Oh Time.. must you keep marching on?

I have to preface this post by saying that I'm not depressed at all. After writing it I was surprised at how somber it sounded. I think when I look at the kids and see how old they are, a wave of disbelief rushes through me. A thought of, "this can't be!" fills my head.

Anyway, we're having a grand time, no worries.


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As I watch my three teens playing Magic together, I can't believe how the years have passed by so quickly. Alec is 18. 18 years since I had my first child. 18 years ago I never would have thought that my kids would be staying home with me. Staying home with me instead of going to school. I'm so glad they did.


Abbi is 16. 16 years ago, after I had Abbi I said to Alec who was 19 months old, "you're such a big boy!" Really? Really. Wow, how crazy was I in pushing my baby boy to be a big boy. Did I know at the time that he would grow up so quickly? That he would change our lives when he wasn't enjoying school. Abbi was enjoying school at the time, she was in 1st grade and she thought it was pretty fun. She'd finish out the year but then ended up staying home the following years. I'm so glad she did.


Kyra is 13, turning 14 next month. Yes, 14! 14 years since I had my last child. I remember bringing her home and being overwhelmed with 2 toddlers and a baby. I had a bout of depression which wasn't great and I'm sure that colored some of my experiences a shade of gray. I now wish I knew how quickly those years would go by.


Hold onto each day, know how quickly they pass. Kiss those tiny heads of toddlers and babies; smell their heads, as my friend Sandra says. Before you know it, they'll be playing a game together and you won't even need to explain the rules to them. In fact you'll have a hard time comprehending the game.

Our Gaga-ness

We went to the Lady Gaga concert this week. It was pretty amazing. Quite the show.

A few months ago, when we got the tickets, I really wasn't the biggest fan. Kyra was though, so that's what mattered. :) We choked on the price of the tickets a bit, but knew that Kyra really really really wanted to see her. As we got closer to the time of the concert, I was slowly being converted. Lady Gaga would be at rallies promoting acceptance of gay youth, speaking out on stopping bullying and always sending out the message of how you need to love yourself.

How could I not embrace that?

I have a few shots from the concert but only from my phone. We had a great night. Abbi, Samuel, Tracy, Morgan and Melissa joined Kyra and me.

Our bunch at Gaga

The photo below is of the stage from where we were sitting. Don't know if you can see it, but there's a big fish type of monster on the stage. Right in the middle you might be able to see a lit up mouth and eyes. We were supposed to flash our cameras and anything else to help fight it.

Super excited concert go-ers!

A Full Moon and 2 years!

We are so lucky to be able to look out to the sky from our great room. Look at our view tonight.




And here's the cutest couple of the day. They've been together for 2 years now, wow! Here they are before going out for dinner.

The Sound of Truth cover

Here's Alec's new cover, The Sound of Truth by As I Lay Dying



The other day I asked him if he writes down the music to play, or if he looks up music for the songs. He answered me that he just listens and figures it out in his head. So, he plays these by ear. Pretty cool.

Kyra's doings

You can see more at her photo blog: photopluto.blogspot.com

Abbi the Baker

Do you know the muffin man?

I don't, but I know the muffin makin' girl! It's Abbi! She's now on a baking spree of muffin baking. So far she's made... let me see...



she's made the Blueberry ones, Lemon Poppyseed ones, and right now there's a yummy banana chocolate smell wafting through the room.

Here's the baking goddess now!



She really loves baking. The other day we were grocery shopping at Publix, looking at all the yummy breads in the bakery section, we asked if there were any openings. We thought it might be a good place to learn about commercial baking . The lady working there said you had to be 18 years old to run the machinery, so Abbi was a little down about that. But then as we were turning to walk away she added that a younger person could probably help with the packaging and other work. Abbi is considering going back in and applying.

Owning her own bakery/shop is a dream of hers, isn't that cool?

Here's today's muffin.. see the chocolatey goodness??



Yum! I'm off to eat!

Alec's Drum competition January 2011

Alec participated in a drum competition last month.



He especially likes songs that use double bass. We brought in his double bass pedal and he played an excerpt from The Glass Prison by Dream Theater.

He won 3rd place :)

Got work ethic?

Abbi is taking an ancient literature class at a local homeschool resource center. This is her first class since she left the school system after 1st grade. So when Monday morning came and she had her first assignments due she had some new feelings sweeping over her--pressure, stress, worry, doubt. She had finished her assignments the night before but didn't print them out. That should be easy, just print them in the morning. Yeah, trying to print things out before 8:00 a.m. can sometimes be harder than you think. She now knows that she'll probably make sure everything is done the night before :)

All went well and I thought she wrote out very thoughtful responses to her teachers questions. But the morning was stressful and you could tell she was worried about things. We felt so bad for her that morning, wanting to help, but we knew we couldn't fix how she was feeling. She got her assignments done in time but was grumpy and not wanting to talk about it.

