A Bewitchingly Ordinary Life!

I'm finding that after 40 years on this planet, no matter how fast I run, how far...no matter how often, how long or how hard I push that ever consuming fire to the furthest reaches of my life....It comes back burning brighter, making its presence known...beckoning...."DO SOMETHING!" Sometimes what to do EXACTLY down to the detail can be vague.  What to do generally can be an entirely different matter. My heart, my soul, my life burns bright AND heavy burdened with thoughts of those who suffer.  Those who sleep tonight without a home, while we have a roof over our heads.  Those who went to bed hungry or were lucky enough to have maybe a meal, perhaps the first one all week...while we have our pantries and fridges stocked.  Those that have infinitely  less than I, yet I take forgranted more often than I'd like to tell you. Weather or not one shares my faith in Christ these following principles can be understood and followed by anyone of any path. Three things

It has been quite a couple of weeks for the school of Gouge!  The boys, especially David, have enjoyed being home so very much!   I've been trying to keep them busy with a myrid of fun but educational activities.  Hey, why NOT be sneaky about it when I can? ;) I realized that even though I would love to take them to "far off places", time and money can be a hindrance.  As I was eating dinner one night I looked out the window to a tree stump where we put bird seed to feed our local birds.  I saw 2 beautifully growing mushrooms.  It struck me that we don't have to "go" anywhere beyond our driveway.  A whole world waited just outside our door to explore!  So exploring we would do! The next day we went on a mushroom hunt!  We started by watching some time lapse YouTube clips of various fungi growing.  The boys LOVED it!  And it was a great way for them to begin to learn the life cycle via pictorials and simplicity!   Here are a couple of the clips we

This summer we have our own one room schoolhouse, but this thought....this action has a much deeper meaning. There's something about history that draws me.  Pictures of ancient days...decades, generations, centuries gone by... black and white, faded...torn...all draw me in.  I wonder about the buildings.  About the people who came and went from those buildings.   As I was looking at old one room schoolhouse photos online I came across one that was both beautiful and eerily haunting all at once.  An abandoned, almost dilapated schoolhouse.  Not much around it, just emptiness where once there had been life. And I began to wonder again.  About the teacher or teachers that the schoolhouse had seen.  About the students who had come and gone.  About their lives, what they did, about the marriages they may have had, their own children.  If any of those descendents were living today.  And how those lives touched other lives...the ripple effect.  I wonder who became doctors, teachers

Having watched a DVD on Unconditional Parenting, a lecture given by Alfie Kohn a wonderful discussion has followed between some of my natural parenting friends and I.  [Alfie Kohn's website: http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.php ] One friend and myself were both saying how sometimes we as adults 'forget' how to play or don't like to play.  And it's something I've been thinking about for a great many months on my own.   I need to play more with my children.  I need to recapture my own childhood and live it with them, along side of them.  Use my imagination again.  Lose track of time, get messy and giggle like there were no other cares in the world. More often I find myself saying "go play while I clean...while I cook....while I do this or that..."  When in reality I could be incorporating them more into my life!  I didn't have children to fit them into my life.  I had children to grow WITH them, learn WITH them, laugh, cry, shout, whisper...all