Truth be told my assigning an ending to the first semester is completely based on the fact that Kronk’s students are ending their semester this week, and has nothing to do with anything we have or haven’t done. I haven’t blogged about homeschooling in a good long while. So it’s time for an honest review about how things have gone.

OVERALL:

I am pleased to announce that even moms who barely have it together, who have never homeschooled before, who have passion and dedication to seeing their children learn, can homeschool! It’s not easy. You have to learn stuff, be more diligent and adopt good habits. You have to put other things on the back burner, and some of those things can be hard to deal with. (For example, I’m only now getting to tidying the house on a regular basis. Regular=most days. When I first started homeschooling back in August, the house was tidied more on a weekly basis.)

Biggest perks: The one that shines above all other perks is me being the one to teach Foxx to read. At the beginning of the year he could sound out words like cat, but he’d only try with encouragement. Today he is reading everything in sight, and has confidence in himself. Helping Foxx and Pingu both improve on their handwriting, math, and other literary skills has been an incredible blessing for me. I am so proud of them and me for sticking this out and overcoming challenges. I know my kids so much better now after seven months of helping them in the learning journey. Furthermore, homeschooling has made it so we can keep our lives simpler and calmer. I can’t count the mornings I’ve woken up so thankful I don’t have to get everybody out of bed and out the door. I can let my kids get the sleep they need for their growing bodies. We can go our own pace through the material and totally skip stuff if I sense it’s something they already have a good handle on. We can take a break and drill/review stuff that doesn’t sink in right away. Also, because the kids are home, we’ve been able to do chores and responsibilities and routines a lot easier than if I were saving it all for after school-the late afternoon period when children are more wiggly and do better with laxness or large motor activities.

Biggest challenges: Our number one challenge is Scooby. He is active, climbing everything, and wants to do what the big kids do in theory, but just eats crayons most of the time we let him try to participate. He’s goes through stages where he was obsessed with climbing the chairs and tables whenever they are being used. Thankfully he naps and we can save school for naptime on those monkey days. The other challenge is now that I’ve added regular seatwork for Pingu-it’s distracting for Foxx to hear me working with Pingu on something totally different than he’s working on. He’ll want to leave his work and help Pingu on what he’s doing. Which sounds great in theory but it winds up Foxx actually doing it and Pingu watching. Foxx has a take-charge personality like that. Also, it’s challenging to get food shopped for. This is not due to the time homeschooling takes up, but due to me having four kids 24/7. There’s not enough room in the cart or patience in them or me to get through the two hours of shopping it takes to get enough food for our family for a week. I keep getting stuck in the rut of shopping mid-week, come the weekend when Kronk is here we don’t need any food, but we run out the mid-week again. Finally, I’ve come to realize Foxx is an extrovert and he needs more socialization outside the house. That’s hard to work in with lots of little people who are hard to take places.

Curriculum results:

Hooked on Phonics: This worked well! Although it could have used some teaching of general pronunciation rules which I am doing a different curriculum for, this was super easy to teach from, the stories were fun, and Foxx zoomed through it. He’s now done with all of his Hooked on Phonics and I’m wondering what to do now. We’re checking readers out from the library and the boy is reading everything he can get his hands on. The boy is rather intuitive about reading. He finished levels 4 and 5 in a few days, and I let him skip most of the review pages because he didn’t need them. If I have a kid later that doesn’t grasp things quite as intuitively, I”ll probably have to supplement. But this was perfect to launch Foxx into reading. The HOP program is supposed to go from Kinder to 3rd, and he’s done all of it, so I am not sure if that puts him at third grade level or not. I’m going to be researching to find some placement tests and to see what he should do next.

Singapore: I love this math program, and hope to stick with it for long-term! I love how it teaches concepts in many different ways, emphasizes manipulatives, and it’s straightforward and easy to use. I wasn’t reading the teacher manual and I found out that was a no-no but it doesn’t seem to have done much harm except for me having to take a break from the curriculum to review subtraction facts and emphasize memorizing addition and subtraction under twenty facts. Foxx just finished 1A and is now working on 1B.

Handwriting Without Tears: This is such an amazing program. I would seriously recommend it to anybody who has a kid challenged by writing. I started Pingu and Foxx with reinforcing how to hold a pencil and some fun songs about where to start the letters. It has amazing manipulatives and the attention-to-details foundation work just is marvelous! Pingu did the PreK book and Foxx did the Kindy book, and has now moved on to the 1st grade book. Now that Foxx has a good grip on how the letters are made, we are doing extra careful detail practice, just a little a day, to build a steady foundation for good handwriting. I am going to start Pingu on the Kindy book after I order books again. We don’t use the manipulatives as much anymore, mostly just the notebooks.

Kumon books: These started out as supplemental but when it became clear to me Pingu needed help learning lowercase letters, Kumon books became his main form of learning letters and numbers. They’re ok. I don’t know if I’ll stick with them for Pingu, mostly because I think for 4/5 year olds it’s probably better to stick with reusable manipulatives rather than workbooks. He does love doing them, though. The money books have been perfect to teach Foxx how to count change (and we’re moving on to dollars now). Foxx finished his grade 1 reading workbook and is in his grade 2 workbook. He’s bored by it, as he already knows how to read all the words, and he doesn’t like writing all the answers, but he does it.

Salsa videos: These have been a fun introduction to basic Spanish words. Since they are free I have absolutely nothing to complain about! They are fun. I watch them with the kids and occasionally translate. We practice Spanish words throughout the day. It’s a great refresher course for me, and I hope to follow up with a different curriculum as soon as I pick one out.

Goals for our ‘second semester’:

1. Start using All About Spelling

2. Find a weekly daytime socialization outlet. Awana is ok, but it’s at night and rough on Mommy and all the kids. Perhaps 4-H.

