Freezing in Ohio, Already?

Freezing in the 50 degree weather.

Yep Dorothy, we ain’t in ‘Bama anymore.

I have a feeling it’s going to be a LOOOOOOOONG, COOOOOOOLD winter.

Moving Forward

I can’t believe that it’s been over three months since we last had internet in our home! Wonder why it’s taken so long? Take a peek at our driveway.

Apparently it is quite a costly ordeal to service houses such as ours. I finally got tired of waiting for the local internet company that I had contacted the beginning of September and added Mi-Fi to our monthly Verizon bill. If it wasn’t for cell phones and internet, we’d be rich. ha!

I’ve fluctuated between loving the absence of  internet and thinking that I couldn’t possibly survive one more minute without it. I hadn’t realized just how much we depend on the internet for our day to day tasks. I also hadn’t realized just how time consuming my “blogging” had become. I guess you could say that I was a bit out of control.

My forced break has given me more time to spend with my crazy family (I actually had to sit beside these freaks at a football game!),

take my son to football most days of the week,

play catch outside with our fur baby, 

and actually read some books! I just finished Kiss by Ted Dekker and The Plain Truth by Jodi Piccoult, both of which I really enjoyed.  

My unexpected break has also given me time to consider where I want to go from here. As much as I love sharing where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing, I was getting to the point where blogging just wasn’t fun anymore. Writing does keep me sane though, so rather than give up and throw in the towel, I’m going to make a couple changes.

I spent a great deal of time moving my blog towards a travel site. As much as I love travel, writing exclusively about one subject just isn’t me. As hard as I try, it just isn’t my personality to focus on one subject at a time. I just naturally bounce from one subject to another. You should watch me clean my house sometime. :) 

Don’t worry, if you’re here to read about the fun, family friendly, educational outings that my family enjoys, you’ll still find those posts. I’ll also share more about our homeschooling successes (and failures), as well as my own insecurities as a wife and mom. I’ve also decided that I’ll share more about one of my obsessions hobbies; decorating with thrift store finds. Check out some of my recent finds:

 The flower arrangement and picture frames (from Kirkland's and Hobby Lobby) all cost less than $10!

Honestly,  if I could justify devoting the time to it, I’d branch thrift store decorating  off into a blog of its own. Right now my goal is not to spend more time online, even if we do have internet.  

40.

It happened.

I turned the big 4-0.

Amazing, huh?

When I was in fifth grade and my teacher mentioned that she had turned 40, I just knew I was never going to live to be THAT old. EVER.

Nope, I probably wouldn’t make it much past the ripe old age of 25. And yet here I am. 40.

And you know what? 40 doesn’t seem nearly as old as it did when I was 10.

Isn’t that funny?

Hope you’re all having a very blessed week….:)

I was a Mom, Long before I was a ‘Homeschool Mom’

In a few short years, our homeschooling journey will come to an end. My oldest son will be 18 in less than six months. It’s common to hear him comment several times a day that he is nearly a man. Our days are no longer focused around learning to read or multiplication facts. My independent learners are now interested in things like  photography, writing a novel, gaming, physical fitness and sometimes it seems, everything except school. My children are growing up and soon, their homeschool careers and mine as ‘homeschool mom’ will come to an end. I have to admit that on occasion that very thought has gripped me with fear.

Not because I’m not ever tired of homeschooling or teaching. If I’m completely honest, sometimes I am. Not because sometimes I wouldn’t rather spend the day browsing thrift stores, or playing on Facebook, or Twitter, or reading a stack of novels from the library. Sometimes I can find a hundred things I’d rather do than homeschool my children. Not because sometimes I wouldn’t love to have a career outside the home. I’ve often wondered if choosing to be a stay at home mom and depriving my kids from a public school education wasn’t a huge mistake.

When my senses return, I remember that though it has had its ups and downs, for the most part, I have LOVED homeschooling my children. Has it taught me patience? To be diligent? To persevere? Oh, yeah! Has it been hard? You bet! Has it stretched our entire family? Yes. Has it been worth it? A loud, resounding, thousand times, YES!

Thrift stores, Facebook, Twitter and that bestselling novel will still be there when my children aren’t, and honestly, working outside the home wasn’t that great the first time around. Have my children really been deprived of a traditional school atmosphere? I think not, after all, how many times have I heard someone tell me to be thankful that the Lord has led my family to homeschool?

Homeschooling has had its ups and downs but, now that we’re nearing the end, I’m reminded of the blessings that my family has received over the years as a result of homeschooling. My children have learned at their pace without the stigma that they may not learn like everyone else. We have memories of wonderful field trips, snuggling on the couch on a cold winter day, reading an amazing read aloud, the laughter at failed science experiments, the joy of reading the bible together each morning, and the fact that we love to spend time together. Plus, we’ve been able to travel with my husband which has been an education in and of itself; something we wouldn’t have had the freedom to do if our kids were in public or private school.

I’m not stricken with fear wondering if we made the right decision. I’m stricken with fear because sometimes I wonder if my children will still need me when we no longer homeschool. And then I remember that I was a mom, just plain mom, long before I was a homeschool mom . And I know that my fears are unfounded. Yes, my children will still need me. They will always need me.

