Book Learning and Such

Homeschoolers are funny.

No, not funny as in really weird, detached from reality, socially awkward. Just funny.

Let me apologize for my absence. I had every intention of writing while we were vacationing in Williamsburg this past week. I was so tired at the end of every day I didn't touch the computer.

Anyway, I was telling you about funny homeschoolers. We went to Williamsburg this past week while they were having their home education week. There were about twenty homeschoolers in one of our tours. There was no listless staring off into space with arms folded across chests here. Children which ranged in age from kindergartners to high schoolers listened with rapt attention, arms shooting up to answer or ask questions on a regular basis. I think this was a little disconcerting to the guide, who was probably used to glazed over silence. But as she talked next to a field of sheep, one of the sheep got a little curious and decided to come over and investigate. No kidding - every single one of those kids did the exact same thing. A mass migration suddenly moved from the disconcerted tour guide to the sheep in one quick moment. She seemed a little perturbed - probably being used to classes of kids who are expected to stand and listen and not get out of line. But what she didn't realize is that they weren't being disrespectful at all - they were just really excited about learning. And they are used to learning in this way - whatever comes across their path they seize upon and understand it.

All that to say that I think homeschooling is a great idea. That must be why I do it. But it wasn't why I did it at first. When I started our homeschooling journey three years ago, it was because I didn't feel I had any other options. The private school our church housed had closed. Public school scared me witless, having never darkened their halls in all my educational career. I felt a duty to see to it that they learned the correct things, and had an education based on God's Word.

Overwhelmed, I jumped in. And I made mistakes and changed my mind over this way or that method and there were a lot of days I barely got anything done besides, but somewhere between preschool and second grade, I fell in love with teaching my children.

And the reasons I did it in the first place deepened. I realized that it wasn't so much sheltering them from ideas but exposing them to many ideas, holding the candle of the Bible to every one and seeing what held water and what blew smoke. I began to see all the time I would have missed if they were gone every day for so many hours. It occur ed to me that I was learning right along with them, and that the world was starting to take on a different shape in my own mind as well.

I've watched Eldest and now Secondborn enjoy the art of learning. There are no preconceived notions brought on by traditions or expectations of teachers and other classmates. They've never heard it isn't cool to enjoy learning new things. No one ever told them they have to be quiet, so they ask questions freely. They don't have to hurry to catch up or slow to the pace of thirty other kids their own age, so they are never bored or self-conscious.

I was always worried that they would become social outcasts because of a lack of exposure to other children. It has been the complete opposite. They aren't afraid of other kids, so they befriend others easily. They are also very comfortable around adults without that kids vs. adults mentality, so they have many strong relationships with family, friends and neighbors. To be quite honest, I just don't have any reservations about their social interactions anymore.

Homeschooling is a big commitment. I fully know that it takes a lot of time that some people just don't have no matter how much they'd like to. I would never dare to suggest that because I homeschool my kids, I am at liberty to judge others who don't. I'm only sharing my story, in case there might be that reader who feels the call to begin this journey and lacks only the courage.

Don't be afraid!

Homeschooling saves money. Homeschoolers learn to work hard, teach themselves, respect others and excel in the areas they are gifted. They learn to teach younger children, follow their interests and apply knowledge on a daily basis. They grow up relatively free from bullying, peer pressure and distrust of adults.

What are your thoughts? Disagree? Want a chance to voice your opinion about why you have chosen public or private school? Have at it!

Mom's Best Organic

First of all, I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a few days. Perhaps you are not.

Second of all, I'm sorry in advance to the majority of you who will find my topic of choice today incredibly non-applicable to your own situation. Perhaps you will say that I should keep it to myself if it's not helpful to most. And perhaps you would be right. But perhaps I would remind you that this is my blog and I can write about whatever I want to write about.

But that would be rude. So again, I apologize.

Anyway, now that everyone has rolled their eyes and clicked off my boring, unhelpful blog, I will get to my point. Baby J has reached the ripe old age of four months, and has been spending dinner time perched in someone's arms staring intensely at our food and drooling a river all over his clothes. I know that I can't hold him off much longer, so my thoughts have turned to how I am going to appropriately and as inexpensively as possible feed this next little human in the line of little humans I have to feed.

