Amy and Simon Blog

The Natural and Healthy Lifestyle we Discovered Along the Way…

Measles and the non-vaccinated child August 29, 2008

Filed under: Natural Living — Amy and Simon @ 6:57 pm
Tags: , , ,

There has been some recent news about how not vaccinating children is leading to outbreaks of diseases that are no longer around.  It seems to be causing concerns in many people.  Even Grandpa called concerned about his grandchildren.

We belong to a yahoo group called [jstsayno2vaccs] and wanted to share the discussion with you.  This is a yahoo group for people who don’t vaccinate their pets.  Dawn T has some great insight on the subject.

OK, so a friend asked me last night what about this article regarding the recent “outbreak” of measles among children who haven’t been vaccinated and what’s going to happen if no one vaccinates and measles “erupts” again and children die etc.  Then went on to ask me about polio and would I want to see people debilitated again from this horrible disease that crippled and killed before vaccines?  And I didn’t have an answer.  I get it about the harm and the dangers of vaccines.  My weakest point is around the public health consequences of not vaccinating.  I vaguely understand that the turn-arounds on some of these illnesses might be related to other factors and coincidental to vaccines but I’m confused and would like to be better prepared for these discussions.

 Please advise.

 Carol

Response to Carol:

What the news media (most of them anyway) is saying is that all the children who have gotten sick are unvaccinated, but it’s not true.  About half have been fully vaccinated, which means the vaccines are failing.  This happened a few years ago, too, when a whole classroom of 35 kids contracted measles, and all of them were fully vaccinated.  Turned to be a recently vaccinated child who was patient zero.

Measles was dying out before they started shooting people with it.  If you look at the case charts even the CDC has, you can clearly see the decrease in measles that then STOPPED decreasing after vaccines were introduced. Public health consquences are actually from vaccinating, not from STOPPING vaccinations.  Unfortunately, there WILL be consequences for some children when people choose not to vaccinate.  Because most generations have been vaccinated by this point, children who are not vaccinated are not getting antibodies from their mothers who are vaccinated the way those whose mothers actually had measles are.  As a result, when measles does hit, it is often striking younger children than the disease did before the use of vaccines. Ergo, this increases the risk of complications.  Also, measles vaccinations SENSITIZE some children to measles – i.e. make them more vulnerable to it – because of the way the vaccine assaults the immune system.  Another reason why so many fully vaccinated children are getting sick with measles.

They are seeing the same thing with chicken pox.  Children are getting it older and older rather than at an age when it is safest for them to contract it.  Plus, the vaccine is causing shingles in children, something that used to be seen pretty much only in older adults who were reaching an age to be immune compromised.  So their solution?  Create a separate vaccine for shingles.  So they are vaccinating for one disease (the virus that causes chicken pox and shingles is the same bug) and using two different vaccinations to do it.  And they are perpetuating chronic illness and immune destruction in so doing.

Of course, another public health consequence of vaccinating is that immunity from vaccinations doesn’t last a lifetime in many cases like natural disease exposure.  Children who have been vaccinated for chicken pox are still prone to the disease down the road, when they are older and at higher risk of complications.  Unlike people like me who had chicken pox as a kid and can safely be around kids now who have it as I’m permanently immune.  This may not seem too significant, but if you look at the big picture this means one thing – MORE vaccinations.  They are now recommending that these kids be vaccinated throughout their lives with chicken pox, rather than just as children, to make sure they don’t get it as adults since they didn’t have the disease as kids.  Of course, the more vaccines they are given, the greater the risk of adverse reactions and permanent damage, just like with vaccinating our dogs.

In essence, vaccinations have made measles WORSE than it was before.  My mother had measles.  She was a child during the time when people weren’t so ignorant and actually had measles parties (much like they had with my generation and chicken pox) so their kids would get it at the best age for less complications.  I asked her about measles once and she said she had never known a SINGLE child who contracted measles who died when she was growing up.  Very few kids actually died from measles in those days, because mothers knew how to take care of it at home.  They didn’t make the mistake people do today of getting doctors involved with every blessed case of everything.  (Anyone ever noticed that a HUGE percentage of kids who die from chicken pox even today are those who had doctors intervening and treating them with inappropriate drugs?)  Mothers used to use common sense when it came to illness.  Now, we live in a germ-phobic society who listens to doctors and kills and maims children on a mass scale.

