Cinder Mountain Scholars

Switching troops during the life of a scout can be a tricky thing! I do not have the cards for all the merit badges that Christian completed from our old troop. He finished First Aide, Emergency Preparedness and Citizenship in the Community before we moved, three of the "required for Eagle" merit badges.

At scout camp in our new ward, Christian completed: Pioneering, Personal Management, Photography, Bird Studies, Mammal Studies, and Fish and Wildlife Management. With all these, he should have finished his Star. But, we cannot get all the information together to prove it. Kind of a bummer since now he will have to wait until the next Court of Honor (if I can get all the info together or he will need to do them again).

Christian had a great time at camp and came back with a ton of stories. Our new troop has many good qualities. The Court of Honor was out in the woods in a beautiful spot at Shultz Pass. I guess living in the woods brings it close enough to have events like this frequently...and only 15 minutes from home!

The only drawback is some of the discrimination going on (not just in scouts, but in Flagstaff in general). We have been termed "Phoenicians" because we moved up here from the Valley. That term brings with it many derogatory comments about how silly or weird "Phoenicians" are...and since we are considered in that category...well, let's just say there have been some hurt feelings. I fully admit to being shocked by many things in our new environment and making comments about them has brought some of this on us (my mistake). The leaders wonder why my son does not care about scouts anymore and the entire ward is now making comments about how Christian never smiles...well, he used to smile all the time! Maybe they need to look in the mirror to find the source of his unhappiness.

4th of July
I have a bunch of pictures of the 4th of July, but have not downloaded them...

We spent the morning at the parade. I was disappointed that most of the things in the parade were "commercials" for various businesses around town. Very few Independence Day floats and even fewer American themes. Have we forgotten what we are celebrating here? Independence, freedom, "the American Way"...where have these themes gone? The best part of the parade was a Samba group, they were very talented, and a few bands were good too. I was impressed with a couple floats, but some of the churches and the gay pride march were awful.

The very BEST part was spending the time together as a family. Mike was home, Sam was home, and we all spent the entire day together. I had prepared some good food and we ate throughout the day, napped in the afternoon, pulled all our poppers and lit all our fireworks, and went to go see some fireworks (which were disappointing as well - even the kids kept asking to go home because it was lame).

Mike's B-day
We celebrated Mike's birthday on Sunday, since we would hardly see him on his actual birthday. He loves lemon, so we made him Lemon cupcakes (per his request). I made some of his favorite meals and he received Season 8 and 9 of Seinfeld, his all-time favorite show. He has been asking for those seasons for awhile. I wish we could have done more, but time and money just did not allow it. He was able to take a good nap and spend time with us, so in all , a good birthday.

I am so happy to have Mike as my Eternal Companion. He is truly the love of my life and my Best Friend all rolled up into one fantastic person. He works so hard to support our family, take care of our needs, and spend fun time with us. Mike has always been so supportive of me and anything that I wanted to do. He is a loving father and a great friend. Together, we are a complete and balanced. I love you, Mike!

Now that I finished my 5 Pillar Certification list (see my last post), I don't know what to do with myself! I typically spend a lot of time during the summer:

• looking for curriculum (our curriculum is already decided)
  
• deciding what to teach the kids next year (already decided)
  
• updating my own web skills (I'm stuck and can't progress)
  
• designing blogs or websites (not interesting anymore)
  
• reading (can still do that)
  
• learning a new skill - like sewing or something (don't have money to start new projects)
  

But, this summer I'm having a hard time finding peace and joy in my typical summer pursuits. I think it is because of our new environment. When we lived in the scorching valley in Queen Creek, the outdoors was not something we ventured out into often during the summer. If we did, it was to swim and then run back home to air conditioning.

Now that we live in the beautiful pines. I want to find things to do outdoors. After all, we will be stuck inside during the winter. Also, we do not have an established circle of friends yet to do things with. We are making friends, but, it has only been 3 months so I can't expect to be invited to everything or for the kids to have best friends yet.

So, I feel that an adjustment in our yearly schedule is coming...the ebb and flow of life is changing for us because we actually have SEASONS now.

I started working on my 5 Pillar Certification reading list a little over 2 years ago. I am so excited that I just finished my last book, "Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers". Yippee! I have worked very hard to complete this challenge that I placed upon myself, but sometimes I struggled to read books that were not MY choice. I think this experience was one to help me over the hump of transitioning to Scholar Phase and beginning to fill in more of the holes in my education, in areas like biographies, plays, and non-fiction works. I have a lot more work to do in order to feel "well-educated".

I have come to the conclusion that a college education is not much of an education at all. Sure, I learned small amounts about literature, web-design, math, and history...but, my current readings have taught me far more than what I learned in college. I feel so blessed to have found Leadership Education (a.k.a. Thomas Jefferson Education) and to be experiencing this for myself while my children are still young to learn at home in a way that makes their education truly theirs and not some rubber-stamp education provided by the government. I hope that everyone who reads this post will continue their education by reading the good books from the great minds of history.

I have only cracked the surface!

In an attempt to teach my children more about music and the great composers, I am using "Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers" by Patrick Kavanaugh. I decided that in addition to reading about these composers, we must also listen to their music. The Internet has so many great things to offer, and in this area it was difficult to find free resources, but I prevailed after much searching and felt it was wise to share this research.

Online Resources for listening to these composers mentioned in the book:

1. Johann Sebastian Bach - Musopen - Incompetech
   
2. George Frederic Handel - Musopen
   
3. Franz Jospeh Hayden - Musopen
   
4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Musopen
   
5. Ludwig van Beethoven - Musopen
   
6. Franz Peter Schubert - Musopen
   
7. Felix Mendelssohn - Musopen
   
8. Frederic Chopin - Musopen
   
9. Franz Liszt - Musopen
   
10. Richard Wagner - Musopen
    
11. Charles Gounod - FreeScores
    
12. Cesar Franck - FreeScores
    
13. Anton Bruckner - FreeScores
    
14. Johannes Brahms - Musopen
    
15. Antonin Dvorak - Musopen
    
16. Edward Elgar - Musopen
    
17. Ralph Vaughan Williams
18. Charles Ives
19. Igor Stravinsky - Musopen
    
20. Olivier Messiaen

I was not able to find much on a couple of the composers, probably because they are more recent and do not have much royalty free music out there.