ECD

ECD happened to us this week. Friday actually. No, it is not some horrible disease.And it didn't actually happen to us. We voluntarily went.

Letme back up a bit. We were in the final stagesof our first week back to school which went VERY well. At our Friday School registration EMily was invited to ECD practice that evening from 6-9pm.We knew about it but I had never asked anyone but Jacob about going and he said he could care less.(ECD is English Country Dance---like they do in Pride and Prejudice---very old school stuff, but great social fun) Well, EMily was excited, and Lizzy overheard and asked if she could go. I said yes, they could. Well, I took them at 6pm and we got to see the awesome Mike Sager who is visiting for a week while on break from performing Joseph at the Sight and Sound Christian Theater in Branson. It was worth going just to catch up with him. But Jacob had musical theater class until 7pm. While he was in class, Kim decided she wanted to watch his class, but she didn't make it in time, so I offered to take her to watch ECD practice. Jacob and Jordan also decided to go. Everyone ended up dancing except Jordan, who really dislikes that kind of thing. The 4 who danced want to go every month now. At the end of the year they hope to have a big ECD family get together...more formal. I love this SO much more than the homeschool family prom idea. So family friendly and social. Everything is just really nice.
SO next time we go to Rockwall we are going to shop for skirts and dresses ( standard dress for girls at ECD) and some nicer pants for Jacob. He only has one pair that fits right now. And I do believe the kids are literally counting the days until they can go to ECD again!

First Day of School

I started the day with a walk at 6:45am. When I arrived back home at 7:05, i woke the kids (except Jacob who was already up) and got coffee for them. I took coffee with me on my prayer walk. We watched Spongebob and visited and then i made my bed and got breakfast prepped and meat set out to thaw for supper. By 7:30 we were walking the dogs and bike riding in the neighborhood. It was really nice outside. After the walk we came inside and made and ate breakfast. While the kids went outside to play driveway soccer, i cleaned the kitchen. They came in at 8:30 to make beds and brush teeth. We started our devo at 8:40 with beautiful singing, bible reading, memory work and prayer. At 9am the oldest two went to work on their studies and I worked with the youngest three off and on until lunch at noon. Then we did chores at 12:50 and PE bike ride and basic exercises at 1:30-2:15. We are a bit behind right now. We took a jello break....The oldest two are completing science and spanish while the younger ones are about to work on history and have read aloud time. that will wrap up our day. They can play games together until time to clean up, make supper, and go to dance classes.
And that is our first day, in a nutshell.

PHOTO TIME!!!!

Well, I have been mostly posting words with no photos so here are some summer photos. This is just a tiny glimpse of our summer, though. Still, they brings great memories.
riding bikes as a family!
kim gets a new bike (because I ran over the old one)
kim wants to learn more math
kim turns SIX!!!!!
lizzy and sarah hanging out
girls day at church--modesty, boldness, and respect bruncheon
kim and ellie again
lizzy and katy playing girl lego
jordan, jack, and zeb hanging out
kids kung fu panda 2 party
kim and ellie
kung fu panda 2 party
swimming
slip and slide
4th of July fireworks

and still no photos

Ahhh...i am sitting here pondering life in about 3 weeks. Because that is when our homeschool year will begin. As for now, we are just chillin"...but i think we will have to have some structure or the kids might get into trouble. Some of them anyway. Yes, I know my grammar leaves much to be desired in this post, but i'm on summer break, ok?

Here is what I think school will look like this year with a 9th, 7th, 4/5th, 3rd and 1st grader:
I hope to wake and walk with coffee in hand by 7am, and wake the kids before I leave. I hope. And then i HOPE to walk the dogs by 730 and have breakfast ready by 8:10 so we can be into devo by 8:40. We'll see how that works. From there, at 9 or shortly thereafter, i hope the oldest two will beging working independently while I rotate through with the other three, giving two breaks. Lunch should come at noon followed by free time, chores, and PE by 1:30. I plan to have each kid in charge of a day of the week to be lunch and dinner workers. After PE, we have science and electives for the oldest two, and combined subjects of fine arts, spanish and sci/history for the other three. Then an afternoon snack/down time, cleanup, and supper...then extracurriculars and service and family time. Full days, to be sure.
And that about sums it up.
I am looking forward to seeing how it goes the first two weeks.
I can't believe how much homeschooling has evolved for us as we move through the years. I couldn't have pictured it. But I learned a while back to go with the flow and make it work for us. If we are happy and moving toward independent, godly adulthood I am happy. And sad. But mostly happy.

