A Hot Minute

Guys.

It's been a long time since I've blogged. I kind of tried to hold it together at the beginning of 2018 and then I realized that I just needed to let it go. I participated in a yoga teacher training, and really just family life and work took over. Instagram became kind of an "insta-journal" (as I know it did for a lot of people) but sometimes I still miss the long-form rambling of our blog. :) I think often that "someday" I'll get back to it, but I don't know that it will ever be as consistent as it once was.

YTT Barefoot Yoga Davis, June 2018

baby #3 announcement! October 2018

Charlie Jamison Alston, born May 9, 2019

Chick-Fil-A Cow Appreciation Day, Summer 2019

Kate, Charlie, and Edwin: ROCKLIN HOUSE Christmas 2019

Then enter: THE QUARANTINE. I decided to finally tackle a few projects that have been put off for a while, and one of those was Edwin's first-year baby calendar. ;) (Kind of like his baby book. We have done a first-year calendar for each of our kids, and I love it!) Well, there were dates and some information that I hadn't filled in, and the way that I was able to go back and find the information I needed was... THE BLOG! :) I'm so grateful that I saved the pictures and stories that I did.

My dad has also started recording his personal history and stories from his childhood. It has been really awesome to read! Kate and I spent Sunday during our Church-at-home looking at family history books of my great-grandpa John David Tensmeyer. It has really re-inspired me to work more diligently at our personal histories.

As I was looking through the old blog here I found 16 drafts that I started and never finished! I'll see if we can get caught up to speed here and fill in some gaps from the last couple years. Jon has always been great about printing our blog years into books, and I love that we have those recorded, so it is my hope to have a great collection of our family history from these books, too!

Thanks for being here with us and following the journey of The Alston Family. <3 nbsp="" p="">

EASTER 2020

Year of Learning - RECAP

Welcome 2018!

Our Year of Learning in 2017 was a great success. There wasn't really much to measure it by--we didn't have specific challenges or adventures to check off, but the overall goal for the year was to pursue learning and education, and we certainly did that!

Kate started homeschooling, which was a big learning experience for our whole family. She is officially a kindergartner, enrolled with Inspire Charter school, where we do most of our learning at home, and personalize her other classes based on her interests. She attends an Enrichment Academy once a week which is like a few hours of "regular school". It's all homeschool kids and they work on reading, cultural projects, math, writing, and art. They have recess and bring backpacks, etc. Kate also attends the Love of Learning homeschool co-op here in Rocklin once a week where she takes a Kinder Creators class and a Learning with Legos class. She LOVES her teachers and has been making new friends. Between homeschool and primary classes at church, Nora and Avery are the friends I hear about the most.

Edwin isn't officially in school yet, but he homeschools right along with us. :) I make projects that will go along with Kate's but be more at his skill level. Edwin likes watching Kate work on her ABC Mouse or Math Seeds lessons (online subscriptions for learning games). Counting, tracing letters, art, cooking, and gymnastics are just a few of the things he really enjoys participating in.

Jon started off this last year looking for work. We had just moved back from Idaho and needed something desperately. He found a job at Placer Title in May, and has mainly been focused on working there since. He did begin a PhD program in September of 2017, but priorities were quickly shifted and he withdrew his enrollment a month later. Learning full-time through a formal program is just not where our family needs are at right now. We were disappointed that he would have to give up the PhD, but the individual learning, reading, and growing from home can always continue. Jon just finished designing the fourth issue of the  From Sac literary journal, and has a full non-fiction novel draft in the editing process.

Steph started off last year working two part-time jobs and working out at a gym, doing yoga and trying to pursue a teacher training program. While at the gym she was able to participate in a nutrition workshop and learn how to meet her goals of becoming a nutrition coach. She signed up for Precision Nutrition's certification program in October, and has not been able to complete a chapter yet. It's been very discouraging. Thankfully it's a "work-at-your-own-pace" online program.

During the summer of 2017 we moved into a different rental house, living with Steph's mom, we started homeschooling, and Steph has been working part-time on and off all year. Family budgeting changes and time management put the serious yoga pursuits on hold (going to a studio/gym and paying for a teacher training is just not feasible), and while Jon has continued to look for better work, we are sort of stuck, making do with what we have.  It has slowed us down, but hasn't completely squashed all hope for educational progress.