We have to remember that most vaccines were invented for two reasons:

One is convenience.  It’s very inconvenient, especially this day in age of double income homes, for kids to be sick with anything.  This is why they actually came out with the chicken pox vaccine.  Had NOTHING to do with saving lives (chicken pox vaccine kills more than it saves anyway).  It was all about keeping people at work and not at home taking care of their kids if they got sick.  (Of course, they’ve traded being out of work to care for kids sick with measles, mumps and chicken pox for being out permanently taking care of kids with autism and other severe problems.)

Reason number two is money.  Pure and simple profit.  And they use fear mongering to boost those profits.  This is why they downplay the role vaccines play in killing and maiming.  This is why they continue to hard sell and legislate vaccinations.  It’s not about saving lives.  It’s about money. And because greed is at the base of it, they choose to ignore all evidence that vaccinations cause harm in the form of short-term and long-term illness AND that vaccines either fail to protect against the very diseases they are supposed to prevent, or that they CAUSE the very diseases they are supposed to prevent.  And that’s aside from the fact they are literally poisoning children and adults with the toxic chemicals and foreign proteins they are injecting into a body not intended to be poisoned in this fashion.

Oh, and I nearly forgot public health consequence number three of vaccinating – the perpetuation and spread of these diseases.  Children who have been vaccinated are CONTAGIOUS for about 3 weeks following vaccinations.  Even my mother, with her lack of formal education, knows this.  When we were kids and they vaccinated us for anything (I had a whole 3 shots by the time I was high school age), she was told by the doctors to keep us away from pregnant women, immune compromised individuals (i.e. sick people), younger children (toddlers and infant) and the elderly for at least 3 weeks because we were contagious.  This contagion factor hasn’t changed, but the doctors don’t mention it anymore.  As a result, mass populations of recently vaccinated children are exposing the whole population to disease.

I’ve often felt that parvo is only still around because of viral shedding in vaccinated puppies and dogs.  I’ve wondered if it would have died out by now if it weren’t for this perpetuation.  I wonder the same thing about measles, polio and a host of human diseases.  If you look at the CDC’s own info and charts, you can see the sharp drop in cases of illness until the use of vaccinations started.  Then things either climbed or remained constant from that point on.  Of course, with polio, they redefined it to make their information look better (reclassified MOST cases of polio as something else after the vaccine came out to falsely skew the numbers).

The reality is, and history shows, that viruses left alone (i.e. no vaccinations or antibiotics) decrease not only in number of cases but also in virulence. This the natural way of things.  The population not only becomes immune to that virus and pass that immunity down to the next generation, but the virus itself becomes less virulent due to natural mutations.  It is NOT in a viruses best interest to kill the host.  If the host dies, the virus dies.  If the host gets sick, and the disease can replicate, and the host does NOT die, the virus lives.  Natural selection at it’s finest.  It is only when man gets his greedy fingers into the mix that we see viruses perpetuated with continued numbers of cases and even INCREASE the virulence of those same diseases.  Not to mention the forced mutations man’s arrogance triggers.

And finally, as I already mentioned – public health consequence #3 is the deaths and injury vaccines cause every day.  Before the use of the chicken pox vaccine, there were about 3 dozen deaths a year attributed to CP, quite a chunk of which were in older children and adults who contracted the disease and are the highest risk population for complications and death. Anyone care to take a guess at how many deaths the vaccine is admitted to have caused annually since its introduction?  I’ll give you a hint.  It’s a lot more than the disease itself.  😉  And I’m talking only about the deaths they ADMIT are linked to the CP vaccine, which account for less than 10% either way you slice it (per FDA admission about the actual reporting of adverse reactions).

Incidentally, one of the things that amaze me is that people get all screwball about an “outbreak” even if no one dies.  The kids get sick with measles.  Woopee…..  Kids get sick with colds, too, but no one freaks out over it.  Main reason being, the pHARMa industry hasn’t developed a vaccine for colds yet, so there hasn’t been any fear mongering about how deadly colds are.  And, yes, colds DO kill some people every year, due to complications, just like measles, mumps, chicken pox, etc when they weren’t being intefered with.  So, should we all freak out because there’s a cold going around?

