We Have a Dream

We have a dream. A dream of living on our own farm, of feeding ourselves from our land, of working it with our children. We have a dream of sharing our love of family, food and learning with the people God puts in our path. Of receiving from Him with open hands so that all the excess flows out to those in need. We have a dream.

In three weeks, we take a step toward our dream. In three weeks, we are moving to ten acres in the woods. Not the ideal location to start a farm, but a step in the direction of our dream. The Virginia Hillbilly found a great place out in the country, with a house that will work, and a landlady who is willing to let us play. Garden beds? Yes! Chickens? OK! Goats? Sure! She even shared that the neighbor across the road had gotten goats last year who were reproducing at an alarming rate. She offered that he might even be willing to loan us some goats to help clear out under the trees. So that will be one of the first things we do after we move in...bake some cookies and take a walk across the road to meet some new friends.



Right now, we are spending our time packing and learning. Because really, there is so very much we don't know. That said, we are up for the adventure and the kids are super psyched, and hey, if all we do is live there for a few years, it will still be amazing to be able to see the stars in the velvet black sky, and hear the birds and other wildlife that are sure to visit. And flower beds! Did I mention that there is a wonderful sunroom with tiered flowerbeds out back, just ready to be freed from the poison ivy and brought back to beauty? Oh, and a wonderful laundry room where I can make soap and play to my hearts content?

Yes, we are taking a step toward our dreams.

I can't wait to see them unfold before us.

Fall Light

Wow.

If a picture speaks a thousand words, then get ready to read a book. The story of my Creator's Creation.

Enjoy!

Cross post...

....thoughts from my kitchen table:

http://flavorsomefood.blogspot.com/2012/10/eureeka.html

Full Circle

Many, many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away....oh, wait!! Wrong story.

Many years ago, when I was eleven, a "Surprise!!" baby was born into the Anzalone house. He was a darling thing all pinchable cheeks and chubby legs, brown sparkling eyes and wispy hair. And did I mention that he was a light sleeper? At the time, my 'older,younger brother', Joey was sharing a room with said cherub, Mikey. But every time Joey rolled over or made any noise, it would wake up the baby. Anyone want to guess what my Mom thought about these nocturnal interruptions? You guessed it. Something had to go. And in this case, it was Joey.

My mother's solution was to move Joey into the room I shared with our 5 year old sister, Marianna. After all, the basement was not finished, and Mom must have sleep, to keep her household running. So into our tiny room came this nine year old boy, and we hardly had room to walk between our bunk bed and Joey's bed to get to the closet. Needless to say, it was tight!

After several months, I was so desperate to get out of that tiny, crowded room, that I moved to the basement. My room was windowless, had no door, and cool concrete floors...and it was HEAVEN! I painted it "Road Stripe Yellow" to off-set the lack of windows (as if!), and filled it with white furniture and all things pre-teen. I still go straight back to late nights reading in my haven, every time I hear Lionel Richie croon "You are once, twice, three times a lady..." - egads!! YOU know those lyrics too?!? Wow, we are sooo old!

Anyway, that bedroom was always the BEST room to sleep in because in the hot Georgia summers, in an un-airconditioned house, it was always so cool! It was also always so very DARK, being windowless and all, and to this day, if you need to really get some zzzz's at my Mom and Dad's, that is the room to sleep in. By the way, it has a door now. And carpet. Oh, and it's not scary yellow either.

Fast forward, oh, 40 years or so and you will find me living in Georgia once again, after a long stint in Colorado. I now have an almost eleven year old of my own, along with soon to be seven and eight year olds and guess what?! I also have a basement room with NO windows!

This morning I went looking for said children. It was after 9 am and we needed to get a move on! I went down to the play room (aka the Tornado room, because the lack of windows makes it a GREAT place to hang out during storms) to waken the slumbering ones, and found them in the complete darkness of the play room, door closed, snoring away after their weekly "slumber party".

Like I said. Full circle. Only this time, there is no Lionel Richie.

Holland is Beautiful!

Have you read this before?

"When you’re going to have a baby , it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Sistine Chapel, Gondolas. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting. After several months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland!” “Holland?” you say. “What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy. I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.” But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine, and disease. It’s just a different place. So, you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It’s just a different place. It’s slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around. You begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. And Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.” And the pain of that experience will never, ever, ever, go away. The loss of that dream is a very significant loss. But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland."

