Keeping it Clean Part 2

This part deals with the outside. All these photographs are from my house in the moment. I didn’t clean anything up for them. I think that it is important that we all see real houses that are used daily. We see the media images of clean, sterile looking houses that all the time. We need more real in our lives and isn’t that what blogging is all about.

Houses are for living in. Lives are for making the most out of!

The front door. It has a clear path and a welcome mat to get the dirt off your feet. There are usually toys around. Continue reading

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Keeping it Clean, Keeping it Real

One of my favorite tweeps, innerwizdom writes:

I’d love to hear about & see pics of child-directed life learners play spaces, see how others manage with children home all day & are full of creative work.
I want to rework our living space so that we can all work independently & creatively without a mess everywhere, especially where we eat.
can you tell me more about the areas? surfaces for puzzles, cards, Legos etc?

I took a few pictures and I will talk about what I do here at my house. My house is not Better Homes and Gardens ready mind you but it is comfortable and livable. We are able to be creative and others can even come in our house and feel good. Continue reading

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More Awesome

Yesterday I took Kopper and her friend Ivan to the bulk bins to shop. Why? Because I am awesome. Yep, being a part of Awesome Quest 2011 is really making life great. We got a huge cart full of cool stuff. A little something for everyone. I bought myself some much needed new threads. Zola is into putting together outfits now so I found her some things that are loved, Z has the clothes organized by color. A rainbow of clothes! Yesterday was a yellow flouncy skirt day with rainbow fish shirt. I should take daily pictures!

I sent Kopper and Ivan to Taco Bell when they got hungry and I had a few more minutes to look through bins. They walked to the SCA fighter practice down the street. That was disappointing because I wanted to go. I took a deep breath and let it go. It was ok.

We played outside past dark and had an almost sleepover (impromptu) with friends down the street. It didn’t work out so my kids came home. We will try again.

Talked to AG about guitar lessons and he said sure! So I will bug him until we get that started.

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Nature/Nurture

“Nature makes us who we are, and Nurture can only change how free we feel to be ourselves.”
~Vickie of Demand Euphoria

I have been thinking about this all morning. I read this on my twitter feed and it really struck me. It was perfect for where my thoughts are right now. I am actively working to accept my nature and to redefine how I relate to my nurturing. I am letting a lot of baggage go. These fears, this pain, they aren’t me. I am no longer letting them define me.

I know that naturally I am awesome and amazing and hella way rad. At some point the nurture went the wrong way, for me. I felt like I was wrong, that my thoughts, feeling, ideas, actions and who I am was wrong. I am going to move forward, re-write all those scripts. I will do it in bulk or one by one, if I have to. It is going to get done. I am going to be whole again. Continue reading

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Dismantling Roadblocks to Awesome

Weekly Challenge
When you’re on a Quest you’re bound to find bumps in the road and face challenges on your way. I’m going to try and post a weekly challenge here. You can choose to take on the challenge privately, you can talk about it in the group, or you can even ignore it if you don’t feel it applies to you.

Here is your first weekly challenge:

Part of being Awesome for me is pushing myself out of my comfort zone. My comfort zone sure is comfortable, but not terribly enjoyable. There are a lot of things I hold myself back from. How can you take a step out of that zone this week? What have you been holding yourself back from?
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All that awesomeness that I have been feeling last week is turning into panic. I have been having several attacks a day. I an not seeing much in the way of triggers so I am not sure how to overcome them. Not much to say about them but they suck.

My Comfort Zone is being rattled and shaken and tossed about. I am still trying to push myself and pull through this. I can breath through the panic, it won’t kill me even if it feels like it. I am expanding my Zone, it is like free Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

I have a tremendous amount of fears. Too many to list. I have some phobias and a lot of social anxiety. I don’t like people as a group (individually I love them). I am trying to stretch this for myself and my kids. I want to LIVE and be alive and not always fearing.

My goal this week is to do one thing each day that I am afraid of, no matter how little. I will blog about each awesome event.

Today when out shopping for last minute birthday presents for Than (shhh!) we were at Old Navy to get him slimmer jeans. The kids saw Tom and Jerry shirts and needed them. I was feeling rushed and a bit stressed. I felt a NO coming up. So I took a deep breath. I thought about it a minute. I said YES! And you know what it was totally worth it.

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Break all the fucking rules… Die like a Champion!

“it’s important to be clear that unschooling doesn’t automatically create kids who will never break rules or laws. It sets kids up to Think about rules and laws – and while that’s a good thing in many many ways, it also means that sometimes kids will delve into the realm of breaking laws. The good news is that they do it quite a bit more thoughtfully than kids who are out looking for trouble as a way of getting back at mom and school and life.” ~Meredith Novak

“They will make mistakes – or if not mistakes per se, they will choose to experiment with things that make us uncomfortable, that may not be entirely safe.” ~Meredith Novak

I pulled these out because they spoke to me deeply. Unschooling is not going to net an end result. If you are doing it for any other reason than because you want your children to have a life free to BE, then you are going to be very disappointed, repeatedly. Unschooling will not give you your perfect child but your child will be perfect, if you accept reality. Continue reading

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Wordless Wednesday

Continue reading

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Awesome!

I am just out cruising the web minding my own business (yeah right) and I find this port by one of my favorite authors and humans, Heather. As everyone knows Heather writes shit just for me! If you didn’t know, well now you do.

I have been sadly feeling less than awesome. My kids are full of awesome and constantly doing things that, well, are awesome. “That was epic!” “I am so fucking BOSS!” are common shouts around here, by not from me so I am taking it up a notch.

Two nights ago I joined in on an epic battle in our front yard. We were playing World of Warcraft with foam swords. I had a great sword Kopper made that was almost as big as me and really heavy. Easy has a Nerf Axe and Than has a boffer that we bought from an awesome kid, Alex at the water park. Zola had a dagger and was the healer. (Kopper has mono which is decidedly NOT awesome) We ran around our front yard fighting furiously. I got so smack the crap out of my husband, it doesn’t get any better than that!

I was not awesome last night but I shall be awesome from here on out and I will provide clear photographic evidence!

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Laundry

I want to make some laundry soap. I use to use a recipe that called for shaving soap bars and adding a bunch of stuff. I wanted to pare down, get a little simpler.

I bought a gallon of Dr.Bronner’s citrus soap and I am ready to go. I have been using it straight with a little baking soda, I looked on their website and guess what it says:

For the laundry, use 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup for one regular load; adjust as needed depending on hardness of water. I’ve been told that adding a dash of baking soda makes it even better.

Dang, I am already doing it! AWESOME!!! I love when that happens. It isn’t cheaper than some other options. I am going to continue to look into other ideas, but for not I am happy with this. It seems to clean just as well. I have done about 5 loads and have been completely satisfied.

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Lucid Dreaming

Kopper called me into her bedroom to tell me about her epic dream. She was so excited not about the details of the dream but that she could change it. She could never do that before but while feverish and sleeping 20 out of 24 hours she is getting a knack for it! She said it is the most awesome thing ever. And she looks forward to sleeping a lot more so she can practice.

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