A Smattering of Broken Thought Processes

The last week or so has been filled with great happiness as Joel has come home from being in Bangkok, Thailand for a month. He will be posting about that soon I'm sure. But for now, we are enjoying having him back. If you simply cannot wait to hear why he was in Thailand, I'll just say he was teaching English as a means to reach out to Thai Buddhist university students. You'll just have to wait for the rest. *smile*

Spring has sprung in our neighborhood of the world and with it brings motivation to do yard work and garden clean up. Our home is surrounded by Red Pine trees, so instead of nice green grass, we have orange dead pine needles. Once it's raked though, the grass shines through and makes the yard so much more beautiful. (Yes, I know. Bad grammar. I'm on summer vacation.)

Speaking of vacation, the kids think it's autumn vacation. I think you can guess why. But now that the flowers are coming up and I planted the onion sets today, it felt more like summer was peeping it's welcome face around the garden boxes.

I finally finished this book last night. What a great book. Even if you don't totally agree with the philosophy, there are many nuggets of gold for any educator.

And that's all I have the mental capacity for. God bless you and keep you, may His glorious face shine upon you!

Happy Anniversary Darling

Nine years ago, you and I started a life together.

We loved each other then:

And we love each other now:

Even if you are halfway around the world.

I love you, and I can hardly wait to see you on Friday.

Thoughts on Homeschooling: End of Year 3

yes, we are still here. The sun is out and I think it might hit 50 degrees today. The small lakes are still frozen, much to the dismay of our local fishermen I imagine. Four inches down, the ground is frozen solid. The grass is green though. That is encouraging.

Rachel and Madelynn are on summer break and we are working on finishing up second grade for Josh. Only a couple more weeks!  I've also spent some time reorganizing and planning for next year. I'll have a kindergartener, a first grader and a third grader. Yikes! But God is good and I am trusting Him to work it all out. He has been so gracious with me as I've switched math curriculums in the middle of the school year and changed my mind on a few other things. I'm learning simplicity is best. Though I tend to forget that. I have a tendency to overdo things and buy/plan too many things. You can imagine the results- a fried mother and some tired kids.
But I'm loving the new math curriculum, reading out loud to the kids from "living" books, and saying 'no' to the homeschool marketing industry. I've learned to take advantage of used curriculum, let my unrealistic expectations simmer down, and enjoy my children: answering their questions and giving them opportunities to ask more. It's taken me awhile to get here and I still have lots of growing left to do. But homeschooling is an adventure and you can't plan out every detail of an adventure now can you?

A Beautiful Saturday Morning

It was a high of 50 today. It was just gorgeous in the sunshine. 

So we had an excursion down at the lake, throwing rocks in the water and a picnic lunch:

Jump!

Last week Hudson learned how to jump. The video below shows him "performing" which isn't as good as the real thing. Normally he will jump and jump and jump. Adorable!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This is a view from our kitchen window of the weather yesterday. All day it was like this, blowing and snowing, through the night and continuing into today. It's the middle of April and my kids are hoping for sunshine, but until then, we are staying cozy inside.

Go A to Z

This is what happens when Mommy and one other kid leaves the house for a couple hours: Daddy gets to play! 

Behold the ABC's masterfully created out of Legos by Joshua, Madelynn and Daddy!:

Sisters and Braids