Recently we spent a beautiful day down at Navy Pier. We started our day taking a ride on the giant ferris wheel–a first for all of us. This 150-foot wheel was modeled after the very first Ferris wheel, which was built for Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. It was a fun 7-minute ride where all three of us were happily snapping pictures of the Chicago views.

[View with PicLens]

Our main pull to the Pier that day was the tall ships festival, which included viewing twenty majestic ships and boarding about half of them. There were ships of all sizes and from various ports, including a several from Canada and from Europe. It was fun reading and learning about the history of the ships and the current usage for the vessels. One (the Unicorn) is used for sail training and for leadership development for teenage girls and women. Another, the Bounty, was used in a variety of movies including Mutiny on the Bounty, Treasure Island, and Pirates of the Caribbean. This ship was one of the largest ones that we explored–we even got to go down to the lower section to check out the cabins. While I enjoyed the seeing and exploring the ships, after boarding seven or eight ships they all started looking the same to me. This, coupled with tiredness setting in for all of us, led us to just looking at the last few from the dock, which was just as satisfying. It was a fun family day out.

Share/Save

Today I received an exciting package in the mail. The package was some new clothes. Whoo-hoo! :) I know you’re thinking, “what’s the big deal? It’s just some mail ordered clothes–we all order things online to get shipped to our houses nowadays.” But, it’s not so much the actual items that I’m excited about (although they are very nice); rather it is the meaning behind the purchase. Our family has been taking steps to be more  Fair Indigo Tagaware of our purchases–the companies we’re buying from, how things are made/grown, etc. We have actively switched stores that we shop at and have stopped purchasing items from certain manufacturers due to our not liking their business practices, their exploitation of workers, and/or their treatment of the environment. This has been particularly true of our grocery shopping and our eating habits.

However, one area that has made me pause is with clothes. It is so easy for many of us Americans to simply run into one of the plethora of stores found in any line of strip malls across the country to pick up a t-shirt or a pair of jeans. But, it’s extremely difficult to shop for clothes without seeing tags saying that the item was made in some third world country, in which you have no idea whether the people working there have received fair wages or fair treatment for their work. Today I received clothes from Fair Indigo–a company that embraces fair trade and brings eco-friendly clothing to consumers. Based on Fair Indigo’s website they take fair trade very seriously by visiting each facility where their products are made and getting to know the workers. In fact, they include a card on each item with a short biography of one of the possible sewers that made your particular item, which I found to be pretty cool. They also work with social auditors to ensure that fairness is being practiced within each facility. To me this is a wonderful approach that Fair Indigo has established in an industry that is so commonly riddled with the exploitation of workers, many of whom are often children.

While we still have a bit of a road ahead of us to change our ways entirely, I feel good that I found and shopped at Fair Indigo. And I feel really good knowing where my few items actually came from and that they were purchased fairly. I will definitely be shopping here again!

Share/Save

Paradise Now directed by Hany Abu-Assad is the kind of film that reminds one that the story we hear in western media is but one story, and an aggregate political one at that. It is not the story of individuals–of the people living in the midst of daily conflict, of occupation, oppression, and fear. This film struck me with its humanity as it told the story of two Palestinian childhood friends who one day were chosen to embark upon the unthinkable. Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman) grew up together in a West Bank refugee camp, and endured a life of limited movement, check points, intimidation, antagonism, and humiliation. The film, while adopting the perspective of Said and while arguably “pro-Palestinian”, seems to move beyond the typical political platitudes and gets past the polarizing effect of similar films. Instead Paradise Now gives us something more authentic–an honest view of what happens to lives under the pressure of occupation. The film offers insight on what drives a person to self-destruction as a final futile attempt to live a life of dignity.

At the start of the film, Said and Khaleb are selected for a suicide mission to Tel Aviv, which holds the promise of martyrdom and great honor. Over the next 36 hours, Said and Khaleb prepare for and embark upon their mission, only to have it disrupted long enough to ask the questions of their lives. In the scene embedded below, Said has just returned from the failed mission. Wanting to try again, he explains why he cannot return to the refugee camp.

Scene from Paradise Now

“A life without dignity is worthless.” That’s the premise that underpins Said’s argument in this scene. A life where dignity is systematically removed is made to feel worthless, a life without meaning, without hope, without home. Nashef’s performance is top-notch here and it is top-notch throughout the film along with support from Suliman. This film is artfully rendered and reminds us all that perspective is everything. What many have come to accept through mainstream western media does not fairly represent the stories of individuals (on any side of any conflict)–mostly good people in desperation to live good and free lives.