3. Start Pingu on HWT Kindy

4. Find a placement test for Foxx for reading and another reading curriculum.

5. Weekly library tests to let Foxx and Pingu explore subjects of interest. This has been great to learn about science stuff. So we need to make it a more regular thing.

6. Incorporate family Bible verse memorization. Post verse by table and say the verse before every meal.

I have very thoroughly discovered something the last few years: boys are tough on toys and other physical objects. There are so many things we have brought into the children’s lives to have smashed to bits. So this post is dedicated to the things which have proven themselves worthy-they are both interesting and sturdy!

First, before you raise a boy, you have to understand that the best things to play with aren’t toys. Read this article, and understand that boys thrive in dirty, rough environments. The best thing you can raise a boy with is a big outside are to explore.

That being said, toys do have their place as well! Most of those wonderful boy toys are not safe for babies. As far as ‘hippier’ toys go, I feel a bit clueless on this one. I have seen toy catalogues for all-natural, made-in-the-USA toy goodness. Lo and behold, the prices were just enough to make me cry. Not only that, the more interesting ones didn’t look like they would hold up to my drop-it-and-step-on-it test. So here is a guide to toys for the rest of us, who don’t feel like paying $80-200 for a dollhouse that may not get played with as much as you would like it to!

First of all, secondhand is your best friend! When you see a toy at a yard sale and it’s obviously been played you, you can see how it’s held up. Almost every awesome toy I’ve kept for good has been acquired though second-hand means! But once you know what to look for, you’ll know what to pass up and what to look into closer.

General rules:

Small parts, moving parts, and stickers do not pass the drop-it-and-step-on-it test.

With a few noble exceptions, if it has moving parts it has a huge potential for being broken apart. Ask yourself, “If I threw this on the ground and stomped on it, would it break?” If the answer is yes, pass on the toy until your kid knows how to take care of delicate things. When will that be? Well, mine is six and we’re still waiting. That’s his personality. On the other hand, the four year old is a lot more careful with stuff, but due to toys being equal access for the most part, we still don’t give them out if they can’t handle the six year old. Back to the first hand, the four year old still compulstively chews things.

Quality and thickness of plastic counts for a lot.

As much as I would like to jump on the plastic-is-evil-only-wooden-toys-for-my-cherubs bandwagon some parents are on, the fact of the matter is, wood breaks. Very thick and hard wood holds up (think Lincoln Logs). I’ve had very sturdy looking wooden toys fail me.  So my default material for boys is thick plastic. Thin plastic gets chewed on and broken. Thick plastic lasts through many rough plays.

Batteries: sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Toys that take batteries can be cool toys. The battery case should screw on. And the toy should be interesting by itself when it runs out of batteries and you don’t replace them for a month or eight.

Dollar Tree: No, No, No.

If you can buy it at Dollar Tree, my kid can break it within a day. 85% of Dollar Tree items are broken within thirty seconds. I only wish I was joking. They work as fun little rewards, but don’t expect it to last long at all.

Multiple Pieces: Sometimes, Depends

Multiple piece toys are ok as long as the toy is still perfectly fun without all the pieces. Noteable examples include Mr. Potato Head, Duplos, and Lincoln Logs. Puzzles are ok as long as you supervise the usage and can make sure all the pieces go back in the box, and you have a kid who loves puzzles.

OK-so here’s what has been the winners here:

Little Tykes retro toys: There’s a lot here. The Cozy Coupe:

The giant boat and the rocking horse. The pool can and has been a sandbox and a swimming pool. But it being Oregon and things not drying out completely, it hasn’t been a sandbox in a long time. But even just sitting in the yard, the kids climb all over it and pretend to drive the boat. The rocking horse is tough and perfect for 1-2 year olds.

Here is the boat, years ago, with Foxx:

Yellow scooty car, on at least it’s fifth kid, likely its eighth kid, going strong, perfect for 1-2 year olds!

This laundry basket: I have no idea where it came from. It was actually from a dear friend’s mom at Foxx’s baby shower. It held baby goodies of all sorts. But it’s proven to be the best toy holder and toy itself because it’s tough, my friends. It can take it. We lost a handle sometime in the last six and a half years but it sure didn’t slow it down any. Children love boxes, and where cardboard boxes break after a day, this thing has gone the distance. (On the left, that’s Sweet Pea as a toddler. She was so chubby and wild-haired! Pingu looks pretty similar to how he looks now but Sweet Pea surprised me!)

Climbing Cube: I am particularly proud of this one because I got it at a yard sale for $2. My only regret is that one point when we were pressed for space I had to put it outside. It got water inside of the walls and due to the mold/gross bugs/other stuff issue I’ve had it remain an outside toy since. So Scooby hasn’t had it to get his monkey ya-yas out. This pic has Pingu as a baby and Foxx as a toddler. It can be climbed in dozens of ways, used a booster to look out windows, and the underpart doubles as a cave! It’s marvelous!

This slide: perfect for outside! If you can find good clean one for inside, even better. The one I found had a bit of water in it so again I was nervous to bring it inside (mold allergies here) but it’s always something they love outside!

Tricycles: We didn’t put the stickers on them. But this is the Diego trike, and the only thing we’ve bought new (it was $20 then, and well worth it). My mom bought us the first and it was so darn awesome we bought a second one for Pingu on his second birthday so both he and Foxx could ride together. I later found a third one at a yard sale and nabbed that one too. We leave one at Nana’s house and keep two here. (This is Pingu as toddler.) The seat pops off, but goes back on easy enough for a four year old to stick it on.

