Would you like a Cookie?

Cookies. 

Yes. Cookies. I think they are a staple for childhood don't you? I think there is so much fun to be had with little ones helping make something they really want and I love the memories that I get to create with them. Of course, we cook normal food - but cookies are funner! 

Here are my awesome happy helpers! 

Start out by creaming the butter and sugar together. We use NO electronics while making cookies - its all muscle power! 

Daunika has been working really hard at cracking eggs. 

 This time, she wasn't successful with the second egg. It was REALLY devastating to her and I just happen to have the camera in rapid picture mode to catch this moment on camera. Poor kid. 

 But, when you fall off a horse you get right back on. I specifically cleaned it up quickly without much fuss and handed her another as if nothing had happen. I think she was waiting for me to scold her for the mess... but I just didn't care. She was worried enough, why add grief? 

The third egg was perfect just like the first :) 

Moose stirred the eggs in! 

 Of course - Moose helps in special ways... He eats hand fulls of chocolate chips when I turn away. 

 And I cannot believe I caught him. No, I didn't let him eat it, but the silly kid tried several times! Goober. 

But all is well when you can pack these in your lunches, send them with Damon when he works and eat them warm with a cup of milk. Yum :)

Gratitude and Grumpiness.

I am grumpy today. 

I was ungrateful for my moments shared today. 

I was not practicing what I wanted to show others. 

*SIGH* ... I think this might mean I am human? Darn it. I knew I would have that come up again. This morning I just didn't want to get out of bed. In fact, I think I considered how I could make the world swallow me whole. I worried "Am I depressed?", and if I am how could I clearly see it? 

I think I have determined - I just need to let my principles into my practices better. Nothing is wrong that cannot be easily over come. My marriage is solid, I love my husband passionately and I feel loved completely. My children are happy and healthy - and they know they are unconditionally loved by their parents. My faith is strong and my path is bright. My business is blooming and booming all at once. I have much to be grateful for. 

We have a tradition in our home. We say our 'Thank Yous". Before each meal, instead of a prayer, we take a moment to each say what we are thankful for. Something meaningful and relevant. This is a tradition I love. Even our little man signs and says "Thank you" when asked "Declan are you thankful?". It's darling really. As I listened to my children think of their thank yous tonight over grilled cheese and smoothies - I realized that I hadn't been a great model to them today. I was a grump. I was rude to my husband, I was cranky with my kids, I was just not nice. 

I had reasons, sure. I was stressed because our car broke last night and today we had to spend an unexpected 200 dollars on it. Of course, it didn't break down until 11 pm last night and I made a mistake which doubled the time in helping my dear exhausted husband get home to rest. I was upset that after so much training, others were choosing to do poorly in their work and their integrity was seriously lacking. I was sad because I attended a family church event yesterday and watched others dance with their hubbies while I longed to just hug mine for a moment in day light. I was sad that I missed church today because I really wanted to go. 

Small things on a global scale, really. 

So what were my thank yous tonight at dinner? 

I had such a hard time verbalizing what I failed to say all day. I was thankful for everything! I was so stinkin thankful for the wonderful husband who worked so hard to give our family everything we want and need. I felt loved and humbled that he wanted to spend his day with me and it filled my soul. I was thankful for my happy goofy kids that made messes and got into mischief. I was thankful for my creative spirit and our great budgeting system that allowed our car to be fixed immediately! I'm so grateful for the ability to hunker down and read some really important books this summer. I grew immensely and feel fabulous. 

I am filled with gratitude. 

First week of our school year!

I have no cheeky pictures with my kids all dressed up with back packs and standing waiting for a bus, or piled into a carpool... Our week was not filled with new routines, new set ups - but more a gentle flow of questions, answers, explorations and fun!

Aurora is working on writing. She is very motivated to learn to write like her older sister. She has several work books and focuses very hard on writing. I love seeing her dedication and internal motivation!

We started last week with a trip to the library. The library offers our children wonder, knowledge of anything and everything. And sure enough - they came home and read for a long time!!

As part of our goals before the end of the year - we want to have our kids know the seasons and the months of the year. Mostly Daunika, but Aurora really loves singing along with us and I firmly believe you teach to the older and the younger kids WILL learn right along with them!

Daunika understands that the days fit into months, and she understands there are 7 days of the week before the week restarts - but she was trying to figure out what a year was, how one month moved to another. So, together we made some Month tags on the wall and when it's visual as a reminder it seems to help so much. To help cement the concept - we made a Family Timeline together!!

This was a great project because the girls got to cut, glue, choose colors, hang up things on the wall, and recognize the different things in life they understood about our family.

First the girls got to make the year markers along the timeline. It was great for them to See all the years their parents have been together. Our family started with Damon and myself. So - our timeline starts in 2000.

Then the kids created tags of life events - these included things like "Mom and Dad met each other" "Mommy and Daddy got married!" "Our cat was adopted" "________ was born!"... etc. They loved this project!

And our finished Friday project was beautiful. It makes me smile every time I walk by it and I cannot tell you how amazing its been to teach Daunika how the months rotate just like the days of the week - and each full rotation moves us to the next year! FABULOUS!

