Making Merry

Since I last checked in we have enjoyed some extra family time, as Jeff has had a week off.  With my foot, there was not a lot we could do so we were often home resting, getting ready for the upcoming busy season. It has been a joy to just hang out together.

Last week was pretty band heavy, so it was nice to have an extra driver.  Ryan had a jazz clinic, extra jazz rehearsal, pep band at the boys basketball game, all day Saturday jazz festival, and he played bass in a Sunday school band on Sunday.  Band is done until after Christmas.  Yay!  All his hard work paid off, as he was awarded one of only two Outstanding Musicianship awards.

Grace and Trevor got to spend two nights with their grandparents this past weekend.  They got to go to our church's Christmas musical.  Jeff and I had to be in another town with the jazz band.  I was sad to miss the musical, but it could not be helped with all the band going on.

Jeff and I had some fun times, too.  We enjoyed his firm's game night and of course all the jazz on Saturday. We got to hear some great bands.  We stopped for a steak dinner on the way home from the jazz festival.  It was a real treat.

Last evening, we finished up our online shopping for Christmas.  Today we will go to the mall, hopefully for the last time this season.  Jeff is back to work on Wednesday.  The two high school kids have finals to complete.  And there are plans for them to go swing dancing Friday.  The week will fly by! There is wrapping, baking and shopping to do.  Only 11 days until Christmas Eve!!!

My Marching Warrior

Marching Band

Tonight is the night!  The band has been working so hard for this moment, the first football game of the season.  They have brand new uniforms and a brand new football field.  My darling husband is going to be working the concession stand.  I am going to be taking photos, using a better camera, I promise.  (These are horrible, I know.)

As I was watching them at rehearsal last night, my emotions welled up within me.  Here was my boy, on a field with 199 other kids, working like slaves for their beloved director.  How impressive they are!  It overwhelms me to think how blessed we are to have this opportunity.  He is living out his purpose, and is where he is supposed to be.  I feel it in my bones!  Thanks be to God.

Just Like That

Summer is over!  Ryan went back to the local high school yesterday.  He was eager to get back to band. The first 3 hours of his day are in band.  The rest of his day is AP Literature, Honors Pre Calculus, US History, and Anatomy/Physiology.  He will be very busy with 3 evening band rehearsals, football games, and band competitions.  Here we go!

Grace, Trevor and I still have until August 10th before we launch our new adventure of online school.  I have been attending online training for the computer system that I must learn.  I feel well supported and ready.  We are working on getting our desks ready.  I purged a bunch of things.  Yay!

We have also continued to ride our bikes at least 25 miles a week.  The humidity has made riding a challenge, but we are not allowing it to stop us.  Last Saturday we rode over 12 miles on a trail in a town half an hour away with my parents.  I hope we can go back soon.

The garden is growing.  We cannot eat all the cherry tomatoes, so Jeff took some in to the office today.  I like that kind of problem.  I am hoping the big tomatoes will ripen soon, but not all at once.  The cucumbers have slowed way down.  I enjoyed making refrigerator pickles.

We went with Mom on an adventure to find our great grandparent's graves.  It had been awhile since we had been there, most likely when Grandpa died in the late 80's!  It is kind of far away, and we just don't get out there.  They are  in Heaven, anyway.  But it is nice to see that the graves are looked after.

Hope your summer is going well!

It's So Final

Boy, another week has flown by!  This past week was finals week for my oldest.  He also had a cold, and a big marching band rehearsal one evening during finals.  He managed to do very well, thankfully.  He got a perfect score on his Chemistry final, amazing!  I have to say, he really had a great year, and we are very thankful.  He also received notice of a very good SAT score.  What a week for him.

Enjoying the pretty sky as we wait for oldest at band. 

The rest of us, well, we had a nice first week of summer vacation.  Jeff was off for Memorial Day and Friday as well.  Memorial Day was memorable as we purchased new appliances, which were installed on Friday.  I feel so spoiled, yet the learning curve is steep with fancy systems to master.  

Blessed!

Tuesday through Thursday, besides running Ryan back and forth to school, we rode our bikes, worked on the house by putting away camping things, and just enjoyed some down time.  We rode our bikes 26.4 miles this week.  Awesome.

First fruits!  Almond pound cake. 

Saturday we finally got to our local farm market.  We found some soap, salad dressing, and enjoyed all the sights.  We also had to do our weekly stock up trip to the grocery store since we had to empty our old fridge for the new one, and wait for the new one to be cold enough.  Best part of the day for me was getting new athletic shoes.  My feet were hurting from wearing the old ones.

