Homecoming

Turns out Brenda has been more defensive of her home education (well more so her choice to unschool). Making her own decisions. Growing up. She and I had so much fun getting her ready for this dance. There were so many kids there, and she knew a lot of them. So much for the big how can homeschool kids get proper socialization. So sweet to watch her growing up. She came home from the dance and we stayed up for hours talking and laughing together.

So as you can see...

So as you can see, all this activity going on, PLUS our Mon COOP, Tue Tennis lessons (Brenda), Tu and Wed Dance classes (Bret Lily), Th and Fri Girl Scouts (All three girls), T Th Basket Ball (Gaige), Th Unschoolers Park Days. With our left over time, Bret and I hang out and work on our love for Botany, we knit, do puzzles, Lily and I work on our weekly letter (this week is J, we made a jelly roll yum) play math and lang arts games, and just mostly "live" happily. See you soon!

Camp Spookybrook

She is finally old enough! Brenda has been waiting for years to participate in the PA activities of Girl Scouts. Camp Spookybrook is put together by girls for girls. The older scouts work as tour guides, haunts in the haunted house, crafters, fun house leaders, camp firers to put together an amazing halloween treat for the younger scouts. THey spend the morning setting up the camp to be spooky and halloweenish. By one o'clock the troops begin to arrive.

Brenda and Miranda chose to be tour guides. They get one troop at a time to guide through the maze of halloween fun. They lead the girls in song, help them through the house, feed them snacks, etc. (Brenda was Mother Earth this day, and Miranda, a baby.)

This is the girls with the new Camp Director, Itchy. We have known Itchy since Bret and I went to Camp WhipPoorWill for Me and My Gal Camp, three years ago. She used to be a camp counciler there but has recently taken the job of director at Stonybrook. She is Bret's favorite camp counciler, and my most memorable one too.

And of course, it was an opportunity to make new friends, and connect with a bunch of girls their own ages while doing something good for the Girl Scout community at the same time.

I was supposed to stay, but turns out there was nothing for me to do, but go for a hike and hang out in the beloved Camp Stonybrook forest. SO win/win for everyone involved.

To Kentucky and back

We headed to KY for some fun before the weather turned.
Scott has a trailer out there about 10 minutes from the land so we stayed there, did some hunting, and made it a weekend.

The trailer park where we stay has a merry go round! The kids have never been on one before so this was big fun every day. Also they have those swings like the old days where the bars are high so the chains are long and you can swing real high on them. This park is such a blast from the past!

There is a lake right by the trailer. We scouted out cool rocks and took walks on the land.

When Lily was hunting with her dad, we sat on the bed for hours laughing, making jokes, taking photos of us with silly faces.

Brenda was there to work on her photography project so we took a hike on the land looking for natural frames. This is me posing for Brenda under one of Dad's blinds.

Hallowe-'en

We started our holiday by Trunk-or-treating at a local church. There was free chili (even amazing vegetarian chili for me!!!!) and hot dogs, a jump house, balloon animals, cotton candy and pop corn, and of course trunk-or-treats.

Next we headed over to Carie's Seventh Street Gifts in Newport for their amazing halloween festival they throw! There was food, fun, fire, friends, and more.

Brenda met "life" at this party. Life handed her a lemon. When she got home we made lemonaid. lol.

Let out the ghouls and goblins, we are heading back to Hebron. Bret was working overtime again and the girls wanted out of town for their Tricks and Treats. Paula was throwing a party so we headed to KY to visit old friends and collect some candy.

Bret was an 80's girl until too many people called her Belinda Carlisle, during Trunk-or-Treats. She turned into Belinda for Paula's house.

Here is Marley with Paula and her son. Marley was actually several things this year, Rapunzle, a witch, a vampire...

And Brenda, lots of people thought she was rain, but she was really a jellyfish. Her facebook has been Brenda Jellyfish for months now. lol.

So Much So Little

Updating my life is seeming to be an impossible feat. We are growing and expanding our lives this year so much. It seems like to give any extra attention to anything other than what we have going on already would be to take from what we have. The kids have been so amazing this year. They are all growing into these perfect creatures of lovliness. (Don't tell them I said this or they might puke.) :-)

We went to Niederman Farm Pumpkin Patch this year with a bunch of friends. Here is Bret and Sophie in the corn maze. We finally had to go in and get them! They were actually wandering around in the corn (not in the maze) having a fine time together! There was a jumping pillow, pig race, duck races, hay ride, pumpkin picking, two corn mazes. We all had such a good time!

