A Homemaking Journey

Discovery Jars Science Lab

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

I found the original ideas on Pinterest, and then I had to try them. I have a bunch of curious kids and this was a fun Saturday afternoon we spent making these. I will list the ingredients under each picture. These turned out so cool!

"Calming Jar"

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 1/2 c. water

Boil these together until clear, pour into jar, and add water to fill remaining space

1 t. glitter

1-2 drops food coloring

Hot glue or E6000 glue

Add the glitter to the sugar water. Glue the lid to the jar.

Because the sugar is in the water it is denser and the glitter falls slowly. I've heard these used in time outs for kids. They shake the jar and then watch the glitter settle. Once the glitter settles, they can get out of time out.

"Color Mixing Jars"

Red and Yellow Tye Dye Shirt powder

1 c. veg. oil

1 c. water with food coloring mixed (go sparing on the blue)

Jar #1

Mix a squirt of yellow dye with 1 c. oil, mix.

Mix 2 drops food coloring with 1 c. water, mix.

Add water to jar, and then the oil. Seal the lid and shake. The colors mix and settle quickly so the kids can see immediately what happens.

Jar #2

Mix a squirt of red dye with 1 c. oil, mix.

Mix 1 drop blue with water, mix

Add water and then the oil to the jar.

Jar #3

Mix a squirt of yellow dye with 1 c. oil, mix

Mix 1-2 drops blue with 1 c. water, mix.

Add water and then oil to jar. We learned the hard way that blue dye added to the oil turned the whole jar blue.

"Bubble Jar"

2-3 c. water

Red food coloring

Few squirts of Dawn dishsoap

Glue the lid on and shake! You can use other colors too but Simeon's favorite color is red.

"Silt Jar"

This wasn't the easiest jar to make in January. I went up to a trail head that has a pond near by and got my silt from there. I had to chip through muddy ice first, but I got it! I made sure no big leaves were in it, and then just added water to it when I got home. Seal the lid. This doesn't separate quickly. The kids thought it was gross that mud was in the house.

"Density Testing Jars"

These were my favorite!!

10 marbles for each jar

1 bottle Suave shampoo, any color

1 bottle hair gel

Pour the bottles into the jars, add the marbles, seal the lids and try it out! Which one is more dense? My favorite is the shampoo. That's more calming than the glitter jars!

"I Spy Jars"

I found a box of old craft supplies and used some of those in the jars. One i filled with rice, the other with beans and rice, and then added random supplies. I did write what they could find in the jar, but forgot to count the number of things. Note: write the number of buttons, beads, animals, etc. in the jar and write it on the side. You could also put one car, small doll, one pack of eight crayons, and practice naming the car parts, body parts, colors, numbers, etc.

Party favors (Frogs, Lizards, Dinosaurs, balls, etc)

buttons

beads

marbles

pom poms

"Rocks and Leaves"

Nature jar. This started out great, but most of the leaf beads sank by the end of the day.

Rocks

Fake leaves

Beads

"Sink and Float: Glass and Plastic"

We made a couple of these with a few other objects. This one has glass beads (sank) and plastic beads (floated) and water.

"Pom Poms"

Water and fuzzy pom poms. This one is good for babies. I did see one with sparkly pom poms, and if I could have found my glitter, I would have added some.

"Tidal Wave Pool"

Once again, over kill on the blue color. We took stickers and put some in the jar and some on the outside of the jar. I did add some oil, but it just sat on top. Maybe it needs more water? I think I will research this one more. Also, the stickers inside stuck to each other and you can't see them. They ended up being more like the Loch Ness Monster in there.

"Float and Sink: Metal and Plastic"

Metal brads, pony beads, paper clips, odd office supplies and craft supplies, wire cuttings.

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. water

Water to fill to the top

Green food coloring

Boil the water and sugar together until the sugar is clear. Add to jar, fill remaining space with warm water. Add coloring and supplies. Seal the lid. The sugar makes it a little denser and so the beads float slowly.

"Float and Sink: Random Objects"

Just water and a few odd objects. Unfortunately, I ended up with three objects that floated and the rest sank.

"Numbers Jar"

Magnetic numbers

Magnetic math signs: + - x %

Beans

Magnet (not shown)

This can be used a number of ways: Find the numbers one through nine. Using a magnet, add, subtract, multiply or divide the numbers you bring to the top. Count the number of beans for each number your magnet attracts.

"Stacking Liquids Density Experiment"

You can find the whole experiment and explanation here.

Here is what happened: The blue jar on the right was a mess up, so we saved it to show what NOT to do. It is not complete with all the ingredients. I basically messed up putting in the ingredients in order, then I used blue dye powder in the veg oil and it ran/sank into the water and then into the syrup until everything turned blue. And then we tried shaking it, because after playing with mixing color jars, we just had to see what happened. It never separated again, so just a warning, once you get your rainbow jar done, don't shake it!

These were the order of ingredients: (1/2 c. each)

Honey

Karo Syrup (with red food coloring)

Green Dawn dish soap

Water (with blue food coloring..once again, too dark..I think I'll just stay away from blue)

Vegetable oil (yellow dye powder...I think this should have stayed plain)

Rubbing alcohol (yellow ran into the alcohol)

Clear Lamp Oil

Be sure when adding your ingredients they do not touch the side as you are pouring them into the jar. Also, be careful not to slosh it around and pour slowly (but not so slow the liquids dribble back against your measuring tool). From what I understand, eventually the alcohol and the vegetable oil will switch places as the alcohol evaporates. The link also gives more detail and ideas to try out, as well as some hypothetical ideas too.

One last jar I want to do when I find my glitter is to just do glitter and water and have them compare the sugar water glitter jars to the water glitter jar.

Words of advice when letting lots of kids help you:

Glue all the lids on as soon as the bottles are finished. You can use various plastic bottles, Voss water bottles (might be a bit more expensive, but they look very uniform), and I chose mason jars just because I had a lot in my basement being unused and these bottles will be supervised in a closed space.

E6000 glue is for gluing metal to glass. Use in a well ventilated area and it may take up to 24 hours for the glue to dry. Hot glue will also work. Once again, I couldn't find my hot glue gun.

Most of these supplies you can find around your house. For the glitter jars I saw some people used glitter glue instead of sugar water. My kids dried up all my glitter glue, but I had plenty of sugar I could use.

Make sure you allow for some space in the I Spy bottles. I filled it kind of full on one and its hard to move the stuff around and find the lizards.

Some other ideas:

Magnetic jars:

Cut Up Pipe cleaners

Paper clips in water (so they can see magnets still work in water)

Letter magnets

Rust jar: put in nuts, bolts, nails, screws and see how quickly and which ones rust

Season jars:

Winter: Blue glitter and food coloring, water, plastic snowflakes, snowman (or snowman parts), penguins, Christmas trees

Spring: Pink glitter and food coloring, water, pastel flowers (beads?), plastic leaves, bunnies, chicks, baby animals, white pom poms (clouds?)

Summer: Green glitter and food coloring, water, plastic fruits, beach ball, sand, boats, fish,

Autumn: Orange glitter and food coloring, water, fake leaves, pumpkins, tractor, bear (hibernation?), school supplies

Jelly fish: I saw this on Pinterest too. A mom took a bottle, blue food coloring and a white plastic bag that she shaped and cut into something that looked like a jelly fish. It floats nicely, looks peaceful, and pretty realistic!

Snowglobes. Lots of ideas all over the internet on how to make these, from baby food jars to large mason jars.

Baby Discovery Bottles: These were made from the mini water bottles and had just water and objects you can find around the house: ribbon, beads, float and sink objects, money, animals, etc. Be sure to seal the bottle lids.

Reading: Sight words on paper that pop up from rice or sand.

Colors: glitter bottles in various colors.

Have fun making the bottles and enjoying them!

Rice Pudding

2012-01-18T11:10:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago my mom gave me a Nesco 6qt. Roaster. When that thing died I felt like we should have had a funeral, along with the mixer that died the same year. They'd survived 10 years of kids, cooking, almost daily usage. They were family members! I really did feel like giving them a headstone:

Here lies Roaster and Mixer
Died 2008 (in a great ball of fire and smoke)
They served honorably

For some reason, the now stained, wrinkled, water splashed, and bits of food stuck to it manual found its way to the trash, as if I didn't need those recipes any longer. For 4 years I have been searching for the book/manual online, in old boxes, in cupboards. Yesterday, I finally found it! Some awesome soul had a PDF Nesco Roaster manual!! For free! Online!!

I made the beloved rice pudding. We used to have it for special breakfasts and desserts, it was almost a staple in our house. Yesterday I made it and it was just as heavenly as we had always remembered it. Here is a slightly modified recipe I would like to share with you (and also, in case I ever loose the printed copy, I know it will live in infamy forever here), Rice Pudding

2 cans evaporated milk
2 cans water
1 c. long grain rice
2/3 c. sugar
4 T. butter
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. grated orange peel (or one small orange peel grated)
2 t. vanilla
2 c. raisins or dried cranberries (we prefer the cranberries). The manual suggests fresh raspberries. We have had it with fresh strawberries or frozen mixed fruit as well
Whipped cream

I tried this in the rice cooker and it took 20 minutes plus some cool down time. Pour all ingredients into pan, (unless you are using fresh fruit or frozen fruit, save that for serving) stir a bit, set on white rice to cook. When the timer goes off, open the lid and let it cool down for about 15 minutes. Serve with whipped cream and fresh fruit. I have also cooked this on the stove (after the Nesco met an untimely demise), and since replacing the Nesco with the huge roaster, unless I was making enough for reception, I never attempted it in the big roaster. I also read you could start this at bedtime in a crockpot and have it ready in the morning too.

This recipe also calls for 2 eggs added, but since Ammon had dumped and busted all my eggs the day before, I didn't have any to add. If you choose to add eggs, beat them well and add them with the milk and rice. I notice this adds a yellowish, curdled look to the rice, but still pretty tasty!

You Win Some and Learn Some

2012-01-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

Besides not keeping up with any of my blogs, I'm about to share with you some of my recent failures. Some would say we pay the most tuition to the School of Hard Knocks, but at least we can look back and learn from them.

1. Starting out a homeschool year without a plan. I have now learned you can't just wing it. I think we tried out four different curricula since June. Fail: inconsistent, lost the interest of the kids, homeschool room and supplies are disorganized, and through all this, we also lost control of bedtimes and daily routines. Learned: Have a plan!! Decide on the subjects we are going to study and stick to my guns. We usually leave one day a week for a free day just in case life gets in the way or we have to catch up or we have too many errands to run. It may take more work on my part, but I love making our own whole unit studies.

2. Gluten free spaetzle. Fail: This turned into a huge pot of glue. Learned: don't even bother. Stick to the real flour kind. Although, if anyone reading this does have a good, exact measurement gluten free recipe for spaetzle, I am willing to try it again. (Does this define insanity?)

3. Getting hooked on British Dramas. Fail: I can't go back to watching modern movies and tv because it just grates on my nerves. Learned: Well, you can read my previous post here, but I think one of the reasons I love these movies is the clothes. I know they probably will not come back in style any time soon (although, the shawl is now disguised as a pashmina), but they just looked so much more elegant and put together. Its a far cry from my sweats and jeans I drag out every day. Would my kids think I went off my rocker if made myself a Jane Austen wardrobe?

4. School. I signed my husband, sister and myself up in November to go back to school with to get nursing prerequisites out of the way. Fail: I somehow neglected in the frenzy to get in by the start date that I'm in the middle of an adoption, my husband is having surgery, I may be having surgery later in the year, and I homeschool 6 children. Oh, and I'm supposed to clean, change diapers, remember to take a shower every day, pay bills and cook meals. Learned: The crock pot is my best friend. Kids need to learn to cook, we need a schedule, and I withdrew in January two days after my sister withdrew because somehow everyone else figured ~~this out~~ I'm insane before I did.

5. You can't judge a book by its cover. After the British Drama movie addiction finally died down, I came up with the bright idea that I'm going to do a Jane Austen unit study. Never mind I have 5 boys and 2 girls (one of them an infant), we are DOING JANE AUSTEN. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. I don't care if you you are a 13 year old boy and feel insecure around girls, or that you are an 11 year old boy and gets grossed out watching people kiss goodbye. Ya'll are doing Jane Austen. Fail: I'm still trying to read Persuasion and have made it to page 8 in one year. I decided I would try reading some fan-fiction because that might help with the comprehension issues I seem to have developed. Austenland was pretty good. Rated PG, fast read, and then I found out they are making a movie out of it to come out this year. YAY! According to Jane was terrible. It was a smutty, sex filled book and had nothing AT ALL to do with Jane Austen..except she sort of took on a schizophrenic type voice in the girl's head trying to give advice, that the girl never really took and kept subjecting herself to lousy men. Learned: Just because the girl on the front of the book looked safe enough, the book was not. I think they should start rating books like they do movies.

6. Declutter. Fail: it keeps coming through the door in the form of mailers, flyers, and junk we don't need (like happy meal toys). Learned: ....um........I cleaned up under my house (storage area), and I got rid of about 5 boxes of junk, but I still have 15 boxes of clothes. No one needs that many clothes. I probably don't need that coke can with my Highschool listed on it either..and yet it still takes up 6 inches of space under my house. Yet if I were to have a garage sale for all this stuff, no one would by it because it is junk. Its been used up, completely.

7. Letting people live with you. I really want to be helpful and have a good heart and help family out whenever we can. I really do. However, I have learned to draw the line with living people not in our immediate family. If I didn't give birth to you or adopt you, you can't live here. Sorry. Fail: Two families (even if they are related) are completely different in their dynamics, the way they eat, clean, dress, spend their time, their viewpoints and even their religious beliefs, even if they might be the same religion. Learned: What's that saying, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me? Yeah, it only took me three times to learn this concept. My friend suggested pitching a tent before living with family. I'm sticking to that!

8. Three year olds. Fail: trusting your three year old to push a counter height chair over to the fridge, getting out an 18 count box of eggs, jumping off the chair with the carton, (no eggs damaged yet), turning your back for a second to read the recipe, and in that moment, he holds the carton with one hand and opens it with the other and spills and cracks each and every one of those eggs. 2nd Fail: walking away to get a towel to clean it up. When I came back they had finger painted a four foot path in the eggs. Learned: let the kids get the towel while you guard the eggs. And maybe one or two are salvageable. And don't trust 3 year olds with eggs.

9. Being told I'm old. Fail: going into the doctor because you notice some changes going on with your body you don't understand. "Its all part of the aging process, dear." Smile, handshake, needle poke, and see you next year. Learned: I didn't think I'd get there this fast. My mind doesn't feel 38. My body might, but I'm not walking with a walker, or have grey hairs, or can complain about wrinkles yet. Is 38 really just a number? We don't have to match that number, right? *sigh* I'm just going to pretend I'm a spring chicken and stick with that. Just now I have a lot more knowledge...not all of it useful.