My silly boy. 

Mom and Dad's bikes ready to go. 

Sunday was our biggest bike ride of the season so far.  We packed up our bikes, and after church, and a fine lunch at my parents, we all headed to a bike trail for an 8 mile ride.  We are still learning to ride together,so there were a few bumps, but the trip was proof of concept.  We are hoping to do another longer ride soon.

Hope you are having a good start to your summer, as well!

Changing Seasons

This last week has been a busy one, and we are finding ourselves in a season of change.  I suppose this was bound to happen as our children grow,and find themselves needing, wanting different things.  Thankfully, the Lord has been protecting my tender mama's heart from too much change.  I am not sure I could handle a lot more!

The change is in several forms.  The first is that we are finding it more difficult to go camping as a family. Already, our oldest had stopped going a few years ago.  Now that he is 17, he is able to stay by himself and cat sit.  And his involvement in marching band makes our camping trips less frequent, as we are trying to be supportive band parents.

The other two still enjoy camping, though not as much as they once did.  And frankly, Jeff and I are finding it a lot more work than fun, even with the teen's willing help.  So, we had the unusual experience of coming home from a camping trip and deciding to cancel two upcoming trips!  It is usually the opposite.  Nothing bad happened.  We all just said that day trips would be as nice, and we love our home!  Perhaps that is one of the precipitates.  We love being closer to home as there is so much to do around here.  We did schedule a trip up to our beloved lake in July, but we will stay at a hotel.  We will see how it goes.  We don't plan to sell the camper just yet, but it is an idea on the table.  We spend $40 a month to store it.  We still have one camping trip left on the books.

The other change has to do with our schooling.  Our youngest had already declared himself ready to try the local public school.  With our oldest doing well there, we were considering it, however, they are two very different boys, and I was not totally on board.  Grace has mostly finished the Sonlight offerings for high school, as she started the high school cores when she was in middle school with an older brother going through them.  So she was also looking for a new school plan.  So, it has been decided that they will be enrolled in an accredited online school.  They will still be at home, which I like, but they will have outside accountability. Then if Trevor comes up with a compelling reason to try the public high school the following year, he will have accredited records that our local school will require.  He may not go.  He may like this online school well enough.  We shall see.  We have two friends who are enjoying this online school, so that gives us hope.

And as I mentioned last week, Jeff starts a new job this coming Monday.  I am praying it is a good fit.  I am so thankful that it is close to home. (Another reason to love our home!)  It is ironic though.  If he had not taken the job so far away, we never would have moved here.  God knew though!

Things Always Work Out

Here we are, at the last Saturday work day before tax season is over! I am pretty excited to soon have our family time back.  Looking back, it doesn't seem so bad, but in the thick of things, it was so hard.  Next week, we  may even get a couple extra days off, maybe.  Actually, he will probably just work from home a couple days, and not as many hours, because he is a manager now, and they are never totally off.   That is almost like time off.  

As for the questions of what to do this coming school year, those are sorting themselves out.  My oldest went back to school after spring break, and had a chat with his band leader.  It seems that if Ryan wants to, he can be in 6 bands next year.  Of course he wants to, so he went to see his guidance counselor and they set him up to take concert band (which includes marching and pep bands), beginning jazz for saxophone, advanced jazz band for guitar, and a combo jazz band.  That young man is going to spend a lot of time in the band room!  He is also going to take physics, AP literature, combined calculus/trig honors,and US history. I think it was a good decision.  I could not make it for him, and I would have supported him coming back home or going to community college.  I am thankful that we found such a good music program at our small local high school.  It's just a small town high school.  Who would have thought?  

My youngest is also going off to school, 8th grade, at the public school.  He wants to go, and we can't think of any reasons to keep him home, if he really wants to go.  We are calling it his "rumspringa" after the Amish children who get to go off and taste what the world has to offer before joining the church.  He will see that public school is not all that it seems to be or maybe it will be a good fit.

My daughter will be home, and we will be working on making 10th grade a great year.  One of my hopes is to find a place nearby to volunteer together.  I am thinking about our options, like an animal shelter or nursing home.  I can't believe that she will be 16 this summer!  I have a lot of planning to do on her behalf.  I also need to locate all the books that we already have from when my oldest was home educated.  