Oh, and with regards to polio specifically?  Polio is actually no more dangerous than the average flu or cold.  Most people who contracted it showed few or no symptoms.  Many could have easily written it off as a simple flu or cold, as a matter of fact.  It is only those who are in a weakened state for some reason that actually get the symptoms that the fear mongers try to claim are the COMMON symptoms, including paralysis and death. Paralysis and death with polio were no more common than complications and death with flu today.  And we all know, despite how the CDC rolls in pneumonia figures to the flu figures, that flu isn’t the killer they want us to believe it is.  😉  I’ve talked to people who were alive during the big polio outbreak.  Most of them knew NO ONE who developed complications or died from it.  Also, most of them were around people who were sick to some degree or another and they never got sick themselves.  Turns out that they only knew about “all those deaths” because of the news media, not because of personal experiences with multiple polio-related complications and deaths. 

Go figure.

Dawn T 

Response to Dawn T:

Turned to be a recently vaccinated child who was patient zero.

Unlike people like me who had chicken pox as a kid

My first bout with ckn pox was in kindergarten.. i had it pretty bad then. however, with primary immunodeficiency disorder, i do not build up antibodies to any thing.

She was a child during the time when people weren’t so ignorant and actually had measles parties (much like they had with my generation and chicken pox) so their kids would get it at the best age for less complications. 

we did this for my son,  and it backfired on us.. His Measles went into scarletina.. and he ended up in a quarantined ICU.  Even though i had Measles before. i ended up with the scarletina also.  they did not give medications and just  let it run its coarse.. they DID take a lot of Blood from ME.. though.. i was the only one getting jabbed.

Mothers used to use common sense when it came to illness.  Now, we live in a germ-phobic society who listens to doctors and kills and maims children on a mass scale.

actually.. i think that its more that in the older days.. *moms* stayed HOME and were not out earning a living.. so they could stay at home with the sick child.. when i was able to work, (back in kansas city, missouri, and much younger <g>) the mom’s brought their *too sick for school* kids to work.. and i would be exposed to the ckn pox, measles all over again.. and i DID get them over and over and over again. this was prior to AIDS so there was no *scare* of it then.

Reason number two is money.  Pure and simple profit.  And they use fear mongering to boost those profits.  This is why they downplay the role vaccines play in killing and maiming.  This is why they continue to hard sell and legislate vaccinations.  It’s not about saving lives.  It’s about money. And because greed is at the base of it, they choose to ignore all evidence that vaccinations cause harm in the form of short-term and long-term illness AND that vaccines either fail to protect against the very diseases they are supposed to prevent, or that they CAUSE the very diseases they are supposed to prevent.  And that’s aside from the fact they are literally poisoning children and adults with the toxic chemicals and foreign proteins they are injecting into a body not intended to be poisoned in this fashion.

this falls along the lines that Dr Laibow talks of with Codex and those behind it.. its more then money.. its still a greed.. for power.. much like the type of control that some tried to enforce on a race of people in Germany.. Codex was actually started by the same like people.. so i read. big pharma wants every one to be seeking them out to be healthy.. when they really are not.. not the money so much as it is the power over others. I think that is actually a greater danger.

Children who have been vaccinated are CONTAGIOUS for about 3 weeks following vaccinations.  Even my mother, with her lack of formal education, knows this.  When we were kids and they vaccinated us for anything (I had a whole 3 shots by the time I was high school age), she was told by the doctors to keep us away from pregnant women, immune compromised individuals (i.e. sick people), younger children (toddlers and infant) and the elderly for at least 3 weeks because we were contagious.  This contagion factor hasn’t changed, but the doctors don’t mention it anymore.  As a result, mass populations of recently vaccinated children are exposing the whole population to disease.

something that Codex really wants.. to prove their mission in life.. (sarcasm)

BUT a lot of doctors Now are NOT being taught this.. so shake the finger at their professors.. and the ones that write the text books.

just like it is with vets .. they are not taught about nutrition and digestion. they have a couple of paragraphs on it and nothign more..  and kibble mfgs buy up waste products from human mfg to make into kibble.

I’ve often felt that parvo is only still around because of viral shedding in vaccinated puppies and dogs. 

In humans, parvo is called *fifth disease*. ive had it 7 times.. all from exposures to kids that had the shots.. and that was from working in day cares.. i really did enjoy being a teacher.

The reality is, and history shows, that viruses left alone (i.e. no vaccinations or antibiotics) decrease not only in number of cases but also in virulence.  This the natural way of things.  The population not only becomes immune to that virus and pass that immunity down to the next generation, but the virus itself becomes less virulent due to natural mutations.  It is NOT in a viruses best interest to kill the host.  If the host dies, the virus dies.  If the host gets sick, and the disease can replicate, and the host does NOT die, the virus lives.  Natural selection at it’s finest.