10. Cleaning a playroom or child's bedroom. Every now and then the OCD takes over and I turn into Mom-zilla in the playroom. I place 15 bins around me in a circle, scrape all the toys into a pile around me and start practicing like I'm pitching for the Bluejays baseball team (not that I'm a fan, Curtis gave me the name). I toss, sort, shove, cram, meticulously separate legos from blocks, and 3 hours later we are done. It is a pristine, happy playroom. Fail: 2 hours later, they dumped every one of the bins. Learned: why bother. Kick the toys in the room and shut the dang door. For the bedrooms: I want a family closet. This way, they just have a bed and an end table in the room. No clothes to shove under beds, rip out of dressers, wipe their nose on and leave in the middle of the floor. No hunting for stray socks, or elusive, whichever, and nothing to entertain them when they should be going to sleep. Toys stay in the playroom. (Riiiiiggghhhhtttt)

So, there's my fails. Supermom does not have it all together. In closing, I'm just going to let you listen to Jason Mraz's song. When it gets deep enough in here, at least this song motivates all of us to get busy and get things turned around.

20 Observation About My British Drama Addiction

2011-12-29T13:54:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Dawn and I’m addicted to British Dramas. Over this fall, I got sucked into several British dramas: Bramwell, Downton Abbey, Lark Rise to Candleford, Cranford, Sense and Sensibility, and North and South. I’m starting to prefer watching these over the modern day stuff. Part of it is that it’s like a history lesson, but another part is that it is like a modest soap opera. And maybe a little bit of fun it is when Curtis starts making fun of it. I just tell him I need to find him a kilt or a puffy pirate shirt! Isn’t that epitome of sexiness?

20 Observations I Learned from My British Drama Addiction

1. There are times to hold your tongue and at other times, speak up, Woman!!

2. Shawls have many uses: blanket, seat cover, coat, baby carriers, vest, hoods, and
ornamentation. Why haven’t these come back into style with the proper due they deserve?

3. Communication through small envelops and letters, written by hand, are so romantic!

4. Modest clothes!! And elegant! Can't these dresses and style come back, but with more comfortable shoes?

5. I need to learn to play the piano for entertainment purposes, and because I like to listen to it.

6. The arts: writing, painting, drawing, poetry, putting on plays and puppet shows, and pressing flowers were done because they didn’t have tv, computers, phones and video games to suck up their time. Maybe we should back away from the technology and look into using our time more wisely.

7. I am so very thankful for indoor plumbing and central heating!

8. Need some good baby names? Watch these movies!

9. I’m glad to see most of these ladies have frizzy, curly, unruly hair. If I can contain it into a bun of some kind, it might be more flattering.

10. Daily walks are good for you.

11. Living in the country is a good for you.

12. While money may certainly make life more comfortable, be sure you don’t forget what the most important
things in life are: love, family, a loyal dog, a good book and warm fire.

13. I want to learn to ride a horse.

14. Afternoon tea is good for reconnecting, calming the nerves, having a good visit, and being a good friend
or neighbor.

15. Get to know your neighbors. They may need your help, and you may need theirs.

16. Candle light covers up a lot of flaws.

17. Herbal/oil remedies have merit.

18. If you feel like something is missing from your relationships, take note. Walks in the wilderness, small
notes, dances and bouquets of flowers go a long way, and are just as good for boys as girls.

19. “What you fall in love with as a girl isn’t always what you want as a woman.” Laura Timmons, Lark Rise to Candleford.

20. Everything wasn’t peaches and roses back then. Scandal, teen pregnancy, loss of fortune, unemployment, and sickness all happened back then, and continues to happen now. It’s important to keep our faith, our family close, remember the good things we’ve been taught and start and end every day with a prayer.

How we are Fighting the Attention Span war in our Family

2011-11-29T14:08:00.000-08:00

Most people will agree that there is a serious problem in our world today- the problem of decreasing attention spans. We can blame many factors on this problem such as: chemicals and toxins in our environment and foods, television, and the video game obsessions. The fact is we as a society have been letting it happen. I believe the way to turn anything around is to start with you and your sphere of influence- your family.

Joseph Epstein in his book, In a Cardboard Belt said the following, “My own speculation is that our speeded up culture- with its FedEx, fax, e-mail, channel surfing, cell-phoning, fast action movies, and other elements in its relentless race against boredom- has ended in a shortened national attention span. The quickened rhythms of new technology are not rhythms congenial to the slow and time-consuming and solitary act of reading. Sustained reading, sitting quietly and enjoying the aesthetic pleasure that words eloquently deployed on the page can give, contemplating careful formulations of complex thoughts- these do not seem likely to be acts strongly characteristic of an already jumpy new century.”

Did you know that you have more brain activity simply staring at a blank wall than

you do when playing a video game or watching TV? Can you imagine the healthy stimulating affects of reading for your brain?

“The test of first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” F. Scott Fitzgerald

Sadly, I’ve notice many appalling things in my life with the increasing use of technology. The first is a lack of quality friendships. (See my post on Are Facebook Friends Stealing Your Reality?) And second is the decline in the ability for people to have conversations with differing opinions. People simple do not know how to have, share, or debate opposing ideas without fuming under the collar, or getting angry, or just remaining mute instead of calming share points of view. Part of this, I believe is that our culture is becoming more and more insistent that we “accept other’s opinions or who they are” without argument or opposition, or in other words that we must become apathetic and have to learn to accept that everyone other than us is right and that we are wrong. And finally, the average person does not have a desire to read deep and life changing classic works or literature as their focus is intent on keeping up with pop culture.

We cannot change everyone, but changing ourselves is a huge start. It is said that that by changing something about yourself as the ripple effect so large that you can affect 25,000 people. Just you making a change is powerful enough to affect thousands of people.

We have autistic children in our home, children with ADHD and other learning disabilities, but we desire to not succumb to these difficulties. In the Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, he shares hopeful and inspiring stories about how reading has improved not only intelligence and confidence in average children, but disabilities in those who have them.

Source: Uploaded by user via Shiloah Baker on Pinterest

Here are things we are doing in our family to change these things and to fight the attention span war:

• 10 Minute DEAR sessions- Jim Trelease suggests have ten minute “Drop Everything And Read” times at least once a day. We try to have several in addition to the assigned school reading they have.

• We read aloud to our children daily for 30 minutes to an hour.

• Taking breaks is important, especially for boys who have lots of energy. We try to take breaks every hour. Sometimes the kids will do their chores, other times just mentally regroup, and other times they will go for a run. All of my kids run ages 4-15 at least a mile. The older they get, the longer they run.

• We read classic books, the scriptures. We try to keep all books unabridged if possible.

• Television does not go on at all during the day. Occasionally in the evening, we’ll watch an hour’s worth of wholesome movies as a family. Some recent ones we’ve seen and loved are: Cranford, Return to Cranford, Larkrise to Candleford, and Marco Polo.

• We’ve rid our home of all electronic games with the exception of a few educational games on the computer which are played no more than 3 times a week or less.

• We encourage board games, puzzles, crafts and games/play that use imagination.

• We encourage daily family discussion during mealtimes and other times to talk about our day, our thoughts, and to teach healthy debating while respecting other’s opinions and feelings.

• Our children play instruments: piano, violin, and viola. These help connect the right and left brain and therefore help with concentration and attention span.

Remember, above all, you are the parent and know what is best for your child. We are reminded in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Teaching them to master their mind, learn self-mastery in all areas of your child’s life, and how to respect others in their learning experiences are invaluable life skills. You too can make drastic changes and improve attention span and intelligence in your family and in the world around you through your example.

More Information

Read this article: The Closing of the American Mind: the students

Listen to the audio: Teaching Boys & Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day by Andrew Pudewa

My Health is Back Sliding and My Plan

2011-11-26T11:16:00.000-08:00

I'm so thankful for help when I need it. I had a visit with my new naturopathic doctor. The last one I went to stopped me completely on all products for my health when I got pregnant with Braedon- baby number eight. I was so glad to find Cynthia my new naturopath. She is a very gentle naturopath trusting your body’s ability to heal itself. She mentioned that it most likely sent me backsliding when the last naturopath took me off everything. That is a huge and unnecessary shock to the body. Most women while pregnant can still supplement and help the body with professional help. If the medical industry gives pregnant women a variety of drugs during pregnancy that can do more harm than good, why should we stop healing the body while pregnant? It makes no sense to me.

I'm in the middle of another miscarriage. Losing a baby is never an easy thing. I know that one of my missions in this life is to have a large family and I desire so much to have more children. It was so disappointing to discover this loss. I do understand that my body is not healthy enough for a pregnancy at this time so we will re-evaluate later when I’m healthier.

We discovered that I have the following going on with my health:

• Diverticulitis
• Multiple Sclerosis- not in any kind of advanced stages
• 3 other auto-immune disorders which she wouldn’t tell me because she didn’t want to alarm me even more.
• Kidney stones in both kidneys
• Kidneys not working at full capacity
• Bladder has fallen some
• Gall stones
• Issues with my thyroid still- mostly due to lack of iodine in my body (T-3 and T-4)
• Adrenal exhaustion—this is chronic
• Yeast
• Allergies
• Swelling in the bones
• Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease
• Liver parasites
• Parasites in the colon and other places—this is chronic
• Problems in the uterus (along with the failed pregnancy)
• Problems with my Pituitary gland- it’s working overdrive for my thyroid.
• Hemoglobin problems.
• Problems with my pancreas —this is chronic
• Imbalance in my flora
• Imbalance of my master hormones
• High levels of radiation (from cell phone use!!)
• Severe edema (from the miscarriage)

Several of these things I was dealing with even four years ago. A lot of this is news to me. Either way, it was kind of a shock to know where I had gotten. My naturopath was shocked too and said she should never see so many things wrong in a 33 year old.

The swelling in the bones makes so much sense. For the last two months it has been excruciating to run or do any kind of exercise. My bones hurt so badly. I was at the point that I would take an Advil before a workout so that I could get through it without tears. I kept going, but it was difficult.

Since I lived in Germany during 1986-1989 I have never been able to give blood because we were potentially exposed to Mad Cow disease at that time. This is a disease that is still going on today and in the US too. http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow.cfm

In addition to this list I have a list of allergies:

• Wheat
• Gluten
• Pumpkin
• Black olives
• Walnuts
• Chalk
• Cauliflower
• Almonds
• Okra
• Pecans
• Celery
• Cocoa
• Rabbits
• Pineapple
• Onions
• Mustard
• Shellfish
• Rice
• Beef

We talked about the positive effects the doTerra vitamins, essential oils, and exercise have had on my body. Those include: no viruses, or staph infections. My vitamin levels are good; although the iron is low (parasites feed on iron too). Low hemoglobin level is referred to as being anemic. My vitamin levels being good is a huge considering all through the years (including the 2 I was with my last naturopath) my vitamin levels were chronically off. That is saying something about these vitamins that I have been on for a year. (See below)

Also, I did not have a toxic amount of heavy metals in my body as I did 4 years ago. This is because I drink citrus essential oils daily. Citrus oils pull out the heavy metals from the body. My cardiovascular system is in great shape. My cholesterol is normal and blood pressure is low. BUT, my body needs more healing. I'm told to slow down the exercise dramatically right now to almost nothing at first and slowly build it back up.

Oh, for the radiation in my body, I’m to drink citrus essential oils which will pull it out. However, eliminating the radiation is imperative. I can’t just stop talking on the cell phone. What I did do was buy an ishield radiation protection chip. $30 is a small price to pay for protection in my book.

She muscle tested each thing to be sure it was what was best for my body. What I’m doing to heal my body now with the aid of the naturopath:

The Lifelong Vitality vitamins by doterra

It's 3 supplements which contain:

Alpha CRS+®

dōTERRA® Alpha CRS+® Cellular Vitality Complex is a proprietary formula combining potent levels of natural botanical extracts that support healthy cell proliferation and lifespan with important metabolic factors of cellular energy to help you live younger, longer. Alpha CRS+ is formulated to be used daily with xEO Mega® and Microplex VMz™ as a comprehensive dietary supplement foundation for a lifetime of vitality and wellness.

xEO Mega®

dōTERRA® xEO Mega® Essential Oil Omega Complex is a unique formula of CPTG Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade® essential oils and proprietary blend of marine and land-sourced omega fatty acids. Omega fatty acids help support healthy joint, cardiovascular, and brain health, support healthy immune function, and have been shown to help mediate healthy inflammatory responses in cells. A single daily dose of xEO Mega provides 100 milligrams of marine lipids with 340 mg of EPA and 240 mg of DHA and a blend of plant-sourced essential fatty acids. xEO Mega also includes 800 IU of natural vitamin D, 60 IU of natural vitamin E, and 1 mg of pure astaxanthin, a powerful antioxidant carotenoid harvested from microalgae. The bioavailability of the xEO Mega formula is enhanced through a nanosomal lipid assimilation system and is encapsulated in SLS-free vegetable liquicapsules.

Microplex VMz™

dōTERRA®'s Microplex VMz™ Food Nutrient Complex is an all-natural, whole-food formula of bioavailable vitamins and minerals that are deficient in our modern diets. The formula includes a balanced blend of essential antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E, and an energy complex of B vitamins presented in a patented glycoprotein matrix. It also contains food-derived minerals of calcium, magnesium, and zinc and 72 organic trace minerals for optimal bone and metabolic health. Microplex VMz contains dōTERRA's Tummy Tammer™ botanical blend of peppermint, ginger, and caraway to calm the the stomach for those who may have experienced stomach upset with other vitamin and mineral products. Microplex VMz is encapsulated using sodium lauryl sulfate-free vegetable capsules, does not contain wheat or dairy products, and does not include any animal products or synthetic ingredients.

Thyme Essential Oil

I mix this is a roller bottle with coconut oil to dilute it since it's a "hot" oil.

Diuretic - Use as a diuretic is one of the top health benefits of thyme. This herb helps to eliminate any excess fluid accumulation in the body, and can be very beneficial for reducing bloating.

Antiseptic- This oil works well as an antiseptic. Wound healing and infection prevention are both actions of the herb, and it can be used to clean minor scrapes and other wounds so that infection will not occur.

Antibacterial- Thyme essential oil has antibacterial properties and this oil can kill off bacteria inside the body as well as cleaning wounds on the outside.

Antifungal- Oil of the thyme plant is one of the most effective nail fungus cure products available anywhere. The herb naturally kills off many types of fungi.

Flatulence is another problem that thyme essential oil can help with. This oil prevents gas and bloating in the intestines by forcing the trapped air through the system faster and minimizing the effects that this air has in the body.