My world is going to be so different next school year.  I know there are some who might not agree with our decisions, especially in my homeschool friend pool.  I think it is best to look at each individual child and decide what best fits their unique needs when making school decisions.  I also do not think public schools are all that great, unless you can use them to your advantage, like band. I cannot provide band at home.  In addition, as much as I try, I cannot keep them home forever.  I have to let them test their wings, especially my young men.  They are going to be in the world supporting their families one day. My daughter, well, she doesn't need that exposure, so I am glad she wants to be home sweet home.  Above all, I am grateful to the Lord's leading us.  I truly feel this is His will.  

Almost Easter, Time to Plan for Next Year?

In just a few days it will be Easter.  This is just another reminder how fast the year is going.  But this post is not to lament that fact. It's a bit of an eclectic brain dump that I am in need of here.  So many things to consider as we try to make plans for our next school year.

First of all, number one son is in the home stretch of his first year in a public school.  He is thinking hard about finishing at home next year.  The only thing keeping him from that decision is jazz band.  He has grown as a musician this year through his involvement in the public school band program.  He was even inspired to get a saxophone for his birthday, and is moving right along in that endeavor.  He is also working on his piano skills, because as he tells it, the piano is where music is written.  He takes his SAT next month.  That will probably help him to make the decision.  He is so bored by the public school's inefficiencies.  Dual college credit is a possibility if he leaves public school next year.

Secondly, my youngest has expressed a desire to go to the middle school next year, just to "see what it is like."  Well, we can guess what it is like from our high school experience, but he can't seem to get it out of his mind.  What I would love is to find an affordable class or two for him to take somewhere.  There are homeshcool classes around, but they are expensive.  I am praying for guidance.

Third, our current homeschool year is quickly winding down.  We only need 40 more days.  I have loved our studies this year, Sonlight 20th Century World History.  It's time to think about next year. I am not sure who will be home next year, so it is hard to plan for certain.  It is impossible, when I think about all the combinations!  So, I am just in a waiting mode.  I am waiting on the Lord to show me where to go next.  I could have 3 scholars or 1 or 2!  See my problem?  It will all get straightened out sooner or later. We are also waiting on the high school to see what classes my oldest could take if he stays.  He is not going to stay if they will not let him take advanced courses.

As for the one scholar who will certainly be home, well, she is the challenging one who loves to read, create, serve others, and hates all things math and science.  That doesn't add up to a Core 40 high school diploma, so we may have issues next year with biology, geometry, and a foreign language to tackle.  She wants to be a mom.  I want her to be a mom.  But is that God's plan?  We don't know.  We need her to be prepared for other possibilities.  It is hard when they get to be 10th grade and graduation is looming nearer.

Slow down time, cries my heart!

Back to Work

I am happy to report that we have jumped back into our studies, this being our second week back to work. It is never easy to pick up where we left off a couple weeks earlier.  We really had a rough break, too with much time devoted to saying goodbye to a loved one.

One of our bigger challenges at home has been our science.  We are using Apologia Physical Science. The kids really don't enjoy science, and that saddens me, because science is cool.  I don't know if it is our curriculum or my presentation.  We are not giving up. We will just keep trying, and I will be looking for ways to spice things up.

Currently in our history, we are up to the 1960's.  Our curriculum is taking more of an overview of the 21st century, which is fine. My students are enjoying the books. Grace is plowing through her classical literature class, reading Oliver Twist at the moment.  Trevor is reading Peter Pan.

On the home front, we are now into my CPA husband's busy season.  He is now a manager and is even busier than ever.  He leaves in the dark, and returns after dark.  This is normal, so we adapt and think about camping season in late April.

On the public school front, our oldest is continuing to enjoy his school.  He got the highest grade in all of the chemistry classes last semester.  In fact, he got all A's.  I am really proud of him.  I had such apprehensions about sending him.  He is showing us that he is quite capable and very smart!  Jazz band has been a highlight for him.  His new challenge this semester is taking an online class through the school.  That will help him meet all his credit requirements.

I am thankful for some rough weather we had last week.  It was so cold that our evening activities were cancelled.  It was nice to get back to our studies with a few less distractions.  It was actually wonderful.  It was a blessing.  Now we have to get back to them this week, but maybe we are more rested and ready.  Here we go!

Another Glorious Week

Hello friends.  Another week is behind us.  This time we celebrated my youngest's 13th birthday.  I am not going to linger trying to figure out how he is already 13 years old.  Time is going crazy fast.