I think we learned the most this year personally, and about our family. 2017 was a hard year of just "getting by". It didn't feel like we were really moving forward in any direction. Maybe a little bit backward, and laterally. It felt a lot like scrambling to survive. But landing in a stable place was ultimately the goal. And we're in a place where we can develop routine, so that's nice. We're looking forward to 2018 getting back to goals and being able to focus on something else other than where we're going to live and how we're going to pay for it.

Steph has some potential sewing classes in the works and gets her braces off in a few months! Hopefully a YTT will turn out to be accomplishable before December. ;)

Jon is teaching Paper Arts one day a week at the Love of Learning center and has a Creative Writing collaboration class coming up in the fall. We're excited about getting more involved with the homeschool community we have found.

Kate has told us that she is never ever going to quit gymnastics (although she has seemed to recently develop a fear of heights) so we will see where her interests continue to grow! She is getting better at writing and reading--all at her own pace! She has also told us for years now that she wants to play the drums, and thankfully we know a really good local teacher. ;)

Edwin is finding his loves and growing a ton. He is comfortable at gymnastics, which has been a huge breakthrough! He has also recently reverted back to taking a nap every day, which NOBODY is sad about! He will be 4 in a couple months, and I can't believe my baby is so big. :'( His "most favorite" present from Christmas was a "little bee-tar" (little guitar, aka ukulele). We're excited for music lessons in Kate and Edwin's near future. :D

Thanks for following along with our little family while we figure everything out. We hope you all are having a beautiful start to the New Year!

Family Theme of 2018, announcement soon ;)

Trunk-or-Treat

Our church Trunk-or-Treat Halloween Party this year was a huge success!

Kate and Edwin had another adorable year of dressing up together (last year was Lilo and Stitch) and this time around they decided on Rainbow Dash and Spike the Dragon from My Little Pony. :)

Rainbow Dash is a pegasus known for her adventurous spirit and competitive attitude. She loves all the colors, is bright, fast, and FUN! I can't think of a more Kate costume than Rainbow Dash.

Together we made Kate's Rainbow Dash tutu. It was so fun! We were able to pull some pieces from a sparkly tutu I wore at Disneyland earlier this year. << Recycling costumes is our jam. We shaped the back of the tutu to be longer like a tail. Kate made her own necklace with a kit that we found at a craft store, and her shirt was a turtleneck we found at a thrift store. It was the perfect solid blue color! I altered the neckline at home.

Her hooves were made with felt squares, which I cut to the right shape and then added velcro and elastic to so that they would stay on around her shoes. The pony ears were also made with felt squares and a craft-store headband. We tucked extra rainbow colors of tulle into her ponytail, sprayed some glitter hairspray, and voila! Rainbow Dash hair.

The only pre-finished thing I actually bought were her wings. I considered making them, but for the sake of time and expense I found these cute child-size Rainbow Dash wings at Halloween City. They were sparkly, and they already had a cutie mark on the back! (Cutie marks are typically on the hips of the ponies and indicate their special talents.)

Speaking of which... I did actually make Kate a cutie mark out of craft foam for the side of her tutu, but we forgot to attach it for the Trunk-or-Treat! Hopefully I can get a picture of it tonight. ;)

Edwin has also really enjoyed watching My Little Pony with Kate and friends this summer, so he was super jazzed to be Twilight Sparkle's sidekick, Spike the Dragon!

Spike is totally adorable, and I think it was the perfect costume for Edwin. I wanted to make sure the dragon costume was done right, so we found a Simplicity pattern and picked out fabric together at the craft store:

The bumpy purple seemed like just the right stuff for cuddly dragon skin, and the lime green felt was an awesome touch! Elastic went around his shoes to hold on the claw feet. It was so fun to watch him walk around as a little dragon! I didn't get many pictures of the side or back of Edwin, (he wasn't really jazzed about taking pictures that night) but my most favorite part was his tail.

Edwin also had little mittens with claws on them, but decided not to wear them at the last minute.

We were also able to bring some friends along to the Trunk-or-Treat, which was super fun! Pretty much for the first time EVER my bestie Michelle and her family live in the same state with us at Halloween. It's been great to get our kids together!

