Isn't Miete cute in her Karate get up. The evening that I took this picture was quite an unpleasant and stressful one for my little Miete, but she got through it and it didn't seem to have a damaging effect on her delicate self esteem. So Miete has been doing karate classes for the past 4 weeks as part of her home school's art smarts classes. The class will last 6 weeks in total. The woman who's arm is around her is the person who has been teaching karate to Miete and the small group of other Summit students. The Summit students were invited to attend a karate graduation ceremony at the karate school where she works. I took Miete to it, but she was the only child from her Home school group there. In total there was around 30 or so kids aged 8 to 10 in various levels of karate there to be tested for their next belt level.
      Miete sat with the kids and was called up with 3 other kids almost immediately to demonstrate her karate knowledge. The kids sat in a circle around the room with the judges at the front of the room and the heard of parents off to the side. I felt a bit nervous for Miete knowing how shy she can be. I went off to sit on the floor and started taking pictures and recording, while the teacher called out commands. Miete did the first few moves and then grew very stiff and still. I could see through my camera lens that her face was turning very red. The teacher then told the kids to turn and face their Parents. Miete saw me  and burst into tears, running across the room to me. I tried to comfort and console her, but it was all I could do to keep my own tears from spilling over. I felt her pain. I had experienced similar situations as a child, and we van Gogh's don't do well in stressful situations. Actually it's from my mom's side, the Homes.  Anyways one of the karate instructors came and sat down by Miete and told her how brave she was to get up there and try when she didn't know anyone there and didn't know all the positions. Miete had only had 4 classes at this point. She managed to help Miete to feel better.
       At the end of the evening, after sitting for nearly 2 hours watching all the other kids demonstrate their skills Miete received a medal. The woman in the picture with Miete called her up to the front and congratulated her for bravery, and went on to say how proud of her she was for attending and participating when no one else from her home school group had attended. Miete was beaming. She has always wanted a medal, and I think she quickly forgot about the little ordeal she went through to receive it. In hindsight I blame my emotions on PMS. Nonetheless, it is sad to see our own children suffer through unpleasant situations.

And here are some cuties:

This is a dragon Miete spent hours creating as part of her study of China.

  

     Violet wearing Leif's underwear on her head.                    My beautiful Valentines cookies.

 

I am going to do better. I'll write shorter entries and write more frequently.  I always think of things I want to write about in the day, but by the time I have the kids all in bed and the house tidied I am much to tired to sit and write. Today I am writing instead of taking a nap. Napping generally wins out over everything else, so I am making a real sacrifice today.

So something I've been wanting to write about for a long time is running. Maybe not an exciting subject to some, but I have so much to say about it. There is a local magazine called " I Run". I haven't read it in a while but I like it because it features a lot of regular people and not just turbo athletes. People like myself, that aren't necessary fast runners, but just love running, and whose lives have benefited in some positive way from running. Now the interviews with these regular people always start with I run... and they go on to list why they run.  This has got me thinking of the many reasons why I run. So here goes, in no particular order. I  first ran the Sun Run, a 10km run when I turned 30. It was a goal I had. I didn't really train though, and it was a slow run with a a lot of walking and bathroom breaks. At the end I had such a hight though. I felt so great for completing such an event. The following year I trained a bit more and did it again without any bathroom breaks and fewer walking breaks. I finished 20 minutes sooner then the previous year. After that I decided that  I wanted to learn to love running, because I still didn't. I decided to sign up for a running clinic at the Running Room.  That did it for me. The first time  I ran 4km strait felt like such an accomplishment to me, and every week we added to it. Eventually we were running 8km and doing hill repeats, and I was running longer distances by myself. I was slow but I didn't care because it made me feel so good. that summer I ran another 10km race and did it in 1hr 7min, no bathroom or walking breaks. It was a huge accomplishment for me and I was very proud of myself. After I finished the Running room clinic I continued to run by myself and cut out the walking minutes that is part of their program. I have continued to run regularly since, only missing a few months when I was pregnant with Violet. I really love it. It doesn't take any athletic ability. Any one with one working leg can do it. There are some really fast runners with prosthetic legs. I come from a family of extreme un-athleticism.( I don't know if that's a word but you know what I mean .) Running doesn't take any athletic talent. I am a slow runner and I know that I will never be really fast, but who cares. I Love it as much as those fast people do.  I've learned that it is the fastest way to burn the most amount of calories in the least time. I can get my heart rate up to 160 in about 3min, something I can't do, doing any other exercise, even cycling. Who doesn't love that. It is the quickest way to lose weight. I run to stay young. I'm going to be 35 this year and I am not getting any younger, so running helps with that. I run to alleviate  stress, or get away from my problems. living in a crazy house with four kids can be mentally trying a lot of the time. There are days when Christopher comes in the door from work and I run out it. I need to run to calm myself and clear my head. I come home feeling happier and refreshed. I often feel like I want to preach the joys of running to my family and friends, so they can share in my joy. That could be like a religious testimony. Anyways running is something I highly recommend to everyone. It's cheap, all you need is good shoes. If you only have 20 minutes a day it's perfect and you don't need a gym membership, although  I personally don't love running in a down pour which we have a lot of here. Anyways that is all I have to say about that. I hope I have motivated someone to get outside, go for a run and enjoy this beautiful place we live in, and if you don't live in rainy B.C you should get out and enjoy the beauty of where ever you are.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

