five goals for 2009

Ok, Blogger fixed their photo upload problems, so I figured I'd celebrate by sharing the pics I was going to in my last post, while, keeping with my tradition the past several years, I list (and explain) my top five goals for 2009, a few days later than I traditionally would have posted them. (I've been distracted.) These goals are in no particular order. (But this particular kid-on-a-sled is J.)

Goal #1: Get Healthy. (No gagging on the stereotypical resolution allowed!!) Oh yeah, I know, we all SAY we'd like to eat healthier, exercise more, lose weight, yadda yadda yadda. I was no different, I said that every year too. But now that I no longer HAVE health, I really NEED to do something about it, rather than claim to want to do something about it. Psoriasis, body cramps, joint problems (nothing new there really, but still), and a return of migraines (oh joy) spattered across this past year, and it's time to DO something to stop the madness. It's time to get my body back on the health bandwagon -- lose some weight, see a Homeopath for some constitutional help, and get my diet back on something resembling made-for-human-consumption.


(Zoo Boy, trying to stay warm in the woods. Hey, it was at least 18 degrees F this day, which felt balmy compared to the previous several days....)

Goal #2: Set my priorities. I started to word this "simplify", but after having used that particular term for several other years, and feeling fairly unaccomplished at it, I thought I should step back a bit further and just figure out what it is that actually WANT out of life. For me personally, for the kids educationally/developmentally, for our family as as a whole. Should we make more of an effort to grow more of our own food? Go on a real family vacation? Which museums/organizations do we really want/need to be members of? How many classes is too many for the kids? I'm trying to strike a balance between taking life slow enough to deeply appreciate and enjoy it, and running around making sure that we're not missing out on every experience this amazing life has to offer. The vast array of what's available to do is enough to drive a homeschooling mom insane! Especially a homeschooling mom who, somewhere in her depths, truly believes that less is more, even though she seems to have a lot of trouble actually living that reality. I figure setting my priorities is a pretty good step in the right directions of sticking to those things that lead towards accomplishing our individual and family goals, and weeding out those things that detract from that.


(Today's ice storm -- nice, huh? Answer: NOT)

Goal #3: Climb out of our financial abyss. Five years of Autism Remediation and related therapies, almost entirely paid for out-of-pocket, has wreaked understandable havoc on our financial plans and future. We're already taking steps to remedy that, and I feel fairly confident that we'll be able to put a nice fat check-mark in front of this goal when I look back on this year in December.


(The kids play a game of "Zooreka".)


Goal #4: Add foreign language to our homeschool program. I'm going to begin including Spanish in our curriculum this year. I'm not 100% sure exactly HOW I'm going to do that. I DO know how I DON'T want to do it. So that's a start. I DO know that I'm going to start by incorporating some Spanish songs and games into our circle. Er, um, strike that. I'm going to start by LEARNING a few Spanish songs and games myself. Er, um, strike that too. I'm going to start by actually buying a CD of Spanish songs -- something that comes with a songbook so that I have half a shot at learning the words with something close to proper pronunciation. From there, who knows. Learning Spanish myself would almost certainly be a step in the right direction....

(I told you it looked like a major toy chain got sick in here....)

Goal #5: Learn more about Adult ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Because, as some of you may have already figured out (since most of my friends and family did long before I ever considered the possibility myself), I have recently come to realize that I, in all likelihood, have ADD. In fact, I seem to pretty much be the poster child for Adult ADD. Easily (ha!) distracted? Check! Extremely disorganized? Check! Problems prioritizing? Check! Intense focus on areas of interest? Check! Inability to complete menial or uninteresting tasks? Check! Like many of my big epiphanies over the past few years since turning the liberating age of 40, this realization has had a certain freeing effect. As in, oh, so you mean my brain is wired differently than other folks? What a relief! I thought I was just certifiably nuts. And now that I know that I'm not going to suddenly, magically be able to organize my life and household, I can commence with reading up on coping strategies for Adults with ADD. I'm actually pretty stoked at the possibilities!

