a fairy tale....or is it?

years ago there was a beautiful little girl born into this world. she was full of spunk, creativity, giggles and love. lots of love! 

as time passed a brother joined this little girl and then a boy cousin. the three were good friends and compatriots in all things wee children did. they had adventures and fought imaginary foes. they ran around in their own imaginary world and played their own made up games. they even did the more mundane things of a child's life such as learning to ride bikes together, dying easter eggs and trick and treating 

and then as things do, things changed, unfortunately drastically and not in good way.  the three friends were forced to go on solitary adventures. the young brother went on a journey that forever changed him and his out look on life. the young cousin's adventure was a bit tamer but still had him growing up with out the comfort of his fellow compatriots. and the little girl? her adventure had her go through trials and tribulations. she traveled through dark valleys and she strolled along beautiful seashores.  all the while thinking that she had been forgotten by her childhood companions. 

*now with most fairy tales, we need a happy ending and i think this one has one. 

years passed and the little girl grew up to be a wonderful woman. still full of spunk, creativity and love. she had quite a few scars that she carried but she was strong and vibrant and still full of giggles. one day the young woman was able to be reunited with one of her young friends. the cousin. he was older and wiser and still a willing compatriot to all things young people do. 

i know a rather bland fairy tale. it is a brief and washed over version of what happened to our niece, nephew and our oldest boy. we are very lucky that we have been able to reconnect to our niece. she holds a very special place in my heart. can you tell?  

she has been working on crafting many wonderful things. 

from duck (duct) tape accessories

 to friendship bracelets 

and now she has begun on the adventure of quilling. 

i have been suggesting (translate that to lovingly nagging) her to start a blog. hopefully this little post will be the final push....i mean gentle reminder....(grin) to give it a try. when she gets her blog set up i'll let you all know about it and put the link on here.

Cheers!

looking back and looking forward

i read a woman's blog this evening in which she wrote about her family making the decision to home school their child. i found that it made me remember when my husband and i made the same decision. only our oldest one wasn't even of the age to start regular school. we had watched and listened to the stories our friend's, whose children attended public schools, would relay. stories of children not getting the assistance they needed. or of homework being sent home in a different language, and the class wasn't a language class.

so we figured that when the time came for our first born to start learning his abc's and 123's we would take the task on ourselves. it became my responsibility, and it turned out to be one i have enjoyed. i enjoyed "seeing" our wee son's gears turning in his growing brain. it was fascinating. i discovered that his way of learning was for me to explain it a couple of times and then to leave the subject alone. i would then return to to the topic a few days later and "ta da!" he would have grasped the concept.

 i loved it when he showed an interest in a certain topic, because then we could investigate that idea in every way possible. through discussion, reading, writing, researching on the internet, talking with people, or maybe even watching a program. i looked at every thing that happened in our day as a way to learn. there was even a time when we, as a small young family, were going through a very hard time.we, our then small son of 5 and myself, were sitting outside one evening, it was dark and the stars were out. i started to pray about our circumstances out loud to God. it wasn't intentional, it was just one of those moments when you just need to seek solace in a higher being and it just tumbles from your mouth. my son looked at me and asked who God was? it wasn't that he had never heard of him or that the concept was foreign in our home, his question was one of someone really wanting an explanation of who this was. and so my moment of fear and doubt turned into a lesson on religion and faith.

now at the age of 16, i still find our oldest son's way of learning thrilling and exciting. most times, now a days, if he gets an idea into his head or becomes curious about something he researches until his heart's content. case in point, i read something in the news about some happening in space. i mentioned it to him and he popped off with all this information about black holes and crab nebulae. it blew my socks off, and it was wonderful.

i am older now and i have two, new young minds to help fill with, hopefully, useful knowledge. these two are definitely different. our middle son does not want any recognition that he got something correct. no pats on the back. the youngest one wants fanfare and applause for simply repeating a right answer his brother already gave. i do worry about our middle boy, though. i feel, often times, the information is not sinking in. i can not "see" his gears turning. i haven't learned his learning style as yet. and that concerns me. but then out of no where, when he doesn't think any of us, older ones, are listening he will inform, or correct his little brother on something. i have heard him say "no it's 'a' ", and the little one responds with "oh, okay".  heaven's forbid i walk in and try to tell the middle one good job for helping out his baby brother. as soon as i make a positive remark, the middle one starts to whine, frown, and tells me to stop. odd little duck. but i just keep moving forward and hoping that one of these days, in some small moment, i will catch the faint hum of tiny gears turning. i feel it's a sound i shall never tire of.

cheers!

short but meaningful

i was reading twitter this morning. one of the people i follow is a dynamo lady, Melissa Lewis. She has an etsy shop, Haut Totes, in which she sells some absolutely amazing bags with great graphics. on one her tweets she posted a link to this blog post, Finding Your Voice - Jessica. all i can suggest is...read it.
cheers!