Park Day

Isn't this dreamy? I love paths that wander off into the unknown...


We took some time off and visited one of our favorite local parks on Monday. This park has a lovely boardwalk that extends into a beautiful marsh.
There were so many blue dragonflies buzzing about!

These are either raspberries or unripe blackberries; we were unsure. They provide food for the wildlife, which is abundant!

Every time we go, we notice the changes, but there are always Canadian geese around.
Godly Man and Nature Girl are on the observation platform, looking into the woods that surround the marsh. Hard to see, but there's a fawn feeding just at the edge of the shadow of the tree on the right. Her mother was actually wading in the marsh, a good 150 feet away.
One of the many heron we saw. We also saw a red-winged blackbird, egrets, numerous butterflies, turtles, tadpoles and frogs...It is one of our very favorite places!

Changes and Challenges

I've neglected this poor excuse for a blog, but I'm preparing to do more posting.

As this originally started as a way to document and share our homeschooling journey, as well as other parts of our family life, I was not updating frequently because Nature Girl started going to public school, Film Buff graduated, and Sky remained in treatment.

Things are changing, however! Sky is making good progress, and will probably be home the end of July, depending on several factors. Nature Girl did extremely well in school, but longs to be home. I fought everyday with myself about going to work this year--it turned out to be an excellent, refining experience, but I want to be home next year, too, so I'm choosing not to teach preschool next year. Instead, I'm looking for pet sitting and babysitting jobs. So far, I've got a once-a-week job with a sweet, sweet family who have a 1yodd--cutie patootie! I'm also watching Millie The Wonder Dachshund, who is a pee-er, but extremely sweet.

Film Buff was not accepted into the Cinema program at his college of choice, but was accepted to the general program, so he will go in the Fall. I'm having separation anxiety! All will be well. I'm hoping he learned enough in homeschool to get by--he's really quite a nice young man, and pretty sensible.

Nature Girl and I did some work in the homeschool room. We moved the large desk Film Buff used up to the place where the art area was, and moved the art area to the lovely, window-surrounded area where the desk had been. I actually liked it better the other way, but Nature Girl and I were both ready for something new. I will post pics when it is a little more cleaned up. We have also hung a nice African map on the wall--it's a print out using 64 sheets of paper (we couldn't do the top level due to space, but all of Africa is on the wall). Again, I'll post pics and our new curriculum later this week.

Worshiping this morning at my computer...
Ever do that? I don't mean bowing down to the Holy Shrine of the Internet (though I do enough of that), I mean reading others' blogs and finding God in the midst of their every day joys and struggles.

I LOVE Stephanie's blog at Enduring with Grace. I would like to meet her someday irl.
Anyway, I spent the last half hour listening to her music. David Crowder is so awesome! He wrote a song that just had me worshiping my God--tears, raised hands, surrender, all of it.

How beautiful when we allow others to see our lives, and be inspired by our choices. Thanks for choosing the music on your blog, Stephanie!

Quickie Update

Sky is coming home for a 5 hour visit in about 20 minutes! Yea!
He's doing really, really well in treatment.

Nature Girl wants to homeschool next year--and I think I do, too. I'll be looking for something I can either do at home or do after day time hours, or perhaps something like midday dog walking (if it's only 2 hours or if Sky is homeschooling too and can keep an eye on NG).

Film Buff is on the waiting list at his college of choice--keep prayin', those who do!

Lent is upon us, and I'm having a hard time keeping my discipline. More along those lines, later.

I have some pics to post, and I have some more to say, but Sky can't use the computer when he's home, so I have to sign off--

SNOW!

I can hear Mike The LawnMan plowing our 550ft driveway as I type--we got about 4 inches last night! Nature Girl has been out a lot, accompanied off and on by one rather reluctant Golden Retriever--he loves the snow, but only until he sees someone will open the door to come inside!
Godly Man is off to the gym with Film Buff in tow--they are driving FB's Jeep because it has 4-Wheel Drive. Godly Man is an off-roader at heart, although he drives a Honda...

No school today meant lots of computer time for me, laundry, big chicken in the oven, and reading aloud by the fire in the fireplace. I'll probably put on some snow duds and go play in the snow for a little while with Nature Girl--wish I had real boots and some decent gloves!

March came in like a Lion for sure this year! Hope it stays cold enough to give us one more day off tomorrow! lol Just like a kid...

Weekly Update--yeah, right...