I drove her to class and she went in with a feeling of burden. I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be a good fit for her. Knowing that she loves reading, writing and critical thought, I thought it sounded like a perfect fit but maybe not. After class she came out and said that class went great and that she had worried for nothing. She told me that she felt so much better because she realized that she was taking this class and doing the work for herself. She wasn't doing it for us/her parents, or for her teacher. She wanted to be there and was working for herself. She was so happy and a burden had been lifted.

Now this morning, she was talking with someone about all of it. Telling them that she liked the class but had experienced some stress the first time she had to get assignments done and all that. She said she was so happy to realize that she was taking this class for herself and that if she didn't like it she could quit. The person she was talking with responded with a sarcastic "wow, great work ethic you have". She was kind-of surprised at the response. She replied that she thought she had great work ethic and that this was different from a job. She was paying them to bring something to her, to share it with her; be it knowledge, reading assignments, or a place to gather with others to discuss things. She had in effect hired this learning center. In a work place she would be paid to work so she would have a different viewpoint towards her work.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised when people say this, we hear it all the time. It's a big worry for parents especially.. will kids ever finish anything if they can quit?? I have no doubt that they will and if they don't it's not worth finishing. She's already shown in many different ways that she's not going to just quit things when the going gets tough. But if the tough going isn't worth it to her she'll be OK with changing her path. I'm glad she feels like she can quit if she wants. I think this freedom has allowed her to learn more about herself. There's no muddied water, just clear desire and lots of hard work.

Holiday tunes

from Abbi:



how does she do it?

Happy Holiday!

Ireland, next week!

So.. we're going on a trip next week and it's going to be pretty special. We're going to Ireland! Another cool thing is that we'll be going with my parents and my in-laws, so we'll all have some wonderful memories. I've been to Ireland before, as have the grand-parents, but this will be Tim's first time and the kids first time to Europe! We're excited :)

We'll be staying in the west, just south of Limerick, near Adair. Pretty close to where I visited before so I'm excited to share this all with Tim and the kids.

Fingers crossed for some warmth and dry weather... yeah.. I know probably not gonna happen.. but I can hope!

Alec's Rockin'

Alec attended Rock Camp this week where he takes drum lessons.
At the beginning of the week they were divided up into bands. Then through the week each band worked on a song. He really had a good time. Tonight they had a performance night where they played their songs.

Alec's band played Detroit Rock City.

I think he rocked it!

Here it is:

Now for a little gushing

Some of the cutest couples :)

Abbi and Tim went to Phantom of the Opera this week. They said it was wonderful.



Samuel's visiting! You think they're happy?

And I'm missing this guy


He's up in Tennessee for the week. Coming home tomorrow though.. phew..

Growing, growing

Remember the sweet potato plants?


Here they are now!


Yeah, I'm thinkin' sweet potatoes like Georgia weather. We were a bit worried as we were putting them in that we didn't till the dirt enough; or add enough fertilizer/compost types of stuff.. but they sure look healthy. I guess we'll see, I'm guessing in September, how they're doing under the surface.

Some other plants that we're enjoying.

This space is right under our deck. It was empty when we moved in.. just mulch, but we decided to put that ground to work.We have some zinnias, tomatoes, sweet bell pepper, cucumber and mint, oh.. and a mum plant that grows all year round, yeah, I'm still amazed at this growing season. :)




Isn't it amazing how many tomatoes you can grow from just one plant?


Here's Kyra's cucumber plant. She wanted a cucumber plant so badly, so we found this at home depot. I didn't really notice what kind it was. We've discovered, now, that it's a pickling plant. She was worried at first that it wouldn't be that great for just eating raw, but they're just as yummy as ever.

We call it the king of all cucumber plants. We're amazed at how huge it is!


And can you guess how sweet this flower smells? So heavenly the magnolia smells... mmmmm.. and right in my back yard. Nice huh?

Planting and Growing

With summer here, we're choosing to embrace the warmth.. and yes humidity too. It's a great place to grow things so here we go!

Looking out from our deck we have this huge space that only had mulch and a few trees. We figured we could grow some food.


Abbi loves sweet potatoes and we were inspired by our friend's farm.

Here they are going in:

We're also growing some tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, peppers,

and mint! For Kyra :)

We can't wait to pick our produce, it's so cool seeing it all grow! Here's to summer!

A radical thought..gaming is OK

OK, I need to blather on about video game playing again. :)

People have been responding to the recent onslaught of news coverage that unschooling has received. This is totally understandable with how slanted the first Good Morning America piece was, but now I have a gripe. And it's actually with some of the unschoolers responses.

Unschoolers are coming back with responses like "we don't just play video games or watch TV". Now I know most people need to hear that type of thing, but I really think that that type of thinking just perpetuates the fear.

What's so bad about playing video games? What's so bad about TV? The fear that is generated from those two activities continues to surprise me. People.. think about it. If your child is engaged, don't you think they're getting something out of it? Even if it's more mundane play, don't you think that sometimes people need to relax or unwind?

