Chronicles of Cody

Cody eating home-made ravioli's at grandma's house.

Cody with some of his cousins and brothers, as well as Angee (Brian's girlfriend) and Jerry (RoseAnn's boyfriend).Everyone agrees, they count as family.

Cody is our sullen one.We like to say he can't help it..he was sort-of born wearing that look. Those who get to know him, learn that he has a huge heart for those less fortunate,can be very funny, unusually loyal and has learned to balance an extremely competitive nature with playfulness. (this, however, is supposed to be a secret). So, just who is this kid?

I thought I could start with some of his passions.

First of all. Soccer. Cody is living, breathing, sleeping soccer at this time of his life. He wants to push himself to see how far he can go "in the soccer world". (Is that vague enough?) He is playing with his second team since the Fall and working with two trainers. So..Mondays and Wednesdays..he trains..Tuesdays and Thursdays he practices and trains. Friday's are usually games (along with some of his practicing/training days) and Saturdays hold more games or practice. Sundays? He recovers before starting all over again.

This is Cody's 11th year playing soccer, but his first year as a goalie. He had gotten very comfortable at mid-field. After a little hesitation in the beginning,Cody discovered that he can be more aggressive as goalie than just about anywhere else on the field. He is loving it!

So..maybe passions is a short-list...although he recently re-discovered his guitar, and continues to spend hours plotting stories for computer games.

We are trying to put a little balance into Cody's soccer/family life. Cody has returned to studying Latin prayers verses translations of biographies of assassins. The prayers are a little more managable. He is working through St. Martin's Guide to writing, reading Tao Te Ching for co-op and plugging along in math. He is cursing himself for involving himself (yet again) in Odyssey. Insisting he will never do it again. He says this every year at this time.

Finally, he has recently joined Venturers. They are planning to do some ropes courses and scuba diving locally for the short-term. For the long-term they have narrowed down their adventures to either gold-mining in Colorado for a month or scuba-diving in Belize. He has "respectfully declined" any leadership positions with this group.

As for service? Well..he is continuing to lead the Boys and Girls Club city-wide paper recycling program. and helps tutor at the Club one day a week.

Cody's next big interest these days has been micro-financing with non-profit organizations such as Kiva (Keeva?). He has found that he can loan money to , say, a fisherman in Lebanon..and see his money put to use. He insists this is far more gratifying than letting his money sit in a bank and earn $10 a year in interest.

Cody continues his advocacy/awareness-raising on the genocide in Darfur and offering family support to local refugees on a weekly basis. (grocery shopping, playing with children, tutoring, etc.)

I forgot. This has become a request. (who knew?)

Weekly Menu:

Mon: Potato chip chicken, broccoli/cauliflower/potato/cheese stuff, fried okra, biscuits

Tues: stir fry veggies with rice

Wed: ribs, mashed potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, biscuits again

Thurs: chicken and dumplings, salad

Friday: pizza again:)

Saturday: veggie chilli and Wild Game Dinner at the church

Sunday: church pot-luck

MLK March/Inaguration

Wow.

A lot of history in a short span of time.
We have participated in the San Antonio MLK March every year for over a decade. (except one year when the Tx. Hill Country roads were closed due to ice and we couldn't get there). This year the boys insisted on going as part of the Darfur Coalition.

In this picture Elle, Mathew, Hannah and Cody hold the sign while others (Mason, Austen, Joel, Jules, Galen, Harlan...) pass out literature on the SADarfur Interfaith Coalition and get signatures on post-cards to encourage the ending of the genocide in Darfur.

I was questioned by a dear friend as to why we march. Our children were marching to make a stand for Darfur, but why me? Why would I march?

My response? Because it is our priviledge, right and responsibility.

We have the priviledge to march for what we believe in this country. I have spent some time in countries that are not so privilidged. It is not a priviledge I take lightly.

It is my right. I believe that here in the United States, we have come a very long way in social equality and justice for all...but I also know we have a long way to go. Our current public policies regarding immigration, people with disabilities, and same-sex marriages are just a start. I feel it is our right, to make a stand on these issues. The way I see it, equality means equality..not..oh..actually just for x, y and z group. This is my belief. For this I march.

Finally responsibility. It is my responsibility as a parent, to make sure my children know the history of our country. All the history, the parts for which I am proud, the parts for which I am embarassed. We study history to learn from both our successes and our mistakes. The civil rights movement is a HUGE part of American History. I cannot and will not deny this lesson in social responsibility to my children.

We have just spent the morning watching Obama's inaguration into office. Once again.

Wow.

I saw a sign yesterday that pretty much sums up my feelings about all of this:

Rosa (Parks) sat so Martin(Luther King) could walk.
Martin walked so (Barak)Obama could run.
Obama ran so all children could fly.

