Picture Update

Here is just an overdue picture update, with a couple of short videos thrown in at the end...

Seriously, does it get any cuter?

The neighbors behind us are getting a pool put in. So, Jake decided he needed a front row seat to watch the cement truck.

Preparing for Easter - Our Passover Dinner and Communion (The kids think that getting to drink grape juice is pretty much the best part of the whole thing.)

If it seems to you as if Tate is always in the same clothes, well, you are right about that. I bought three sets of the same "sleeper" (or, in our case, the "24 hour a day-er"), and I pretty much just rotate him between the three. I do at least have two different colors though. They are soft, comfy, organic cotton that I got for a good price at Costco, and I figure, "Why wear anything else?" Don't expect to see a change anytime soon either because I bought them in the next size up as well!

Pretty Girl

Jake and Addi continue to smother Tate every chance they get, but he handles it pretty well most of the time.

Our family room has been converted into a giant fort that the kids created. They are sleeping in it for the second time tonight, but...it's coming down tomorrow. All good things must come to and end.

Easter service at the Fairgrounds

Thought you might enjoy seeing the back of my head. Ha! Addi was the cameraman here, but at least you can hear the giggles. Maybe it's just me, but I seriously cannot get enough of those giggles.

Take Me Away!

I'm sure that nobody will actually read this post, but I can't help it...I have to get this off my chest...

If you know me, you know that I am not any sort of activist or politician. Conflict makes me uncomfortable and I avoid it like the plague, and when it comes to politics, I could hardly give you the names of the people running for President. That does not mean that I don't feel strongly about things and have some extreme convictions. I just don't expect that my convictions are going to change anybody else's mind, and I don't usually attempt to. Because much of what we do is not the mainstream way of doing things though, people sometimes think we're crazy and often times have no problem telling us so. Fortunately, I am not very easily offended. I do wish though that people actually understood why we do some of the things we do. Most importantly, I want people to share our faith because I want salvation for them. On a smaller scale, I want them to know what we know regarding food and health because I want to help them improve their quality of life. I would love for people to understand better why we homeschool and that it is not because we refuse to expose our children to other viewpoints. As long as I am free to make the choices for my family that I know are best though, I usually don't try to "fix" anybody else's thinking (until they specifically ask for my advice...then they might not get me to shut up).

However, if I feel that my children and my family are threatened in any way, that's when I will be up in arms. And I am feeling threatened. I continue to hear stories of parental rights being taken away time and time again - a family in court fighting against being forced to give their son additional rounds of chemotherapy, despite the fact that his cancer is in full remission; parents whose newborn was taken from them by a social worker when they refused the Hep B vaccine at birth (even though it is perfectly legal to refuse the vaccine), and given the vaccine against their wishes; a father who was arrested and spent the night in jail for "trespassing" because he would not leave his KINDERGARTNER'S school until someone would speak to him about being notified in advance when sexual material was going to be taught in the KINDERGARTEN classroom so that he could opt his child out of that material. The ruling was upheld in court and those parents were denied the right to opt their child out of material that they found offensive, or even to be notified. I am sickened when I hear about more and more of these stories and realize that we are losing the right to raise our children how we feel is right. The government is gradually taking that away from us.

In California, a bill has already been signed that allows medical professionals the right to give pre-teens the Gardasil vaccine without parental consent (a vaccine that has done serious damage to a lot of young women). Now, a bill has been introduced in California (AB2109) that, if passed, would require parents to obtain the signature of an MD or nurse (not a chiropractor or naturopath) before exercising their philosophical exemption to opt out of vaccinations for their children. Of course, we never hear about the results that show that unvaccinated children are healthier than vaccinated ones. There is too much money to be lost. In fact, those studies are rare because the drug industry certainly does not want to shed light on the fact that they are playing a role in our nation's health crisis and in things like the autism epidemic - up 78% in the last 10 years to 1 in 54 boys now, according to the CDC's most recent announcement. Instead, more and more vaccines continue to be added to the current crazy vaccine schedule. We are overloading our children with harmful substances that wreak havoc on their bodies and immune systems, and the pharmaceutical companies that make them don't care. It is all about the money. We actually have a very small-scale study going on right here in our own home as we have both vaccinated and unvaccinated children. And I can assure you, we would never go back to vaccinating again. I only wish that I had known 8 years ago the things that I know now. At the time though, I was naive enough to think that if doctors told me I should do something, I should do it. I had the freedom and the right, however, to make the decision that I thought was best for my children, whether that be to vaccinate or not. That right is now being threatened. I find it completely ludicrous that I am given the "right to choose" whether or not to take the life of an unborn child, but my right to choose how to care for the precious children I have been given is in jeopardy more and more.