Improved Dental Health. Thyme is a home remedy that can actually reverse gum disease, and promote good dental health and fresh breath.

(Source: http://www.healtharticles101.com/top-10-thyme-essential-oil-benefits/ )

DigestZen

I’m taking 3 drops in a capsule with each meal.

Many essential oils have been recognized through research as powerful agents to help restore normal balance in the digestive system. DigestZen™ takes advantage of these well-established therapeutic compounds in a proprietary blend of pure essential oils. Ginger, peppermint, tarragon, fennel, caraway, coriander and anise each have specific attributes which add to the overall efficiency of this potent blend. When used internally, dōTERRA®'s DigestZen brings soothing digestive relief. For aromatic, topical, or dietary use.

Single oils contained in this blend:

Ginger- Is warming, uplifting, and empowering. It can help influence emotions, physical energy, love and courage. Because it has a calming influence on the digestive system, it can help reduce feelings of nausea and motion sickness.

Peppermint -Serves as an anti-inflammatory to the prostate and the nerves. It is soothing, cooling, and dilating to the system. It can also help with food poisoning, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, flatulence, halitosis, colic, nausea, and motion sickness.

Tarragon- Is useful in helping reduce anorexia, dyspepsia, flatulence, intestinal spasms, nervous and sluggish digestion, and genital urinary tract infection.

Fennel- Can help support the digestive function by supporting the liver. It may also help balance the hormones.

Caraway -Is antiparasitic and antispasmodic. It may also help with indigestion, gas, and colic.

Coriander - Is antispasmodic and has anti-inflammatory properties. It may also help with indigestion, flatulence, diarrhea, and other spasms of the digestive tract.

Anise- May help calm and strengthen the digestive system.

Since the following oils are all going over the kidneys (on the skin), I just mixed them in an essential oil roller bottle and am applying 3 times a day.

Wintergreen Essential Oil

The health benefits of Wintergreen Essential Oil can be attributed to its properties like analgesic, anodyne, anti rheumatic & anti arthritic, anti spasmodic, anti septic, aromatic, astringent, carminative, diuretic, emenagogue, and stimulant. Helps in removing pain by numbing the area where the oil is applied. It is a relaxant. Wintergreen Essential Oil will eradicate pain and will drive away stress and tension.

Anti Rheumatic & Anti Arthritic: This oil fights rheumatism and arthritis in two ways. First, when applied externally, it easily penetrates through the skin in the muscles and tissues and stimulates circulation of blood there. This, apart from bringing warmth to the affected place, helps clear obstructions in the flow of blood (which is one of the major causes behind rheumatism and arthritis) and it does not let toxins, like uric acid, accumulate at a place. Second, although absorbed through skin, when it reaches blood stream, it stimulates and increases urination and acts as a diuretic. This speeds up removal of toxins like uric acid from the body through urine. The removal of excess water, fats and salts through urine helps lose weight and this too counters rheumatism.

Anti Spasmodic: The relaxing and stimulating effect of this oil fights spasm in the respiratory, muscular, digestive and nervous systems and gives relief from congestion in chest, breathing troubles, asthma, spasmodic coughs, muscular cramps, digestive disorders, spasmodic diarrhea, convulsions and nervous afflictions.

Anti Septic: it is fatal to the bacteria and other microbes such a virus, fungi and protozoa also. This is utilized to fight infection causing septic. It kills the bacteria named Staphylococcus Aureus and cures septic. But care should be taken to avoid direct contact with blood and it should not be applied on open wounds. Neither should it be taken orally to fight septic in the internal organs. Just applying on the skin will be enough as it will easily penetrate skin, absorbed by the tissues and from there will be absorbed in the blood stream, thus spreading into the internal organs too.

Astringent: It induces contractions in the tissues of muscles, skin, blood vessels, and hair roots. When it comes to blood vessels, this contraction helps check hemorrhage from the wounded or cut vessels.

Diuretic: It stimulates the organs in the urinary system and filtration of water by the kidneys, thereby increasing frequency and quantity of urine. This is of great help as it speeds up removal of toxins like uric acid and others and protects from diseases like rheumatism and arthritis and others which are caused due to accumulation of toxins. It also removes excess water, fat and salt from the body, thus helping cure edema, water logging, hypertension, etc. This also keeps kidneys and urinary bladder clear and prevents formation of stones.

Emenagogue: Obstructed menstruation is a big problem faced by most women, more so in city life. This should not be taken lightly as it may give rise to very serious problems like uterine ulcers and even uterine cancer. It results in pain in the abdominal region, irritation, annoyance, hair fall, fall in health and feminine problems. This problem can be sorted out with the help of an agent that can clear this obstruction and restart menses. Further, it should also make them regular. Luckily, there are many essential oils which can do this and Essential Oil of Wintergreen is one of them. It opens menstruations and also helps get rid of problems like nausea, fatigue, pain etc. associated with periods. But again, it should not be taken orally.

Stimulant: it is a stimulant and it promotes discharge of gastric juices, bile, hormones, enzymes, ovarian and uterine discharges and even urine by stimulating liver, gall bladder, endocrinal glands and uterus. It also stimulates circulation of blood and lymph, digestion, excretion and the nerves.

(Source: http://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/essential-oils/health-benefits-of-wintergreen-essential-oil.html)

Lemon Essential Oil

Traditionally, Lemon oil has many uses. It is a powerful antiseptic and can be an effective means to improve circulation. It is a considered to be an excellent antibacterial agent.

Like all pure essential oils, Lemon has a complete chemical profile just as it did in nature. One of the most impressive is limonene. Limonene has been extensively researched for its protective influence to cells. All citrus oils contain limonene as a major component of their structure. Lemon oil offers many possibilities for health improvement due to its defensive attributes, which can easily be distributed throughout the body, even to its very core–your cells!
Properties: Antidepressant, anticancer, antifungal, antiseptic, antiviral, antioxidant, astringent, refreshing, invigorating and tonic.

Lemon essential oil has been used historically to combat food poisoning, typhoid epidemics, malaria, and scurvy. It has also been used to lower blood pressure, help with arthritis, liver problems, and muscular aches and pains.

May also help with blood pressure, anxiety, dissolving cellulite, debility, clarity of thought, energy, digestive problems, promoting leukocyte formation, gallstones, lymphatic system cleansing, liver deficiencies in children, strengthening nails, memory improvement, nervous conditions, nerves, sore throats, stress, respiratory problems, and promoting a sense of well being.

(Source: http://www.trydoterra.com/lemon-essential-oil )

Essential Oil Blend: Elevation (my favorite)

An uplifting combination of essential oils creates an energetic aroma that can help stimulate the body’s chemistry when feeling lethargic or sad. It is good for the adrenals, ADD, lack of energy, and more.

The fragrance is uplifting, refreshing, helps promote feelings of self worth, can help dispel feelings of depression, sorrow and anxiety. The blend can elevate your mood and increase your energy. For aromatic or topical use.

Single oils contained in this blend:

Lavandin- is an anti Depressant: Lavandin Oil boosts self esteem, confidence, hope and mental strength and efficiently fights depression. Anti Septic: it can protect wounds from being septic. Analgesic as an agent that reduces pain and inflammation. It is a nervine is an agent which keeps the nervous system in order and in good health. Lavandin Oil acts as a tonic for the nerves and the nervous system. It helps cure many nervous disorders such as shaking hands or limbs, nervousness, vertigo, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and convulsions, sluggishness, lack of reflexes etc. It strengthens nerves and activates them.

Tangerine- Anti Septic: kills Staphylococcus Aureus! Anti Spasmodic: Spasm is not restricted to muscular cramps only. It can happen in respiratory system, digestive system and nervous system also and can cause breathing troubles, asthma, congestion, severe coughs, spasmodic diarrhoea and cholera, nervous afflictions and convulsions. Cytophylactic: Certain components of this oil stimulate generation of new cells, or more precisely, cell division, and recycling of the cellular matter in the body. Cleans the blood and helps with the excretion or removal of the toxic and unwanted substances such as uric acid, pollutants, extra salt and water from the body through sweat, urine and excreta etc. as well as increases the oxygen retaining capacity of the red blood cells, thereby refreshing or purifying the blood. Sedative: It soothes all types of inflammations and hyperactivity in all the systems functioning in our body, namely, the respiratory system, circulatory system, digestive system, nervous system and the excretory system. It sedates inflammation due to fever, intrusion of poisonous substances in the blood stream from external sources, convulsions, anxiety, stress, hypersensitivity of allergy etc. It also sedates depression, anger, and impulsive responses.

Elemi- The anti septic property protects from every possible infection from microbes, bacteria, fungus and virus, apart from giving protection against septic and tetanus. This is not only applicable in protecting wounds, but is also effective in preventing infections in urethra, urinary bladder, urinary tract, colon, kidneys, intestines, stomach and other internal organs, be it in any form of wound. With all its analgesic properties, is effective in cutting down pain related to cold, fever, sprains, etc. It helps cure headache, migraine, muscular pain, pain in joints, pain in ears, etc. It stimulates almost all the functions in the body. It stimulates circulation, secretion of hormones and enzymes from endocrinal glands, discharge of bile and other gastric juices into the stomach, stimulates nervous response, neurons in the brain, the heartbeats, respiration, peristaltic motion of the intestines and also stimulates menstrual discharges and production and secretion of milk in the breasts, due to its stimulating effects of certain hormones such as estrogen and progesterone.

Lemon myrtle- Apart from being a wonderful mood lifter and calming, it's the most antiseptic, antiviral, antifungal of the Australian essential oils (more powerful than tea tree) and is helpful with colds, flues, chest congestions, irritable digestive disorders, gas in the digestive tract, skin conditions. It contains powerful bioactive properties.

Melissa- Can offer support in cases of high blood pressure or hypertension, cold-sore blisters, asthma, eczema, menstrual disorders, menopause, depression, insomnia, anxiety, irritability, headaches, digestive disorders, dyspepsia, gastric spasm, dysentery, nausea.

Ylang Ylang- It fights depression and relaxes body and soul, thereby driving away anxiety and sadness. It also has an uplifting effect on mood and induces and feeling of joy and hope. It is a health booster for the nerves. It strengthens the nervous system and restores it from damages. Further, it also reduces stress on nerves and protects them. It can also help heal nervous disorders. Can be used to cure infections in internal organs such as stomach, intestines, colon, urinary tracts etc. It is also good for insomnia, fatigue, frigidity and other stress related factors.

Osmanthus- contains antimicrobial action on Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella typhi and Shigella dysentery by using agar disc diffusion method. This essential oil has shown strong inhibitory effect against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus and Salmonella typhi.

Sandlewood- very effective as an anti inflammatory agents. It has a cooling effect and gives relief from all variety of inflammation in brain, digestive system, nervous system, circulatory system, excretory system etc. resulting from infections, fever, side effects of antibiotics, poisoning, insect bites, wounds, etc. Due to its relaxing and anti inflammatory nature, it soothes inflammations in the urinary system and induces relaxation in it, thereby promoting easy passage of urine. It is helpful in treating infections and inflammation in the urinary system.

What I’m not going to do

... is feel victimized to my body and current bad health. I have no fear. What I do have is confidence that I can heal my life and my body.

"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without
a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers
you cannot be successful or happy."

~ Norman Vincent Peale

Finally, a little disturbing video to share that just because we live in the US does not keep us from getting parasites. The medical industry tries to make everyone think it is something we in the Western hemisphere do not have to deal with. They are wrong. John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s progress said, “The road of denial leads to the precipice of destruction.”

Why do I not choose to take care of these things by going to the medical industry? Because I believe that the healing should be done by figuring out what is going on on the cellular and basal level—the core of the person. There is more than meets the eye than just a dis-ease or symptoms. I have complete and total faith that I can heal my body completely. I’m thankful that we have so many choices today, especially for alternative medicine.

Source: luimadeit.tumblr.com via Beth on Pinterest

What I’ve learned in this, and other times in my life that I have had
health issues, is that I need to be consistent in caring for my body. It is not just sufficient to exercise and take showers and eat fairly healthy. Cleanses should be done consistently and regularly just like we clean the outside of our bodies.

And finally, we are here on this earth to have trials to learn from them. I thank Heavenly Father for all that I have learned from these experiences and am thankful that I have the opportunity to fix them.

"Paul pled thrice that “a thorn in the flesh” be removed. The Lord simply answered, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:7, 9). He gave Paul strength to compensate so he could live a most meaningful life. He wants you to learn how to be cured when that is His will and how to obtain strength to live with your challenge when He intends it to be an instrument for growth." ~Richard G. Scott (To Be Healed, Ensign April 1994)

In not submitting to others' feelings of doom and gloom and keeping my faith in God that I can be healed and made whole~ I know that I will be.

*Note: If you want to find out how to start using essential oils for your health, email me to find out how to get them at a discount!

New Addition: Baby Anna, #7

2011-11-25T00:13:00.000-08:00

I bet none of you even knew we were expecting a new baby! Well, we weren't, but the baby found us. Baby Anna came to us through a very whirlwind adoption that transpired in 10 days. I have never had the opportunity to adopt a child, and this experience has left me the most humbled I have ever felt in my entire life. I think sometimes we don't know how or why we meet a certain person until many years later. Sometimes I think we take for granted the things in life we think we should just be able to do, until we can't anymore. This was an amazing journey for our family.

In June I met Anna. She was 6 days old and tiny!! Only 5 lbs 11 oz. at birth! She had the most beautiful red hair and I could tell her eyes were going to be blue, only I didn't know just how blue. They are now my most favorite color of blue eyes! I think my 6 kids with brown eyes are warm and dark and expressive but I have always loved blue eyes and hoped I would one day have a blue eyed baby. Remember that gene model we all did in high school that said if you had a blue/green eyed parent and brown eyed parent with a recessive trait should give you a 50/50 chance of having a blue eyed baby? Yeah, that sort of failed on our part. That and our ability to produce a girl baby other than the ONE time it worked for Hannah.

I kept going back as long as Anna was staying with my friend Kim. She did foster care for older kids and this is how she met Anna's birth father, and then his girlfriend. I'm sure they were full of hope: the baby was beautiful, they were in love, and everything would work out. I think on some level, we all feel that way anytime we have a baby. Birth is a symbol of new beginnings. However life wasn't paradise for these young parents and the birth mom was getting bounced around from house to house with her baby. It is stressful enough to be a new mom with a new baby, but to have the added stress of not knowing where you will be the next week probably added to it. By July, she was back living with my friend Kim and I continued to visit when I could to hang out, help with the baby, snuggle the baby, and chat.