Odyssey is back...

My house smells like kids and Odyssey of the Mind.

My kitchen smells like spray paint (they painted outside..I swear) My living room smells of burning sauder, and snacks...(popcorn and pizza actually).

I thought we had another month before the kids hit this mode. I was wrong.

The Club is sending 4 teams this year to the Texas Central regional tournament. We are sending one highschool, one middle school and two elementary teams. The highschool and junior high are both meeting out of our house (although they have coaches other than me). Elementary is meeting out of the Club. All teams are meeting together on Tuesdays for spontaneous problem practice. You know..when they work together to answer questions like, "if you made a bumper sticker for the space shuttle, what would it say?" or to build things..like a cantilever out of toothpicks and marshmallows.

But that is not as messy ..the spontaneous. The long-term stuff will take over my house. At the moment we have two small vehicle models and one pieced together robot and something that explodes for the high school. They are rumoring about spies and the Pink Panther. I can only imagine what they will end up with.

Junior high is working on a problem involving "the lost labor of Heracles". They have spent the day, painting shoes, working on signs and downloading info on the Greek alphabet and Pythagorus (don't ask). They also have lots of brown material, tie-dye (again with the tie-dye), sheets, leaves and various forms of triangles. They don't know if they are using triangles or not..but are playing with an idea.

The mess, however, is not limited to competing members of our house. Since the rest of us are not allowed to offer any ideas..we often immerse ourselves in our own creative endeavors. I managed to get myself lost in a book. (not so creative) Brian-Scott and Angee (who are both going to be judges) are trying to stay out of it..so they are dismantling a d.v.d player and discussing "puppy launchers" ..as in maybe they could "launch" our dog.

"Big"Brian spent the day at Pick-n-Pull..for no reason other than to scavenge for car-parts and clear the house. He did bring home the pizza, though. The pizza, however, is not enought. Here we go with the food theme again.

So while we're at it...this week's menu:
Sunday- vegetable tempera and rice
Monday- lasagna, french-bread, salad
Tuesday- grilled cheese and tomato soup
Wednesday-chili-mac and steamed potato and cauliflower with cheese.
Thursday- left-overs
Friday - pizza again.
Saturday- still not a clue

Now that his team is gone, Austen is moving himself into the tree condo. He claims his room will have to hold his team's stuff. He may be right.

Lucky Austen.

Serious Study?

Silence.

It is a welcome, but eerie sound in this house. For 3 days, the boys have studied at least 4 hours every morning. I am the noisy one around here. I do not have their attention span.

The boys are calling this our "season of study". If history repeats itself, it will last about one month..then we will be in OM crunch mode and will once again, be going through the motions.

Sandy and Devin are coming over every morning. Sandy patiently sits with Austen each morning as he works himself through the confusing world of fractions, polynomials and figuring area and perimeter. He is spending a lot of time reading 39 Clues and The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy triology.

Devin is a bit more mathematically self-sufficient. He plops himself in a chair and just works through textbooks. He occasionally murmurs he is stuck, but before you reach him he inevitably says,'oh, never mind..I got it." He is spending a lot of time reading Usborne's Book of World Religions and looking at grammar and German.

Both Austen and Devin are spending a little bit of time each day diagramming sentences (like 15 minutes) and have returned to daily essay writing.

We all read together each morning..mainly because I like this time together. We are almost finished with Brizinger. The boys are also reading the Bhagavad Gita for next week's discussion during co-op.

Cody and I are plodding through his Latin together. We decided in the Fall that since the bulk of his time is spent on the soccer fields, Latin was a way to get comfortable with English grammar and meet college foreign language requirements in one shot. At the time, he was debating whether to spend a semester playing soccer in Mexico for his senior year, or go to Italy for his first year of college (also for soccer). We figured a year of Latin wouldn't hurt him, either way.

We started with Latina Christiana. We worked about 1/2 way through it and then Cody decided it would be more interesting to switch to the Oxford Latin Course. This is one brother Brian used for a year. It involves lots of translations, but revolves around the biography of Quintus Horatio Flacus...the assasin of Julius Ceasar. Am I surprised that he finds the life of an assassin more interesting than liturgical prayers?! The biography of an assassin is a bit more time consuming though. Cody is reading and re-reading Darren Brown's Trick's of the Mind. He is returning to the routine of working through the Saxon Alg.II book.

As for me, I am stalling. I need to read the book of Acts, identify some specific groups, etc. for discussion. Instead, I am reading Three Cups of Tea, lots of magazines, The Shack and a book on care-giving. I am filling out a zillion impact assesment things for work..and..well..blogging. Like I said, don't have the boys' attention span.