Codex … *mission in life*

It is only when man gets his greedy fingers into the mix that we see viruses perpetuated with continued numbers of cases and even INCREASE the virulence of those same diseases.  Not to mention the forced mutations man’s arrogance triggers.

Main reason being, the pHARMa industry hasn’t developed a vaccine for colds yet,

and they wont either.. too much money is being made by them and their subsids.. for the otc remedies to *ease* the symptoms of the cold.. there is more money to be made to keep the cold around.. then to try to find the cure.  ever notice that those herbals / vitamins that actually help to keep people healthy are dwindling on the shelves? and some are no longer available???

such as kelp.. used to be able to use the whole product to supplement lower iodine  now its split up and in the wrong dosages.. too high in some portions and too low in others.

Most people who contracted it showed few or no symptoms.  Many could have easily written it off as a simple flu or cold, as a matter of fact.  It is only those who are in a weakened state for some reason that actually get the symptoms that the fear mongers try to claim are the COMMON symptoms, including paralysis and death. 

Except there are actually people these days that ARE disabled .. they have the problems with mobility and when tested, they are finding they had contracted Polio as children, showed no symptoms THEN (so they did nto know they had it) but they have major problems now.  its termed PPS.. or post polio syndrome. its not a label given lightly to describe some vague complaints.   its quite crippling now to these people later in life.  While they had no symptoms.. they did have the damage.

Josephine M

Dawn T Response:

Every issue you mention, Josephine, goes back to one thing. The individuals were not healthy to begin with. These are the types of people who would benefit greatly from homeopathy and other natural modalities that repair epigenetic damage that cause weakened immunity and vulnerable bodies. (Not to mention their children need that treatment to undo that damage plus whatever has been done directly to them since conception.) Individuals such as yourself are prime examples of why homeopathy and other such modalities are so important. A body that doesn’t form immunity from natural exposure is NOT healthy and not functioning properly. Whether that is due to things YOU were exposed to as a small child or damage handed down by your parents, I can’t say. Unfortunately, even with treatment, you will probably never be healthy (anymore than I probably ever can be), but the next generation could be a step better than our compromised systems. With treatment of each generation, improvement continues.

But as long as the poisonings continue, there will be only further degradation; no improvement is possible in that situation.

We see this same issue in dogs who come from kibble fed, vaccinated and otherwise poisoned lines. They are more prone to disease, less likely to fight off disease naturally, have more problems with healing, and more problems overall. And that is getting worse with each generation that passes. As some lines are cleaned up by NR breeders, those problems gradually decrease. It takes generations to clean up the mess PR breeders and conventional vets have created.  There’s no reason it would be different for people. But unlike NR breeders, most humans haven’t gotten to the point where they understand the damage they are doing to themselves by giving vaccinations to “prevent” acute disease, thereby causing chronic disease in exchange as well as adding to generational toxicity even further. We compound that in the human children in society. Each generation is getting sicker and sicker. There’s no coincidence in that. 

There has been great success in treating those who had contact with polio who later show damage from it using homeopathy. It’s no different than dogs who have long-term damage to their myelin from distemper or distemper vaccine (which causes it more than the disease itself) or other such issues. Polio vaccine is, in itself, a serious killer. And it disables more people than the disease itself has.  Make no mistake about it. Vaccination is NOT the answer. Building the body’s natural defenses is. Vaccination weakens the body, and that weakness is handed down to the next generation in the form of epigenetic damage. And each generation gets sicker than the one before as a result. It’s a vicious cycle that MUST be stopped before humans destroy themselves.

Shoot, the AR and environmental wackos don’t have to worry about us too much. We’re systematically wiping ourselves off the planet anyway by poisoning ourselves to death with vaccinations, poor diets, pesticides, medications, you name it. All they have to do is be patient. 😉 God simply didn’t intend for our bodies to be so badly abused. The body, whether human or otherwise, can’t take years and generations of chemical and malnutrition abuse and not break down.

We can’t create health by poisoning the body or starving it of the nutrients it needs. Fact of life. 😉

Dawn T

Response to Dawn T:

Hi Dawn;

You are so “right” on this issue!

I happen to live in the area where this measles outbreak of 200 cases is occuring. They are blaming it on one UNVACCINATED person from another Province who visited a family that also did not believe in vaccines!

Anyway, I don’t know if anyone caught the “Nova” program last night on PBS, “The Ghost in Your Genes” very informative.. one of the research projects they did with mice was to show the difference in offspring with “nurturing mothers” vs ones that did not nurture their young. Also there was another project on diet and how you could switch off those genes that cause disease “‘it really brought home and validated all that we as NR breeders are doing!!!

