Journey to Excellence

Welcome back! It's a new school year for us here at Journey to Excellence and lots is happening around our house.

Two weeks ago Dawson graduated from the Air Force Security Forces Academy and is now Airman First Class Suhr and a Defender in the United States Air Force. Kyndal, Brynne, Bennett, and I took a trip to San Antonio to be at his graduation. We are so very proud of him and his accomplishments!


While we were there, Brynne turned 13! We spent her birthday at the San Antonio Zoo where she got to feed the giraffes. The morning started out stressful waiting for Dawson to get his Orders, but once we got the call that they were in hand we were able to relax and enjoy our day.


Bennett LOVED the hippos! We had to go see them twice, and he always asks me to watch the hippo video I have on my phone.


We were able to bring Dawson home with us for two weeks of working in the Recruiter Assistance Program (aka FREE LEAVE). We have been so glad to have him home. Unfortunately, once he go…

The Wednesday Hodgepodge is something else I have missed doing. The questions are always fun, and the community at From This Side of the Pond is great.

I feel most energized when I ... have a day equally laced with productivity and relaxation.

Where were you ten years ago? It's easiest for me to think about what my kids were doing then. Kyndal was in the 7th grade. Dawson was in the 5th grade. Eli was 4 and attending the developmental delay preschool. Brynne was getting ready to turn 3. We had been in our recently built house in the swanky neighborhood for just under a year. We had "arrived". It was a busy time for us. This was also the beginning of the end ... when things were getting ready to take a drastic turn. We were not where we should be. We were not doing what we should be doing. We were trying to be people we were not. I would have done things so differently 10 years ago, because this is the time that I can pinpoint when things went all wrong.

July 17th is Wor…

Many, many years ago I started participating in the Simple Woman's Daybook. It was here that I made friends, shared my soul, and started my consistent journey of blogging. I desperately miss blogging. This morning I felt pulled back to the Daybook. So, for today ...

Looking out my window ... This past weekend I moved my bedroom around, flip-flopped my sleeping area and workspace. Now when I sit in bed sipping my coffee in the mornings I can look out the window. Since I am upstairs, all I really see is a tree across the street, which is perfect! It gets me into nature first thing in the morning.

I am thinking ... about so. many. things. I'm a thinker, an internalizer. This is why I really need to get back into a consistent habit of blogging.

I am thankful ... for my life. That is truth. I have a home I love, a job I love, children who fulfill me, the most amazing and entertaining grandson ever, books to read, wine to sip. This is a good life.

One of my favorite things ... is my mo…

Father's Day is a tough day for me. It's the one day each year when I am confronted with all of my greatest failures, with my weaknesses. It is the day that I understand that my best is not good enough.

I spend the day thinking about all of the mistakes I have made in relationships, and owning them. But I also lament in the fact that many of the relationships were fractured when I was doing what I truly believed was best for me and my children, when I was doing things for all the right reasons. Maybe I was right, maybe I was wrong. I am sure it's been a little bit of both.

I am like anybody else. I just want to be loved and accepted for who I am, despite my mistakes, and maybe even in spite of them. Unfortunately, that has not been the case in my life.

So what do I do with that?

I try really, really hard to remember that God loves me unconditionally, and He always will. He will not leave me, He will not forsake me, He won't even be mad at me. When I am victorious He w…

Several years ago a lady and her son rented a house behind us. Her name was Pam. She was a reading resource teacher at the elementary school. Although she and I were not ever going to sit and have a glass of wine together, I really liked spending time with her. She was into natural healing and foods, life as education, was a Christian woman. Her son was a nice kid and my kids enjoyed playing with him. She got married to a local man, kind of known for being a zealot, and they moved away.

A couple of weeks ago I learned that they moved back to town. She came into the library the other day and recognized me. She asked if we were still homeschooling, and I told her that Eli wants to homeschool through high school but that Brynne had decided to go to public school because she wanted to play sports and take advantage of the A+ scholarship opportunities for college. She told me she had pulled her son out of school, told me she no longer works for the public school system, and then almost ye…

See, I told you that would happen. I would blog for a few days and then get busy. And now it's been a month since I last posted.

So what have we been doing around here?

Brynne finished her 7th grade year in public school. She walked away with Straight A's all year except for one semester grade of an A- the first semester in Science. She had a successful year in sports playing volleyball and basketball and is now two-thirds of the way through her summer softball season.

Eli finished his 8th grade year in our homeschool and had a very productive year. Although it was hard on both of us with him being home alone the majority of the time doing his work, it was also good for him as he learned what he is capable of doing on his own. One of the biggest things he learned was time management. And we can all benefit from a healthy dose of that.

This year I have really concentrated on teaching the kids some life skills, not only because they need to know how to do these things but becau…