Thankful

Random gibberish warning.

It is so nice when Jack has leave. It really really is. I am incredibly thankful for our relationship. I love that we can talk about everything and anything still. That I am not afraid to look stupid in front of him. That even when we don't agree on things we can still hold an intelligent conversation. That he knows when it is alright to bring something up and when he needs to wait a few days because I am pmsing and it would just be better for him to make me a cup of tea so I don't decide to poison dinner.

I am thankful and glad that we are changing our thoughts about not only how to homeschool, but how to raise our children. Again another yahoo for John Holt, seriously read his books. Today, his last day of leave, we just went out and walked around. Yeah, outside would have been best but we were cold we went to the mall and got hot chocolate and walked around. Natalie lead us to the places she wanted to go. She went to the dance store and told me that she does want to take dance. I found this to be a hard decision as Jack tells me that I may have pushed her to this. I loved dance and miss it greatly. In fact, I would love to dance again. But she does sound serious about it, so we will try. She went to a bunch of places and asked questions. And it reminded me that it isn't too often that we go out just for them. Today we were lucky that we had nothing else planned. I plan to do this with them more often. we already try to take our time in the grocery store. It is important to me that they see how we shop, reading ingredients, looking at prices. Jack always used to get on me about just picking the one that looks pretty:) Or the cheaper one, but not looking to see that it is a smaller box. I find it funny that there is a whole class in school, remember home ec?, that is to teach these things that we are too busy to teach them ourselves. There is one good thing about fall and winter is that it is very slow. Since the rain and cold has started we have slowed down a lot. The only thing I don't like, and I am trying to not remember was that in Hawaii we didn't have a slow fast time, everything flowed. We didn't have to get outside as much as we could, because we could at anytime. Time went there and it was all nice. I do miss that. But I am trying to think of good times here. Curling up with the girls and drinking hot chocolate. I realized recently that I am full of crap. I had gotten myself good, NICE, hot chocolate mix. I had told Natalie it was for me because, and I realized I was about to tell her that she wouldn't enjoy it the way I would. I stopped and realized what an assine thing to say. Bullshit that she wouldn't realize that it was a special treat. Why do we try to treat them like children that can't appreciate anything? It is the same thought that bugs me when people say that their kids don't like, for instance indian food, well that would be too weird for them we will get them mac and cheese. Side story, we went to gandhi a few days ago. And were thanked by both the owners over how well our kids behaved and that they always enjoyed seeing us. They actually talk about us:) It made me feel very good. We almost always get complements on how well behaved they are, but it was something else to have them say something. I am very thankful that my children have the chance to try new things, to learn new things. I admit that I have a hard time still trying new things sometimes. I grew up with mac and cheese, meatloaf and spaghetti. But at a party recently Natalie tried shrimp, no hesitation. Jack and I don't care for it, but Natalie liked it. She wanted us to buy her some. And I hate the comments, like I almost made, of she is just a kid, could she really enjoy things like that? Or eww she won't like that! Why are you putting these ideas in my kids head? Can I please duct tape your mouth now?

And another random thought. We went out for Jack's birthday, Silver City I thought just this once, they always get the fish and chips. You know, I did not realize till that day how different my children had been acting. Natalie was completely insane for two days. Seriously, completely insane. I am pretty sure that it was not a color and flavor issue, she did have a half of a cherry, but I can't see that causing two days of insanity. I had read that wheat, like all allergies, can cause a behavior issue. I didn;t really believe it. It isn't worth it to eat wheat again.