Making Plans

It's that time again!  It's time to make plans for next year's schoolwork.  

I am working on putting finishing touches on Grace's 9th grade curriculum choices. Many of you know my dear Grace, her strengths and challenges. I am thinking of using Abeka for Health and grammar, as she is used to using their program. For math, we will continue in MUS Algebra 1. History and Literature/Writing will be covered with Songlight. She will most likely take an art class at the local high school, which is open to homeschoolers taking classes. I am still trying to find a program for her foreign language choice, American Sign Language! I was thinking we would continue French.  Oh, and for science, Apologia biology. I think that is it. 

For Trevor, my soon to be 7th grader, I will be using  Abeka for grammar, Sonlight for history, literature, and writing.  For math he will be ready for MUS geometry!  Yes, I said geometry.  He is sailing through algebra this year.  He will be doing science with Grace, too.  


Now that leaves Ryan, my 11th grader.  He has requested to enroll at the local high school.  It is something he has given a lot of thought to , and I won't go into all the details here.  He wants to be in their jazz band. He has met with the band director, and was given sheet music to practice.  Ryan will have to prove himself with the school.  He has to test out of all his 9th and 10th grade classes.  So, it is really now up to him to do the work.  

This coming school year is going to be quite different, but as usual, change is something you just have to learn to deal with around here!  

Wordless Wednesday: Guitar Crazy

A Big Birthday

Someone had a BIG birthday!!!

He pretty much had 3 days of celebrating.  The day of his birthday, we took him to get his fancy running shoes and had a lunch party with Nana before going to church.  The next day, I took him to pick out his gift from birthday money received, another guitar!

And I took him to McDonald's, his favorite fast food place (I know, I know.) before an evening at karate.  Then on the following Sunday, postponed due to snow, we had another lunch celebration after church.

Every mother says this, but truly, where has the time gone???

A Runner is Born

For Ryan's recent 16th birthday, he wanted some running shoes.  I was happy to oblige him, as I think practical gifts are wonderful, especially since he planned to use birthday money from generous grandparents to buy another guitar.  Finally the weather cooperated as well.  Last Friday, two days after his birthday, I took him to a local park that has a mile loop track.  I walked and he ran, passing me twice.  Ha, ha. Anyway, it signaled to me the end of my hibernation, and the beginning of his running career.  Today we walked to a small park five minutes from our house, shot some hoops, and then came back home.  I am loving this spring like weather, although, they say it is going to snow Wednesday and be cold for a few days. That's OK.  We will make the most of the warm days and wait until they become the norm!

Happy spring to you all.
~Jenn

Here we go, again!

It appears as if we are in line for one more storm this winter.  At this point, it is just part of the routine.  Right now I am rooting for a big storm, because this could be the year we beat the all time record for snow.  Why not be excited?  I am ready.  This morning we stocked up.  My husband is going to bring home work so that he can be safely at home Saturday through Monday if needed.  Thankfully we don't have to go out in the messy weather.  We can even join our church live via the Internet. School will go on as planned, too.

AND... Never fear, spring will be here, winter can't go on for much longer!

Photo from Porch Sitting Union of America

I Have a Cold

Unfortunately, I have caught a cold.  I hate being sick!  This one is mainly in my sinuses.  Thankfully, I cannot remember the last time I was sick, and I really have not been down and out sick, either.  I credit this to the ingredients in the above photo.  Twice a day, I have choked down the following.

In 6-8 ounces of warm water add:

• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon of honey
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• the juice of one small lemon  

I have also consumed great quantities of homemade chicken stock, so yummy.  I have continued to exercise at half the effort.  I have cut out the sugar, which amazingly enough, I have not been craving as usual.  All I crave right now is sleep!  

I am really praying that no one else gets this, but yesterday, Ryan said he thought he was getting sick, too, but so far it is very mild.  He will not take my concoctions.  He will drink EmergenC, so that is making me a little happy.  

Oh well, this too shall pass, right?  If only the world would stop until I am well.  :)  

Things Are Coming Together

Two huge answers to prayer have come our way lately.  The first has to do with finding local friends.  I have been praying for a way for my kids to meet other Christian kids in our area, something I thought would be very difficult since we don't plan on changing churches.  And God provided a way!

We had two separate families who live nearby that we have known for a long time tell us about a youth ministry that has blessed them and their children in our area.  And finally, the younger two kids went last Friday.  And they enjoyed going!  They said the other kids were welcoming and the message was right on. Ryan's age group meets on another day, and we were not able to get him to his group, but hope to one day soon.  This is such a huge blessing and perhaps another step towards settling in our new town.

In addition, I have been praying about what to do next fall with our church commitments.  We have been very active in our church for years and we don't want to change that totally.  But, I think I have a plan.

Right now on Sundays, Grace serves in the first service at 8 o'clock.  A few times this winter, it has been difficult to get to church that early as the highway is not cleared of snow until later.  So, we are going to sign her up to work in the Sunday school second hour next fall.

Ryan already works the second hour in 5th grade Sunday school.  He wants to stay there.

Trevor will be in the Jr. High during the second hour.

We are all going to drop out of AWANA, most likely.  This will be an unpopular decision, but frankly, we can't afford the gas.  It's $10 round trip.  And with the local youth group option, I think it will be less an issue.

We are going to switch to attending the third service at 11:40 on small group Sundays.  This way we won't leave the house at 7 AM and get home at 5PM twice a month as we are doing now.

For karate, which meets at our church, my dear husband is going to adjust his work schedule so that he can get off an hour early on karate nights.  He will be able to take the kids or we all go as a family, and the two of us have a date night.  :)

Community life is so important when you belong to a church, but if you live 33 miles away, it can be prohibitive and stressful.  With prayerful adjustments, I think we can make this work!