A (un)conventional family : April 2015

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Happy Anniversary

On April 25th, Glassman and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary. 8 years since we got married with my mom and his parents in Jamaica. 8 years since we said our vows and made promises. So much has changed.

What was a big change was that for the first time this year we didn't fight the whole day. Normally we fight, who knows why.

This year, with some help from Craftymama we even completed our rose tradition thing and went out for dinner - though we did watch the hockey game during dinner. It was fun.

So much is different. When we got married I was pregnant with K. Now we have 5 kids. I hadn't even met Craftymama 8 years ago and now I can't imagine my life without her. We've lived in 8 different houses in 8 years, in 4 different cities. It's been a roller coaster.

Yes we took a break so some may say it starts again, that it hasn't really been 8 years. Honestly though, that break was better for the continuing health of our relationship as anything we've done during it. We needed that 'maturity break' to grow out of the people we had grown up with and become the people we are now. We needed that break.

Now things are working, now we are happy.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

More Decisions, More Changes

Maybe, maybe there are decisions in our future. A few months back we had decided to take K out of school so now BigR and K are unschooled. We don't follow a set curriculum at home we let their interests and desires guide us. So far BigR has learned intensely about Ancient Egypt and is working on his reading, as well as learning about surviving in the wild as his dream is to build a house and live in the bush when he's older, K has taken a little while to find an interest that is lasting beyond a couple of days (like seals) but seems to really be interested in anatomy. Actually, it's more she has her heart set on being a doctor, and nurse, and midwife, and I mentioned they need to learn how the body works - so she has been working on that, along with mastering her reading as well.

M is set to go to grade 1 next year, though we haven't decided if we are sending him, and recently LittleR has been saying she doesn't want to go to school anymore. While I believe there is a place for traditional education, and that home schooling or unschooling can work - I truly believe there is inherent value in this ECE kindergarten they're in and would like them to stick it out. It is a magical place and I think it helps instill confidence in the individual which all kids need.

So there is the school decision....which is compounded by....

The house. We have the beautiful property and house right now, but we only signed a 7 month lease and from talking to our landlord last he doesn't seem like he is in a good place financially and we are now quite concerned he is going to want his house back. His kids do live in a different town which is why he moved in the first place, but he still works in our town. We don't know what he will do. If he decides he wants his house back than we have the decision of where we live. We moved to the Cowichan Valley for the school, that's the sole reason. Now half of our kids don't go there and the other half may just be on the way out - so there is nothing holding us here. We could move back to Nanaimo if we wanted.

The problem is...we don't know what we want. Well Craftymama wants the farm life, actually she wants this house and this property as she says it's perfect for her, and Glassman wants something similar I think. I miss being able to walk to things or being closer to things. I don't hate where we live, it is beautiful and it has many benefits but if we get to pick where we live I'm not sure it would be my first choice. I don't know what we will do or where we will live. But our lease is theoretically up in June...and June isn't that far away. I feel like we need to figure this out before we are given just 30 days.