Why am I writing this? Because years from now, I want to say.."do you remember that time when we studied...like every day? I think it was January of like, 2009 or something.."

taking time to regroup

Our vacation mode is finally ending (sigh), and I am taking the day to regroup. I am preparing for this next semester of study, OM madness, soccer games, C.A.P. competitions and work by spending the day doing laundry, planning menus (if I don't have a vague plan, we tend to go days scrounging..it is quite sad, really), and rearranging the house. I bought myself a christmas c.d...Winter Wonderland from Starbucks this weekend. I am playing it at nauseum as I get ready for our next few months. This is, in a way,
my deep breath before jumping back into our routines.

I have mixed feelings about this. I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Brian-Scott.I will miss him. I loved drinking too much Hot Damn, cheating at dominoes and watching the kids playing with fireworks over New Years. I spent a few days in Brian's Austin apartment with my mom and sister where we spent some long-overdue time together. However, I am ready to return to more structured lives.

We are actually missing our routine with the kids at the Club. I have only worked 3 days in the past 2 weeks. It seems much longer than this. We all function better around here when we balance our days with work(like paid labor) service (volunteerism galore) study and play. We have spent the past month abundantly heavy on the volunteer and play side. I am ready for more balance.


Okay..just for fun: Our Weekly Menu (think mixed family part vegetarian part carnivorous)
Sunday: fajitas, ranch style beans, corn and rice
Monday: cheeseburger pie, fruit cocktail and salad (soup bar: cream of bean)
Tuesday: spaghetti, green beans, bread-sticks (soup bar: huitlacoche)
Wednesday: baked ham, mac and cheese, peas (soup bar: tomato-basil)
Thursday: leftovers (soup bar: veggie soup)
Friday: pizza night
Saturday: not a clue!
So it's an almost weekly menu. Truth is Brian usually cooks on the weekends. During the week, I take out all the ingredients in the afternoon before leaving for work. We usually have a first one home cooks dinner rule. This includes the boys. We cooked a lot with them when they were younger so they are all pretty comfortable in the kitchen. Hence, the need for a plan . The other reason we have a plan is so everyone in this house knows what is available to create, snack on, etc. Otherwise, the kids eat the ingredients. Looking for sauce? Cody ate it. Looking for basil? Austen used it all in a tea experiment.. Noodles? Mason built something with them.
All for now. Laundry awaits!

LOST in vacation mode

WE seem to have a very twisted form of family bonding. We have spent almost 2 days watching the t.v. season 1 from LOST. We still have seasons 2 and 3 to go. It has turned into a sickness. We watch for hours and assure ourselves that it is okay to "lose" ourselves in lost because we are on vacation. I am sad to say it has become like an addiction. We stay up to wee hours of the night watching this show. It is insane. I am relieved that today we actually have to be somewhere/do something.
Austen is spending the morning flying an airplane. Mason is at soccer. Cody is sleeping (too many Lost episodes late at night) and then programming some computer games. Brian, Michael and I are finally returning to work.
We all agreed this morning that we will give ourselves the rest of the week to watch this insane series in the evenings..to feed our addiction, so to speak, and then???? I think we will be shutting off the t.v. for awhile.

The Christmas Crud

Don't get me wrong. I truly love this season. I enjoy this holiday. But with this time of year, always seems to come the Christmas crud. You know, that blend of allergies/cold/flu that you just can't shake.
Austen and I get sick last week. We come out of our fog just before Christmas Eve day..and I realize that we are surrounded by others in the same condition. I understand that Cody and Mason spent a fair amount of time sleeping these past few days also.
We enjoyed spending the day with family and friends..but I can't seem to notice that many are just worn-out and sick! Why do we do this to ourselves?!
On another note. We have had a very relaxing and lazy Chritmas day. Actually, the word 'gluttony' comes to mind. We are surrounded by tamales, chili, ribs, tacos, cakes and chocolate. We have more sodas and other junk-food in the house than we will probably have for the rest of the year.
The kids have spent the past week playing Scrabble. Today was not much different..only now they are (or rather were) spending the day playing Rock Band. At least that was until they ran out of batteries. Why do we NEVER have enough batteries on Christmas?
I try to watch It's a Wonderful Life. It is tradition. We do this every year. Nothing happening. The kids protest. Well fine, just any Christmas movie. Somehow we end up watching Tom and Huck instead. Still not sure how that happened.
The kids did break up their ongoing game-playing for a little more tree-house time, bike riding (Brian-Scott got a new bike!), downloading voices on a GPS and painting.
Now? The day finally winds down. Brian-Scott leaves with Angee and her brother Kevin. They are off to Colorado. Mason and Cody are comparing soccer gear. Austen is playing a video game.
It appears that it is Brian and Michael's turn to be sick. They are fighting fevers and trying to sleep.

