"If I have to repeat myself one more time...."

... then I will do it kindly and with love. These little people running around my house are much like I was as a child. I was full of questions, curiosity, wonder, and energy. I know for a fact that I drove my mother nuts until I learned to keep my thoughts to myself, and yet, once I learned that skill, I had no-one to interupt those thoughts with facts and enlightenment.

I am enjoying these days with my children. Days where learning is happening with every blink, and often it is happening not for just one kid at a time, but all 5 gaining something from 1 shared experience. I might get frazzled and frustrated. I might have to save a blog post and let the child have my hard found quiet place so that she too, can think. I may even loose my temper on occasion, but my children all know that I love them dearly, and that I enjoy having them "underfoot".

Up until about 5 minutes ago, I had "liked" a page on FB. The page with a revolutionary idea on child rearing, a page promoting peaceful parenting and harmony in discipline (a very lack of discipline, really). They have some mind bending thoughts on parenting and I was enjoying the mental challenge of why Ido what I do. I thought I was doing some of it, and that I could learn quite a bit from them on making it work out for us too. I know I am not the only person in the world trying to find a more peaceful way to parent where kids learn responcibility and ethics and values without having physical punishment as the only rason to DO it all.

You see, there lis the problem. Someone who was trying to learn, asked a very legit question. I understood the question, the reasons, and WHAT that person was asking.

"How will my child become a good solid citizen with good work ethics, morals and everything I value, if I don't teach it the same way I learned it?" (The question is rephrased, obviously)

Instead of giving this person a very heartfelt and understanding answer, this person was made out to be a horrid abusing *person* who was setting thier children up for marital abuse and rape. REALLY???!!!???  I was dumbfounded by their attacks, blown away by their testimonies of demeaning scenarios and saddened by the hearts and hurts of their own inner children that didn't understand their own childhoods. They used this persons' question to let their pain and anguish out, and gave NO ANSWERS to the very real question of:

"How do you raise good people, nonabusively?"

I had to un-like the page. While the page creator has given me much to ponder, the allowed freedoms of their followers leaves too much verbal abuse and constant "troll hunts" and accusations for anyone wanting to peacefully learn something new. Kind of sad, really.

I think that as I have time, I will address this person's question, here on my blog, and I will pray that somehow, someday, they will find the answers they are looking for, given with thought, kindness, consideration, and respect.

It has been some time since I last posted, and much has happened, and yet things are much the same. My middle child is 6 today. She has recieved her gifts and is sitting happily playing with one now. She was almost born in a blizzard on Mt. Shasta, but the doctors were able to keep that from happening at 33 weeks along. She was so tiny, I was sent to Sacramento to see the high risk clinic at UC Davis. They decided 4 weeks later that she had to be born NOW and induced me at barely 37 weeks. She was 4 pounds and 4.5 ounces and only 17.5 inches long. I won't even go into details about all the hurdles she had to overcome. Now she is 42" tall and about 42 pounds. She is stubborn, independant, and has had a firm grasp of humor and logic from a very young age. She learned how to read because she wanted things JUST her way, and doing it herself was the fastest way to get it done. She has been on every ride at six flags that would let her on, and yet is frustrated at her small size. That is kind of understandable, seeing as how her 3 year old brother is now heavier, taller and more solid that her. She is excelling in her studies. She has a firm grasp of math, skipped Kindergarten math in fact! She LOVES it. She is leaping through the steps of learning to read and has surprised me many times over words she recognized or words that she figured out on her own. She is studying Vertibrates in science and is also working on her first Archeological dig for a T-Rex with her brother. Last season, she was working hard at both Ballet and Taekwondo, but this season we seem to need to scale back a bit. She passed her first belt test just last Thursday and is excited to continue on in the sport. I meant to have some photos to post, but technology is not cooperating tonight. More soon, good night.

testing

Hello. I am trying this from a devise, to see if it will be a useful tool. So far so good. Sorry for the lame post, I am working on blogging more soon.

A peaceful Moment

The music in the background is "Every Little Thing, is Gonna Be Alright". The toddlers come happily running down the hall, "and JUMP in muddy puddles..." *jump jump jump* I am standing in the dining room with the big girls, helping guide them through a document based question essay. The baby just put her self to sleep in my room, and I love that she is doing this. :) It's moments like this that give me great joy.

As you and I both know, it's only moments later that someone will screech, and someone will whine, and soon someone else is hollering... but you know, it's those peaceful moments in between that make it all so wonderful. :)

It's not a picture from today, but here is a picture Heather took of Sarah. :) She was sooo tiny and cute!! :D

Time keeps on Slipping... Into the Future...

Things have been very busy for me, for a long time. So much is always happening, I have a constant blog post running through my head. I think 'oh! I should type that up...' and *poof* the thought is snatched away by a random little voice calling my attention to the next blog worthy event already happening.

Can you believe that one of those voices is already 1 year old? She says "Momma, Up Please" now, and holds entire conversations; if you listen VERY carefully, you can actually understand what she has to say too! Sarah's skin is quite fragile, and yet she is on the move. She's climbing up onto the toddler beds and the couches, climbing into the cupboards and playing peek-a-boo. She's able to say 50 or more words, and has another 10-15 in sign. She's grasping concepts at lightening speed, and moving onto the next.

This week, my little Kayleigh turns 5. I can't believe so much time has passed since I was pregnant with her. She was so tiny, no one was brave enough to ask if I was pregnant. She was so tiny, she weighed only 1950 grams, and the doctors didn't know what to think. She is still tiny. She weighs only 36 pounds and is 38 inches tall. Her little brother is now taller and heavier than her. She's still very much into Dora, but she is even MORE into education. She LOVES doing her school work, her classes, and her activities. She's already recognizing her favorite shows on the TV Guide, spelling her requests to daddy (coffee, Wii, and store) and trying to sound things out. Her fear of the water has gotten MUCH better, and she now paddles around in her swimming vest with confidence.

Jacob is turning 3 on the Ides of March. He has come a LONG way in the last 6-8 months. He now speaks clearly, and communicates understanding of concepts pretty good for such a little guy. He is strong, full of energy, and very curious. He can destroy my entire house in 2 minutes flat, and then turn and share the last of his favorite drink with his baby sister giving her kisses and crooning songs to her. He LOVES Dinosaurs and Trains, Monsters and Wow Wow Wubzy. He still hates shoes, socks, confinement, and would prefer to live stark nekkid. We compromise most days with a pull up and a shirt.

Heather is now 9 years old. She's doing wonderfully in Math, and has come quite a ways in reading. She is loving her History, as it gives her great ideas for creative play later. She has been spending a lot of time on the computer, working with a drafting program, designing houses. She loves setting it up (I did too, still do!) and then changing different things to make it better. She's such a loving girl, I often find her cuddled up with her sisters or brother. :)

Anne-Marie is now 12 and a half. That half is very important you know. She is working hard on responsibility and reliability, understanding that without those qualities, you can't get anything else accomplished. A new saying in my home is "Only criminals refuse to work" and when you look at it that way, you find the energy to get up and take care of those last few things before relaxing. She *thought* she was already doing the best she could... until I gave her a bigger chunk of responsibility :-D You can only imagine how her eyes opened up after 2 hours of truly WATCHING the baby.

I have a lot more to write about, I am sure... except that I am supposed to be scanning, and I am yet again distracted. :) I'm sure we all have times like that. Well, things are good here, and I am gearing up for this years gardening adventure. That's another post, on the Garden blog~ to be done at a later time LOL. Sorry there's no pictures... I'll do a photo post soon. God Bless you!