One night as I left, feeling heartbroken for the parents and baby and situation they were in, I half jokingly told Kim I would be willing to adopt Anna (or any baby, for that matter), if it was ever something they felt they needed to do.

When Kim called a few weeks later and asked if we wanted to really adopt Anna I thought she was joking, but she wasn't. Really, I thought? I was humbled we were even considered. I talked with the birth mom. We agreed to an open adoption. I did as much research as I could to find out what we needed to do to make it as easy and less traumatic of a transition as I could, but we weren't adoption ready. I found a lawyer that was quick to get it all together in a week. Friends brought us clothes, a crib, food. Grandparents and Aunts sent clothes and swings and good wishes! We helped the birth mom find a job, get enrolled in school, and find a place to live. We hoped it would help with the transition for her. I couldn't even imagine what she was going through. I didn't know if I should feel sympathetic or grateful, sad or happy, excited or depressed. Her emotions weighed on me. I know that sometimes it is easy to judge people in situations like this and of course, its always easier to be on the outside looking in. I had a front row seat though. I saw her struggles. I saw her pain and relief. I saw her excitement for a new job and school, but sadness that she was moving on down a path without her daughter. Amazingly, every time I talked with her, or visited with her in person, she was smiling, happy, upbeat and while life seemed to hand out more lemons than lemonade, she rolled with it. It was amazing and humbling for me to see her like that. Was Anna's adoption a gift for both of us? I don't know if I could have made the same decisions she did for adoption had I been in that same situation.

Anna came home with us August 24th, 2011. She was tiny for 3 months old, just weighing about 11 lbs. She was developmentally on schedule, just petite, which we still ooh and aww over. I worried that living with 6 older kids, mostly boys and NOISE, would upset her, but she fit right in. She slept through the train wrecks and she smiled at their antics. The little boys that seem to eager for her play are gentle with her and talk softly to her. They are Johnny on the Spot anytime she cries, ready to dance for her, play with her, give her toys or try to feed her. Anna lives a very interesting life as baby #7 in our household. We tried to call Anna by different names so as to distinguish between Hannah and Anna, but Anna just sticks. Sometimes we call her by her long name, Annastasia, but it still feels odd. Maybe a nickname will come up on day. Hannah is in 7th heaven (ha! no pun intended) now that she has a baby sister, which she has praying for all her life. Hannah and I knock heads sometimes but she IS a great big sister.

I worried about bonding with Anna. I didn't know how the adoption things worked and I have a tendency to want to put life on a shelf until I feel like it is safe to go on normally. I couldn't do that in this situation. If we were going to do this adoption, it had to be full steam ahead and NOW. For the first two weeks Anna bonded with Curtis, and everyone else it seemed. She was just so little and pretty everyone wanted to hold her. Then she started smiling, but she wouldn't smile at me. I could hardly get her to look at me. Depressed creeping in, I confessed my fears to Curtis. "She doesn't seem to like me, much less want me." But that night, she looked at me and smiled, even reached a tiny hand over to me. "See? She does!" Curtis exclaimed. All that fear for naught.

There are three years between Anna and Ammon, our biggest gap in the kid spacing process. I worried that she wouldn't have that one brother or sister to pair off with, but that doesn't seem to be an issue yet. I worried that Ammon would have meltdowns and regressive behavior with a new baby, but he hasn't. Potty training would be nice, but I'm not pushing it. I worried that I was "out of the baby mode", but I'm not. In fact, I miss having that one baby that stays put when you set them down, that snuggles with you and sleeps on you, that looks adorable puffing her sweet cheeks out as she takes her bottle, and that holds your hand in her tiny fingers. If I could add some humor here, if I could have adopted all my kids, I think I would have. I was a bit sleep deprived in the beginning, but nothing like you feel after birthing the baby and then going home to sleepless nights and days full of chasing toddlers and nursing a newborn. This was pretty easy!!

Almost right after Ammon was born I had told Curtis I felt like there was one more baby for us. Curtis balked, but we were sleep deprived and spending the day chasing 5 kids, two of which were toddlers, and nursing a very reluctant newborn. Curtis surprised me later in the day and replied, "Fine. One more. That's it." So when Ammon's first birthday was coming around and I was weaning him (he was TERRIBLE at nursing), I figured I would get pregnant relatively quickly. Nothing. 2nd birthday came around, nothing. Curious why I wasn't getting pregnant when this worked so well in the past, I was told I had less than 1% chance of getting pregnant. Later I found out I had Celiac Disease (allergy to wheat and gluten), which is an auto-immune disorder. There was at least part of a reason why I wasn't getting pregnant. I won't say I didn't get depressed. And some people would say, "But you have 6 other kids! Be grateful!", which isn't to say I wasn't grateful. I was! I was amazed I'd even had 6 kids because at one time it looked like I wouldn't have any kids at all. But I had that pressure, that feeling that one sheep was missing from the fold, that knowledge I knew I was supposed to have another little girl. Where was she going to come from?

Then one day, quite suddenly, I realized I had no need to worry. That little girl found us. And we feel complete.

In light of the holidays, Thanksgiving and now entering the Christmas season, I wanted to publicly thank all those that contributed to bring Anna into our life. If I hadn't met my best friend Kim in 9th grade Home Ec, how would I have ever met Anna 23 years later? Thank you for your mediation, support and friendship offered to the birth parents and me, babysitting, and words of encouragement. To Anna's birth parents: I know life is hard, and this was THE hardest decision you have ever made in your young lives, but thank you! We are eternally grateful for this opportunity to care for your little girl. To our family, for their support, acknowledgement, and acceptance of Anna into our family. I wish we lived closer. To my other best friends, Shiloah and Rebecca. Your love and acceptance of Anna and the deep spiritual understanding in all this has kept me sane and grounded. I'm so glad we met 12 years ago and can call on any given day and not miss a beat! To get the adoption going it required us to call on friends and family for extra help that I felt like I may have imposed upon too much. They were busy with their lives, children, spouses, and jobs. Thank you for your letters and support. We could not have gotten anywhere without your help! And then to my husband and kids. Curtis opened his heart so completely to Anna. She lights up when he walks in the room! To my kids, thank you for accepting Anna into our family. It is a sweet, sweet sight to see every brother taking turns holding Anna, and Hannah holding true to her promises she made to be a big sister to Anna.

I'm not discounting the experiences I had birthing my own children and how special each of them are in our life. I am grateful for each child, some with disabilities, some with a sense of humor and some with a flair for life I've never witnessed in anyone else before. The adoption experience has been amazing though. My eyes were opened to miracles and blessing and angels and a deeper understanding of the human spirit than I have ever had the privilege of experiencing in my whole life. No house, car, money, or job will ever be as gratifying as being an instrument orchestrated in a child's life. Nothing compares. Families ARE forever!

Are Facebook Friends Stealing Your Reality?

2011-11-21T22:01:00.000-08:00

Over two years ago I joined Facebook, mostly out of curiosity. It was fun

reading updates here and there. I played the occasional Farm Town game and created some groups for my businesses. I added people for networking, those with a common interest, clients, and those I actually knew. I’ve always been a social butterfly so this was another way of meeting new people and learning more about my current friends. Or so I thought.

Something changed in my life. Over the years something was become glaringly apparent. It wasn’t adding up and I was really bothered by it. The people who live in my same city, the same people I was friends with on Facebook never really talked to me in real life. I invite people to events. They’re busy or don’t respond. I would say hi on Sunday or whenever I saw some of them. That was it. They lived their lives and I lived mine feeling completely alone at times. How can I have these “friends” on social networks but few REAL friends in REAL life?

I know I’m not alone in this. According to an article on CNN.com “new research suggests that anyone looking to form new and genuinely close friendships via online social networks is going to be disappointed.

An ongoing UK study, conducted by Dr. Will Reader of Sheffield Hallam University, suggests that real life meetings are still needed to foster genuine "real" relationships which are based on trust.

Research by Dr. Reader, who has been studying over 200 networking site users, shows that they still have only around five close friends, and that these are almost always forged through face-to-face meetings.

He told the British Association Festival of Science held in York this week that social networking sites allow people to broaden their list of nodding acquaintances simply because keeping in touch with people online is easy.

"What social network sites can do," Reader said, "is decrease the cost of maintaining and forming these social networks because we can post information to multiple people."

"But to develop a real friendship," he said, "we need to see that the other person is trustworthy. We need to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to invest in us and is really going to be there for us when we need them."

"People see face-to-face contact as being absolutely imperative in forming close friendships."

I’ve always been against role playing as my church has always strongly counseled against it. Role playing games are of the norm today, mostly online with the World of War Craft, etc. I feel like Facebook is another way of playing a role. Many people pretend their life is perfect or a vision of what they would like it to be or we have the opposite of people who only post their victim story making their drama public and more extreme.

I thought in reading what people were up to and sharing tips online via these social networking mediums was going to be yet another way of strengthening current friendship and forging new ones. According to Dr. Reader, "What we need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really going to be there for us. It's very easy to be deceptive on the Internet. What we need are cues that are indicative of investment."

“Based on responses from 3,500 companies, Peninsula estimates that 233 million hours are lost every month by employees "wasting time" on the Internet.” That is just employees. What about people spending leisure hours on the internet not being monitored by superiors or the time clock? Social Media and the internet are distracting too many people from the things that are more important in life. I often invite friends to join me in a book club at my house and the usual response is that they don’t have enough time. If we invest only ten minutes a day in reading a real book we can finish it in 1-2 weeks depending on the size. Real books have real substance and you can enrich it by having interaction with real friends at your home.

I find that in not getting enough “likes” or “comments” leaves many people disappointed in themselves because they aren’t getting the feedback they would from friends had you been in a real life social situation.

I realize Facebook has its perks. You can read interesting quotes, learn new tidbits, and find out where your military friend just moved. You can also tell all of your friends and relatives at once announcements that are easier to make in “bulk”. You can meet good acquaintances that can share life changing information. However, two questions are: 1. is it worth investing so many hours and days of your life? And 2. Is it really paying off in terms of fulfilling friendships and by extension a richer and more meaningful life? Only you can truly answer that question honestly.

It’s time for me and others who agree to slow down the Facebook time trying to maintain unfulfilling, shallow, or fleeting friendships. Or it’s simply wasting too much time reading minute details about other people’s lives. I say it’s time to pick up the phone and get together in real life and support each other by investing real time and attention into another person who we can call “friend” and really mean it.

Notes:

CNN Article: Real friends and virtual strangers

Photograph: Victor Bezrukov

Energy Therapy

2011-11-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

For nearly 7 years the Dawn and Shiloah, the ladies from A Homemaking Journey, have blogged together. And now we are refocusing our efforts in a more life-changing way....

Let us introduce you to Life-o-logy: heal your emotions, heal your body, heal your life!

Listen to our Talk on Energy Healing

It's about an hour and twenty minutes long. You can download it by right clicking and "Save as".

How long is a session? Between 50-60 minutes.

Can it be done over the phone? Yes, it can be done over the phone and/or locally if you live in Colorado Springs, CO {for Shiloah} or Pleasant Grove, UT {for Dawn}.

How much does it cost? $70 a session.

Pay for your session now:
Contact Dawn or Shiloah to set up a time.

Join us for our group clearing Monday, November 21 at 10am MST!
Topic: Well-being and Generalized Happiness

Just in time for the holidays. We'll release the stress and negative emotions that are blocking the joy and fun of this holiday season.

After holding your place in the class by purchasing below, we will send you the call in information. Recordings will be made for those who purchase in advance, but cannot make it to the call.

Price: $20.00

Book a Private Session with Dawn

Price: $70.00

Book a Private Session with Shiloah

Price: $70.00

Here is a short video highlighting Dr James Oschman as he gave a presentation at a medical conference. It is a clear, concise no nonsense explanation of energy medicine.

I want a Servant!

2011-07-11T15:04:00.000-07:00

I’m a romantic; a dreamer. I love Jane Austen’s novels and the idea of having

servants. Throughout the years of raising children, I confess, I often thought about the era of the past where there were live in servants, nanny’s and cooks…and I wished I had a full staff in my home.

How nice it would be to have someone take care of the children when they get unruly, or make dinner for the family when I’m too busy to even think about eating. It would be nice to have a butler answer the door to the solicitors who always seem to come by at inconvenient hours.

But…no one else has that today, so why don’t we all have paid live-in servants anymore? The first thing I thought of was that most of us do not know what it was really like to have servants or know the dynamics of it because it has been over a century since it was in vogue. Additionally, we, as a country have an appalling lack of knowledge in history. I admit, I am part of that group too and I’m daily trying to change that.

I have been reading the book The Business of Being a Woman by Ida M. Tarbell. She wrote the book around the time that paid house service was being eliminated and more people were taking care of their own homes. She brought to light several points on this subject, all of which I thought were valid.

• Comfort level for the home owners was diminished knowing you don’t want the staff to hear or find out your private business, etc.

• There was an expectation of servants to live celibate (not saying anything is wrong with celibacy!) lives and to remain unmarried so that the family can ensure long, loyal service.

• The domestic arts were looked at as undignified and unbecoming a person of high character.

• Many times the servants endured long work hours, tedious working conditions, and unhealthy environments.

Those children who came from poor families knew their family needed them and what was expected of them. Alternatively, problems were arising because the offspring of the wealthy had little to do with their time and rarely knew what was expected of them. They also felt that the world owed them everything. I feel that today we’ve mixed these together until there are the same problems that arise for both the wealthy and the poor.

So, when I look at our lives today and that I’ve had to put a one hundred percent effort into my home and family I’m thankful for the skills and experience I’ve received. My parents taught me to value work, how to work, and how to create a life worth living with my intention and my own two hands. We do have a lot of conveniences that they did not have a hundred years ago that can make life simpler and more comfortable. Gratitude is the name of the game here. If we are able to see that the grass really wasn’t greener maybe it will make us a little more thankful while we’re washing the next load of dishes, knowing we do it because of the life experience if affords and to demonstrate love for our home and family.

For comparison’s sake, how we’ve evolved in this twenty-first century:

• We live in our own space with our family members with more belongings that our ancestors of the past. We all maintain a high level of privacy and comfort depending on our life choices and who and what we choose to surround ourselves with.

• We have the protection of our inalienable rights, among those: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This also includes less social pressure regarding who to marry, what our vocation should be, etc.

• The domestic arts are becoming fashionable, encouraged, and embraced.

• We have labor laws that protect us and laws that maintain healthier environments in our working conditions, etc.

I always say if I had eight more arms I’d be set. While it won’t be servants on

staff, I can enlist the help of my loved ones and friends or simply change my priorities and slow my life down. I’m thankful that I live today, although it might have been nice to have been Elizabeth and romanced by Mr. Darcy, but I have my own wonderful Mr. Darcy slash He-man at home. I’ll keep him and all these littles that I love so much. I also wouldn’t trade wearing a comfortable pair of blue jeans for those long heavy skirts. Living today really isn’t so bad!