Monday was back to school and work for all five of us.  It is always hard to send my oldest off to school, but he really loves it, so I am adjusting.  That afternoon he needed me to pick him up because he was bringing a guitar to school that he could not take home on the bus very easily.  He also wanted me to take him to Target to get a new CD.

Nothing much went on Tuesday except for school and laundry.  By Wednesday, we decided to take the day off from school to celebrate our birthday boy.

We could not have a full birthday celebration with church that night, but we did manage to spoil him pretty rotten.  Grace and I blindfolded him and took him to lunch at his favorite restaurant, Panda Express.  Then we got him a DQ ice cream cake for after church.  In the afternoon, I let them rent a movie, Muppets Most Wanted.

Our week otherwise was pretty uneventful.  Ryan also took the PSAT on Wednesday.  He and I went to dinner on Thursday before his karate class on Thursday.  Friday we stayed home and enjoyed a nice quiet Halloween.  The weather turned out to be the most frightful part of the day.  It was a snowy, rainy, windy night.  Jeff set up my bike trainer, and we are all making good use of it.

Happy November!

Catching Up

Hello Friends!  My sadly neglected blog is, well, sadly neglected.  I have this hang up about pictures.  I want to post pictures to go with my blog, but then I have to jump through hoops to get them from my phone to a computer.  So, I don't post anything.

My problem is that my phone is an old, old Apple, and it won't automatically upload to my Google photo storage anymore.  It's like I live in between two worlds!  At one point things were working, though.  And now the uploading has stopped.

(These are taken with my tablet. It's Android, so it works with Google.  But I don't take my tablet with me, so I don't have many pictures on it.) 

I realize this is all gibberish and not worth anyone's time reading, but it is what is holding up my blogging, that and I don't use a desktop computer anymore.  I have a tablet, a netbook, and a phone that doesn't like either, certainly a first world problem!

Otherwise, all is well here, mostly.  School is going well for my oldest.  He is getting all A's at this point.  The everyday aspects of public school wears on me.  Also the rigid, inflexible attitudes.  Yet, there are things they do that are better than my own offerings, namely math and science, so we adapt and move along.

Our homeschool is moving along nicely.  We are able to keep up with our reading, which is an accomplishment with Sonlight in high school.  Grace loves reading, so I think I have finally found her happy place.  She really enjoyed "Romeo and Juliet."  Right now she is reading "Jane Eyre."  She is also requesting more C.S. Lewis books.

Trevor, doesn't share Grace's love of reading, but is flying through high school geometry at age 12, so I am happy.  He has been working on reading "Huckleberry Finn."  We read "Tom Sawyer" last year.

Last weekend we stayed in a quaint little cabin at a state recreation area located in a state forest.  We had a great time riding our bikes, walking in the woods, and just hanging out together.  We had to cancel our Labor Day camping trip due to Ryan having strep throat.  That was a first, canceling due to illness.

This weekend we have a bike tour and family reunion.  I am bringing a big pumpkin cake, pasta salad, and fruit.  We will also get some fried chicken.  I am looking forward to seeing my family.  I hope I can ride my bike the required 10 miles.

We are busy with AWANA as Trek (Jr. High) leaders.  My oldest still does karate.  Life is full.  I need to find a way to upload some pictures from my phone, but decided not to keep me from writing.
~Jenn

Summer Wrap Up

 We are back from a great last camping trip before starting school.  We will still plan to go a couple more times.

 Grace bought herself a new guitar with her birthday money.  The house is alive with the sound of music!

  

My kitty is happy! 

Here we are in August!  We have started our homeschool year, on day 3 to be exact.  I always feel as if it is a big job to turn the tide from summer to school.  This year we have a 9th and 7th grader at home, and a 11th grader at public school.  

So far, the public schooler is doing very well.  Home scholars are also.  I am thankful for the good books we are digging into together.  This year we are studying the 20th century and classical literature.  

I miss my oldest quite a lot during the day.  Sometimes I watch his YouTube channel to hear his guitar playing.  However, I know I he is learning quite a lot and seems to be enjoying the opportunity.  I have been reaffirmed of our choice to homeschool, though.  The public schools are not very individualized.  

So, life is rolling along, and soon we will be back to our evening ministries.  I am not looking forward to the busy months ahead, but I know they are really short, because one day my kids will be gone and I will miss these busy days!  

Summer Snapshots

Hello friends!