Nature Trails, Soup and Tie-Dye

I realize a little over a week ago that the kids will never be full. I used to be able to throw some dinner in the crock pot. Well, now that only feeds half of us. We have turned one of our kitchen counters into a Soup Bar. I fill the crock-pot with soup each day and put a basket of dinner rolls beside it. This is not a meal, just an ongoing snack for whoever is in the house. You know, because hot-pockets, popcorn, apples/bananas/oranges, cookies and bowls of cereal don't cut it anymore.

When I leave for the Club, I take what is left with me for staff and kids. In this picture, Austen is dancing in the Club kitchen. He likes to claim it is his kitchen. We start the next batch of soup before I leave. So far we have had 15 bean soup, minestrone, tomato, brocolli and cheese, tomato and potato. I suspect it will not be long before everyone starts groaning, "please, no more soup!"

The boys (dad included) cleared out a nature trail over the weekend. It starts in our backyard and includes the backyards of a few neighbors. They cleared a path/maze just big enough for a golf-cart to fit through. It overlooks the river, winds through trees, brush, etc. We put up our "Trees for the San Antonio Region" poster and are trying to see how many trees we can identify.

The tie-dye continues. It has now taken over our morning room and deck.Now that the "business of Christmas" is settling down, we are starting to fall into old daily rhythms. This is always the time of year we just put down formal study for a month. It is too crazy and people are too stressed during the holidays to try. I really enjoy this..and then I always start thinking "what would happen if we did this f-o-r-e-v-e-r? "

We don't. I'll panic shortly after the new year. But for now..it is really nice.

The boys are getting way too much leverage out of this break with their schooled peers.

Just the other day Austen was helping his friend Ricci with an essay on the Holocaust.
Austen was naming off the current genocides for him, when Ricci stops abruptly:It's not fair miss...how come he doesn't have to write.

Austen grins:Because I'm spoiled.

Me: That's not true! (yikes..he is going public with our huge vacation)He writes an essay a day.

(I don't mention that he writes about whatever he feels like.)

Ricci (big grin):Ha!

Austen: Of course, right now I'm not doing anything for a month..AND I get to sleep late, so HA back!.

Ricci:Is that true, miss?

Me:Yup..sure is.

Ricci :Aww..that's just not right!

Austen (again): Ha!

We have got to work a little on manners!

Keepers of the Magic

Santa has thrown up in my house.



Over the years, as the boys began to discover Santa's other identities, we often remind them that now they are officially, "Keepers of the Magic." As they have become older this Magic Keeping business has taken on a life of it's own.

We dedicate at least a week to magic making in this house...and we share this fun with my friend, Sandy and her son, Devin.


Yesterday as Brian and I drink our morning coffee, I remind him this is the week that we make magic. "Oh jeez!. Can't we just do this..and then have it all cleaned up before I get home?" "Yeah, right..whatever." He grins. "Well, can we at least remember to have some dinner? or do I need to bring home something." He leaves for work threatening to live at the garage until this nonsense is done."...oh, and don't forget x, y and z family",he adds. "I think they're hungry."

So we begin. I do remember to throw some dinner (Beef strognaoff) in the crock-pot. We take over the living room with various food boxes. It will take the next several days to sort and deliver these anonymous gifts of food. Hopefully, we will have the food delivered in time to sort and package the toys/stockings, etc. collected by SAHERO for the kids at the Club.

We set up a table in the living room to make our Christmas gifts. Have you ever tried to tie-dye a towel? It's like trying to tie-dye a sponge. We set up another table in the kitchen for baking. The cookie baking begins. Yesterday? 28 dozen Cracker Jack Cookies. Today's plan? Sandy informs me it is Pumpkin Bread. My she is brave.

We leave the dining room table clear, because yes, we do still have co-op.

We need the table for looking at fungus slides through a microscope. We thought it might be nice to keep the fungus samples away from all the food. Lovely, eh?

Here the kids are making some sort-of Octa-Hedral hubs,
split octas and vertex. (Did I get that right?) We discuss
the Epic of Gilgamesh and yes, fungus as they eat cookies. Today's musical selection? The kids move from Belafonte to Elvis.



Finally, Austen and Devin deliver the food in our immediate area. Elf Austen is not very wise. It is 28 degrees and he makes deliveries in pajama bottoms, flip flops and a jacket. It takes him awhile to recover.