We have a weekly gathering this year of unschoolers. We meet at a park and hang out together. When it is warmer there is a water park area, the park, a track, a skate park. Something for everyone. There are a bunch of teen kids showing up too which is great for Brenda. It has made a huge difference to have her around homeschool teens this fall and backing off from hanging out so much with the friends in the neighborhood. She is really coming into her own. Anyway here is Lily playing in the skate park. It is like an empty pool. The kids all go to the top and slide down on their butts. lol.

Here is Bret's girl scout troop making a spider web snack for their meeting. Her troop has really expanded into a great group of kids! I am really excited about what Tina, my co leader, is doing with the girls!

Bullied Again In St Bernard

Do if you are keeping up with my facebook or just our family lives in general, you know our Girl Scout troops had a big summer upset this year when a parent (and my co-leader) lost her temper at camp and couldn't regain her composure, pointing swearing accusing, in both of my daughters' faces. Are my kids always perfect and always right? Maybe not, but we are adults and we must rise to the occasion and be the adults. So she eventually was told to leave, when it finally snowballed totally out of control. Ever since our family has been the butt of most of her conversations. She yelled at me and my girls at swim team and her daughter talked to all the kids about us calling us liars and all kinds of other things. I have refused to discuss her behavior with anyone, citing the need to move on and not gossip, but she is on a St Bernard Smear Campaign to destroy us the best she and her family can. My girls have even decided to quit Swim Team so they don't have to deal with the family any more. It is very sad that she just cannot move on. Her daughter walks past mine and shoves her whenever she gets the chance, she has actively tried to talk girls out of being in our Girl Scout troop, she called me a Dirty B**** in front of my Girl Scouts, adding that her mother said she could say it, she makes hand gestures at me (this is an 11 year old BTW.) I explain to my girls that someone who is secure and happy with her life doesn't act like this, even to people she doesn't like, but it is hard to really get them to understand it the way I do.

So in regards to our bullying situation I thought to post a yet another life lost to bullying. Don't do it. There is no good that ever comes of being a bully. Not for the people you bully. Not even for you, the bully.


Jamey Rodemeyer’s Family Speaks Out About Bullying
Monday, October 03, 2011 5:31AM
Just a few weeks ago, after years of being bullied by classmates, taunted and teased for his sexuality, 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer took his own life outside of his suburban home in Buffalo.

According to Jamey’s family, the 9th grader had been teased since he was in the 5th grade. “He would come home crying and we would have to talk to him… sometimes on a daily basis,” says his mother, Tracy. Last year someone from his school anonymously posted a message online saying, “Jamey is stupid, fat and ugly. He must die.” I wouldn’t care if you died. :) No one would -- just do it. It would make everyone way more happier.”

On September 9th, 2011, Jamey wrote online, “I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens.” Nine days later on September 18, around 1:30 in the morning, he wrote a message to Lady Gaga, “Bye Mother Monster... Thank you for all you have done... Paws up forever.”

Read more: http://www.andersoncooper.com/2011/10/02/jamey-rodemeyer-family-speaks-out-about-bullying/#ixzz1ZuvoBsY9

Gym, Art, and Math

How, you ask, is playing hopscotch gym? Oh it is. And for sure the walk to the dollar store for more chalk qualified too. (Or run, in Lily's case.)

Totally Math and Art combined!!! Shapes and sidewalk art! lol.

We had such a colorful and fun day! We are not going around trying to find school in what we do all day. But it is extra fun to point it out when we can. :-)

HOW TO: Dye your hair with Kool-Aid

This photo is from Brenda's Nintendo, but I swear it is actually blue. So here is what we did. First of all, Brenda has a lot of hair, so we bought enough kool-aid packets to make a thick paste for her hair (5 I think for her, 3 or 4 for Bret's shorter and less thick hair). Squeeze enough conditioner into a bowl to cover her hair (for Brenda this was more than 1/3 of the bottle, no kidding!) and mix the kool-aid into it. Then apply thickly onto the hair. Cover the hair with a plastic bag (I used a Kroger bag and tied it at the back of her head so it was tight around her head.)

Leave the hair sit over night. The girls both tell me it was itchy on their scalp. Bret's hair was pink lemonaid. It washed out pretty quickly within a month. Brenda's blue never did wash out completely, but this is not a concern of hers and she is ready for her next color. lol.

HOW TO: Make 5 Year Old Science for an unschooler

So we decided to make our yearly terrarium today. The container is from a foam abc kit. But you can use anything. Last year we made a "We-are-not-weeds" Garden on a plate so it doesn't even have to be a terrarium to succeed. The same basic plants were in our WANW Garden from last year. This just needs to be watered more often. So the bottom is a thick layer of rocks. This is where the water drains to. Next is a thicker layer of dirt from our REAL garden.