So, there it is. Tune in about 12 months from now to find out how it all went....

vacation and vampires

Yes, yes, I hear the complaints loud and clear -- why has a week gone by without a post!

Well, you're not bound to like this much better -- for some reason I'm unable to upload photos today due to an "internal error". Whether it's my computer's internal error or Blogger's, I'm unsure (nor do I know how to figure that out!), but I'm going to hold to the faith that by the time I actually have photos worthy of posting, it'll be all straightened out. For now, all you're missing is my kids sledding, playing in the snow, playing games in the house, our current ice storm, and my living room looking like a Toys-R-Us store threw up on it.

However, that is not my excuse for not posting.

My reasons are two-fold:

First, we're still on our winter break. Not that that stopped me from posting up until this point, but truly, there's not much to report. My kids have been busy redecorating the living room to look like it does in it's present condition (something I really need to take some time to remedy one of these days), which, while amusing to them, isn't really something worthy of documenting.

And second, and the real reason for the absence of posts, has been my absorption (obsession?) with Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga. You know, the teen vampire books that have been all the rage -- Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

One of the kids got me the first book for Christmas. I made the mistake of picking it up on Friday morning. I finished it around midnight, with not much of anything getting done around here between those two points in time. The dastardly publishers had printed the first chapter from the next book at the end. I resisted reading it. Until morning.

So then I had to run out to the bookstore to buy the 2nd book, using a grocery shopping trip as an excuse as to why I was going to be out ANYWAY. I started the 2nd book at about 4pm on Saturday. And finished it about 4am. Which would have been OK if I hadn't had to work on Sunday. And if they hadn't, yet again, included the first chapter of the next book.

As luck would have it, I had 2 hours to kill between students on Sunday. I discovered I forgot a few items in the previous day's shopping trip and ran out to pick those, and the last 2 books in the series (I wasn't naive enough to think I wouldn't just run out for the 4th after finishing the 3rd, so figured I'd save myself another trip out).

I started the 3rd book on Sunday evening, but was dozing off about mid-way through it around midnight, so forced myself to put it to one side, where it sang out lovingly to me all Monday morning while I actually caught up on laundry and animal chores. By the time I got the kids fed with an early lunch, I'd run out of excuses to avoid it, and jumped back in. I finished up about 4:30 in the afternoon.

I showered.

I started into the 4th book about 10 minutes later.

Fortunately, there was just NO conceivable way of reading the last book all at once -- it's over 700 pages, for goodness sake. So I had less trouble putting it down at my self-imposed deadline of midnight and getting a semi-reasonable amount of sleep. I allowed myself a few hours of reading time Tuesday morning, but needed to take the kids to therapy on Tuesday afternoon and forced myself to leave the book at home -- I remembered what a mush my mind was at the grocery store on Sunday, entirely consumed with the characters and story line, and decided that a little coherence would be good for dealing with therapy homework instructions, as well as making the long drive to and from the office. And I resisted even looking at the cover when I got home, as I gathered dogs and trotted off to classes with them, getting home too late to consider picking it up again.

So it was with a sigh of relief that I picked the book up again this morning. And with even more profound pleasure that I thumped the cover closed at about 3:30 this afternoon, sighing the deep sigh of satisfaction that only comes from a story well told from first page to last.

Do you like vampire stories? How about stories of forbidden love? Or just romance in general? How about anything written by an author who really knows how to develop characters that you care intensely about, and how to weave them around a mysterious and intriguing story line?

Yes? You'll love it.

But make sure you can afford to take a week out of your life before you read the first paragraph....

Happy New Year!

In contemplating this new year, this 2009, on what I feel is sure to be the cusp of changes for our country, our world, my attention is drawn to a song (from 1992) that embodies all that I hold in my heart and hope for in the coming year, that we can finally get on the path to making this dream a reality where we all can truly be free. Quoted from the lyrics of "We Shall Be Free" by Garth Brooks:

When the last child cries for a crust of bread

When the last man dies for just words that he said

When there's shelter over the poorest head

We shall be free

When the last thing we notice is the color of skin

And the first thing we look for is the beauty within

When the skies and the oceans are clean again

Then we shall be free

When we're free to love anyone we choose

When this world's big enough for all different views

When we all can worship from our own kind of pew

Then we shall be free

And when money talks for the very last time

And nobody walks a step behind

When there's only one race and that's mankind

Then we shall be free

Stand straight, walk proud, have a little faith, hold out

We shall be free

looking back

Enjoy some photos my parents took of us celebrating Christmas with them this past weekend, while I wax nostalgic about the waning year:

(The Map Man and Zoo Boy clowning around.)