Liam (who IS Harry Potter) and his Uncle Eli (a guy from Halo) 

Like, seriously...  <3 p="">

We ALSO got to bring our awesome friends Dani, Jake, and Rylan along with us! I love seeing our kids practice trick-or-treating together. :) Rylan and Edwin are both so shy. But they got the hang of it and got quite the collection of candy, haha. Plus Rylan makes the most adorable kitty-cat ever.

We hope everyone has a fantastic, safe, and happy Halloween!!

Family Home Evenings

Every Monday night we have a Family Home Evening (FHE). It's a great way to make sure that we're spending time together at least once a week and don't make any other plans on that night.

We start with allowance. We've been giving the kids their own allowance each week for a couple months now (since Kate turned 5). We learn about paying tithing, choose if we want to put money into savings or into our wallets to spend, and then we track all of our spending by saving receipts and writing down our expenses on a ledger. Kate has a box that she keeps all her receipts in and Edwin has an envelope. :)

Edwin told us he rolls up his money "like a yoga mat"

It's been a fun way to help the kids learn early about budgeting, saving, and how to keep track of their money. It's ALSO been great for us when we go places and the kids ask for candy or toys. I tell them that they are absolutely welcome to buy whatever they like with their own money. It has helped cut down on tantrums, and also has started to help them understand and have empathy for the family choices we make while grocery shopping, or going to other stores. We talk about what mommy and daddy have planned to spend money on, and why we can or cannot buy a certain thing, even though we might REALLY want it.

For instance, we went up to Apple Hill a couple weeks ago, and the kids picked out a few things they wanted. We had agreed as a family to buy some apple donuts, caramel apples to share, and a few bags of apples for baking. Kate and Edwin chose to get balloon creations with their own money:

a flower!

and a cucumber... yep. He was freakin' in love with this thing.

But of course they wanted to do EVERYTHING! From pony rides, to face painting, to bounce houses, it was all going to add up super fast. We checked at a couple of the activity stands, and were told that the pony rides were $5. Kate only had $2 in her wallet. We went to the bounce house and they told us that it would be $5 for access to bounce all day. Kate got super frustrated and said, "I want them to stop saying that everything costs $5!" It was an excellent opportunity for us to talk about how we choose to spend our money, and that if we buy candy at the grocery store every week then we don't have the money to do bigger activities when those events come up. Since then the kids have been adding money to their wallets and saying that it's for doing fun things up at Apple Hill. :) Practicing self control at 3 and 5 years old is hard, but we would rather have them learn money lessons NOW instead of later when the stakes are much higher!

In addition to allowance, our FHE usually involves a mini lesson and an activity. :) For a few weeks we worked on our 72 hour kits and emergency preparedness plan.

We also have had lessons on pornography, family history, and played games like Book of Mormon quizzes.

This last week we started "Missionary Mondays". Our goal is to share each week about a friend of family member that we know who is out in the world serving a mission. We talk about where they are, what the place in the world is like, and then write them letters or draw pictures to send them some mail. :)

The first missionary we talked about is Sister Arnold. She is serving off the coast of West Africa in Cabo Verde.

I met Sister Arnold in my German class at BYUI. She even joined us for Thanksgiving a couple years ago!

Thanksgiving in Rexburg: November 2015

It's so fun to see where she is now, and read her weekly emails about learning Portuguese and teaching the gospel in Praia.

I'm really glad that we've been able to make Family Home Evening a better habit now that we're a little more settled. We've always done weekly activities (and really when your kids are little and not in school yet it feels like every day is Family Home Evening, haha). But it's fun to see how excited they get now about the things we do together. They are much more interactive and love to learn. Having a designated night to be together has been a great way to check in and make sure that at least once a week we are learning and growing together.

Kate and Edwin are growing up so fast! We love having them in our family. Even though I try to document it, it's hard to remember everything. :) I'll end here with a funny video of Kate and Edwin just being themselves. ;)

Counting Down to Halloween!

This last week we...

watched birds together during breakfast:

they like to sit on the string lights around our patio :)

Went to support our friends at their law office open house:

We played FHE Jeopardy!

Candy points were won instead of money. ;) Final Jeopardy was drawing your favorite scripture story:

We did some yoga:

Started gymnastics:

Went to the Golden Eagle Band Spectacular:

got Boo'ed!

and helped make our Halloween costumes!