I hope your beginning school year week goes as fantastic as ours did!! 

I am a Chipmunk!

According to Wikipedia: 

Chipmunks have an omnivorous diet consisting of grain, nuts, fruit, berries, birds' eggs, small frogs, fungi, worms, insects and on occasions small mammals like young mice.^[7][8] At the beginning of autumn, many species of chipmunk begin to stockpile these goods in their burrows, for winter. Other species make multiple small caches of food. These two kinds of behavior are called larder hoarding and scatter hoarding. Larder hoarders usually live in their nests until spring. Cheek pouches allow chipmunks to carry multiple food items to their burrows for either storage or consumption.^[9]

So unlike the above cute little chipmunk - I actually look more like this!!!

Why you ask? Well, based on the habits of these furry little creatures - I am like them. I stockpile. Now, I'm sure its a funny concept to some and a completely advisable concept to others. To me, its about logical conclusions of our income stream. 

We work seasonally. That does not mean we are giant slackers in the winter, but it does mean we need to save up and be wise through the winter. One of the ways that I have found extremely beneficial to our family is to buy extra food when the summer money is flowing! This not only makes total sense because we are buying things we would already use - but it also gives me a warm fuzzy "no matter what I can feed my family" feeling. That is a peaceful feeling indeed. 

I thought I would share what this months journey has produced. Some years ago, my awesome husband built me this great outside pantry shelving unit! It's huge, deep, sturdy and SO useful. It has kept all sorts of things on it, but never has it been as full as it is now. 

This was pretty much empty at the beginning of the summer. We had some random things out there. It was great "extra" space. But really, this thing loaded up like this is much cooler than the random things on it before. Though, I am not done stockpiling yet for the winter - I will wrap that up this week probably, and I need to figure out what to do with my BIG pots on the bottom shelf. 2 water bath canners, a pressure canner, 2 crockpots and an extra toaster. 

But wait, THERE IS MORE! Not only do I have that lovely shelf - I have a nice stash of 5 gal buckets I'm trying to build up! Last years I learned very quickly - I did not have enough flour, sugar, or oatmeal buckets. I do however have plenty of lentils, black beans, red beans and pintos. This year, I focused on adding flour. It is my most versitle food. We make bread, pancakes, cookies, pie crusts, quiche crusts, bread, bread and more bread. Then oatmeal comes in a short second - we eat a lot of oatmeal. Served normally in the morning, but also oatmeal muffins, oatmeal pancakes and we use a small amount in our bread too! 

My bucket stash is not quite finished - but it's getting there!! 

And well, of course today while at Costco, I had to pick up chocolate chips that temporarily are sitting on more buckets and bags of sugar waiting for me to buy some buckets for them!

And can I add just how much I love Costco and WinCo for having easy access to bulk foods!! 

Ahhh.............. 

Thank you dear life for calming my security gland!

Hats anyone?

Yes, it's still summer time.

 No, none of these are new hats.

 In fact, for a long time - say, the whole two years we've lived here, all of our hats have been in a box by the front door. 

Even in the summer time I keep them there because, well, I just do. 

These last few weeks have been a Hat Frenzy!! 

Declan has decided all hats are fantastic, and must be worn most of the day. 

Shall we take a peak?

Yes, that's our darling son rocking out to some music in his older sisters hat. Pure bliss shows. 

Tonight in fact - I tucked my awesome child into bed and he is currently sound asleep with a hat on! This is a thick, lined, fluffy hat! But he sure was cute at bedtime :) 

Its actually extended beyond hats now. He is madly in love with his helmet as well. This is him and Daddy last night. Notice the jammies - the silly kid did indeed mooch a night time snack adorned in jammies and a helmet! 

I am realizing there are about 12 hats that he rotates through and it's absolutely darling. 

Children add so much humor to our lives. 

Blessings!! 

Can you feel it?

Ahhhhhhhhh........ School Season!!!! 

I cherish the books, pencils, notebooks and everything about 'back to school' season - except the concept of public education of course. 

I'm so thrilled to find myself on yet another year of homeschooling. Our wonderful children are excited. They are watching things come into our home and know they are their tools. They actively acknowledge and know that most children are publicly schooled, and that we feel strongly against it for our family. We have talked to Daunika especially with this year marking many of her friends going to public school for kindergarten. 

The kids are thrilled to stay at home and learn along side their parents. The countless crayons, scissors, notebooks pour into our home as I stock up for the year to come. New posters, new calendars for our year. So much EXCITEMENT! 

Often times people have asked me -Do you really school at home?

To which I can just smile and say - No. We don't try to replicate school in our home. 

I think that's really important to know. Our children are actively learning daily without the need of someone else's agenda that dictates their day. This year we evaluated if a home school/public school funding was an option we wanted to entertain. Ultimately, our home chose that Home Education is really about our child, not a public school needing to test score well enough. We don't have circle time, with recess, and all that. We live and learn in the same spaces, always. 

So, how in the world do you intend to teach them? 

