I'm not judging you

The kids in the water, in the middle of a week-day when they should be at school?

These are my boys and their best friend. What you have to know about this picture is that the water is very, very cold, and that one of the kids is holding a Go-Pro camera, shivering, edging his way to the middle of the river, where giants shadows rest on the river bottom.

The shadows are Silver Salmon.

The reason the kids are braving the glacial water at the end of September with an underwater camera in their cold hand is because they want to film these salmon.

Problem is, the salmon dart away as soon as they sense splashing water from approaching humans, thus the kids didn't get any salmon footage.

So they moved on to building a mud slide, sledding on their bellies head-first down the slick, dark river mud.

They could have been sitting in school all day, but they're homeschooled, so they get to chase salmon and play in mud instead.

Please let me get one thing straight:

I'm not judging you if you don't homeschool.  It breaks my heart to think some people might feel judged by the pictures I share on social media.  This DID happen a couple of weeks ago when I posted the picture below, and someone asked, "You are not judging me, are you?"

Of course I'm not!

I'm sharing our journey, and homeschooling happens to be a big part of it.  But is homeschooling for everyone?  

God, no!

Every family is different, and many parents are not willing or able to homeschool.  Many kids want to BE in school.  Mine don't, and I'm glad.

Homeschooling is a huge deal, and although I'm showing you highlights of the best things in our life, it's really NOT a big, huge party and filled with adventures all the time.  Yes, there's lots of joy, and yes, there are many adventures, but there is also plenty of stress, pissed-off-ness, pull-our-teeth-out, boredom, drudgery, and never-ending chores.

Got it?  I'm not judging you.  Period.

Moving right along.

Things are busy.  There's so much to do, and the laundry is stacking up while I prepare our homesteading/wilderness retreat weekend.  There are still spots available, but we have ads coming out October 1st, so things may fill up fast.  If you want in on the action, do it NOW!

I have to make a conscious choice to relax and give myself breaks.  When the work is never done, and when you homeschool, you don't get much chill time.  That's why knitting is my mental health medicine.  Here I am working on a wool sweater for winter, and farther down is the cardigan I made during the summer.  Hurray for knitting (and chocolate) to help me stay sane!

Talking of busy: I've been making lots of goat milk soap, because, oh my!  These goats produce a lot of milk!  I absolutely love these soaps and have fallen in love with some of the molds out there to produce extra-special bars.
(I teach soap making at our weekend retreat, by the way).

Ever since I started using my own goat milk soaps, I don't have to use lotion on my skin any more.  My soap is super moisturizing, creamy and luscious, if I say so myself.  

I sell my soaps in my online Etsy store if you want some.

This post is already getting long, but I have to tell you about two more things:

Cider pressing!  Our neighbors' family made a really cool cider press and brought it up to try it out, knowing there were plenty of apples in our 'hood.  We picked some off our trees and headed over there, kids and dog in tow.  This homemade press cranked out some pretty awesome apple juice!

The other thing: a mother-and-son (and dog) hiking trip that will go down in history.  It's a trail called Cow Heaven that's only a five-minute drive from our house, but we've never done it.

Why?

Because it's grueling.  Ten miles and 4,000 feet elevation gain, through some pretty magical forest, but without any views, until you finally, finally emerge into the open into meadows of blueberry fields with gorgeous views.

On the way up, already tired and sick of hiking, we managed to stir up a wasp or hornet nest on the ground.  I got stung in the knee and calf, and Raka the dog got stung on her snout, which we realized only until we were on the top.

It hurt.  A lot.  Both my legs kept swelling, but I didn't have any medicine or plants (like plantain) on hand.  At the top, I remembered that ferns can draw poison out, so I crushed up some and put them on the stings.  That's when we saw swollen Raka's lip.  One of my friend's dogs had to visit the vet ER after being stung by wasps, so I got scared.  

Remembering a wilderness emergency course I took years ago, I recalled the magic of urine.  Yes, I'm talking about pee.  So we all got down to business.  We had consumed a lot of liquids on the way up, so business was booming, if you know what I mean.  I medicated my own stings with the magic potion, and it helped.

The boys peed in a bottle (which elicited an enormous amount of hilarity) and when that was done we poured it over the dog's snout, which elicited more hilarity.  I will spare you the details, but know this: her swelling went down.

 

I look tired and sad. My wasp stings hurt. Hurt. Hurt. Hurt.