Senior Season

It's been a fun senior year for Carson so far, complete with tons of hard work, exciting football, and a homecoming crown to boot!

Dropping a few links to articles in the Bandera Prophet, etc. for future reference.

11/22/23: Historic Season Comes to an End...

11/11/23: Bulldogs Take Down Jarrell for First Playoff Win Since 2007

11/03/23: Bulldogs vs. Carrizo Springs (YouTube)

10/30/23: Bulldogs Clinch First District Championship Since 2009

10/13/23: Bulldogs vs. Pearsall (YouTube)

09/10/23: Bandera Homecoming King & Queen Crowned

09/04/23: Bulldogs Pull Away Late in Home Win Over Cotulla

Baseball [Freshman Year]

Carson was pumped for high school baseball this year. It's been a handful of years since he played, so he was a little apprehensive at first, but he did well! At the start of the season, he played with both the JV and Varsity teams. He primarily played outfield at the start of the season. 

As the season progressed (and it didn't seem like the coach was doing too much coaching), Aaron and Carson spent more time practicing, and Carson got better and better every game. He began getting hits in each game and was a pitcher pretty consistently. His last game, he had his best pitching game!

We had a ton of fun watching him play this year and can't wait to see what future seasons hold.

 

Happy Birthday, Aaron!

Happy birthday, my love! 

We celebrated Aaron's 42nd birthday at home. He wanted to cook dinner at home, so he grilled steaks for us all and I made a peanut butter pie. We gave him a Blackstone griddle for his birthday. Abby also gave him a Matchbox Bronco (they're always sending each other pics of cool trucks and broncos) and a rubber chicken ("Guess what? Chicken butt...". It was a fun evening and we love celebrating our favorite guy!

 

2016-2020 [Cliff's Notes]

Well, five years ago, life got busier. Ha ha. I will try and go back and fill in some of the gaps over time. 

In 2016...

• The kids and I finished our year with Acton Academy and went back to homeschooling. We learned some great stuff through Acton, but we were glad to be back to just us.
• In the summer, we took a trip up to South Dakota and saw Keystone, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and so much more! We then drove over to Estes Park and spent a week there in the Rockies with my family. It was a great trip!
• In the fall, we piggybacked on to a business trip Aaron was taking to Arizona, and we did Phoenix, Las Vegas (just for a night), then Zion National Park (ask about the big fight someday), and the Grand Canyon! We still haven't really seen the Grand Canyon as a family because it started snowing big time about 10 minutes after we showed up!
• We became very close friends with the Drumm family (who also homeschooled) and they were such a gift to us for a couple of years. We had dinners together every week, and went camping (in below freezing temperatures) at Mo Ranch in December. It was crazy cold, but so fun!

In 2017...

• It was a great year of homeschooling! The kids were at such fun ages, and we had a great time!
• In the Spring, we went to Big Bend National Park with the Drumms and camped for several days. It was beautiful there!
• We went to Mexico in September and explored the Yucatan Peninsula! We started in Cancun, went to Merida, then circled back to Cancun by way of Tulum and many other beautiful places. There were ruins, cenotes, great food, and more. Coming back from Cancun, we scheduled an overnight layover in Mexico City, which we loved. And then--within a few hours of arriving--we were in an 7.1 earthquake. It was a very eventful last couple days of the trip, so that will need to be it's own post as well.
• Abby turned 13 and made a new best friend, Danielle. They had such fun together!

In 2018...

• We took a trip to New York City on a whim and had a great time! That should also get it's own post one of these days.
• We finally decided to take the leap and sell our house on Sierra Trail to move out toward Bandera/Pipe Creek. It was all a bit of an ordeal that included backing out of a house we'd planned to buy, moving out of our house in tons of rain and mud, and living with our best friends, the Sizemore's for 3 1/2 weeks. Additionally, it included falling in love with a house we couldn't afford, and then over a month or so the price dropping until we kinda sorta felt comfortable and put an offer on it. They accepted our offer, but then... everything went wrong over the course of the deal and it looked like it might fall through on multiple occasions. However... finally, we got the house (and at a price we felt 100% comfortable with because of our negotiations after all the issues)! We couldn't be happier with our little piece of heaven out here in the Hill Country. I'll make it its own post sometime.
• At the same time, the kids decided to go back to public school and started in the fall of 2018 at Bandera ISD. Carson was starting 7th grade and Abby was a freshman in high school.

In 2019...