Even my right to feed my children the way that I know is healthy is constantly at risk. The FDA has no problem if I want to feed them a steady diet of aspartame, msg, artificial colors, antifreeze, high fructose corn syrup, arsenic, and every chemical known to man...the typical American fare. Never mind that these things cause cancer, obesity, infertility, diabetes, etc.. The FDA has no real concern about dangerous foods though, and much of the "food" labeled safe by the FDA is not really even food but synthetic chemicals that more closely resemble plastics. But, if I want to feed my family an actual living, beneficial, healing food like raw milk, the way God has given it to us, they want to take away my freedom to choose to do that. Heaven forbid I support a small, local, organic farm and take money out of the pockets of companies like Monsanto - a company that is destroying our food supply and putting small farmers out of business who cannot afford to stand up to their unethical bullying. Of course, I can give my children drugs, vaccines, and medications that list pages of possible side effects and have unknown long-term effects, but they would like to take away my right to purchase supplements and vitamins. The FDA claims that if people think that the supplements are improving their health, they might not seek out the drugs that they really need.

"Products with unapproved disease claims are dangerous because they may cause consumers to delay or avoid legitimate treatments,” said Dara A. Corrigan, the FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs.

WHAT?!! This is insane. The truth is, if more and more people start wising up to the fact that drugs are killing them, and that whole foods and non-toxic living are making them healthy, where would the multi-billion dollar drug industry be?

The right to educate my own children is also continually threatened. Despite the fact that I know my children better than anyone else, love them more and are more concerned about their education than any teacher would be, and despite the fact that I can give them one-on-one attention and teach them according to their own learning styles, and despite the fact that studies show that homeschooled children consistently score "well above" their public school peers, the government is continually seeking some way to restrict or take that right away from me. After all, if my children don't fall in line on the "one-size-fits-all" conveyor belt of education, I might be more likely to produce children who actually think for themselves, and we certainly wouldn't want that.

My blood is at the boiling point and I feel helpless to do anything about it. I just want to disappear. I want to move out into the country, get ourselves a cow and some chickens and learn how to actually farm, and sustain ourselves with the food that God has given us in the way that He has given it to us...without that right being threatened. I want to educate my children the way I feel is best without that right being threatened. I want to be able to accept or refuse healthcare and vaccinations without that right being threatened. I heard Voddie Baucham, a pastor in Texas, once say, "I feel about my children the way I feel about my guns - the government can have them when they pry them from my cold, dead hands." I don't have any guns, but I agree with him on the sentiment. We will pick up our family and move to Nowhereville, Timbuktu, before we will give up our right to raise our children how we feel that God has called us to raise them.

Let's Eat!

Well, Tate is now 6 months old. Should I bother to mention that I really can't believe that he's already halfway to a year old, or is that pretty much a given? I haven't been in any hurry to start feeding him "solids," but now that he's 6 months, I figure it's about time. As you could probably guess though, I won't be following the current popular schedule for introducing foods to babies. We tend to do most things differently around here, from the way we eat, to the way we educate our kids, to our approach to health, to (hopefully) the way we live and spend our money. So, all that to say, no rice cereal for this kid! It's not a good first food, despite what we are usually told. Grains are difficult for anyone to digest when not properly prepared, and especially for babies. So, it's a nutrient rich diet of egg yolks and bananas for Tate's first foods! And so far, he's lovin' it!