I'm sure his appetite will rival his brother and sisters, who will quite possibly have eaten us out of house and home by the time they reach puberty, after which they will most likely eat us out of everything after that which is possibly left. Baby J shows no signs of being any different. It seems that MacGyver and I can only create famished eating machines. And so poor MacGyver's salary for the next twenty years or so will be spent keeping these people from eating the furniture.

In the past, I've bought just about every kind of baby food you can imagine. Now that I'm in my organic/natural state of mind, there really is no option (at Walmart, anyway) but Earth's Best Organic. I have completely forgotten how much these little 2 1/2 oz jars cost, but I believe it's around a dollar (possibly a little less for the smallest jar.)

So today I rounded up Eldest and we went to the farmer's market to buy $3-4 worth of peaches. At the grocery store I bought extra organic baby carrots (Somewhere around $3.) I set about my experiment in the kitchen, armed with a food processor and ice cube trays. I cooked the carrots until they were not quite as crunchy as raw, but not soft. I washed off the peaches, cut them in half, removed the pits and stuffed them into the food processor. Everyone complained and put their hands over their ears, but regardless, about three minutes later we had pureed peaches, almost exactly like the jars of peaches only I left the skin on so there are red flecks.

After that, the carrots met their demise. These needed some of the water that I cooked them in to get to the right consistency, and a few minutes later around 60-70 1 oz portions were in the freezer. A couple hours after that, I transferred them to a ziploc bag where they will happily await Baby J's anticipated baby food debut.

35 jars of baby food would be.... uh.... (I'm afraid to guess because my math is just THAT bad.) around $30 I suppose? Give or take? Feel free to shame me if I am wrong. And I spent a whopping $6.

I'm a happy camper. So when I am about spending horrid amounts of money on food for this crew, I can keep in mind that it could always be more.

Comments? Suggestions? Math corrections?

More Diaper Buzz

I don't mean to go on about this. I know I've already reported on our experiences in switching to cloth diapers. But I feel compelled to say again how happy we've been with this change, and to offer a few suggestions to those who are seriously considering this possibility.

1. Give it a few weeks. It took about 3 weeks for me to figure out how to use cloth diapers to their fullest potential. It is absolutely true that if you don't care for them properly or adjust them appropriately you will have problems. But when you get into a routine that works for you, they work just as good if not better than the best disposables out there. I think it's very true that they do not reach their highest capacity of liquid retention until you've washed them a few times. At first I had to change them every 2 hours to prevent leaks. Now I change them about as often as I did with disposables. (Which wasn't often.)

2. Rinse. Many cloth enthusiasts insist that this is not necessary. That to clean cloth diapers you only need to knock solids in the toilet and throw them in the washer. Maybe for some this is true, but for our particular situation, for the consistency of my kid's "solids" or "not-so-solids" I really have to rinse them out for effective cleaning. It may also have to do with having a high efficiency washer, which doesn't use anywhere near as much water or soap as a regular washer. What MacGyver did for me is install one of those cheap plastic sink/tubs next the washer with a sprayer. I spray off everything I can with cold water and then just leave the diaper to soak in an inch or so of cold water until my next load of diapers. Before I added this step, all of my diapers were coming out of the washer and dryer dingy and with a little bit of a questionable smell.

3. Follow care instructions carefully. Cloth diapers need special care. They shouldn't be cleaned with much detergent at all and it should be either homemade or approved by the manufacturer. I didn't follow this advice with cloth pull-ups I bought in the past and you can tell by looking at them. If you overload with detergent and bleach they will not work as well and their life expectancy will not be as long. And if they start to leak, chances are they just need to be rinsed and rinsed and rinsed without soap for awhile to get the buildup off. This is known as "stripping."

The instructions warn that using vinegar, baking soda or bleach too often will cause buildup. I try to use just a splash of vinegar every other or every 3 times I wash. And when they start to have a slight odor, I use just a tablespoon or so of bleach, but I am cautious about only doing this every few washes. It does take care of any smell starting to emanate.

