its all in the interpretation

There are always different ways to look at everything. I learned a while ago that I needed to stop looking at everything in black in white.

For example take this weekend:

Perspective 1~
we sat around all day long in pjs cuddled under blankets and snacked on food. We watched movie after movie and didn't plan anything else all day.

Perspective 2~
we spent the entire day immersed in education. We explored cyclones, learned all about the great depression & how hope was reborn, we journeyed to China & learned the true meaning of Kung Fu and then we adventured into medieval times where we learned about the code of honor.

Now perspective 1 is the typical view of how things are done. You certainly would not assume that if a family sat and watched movie after movie all day on a Sunday that they learned anything at all. Of course we are talking about movies and can we really trust the Hollywood version of anything? Well the truth is that a movie is where the interest sparks. Once we see interest in a subject we can delve deeper. As an organic learning parent my goal is to teach the children how to recognize their passions. So we spent the day watching movies and exploring where our passions could lead us today. 

For those of you sitting here wondering what movies we watched.

We started with a classic, The wizard of Oz. 

This movie has so much educational experience all rolled into one movie that its no wonder its a childhood favorite. You learn how to make new friends, but keep the old. You learn how to trust your friends will be there for you. You learn how to defeat witches, even if this requires you to have either A) a house or B) water. you learn that sometimes those minions who are doing evil deeds simply are doing them to have a job to do and would be happy to see the evil power vaporized so they could go about doing good instead. Of course you also learn the obvious things like you do not need a degree to be smart, you don't need to be noticed to have courage, you certainly do not need to wear your heart on your sleeve (or your metal chest) in order to prove you have one, and if you are lost Home is only as far away as your loved ones are. 

Next we watched Seabiscut. 

If you do not know the story of this amazing horse you should certainly watch the movie. Not only is this movie done well it is a heart warming story. The story of Seabiscut tells us about the Great Depression and how broken men and a broken horse came together to beat the odds. The horse was a tiny horse in comparison to all other race horses, he was broken in spirit and broken physically when his new owners took him and turned his life around. Seabiscut beat the triple crown winner War Admiral in a Match Race at pimblico. There is something to be learned from watching a little horse with a big heart win a race that most thought he could never win.
If you have never seen this match race before check it out:

Our next movie was the New Karate Kid
This was actually not a movie I had ever wanted to watch because I am a fan of the original and I honestly HATE remakes. That being said this was a great movie. Not only is it done differently with a different feeling and setting but it has same general gist of the original that you are compelled to watch it. Jackie Chan brings his expertise and is a wonderful edition to the movie. Jaden Smith is a talented young actor who I foresee going far in this business. The movie holds some great morals and teaches that fighting isnt always the answer. It also is great at proving that you can and do learn things in ways that are not typical to how everyone else learns. Jacket on Jacket off. ;) its the new wax on wax off. Get with the groove. 


Our final movie choice is a little known movie called Dragonheart. I know that many people do not know this movie but it is a good one. This movie teaches a lot about the code of honor. This code is what honorable knights of the round table fought by and is used throughout the movie as the basis for why the honorable knight does what he does. 


I learned a long time ago that it is important to change the way you view things. If I didn't change the way I viewed things I wouldn't believe that my 7 & 6 year old who are playing at my feet with their duel electric pianos were learning anything at all. I wouldn't believe that children could learn while watching movies, or that not everyone has to do everything exactly alike in order to learn. 

10 reasons Columbus was no hero

My family and I feel very strongly that today is no holiday, should not be celebrated and is in fact a criminals holiday. I am working to set the record straight for some people who may not know the difference.

These are in no particular order and I will furnish links for as much of the information as I can to verify said facts.