Share/Save

Aidan turned 7 this week and we’ve been in a state of celebration. My how time flies. It feels like just yesterday when we were in the stressful throws of an emergency C-section after a series of scary heart decelerations. As it turns out, he was  Aidan, 4 days oldsqueezing his own umbilical cord in his little hand. We knew from that point that we’d be in store for more than our fair share of mischief from our little guy. Aidan was born eight weeks premature, and this was one of the scariest times of our life. Being so premature, there was a danger that his lungs would not be fully developed. Just prior to the C-section, they gave him steroids to rapidly develop the lungs to help avoid the scary possibility of some very serious problems. He weighed 4lbs 8oz when he entered the world–quite large actually for a baby eight weeks premature. (He was on track for being a huge baby if we went full term.) While we spent six weeks in the hospital with Aidan, he never needed a ventilator (just a CPAP, which is scary enough). He came home on a heart monitor as his heart tended to slow to dangerously low levels in the night. Let me tell you,  Aidan, 7 years oldthere is nothing more terrifying than waking in the middle of the night to a screaming alarm indicating that you baby’s heart is not beating as it should. (Of course, this was almost always just a monitor lead that slipped off, but these were the days when I got all my gray hair. And I thought I’d be able to spread it out through Aidan’s teenage years.)

So, it’s seven years later and Aidan is doing just great. He’s a healthy, energetic (oh, so energetic) young boy filled with passion, love, and joy. We celebrated his birthday last week with his cousins and grandparents. We made hoops in the backyard and everyone (except grandma and grandpa) gave them a whirl. Aidan opened presents (he loved his stuffed animals most of all), and we all ate triple-chocolate ice cream cake. I even plucked out happy birthday on the guitar for him. (I’m just learning.)

[View with PicLens]

On his actual birthday (midweek), Aidan wanted to go to a nearby water park for a day of water slides and drifting along the lazy river. It was a great day. They all are.

Happy birthday, Aidan. We love you.

Share/Save

Aidan loves books; simply loves books. So we read all the time. While he does like doing his own reading he’s still learning so reading to himself goes slow, often slower  Aidan with mom outside the librarythan he wants. But fortunately he still enjoys me reading to him! This is a time that I really cherish each day–snuggling together, him with his blue blanket me with a cup of coffee, and we read sometimes for hours a day.

While we read a lot all throughout the entire year, Aidan likes reading in the summer. The reason is because this summer, like summers past, Aidan has participated in the summer reading program at our local library. This program is one in which you record the hours spent with books–reading to yourself, having someone read to you, or listening to audio books. There are sheets to record your hours, and after each sheet is turned in kids get small prizes (e.g. a plastic ring, a bendable rubber alien, bookmarks, etc.) throughout the summer. At the end of the program “grand” prizes are awarded to the readers with the highest hours. Aidan has won larger prizes in the years past, and today we found out that he won again for his age range. Eighty-four hours of reading for the past month and a half! He was thrilled to receive a huge Indiana Jones Lego set, a t-shirt, and a few coupons to local places, but even more then being excited about the prizes he was very proud of himself. And Mike and I were also proud of him and very happy for him!

Now off to do some reading! :)

Share/Save

I was just doing a bit of reading and came upon this inspiring description of what it means to unschool your whole life. Of course, many folks understand that we “homeschool,” but no one in our immediate circle seems to get the fuller sense of how we live–and strive to live–our lives. It seems to be such a foreign concept to so many people. (Part of the problem might be that a lot of folks just don’t seem very curious, so they don’t ask us about it. If they do ask us about such things, seldom to they want to hear an answer that takes more than 15 seconds.) Anyway, this comes from the blog of Tara Wagner (aka “the organic sister”). She lives full-time on the road with her family of three and blogs about many fascinating things including mindful parenting and living simply. Please visit her blog at theorganicsister.com.

In the meantime, check out this excerpt from Tara’s post “Whole Life Unschooling: It’s for More Than Just Kids:”

To us unschooling is not only about our children, it’s about all of us. It’s about our life.