4. Adjust. The diapers I bought have adjusters inside them. I had to play around with them and find out what settings Baby J needed to keep them from leaking. I also learned to put them on to prevent leaks too. You have to keep the front up high as you are snapping them in place, then pull the back up and make sure the elastic around the legs is snug against the skin. Since I learned to do this, they rarely leak.

Again, I will reiterate - I've been extremely happy with this decision. They are not bothersome. They save you money after a few month's use. They save garbage dumps from unnecessary refuse. They save baby's bottom from unnecessary chemicals and irritants. They are an all around good idea, and I'm thankful to have them!

A New Plan

Something someone posted or said to me recently stuck. And my first reaction to it was negative. Something like "That would NEVER work!" And then I got to thinking how nice it would be if it did work.

I suppose it might be helpful if I share with you the idea first. Someone told me that they buy the bulk of their groceries at the beginning of the month. For the rest of the weeks they only buy things such as milk or produce. In my mind I argued that this is just impossible, to buy so much at one time and be able to plan for an entire month in one shopping trip.

But I decided to try it.

At the beginning of the month I went to Sam's. I got three month's worth of the things I buy there (toilet paper, paper towels, olive oil, nuts, etc.) Then I went to Trader Joe's and got what I could only get there, enough for a month. Organic meat, cheese, Ezekiel 4:9 bread, etc. Then I went to Meijer (yes I did this all in one day with four children!)and got things there that Walmart doesn't have (organic salsa, cereal, etc.) The rest of the month I go to Walmart for a quick trip and get the produce and such for the week. It sounds complicated, but it's working out! I think this is going to help us when homeschool starts in a couple weeks, especially since I've got myself a new kindergartner this year!

So all this to say, thanks for the idea!

Too Much Stuff

I've been having a great time discussing the last couple of posts. I'm grateful that there are people that I know and people I don't know that are reading this blog. I started it to teach myself writing discipline and document areas in my family's life that I wanted to improve, but the ways that others have responded, taught me from their own experiences and challenged me to deeper levels of faith in areas I need to grow has been humbling. Thank you for reading.

I come back to the matter of finances again today. I've come to realize something in my adulthood that I never knew as a child growing up in the home of the pastor of a small town church.

You can have too much.

As a child, I never felt that we were destitute or poor. I couldn't even tell you now if we were. We did have to be careful with money. We did live frugally and conservatively. We wore hand-me-downs and once or twice I remember people bringing us boxes of food and we were grateful for it.

I didn't spend a great deal of time pining for things I couldn't have. I know I did the usual whining that kids do, but I never really felt like anything was truly missing from my life.

Then I went from Pastor's daughter to engineer's wife. We are by no means wealthy, and being an engineer, MacGyver has a personality that is practical and frugal, so we don't spend to extremes. We don't spend what we don't have. And the budget we have agreed on is not suggestions, it is the bottom line.

We have everything we need. We have enough to spend extra to have healthier foods and products. We have enough for quality clothing and fun vacations with our family. And I'm thankful for this.

But we have too much stuff. Some days I wish I could just dump it all on the curb. I am constantly picking up the same 17 pairs of shoes, the same 600 toys and game parts and the clothes are everywhere!

So in the next month (before birthdays and Christmas hit us again) we are getting rid of extra toys, clothes, and all the things that just get crammed in corners and set to the side to deal with later. If it doesn't get played with much, doesn't mean anything to anyone, or tends to end up all over the floor and under foot - it's history.

I'm not sure what the Kidney Foundation does with all this stuff. But as long as it isn't my problem anymore - I'll just be happy to dump it on my front porch for them to whisk away.

Oh, and everyone wish MacGyver a happy birthday!

Cash in Your Pocket

There's nothing extraordinarily enlightening about this post. I was just pondering today the truth that good health is a responsible endeavor, even financially speaking.

There are certainly exceptions (I've been to the doctor with my children enough times to be grateful that we have doctors there for us when we need them) but truthfully, how many times do we go to the doctor for some malady we have brought upon ourselves? (And no, MacGyver, I am NOT referring to pregnancy!)

*Truthfully, we love all of our precious blessings more than words can say. MacGyver is just getting a little nervous about silly things like... college. As in paying for it. For four children.

