Spring?

Is it Spring now? The wind is blowing continuously and the daytime temperatures are rising well into the 40's F. Everything is turning to mud. The weather is so unpredictable now, how do we tell for sure? I am enjoying the warmth though. I prefer it over the cold, any day. I could do without the snow too, even though I know we need the moisture.

Ah, well, no matter where we live, it seems the winters will get colder and the summers will get hotter. Welcome to our new reality. And the future is only going to get more unpredictable.

So, we finally found a home for four of our goats, including the big ugly billy goat. They left this past week and moved onward to a new farm out on the east side of Colorado. Now we have less mouths to feed, which will certainly help with hay costs.

We are thinking about a place to relocate that we can be more involved with the community, as that is so important as we move forward as a sustainable culture. We'd like to be a little closer to a town, even if it's a small town. A library would be a luxury. Possible playmates for the kids would be great too. Dream a little dream....

We are still working hard on our homeschooling program, although I was feeling more uncomfortable with the unschooling techniques as my kids don't really want to learn anything at all, it seems. Now we are working through some workbooks, which gives all of us a bit more structure and I feel like the kids are actually learning something. I'm learning something too, as a parent as I work through some of my own books, including a great book by Dr. Laura Markham called Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids. If you are interested in building better relationships with your children, and are interested in a new parenting paradigm that doesn't include punishment of any variety, then check out this book. I think this parenting style will allow children to grow up healthier and be the kind of people we need more of on this planet.