Essential Oils and Cures and Uses Around the House

2011-07-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

In the last six months I have been using essential oils for a number of things and have been surprised and impressed with the results. I thought I would share a few uses with you.

Oil in the Bathtub

My mother in law told me about this use. Instead of dropping the oils directly into your bathwater, like Lavender for helping with sleep, she suggested mixing your oils in a teaspoon of milk, stirring and then adding to the bathwater. The milk will diffuse it through the water and make it so it does not rest on the top of the water, or stick to you when you exit the bath.

Cat Urine

Our cat, an elderly Missy, contracted a UTI and surprised us with a wet bed three nights in a row. If anyone has had a the not so fortunate experience of having to get cat urine out of something, you know it can be frustrating and sometimes expensive to clean up the mess. I used Purify (doTerra Essential Oils) in the washer with the bedding. Surprisingly, no stains and no odors remained!

Cat Deterrant

Before we knew Missy had a UTI, she was having accidents in one of the bedrooms. We cleaned and cleaned, but she kept going back. Finally, I put together in a spray bottle equal parts of orange, lemon, and peppermint oils, diluted with water, and sprayed the room after cleaning the carpets again. She remained out of the room for about a month, so remember to reapply every couple of weeks. As a side note, cats don't normally like the citrus smells, so don't use citrus scented kitty litter if you want them to keep using their litter box.

Bleeding Ulcers

I have written several posts here about being diagnosed with Celiac Disease (allergy to wheat) and the lifestyle changes we have made. Well, the ulcers are back, after almost a year of being ulcer free. This month they returned with a vengeance. Painful and not responding to prescription drugs, I was a miserable mess. Peppermint, Lavender, a blend for digestion were not helping, and then when the bleeding started acutely, Shiloah advised Geranium and Frankincense. Five minutes after application, all pain was gone.

Back Pain

Past Tense is a blend by doTerra that is for headaches, but it works great for nerve and muscle pain as well. Curtis has herniated discs that while are always painful in someway, seem to have times when the pain is worse than others. This week happens to be one of those times. With pain medication and muscle relaxers he kept complaining they weren't doing anything for the pain. After a weekend of rest, medication and Past Tense application he said the oils were doing more for him than the pain medication. This surprised me because a lot of times Curtis is a naysayer, LOL!

Splinters

Our poor house seems to be falling apart piece by piece. First the roof was leaking, then the air conditioner died, and then the fence blew over. My kids are ever barefoot, even in the winter, and once the fence blew down they had to try playing on it. This resulted in a number of long splinters in their little feet. Once we removed the splinters, we applied Lemon oil to their feet and this repelled infection and pain.

Autism and ADHD

I have four kids now diagnosed with various forms of autism, mixed with ADHD. I started using a few in a combination:

Vetiver on the foot for calmness

Grapefruit on the throat lymph nodes for chelation

Lavender on the back of the neck for relaxation

Balance (doTerra blend) for well...balance.

I do have some of my kids on prescription medications. My hope is that in time I will be able to remove them from the prescriptions and solely use oils. I have these applied most days and am seeing good results, although some days it seems ineffective, and maybe that is just those days that are off kilter anyway.

These are other uses I found to be helpful with the oils:

Melissa: balancing monthly female hormones and cycles.

Ginger: well being and sometimes bringing money.

Terra Shield (patent pending, insect repellent): Happy cats and dogs, no mosquito bites, and helpful in feeling protected spiritually.

Frankincense: needing inspiration and creativity

Rose: good will towards others (used this on days when I felt grouchy with my kids).

On Guard (doTerra blend): I use this almost daily because I love the smell of it. It is used to ward off illness and if you have one day you just feel under the weather or run down, this will help you stay well. You can also dilute this in water and use as a disinfectant for surface cleaning.

Melaleuca and Lavender: Yeast infections, fungal infections, itchy rashes. The Melaleuca has anti-fungal properties and the Lavender for itching. Lavender on mosquito bites is heavenly! Melaleuca may not smell particularly pleasant, but it does a great job with infections. I had a weird rash on my arm that after a few applications has disappeared and not returned.

I'm slowly learning more about these oils and am interested in other uses you have found. Share them below in the comments!

To know more about doTerra oils, you can visit this site: doTerra Essential Oils.

Thank You Autocorrect

2011-07-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

My phone just did an update and so all my setting were messed up, and suddenly, auto correct and auto suggestion had been turned on. I hadn't been able to figure out how to turn it off, so my friends were getting weirdly translated texts from me.

Last week I texted my friend to see how his dog was doing. Sasha was in liver and kidney failure and things were pretty tense waiting to hear back if she was going to be okay.

"Hey, how is your sausage doing?"

*Sasha*!!!! Omg...I did not just ask him how his sausage was doing!!

Thankfully he has a good sense of humor and knew I was asking about his dog. Sasha is fine and making a full recovery, but how embarrassing.

The Girlfriend

2011-07-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

A girlfriend is probably the only person in this world, who understands exactly what you are saying even though if you may not really be talking.

Anonymous

I'm at a point in my life that I think is strange to be able to say 12 years ago I was just a new mom and to consider how I learned all that I needed to that really laid the groundwork for the kind of mother and wife I am today. In just a weekend all this came back to me. Almost like I needed to be reminded of how far I had come, how much I had learned, how different we all are now, but for the better. This also reminded me of how friends shape our lives too.

Shiloah, Me, Sharon, and Beth

Salt Lake Temple, Utah

13 years ago I met these lovely ladies. I was divorced, pregnant, scared, newly married again, and just not sure where I belonged, or where I needed to go. Shiloah was the friend that called me one day and just talked, making me feel like I could call her back any day or night for whatever reason. I labored in Beth's kitchen with Isaac, while Curtis, her husband and another friend's husband gave me a blessing and whoever was closest pressed on my back to relieve labor pains. Sharon gave me advice and mothering. Not shown, but Hillary made me laugh at EVERY situation. Rebecca and I stayed up to all hours of the night talking about all things spiritual and challenges we face in this life and how to best handle them. 10 years later we all are in the same place at the same time. I firmly believe Heavenly Father puts us in places and with people at the times we most need them. I have yet to be in any other place in my life that I felt like I connected with so many women with common ground.

Many kids later our lives have changed, and if anything, life has become more challenging. The kids have different needs. We have had different struggles to overcome. There have been a lot of lessons to be learned. We have matured, and I think, become more beautiful. But those connections with each other are still there.We pick up where we left off. We keep moving forward, towards better things.

Another friend once gave me a pillow that said, "It takes a long time to grow an old friend". It does. Sometimes we have girlfriends that are only around for a short period of time, maybe to just get us through a trying time in our life. Sometimes we have girlfriends we have from childhood that continue to stay with us, through thick and thin, through everything, and you know that if they say they will be there for you, they will be there for you.

There are so many people who would do anything to ride in the Mercedes with you. But what you really deserve is somebody who would want to board the bus along with you when the Mercedes breaks down.
Anonymous

A couple weekends ago Shiloah came from Colorado to visit and so we had a mini reunion with other friends from Texas where we had originally met. There was so much to catch up on, so much to say, we just didn't have enough time to say it all. I had missed them. Life seemed so simple back then, when I just had one baby.

4, 6, and 8 kids later we all seem so grown up. There are other things that matter, more spiritual things, more awareness that we are progressing, teaching our children, becoming more in tune to our families, husbands and children. It is good we progress like this. A little sad sometimes, I think, when we realize some choices we make hold us back, maybe aren't the best idea ever, or that sometimes we made huge leaps forward and now feel like we are taking baby steps backwards. So when those things happen, we call on our girlfriends to get us through. Sometimes I feel like I haven't always been there to support others like they needed, so caught up in our own life we forget there is a world beyond our front door, or a phone call away. Either way, it is a blessing to have such wonderful women in my life that teach me, support me, help me, and allow me to do the same for them.

"No love, no friendship, can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever."

Francois Mocuriac

...............................

On the Homeschool Front: Bones

2011-07-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

I feel so blessed that we live at the base of a mountain. Four short blocks away is a creek that rushes out of the canyon. It is one of my favorite places to go, either for just a walk or cooling off in the water or just watching the valley. It is a perfect station for watching weather roll across the lake too.

Right now we have the snow melt rushing off the mountain, so every couple days we go up to check on the progress. Joshua calls it "checking on the leaking". I call it getting out of a stuffy house. The flow has lessened now and so the other night we went up to walk around and see what we could find.

Kind of an old picture when the leaves were just blooming on the trees.

The water flows around the rocks and gravel pushed into place to guide the water to a collection pond for irrigation uses. We walked down that way to see the waterfall and look for interesting rocks. Instead, we found a treasure.

A deer jaw bone. Now, the homeschooler in me got all excited. For some reason, I didn't know that deer had such sharp teeth. This also got my mind racing. What did the Indian's use it for? I could make the kids analyze each tooth and determine which one was used for what. We could make tomahawks!! No wait, bad idea in house of boys. We could pull the teeth out and make necklaces (a little creepy, but the boys would have fun with it). Hannah picked the bone up and studied it for a few minutes. I asked her what it felt like. She didn't really respond, just commented how much she loves bones. I did not know this.

My kids have watched one too many Bones episodes.

"Let's find the rest of the body!!"

*gag* I didn't say anything. I hoped that the body was already washed further down, or this jaw bone was all we were going to find. Please, let this be the only part of the body we found because I don't know really want to find the remains of dead animal, as interesting as that might be, for scientific purposes and all.

"Look!! I found it!!" Isaac screamed this, then starts frantically looking around for sticks, enlisting the help of Hannah and Jesse. They find waterlogged sticks and start prying at some dark lump under the water. Eww, I just don't want to see this, I think, and do I really want my kids seeing it? They reach their hands in the water to feel it. I gag. "It's slimy!", they report. "Don't touch it!" I yell back.

They struggled for a few minutes, pulling and leveraging this lump in the water. And suddenly it comes free, pops out of the water and I stifle my scream. There's stuff poking out of it and its black.....oh wait, on second look...it's a.......it's a TREE TRUNK!!!

Nature lesson is done. We are going home, NOW. That's enough adrenalin for me today. So we carry our bone back to the car. We stop for a few moments to observe a rabbit hole. We find a few interesting stripey granite rocks. We observe the sunset for a few minutes. We take pictures of the jaw bone for Facebook, scratch a few mosquito bites and then race down the hill to show Dad the finds for the night.

I'm actually quite proud of our find. The only other animal bone we have ever found was when Jesse found a fossilized camel bone in our backyard one day. I love the nature walks we take because it reminds me of how I spent almost every weekend in high school traipsing around a wildlife refuge. I never thought back then to look for fossils or bones. I was more interested in observing the stars, moon, trees, waterfalls and who I was with, and imagining who might have walked on that land before we ever did. Seven years ago when I first began homeschooling,we took the kids on a dragon hunt. We hiked and walked around Devil's Backbone in Loveland, Colorado. This spurred stories and games and reading for the boys for a couple years after that. For two years they kept asking me when their marble egg was going to hatch a dragon. I love it! I love this part of homeschooling, the creative side, the figuring stuff out, coming up with the possibilities of what we could do, see, hear or smell.

This is the part of homeschooling that is so addictive for me. Learning. Enjoying the moments with my kids that I can pour out all I have learned on something, or look for more information on a subject. For the last few weeks I have watched as they build forts in the backyard from fallen branches out of the tree, look for pill bugs, watch ants collect a pile of sugar, observe the birds that land on the porch for a short break in the backyard, help plant some flowers in the front, climb trees with binoculars (I don't know if they are spying on birds or neighbors), and have sword fights with sticks. I think they must be having a glorious childhood. I hope they are anyway.

They Put Salt in My Chocolate Pudding and Other Odd Conversations

2011-05-19T09:08:00.000-07:00

On Monday last week I didn't have anything schedule. I shouldn't have said anything about the fact that we didn't have ANY appointments for the whole week because the Universe found some appointments for me at my least favorite place to go. The doctor. Four times in a row.

I read this article about how adults see things and how kids see things. For instance: we see a nice, friendly looking doctor.

Our kids see:

On Tuesday, Joshua starts to feel under the weather. I think, oh, it's allergies. I treat him with some essential oils. He gets worse as the day goes on. That night he was so out of it, he was sitting up in bed, asleep, and coughing and his fever is rising. I give him some Tylenol and some cough syrup, treat him with some oils again and he goes back to sleep. Wednesday rolls around and he's complaining of his throat, so I take him in to see the doctor. Strep throat. They prescribe some Zithromax and we go on our way.

Thursday morning Joshua was feeling a lot better and so he was playing in the backyard. He comes in and he looks like he had mosquito bites under his eyes. He is still kind of coughing, but not bad. I gave him some more Benedryl and the bites/hives go away. Later that day we were running some errands, including taking Simeon to the doctor because he had Strep Throat too. I happen to look over at Joshua as we were finishing another errand and his eyes are swelling and he's coughing and wheezing. Instantly, that mother's intuition kicks in...something is very wrong.

We rush to the Emergency Room. By now his eyes are swelling shut and he was wheezing even more. Everyone agrees it is an allergic reaction to Zithromax and so they call for an epinephrine shot, Benedryl and something for his stomach since he started complaining his stomach hurt. I haven't had much luck getting my kids to swallow pills until about the age of 7-8. Josh is just 5, but they thought he would be able to swallow these pills with a Sprite. It wasn't going to happen, so the nurse thought she would hide the crushed up pill in chocolate pudding, serve it up and let him drink Sprite right after. This completely backfired. With his throat still raw and sore from the Strep, the soda burned, the pudding was bitter, and mixed together they fizzed up. Joshua gagged, all of it came back up and out, down his front, and all over the blanket they gave him. They tried again, managed to get it down this time and then rolled him over for the shot in the rear. Poor Joshua! I could see why he did not see them as the friendly medical staff and saw them as executioners. The shot did work and the swelling in his throat started to go down and he stopped coughing so much. By bedtime the hives that were covering his entire body were mostly gone. Sick and disgruntled, he complained to Curtis when we got home, "I got a shot. They put salt in my pudding!! I'm never eating pudding again!"

On Friday we had a follow up appointment for Joshua who seemed to be doing just fine with the Zithromax out of his system. Again he complained to the doctor about salt in his pudding and getting a shot, and looking at this doctor with eyes of suspicion making sure she didn't have any needles before she came near him.

This got me thinking about some of the other things my kids observe or try to communicate back to me.

Dill on the green beans is met with, "Why is there grass all over the food?". Bumps in the road that make the van rattle are met with, "Mom! Mom! The van is out of gas!".

