Stop And Smell Your Kids

Another year has come and is leaving just as quickly as it came.  It's bittersweet to watch my baby grow.  In 2 short months she will be 10 years old.

I saw this book called, "Stop And Smell Your Children"  I chuckled a bit at the visual that flashed through my mind. While I know nothing about the author or the book itself, I totally got the title.  

We all need to be challenged to savor every moment with our kids.  Thank God there is today handed to us.  One more day to do better.   

Though we've found ourselves taking a little vacation from "learning" for the Holidays, it's hard to change a lifestyle of learning.  We've found ourselves itching for new information. We've ridden up and down the gold mirrored elevator of our town's Historical library twice this past week to visit the vibrantly painted basement where all the children's books are tucked away orderly.  Built in 1912 and classically styled from that era, the library reflects all the things Katie.  The architectural touches and craftsmanship tell the story of a lifestyle long passed that puts a sparkle of wonder and amazement in that little girl's eyes every time she opens the towering wooden doors.  The books are full of adventures waiting to be had.  As I watch her light up, I wonder how in the world I've been given such a gem.  We breathe a sigh of relief when we see the familiar faces of the librarians greeting our arrival.  It's comforting to be in a place where learning is embraced and accepted no matter one's path.

  

She tells them hi and skips along straight for the bookshelf full of Hank The Cowdog books.  It's more than just an entertaining series of adventures to her, it's a legacy passed down from Daddy.  She'll move onto browse the animal breed and behavior books.  Occasionally she'll chose something artsy.  A good science read is rarely overlooked. She always feels like there is just not enough in her stack as she hands the books over to the librarian to be checked out.  While she scans the books, they will chat about her animals and the upcoming town events.  The librarian will tip her off to a good horse training book and she will take interest wishing she had just one more spot open. 

When I look at her, I see big things in her future.  When I reflect over the last almost 5 years of homeschooling, I think of all the moments I would have missed.  At the time I made the decision to homeschool, it seemed like a great sacrifice to be giving of my wants and freedoms.  Could I have ever predicted that it would've been one of the greatest pleasures of my lifetime?  Not in a million years!   

Katie picking corn 

Busy Writer

We've all heard of writers block.  

We are not suffering from that.  It's more like a writer's too busy! 

My head is still spinning from all the changes going on around here. We've been milking our sheep and making delicious smelling soaps from the milk. Of course-drinking some too!  Katie has impressive milking skills!  

Sheep milk 

Sheep Milk, Oatmeal, and Honey soap 

Dare To Be Different

Spring is over!  Since Texas summer brings 100 degree weather, we find it best to utilize every bit of cool daylight in the spring to accomplish big projects. We sure have been busy and find ourselves slowing down a bit for the summer.

So here I am, writing about homesteading once again on the homeschool blog.  It's a part of our lives.  All of us have recently developed an interest in self sufficiency all at once. All in different ways.  It's nice to have one goal as a family but also have different ideas and hands contributing to make it all work together.

Katie's animal kingdom has been growing.  For an inspiring veterinarian, this is what life is about for her. She has much excitement she would like to share about her life as a homeschooler!

Who says misspelled words are all that bad?

Spell check?  It's for the birds and computer nerds. Bring on the misspellings! (and run ons!)

How boring it must be for a teacher to take her work home to grade only to see these funny misspelled words, giggle to herself, and then pass the paper out to the children the next day.  

I am fortunate.  During the grading I call Katie and read it to her exactly as she spelled it.  

Today's word was "tharfor".  

I put on my best pirate voice. I said, "Arrrrg me Katie.  Come to me.  Be ye tharfor arrrrrrrg merciful...."   She erupts in laughter.  

Blog-anima-travel-tography

I call this bloganimatraveltogrophy because I plan to cram all of the latest and greatest into one post. We have picked up so many new hobbies and activites around here since I last blogged about the birth of our puppies! Hence why we haven't blogged.  Too many activities, too little time.  

Speaking of the puppy litter, they have all gone to great homes and are thriving well.   We get monthly updates.   

Ok, back to the subjects. 

