Sarah Saves: Free Day at The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

I sure do love the Arboretum out in Chaska.

MN Landscape Arboretum

It's such a treat to spend time there; either by myself on that lovely three mile drive/walk or with the kids at the nature center and playground.   Most years we get a membership but this year I didn't get my act together and felt we were too busy to do the membership justice.

Here's my save:  During the months of November-March the Arboretum has free admission on Thursdays! The winter months are a neat time to visit too.  The Christmas tree display in December is spectacular and there's nothing like a little stroll with snowflakes flying.  B-real tells me it's a tranquil place to get some work done.

During April-September the Arboretum is free, after 4:30, on the third Thursday of the month.   There are some great spots for picnics, photos, and learning about different trees, plants, and flowers.  Enjoy!

  

One of my biggest homeschool worries

This is an interesting article by a woman named Penelope Trunk.  I feel like you either love her or hate her because she is quite opinionated about schooling.

Worries

For me, the article she wrote about homeschooling parents' worries hit the jackpot with me.  I don't worry much about my kids but I do worry about me.  Choosing to homeschool children is a selfless decision.

I never dreamed about the days both my children would be in school.  I didn't plan to celebrate with champagne and brunch with friends. However, I did think about how I might spend the hours my girls were in school.  There were hobbies I thought of pursuing again, exercise classes I thought would be fun to try, friends with whom I wanted to reconnect.  I felt like I would have some time to really be 'me' after many years of being a full-time, dedicated mom with a traveling husband who at one point was working and getting his MBA at night and weekends.  It would be a lie to say I wasn't excited to have large quantities of time to do my thing or at least rediscover my things.

Our decision to homeschool wasn't made as a result of thinking schools are necessarily a bad place or that we wanted this lifestyle for our children all along.  Our hand was forced a bit when Big C's school told us there wasn't much they could do educationally to meet her needs.  We were encouraged to homeschool her, especially when they confidently speculated no school would be able to meet her unique requirements. Since we have made the jump I have realized there are many advantages to our family that have arisen out of this choice.  I am glad we homeschool.  

I feel like I put the needs of our children in front of my own desires to pursue hobbies and interests.  I am not angry that I don't have time for myself nor do I feel slighted.  I feel fortunate to be able to serve the girls in this way.  I recognize as they get older and are able to stay home alone that I can take more time for me.  I also am 'trying' really hard to use the time I do get to myself to do some of the things I listed above (yoga, coffee with a high school friend) rather than errands.  I have a supportive husband who wants these things for me too.

But I can see how a person could easily lose themselves...

Pre-Birthday Present Opening

I wasn't sure I could fit all of Big C's presents into my suitcase so we decided she could open a few the day before we left for our trip.

The creeper went with us to Hawaii!

Maybe Hawaii?

to celebrate Big C's 10th birthday!  It just so happened that B-real planned this trip to coincide with her birthday but wasn't exactly a birthday present.  When Little c got wind of the trip being over her sister's birthday she wondered where we would go for her birthday?  She thought New York would be a nice option! 

We just returned from 8 days on the Big Island staying at the most awesome of awesome resorts.  It is called the Hilton Wakioloa Village.  Check out some photos:

This is one of the five pools the Hilton has on their sixty some acres of property in Wakioloa Village.  We hung out daily under the rickety bridge because it was some of the only pool side shade.  

Since the resort is so large and spread out, the Hilton has a tram to take you around the property.  They also have these beautiful wood boats to get you around too.  The water below is fed from the Pacific Ocean so it's also fun to look down and see various fish.   We were able to catch the boat on the main floor of our hotel tower. 

Let me tell you about cool.  Below is the lagoon, which is fed from the Pacific ocean too.  It's completely protected from the large waves though so it makes for a perfect place to teach your kids to snorkel.  Big C and I had a blast and got to swim with a giant sea turtle.  We saw all kinds of pretty fish too.  Sadly, we learned Little c has some reaction to salt water and broke out into a horrible itch.  No snorkeling for her.  B-real took Claire another day and they witnessed sea turtles rolling around in the bubbles created by the waterfall.  Big C has no fear, she'll dive down into the lagoon to check stuff out and is not afraid to go face to face with a giant turtle.  Next up, she says, is learning to scuba dive.  I don't doubt she'd love it! 

