A True Vacation

I've always said that a trip with the kids isn't a vacation. We have taken a lot of fun family trips, but I seldom feel rested or relieved during or at the end of them. But this trip was about as close as I can come to a vacation with the kids. I took a nap every day and didn't cook dinner once while I was there, and pretty much stayed off the computer except a couple quick email checks each day.

I suppose I should feel a little lazy, but it was such a nice break, so I just appreciated that there were people there to entertain Bean during Buggy's nap and that my brother was happy to cook dinner for us each night. And he makes good food. Like these brussel sprouts, which I'm not sure if I've mentioned yet, but its worth saying again. I've never really liked brussel sprouts, but when he made these for us at christmas, I fell in love and have craved them every week since. We've eaten more brussel sprouts this winter than I had my entire life before this.

I'm so thankful for being taken care of for a few days. It's fun to get to be the daughter and sister once in awhile, even if I'm still the mom at the same time.

A Change in Weather

Just as spring hit Charlotte, we headed out to Colorado to see my mom, brother, and a little more winter.

It was snowing the day we got there and then, in typical Denver fashion, the sun came out and it was actually warm enough to really enjoy playing outside, especially since one of my mom's friends loaned us some snow pants and a pair of pink princess boots that fit Bugaboo.

Some of the drifts were pretty deep.

But the best part was throwing snowballs at Uncle D, of course.

Happy Spring!

The first day of spring comes with a vengence around here. The weather has been gorgeous and the trees all exploded over night.

And the kids were completely satisfied by their Easter celebration being moved 2 weeks earlier. They got their baskets (or buckets in this case--new sandbuckets are more useful around here).

And we did an egg hunt in the backyard and then dyed eggs (and fingers, including mine which attracted some attention when Daddy-o and I went out that night).

It was a great, spring-y day.

St. Patrick's Day

There was a parade in Uptown on Saturday--lots of bagpipers (and I learned that my mother-in-law used to play the bagpipes! Who knew?!)

The kids loved all of it--the music, the dancers, the mascots all decked out in green.

And then dessert last night--a little rainbow with a pot of gold. I was a little worried that this wasn't going to be very exciting after the rainbow cake our neighbors shared with us, but luckily, my kids love fruit, and whipped cream, so it was still enjoyed.

Hope you had a lucky day!

A Week of Socialization

The topic of socialization so often comes up when I'm discussing homeschooling with people that I wanted to post a sample of what our week looks like based on the last 7 days. Sure, we have weeks that we are stuck at home because of sick kids, or no transportation, but in general, this is pretty normal for us.

Saturday--Home Depot Kid's Worshop--not a lot of interaction with other kids, even though they were around, but they got to work with the instructor one-on-one for a few minutes as she helped them each build a rain gauge. And then we spent the rest of the day as a family, which is high in my books for quality socialization.

Sunday--2 hours of kid's sunday classes--including the big group where they sing, pray, read scriptures, and have a lesson or activity, and then their small class which is divided by age and has another lesson of some sort with their teacher.

Monday--This is our library storytime or Ray's Splash Planet day. This week was library. They go to the drop off class for 3-5 year olds, which is awesome because not only do they get to interact with the teacher on their own, but I get to browse the library for about 40 minutes--pure heaven!

Tuesday--Normally, Bean has Circle Time and Music & Movement with a local homeschool group, but it was cancelled this week so we took adavantage of the gorgeous weather and went to the park for a couple hours with a few friends. They were all Bugaboo's age, but Bean has fun with the little kids, too, and there were older kids at the park as well, who she was playing with.

Wednesday--This is playgroup day. It is technically Buggy's playgroup, but we have a friend from our neighborhood who comes who is another homeschooled 5 year old, so there's actually a great spread of kids for my two and they love this time. Two more hours of running around the mall playground like maniacs.

Thursday--Stay at home day, but this is the day I watch my friend's almost 3 year old, so we had her for a couple hours in the morning, and then Bean's best friend, who missed the kindy cutoff by a month and is in preschool in the mornings, came over for 3 hours in the afternoon. Then, the kids had a babysitter come for a couple hours in the evening.