• We went to Boston + Portland in the dead of winter because we had some travel vouchers and the airfare was cheap. It was one of the best trips, and we all had such a good time over the four days we were there!
• In June, our friends Shannon + Ana (Shelby's brother and now sis-in-law) asked us to come to Oregon with them so they could get married there! Aaron officiated, I photographed, and Shelby played the music. That was it! It was just the five of us at this remote waterfall we had to hike to (and nearly died). It was such an amazing four days (except for the danger hike), and I'll never forget it!
• In the summer, we took our longest road trip to date and explored the Midwest. Aaron had business in Indiana, so the kids and I drove up to meet him in Fort Wayne and then we all travelled from there. We did Detroit, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Nashville. We were gone 2 1/2 weeks! We had some good times, but it was a bit of a moody and stressful trip too. Lots of fun memories though.

In 2020...

• We took a Spring Break trip to Atlanta (Abby's request) and had a really fun week there! We saw Stranger Things sites and then stumbled upon two real life shoots! (We were really geeking out.) Also went to Coca Cola, the ballpark, and lots of other fun stuff. Then on the way back...
• We started hearing people talk about this Coronavirus thing. We were so confused. People were starting to freak out. There was talk of the kids school closing the following week. WHAT?! It all sounded crazy. We were coming back on Saturday, so we decided to stop at the store on our way through Mississippi to get hand sanitizer for the church and they were ALL OUT. We stopped at multiple stores across several states. No sanitizer or cleaning products anywhere. Then it is confirmed that, yes, the kids school will be closed the week after spring break.
• We got home in time for the kids and I to drive to Dallas to visit Nanny who wasn't doing well, and she sadly passed away on Monday. Abby was the sweetest and was there with her all Sunday night and all day Monday, and it was a truly beautiful thing. More on that later too. We didn't really get to have a funeral due to COVID, just a small graveside service where none of us could really hug or stand close and it was all very strange and sad, especially because we are such a close family.
• To unpack the rest of 2020 up until now with COVID and politics and racial tensions would really take a whole lot more space than this, but until I write that down, the history books will well document this season.

To be continued...

Spring Break Beach Day

Spring Break hasn't been anything special this year. Aaron and I have still had to work. The kids have been mostly home, with Bella and Abby having a fair number of sleepovers here or there. So when Abby asked if I'd take them to the beach, I thought it sounded fun!

We left early on Friday so that we could maximize our time at the coast, and we drove to Port Aransas, our favorite little Texas beach town! We swam (a little at least--the water was COLD!), built our drip sand castles, ate and lounged. Carson begged me for a kite so I left to get one for him. He had the BEST time with it--until it flew away 20 minutes later! But we watched it for ages as it drifted far far away, and we found even that to be entertaining. 

All in all, I'd say it was a really nice day--slow and unhurried. Thankful for the time I had with these kids. They're pretty awesome.

 

Spring Break 2016

The up side of being at a year-round school is that we got a two week Spring Break! It came just in time, and we loved every second of it! Here's a little snapshot...

Aaron brought me a card and a cupcake to work to celebrate Spring Break.
Yes, it has been that kind of a year.

Carson learned how to mow the lawn.

Aaron and I got to squeeze in a few dates during the break too.
He's my favorite.

Since we usually do "that church thing" on Easter, that means we typically have to put off our Easter celebrations with my family off a week or two. This year we went up during spring break and got to spend a long weekend with everyone. It was great!

The kids dyed Easter eggs with Mattie.

And we spent Saturday out at Grandma & Grandpa's for our annual

Easter lunch...

...and treasure hunt!

And we spent time with cousins.

We spent Sunday morning at the church where I grew up, FBC Howe.

On our way home, we stopped to spend the afternoon with Nanny,
and we really enjoyed that special time.

We had time to finally make some progress on our master bathroom.

In addition, we spent a lot of time up at church working on projects. Our sweet kids happily came along and played and helped and hung out with us for long, long hours!

And on our last day of spring break, we had an "upside down" dinner,
with dessert (at Gables) first, and then pizza.

Only 7 weeks left and we are done for the year!

It's Baseball Season

Spring is here and that means so is baseball! Carson missed baseball season last year because we totally dropped the ball (no pun intended). He didn't mind, and he spent a lot of time skateboarding instead (which he loved), so it was all good--but he's happy to be back in the game this season.

This year, he's number 7 for the Braves, and has an awesome coach, Coach George. So far, we've loved watching him play every game! Looks like we're about halfway through the season right now, so there's more great baseball to come!

Carson is #7. He was getting ready for his first game.

Three generations of Baseball.

Kid Quotes: Hair

"You're a boy. You don't understand. If you're a girl, and your mom doesn't fix your hair the way you want her to, you cry. It's a big deal." 