I say if it's that important they can pay for it themselves, but for some reason he doesn't think it's quite that simple...*

Anyway, getting back to my original thought - good health lies much more in our own hands than we tend to believe. Sedentary lives that have too few whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables in them tend to lead to more medical intervention, and that's truth whether we like it or not.

So we can all pitch in to help bring down health care costs both on a national and personal level if we take a step, any step toward that goal of healthy living.

At least that's what I keep telling myself!

And it is just steps at a time, I'm realizing. Too lofty goals quickly frustrate us and make us give up. Just taking it one small step at a time - "I'll work out once this week," "I'll give up dessert twice this week" (...or "today" if you prefer...) these little steps in the right direction, as long as they stick, can end up making a big difference.

.... at least that's what I keep telling myself!

Going all Crunchy

I saw a family in Meijer today. I admit I was a bit judgmental. I saw the woman and the girl's hair tied back in handkerchiefs, a baby that I'm pretty sure was nursing as his mother carried him along (I have to give her credit for that - I can't imagine how that works without some sort of superhero arm strength...)the long flowy skirts with t-shirts, the man's suspenders and long beard, the sheer number of children... I immediately thought "Crunchy."

If you've never heard the term "crunchy," it's used to refer to all-natural purists who make everything from scratch, birth their babies at home... or out under a tree (no kidding, I read a birth story where the woman gave birth out in the woods... on purpose,) etc. Sometimes they are called "crunchy granola" families. I'm not sure why the term is crunchy and I just don't feel like looking it up today. But trust me, they were crunchy.

I'm starting to wonder how far off of that I am! For as I was raising my eyebrow at the large crunchy family, I was heading to the soap aisle to buy borax, washing soda and fels soap to make my own laundry detergent that would work for my new stash of cloth diapers.

And just as the Crunchies get their fair share of guff from others, I get it too. But I'm starting to care less and less. Because of said cloth diapers, I am going to have about $50 extra a month. Because of said homemade laundry soap... I can't even fathom how much I'm saving because of the sheer volume of detergent that can be made from the $7 or so dollars I spent today. I've always been a little slow in math but I lost count somewhere in the thousands of loads this stash will clean. All I know is the 2.5 gallons of concentrate I made today does 640 loads, and I used 1/2 cup of one and 1 cup of the other cleaners that came in over 3 and 5 pound boxes. I know, it's just mind boggling... or maybe that's just me. Some of you are shaking your head that I graduated high school. I know MacGyver is. He is my superior in math by a billion to the tenth degree. No, I have no idea what that is. But I did get an A in geometry, thanks, Mrs. U.!

ANYWAY, so I admit my Crunchy tendencies are increasing. Please talk some sense into me if I do something crazy like stop wearing makeup or trying to ride a bike to the grocery store with four children on Trabue road...

I'll tell you all about the cloth diapers I bought and give you a full review tomorrow. I'll also share the detergent recipe and instructions.

Glittering Pebbles

"We heap around us things that we do not need as the crow makes piles of glittering pebbles." - Laura Ingalls Wilder

She was born in 1867. I was born in 1976. Nevertheless, I grew up alongside Laura. It is lost to time how many trips through her books I made, watching her determined pioneer spirit and learning her way of appreciating simplicity and the true treasures in life.

The quote above is found in her later writings, compiled in "Little House in the Ozarks." She goes on to say "I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking. It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature. There are no hothouse blossoms that can compare in beauty and fragrance with my bouquet of wildflowers."

Love. Duty. Work. Rest. Nature. I inwardly long for a life such as the one she describes. We could live with so much less than we have and be happier. Some of the more cynical among you would remind me that living the pioneer life meant living without indoor plumbing, without central air, without computers and cell phones. It meant hard work. Very hard work. Hard work that had you up with the dawn and in bed with the sunset. Yes, it would be a very different life. We would have to be different people.

But I can imagine the satisfaction MacGyver would have building his own house from the pines he cut and hauled to the mill himself. The pleasure it would be for him to have his sons trail after him as he went about his work, teaching them and preparing them to be hard workers themselves. I can imagine what a wonderful feeling it would be to grow a garden full of fruits and vegetables with my girls, or expertly kneed and bake our own bread, or sew instead of surf the Internet, and read instead of clicking on the tv.