So I am off to enjoy kids and the rest of our day. May God bless you and yours!

Really quick update.....

We are on our last 2 days of summer schooling, and have lots planned for the week, including dance sign ups, dance shoe shopping, jean shopping, capri shopping, monthly food storage shopping, filming probably, birthday party, scrapbooking, sewing a tiny bit, major laundry, devos with church, girls day, and playdates with some swimming thrown in for extra fun. It is finally heating up here, and by that I mean over 100 degrees. Way over 100 degrees actually. And that is bad for more than one reason. First, it its too stinking hot to even go get the mail. Second, the electric company has not reinstated budget billing due to switching to a new system and the bill is KILLER!!!! But it is hot and we need a/c.
Also we are eating at Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday. I bet you can guess why. And we are finalizing the new school year details and schedules.
That has been the ultra short update on the busy life of a north texas homeschooling family...

NETkids Camp Is AWESOME!

This was my first time to be a camp counselor in 20 years, literally. I taught summer school for 5 years and then had kids.....so I went this year since it was our first experience with netkids. This is the 3rd-6th grade version of our 7th-12th grade camp. I got assigned to room with a cabin of 12 girls and two teens...our girls were 8-10 years old. Every day we woke at 7, had morning blast at 7:40 (silly active songs to wake you up), breakfast, cabin cleaning and then bible class, an outdoor game, bible mania, a meeting with everyone, lunch, afternoon rotation of swimming/blobbing/zipline/canteen/crafts/group games/archery and bb's. Then we had a meeting, and supper, followed by 20 mminutes of free time, and then an activity called Joshua's Journey to reinforce our Strong and Courageous theme from Joshua 1:6-7. Then we had evening worship and cabin group review time at 9pm with snacks. Then we showered, fellowshipped, and went to bed around 11:30pm.
Honestly I really liked being in a cabin of girls. It gives you a chance to try to impact them, and some of them really needed to be infuenced for good, and we saw some progress in that aspect. During afternoon rotation i was a craft room worker and that was fun. Days were really long and i didn't realize how tired I was until I got home. I slept a lot Saturday night and most of Sunday. I am feeling more normal today--monday.
It was a great experience and I will go again until Kim is too old to go. Then I guess I will try to do NETSYS if I am not totally old by then.....

Very Detailed and Quite Laborious

Well, here it is July 15th and i have not been doing well at all on my blogging since June began! During the "school year" I generally made time for an update each week, but summer crashed on me and I have just been a slacker. Guess it is time to make up for that, so grab a drink and sit in a comfy spot if you desire to read this for it shall be quite longgggggg.......

I love my kids so dearly, and like sand grains, their childhoods are running through my fingers. So I have been blogging less and living more. And that is as it should be. I admit i miss the days when schooling took only 3 hours and we could go to many field trips and play playdough or painting all afternoon but those days truly are just about over. This autumn I will have a 9th grader, a 7th grader, a 4th/5th grader, a 3rd grader and a first grader. Sure, the littler ones still love to paint and play and such, but life is changing for the older ones. Toys are no more of a draw. Friends and activities are. We have spent our summer basically as planned. We have been swimming as often as possible, playing and bike riding, drawing, playing on computer, catching up on movies and eating popcorn late into the nights, inviting friends over, filming movies, going to camp and VBS, visiting with neighbors and other fun stuff...including some dance camp.

As for the kids, Jacob is really getting masterful at filming and has started doing some av things for VBS, and he has grown in maturity of money and helpfulness. He is a great kid with his priorities straight and he is easy to trust for he has a strong sense of doing what is right no matter the cost to himself or his feelings. He has some fabulous friends and his closest are A, D, D and E. No other letters shall be given to betray the people, but those who know him can guess easily. He has been taking ballet this summer and is toying with the idea of taking it in fall, though theater is his true dance love. He is ready to start high school.