1. Columbus did not set foot in what is now known as The United States. In 1492 Columbus discovered the Bahama's. It is unknown precisely what island he landed on, only that the island was named San Salvador by him although the native people of the island had a different name for it. 90-95% of the population he came in contact died within months of his contact. verify here

2. Columbus believed that he had discovered a new route to Asia until he died.

3. Columbus enslaved the native people and returned them to Spain as 'proof' that he made it to Asia. verify here

4. Columbus was arrested on charges of tyranny. Verify here

5. Columbus was a liar. He made up stories of the Native people in order to validate his capture and enslavement of the Native people. " While Columbus once referred to the Taino Indians as cannibals, a story made up by Columbus - which is to this day still taught in some US schools - to help justify his slaughter and enslavement of these people. He wrote to the Spanish monarchs in 1493: "It is possible, with the name of the Holy Trinity, to sell all the slaves which it is possible to sell Here there are so many of these slaves, and also brazilwood, that although they are living things they are as good as gold" Verify here 


6. Columbus was a rapist who encouraged his men to take what they wanted from the enslaved Taino Natives as well. verify here

7. Columbus was a thief. He stole what he wanted from the Native people. verify here

8.  Columbus was a bruit who would disfigure Native people if they simply did not give up what he asked for. verify here

9. Columbus was a racist. You can verify it from the last two links.

10. Columbus was a pedophile. "selling girls as young as 9-10 into sexual slavery" verify here

These are my reasons for not honoring this man on this day in America. My family is of Native heritage and this alone is enough to not celebrate this day as a holiday. These 10 reasons only fuel the fact that he is no hero.

One of the best books we have found in our organic learning adventures is Lies my teacher told me. Please do yourself a favor and read this book. It is a brilliantly written book that exposes the truth of many historical facts we were taught in school.

I would also like to take a moment to do some honor to my Canadian friends. Today is Canadian Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving began in 1959. I am thankful for my Canadian friends, they are such friendly people. :)

Chocolate Cake is the answer

After hours of studying and reviewing information in my Mexican-American history class I feel brain dead. I am certain that the answer to every question the teacher asked must be chocolate cake. Wasn't it the Aztec's who introduced chocolate to us anyway?

I have hours more to study and several chapters to read. I am certain that this is going to be a challenging essay that I have to write because I simply can not retain the information needed to get me through. I feel as though I am spinning my way through this class and not really getting very far.

So instead I resort to doing what I do best. Cook! I am going to plop a wonderful dressed chicken in the oven and roast it for several hours. I am going to chop veggies and add them to this roasted delight. I will bake a chocolate cake completely from scratch and top it with grandma's coconut pecan frosting. I will make delicacies that everyone can enjoy and will bring me pleasure. I will then come back completely sated and attempt to compile information from the recesses of my brain so that i can pass this test.

I am posting this blog pictureless but will come back and add pictures soon ... Pictures of the beauty of roasting chicken and baking chocolate cake.

Alright folks you have waited all day for pictures of this beautiful cake so here they are!

The Ingredients

Baking tip for the night, when making chocolate cake grease your pan and then "flour" it with coco powder instead of flour. This will prevent your cake from sticking, but will also prevent that flour look on the outside of your cake. :)

before baking

after baking & cooling

The frosting has to be cooked, but it tastes wonderful & is well worth the effort.

start cooking

let it boil

add coconut & pecans

The finished product is calling for me! I pour the frosting on while its still warm right into the center of the cake and work my way out from the center to the edge. This makes a wonderful frosting method especially when its still warm enough to spread easily. I do not like frosting in the center of this cake so I simply make a larger cake and then frost only the outside. 

I hope that you all enjoy the pictures. I may post the recipe for this cake & frosting soon if enough people want it. 

Almost

I am a part time college student, in my spare time ya know. I am taking 2 classes this semester and am working towards a degree in culinary arts. I love to cook! It truly is my passion. One day very soon I will post a blog that is ladened with pictures of all the culinary goodies I like to make, it will surely make your mouth water. In the mean time I have been a stay at home mom, and homeschool Organic Learning teacher for 16+ years. I have not held a job outside the home in that amount of time. Since my husband was laid off and we live in such a poor area it has been difficult to find work for him. We are waiting for active duty orders to come through so he can just finish out his active duty time and collect his retirement. So when I went looking for work that I had plenty of "home" experience in I was denied time and time again because there are just to many people out there who have "work" experience that can do the job. So I decided that it would be a good idea to get my degree in Culinary Arts so that in a few years I can then either get a part time job working in the field I love, or open my own business like I really want to do... The dream is to own a B&B (Bed & Breakfast), If you have never had the pleasure of staying in a B&B you should check it out sometime.

