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Archive for the ‘baby’ Category

We don’t own a television. Any time this comes up, after whoever is hearing this for the first time picks his or her jaw up off the floor they ask me “What do you do all day long?”

Another shocker to many is that my kids won’t be attending school and that, at least for now,  I am “unschooling” Keagan. *and Eden, learning begins at birth, right?

So I thought I would show what it is we do all day long and how we learn without any sort of formal curriculum or lesson plan.

Our day in words and pictures 🙂

We planted a tree.

We learned that even big things start small.

We planned our garden. We learned that food does not come from the store and that hard work has its benefits.

We played on the playground.

We learned the being flexible comes in handy in life and that patience is a virtue. (It’s hard to wait your turn for the slide!)

We explored.

We learned not all who wander are lost.

We looked at bugs. We learned that ants “go really, really fast.”

We played in the dirt.

Mama learned to let things go.

One of us napped in the sun.

We all got our vitamin d the old fashioned way.

We picked flowers. We made wishes.

We learned the world could use more wonder.

We hugged trees. Literally.

We learned to revere nature.

Keagan cut himself.

We learned a deep breath and a good snack make most problems feel smaller.

We met our neighbors. We talked. We learned that a smile goes a long way in life.

We played. Keagan with a doll. Eden with a truck. We defied gender stereotypes…

and realized how silly they are.

Some seriously window coloring went on…

and we learned that art comes in many mediums…

Sometimes even baby sister’s face.

We relaxed.

We loved one another.

We learned that the little things in life matter the most.

We played. We laughed. We colored. We sang.

We read books.

We learned that fantasy can help us better understand reality.

We played with pom-poms. We counted. We sorted. One of us learned what fuzzy tastes like.

We learned that some items have any uses.

We cooked. Okay. I cooked. Keagan “helped” and Eden snacked.

We counted, measured and timed as we did so.

We learned that sometimes hard work tastes really good.

We ate. We laughed some more. We played and sang some more. We tickled and loved. We lived.

We learned that your family is the people who are there for you at the end of the day.

All in all it was a pretty good day.

I don’t think we’re missing out on anything without the TV. I don’t think we’re missing out on anything without the boxed curriculum or preschool.  I think we’re doing just fine and making the best choices for our family.

What do you think? 🙂

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Eden

My beautiful baby girl turned one year old recently. It’s hard to beleive that she’s gone from this (just a few minutes old here…)

to this (enjoying her cake on her birthday)

One year!

so very quickly, but she has. My baby is growing up so fast.

Eden really is an absolute joy. Her smile makes my life worth living. She has brought so much to our lives and I can not even begin to express the thankfulness I have toward God for bringing her to my family. You don’t know how much you are lacking, how much of a hole your family has until it is filled. All of us needed Eden. We were incomplete without her.

I’ve grown so much as a person because of this sweet baby (okay, toddler… I hate admitting that!) and I just can not express correctly how much I love my one year old.

Keagan turns three this week… I can’t beleive that either. I love watching them together. They really, really love one another. Siblings can have such a beautiful bond. I hope they never lose that.

I will be doing a lot of catching up on here in my next few posts. I have a lot to say, but I think it will take a few posts so it’s not too disjointed. Life has been pretty crazy for us since we moved.

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Howdy

I’ve been off of this blog for a very long time. There’s been a LOT of changes my way. For one, my husband got a new job… and the new job is in TEXAS. We packed up our family, a few belongings  and our two dogs into our Saturn Vue and drove 2500 or so miles. That was not an easy task to say the least. Let me tell you, cross country travel with children and dogs is not for the faint of heart.

Getting rid of pretty much everything we own was… freeing. It is liberating to not be dependent on a bunch of material possessions. When we packed up the car and I saw that everything I owned fit inside or on top of our small SUV (and the whole back section was taken up by our furry family members!) it felt like something of a material baptism. I was washed clean for my new start. We set out on the road with the bare basics- food, clothes, toys, family and love. It really put things into perspective for me.

