I have Waldorf and Montessori on the BRAIN!

The past two years we have been "unschooling" in our Waldorf inspired home. We have enjoyed every minute of our adventures but with the latest change in the winds I have sensed the very transition I have been secretly avoiding, my little girl is growing up!

K is a very free spirit with a really intense personality. She know exactly what she wants and how she wants it. She has found a way to create her own structure all while keeping her head firmly planted in the clouds. Public School would have no place in her little world right now and nor should it, not with a Mommy who is more then qualified to scratch her brains educational itch at home... why rush things? We have spent a few months talking as the right moments arise about her options, It's important to me that K has some involvement in choosing her next journey. Eventually I would like her to attend a small charter school down town and I will start the lottery process for her fall 2012 enrollment soon, BUT until then we have decided that she will be schooling from home for a year, and we are both very excited!

Now.. the question at hand.. what direction will we be taking?

I'll go ahead and save you the loooong story of the past 10 years I spent as a Early Childhood Educator for the largest "Child Care Corporation in the U.S." but I will say I defiantly know what I DON'T want! I've spent quite some time recently exploring the home school curriculum that is available to parents. I have looked in the box and out of the box and must admit I'm a bit drained, and torn. It is no big shocker that we are a "crunchy" family, well on our way off the beaten main stream path. If you've been in my home or had a peek into my world thru my posts and pictures you would probably guess I'm a Waldorf mama.. and you'd be right. I am in love. Our Pagan lifestyle has been a magical experience for her over the years, and our home will remain Waldorf inspired for many years to come... OK OK forever. Buuut when I look at my little girl I'm truly blown away by all the different shinny wheels (not just wooden) I see spinning away in that cute little head of hers.

While her Dr. Jekyll is craving some structure, her Mr. Hyde demands some freedom. What to do? What to do? ... how about a little bite from both sides of the mushroom? Sounds pretty yummy to me.

Wordless Wednesday

wordless wednesday

the view from down there

I think we tend to forget that the world looks diffrent from every pair of eyes. Everyday in class I get down to eye level of small childern, but its not so often that I stop and enjoy the view. Nonny took this picture on our walk last weekend. The kids stopped right in the middle of the road to see a bug that none of us would have noticed. Being a beautiful country road we too were able to stop right there in the middle of the road and bug watch. How beautiful it is down there.

finally!

i finally i finished it!
AND i finally posted pictures to prove it!

this quilt actually only took me a week or so of spare time in the afternoons. HA! spare time? maybe I should re phrase that... "here and there in the the afternoons when I should have been doing other things I worked on sewing this quilt"
I was determined to finish, and refused to let myself work on anything else. (except for maybe that cute little valentines day skirt) but the point is I'm DONE! C has his quilt which he loves by the way, and I am no longer haunted by skull fabric. Unless of course the quilt finds its way to the bedroom.

goodbye snowflakes

"Being that its spring now" I have been told by quite a few very observant people "it is time to take down the snow flakes in the front window."
I just want to say for the record...
I know its spring, I know it doesnt snow here and most importantly I love my snowflakes!
My love of paper snow flakes came from a neighbor of my moms in down town petaluma. Every year the family makes tons and tons of snow flakes and hang them in all the windows of their huge victorian home. It really is a sight to see. I decided to borrow this tradition for my own windows in the winter. Now my home is far from victorian, and I did only started out with 24 but one day I will have more windows, more snow flakes and I will leave them up spring or not.

KITTIES are here!

Born this morning! Mama Kitty started around 4:30 a.m. There was 3 by the time I left for work just after 6. When K and C work up a few hours later there was 5. K was very excited to wake up to kitties under our bed. I wish I could have been there to see her face. she said "Oh how sweet, look daddy, mama kitty had her babies" I think we might have to keep one :)

who really wins the lotto?

honestly? i mean ive heard of people but it cant be real? ive won a few bucks befor on a scratcher. $7.00 to be exact, and I use to know a women who won a few hundrend here and there but probably spent more weekley then she actually won. what about all those big bucks? who wins? Chris' mom thats who!
She left me a paniced voicemail last night, and excited panic telling me I had to call her back, unfortunatly I was in the middle of bed time for a 2 year old that had napped untill 5p.m. and was refusing to go to sleep. enough said. So it want untill the next morning I was able to text her and ask what was up? heres a rough recap of how our conversation went via text messaging

me - hey, sorry i couldnt call you back last night whats up?
her - i won some money last night
me - really, wow thats cool. congrats, how?
her - off a $3 scratcher
me - nice, if you dont mind me asking how much?
her - $750
me - awesome! wow i've never won more then a couple bucks
her - thousand
me - what?
her - $750 thousand
me - shut up!? no fucking way!
(im sorry i swore, i know i could edit that but when someone wins the lottery the f word might slip out and if i edit it out you may loose some quality of the story)

at that point I had to call her. un real huh? has to be one of the coolest stories ive heard or told in a long time for that matter. im happy for them, they deserve it, cant say i dont wish it was me, but im glad it was them.