Yesterday I found a stuffed penguin on my closet shelf. Simeon has such a collection now that I figured the other kids hid one from him and here I had found it. Simeon walks in, I had him the penguin and he asks, "Who's is this?" I looked at him for a moment, then replied, "It's your's. You got it for your birthday." He replied, "I did?! Wow!! He's so cute!". Then I got confused. Surely he's seen this penguin before. He knows them all and he can usually keep track of them. Why was he so excited about this one? ....Think..........think..........doh!!!! He hasn't seen this penguin before because it was for his birthday which is NEXT week!!! Happy Birthday Simeon! Enjoy that penguin I was trying to hide for another week from you. FAIL on Mom's part.

One day we left the house and Isaac and Jesse and I started in on a conversation about our homeschool topic of the week: Indian tribes. I asked and answered questions, and then out of the blue, Jesse says, "Yeah, like how cannon balls eat their babies." What? You could have heard a pin drop. We had no idea what he was talking about. After a few minutes of questioning and describing, I figured out he was talking about cannibals, and then quickly corrected him that I didn't think they at their own babies. At least, I hope not. I hope cannibals don't eat other babies. Why are there cannibals?

Then tonight. Isaac is not a very good speller and he tries to use the spell check when he's typing, but that still sometimes throws some things at him that he just can't quite get. I get on Facebook and I'm scrolling down through the new posts of the day and here is one from Isaac. "I wish I could play sports. I don't like doing nothing. Incest on Wednesdays." WHAT!??! I scroll down some more. I see he put "Eye exam today." I try to figure out what he was trying to say..."instead of Wednesday eye exams?"...."except for activities on Wednesdays?".....But all I could see was the word incest and then, "Oh my gosh...who else read this?!" I go get him and have him translate for me. Exasperated he says, "I wish I could play sports except (not incest) for when I have Scouts on Wednesdays." Thank you, Autocorrect, or Auto Suggestion. How do you get incest out of except? I deleted the comment and just left his comment for the day about an eye exam. Then I had to explain what incest meant after our discussion. After he thought about it for a few minutes he comes back and asks me, "Why would anyone commit incest? That sounds really gross."

Sometimes, I feel like everything is a mine field. You just can't say anything without there always being a second (often times offensive) meaning. Is it necessary he know what that is? I mean, we are studying a time period in which it was common for relatives to marry relatives to keep the royal hierarchy going, and we did study some genetic diseases that come from relatives having children with other relatives so it wasn't an unfamiliar definition, just I hadn't used that word before. Why do we have to have so many words in the English vocabulary? We have one word to describe Love, and yet there are so many different meanings for love. Other languages have different words for different kinds of love. I could say, "I love chocolate" and "I love my son" and it has the same meaning, essentially. Trying to teach the English language to our kids is even more confusing what with the synonyms and acronyms and homophones. No wonder Isaac has problems keeping it all straight. Anyway, the crisis was averted and we have all moved on.

I still find it funny to listen to my kids talk. Three of them have speech delays so it is funny to me to listen to them as they figure stuff out. All last summer Ammon pronounced "frog" as "fock". Sometimes it sounded a little more off and came out as the f-word, to which we would all gasp and try to correct as quickly as possible. He would just give us this look like, "What's your problem? I was just talking about this frog!" Of all the words Ammon picked up on, dead was one of his favorites. If the cat was sleeping, "Kitty dead?" or if something fell over he'd ask if it was dead.

So, that's my life lately: laughing at my kids over some of the conversations we have, trying to follow Simeon in one of his many tirades on penguins, dinosaur eggs or things he is mimicking off of TV, and calming children down when there are no words in their vocabulary to describe what they are seeing. It really makes it difficult to talk to someone with a normal vocabulary later because I'm almost always asking, "What? Could you say that again?", because it's not in kid-speak.

Writing is Like Visiting with Your Girlfriend

2011-05-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

I’ve had some writer’s block of sorts and I recently realized why. I have been changing my life so much in the last six months for the good. I’ve identified so many old negative patterns and personality traits that all of a sudden I didn’t know what to write about anymore. Many times I would have somewhat slightly negative topics to put down on paper and somehow I would turn it to a positive, but still I felt that the negative thought or problem in my life was necessary to be inspired for writing to begin with. Why? I really couldn’t tell you, but now realizing what this core belief is enough to switch it around to the positive.

I think part of this past hesitancy to write all flowery, positive things is my aversion to seeing blogs or articles that only talk about positives portraying that their lives are seemingly perfect with absolutely no problems whatsoever. My life is anything but perfect, but I’ve really switched my focus to all the positive things that do grace my life and that include the blessings. I have my fair share of frustrations, but dwelling on them enough to write about them only leaves me feeling more negative and many times without a solution.

I see now that in this modern techno world we live in not writing for a time is like not showing up to your girlfriend’s house for an afternoon of visiting. Online writing is the way the majority of us communicate today. In the last few month of introspection I’ve emerged renewed and ready to get back in the game- the writing, friendship-making, social networking game.

I’ve recently gone to a few fellow mommies blog’s to see that they too have been remiss in writing frequently. I miss them. Are they okay?

Last month, while in a self-education class, the lecturer was encouraging blog writing. Another student brought up he had read about three mandatory S’s for all successful blogs. He wanted to discuss them as he is not currently a blogger and wanted some feedback. After some debate and discussion we came up with three S’s of our own. They are: Substance, Spirit, and Structure. It’s not the quantity of the writing so much as the quality. I try not to write until I’m feeling some spark of interest or passion stirring within me, otherwise it’s just a lackluster article or post. A good structure to a blog or site is essential to avoid confusion. There is a lot of verbal vomit on the web because everyone today has a voice, but more importantly there is also so much valuable wisdom and ideas to improve your life or inspire greatness within you. It’s time for another reevaluation on my part to be sure that that is what I’m offering you. Most people don’t want to waste their time reading things that will not help them in some way.

It is passion that moves us. What boils down to my quietness then is a lack of passion in writing. Whatever the reason it began I’ve emerged more centered, more experienced in life, and most importantly I’m ready to share and learn from you, dear reader. After all, it is you that I write for. Thank you for following!

Tell me what you think....leave some comment LUV <3

The No Good Very Bad Day

2011-05-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

This was one of my favorite books as a kid. As the picture implies, I should have never left my bed yesterday. It was one of those days that you just ask, "Why?!". As a kid I romanticized my adult life. There wouldn't be these bad days that occur that make you want to run away or question your fertility. It was all going to be lace curtains and peaches, us living in our pristine house with our pristine children, days just filled with beautiful moments and smiles. No one told me that those days occurred maybe 10 days a year, and yesterday was NOT one of those days.

My day started out waking up from a dream. In it, I was approached by a friend that was trim and fit and told me about this great diet and exercise program he joined. Then he served me baby animal meats, insisting they were the key to the weight loss. After quickly processing the amount of money of these meats in my head, and the fact that I just can't bring myself to eat veal and lamb, I declined the "diet", but woke up motivated to do something, anything, for exercise. This was an obsessive thought I couldn't get out of my head. I even went so far as to tell Curtis to take pictures of me before I started on this exercise routine. For the record, these are pictures that the public will NEVER see. I threw on my old maternity sweats ('cuz they are all I have in the way of exercising clothes...not that I exercised while I was pregnant), a t-shirt, and searched out the P90X program Curtis had downloaded to our computer.

Looks legit, right? Well, after killing myself with multiple sets of push ups and chin ups (that I did with a weak rubber band), I lost use of my arms. I couldn't hold a phone without shaking from exertion. My shoulders were killing me. My knees had rug burns from doing modified push ups (that I once swore I would never do after pridefully finishing Basic Training). I couldn't even lift my arms to wash my hair.

Which brings me to my next point. While I was painfully taking a 7 minute shower, my three year old was raiding my closet. He found great enjoyment in pulling down most of my clothes. This wasn't just letting them slip off the hanger. No. He was hanging on the shirts until the hanger snapped and the clothes ripped through hanger and came down with it. As I picked up my clothes to rehang them, I found one of my favorite shirts (ok, so what if it was 13 years old and a little out of shape?), impaled with a hanger through the shoulder. Destroyed. Ruined. Never to be worn again. On the bright side, it was one less shirt I had to hang up, seeing how it wasn't without excruciating pain hanging up each shirt.

I yelled at the kids about how not to disrespect other people's property. I yelled about the state of our house, which can never seem to stay clean longer than 30 minutes. I yelled about poop in the bathroom and poop on the baby. I yelled about how it seems everyone just lives in their own little world without regard for others, or their feelings. And then I sat down and cried. Cried over my shirt, over having to change the 4th poopy diaper that day, over my room being stinky from the diaper, over the pain in my now useless arms, and over having autistic children that I assumed because they are 12, 8, 6 or 3 should be acting like 12, 8, 6 or 3 year olds. In a moment of great maturity for him, Isaac, with a broken hand, did the dishes, cleaned up the upstairs, and then came and gave me a hug. Which started more crying for me. Then he reminded we had a doctor appointment for his hand. In two hours.

We struggled to get everyone out of the house. Shoes were missing, socks had vanished, clothes were mismatched. Ammon continued to scream over everything and anything. This was fantastic; I already knew how the appointment was going to go. Somehow we showed up 30 minutes early for the appointment. I turned around an looked at my 6 children taking over the waiting room. They have a turtle aquarium and a Lego play area. Oh no, I think, the Legos. This is going to be a fight.

Ammon finds a little Lego wagon and fills it up with about 10 Legos, and pulls them over to show me. He toddles back, seemingly in a really good mood. The other boys have encircled the Lego table that sports three individual sections, and a bucket that drops down in the center of the table for extra Legos. Ammon decides he needs ALL those Legos. He didn't touch any that were on the three stations, but the ones in the center was his and he was not going to be happy until his wagon was heaped. Complaints start coming in from the other kids. I try to reason with Ammon. I try to split them. I try to convince him he has enough in his wagon for a wonderful creation. No. Nooo. NOOO! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! And the screaming commences after that. I pick him up, carry him to the receptionist desk to try to tell her I will be right out front until he settles down. She can't hear me because of the screaming. No one else in the office can hear. I use hand gestures to tell her where I will be, muffle Ammon's cry into my very sore shoulder, and lug him outside.

We sit there for about 10 minutes until he gets himself under control. While I was trying to tune out the screaming, I note how perfect it feels outside. How perfect the mountains look. How beautiful all the flowers are. Then I look back to my screaming, tear stained, red faced child. I try to take pity on him by rubbing his back and am met with a punch than lands on my arm. OWWW!! I feel like crying again.

Finally, he stops and we go back in the office. I open the door and hear Joshua now screaming. Someone hit him in the eye. When everyone is quiet, I notice I'm now surrounded by all six of my kids in a little kiddie waiting area. Even when things are so bad that we want to all run away from each other, somehow they all gravitate towards me. I purposely avoid any eye contact with other patients in the waiting room. I sit in a kiddie chair, scrunched down behind the wall. "Please", I pray, "Please let this go fast." Then I text an SOS message to Curtis. Mostly to vent, half hoping he would be my knight in shining armor and arrive before the end of this appointment so I don't look like the lunatic with the 6 kids in the waiting room.

I get called back to see the PA that was treating Isaac. She looks at me and smiles. She shakes my hand. She sympathizes. "I hate going to the doctor when I have all my kids too". She said this as 3 of my kids rotate in and out of the room and Ammon stands like glue next to my leg with his flushed face and death grip on the Lego wagon heaped with Legos. When we finally left the building, my kids charged across the empty parking lot like a pack of ravenous wolves. And I lugged Ammon, who had started screaming again that he needed the Legos and wagon to live at home with him.

By the time Curtis was able to leave, it was too late for him to come to the rescue at the doctor. Curtis and I got home at the same time. Dinner was served to the kids that they didn't eat. Clothes were changed and socks found that they didn't want to wear. We piled in the van again. It was date night...for the first time in 6 months, Curtis and I were going on a date and the kids were going to be with a sitter.

One slight problem: it was Cinco de Mayo, and traffic was insane. Of the three hours we had for date night, 1 hour was spent just trying to drive 15 miles. Dinner was good and we decided to go to Thanksgiving Point to see the tulip festival. Half way there we both come down with a headache...mine reaching migraine status. I didn't care. We WERE going to do this date. I was not going to give up. So what if I can't move my arms or carry a set of car keys, I was going to see the flowers!

The park is lovely, and it is sunset, my favorite time of day. Curtis snaps pictures while I walk. I thought we should have been having some kind of deep, meaningful conversation, but I can't form any logical thoughts. My brain is fried. My body is tired. My spirit feels defeated. The headache grows worse. Too soon its time to go and pick up the kids.

When the kids fell into bed exhausted and done for the day by 9:30, it was like we were in the Twilight Zone. They hadn't gone down for us so easily in weeks. Maybe it was angels helping me out. Maybe it was God recognizing a weary mother close to running away from home that needed just a few minutes of ease. Whatever it was, it was needed. While I woke up with the same pesky migraine, the kids were good today. Ammon screamed most of the morning, but went down for a nap this afternoon. The other kids have obediently did chores, watched out for each other, patiently taken turns on computers and did their schoolwork, and generally been quiet. For today, I don't quite feel like the mother ready to plead insanity. For today, my kids are beautiful, helpful kids. For today, I had a good laugh with my husband and my own mother.

Maybe its after days like this that the saying, "Take one day at a time" was said.

Saturday Night in the Parlor

2011-05-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

When I was at my grandma's house one afternoon, she handed me a book. Steven Caney's Kid's America. I think this came out in the 70's, but it wasn't until I was about 10 when I finally realized the real gem this book was. It was a sort of all around activity book for kids. Recipes, tent making out of newspaper rolls, dress up, how to write Valentine's, how to dance (tap dancing, the waltz...not that those helped me when I got to go to my first dance), things to do on a boring summer afternoon. My dad also used this book and together I remember making potato chips and the best ever pretzels. I would still be making those pretzels if I could eat them.

My favorite was the Saturday Night section. These were considered "Parlor Games", and they entertained us for several slumber parties...even late evenings spent in the company of good friends as adults. They had some lame ghost stories in it that when we were younger were just terrified of reading. The authors labeled them as scary, a little more scary and scariest. They made for some good Halloween stories on the nights it rained. The most interesting to me was the palm reading. This was my first introduction to the mysteries of astrology.

Did you know that they taught astrology in medical school in medieval days? They firmly believed that since Sagittarius' ruled the legs, obviously people born in that zodiac sign would have problems with their legs. Or that Pisces would have problems with their immune system. Leo's rule the heart...gives new meaning to Lionheart, doesn't it? It is probably not very far from the truth, using our zodiac signs to diagnose us, if you look at how our emotions can also affect us physically.