Unschooling your whole life means…

• Seeing no division between child and adult, regardless of ability or experience. All should be treated with the same equal respect and consideration.
• Trusting all people of all ages are natural learners, born with an innate curiosity and an earnest desire to learn, even if it requires a bit of excavating for some of us to rediscover.
• Knowing that all people are inherently good. A learning curve on societal rules or boundaries, or a personal struggle due to past history does not make them “bad”. We all do the best we can with the tools we have.
• Thinking all people, regardless of age, have a purpose and that that purpose may seldom, or often, or never, change. And the best determiner of that purpose is the person in question.
• Believing in the wildly passionate pursuit of interests, supporting those interests wholeheartedly, and trusting when an interest fades.
• Disbelieving that interests are only valid if they come with monetary or status gain. We do things for the love of what we do and trust how our needs are always met.
• Not condoning the subjugation, squashing or criticism of individuality or diversity. We allow for difference of opinion, we see the underlying needs of others and we validate their particular experience.
• Not creating division between various subjects or activities. All of life flows in and out of all of life. The subject of “math” doesn’t exist but we find numbers and patterns in everything.
• Adamantly disagreeing that life should consist of unenjoyable work, that we should always follow all the rules or do things the same way everyone else does them. Feverishly questioning anything that tells us otherwise.
• Trusting in ourselves first, each other next and all others last.
• Respecting the boundaries of others and ourselves.
• Taking responsibility for our choices and our life. It’s all about empowerment.
• Seeking our own life and not settling for someone else’s. Supporting others who do the same.
• Building off our individual interests, creating a rich, diverse and engaging environment in which we can all thrive equally.
• Respecting one another’s personal Truths or choices. But drawing definitive lines where the boundaries of another are being crossed.
• Standing up for the little guy, especially the one without their own voice.
• Knowing that life is good. Messy. Imperfect. Wonderful. Sometimes heart-wrenching. And loving it anyway.

How can you possibly explain all that in one short answer? It’s impossible to describe what this looks like when someone asks. Because unschooling is just life and although you can define life and you can explain it, it’s still something that must be seen and experienced to fully understand.

Again, if you are interested in learning more about this. Read, be open, ask questions (and listen to the answers), take your time, don’t judge, and live your life authentically. (Oh, and among other things, visit theorganicsister.com for one cool point of view. Thanks, Tara.)

Share/Save

The other night, Aidan thought he’d give his hoop a try. I snapped a couple of pictures. We all laughed. He says he’d like smaller hoops for his arms, so he can really get fancy with it. I think Aidan is a natural born  Aidan gives it a whirlclown. He loves physical “tricks,” comedy, and other feats of dexterity–from juggling, to skipping, to hopping on one leg with his eyes closed while he snaps his fingers and curls his tongue all at the same time. (That’s his specialty.) I’ve heard a lot about how much fun hooping can be, so I think we’ll be making some hoops of our own–adult-sized made from irrigation tubing and decorated to our individual tastes, so we can all get in on the fun. Maybe we’ll head on out to the park one of these days soon to see if we can start up a hoopin’ party. If you’re around maybe you’d like to join us. We’ll be making our hoops based on this plan I found via Sara Janssen’s The Happy Hoop: How to Make a Hoop. We’ll see how they turn out. I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, make your own and we’ll have some hoopalicious fun together. Peace.

Share/Save

Wow–I can’t believe we’ve been home for a week. Even though we’re already home I want to post about the last stop on our three-week adventure. We decided to check out Sleeping Bear Dunes and Traverse City on our way home so we booked the Courtyard Marriot for a few nights before heading home to the Windy City. Heading south, below the bridge Unbeknownst to me Cherry Festival was going on in Traverse City during the time we were there. Had I known about the fest I may have selected a different area to stay even though I really wanted to spend time in Traverse City. It’s not that I don’t like fests it’s more about wanting to first experience a new city/area as it typically is (the other 51 weeks a year). But we didn’t know so we plunged in and embraced our time in the area (including spending one day enjoying the 84th National Cherry Festival).

sleeping bear dunes

A quick trip to Target to get Aidan a swim vest for the beach started our first full day in Traverse City. It was here that we got an awesome tip from the cashier on a breakfast joint. I say “joint” because this is exactly what it was. When we pulled up to the place Mike and I were a little leery from the outside looks of the place, but then as we reminded ourselves some of the best places we’ve ever eaten at could be classified as holes-in-the-wall. The place was The Rounds. It had that small diner feel with local old-timers sitting at the counter, and boy was the food good! Their omelets were some of the best we’ve ever had. They actually put their very tasty potatoes inside the omelet–what a wonderful concept!! Our waitress was friendly and chatty and gave Aidan a big bag of extra cherries to take with us.