Here is a quote from the program:  Randy Jirtle is director of the Laboratory of Epigenetics and Imprinting at Duke University and is a professor of radiation oncology at the school’s medical center. His groundbreaking research with agouti mice has revealed that a mother’s diet during pregnancy can influence gene expression in her offspring by altering the epigenome. Since obtaining his M.S. (1973) and Ph.D. (1976) in radiation biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Jirtle has published over 150 scholarly articles and registered three patents. He currently serves on the editorial boards of three scientific journals and manages the epigenetics Web site geneimprint.org, which focuses on the quest to understand how environmental factors can affect human disease.

You can view the program here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/

Cheers

Sandra

Another response to Dawn T:

Wow, Dawn… that’s a keeper! Thanks!

Martha

Response to Martha:

Thanks, Martha. Some issues, I can’t seem to keep my mouth shut. And being 

a detail person, I can’t usually sum these things up in a few words. *G* I 

hope I didn’t overload anyone. 😉

Dawn T

 

I Will Survive Homeschooling video August 24, 2008

Filed under: Education,Family — Amy and Simon @ 7:08 pm
Tags:

Someone made a video of the lyrics!!

 

Where have we been? August 22, 2008

It seems like forever since we posted last.  Sorry about that, it seems as we get closer and closer to our due date, our days get shorter and shorter.  We have about six more weeks.  We have a lot to post before we can get to our present everyday lives.  We wanted to give you a little outline of what you can look forward to reading about on this blog.  

After the schooling thing happened we became blessed with our third pregnancy, right before we moved back to our second home (after we finished helping out the family business).  This is when we dove-in to learning all we could about being healthy.  So our next topic will be about whole food vitamins, homeopathy, essential oils, herbal remedies etc.  We’ll discuss some of the products we like best and still use today, like Rainbow Light, Body Balance, Young Living products, Traditional Medicinals, Garden of Life, Bach flowers etc.  And some of the new products we use today, like Zrii, Xocai, Nordic Naturals, etc. (See other links at the right.)

 This is a chronological list of our life lessons we would like to share on our blog: 

  • Homebirth:  We had our third child at home, then the fourth, and then the fifth and now are planning for our sixth homebirth
  • Colic:  Don’t be fooled there is a reason for it.
  • Soy:  The very un-healthy “health food”
  • Breastfeeding and La Leche League:  Amy became a LLL Leader.
  • No more “Well-Baby” visits:  Our last trip to the pediatrician.
  • Stuff, who needs so much:  Living through a hurricane or two, or three.
  • Raw Feeding:  The natural pet diet.
  • Chiropractic:  Is it just for injury?
  • Autism awareness:  There are just too many kids on the spectrum, why?
  • Respiratory distress:  Sounds the same in infants as well as adults.
  • Microwaves: don’t use them at all!
  • Fluoride:  a bi-product of the aluminum industry
  • Real Milk and other raw foods
  • Living with extended family:  Welcoming parents to live with us.
  • Neurological Chiropractic
  • Fish oil supplements:  Why so important?
  • The grieving process is important: Things don’t get better until you do it.
  • No sugar + no grains + no dairy =happiness
  • We really do belong for a reason:  Learning our own religion.
  • Giving is only giving, when nothing is expected in return
  • Naturopath, Homeopath, Chinese Medicine and other alternatives
  • Quantum biofeedback: non-evasive testing
  • Xocai:  the healthy chocolate?
  • Applied Kinesiology
  • Mercury:  how much can one really get in utero?

We also asked the kids yesterday to tell us what are the things that we do differently from their friends’ families.  In addition to the weird way we eat and the things above this is what they came up with to discuss: 

  • No TV or videogames in our home
  • No candy and how we handle holidays, especially Halloween
  • Music always available
  • No rewards, just expectation to do what is right

This is just a little preview of what is to come.  There will most likely be other topics stuck into the list; as we re-live the events it is certain more of our life lessons will surface.   If you have any questions or comments you are always welcome to email us at amyandsimon@amyandsimonblog.com.  We are happy to answer any questions about past and future topics or if you come across a product and what to know our thoughts.  Whatever, we are here to help in your journey to a more natural and healthy lifestyle.

We hope to compile an email list of those interested in a more in-depth knowledge of the topics we discuss.  Please let us know what you want to know about!  If you are interested in being added to the list, just shoot us an email.