We only have a sidewalk and patio around our house. No grass. So my dirt in my pot garden (otherwise known as a container garden) is a combination of leaf mold, compost, and some dirt from the gardening department of any store.

Then we went for a walk. We always have moss collecting on our sidewalk because our gutters leak. So that is a bonus to leaky gutters for us. :-) We lined the container with moss and picked up a few "not"-weeds from a walk around the block. Planted them and wah-lah. (This of course is voila but I saw someone type wah-lah and thought it was really funny!)

On our way around the block, we came across a vacant house with a few peaches on the driveway. I looked up and there was a PEACH TREE! I didn't know PEACH TREES GROW AROUND HERE!!! So we came up with the brillian idea to plant some of the seeds and try to have a couple peach trees in our KY property. I googled HOW TO make a peach tree from pit, got a couple different ideas, shared the peaches I collected with all three girls while sharing my planting seed ideas.

And that is how my 5 year old unschooler got her science in for the day.

Brenda's 12

Brenda's birthday present was expended in May so she could have a Nintendo DSIex for our trip to the Kalahari Unschooler's Waterpark Gathering. So this year she had 3 girls spend the night and we sang happy birthday to her with hoho's and nutter butters. However she celebrated three weeks early this year. The weekend before her birthday she and a good friend from Sandusky, OH made plans to be together over here in Cinti for the weekend. They left together to spend the week in Sandusky with her family. Then we meet up at the Unschoolers Campout Gathering where I would bring her back.

This was the photo the girls sent me from the mall. Brenda wanted to know if I would purchase this for her if she would let me put spaghetti straps onto it. Is she turning 12 or 21? It is a hard life to feel grown up and still be young.

So back to our KY roots (or at least Bret's)

"Do we work for and pay for all this convenience in order to live our lives, or do we live our lives in order to work for and pay for all this convenience..." Colin Beavin

Bret has said for years that he wants to retire at 50. Because he has plans of dying early. Well maybe not plans, but definitely expectations. So we are getting older, by the day obviously. And each day we wondered when we would get there. I homeschool the girls, I take them to their dance classes, and their swim team practices, and their Girl Scouts. We eat dinner together a few times a week like a "good family should". We try to keep a small garden in the back "yard" which if you have been to my house you know is just a patio of cement big enough for a small table, a few chairs and a pot belly grill, we recycle, we try to reuse as often as possible. Freecycle has always been my friend.

But really we want more than waking up, working, and going to sleep each day.

We finally saved enough money. We looked at many properties, but Bret kept coming back to this one. Here is the two of us looking like a Van Gogh painting in what will soon be our new yard. Our cabin will overlook the valley. Bret's goal? Have an amazing place to hunt. My goal, learn how to live with as little as possible help from the outside world.

Here is one of the food plots that the past owner provided us with. We have many deer and turkey that visit the food plots. Bret suggested that this 65 acres is better than any 100 acres he saw anywhere for his hunting purposes.

Already made watering hole for the deer, a must if you want to get them coming your way.

Our dug-out pond. (Tehehe I am calling it a lake.) It is in a valley where water drains naturally, so we expect it to be a full pond by spring's first melt.

My husband is a man of many toys. The bass boat that he was so sure would be worth tons more than the amazing deal he got it for. The tons of music equipment his band days (which was just last year still) the hunting equipment (which is the newest and most expensive so far. I used to laugh that the first deer he killed was THE MOST EXPENSIVE piece of meat we have ever eaten.) The deal stands that all those other toys must go.

We will downsize from our 7,000+ sq ft building to a 1,500 sq ft cabin that we will build. Personally I think that is too much room. I was hoping for 1,000 sq ft. After all, by the time we build and move in, Gaige will be long gone, Brenda will have one foot out the door, and Little Bret will be right behind her. This is my 5 year plan. It will take time to save up to build the house. Absolutely no credit! Off the grid? I don't know if that is possible. How to live off the land with as little help from outside as possible. Can we survive without Pizza Hut and frozen meals, garbage pick-up twice a week, shopping trips 3 times a week, $500.00 gas&electric bills, etc. Can I provide enough food for us to can for the year, will I be able to can that much food, will a garden that big be more work than I can handle, will I be able to talk Bret into an alpaca and/or sheep so I can have yarn? And if so how will I feed THEM? How to wisely use the rainwater? How to everything?? Who will want to read my facebook updates when the only thing to update is the quality of my veggie garden and the lovely time I spent watching the sun go down? Maybe I won't care about facebook by then...