Little Tykes retro cars: In this pic, the fire truck, the white and orange car, the black and yellow bus, and the yellow and orange pick-up are all retro Little Tykes and they would survive a hurricane. They are tough and still look fantastic after much play. Also in this picture is an Imaginext helicopter that has proven itself tough even with moving parts. There’s also a Leapfrog bus that is our favorite in the car toy. It’s the only ‘batteries’ toy on this list but it’s tough, and makes sounds that are interesting without making the parent want to jump out the window. In front left is a bangy toy, that comes with a hammer, not pictured, that is wonderful. There’s no little pieces to get lost!

The little people that are compatible with the retro Little Tykes toys are shaped like eggs. I originally had dozens of these guys. I got all the Little Tykes vehicles and the people at a yard sale in a box, $2 for all of it. The kids aren’t that interested in the little people but still want them for when they want somebody to ride in the cars. So I kept a handful of them.

The holes in their bottoms make them compatible with Mr. Potato Head’s shoes:

Great wooden toy: train track set! We don’t leave this down all the time, but we get it out often. We also have accumulated many, many more tracks, bridges, and trains. It fills an 18 gallon bucket 3/4 full and all the kids can play together easily, spreading the tracks across the whole floor.

Lincoln Logs: These are fun and durable but they are pretty much sticks and boys will use them as such. Drumsticks, especially. Mine also used them to pop the baby safety knobs off of doors. So while these are an incredible find used, I would never pay the very high prices they charge retail for them nowadays.

Duplos: if you see these at a yard sale at any sort of a decent price, no matter who you are, just buy them. Somebody you know has kids and can use them, or one day your kids will use them. They are expensive new, but they are so awesome, so finding them used is like striking gold, folks. They are 300 different kinds of awesome. They are Legos, but toddlers can’t choke on them. My children have made ten thousand beautiful structures, learned their colors and the basics of physics, all because of Duplos.

Scooty cart: Once my babies could take a few wobbly steps, this helped bridge the gap to turn them into confident walkers.

Dress-Up Box: This is the only thing I’ve found cheap retail. After Halloween at Walmart the costumes get dirt cheap. I have gone a couple years and bought costumes for around $2 each. But dress up clothes spark the imagination and lead to very fun role-playing.

Also, one toy that gets played with constantly by Sweet Pea is her baby dolls. I suggest dolls with plastic, sturdy heads. Hair, especially plastic Barbie-type hair, gets very tangled. Cabbage Patch yarn-type hair has held up well. One baby with a cloth body does have a rip on the cloth next to the neck. But be prepared, if your doll comes with removeable clothes, then the clothes will be removed most of the time. The cloth part looks like a onesie so it doesn’t resemble a naked human as much as a naked Barbie does, but there ya go.

Others I don’t have pictures for: Wooden letter blocks, crayons and coloring books, and wooden letter magnets.

So, in order to make this more hippie-I’m kinda lost here. I suppose if you have lots of money you could get the all-natural-made-in the USA stuff, but I think overall your ecological footprint would be much smaller buying used. Shop thrift shops and yard sales, keep your eyes open, support your local economy, and get better toys for less.

I’m sure I’ve missed some wonderful sturdy toddler and preschooler toys in this guide. Feel free to shout out your favorites!

Men, I need you stop right now and run away like a starving cougar is chasing you. The word menstrual should have done that to you. Look at the word itself. “Men” is an address and “strual” if you screech it out a long time sounds like a cougar about to claw your back. I hardly doubt that’s a coincidence.  So, shoo!

Now, ladies, I am so sorry we all have to deal with this. I avoided a lot of it only by being pregnant. But now that pregnancy is not a part of my life anymore, dealing with Aunt Flow is a regular part of my life from here on out.

Let’s talk typical menstrual products. Pads are made out of the same stuff as disposable diapers, and bleached. Tampons are bleached as well. Nasty, nasty stuff going next to and inside some parts you cherish and want to protect. I had no idea there was any other option until one day Kronk and I were looking into going on a hike. The hike was in a wilderness area where you had to hike out everything you brought in that was trash.

In our research we found something called a menstrual cup. It was called the Diva cup, and you may have heard of it. If you haven’t, it’s a silicon cup that goes inside where a tampon would go. Instead of absorbing and being tossed, it collects and then is rinsed out and reinserted.

I tried it and it was so uncomfortable I couldn’t bear it.

The next time I found myself looking into menstrual alternatives was when we were looking into cloth diapering for the kiddos. It turns out there’s a lot of overlap in the cloth diapering/cloth menstrual communities. You know, cause we’re a bunch of filthy hippies. Anyways, cloth menstrual pads work the same way cloth diapers do. I got myself some Lunapads and found a cleaning routine that worked. I would rise the pad out in the sink, soak it in some hydrogen peroxide, and then do a cold rise, then a hot wash in the washing machine. Yes, a lot of it involves dealing with your own blood, but I gotta tell you, as a woman who has dealt with various body fluids from various people, my own blood no longer grosses me out. Over the years I tried a few different brands and even made some of my own.

Tip: if you make your own, for the love of your dear precious skin, do not use velcro as a closure like I did the first time I made pads. You can recycle baby clothes snaps and use those instead. Jan Andrea, who has a ton of useful guides to making your own stuff, has a fabulous guide here on cloth pads.

Since having four kids, laundry has been beastly to keep on top of. Specifically, the three-wash-one-drier load to clean cloth diapers every two days was too much. When I tried different wash routines with less cycles, my diapers wouldn’t get clean and my babe would get rashes. Same happened with menstrual pads (I didn’t want to wash them with anything else), and I was always running out because I didn’t have enough pads to last more than two days. So after Scooby was born I just kinda dropped the whole cloth deal except for occasional cloth diaper use for him.