Another fabulous question that I love to hear. I don't. Well.... Not in the way that you think. I plan on providing the environment, the fun, the excitement and the opportunity to grow constantly. I plan on nurturing their interests, desires to learn, and watching them grow. Sure I plan on helping foster the environment and encourage strongly certain things - such as learning about our community and our values. But I don't need to teach to them. I need to help them educate themselves. 

If it didn't work - I wouldn't have a 5 year old doing 1st grade math curriculum this year, who can read and write, is currently reading Greek mythology and can identify Greece on the globe, and oh yea - who is having a blast still being a child! 

Well, what do you do then? 

I listen first and foremost. I listen to my children and their needs, wants and desires. I believe that children WANT and CRAVE knowledge. Haven't you ever wished for a moment that your darling toddler would shush for 5 minutes because if she asks you one more time "what's that?" you really might just pull your hair out? The smile and resounding "yes" that you're feeling is the understanding. 

My hope is not to squash that. To help provide opportunity, choices, options, and space to grow and learn constantly. The home is my domain - I will set it up to foster a lifestyle of learning. 

Yes, but don't you have text books and "school supplies"?

Absolutely! Are you kidding me? I think I'm turning into a damn curriculum junkie and my kids are 5, 3, and 1! We have a pretty darn good collection of things we plan on using this year. And by using - I mean exploring, learning, ditching when its crap, and retrying when we're ready. 

As for supplies - here's some of my favorites : 

Yes, standard spiral note books are a MUST HAVE in this home. We use them as our nature journals, our handwriting launch points, our coloring books, our math work books, you name it. My children have colored pictures for their friends, written (with proper format) letters to their grandparents, and cut line by line all in the same 70 pages! Really, the power of a notebook that they know is theirs, special, valuable and worth their time is addicting. 

That is a photograph of Kathryn Albertson Park. Our mecca of studying nature, wild life, animals, plants and seasons of our world. 

Could you imagine reading all those books? Daunika can. Aurora too. They actually proclaimed one day - they plan on reading every single book in the library by the time they became mommies. It was a beautiful moment. Our library system is fabulous and the best thing I can do for my children is continue to keep the love of books alive in them. There is no limit to your knowledge when you read. 

Of course there is about a couple hundred of these. 

And a lot of our children, side by side, being goofy, fun, serious, and at the end of the day - 

Part of our fantastic family. 

This little man is working on scribbling ON PAPER. That is a fabulous task at 17 months!

Aurora is diligently learning to spell and write her name. She'll master it this month for certain

And Daunika has decided that childrens books don't hold the same appeal. She is plowing through books these days!!! 

Happy Beginning of the School Year!!!!!

 MANY more posts to come. Stay along for the ride :)

What a great start to August

Day by day we are simply enjoying life. No expectations of what needs done, what nags the mind, just really LIVING. It's been fabulous! We have a pool pass and the pools close in two short weeks so we've committed to swimming daily. It's been so GREAT! No matter what, its a time to look forward to - and lots of the time we're joined by friends or Damon! 




I really love watching Daunika (and her friend Josh!) become SO confident in the water. Daunika doesn't go to the 'baby pool' anymore - unless its to warm up (its heated). She loves to SWIM and to really swim you need deeper water. 

 Aurora isn't ready to jump in the big pool yet when its deep

 But loves the safety of Dad's arms and enjoys the big pool!

 Declan seems completely fearless. He falls in, face first, dunks himself completely and seems un-phased mostly.

 The older Moose gets, he totally looks like Damon. I love this fact!

 Aurora loves the little slides, they are perfect sized for kids!

 And the splash is always fun to watch!

 But it never fails... I hear the "brrrrrrrrrrrrrr" from my kids by the end. So sweet.

More than just swimming and special 'summer' things... we're really enjoying just being US. 




Aurora found her camera again, and Dad gave her new batteries... I dont think she set it down for days. Very sweet. 

Almost every night I've peaked in on my lovely babies and I either find them sprawled in their own beds - but more often then not - I find this: 


Here is Daunika, in her full sized bed, sprawled out in every way possible

 And on the twin mattress - here's my two snuggle bugs. Aurora and Declan are far more cuddly than Daunika and I love to think of all their differences. Gosh I love our kids.

Daunika may not be cuddly - but she absolutely has a heart of gold. She wrote her sister a letter and a picture of me and her together. :) 

And in case you didn't know - It is impossible to make a bed when a naked baby thinks its hysterical to crawl into it the very moment your all done! 

In Huberty baby #4 news - We are still moving ahead with planning a home birth. Though there was a recent movement of some of the midwives in the practice we've chosen that have made me extremely unnerved, I'm still confident that ultimately their clinical skill is simply a back up plan to the unfailing trust Damon and I have in my ability to birth flawlessly without complications. (While this is our first home birth, this will be our third child not born in a hospital, only Daunika was born in a hospital).  This is the first time we are planning on not finding out the gender of our baby either - and no, I really don't want to know. It feels so right waiting. We are peaceful and it seems so natural to add another baby to our home. I'm not at all anxious, nervous, or anything but patient and happy. 


In the coming weeks, We can look forward to tons more swimming, then the fair and the hot air balloon events! Woo hoo.

I love summers in Idaho.