Blog-because we are bloggin'. :)  

Anima- is for animal.  We've picked up more. What?! Yuh-huh.  

Travel- says it all.  We took a trip to across the South.  

Tography- is for photography. Yes, we are doing photography now.  Not well, but we sure are trying.   

Make sense now? Ok.  

So let us give you an update.  

Since the last blog about the puppies, we got 2 blackhead dorper sheep.  A female lamb and a male lamb.  Just so happens ours sheep were already named- Patricia and Patrick.  Patrick and Patricia were both bottle raised by our good friends the Rodriguez's.  I don't know why anyone would want to leave Texas, but they did.  They left Texas to go back to Cali. and had to leave their sheep in good ole' Texas hands.  (We don't hold it against them.)  I would proudly admit that was our good ole' Texas hands if tragedy has not struck on Patrick.     

Patrick and Patricia 

Our poor stock dogs had never actually been around stock before the sheep arrived.  Some people say it's instinct for them.  I'm not really experienced enough to comment.  It's a known fact that herding dogs should never be left unattended around the herd.  Which was our intention.  We were slowly introducing them supervised and weren't getting anywhere with our female heeler, Sissy.  She has been stubborn since the day she was born!  Our male heeler was proving to be gentle and effective.  Even though our female wasn't, we were still determined to keep on persisting with her.  But one day our female heeler houdini-ed her way out to the sheep when we were gone.  In short, she attacked Patrick, resulting in his death.  So needless to say, we are now down one sheep and one dog.  

Oh, we always learn lessons the hard way.  The awesome thing about owning new animals is we are forced to learn about them.  We have to learn behaviors and how to care for them.  It's so much more interesting to Katie to open a book and learn about something she is actually touching outside her back door.  I find her teaching our 30 something year old city friends about when to shear a sheep or how to raise chickens! Our friend's 16 year old daughter Emily does that to me too. She always shows me up or teaches me something new!  Dang it!  I stopped calling the vet, and just call Emily.  

So since we were down one dog, we ended up keeping one of her pups.  Not for that reason but it turned out that way.  They let me name her this time.  Lola is her name.  We like her. 

Lola 

So after that happened, we gained a 6 month old AKC female German Shepherd puppy named Pepper.  We weren't looking to own a German Shepherd and we didn't even know she was full blood when we agreed to take her off some guy's hands.  He was ready to dump her off for tearing up his property.  It was really a compassion thing with an added bonus.  Added bonus because she is a great dog! We don't know what all the fuss was about because, so far, she is a really great non-destructive dog.  She has fit in so well that she is mingling with our other dogs now full time.  We plan to breed her in the future.  

Pepper. It is hard to get a good pic of her.  She is fast! 

Now on to the travel.  We traveled 8 states in a total of 8 days.  Well 9 states if you count Texas.  We went through pretty Arkansas on through Grand Ole Opry-land to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.  Then on to our short stop in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina to visit my Mother in Law and family.  Katie took a shopping trip in Mimi's purse closet, visited a friend's cattle farm, and spent some time with her Great Grandmother.  It's always hard to leave.  

Katie on her Mimi and Papa's land in North Carolina headed back from the river

From North Carolina we took a Short drive through South Carolina onto our destination, Georgia, where we met up with my sister and her family.  We all piled into my Dad's house on an airbeds to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  One of the best parts about that trip was getting to see the places my father and his father built with their hands. 

From left to right: My sister Kelly, My Dad, Me, and Katie in front.  Standing in front of the church my Dad and his Dad built many years ago. 

Still has the original stained windows 

I learned that my Grandfather was a Baptist Preacher at this church and never took any money from the congregation to pastor.  

Also, we visited my mother's house she lived in as a child.  And the house one of my sister's was born in.  It was a modest home but my grandfather provided it for them as a young couple.

Here's the house my Dad and Mom first lived in together.  It's blurry because it was a bad neighborhood and we were driving fast! 

   

I visited my Grandpa and Grandma that I haven't seen since I was 15 years old.  

