Woo-Wee Shut My Mouth!

This one is so cute, Canyon is singing a song from the radio....

Please excuse the mess in the house, maid is on strike!

Here is Canyon in a costume that does not fit him, but that is no matter!

And here are the boy's doing ART. They love their "art projects".

Well, this is my first attempt to include a video clip on the boy's blog! I feel it fitting to add the clip of Canyon, when he learned to ride his bike without training wheels! It was in March, this year (2008), so he was 4 yrs and 4 months.

It's a mix of awesome, and oops, as you'll see that Canyon takes off on his bike, and then, River falls while riding his trike!

We were next door, at our neighbors, Cami and Kevin's. The boy's loved going over there to visit, we miss them a lot.

I will post some more pictures, as I have finally downloaded more! I'll do it in the next post, as this is a test!

Musical Instruments!

Well, today, Canyon came into the room to show me his "guitar" that he made with my slipper, and rubber bands. He wanted me to help him finish it, so I did, and then River wanted to make one, so we found a toy that we could wrap rubber bands around to make another guitar with. I had the boy's get up on the bed to make a band, and play, and Canyon say's we need another instrument. I asked what should we make now, and he looks around, and we found a wooden tool box (mellissa and Doug toy) and made a guitar out of that. Then Canyon say's we needed another! So, he's looking around, and then say's "how bout a bottle?", so he goes to the fridge, and get's out a 2 litre bottle of root beer, there was a little left, so the boy's finished it off, and we learned how to make sounds with it. We had a whole band! All because Canyon figured out each one on his own! I was very proud, he really did it all himself, I just guided him in finishing his ideas.

We did a bunch of crafts today too. we've been using glue a lot in the past couple days, glue and scissors. I'll post pictures maybe tomorrow.

Well, there's my quick snippet!

Mama loves her boy's...

Bee Stings, mud, art, and life...

Wow!
For a mom who really wants to keep a blog for her boy's, and family and friends, I sure don't post very often! It's the "busy" in me, I suppose.

Let's see....I feel it's note-worthy to mention that last week, well, a week and a half ago, I took River to the DOCTOR! It was the first time I have ever had to take either one of the boy's to the doctor for anything other than a check up (which we don't do anymore). River got another bee sting, but this time, his hand swelled up, and by the next day, his hand and forearm was swollen! I did the same as I have always done with bee stings, tea tree oil on it, every two hours or so, but this time, wow! So I got him in to the doctor, which left me very nervous, as we hadn't established ourselves with any doc for the boy's since being back in Washington, but a very nice office got us in right away, and it was a pleasant experience! I brought Gramma with us to be with Canyon while River was in with me, and it worked out wonderful. I had given River some benadryl (finally figured out that one...duh!) before the appt., and so he had two doses that day, and two the next, the swelling went down, and he was fine. The doc wrote me a prescription for antibiotics (oh puleeease!), I of course did not use it, and Rivers natural defenses and benadryl helped him, and he was fine within a few days. His demeaner didn't change at all during this time, so luckily, it was just a physical swelling at the hand/forearm, no other problems. BUT.......now, since this reaction happened, we have benadryl on hand, and will most likely get a homeopathic or other bee sting kit.
I will post a picture of Rivers hand another time, I haven't downloaded them yet. :)

Well, I'm supposed to clean up Canyon's room today, and get his computer set up for him, he wants to play his Reader Rabbit games, and I should have set him up way long ago!

Ok, so that's it for now, and I am going to try to post more often, really, no........really! :)

Mama Cass (who still hasn't worked on the tea she is supposed to be making!)

Learning to Foster and Nurture the MESSES

Taking deep breath......slowly exhale....Ahhh-oooommmmm............

This is what I practice on a daily basis. Taking the deep breath, before I react. It really helps me.
I'd say, throughout these moves, the stress of beginning my business, homeschooling, packing, unpacking, disasterous messes, paying the bills, calling about bills, getting extentions to pay the bills later, doing the budget, shopping, wrangling the boy's all the while, being referee (for the 100th time! Quit hitting your brother!) trying to do ONE load of laundry, and staying far away from doing the dishes, but then add the stress of the dishes never being done...wait, what was I saying...oh yeah, learning to breathe.

I serve alphabet vegetable soup. At the kids table, in kitchen. Tame enough, right? No, not for MY boy's. I leave for two minutes (to see a man about a horse), and what do I come back to? Canyon is walking toward me with a full bowl of a soup-type-looking-stuff, I quickly grab that, as he's looking quite unsure of himself by that point. Then, I take it back to the table, to find a big soup mess all over the table, and find that River has most of his soup in his cup that previousely had rice milk, but now is rice milk flavored alphabet vegetable soup...mmmm! Canyon has done the same, but in his bowl, that's why it was full.

Now, My first feeling (and I have been known to do this) is to LOSE IT! NOT ANOTHER MESS! I can't deal with ONE MORE MESS!
No, this time, I think with the SUPER-MIND of a homeschooling/unschooling mom, (you know, the one I'm trying hard to become), and think, "I can yell, and get mad, or I can foster their curiosity". So I tell Canyon, right when he thinks I'm going to yell, "I'm NOT going to get mad". He say's "your not mad?". I say, "no, would you like to continue playing with your soup?". His face just lit up, and say's "YES!". So I told him, that in the future, if he wants to play like this, and it will make a mess, he may do it, but only outside. So I took both their soups, and cups, and put them outside, and joyfully said to continue playing!

This was yet another time that I have felt like I was actually connected to my children and their learning/playing needs rather than working against them! It feels good. If I can just retain the patience.....I've only been working on this for about 4 years, I'm not even HALF way to zen.....maybe one day....:)

ANOTHER New Beginning!

Well, I decided to stick with blogger, and continue the boy's blog here.

So.....there is obviousely so much that has changed since my last posting here, another move, hopefully the last in a long time. We are now in the country, and loving it, of course.

I will just start from the NOW, and not try to catch up, there are so many daily changes, and things we learn and do, it's too much to ever catch up on!

I will post a few pictures to start with, and we will be off and running with the boy's blog again!

The picture above is the sky over Ellensburg last week, it was the coolest cloud formation! I took that with my phone camera!

These cute ones are of Canyon and River in a box, after we waterpainted ourselves. Oh, and one of me, River painted mommy, isn't she pretty?

Here is one of me, holding River....awww....

And below, a sweet one of River and I sleeping together, Daddy snapped that one before he left for work....

Then, a cool moth we found in the garden, this is River holding it...

Here is Cramer and Talia, sleeping together on the bed....life is real hard around here!

Here is one of the umpteen-million grasshoppers (crickets) we have around here. We catch them daily, fun fun fun.

Canyon is getting better at his scissor lips, catching up to mom!

Ok, well, I'll post regular sized pictures now!

Till next time,

Mama Cass