First for our house (building?) Plans to have it sold in a year. We are on our way.

The Challenger Mission

In Dayton OH there is a Challenger Mission Center. Remember the Callenger Mission? When the teacher went up into space with the astronauts? And no one came back down alive? Well at the Challenger Mission Center the kids get a chance to learn about the mission. Then they are all given jobs in the shuttle or ground control and they are in a simulation center to do their jobs. Brenda was a doctor. A sign of things to come? Probably not, but it is a great experience.

I took Marley and Bret to Boonshoft Discovery Center since we were already in the area. Last school activity of the year.

Circling With Friends

It has been so long since I have been to Circle. Summer Solstice just seemed right. And so much new good news from everyone. We lit flying lanterns and set our blessings free. Let us all remember how to dance like children.

In Cold Water again

Yes it is that time again. Our first swim meet. I think we won by some crazy numbers against Norwood on Tuesday. 130something to 475 or something crazy like that. Hurry up and... wait. THat is the mantra of swim team. Gotta love it anyway.

Daisies in the Garden

Such sweet Daisies. They had their investiture ceremony last week. (HOW DO YOU EVEN PRONOUNCE THIS WORD??) We made 4th of July hats as our craft, ate some cookies and snacks, and they all got pinned. So sweet.

Summer fun

THESE ARE NOT FROGS! lol. This is Gir. Gir is the dog on Invaders Zim. Look it up. It's him all right. Constant sleepovers, hanging out toasting by the pool, riding bikes to the dollar store and Wendy's for their dollar menu burgers, texting late into the night, and never ending fun. THat is what summer is all about.

Field Day

I know, no pics of Field Day, right? Well we did the same thing basically as usually only after all the rain we got it was a little muddier. Then the kids all threw water balloons afterward. That is the big hit of course.

But this is by far my fav part. Check out last year's field day to show how this is NOT brand new. We started with puddles in the sand box so that made things worse perhaps, but every year Marley gets down and muddy while the other kids participate in Field Day. This year however, after the fun she was embarressed about her appearance and refused to go in the grocery store with me. I so wanted to walk through the aisles as the proud mom of this amazing child!!

We watched parent after parent walk through the park telling their kids don't you even think of it, as they saw our kids swimming in this muck. Not us. We always come prepared with towels for the ride home. lol.

Memorial Day Parade

The Annual Memorial Day Parade. Here are our Girl SCouts. Memaw loaned us her husband driver and truck so we could ride, rather than walk. Memaw is so wonderful. Everyone loves her!!

Some of our older girls participated in the flag ceremonies for the program after the parade. Here is Brenda putting flags in their spots in memory of our local veterans who died in service.

Kalahari Here We Come

How can I put in words all the excitement, friendships, adventures, that come out of our UWG (Unschoolers Waterpark Gathering) each year. This is our third year in a row. It exhausts me to put this trip together for the girls. But it is some of their best memories of the year.

Some things we did this year: Nerf Wars, Nintendo DS meetup, Talent show, high ropes course, zip line, Fairy Godparent gifting, Balloon animal making, juggling, the Unschoolers carnival, of course there is the waterpark. They meet up with friends they only see once a year, and feel like they didn't even skip a beat. There is a week of speakers for me, of course I never get to any of that with all my running I do with the girls.

Oh to be young and free again.

Gaige in Chicago

Finally the boy gets to the Sears Tower. He has wanted to do this for a while. Only now it is Willis Tower??? What the heck? How can they just change the name of a land mark like that? Anyway, he comes home with an idea to skip college and just move to Chicago. He really wants to move to a big city. I am suggesting moving to a big city WHILE going to college. Of course that is the more expensive way to do it. But it might be for the best. He has his sights on big free city life. Who can blame him? I had too once.

So this is the Hat.

Brenda's first Etsy online purchase. I helped her learn how to make the transaction. I guess I should have taught her how to read the item description also I suppose, because it was a purchase for a pattern not a hat. So having no experience reading a crochet pattern, I sat down with the pattern and youtube and figured out the new initials. Two days later I emerged with the hat. And Luckily I had enough black and white worsted weight yarn it didn't cost us another penny. And it everyone loves it. Her friends are always wearing it. I think a frog hat next.

It Starts Again

So a bit of a catch up. No computer yet. But Gaige is a dear! Isn't he?? Swim Team is in full swing again. MWF practice. TTH meets. And we are off... Last year Marley was the youngest swimmer. This year she has lots of friends.