This was written in 1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley...let's see, in 1987 I was engaged to my husband, planning to marry the following New Years and start a family right away. In my plans, we would quickly have a house full of children, whom I would stay home with and homeschool. Each of them would be perfectly well mannered, talented at something and always say "Yes, Ma'am" and "No, Ma'am". They would never disobey, never lie or do anything to embarrass me in public and never yell at me and call me an idiot!!

You see, I had made my plans. I was going to Italy, and no mistake about it!

So, what happened? How is it that I find myself in Holland with a special needs child who does not speak the language I know? What do I do with this child God has given me, who yells at me and calls me names. Who hits me and lashes out in anger. Who does not save his theatrics for home, but will explode just about anywhere, for who knows how long. This child. This child does NOT speak Italian!

This child. This child with the amazing green eyes. This child with a sense of humor that has me laughing every day. This child who knows things beyond his years. Who has endured things I don't even want to contemplate. Who has an inner strength and fortitude that is formidable. This child who loves his Mommy. Whose favorite place after a big explosion is curled up in Mommy's lap. This child speaks Dutch.

Guess what? I am starting to learn Dutch. I have thrown out my Italian language books, my Fromer's guides, my links to good Italian restaurants. I am developing a taste for bread and herring, for cheese and sausage. I am learning to love living in a place I never wanted to go. I am beginning to accept that Holland is exactly the place for us.

A Boy and His Horse - Spielberg style!

Have you heard of the new movie coming out on Christmas Day? It's called War Horse, and is the newest offering from Steven Spielberg. The movie is based on a children's novel of the same name by Michael Morpurgo, and centers on a young Englishman named Albert and a horse he names Joey. The two have a special bond and when Joey is sold to the army at the beginning of World War I, Albert sets out to find his friend.

I will the leave the professional reviews to pluggedin.com, and give you the 'Mom Review' instead. I know that before I take my children to a movie, I am always interested in knowing some details that will help me decide if it is an appropriate movie for them to see. This movie is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of war violence, and I think that it is a well earned rating.

On the good side, we see example of heroism, bravery and courage. Friends who stand beside each other and enemies who learn that sometimes you need to lay down old feuds and work together. We see that even in the midst of the carnage and brutality of war, there is a place for compassion, for keeping promises and stepping out even when common sense would tell you to keep your head down. But I think that the underlying theme which stands out the most is the idea of self-sacrifice. In this day and time, where everything is so "Me" centered, it is very refreshing to see a movie that promotes doing for others, even if it costs you dearly.

Throughout the movie, we see little vignettes of Joey's life from his birth through the end of the war. I want to tell you about them all, but I also don't want to spoil the movie for you, so you are going to have to go see it yourself!

In the "Heads-Up" category, you should know there is a little language. God's name is never taken in vain, and my almost-ten-year-old missed the language altogether (it went right over her head)...she also missed all the war scenes, because I had her close her eyes! I really have to give it to Spielberg though...he was somehow able to portray the intensity of the battles, the horror and brutality of war without us having to see blood spurting or heads flying. For example, (spoiler warning) when two young men are shot for deserting the war, we see the scene in the moonlight, from the top of a windmill which has spinning blades. At the moment that the shots are fired, the blades cross the screen, so we hear the shot, but don't see the young men until after their bodies are on the ground, and again, it is from a distance.

In general, I think that the way the battle scenes in this movie are filmed makes this movie excellent for those studying WWI or WWII, for children who can handle viewing the intensity of battle. You get a good sense of what the trenches were like, what it was like to come up over the wall to charge the enemy positions, what No Man's Land was like, and what is was like behind the lines, where weapons were being moved into position and the dead and wounded were taken. There is a pretty intense scene (again, spoiler warning) where we see that the horses who are captured are forced to move the large artillery into position. It is mentioned that the animals usually only live for one month, and you see a pit where they are "buried", but it is an open pit and there are dead horses lying all around it.

This review feels a little disjointed to me, which I would like to apologize for now...I think that I am having a difficult time meshing the feel-good parts of the movie with the intensity of the war scenes...but I have to tell you that the overall feeling I had on leaving the theater was a happy glow. I know that my kids are not ready for this movie yet, but we will get the book and read it and we will buy the movie when it comes out. It is so good to see a movie like this which handles tough material and is made so well.

Thank you to Homeschool Movie Club, who put out the word on the screening tickets!! You guys rock!