At any rate when Daughter M got sick 4 weeks ago my schooling was a bit derailed. The first week she was home and I stayed on top of things okay. It was when she went into the hospital and stayed in the ICU for 9 days that I slowly started slipping behind. My professors have been very understanding and even allowed me extra time to make up some of my work. You would not believe how much time it takes to make up work once your behind! As of Friday I had 6 history lectures to review and take notes on, 2 health lectures to review and take notes on, a test in health AND a 2 week food journal to type out and save. This food journal had to be started while I was taking shifts staying with my daughter in the ICU so it is not really a good example of my daily eating habits. It is frustrating to have to take notes on what your eating daily.

As of today I only have about 5 days of food journaling to finish typing up and then I am completely caught up with both my classes! I am sick of typing up food entries. It is rather tedious to type out all the different things you ate and drank in a day, but at least I can get it done quickly and be ALL caught up!

As for Daughter M, She got her staples out today and is recovering nicely after having her appendix rupture from the tip. The dr said that it rotted instead of truly rupturing. I am so amazed by the body! her body attempted to heal itself by wrapping the Omentum around the ruptured appendix to stop the leakage of bacteria. Simply amazing! Of course we are grateful that the dr was able to remove the offending appendage and clean out the infection, saving Daughter M's life. She was seriously ill for many weeks, but now she is almost healthy.

In todays edition we are going to continue our camping trip to the return home. From there our blogs shall take on a more present day adventure with a little pop into the past now and again.

I left off yesterday with our trip into the forest where the Ewoks lived... Can't you just see their cute little faces poking out of this fern ladened forest? While we were here we decided to walk through the forest and down to the river where the little darlings took their socks & shoes off to splash in the edges of the water.

and of course to skip rocks into that peaceful looking water flow.

From here we stopped at a lovely little shop and wanted to go in only to discover they were closed. However we did get to view some wonderful sculptures carved out of redwood.

at camp we enjoyed a simple meal then set about building fairy houses on our last night at camp. We sent children off to gather natural items that were laying about on the ground; rocks, moss, leaves, sticks, pine cones, and anything else they found that they thought would make nice houses. Then we divided up the finds between them

Then we paired the kids up, each little one got a big one and they had to work together to build their fairy houses.

A & C fairy house ... was built right into the base of a tree log that was laying on the ground.

H & D fairy house ...I love that it so well blends into the nature around it that you can hardly tell its a fairy house. :)

M & K fairy house theirs was butted up against a living tree and was so cute with a little fence around the whole thing.

Each house really took on the personalities of each child working on it and we had so much fun watching them from our spots around the fire pit. They each went off into different directions and built out of the way of any human eyes. We had loads of fun pondering which types of fairies would love these homes.

The next morning we packed up camp and headed for home. We stopped in a sleepy little town known as Willits along Highway 101 to have lunch in a lovely park.

subway sandwiches chips and drinks for everyone before we hit the road again!

Then once the kids had played we had ate and drank our fill we got back on the road to travel another several hours home. We decided to make one more pit stop at the Buffalo farm.

Man o Man was that some GOOD Jerky!

why is it that mom is always the last in line for the bathroom? I tossed this one in just so yall would believe I was really there! :) O and those hides behind me are so luxurously soft i wish I had the money to buy one!

We got to see the herd of buffalo outside, they had the yearling's separated from the rest of the herd and up close to the farm. my daughter thought it would be a good idea to take a picture of us looking at the baby buffalo.

