The paper in my house is driving me crazy.  We have paper still sitting in the fax machine, paper piling up next to the fax machine, paper on the floor, paper on the desk, paper on the kitchen counter. 

Taming the paper mess in our house has become a major obstacle.  There are several factors leading to the paper problem….. all of them attributable to our lifestyle choices, I guess.

• We homeschool - so we produce mountains of paper in the form of their projects.
• We work from home - running more than one business - and projects besides.  These activities produce an astronomical amount of bills, invoices, work orders, time cards.  AARRGG!!!
• Mail.  We get an unreal amount of mail.  See above.
• We are procrastinators.  I’m not exactly sure about how this is connected to the unreal amount of paper in our house but I know it is.

Steps must be taken to tame this mess before we are buried alive.  What is to be done?

• A shredder was purchased last week.  That is helping.  We shred the paper and mix it with some of the animals bedding.  It will serve a purpose and turn to compost eventually.
• I pay 70% of the bills online - but I need to take that extra step to pay all of them online - and select paperless bills wherever possible.
• We have always made use of both sides of the paper when ever possible.   If a paper is no longer needed, we line through the used side to signal that it is okay for that paper to be used as scrap.  It then goes into a bin - and the kids will use that paper for scratch paper, art, etc. 

This still doesn’t seem to accomplish much.   This is the result of just a few days worth of paperwork:

What else can be done?  Help!  I am drowning in paper.

Technorati Tags: Recycling

I wanted a Living Christmas tree this year.   Why cut a tree down, when you can plant one instead?

It didn’t work out for me.  First of all - no nursery around here is still open this time of year.  Secondly - my climate isn’t exactly helpful in this catagory.  To sucessfully have a living tree, it can can’t go through the shock of drastic temperature changes in a short period of time.  (the 0 degree weather we are having outside - then the 70 degrees of our home - then back out to 0 again!)

Instead, we went down and got a tree from a lot yesterday.  That was a first actually - as we typically get a tree from the forest at the hunting cabin.  It is nice to have the tree up in the house.  It smells nice!

I guess Christmas is coming.  I’d better get to work - making gifts, baking cookies, reading Christmas stories.

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All day yesterday we had a young hen (she just started laying last week) refuse to leave her nest.  She was carefully making sure those two little eggs she sat on were staying tucked under her.

Last night, however, she got off to eat - then went to the perch rather then back to the nest.  Obviously she is not officially broody - but I wonder if she is thinking about it.  It would seem very odd to me if she did go broody…  we are  in the middle of the winter!

On the other hand, it has been nice FINALLY getting some eggs!  We first got about 25 chicks in March, but the neighbors dogs got to most of them.  Though it was late in the year, we got 25 more in July.  It is this batch that just started to lay about a week ago.

I wonder if hens go broody gradually - or they just up and decide one day.

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Wanderlust has shown an interest in photography.  I don’t have any training in the area - but have always had fun taking pictures.  So - we are embarking on some lessons together.

The timing is perfect, too.  We have a Canon camera that had to be sent away for repair.   We just got the replacement camera back - along with a user manual.  Ah!  You mean all those buttons actually do something?  We found a fun little trick. 

Next up… I guess we ought to actually learn something.

•  Shutter Speed

• Apeture

• Exposure

• What does it all mean?

I found this book on Amazon.com.  It looks like such a beautiful book…  and a great source for information too! 

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About 5 years ago, we purchased some acreage.  We got a pretty good deal on it, but it was not in our home town.  We were not ready to move yet - the J.O.B. was holding us back - but the land seemed like such a good deal we couldn’t pass up on it.  We put the money down, started making payments, and started plotting and dreaming about the perfect house to build.

The house was going to have beautiful vaulted ceilings, a HUGE mud/laundry room, a room for each child, a school room, a solarium, and a loft upstairs for the extra needs…. projects, etc.  We drew on napkins and envelopes until we had it just right.  Once we had finally settled on every detail and felt satisfied that the house was ‘perfect’ the square footage topped 4000.

Building began - along with our anticipation.  We had been waiting SO long for the dream.  It was finally within reach!    The more construction progressed, the more we each began to have a nagging feeling that something was not quite right.   For some reason, the house just did not match the personality and rhythm of our family. 