Friday--We tried out a new homeschool co-op today for 3.5 hours. I think it is going to be fun for the kids--open gym time, then a craft or art project of some type, lunch, and a science class for the school age kids, and some little hands on science activities for the preschoolers. They had a blast today and there is a nice age spread from 4 months to 7 or 8 years, plus the mom's take turns teachingthe different classes, so they'll get to work with several teaching styles.

When I added it all up, Bean spent 17.5 hours this last week either playing with other kids and/or being instructed/supervised by someone other than her parents. And this doesn't include all the casual interactions we have with neighbors (I love springtime when everyone is out walking and gardening all the time) and store clerks and other people we see when out in public. This is also with 3 days of no car (thank you, thank you, thank you, to my friends who come to pick us up so we don't have to miss out on everything!) When you consider how much time in school is supposed to be quiet time, or independent work time, I feel like we're doing okay. And I love the multi-age interactions that I'm hoping will make my kids more comfortable around all people and not just their peers.

Homeschooling is a pretty social life.

I Am A Feminist

There's been a recent small uproar in part of the blogging community because of a popular blogger's view on feminism, which has made me feel like I need to make this declaration. So much of it comes down to semantics (which she even admits) and the stereotype of feminists that still seems to persist in some people's minds, so maybe its time to start sharing a different view, even though I know with my 40-50 readers (if even that--my sporadic posting seems to have lost a few people), I can't reach near as many people as the original post, but I have to start somewhere.

No, I don't hate men, I don't think women are better than men, I wear a bra, shave my legs, stay at home with my kids while my husband works more hours than either of us is happy with while I cook, bake, plan, shop, and organize my family.

But the man-hating, bra burning feminist is no longer (if it ever was) the typical feminist.

I am a feminist because I believe that women and men are both EQUALLY valuable in the eyes of God. Our world, even our country with all its progress, may not always treat us that way, but its something that is worth fighting for. I think women should be free to make choices based on their interests, talents, and abilities, and I think they should be valued for their contributions to society, whether they look exactly the same as men's or not. Equality isn't really about sameness, but about respect and worth.

I am a feminist because I believe we are individuals before we are part of any group. More of our differences can be accounted for because of our individual personalities and experiences than because we are women, or men. And stereotypes only hurt us and limit us in what we can really be.

I am a feminist because I don't want my daughter to ever wish she was a boy. I don't want her to feel those frustrations of not being respected because of who she is. I don't want her to feel unable to persue her interests and talents just because of her gender. I want her to feel loved and worthy just as she is. I want her to be free to be who is she wants and to know it is good. I don't want her to think she needs to be a boy, or even like a boy, to achieve that.

I am a feminist because I want the same things for my son, and think that feminism can only help him as well. Those stereotypes go two ways, and the patronizing "oh, you women are so much better than us anyway" comments are derogetory to both men and women. I don't want to be better, or more, I want to be me and I want that to be enough.

And I am a feminist because beyond my fairly privileged life, I know there is a world of hurt and sadness out there where women are held back from being who they could be, and who aren't valuded for what they are. I know other women have fought long and hard in this country to allow me to vote, go to college, own property, work in whatever field I want, have control of my own money, and I think every woman deserves these same rights.

I can't really see how any woman, or man in this nation of supposed equality, for that matter, can say they aren't a feminist. (But if you still don't think that you are, don't be afraid to comment--I'd really like to hear your side.)

A New Holiday

As a religious family, we get a little frustrated that we don't really have religious holidays. Many other faiths get to hang on to their religious days and they haven't been totally commercialized, but in our faith, we really only have Christmas and Easter. We try to balance out the trees and Santa at Christmas with lots of talk about the baby Jesus and why his birth was special--and honestly, a lot of the other Christmas traditions are still focused on family and friends and sharing love and generosity, so I don't mind it that much.

But Easter. . . I really struggle with where an egg-laying bunny comes into the picture. And as much as I LOVE chocolate (and fully intend on eating it on Easter when Lent is over), why eating a bunch of chocolate eggs is going to remind me of new life, or the Atonement or anything remotely important, I don't know.

But of course, the kids love all that stuff, and have gotten really into it this year (they love any excuse to get candy, so they are counting down the days.) And its not like there is anything wrong with the egg hunts and dying eggs--I like all that stuff--it feels really spring-like, but just has nothing to do with Easter in my mind.