Have a great day and we’ll try to get some writing in before #6 decides to join us.  Remember to live the life you love and love the life you live!  

 

Why do our kids learn at home? August 12, 2008

Our first child was quite unique. He was a very early talker so we had the unique experience to know what our child was thinking before most people. Children know a lot more then we give them credit for. The amount of things they understand before they are a year old is amazing.

We figured by the time our son was three (Summer 2000) there was no way we could keep up with his rate of learning we had no choice but to enroll him into the best private Montessori school in town. To give you some little examples of his abilities, by twelve months he could hold a tune and sing a recognizable song; at his eighteen month well baby visit, he had a 300 word vocabulary in two different languages and spoke articulate complete sentences, and for what it’s worth he knew his ABC’s, colors and counting to eleven at least.

Well, we were wrong. We watched our very intelligent young man become a very timid child. He began to bite his nails; he stopped referring to his father as Papa because he was told that was wrong. He started changing and his love of learning was not the same. We thought that being in a Montessori environment with three to six year olds would let him continue at his own level, but instead it hindered his learning capabilities and he was only there from 9am to noon! Four months of that was more than enough. After that we let our little guy learn the way he wanted to learn, ON HIS OWN.

Because of the way he was, we became child-led homeschoolers, or shall I say more unschoolers. We never forced anything on him. If he didn’t like it we didn’t do it. We let his love of learning alone. We should have done that from the start. Thinking back we had always, until we put him in school. At eighteen month, we remember the doctor telling us with his vocabulary skills we could teach him to read quite easily by doing such and such. Well, we didn’t force the issue and when he decided he wanted to read, he was able to do it within a few months of working on it on his own. He was pre-school age when he did this.

We have applied the same principles of unschooling to our other children as well and they all have learned different things at different times. It is not about what they should be doing at what age. It’s more about “what do they want to do, what do they enjoy.” It is unnatural to stop learning something that you are interested in so you can learn something else. Why not learn all you want to learn about a subject, and then move to what you want to learn about next?

Some of our children enjoy “school work” at times, and not at other times. They are unlike our first, who always did everything by himself. The difference is our children will ask us to help them with it, instead of us telling them to do it. The only time we have to make them do something is for our state testing policy. They have to test every three years starting in the third grade. Our children do attend weekly Religious education classes, but for the most part they want to because it pleases us and they see us doing our part in our Church as well. They must feel like this is the way they contribute to our Parish Community. They are also involved in other aspects of our Church voluntarily. It helps to be a model of the behavior you want from your children.

You might be wondering how we teach a second language to our children without making them do anything. Well, basically it is as simple as, Amy speaks English all the time and Simon speaks French all the time. We have books, games, cd-roms, and workbooks in both languages at all levels. They can choose what they want to do. Our oldest speaks English to his mom and French to his Papa. He can read in both languages, but not as well in French because he doesn’t feel like he needs to. Maybe someday he will decide to and maybe someday the others will decide to speak French to their Papa just like their big brother does. Who knows, but it is up to them.

In our opinion, Unschooling is an extension of Attachment Parenting, which comes from Natural Living or following your instincts. As an attachment parent you give your child what he needs, when he needs it. That’s the natural way.

Amy: As a La Leche League Leader I see a lot of mothers who are looking for way that things should be done instead of following their own instincts. I try to ensure them that only they know what is best for their children, they just need to follow their instincts. It is my opinion, that in our society it is hard for parents, especially new parents, to follow their instincts because there are too many “experts” out there. Only the parents know what their children need. Sometimes parents get a feeling that something is wrong, but don’t know why. When the “experts” are questioned, the parents are told they have nothing to worry about. If this happens enough, the parents lose their instincts and the children suffer because the parents really do know what is best and they know when something just isn’t right. So stop listening to the “experts” because only you are the expert for your own child(ren)!

So in conclusion, our children learn at home because it is the natural thing to do. It fits into our natural lifestyle. It just makes sense to us.

 

You can’t help to sing along, everyone loves ABBA tunes August 8, 2008

Filed under: Attachment Parenting,Education,Natural Living — Amy and Simon @ 11:22 am
Tags: , , , ,

This was posted on one of our homeschooling yahoo groups today.  We just had to share.  Enjoy!!!

I WILL SURVIVE

I Will Survive (the first year of homeschooling) *

Originally written and produced by Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris 

Originally performed by Gloria Gaynor 

Mercilessly altered with apologies by Natalie Criss 

 

First I was afraid 

I was petrified. 