Here are some of the waterfalls at the main hotel pool. They also had a pretty cool water slide!  All of us had fun going down it.  The hotel was so quiet that we could get off the slide, run up the stairs, and slide back down again.  The girls were at an ideal age for this type of vacation because they are both confident enough swimmers to be somewhat independent in the pool.  The other thing Hilton figured out was to make the pool no more than 3 1/2 feet deep anywhere. 

Our room looked out over the ocean as well as the dolphin pool.  It was really neat to be able to sit on our deck and watch the dolphins swim all day and sometimes in the middle of the night.  I had a hard time with the time difference for a few nights and found it quite peaceful to sit outside and watch the dolphins.  Since our airfare and hotel were free we decided to treat the girls to a swim with the dolphins experience.  I thought it was done really well and they were able to spend about 45 minutes interacting with them.  Big C said kissing a dolphin is just like kissing a hot dog.   Big C was torn between learning to surf or swimming with the dolphins on her birthday. 

October is most definitely the time to visit as we nearly had the place to ourselves.  B-real talked to some of the pool employees who said when it's busy at the hotel, it's busy.  The capacity of the pool we used is 2,200 people and there are 1000 pool chairs set up around the pool.  B-real's friend said in December and over spring break-y time every chair is full.  I don't think it would be as much fun then. 

We are home and I am tired.  We flew overnight from Kona to L.A. and then back home.  Neither B-real nor I sleep on planes so we are feeling the effects today.  We lucked out on the plane and each had a row to ourselves with one girl.  Fortunately the girls were able to lay down to sleep.

More soon, once I have a chance to download our photos!  

Another Plus of Homeschooling

One of our favorite things about homeschooling is that we are not tied to a school schedule and we can travel with the girls.  We don't have to worry about them suffering as a result of missing time at school.  Traveling can be done at less expensive times of the year.  B-real's job allows for lots of opportunities to travel.  If it weren't for Little c's dedication and love of her team gymnastics we would travel even more than we do currently.  

At dinner last night B-real told the girls that his hope is they will graduate high school having been to every continent in the world.  He wants them to enter the adult world with more 'worldliness' than he or I had when we went to college.  I want that for the girls too. 

London: 

Paris: 

Where next?  

Coastal.com

I was out yesterday and saw a girl with super cute glasses.  I am on the hunt to replace my absolute favorite pair that one of the girls stepped on and broke.  B-real and I were sleeping on an air mattress on the floor at Lake Owen and I had set my glasses on the floor next to our 'bed'.  One of the girls, I can't recall which, must not have seen them and stepped on them.

I have bought two pairs over the years since my favorites were crushed but none have made me as happy as my old pair.  Also, I have ordered 10 pairs from Warby Parker to try on but haven't liked any of them as much as the crushed pair.

The hunt continues....

Until yesterday when the girls glasses reminded me so much of my old ones.   Just the right amount of amber in the tortoiseshell color.  I complimented her on the glasses and she asked if I had heard of Coastal.com.

Coastal.com

I said I had not and she told me your first pair of glasses ordered through their website are FREE. Minus shipping, she said hers was $17.

Holy what?  Free glasses!

I went home and checked out their website and they have thousands of glasses.  Not all of those thousands of glasses are eligible to be free but plenty of them are.

My personal favorites are the Derek Cardigan Item Number 7009 Brown Tortoiseshell frames!  I might be ordering them....for FREE!!!

Here's to the unforeseen benefits of a simple compliment!  

Nail Polish

I don't like to wear nail polish on my finger nails very much.  I like natural looking nails.  I finally found something, other than clear polish, that looks natural but is really pretty.  

My new favorite finger nail polish is Opi Bubble Bath.  I 'believe' it's their most popular nail polish and I can see why!  It can be hard to find in stores though.  