Tree House Wars

Well, the weather is warm (again) and the tree house wars are waging in my neighborhood. When the boys were younger they spent 10 months out of the year building tree houses, club-houses, you name it. There are 180 acres in this dirt-road subdivision of mine. Building forts, treehouses and clubhouses is a favorite pastime for all the neighborhood kids. You think you see deer in the bushes....no, boys moving a couch into the brush. Oh look, a fallen log. No, that is the bridge to the "boat-house". Is that a cave in the side of the hill? It wasn't there last year. Of course, it is furnished with car seats and road signs. Aren't all artificial holes in the side of a hill furnished this way?
But the building isn't the fun part. The fun part was sneaking into the "other" tree-houses and finding treasures. Arguments break-out..and then the neighborhood boys decide to start over with combined efforts to "outdo" the children in the neighboring R.V. park.
This is a favorite past-time in my neighborhood. Kids as young as 4 and as old as 17 can be found building these shanties. The only other past-time that can come close is summer flashlight tag and playing in the river...but most of the year it is too cold or too dry for the river.
Then it happened. Dadsgot involved. A few years ago they (the dads) built the ultimate tree house in my back yard. It was complete with sliding fire pole, deck, patio lights and a smoke detector. The rest of the neighborhood contracting seemed to stop. We had now crossed into ridiculous..or so I thought.
Now when I can't find my husband I simply ask, "Where's dad?" The kids sigh.."oh, he's in the tree house again." When I climb up to see if he is there Brian inevitably says, "sh..I'm hiding. I don't want anyone to find me." This nonsense has gone on for years.
Austen and his friends reclaim the treehouse in the summer months, but they add a t.v. and d.v.d. player. Last year, when we had 7 (yes 7) children in our house, they all begged to move into the tree house. We told them no. They whined that it was the best place around. We said,"too bad. You must suffer in the real house with the rest of us."
This fall, Brian decided to renovate the tree-house. "Do we have to help?" the boys would ask. "Go help your dad. It's important to him." I respond. So..they rebuild a floor with no trap. They put in sheet rock, carpet, a fridge and a couch. Once again, the boys enthusiasm has returned to hang out in "the condo". Brian shows off the tree-house to any unsuspecting soul that enters our home. Older ladies from our church he leads to the ladder saying, "Just peek, isn't it great?" Everyone oohs and ahhs for him. He is so proud.
Last week, Austen grabbed a hammer, board and nails. "Where are you going?" I ask. "To build a tree-house." "What about the condo?" "Eh..it's okay I guess." I know what he means. It is not so rustic anymore. The fun of building and stealing is gone. The next thing I know there are 4 teenage boys pounding rotting boards into a tree in a field across the street from us. Now some of the other neighbors are starting to scout their perfect tree-house spots. Boys are starting to rob parts off of eachothers trees. Any piece of wood, roofing or old furniture that can be scrounged is fair game. Is Dad Brian upset?
No. "Finally", he states, eyes gleaming as he looks teary eyed at the tree condo in our yard. "It's all mine."
Hmm..I think I might add a ripline to it for Chrismas:)

Swing of the Holidays

The story-telling has begun. This seems to be the time of year that we put aside all our normal routine...whatever that is. We start with Thanksgiving..and then through the Holiday season..which in our family consists of Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas and New Years..we spend most of our time in the midst of various traditions and LOTS of storytelling. We started this season with Thanksgiving at my mother's house.

We reminisce, we tell ouigi board adventures, ghost stories, the older generation discuss the pros and cons of large family life (many of my aunts and uncles come from families of 7 or more) and politics seem to be fair game to all. Cody says our story-telling is more like flat-out lying. We like to call them "fish-tales". I remind him we all like to out-do eachother in our ability to tell a good story...and that when topics become serious, the "stories" stop...and everyone feels free to give you an honest opinion. Opinions are free, wanted or not.

We jump into the traditions of our small Lutheran congregation.. We prepare for advent service homilies, sermons, cantoring, acolyting, Christmas programs, and fellowship.

Food drives, time to listen to those who are grieving, helping relieve the stress of underworking families. This becomes the priority in our lives for the next month. It is a reminder that we should live this way more often.

Finally, our traditions at home. Austen insisted we could not decorate our tree this year until Brian came home. Brian made a trip to help us decorate the tree. I believe he decorated most of it himself while the other boys ate dinner and played Fantastic Contraption. Somehow I don't think that was the original plan. We ate quesadillas, rice and chicken, cookies and listened to Pancho Sanchez Latin Jazz.

We buy a small tree for Brian. Let's face it, most trees are bigger than his entire apartment. We enjoy decorating his first Christmas tree with (gasp) matching colors and everything. I'm a little jealous:)

Our tree is old, our ornaments older. Many were made by the kids when they were younger. Our star is a paper-plate cut-out that Cody decorated when he was 4. It has water-damage from a flood in our neighborhood a few years ago. We clothes-pin it to our tree.