So I was back to using disposable pads, but the cost was bothering me. So I researched menstrual cups again and decided on the Fluercup. There’s a lot more options with menstrual cups now than eight years ago when I bought the Divacup. In short, I’ve been using it and have trouble getting it so it doesn’t leak, but it’s comfortable now! I have a feeling after a few cycles I’ll be a bit better at getting it in.

I’ve also heard of women using sponge tampons. Since my big investment in a cup I need to wait a good long time before trying something else, but if I keep having leaking problems, I’ll probably look into them.

So what’s the hippiest way? This one’s a bit tricker, because there are factors involved such as energy usage, where the menstrual product involved is manufactured, and so forth. But here is my estimation of the path to being a less crappy hippie.

The Steps to the Hippier Way of the Menstrual Cycle

1.Using commercial pads and/or tampons

2. Using commercially produced menstrual alternatives from other countries

3. Using commercially produced local menstrual alternatives

4. Making your own from recycled materials and using those, washing in a washing machine

5. Making your own and hand-washing them in the stream in your backyard while humming “Imagine” by John Lennon

So, the bottom line is, you’re a woman and you’re going to be bleeding a lot for the rest of your life. There are cleaner and cheaper ways to deal with it. If you’re interested, check out some of the links and be a little hippier.  Peace out, man!

Taco seasoning seems a weird thing to start my guides on, but let’s be practical here. Taco seasoning makes taco meat, and taco meat is the basis of many a fine meal around here. You can have tacos, taco soup, Spanish rice, Spanish casserole, and so much more just by changing places of the ingredients. But in order to do all of it you need taco seasoning. The stuff in the package from the store has a scary ingredient label. So I set forth to make my own.

I love Facebook for its immediate connect-to-people factor. I ask my friends questions and they come up with clever things all the time. And some dear soul linked me to this recipe. It’s wonderful, folks. If you have little people I recommend going easy on the spicier ingredients. I would write it out here but the link has a nifty calculator so if you are like me and frequently use taco seasoning, you can mutliple the recipe a lot and store the extra in your cupboard rather than make it new each time. The recipe that filled my jar I think was 100 servings. My jar is not the quart sized, but the size down from that-pint, I believe.

I, in my Crappy Hippie way, went to the local store and bought seasoning in plastic jars. That’s mostly because I am far from the land of Winco and cheap bulk prices. However, the steps to be hippier could make this a much better act for me and the world!

The Steps to the Hippier  Way of Taco Seasoning

1. Buy spices in bulk section at Winco.

2. Buy spices from an organic local source.

3. Pick your own from a local farmer, dry it and crush it yourself.

4. Grow your own, cut, dry, and crush it yourself.

As you can see, I have much room for improvement here.

But my home storage system is totally hippie.

Mason jars are totally the pinnacle of homesteading, hippie goodness. They are totally reusable and useful for thousands of purposes. I got a ton of them at a thrift shop last year, and who knows the hard work they did before coming to me? Here I even got to re-use a lid, which you can’t re-use for canning purposes unless you get a special type of lid. I canned my own blackberry jam last summer and that was the previous tenant of this particular jar.

So there ya go! This is Pooka, bringing you the Hippiest of the Crap! Or the Crappiest of the Hippie! Whatever way you want to view it!

This post has lots of spoilers. So if you haven’t watched Lost then don’t read it (you also won’t find it interesting anyway!)

JACK: The leader of the pack. I really liked you until the end of Season One when you started beating people and generally being an overpowering jerk. You’ve got way too many control and anger issues. I really think something in your past is going to come up and there will be a reason for all this.

LOCKE: You’re interesting. I don’t trust you, but I think you’re a lot more balanced and wiser than Jack. Your religious devotion to the island is nothing less than creepy.

KATE: Really? You blew up your own father because you saw yourself in him? I was holding out hope for a better reason to be on the run for that. You’re cute, but that only gets you so far. You are the character that makes the least sense to me. At the beginning I was hoping you’d wind up with Jack because he was nicer than Sawyer, but now Jack has turned into a power-hungry grouchypants. When you have screentime I’m under the same spell as everyone else, but when I stop to think about you I’m pretty disgusted.

SAWYER: You are so awful, but so hilarious. I don’t like you at all, but your one-liners just keeelllla me. Right now, from what I know about you and Kate, you deserve each other.

SUN and JIN: Sun, I liked you better last season. Jin, I like you more this season. Your happy reunion was probably one of my favorite moments of the show so far.

SAYID: You are now my most favorite character. You are resourceful and intelligent and keep your cool. I could listen to you talk all day long. When I liked Kate better I thought you’d be a better match for her than Sawyer or Jack. But Shannon? Really? She was so not worth your time. You need a woman who can match you, and Shannon just was not it. The fact that you tortured people should probably bother me a lot more than it does. But you actually believe what you did was wrong, unlike most everybody else on the island with shady pasts who are mostly just regretful that their behavior made their lives turn out badly.

SHANNON: Don’t let the doorknob hitcha on the way out!

CHARLIE: In the first season you were easily one of my favorites. But the whole Mary statue thing-it’s over, Charlie. You’ve been moved down the ranks significantly. Then you started a fire to steal the baby-no, no, no, just no. If I were Locke I would have punched you too. And then siding with Sawyer and bagging Sun? It’s so over, Charlie. You better shape up, man.

HURLEY: Keep on rocking, man. The island wouldn’t be the same without you. But I wish you had a bit more function for being one of the main characters than just mostly comic relief.

ANA LUCIA: You just make me throw up in my mouth whenever I see you. I mostly consider you a bad guy. I usually don’t want characters to die, but in your case I’ll make an exception. I just hope you get to go out in some sort of hero way to help ease your conscience.

