August 18th... Adri Turns 5!

Adri is turning 5! It seems like such an important birthday! I can still remember the day she was born. We were nervous and excited and scared... I don't think I had ever felt so many conflicting emotions so strongly at the same time. Here we are, 5 years later, and Adri still puts me through an emotional roller coaster every single day. 

Adriana is smart, funny, beautiful, sassy, very nurturing, and quite often grouchy. 

She is a wonderful big sister. She looks after and protects Abbi. She always includes her, even if she's playing with her older friends. 

She will pick a fight with anyone over anything. She loves to argue, but she is not an aggressive person. 

Adriana is respectful and conscientious. 

She loves animals and bugs, even the gross looking ones. 

There is nothing she won't climb. 

She doesn't like loud noises or crowds. 

She knows more about Star Wars than most geeks twice her size.

She can drink milk faster than any person I know. 

I could talk about her all day. I have been with her every day of her life and she still surprises me with her kindness, her humor, and her attitude. I love her so much.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADRIANA!

How We Came To Think Outside The School Box

When I got pregnant with Adri I knew that I would leave my job and stay home with her. Chris and I had discussed it before we were even married. Children being raised by their parents (as opposed to being raised by a day care provider or government institution) was something that we both felt very strongly about. I also knew that baby number 2 would follow closely. I wanted two girls, close in age. Once Abber The Grabber came along (and Adri was almost 2) I assumed it would only be another 4-5 years before I rejoined the workforce. I had mixed feelings about this, but I was ready to face the inevitable.
I never considered homeschool. Before I had kids the thought of staying home all day with small, messy, noisy people sounded like torture. Also, I thought that only religious wackos kept their kids out of school. I was young and didn't know any better :) How would a person keep from going insane in an environment like that? It would be like prison!

After I had Adri an acquaintance of mine (completely out of the blue) said "You are so patient. You would make a great homeschool mom." I took it as a compliment, because "patient" was not a word I would have EVER used to describe myself, but I thought she was a little nuts. Why would I want to do that? I pictured the bible thumping, prairie dress clad, compound dwelling wackadoos that you see on the news. I didn't know that normal human beings of every faith and ideology educated their children at home. But her words stuck with me, ratting around in the back of my mind.

After Abbi was born and some of Adri's friends started going to part day pre-schools I started looking into education. It seemed too early! She was so young and vulnerable! How could I send her away even a few days a week without a parent there to keep her safe? I felt guilty, like I was overprotective and depriving her of a necessary "educational experience". By the time she was 4 I felt frantic. In only a year she would be sent off to school all day! I wasn't ready for that, I knew she wasn't ready for that, and I just couldn't shake the feeling that school wasn't what it was SUPPOSED to be.

I started researching alternatives to public school. We can't afford private schools. Then I stumbled across a homeschool site. It sounded wonderful. It looked easy and natural. It supported my every belief about religion, education, family bonds, and development as a whole human being. I (very tentatively) brought up the subject with Chris. "So I've been looking at some homeschool stuff. It looks like it's something we might want to read more into." And he said "Oh good. You should homeschool the girls. School is a waste of time."
I was floored! I knew that he had been homeschooled for a couple of years as a kid, but his childhood was complicated. I didn't know what he would think.

Ok. We had decided to homeschool. It felt very freeing and at the same time very scary. I didn't know anyone who homeschooled their kids and I was afraid people would think I was nuts, but I dove in head first. I started reading book after book about homeshool methods and curriculum. My girls are so different that I couldn't find anything that I thought would suit them both. Also, a lot of it sounded boring. I hate to be bored. I needed something that would keep us all entertained and stimulated, but I just wasn't finding what I wanted.