He says her kisses are so sweet that she's going to give him diabetes. :) 

Katie hugging her Great Grandpa with cousins all around 

Of course, there is my crazy mountain redneck Uncle Tommy that I could just put in my bag and take home with me. Don't let the smile fool you, there's mischief in that grin.   

Katie and her 2nd cousin Jayce 

 I learned a ton about my family history.  I shoulda taken notes! 

Mom's side of family from left: My great grandmother, my great great grandmother (and her dog), My great great grandfather, my great aunt, my biological grandmother.  Top row: My great uncle, my grandfather (he's the one in the other pic kissing his woman), Great uncle in law Wayne, and My great grandfather.  All have passed except my grandfather and great aunt.   

We visited Amicalola Falls in the North Georgia mountains and stayed in a cabin with my sister and family over night.  

Me, Katie, Jude, and Seth at the falls. 

My manly bearded sweetheart and I 

On our way home, we stopped in Alabama at Tannehill Historical State Park and picked up some handmade pottery.  Then on to Poverty Point, LA where it is said an ancient tribe lived.  That was a good homeschool field trip filled with controversial questions! ex: "If a tribe lived there, why didn't they find any bones?"  ahhh a mystery. 

Katie on the mounds Poverty Point LA 

Then of course, we did what all rednecks would do and stopped by the Duck Commander Warehouse in West Monroe, LA to check things out.  

Now the photography,  My husband bought me a nice camera for Christmas.  Since I was a jerk and ruined my surprise, I got my gift early. Bonus! Which meant I was able to take Christmas pics! 

Here's some pic's we've been snapping:

Friend Kate 

Patricia 

Mint in our garden

Katie's photography: 

And that's the latest and greatest! 

New Year, New Goals

I've been slacking in the slacking department.  That's when you know it's bad. ;)

For my sake, we will call it re-prioritizing.  So here I am again, attempting to write about something that has inspired me.      

So it's confessional time here.  I despise the whole idea of new years goals.  It's like an addict setting a date of recovery.  Why not do it now?  But since it's new years and I had an epiphany on Tuesday, that's what we will call it.  

Let me take you back to Sunday so we can get to Tuesday's enlightenment.  Sunday's best clothing. Sitting on the church pew.  Little legs wiggling.  I'm listening to the preachers topic.  It goes as follows: "Beware lest any man spoil you through vain philosophy and deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Colossians 2:8.    

What does that mean? The Pastor used an example.  I will paraphrase.  He said,  "I sat in the house of a young man.  As his wife drove away, he buried his face in his hands.  When he made a vow to be with her forever, he didn't give up on it.  But his wife bought into the vain philosophy that life was all about her happiness."

How many of us have been there? Maybe not in this young man situation particularly, but have put our own happiness above doing the right thing?  

I have. 

Or maybe buying into the traditions and ideas of others that are opposing what God asks of us?  

I have.  I do.  

That's why I call this confessional time. Maybe I should rename the title.  Anyway, some days I buy into the vain philosophies the world has.  To name one, the philosophies about grades and education.  Slowly, day by day, I stop focusing on learning.  And slowly I begin to focus on grades and how many pages of what subjects were done.  Or can she pass the test? I can get my red pen out and slash away at mistakes and loose my child's heart. Or equally terrible, her love of learning.   

It's a come to Jesus moment here. 

Remembering that I don't remember hardly a thing of what I learned in school, I considered where we were going.  Is the end goal getting a certificate?  If that's my goal for Katie, then I have tunnel vision.  

The truth is here that I am a high school drop out.  Dropped out in 11th grade.  Got my GED.  In talking with high school graduates and even college graduates, I am not alone.  They have forgotten calculus, algebra, even fractions.  I don't remember history.  Never learned politics.  Don't care about Geography really.    

It's not about what I know.  It's about finding what I need to know to teach her.  

Homeschooling is a challenge, it doesn't come naturally for me.  It doesn't bring happiness some days.  But I am in it for the long run.  

People say, "Oh you're little girl is so sweet, God blessed you with a little child who's just so sweet. I could never homeschool my kids.  They aren't sweet.  I love my kids but they would drive me crazy." That's a compliment to us.  Of course, she's not perfect.  But the truth is really that yes, she is sweet. But it's not because she was born that way.  2's and even 3's were challenging.  There were days I wanted to be anyone but a mom because I didn't like the person she was becoming.  

