the school room

since i cleaned and organized the school room today, i thought i'd share some pictures. a clean school room?!? i just had to get some documentation! i know most homeschool families are painfully organized and their lives are full of baskets from Pottery Barn and shelving from The Container Store, but we aren't one of those families. i feel like the gods are smiling on me if i can find a pencil sharpener from day to day.

when i started homescooling my oldest son almost 4 years ago we did school at the breakfast table and stored our supplies on the kitchen island. so yeah, i like it pretty good.

Weighty Issues

well Saturday is weigh-in day. i lost 3 more pounds this week, bringing me to a grand total of 17 pounds in three weeks!

how did i do it, you ask? simple.

torture.

ha, but really, my plan is pretty simple. a day looks like this:

2 oz Aloe Vera gel with 2 TBsp of golden flaxseed mixed in 15 minutes before breakfast.

1 cup Spava coffee fortified with guarana and green tea

- 2 eggs and a piece of turkey bacon for breakfast

20 minutes of yoga at least 4 times a week

Yerba Mate tea throughout the day

- fresh veggies, soy burger patty with mushrooms, and 2 oz cottage cheese for lunch

-2% string cheese or a piece of beef jerky for snack

*workout.

2 oz aloe vera juice mixed with 2 TBsp golden flaxseed 15 minutes before dinner

- last night we had fajitas, so i had a salad with chicken fajita meat, salsa, and guacamole. i do everything i can to stop eating at 6:30.

* my workout usually consists of 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer, 30 minutes of weight training and then 30 minutes of more cardio. sometimes i do the crossramp, sometimes i walk/jog. since i haven't had any carbs in weeks, some days my workout can be gruelling...i literally feel like i'm moving through quicksand and when i'm done i feel like i've had my ass kicked. i keep telling myself that those are the really effective workouts where i'm really increasing my fitness level and burning fat at significant rate since there is no surface sugar to burn.

overall, i'm feeling really good. i haven't had a drink in three weeks and i can tell the sugar detox has cleared my mind in major ways.

only 20 more pounds to go!

Spring-ish!

it's so exceptionally spring-ish outside that i'm having to restrain myself from trimming the crepe myrtles, pruning back the rose buses, feeding the lawn, and planting the strawberries (yes, i am a glutton for caterpillars and disappointment). somehow i know that i'm jumping the gun by at least two weeks. i always look forward to the cooler part of the year, but i tire of it very quickly.

yesterday, Bryan got home at a decent time so i let him stay with the kids while i went to the Y to workout. i was in the gym for about an hour and a half, then i walked the 1/2 mile track a couple of times. i was the only one out on the track and it was lovely. i daresay there are few things better in life than a walk in silence...

...and i had a thought. during the walk i was completely in tune with the rhythms of my body; my feet hitting the ground, my breath, and my muscles collaborating to move me. it was surreal, it was happening completely out of time with the modern world.

what was the rhythm of life when transportation was on foot or by horse? what is the rhythm of life now? how do these changes change us? feeling and controlling the operation of your body in meditative silence is awareness and mindfulness; riding in a vibrating capsule with music, phone, and (gods forbid!) sometimes tv is numbness and detachment from the self, not to mention one's surroundings. how do these things change our fiber? are we not energy, attuned to vibration and rhythm?

it was a good walk.

...and that's how these fools advance to the Feudal Age!

i overheard Daylon saying that just now.

the past few days have been pretty eventful, and i'm feeling really good and aligned with the cosmos.

i got my truck fixed! woohoo! i'm really proud of myself about it. Bryan's been acting like my truck had a virus and he's been nursing it back to health, saying things like 'it's getting better!' i don't know how a busted engine is going to get better on it's own, but through my research and ingenuity, it got better for 100 dollars as opposed to 2000+.

i watched a bunch of diagnostic videos and determined that we were indeed dealing with a cracked head, then started researching remedies. i knew the crack was small because i had very, very little coolant in my oil, so i decided to go with Steel Seal. this stuff isn't like stop leak, it actually lasts...forever. so for 90 dollars and 30 minutes of repair, my truck is running better than it did the day i got it. and i appreciate it much more than i ever have!

