Christmas Meme

I got this from Lisa at Joyful Chaos and thought I would pass it on...

1.Hot Chocolate or apple cider?
I have always been an apple cider girl...but learning to love rich gourmet hot chocolate with chocolate biscotti

2. Turkey or Ham?
Turkey! YUM!

3. Do you get a fake or real-you-cut-it-yourself Christmas tree?
We have the fake tree that was my parents when they first got married. They got it from my mom's parents. It was the tree we had all my growing up years, and My husband and I have used it for 10 years now. Some day soon we will get a new one.

4. Decorations on the outside of your house?
Lights around the roofline, wreath on the door, some snowman signs stuck in the grouns that say "Let it snow"

5. Snowball fights or sleddin'?
I would rather watch!

6. Do you enjoy going downtown shopping?
I love shopping anywhere! But love the fun festive atmoshere of the outside shopping centers and malls in our area.

7. Favorite Christmas song?
well, I love What Child is this? but I really enjoy all the music both secular and "religious"

8. How do you feel about Christmas movies?
I love them! My favorite is miracle on 34th street.

9. When is it too early to start listening to Christmas music?
before Thanksgiving for sure...but the day after it begins!

10. Stockings before or after presents?
The kids are allowed to get their stockings before we get up if they are up first. It keeps them busy and buys us some more sleep time. Then when everyone is up we have a breakfast of Swedish Tea ring and then on to the presents!

11. Carolers, do you or do you not watch and listen to them?
I wish more people went caroling. I would love to watch and listen. This year we are getting together with our homeschool group to go caroling! I can't wait!

12. Go to someone else's house or they come to you?
I like to stay home, but this year we are traveling to my husband's family in Texas and Oklahoma. Then for New Year's we will be in Wyoming with my family.

13. Do you read the Christmas Story? If so when?
Of course! That is the reason for the season! We try to read it several times and make sure to tell the kids that Santa gives gifts because it moves him so much that Jesus came as a gift to all mankind!

14. What do you do after presents and dinner?
Watch a Christmas movie, chat, play with new toys/games.

15. What is your favorite holiday smell?
I love the smell of stuffing baking for Christmas dinner...but a favorite candle I burn all year is Cinnamon/Bayberry from PartyLite.

16. Ice skating or walking around the mall?
Well, I can't ice skate, so the mall has it!

17. Do you open a present or presents on Christmas Eve, or wait until Christmas day?
We usually open presents from relatives that were mailed to us on Christmas eve. That way we can make sure the kids know who gave it and it isn't in the pile of Santa gifts.

18. Favorite Christmas memory?
I remember when I was maybe about 10, we were driving home from a relatives house, on Christmas eve. My brother and I were laying in the back seat (before seatbelts) and up in the sky I saw Rudolph's nose glowing in the sky! It was moving and since it was late at night, I was sure it was Santa and his sleigh! I was so excited to have seen him! I love that memory.

19. Favorite Part about winter?
Being in the cozy house with carols playing, candles burning, lights twinkling and snow falling. Or waking up to a winter wonderland (when the trees are covered in that thick white icy stuff.) ditto!

20. Ever been kissed under mistletoe?
Yep.

If you're here and reading this meme, you're tagged!

Family Tradition

Is it a right of passage for all the cousins to play in the muck in Great grandand's (my grandfather) backyard on Thanksgiving and get incredibly dirty so that they have to be declothed and scrubbed before dinner? And so they sit at dinner naked waiting for their clothes to be cleaned? Well it is in our family. For a long time my kids had been the only kids at these family celebrations. Only one of my cousins has children. And they are younger then mine...So this year was the first year they were all old enough to really play together and get in trouble together.
The mistake was letting them go outside alone! You would think, as adults, we would know that. But as happens often, you get together with those you don't see often, and the conversations take off. You get involved and, well, I think we kind of forgot about the little ones. They were content, not bothering anyone, quiet...So no one worried. Then we found them crawling in the dirt through a tube and under a neighbor's fence!

It brings back such memories! My grandfather lived in a different house when I was a kid. His backyard went up a hill, so it had these tiered levels, used mostly as gardens. As children, my cousins and my brother and I used to run wild back there during holiday get togethers. We would play hide and seek, chase, freeze tag. All up and down therse leveled gardens, with big bushes, trees, brush, flowers rocks and wood. It was dirty, dangerous stuff. Not run-out-in-the-street-get-hit-by-a-car kind of dangerous, but we got our share of bumps and bruises through the years. And I remember that my parents were in their own world, chatting with relatives, and us kids...we weren't even there. We had the run of the place. I would go hours with out even seeing my parents.

and so the tradition lives on!

Are we learning?

Just Enough, and Nothing More has a great post on unschooling. I am going to try to be more like that :)

I ask myself that question all the time, and so does my husband. I think they learn plenty but with no visible results on paper to present to everyone to prove I am doing a good job. Is that what it comes down to? Do I want praise for doing a good job? I don't think so. And I don't want it to be about that. But maybe I want to show everyone.."hey I can do it, see."

But it's not about me, its about them. These kids who get so excited about Star Wars, Princesses, Big Bird, and life. I wish I had the kind of passion they have for certain things. I think I have to redirect their passion so it involves the math book or the dictation...but no, if left to follow what they love, they will learn.....guaranteed.

HOMEschool?

Why in the world is it called HOME school? I am never home, are you? I think I need to start saying no more. We are doing some fun things and some just errand things, but I feel like I am never home. When we are home I have to keep house and try to fit some lessons in. Well, lately it has felt like we are not getting much accomplished. I know there is more to home education then accomplishment, but I feel like daddybird is getting annoyed by the lack of visible progress. And me too, I mean, when I can't point to any exact learning experience during the day but that the kids all sang the ABC's with me...I know I am not doing my job.