Last year as 2007 ground to a close, I reviewed the five goals I'd listed at the previous change of years, and commented on how I'd met those goals (or not). That little end-of-year ritual worked well for me, so I'm going to do it again.

Here were the five goals I listed for 2008:

1. Sustainability for our Homestead
2. Jump-start my kids' Arts Curriculum
3. Do something with our horses
4. Cook
5. Control my computer habit

I'll take a look at them one at a time:


(The boys and my mom check out one of her gifts)

Sustainability: Well, we didn't plant a garden, as I had hoped to, although we DID come up with a doable plan for 2009 -- after trying our hand at raising a pig (and reaping the benefits of all that home-grown pork!) we discovered that the pig pen would make the perfect planting grounds for a variety of edibles. So the plan is to time the butchering of our two current pigs to coincide with planting season. We did manage to produce our own eggs, lamb, and pork. And we ate as much of our purchased foods from local/organic sources as possible. So although that doesn't do all that much for our own sustainability, we're helping out other local farmers with theirs, so that's SOMETHING, anyway. We also added a few wool sheep back into the flock, for their fiber-producing ability, so in the spring we'll have our own wool again after a half dozen years without.


(Zoo Boy, in a thoughtful moment.)

Arts Curriculum: We did it!! We've been drawing and painting and crafting and creating and performing. So I can feel confident in putting a great big check mark in front of this one!

Horses: Unlike the above check-mark, I made no head-way whatsoever with this goal. Both Butterscotch and Annie gave occasional pony rides this year, and I even got up on Annie a couple of times for a ride around the pasture, but for the most part the horses just ate a lot of food and were very attractive pasture ornaments. Maybe I'll list this one again on my goals for 2009. (Check back in a few days to see!) However, Annie DID go from a somewhat unthrifty looking crossbred horse to a stunning picture of health, who has been proclaimed by folks in the know as a purebred Morgan. So I suppose THAT is something, isn't it? And of course, we lost our dear Lacy this year, which took a bit of the wind out of my equine sails for a good chunk of the year.


(J watching his cousin perform magic tricks.)

Cooking: Ahem. Well, I made more progress with this than with the horses, but I certainly wouldn't declare myself a raging success. The past few months I made a commitment to provide more homemade snacks for the kids, so there's been some regular baking these days -- pumpkin muffins and cinnamon bread, along with home-baked cookies, have replaced chips and store-bought crackers as snacks. And I've been preparing pastry pockets with various meats in them for The Map Man to take for lunches rather than his standard Peanut Butter Sandwich fare. But I've still got a long ways to go in the meal-preparation department (although I DID cook a ham dinner for my entire family this fall). What can I say, I'm a work in progress. But the kids (especially Zoo Boy) really do enjoy cooking, so I do see more of this sort of thing on our horizon, so it's a goal that is only just now gaining a head of steam.


(Me and my Sis, hiding our double-chins from the camera!)

Computer: I was ready to declare complete defeat on this one, but in looking back at my original list, I realized that I am no longer visiting any of those time-consuming web-sites that I listed as examples of ways I waste time on-line. I still spend plenty of time on the computer. However, it's spent corresponding with real people rather than playing games, and reading the blogs of other Enki Homeschoolers, where I receive inspiration and motivation, and glean cool ideas for use in our own program. So while my quantity of time hasn't changed much, the quality has seen a vast improvement.

Now to put a bit of thought into my goals for the coming year. And to enjoy the last few moments of 2008 with my wonderful family!

a few of my favorite things

While the kids work on constructing one of their favorite things from this Christmas (Playmobil castle/knights set), I thought as a tribute to one of my all-time favorite movies (also a seasonal favorite world wide!), I would share a few of my favorite things:



One of my favorite holiday treats: Gingerbread cookies. Yummy!










