Back in School

I am so excited.  This morning I enrolled in summer semester online at George Wythe Universtiy.  I took classes for a couple semesters before the twins arrived in 2008, put things on hold to focus on the babies,  hoped to enroll again this January and then brain surgery nixed that plan.  So, I finally think I'm ready to do another semester.  If baby # 4 comes as planned I should just be able to squeeze this semester in before taking another break.

Summer semester begins mid-May and ends mid-June.  I registered for Government II.  I will be reading and studying

selections from The Federalist Papers
The Roots of American Order
Democracy in America
The Declaration of Independence
The US Constitution

I can't wait to meet my mentor and attend my first online class.  GWU has changed their distance program and now students meet in online classrooms several times a week for colloquia.  Before, I participated in conference calls and they were great but I think this will be even better.  I will be doing a lot of writing and I will post some of my work here.

It may take me 12 years but I will get a degree from GWU and then I'll enroll in the masters program.  While I'm in the early years of raising my children I just have to squeeze in a class here and there as I can.  When my children are older I will devote more time to school.   I know, I know, life just gets busier.  This will require that I say "no" to a lot of things.  I have to make space in my life for this.  I know I need this education to fulfill my mission.  And, I think this is the best way for me to inspire my children to begin their own scholar phase.  The 2 semesters I've already done were some of the most life-changing and inspiring experiences of my life.  It is really hard work and heavy reading but it's worth the effort.  Until you've experienced having a mentor, you can't know what a difference that makes in the educational process and I know of no other university that uses the mentor model to help students get a leadership education.

Yea for George Wythe University!

No we are not crazy

My husband and I learned this week that we’re going to have another baby!  I know we sound crazy.  The twins birth mother is pregnant and would like us to adopt the baby.  We discussed and prayed, and pondered all week and we know this baby is supposed to be in our family.  We are thrilled.  I always wanted a large family but didn't think it would be possible for us.  Not sure when baby's coming exactly but probably 6 or 7 months if all goes well.  The twins will be not quite 2.  I will have some good stories to tell.  

So I’ve been thinking a lot about motherhood this week.  Today I was listening to a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” (by Adele, really great!) and the lyrics describe how I feel about my children really well. I suspect many mothers would feel the same.  There is something there that especially speaks to the journey adoptive parents take.

"Make You Feel My Love"

When the rain is blowin' in your face

And the whole world is on your case

I could offer you a warm embrace

To make you feel my love.

When the evening shadows and the stars appear

And there is no one there to dry your tears

I could hold you for a million years

To make you feel my love.

I know you haven't made your mind up yet

But I would never do you wrong

I've known it from the moment that we met

No doubt in my mind where you belong.

I'd go hungry, I'd go black and blue

I'd go crawlin' down the avenue

No, there's nothin' that I wouldn't do

To make you feel my love.

Though storms are raging on the rollin' sea

And on the highway of regrets

Though winds of change are throwing wild and free

You ain't seen nothin' like me yet.

I could make you happy, make your dreams come true

Nothing that I wouldn't do

Go to the ends of the Earth for you

To make you feel my love.

It also reminds me of a passage from The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett, which I recently read.  One of the main characters, Dickon, a 12-year-old boy, befriends two motherless 10-year-old cousins, Colin and Mary.  Dickon’s mother, Susan Sowerby, is the archetypal loving, gentle, understanding mother.  Colin finally meets her one day and when it’s time to say goodbye he

“stood quite close to Susan and fixed his eyes on her with a kind of bewildered adoration and he suddenly caught hold of the fold of her blue cloak and held it fast. 

‘You were just what I—what I wanted,’ he said.  ‘I wish you were my mother—as well as Dickon’s!’

“All at once Susan Sowerby bent down and drew him with her warm arms close against the bosom under the blue cloak—as if he had been Dickon’s brother.  The quick mist swept over her eyes.

‘Eh! Dear lad!’ she said.  ‘Thy own mother’s in this ‘ere very garden, I do believe.  She couldna’ keep out of it.’”

I can’t read that passage without choking up.  I’d love and mother all the motherless children in the world if it were possible.  My husband is afraid I might try.

Thanks Juli, for helping me connect all these dots.