I once told my supervising officer in the military I was going to get out of the Air Force and set up a corner shop reading hands. I deadpanned it so well she actually believed me. It was always just a hobby for me, but it also helped me to understand some of the reasons people acted the way they did. It kind of took the blame off of some of their actions to say, "Oh yeah. She's just ambitious because she's a Capricorn". I know that astrology can get into the crazy stuff, like Tarot cards (scare me), Numerology, and even the Feng Shui stuff can get a little weird too. After pouring over the Kid's America version of palmistry for so many years, I still can read things about people's hands that are often true for them. I don't think any of my friends, including some boyfriends, got away without getting their palms read.

I moved onto reading handwriting after that. If your o's are open, you can't keep a secret. Do you close your o's? Small writing shows an analytical mind, reserved and likes to attend to details. Large handwriting indicates adventurousness, generosity and sociability, but it can also mean that person is arrogant and temperamental. Conformist and adapting to situations is reserved for medium handwriting. I always sat up a little straighter when watching true crime shows and they brought in a handwriting expert. It's been awhile since I analyzed my own writing as an adult. Letters within a word that are written close together indicate a critical, economical, introverted and cautious personality. That's me! I clip coupons, I don't speak up often and I question people before I touch something they are offering.

I never put much stock in the zodiac signs, Chinese calendar signs, or in the whole crystal ball thing. It was to me a purely "Saturday Night Parlor Game". Every now and then I would run across a horoscope that was interesting, like the month and year my son, Jesse, was born, it said he was preparing to greet family and friends with love. My daughter is a horse in the Chinese Zodiac. They say "horses" are very beautiful, and most people I meet in that sign are beautiful.

When I got into Feng Shui it was more common sense to me. Who doesn't want to live in a cleaned up room, or have some organization to your office? I knew that some of the stuff could get really hokey, and there are some methods I came across that got into a more spiritual side that cut out God and brought in some weird rituals (like throwing limes in a river until your debts were paid off). So, just like with astrology, numerology, etc, it can get into some weird stuff, but I would think it was safe to view it as a parlor game and laugh when there were coincidences. If some of the things worked, great. Curtis and I refuse to live in east facing houses. In all the east facing houses we have lived in, bad things have happened. Things like the roof caving in, loosing a job, feeling unsettled, making bad decisions, and bad health. You could also call that superstition, and I think we all have some things we are superstitious about.

There really wasn't any point about me writing this post today, just some things I had rolling around in my head that I always thought were fun. That Kid's America book is full of other stuff to do, and I've done at least a couple things out of every section. I even lost the book somewhere in the many moves we've made and found it again on Amazon.com. They had art projects, historical information, even how to have a proper tea party, things that get kids away from TV's and computers and electronic games, two of which I didn't have as a kid. I just had to be the weird kid on the block that wanted to read your hand.

But I think I turned out ok. Really.

To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool

2011-04-26T05:28:00.000-07:00

Wishy washy. That would be me.

In January we applied for the kids to go to a charter school. I half expected/hoped they wouldn't get accepted, but then they did. Every possible emotion trailed through me. Did I do enough for them? Is this the right thing? Are they ready? What am I going to do with just one kid at home all day? How long will they stay in charter school? Will I homeschool again? Can I let them go?

Over and over and over these thoughts go through my head. Poor Shiloah has been forced to ride this roller coaster with me as I call her every week and go around in circles with her as to what I should do. We all grow, and we all mature. Shiloah, who once validated me at every turn (good friends are so good at that!), has now with grace and patience calmed me and told me that either choice is good, and I just need to do what I feel is right for our family.

Homeschooling isn't something a lot of us just wake up to decide one day. I didn't even know that homeschooling existed until 7 years ago when I had it mentioned to me as Isaac graduated from Kindergarten. Homeschooling for us actually relieved a lot of stress, but also came with it's own set of stressors too. I traded meltdowns, teacher conferences, calls from the principal, special education appointments, meeting the bus, scrambling for lunches, matching clothes, homework, shoes and backpacks for loud days, lazy days, hectic days, shopping with six kids, a messier house, and searching out multiple curriculums for the one that worked, (one that kept my interest as much as it did the kids), many more demands of my time, and watching my kids develop their personalities. Jesse has become quick and witty. Isaac is more loving over time, and independent. Hannah...um....we're still working on her (some days are wonderful, most days are met with a fight to get her to do any kind of school work, much less sit properly in a chair and not stab her brother with a pencil). Simeon now sneaks into the school room and I thought it was to play Nanosaur 2 on the old school computers we got, but its so he can draw in peace and quiet and pour all of his mind's images onto paper. The little stinker knows 80% of his sight words without me ever having gone over them with him, but refused to read a book with me.

One night I listened to Joshua and Simeon having a conversation at the table. Simeon, age 6.11, and Joshua, just barely five, were discussing a game. Joshua has an eye for the pretty things in life, often telling me that I need to wear princess dresses, or he loves my hair, or how he needs to decorate his bedroom. When no tape is to be found, he's found that glue works just as well to beautify his room with his multiple drawings of lions. Complete with spirit fingers, he told Simeon how much he liked sparkly stuff. Simeon has clear definitions of what is boy and what is girl stuff. After seeing the "sparkly fingers", he gathered up his stuff and moved away from Joshua. Here Hannah swooped in, taking up the conversation where Simeon left off, in some hopes that Joshua might be able to fill the position of little sister. Yesterday, she dressed Joshua up in her princess dresses. How I love the sweetness of five year olds. I haven't forced gender roles on them; eventually they come into their own, but for the moment, it is pure sweetness to watch Joshua fill in the gaps left by the older four kids.

Curtis hasn't been pushing his opinions on me either. "I'll support you whatever your decision about homeschooling or public school". Friday he asked me if I had made a decision. "I think I really want to continue homeschooling". Monday he asked me if I was sure about that decision. "Nope. I dropped all their immunizations records off at the school. I have had it!" I replied. There's no telling on a day to day basis. Who would have ever thought my greatest temptation in my grown life was to put my kids in public/charter school?

A Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer (a classical education for homeschooling curriculum) fell into my hands about 3 years ago. I read bits and pieces out of it at the time, tried to implement some of them, and then lost my way. About a year ago, I borrowed it again from a friend. It was making more sense, but again, I chose to go about homeschooling my own way. Last month, again, I was reminded of the book. I finally ordered my own copy. Before it got to me, I checked it out from the library, borrowed the same copy from the same friend, and then something fell into place for me.

Many times I have lamented about moving to Utah at the time we did, and in one short year, many, many good things have happened (although, many would wonder how unemployment and disease are good things). Curtis had a job as soon as we got here, so what started out as a faith move really ended well. Only, six months later he was unemployed overnight. 3 months later he had another job, but now, within the month, he will loose that job. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease, which was awful while undiagnosed, but doctors that knew right away what to test for with my symptoms. Being where we are, at the time we moved, a store opened up that had the flours/foods I needed to make the diet changes. The kids (3 on the autism spectrum) got into therapy, Isaac's medications were balanced out, everyone was making progress. There were homeschool groups, museums, zoos, parks and mountain trails to help supplement our homeschool projects. What didn't go unnoticed to us as well, was our neighborhood. Living in Utah as an LDS church member is really unlike anywhere else I have ever lived. Neighbors know each other, help each other, and we all see each other every Sunday, and sometimes Wednesdays. Our Ward boundaries extend over just 6 blocks. We can walk to church. We can walk to do our visiting teaching. In my ward, there are about 6 homeschooling families, and three families with Celiac Disease, and about four families with autistic kids. My visiting teaching partner and one visiting teaching family both homeschooled as well. How is that for luck?! Two weeks ago I asked my visiting teaching family what curriculum she used. "A Well Trained Mind is what we follow". Does anyone recognize when by the fourth time it's mentioned to you, maybe you should look into it? I never doubt we are in the perfect place at the perfect time by God's will for us. But when something like this happens, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love. I am noticed. I am known. I am provided for, all by a loving Heavenly Father.

I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading A Well Trained Mind two nights ago. I realized how I am a product of a public school education. I am not saying this to be uppity or be degrading to other parents who public school their children. I wanted to be a teacher! I was a teacher! I loved the smell of school, the crayons, the classrooms. I loved the structure of it. I loved the kids! I thought school was the only place for your children to go to at the age of 4/5 years old. This is how life is! I will admit the day I brought my kids home to homeschool, I was nervous. I was intimidated by a 6 and 4 year old. How well would I really be as a homeschooling parent? How do you go all radical and take this lifestyle on?

I don't know calculus. I don't know physics. I did not have a classical education (but I did learn phonics) and so I have not read (or do not remember reading) Dickens, or Wordsworth, and forget about Homer...that was just boring. I can't make an argument between two poems. I do not know logic (maybe common sense though?). I have probably made half a dozen grammatical errors in this blog post alone. I learned German because it was interesting. I read all I could about pregnancy, birth and children and by the age of 13 I had witnessed a live birth, but had no idea what all that really meant until I had my first baby. I wrote a novel by the age of 14. I took a calligraphy class in high school because it was interesting. I don't know what my SAT scores were and I don't remember learning anything about Lewis and Clark. I spent my weekends on a wildlife refuge with my boyfriend, hiking and watching the stars and catching lightening bugs, and very little making out. I don't feel I'm particularly smart, but I don't feel like I'm a failure. I can't look at others and compare myself because "the measurement will always be wrong." The one thing I do know is that if there is anything we take from this life, it is the things we learn. This doesn't mean I can't learn calculus, physics, Latin, or poetry at 37 years old, or 50, or 88.

I've doubted myself far to many times and not given myself enough credit. I love my kids. Do I love them too much? Am I being selfish in wanting to keep them home to homeschool? Is it bad to be excited about learning about Ancient Egypt and Latin myself and then teaching it to my kids?

These are the best pieces of advice I've ever received about the decision to homeschool:

1. Until the Lord tells me otherwise, I will continue to homeschool my kids.
2. Every kid is different. Some need public school because it is easier for them to answer to another authority and deadline.
3. Only you know your family as well as you do, and what is best for your family.
4. It is ok to eat chocolate pudding on the couch and watch movies all day sometimes. Take a week if you need to.
5. Kids continue to learn whether you teach them or not. Most will pick it up on their own in due time.
6. Your kid won't go to college wearing diapers even if they are not potty trained by age 4, they will learn to match their clothes eventually, and you will have to reteach them several things by the time they leave home (like laundry, dishes, and cleaning a toilet).
7. It is ok if you insist they read before going to Kindergarten or let them roll around to it at age 8. They won't be social misfits.
8. It is possible to homeschool special needs kids (I'm working with four now).
9. Let the "disbelivers" go. You don't have to be rude about it, but you don't have to be a doormat either. Negative comments about homeschooled kids are hurtful, but I find it is usually because some people don't understand it, how it is done, or just can't believe you would want to spend that much time with your own kids.
10. You will get patience!
11. Your house will always have some mess, somewhere, made by some kid. Let it go!
12. The day your kids repeat/teach something you have taught them to someone else will be as exciting as the day they were born.
13. Anything can be made into a homeschool lesson. Dead flies in the window? Science! Making cookies? Math and Home Ec! Cleaning the bathroom? Health and Science! Have a chicken carcass and no dog? Archeology and Science!
14. The day the baby won't be put down, the toddler throws himself across your table every time you try to sit down to do a lesson, the house is in shambles and your school age kids seem out of control from all the chaos...leave the younger kids with your husband and do night school with the kids until they start to fall asleep.
15. Let the guilt go!

No, my decision is still not made, but I set a time line for myself. We will work on A Well Trained Mind methods until August. If by then the kids are doing well and I'm still sane, I will keep going with homeschool. If not, it will be hard for me, but we will try charter school. I'm sure the kids will turn out just fine either way.

I Brake for Garage Sales

2011-04-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

My new motto when garage saling is that "you never know what you are going to find". It is worth it to look around at all of them. For instance, today my sister and I went to a few off-beaten paths to garage sales that seemed very meager but we decided that you just never know what you'll find.

We love looking at the local Military post garage sales so at ours they would be found at Carson Yard Sales. Today, though we just perused the Craiglist-ings.

So, at the first garage sale I found a totally cute dress for my Bella {age 4} but most exciting was the Lava mortar and pestle. $43 new at the Chef Kitchen store and I found mine at a garage sale off the beaten path for $5. :) WOOT!

So, the next one I was excited to find a bunch of baby toys and clothes for little Bubby man. They were in like-new shape and the clothes were 6 for a $1! Score! I'm always scouting out for toys, especially VTECH or toys that make noise. I also like to find new rattles. We have three main levels to our house and I'm filling up the baskets of toys for the bubby: one for each level.

I also got a totally cute diaper bag/purse, 2 new shirts for Cailynn, a like-new hardbound copy of James Allen "As a Man Thinketh", a throw rug, and a totally cute coat for Bella.

I need a sign on my truck that says, "Warning: I brake for garage sales!"

The Musical Chair Marriage

2011-04-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

Since when did marriage become a game of musical chairs? This morning I read an article that was posted in a section of National News, except it was an article posted by an anonymous blogger about his two families he kept at the same time. The first family was his wife of 20 years and three children. While they had mutual interests in skiing and music, and she was a gracious hostess, he described her as the person that was standing next to him when he felt it was time to get married. Wow. Lucky her. I don't know if he was trying to gain sympathy in this plight, or make this some kind of confessional that somehow makes infidelity ok, but my sympathy landed with the wife. He went on to describe that there wasn't passion, or love, or "light" in the marriage anymore and so while on a business trip he met another woman, "unlike all the other women he'd met" (also, he lumped in American with this, as in, all American women are shallow, materialistic and selfish). They had a two year, blissful, happy and romantic relationship which eventually landed them a son. His one and only rule he had in all this was he never wanted to hurt his children.

Maybe this is the way the world is going now. The marriages of 40, 50, 60 years of wedded bliss are slowly declining. A marriage of 20 years is somehow miraculous. I think somewhere along the lines, this guy missed the key word for a successful marriage: WORK.

In the body of the article, he describes his perfect life: successful career, a balance of time at home and time to travel which allowed for hm to see his mistress and son. He was happier in both lives. He and his wife kept separate bank accounts and took separate vacations, so she had no idea about the mistress. After the mistress had the baby, he didn't have to be there for the whole recovery, "I'm too tired to do anything" part, the mundane tasks of life raising a baby and two older kids from her previous marriage.

Sadly, his perfect life started to crack. His career started going downhill. He couldn't afford to pay for everything in both lives or his child support to the baby. To make up for it, his mistress wanted more of his time. Oh no! He didn't think of that! Now he was breaking the number 1 rule he had: Don't hurt the kids.