The stories, once again, abound. Brian has a great time imitating the boys behavior when they were younger. The boys start doing there imitations of dad. The story-telling has now become animated. Cody, our story-telling cynic, is right in the thick of it.

Co-op

I really love our co-op! Yesterday the kids finished their 6 octa tetra-hedral while discussing Perelandra and singing Belafonte songs.

This past summer, four families got together and decided that we were tired of driving to San Antonio for our children to participate in larger co-ops.

When the boys were younger, we ran a small Waldorf-co-op out our home. We called it the Riverside co-op..since much time was spent playing in the river, climbing trees, acting, painting, playing instruments, learning to sew and Spanish(like I said..they boys were much younger)It lasted for a couple years. We remember this time fondly.

The families went different directions when the children grew older. With this past summers inflated gas-prices, we decided to reconvene. The children and parents got together and discussed what they wanted out of this time together. What goals were they trying to achieve?

Moms wanted time together to feel less isolated. Teens wanted to be able to go to specific colleges or open certain businesses. Food, games and play were also high on the list.

So every Monday from 1-4:30 we meet. We start with board games and snacks...Boggle, Apples to Apples and Cranium being the favorites.

Judy (Zalen's mom) begins study with bio-lab. The teens have been expriementing with pond life and identifying protozoa. We are now moving onto algae! Zalen..by the way, is missing from these pics.

From Bio-Lab we move to Octa-tetra designs. Sandy (Devin's mom) alternates between reading about the geometry involved to simply letting the kids build. The kids often work on the octa-tetra designs while discussing biology or their lit.

We usually move to the back deck (unless it is cold and we are octa-tetraing) for Socratic Discussion. We have chosen to start with Ancient Lit from the WorldView Academy's great books program.

Some weeks we have very interesting discussions..."what is suffering?" "Is flying spaghetti monsters a religion?" "What is the difference between religion and faith?" "What is value?" Other times..we have more the.."huh? oh, there's a bee in my tea." non-discussions.

Finally movie-making. We pull a lot of stuff from the Boys and Girls Club movie tech and drama matters programs. Currently they are experimenting with claymation.

The fact is, this is just a fun group of kids. They all have such varying views and personalities, yet maintain strong respect for one another. A lot of adults could learn from them..I know I do.

Ta'ayush

We have a visting parakeet. We have named him/her Ta'ayush...Arabic for "life in common". We named our parakeet Ta'ayush in honor of the Jewish/Arabic group that is established in and around Jerusalem to help bring down the barriers (physical, emotional, mental) that surround them...and as a reminder that many of the conflicts in all of our lives can be avoided and resolved through one on one respect and interaction with eachother. Compassion can be a powerful force.

Yesterday as we celebrated our annual "Thanksgiving After Thanksgiving" celebration we had the opportunity to spend the day with over 50 people..of various faiths or non-faiths..and then our parakeet came to visit. When I was a child (in Japan) I was told that if a bird appears to you, you must keep it and care for it.

Ta'ayush (the bird) appeared as the boys and friends were playing soccer. After more drama then necessary..like the boys climbing a tree to "catch" the bird that sat on the ground and watched them climb..16 year old, Galen, proudly holds Ta'ayush and says..."I think he's hungry..he/she/it is eating my hand..hey, ow that hurts". Brian took the boys to the Antique Mall and they found a small cage for the bird. We decided to place the bird on our dresser, however Shadow (our dog) seemed to think that maybe she should eat Ta'ayush. We have placed the cage on top of our antique coke machine in the living room. Ta'ayush is happy now. He/she has spent the day chirping away as we read Perelandra.

Rewind..and tupperware invasion

We will start with tupperware. Eleven..count them 11 containers we cleaned out of the fridge yesterday in preperation for Thanksgiving. We just cleaned out the fridge 3 weeks ago. Do you know how absolutely insane that is?! We had spaghetti sauce, lasagna, mashed potatoes, chicken-fried steak, green beanse, etc. No one should have this many left-overs in a fridge.
So after we spend yesterday delivering food to families, cleaning out this nonsense and planning the holiday..son Cody asks.."so what are we doing tomorrow?" Me: we are going to grandma's in the afternoon. We will hang out here in the morning. Cody..why are we going to grandma's. Me: It's Thanksgiving?! Cody:(the light comes on) Oh...it's Thanksgiving. Really?
Are all teens martians? I felt like saying..hello...is anybody home? What do you think we have been doing all day. But, in usual fashion, he was amused with himself. So I just stared incredulously at the bubble he must live in.


