Eyes Wide Open...

We will be attending our first official Unschooling gathering this summer U Rock 2012 at one of our favorite places in the world.  It will truly be a new experience, surrounding ourselves with others who live very similarly.  I look forward to the opportunity of meeting other families and the always wonderful~ learning through observing.  The freedom, openmindedness and eye opening truths about life that come from exposing myself to these families and their lives, is something that I can truly say I am looking forward to experiencing!

Moving Forward...

Update~

We are going on our second year of living with our friend and his family.  Things have gone pretty well this past year and so we have decided (as of last March) to stay for another year.

I'm finally getting our room in working order and it is all falling into place, organization wise.
Our plans to travel have come to a halt for medical reasons but my hopes of it one day still being a reality, of traveling with my kids, is still there. ♥

My eldest is flourishing.  He loves playing, writing and listening to music, spending time with his friends, going on bike rides and walks.  He has grown so much this past year.  I found myself angry and sad this past month and I believe it is because I am going through a new transition with him.  He is a young man.  I didn't realize at the age of 15, I would feel like my baby was moving on but he is.  He really is moving forward with his life, as it should be.  I found that at the point that I broke down, cried, told him that I loved him and who he is and that even though I have been here almost everyday with him, that it has all just gone by so quickly.  I think it just stirred up feelings of sadness.  I cried, he cried and we held each other.  I am thankful that he still thinks it's important to hug me.  He is an amazing young man!

My girl~she is beautiful and smart.  She is like a caterpillar in the cocoon, about to reveal itself to the world.  I sure hope she comes out soon.  It will be to her glory.  I love seeing her smile.  She spends quite a bit of time doing her nails, sometimes twice a day. :o)  She loves her music and almost always has it on.  She loves spending time with her brothers, hanging out, bike riding, playing basketball and just plain laughing.  She knows what she likes and what she doesn't like and she isn't afraid to tell you.  She reminds me of my friend in Germany.  I can only imagine what she has in store for the world. 

My little J~He is so free spirited, he'll try just about anything once. :o)  He has long beautiful hair, gets mistaken for being a girl (even to the point of getting yelled at in the men's room), loves wearing his purple clothes...he is just a unique kid who is comfortable with who he is.  I asked him one day, why he doesn't say anything to people who mistake him for a girl and he said that he didn't want to embarrass them.  I am amazed that he is more concerned about their feelings than correcting someone. :o)

This young man loves to create, bike ride, play basketball, games, swing in the hammock, sit in the grass and absorb the beauty of nature.  He loves animals, purple, Naruto, giving his mom hugs and just plain living it up!  He has a great sense of humor and wisdom beyond his years.

My love and I have come a long way in the past year, we have walked a very rocky road.  I liken it to trying to climb a steep cliff that neither one of us have physically or mentally prepared for.  It's been in front of us all this time and all I did was meerly glance at it.  The past year has forced me to start climbing it, while unprepared, and I have had to prepare along the way.  I was almost forced into it, yet for my own good and the good of my relationship.  I believe that as long as we keep going at it, slow and steady, we will keep making progress.  It's the trying to rush up the side of a very steep cliff that we end up sliding backward and causing physical and mental anguish.

So, in the meantime, we are still here.  Moving forward, trying to make every day count as it is all we have truly, each and every day.