The ceiling was too tall.  The rooms - too big.  By the time the house was done - it felt more like a lodge or museum - not the cozy cottage we had come to long for.  Thankfully, our plans had changed anyway and projects took us to a different town.  We never did move into that house, but were were given a gift.  We were given the chance to understand the “myths” that lie behind the dream…. and we were given a second chance to get it right.

This is what we thought we valued:

• Big
• Grandiose windows
• A showboat house in which we could “feel” successful.  Though I don’t think we overtly felt this way, there may have been an element of keeping-up-with-the-Jones’s
• A separate “room” for every activity.  One for school, one for crafts, one for plants, one for work, one for cooking and the living room of course.

Since then, this is what we have come to understand:

• We are responsible for caring for the earth and building in a sustainable way
• The learning, crafting, care for plants and cooking IS the living.  We don’t need a separate room for each.  However - we still do need a separate space for work. 
• Along the same lines…. we are all in the same room all the time anyway… so why build all those extra rooms to sit empty?
• We are not the Jones’s - and for that matter - we don’t want to be the Jones’s
• Small fits in with these values
• Quality.  Small design makes available extra resources for top notch construction, material and design.  Nothing beats Quality.
• Cozy fits our family’s culture best.

Technorati Tags: Green Building

This morning, my oldest two kids came up with a plan.  By the time I had the coffee in the cup, they were getting settled into the living room for an hour of knitting and reading.  This was the plan…. Beth reads a chapter aloud as Jake works on knitting a Christmas gift he is making.  When the chapter ends, they switch – Beth knits and Jake reads aloud.  They were so content that they went on like this for over an hour before they realized they had not yet had breakfast. It was so fun to see them inspired by an idea and self-initiate the plan.  I think, in part, the inspiration for this morning’s plan had something to do with the “learning style quizzes” we did yesterday.   Some of the kids are having a hard time with memorization – and I felt I needed to re-tune in with the learning styles of each of the kids.  We found a few different quizzes online – and the kids had fun figuring out the results.  Of course, they also quizzed mom and dad!   Beth returned a result very heavily favoring Auditory learning.  I think she was then inspired to do some read alouds…. which may have lead to the activities they busied themselves with this morning. 

I’ve always known about the different learning styles – and the different types of intelligence – but sometimes we get so busy with life that we forget.  It is nice to get back to the basics occasionally.  

Three Learning Styles: 

• Visual
• Auditory
• Kinesthetic

And the types of intelligence are:

• Visual/Spatial Intelligence
• Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence
• Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
• Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence
• Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence
• Interpersonal Intelligence
• Intrapersonal Intelligence
• Emotional Intelligence

The ability to remember - and teach to the special characteristics in our kids is one of the many perks of homeschooling!! 

Technorati Tags: Education, Learning Styles

I am so disconnected from the earth and my food sources it is difficult to fathom how to get the back-to-nature lifestyle I long for.  Learning to live off the land, when I am 3 generations removed from the practice is a monumental task.  Some of the answers I seek lie with my grandmother.  She remembers the food preservation arts that have been lost by a majority of my generation.  I remember going to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house and sitting down at the table for a snack as Grandma pulled out her canned apricots or pears.  Those were a treat I received at Grandma’s house alone.  I never saw canned goods anywhere else.  I also remember how much I loved her homemade strawberry and raspberry jams.  It doesn’t get any better then that. Naturally I turned to Grandma first when looking to get back to nature when it comes to the food in our household.  She used to can not only her fruits, but lake trout and elk.  The lesson commenced.  Out came the jars, sugar, and fruit (of course!).  It is actually a pretty easy process.  I don’t know why I was so intimidated by it before. 

1.  Cut fruit and make syrup.  (Sugar and water boiled)
2.  Boil lids to jar – to sterilize.
3. Stuff fruit into jar.
4. Pour syrup over fruit.
5. Use tongs to place lids on jar – and submerge in boiling water.  The jar must be TOTALLY SUBMERGED in the water bath.
6.   Boil for 20 minutes or so.
7. Remove jars and place in a draft free area for cooling. 
8. Enjoy the company of those you love, and listen for the little “pops” of the jar lids as they seal.

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I blog to create:

• a beautiful family memory-keeper
• a place to keep notes on books I’ve read
• a place to keep track of crafts we’ve done
• a place for the kids to ‘publish’ their work
• a place to share photos with family and friends
• a place to write - (though I have a different website for my fiction writing activities)
• a record of our homeschooling activities

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