Innocent Beginnings

It began innocently enough. Kent and I watched a documentary "Fed Up" that focused how the diet of sugar was really the issue behind diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Since sugar intake, especially to our ADHD son was never really desirable, it just seemed like an easy given that they should watch it.  After it we came away with thoughts on seeking out 'real food' rather than 'food-like products'.

The fall festival Mortimer Farms gave Bubby the chance to explore the texture of mud!





Another morning we listed to the kids podcast Brains On.  It was a humorous and informative talk about farts (anything to catch their attention!) which mentioned that the majority of methane gas that harms our environment is actually produced by cows and the beef industry. It was a random fact I verified and lead to another rabbit trail and  to the documentary "Vegucated" which taught us that the government subsidies to the  meat industry has lead to unethical practices that harm the animals we eat, pollute our environment and make it cheaper for us to eat unhealthy diets compounding the health industriesproblems. As a family we decided to move to a vegetarian diet. The kids said they never like what I make anyways, so whether it was vegetarian or not it would make no difference! Got to love their honesty! We added to our vegetable intake (which was already shocking to begin with according to one of Kent's friends) shifted to lots of kinds of beans and egg meals.

More fun at Mortimer's.

"Conspiracy" has made the final shift. We've begun making our soy milk again, looking at ways to use it to make the yogurt we eat every morning and even try using nuts to make non- dairy cheeses.  The cream cheese we made from raw cashews and macadamias was happily injgested by everyone.


It took a lot of courage for Bug-love to feed the chickens herself but she ended up liking it.


Cracks me up, her kissy face so near a curious goat!

So suddenly the family that goes to a buffet and eat mostly meat and desserts (as my father would say - because we don't pay that kind of money for us to eat the cheap stuff!!) has suddenly stopped going out so much and become granola hippies!



Little man was a definite muddy mess after all the fun at the farm.

Having made new friends this summer with two kids who are from Honduras, we wanted to give the kids a more globally minded view of the world. We watched "One Dollar a Day" which left my children shocked with how different childhood is in many other countries. Then we watched "The True Cost" which elaborates how fast fashion has created sweatshops, destroyed the environment and our choices for what is cheap is costing humanity. Our discussion afterwards has prompted the kids to say they were okay with the idea of only getting one or two presents for birthdays or Christmas. They wanted to spend the money on experiences (like visiting our friends in Honduras) and on projects that might give back to others.




Within a few minutes my bug-love had come up with the idea of making blankets she could sell that the funds would go towards a set of books she could mail to her friend's classroom. She was so impassioned by this idea that she spent her Sunday afternoon learning how to use my sewing machine and seam ripper practicing n 'mini-blankets' from scraps of fabric I had left over. Kent and I were astounded by her drive and are curious to see where this will take her.




Threading a machine...



Education, true education should change you. Somehow in all the years from when I first crafted my philosophy of education in college with my naive ideology I had lost this vision in the onslaught of politics, standardized testing and curriculum. Here we are, homeschooling my munchkins and they showed it to me again, not in theory but in action. It's nice to know that the little bits of information can be made into lasting connections that are influencing our family's behavior. THIS is what drives me to homeschool!