we love fishies

Once a month they have a free admission day at the Steinhart Aquarium in S.F. So some of the mommies and I have been planning on taking the kids, super mommy style (no dads allowed)
K and I slept over in concord the night before to get a head start & carpool. We all woke up nice and early, packed up our picnic lunch and hit the road. we got into the city pretty quick, but so did everyone else who had the bright idea of going on free day. The line was down down down the street and around the block and down down down again, i cant deny and one point we all exchanged glances and thoughts of abandoning the plans for a pinic at the tea gardens instead but we stuck it out & the line moved suprisingly steady. 4 adults and 3 babes. 1 stroller and 2 ergos... we can do anything! espically FREE anythings!We all had a really good time, We spent most of our time down with the fish, K was a little quiet in the begining taking in everything she saw. we have a fish tank at home but nothing can compare to the awesome overhead fish tank tunnel room.

i'm in love

i worked on this baby every lunch break for a week. i enjoyed every minute of it, even gathering the purple layer. no lie. I am very happy with myself for starting and completing a project without distraction and i just LOVE how it turned out.
Instead of giving it a full bodice like the tutorial does I decided to go with a lace up back. This way the dress will fit her for quite sometime. It fits her now as a long dress and the twirling model is a little girl in my class who just turned 5. Its a shorter dress on her and i belive there is still room for growth because the exposed orange section in the back where their is no bodice has a few inches of stretch thanks to that wionderful clear elastic. (i love that stuff) It would make a cute top with some pants. It can be worn as a skirt and if need be i could always remove the red bodice and give it a waist band.
god i wish it would fit me!

wordless wednesday

rainbow twirl skirt

so ive been wanting to do this for quite some time, ive even had the squares ready to go more then once but lost my pretty little piles to the wrecker and her love for sorting and placing things in rows. i think i always chicken out because i really dont look forward to gathering that purple row but i DREAM about this skirt! i need to just do it. so tonight the wrecker and i sorted and place colors in rows. ive already sewn all the squares together and gather orange yellow and green and then go figure... i run outta clear elastic! damn!!! postponed again, but off to a way better start. im too sleep to post any other pics tonight. hell im even too sleepy to turn this one the right way. no worries ill post plenty of pics when im done!

happy valentines day

we had a nice cozy day today. I planned to take Kaija out somewhere special for some fun but it poured rain all day! So we decided to stay in and blow up the air mattress and hang out in the front room. we watched movies and ate popcorn, did a few little projects, took a nap, made heart shape veggie pizza for dinner drank some hot chocolate for desert.

Kaija spent Friday baking with her Nana, she made some very yummy chocolate peppermint heart cakes and Nana made a very cute card with the picture of Kaija baking. Kai was very excited to give me her cakes when she got home and even showed me how to eat them.

I made Kaija a valentines inspired circle skirt the night before while she slept, so it truly was a surprise. when i gave it to her she said "oh its beautiful mommy, you made it for me. me try it on right now"

i heart poka dots

just some cute last minute valentines day bags i made with twas quick and easy and the kids helped. we made 14 of them in a half an hour.
i love the vintage poka a dot ribbon around the top of the bag.
last minute i ran out and grabbed some glittery wired ribbon that worked perfect for the handles. thanks for motivating me rachie.

hbot

i spend an hour in one on sunday. it belongs to a dear friend of mine who has been doing hyberbaric oxygen chamber therapy also known as HBOT for a few months now. im still pretty new to this topic myself but to sum it up at the risk of sounding scientifically silly... you climb in and and get comfy of course. L zipped me up and turned it on (which she can do by herself but shes a pro now) the chamber begins to pressurize to something like 4 times our atmosphere. it provides pure oxygen to breathe. (how cool is that!) which moves your blood to places in your body it may not reach and restores cells and.... i dunno google it!

what i do know is that it was awesome! it was the perfect temperature, and surprisingly quite roomy once it begins to expands. your eats do start to clog in the first few minutes but the pop easily by yawning or wiggling your jaw.

Of course once i was in i went right into trance. it was wonderfully peaceful :)

"blue water"

its a bit of a family tradition, colored bath water that is.

as little girls Carly and i always got to pick a color add a few drops of food coloring and get our bath on. So naturally i carried on the tradition with Kai, and naturally she ONLY ever wants "blue water"

the shirt she grabbed off the top of the laundry basket, it was her "bathing suit" and yes that is a tub full of plastic bath toys! as much as she loves them...they drive me nuts. anyone have any good ideas for homemade bath toys?

happy birthday bob

wordless wednesday

first post from my iPhone

Just had to try it out. Pretty cool. Mobile blogging :)

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

"So let us mark this day with remembrance..."

me - "who's the new president?"
kai - "bak obama"
me - "where does he live?"
kai - "the white house"
me - "who's the vice president?"
kai - "tin man"
me - "no silly, who's the vice president?"
kai - (as waving)"joe bye then"

Happy Inauguration Day!