-Abby

Kitchen Remodel

Since we moved in, we've always wanted to remodel our builders grade kitchen, but (as you know) kitchen remodels are expensive. So it's never gotten done.

But the first week of September (the week after I started working full-time), we discovered water leaking out from under the siding on the back of the house. And when Aaron pulled off the siding to investigate, he discovered a water leak that had been going on for who knows how long. So we got the leak repaired and then a day or two later, Aaron swore he smelled mold. I told him it was his imagination. But lo and behold, when he got under the cabinets, he found this...

So, we took out that whole wall of cabinets and called the insurance company. Getting this kitchen back up and running took September all the way to Thanksgiving due to the fact that 1) we did it all ourselves, 2) we never really seemed to be home, and 3) the rare times we were home, we didn't exactly have the energy to get it done.But it eventually DID get done, and we love it! 

I'll try to add some more pictures soon with our completed sitting room at the end, but for now, you get the idea.

Acton Academy

Well, this blog has been pretty well ignored for the better part of a year, so I thought it'd be good to give a bit of an update, and then I'll hopefully get around to back-posting pictures and more details one of these days!

A lot has changed since my last post in March. We are no longer homeschooling--instead we are at a new school in San Antonio called Acton Academy. Our friends, Scott & Sandi, started this school here this year and asked me to be the Guide (teacher, basically). I spent the middle part of 2015 studying non-traditional education and observing at a couple of the Acton Academies in Austin. I love the model and really believe in it. I love that people are beginning to re-think what education looks like and make changes!

School started August 31st, and immediately the kids loved it. They've enjoyed being self-paced and having their own laptops. We've also completed several project based learning "quests" that they have loved--like a gaming quest where they learned all about probability, strategy, game design, and more. Right now, we are working through a Rocket quest where they are learning about physics, space, and much more.

It's been a very cool experience in a lot of ways, but we have recently decided that I'll be stepping down once a replacement guide is found. We completely believe in the school, but in this season of our life, it's not the best fit for us. I underestimated how much me working full-time would change the rest of our life--ministry, family dynamics, etc. So... in the coming months, I'll be stepping down, but it's been a great journey for us all, and I feel so honored to have been a part of launching this amazing school!

"Spring Break" 2015

I didn't really intend for us to have Spring Break, but then I thought... why not?

So last week we played and had fun with friends and went to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Scurry. It was low key, but nice.

Carson riding the dirt bike at the Rairdon's house

Abby and Anni built a tent in the front yard

A sweet moment with the kids on the way to Grandma's

The rain did not phase them. They played outside nearly all day.

This is Carson's lizard, Lettuce, that he caught and brought home.

 The weekend brought illness upon our kids, so that meant taking it easy for a couple days. We got home from Grandma and Grandpa's on Saturday, and the kids and I stayed home from church on Sunday. It was strange not being there, but it was nice to have some time to clean and to finally get some artwork up on the walls.

Finally hung some of our artwork!

We typically spend Sunday night with Aaron's family, but with Carson still being sick, he and I stayed home and had chinese takeout and watched a movie. It was fun having a little at-home mini date with my sweet boy.

Chinese Takeout and a movie for Carson and I

Today everyone is feeling much better, and we are ready to take on our week and get back to our routine. Hopefully I'll be back with more updates soon!

Homeschool Status

When we began this homeschooling journey, I wasn't sure what to expect. I had significant doubt as to whether or not we could pull it off and whether it was truly the right thing for us. But as I sit here eight months into it, I can honestly say that I'm loving it, and the kids are too. They have never once asked to go back to school.

That's not to say we don't have some really rough days here and there... because we do. (And let's be honest, we've always had those, no matter where they were going to school.) But for me, it's been a soul filling, exciting endeavor. I've seen my kids grow and change in the coolest ways. I've gotten to know them better. We have fun together. And I am learning so much. Education is so much more fun and interesting the second time around!

In addition to our regular curriculum, we've had to chance to get out there and do a lot of hands-on learning, which has been amazing. Things just stick so much better when you learn that way, right?

Homeschool Day at Sea World

Dissecting a cow heart with our Greenhouse friends (co-op)

We now have more time with good friends than ever before

And more time to just be together.

In February we took part in Saturday Morning Discovery at Southwest School of Art, and we all loved it! So many new skills learned!

Screenprinting at the SW School of Art (Love-mine, Stars-Carson)

Learning with our Greenhouse Co-Op friends

A trip to the San Antonio Symphony with our Greenhouse peeps

...not to mention the flexibility and freedom we've been given with our schedule and the incredible trips we've been able to take. There is still progress to be made in many areas, and ways that we can all grow, but it's been a great year so far.