I joined a homeschool group here on the island and went to a park day to meet the other families. I felt out of place because my kids were so young, but I really needed to talk to people and get one on one advice and info. I felt so overwhelmed! The internet is SO full of information that I had no way to assimilate all of it. I talked to the moms there and they were very helpful and understanding. They all had interesting stories, ideas, and suggestions. Many books and websites were recommended. Then a woman (and I can't remember her name, but if I could find her again I would thank her from the bottom of my heart) asked me if I had ever heard of "uschooling". I hadn't. She explained that it's not about curriculum but about letting children live meaningful lives and letting them learn from real experience. To be honest I thought it sounded like a bunch of hippie mumbo-jumbo, but I didn't tell her that. She recommended some websites. I wrote them down to be polite.

That afternoon (and for the next few days) I browsed through the websites and resource info that those lovely women had given me. The only site that really spoke to me was the one recommended by the crazy "unschool lady". I spent many days reading material on unschooling. I went through Sandra Dodd's entire site. The information I found there changed the way I view learning and education (and parenting!). From there I was directed to many other helpful and fabulous resources, including the writings of John Holt, the father of the "unschooling movement". I started to read his newsletter "Growing Without School" (GWS) that he started back in the 1970's. Everything he wrote about was still relevant to us today! How had people been living like this for so long and I had never heard about it?! Chris and I both knew right away that this was the style of parenting, learning, and LIVING that was right for our family.

And so my oldest angel will turn 5 this month and she won't go to school. She won't waste her childhood sitting at a desk doing things that other people think are important. She won't be judged, graded, and tested on arbitrary information that she won't care enough about to remember anyway. Does it really matter if we learn something if we are just going to forget it anyway? She will spend her childhood playing, learning, and growing as a person. And I will spend her childhood (and her sister's) being thankful that we, as a family, decided to think outside the school box.



** If you are interested in Unschooling I recommend "sandradodd.com" and "holtgws.com" to get started.
I will probably be doing an unscooling post soon. Writing this out got my wheels-a-turnin'

Baby Boot Camp

Today I was thinking about all the ways that being in the military helped prepare me for motherhood, but while I was pondering this (staring into space with a dumb look on my face, no doubt) I was struck by how much being a new mom is actually like being in basic military training (BMT).

First of all, there is obviously no sleep in either situation. You flop into bed and sleep for 3-4 hours until someone screams at you until you wake up, jump out of bed, and haul booty to pacify your screeching taskmaster.

Second, you eat whatever you can grab, and you eat it FAST.

Also, the shower situation is very similar. You shower fast, wash the most vital areas, often in a shower with other people  (if you have multiple small children), and get out. There is very little time to enjoy the water.

There are other things that match up for having babies and being in BMT, too. The phrases "Shut up and color", "Hurry up and wait", and "WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY!!" come to mind. Doing laundry is a terrible job that takes FOREVER to get done, and you always smell bad. In BMT it's body odor and boot polish and in new motherhood it's a lovely mixture of spit-up and dirty diapers.

Also, having a baby and joining the military are both great ways to lose weight.

But, in all honesty, I think that being in the military IS good training for having kids. You learn how to tune out the sound of someone screaming in your face, function on very little sleep, and you find out that you can never actually be too tired for a little more exercise :)

You also learn that you are stronger than anything you come up against, that hard work and determination will see you through, and when you feel like you can't take any more you PRAY. God will carry you until you can pull yourself up again.

And the AF Core Values can be re-used too:

Integrity first

Service before self

Excellence in all we do

Sounds like the motto of a good mom to me.

PS- Hang in there, new moms (and veteran moms with new babies)! Nobody stays "in training" forever! <3

Bouncy Bouncy

Adri wrote a poem, as many of you know, called Bouncy Bouncy. For anyone who wasn't on the email list, the poem goes:


Bouncy Bouncy


Bouncy Bouncy went toward a hole
Bouncy Bouncy went toward a rock
Bouncy Bouncy went toward a butterfly
Bouncy Bouncy went toward a barn
Bouncy Bouncy went back to the bouncy house
Bouncy Bouncy had a glass of milk


**I've written/typed/read it so many times that I know the story by heart. 


I wrote out each line of the poem on a piece of white paper and she illustrated it. We bound it together and it is her first book. It is currently Abbi's favorite book and she sits on the couch reading it over and over again. She knows it so well that now she changes the story to include other "adventures" for Bouncy Bouncy. Maybe she will write the sequel. 