So we're changing our celebrations in our house. From now on, we'll celebrate the beginning of Spring by dying eggs and doing an egg hunt in the yard and filling baskets for each other. Bean even came up with the idea and she and Bugaboo can help fill the other's basket and buy a special thing to go in it, which I thought was a nice touch. They asked to "play Easter Bunny" which is fine with me, as long as we're clear that the Bunny doesn't lay eggs, and isn't coming on Easter to our house.

This will free up actual Easter to focus on our Saviour, but the kids won't miss out on the fun stuff they see everywhere else (and there really are a lot of fun crafts and projects to do with the beginning of spring.) In fact, they are pretty excited that the countdown for our Spring Holiday just got a couple weeks shorter!

More Funnies, And A Question For You

Bugaboo: "Mama, I need a new pair of those (pointing to his eyebrows). I don't look like [Bugaboo]."

**********************

Daddy-o: Bug, I thought you didn't like chocolate?

Bugaboo: I do like chocolate! Daddy, you don't have my brain.

**********************

Bean: Let's talk about spring! (She loves to come in and tell us she wants to talk about. . . whatever topic is occupying her mind at the moment, and then she wants to plan it all out and discuss every detail of what we'll do, what will happen, what it will be like. She's a definite planner.)

**********************

And finally, I was singing the song from American Tail--"There are no cats in America" only making up funny lines and the kids kept telling me that yes, there were ______ in America. And then Bean had a question that we thought we'd pose to everyone that reads along--what is there really none of in America? Other than things that don't exist (we came up with vampires), and space specific things, like an Antartica beach or African savannah, are there things you can't find here? We just have such an eclectic country with people from everywhere that its hard to imagine, but I'm sure there's got to be something. . . If you can think of anything, let us know!

Lucky Girl

See that score of 624? That would be Bean's Yahtzee score after getting 4 (!!!!!) yahtzee's in one game. It brought back memories of playing with my brother, David, when we were kids, except I'm pretty sure he never got more than 3 in one game. That takes some pretty crazy luck.

And as a side note, I think I've mentioned it before, but we love playing Yahtzee as part of our math. Bean is actually getting pretty good at adding up all the dice quickly, especially if they are the same number, which I then try to phrase as a multipication problem so she can start to make that connection as well. She had 4 6's and it only took her about 2 seconds to come up with 24, after making 2 pairs of 12. When I asked her how she knew that 6 plus 6 was 12 so fast, she told me, "Well, I almost have 12 fingers and toes!" as if there was no other way to even think about it. Funny girl.

And then this is her city picture from Circle Time this week. The buildings, going from left to right, are: the Unusual Building, the Fireworks Building, the Magic Land Pink Building, and the Bank of America Building. Her teacher told me that Bean told her all about how Daddy-o keeps getting new bosses at work because the old ones aren't nice. I laughed because yes, Daddy-o is on his third one for this rotation, and it sounds kind of bad when you try to explain it, but at least things are better with work now, even if he still has to work between 10 and 12 hours a day.

Greensboro Meet-Up

Our friend, Chris, from the old San Diego single days came down to NC from Boston with her two girls this week and we met up with them at the Greensboro Children's Museum for a few hours.

The kids got along great, and the museum is pretty incredible. It's a whole city--with a restaurant, post office, doctor and dentist office, grandma's house, camping wilderness, trainstation. . . They had so much fun that even after 3.5 hours of playing, they were pretty upset that we had to go.

The train part was the funniest to me. Bean, and a little boy who was probably a couple years older than her, got about a dozen kids running around screaming "Fire, fire!" and trying to put out the fire on the traintracks. No idea where that came from but they had fun.

And of course it was great to catch up with friends. Chris was one of my roommates my first year I lived in San Diego and she and her husband were both good friends of Daddy-o and I. We seem to be in the same state every couple years or so, which is nice since we've both moved around a lot these last few years. There's always the dream that someday we'll all be back in CA, enjoying the beach again.

How Is This Possible?

That was the temperature outside this morning.

And within a few minutes, this had started.

Which turned into this. I thought it had to be freezing for it to snow instead of rain, so I don't understand this at all, but the kids absolutely loved it. We don't get much daytime snow, so to be able to be out there, playing in it as it came down was exciting stuff. And we didn't get more than about an inch, so it was thankfully gone the next afternoon.