My new favorite seasonal decoration, this amazing horse-drawn sleigh being driven by a sheep, pig, and chicken -- all of our farm animals in one decoration!! (Thanks so much, Christine, I just LOVE it!!!!) The inscription on the side reads "It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with ewe". Cracks me up every time.... (what can I say, sheep jokes are my favorite!).

My favorite thing that we gave as gifts this year -- ornaments that the kids made. They painted heavy watercolor paper, cut it out, punched holes in it, and strung a piece of yarn through. Simple, and really neat looking, I think.

My favorite gift-to-wear, these spectacular earrings made by my talented friend Penney. You too can own spectacular jewelry made by Penney by visiting her Etsy shop, Zen Paw Creations. Makes great gifts! (Especially if you're looking for a gift for me!) I own other jewelry from Zen Paw, just ask and I'll be happy to model for you.

My favorite gift that the kids received, a Mancala game. Yea, Santa, good job!! The Map Man and I have been hogging it. For now it's not causing any strife, as the kids are still busy building their fortress of Playmobil, but we fear they will eventually try to reclaim it....

My favorite gift, possibly of all time! The Map Man formatted and printed out my entire Jacob's Journey blog. I can't even begin to imagine how much time this took him, as I attempted doing this once before myself and quit after formatting just half a month. I am totally blown away that he put this much effort into a gift for me. He's going to have it bound for me too. He earned some MAJOR brownie points, and can basically do no wrong in my eyes, at least for the time being.

Which brings me to a question that perhaps someone out there amongst my readership might know the answer to -- is there a company that prints and binds blogs? I would love to do that yearly with this blog, as a bound record of our homeschooling activities, a real scrapbook as well as a virtual one. If nobody does that, I think there's an opportunity for someone to make a bunch of money....I mean, I can't be the only one who likes to see her work in writing, right?

a very merry

What awaited us in the living room this morning. Looks like the jolly fat man did his job!











J, in the process of assembling his favorite gift, the Lego Agents set he asked Santa for. Note all the presents still in the background -- my kids like to take their time with the gifts, thoroughly examining (and sometimes building and playing with) each gift as they come to it before feeling ready open another. (In fact, Zoo Boy discovered a pack of Pokemon cards in his stocking and insisted on reading all of them before even thinking about opening any gifts.) It makes for a really nice, relaxed day -- so long as we don't have to go anywhere else. This year, as is typical for us, we did not, spending a quiet day here at home by the fire instead.


Zoo Boy and his favorite gift, the Monkey Magnet set he asked Santa for. (Monkey Magnets are basically magnetic tangrams). Santa also brought him another Ugly Doll (remember Zoo Bat from last year?) that he decided last minute that he HAD to have -- this one is "Ugly Worm" and is a green worm with one eye. A bit taken aback, J asked "You like something that only has one eye?" Zoo Boy hugged his beloved creature to him and said "Of course! He's mine, and I love him. It doesn't matter at all to me that he only has one eye!"


The boys play with the Playmobil castle/knights set that Santa brought for them. I had really been hoping to get them a lovely heirloom quality wooden castle play set, but finances being what they are this year, we had to make due with plastic. Truly, it's a nice set and the kids could care less that it's not what I had in mind. All they know is that there's hours of fun to be had storming the castle, slaying the dragon, and protecting the treasure.

And what Christmas would be complete without a visit from Tom "Santa" Brady? (Again, this sort of thing only shows up here to make my friend Christine laugh, so if you don't "get" it, don't worry! Merry Christmas, Christine!!)

My fervent wish is that all of my friends, family and various random readers have experienced as much peace, joy, and love as we have today. Our gifts were a bit on the light side this year, but were given with as much thought and love and meaning as any token of affection anywhere.

A very merry holiday to you all!

t'was

T'was the night before Christmas, and all through the house,













Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.









The stocking were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of sugar plums dance through their heads....