A Hanewinkel Halloween

Halloween is usually a pretty good time here at Hanewinkel House...  Usually.  For whatever reason though this year presented us with some interesting challenges.  First, for whatever reason, none of the kids seemed to be able to decide on a costume.  By the time the night before Halloween rolled around Ryan & I were about to pull our hair out with them and just start assigning costumes...  "You WILL be spider man & you WILL like it!".  Jude woke up Saturday morning with a cough that sounded croupy so we were concerned that he may have to miss out, and Lucy is cutting 6, that's right, SIX teeth right now so she is just miserable.  We had meltdowns and runny noses and coughing and sneezing and griping and complaining...  Our Halloween was going no where fast.
Then, the sun came out on our little family.
The kids finally decided on something they each wanted to be, and were all excited about their ideas.
Jude was feeling much better by Halloween morning.
Lucy loved having a costume on and seemed totally preoccupied from her recent state of misery.
Halloween turned out to be really great for us all.  Maybe even better because of the rough start we had.

 Joel got to cut all of the tops off of the pumpkins AND carve his very own.  He was stoked.

 Little hands were perfect for cleaning this pumpkin out :).

 Yummy.

 Jude got to carve his pumpkin too, with some help from dad.

 The finished product.  I know, this picture is awful but it's the best I could do.

And finally... Joel as "Aragorn" (from Lord of the Rings), Jude as "Bilbo Baggins" (from The Hobbit), Rory as the beautiful princess, and Lucy as the little purple dragon!

The School Of Life

Some months ago I blogged about changes our family was making in our lives.  Today I would like to blog a little about one of those....
Our family loves being together.  We love to eat meals together, play outside together, watch movies together, learn together.  Ryan & I have never really liked the idea of the public school system.  The idea of sending your kid off for 7 to 8 hours a day to have their head stuffed full of "knowledge" that eventually gets forgotten about just never sat right with us.  We have nothing against public schools, per say, but just never felt settled about that being the best way for our children to learn.  This past summer I began to research different learning methods and the pros and cons of public or private schooling vs. homeschooling.  I started to really watch more closely my oldest (Joel) as he went about his days to see what things sparked his interest and how he pursued learning on his own.  That is when I came across a blog and then some articles on unschooling.  Unschooling sounds, and is, very radical.  The whole concept of allowing your child to set their own pace for learning, and giving them the freedom to learn on their own terms, is not a widely accepted one.  I remember my first reaction to the "unschooling movement"...  What is wrong with these parents?!  How can they consider themselves responsible when they basically let their kids do whatever they want?!  After a lot more research and prayer I began to understand first, my mistake in passing that kind of judgement on people I really know little to nothing about, and second, how much it really makes sense.  I began to notice things about Joel's little life...  I saw how curious he was during the summer time, how much he wanted to explore and learn new things.  During the school year however, the last thing he wanted to do was learn anything besides new skateboarding tricks.  Why was that?  That's when Ryan & I read something about unschooling that helped to put things into perspective for us...  When a child is forced to learn, forced to spend 3/4 of their life doing what someone else says they should do, and how they should do it, it begins to stifle that natural curiosity, that natural desire withing every child to learn and grow and expand their little worlds.  They become resistant to "school work", and resentful about learning.  Now, that being said, I do believe there are exceptions to that rule.  I know there are many kids who do flourish and do well in large classroom settings, etc.  I am speaking from my own experience and observations.  I believe it is just as dangerous for me (or anyone else) to claim that homeschooling/unschooling is the best way for children as it is for others to claim that public/private education is the best way. 
Back to the main point....  After much prayer and thought and research Ryan & I decided to withdraw Joel from school and begin our very own version of an unschooling journey.  We are still discovering new & better ways to "educate" Joel, but so far we have found the best approach is in a sort of marriage between traditional homeschooling and radical unschooling.  We give some structure, some non-negotiables for him everyday that have to be accomplished.  Apart from that though we have adopted a lifestyle of learning in our family...  We try to integrate learning into the framework of our lives, sometimes in sneaky ways, and sometimes in the "hey lets go research this" way.  We want our kids to always love learning.  We want them to view learning as something that is as vital and refreshing as breathing clean air.  And we have seen a tremendous difference in our son's attitude toward the world and learning since we started this adventure.
I can't speak for other people, just for myself and my family, and I would definitely say that making that decision to keep Joel home has been one of the best we have made.
I know that unschooling usually brings up a lot of questions, so if you read this and have any to ask feel free to send me a message or leave me a comment. 
Below are some pictures of Joel's latest "science experiment"...  Dissecting owl pellets.  Yum yum.

