a hippie with a minivan

May 8th…

11 years ago today, May 8th… a Thursday night… I was out partying to celebrate finishing my last College exams, when I returned to my Boyfriends apartment and found a note waiting for me on his door…. It was the call that I was dreading… My step-dad died after a long battle with Aids…
Here is a bit of our story…

I met Simon a few months later and on May 8th 1999, we got married… 9 years ago today…

and then in December a bit more than 3 years ago, the man who had the role as my father died after his battle with Cancer… My mother decided that May 8th would be a good date to bury him… I asked her not to, to wait… but she didn’t care as usual…

Today is just filled with so many emotions… I am a bit bewildered…

Another homeschooling meeting…

Last night I debated on going to the pool or going to the homeschool meeting… I finally decided to do both and just be late at the meeting…

I am really glad I did that because for one, I really wanted to go swimming… and it felt great… and two… I missed the part of the meeting that was them talking about the conference they went to last weekend… when I came in they were just near the end and talking about concentration and how to get kids to concentrate on their work by using a physical stop sign and then having punishments if they need to use the stop sign 3 times…

omg… I was Crawling out of my skin!! and the worse part was that not only was the girl talking about it but she actually made the stop sign and bought the chart that charts the punishment and rewards… She gave the example of giving an assignment and that after doing half or more they ask to do something else so she has been using the stop sign to make them stop and concentrate on doing the rest…

so… I asked… but what if they want to move on after doing half or more because they got the concept and want to go on to the next thing…

she didn’t seem to think that it was a valid reason…

It really annoys me going to these meetings… I like the interaction with a few of the moms, especially 2 of them.. but the other 3 I just have so much trouble getting… they are always in search of the perfect curriculum, working so hard and struggling to get their kids to cooperate and concentrate… while 3 of us are often talking about whatever comes to mind, they are talking about curriculum…

Another thing that came up about the conference was about a writing club and the way they described it it was really cool and is really in line with an unschooling philosophy… letting kids write because they want to, letting them write what they want, not hovering and correcting etc… I said that it sounded really cool and that is what I plan on doing… but then of course the guns went up… it had to be said that it was only a writing club it is just for fun… but in real life learning kids can’t do that all of the time…

umm…. WHY NOT ??!!!

I just don’t get it… I don’t get them…

Why must the love of learning need to squashed by stop signs, punishments, rewards and overbearing parents?

we didn’t schedule another meeting for now… I am glad about it… I am not sure I want to go back….

Pita Bread…

2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 teaspoon brown sugar
3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 cup lukewarm water

Activate yeast by mixing with 1/2 cup warm water and tsp of sugar

Mix flour and salt

Add yeasty water to the flour

Add the cup of warm water… start with 1/2 cup and slowly add more until it comes together…

Put on lightly floured counter and start to knead

Knead…
push

turn

fold

Place in bowl lightly covered in olive oil

Cover and let rise

Double

separate into small balls and let rise again about 10 min (preheat oven to 450)
I made 14….

roll out the dough

let rest another 10 min…

put in oven and watch them puff up…

Enjoy!!!

and here we go again…

no I am not pregnant 😉

but today… just a few days shy of Khéna being 17 months I got my first PPAF… (Post-partum “Aunt-Flo” for those that are not familiar with the lingo)

With the firt two boys I got my PPAF at about 9 months… when they started to walk and nurse less in the day and started eating solids… With Khéna though, he did not slow in nursing at all when he started milestones… he didn’t have those normal periods where he was more wakeful at night either…

But slowly, he has been nursing less and when I got really crampy and irritable at the begining of the week, I knew that it would not be long…

the bloating could also be a reason that the scale showed so much of a difference as today I am now 5 lbs less then I was when I weighed myself on Wednesday…

Though I do and did enjoy the time that I don’t have to go through the monthly rituals… I do have to say that being able to start charting again and knowing what my body is doing makes things a bit easier for me…

Maybe one day I would like to have another child but I don’t think it is the right time at the moment… I want the boys to grow a bit before…

well… that was a bit depressing…

So… I knew that my scale was not reliable at all…. it was giving weights up to 5 lbs in difference each time I stepped on it…

So I went and bought a new scale last… and well… depressing as it is… I am 13 lbs heavier than the old scale was telling me …

I was already discouraged… when I saw that I felt a bit depressed…

However… today, looking at it… It will be OK…
It is just a number and though I am farther from my goal than what I thought… I rather know now than if I found out after one of my mini-goals and found out that I really wasn’t there yet… at least this way I know where I really am and I know what I need to do to get where I want to be…

Honestly, I think that I need to eat a bit more… I got some great feedback and it made me realize that because I am a bit heavier than I thought and I am getting more exercise… then I might not be eating enough… and if that is the case I my body might be in “starvation mode” and hoarding the fat instead of letting it go…

So… I will just keep on going… I really want this…