I go a little 'wilder' on my toe nails and almost always use a red polish!  Not very exciting but timeless and classic.  

Now if I could only find my nail polish remover and cotton balls.  A little person in my house changes her nails four times a week and steals my acetone and cotton balls!  

A Real Pumpkin Patch

I am embarrassed to say we got our pumpkins from a drive in restaurant last year.  I am not sure why we went that route?  It was close to our house and must have been getting near to Halloween.  I hope we were desperate.

This year we planned a little further ahead and took advantage of one of the perks of living further out in the country; we went to a real pumpkin patch.  The kind where the pumpkins are actually still attached to the vines!  Cool, huh?

Here's Big C with her choice in pumpkin.

And here's Little c.  She picked out a little pumpkin.  I love that she's little and she saw a little one and felt like it was meant for her.  It might be a tiny bit challenging to carve but...

Pumpkins were 3 for $12 and you just left your money in a cash box.   I was able to get a pumpkin too!

The pumpkin patch is called Dimler's and it is out Hwy 7 past St. Bonifacius.  It was a fun little adventure in the country!

Connecting the Dots

I like this quote Steve Jobs gave at a college commencement ceremony: 

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.   So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.   You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, karma,  whatever.  This approach has made all the difference and it has never let me down." 

Some of my biggest 'mistakes' have come when I didn't trust that pull in my heart to take a certain action or inaction.   I agree with Steve Jobs that what I feel in my heart never lets me down either.  

Amazing Kid

Have you heard about Jake Andraka?

At 15 he developed a test that can detect pancreatic cancer.  This is especially interesting to me because my maternal grandmother died of the disease in her early 50s.  By the time pancreatic cancer is detected it's too late for the medical community to do much to help you.

Check out the article about him...

Jake Andraka

He also spoke at a TED Conference...

Jake Andraka Ted


I love that instead of listening in his Biology class he was reading something else!  And that 199 people said no to him working with him.  But Jake didn't give up and eventually someone from Johns Hopkins agreed to partner with him.  And I bet they are glad they did!

A Game of Unforunatelys and Fortunatelys

Big C does not like errands and we needed to do quite a few today!  I imagined lots of complaining and grumping on her part.  I decided to play a little game at breakfast.  I can't take credit for coming up with the game.  I read about it in a book. 

Each of us came up with ideas of unfortunatelys.  I wrote them on individual sheets of paper and folded them in half.  I put them into a basket.  Some of the ideas were:

Unfortunately we have to go to Costco.
Unfortunately I am still sick.
Unfortunately I seem to fall out of lots of places and get hurt.
Unfortunately my mom makes me do chores.
Unfortunately my mom makes me to do schoolwork.
Unfortunately I have to play this stupid game.
Unfortunately my family is full of whiners.

Can you guess who came up with the last unfortunately?!!  B-real!

After generating these ideas we each had to pick out a sheet of paper and turn the unfortunately into a fortunately.  Although one of us started with the idea, the rest of us added our positive ideas.

I am unsure if I can credit my little game with a change in Big C's attitude on our super errand day but I didn't hear one complaint from her.  It was a fun exercise in choosing to see the positive.

B-real is still threatening a week of living as though we are below the poverty line.  I think it would be an interesting experiment and good fodder for my blog! 
 

Really?

I laughed through the news conference today where the hood-ied and baseball hatted father of the nine year old runaway claimed he and his wife weren't bad parents.   His spokesperson even claimed if set in the right direction this boy could be president one day.  For reals?

Let's see...
He stole a van
damaged a police car
stole a bag off the baggage carousel at the airport
dined and dashed at an airport restaurant
sneaked through airport security
got onto an airplane without paying for a ticket
has been kicked out of school for repeated instances of fighting
and has sneaked into the Water Park of America multiple times without paying.

Future president?

And then there was the blame game.  Maybe the reason the boy stole the car was because he had watched Grand Theft Auto at friend's house?  Not at his own house, the dad made sure to point that out.  And it's Delta's fault and the TSA for allowing a nine year old boy to get through security and onto a plane.  The father asked for help for his son but no one was willing to help him. (Don't expect people to help you; you need to help yourself.) The dad says he gets in trouble if he whips his son but then he also gets in trouble if he lets him do as he please.  So the choice is between whipping and letting his son run free?