[View with PicLens]

After leaving with full tummies we decided to head out to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A quick stop at the visitor’s center to pay our $10 entrance fee and we headed out to drive on the recommended 7-mile Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. Here we stopped at some of the observation areas to take in some views and learn a little about the geology and history of the dunes. Aidan was extremely eager to get to the actual dunes so we headed on over to test our endurance at the Dune Climb. I’ve read that there are areas of these dunes that rise 460 feet above the lake! While we did all climb the main dune and explored the sandy hilltops for several hours, we didn’t venture on to hike the 3.5 mile round trip to the lake. It was peaceful up on the dunes sitting, breathing, looking out at the beauty of nature, watching Aidan run free. And once we were done exploring the top of the dune it was a pure rush going down–doing “moon jumps” faster and faster as gravity pulls you to the bottom of the dune! Sandy, tired, and hungry we made our way into the town of Glen Arbor in search of food. We found Boondocks where we sat outside and enjoyed grilled veggie sandwiches and listened to some live music. It was a good way to end the day.

chillin’ by pool and cherry fest

We took advantage of being at a hotel and having an indoor pool and hot tub all to ourselves on our second day in Traverse City. Even though I typically like to keep moving and seeing things while on vacation, I have to admit it was so relaxing to swim and read and just hang out by the pool for a good portion of the day. Aidan is getting the hang of swimming and is loving it! I was so proud of him to see him swimming from one end of the pool to the other (with his noodle). It’s just a matter of time and he’ll be noodle-free and swimming like a dolphin!

[View with PicLens]

After hours at the pool we decided to get cleaned up, eat at a local Mexican restaurant, and go check out the Cherry Festival. We found some free parking down by one of the beaches and walked along the bay to the happening spot of the fest. Walking in the heat through the crowds and noise and smells (some good and some not so good) it felt like a smaller version of Taste of Chicago. Aidan’s main interest was the large carnival and he was thrilled to see that they had bumper cars! All three of us stood in line and selected our cars (Aidan and Mike sharing a car and me on my own) and then we were off–spinning, turning, trying to drive, and all the while smashing and crashing into each other! Oh, what fun we had. Aidan was laughing hysterical at times trying to control his car to ram into me. We had so much fun that Aidan just had to go on the ride again! It was a fun night of bumper cars, ferris wheels, and spinning dragons. On our walk back to the car we enjoyed the evening sunset over the bay.

old mission peninsula

We were scheduled to leave on Friday but, with none of us really wanting to leave, we checked on Friday morning and the hotel had an opening so we decided to stay one more night! YAY! So, we decided to take advantage of this extra day and drive up to the tip of one of the peninsulas in the area, out to the Old Mission State Park. Here lies the Old Mission Lighthouse that was built in 1870, along with a restored turn of the century log cabin. We decided to skip seeing the inside of the lighthouse, but instead went exploring on the beach. This beach was an unusual one with mucky sand, shallow water, and stacked rock formations that made you wonder about crop circles and Stonehenge. ;) We decided to walk out to the very tip of the peninsula–and what a hike it was! Aidan abandoned his shoes early on, leaving them in the middle of the beach, and hiked the peninsula barefoot! He says that he likes feeling more connected to the earth that way. He is such my nature boy!! Our adventure to the tip was through brush, bugs, and shallow water and over sand, broken shells, and slippery rocks. Even though some areas didn’t seem to be well traversed at all, and we often seemed to be making our own path, we were all determined to get to the tip. And after some time we finally made it–it was way cool to hike to the very tip!

[View with PicLens]

Early evening was upon us as we hiked back to our car. Driving back to Traverse City we all decided we needed some nourishment so we found a cute little restuarant and brewery on the peninsula called Jolly Pumpkin. While we didn’t try any of their hand-crafted brews this time, we did dine on yummy artisan pizzas, homemade humus, and some great curried sweet potato fries.

We spent the rest of our last evening in Traverse City swimming at the pool and enjoying one last dip in the hot tub. It was a great time!

Saturday we left to drive home at noon (Mike and Aidan never seem to want to leave a hotel one minute before checkout time)! :) It was a long drive home, but Aidan still had one audio book to keep us all entertained. This one was actually a pretty good one–A View from Saturday by E. L. Konigsburg. We took turns listening to the book and then jammin’ to some music, and the ride seemed to go pretty smoothly. We did end up stopping in St. Joseph to buy some Mackinac fudge. Yes, I know, we should have gotten it while we were in Mackinac–we actually did (and we got it free) but it got a little wet (and gross) in our cooler so we picked up some more. St. Joe’s was in midst of an art fest, and while I was up for hanging out a bit and checking out some of the local artwork, both my boys were ready to get home–so homeward we went.

It was a good three weeks!

Share/Save

Apparently, this little bit has been floating around the YouTube/e-mail universe for a while, but it just recently found me, so I thought I would share in the event there are others living under rocks like myself ;-)

We create the world we see. We must see alternatives.