My son Alec, 17, has played a lot of video games.. and I do mean a lot. He loved the puzzles, the strategy, the humor, the story lines.. even the history included in the games.. (yes, you can learn history from video games) and you know what? He's a smart guy! Really.. you should talk with him. He carries on intelligent conversations and even knows quite a bit about other things that aren't video game related. But, yes.. he played a lot of video games.

I'm asking people to see that our children, just like ourselves, will do other things when they need to do other things. If they don't, and they continue to play; they might end up following that to a career. Really. What are the options? How about computer programming, management, marketing, game creation/drawing, sales.. the list goes on. If they like to play video games, get them lots of games, let them play different types, let them savor the style, the creativity that is there.. or on the flip side, let them see that they are tired of video games and that they want to do something else.

If we continue to badger them or worry, they will never be able to see if they truly like them or not. It might be a passion and it could turn into a career or it might be something they like and then they'll see it as just that -- a hobby. It won't be viewed as something evil or bad. When parents continue to see gaming in a bad light it can turn gaming into a reactive thing -- Mom/Dad don't like those.. I probably need to check it out! ;) Your child isn't doing it for the joy of it. They're doing it because it's such a taboo activity. You know what I'm talking about.

We've spent a lot of time together playing video games and you know what.. it was a great ride. Was it a waste of time? Nope. Are the kids still playing games? Yes, and no.

Alec, our biggest game player, has recently decided that he wants to go to college and then on to medical school. He isn't playing much right now as he's focused on preparing for that. He also loves, loves, loves playing the drums. Figuring out fancy time signatures and tabs is his passion there.

Abbi has also played lots of video games and watched her fair share of TV but is now focusing on learning French. Just last night she was giggling so much over the fact that you can switch languages on Facebook. She now has her language set to French so she can socialize through Facebook while learning a new language! How cool is that??

Kyra, our youngest, who probably learned to read from World of Warcraft, is now considering canceling her WoW subscription because she just doesn't get on there that much anymore. She'd rather be sewing and creating her own fashions.

I don't want people to think that I'm relieved that our kids are moving on to new things....because I'm not. I am happy and excited, but it's more because they continue to find what makes their hearts sing. If they wanted to keep on playing video games I would have been right there supporting them. It's just another interest and who knows, next year we might be right back at it because.....

there's an expansion for World of Warcraft coming out!

Daily Om:Little Gurus

I really like this DailyOm check it out:

http://www.dailyom.com/articles/2010/22993.html

I'm thinking about blogging more :)

And I'll leave you with these pink image. Aren't cameras fun?



The little guru that took the picture



and in action~ this is from my phone camera, but I love action shots so I had to include it!

A Snowy Day

It started like this.. Saddi loves the snow.



And it continued like this ... Kyra loves it too!



An angel!



Crazy huh?


Really fun!

Some WoW fun

We've been having some fun on World of Warcraft again. Alec switched a Death Knight over to Argent Dawn so the 4 of us have been able to run some dungeons. He helped Abbi, Kyra and me get these mounts.

Aren't they cool?



That's Abbi, me and Kyra on our Cenarion War Hippogryphs.

So many books, so little time

I love books. Love the feel of them, smell of them, love the look of them.. and shelves full of books... sigh.. don't get me started .. libraries.. bookstores.. I'm not quite sure what the draw is.. maybe it's text or the words. I just want to read it all! :) Maybe it's deciphering what's there, curiosity.. perhaps?

Right now I'm reading Dan Brown's latest, The Lost Symbol. It's OK. I've read some of his other books, the more recent ones-popular ones. I like the history and art in them, but now with this one I'm a bit bored. I'll probably finish it to see what happens but I don't know.. I'm not really loving it. Alec, Abbi, and Tim all read it so it'll be fun to talk with them about it.. so that's cool!

My friend, Laura, loves Charles de Lint. I read one of his short stories in Waifs and Strays. It was really good but I wanted a longer story! "no! I wanna read more about that character!" I'll finish that book. I also have The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley calling me and the rest of Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Yes, non-fiction is just as appealing to me. Knitting and crocheting books are so wonderful too.. pretty to look at and also there's that challenge of deciphering a pattern.

What are you reading right now?

It's 2010!

Happy New Year everyone! Wow, so amazing how quickly 10 years can go by.. yeah we hear those words all the time, but as I get older I now know why-they're true! I so remember celebrating the year 2000 as it came in.. Alec was 6, Abbi was 5 and Kyra 2. They were all so little! Wow.. again!

We've gone through so many changes, wonderful changes, so I'm grateful for those 10 years.

This year we celebrated the new year with friends up in Tennessee, it was a good time. Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so no pictures of that.

I do have a picture of this New Year tradition though:


Burning the holiday tree.


Abbi Pyro Traaseth helping..




So yes we had a nice cozy room while the tree burned.. but it didn't quite compare to this heat... some of you may remember this:



The Bemidji Burn!


And Abbi trying to get it to burn more.. gotta give a girl credit


Hope everyone is having a cozy happy new year!