  Well it's a new year, and I'm sure most of my goals are pretty much the same as everyone else's. To get in shape. I'm not to far off with that. I ran all the time up until December, then all areas of fitness almost ceased completely. I gained close to 7lbs due to my love of christmas baking. Well now Christmas is over and most of the junk has been consumed, so I've renewed my gym membership and started running again. I plan to utilize our stationary bike at least one evening a week as well. So I'm going to register for the Rock and Roll half marathon that's in Seattle at the end of June. I hope some of you will join me. I would like to  aim to complete it in under 2:10. I hope that is a realistic goal. I am also contemplating running a full marathon in October. I don't know if I could do that, and if I did I would just attempt to complete it and not give myself a time goal. So those are my fitness goals.

  Other goals include live a more peaceful life, meaning yell at my children a lot less. Exercise more patience, be more spiritual, stop gossiping, be a better example to my children, be less worldly, show more gratitude. I need for my children, especially Miete and Lillias to feel more love and acceptance from me. I want to boost their sensitive self esteems. I want them to be happy and feel good about themselves, and not easily be offended by others. This is mine and Christophers responsibility, and I know we can do better.

  I want to be a better friend. I have a dear friend Beth who lives in Texas. I haven't seen her in five years and I miss her terribly. I know that affording a plane ticket to go see her might be unrealistic at this time, but I hadn't spoken on the phone with her until last Sunday in at least four months and before that a year.  That is unacceptable. I have a good phone plan, so I really have no excuses. I want to be a better friend to her, and to others.  I need to be more supportive and serve others more.

  Okay, I think that about sums it up. No it doesn't. I keep thinking of more things about my life that I would like to change. Save more, spend less, write in my journal more, blog more, work harder, keep my house cleaner. I do keep my house pretty clean, but all my little drawers and cupboards are hiding secret messes. That is an almost overwhelming task. One drawer at a time.

 I love my children and Christiopher so much and I had such a wonderful Christmas break spending time with them. I am sad that school starts tomorrow and the sleeping in is over, and we are back to our routines. We've all gotten along so well these past few weeks, and there has been a lot less contention in our home. I really hope that with school and school work we can try to keep stress to a minimum and that peace and harmony will prevail in our home.

Christmas Letter 2010

It's Christmas Time

Greetings, family and friends. We've had a lot of fun this year and would like to share some of the highlights with you:

Violet has taken it upon herself to be the household handy person. And by handy person we mean that she does more "taking apart" than "fixing." Violet's idea of a good time involves sharing toys with the toilet, assisting everyone with eating snacks (taking their food from them), removing excess paint from the walls, singing, dancing an providing general entertainment for her siblings. Violet tends to take after Lillias in her forthright personality but follows Miete with her love for singing and dancing. 

Leif is a boy with one thing on his mind: trains. If Leif watches a movie, plays outside, joins his sisters in their play, it always involves trains. When Leif prays he gives thanks for trains; when he gets in the car he asks if we're going to ride over train tracks; even when told he was going to fly on an airplane he asked if there was a train on it. We love Leif and Leif loves trains.

Lillias is ball of perpetual energy. She rarely slows down and is always ready for the next activity. Lillias is the social committee chairperson and takes fun and activities seriously. Lilli is also a huge help in the kitchen. She is the world's best egg-cracker and is known for her finely honed skills of measuring, stirring, mixing, rolling, cutting, and cleaning. 

Miete is our resident artist. She takes most ideas or activities and colours them with her imagination. Most notably, Miete is able to find a Harry Potter reference for anything that is spoken of in her presence. Miete is certain that the world turns on music, dancing, singing and art work; her creativity knows no bounds.

