valentines day

Caleb and I have only gone out on a date for Valentine's Day once in the 12 years we have been going on dates. It was 2 years a go and we did it up Hagen style by eating at The Turkish Bird House in Leucadia.  Well, this year we stayed with our homebound tradition and made a "fancy" dinner at home.

Scott and Chris joined us for dinner and dessert. Charis enjoyed setting the table and giving everyone name tags. Pax helped me make dinner (not really), and Jonas spent most of dinner in Scott's lap.

 
Lasagna was on the menu. I've actually never made any kind of lasagna before and I decided to make two different kinds that night. One from my Southern Living cookbook (thank you grandma) and one from a raw cookbook. I can't say how the cooked one tasted since I didn't partake (although I heard it was pretty good) but the raw one was awesome. I will definitely make it again. In the picture below you can see the pine nut " ricotta cheese", the pesto and sun-dried tomato filling. The noodles which you can't see in the picture were made of thinly sliced summer squash tossed in olive oil. 

 

We did get a date Monday night after Valentine's Day. Mom and Dad spent the night and we went to dinner, coffee and a concert. It was pretty much my favorite concert. Gary Jule's opened and Donavon Frankenreiter was the head liner. I wish I could convey the awesomeness of this concert. I'll just let your imagination take you to a place (circa 1971) where people still use accordions, harmonicas, trumpets, and (YES) mouth organs on stage. omg. I loved it.

Charis Asparagairus

Charis finally updated her blog yesterday. Two posts in one day actually. One about Wii music and one about her school experience. It's pretty cute reading what she has to say about it. She wanted me to let my friends know that she did some new posts. So, now you know.

Feeling more processed than normal

For those of you who don't know (which is admittedly a lot of you) Charis and Pax are both going to school now.  I'm not trying to keep it a secret. And I'm not completely ashamed (okay, not really at all), it's just been so hard to talk about. I can barely talk about it with Caleb. I'm taking it all in, and constantly questioning. But I haven't been able to do much output. So, I apologize to those of you who are finding out about this through my blog. I've really only talked about it with local friends and family. And they will testify that I haven't been able to talk with them about it much either. I feel like a kid. My mom asks me how the kids are doing in school, and I say, "fine". But, oh, there is so much more. But how to say it all?

Why are they going to school now? Well, because they want to. It started with the girl. She's had mild interest in school for some time. And has asked lots of questions. But she always went back to her love for her unschooled life. She thought school sounded boring and hard. But one night, after a long questioning session about "what is school like?" she asked if she could try it for a day. I said I'd look into it. So, we took a tour of the local public school (she couldn't visit for the day - that'd be too distracting they said). After that she was hooked. She REALLY wanted to try out school. So we enrolled her. 

After a couple weeks of her in school Pax wanted to try something too. But Charis' school was too big and scary for him. So we found this little homeschool charter school. It's only 4 days a week and they are much more laid back than public schools. He is in a class of 16 students who range from K-2nd grade.

They both like school for the most part. They are going completely by choice and are allowed to be done with it whenever they like. So far they like it enough to keep going. Charis really likes seeing friends everyday, and the volume of options. She likes that everything is big. Lots of people, lots of teachers, lots of balls and swings. She a "lotsa" girl. Pax likes playing with friends and doing science and art projects. They both seem to like having a thing that is their own. 

Jonas and I have enjoyed having more time together. He is super fun. But he misses his brother and sister while they are at school.

Me? Some days I like it. I feel much more purposeful in life. And my house is cleaner. And the break is nice. But I hate homework. (Thankfully Pax's school doesn't really do the homework thing.) And I hate not knowing all her friends and their parents. And I don't like the 'tude she brings home. And I miss our sweet little homeschool life. I liked being out of the "system". It is so flawed and insufficient in many ways. I worry about the influence that it's having on them. 