Share/Save

After spending two peaceful weeks in the U.P., where at times we had beaches, trails, and the road all to ourselves, we went into a bit of culture shock as we made our way to the tacky tourist spot of the Mackinac area.

On our way to the Mackinac area we stopped at the Seney National Wildlife Refuge in Seney, MI in search of wildlife that Mike could capture with his new lens. Seney Wildlife is noted for birds, especially migrating birds, and the park is a nice one  Southeast to St. Ignacewith a 7-mile road the loops around the various areas within the refuge and has stopping areas with spotting scopes to help visitors view the area. While the area was a pretty one and Aidan and I had fun exploring some of the short trails and seeing a few swans, loons, and osprey, the sightings of animals were pretty limited. I was disappointed for Mike that he wasn’t able to capture as much as he was hoping to with our new lens, but hopefully next time he’ll have better luck.

Leaving Seney we debated about which direction to go. I really wanted to see the Taquamenom Falls and go out to Paradise, MI (just the name of it sounds so inviting); however, the little man was chomping at the bit to get to our next place (a hotel) so we could go swimming–his whines–I mean his persuasiveness–won out. So, we decided to head down to US 2 and drive along the shoreline of Lake Michigan as we drove into the Mackinac area. Let me say there is really nothing on this road for quite awhile! Hungry and tired, we were all a bit cranky as we tried to find a restaurant. We finally found a little diner in the small town of Naubinway that helped energize us enough to make to our hotel.

We opted to stay in St. Ignace, which technically is still in the U.P., but believe me the area feels radically different than what we were getting accustomed to way up north! Here there were souvenir shops lining the road, traffic cruising the main drag, and people mingling about on the sidewalks. We stayed at the Best Western on Lake Huron and even though our room was small, we had awesome views of the lake and the hotel was more resort-like with two pools and evening bonfires on the beach. We stayed over the 4th of July holiday and tried to embrace the culture of the place–we swam a lot, walked the boardwalk in St. Ignace, watched the local parade (which was simply awful), and enjoyed front row seating on the beach of our hotel to watch the fireworks.

[View with PicLens]

We did spend one full day over at Mackinac Island. Mike and I enjoyed the ferry ride over. The lake was shrouded with fog and had a eerie, but neat feeling to it. Aidan was a bit disappointed in the ferry ride because we had selected the Mighty Mac ride which was supposed to go under the Mackinac bridge, but with the fog on the lake, they had to abandon that voyage. We docked and headed out to find a breakfast place. (It was an early outing for us at 11am, and Mike and I didn’t have our coffee, nor did we have time to grab food beforehand). As we meandered down the main street, I was taken back by all the bicycles! I knew this island was car-free and knew that bikes were very popular, but the number of bikes waiting to be rented was unbelievable! And the “brrring, brrring” of the bikes’ bells instantly brought me back to our days in Japan. It was very cool and surreal at the same time.

We found a cute pancake house and enjoyed breakfast. (Aidan had 10 silver dollar blueberry cakes–that’s 2 orders!) After breakfast we decided to check out Fort Mackinac, a fort from the American Revolution. We spent several hours exploring the fort–watching the cannons being fired, witnessing a re-enactment of a court martial, dancing along with the bugle music, and just walking the grounds of the original buildings. We all enjoyed the fort and the history and interactive activities it provided. After the fort we decided to head over to the Grand Hotel to see just how grand it is.  Boy, is this hotel big! As we approached we were informed that unless we were guests of the hotel we could not continue past a particular sign–that is, unless we paid for the self-guided tour. After shelling out $25 (yes, 25 bucks!!!), we were permitted to walk through the entire premises–both inside and the outside grounds. I have to admit, while the place is huge, there is definitely an air of pretense, and I wasn’t that impressed. While I’m glad to say I’ve seen the place, I would not recommend the tour. After all our walking and the tours, we grabbed some dinner and bought a few souvenirs and headed to board  one of the last ferries for the evening. Eight hours of exploring Mackinac Island was enough for one day. Perhaps if we come back again we’ll opt for the bikes and ride the 8-mile loop around the perimeter of the island, stopping to see some of the more natural beauties of the Mackinac Island State Park.

[View with PicLens]

Our departing day from St. Ignace led us to a little Native American museum that focused on the Ojibwa tribe. The Museum of Ojibwa Culture is a free museum right on the main strip of St. Ignace, and I have to say I was impressed with the place. We ended up spending several hours watching the informative videos and looking through all their interactive displays, including a smaller version of a longhouse and a tepee out on their grounds–a good way to end our stay in the Mackinac area.

Next stop: Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Share/Save