Summer school for oldest son started on June 9th.  Since then, our day has consisted of driving son to school at 7, coming home to some quiet morning study, morning chores, riding our bikes, playing games, reading, going back to get son at 12:30, coming home to eat lunch, exercising with son, doing a chore, reading some more, watch Adam 12 with daughter, then making dinner!  We have not varied from that routine much for the last few weeks.

I have to admit that I was dreading summer school, but it has turned out to be a great experience for him.  He has proven to himself that he is a good student.  He learned to ask for help.  He learned how to navigate a tricky computer interface.  He learned how to persevere when things were boring, but you have to be diligent and wade through what "they" want you to know.  He is looking forward to starting the fall semester on July 29th.

Starting school so early doesn't leave us a whole lot of time for summer, unfortunately.  We have family to visit, a birthday to celebrate, a camping trip up north, all to cram into a few weeks.  I will make sure to make the most of these precious days!!!

This Week At Home, 2012, No. 31, First Week of School

Little notes written to remember each precious day....

Black Eyed Susans at a park. 

Monday...

As I already wrote, today was the beginning of our new school year.  It's a highly significant year for us as we are now in high school for better or worse.  I actually think it is going to be for the better.  Although, lingering doubts can rise to the surface, especially when I discover that I don't want to use one of our curriculum choices on day one! 

I am grateful to have a young man who loves to learn.  He has set up a website on a server in his room that can be accessed from any computer on our local network, which he also set up long ago.  This website will document his work.  I can check in and leave him notes.  He will write all his assignments there.  It's pretty neat.  He also set it up so I can print off things.  I love his attitude towards high school.  You can read more about that here.   

As for the younger two in our little school, they jumped back into our lessons with great eagerness.  I am not naive to think these attitudes will last more than a day.  *grins*  But, I do appreciate them for today.  We did our wonderful  Sonlight reading and I forgot, like I do every year, that the first day or two always leaves me with a strained voice from all the talking I have to do on a school day! 

5th grader! 

Tuesday...

Our lessons seemed to go a bit faster today.  We had the goal to finish and then go swimming with friends.  Unfortunately, our friends' mother canceled due to having a cold, so we went to my mom's pool.  They are in CO on a little vacation, but I know where to find the pool key.  :-)  The swim was just what we needed on such a hot day.  (Oh, this heat is not giving up!)

Frisbee golf outing. 

Wednesday...

We were up early to go to the bakery before school.  I bought them treats to celebrate the first week of school.  I would not have normally gone on a school day, nor bought them treats, but we are out of bread again and flour, too!

Today's high broke another record at 98 degrees.  There is supposed to be rain and cooler air coming tomorrow.  I sure hope so!  We hibernated this afternoon. We also took some time to tidy the house, which gets over looked all too easily.  I think we are starting to feel tired from all our lessons.  Math took longer today and we (when I say we, I mean the younger two and myself) made more errors.  The reality of the every day nature of school is sinking in.  

7th grader! 

Thursday...

OK, I admit it.  We took a little longer to get into our books today.  But the great news is that the reason is that it stormed all night!  We all woke up around midnight and again at 3AM.  At that point, I was awake and could not get back to sleep until after 4AM.  This rain was worth it though.  We got 2.5 inches over night!!!  Add that to the 1.5 we got over the weekend and we are on our way to drought relief.  Although the last I heard we needed more than 8 inches to make up the deficit.  So, I let the kids sleep in a little bit.  I would have too, except I like to have breakfast with Jeff every day.  The temperature will still be warm today, in the upper 80's, but I don't mind so much since it won't be a record high day.  I wish we could nap this afternoon, but after lessons we will go get some groceries. Tonight is also back to karate!
 

Deciding just how far that next hole is. 

Friday...

Fridays are going to be our library and bakery day, plus get ready for small group each week in August.  We are going to have a lighter school day, finishing up any holes from the week.  Amazingly enough, we did not let the house fall into ruins during our school week.  Maybe it was the fact that I knew we'd have to dig ourselves out on Friday before our small group came over.  Even the laundry was kept in check.  Not to brag on myself, but perhaps I am finally getting my act together? 

I thank you, if you've hung in here this long with this post.  I realize this week is not very exciting to write or read about.  I do feel as if we showed up on Monday prepared to sprint through a marathon and now we have the hard work of pacing ourselves through the next 176 days!  This happens every year, so I am prepared.  The weekend will go a long way in helping us catch our stride. 

This weekend we are celebrating extended family birthdays, weed whacking around the yard, tidying up in the garage a little, and participating in Sunday school kick off for the new school year.

Hope you have a great weekend! 

Jenn