Emily has grown up a lot this year. She has become more of a little lady and is very modest and quiet, and she loves her privacy, reading, Dr. Who, Harry Potter, and clothes. Oh, and emailing her friends from church camp. She has really blossomed and is so sweet and trustworthy. She knows how to make the right choices and lets her beliefs be known when things arise. I love that about her. She also, like Jacob, speaks extensively to me about her thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams. it is a wonderful thing to have such close relationships with my kids.

ELizabeth is growing too. She has truly grown larger and stronger this year. Her dancing has really ramped up and she is a moving muscle! Boy, is that girl talented. And she has in turn had a jump in her academics due to all her movement in dancing! It really affects learning when you are active and musical and artistic. She is singing and working with kids and making friends and swimming....she is a real treat. She has made great strides in her schooling and that is such a blessing! For a girl who leans and processes differently, she is doing fabulously! I can't tell you how proud I am of her. Oh, and did I tell you she is a loving girl? Always hugging and being sweet. She is our entertainer and tenderhearted kid.

Jordan is quiet and yet oh so loud. He is really into bow hunting and guns as always. He is smart a s a whip in academics, though somewhat lazy....hmmm. If only he could build lego all day he would be happy, but I'd have to throw in a good amount of bike riding too. He is an outdoors guy and also a loner. But he is also great with his friends. This is his first time to go to camp and I hope he makes some good friends. He is quite sweet and loving, but still needs to get that temper under better control at times. Progress is coming along nicely though. He is such a darling.

Kimberly has gotten her temper under much better control this summer. She is a lover of ballet and biking and swimming. Practically a little fish! She loves schoolwork and puzzles and artwork. Her reading is really coming along and she is currently halfway through her first grade work. She is going to be 6 in just about 3 weeks. That I cannot believe. She is such a sweet girl and loves her family. She's truly a joy! As are all the kids.

As for me and Clay, well, he has been travelling a lot more this year, but it has been ok. We had to use a lot of savings this year on some major expenses including insulation for the attic, braces, flooring (yes it was a need-the old was a safety hazard), another laptop, and a new used car for Clay. School costs more for high school, too. So we will be trying to recover that savings over the next couple of years. But at least the school stuff passes down the the younger ones. We are just amazed at how quickly time passes as we get older. But we are still doing well in health and life in general. We have now been married for 21 years. So that is officially half our lives--exactly.


So, one camp is done and the other starts in 2 days. This will be Clay's first time to stay for a week with kids, alone. i will have two with me at camp. I am looking forward to it. Big kids are quite enjoyable. VBS was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it more than i have in years. Probably because of the ages of my own children. I LOVE taking my son to filming locations and watching them all work. I love swimming with them and going on bike rides with them. But mostly i have loved getting to take exercise walks in the neighborhood each evening and often in the mornings too. This is often accompanied by neighbors, and that is just joyful. I love how the kids interact with our neighbors and ask to go visit with them, and they in turn are interested in our kids. I love life in small town suburbia. (Yes, I admit it. i am not a country girl and I don't want to be. There. I said it. AND I am not adventurous and do not care about travel. Whew. Admissions over.)

We took three weeks off school in June and the last week of July will be our final school week until August 20th. Mostly, i think. Anyway, the start date for us will be the 20th. That is also going to be our co-op registration week. I am always looking forward to that, but I know that is on the downhill slope for us. Kim already said that when she is older she doesn't want to go to co-op anymore. Dance will start in that same week and life will be more confined to home and to a schedule. But that is ok. All seasons of life have their good times and not so good times, but good is what we choose to see in our days and happiness is our own choice. I look forward to what the future holds because it is like a surprise gift. Watching your family grow and discover things is just as exciting in older kids as in young kids. So here we go.....

I totally plan to get back to regular blogging as we begin our "school year". But for now, that should be enough. My major goals for self are to be a living example of the gospel but to not be judgemental while trying to lead people to the truth of God's word. I am a seed planter for Him. And I have been entrusted to raise my own children to make an impact on the future for His glory. Also, i have to take care of myself without spending an inordinate amount of time on "me". After all, i am special too and I have people who rely on me and I really want to be there for them and be my best for them. Not just my family. My friends, both past present and future, and my extended family and church family and neighbors.
Well, I warned you it would be long and laborious. Hopefully it wasn't too boring and dull, though. And since it is Sunday, I want to utilize the day of rest for, well, resting a bit. Blessings to all who might read this!