This post is linked to…

Why you Should Never Read Your Emails in Front of Your Children

Surrounded by my family in the living room, I opened an email and could not believe my eyes! I managed to kind of scream OH.MY.GOODNESS. a couple times before the message the email contained literally took my breathe away. 

BREATHE. BREATHE. BREATHE.

I should have kept my news to myself . And now I’m really kicking myself. But since I’d managed to suck all the air from the room with my gasp,  all eyes were intently on me. My family didn’t know if they should give me a minute to recover or grab the phone and dial 9-1-1.

What I did next was stupid. I blurted out the amazing news that I should not have uttered from my lips.  I HAD WON THE GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY OFFERED VIA TODAY’S MAMA FROM GAMESTOP!

My family didn’t even know that I’d entered and to be honest, I certainly didn’t think I’d ever win. But my kids LOVE all things xBox, Wii and PSP and have a wish list a mile long,  as if I ever doubted. So I half-heartedly entered the contest, which happened to be a  fun holiday meme not expecting to win, but hoping…just maybe??? 

I tried to explain to my what I’d won to my family but they couldn’t quite understand my incoherent screeching. When the news finally clicked,  they thought surely it must be a mistake. So I read the email again. and again. I even had to visit the Today’s Mama website so they could read the original post themselves. They even wondered if she was a fake (sorry Erin) but I assured them if that was the case than it was quite an elaborate hoax. Especially since I was directed to her site through an email I’d received directly from GameStop.  That must have made them feel a little more hopeful. So they began to analyze each and every phrase.  An xBox 360 with 250GB and a Kinect!  A Nintendo Red Wii bundle. Three Nintendo Red DSi XL Bundles. AND…a $1000 dollar shopping spree!     

Now, if only I’d not opened this email in front of my family  - my kids would have been absolutely stunned on Christmas Day since we’d already told them we weren’t buying a lot of presents. 

Of course, they are still pretty stunned and I have a feeling I’ll still enjoy the look on their faces when our package arrives.

Thank you to Today’s Mama and to GameStop- I guess you know where we’ll finish our Christmas shopping!

Out of the Mouths of Teenagers

The TOS Crew has a weekly blog cruise that I rarely join. It’s not that I don’t want to, I just don’t often take the time to write up the weekly post. I’m so bad about that. Anyway, this week I was glancing through my reader and noticed that the hop was for your children to answer three questions. Hmmm….as I read, I wondered what my children would have to say. So I decided to ask them. If I was going to take the time to ask their thoughts, I may as well share there answers. Of course I was expecting a profound revelation from my teenagers. I just knew they would say something brilliant. Yeah. Right.

Which leads me to share our lunch conversation. I know you’re dying to read about the interview but you’ll enjoy this. Trust me. First, we don’t normally have lunch as a family, I’m the kind of wonderful mother that forces her children to fend for themselves for lunch. Today was different, my husband was working near home and since it’s cold here, he wanted to come home for lunch to warm up with Josh, who is helping his dad out today.

We are having a pleasant if not goofy conversation when my daughter says, “Don’t you ever want to know what all those bad words we’re not allowed to say mean?” We just kind of stared at her not really knowing where she was going with this. Proudly she continues…. “Well, I looked them up”. Aren’t teenagers a blast?    

Anyways, without further ado…here are the three questions I asked and the thought provoking responses that I received. It was Joshua’s turn to work so he was off the hook. I could ask him later, but he doesn’t enjoy being interviewed. Remember when we lived in the motor home and I interviewed Nickolaus and Chelsea about their life on the road? They loved it, Josh never would consent. I may have even offered to pay him. But I’ll never tell.

Why does our family homeschool?

Chelsea- “That is something you have to answer.” Me- No, they want to know your thoughts. “Because it’s better than public school? Because that’s what you felt the Lord wanted us to do. Personally, I think homeschooling has to be better since we take more field trips.”

Nickolaus- “We’ve homeschooled since the beginning because my mother went to public school and didn’t think it was the best choice for our family.”

What is your favorite part about homeschooling?

Chelsea- “Ummm…more field trips.” (Duh…didn’t she just answer that in the first question? How dare I ask again!)

Nickolaus- “Spending more time with my family.”

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Chelsea- “Photographer.” Me- do you want to expound on that? Chelsea- “Professional photographer?” Giggle. 

Chelsea loves to take pictures. You don’t normally see her without her camera. I think she’s pretty good too, but then she is my daughter. I could be biased. I don’t think so though. You can see some of her pictures here. 

Nickolaus- “A pilot.” 

In October he flew for the first time with the Young Eagles program and now he’s participating in an online pilot school. You can read more about that here.

Well, there you have it, the answers to these three important questions in the universe out of the mouths of teenagers.

You can stop by the here to see how other crew members answered this, or rather, how their children answered the questions.

Just for fun, you should ask your kids the same questions. Do you know what they would say?

Decorating for the Holidays

While decorating our home for Christmas…

we even took the time….

to decorate our dog.

 

Just look at that adorable fur baby!

Doesn’t he look thrilled?

Well, maybe thrilled isn’t the most appropriate choice of words…