Life would be harder. But life would mean more.

I am glad that we have modern conveniences. I like facebook's way of reuniting me with every person I've ever known. I enjoy blogging. It's awfully handy to be able to google anything and get an immediate answer to a question. I am relieved to know that my family has access to antibiotics and emergency medical care if it is needed. Cars come in handy when you've got aways to go.

But all of this costs money. And time. And maybe just a little part of ourselves that was made for simpler things. What does this earth not provide for us that we had to create such a complicated system to sustain our lives?

Chances are I'll never get to live Laura's simple life. But maybe I can begin to take the steps in that direction, and someday, somehow, my children or my children's children could find their way back.

So the question becomes, what can we live without?

The answer, I suspect, is much.

Excellence Vs. Perfection

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.
- Harriet Braiker

Let's just get the confessions over with, shall we? I admit it. I'm sitting here at 11:03 pm eating my dinner. Actually, we'll call it my breakfast, lunch and dinner, because it's basically the only meal I've had today. Breakfast was a protein bar on the go. Lunch I had to choose between feeding myself or feeding my two month old. He won, of course. I got by on a chicken nugget and a piece of string cheese. I munched a little while I made and served supper late, and somehow I squeezed in my exercise while the baby cried and now here I am.

I'm such a whiner. At least my dinner is leftover broccoli, salmon and quinoa. (That's pronounced "Keen-wah" just so I can sound really smart.) That's got to count for something.

My other confession: I got a sunburn. I put sunblock on, but I always forget my shoulders and back. I realize this is not a step in the healthy direction. I realize it will be my own fault when I get skin cancer.

Needless to say, I'm a bit frustrated about everything today. It's one of those days where this whole idea of improving in all of these areas seems to big and too unreasonable for where I am.

As well, the goals themselves do not mesh well. I don't know how to have our family eat healthy, have our fill and still spend a reasonable amount of money on groceries. But then I wonder, what IS a reasonable amount? I only know what I spend. It seems out of control - but I look through the cabinets and fridge and wonder what was frivolous. If I skimp on fruit we run out within a couple days. If I don't get two of this or three of that I end up scraping together unbalanced meals and trying to stretch everything out to the next week.

My family goes through a lot of food in a week. Is this normal? Do everyone's kids eat every last pea and carrot and piece of meat on their plate, ask for more, and then still constantly whine about being hungry? (Just so we're clear, I don't feed them every time they ask. They get three meals and two snacks a day. Unless I indulge in a shower, then I come down to find half the grapes I just bought for the week mysteriously missing off their branches... and it seems that "Not me" was the culprit.) And I don't know, does everyone's husband polish off a bag of tortilla chips in a sitting and go back looking for more? (Sorry, MacGyver, just trying to be real. It's obviously not hurting your figure at all.)

I don't even want to think about what it's going to be like when we have four teenagers in the house...

One week in and I'm discouraged about this whole being more financially responsible business. It just seems like an impossible dream. And I totally sound like a whiner today. I don't blame you if you stopped reading three paragraphs before this. I wish I had.

But my new policy about complete honesty requires I tell you today that I am doubting my ability to pull this off. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Thanks for sticking with me. And as for the quote - I'm pretty sure that's the source of my problem. I'm striving for perfection when all that is required to make a change is striving toward excellence.

I'm just going to have to figure out what that means in a tangible sense. If you have any thoughts or opinions, leave a message, here or on facebook. I'm really enjoying hearing from everyone!

Can We Afford All These Kids?

It's time to be quite honest. More honest that I'm really comfortable being. That's the sticky part of being a writer.

By the way, did you notice I moved the blog posts so you could see the bottle of glue? I felt that made more sense. And that little punch of orange on the page is so refreshing.

Anyway... oh yes, being honest. I'm actually starting with the easiest category. Money. Not that money is easy to figure out. I've never liked math. I got an A in geometry and still didn't understand how I'd come to the right answers. Figure that one out!