I want desperately to be in the unschool crowd. I wholely believe in that philosophy. But what do I do when the kids don't know what they want to learn? We went to the library yesterday, and I asked them to each pick one fiction and one non-fiction book to check out. Princess got right to it and of course found 6 books in each category and I had to finally stop her and give her a limit or she would have piled all the books she could muster into the stroller. But J-train said "no". Just flat out I am not going to. No fighting or arguing (yet), just no. What do I do with that? Ummmm yes! So I told him it wasn't an option and after a few minutes he launched into all the reasons he couldn't do it (I don't see any, I don't like any, I can't, I don't want to...it went on and on). SO I called daddybird! He talked with him for a minute and then J-train proceeded to very slowly look at the books and he threw one random non-fiction book in the stroller. Then we went to the fiction section with chapter books. I told him I would offer some suggestions but that was met with whines about how I don't know what he likes...etc.

Oh and so he says even though I made him pick out the books, he isn't going to read them!

So what to do? If I demand he do as I asked and make him read books he doesn't want to read, well, that makes him want to resist more. But I feel like if I don't make him do it, he wouldn't get any books. He used to love reading. He told me yesterday he hates it!

So what do you do when your kids don't want to do anything?

Why am I here?

I have been reading blogs for a while now. I look up blogs on homeschooling mostly and then when I find a good one I visit links they have listed for other blogs. I really enjoy a little glimpse into other peoples lives. Is that twisted? Well, I like to see that I am not the only one who struggles in certain areas. I like to get tips they have posted for either household management or discipline. I like the feeling of knowing I am not alone.

I wanted to start a blog so that I could express some of my feelings on issues I think are important, in a way that I can't when I am talking to my friends and family. I want to be able to be blunt. I want to have an outlet for my thoughts when I feel like there is no one who will understand or let me be myself.

Almost all the blogs I read are from moms whose profile says they were professional writers turned homeschool mom. I am not a professional writer. I went to school to be a teacher, but never finished because I started a family. This is what I want to do with my life; raise my family and homeschool.

So I find myself a little intimidated by this blogging thing. Will I be as articulate as others? Will I embarrass myself? Will I even have something to write about? Will I have any readers? Will I help anyone, or just come off as complaining? And to be truthful, I don't really know what I am doing. I don't have very much computer knowledge. I know enough to get around, but things like changing backgrounds, I can only use the templates given, I don't know how to design my own. I want to add the Robert Frost poem to my sidebar so I can have it up all the time, not just in the first post, but I don't know how, or if I could even do it.

SO, I feel like I am in a bit over my head at the moment. I guess my goal will be to spend some time learning the ropes. I hope any of you who happen upon me, will come back and watch me grow.

Happy Spook Day!

I am afraid of the dentist. I had a traumatic experience when I had my wisdom teeth out at 18, and I haven't been back since. Well, untill about a month ago. Amazingly I had only 2 cavities, which are small and can wait a bit, until I can muster up the courage to get them filled.

My kids on the other hand...well, they are the reason I started going again. I decided to set a good example, and really, I thought I should go in before we had any problems......too late!

Princess has 6 caveties!!! J-train has "a few". The dentist said I need to have them filled soon and then she recomended a pediatric dentist for them. I am a nervous wreck! I feel horrible I didn't go in sooner, but mostly I am scared to death for them to have them filled. None of us wants our kids to be in pain or scared. My trauma involved being held down because the oral surgeon didn't believe me when I said it wasn't numb yet! I am so fearful that my kids will be alone and scared and I can't protect them because "it has to be done".

And what does this have to do with Halloween?? You may have guessed by now, but it's the biggest candy holiday of the year. Ever since the dentist appointment, I have been Nazi-ish about teeth brushing, flossing and NOT eating sugar! But how can I deny them a classic childhood event like dressing up and begging candy from strangers? And of course it's no longer limited to one day of scowering the neighborhood. NO, now we have the Harvest carnival at church, the costume party with so-and-so, and of course, you can't miss Boo at the Zoo!

So if you haven't guessed, Princess is, well, a Fairy Princess. Little Monster is Elmo and J-train is Anakin Skywalker (before going to the dark side). (ps daddybird made the Jedi costume, I can't sew)

I may try a trick I heard recently of trying to buy the candy from them with quarters...we shall see how that goes. The cany saga rages in every household I am sure. I just hope those cavities will stand at bay for a little while longer, so I don't have a neervous breakdown before its over.

So you have a bit of insite to one of my many nerousis...stick around! :)

Taking the plunge!

Well, I have lurked on blogs for oh so long, but have finnaly decided that with all the time I have on my hands, between homeschooling, church going, La Leche Leaguing, raising 3 kids, a husband, a dog and some fish....to jump in with both feet and journal our lives!

So I will start by introducing the nestful...our daddy bird is a software engineer, a great father and husband. Chikadea (the mom...that's me) is a busy bird who barely keeps up with the nest building. I have some life philosophies that are not exactly mainstream, but that I hope to be able to express here, without as much harsh criticizim as I recieve in real life. I also hope if anyone has any advice about home organization it will help, I am a horrible housekeeper! The three hatchlings are J-train (8) who is a huge Star Wars fan eventhough his parents are lame enough not to let him see the new movies yet, Princess (6) our budding artist, and the Little Monster (22months) who is part monkey and all loveable (though I just wish he would sleep!).

I am all of a sudden overwhelmed by all the things in my head that want to explode out into this blog. I didn't do justice to the intros, but I know there will be time for that.

Here is my favorite poem and my inspiration...


The Road Not Taken


TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

......and so it begins.....