Grady tidbits

Well, my little boy is going to be 2 years old this week. I don't have a baby anymore. I am becoming more and more emotional about it as the days go by. I did this with Tabitha too though.

Grady no longer needs me to get him to sleep. He has gone to sleep with Eric 3 times this week. My lap feels very empty right now. At least I know he will come running to me every morning for at least a little while longer for a quick nursing to fully wake up and start his day. I also am blessed that I get to sleep beside him still. I'm not in any hurry to put him in his own section of our family bedroom just yet.

I tried to find the perfect "flair" on Facebook that said that I've been nursing for 5 years, 1 month and 4 days straight, but all I could find was up to 2 years, so that is what I posted, since it pertains to Grady right now anyway.

Ok, so on with the 2 little tidbits that I could think of.

1. Grady had 3 visitors within hours of his birth. I think people couldn't believe that we really had a homebirth and expected to see something out of a gory movie when they came over.

2. Grady likes to dress up and wear "pretty" stuff. Can you blame him? He hangs around momma and Tabitha all day long. But at the end of the day, he is definitely all boy, he is running around the house and getting bruises and rough housing. He also like to hit EVERYTHING with his plastic baseball bat.

Homeschooling

  As of yesterday, our homeschooling adventure has officially begun. No, I am not forcing Tabitha to do anything. She has been begging me for a couple weeks now to start "Kindergarten". Yesterday I finally said to myself, "Why am I denying her to learn just because the calendar says it's summer?"

  Tabitha was so thrilled that I told her we would start yesterday and was anxiously waiting for me to gather her books, ereader, and my (unfinished) scheduler. As I sat down she was literally bouncing with excitement. I thought, how I wished that I had been that excited to learn when we were FORCED to.

She started out reading Psalm 100 from the Bible. I was so happy with the way she read. She only had to have help with 2 words. Next, I let her turn on her ereader, which has most of the books on it from either Dollar Homeschooling cds or free books that recommended at Ambleside Online. I did still have to purchace a few books, but I am very confident that I have found the right mix for my family, instead of having to buy those ridiculously expensive prepackaged curriculums that you see today.

Any way, we started with McGuffey's Primer on the ereader. I just let her go at her own pace, but I had to stop her at page 10, I was afraid she would have actually read the entire book if I hadn't. We then moved on to Ray's Math and did 2 pages. Then came the real books. I read 1 chapter from A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh to her and a poem out of The Real Mother Goose.

I know that AO recommends a foriegn language, but I figured I can start that in a year or two. For now Tabitha and Grady are learning ASL (American Sign Language). So, I had her review signing numbers 1-20, since she just learned those last week.

It is just amazing what I am learning along with my children through this whole experience. As I learn more about gardening, raising rabbits, and other self sustaining ways of life, so are my children. I really don't understand why we were not taught these things when we were in school instead of the dumbed down repetitive junk that we really have no use for as adults.

As Tabitha progresses into a routine, I will be introducing a Fine Arts study, handicrafts (crocheting or sewing), and a musical instrument (piano or recorder).

I am sure that I will keep everyone updated when Tabitha starts something new and astounds me again.

Being a "Homesteader"

I just found out that our family as a title last week while doing some research before getting our meat rabbits. We are homesteaders. Since we drink raw milk and have made butter, yogurt, and kefir.  We eat fresh pastured eggs, I have garden, and have 3 NZ rabbits for meat raising.  I also sew, make stock, and can different foods.

I am now interested in soap making so that my family can get away for all of those harmful chemicals and preservatives in commercial soaps. It looks very easy. Eric is going to make a block mold for me and hopefully I can get started in the next few weeks. I will be making a basic bar and 2 different shampoo bars.

I will try to keep the blog updated and give the recipes if they turn out wonderful.

Mother's Day

I know this post is a little late, but here I go...

My cousin Dustin posted this as his status today on Facebook, "In my opinion Mother's Day is like Valentine's Day, they both deserve a day of recognition. Although, I don't need a day to tell me to treat my mom or girlfriend extra special. I do that 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.".


I was quite happy that I am finding others that feel this way. Why is it that we need a reminder that once a year that we HAVE to treat our mothers to something special. If they don't get something on this day from each of their children, they feel something is wrong. I feel something is wrong if you feel obligated to buy your Mom a piece of junk or flowers just because the calendar says so. This particular day has only really been around a very short time.

Eric and I found it quite ridiculous last night, while getting a few things at Wal-Mart, that at 10pm the lines were jam packed with people who waited last minute to buy something for their mother. Flowers, cards and other misc junk were being purchased so that they could say they at least got "something for Mom".

While I didn't mind getting a few people from Facebook and my neighbors saying "Happy Mother's Day" to me today. It just made it more concrete that it is ingrained into our brains that it is just something that is supposed to be said on this day, whether heartfelt or not.