Monthly Archives: July 2013

Reality Check for New Moms – Scrapbooking

Posted in children, Family, Kids, parenting by

I keep getting “Creative Memories” sale notifications. This has brought to my attention the massive amounts of scrapbooking materials I purchased right before I had my first child. I was ready to make amazing perfect creative memories. Or open a scrapbooking store, lol.

I took my first child to have his photos taken professionally every month on the day of his birth, so my scrap-book would be perfect, he’s 1 month old, 2 months old, 3 months old, and so on…I did this for at least the first two years of his life…when baby number two arrive I continue each month, but quickly dropped the professional aspect and only really had time to pluck out cute shots from my obsessive ‘camera in baby’s face constantly’ collection.

This obsessive photo documentation must give you some insight to my determination towards making these creative memories. I am the youngest of five and the only documentation I have of myself as a baby is the card from the hospital nursery identifying me.

Truth be known alllll of those amazing scrapbooking tools went untouched.

All I had time for was sticking each months photos into an old fashion paper scrapbook and jotting some notes down on the sides of each photo stating what he or she was doing developmentally or some comical tid bit that happened. Spelling wasnt perfect, handwriting was messy, even have some scratched out words, etc but the intention was to pluck from this book and make a beautiful perfect creative memory out of it when I had time. Ahhh good intentions….haha!

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I was flipping thru this book the other day and realizing this is THE BEST CREATIVE MEMORY EVER!!! I love this book. I love to flip thru the pages, read the notes, see the photos, look back on those fun, crazy, TIRED days and know from the scratched out and quickly jotted notes just how it really was, perfect in our own special way. I love having this hard copy because I recently lost digital photos that were not backed up in time.

I highly recommend new moms to toss aside the notion of perfect.

Your definition of perfect will quickly be changing. You will endure spit up, poop explosions, inconvenient lactation issues, exhaustion, bad hair days, bad mood days, messy house, the biggest laundry piles you’ve ever seen, etc… Simply try to enjoy your child(ren) during that chaotic time, document it the best you can without causing yourself additional insanity. When things get less crazy and you look back, you will be so glad you have this silly scratched out not perfect memory book of the kids.

The Unsocialized Homeschooler

Posted in children, Family, Homeschooling, Kids, parenting, Unschooling by

The socialization of homeschooled children is a common topic that many homeschoolers are asked about by non-homeschoolers.

When people are considering homeschooling, often they fear their child will miss out on the socialization a classroom brings.

When people are unaware of what exactly goes on in a homeschooling home, they assume the children are unsocialized or rarely get to play with children their own age.

People assume homeschooled children only socialize with their siblings as playmates.

Socialization seems to be one of the biggest concern of the non- homeschooling community.

As a homeschooler, socialization is my least concern, and I’d like to share with you why.

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Each week on average we have 3 play dates with a variety of friends.

Each week we meet up with a homeschooling group and have a park or beach day.

The homeschooling group arranges monthly field trips.

We have sleep overs, camp outs, BBQs, parties, community activities, etc.

We sign up for clubs, sports, dance, horse riding, music, etc.

I was recently told by a friend whose children attend the local public school, that my children have more of a social life than hers do. She confessed, she had worried about homeschooling kids, thinking they sat at home all day with nothing to do, while the other kids were at school playing with friends.

The truth is, school kids spend majority of their day sitting in the classroom, not outside playing with friends. Where as homeschooled children are generally finished with their studies hours before school kids are let out for the day; therefore, homeschool kids get to spend the rest of their day truly SOCIALIZING with friends.

If you are concerned or would like more information on the topic of socializing homeschooled children, here are two really good books on the topic.

Mama Lou’s Easy Bread Recipe!

Posted in Food, Healthy Living by

Here ya go, my easy peasy bread recipe….it is simple, easy to make, and wholesome.

The many so-called wholesome bread loaves found on the store shelves have funky ingredients many people can’t even come close to pronouncing. We all want to know what our children are eating. Which not always an easy task these days.

(side note: When you see “NATURAL FLAVORS” listed as an ingredient, you might want to know “Castoreum” is very commonly used as a “NATURAL FLAVOR”…go ahead and see what Castoreum really is! HINT: We call it “Beaver Butt” in our house)

Back to the bread: Making bread doesn’t get any more simple then this recipe!

You’re only an hour and half away from a warm yummy loaf!

3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt (you can add more salt if it’s too plain for your taste)
1 1/4 teaspoons yeast (you can add a little less yeast, not critical)
2 cups warm water (sometimes I need a splash more than that)
STIR until all the flour is wet and mixed
Cover & let rise for an hour (or longer, but at least one hour)
Pour into a greased loaf pan (I like cast iron, because then I don’t have to grease it)
Bake at 450F for 30-35 minutes.

ENJOY!

Kreative Kids!

Posted in Family, Homeschooling by

I love that my kids think “outside of the box”!!!

Yes there are times (like when my son’s creativity blew out our internet!) that can be frustrating, but over all I wouldn’t trade my outside of the box thinkers for anything!

Teaching themselves how to skateboard. After a few scary attempts down our driveway, they decided they might try to hone their skills on the trampoline. According to the kids, the falls are less bloody.

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I love that they are working on problem solving skills and physics on their own…gives me  a reference for later science lessons, a reference they can relate to. 🙂

It’s no surprise “Speed and Velocity” by “They Might Be Giants” happens to be a favored song in this house, as is any science experiment that involves speed and velocity!

Thomas Edison Jr.

Posted in Family by

I am forced to remind myself it could be worse….Thomas Edison’s mother homeschooled him and he burnt down their barn with his experimental adventures.

Today I wrote a horrendous post, long and dull…I hit publish instead of save draft and then my Internet service crashed. I couldn’t delete it! Ugh! I had to go about my day with that post out there for all to see and I couldn’t fix it, rewrite it, delete it, nothing!

After a LONG conversation with the phone company I have an appointment for next Monday to have a tech come to the house and fix the situation…nearly a week of no Internet and that horrendous post is out there.

Tonight, my husband calls me into our son’s room with a tone like I’m two and in trouble for something. But then when I get into the room I see what he’s wanting to share.

Our son has rigged up his own “cell phone” (think I mentioned he’s been wanting to do this) he purchased an old school phone at the thrift shop for fifty cents. Used his handy dandy wiring skills and a spare phone jack in his room to create his “cell phone” He actually had a working phone in his room, but in the process disrupted our Internet service.

I’m lucky I have a handy dandy smart hubby who can fix nearly anything. We are back online again and my horrendous post has been removed with only ONE view! (Best slow visitor day ever!)

I’m tempted to keep the phone company appointment as it is their fault my son has this new sparked interest. Maybe they can come out and teach him how to make his dreams come true without electrocuting himself or blowing out our Internet!