We made the drive over four days which is no easy feat with two kids under three. We didn’t get to make a lot of the fun detours along the way, and a large portion of the trip happened after dark when the kids were sleeping. So I missed a lot. But I have to say, I was awestruck at the beauty of this nation. The mountains of Oregon brought me peace on the stressful journey.  The canyons of Arizona left me breathless. The never ending sky over Texas made me realize just how big this world is and made me feel tiny, but not insignificant. As much as it was a long, hard trip I am glad it is one that I made.

And unpacking when you don’t have anything is great! No boxes for kids to get into, no mes. I totally recommend it.

I have faced a few problems here. People in my area don’t seem “into” thrifting and the thrift shops have very few options and are actually priced similarly to new items. If you’ve read a lot of my writings you know I am really big on buying used for a variety of reasons, but I’ll leave it as “moral reasons” for now. It’s really hard to replace all the things we gave away/ sold/ donated in WA that we really need (like a vacuum for one) when we can’t find it. I am going to try a few more leads and then decide how to proceed.

I miss my home state greatly and I can not even describe how much I miss the people there. But it’s really exciting to think of a chance to start over after everything we’ve been through. I don’t know that Texas will be our home forever, or even for a long time, but it is for now and I am trying my hardest to embrace that.  We’ve all been sick since we got here, but as soon as we’re well the kids and I will be checking out some playgroups in the area and we’ll all be  checking out a new church on Sunday. I tried yesterday, but I got lost.  So hopefully we’ll meet people there as well. I am ready to get out there and try to get to know the area.

Hopefully now that we are more settled, I will be blogging again. Hope everyone is well!

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became one hat, one pair of pants and one pair of mittens last night 🙂

Eden thinks the hat is better as a toy.

Keagan, however, won’t take his mittens off.

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Our advent activites have been going well. We made snowflakes and read books over the weekend and today we painted Christmas trees and more ornaments. Keagan really likes painting these days. Eden wanted in on the fun, but I was worried about her eating the paints, so I didn’t let her. I am going to have to look for some homemade paint recipes that wouldn’t hurt her if she ingested a bit.

Tomorrow we’re stringing popcorn and cranberries. I think Keagan will have a blast. I’m using a really blunt tapestry needle so it shouldn’t be too sharp. And I will, of course, be right there with him, ready to help.

Crafting is going fairly well. I am hoping to finish a blanket for Eden tonight.  I really have to get some photos up of all of my Christmas crafts.

I’m having a hard time coming up with gifts  for Eden. She’s 8 months old, will be just about 9 months on Christmas. She’s starting to like toys, but we have pretty much all we could need for a baby her age left over from Keagan. So far I made her a little taggie lovie and this blanket. I plan on making her a doll… I can’t decide if it’s going to be a Waldorf inspired baby, a Black Apple doll or a mermaid doll. For the mermaid, I’d put something crinkly in the tail so it made noise. I haven’t found a pattern, but I could wing it. I may make two of those for her. I also have an idea for a bunny with a ribbon tutu floating around in my head. But those are all pretty similar, so I don’t want to make them all. I want to come up with something that’s not a doll or a stuffed animal. Any ideas?

And I know she doesn’t need much, but I don’t want Keagan to get several gifts and think it’s odd for Eden to get less, you know?

I also have to make them mittens and hats. Tonight or tomorrow. It’s COLD. I’m making them from felted sweaters. I’m using the method in “The Handmade Home” by Amanda Blake Soule of Soule Mama (which is AWESOME by the way, check it out if you’re into crafting with repurposed materials) and  the mittens I am just tracing their hands and using the bottom ribbing of the sweaters for the bottom of the mittens. I’ve seen a few tutorials, but that covers the basic idea. Pretty simple, really… but I am sure you can find ideas for either project with some googling.

How are everyone’s Christmas projects going? Getting close to done?

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What Does Naptime Look Like?

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I probably should have done something more productive than take photos and play in photoshop with my time. Especially since they so rarely take naps at the same time. My children, however, were too angelic to pass up.

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