My husband and I have spent our time teaching her what it means to be a person that is to be enjoyed.  Not purposefully.  But by habit.  We laugh at the jokes that are funny, and rebuke the tacky ridiculous jokes. But that only works if your children want to please you.  And they will only want to please you if you have won their favor.     

It's a good thing to win the favor of your child.  But a bad thing too!  And I say bad in my case because I am half the woman I should be.  And if she wants to be like me, God has a lot of work to do in my life.  But don't think for one minute that I don't take that seriously.  Somedays I spend the majority of my day admitting my faults and asking her to hold me accountable to changing them.  One day she slipped me a scripture about "keeping those things which we have committed."  I thank her for the reminders. Everyday I see her pick up my bad habits, I pray to God for grace to change myself for her sake.   

Can we win the hearts of our children by commanding them to do so many pages a day or requiring certain grades out of them?  No.  We just put an traditional image on them to be upheld. One could say grades are the evidence of what they have learned.  Sure, temporarily.  But come review time, they don't remember some random subject they were never interested in to begin with.  It's a filling up of precious time that can't be regained with useless information they will never remember.  Anyone relate?   

So here we are on Tuesday now.  I am reading a book complied by a bunch of older women who have homeschooled their children that did not have the luxury of a curriculum.  They paved the way for us modern day homeschoolers by fighting the law tooth and nail to have daytime custody of their children.  They didn't have someone telling them how to school their little ones.  Just a Bible and conviction in their hearts.  They learned quickly what they did wrong and things they did right. And one of the women said, "I asked my children often, 'What are you going to do with this life God gave you?'"

So here goes.  I said to Katie, "What are you going to do with this life God gave you?" 

Her response, "What does that have to do with playing?" 

Yikes.  I'm a failure! 

I said, "Nothing," and I repeated the question again. 

There is wisdom with the words that woman spoke because Katie's vision for the future begins to come out. She starts dreaming.  Inspiration is bubbling, I could see it in those big eyes as they lit up.  She's no longer focused on the temporal playing but her mind is drifting and imagination is churning in that sweet little head.  The mouth starts spewing her thoughts. So this led me to question how I can get her to that dream.  What will she need to know?  That question turns into a "school day" of learning about Syria.  I didn't know where Syria was at first.  Didn't know about Paul loosing his sight on the road to Syria's capital (Damascus).  Didn't know that was the first place Paul preached Christianity.  We found so much information on Syria right on our home computer.  It has inspired her to pray for this country.  Which by the way, needs it! We learned it is history's longest inhabited area. That information started entering her brain and caused her to ponder why God says Damascus is destined to become 'a pile of ruinous heap' in the end times per Isaiah 17:1. She didn't understand why, if it's the first place Paul preached Christianity, is it that only 10% of the population is Christian and 74% Muslim.  How did that happen she asked? Questions lead to answers.  Answers require learning.  

 
Katie may not remember the facts about Syria as she gets older. She may find that God has a different plan for her life.  However, it is my job to help her arrive to wherever that may be.  To spark an interest in her heart to discover and learn.  If I could only dream as big as her!  

What are you going to do with this life God gave you?

My daughter Katie on left, our sweet friend Kate on the right.  

.     

"Syria is a horrible place to live right now because of the war with ISIS.  I wanted to learn about the continent of Asia and we chose Syria.  Syria is the area in Asia that is the most in need of our help.  Lots of kids there are getting injured because of the war.

I want to be a vet when I grow up.  I love animals and to me, that's all that matter.  Animals matter because, like cows, they give us food and milk.  Dogs and cats are good friends to people. And our sheep steps on our toes all day. :) She might give us a lamb if we get a ram.  I really love animals.  I don't know if I am going to have a farm when I grow up but right now, I really just love working with animals.  And I really like the cat Turkish Angora, it's pretty.  I know that one because I have a big cat book. I really do want to be a vet when I grow older but I am open to whatever God's plan is for me in my life." ~ Katie 8 years old