We Be Jammin'

Living a free, relaxed, unhurried life, much of what we do together is unplanned. We do a lot of fun, exciting things mind you, they are just done very organically and naturally decided upon as an interest comes up. We are what you could describe as Joyously Impulsive.

We were outside lazing in the sun and I was reading the book "Jamberry" to Orion and Ivy. The older kids overheard me. The asked me if we could go pick berries together somewhere. I said, "Sure!" We jumped in the car and drove to a wonderful farm which had raspberry picking.
We spent a wonderful hour together picking plump, luscious berries. It was so much fun!

We got home and Devin, Dakota and Ivy each made their own little batch of jam. Dakota has saved everything she has ever acquired in life and when she has candy, she makes it last much longer than everyone else. Here you can guess which jar of jam is Dakota's. She will have it until next raspberry season I am willing to bet.

ReCreating Games

Thinking outside the box takes on many forms in our lives. Once you start free-thinking it picks up it's own momentum until it saturates your whole life. You question everything and say "Why not?" more often. It becomes a way of life to create, dream, imagine and look at things through entirely different lenses.

We love to create new games together as a family. We also love to play around and alter the rules of games like Candyland, bowling, mini golf...you name it, we've made the rules more cooperative, or more competitive, depending on the day and our whims.

Today the kids were asking me why hopscotch only has one basic design layout. Tiffany suggested making a circle, or spiral for Hopscotch. I thought it was an amazing idea! Devin helped me to draw out the design.

Introducing our newly invented game, "Spiral Hopscotch"

My Latest Rockin' Interview

Today I was interviewed by Kim of the Relaxed Homeskool Blog Talk Radio.

It was a great experience and it filled my cup for the day as I was able to advocate for this amazing life.

Radio is one of my favorite modes of advocacy.

You can listen here.

The Optimist's Creed

I Promise Myself

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person that I meet.

To make all of my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.

To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.

To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.

To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature I meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of myself thatI have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear; and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the World, not in loud words but in great deeds.

To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side so long as I am true to the best that is in me.


Christian D. Larsen - 1912

Nurturing Ourselves

Joe and I go for massages every three weeks. It is very important to us to take care of ourselves in this way. Being pampered and being in a place of *Receiving* is so vital for someone living a life like we choose to. My massage this morning was so incredible. It feels so good to have my neck and back rubbed to nurture this part of my body that works so hard wearing Orion all day. An hour of tender touches and lovely music playing was so sweet.

It is important for us to be calm and *Present* in our day to day lives. Massage helps us so much with this. Being gentle and attentive comes from treating ourselves lovingly, gently and attentively. Eating fine foods, wearing rich, luxurious fabrics, and receiving massage helps fill our cups to give to others. Massage is such an amazing way to reconnect with our inner-selves and get our energy flowing in such a positive direction.

I am so grateful for this aspect of our lives and being *Aware* enough to understand the importance of it.

Our children also enjoy massages and they are naturally in a place of receiving such pleasure and knowing they deserve it.

"Physical therapy’s purpose is to restore neuromuscular functioning after some damage, whereas massage therapy has systemic effects. It influences your immune system, your endocrine System, your cardiovascular system." Deepok Chopra

The Sparkling Rock Band

Our days consist of all of us pursuing our passions and interests and taking on new experiences both inside and outside of our home. This week we discovered the Joys of the new game Rock Band. Wow! This is one incredible game! We have had more fun as a family than with any other game we have ever played together.

"Rock Band allows players to perform in virtual bands by providing up to four players with the ability to play three different peripherals modeled after music instruments (a guitar peripheral for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum peripheral, and a microphone). These peripherals are used to simulate the playing of rock music by hitting scrolling notes on-screen. During cooperative play as a band, all players earn points towards a common score."

I absolutely LOVE how this is a cooperative game. We work together as a band to get the best score possible. It combines everything we love as a family.. Rock music, instruments, togetherness and FUN! Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Faith No More, Soundgarden, Beastie Boys, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi.... this game has so much great old rock & heavy metal music as well as tons of new stuff. It is Da Bomb!

Here are a few pics of us playing the game.
Dakota is playing with her friends in the last picture, Xan (Josha's son) and Sabra George.

Super-Duper Smushie Man

Yes, Orion has many nicknames in our family. They tend to change and evolve from month to month. Right now the most common nickname he has is "Supa-Dupa Smush"... Or "Smushie". He's just so jolly, round and well....smooshie! We just love the little dude! Ivy calls him "Buster-Brown in Funky Town". Which sounds more like "Busta-Bown in Bunky-Down" from a 3 year old.

Having a baby has been such a Joy for everyone in the family. Here's a pic of my 5-month old "Chubby-Bubberson"... yup another nickname from Mama.

My fried Jill and I had the best day together with our children! We were talking about how none of our kids ever had swimming lessons, but all learned to swim just from being in the water! A great example of how Unschooling works, not just with swimming, but with everything in our children's lives. We never have to force, coerce, beg, plead, reward or punish. Only Love, Trust and be their partner's in life facilitating their passions and interests. It's Exhilarating... Joyful ... Peaceful ... Organic and Beautiful.