Christopher spent much of 2010 on his bicycle, commuting to work or going for long rides into the BC mountain roads. He also spent a lot of time dancing, singing, wrestling, laughing and playing with the kids. Christopher is preparing to go to graduate school to further his studies in psychological counseling.

Natasha is a master of all things family. She manages the home by teaching Miete homeschool, taking Lilli to school and helping her with work, keeping Leif busy with train-related activities, keeping Violet out of the toilet and away from electric sockets. Natasha does all this while cooking (often for other families as well), cleaning, and finding time to train for 10k or half-marathon runs. 

Life is busy, as it is for everyone, but we're doing our best to enjoy our time together and have as much fun as we can. 

Merry Christmas

&

Happy New Year

The Barbers

 This is a big weekend. Not 'I'm having a baby' big, or getting married big, but biggish none the less. Miete, my eldest turned eight last Sunday. She is getting baptized this Sunday afternoon. A monumental point in her life as a member of our church. I hope it will be a special day for her, and not cause her any stress. My mother in law is here visiting from Arizona, to help celebrate this day with Miete. I can't believe how fast the past eight years have gone, and that I am old enough to have an eight year old. I remember being eight myself quite clearly. It doesn't really seem that long ago. Anyway, we are all excited for Miete, but I have to confess my thoughts are a little preoccupied with another big and more stressful event taking place this weekend.
 

 The Haney to Harrison is tomorrow. This is a 100 km run from Maple Ridge (Haney) to Harrison. It consists of relay teams of eight, and some ultra runners that do the whole run themselves. In this relay team each member runs a leg of the run ranging in distance from 7.5 km to 15.5 km. Most of the legs are 13 plus km. The final leg is 7.5 and the first is just over 9. I am running the 6th leg of the run starting at Sasquach Inn, for anyone who knows the area, and running to somewhere just past Chehalis service road. It is just over 13km. The distance isn't so much an issue. The issues that are causing me stress and sleepless nights are that if I don't reach the 7th runner before 3:30, she doesn't get to run due to time constraints. It will be a forced start for our eighth runner instead. As well I am sick. Not a little sniffles sick either. I have a chest infection and have been on antibiotics for three days now. I really thought that by today I'd be feeling a lot better. I'm still hacking up quite a bit of phlegm. I know it's gross, but what can I do. So I haven't had a long run in several weeks, and I'm worried I'll be slow due to all the coughing and spitting I'll be doing. Unfortunately I have never learned to spit like a man either. I can not and will not get a replacement runner. I would be so mad if I didn't run. Besides, poor Kirsti, our second runner and organizer for our whole team has kidney stones and won't be able to run, so we've had to find a replacement for her. A fair amount of us have been sick lately and not been running as much as we otherwise do. It's hard when you have a team depending on you and don't want to let the others down.Our drivers have a lot to deal with as well. They are responsible for picking up and dropping off runners at the designated areas, and there are very specific routes  they are aloud to drive on. It's a very organized run that none of us have done before. It will be such a relief when it is all over, and we do better than we think. It does mean I'll be away from home all day Saturday, and therefore have to leave the baptism preparation completely up to Christopher.

This is us all in second hand outfits. All the kids outfits came from Value Village, and my dress I bought at some consignment store in San Fransisco years ago. I've only just been able to fit back into it recently. The 'second hand shopping only' has proved to be quite difficult in some aspects. It is so hard to find shoes for my older three children that aren't old and gross looking. I have found quite a few cute pairs for Violet, but it is easy when they are that young. Leif really needed boots, and after repeatedly searching out assorted thrift stores, I finally bought him new boots at The Shoe Warehouse. I did get them in the sale section for just 10$ though, and they are fantastic, high quality boots. I later bought Lilli some runners at Walmart, when I noticed the hand me downs she was wearing were falling apart. So maybe I won't be so strict about this whole thrift shopping thing. I'll make my best effort to try second hand first, and then if I can't find our needs, I'll buy new. Really, what is important to me is trying our best to consume less and really think twice before making impulse shopping decisions. Needs versus wants.

