Plans...

(my babies and me this summer)

Making plans for a project I want to do. It is a very long term project, something that I hope would last my whole life. It could be big, it could be small. It all depends on me. Hoping to making it kind of big though. Plans for international involvement. I need to give myself some training first, however. No money for classes right now. Guess books and Youtube will be my best friends for a while.

I read Exodus 1:8-14 yesterday. Egypt had a new pharaoh, one that did not know Joseph. He convinced his people through propaganda that the Israelites meant to harm them. There were too many of them he thought. And so began Israel's slavery in Egypt. But the more Egypt persecuted them, the more their numbers grew. What Pharaoh meant for evil, God used for Israel's good. Gives you a better perspective on your trials doesn't it?

Unschooling

I am not going to send my babies to school outside the home. In no way do I condemn parents that choose to do so, but I believe it is Craig and my job as parents to lead our children to learn whatever it is that will make them successful in the life God has chosen for them. Most people would say I plan to homeschool my children. I use the word too, whenever I want a quick answer to the question of how I plan to get my babies educated. But what I want to do is so much more, and less, complicated than homeschooling (doing school at home). I plan to unschool my children.

You may have heard the word. Recently the unschooling movement has gotten pretty popular, especially with modern day hippies trying to stick-it-to-the-man. There are varying degrees of unschooling. On one side there are people who are basically homeschooling, just without a set curriculum, and on the other end there are parents who let their kids do whatever they want all day. I am somewhere in the middle.
It has always perplexed me why we tell our children they are special and unique and then expect them to get the very same education all the other children are getting. I reject that way of thinking. I know God has made my children unique, with their own set of interests and gifts. It is my job as a parent to lead my children in the pursuit of those interests and gifts.
In the preschool years its easy, just keep the tv off and plenty of craft supplies, books, play dough, and blocks nearby, oh, and spend a great deal of time outdoors. As they reach "school age" my job becomes a little harder. Starting off I will need to coax my babies into learning. After all what six year old little boy would rather practice writing the alphabet than play outside?

As the years go on my hope is that I will have exposed my children to such a large range of subjects that by their teens they have a pretty good understanding of the world around them and how they fit into it. By then, Lord willing, they will also be self educating and grow into adults that continue to learn throughout the rest of their lives.

More Slate Run...

A few days after our family went to Slate Run Farm, I went back with my babies, Mom and younger sisters. I love it there. I wish I had my own farm where I could grow my own food so I knew for sure where it came from and what was used to grow it.

I would love to work all day in the garden taking care of the plants that would be used to feed my family for the year. Enjoying fresh fruits and vegetables in the spring, summer, and fall and canning some for winter.

Chickens would roam free eating grass and bugs and getting good and healthy so we could in turn eat them and be healthy. I would have a huge amount of compost that pigs would turn and fill with all kinds of good bacteria and nutrients so that I could put it on my garden to make my plants grow even bigger. My cows would be grass fed, and I would not have to pay $6.99 a pound for hamburger, that would be nice.

Not entirely sure I would want sheep though, maybe a lamb or two just for the freezer. But I'll have to grow my own apple mint to make some jelly to go with them.

Dreams, Goals, Accomplishments...

(Craig took this picture when he went to Europe years ago. So pretty. It has always been a dream of mine to go to Europe.)


Craig and I talk about things we would like to do or accomplish all the time. Most of the time it is just talk. We have a good time dreaming together and then go back to leading our ordinary lives. We need to figure out what it is going to take to get us to actually do the things we talk about and make our dreams reality. Anyone have any experience in this area and would like to offer advice?

For example(s), we both want to be debt free and that is as simple (and hard) as having self-control/discipline. I want to teach homeschoolers Art History. Should I wait until I have my Bachelor's degree? Craig says I should sell audio lessons online...that's as simple as actually doing the research and putting a lesson together. I wish we could be self employed in some way, sell all our belongings, live in an RV and travel the country like the happy Janssen family (that is a little more difficult to pull off). We talk all the time. We are constantly coming up with new things we want to do, but have trouble just getting ordinary things done. Most of the time, the answer is to just do it. Why is it so hard?