MR. EKO: The more I get to know you, the more I love you. You are #2 on my favorites list now. I love the way you talk and your backstory and everything. I almost wish you were with the original cast in season one but I see now you had to be with the Tailies to stop the crazywoman Ana Lucia from killing everybody.

CLAIRE: I totally am vibing you because you are a Mommy. But there it ends. Your personality is somewhat interesting but I guess I just don’t understand you enough to really like you.

MICHAEL: You’ve gone off the deep end. Tragedy just seems to surround you at this point.

HENRY: I totally think you’re an Other. Not just because Sayid said so, but because I checked some spoilers. Bad, bad, man.

BIKES! We found a great place to go bike-riding. We kinda live on a highway. And our driveway is hilly and gravelly-so Pingu and Sweet Pea can’t really pick up any speed. So we don’t bike here much. So I thought we’d do better if we got away.

Winter leads to closed campgrounds and closed campgrounds means lotsa pavement with zero traffic! (Well, there was one person teaching their teen to drive there. But they were very slow and easy to avoid. Do you remember learning how to drive? It has to be on the top ten list of things I wouldn’t like to repeat.) So yes, we biked!

And yes, here is my boy, in shirtsleeves, and my calender says January 23rd.

Sweet Pea on her cute little princess bike. It’s just so pink and little I can’t get over it! I scored that puppy at a yard sale for $4. *Happy yard sale dance!* And she’s with my bike, that my dad just gave me (Thanks, Dad!!)

My dad also has a bike trailer, so Scooby got to go around with us!

Which was much faster than his normal wheels! All hail the scooty car! The scooty car has been through all four of my kids now, and I’m pretty sure it went though four Blake boys before them. (Thanks, Blakes!) It is in fantastic shape and will make it through another generation or two at least. They don’t make ‘em like they used to.

This was as close as I was to Foxx most of the time.

The boy was born to ride bikes. I knew he had been six awhile and I felt guilty for not teaching him to ride without training wheels yet. Then one day a month or so ago we went to playgroup. His buddy had brought her bike and it had no training wheels. I hadn’t thought much of it until I looked up and saw Foxx pedaling the bike around.

He taught himself how to ride a two-wheeler, folks. I knew he was coordinated. But I was pretty impressed nontheless.

By the way, I didn’t have any video games when I was a child! Ok, I never had any until I married into them. But we had bikes. We also had a circular driveway. We rode around and around and around. We lived a mile from town and when I was in middle school I’d ride my bike to the church, and library, and Palmerton Park. I want my children to have bikes be a regular part of their lives so they can feel the wind in their faces and the freedom of being able to get around with the power of their two feet! (End Old Geezer Rant).

So, one small trip for the kids, one giant leap for the Baker family!

See that filthy van in the background? That’s the Purple People Eater! We clean it at least twice a year.

I kinda like a lot of hippie mindsets, lifestyles, and habits. I come from a long line of people who buck the status quo and hippies fall right into that. With the recent emerging to ‘going green’ becoming something a bit more mainstream, the good is that more information is out there. Especially with watching documentaries like Food, Inc, I have become increasingly aware of how Big Business in America has been generally screwing over the general public with less information and dangerous practices and products for us and for the environment. So there’s more reason to be a hippie than ever before!

However, for many, many reasons, even though I am very pro-hippie in my thoughts, many things in my life prevent me from being a good hippie. I am a crappy hippie. While I’d love to stick it to the man with the best of them, I just kinda suck at it and look more like a normal person in many, many ways. I am working on becoming more concious and making steps, but I am a long way from being a good hippie.

So, without further ado, I will introduce to you my Crappy Hippie series. Because I’m betting there are more of us out there. We kinda like the idea of being more hippie, but when it comes down to it we suck at it.

This is my Crappy Hippie graphic. It’s loud and obnoxious and doesn’t coordinate very well, just like yours truly!

YOU MAY BE A CRAPPY HIPPIE IF:

You watched Food, Inc, resolved not to buy corporate beef ever again. You then tried to shop for grass-fed beef, and nearly fell over at the prices. When estimating how much it would cost to feed your family you decided that some things are not worth paying for, nobody in your family had suffered from regular beef yet, and you just would reduce the overall beef consumption.

You do pro-hippie things like reuse, reduce, recycle, alongside some very big hippie no-nos like disposable diapers.

You love whole wheat, but you also love Oreos.

You only buy the Annie’s Organics when they are on sale or you have a coupon.

Many hippie-type things you do are to save money.

You tried to garden but your green thumb is actually mostly moldy.

You receive some kind of government assistance. You can’t really stick it to the man when they’re giving you food, ya know?

When it comes to food shopping, you aim for all-natural and more nutritious and hope to one day move to a foreign country where you can actually afford the prices for non-GMO, non-pesticide ridden food.

With the Occupy Wall Street thing, some things you agreed on and some things left you shaking your head.

You dream of living out in the country with land to grow your own food, livestock, and trading in a community. But when it comes down to it those things take large amounts of either time, money, access to resources, or energy that you just don’t have.

You love yurts, but the only time you’ve been in one is camping.

You love camping, but you haven’t been because you have small children and camping with small children is like trying to keep caffeinated gerbils in a paper cage.

You love tie dye, but you only wear it as pajamas.

For child-bearing, you tried to go natural and failed a couple times. Or you just gave up on natural birth, but it sounds good in theory!

You did do natural childbirth and other people think you are crazy.

You are ok with other people extended-nursing but it’s just not your cup of tea.

You love crafting, and making your own stuff. But you don’t have enough time to use it for very practical things often. (Do you know how long it takes to knit a sweater????)

You love canning and U-pick places.

You love thrift shopping.

You’re liberal about some things, but definitely conservative on others. You feel like you need your own political party that nobody else quite lines up with.

