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.

 

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.

This Week... [09.19.2014]

Life lately has been very different, and yet, it seems pretty natural. (Much more so than I expected.) Homeschooling has been really fun, for the most part, and although the "newness" has begun to wear off, I do not regret this decision. While we have rough days, I don't miss getting up at 6:00 and getting everyone ready. I don't miss sitting in the pick up line at school for 25 minutes every day.  And strangely, (because I expected to) I don't miss the quieter days.

This flexible schedule thing is nice, y'all.

Our week starts on Tuesday. We do a four day school week since Aaron is off on Mondays and we want to enjoy family time.

Tuesday mornings, we head over to our friends' (the Rairdon's) home for Greenhouse, which is our weekly co-op/learning together group.

This week, we were able to meet up with a good friend, Amanda (who also happens to home school) and her kids for lunch.

We also got to have an "art day" with another friend, Sarah.

Art Day!

My cloud painting

Our friend, Sarah, working on her beautiful painting.

And then today, we did Meals on Wheels and then, in addition to our normal school work, we made corn cakes to get a little taste of history, as we've been reading Sign of the Beaver.

We made corn cakes just like Matt did in Sign of the Beaver

It hasn't all been sunshine. I've been struggling a lot with Carson with regards to respect and behavior. It's been challenging, and I've felt at a bit of a loss, but Aaron has stepped in a few times and has been a huge help. I know I've also got friends who have been praying the past couple of days and I can tell it's made a huge difference already. Today was a really good day in that regard!

The past couple of days, I've also been feeling under the weather (allergies, maybe?). But now I'm free to sit. The kids have been playing down the street with the neighbor kids for the past couple of hours while I sit and catch up on work and blogging and such. My darling husband is coming home soon to help me cook dinner, and I'm looking forward to the weekend!

Summer 2014 [June]

I've done a terrible job at documenting life for quite some time now. In an effort to not lose entire chunks of time, I am at the very least importing a slew of photos from my iPhone and doing my best to document some of the highlights of our summer!

 - Habitat for Humanity Project with Compass Church. Very hot, but very rewarding!

- We got to enjoy dinner with our good friends Ashley & Harlan when they came to town! Always love hanging out with these two!

-Abby got to start doing a little babysitting! She loves little kids, plus she's trying to save money for a tablet, so she got to go help a few of our church friends with their little ones while they got stuff done around the house. She loved it and has saved up quite a bit of money!

-I cooked. Well, at least once. And I have a picture to prove it. It just looks summery to me. I couldn't resist. And now I'm hungry.

-The kids and I visited the San Antonio Shoe Factory, which I never even new was here, but we absolutely loved it. Great place to go if you're here. It also happens to have a lot of cool photo taking spots like this one.

-The kids and I went up to Howe for a few days and stayed with my parents. Relaxing and nice, as always.

-That trip to Howe was also to hang out and also to see my childhood BFF, Mandi, while she was in town from the Dominican Republic. It was so great to see her again, as well as her family. Her oldest daughter, Halle, even came and spent the night with us and I had about 100 deja vu moments. She looks and acts so much like her momma did when we were kids.

I know there's much that's been forgotten, but that's June at a glance!

Wedding Weekend

We'd been looking forward to April 4th for a while. Not only were our good friends Brandon & Brittany getting married (she was one of our former youth), but some of our very best friends, the Phelps' were coming in to town--all of them--for the first time since they moved five years ago! The wedding was so fun, and we were honored to be involved. I did the photography and Aaron officiated. It was fun celebrating with old friends and we all had a great time!

Lauren and Terra at the wedding

Terra and Brittany

Aaron officiates the ceremony

Brittany & Brandon

The wedding was Friday night, and we spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with the Phelps and the other Powers crew.

The boys reunited

"Bobby and Lala" together again!

The girls and I went upstairs for a while to pull up a few old pictures for a good laugh. They ended up helping me put together a slideshow of a bunch of old pictures to play for everyone downstairs.  We had a really good laugh at all the funny pictures and happy memories!

And, of course, we had to take a few minutes for a family portrait session. (It was a little easier now that everyone's bigger!)

Goodbye, Jayla!

We were sad to learn a couple of months ago that one of Abby's best friends, Jayla, is moving to California. Abby has been so sad about it. It seems like over the past year or two, one good friend after another has moved away. So yesterday, we had Jayla over for one last play date and we decided last minute to have a little impromptu party for her. Abby's friend Aria also came over (along with her brother Josiah to play with Carson) and we had cupcakes and hot chocolate. I got each of the girls some stationary so they could write letters to each other. The girls spent almost the entire rest of the time singing and dancing and playing in Abby's room. It was a fun afternoon that ended with lots of hugs and near tears as Jayla left, but I know these girls are the kind that will be friends forever!

Lake LBJ

Last week, we had the privilege of spending a few days at Lake LBJ with some of our good friends, the Fox's, at their family lake house. It was a wonderfully relaxing time. (And we needed it, because the motor decided to quit on us on the way home and we had to leave it at a shop for thousands of dollars of repairs!)

Carson, Taetum, and Abby

Colleen and Braelen

Abby and Aaron on the wave runner

Addie and Ellah

Carson and Abby on the dock

Carson jumping off the dock -- his favorite pastime while we were there!

Talent Show

Last January Abby came home with a flyer for Talent Show tryouts. She was thrilled and she and her friend, Jayla, began practicing every day at recess to sing Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble". Tryouts came and they made it into the show! To make it even better, it was announced that the Talent Show would take place on Abby's 9th birthday! Tuesday night Mattie, Ammie, Poppy, Natalie, Reagan, and Madison all came to see the show. Abby and Jayla did a great job, and didn't look a bit nervous! We were all so proud of them both!