant died! I don't want my spider to die!" And every day she asks "Is my spider ok?" and say "I hope so, but it's outside so I don't know. I'm sure it's happy to be outside."
She keeps trying to catch squirrels, which I'm not concerned about because they are way too fast for her. However, I did have to discourage her from catching the raccoon that lives in the creek behind our house. It's half her size and has stood on it's hind legs and threatened D before, so I don't want her near it.
I'm looking forward to getting her a pet- she's going to have so much fun with it!
She found some ants outside the library, and asked to bring one home. I had a tupperware container in the car, so we put the ant in it. Unfortunately it died on the way home. So, I helped her find another one in our yard and we brought it in the house. Then I accidentally squished it while transfering it from one container to another. So, we went back outside and found a worm. She kept it on the table in a bowl for a few hours- until L got ahold of it. We think she ate it! It was a *very* tiny one. E ate one a lot bigger when she was L's age! LOL
She had a pet grasshopper a few months ago. It rode home on our windsheild all the way from our garden co-op! She let it go in the grass and later found a dead grasshopper on the steps. We don't know if it was the same one, but she think so.
Most recently, she had a pet spider. She asked me to catch it for her and I put it in a glass jar with some little holes poked in the lid. When we went to bed that night, she gave the jar a hug and told her spider goodnight. Then right before we went to sleep, she asked if the spider could sleep in the bedroom with us- so I put it's jar on the tv by the bed. She tried to give it a spider friend, but it ate the friend. She caught a bug for it to eat, but it wouldn't eat it. I told her that if the spider didn't eat, it would die and that it would probably be much happier outside. It would raise up it's front legs and bang on the side of the jar if we bothered it. So, she let it go outside and is hoping it will build a web on our porch.
She said "Mommy, all my pets die! My rat died and my grasshopper died and my worm died and my ant died! I don't want my spider to die!" And every day she asks "Is my spider ok?" and say "I hope so, but it's outside so I don't know. I'm sure it's happy to be outside."
She keeps trying to catch squirrels, which I'm not concerned about because they are way too fast for her. However, I did have to discourage her from catching the raccoon that lives in the creek behind our house. It's half her size and has stood on it's hind legs and threatened D before, so I don't want her near it.
I'm looking forward to getting her a pet- she's going to have so much fun with it!
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