I would like to rewind just a bit. I realized after going over old stuff this morning..that our lives have been filled with quite a bit over past two years. Last year, we had an exchange student from Lebanon live with us. Mohamad and Austen spent a lot of time cooking together. Cody became a vegetarian during this time:)


Cody also had the opportunity to spend some time in England, France and Italy this past summer. He is hoping to return to Italy to attend the University for Foreigners and play soccer in a few years.



Meanwhile, Austen joined the Civil Air Patrol. He was watching the Civil Air Patrol drillling at the Boys and Girls Club one day. He skates through them..with long flowing hair and fuzzy blue hat..and announces he wants to join. I thought he was kidding. We talked about this a LOT at home. We are strong advocates for peace. We feed the homeless, we go on peace marches, we spend our free time in family support for refugee families from Darfur, Sudan..Austen was adament. He turned in his roller blades (gasp) for a uniform. He loves to spend his time drilling (yikes!). Austen is absolutely thriving in this para-military environment. I have been pleasantly surprised with the friendships we have made, the leadership traits this boy has developed and yes..he even gets to fly planes!

Okay. Now my family reminds me that we will be late to grandmas. We have spent the morning watching Promises. A documentary on the Israeli/Palistinian conflict..and had lots of discussion over the past few days on the complexities of this region. Austen and Brian went out to the gun range. Cody and I made salad. We are off to see grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles and cousins. Hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

2 Years!!!!

Wow! 2 years already! Since our last entry...our children have gotten older and not so much wiser. We started this blog when the boys all had really long, shaggy, hair..hence the title, "shaggy boys". Obviously not the case anymore. Behavior is pretty much the same, though.

Since our last post, Brian graduated from TAMS. He is now a junior at UTAustin. Yay for Brian!!

At this time our household consists of husband Brian and myself with Cody and Austen (15 and 14) still learning at home. We have combined our household with family friends Michael and his son Mason (16). We think this will be the make-up of our house for a while....

Like our children, not much has changed. I am still working at the Boys and Girls Club....we are still enjoying this thing called life.

A life well lived

It appears I am, in the words of my son, a "holiday blogger". Looking over this blog, it appears he is right. How do people find the time? (I know..they make it) It has been a busy month. A close friend of mine died a few weeks ago. Her 17 year old son called me on a Tuesday morning. He was understandably upset and informed me that his mother would die in a few hours. She did. We have spent most of this holiday season with this family. In my grieving, I have been thinking about life..and living. My friend led a very full life. It was a life, "well lived". She touched the lives of many around her. Both she and her husband have made an effort to cultivate the relationships of family and friends. This was apparent during the hours of her death and weeks after. I also have been thinking about what defines "success". My friends husband has been working as a civil service worker for their entire marriage. (20 years?) Over this past year, as her medical expenses mounted, he took a second job waiting tables for a Luby's. He helped his children prepare for the death of their mother. He supported her emotionally until she took her last breath. He is openly grieving in front of his family and friends, and not afraid to say, "this is hard." I hope I can be this kind of person. I hope my children will grow up to be this type of person. A person who says, life can be hard. I will take what is dealt to me. I will do whatever needs to be done. I will do so humbly. (Is that really a word?) I will live life fully, the good and the bad. I will not be afraid to embrace either.

Unschooling

I have been reading and hearing a slew of comments over the past 24 hours on homeschooling/unschooling. I thought I would take a few minutes to sort this out here. First of all, if I had to say what type of home educator we are I usually say we are "very relaxed" or that we are "learning (not educating) at home". However, we are deffinately considered unschoolers by many. I asked my son (Brian) yesterday if he felt having such freedom had harmed him in any way now that he is in college. He answered honestly that he hadn't even thought about it. He is happy, making good grades, landing research opportunities. I think he has "survived" our desire to let him choose his own path. I truly feel, if I had to do it again, I would have much LESS structure for all of our boys until they were at least 12. I think of how I often fluctuated between required instructional learning (usually lasts about a month each fall and summer) and total freedom. I spent hours worrying...and they are fine. I do feel at this point, tutoring the younger boys (12 and 13) an hour a day (mixed with volunteerism of their choice and an hour or two of plain old hard labor) is good for all of us at this time. We are surrounded by good books, lots of nature (river, hills, trees..and all the creatures that come with it), lots of games, people that provide good conversation and humor. I can't help but wonder how you can really go wrong with that? Okay. Technical stuff. Brian and friends posted on their blog last night...and nothing is showing on their page. I posted yesterday..and unless I go through my dashboard, nothing has published on my blog either. I am wondering how to make tags.....I really need to spend some time figuring all this out. But first? Breakfast with Cody. He is about to spend a few hours filling holes with gravel for a local neighborhood contractor. (making Christmas spending money). Want to visit with him a little before he leaves to work.