**If you want a copy of the email with the illustrations, let me know and I can send it :)


I wonder what my little writer will come up with next....

Typhoon Muifa

Typhoon Muifa was by far the LONGEST typhoon we have ever been through. It hit on Thursday and here we are on Saturday, still under "lock down". 
As far as storms go, this one was pretty anti-climactic. We were anticipating the end of days, but instead just ended up with a (relatively) weak and SLOW moving storm. Good trade, in my opinion. No regrets.
On the extreme bright side, we managed to weasel a 4 day weekend out of this weather. Hooray for typhoons with the decency to hit at the end of the week!


I like typhoons. they force us to be inside and be lazy. They can knock out power and water (it never happens for us, but it does for some) so I am super motivated to really clean the house thoroughly and bulk shop before one hits. 
It's the closest thing to a snow day we've got. It feels cozy to crank up the AC to "arctic" and sit around in jammies, drinking tea, and watch the storm. It makes me miss my fireplace in Nebraska. 


We are all homebodies, so staying indoors for a few days is not a big deal for any of us. We enjoy each other's company, like quiet activities like video games and reading, and are all perfectly capable of entertaining ourselves for long periods of time. 
Muifa was particularly relaxing. We caught up on Warehouse 13 and Eureka (which the girls LOVE), Chris and Adri played a lot of video games, and I finished Little women and read all of Good Wives. Honestly, I don't know what Abbi did all day yesterday. There were lots of barbies and a big dollhouse in the toy room, so I assume she spent the day being fabulously girly.


We are just this afternoon starting to feel the fidgetiness that comes with too many days of being sedentary. We are all looking forward to the All Clear announcement so we can run outside and get some fresh air!




PS- I don't think we had any damage, but we haven't been able to get out there and take a good look yet. We never lost power or internet, nothing flooded, and none of our stuff blew away. The poor tree out back didn't survive, but I classify that under the heading "not my problem". The maintenance guys will come and fix it up or haul it away. Living on base is convenient. Thanks for all the prayers! 

Good Mornings

Sometimes I wake up in the morning (ok, sometimes it's actually the early afternoon) and I am the last one to the party. The girls wake up, come downstairs, and make their own breakfast. Sometimes they don't even have to "come down" because we don't always sleep in our own beds. It's pretty common to find a child passed out on the couch (if you wake up early enough to see that sort of thing).

I love their independence. I love waking up and finding peanut butter smeared on the counter because someone made a sandwich. I love finding toothpaste in the sink because they brushed their own teeth. I love that they get up and just enjoy being together.

And I love that not every morning is this way. Some days they wake up and are so excited to tell me about a dream that they have to wake me up so I can hear all about it. I love that too. And sometimes a lovely little lady will climb in my bed and snuggle with me until we are both ready to get up.

There are lots of really fabulous ways to start a day. I'm so thankful that I get to be here to experience all of them.


P.S.- To keep our mornings from sounding like a Hallmark movie, there are plenty of days that begin with a "MOM! Get up! I'm hungry!" :)

I'm not good at coming up with titles.

In fact, I'm not much of a writer in general. My sister is the writer, and I am the talker. I talk endlessly... just ask my husband! I recently started reading a few blogs (some by people I know, some by people with whom I have ideas/values in common) and I enjoy the laid back, care-free writing style that is "blogging". It's like the chit-chat of the writing world.  


Since I always have something to say (ALWAYS) it's about time I have my own little corner of the internet to ramble. Fortunately for my family I will probably spend most of my time rambling on about my beautiful, brilliant, thoroughly fabulous daughters. How could anybody ever get sick of hearing about them?!