But they are good parents.

This kid is nine years old.  Tell me if your nine year old went to take out the trash and didn't come back would you just assume that he went to a friend's house? You wouldn't call their friends?  Or call the police? On another occasion the boy did not come home at night and the mom failed to call the police until 1:30 p.m. the following day.

But they are good parents.

People need to take responsibility for their lives and the lives of those they choose to bring into the world. They also need to help themselves instead of expecting others to solve their problems.   The family should be responsible for the losses incurred to the delivery truck, police car, bill at the restaurant, airplane ticket to Las Vegas (and back home).  Who's going to make that all 'right'? My bet is no one.  

Parental Responsibility

Did you hear about the one year old who was hospitalized after ingesting a Tide pod?  The little boy is in the ICU in Fargo, ND and they are unsure of his prognosis.  Tide Pods are easy to use dishwasher detergents that come in small sealed packages.   Essentially the little bags are put into the tray where you would normally put your liquid or powdered detergent.

What gets me is the parents are mad at Tide and suggesting they change their packaging.  They feel the pods look too much like gummy treats.  I read that poison control centers have received over 9,500 calls related to children coming in contact with the pods since early 2012.

Tide has responded by saying they hope to do more education for parents to keep these cleaning products out of the reach of children.

I have to agree with Tide.  What has happened to people taking responsibility for themselves and/or their children?  It wasn't that long ago that I had one year old children and we used child safety locks on our cabinets that housed cleaning supplies.   We also watched our children if they were in the homes of people who might not have safety locks.

I am just so sick of our society these days where people choose to blame everyone else rather than taking accountability for their actions or lack of action.  

Watch your kids.  It's not that hard to do...

Book Review: Say Goodnight Gracie

This is hands down my favorite book from my teen-age years.  If you liked "Bridge to Terrabithia" you will enjoy "Say Goodnight Gracie"! 

The book is about Morgan and Jimmy, best friends who do everything together.  Sadly Jimmy dies unexpectedly and Morgan has to figure out how to survive without her best friend.

Happily there is no romantic involvement between the two main characters.  I like how this shows kids that good friendships can, in fact, cross gender lines. 

Startling Statistic

58% of Americans will not a read a book after they graduate high school!

Sad, huh?

How can you handle spending so much time with your kids?

Lots of people ask this question about homeschooling.  How can you spend so much time with your kids? Like all day, every day, especially with a husband who travels as much as yours?

Here's the secret, I actually enjoy being with my kids.  Here's another secret, I didn't much enjoy them when they were in school.  I felt like they returned home with bad habits, arguments among siblings, drama from friendship issues, and then the homework.  My limited time with them in the evenings was not enjoyable because we were arguing, pestering about school work, and running around to activities.

Our life is much more peaceful now than when the kids were in school.  My kids are good at playing alone, because I trained them to be so, and so I can do things quietly by myself in the house.  I also am fortunate to have a husband who works out of the house so if planned far enough in advance, I can go to the doctor on my own or make lunch plans with a friend.  Although I did bring Claire with me to my mammogram appointment.  My kids know that I matter too and they recognize how much waiting around I do for them. They are happy to bring along a book or an iPad and do their thing while I do my thing.

We are easily able to get our 'school' work done in a matter of an hour, maybe two and the rest of the day we can do as we choose.   If my patience has been tested, which is rarely the case now that we are homeschooling, I will send the kids outside for a while or have them do some quiet time in their rooms.  They really don't fry me but they sure did when they were in school.

There are also great programs for home-schooled children which allow you to drop off your kids.  We participate in a class at the YMCA which allows me two hours on my own once a week.  The girls also take a half-day of co-op classes which means I have a half day to myself once a week too.  And they are getting older and the days of them being capable of staying home on their own are approaching.  Gale Woods Farm in Minnetrista offers drop off classes too.

It's really a happy thing for a family!