You read do-it-hippier web sites and books and feel so inspired. You then try to see how you can do it in your own life, see how it doesn’t practically fit in, and then feel like a failure.

You are married to an a person who is almost a complete opposite of hippie.

You find it hard to spend more resources to go greener when you have to stretch your dollar as much as you can just to get by You as it is.

You pat yourself on the back for buying used and being economical-but then you still get excited about actually buying new stuff cause you are still materialistic in a lot of ways.

You want a cob hobbit hole like this one. But you also wouldn’t mind living here either.

Your family has a Geo Metro for a commuter, but mostly for frugality.

When it comes to food shopping, you aim for all-natural and mope nutritious and hope to one day move to a foreign country where you can actually afford the prices for non-GMO, non-pesticide ridden food.

Even though I am crappy at being a hippie, I am still trying to be better at it because the bottom line is this planet could be around for a long, time and I want it to be nice for the future. I also want my family to eat food that hasn’t been altered beyond its natural and wonderful state. I want many things, so even if I am a Crappy Hippie, I can still make a difference! So this Crappy Hippie series is dedicated to finding better ways to be a hippie and still be practical. Some posts will be very practical guides to living, parenting, and eating, and hopefully all of it will be rather humorous.

Please feel free to add your own reasons why you are a Crappy Hippie yourself. We can all be whackos together!

DISCLAIMER: I use mother as the parent in question because much of my readers who parent are mothers. But it works equally well for whoever the primary caregivers are, fathers, grandparents, etc.

Is parenting enjoyable as well as hard work?

This article makes the argument, that it’s not really enjoyable. It’s mostly work with a couple of enjoyable moments a day.

A handful of moms posted this article on facebook, leading me to believe this is a popular sentiment. I was hurting for them as I saw that. I know the feeling exactly.

I used to be so overwhelmed that I didn’t really enjoy parenting most of the time. I would read the verse, “Children are a blessing from the Lord” and wonder where the blessing was. Sure, they were cute. But most of it was just overwhelming to me. I was exhausted and doubting myself most of the time. Then, when I felt I had the swing of things, I’d get pregnant again. Every moment of my long day was spent caring for these little people who had constant demands. I got absolutely nothing out of it. This peaked when Sweet Pea was a baby. I had a three year old, a nearly-two year old, and a newborn. I almost hated my life and I was positive I was not right for this motherhood job.

But gradually, I had things happen inside of me that made it so I began to see above the here and the physical. Some of it happened slowly and some things came as big, profound, revelations. Here I will share why today, even though I am busier with my children than I have ever been, I am happy with my motherhood profession most of the time. I still have moments where I feel overwhelmed and wish I was in charge of something easier, like a den of lions or a house of crack addicts. But for the most part, I have become so grateful for where I am and what I am doing.

1. See parenthood as a ministry.

I believe mothers are taking on the responsibility of caring for the helpless, sharing with unbelievers the light of the gospel, discipling young believers,  loving their neighbors as themselves, and almost every other commandment in the New Testament. Furthermore, they are doing so on a volunteer, inescapable basis. What it looks like to the world is drudgery with no rewards. But what it looks like in the grande scheme of the universe is that it’s exactly the type of work that when you arrive at Heaven’s gate there’s going to be lots of, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”

I have gradually realized how this is my given main ministry for now. When I was in college I realized God was calling me to do something great for him. I knew I was going to be a missionary. I went to a missions conference and felt so inspired and talked to dozens on different ministries and nothing felt right. I was so confused. I came back from the conference and within a few weeks, Kronk had started hanging out with me. I prayed a whole lot and figured out, yes, God did want me to marry Kronk. So less than a year later we were married and less than six months after that I was pregnant. And I was in absolutely unfamiliar territory. I actually didn’t even spend much time with babies and small children in my life and never even really looked forward to it. I kinda pictured myself as a mom with older children who could read and go hiking with me. The life with small children shocked me in just about every way. I had never seen this as my ministry. I wanted to go do important things!

Moms, you need to watch this video.

If a mother does her job right, then nobody notices her, they notice her children. The best illustration of this is my husband’s job. He is in charge of the computer systems for a school. When everything is going right, nobody even notices he exists. They don’t see the daily work that is required to maintain 130 machines, the network that connects them, the software, the hardware, and all the other technical things most people don’t know about. When things go wrong, they contact him. So his job is to make everything work smoothly so his presence is not required.

When people meet you, they don’t think of your mother’s work, but in a lot of ways, what you are and aren’t were influenced strongly by your primary caregivers. When you are an adult, you do make your own choices. But many of them you make because that’s how you saw your mother and father doing things.

My job as a mother is to work myself out of a job. When my children are ready, they will leave me and go forth into the world with their wonderful selves and do whatever it is they are meant to do. If I have done my job, then all the attention will be on them.

As Christians, we aren’t meant to be the shining stars on earth. We work for the glory of the Creator and that means working for the least of these, the needy and helpless. Even when nobody else sees, God sees and He’s honored by the sacrifice. That means that you are not just working for what appears to be your ungrateful little snots (yes, I have called them that in my head) but you are working for a man who sees everything and knows exactly how hard and miserable the mother-work is.

2. Be real about what the job entails.

I don’t know about you, but I had no idea going into motherhood how much work it was. You hear people say, “It’s so hard” and they are just words. But you live it and you know. Especially at their youngest, children take up your days and nights. However, they are much more than a workload. They are people. The older they get the more they emerge. What just seemed like complications begin to merge into marvelous personality traits. Suddenly you realize that you are able to relate to this creature as a human, and they have thoughts, desires, and opinions just like you. You suddenly realize you get to spend so much time with this person and get to know them like nobody else can because you are his or her mother, they live with you, and they trust you. You realize that all that work you have been putting in has been building a trust in them. Furthermore, the reason they are alive is you! You are taking care of them, filling their bellies with food and their hearts with love and their minds with knowledge. You are equipping them for the very big task of life, you are doing an excellent job at it!

