HolyKow!!!

The following post was written a week ago, finally getting published today:

We spent the day (Friday, September 12) with a fabulously fun unschooling family! There’s hardly anything better than being with people who are so incredibly gentle and respectful towards their children. We all have so much to offer and to learn from one another. It’s such a gift to really *get* that.

Stone was reluctant, at first, to go. The night before, he told me plainly that he didn’t want to. I asked if we could sleep on it, and see how he felt about it in the morning. Upon waking, he tells me again, “I don’t want to go.” This time, I offer up the option of going and then leaving right away if he just isn’t into it. He agrees. And it ends up being Stone who is the hardest to drag away from his new found buddy and their secret hide-out among the bushes. They’re already making plans for their next meeting, MD agreeing to leave the stick Stone discovered in the exact place until he returns, adding that it’ll actually be invisible, too, and only he and Stone will be able to see it.

We were educated (as much as we could be during one afternoon!) on the whole dairy cow operation. We saw beautiful mama’s and had babies suckle our fingers; we fed hay and tmr (total mixed ration) to a few, giggling as we watched their gigantic tongues slurp up the goods. Sage and I accompanied Gigi and her papa out to the pasture to bring the cows in for milking. There are 94 who are all named and recognized by the father of the operation. It was a beautiful thing to see the love he has for them. We all watched the milking process for a while, and chatted with the two men doing the work. Saylor and Alex are making plans for Saylor to bring along his machete and hatchet next time. It appears Alex has some brush she’d like cleared! ;) Boy, has she found her man!

We had corn dogs and chicken nuggets and tmr (for humans) salad, and strawberry shortcake and Kool-Aid for lunch. The kids played upstairs with oh so many new and interesting toys. They played the Wii together for a while. MD introduced a new on-line game to the boys, and the boys helped him with his new World of Warcraft character. They all climbed onto the treadmill together. They watched snippets of My Little Pony and The Last Unicorn and The Simpson’s and Family Guy. We’ll be visiting them again soon, hopefully a couple more times before we head back to Rapid City.

Another beautiful family is entering our circle and for that I am deeply grateful. It’s truly exciting to think we could point randomly to almost any state in the country, and know we’d have an open invitation to be with people just like this, with open minds and open hearts. It just doesn’t get any better than that!

****UPDATE****
As I publish this post from last week, we find ourselves at the PolyKow residence once again. We came up here on Thursday afternoon, and spent Thursday and Friday night here with our friends. I'll post more about this visit with photos soon (maybe?)! No guarantees!!! :)