The Gentle Art of Living, Learning and Loving

For my personal reading I am enjoying Karen Andreola's "Lessons At Blackberry Inn". I have found her writing to be soothing and her story to be enchanting to my hectic and intense lifestyle I find myself living.

As I balance motherhood, home-schooling and my own business as well as "life", I am intrigued at what I let fall away in terms of what I had preciously felt was vitally important to my existence.

Now that I am mid 40s I may not have imagined my life to be this scene. But I know that I had not imagined it from a place of complete wholeness before so it would not look like anything but swiss cheese if I had done so.


Now that my eldest is shifting into his 9 year change I am seeing the solidness of his ether energy shift and harden, wishing I could replace those times of pain and meanness with joy and comfort. Knowing that my best chance of his wholeness is to gift him with the ability to be his own self and not take heed to words of another saying "it's your fault if I leave".

And yet it is easy for me to fault in another. In fact it is and I will fault another. Because I know better now and they absolutely know better. So it does come down to a choice now. Because you cannot blame your behavior or actions or words on someone else and think that is being a parent with any sense.

I cannot define my life against anyone else's. I love the life Carol and Michael have created at Blackberry Inn and find myself in the fantasy of a richer, more fulfilling romance with life.

Can I bring more of this to the life I live in this cramped apartment in a busy city with opposing values and views of life?

I shall do my best.

First, Ryder's wish for our baking time was to enjoy Tapioca. Sweet Dax made the most delicious Tapioca pudding in vanilla and chocolate.

The next day we baked Short bread cookies using ground tapioca balls.

Just yesterday we backed cinnamon rolls and today a fresh loaf is in the oven.

I take delight in knowing I can experience a little piece of heaven and share it with my boys as they learn and live and love.

Baking is truly one of the timeless treasures to teach, share and learn.

This week we also went to a "childrens carnival" and met some baby goats and mini ponies.

NOTES: Dax learned "dozen" making and counting 2 dozen cookies.
Both Ryder and Dax measured and learned about fractions, teaspoon, Tablespoon and CUP, PINT and Quart. In our stories from the week we also measured Acre and mile
Dax continues with the Grimm Fairy Tales and retelling is one of my favorite times. I often think he might be writer, artist - no question he is the creative.
Ryder is learning to knit and Dax is finger knitting. Dax is foremost an artist and his work gets more intricate daily.
We also made home made "Cottage Cheese" and enjoyed this with tomato from our garden.
We continued to swim this week and ride bikes. Both boys are doing well with these exercises.
Ryder continues to read aloud in McGuffey and goes through the Amulet series - which I have decided will be the end of "garbage" books for him this year.
We continue on the virtue Self Discipline and will start Compassion next month.
September is birthday months so we will do much in the way of hand work and bringing in harvest.

Our New "Year" with First and Third Grade Home Schooling

As I begin our second week of pre-launch in to our 2014/2015 "school" year I wanted to sit down and set my intentions here.

I will focus on 5 areas this year:

Rhythm will remain as the key stable "home base".  Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Seasonal, Yearly, Personal Rhythm. With Transitions gently implemented - more songs, more music with this.

Spending more time on stories of VALUES. Today was the King and His Hawk. A wonderful story that illustrates how losing our temper and acting out of anger can harm greatly. Skill building around this is still "I breathe in I calm my mind, I breathe out I calm my body". Count to 10. If you are really angry count to 100.  For mom - whisper voice instead of raised voice.

My personal web/which is also our family web (ENKI Education) has evolved tremendously. I still don't have the kind of support from my co-parent and I will continue to ask for it but not expect it. For my teacher health I'd like to cultivate a small community of families who use Enki and understand the process and support each other in the process.

NVC/Compassionate Communication: Last week I had hoped to have spent the entire week with the whole family on the NVC summer camp. Because of me pushing hard on my own business and the financial strains as a result that did not happen. I will make it happen, and will save in a jar every extra penny to have the funds to take us on the NVC trip next year. I commit to this. It is in alignment with my values and my goal of a happy, healthy, peaceful and compassionately connected family.

TRIBAL Academy and knowing and practicing this - what we stand for. TRUTH, Responsibility (respect - self and other) Integrity, Basics (personal and home care, gardening, baking, cooking, hand work, etc) Arts, Languages (ASL, French more integrated, German and Spanish songs some characters from Chinese/Japanese for calligraphy practice)

Curriculum is based on Enki  Education grade 1, Earth School Grade 3, with some Well Trained Mind Material.


EXTRAS:
Horseback Riding
Violin and Piano
4H?, Farm Visits
Aikido
Sports - Check interest on personal levels - continue swimming and biking and hiking

Playtime From Peter Pan Even In Apartments

Living in an apartment complex has few advantages when it comes to free play time. Today however, the boys took advantage of extreme tree trimming (mutilation) to build forts.

It was adorable and fun to watch.

Dax had his main lesson around Grimm's Simili Mountain and M form drawing

Ryder is continuing McGuffy Third and Old Testament with Tower of Babel. We start Vimala Alphabet this week - cursive. I love this and have enjoyed reading about hand writing very much!

We swam for our afternoon activity and played Yoga Garden game after lunch. We also did a little bit of wood work practice - sanding.

Gardening - organic tomatoes and cilantro.

Butterfly/hummingbird garden.

Learning the poem The Caterpillar

Water colors and crochet will also be this week on the stories we are covering. 

Today was in fact wonderful for me as mom and homeschooling teacher. I even managed to write and post an article to li and my list and get two more sites sorted. So productive all around.  A bit snarky since bed time didn't go as planned. Hoping the boys can sleep in past 5am tomorrow but the NW is not conducive to snuggling in when the birds and sun are awake. 

Discipline - Self-Discipline - One Makes a Disciple of Oneself.

Discipline will be the main focus of our values this month.

Self Discipline comes from this. Right now I feel like we have a long way to go on this topic but I know it will be beneficial for the boys. I am usually not as "strict" about things in general but I see now that I must be in order to save my boys more heart ache and frustration in the future.

Since their dad is more along the mainstream and much of the world is mainstream, it's a given they will have to deal more with the mainstream think. Children should be seen and not heard. Argh. Children should be disciplined - well this is a big confusion. I believe self-discipline is far more beneficial to learn and master.

So I will focus my energy toward this and bring the pendulum back from the freedom I had hoped to instill in them. It will have to go toward what I value though - kindness, compassion, creativity, honesty, competency, perseverance, self improvement, good health, chemical free/substance free and yes even media free. For now, I believe children at 10 and younger should be free from media.

"Never delay an expression of appreciation . . . it has a terrible shelf life."

- Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D.

I want to become proficient in Compassionate Communication. I commit to applying one principle or one expression that speaks to me from the material each day and building a strong foundation of Compassionate  Communication and Compassionate Parenting.

Lucky for me, there are so many things I appreciate about my two beloved boys.  I need/desire much more self compassion, the words, the thoughts I speak to myself are much too harsh. As my neighbor Susan repeatedly tells me "You are much too hard on yourself".

Now why does that bring such grief. I know this is the biggest area for me. Self Care. So that will be added to my list. To become my own Self Care Expert!

Ok, now for the photos of the weekend and the appreciation I have for the people we met, the experience together and the opportunity to explore new places.