It is becoming quite difficult to find the time to blog regularly. I think about it all the time, and what I would like to write about, but my life is so ridiculously busy I would have to cut back on exercise or my evening tv time. I need the exercise for my escape and mental health, and tv time is at night for maybe an hour or two at the most. I do this because I am far to tired to do anything that takes any effort by 9pm. If  I could type faster or could vocally blog while I was driving that would be good. I do spend a lot of time in the car. 
 I am so busy because Lilli is back in full time school, Leif is in pre school twice a week, and aside from Miete's regular studies, she is attending classes four times a week, plus there are field trips, groceries, laundry, all the regular house cleaning I like to do, service, trips to mission weekly and all the extras. I'm not running as much as I would like to, and I've stopped going to yoga completely. I really miss it, but don't know where I could fit it in. There are many days where my meals are eaten standing at the kitchen counter, my only breaks are to use the toilet,and I often have Leif and Violet in the bathroom with me, and my paper doesn't get read. (A subscription I stupidly paid for because the sales man was cute). This is my life, but I also enjoy it for the most part. I am never bored, and I enjoy my children more now that life has a good routine. I love doing home school with Miete and feel like I am learning so many new things. It is so much better just having one child to work with. Lilli is having a great time at school, but finds the days to be too long. I wish Leif could attend preschool 4 days a week, so I could get more done. He is happy there because there is a train set.
Violet continues to be as charming and happy as ever, filling our lives with sunshine. We are complete!

Doing dishes while holding Violet, with help from Leif

So first of all I'd like to say our 'thrift shopping only' has already started to present some challenges. My first order was to find Leif a lunch kit/backpack for pre-school. I thought I'd already bought him one for his birthday last Christmas, but upon searching every closet in the house realized I must have given it away. We went off to Value Village because it is the closest and the largest thrift store around, however it is certainly not the cheapest. I found him an Incredibles lunch kit with a big strap for 3.99. Not a great price, considering the Cars one I thought I already bought for him last year I got new for 1.50 marked down. It was clean and in good condition though, which was more than I could say for the Spider-man option. The back pack was 6.99 used, and it was all crusty inside, so we stuck with the lunch kit. About a week later I found the Cars lunch kit in my closet under a jacket, so now he has two. While at Value Village I did find Violet some Pedi-Ped shoes in new condition also 3.99. New I think they are around 25.$ which is more then I would ever spend. I have continued in the last two weeks to search for shoes for Lilli and boots for Leif. Still no luck, but I have found Violet two pairs of jeans, two dresses, a knit zip up sweater, and a couple of shirts. I've got Miete and Lilli both pretty dresses for 7.99 each, and for Leif I found a cute green hoodie, some cords, and a blue and yellow striped church shirt. I will take pictures and post them. Chris is having a challenge trying to find leg warmers for cycling in the colder weather. Those aren't the cute colored leg warmers that my Nana knit for me when I was young in the 80's and that plenty of girls are wearing now. I don't know if they are the type of thing you can really find used, but he's trying, and if he can't then maybe I can learn how to knit and make him a cute pair.


Adventures in Homeschooling

   Homeschooling was off to a shaky start. I guess getting back into the swing of school is difficult for most kids after a long summer, but possibly more difficult when the environment doesn't change, as is our case. Lilli, in particular was really fighting getting back to work. Since running into one of her school friend's mom at the grocery store a week ago, she's been begging to go back to school. She is such a social child and is always looking for fun and excitement. She enjoys being in a group and participating in activities, and group type  games. Although we go on frequent field trips, and attend assorted classes with other children it is not on a daily basis. Because of Lilli's persistent begging, and her rambunctious personality we decided it might be best for everyone if Lilli went back to school. Today we went down to Hammond Elementary, the school my girls attended prior to homeschooling. My intention was to register  Lilli back in the Montessori program. Turns out the classes were all full and she would have to be placed on a wait list. I thought possibly she could attend regular 1st grade although she wouldn't know anyone. She was fine with that, but the staff informed me that we are no longer in the catchment for that school, so we would have to register at Maple Ridge Elementary, where we definitely did not want her attending. I opted to put her on the Montessori wait list and continue with our Summit home school program until there was a place available to her. This was very disappointing to her. She cried on the drive home, and it was all I could do not to cry as well. Who knew how long we'd have to wait before a spot opened up for her. We returned home and back to our regular school work. A short while later I received a miracle call from Hammond. They told me that not five minutes after we left the school someone else had come in to withdraw  their child from the one of the 1st grade Montessori classes. Seriously amazing! Lilli and I were so excited that we were hugging and crying. I really can not get over this miracle. Anyways, now I just have a bit of paper work to do and Lilli should be back to school by next week. My life is about to get a bit more hectic. My fingers are crossed that all will go well. I really feel that this is meant to be.