MacGyver and I have had our share of disagreements about money. In fact, we are just about as opposite as two can get in our views of money priorities. MacGyver knows that a penny saved is a penny earned. He understands that if you buy something for less you save the difference. He also gets a little nervous when our spending creeps right up there around where our income is.

It's not that I don't agree with him. I do. I am so incredibly relieved that I have a husband who saves and sacrifices and hates the very notion of having debt. I am also ecstatic that MacGyver can fix ANYTHING. While the rest of you hire your electricians and plumbers and handymen I have my very own who works for free. It's okay to be a little jealous. And I'm not exaggerating - he can fix just about anything with a chocolate bar and a paper clip.

Maybe I was exaggerating a little. But just a little. A tiny bit.

So here I sit and wonder - what exactly are our financial goals? We are already debt free (thanks to MacGyver, NOT me.) But I just have to be really honest and say having four children does get a bit expensive. All of them like to eat. I didn't get the picky little skinny child who won't touch his dinner and seems to survive all day on a few ounces of apple juice and a chicken nugget. All of my children eat as much as I do - if not more. Well, I guess I can't say all my children. Number 4 hasn't entered the world of solid foods yet. But his day is coming soon, and it's only going to make grocery shopping within our budget that much harder. And because we are committed to eating healthy - it's a challenge. It seems like the price of food and clothes just escalates every month. Add to that diapers and pullups and all of those accouterments... it certainly adds up.

So I'm just going to make one simple goal in the area of my financial responsibility for this next year. I'm going to attempt to stay within our budget. I'm always running to MacGyver bemoaning the fact that the world has just gotten to expensive for our budget to work anymore. But enough is enough. I'm going to make it work.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Because it Matters

Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out. - Sportscaster Jack Buck

A good blogger has all the answers. Right? If blogging is supposed to be done by brilliant philosophers who have figured everything out, I guess I should erase this attempt at a blog and keep dreaming. But if there's a chance someone with weeds in her lawn, messes in her closets and kids who didn't get their hair brushed today could offer anything of value, it can't hurt to give it a try.

The above quote intrigues me, because I want to know if it's really true. It sounds good, right? In fact, it's the way I've been trying to live for the past few years. It's easy to see the problems in a home, especially when you started out with such grand expectations of perfection. I would become the model wife - able to keep up with her looks even while giving birth to four children in six years, able to be a cheerful and happy spouse even while hormones swirl out of control within on a regular basis... yes, you get the picture. Probably because you've been there too. I'm sure I'm not the only less-than-perfect-looking, exceptionally hormonal wife and mother on the planet. But is there any way to improve every aspect of you and your family's life in a deliberate way? Can any family with so much to do and so many people and events to keep track of really make a positive change with lasting effects? Can I really make the best of it? Can you?

The Project begins. The categories of improvement will be finances, (you know, the never ending battle to decide what's more important - gas or food, vacation or charity, etc.) going green, (the what and why of things such as recycling, organics, and the almost insurmountable mountain of trying to live all-naturally... is it really worth it?) social lives, (all inclusive how can we improve every relationship in our life?) health, (is there any alternative to conventional medicine? is there any hope for true healthy living in this culture?) and finally, the spiritual. (Does it really make a difference to find faith and live it? Where does a family look for God? What does real faith look like and is it an impossible dream?)

I'll try to post once in each category a week for the next year. I shouldn't say try. As Jillian Michaels says "Trying is just planning to fail." Alright, Jillian, let me rephrase (she can't see my eyes rolling) (Please excuse my hostility as I started "30 Day Shred, Level 1" yesterday and I can't move without groaning in pain...) ... ANYWAY, I commit to post one time a week in each category for a total of 5 posts a week, and if I fail, if my hormones are swirling I may cry a little and then I will apologize and attempt to catch up despite the fact that I have FOUR CHILDREN...

Enough said. Now for your commitment. Become a follower, read my quandaries and decide what you'd like to try yourself. Let me know with your comments what you're working on and what you've found works great.

So don't make me feel like I'm the only one. Please post what you are thinking. Please let me know you're reading.

Back to a ridiculously busy life. We'll get started on those pesky economical problems tomorrow.