I don't know. We are willing to pull them out if it seems it's having a really negative impact on our family. But we're willing to keep at if they want to. I'm working to become an advocate for my kids at their schools. I'm getting as involved as I can in everything. I want them to see my face and influence even when they're not at home.

So that is our life right now.  It is still so good. And I'm thankful for this time to evaluate and change and grow. My prayer life was improved greatly through all this. I'm so much more aware of my kid's need of God's grace. And of my own. And I feel He is giving it.

Happiness Tree

Flo tagged me to continue this fun game...list six things that make me happy.

I'd definitely have to start with my funny kids. Although they are the people who can make me most sad, they are also the one's who make me happiest. Just look at those faces!





Being married to Caleb makes me happy.

Going on walks around our neighborhood makes me happy.

Good (homemade healthy) food and drink make me happy.

My favorite pictures from December

Celebrations

The Christmas season has been great for us so far. We've attended a couple of really fun parties with our unschooling friends. One involved an insane cookie exchange, jumping on the trampoline in the rain and lots of High School Musical (Charis' new favorite). The other was a raw dessert making party - yeah! My good friend Ginger arranged it, and we had such a lovely time of not-cooking, eating, laughing and relating with each other. I really like those girls!

My parents invited us to go to their church's Christmas program.It involved lots of Christmas carol singing. Everytime Charis knew one of the songs she looked at me excitedly and whispered (really loud) "I know this one!"  She hasn't figured out yet that there are only 10 carols that get recycled every year. This first picture is waiting for the program to start.

After the program they had set up this elaborate village they called "Christmasville". Every little house front had a carnival game to play with a candy reward. It was like Halloween all over again. There was even snow falling the entire time. Kinda insane, but the kids loved it. Charis got a reindeer painted on her face.

And, classic thing to happen, Paxton was chosen to help with the magic show. This magician was hilarious, and Pax was pretty confused. He had him take off his shoes and socks (which Pax was not too sure about) and finally found the missing handkerchief in his shoe. 

We had an early Xmas celebration with Caleb's uncle and aunt. They got a bunch of fun little gifts -the kinds I don't buy for them. So, I don't have to feel bad for saying no to those things anymore. Here is a picture of Jonas walking his dog. 

 

Caleb and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary December 18th. It was a great night. Luckily we had stayed up late the night before talking through a big "issue" we were having. So date night was cleared up to just enjoy each other. We went to dinner in Del Mar at a yummy restaurant called Paradise Grill. Then saw an amazing movie, "Slumdog Millionaire". Caleb says its his new favorite movie (which is not easily proclaimed). I highly recommend seeing it. It takes place in India and is about a poor kid who makes it on India's version of "So you want to be a Millionaire". It is primarily a love story, but interwoven with the horrors of India, brotherly relations, and destiny's pull. The filming is really creative and I loved the soundtrack.   
Im really really happy to be married to Caleb. Its been overwhelmingly clear to me the last few years that God made us perfect for each other. We have both learned so much from our relationship and become more full people because of it. And, best of all, we still really like each other.  I still think he's super cute and funny. And want to hang out with him more than anyone else. I feel thankful to have been married to him these past 9 years.

Gift tags

Caleb's work had a craft day last week. Employees were encouraged to bring homemade gifts to sell and everyone was invited to come purchase. Caleb asked if Charis could bring something and they agreed. She was really excited to have a place to sell some of her stuff. She makes things all the time and often has elaborate plans of how she's going to sell them (involving knocking on all the neighbor's doors or something like that). So this was a perfect opportunity.

Once we settled on making gift tags for Christmas presents we got to work. I did the cutting and gluing, and she did the coloring and designing. It was a really fun project to do together and they turned out awesome. She was really nervous that no one was going to buy them. And I was too when she was planning to charge $5 per tag. But she was okay with 2 tags for $1.

Everyone loved her and her tags. She made over $20! She spent some of it right away on other people's crafts and then spent most of the rest on a new video game (Cooking Mama).

I think we will be doing more of this in the future.