Day at Greenlake

We went with our homeschool group, Little Acorns, to Greenlake today.  We're having very weird weather in the Seattle area this year.  It's Feb 19 and there were crocuses and daffodils in bloom at Greenlake today.  It was cold enough to want a jacket but the sun was bright, the sky was clear, and we got lots of vitamin D.  It was beautiful.  Chloe and Liam crawled on grass, ate dead leaves, and swung in a swing for the first time today.  We will definitely go back soon.

Food: Fast, Good, or Cheap

I used to work at and advertising agency and our clients always wanted the work we did to be fast, good, and cheap.  We used to tell them, “you can have it fast and good, or you can have it good and cheap, or you can have it fast and cheap but you can’t have it fast, good, and cheap.”  I believe it’s true with everything in life. 

Most of our food today is fast and cheap so what does that say about its quality?  It’s not good!  And it’s killing us.  I’ve recently watched 3 documentaries that have really reinforced this:

Super Size Me

Food Inc.

King Corn

You can watch Super Size Me on hulu.com for free.  If you have a Netflix account you can watch Food Inc. and King Corn on Netflix streaming. You can rent them from itunes.com too.

I knew a lot of the things I saw in these films but seeing it all on screen gave me the extra motivation to make more changes in the way my family eats, now.  I can’t bear to support such a corrupt system and I’m very concerned about losing our freedom. And I want to eat good food.

If you want good food you’ll have to decide if you’re going to pay for it with time or money. 

If you need it fast and convenient, you’ll have to pay for it with money.  My family does this by purchasing our produce from a local CSA, Klesick Family Farm.  It is definitely more expensive than typical grocery store produce but it is organic, sustainably produced and it is really, really good.  Google CSA in your town to find some alternatives to the grocery store in your area.  I received my first order this week from a local, online, home delivery, grocery store, Spud.com.  More than 50% of their products are locally produced and 50% of them are organic.  It is a lot more expensive than the grocery store.  I have to rewire my thinking on this.  Yes I could get triple the stuff for the same amount of money at the grocery store but it won’t be good and do I really need that much food?  We suffer from overabundance.  Most of us eat too much.  Paying more for my food means I buy less, making me appreciate it more and it’s difficult to overeat.  If you want good, fast, food you’ll probably have to stop buying something else so you’ll have more money for good food.  As you begin to eat better you’ll notice you don’t have to spend as much money on medicine and doctor’s.  I’ve discovered I can give up foundation (make-up) if I eat good lettuce regularly.  (I swear it makes my complexion smooth and blemish free!)  I’m sure there are more ways that eating well can pay for itself.  Check out the Eat Well Guide for more alternatives to the grocery store.

If you want your food cheap, you’ll have to pay for it with time.  You’ll need to plant a garden and learn to save and store food.  You may want to start raising some chickens, bees, goats, or cows.  You’ll need a big freezer.  Learn to bake and cook.  If it can’t be made at home you probably shouldn’t be eating it anyway. Check out the Slow Food Movement.

My family does some of this and I hope to eventually produce or trade for all of our own food.  I have experimented with bread baking but I don’t have a wheat grinder and I want whole wheat bread.  I’m working on an arrangement with one of my friends to buy homemade bread from her.  I hope to begin making homemade pasta and salad dressing and then I’ll offer to trade or sell it to my friends.  One of my friends is going to start raising chickens and keep bees and I will be able to buy eggs and honey from her. 

It’s important to me to feed my family good food so I’m paying for it with time and money.  What will you do?

Here is some more food for thought.  I haven’t read most of these yet but I plan too.

Nourishing Traditions

The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live It

The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book

The Farmer's Wife Guide To Growing A Great Garden And Eating From It, Too!: Storing, Freezing, and Cooking Your Own Vegetables

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables

Keeping the Harvest

Putting Food By

Making Your Small Farm Profitable

The Encyclopedia of Country Living

Square Food Gardening

Cooking Light Recipes

As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my favorite cookbooks is Cooking Light: Salads.  You can get most of the recipes on line.  Here are links to some of my favorites:


Cuban Beans and Rice

Greek Dinner Salad

Barley Pasta Salad 

Curried Couscous salad with Dried Cranberries 

White Bean and Roasted Chicken Salad 

Summer Garden and Lentil Salad

Here's another salad recipe we make for dinner in the summer.  I adapted it from a recipe in Shape Magazine.  I've played with the proportions and you can too.  Add more of what you like, less of what you don't.

