Downstairs People No More

We bought our first home last week. Signed the papers Wednesday evening and spent the near entirety of our long weekend moving in.
This old green farmhouse is what our dreams are made of.

Thankful Turkey

Don't be fooled. This is not a real turkey. It is just a jar our family disguised in construction paper to look like a turkey.








This year, we started a new tradition to celebrate Thanksgiving. A week before the holiday, we got out a canning jar and decorated it during Family Night. The following days, we anonymously contributed that which we were grateful for written on strips of paper. When we all assembled around our turkey again after Thanksgiving we made the announcement of our blessings a game of guessing who wrote what.

You can play, too:

•I'm thankful for turkey because I like turkey.
•I'm thankful for my Grandpa Murray because he picks me up and hugs with me every night and every morning.
•I'm thankful that Nolan & Gerret are best brothers and best friends. It makes me happy to see them play together and be kind to each other.
•I'm thankful for popsicles, because I like them.
•I'm thankful for Mama because she makes so much good meals. And I like every time when she kisses me on the face and hugs me on the head. And I like the stuff I do with her. It's fun with her on vacation.
•I'm thankful for Cinder because she is a nice family cat. She is friendly and generously returns affection. She is patient with kids, dogs, and even Willow. She is beautiful and soft. She lifts my spirits when I feel down. She is good at climbing trees and getting comfortable on the roof.
•I'm thankful for pom-poms because they're for my birthday to start.
•I'm thankful for my Grandma Murray. I love her. She hugs me and she let's me play with her.
•I'm grateful for windy nights. When the breeze scratches evening tree branches together, lit by street lights. A light rain and cool autumn/winter weather.
•I'm thankful for Thanksgiving because I like Thanksgiving.
•I'm grateful for Patrick. He is my favorite part of every day. He makes me smile and feel good about the world and feel good about myself. He is going in a direction that I hope to be going. I always want to be with him. I'm grateful to be married to him.
•I'm grateful for Gerret's round-cheeked smile. It makes my heart happy when I see him truly happy. He is a sweet little spirit.
•I'm thankful for Mama because I like when she reads me stories before I go to nap time.
•I'm thankful for letters. They make me happy because I like them.
•I'm thankful for Jesus Christ. He is my redeemer. He gives me hope that I can be happy always if I will follow Him and repent as I learn more about what I should be.
•I'm grateful for my grandma because she gives me hugs.
•I'm thankful for hats because I like when I put them on my brother.

Concerning Learning

So, what is the answer?  That was my initial reaction to this thought-provoking animation.  It was not my first time asking this question, either.  I have children.  I love them.  I want all of the best things for them.  I feel responsible for their learning and growth --intellectually, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and socially.  When I peer out into the world, I try to make an assessment of what I have to work with, or what I'm up against, as the case may be.
And I am deeply concerned.

As far as formal/academic education goes, it doesn't seem that there are too many options and each option harbors some fairly serious problems.

1. I can send my children to public school where they will be held captive for 6.5 hours (minus a 20 minute recess-- this fact blows me away), where learning is divided into subjects, where emphasis is decided by government mandates, where creativity could possibly be squelched, where routines exist but are quite rigid, where it is not p.c. to teach morality, where they will not necessarily be viewed as individuals, where viruses and bacteria run rampant.

2. I could keep them home and do my best.  This would require a level of organization that I have not yet attained.  This would not allow for a lot of collaboration with other kids.  I fear that home-schooling here (in the boonies) would produce some social awkwardness (especially if I am a primary example).

3. I could dress them in plain clothes and straw hats and sneak them into the Amish schoolhouse around the corner.  I'm not sure what the curriculum would look like, but I'm somewhat certain creative thinking and individuality are not encouraged.  Discipline could possibly involve lashings and the program probably doesn't continue beyond grade 8 anyway.

4. A private school would not likely provide transportation and would likely be travel intensive.  A private school costs money on top of school taxes -and not just a little.  There is no guarantee that there exists a private school that relieves all or any of my public school concerns.  It could very well be a reiteration of the same paradigm only with smaller class sizes.

So, what is the answer?

Foreshadowing, Courtesy of My New 'Do

Change is in the air

and it's wafting my way.

I'm hoping it will have more consequence for my family

than Marge's whig.

(Though I'm sure having a blue-beehived mom 

would have far-reaching and unforeseen ramifications.)

Consider this fair warning

and a good laugh, if so needed.

Cubby

What really made my day, maybe even my week, was finding a colorfully feathered project in my four year old's cubby at school.

Every paper, model, and gluey mess is truly awesome whose first abode is that blue wooden box.  It's as if the cubby itself performs the miracle --beautiful, inspiring artwork. Flower paintings pour out almost daily, which are just the tip of an aesthetic iceberg.  From the cubby comes projects made with foam shapes, paper plates, yarn, popsicle sticks, twigs, recycled goods, dried foods, construction paper, clay, feathers, toothpicks, wooden shapes, tissue paper, leaves... the list is endless.  In the pursuit of artwork, the nursery school employs many crayons, colored pencils, and markers, numerous kinds of paint, and tons of glue --more glue than you can imagine.

Here I will humbly concede that the cubby is only a shelter, not a creator.  The real artist is my son.  You should see his flowers --painted to perfection. (Would you like one?  I can't find my fridge.)

And now for the feathered project--
A turkey with this phrase written neatly underneath
I am thankful for my mom!

It made my day, probably my week, possibly my life, because really, sometimes I wonder.  With some of the correction and chaos involved in my job, I feel like we're always playing super-heroes and I'm their nemesis.   Sometimes what appears to be the necessary action is also the completely thankless action.  Like calling a cease-fire in the middle of their combat.  They don't love the food I prepare or that I expect them to eat it.  They wish they could watch cartoons all day long and I am the sole hinderance.  I see danger when they see fun.  I don't appreciate a lot of their favorite things --yelling, combat, risky adventures, crazy stunts.  At the end of some days I wonder if they would rather go mom-less and I fear the answer a lot of times is an enthusiastic "yes!".

Today's grateful little turkey was a bit of needed assurance.  "You're doing alright, mom lady."

Meeting Donald

in Mexico
at Epcot
in Florida

Jiggity Jig

We arrived home to the cold last night after a week of a warm vacation. 

It was good to be there and it's good to be back.

The Passing of October

One unexpected feature of motherhood is an anticipation for pretty much everything, the intensity and duration of which is almost unfounded.  Adrenaline freely flows, proudly pumps through little bodies and moms alike.

Imagine our days and weeks leading up to Halloween.
The anticipation was all-encompassing.

Talk of the spooky started back in September.  We plastered spider webs on furniture, doors, and lamps.   Nolan fell in love with a Spider man costume displayed in a store window ($3!).  Gerret had so many costume options that he couldn't decide on one until minutes before the trunk-or-treat (he actually went in his everyday attire --a Batman cape).  There was so much joy in creepy library books, school crafts, bobbing for apple after apple (Nolan was soaked), windy parades, chants, poems and songs, wolf howls, carving pumpkins and a lifetime supply of treats (which were consumed in less than a week).  I am already excited for October 2011.