We're super excited for all the holiday festivities coming up next!

Our Year of Learning

This year is 3/4 of the way through, and our Year of Learning has been a great success so far!

This year's theme is not as structured as themes of past years. We don't have set days or months that we do certain things. But that wasn't the point of this year. The goal was to focus on cultivating a family culture of learning and progressively engaging in lifelong education.

For instance, our homeschool method has been pretty organic and guided by what Kate and Edwin are interested in learning. Some days Kate works on her Alphabet Workbook:

Recognizing letters, being able to write them, and sounding out basic words is pretty standard in Kindergarten, but we're not pushing Kate to learn to read in any certain amount of time. She pulls out her book whenever she wants, and on her own does a tracing or matching picture a couple times a week.

In the meantime, we read a TON. The kids are always bringing me stacks of books, and we visit the library every week. I love when I find Kate and Edwin reading together. :)

Even when we go to the park they love to read with friends!

Edwin, Kate, Liz, and Caleb reading a library book at Night Ridge park in Rocklin

While Kate is at her Learning Center on Wednesdays, Edwin and I go to the library for story time. This week was all about DINOSAURS and they even got to make their own fossils!

Edwin was in heaven. He was so focused and worked on his clay footprints longer than any of the other children.

The stories we read direct the lessons and projects we work on. For instance, this week Kate brought me a book about volcanoes. We read about types of volcanoes, and where they are in the world. Then Kate and Edwin used our World map to mark the Ring of Fire (a border around tectonic plates where 452 of the World's most volcanic activity can be found). Afterward we watched some YouTube videos showing lava flows and the volcanologists who study them.

We also read about deep sea creatures and marked on our map where all of the oceans are and named them, largest to smallest (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Southern).

Sometimes our craft projects turn into great opportunities for learning! With all the pumpkin painting and Halloween decorating we've been doing lately, Edwin had asked for a spider project this week. Thankfully we have an abundance of paper and crafting materials in our house, haha! Together we cut out spider bodies and legs with black cardstock, and practiced our scissor skills while we talked about how many legs spiders have.

We practiced counting, and learned about fractions and sets of numbers, then Kate asked where on spider's bodies they have their eyes, so with the National Geographic Kids website we watched some spider videos and learned that spider bodies are VERY fuzzy, and many spiders have eight eyes. :O We learned about black widows, tarantulas, jumping spiders, and peacock spiders, as well as where they live and what they eat.

Cutting, gluing, crafting, cute holiday fun, and a science lesson all-in-one!

As a family we also focus on daily gospel learning. Reading illustrated scripture stories together has become a stronger habit, and we recently started indexing name batches with the kids (as part of a stake conference goal, but also just a good excuse to help Kate and Edwin understand family history and genealogy work.)

The kids get to practice letter-recognition, basic reading, and typing skills, while we help process records for family history research. :) Win-Win!

The homeschool chart has also turned out to be an awesome visual representation of our day. The kids love pulling cards to see what we've done and what we can still find to do, and they love helping with family work along with other projects. They are my little buddies, always by my side, and we build our day of work and learning together!

The Year of Learning hasn't been reserved to just kid-focused learning either. Jon started his PhD studies this month, focusing on neurological research to fuel his critical analysis portion of a 3-year Creative Writing doctorate.

The kids love looking at daddy's "brain book" with him, and it's fun to see how much the kids notice and pay attention to the learning that Jon is doing after work each day.

I also started a program this month for certification as a Nutrition Coach!

This course is a jam-packed guide to nutrition science, the design of the body, and how to work with varying individuals to meet their specific nutrition needs (managing disease, stress factors, and other issues that may complicate the overall balance of nutrients and maximum wellness).

The kids helped me set up my study schedule and carve out some daily school time:

Edwin, however, was more interested in when we would be eating lunch. ;)

Even working on this blog post today the kids helped me type, upload pictures, and arrange everything together. :) It's awesome to see their little minds at work.

I'm so excited to see how our Year of Learning has evolved in ways I never would have imagined back in January! It makes me hopeful that homeschool will keep growing into a lifelong love, and that we'll never want to look back. I also hope that when our kids remember their childhood they will see colorful experiences, lots of family outings, and opportunities to learn with constant creativity.

I'll leave you here with Kate's name that she typed out all on her own:

kate alston/