Paradise Found

When we came home to trashed carpet and a house in need of paint, we made what seemed like a good decision: we went green. We’ve repainted 75% of the house with low VOC paint and the carpet we chose to undo the damage is made from plastic bottles. We’ve also wrestled our way into a new hybrid vehicle.

When I spotted the Consumer Consequences quiz on Larramie’s site, I thought surely I’d do well. Um, not so. My impact on the earth? It would take 2.5 earths to sustain all the people in the world if they lived like me. Color me amazed. In watching my score, I did well – .7 earths – until I hit the travel and food portions of the test. Flying between here and Hawaii is not so helpful to the environment, nor is my consumption of coffee and wine. I wonder how many homegrown tomatoes I’ll have to eat to negate my splurges?

I’m curious to know how the rest of you stack up.

When we left California three years ago we got rid of a ton of stuff. We purged. It felt great. What we decided to keep, we stored in a container on our property.

After living for three years in a relatively minimalist style, I am utterly shocked at some of the things that we opted to keep AFTER purging. Why so many bowls? FIVE cookie sheets? Enough bath towels to dry an elephant? Puh-leese! Time to purge again.

- My neck is killing me from working without a desk – looking down at the laptop is really not very ergonomic.

- There is a young man here digging post holes to repair the fence that was damaged when the tree fell on it last winter. I do not envy him. It’s like digging in concrete.

- The gopher population here has been reduced by at least a half dozen. Yes, I am ruthless, all in the name of summertime tomatoes.

- Brad is sad today, missing Hawaii. So am I.

- Listening to Hawaiian music doesn’t help. In fact, it makes it worse.

- New carpet is in – and it’s made of recycled soda bottles! How cool is that? Much cooler than our reduced bank account, for sure. There’s an expense we weren’t counting on.

- Can I continue to post to a blog called Paradise Found when I’m no longer in the stereotypical paradise? I’m thinking that paradise is portable, even if the palm trees are not.

- I’m hopeful that someday soon I’ll be able to formulate entire paragraphs again.

Can you see the observatories (and snow!) at the top of Mauna Kea?

I caught this as a drive-by shot because it cracked me up:

Fresh caught Ono:

Oh, how I’m going to miss sunsets like this:

I love this truck and will miss seeing it:

On first seeing this:

I asked my son just how he learned to do this – certainly not from me; I don’t even know what this IS!

Simple, says he. It’s something he was interested in, and so he learned about it. He’s using his newfound skills in electrical circuitry to make distortion pedals and sound effects for his musical instruments. It’s wonderful to see his curiosity lead him to a diverse education.

But what about kids who have yet to find an interest that pulls them into self-directed learning? Like my youngest, for instance?  He does read quite a lot (that is truly an understatement), but he’d happily play video games all day if I let him. I know that some radical unschoolers count video gaming as valuable, but I have trouble letting it be the focus around here. We try to expose him to different activities, but he’s just not interested.

How have you inspired a child to discover his or her passion, whether a lifelong obsession or a fleeting interest?

I’m sitting outside on my lanai patio with a cup of coffee as the sun rises over the Sierras – in my pajamas, no less. There’s an awful lot to be said for distant neighbors! We arrived home to damaged carpet and a BB gun hole in a large picture window, so we’re working out the details of replacing both, which essentially means that while we’re living here, we’re doing so with the bare minimum of furniture. Until after Memorial Day. One more chapter in this adventure of ours.

Surprisingly, the landscape around our patio has survived, if not thrived. A bit of care and water ought to fix that! We’re dealing with a population explosion of gophers and ants (both outside, thankfully), and an overabundance of weeds. Even so, we should have our garden in by next weekend at the latest. Have I mentioned that we haven’t STOPPED since we got here?  And somewhere in there I need to get back to my writing gig!

I’m a bit behind in posting about this as I’ve been in the midst of moving, but I’d like to direct you over to Moving From Me to We where the interview I did with Kare Anderson is now available.

Fresh tomatoes! Woot!

Sending my kids outside to play, knowing there’s plenty of space to do so.

Diving into my excellent group of homeschool families. Head first. Watch out!

Sitting on my patio. The one that we installed in a single, hot day and which permanently damaged my wrists.

Zinnias. I love the lushness of Hawai’i, but summertime zinnias make me smile.

I’ve landed on the west coast safely – thanks for all of your well-wishes. I’m spending Mother’s Day with MY mother, who was completely and totally surprised when we showed up. Yep, that’s right. She had NO idea we were moving home.

It’s a bit crazy around here at the moment, but I wanted to stop in here quickly to wish all of you amazing homeschool mothers a great day. Shelly, I’ll be taking you up on that cuppa very, very soon!!