The word superhero springs to mind. Not because of the Supermom perfection label, but because of what moms actually do. Every day we are doing super hard work just to make the world perfect for our little people. We aren’t out to save everybody, but doing what we do for even a small amount of people is work that is huge. So I want you to picture yourself, as you vacuum and change diapers,  in a superhero cape. If you want to you can picture the spandex too, but I don’t like the thought of myself in spandex so I’m gonna pass on that one, K? I even own a superhero cape or four (because I am a mom of boys) so I’ve actually put it on before. I could wear it proudly because I know I’ve put in the work to wear it!

So we need to be real about how hard it is, but we also need to be real about how incredibly important it all is, and how mothers have an awesome amount of time with some very incredible people-children. Every bit of work you do is going into caring for those incredible people. It’s not like you are pitching pennies into a black hole for a living. Your work has strong depth of meaning.

Furthermore, we need to realize that when our job is so hard it’s because we are doing it right! Children start out not knowing how to do anything. We take them from nothing to adult, and teaching people things they will use their whole lives will be met with resistance! Especially when it comes to teaching people to get along with other people, human nature comes built in with selfishness and most of motherhood is teaching children the beauty of loving other people and working together. By themselves nobody wants to put other people first. So much of discipline is doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over. It’s so wearisome. So as moms we need to remind ourselves that when the going gets rough and your stubborn child is driving you up the wall that this is all normal for when you are doing an awesome job. The harder it is the more of your mettle comes out.

3. Be thankful.

This was really the most profound realization of my life, and likely the most important item on this list. Gratitude. It sounds like just a word, and sure, you are grateful for your children. But December 2010 I read a book called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. There were many big, tough concepts in there. It tackled the question, “Why does a good God put such awful things in our lives?” in a way that rocked my world. It talked of living a life where your hands are held open for what God gives you, the nice and the hard. It talked of counting blessings far beyond the Thanksgiving list of family, friends, home, love, Jesus. It talked of actively seeking out the wonder of life, the rich blessings we are afforded in every moment of existence. It talked of seeking the deeper ramifications of pain and hard things in life.

I used to approach situations asking myself the cost of everything. When my little people wake up and they are ravenously hungry, I can see breakfast as a huge hassle trying to fill four hungry bellies, healthier food being so expensive, dirty dishes crowding a tiny kitchen, the baby dropping his cereal on the floor, and ohhh how tired I am! The focus was on how hard it was, and it was depressing because no matter how much work I did, I was always behind on almost everything.

But now, I can approach breakfast seeking the blessings. Look at my four healthy and awake children with whom I can spend the whole day because my husband has a job that provides for our needs! Our house is warm and safe and cozy. They are hungry and here is wonderful healthy food to feed them with. They eat so much because their bodies are growing so big and strong! They are very cute in their pajamas. Look at the beautiful sky as the sun rises (or at least the clouds get lighter). Now we are going to clean up breakfast and I’m teaching them to clean up after themselves so that they can do it all their lives.  We don’t have to rush around and go out the door because I have the blessing of being able to teach them here with wonderful helpful materials. My focus is not on the cost of life. My focus is on what I am gaining from it! I have more than I can hold.

When it comes to interacting with my children, having a grateful heart has helped me to look beyond this moment and realize that this is for just a moment. My mother-in-law has helped me realize this. She tells me it was only a few moments ago she was changing my husband’s diaper and teaching him to read, and now he has his own children that she gets to know and see the same things happening with. They are only this small and this darling and this needy for a very short time. The days can be very long, but the months and the years fly by.

There is so much joy in every stage of young childhood, so much to marvel at. I recently got to cuddle a wee newborn nephew Carson. I remember the turbulence a newborn brings into the house, but oh, how I remember those dear little grunts, and how they slept so much (not for any amount of time, of course, but much sleeping did occur) and wrinkly feet, and wearing them in wraps, and nursing all the time. Older infancy has the introduction of the personality and the gaining of mobility, and still tons of baby cute. One year olds are explorers, gaining opinions and learning to make their own choices. Two year olds are discovering they are their own person, and learning to talk. Three year olds are full of adorable expressions and the most incredible imaginations. Four year olds even more so, and the learning of wonderful life concepts come as they ask questions and begin being little human sponges. And so on for every year.

Every stage has huge blessings, and it’s all too shortly they move on the next. Celebrate your child. Not just in reflective moments, but every moment you have. Your child is a unique person and you are their own personal superhero, who raised them and they love you with all their hearts. You love them with all your heart. It’s something so incredibly beautiful and it happens here in the every day, in every poop explosion, every time you correct misbehavior, everytime you wake up to a child puking or teach the same concept the tenth time in a row. If you live a life of celebrating and thanking God for everything you can think of, it will show in every facet of your being. Your life will have so much joy, you will be able to enjoy moments that before you only dreaded. You will see marvelous things in your child and seek to understand them in light of that. Parenting will not just be something to get through, it will be a journey that will fill you with wonder of the beauty of life.

I’m saying this now, here, in my mess of four small children, a homeschooling mom who almost never has a tidy sink or tidy floor, with a thyroid disorder that makes me exhausted on many days, who often doesn’t even get to brush my teeth and every week wonders how to conquer the problem of getting food from the grocery store to the table without going crazy for the logistics of it all. I am not a sentimental old lady, I am living this life and I love it. Yes, frazzled, busy mother of many, you can enjoy the moments. You don’t have to have them all be your favorites, but you can thank God for them. You can feel the victory of a day well spent even if you did nothing but feed them and keep them from killing each other. Because God is just that awesome and what you are doing is bringing glory to Him, in serving your children and pouring your life into them.

