Islander

If You Give a Mom a Muffin

2009-01-23T08:07:00.001-08:00

This is a cute but many times accurate description of a mother's daily life when she has young children. I remember clearly these kind of days. Now that my kids are a bit older, I can say, those days are worth all the frustration they might give.

If you give a mom a muffin,

She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.

She'll pour herself some.

The coffee will get spilled by her three year old.

She'll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she will find some dirty socks.

She'll remember she has to do some laundry.

When se puts the laundry in the washer,

She'll trip over some snow boots and bump into the freezer.

Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan dinner for tonight.

She will get out a pound of hamburger.

She will look for her cookbook.

The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.

She will see the phone bill which is due tomorrow.

She will look for her checkbook.

The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two year old.

She'll smell something funny.

She'll change the two year old.

While changing the two year old, the phone will ring.

Her four year old will answer it and hang up.

She remembers that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee on Friday.

Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.

She will pour herself some.

And Chances are...

If she has a cup of coffee...

Her kids will have already eaten the muffin that went with it.

__Author unknown__

Patience

2009-01-15T09:34:00.001-08:00

I was talking with a friend the other day. We were talking about learning the difficult lesson of patience. My friend said, I just want love, joy and peace, why do I have to learn patience. It occurred to me that in order to get love, joy and peace, we need to learn patience.

Christmas Blessings

2009-01-12T05:02:00.001-08:00

This Christmas I was blessed with the chance to go on vacation. During my vacation, I visited a place called "The Holy Land Experience" in Orlando, FL. If you ever have the chance to go and visit I strongly encourage you to do so. With Christmas being so close, there was a lot of Christmas specials. I enjoyed myself very much. For more information go and visit there web page at www.holylandexperience.com

Winter Winds

2008-12-12T05:37:00.001-08:00

Well, some of you may be thinking, wow, You live on an island? That must be nice. Well, it sure is nice, especially in the summer, but this island is located in a place where winter comes and lingers too long in my opinion. (I know it's nothing like way up north.)

However, as I sit and type this, the winds have turned from the calm summer breeze to the north howling wind. Let me tell you it is howling like crazy today. The pouring rain does not make traveling any easier. I am very grateful on days like this, that I am living in a safe, warm house.

I don't mean to sound like I am complaining about the weather, I know it is what the earth needs. I am just amazed at the difference in the weather from winter and summer. When I lived further inland, I did not see the winds that were this strong on a regular basis.

It is funny in the summer, if we are watching a bad storm and they are talking about 30 MPH winds sustained with higher gusts, people get all worried. They think "We are in for a BIG storm." Those kinds of winds are normal all winter. Except they come from the North, which makes our ferry ride off or on the island very bumpy.

A Day in the Life of Me.

2008-12-02T09:32:00.001-08:00

Living on this island allows my life to be void of alarms, noise and traffic lights. We wake up from a good night's sleep to the sound of birds singing happily outside. After Breakfast is made for the kids we get ready for school.

Now some kids get up early to go off to school. They go across to the main land by boat, then wait at the bus stop. After school, they take the bus, to the boat dock. There they wait until it's time for the boat to head back to the island (which could be awhile)

My children on the other hand don't live by that schedule. We live by a totally different one. You see, I home-school my two children. I have been doing this now for 5 years and I love it. We still keep a schedule as if they were in a regular school setting. We start school at 8:30 AM and don't call school over until about 3:00 PM. I don't even answer the telephone during school hours.

Home-schooling requires you to be disciplined and organized. I look at schooling as a full time job. If I was a teacher in a school setting, I would not leave the classroom to answer the phone, do laundry or anything else like that. So, why would I do that when I am home-schooling?

There is much to be said about home-schooling, so I will not even attempt to cover it all in one day. Watch my blog for more home-schooling topics.

Technorati Tags: home school,homeschool,islander,island,teaching

Typical Sunday

2008-12-01T11:56:00.001-08:00

As we love the beauty of the island, we also have to live our lives with the schedule of the island. Here is an account of our typical Sunday.

Mornings are normal, as we get ready for church. We all need to take a 7 minute walk to the boat. That walk is normally very nice, we might see wildlife like white tailed deer as we walk us and over the hill. However being dressed up can be a little frustrating. As you walk along a dirt road in high heel, you have the tendency to twist you ankles and ruin your dressy shoes. If it's raining, add the mud to the picture.

The boat ride is just as beautiful as any normal day, except being in the winter the seas are a little rougher than just a month ago. So it feels like we are bobbing along like a cork.

Once we are on the other side, we might have to change our shoes to be ready for church, or even get a breakfast to eat in the car. Church is always an enjoyable time for us. However once church is over we have 3-4 hours before the boat trip back to the island. The question is what do we do? Well, that changes each week. After we eat some lunch, we try to do all our shopping. Sometimes, even that does not take up enough time.

Many days, we sit in our car for at least an hour waiting for the boat, and boy, that can be a drag. This week, we sat in the car for the hour in the cold rain. We had a car load of groceries to load onto the boat, but we wanted to wait until the boat was ready to leave. The cold dampness is very unsuitable for me.

After a dark, dumpy boat ride in the cold rain, we put all our groceries in a wheelbarrow/cart an "power-walked" all the way home.

This story of my day yesterday may sound dreary. Some may think I am complaining. Well, I'm not. OK, so I don't like the cold or the rain. However, once we are inside our warm home, all the hassle of the island travel life fade away. Once again we are in our peaceful haven, how can one complain when we live in such a peaceful place?

Technorati Tags: island,boat,ride,schedule,rain,islander

Autumn Exercise

2008-11-29T12:42:00.001-08:00

Today I was able to enjoy the absolute beauty of where I live. The sun was shinning and the temperature was comfortable. Other than the sight breeze from the ocean, you could not have asked for a better day.

I decided to take advantage of that weather and enjoyed a walk with my husband and my two Black Labradors. As soon as we left the yard, we were able to let the dogs run. And run, they did! The ground thundered with the sound of their footsteps as they ran as fast as they could. It looked like they were chasing an imaginary animal, one that eluded them no matter how hard they ran.

We turned off the dirt road onto a walking path. After a short way, we were looking at the open sea. Turning slightly, we followed a path that brought us along the side of the ocean for a little while. The breeze was getting the best of me, so we turned inland to the wooded area to get away from the ocean's wind.

Once inland, I stopped to look around a little. The sunlight streaming thru the trees and shining on the bare tree trunks. Here in the wooded area, it was silent and beautiful, all the leaves off the trees made our steps musical with the slish, slosh rhythm.

I enjoyed watching the dogs running hard with their noses to the ground, looking for some scent to catch. They had run so hard that despite the cool wind, they would plunge into any puddle or small pond that they could find.

Peaceful, serenity is the only way that I can explain the way the wooded area was for me today.

Welcome

2008-11-28T07:10:00.001-08:00

I am a homeschooling mother, living on a private island with my family and our two dogs. In this blog, I am going to share a little about my life.

Although I live on this island, I can not give out the location, name or any other kind of detailed information. The reason for this is because it is a private island, and since I am not the owner, I can not give out those details.

First of all I will say that it has been a privilege to live on this island. and there are allot of good things to be said. Not to mention the number of memories we have made and will continue to make here.