November Update

Wow. It's been almost a month since I was last here already. Somehow, this is more like I envisioned blogging at the beginning. It has been busy around here. Nothing huge, or major. Just the day-to-day learning on top of extra hours at work, soccer games, extra OM practices, etc. At the Club we ran our Career Launch program for every senior at the local highschool last week, completed our basketball league registration and had our annual Harvest Fest. (fundraiser/multi-cultural day of fun). This past week, we just opened for two days..and now all of a sudden we have 5 days off in a row! The kids have pretty much moved into the Club. They have taken over the snack preparing in the midst of all craziness. We have been averaging a little over 100 kids a day this month. That is a lot of snack preparing. Colt is keeping a guitar at the Club to practice on and a few good books. Austen is reading for hours a day there...and then falling asleep on the couch until we wake him up to get ready for kids getting off the bus. We are ALL ready for this little breather. Except for one week (when I was at the highschool) we have managed to still keep the mornings to ourselves. I really treasure this time together. We have spent most of this time reading together, discussing upcoming legislation (I.E...Leo's HB 28 and 29) Quite frightening! Which has oppened up lots of discussion on racism, oppression, constitutional rights..and the ethics of breaking unjust laws. Other than we have done a 5 minute math speed test daily and Spelling Power. Cody continues to write letters for aid to Darfur, Austen and friends raised enough money to adopt 2 baby and 1 moma gorilla. We spent one weekend up at TAMS with Brian, listening to presentations on various summer research projects, drinking boba tea, wandering around Fry street and finally getting to put faces and personalities together with the names of TAMS friends he mentions so frequently:) I had planned to watch Dr. Phil today (something I have never had the desire to do) since he was having an episode on homeschooling/unschooling/public schooling. However, after reading several posts on how he is handling this have chosen not too. Instead we are taking Brian (who is home for Thanksgiving) shopping for pants. Outgrew all the ones we bought him last month...and..we will set up our Christmas tree! Okay. Enough rambling. Time to wake up these shaggy boys and enjoy our day.

Halloween is here!

I think this is one of the favorite holidays for my kids! We had a festival at our church on Sunday. Cody worked one of the booths, I worked in concessions and Austen ran around in his "army man" costume. At the end of the night, he jumped off of a jungle gym and sprained his foot. BUT..today is the real day. The boys and I are making about 100 cupcakes this morning and cutting out 100 sets of eyes and mouths out of magazines for different booths at the Club. Then we need to spend about 30 minutes vacuuming, etc. around here. We are having a "make your own pizza" party with about 3 other families late this evening. We are spending the rest of the day at the Club setting up for this afternoon's festival. Austen is still an "army man", Cody says he is going to be a "muscle man" (he is drawing muscles all over himself). As staff at the Club we were going to be "Snap" "Crackle" and "Pop"....but as of last night I think it was changed to being "Club kids". I have no idea how to dress like a "Club kid". Maybe I'll throw on a KIDSKLUB t-shirt and a baseball cap or something.

Weekly rhythm

We finally took the time to really look at where our time was going, and created a "weekly rhythm" that was much more realistic than what I thought we were doing. I just needed to see it out there to see if we had any consistency going in what we do (or do not) do. That and...we are subleasing a horse and Austen "hanging out at the barn" more and more. He is learning some awesome stuff..homeopathic horse care, equine massage therapy, how to train, etc...but it is time consuming. He is really motivated suddenly to "do school work" every morning so he can see the horse/horses before going to work with me in the afternoons. So...we have suddenly fallen into a pattern. Who knew? So...essentially..I am spending an hour a day every morning with Austen.We are primarily working on spelling, math and reading out loud. We wake up Cody, eat breakfast,clean a little, all read together for 30 minutes...and then I take Austen to "the barn". This gives Cody and I an hour or two together. We are primarily continuing his "Never Again" unit, reading sermons of Msg. Knox together and reviewing spelling, grammar and math. He then spends time drawing, sorting coins or taking care of his worms (he is starting a super-worm busines He is raising and hoping to sell these worms to garbage sites in various cities) We'll see how it goes. Cody is going to work with me Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays..he stays home and walks to soccer practice Tuesdays and Thursdays. Austen is coming to work with me everyday except Wednesday..when he hangs out with a friend and then goes to a musical rehearsal. On a different note. Brian-Scott came home from school this weekend. He leaves this weekend, but it has been nice to have him home for a day. He really seems to enjoy dorm life anyway. We spent last night searching for his hockey stick. He is taking roller blades and hockey stick back with him. I sure hope he is studying somewhere in here...