in other news, my Puerto Rican neighbors called the cops on us last night. for racism.

my husband was playing soccer in the road with my oldest son and two hispanic boys from down the road. one of the youngest kids kicked the ball off the tire of the Puerto Rican's car and he came storming out hollering and cussing. my husband was quite impressed with this teenager's effort to control the actions of a grown man, so he told him to STFU. the young Puerto Rican, surrounded by his thuggish buddies, then proceeded to tell my husband that he would knock him out with one punch, POW! generating much laughter from my husband and proving that aforementioned Puerto Rican really has no idea who he is messing with.

he goes in the house for a minute, them him and his boyz load up in the Ghetto Blaster and leave. it's getting cold and almost dark, so we all go in and start cooking when the door bell rings. lo and behold, it's an officer of the law! she asks if WE called the cops on a report of racism.

we talked very pleasantly with her on the porch for about 20 minutes and i must commend her on being my favorite cop ever. we explained the nature of the ongoing dispute with our neighbors and commented that if we were being racist, why were we taking our time to play soccer with the hispanic kids from down the road? on a side note, i'm wondering if they really perceived racism because a white man told them to STFU...because that was literally the only thing that was said.

during our chatting, the thuglets showed back up and the dad (type figure) was outside waiting to talk to her. we went in for a while, and when we went back out to check on the proceedings, those Puerto Ricans were screaming at this poor woman and generally going nuts. i guess they weren't getting the response out of her that they'd hoped for.

my final observations are as follows: if you decide to come out and threaten to knock your neighbor out and then call the cops on yourself, first make sure you know the address that you're calling from and not just the one you're calling about.

i'm sure this isn't the final chapter to this ongoing saga.

300

since AT&T is being so generous as to offer a free 7 day preview of every channel under the sun, me and the hubby snuggled up and watched 300 again last night.

this was the third time i've seen the movie, but the last time i watched it was at least a year ago.

i was once again struck by the copious amounts of male abdominal musculature...and i have a pretty big crush on ole King Leonidas. the color of the cinematography is just so lovely. and of course, i closed my eyes at the gory(est) parts.

there were some things that i had not noticed on previous viewings, and i'm curious as to how culturally relevant the scenes were to the Greek people.

first: the oracle. was she not practising Seid-style prophecy?

second: the notion of a glorious death only being found in battle. Heathens tend toward the belief of death in battle being the 'escape' from the cycle of reincarnation; did the Greeks also believe this?

third: the high regard for the women of Greece. as i thought about this i came to the conclusion that before the rise of monotheism the whole world probably regarded women in a more equal way.

i know it's a bit late for a movie review, but it's not very often that i actually like a movie. i think it's extremely rare that a movie is able to address issues such as valor and true strength of spirit and character without being cheesy or pretentious.

i give it two thumbs up. ;}

Finally

i've been wanting to start a decent, regularly updated blog of this sort for quite awhile. perhaps the fact that my truck is sitting in the garage with a busted motor is the reason i've finally taken the plunge.

of course, i'd rather be at the gym, or the library, or picking up something at the store, or one of the other million-jillion things i can think of to do now that i'm without the means to do it.
hmph.

so the gist of things is as follows. i've got three kids; Daylon is 12, Galilee is 5, and Asher is 4. we have a mini Schnauzer puppy named Gryphon. i have a husband, Bryan. i'm fortunate enough to afford to stay home and school my kids. We are Germanic Heathens, members of the OR, and of Othala Hearth. Suburban Heathens are funny creatures.

random factoids:
i'm a huge soccer fan, i love to canoe, i play the cello in a vastly diminished capacity than when i was young, i'm a fan of heavy jammy rock and neo-pagan folk music, i read, i agree with Ron Paul, i enjoy the dictionary, i work out alot to keep myself in much better shape than i appear to be in, 99% of the time i don't find entertainment entertaining, i love watching videos about Nibiru and the Annunaki, i love to debunk things just for fun with faulty pseudo-logic, and i generally don't believe the hype.


nice to meet ya!