SRKindredSpirits

The best thing I've done when it comes to homeschooling is to ditch the idea that it needs to be like a real school!  We used to have a school room with charts, maps, desks, set hours and breaks, etc.  Then, after 3 years, needed the room as a bedroom (we live in a small house), so we moved the schoolroom to our enclosed back porch. We still used desks and had individual pencil cases, charts, maps, posters, and all the stuff you think you need to have for a school room. We used the back porch as our school room for a couple years, but then turned it into a office for our home business ..... But, I still needed a place for school..... turns out, the best thing I ever did regarding homeschooling was to give it all up.  I gave up the idea of having to have a class room, desks, charts and posters on the walls, set hours, and every other extra thing most people think you have to have to homeschool - including the complete encyclopedia set!!! I got rid of it all!  Instead,

Getting rid of stuff -  Round 2 - Year 3 This year, we signed up for Joshua Becker's Uncluttered Course .  And although we have read most of his books and have gotten rid of so much stuff in our first round .... we still had stuff that needed to go. Here's some of it... 5 explorer loads full to goodwill 1 trailer load of junk to the garbage dump 1 trailer load of scrap metal (I forgot to take a photo) Multiple items sold on Craigslist and online sites totaling over $4,000 And... We had over $200 of returns that we took back to Menards for in store credit Let me say again... we are not pack rat people. It amazes me that we have so much to get rid off... if we haven't used it, don't need it, don't like it, or it has no purpose; out it goes. With a family of 5 living in the country on a hobby farm with animals, splitting our own firewood, homeschooling, and, having a business from home... there is a lot of e

We've had Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats for over 6 years now and I still love them as much now as I did when we first got them.  Some of the reasons I love Nigerian dwarf goats are: They are small - only weighing in around 30 - 45 lbs. full grown - I can pick them up myself. They are not overly rambunctious. They are not hard on pasture or fences. They get along well with most animals and humans. Their manure is great in flower beds and gardens. They don't need a lot of space. They do not eat nearly as much as a full sized goat. We only need approximately 25 bales of good high quality hay for 4-5 full size goats for all winter. Their milk is mild and creamy... I love using it in baking and cooking with it. The kids love to drink it. They have a great temperament! They are great with people of all ages. They are super friendly and love human interaction. The baby's are so little and so much fun to watch. Our small herd has changed over the years.... so I

Let me preface this by saying- my hubby and I are research geeks. We research a subject until there is nothing left of it.... dead. Never to rise again..... which sometimes can be a good thing, and other times, lets just say, not so much. That's when after I had major surgery (that I had researched for over a year)..... I was completely taken by surprise. I mean, I knew that there would be pain and that I'd need someone to help me, but I honestly never expected it to be this hard, this painful, and this much fatigue. With that said, I did have an emergency second surgery 12 hours later due to internal bleeding and I'm sure that is partly to blame for some of it. The Doctors said having the emergency surgery really set me back.  I was supposed to come home with a pain pump, but they had to remove it during the second surgery.  Anytime, some one has as much internal bleeding as I did, it causes excruciating pain. I also lost so much blood, that I had to have multip

What if I all I want is a small, slow, simple life? What if I am most happy in the space of in between. Where calm lives. What if I am mediocre and choose to be at peace with that? The world is such a noisy place. Loud, haranguing voices lecturing me to hustle, to improve, build, strive, yearn, acquire, compete, and grasp for more. For bigger and better. Sacrifice sleep for productivity. Strive for excellence. Go big or go home. Have a huge impact in the world. Make your life count. But what if I just don’t have it in me. What if all the striving for excellence leaves me sad, worn out, depleted? Drained of joy. Am I simply not enough? What if I never really amount to anything when I grow up— What if I am not cut out for the frantic pace of this society and cannot even begin to keep up? And see so many others with what appears to be boundless energy and stamina but know that I need tons of solitude and calm, an abundance of rest, and swaths of unscheduled time in order

I knew my son, QW had not been feeling well.... he had been complaining of headaches that last week, but I didn't really think too much about them, figuring, it would pass. Then he started having a fever - not super high, but enough for me to worry. After a few days, he wasn't eating.... We knew something was wrong. I took him to the med express center. They ran a throat culture, and tested him for the flu and strep - all came back negative, but they said that sometimes the strep test can be wrong, so they sent us home with antibiotics saying it was probably strep.  The next two days, QW kept getting worse. I finally took him to the Emergency Room on Sunday, May 28th. They did blood tests and took a CT scan and said that he had acute sinusitis (a bad sinus infection that was deep in the air pockets of his face) and sent us home with a stronger antibiotic. Memorial Day, May 29th, QW seemed better - he ate lunch and walked outside.... we thought he was feeling