Saying No

I am usually one of those mom's who touts the benefits of saying yes more. Who has stories about the wonderful things that happen when I consider the requests from my kids to go to the beach or visit a friend or relative. Who can see all the learning that takes place when I say yes, I will help you build a catapult, sew a quilt, or get out the messy paints.

But, every once in a while, some pretty great stuff happens when I say no too. No, Mommy really doesn't feel like reading a story right now. No, I'm not cooking eggs for breakfast this morning. No, Mommy's not going to help you tie your shoes right now. No, I'm not in the mood for a big craft project today.

When I say no to my kids, even when it feels a  bit cruel, (really who says no to a story!?) sometimes, it's just the encouragement they need to figure it out for themselves or work together without mom. And boy does it feel good to see them grow a little while doing it. Maybe I can look at it, not so much as saying no, but as, yes, you can do that all by yourself now.

Inspiration

We finally made a trip to "our lake" last weekend. Camping under the stars, brrr the nights were chilly, at one of the many beautiful state parks along the coast of Lake Michigan. The water was cold, but that didn't stop our brave bunch from a quick swim and lots of running and splashing on the waters edge.

While there, we attended a festival and had front row spots for one of our favorite bands, Scythian. We even got to meet them after the show.

The kids showed up to their first music classes on Monday excited and inspired and, since bringing their instruments home, the music making has not ceased :)

A Few Homeschooling Links

This time of year, whether we're homeschooling or not, always seems to take me away from this place. My mind is distracted I suppose, but I'm working on a few things and hope my absences will not be long or frequent. For now though, I'll give you a few of the homeschooling blogs I'm really enjoying.

• Balancing Everything, Jessica usually has back to homeschool posts, but this year she's outdone herself.  Lots of good stuff there.
• Homespun Life is new to me. They unschool and I'm loving catching bits and pieces of how they school while browsing her archives.
• Simple Homeschool is a great resource for a wide range of homeschool styles and the comments section is a the place to find lots of other homeschooling bloggers.
• The archives at Yarns of the Heart have lots of great, useful links and ideas and Jena is so sweet, if you want some advice, especially on the late reader front, she's the homeschooling mom to ask.

OK, now back to the craziness that is September around here. I'll be back soon.

Not Back to School Bonfire

As the cousins head off to school and the local playgrounds empty, even the happiest homeschoolers can feel like they're missing out on some of the fun. So while so many around us celebrate the excitement of heading off to school, we celebrate the freedoms of homeschooling.

Staying up late one more night for a not back to school bonfire, complete with shooting stars, because, we don't have to wake up early tomorrow. . . unless we really want to :-)

One of Those Days

pretty weed in my yard

 Today was supposed to be a nice productive day. A nature hike down a new trail we discovered, which would be some much needed exercise for mommy, and some quick errands to grab new school supplies. The start of a new, more routine, story time and with it, a new book or two. Figuring out a schedule that will get each kid to their sporting events and practices on time. A discussion with the kids about expectations, theirs and mine, for the next few months (in my mind an exciting conversation about what they're interested in learning about). And, with whatever time might be left over, some work in the garden filling in the holes left by the ending of our cucumbers, zucchini and squash.

Pumpkin love :) this ones a peanut pumpkin

 Instead, I scratched the van and my brother-in-law's truck pulling out of the drive. The hike was a mosquito infested nightmare that ended shortly after it began. The van is acting weird, I hope it's not the transmission again. The kids are moody and grumpy and don't even want to sit still, let alone discuss interesting topics to study for the next few months. And I'm moody and grumpy because nothing is going the way I want it to today.

fairy tale pumpkin, my favorite

 I'm thinking it's time to just scrap the day, crawl back in bed and start over. Maybe call it a beach day and embrace the last few bits of summer? And there's always the garden, it wont pick a fight with me or it's siblings and I'm pretty sure any damage I do to it I can fix without the help of a mechanic.

Treasures From Grandma's House

I recently inherited some wonderful little treasures that belonged to my grandma. She passed away a long time ago, when I was in college. I don't think I would have appreciated them if I'd received them back then.

W.I.P.

So interesting

So excited to start this one. Our first and favorite read aloud chapter book was "The Wizard of Oz"

Funny, interesting, can't wait to dive in and see how things change (or how they don't)

Her luggage, with her initials still on it :)

Kitchen Table Makeover

The "new" table

Before we moved, our kitchen table was in pretty bad shape. I would do everything I could to hide the mess that it had become and I cringed every evening when I tried to scrape off the mess from the day. Table cloths could only do so much and never stayed put anyway.

Kitchen table before

It is a nice sturdy table from a discount furniture store but, it is basically laminated plywood, so sanding and refinishing was out of the question. And the finish was peeling off in messy flakes creating grooves and gouges in the surface, so we couldn't just paint it either, at least not the top.

Kitchen chairs prepped for paint

Buying a new table was not even close to being in the budget anytime soon, but I just could not take it any longer. I decided we had to do something. I had seen my hubby and brother-in-law build a counter top for a kitchen remodel, and wondered if it would be possible to use the same technique to recover our table top.

Oooh so nice, no flaking finish

 As it turns we could! I sanded and painted the chairs and legs of the table while my sweet man glued the laminate counter top material right over that ugly tabletop. He added a piece of wood to make a nice edge all around, cut the laminate to fit, and used the router to spiffy it up.

No marker yet has defeated this tabletop

 Now we have a table that comes clean easily and looks so much better. And when the time comes for a new one, this will be an excellent craft table, because nothing the kids put on this table sticks.