Older folks aren’t trying to say you should pretend your life is a big trip to Disneyland. They are encouraging you right where you are to focus on your blessings, not on the high cost of parenting.

So I say, yes, Carpe Diem! Seize the day, every moment of it, and marvel at its blessings. Thank God for the abundance of your life. Thank God for the marvelous responsibility of parenthood. Thank God for His endless strength and love to guide you through it. Seek the wonder of your children. They are so beautiful, and you know it. See the beauty. Don’t waste these years only seeing the work. Don’t wait until you are an old lady to marvel at these days. Love them now, here where you are. They will be over before you know it.

This Sunday is Sanctity of Life Sunday, and this post is devoted to the beauty of life and the fight against abortion. You know what, even though my life has been awful and painful at times, I’m so glad I’m alive. I’m so glad the earth is full of a variety of people, who all look so different and act so differently. I’m so glad that people are born despite tough situations, like poverty, not having an active father, having a profound life-altering condition like spina bifida or Down’s Syndrome.

But the reality is, many babies who face those situation are simply killed rather than being born into them. Millions of babies are killed every year, especially in countries where there is a severe cultural implications for being born a female rather than a male.

When looked at logically, it’s hard to get around the fact that a fetus is human and a fetus is alive. No pro-choicer has ever answered the question sufficiently for me why the right of a woman not to be pregnant is greater than another human’s right to be alive. As long as it’s wrong to kill people, abortions will be wrong. Until somebody can prove to me that a fetus is not a human, or not alive, I will never stop fighting for their rights.

Yes, there are many women who get pregnant in situations that are awful. And you know what? As a society we’re not doing enough to help them. But even so, that doesn’t make killing the alive human in the womb ok. The solutions are in helping these women deal with the pregnancy and babies in better ways, not in eliminating the pregnancy. There are many problems with the American’s self-entitled attitude, and unfortunately what comes hand-in-hand is neglecting the needy in society, instead filling one’s life with as much comfort as one can afford. It’s a very American attitude to eliminate the pregnancy instead of dealing with the problem in a way that is healthy and right to everyone involved.

So, if you are upset by this problem, first, get the facts. Abort73 is an excellent website that provides logical information.  Second, ask yourself what you can do to help. If you aren’t part of the solution, then you are part of the majority of Americans who say, “It’s not my problem.”  In the place of you helping, a woman in trouble will turn to what seems to be the only way out, and often funded by tax dollars: abortion. So how can you help?  There is one factor in abortions that can greatly reduce them in almost every case: information. People finding themselves in a situation where an abortions seems an option are in need of real information about what abortions are, what they do, the humanity of thir child, and information about real moral solutions to their problems. There is also actually helping the women. Women who are pregnant have many needs. Thankfully, thousands of people here in the States are reaching out through pregnancy support centers. Women come in and have a variety of needs met, information about pregnancy, a safe place to live if the woman is in an unsafe situation, nutrition, access to health care and food. In the case the woman chooses to not raise the baby, adoption hook-ups can be made. If she does decide to raise her child, helps can be made from where they will live, supplies for her and baby, parenting classes to help her learn parenting techniques, and connection to communities who care about her and her child. Pregnancy centers such as these are a very real solution to a very big problem. You can help them by volunteering, giving supplies, monetary donations, and prayer for their very big and challenging purpose.

One thing anybody can do, and requires  bravery, is to be outspoken about this problem. The pro-choice people are just as vehement about their side and they have a lot of America siding with them. I believe, when presented with real information about what abortion is, what a fetus is, and the much better alternatives to abortion, most people would say there is no reason why abortion needs to be a reality. It can be scary to be outspoken about this. People don’t like to talk about morals when there is a disagreement. You will upset people. But you may also save lives. The ripple effect of love, even when cursed by those on the pro-choice side, will bring wonderful things. So, accurate information needs to get out there or this problem is just going to get worse.

One other thing: this 2012 election has abortion as a hot issues. I know a President has many responsibilities. But when it comes time to cast your vote, why support a man who believes Americans have the right to dispose of life in the womb? Why support a man who wants Americans to pay taxes so that every woman in American has an abortion  available to her at any point in the pregnancy? There are many things a President must deal with. But keeping Americans alive should be a priority. Just because they are inside a womb doesn’t disqualify the fact they are alive and they are human. It looks like there are many pro-life candidates at this point. America can survive many different changes. But abortion denies the right of life, and with abortion, everyone loses a little bit, a couple people lose a lot, and one person loses it all.

I ask you, dear reader, to consider how you can support life. If you do decide to support life somehow or you do already in some fashion, please leave a comment telling us how you do.  That way we can encourage each other that there are many people in this for the love of life.

Thanks, dear readers.

My needles have been clicking and producing! I’ve done of gifts done the last two months. Here we go!

Hat for Foxx, who requested a hat like Link from Zelda. (Aaah, six year olds. Sometimes your only choices are cheesy grins or sullen stares.)

Fingerless gloves for Pingu, who saw me making some like this for a custom and wanted a pair for himself. He wears them all the time!

I have slippers for Sweet Pea still in development. One is done and one is partially done and missing at the moment. It’s time to reorganize my knitting bags.

Headband for my sister Mollie

Headband for my sister Carol

Headband for my mama

Headband for Ella (are you sensing a theme here? Me too.)

Water Bottle Cover for Kronk’s Grandma:

Hat for baby Carson, my new beautiful nephew.

And I stuck this in last post but I’ll stick it here too because it’s knitting. A headband for me as a reward for all that gift pumping out.

I have to finish Sweet Pea’s slipper, then it will be knitting for the shop again. (I just need to figure out what to knit.)