Gratitude

I want to be grateful.
I want to remember to set down the "issues", the little annoyances, the things that "they" do that makes my days more cumbersome and complicated, or the sights and sounds that are noisy.
I want to pick up the mantle of love, appreciation, awareness, remembrance more regularly, NOT just when it is easy or comfortable.
I want to remember that being grateful is not the result of being happy, but being happy is the result of being grateful.

Here is my song, my poem of gratitude for today. Were I to add music to the words, they would sound like bird song, gentle breezes, silence.

I am grateful to this earth. To the sustainable soils, the richness and sweetness of the seasons. To the "always-ness" of the earth. For its deep and hidden places. For its changeability and its constancy. For those things that are buried within, calling it their home. For temporary things. For the core, the energy within. To it's mass that keeps our feet firmly on its surface.

I am grateful to the plants. To their ability to reflect the weather, the seasons. To their cleansing and gentle ways. To their oxygen chemical reaction, to their nutritious and life-giving grains. To the fine root hairs for gathering up the wealth of the soil and sky. To the flowering and blooming things that give our senses sight, smell, touch, taste, and sounds found in no other place. For the many ways they touch us. For the many ways that they move through their life cycles that have nothing to do with us.

I am grateful to the air and atmosphere. The soaring, swift, silent breath of our atmosphere. To our gravity, our weather, our colorful dawn and dusk. To the cleansing breezes and to the lift of birds all around us.

I am grateful for the animals and all living things. To their wildness, to their tameness, to their secret ways, to their way of moving along in the midst of our pain, reminding us that nature always moves forward, the true model for healing. For their friendships and gentleness and beauty at living in freedom.

I am grateful to water. For the cycle of release, storage, movement, revitalization, release again. For that that is so much a part of us, of which we are so much a part. For the elemental foundation of our existence, that which allows life on this planet. For it's cleansing, healing, connection, life-giving, infinity.

I am grateful for the sun. For that hydrogen-pulsing life giver. For the energy stored within it's mass, for the stored energy beneath our own crust from the sun's past energy transfer. For it's warmth, for it's light, for it's healthy energy to our bodies. For it's cycles that lengthen, shorten, lengthen again and bring the patterns of the seasons. For being our home, our parent in the cosmos. For being the closest and most necessary life-giving source.

I am grateful for the sky and beyond. For it's mystery. For it's beauty. For being a part of each of us, within us. For the uncountable stars and objects that make us all that is. For being beyond our comprehension, our know ability. For being that which is greater than us.

L'Chiam

Schooling confuses teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new.

~ Wendy Priesnitz

I have been talking to several parents this week who are all considering homeschooling their children. In every single case, the schools' failures to meet the needs of their children is their main impetus to explore the homeschool lifestyle. I am angry and horrified at some of the stories that I have heard. The next problem these parents will face, though, once they move to a homeschooling lifestyle, is to absorb the ethos of homeschooling. That "book learning" is not the same as getting a great education.

That, alone, took me a few years to grasp. How can I pass it on to these loving, angry, desperate, and wounded parents? The answer is that I'm not so sure I can do that in a few sentences. That truth, for me, was a truth that revealed itself to me as my research went on and on.

In the meantime, I am grateful to have the opportunity to offer my support and assistance to these new parents about to take the leap into the homeschool lifestyle!

L'Chiam!

Sarah Palin, I just have to say it

I can't say that I am a completely politically minded person. I miss alot. I don't keep up with the reading/watching regularly. But I do keep my hand in things enough to have some strong opinions.
Lately, I'm actually SHOCKED that the Republicans see no better candidate to groom for the presidential race than Sarah Palin. So, I post this on Facebook and I am asked, "But, Karen! Why are you scared of Sarah Palin?"
LOL
My first response, Is something like, I'm not scared of Sarah Palin! I'm scared of a country that would consider ELECTING her.

Then, after some thought, I realized, HEY, I am scared of Sarah Palin. Here was my response on Facebook:

No, I take that back. I AM scared of Sarah Palin being considered/groomed for the republican presidential candidate. And here are a few reasons...
1. She has NO national political experience. NONE. Zero. She has a lukewarm track record in Alaska.
2. She has NO experience with foreign dignitaries. She is, currently, being schooled in what she should do.
3. She is, therefore, a puppet.
4. She is a creationist and wants that to be taught in science classes.
5. She is against basic human rights for gays and lesbians.
6. She does not believe that man's behavior is responsible for global warming.
7. She is ANTI-choice, doesn't even support birth control for married couples. OR for others. Just her general anti-reproductive freedom stance.
8. She speaks empty words and phrases and offers no actual input into conversations or questions.
9. She actually believes that humans and dinosaurs were alive at the same time!
10. She is GROSSLY unqualified for any leadership, local or national. Peel back what she is sound-biting, you will find NOTHING.

Is the Republican party so bereft of qualified leadership that she is seriously considered the top contender?
Now THAT is scary.

My First Blog Post

Who am I?
I am a married mother of two children.
I am a homeschooling mother.
I am a happily married woman.
I am a happy person, generally a positive person.
I am, what is often called, a "People Person".
I am a Midwesterner. We live in St. Louis and I have always lived within 30 miles of our home.
I am a birthmother.
I am an atheist.
I am a movie lover.
I love to read.
I enjoy my children tremendously.
I totally like my husband and am very entertained by him. He keeps me centered.
I am 46.
I am a freethinker.
I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican.
I am fairly Liberal.
I went to college for well over eight years.
I am a SAHM.
I am a small business owner.
I enjoy publishing small publications.
I am a family person.
I love jasmine tea.
I prefer veggies to fruits.
I am a raging insomniac.
I love the WWW.
I am a researcher by heart.
And an editor.
I will always find the misspellings and grammatical errors in the book!
I am a recovering sarcastic person.
I am becoming a better parent all of the time.
I dislike confrontation and debate completely.
I am respectful and interested in differing points of view.
I dislike being in a "box" and I am fairly immature about it!
I am a terrible cook.
I love watching my children in their various performing venues.
I love spring and fall.
I am a good swimmer.
I love history and science and...well, everything except for math.
Math is interesting but totally flummoxes me.
Love astronomy.  Jer and I are amateur astronomers.
I am addicted to RCT2.
I am a lover of language.

I'm Karen.
Hello!