Something completely different

Business, an offer, excuses, a thank-you:

If you're expecting e-mail from me, ever, save this: aelflaed@gmail.com and put Sandra Dodd on it, in your address book. Because of the dismantling of my old site, moving it all out of and away from yahoo small business and photobucket storage, my main/default e-mail is now my gmail address. Sorry.

To encourage people to save and try that out, if you want a Christmas card from me, or a post card (if you'd rather), send your mailing address to aelflaed@gmail.com

I have finished ten years of Just Add Light and Stir. If you're reading this on the blog, there is a randomizer and it says

Another Good One
of over 3500 posts

Ten years mighta shoulda yielded 3,650 posts, but I'm short. I have 3,552. Sometimes I was traveling, or fell asleep, or both. A time or two I was sick. A few, I deleted because they were business posts a bit like this one (but not JUST like this one!).

Here is what I look like this week:

Several people sent donations, for which I'm grateful. I would like to send notes, but if they come from the e-mail address up above, they might go into spam folders so please elevate aelflaed to a known entity. Thanks!

I want to thank Vlad Gurdiga, again, for the time and ability he offered freely to rescue so much unschooling writing over the past year. He's a hero; remember his name. He moved my entire website to another hosting company, and found a way to enable me to edit online as I was used to doing. He figured out the mystery of how to move all my many photobucket folders (from three accounts) to my site, too.

When Yahoogroups said they would no longer maintain the archives of groups, Mr. Vlad Gurdiga, my hero, rescued archives from Always Learning, Unschooling Discussion, and Unschooling Basics. You might have noticed links to some of those, where they reside on my site, as I have come across great quotes in there to share here. It's too much to read through, and there's no good "next," but things come up in site search now [sometimes]. It is wonderful.

The entryway might be prettier someday, but feel free to poke around. Watch your step!

SandraDodd.com/archive/

To lead you to peaceful things, here are some posts with photos of water in them.
I'll be back tomorrow with a regular post, most likely!

A good person

Someone wrote:

"I wanted to say that this blog, out of all the blogs in the blogosphere, encourages me the most. It lets me know, that my actually natural inclinations as a parent (to love, to focus on relationship, to care for the inside more than the outside) are what I should be listening to. It is so easy in this world to get mired down in how we *should* do something. I admit to falling for this time and time again. I just wanted you to know this blog to be a true inspiration for how to be not only a 'good' unschooling parent, but just a good person. Thank you."

That comment was left by "unknown," when the blog was three years old, in 2013.

Just Add Light and Stir is ten years old now.

Thank you for reading.


The comment was at Gradually Climb, October 22, 2013.
photo by Sandra Dodd

Climb up a notch.

Tina Bragdon wrote:

For all you negative people out there, you really can change, but you have to want to change. That concept of changing the next moment is so powerful, especially if you feel overwhelmed like I did at the thought of a total life overhaul all at once. You can chose to read a little, try a little, wait a while, watch, and "climb up a notch." And even if it is "just" a tiiiiiinnny notch at first, the positivity and joy builds on the next moment and perpetuates itself, an beautiful ongoing circle as you climb up out of being cynical and negative.

And, the view is great up here!

—Tina Bragdon

Seeing and Avoiding Negativity
photo by Renee Cabatic
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Nearly ten years of this

When I started Just Add Light and Stir, I didn't think "And I'll still be doing this in ten years!" In two days, September 2, year 11 begins. I suppose there's a possibility I'll still be doing it for another ten. 🙂

The past six months have been awkward and unsettling. After years and years of others looking askance at unschooling, though, and asking questions like "Don't you get tired of being together so much?" and "How can they learn without a lot of other kids around?" then all this happened. ALL the families were sent home to stay and learn.

Unforeseen benefits of unschooling are fun to collect, but I did not see this one coming. Unschoolers seemed to find that the transition from choosing to stay home to being told to stay home a while wasn't very difficult. Others, used to recitations about the crucial importance of school, of being around other people, and of scattering out every day, didn't slip as smoothly into being home.

Thank you for reading here, and for being examples others might be comforted or inspired by. Calm and peace are valuable resources.

This is my quieter-than-usual annual request for financial assistance. The main page of SandraDodd.com has a donation link at the bottom, but ignore this if you're not flush and comfortable these days. If money is short, put it toward your children's ease and stability.

photo by Jo Fielding

No one can envision everyone

To tell a young child something disturbing will not give him a context for distance, nor for the possibility of the problem being solved by you, or him, or by governments.

And if a parent of a young child is looking outward, and collecting hurts and sorrows and bringing them home to sort through and bemoan, who is holding that child and touching him gently, singing to him and smiling at him?

That's the end of something longer, at SandraDodd.com/politics/
photo by Jamie Parrish

What's in there?

Half-empty cups are substantially different from half-full cups. It's not just theoretical holy water in those cups. The half-empty cups hold a concoction of frustration and need and irritation. The half-full cups contain joy and hope and gratitude.

page 213 of The Big Book of Unschooling (or page 185, of the first edition)
photo by Karen James
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Many homey, happy things

Part of what makes a house a home is the familiarity of the dishes, towels, tools and chairs. Easily, we can forget to look, but in memories of childhood homes and grandparents' and friends' homes, you might recall things that seemed special to you as a guest. Sometimes I'll see a bowl, or pot-holder, or cheese grater that reminds me of my granny's house, or my mamaw's. One of my aunts had house plants and photos of Elvis, intermingled on shelves.

Some things about your house will be memories for your children and grandchildren, but you can't know which things those will be.

Dishes (and peace)
photo by Karen James