Turns out his owl must have dined on a small mouse and a shrew!

Pumpkin Patch Kids

Today our family ventured over to Stuckmeyer's for a hay ride, farm animals, and plenty of pumpkin patch fun!  The weather was stellar and we all had a blast!  I think, in this case, a picture is worth a thousand words...  Enjoy!

Lucy received her very own mini gourd for a souvenir...  Which she refused to allow anyone to take from her!  ....And then we saw this rad guy with his beautiful bike at QT on our way home.  I just wanted to hug him!  Aren't his "shades" the bomb?!



I Heart Smiling :)

These past two months have been extremely stressful for us...  I am hoping to be able to blog more about that in a few weeks.  Yesterday I woke up after a night empty of sleep (teething baby + congested baby + 3 bad dreams = no sleep for mum & dad) and barely felt human.  I felt like I had no blood running through my veins, and it took everything out of me just to stay sane.  Days like that really suck, but they also make me appreciate even more the days that are full of simple things that make me smile.  Here are some of those simple things...

                                                                      
               When my husband does the dishes.  There are few things sexier than my man with a dish rag lol.

                                     When my kids all play together...  Without fighting.

        Lucy in a cardboard box.  Really, I smile when I see any of my kids in a cardboard box!  Hahaha!

The really cool toad that lives under my front porch and only comes out at night.  We named him Stoic.

 When I catch my brother (or any other adult for that matter) acting like a dork...  We all really are just big dorks anyway! 

There are so many simple things in life that make me smile, and I am so glad that, today, I woke up rested enough to enjoy them! :)

A Note From The Editor

I am no preacher, no theologian, and certainly not the world's best christian....  However, after watching this week's episode of Glee I felt inspired to write a little about a pet peeve of mine.  I don't even really know what you would call this pet peeve, but it is what it is.  Here 'goes...

I think it is REALLY sad when someone has rejected Christ because of the way that person has been treated by Christians.  It is sad on lots of different levels.  I aim to address a couple of those levels here.  First, shame on "Christians" for the way so many of us look down the long end of our snouts towards those we deem "sinners"...  As if we are so much better, or so much more important.  As if our hearts aren't marred by the blackness of pride and arrogance, and our shit don't stink.  I really struggle with actually feeling embarrassed to call myself a Christian and be identified as "one of those", and I am not talking about Jesus.  Let's just clear that up right now before I go further...  I believe Jesus is the Way, He is Truth, He is Everything.  I am NOT ashamed of Jesus...  I am ashamed of the large majority of people who claim to follow Him but really have their heads so far up their own hinders they couldn't really see the Light if He was shining in their faces.  Anyway.  So many people claiming to be of the Christian faith have done little more than hurt others, make rules to cause other people to feel bad about themselves, and turn people off to Jesus.  Shame on us.  Christ dined with tax collectors (gasp!).  He spent time with a prostitute to show her love and forgiveness when she was brought before Him for condemnation (double gasp!).  He offered grace to one of His closest friends knowing full well that friend would deny having even known Him 3 times (triple gasp!).  He healed the wounds of sinners.  He washed the feet of the unworthy.  He made wine from water when people were already abusing the drink, just to show His mom some respect.  He interceded for forgiveness on behalf of those that beat Him, mocked Him, spit on Him, and nailed Him to a tree until He died.  That's the Jesus I know anyway.  The Jesus I know isn't afraid of people who come from hard lifestyles, or different sexual persuasions, or beliefs, or seriously messed up lives.  He loves those people.  He offers grace to us and love to us to cover a multitude of sins.  Sins are still sins, and Jesus never excused them.  He, being Truth, always sees us for what we are, loves us still, and offers us help.  I don't claim to know what it is like to struggle with things like so many do...  I only know my own life.  But I do know that I am not going to treat someone poorly because they believe differently than me, live differently than me.  Christ never did that.  As a matter of fact, the only people in the bible Jesus ever treated negatively were the "religious" people that thought they were so much better than everyone else.  He is our example, so maybe we should really take it to heart when He said to examine and remove the plank in our eye so we can see clearly before we try to remove the splinter from someone else's.

The other side of this that drives me nuts is this:  People who do reject Christ based solely on the way other people choose to behave who claim to know Him.  If people could just look to the gospels themselves and read about the true Jesus...  I believe those people would see Someone very different from the self proclaimed "examples" who are themselves little more than modern day pharisees.  God is Love.  No He does not condone sin...  But He is not afraid of your questions.  He is not looking to point the finger and send people to Hell.  He is looking to love, to help, to free, to answer, to save.