His priest he confessed all this to gave him this advice: don't tell your wife, wait until your children are older and let them know about the other baby. They'll be upset, but they will be able to handle it.

"O' what tangled webs we weave....."

My overt sense of loyalty is going through the roof right now. Again, maybe I'm being naive here, but I can't wrap my head around HOW to have an affair. I realize it happens. I realize people do it and sometimes have no idea how they got to that point. I realize that drugs or alcohol can have a major part in helping you to make some very regretful choices. I think what disturbs me most is that this man made conscious choices to do these things, and seemed to do so with very little regard for the adult women in the picture.

Eventually his kids did find out about the other woman. His oldest son met the baby. His mistress moved on after falling prey to the friends and family that criticized him and told her she was better, deserved better and needed more support. He mused about how he liked it when they made up their own rules and played by them, the world having no intervention in all of this.

Personally, I have never been cheated on by my husband or boyfriends, and I hope its something I never have to endure. I have read the romance novels and yeah, its easy to get sucked into an ideal life of love and passion, but what are those novels for? An escape. Pretty soon you are back into reality. Now, maybe you can use some of those ideas to better your life (who doesn't want to have a successful business renovating old houses and finding a box of antique crystal doorknobs, or renting a beach house and having all summer to write the perfect novel, or serving your gorgeous husband a candlelight dinner on the beach/garden/mansion floor?), but our whole lives are not to be floated through on summer breezes and all we worry about is a wilted rose in the garden. We have to have trials. Marriage won't be successful without work. Parenthood won't be without work. The bottom point is if you are feeling like marriage isn't perfect, isn't ideal, isn't what you signed up for, then you need to take some time and look at yourself. Where can you improve? Remember the Golden Rule? "Do unto others and you would have done unto you", this applies to your marriage and your kids. When you change yourself, others can and will change too. Take inventory and lower your pride.

When Curtis and I got married, I wanted to be able to say I found my best friend. I wanted to be able to still laugh with him even when the times were tough, when things were sad, when we discovered our kids weren't perfect, when we didn't have anything to do but laugh. I certainly didn't want to say, "Well, when the timer stopped, I grabbed the guy standing next to me." Never did I want to make up excuses for why we were divorcing, separating, having an affair, or avoiding each other for the sake of our children. I don't want to wake up one morning to Curtis confessing he has this whole other family either (of course, I don't know what person wakes up wanting that to happen). Neither do I want to sit down for breakfast in 20 years when all the kids are gone and look at Curtis, wondering who the heck he is.

President Spencer W. Kimball said, "Every divorce is the result of selfishness on the part of one or both parties to a marriage contract. Someone is thinking of self-comforts, conveniences, freedoms, luxuries or ease."

The last line of the article is, "Reality kills love". Well, yeah, it could. If you aren't supporting your spouse, bitterness seeps in. If you are being selfish in your affections, wants, and needs, people get hurt. When you justify your sins, it's not going to feel good and eventually your consciousness catches up.

This was the original article here.

As Curtis and I discussed the article today, his advice was to read these two books about marriage, one for guys and one for women:

Letters to Philip

Letters to Karen

No matter what age/stage you are in your marriage, it doesn't hurt to get some advice. I wouldn't wish this on anyone, the world had enough problems, but then to read something like this...makes me want to give my wonderful husband a big hug and kiss. I'm glad to know I wasn't a "musical chair".

Grocery Shopping in the Twilight Zone

2011-04-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

I know in the past I have written about grocery shopping with all six kids and what quirky things happen while we are out. Today's trip was odd. I didn't have kids running up and down the aisles, or snacking on bulk foods, or hiding in the shelves or under the cart. It was oddly easy and not even stressful. Maybe I should feed them chocolate cake for breakfast more often.

As soon as we walked in the store I had to fight with Ammon, but after a few slaps to my chest and arms, he settled down, resigned to being the baby in the cart with a seatbelt. A few screeches in the produce section, but nothing after that. Weird.

Simeon announces after the first aisle he has to go to the bathroom. Jesse has pretty good store radar and since the boys over the age of five refuse to be caught in a GIRL'S bathroom, Jesse's job is bathroom duty for the boys. Two minutes later, they're back.
"Did Simeon even go to the bathroom?!"
"No. "
Simeon shrugs his shoulders at me.
"Why?"
"Because he has to have a toilet with a flush handle on it, otherwise he can't pee."
Simeon didn't utter one word about the toilet or having to go the rest of the time we were in the store. When we got home though, he barged through everyone and made a beeline straight for our normal, flushing toilet.

Joshua was just having a bad day from the minute he woke up to the minute he went to bed tonight. But the one hour of gold I had from him was in the store. Weird. The only thing he did that was mildly distracting was play Captain Plunger in the hardware aisle. Why are those things so interesting to the boys?

More weirdness followed: nobody asked for treats, they didn't play with the honey dispenser in the bulk food aisle (unlike their mother one night that HAD to try it), no sneaking of frosted animal cookies from the bulk bins, or racing/fighting in the aisles. No crying, pooping, drooling, or wandering off. No odd items showed up in the cart. I found all the items I came to. And *gasp* I actually remembered all the things I came for!!!

The bubble popped as soon as we were back in the van. And stayed popped for the rest of the day.

The only thing I have to show for that wonderful, blissful hour in a grocery store with all 6 kids is half a produce bag of lemon pepper. Isaac begged to slide the dispenser back for me as I filled a small bag of bulk lemon pepper (with no MSG!). His reflexes are not the fastest and the bag overfilled. Eh...who says you don't need a year's worth of lemon pepper?

This makes me wonder why my kids freak out in Walmart, Target, Costco, Gas Stations (every time we stop Joshua announces he has to go to the bathroom), the Post Office, or the Library, but not in Winco, which would seem like a much better place to get into trouble with the bulk bins and the longer aisles? I actually came out of there feeling pretty proud of myself..."Hahah!!! I'm not the three ring circus today!!"

It's that one time in 30 that makes you think "I can do this!" and I needed that today. :)

Our Neighborhood Ice Cream Man

2011-04-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

We live in a typical all-American suburban neighborhood. Large houses, stately wooden fences, mostly friendly neighbors and an ice cream man.

Unfortunately, our neighborhood ice cream man’s personality resembles the “Joker” more than “Mr. Rogers”. I keep telling the kids that he’ll get better, but it’s been almost a year and a half that we’ve lived here and he’s still an evil Ice cream man. That’s kind of harsh sounding, you might be thinking right now, but I assure you, I’m being nice. Here are some of our { horror } stories:
One time he drove off with the kid’s money screaming that he didn’t have time to wait for them to get exact change! They didn’t get any ice cream and he got their dollar.

He’s constantly telling them he’s not waiting for them to get more change and then drives off.

One afternoon, my son Benjamin wanted to buy some cotton candy. The sign on his truck said it was a dollar. My son hands him the dollar and he tells him that his company just called and raised the price from $1 to $2 that day. My son pointed out that it didn’t say it on the truck yet and the ice cream man wouldn’t sell it to him even though the truck said $1. This is a common occurrence as my kids have several stories of wanting to buy something and he raises the price.

He’s often told the kids not to come back that they come too much. Keep in mind he doesn’t even come to our neighborhood every week. Sigh.

Some days when the kids are walking up to the truck, he’ll look at the kids and take off. Really, a bunch of homeschool kids are that scary? Just across the street live two kids that look like David Bowie in the 80’s with blue and green hair. Although, my kids tell me they are the only ones who come to his truck---all the other kids are running away. I’m thinking mine should too. Besides, it would burn the calories instead of giving them those unhealthy, ice cream, sugar laden calories. Poor kids.

I really think grouchy pants shouldn’t be working with kids. He’s really making things miserable for everyone involved-including himself. My kids must be serious glutens for ice cream since they keep buying from him, though.

Whatever happened to the nice neighborhood ice cream man that you could sit on the curb and ask neat questions to like, “Why did Suzie chase me on the playground yesterday?” or “What is the milky way really made of?” He must be in your neighborhood. Tell him we’d like him to visit ours!

Now on to a more positive note. What is your favorite thing you got from the ice cream man as a kid? I loved the strawberry or chocolate éclairs. And who can forget the wax teeth or lips? What was that?

Speaking of wax candy, I love this clip by Tim Hawkins:

American Home Shield has your California home warranty needs covered.

Shots.......NOOOOOOOOOO!

2011-04-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

I have been homeschooling our kids for the last 6 years. Its been wonderful, stressful, scary, fun, good times and a few bad times. Sometime back in January I found a link to Quail Run Primary school, a charter school. I visited the site a few times, in passing asked Curtis what he thought of the kids going to a charter school, and mauled it over in my head way too much. One afternoon Curtis said "Well, if you want to try it, go for it." And before I lost my nerve, I submitted all five school age kids for registration. It was a lottery type drawing they did to see who gets into the school for the next year, and most of me thought, "Eh. They probably won't get in."

Well, they did. After I got done hyperventilating about it, I came around to the idea. The kids were surprisingly excited about it, especially after we went on a tour of the school. Homeschooling is not far from my mind though, especially in regards to Isaac. If things start to go south, he will come back home. And I don't think this is the end of my homeschooling days. I have a feeling we will go back to it eventually, depending on circumstances.

Part of the registration process (as most parents know) is the physicals and more importantly, shots. I scheduled all 6 kids to go in for their checkups in groups of two. Older boys, middle kids, little boys. Everyone was fine till they whipped out the syringes.

These shots have begun the plea process. You would have thought they were being sentenced to life in prison. "Mom, I don't want to go to school if I have to get shots." "Mom, I didn't do anything wrong to get shots, did I?" "Mom, HOW COULD YOU LET THEM DO THIS TO ME!!!!", followed by blood curdling screams.

The unfortunate things is that in all our moves some of the kids' shot records have been lost or were never received, so they are geting like 2-4 shots at a time. Not the makings for happy campers. Those Varicella shots (chicken pox) shots look and feel nasty. I'd almost rather get the disease than those shots. (I only have three scars on my face from chicken pox, what's the problem?)

When we got home, I put Lavender essential oil on the shot sites and they healed up, no fevers, and just a little bit of redness! Yay, essential oils to the rescue! So far, we have four kids down and two to go, but I have a feeling they won't be getting as many shots as the older kids since they are all caught up and I have their records. Luckies!!

Aside from the joking though, I do get a little wigged out when my kids go in for shots. Isaac and Simeon who both have autism, had really bad reactions when they were babies. I didn't know you could delay shots, or not get them all together, when Isaac was born, so on the 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12 month marks we were in the doctors office. At the 2 month shot session, Isaac screamed for 45 minutes. I was crying right along with him. Way to make a new mom feel confident! When Simeon got his shots, more specifically the 9 month MMR shot, that was bad. A week later he started running a fever of 105.8 for a week straight, and when he came out of it, he couldn't sit up, crawl, nurse, talk, or do much of any of the things he used to be able to do at that point. I didn't know about the arguments surrounding the MMR shots and the link to autism. There still is no way to know if there was a connection, but it was enough to see that sometimes SOMETHING can happen. Later there was mention that he had viral meningitis that caused the high fever; no relation to the vaccinations. In the next two kids, I delayed them, to where it took till age three to get all their shots, and no adverse reactions so far. I know there is all kinds of media surrounding vaccines and autism. My only plea is that if it is necessary, they make them as safe as they can for the kids that have to have them.

Back to the lighter side of things. The dog and cats had to go in for their shots this week two. Everyone came home sore and grouchy but at least they had miserable companions to share it with. Poor dears!

Finding Perspective Again

2011-03-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

I read the most beautiful newsletter today filled with poetry, history, recipes, stories and etiquette pointers. This got me thinking about the newsletter I used to post for our website here, and then led me to brainstorming for creative ideas. The best I got was a lecture for my boys about not playing with their private parts. How inspiring, right? I wanted to write something so eloquent and creative. Day to day life doesn't always turn out so eloquent and beautiful. These are the things I did today:

I cleaned up barf.
Made a lovely, beautiful breakfast of omelets, hash browns, strawberries and juice, and no one ate it.
Made tea for Hannah in her antique pink rose cup.
Snuggled with a feverish Ammon for half the morning.
Talked with Curtis until he was almost late for work.
Cleaned my kitchen.
Watched the snow.
Marveled at how quiet our day was without dogs barking and fighting in the backyard (Fox has found a new home).
Didn't take a shower today and laid in bed with Ammon while reading a romance novel.
Watched Dancing with the Stars with Hannah and commented on the dresses while Ammon told us he needed the pink and blue dresses. I think the fever was making him delirious.
Watched Joshua use Cookie's floppy ear as a napkin.
Watched Nemo try to eat my flowers.
Sent Curtis to the store to get paper so I could finish printing out a project.
Made Angel Food cake and strawberries for dessert (which is rare) and brined and cooked some chickens, which smelled wonderful. Then we ran out of dressing and for the second time ever I made a ranch dressing from scratch that tasted good.
Looked at pictures of our trip to Texas last week, but I don't know how to download them to my computer.
Read several articles about "Why You Shouldn't Buy a Home", "My Experience With Being Rich", "Don't Send Your Kids to College", and "Businesses That Your 12 Year Old Should Do". Very enlightening, all by James Altucher.

I found a small notebook on clearance at Target a few weeks ago. I dedicated it to Manifestations and Asking Angels for Help in These Things. Almost every night before going to bed I make a list of things I want to happen and review previous lists. Within about a week, most of the things I listed have happened, been organized so that they will happen, or circumstances have changed that I don't need those things anymore. It's very exciting to cross these things off. It gives me some focus in my life. How often do we go through day to day life, not giving much thought to our duties, chores, responsibilities; just seeming to be on auto-pilot? This gives me some direction.

We found out last week that we will be facing unemployment again in two months. This would be twice in 6 months we have been unemployed. At least this time we have a notice and Curtis is already looking for other jobs. I could be pessimistic about all this (already had my moments a few days ago), but I'm choosing to be optimistic. This also gets my mind racing about school, career choices, businesses I could do from home. Again, I'm reminded my place is in my home with my kids. Still, I'm very curious about what life is like as a cashier at Walmart. I have no idea why. I know it's not the most glamourous job on earth, but I just think it would be interesting. What do people buy? Why? Are there really people that come through that are featured on People of Walmart? Curiosity killed the cat, I suppose.

Life isn't predictable, as much as we would love it to be. Sometimes it is boring, but as I read in an article today, we should be filled with joy in all we do, from doing the laundry to cleaning the toilet to going to church to playing with our kids. What a difference your perspective in things does for you.

So, cheers to matching 50 socks, changing those diapers, laughing with your kids, and kissing your husband. May everyday life be fulfilling for you. May you find some time everyday to stop and smell the roses.