We also saw a bunch of bird nests on the side of the building that were pretty cool.

These birds build their nests out of mud and live in colonies together like a very large extended family. They are called mud swallows here. I am not sure what the actual name is.

This concluded our camping adventures for August, we wrapped up our month with a birthday bash for my youngest, D turned 6. I do not know where time went but he sure has been fun to watch grow!

September started off with my oldest getting severely ill and ending up in the ICU for 8 full days. So it has been nice to look back and remember this fond time that really was not so long ago even if it does feel like years ago already!

What Fun We Had!

In store for todays blog is a peak back over our summer. Starting in July and working straight through till August.

July started with a bang! My Brother in law and niece came for a visit for the first time in 8 years from Nebraska. Together we caravaned up the state to Eureka Ca to visit my husbands parents and have a family reunion. The first time my husbands siblings have all been home all at the same time in nearly 20 years!

The drive is always beautiful as we wined our way through the mountains going to the coast. Along the way we discovered bigfoot! He resides in a little town on Highway 299 in Northern California. He is very friendly as you can see.

Once we arrived in Eureka the gathering commenced. We took family portraits at a professional studio where lord help that lady there was 13 of us, 3 of which were grown men who behaved as if they were 3! We watched the fireworks from the front yard and promptly returned inside for hot cocoa with whipped cream on top.

We went and discovered the Loleta Cheese Factory where you can watch them making the cheese right there in the shop, as well as taste all the delicious fresh cheeses.

We wandered out into the garden at the cheese factory where we enjoyed the beautiful landscaping

I just loved these bottles nestled in between the plants

The gardens were such a delight, my beautiful daughter had to stop and smell the flowers.

The garden was filled with beautiful bright flowers.

We also explored the Gem & Mineral shop where the kids got grab bags of beautiful stones, and we enjoyed the museum.

These are stones made to look like food.

The vase is carved out of solid stone!

Beautiful gems inside the stone.

My youngsters looking over all the solid rocks that might contain their own gems.

We spent more time with family and then traveled home again, concluding our July trips. More adventures awaited us in August where we had a birthday to celebrate and a nature trip of grand proportions to enjoy. I will blog about those adventures tomorrow. For today I hope you enjoyed going back in time with me to relive the adventures of July.

School Time

Since life got in the way we have not had a whole lot of school time. We have missed several park days, and the connection with others like us. Free thinkers are not so common but thankfully homeschoolers are becoming more frequent. Baby girl number 1 is on the mend and it looks like life may take on its normalcy soon enough. Being fall that means school time. As unschoolers this takes on a whole different vibe then most people who homeschool. I love that about our lives.

Unschooling is such a different experience for us. It took shape over a few years and many failed attempts at "traditional" school at home style homeschooling. We tried hard to make that school at home style work for us but it just didn't. None of us was satisfied, we all felt frustrated. In an attempt to find a way for us to all feel less frustrated we started exploring the world around us better. We all learned that we prefer to be out doors, off on a field trip or even building something with our own hands rather then sitting at a table and writing everything down to take note that the children were learning. My oldest loves to read but hates to be told what to read, my middle boy is a genius at building and figuring out how to make things, & my youngest two would rather explore everything around them then sit still long enough to learn from a book. This is how the journey started for us about 4 years ago.

Today I sit here pondering how this years adventure shall begin and what we will start with. Baby girl #1 is still in recovery mode and has not even cracked the books she so enthusiastically got at the library 3 weeks ago. My middle son has been doing co-op lessons the past few weeks via the phone and internet with a dear friend of ours. She seems to be able to get him to understand things better then I can at this point and I am so very grateful that she is in his life for this season. That leaves my youngest two who are ready to start their adventure. I see how they have grown and changed over the years and its hard to believe! They were so young just yesterday weren't they? Now they are ready for their very own learning adventures! I am not sure yet what their learning styles are and this will be the first step in figuring it all out.

So the new goal as of today... Figure out the youngest two's learning style! check in to find out what I have discovered and much more.