I haven't done a true "weekly update" since last year, but thought I'd just go over what our week was like, for the heck of it.

At preschool, I am getting ready to do conferences with the parents. Because I have two classes and two co-teachers, I have to do half of each class' conferences. This means I have 13 children to evaluate. We are observation-based in our evals, which means we try to look very closely at what the children do naturally in the course of the preschool day, with very little "testing." We record what we see, and set up activities based on what we perceive the children's needs to be. Usually I can fill in a check list with just the copious observations I have taken during the year, but not this year. It makes me feel I have really fallen down on the job, having to call over kids to show me how they build block towers or take a sample produced on the spot of their writing or their drawing. Oh well, next year I will be doing something different, and I just have to chalk up this year's teaching experience as something I needed to do, did somewhat well, and grew from.

We had a very busy weekend--I went to a pretty good workshop that lasted allllll daaaayyyy....on Saturday, and then went to our church's chili cookoff--that was great fun. Sunday, we went to church, visited Sky, then dh and I went to Mt. Vernon for the Birthnight Ball. I wore a short, black dress, with a sheer black, soutache-covered shawl. The best part was sitting with our 83-yo df, who is such a wonderful, wonderful woman. She is everything I want to be.

This week I had to take a personal day, which gave me a little extra time to do laundry and such, and I spent the rest of the week preparing for said conferences. LOST was a highlight of the week--what does THAT tell you?

Everyone else is doing all right.

BACK AGAIN!

Oh dear, here I am, the World's Worst Blogger. One of them, anyway. I have been posting very frequently on the Well-Trained Mind message boards (as Chris in VA, fwiw), and have totally neglected this blog.

Part of the reason is because I originally started this blog to be a record of our lives as homeschoolers. This year, Nature Girl went to 3rd grade at our local brick and mortar, and Film Buff finished his high school years in December. I went back to work (reluctantly) as a preschool teacher, because our expenses were high, and I wanted to contribute some $ to Film Buff's college fund. So, the blog "weekly updates" on our homeschooling progress really were nonexistent, and it's hard for me to just plunge in with a topic if I don't have a framework like that (witness my post about Survivor, of all things! lol --btw, it's on again, and yes, I'm watching...).

So here's a little update, and then I guess I will try to find another framework to make this blog workable (and readable) again!

Sky has gone back to treatment, and is finally doing very well. We expect him to start home visits around the end of March or so, with the hope that he may be home in June. He got straight A's, has been working on deeper issues, and seems genuinely on the path to recovery. I've never seen him work so hard or do so well. It is a pleasure to see him every Sunday, and I think things will be ok. Hard to have total hope, of course--"fool me once..." and all, but I think he's in a good place.

Film Buff got his GED (YEA!!) because his college of choice wouldn't accept a homeschool diploma, so he is officially out of high school. He did very well in English and pretty well in the other areas--math continues to be his bane, but that's ok, as his proposed major doesn't require a heck of a lot of math. He sent off his app to the college and got back an invite for an interview, which he did in February--we'll hear in March if he made it in. We are all hopeful, but it's a tight race for one of 20 slots in the cinema program.

Besides the interview, something else wonderful happened to Film Buff--he got his first car! A dear friend at church sold him a 1993 Jeep for $1, and he got it yesterday--fun Valentine's for him! He has to learn to drive a stick, but he's watched some youtube video on that, lol, and has his dad to help him. They both spent about 2 hours outside tinkering yesterday--big boys, big toys. It really is neat, and we are all so happy for him and grateful to Mr. W.

Nature Girl got a nearly perfect report card from 3rd grade, with one G and all the rest O's. She is not covering a lot of new material in the core subjects, but the way things are asked and the assignments are different, so I'm ok with it. She doesn't particularly like school because of the waste of time she sees, the boys talking too much, and the projects (though she does well, but doesn't like the pressure), and also because she feels she misses things at home. Next year, we are considering homeschooling again. I have to work somehow, so I just don't know. I can't really see her going next year, but I have to figure out what to do. Other than school, she's happy and pretty healthy, enjoying outside as much as ever, and awaiting Spring like the rest of us.

My hard working preacher man is fine--really taking his health seriously, working out 3 times a week. He finally found a wonderful assistant at work, after a lengthy search. We have high hopes for our church.

I'm still on the fence as far as whether or not to remain Episcopalian. Enough said for now.

That's the update--pictures and more interesting stuff to follow.