Our kids learn because they can't help it! It's like breathing!

Life is Learning ... Learning is Life ... and Life Rocks!

The Family Bed Cake

Tiff had a cool idea for a cake today! She just loves our family bed and all being together at night. It is such a special aspect of our life in her eyes. Our kids have always slept with us. I can't imagine it any other way. They all have their own rooms and spaces during the day, but we all cuddle up together at night.

Here is Tiff's ode to our family at night. There is one edible person for everyone in our family on her cake. Even little Orion is in there in the middle. I thought this was just so adorable I had to share it with everyone!

Tiff is one of the most aware, thoughtful little girls that I have ever known. She loves her life so much and often shares what she is grateful for with us all. I love this about her. The fact that she could make such a sweet cake of our family makes me realize that some of the choices that we have made for our life may not be common in our culture, but they are so right for our children and our family. Our home is filled with so much love. I am so grateful every day we spend together.

We all ate our cake-selves after dinner .... except Orion ... He's still sitting on the cake tray as I type this. Someone will gobble him up later tonight I am sure. ;)

Unschooling Adventure Cruise 2009

Joe just completed this video about our Unschooling Adventure Cruise in October of 2009!

Any Unschooling family or anyone who is interested in Unschooling and being part of a fabulous cruise to Bermuda with their family, let us know! We'd love to have you! Grandparents and extended family are also welcome!

Here is Joe's amazing video. He really enJoyed creating it!

The cabins are booking up really quickly as word is spreading about this incredible adventure! (It's only $200 to reserve your cabin and it is fully refundable if you change you mind right up until July 2009! Such an awesome deal!)
Check out http://www.unschoolingontheseas.com/ to reserve your space with our group.

Hope you can join us on the Seas in October 2009!

Donations From the Heart

We live our lives in gratitude and abundance. We know we will always have everything we want in life and more. There is a local farm and museum that we have always taken the kids to. It has enriched our lives so much. They have a little play area and we had the idea to donate a toy kitchen there to show our gratitude and give back to this amazing place. The Remick Farm was also a place that we dragged the Dr. Phil camera crew to when we were filmed for the show.

They we so suprised and grateful. We all brought it into the place and the kids really enjoyed everything about donating it. They learned so much from seeing us give back to our community.

The Little Entrepreneurs

There is so much that our children learn just through living a full, peaceful, simple life. This morning we woke up not knowing what we were going to do for the day. (I love this about our lives, we create life as we go, rarely do we have appointments or plans.) We often call friends to come on adventures with us and have so much fun, only guided by the moment on most days. It really is a blissful life together.

This morning we woke up and Dakota said she wanted to have a lemonade stand. Sounded great to me! We have never had one before and it was something all of the kids got excited about. We had the lemonade ingredients...we just needed a pitcher to serve it in, and some cups. We went to a grocery store that we haven't been to since they remodelled it. This was fun and exciting in itself! We got everything we needed and came home.

When we got home, we made signs and got everything set up. Joe hammered the signs into the ground and I set up a blanket nearby and hung out with Orion and read to him while the kids waited for their first customer. While we set up the kids and I discussed how to greet people, how to serve the lemonade, how to make change and all the little details of having their own "business".

Their first customer stopped and the kids just about jumped out of their seats. Devin greeted them with a, "How are you doing today?" and Dakota ended with a, "Would you like a slice of lemon in your lemonade?" The cars stopped every couple of minutes. Who can resist three adorable little kids sitting behind a lemonade stand waving to you as you drive by? I know I couldn't!

They absolutely blew my mind. I am still in awe of how amazing they handled everything! Never having done anything like this before, I didn't know what to expect, but they were confident, positive and so friendly to everyone!

They made $23.00 in less than 3 hours! Almost everyone told them to keep the change and gave them tips for great service! It was one of those days when I see how incredible this Unschooling life actually is. Seriously....I got a glimpse into all they know already about business that they have learned just through immersion living by our side as we have run our own business. Where we don't believe in testing of drill our kids and picking their brains, we don't really know what they know....we just trust that they are learning everything that they need to in life and you know what? Trusting kids to learn really works. You never have to force a child to learn anything, really....you don't. Kids can't help learning when they have a rich, full, exciting life together with involved parents.

Yup....the Martin kids learned so much today, as they do everyday...I just got to see it loud and clear today in such a unique way! It was one of those days that brought me further up the ladder of trust and understanding of how well a respectful, free life is in preparing my kids for the future, even though we don't think about that much. We focus on living in the moment most of the time.

They worked out their roles as they sat getting ready. Devin handled the money while Dakota served everyone. It was fun helping them understand good customer service and sanitary ways to serve customers. The kids saw themselves as strong, capable and intelligent. They grew so much today from just a simple lemonade stand! They learned that they never have to work for anyone else in life if they don't want to. They learned the art of "UnJobbing" and it felt so good to help them on this path of entrepreneurship!

The lemonade is chilling in the fridge for tomorrow... The kids can't wait for their second day with thier very own money making business! Tomorrow is going to be a good day.... as usual.