Smarty Pants

There is no denying that our little Addi girl is one smart cookie. Just like with Jake, I never really did much to teach her how to read, outside of constantly reading to her, but she has become quite an amazing reader at 5 years old. I honestly believe that reading is a developmental thing that kids will just get when they are ready, and it really doesn't matter much when a child starts reading (as long as they eventually start reading). I wouldn't even mention it on here except that this is the only place that I record things about the kids, and I want to remember when they accomplish certain things. She has started devouring books and absolutely blows me away at what she can read. She doesn't hesitate or have to sound words out - she just reads. She has been getting into American Girl lately and received the 6 book set of the American Girl, Josefina, for Christmas. Those books are probably at about a 3rd grade reading level, and I thought that we would read through them together. Nope. She whizzed through them on her own and finished them up shortly after receiving them. When she told some friends of ours that she was reading them, they were convinced that she couldn't possibly be comprehending what she was reading...so she told them exactly what was happening in the stories. She can be quite a talker when she gets going, not leaving out any details, and I'm pretty sure that they were sorry they asked. They then proceeded to ask me again when in the world I was going to put the kids in school (you know, since they're obviously falling so far behind at home! :)). Go figure.

One Cute Kid

I told Jay today that I'm quite certain that this little munchkin is never going to frustrate us or cause us any grief (Ha!). He's just too darn cute...

For some reason, he decided that he did not want his feet in the water!

Lounging

(Jay is not a fan of naked baby pictures, but hopefully this one is tame enough and, again, just too cute not to post. If it's deleted tomorrow though, you'll know why.)

Check out those rolls!

Have I mentioned that I kind of like this kid? :)

(Update on the sleep situation: He has greatly improved over the last couple of weeks in the sleep department. He is now going about 9-10 hours at night fairly consistently. So things are looking up!)

Touchdown!

Jake has been dying to play football on a team, so we signed him up for flag football through our community recreation department. It is only a 7 week commitment, with "games" immediately following practices on Saturday mornings. Jake's first practice/game was this past Saturday. It is just designed to introduce kids to the sport, so there is no score kept and nobody takes it too seriously...unless of course you count the coach's older son, who is probably 10 or so, and takes his role as assistant very seriously. The entire time on Saturday, he was out on the field shouting things to the team like, "I wanna see some flags pulled." Or (Jay's personal favorite), "Contain him. Get him to the middle and then sandwich him!" I'm serious. The entire time. Here he is giving Jake some pointers.

Jake had a great time, as he does anytime he can just be rowdy and physical with a group of boys. Here he is running for a touchdown, but alas, he still has trouble staying on his feet...

More successful second attempt...Woohoo! Touchdown!

And, as always, our ever-faithful fans coming to cheer Jake on...

Creativity in Action

I will admit that our kids have a lot of unstructured time. I am not a believer in the over-scheduling of children and carting them off from one activity to another. It seems like the typical family anymore just goes from one thing to the next. It's very normal for the parents to always have to split themselves between the kids and go from soccer to baseball to karate to dance to boy scouts and on and on. The kids hardly have time to get home and grab a bite to eat before heading out to the next scheduled activity, if they even eat at home at all. Then, after all that, they come home and have to do their homework. I don't think that any of those activities are bad in and of themselves, but I also don't believe in the benefit of having so much going on at one time all the time. There are several reasons why I'm not a fan of it, but the one that comes to mind right now is that I don't think that kids have enough opportunities to be bored...and, therefore, to be creative. I don't mean that it's good for kids to sit around saying that they don't have anything to do. I mean that when they don't have anything to do, that's when they use their imaginations and come up with amazing things.

Jake and Addi are constantly coming up with new games to play and new things to do...things that I shake my head at and wonder where in the world they possibly got the idea. The majority of our time is spent at home, but they don't have TV to watch and hardly any computer time, so they really don't have a choice but to be creative. They argue a lot in the process, but they also have a great time together. This afternoon, they decided that they were going to try to create invisible ink using lemons and I'm not sure what else. This then turned into them attempting to create natural dyes (their words, not mine) from flowers and plants and anything they could find in nature. They kept running in and out of the house getting hot water and various "tools" to pound up their flowers and create their dye. The next thing I knew they were finding old t-shirts to dye, white yarn, and whatever else they could come up with that they thought I would allow them to use. This went on for at least a couple of hours and the whole time they were laughing, creating, and having a great time together. They would never get the opportunity to do things like that though if we constantly had places to be, and they would miss out on what I think is such an important part of childhood.

Here are a few snapshots of their creative afternoon...