Kept thinking I could never teach 

‘Cause I’m not certified. 

But we spent so many nights 

Reteaching homework that was wrong. 

I grew strong, 

so now I teach my kids at home! 

We study math 

and outer space. 

I just kept on despite the fear 

with a big smile across my face. 

I bought a set of Base Ten blocks. 

I bought books with answer keys. 

My parents think we’re nuts, 

but they don’t even bother me 

 

Come on, let’s go walk out the door. 

We’re on the road now, 

’cause we’re not home much anymore 

My friends would laugh and say we’d be unsocialized. 

I heard one mumble 

that I’d give up by July. 

Oh no, not I! 

I will survive! 

As long as I know how to read 

I know we’ll be alright. 

I’ve got all my life to learn. 

I’ve got energy to burn. 

and I’ll survive. 

I will survive. 

 

It took all the strength I had 

not to fall apart. 

Decided to attend 

a play date at the local park, 

and I met oh so many moms 

who offered eagerly to help. 

They used to cry. 

Now they hold their heads up high, 

and so do we! 

My kids are cool! 

They’re not those chained up little people 

stuck inside at school. 

So if you feel like dropping by 

and just expect us to be free 

you’d better call ahead first 

’cause we’re probably busy!

 

Looks like a “must see”… August 6, 2008

I just received this link from a yahoo group I belong to.  I can’t wait to see it myself!  

You’ll have to watch the film trailer and then find out where you can see the movie in your area.

http://foodmatters.tv/trailer.html

 

How can we afford to live this way?

When we moved back to our second home in 2001 we took this healthy, natural lifestyle that we wanted to live by the reins and ran with it.  One of the major reasons we could afford to do it, on one income and pregnant with #3, was by joining co-ops and wholesale clubs. 

We joined a produce co-op ran out of the home of a friend.  We still do this today.  Every week we go and pick out what organic produce we want for the week.  In the beginning of this co-op we would get a box of produce, with no selection really.  This is when the Joy of Cooking became our best friend.  Amy remembers looking in the vegetable section trying to figure out what vegetable it was and how to prepare it.

We joined a grocery co-op so we could get those gluten-free, dairy-free groceries that are so readily available today.  In addition we were able to get those organic varieties of things that are just way too expensive anywhere else.  You can order things by the case or split them up with a friend or two.  When ordering from a co-op it is important to learn to buy what is on sale in bulk, so you don’t have to buy it again until it is on sale again.  You basically learn how to stock a store.  Eventually we started our own co-op with our friends and began to compile a split list so we could try a large variety of things and get things that came in huge quantities, the more you buy the cheaper the price usually.

We also found some great products that are unfortunately MLM’s (could be good and bad I suppose).  So we signed up for them just so we could buy them at wholesale prices.  Look for links to Body Balance, a liquid vitamin drink that is actually absorbed by the body; Young Living Essential Oils, these are medicinal oils used instead of conventional medicines; Xocai, a company that uses only the inside of the cacao plant and a cold-process method to make yummy chocolate treats that are caffeine-free and have more antioxidants then any other food. 

We joined a natural vitamins, household products and spices co-op so we could get wholesale prices on vitamins, soaps, shampoos, spices, etc.  This is the Frontier Co-op; look for the link.  Not only do they have their own products, they carry products from other companies too.  They are continually adding new stuff.  If you can make a $250 order with some friends, then they ship it all to you free as well. Another great resource for the vitamins is Vitacost.com.  We will try to add a link on the advertisers page soon, but they sometimes beat the wholesale prices that Frontier has.  Shop around, we will add a few healthy stores that we have used and found so you can see who has the best price for what and don’t forget shipping charges, they change everything.  It is best to go in with a friend or two to save on shipping.

We had a friend doing all of this with us and fortunately for us, she had a tax-ID# that allowed her to get products from companies that only sell to other companies.  This is how we get Biokleen, Garden of Life, Aubrey Organics, and other great products.  

We have been blessed to know this person, Toni.  She still does all of this today and we are not the only lucky ones who get the benefits, if you are in the Southern Atlanta area you are welcome to join her yahoo group naturallyyoursco-op to find out about all the products she has to offer from a large range of co-ops, MLM’s, and companies that only sell to other companies.  She also sends out healthy information and people do get together to split large items like grass-fed cows.

