Camping, Again :)

Some people would say that we are gluttons for punishment. After a busy week of VBS, we loaded up the car for another weekend of camping! We went with our equally adventerous friends who have 2-year-old triplets (after raising 3 babies at once, I imagine camping doesn't even cause them pause). Despite the fact that the weather channel was predicting a warm, sunny weekend up until a few days before, it was actually raining and even thunderstorming most of Saturday morning. Regardless, we really had a good time, and were even grateful for the coolness that came with the rain, as a hot weekend would have been much more uncomfortable than a drizzly one. At one point, just after a burst of thunder and lightening, we all piled into our friends' minivan for about 30 minutes and let the kids watch a video. Other than that, the adults hung out under a huge canopy and the kids ran in and out of the drizzling rain carrying their little buckets, and loving the mix of dirt, rocks and water. When the rain let up, we went swimming at the little camp beach. My favorite part of the weekend was roasting and eating unlimited numbers of marshmellows/smores and talking until late in the night around the campfire. Sleep was sort of the exception, since we all stayed up to almost 1:00 am Friday night and our kids were up with the sun at 5:15. Saturday we were more tired so we crashed before midnight. (Our whole family took naps together after we got home from church on Sunday afternoon.)

I can't put my finger on exactly what I love so much about camping, but there is something special about being so much a part of the outdoors from the time you wake up in the morning until you go to sleep at night. In a weird way, I also love smelling like campfire smoke, having frizzy hair, not wearing make-up and NOT EVEN CARING how bad I look. It is very freeing to let go of the expected effort to be attractive, even just for a couple of days. Even though it is a lot of work getting there and there are moments why we wonder what we were thinking, I'm still sitting here the next day looking over the calendar for when we can go again!

The Pursuit of Happiness

Many, many times during my life, I have wished that I did not feel things so intensely. But that is how God made me, and unless he chooses to intervene, I imagine I will go to my grave vascillating between the heights and depths of strong emotion. This afternoon, I am grieving for someone that I don't even know. Her story was relayed to me by a close friend. It is not a new or surprising story; in fact it has been told many times before, but that does not diminish its pain for everyone involved. It is the story of a marriage destroyed by one person's belief that happiness is attainable by discarding his original life partner for a new one. My friend described to me the devastation that is occurring in this family, and I have spent some time reflecting on this all-too-common scenario.

I think the root of the problem is the belief that we are entitled to our hearts' desires. Most Christians would agree, at least in an intellectual conversation, that no person should have all or even most of his or her wants fulfilled. But when it comes right down to it, we are in the habit of self-gratification. When we want a new "toy", we scrounge up the money to buy it. Even if it takes a while, we still expect to get it eventually. The culture of our nation boasts that anybody can achieve and attain anything with the right combination of ambition and hard work. The Preamble to our Constitution describes the "pursuit of happiness" as an inalienable right. "You deserve it, so do what it takes to get it," seems to be the status quo.

Back to the family I mentioned in the beginning...in the midst of this culture of desire/strive/attain, it is no wonder that when confronted with the potency of mutual attraction, many people barely attempt to deny themselves. Even in the church, we lack a healthy dose of "I'm sorry, but no matter how much you want it, this may never be yours." Whether it is the desire for a career, a child, a status, a house, or a relationship, we often view its pursuit as good and respectable. We fail to realize that, sometimes, giving a desire to the Lord and accepting its indefinite unfulfillment is the higher calling.

Since I have been meditating on this weakness in our culture and in my own life, I am convicted of the importance of practicing self-denial as a spiritual discipline. I think restarting an old habit of regular fasting is a good place to start. I also want to amp up my efforts to teach my boys to handle unfulfilled desires on a daily basis. (They give me plenty of opportunity for this since it seems like I listen to a steady stream of requests from dawn to dusk.) I pray that the Lord will teach us all that He is the only one who can truly fulfill the longings of our heart.

Sorry for the sermonette, but every once in a while I cook one up, and since I'm a woman in the Church of Christ, this is my only preaching venue :)

Veggie Garden!

I'm so excited to finally have a garden...my first since I was a child. (My dad kept a pretty big garden and we ate fresh vegetables for many years when I was growing up.) The fact that we finally have one now is thanks to a friend who gave me a book called Square Foot Gardening. I read it cover-to-cover in a few days, and I couldn't wait to get started. The basic concept is that you plan your garden based on 1-foot-squares rather than the traditional rows, resulting in a much lower-maintenance garden, no wasted space, and just the right amount of harvest for your family. If you have any interest in gardening, but have been held back by space or time concerns, I really recommend this book.

I chose to go with a raised garden box on my deck. The deck gets plenty of sunlight, and there are very few bugs since it is a long way down to the yard and trees below. Also, the kids and I spend at least an hour out there every day, and so it doesn't require any change in our routine to water and maintain the garden.