Couscous, Tomato and Basil Salad

1 cup whole wheat couscous

2 cups very warm water

1 cup frozen or fresh peas

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, diced or 1 fresh tomato, diced

1/2 cup feta cheese

2 T fresh basil, chopped or julienned

Olive Oil

Mix the couscous and water together, cover and let sit for 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork and add peas, tomatoes, cheese, and basil.  Season with olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste.  

Alternative preparation:  Mix all ingredients together, cover and chill in the fridge overnight.  The water doesn't need to be warm for this and there is no need to defrost the peas either.  The flavors will meld better and you serve it cold instead of warm. 

Favorite Chapter Books for Young Children

My oldest daughter, Isabel, is 6.  Over the last two years she’s really begun to enjoy listening to me read chapter books to her.  During the day it’s just the two of us and most evenings we read with Dad too.  Before moving into chapter books we spent years reading hundreds and hundreds of picture books, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales.  We still read these.

The good books we have read have had a powerful influence on Isabel (and me too!).  I see her being inspired by favorite characters to try new things and behave in better ways.  We’ve had many sweet discussions over these books.  Her daily play is usually based on one of our current novels.  I love the effect reading these books has had on her.  Every child has different interests and attention span so I would expect them to all like different books at different times of their lives.  But, for what it’s worth, I thought I’d share Isabel’s favorite chapter books and how old she was when she was able to truly enjoy them.  

Often, after I read a book to her, I then get it on audio from the library and she loves to listen to them over and over.  I like to re-read them with her too but there’s something about listening to the book in her room while she plays with her toys that’s different than when I read to her.  There have been a handful of books that she didn’t love the first time I read them to her but after listening to them on her own, she fell in love with them.  Then, we re-read the books together and it was a totally different and better experience.  I've also learned that great illustrations are important to her--they keep her engaged and interested.  I wish I had realized this before I bought many cheap books without illustrations. 

We’ve read lots of great books that aren’t on this list but I wanted to share just our very favorites, things I think every child should have read to them at some point.  And to reiterate, I’m not suggesting the age that Isabel enjoyed something will or should apply to any other child, but it might be helpful to see which books are easier to start with versus those that were harder for her.  We’ve tried lots of books, found them beyond her interest/comprehension and waited and then tried again and found her finally ready for them.  There’s a long list of books I can’t wait to read with her that she’s just not ready for yet.  So here are our favorite chapter books from the last 2 years.  My specific reviews of the books can be found on my goodreads.com bookshelf.

                                                                 

Little House in the Big Woods, 4                       

Little House on the Prairie,  4           

Farmer Boy,  4           

On the Banks of Plumb Creek, 6

By the Shores of Silver Lake, 6           

The Long Winter, 6                       

Little Town on the Prairie,  6           

These Happy Golden Years, 6           

The First Four Years, 6           

The Secret Garden, 5           

Charlotte’s Web, 4           

Trumpet of the Swan, 5           

The Magician’s Nephew, 6           

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, 6          

The Horse and His Boy, 6

Prince Caspian, 6           

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, 6           

The Silver Chair, 6           

The Last Battle, 6           

What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know, 5             

A Christmas Carol, 6           

Dinotopia, 6

Winnie the Pooh, 5

The House at Pooh Corner, 5

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, 5

The Wind in the Willows, 6

Alice in Wonderland, 6

Alice’s Adventures Through the Looking Glass, 6

Bible and other Scriptures, 5

Pictures of the Kids

Chloe loves to kiss Liam.  He seems to like being kissed.Belle loves to read and color in "Mommy's Chair"

I love Chloe's profile.

We use gates often to keep the twins out of the kitchen.  This is what Chloe thinks of gates.Isabel likes to put Chloe in tiny spaces to see if she will fit.  Yep, Chloe fits in a small plastic bin, with some toys.  Isn't that cute they way Liam is reaching for Chloe?I guess we misjudged his intentions.  Wollops aren't so cute.Finally put the dollhouse together that Isabel got from Grandma and Grandpa for Christmas, a year ago.  Forgive us, we had a busy year ;)  Thankfully Isabel did.  She was very patient.