There are ways to do it and afford it.  Here we are expecting our sixth child and still living on one income.  We may not have nice new furniture and beautiful accessories all over the house.  But we have each other and the things that are necessary and important for our healthy, natural lifestyle.  So join some co-op’s or make your own, find some wholesale clubs, and shop around.  It is possible to eat healthy on most budgets. Sometimes you may have to do without some luxuries, but you will soon find that they were luxuries that didn’t matter or even made your life less healthy so you didn’t need them to begin with.  Good luck, you can do it too! 

 

Does job matter? August 5, 2008

Our lives were in a whirlwind after the birth of our second child.  Not only were we learning lessons on health, we were moving what seemed like constantly, trying to fix our situation.  We didn’t know what we were trying to fix, but we knew something was not right.  Later we discovered we needed to find Simon a job with a company he could believe in (or he needs to work for himself) and the job needed to have work/life balance. 

Soon after #2 was born, Simon switched working from his high travel job to a lower travel job.  The travel did play a part, but it was also his conscience that made him switch.  He didn’t believe in what the company stood for, he couldn’t stand behind the product. 

The new company was a company you could feel good about working for.  Not only did they have a better product, but also they believed very strongly in giving to the community.

That job did not last long.  Simon’s father had asked for some help either taking over his business or getting it ready for sale.  So only after working at the new company for eight months, Simon quit to help out his father.  After all family is family.

The next fourteen months we ran our own business (and moved twice). Simon saw for the first time one of his children grow up in front of him, after realizing what he missed with his first child, he decided that he needed to be around more.  He didn’t want to miss another moment if he could help it. 

In April 2001, the family business was in shape for sale, so we returned to our home that we had only lived in for a few months before helping Simon’s father.  It was back to the corporate world for Simon, this time with less pay than before.  This was a low travel job for Simon’s industry, since he knew he didn’t want to travel a lot at this point.  But then the travel increased from 30% to 80% after the Enron scandal changed the way public accounting firms were set up.  So Simon found another new job seventeen months later.

This one was in the airline industry with a 9 to 5 workday and barely any travel, but a long commute.  With the failing industry due to 9/11 the airlines sold this company to an investment company, which started firing people left and right, even those that worked there for twenty years or more.  Needless to say the atmosphere was very stressful and the company was unstable. So this time, nineteen months later Simon found another new job and this one involved a move across state lines.  This was in 2004.

This was a move to a place where we could live a few miles from work since commuting had gotten old fast.  We focused on work/life (we knew we wanted that), didn’t consider the industry too much.  Big mistake.  The people in the industry didn’t think twice about lying in the interview process to get Simon to take the job.  Once we got there the job was nothing like it was explained, and it was easily his worst job so far. So barely twelve months later Simon moved to another new job. 

This one was in a familiar industry, the hours were not too long, and travel was negligible, but once again there was a commute.  Then the company was sold to an investment company, things were up in the air again, and travel once again started to increase. So it lasted a year.

In August 2006 another move across state lines and another new job; but now with a company that has a product that we can believe in, and has work/life balance and little travel.  Let’s not forget to mention we live only a few miles from work.  So far so good, let’s hope it stays that way.

So does what job you have matter?  This may seem obvious, as it obviously does matter, but it wasn’t clear to us as fledgling worker bees all the things that contribute to making that determination.  The key points so far:

What the company does and how they do it matters a lot.  You have to feel good about you are contributing to everyday or you won’t want to get up in the morning and go contribute.

The company (and obviously your boss) has to consider you and treat you respectfully.  This means understanding that you have a life and a family.  If they expect you to work all the time, and therefore not have a life, what kind of ‘life’ is that?  This of course includes the travel component.

Commuting may be commonplace these days, although current gas prices may help reverse this trend, but it makes no sense.  It’s expensive, it’s stressful, and it’s a waste of time.  Never mind the impact it has on the environment.

If you are miserable at work, you will most likely be miserable most of the time away from work.  It drains you and keeps you up at night.  In short, it stresses you out.

Changing jobs and moving from house to house wasn’t easy, and sometimes we second-guess ourselves looking back, but then we think about why we made those changes and we realize that we would make the same choices again today.  Sure, we might be ‘further ahead’ in the rat race, or have more money had we stuck it out, maybe, but life isn’t about money.  It’s about happiness.  And that doesn’t mean foregoing financial as well as other personal successes; it just means that there is more than one way to live your life.  You can live according to other people’s mantras, or you can live by your own.  You just have to keep searching until you figure out what that is or until you find a way to live by it.