Saturday was our marathon gardening day. I had already planned the dimensions, materials and location for the garden, so we started the day with a trip to Home Depot to buy the supplies (one of 3 trips that day). I bought the wood and had it cut, and then brought everything home for Marcus to build the box. While the kids napped, we put the 2'x8' box together and up on the posts. Mixing the soil in the raised garden was the most fun, especially because the kids got to participate. We "made" the soil based loosely on the formula in the book (combination of garden soil, peat moss, compost and sand). We opened bag after bag and mixed them together by hand. The kids loved being up to their elbows in dirt, and I have to admit Marcus and I had a lot of fun with it, too! We ended the day with baths and a final trip to Home Depot to buy some transplants (I'd already bought seeds). Sunday afternoon, we planted the garden. Now there is okra, broccoli, bell peppers, spinach, carrots, green beans, tomatoes, cilantro, basil, oregano, and best of all, strawberries, all growing on my deck! I am SO excited, and I will let you all know how the harvest turns out :)

Homeschooling--Part 2

In response to the comment on my "Homeschooling" post from a Mommy in California: "How do you get housework done?"

Before Ethan was born, I had no problem getting housework done because Caleb took a long afternoon nap every day and also went to bed at 7:00 pm every night. Then for the first couple of months after Ethan's arrival, I didn't do much in the house at all. One year ago, when Ethan was 2-months-old, we moved into a new house. At that time, I set up the cleaning rotation that I am still using now: I do one “major” housework item during naps every day…Monday is trash & dusting, Tuesday is cleaning all floors, Wed is deep-clean kitchen, Thu is bathrooms, Fri is laundry, and then I alternate through other needed jobs on the weekend. I also frequently get Caleb set up doing something like playing with play dough and then load the dishwasher or get the mail while he is playing. Grocery shopping, play dates, library trips and other errands are done in the morning during the hour or two before lunch, and I try not to go more than one place in a day. I do most of dinner preparation during afternoon nap and just add the heat before Daddy comes home. Cleaning up is done all throughout the day, because I'm the kind of person who is perpetually putting things away as I move through the house.

I shower and get ready for the day during Ethan’s morning nap while Caleb is watching his daily TV. And I usually have time either to lay down or read for about 30 minutes during afternoon naps as well. Also, we usually clean up the stuff from one activity before going to the next, and Caleb has to help. I do dinner dishes while Daddy is giving the boys their bath. No one attempts to straighten up the play room until just before Caleb goes to bed, and sometimes we just go to bed and leave all the toys out.

The only thing I feel bad about is that Ethan is just sort of absorbing things and is not being directly interacted with as much as I would like. The other downside is that my house is never completely clean (by nature of the rotation), but it is also never completely a mess :)

Thanks for your interest, Jessica!

Homeschooling

Those of you who know me well know that I have always been a big fan of homeschooling. I have known so many homeschooled kids who were mature beyond their years, well-grounded in their faith, and only minimally influenced by popular culture (even during their teenage years). On the other hand, Marcus has not known many homeschooling families and does not have strong feelings one way or the other. So we are both keeping an open mind, watching Caleb and Ethan, and regularly re-evaluating what type of education will be best for them. The decision for kindergarten will be largely based on what school options we have for Caleb, and the learning preferences and social needs that we observe in him at that time.

All that being said, I am a teacher at heart, and I have been "homeschooling" Caleb for over a year now. Each month, I make up a curriculum (adapted from the previous month). It is actually more a "play guide" than an academic curriculum, but it is very helpful to me because it helps me keep our play focused on constructive, learning-oriented activities. The frequent transitions helps avoid monotony, though I never interupt one thing to start another. When one activity is losing momentum, whether it's been 10 minutes or 45 minutes, I let that come to a close and we start something different. I check off everything we get to each day, though frequently a play date or an extra outing will cause us to skip one or two items each day. I stay very flexible with the routine, and we never follow the exact order all day. Everything is geared toward Caleb, but Ethan participates as much as he can, because he wants to do anything that Caleb is doing. (All of the below is in table form on my play room wall, but blogger won't take tables so it's in a list here.)

7:00 Devotional & Breakfast (read a Bible story, pray and practice memory verse)
7:30 Imaginary Play (story game, role playing with people/figurines)
8:00 ABC’s and Numbers (identify, count/sort items, phonics)
8:30 Critical Thinking (puzzles, board game, card game, science experiment)
9:00 Educational TV (Caleb watch video, often in Spanish; Ethan naps)

9:30 Creative Time (draw, color, paint, play dough, cut & glue paper)
10:00 Music (sing songs, listen to music, play toy instruments)

10:30 Read Books (3-5 picture books)
11:00 Errands & Lunch
1:00 Nap & Post-nap Snack
4:00 Outside Recreation (ride bike, walk, tumble, jump, dance, play outside)
4:30 Sports (throw, catch, kick, score goals, dribble, shoot, bat)

5:30 Dinner & Bath
6:30 Build w/ Daddy (Tinker Toys, train set, Duplos, blocks)
7:30 Help With a Chore (pick up toys, load dishwasher, cooking w/ Mama)

8:00 Books & Bedtime

I'm recording this for my own family record, and also in case any of you out there have a 3-year-old who you are trying to "homeschool" :) By the way, Mimi, that is a Highlights magazine that Caleb is looking at in the picture. He LOVES those things, and we read the whole thing from cover to cover every day for at least a week after it comes. Final disclaimer: you all should know that this whole thing went out the window for about three months after Ethan was born.