Journey to Excellence

Let's start with Friday! Like many of you, we had the most beautiful day! The temps were in the mid-60's and it was sunny and cheery! Fridays are "Freedom Friday" around here, where we wrap up some unfinished work and then I leave the kids to do some delight-directed learning (with supervision). Do you know what is awesome? Being able to leave the house for a few hours to get groceries and run errands and know that your kids are home doing what they are supposed to be doing. They are great kids, and I am so glad that I can trust them to do what I asked them to do. I hope they are like this forever! I am a pretty lucky mom. So what did they do on their Freedom Friday this week? They finished watching a video about squirrels (because our internet was not cooperating early in the week) and then they did some research on squirrels and badgers and filled out some worksheets. This is a concept that is difficult for Eli, but he pushed through. His skills are getting b...

Share a winter memory from your childhood. So many memories come up when I think of winter as a child. I have always loved winter, even as a kid. One that I was just talking about with my Sunday school co-leader and childhood friend on Sunday: When we were kids, probably Junior High age, if we had a snow day off of school, the kids in our youth group (and there were about 6 or 8 of us) would meet together with snow shovels and walk around our small town and shovel driveways. We mostly did people in our church, just because we knew them, but would do anybody we knew. We did it for donations only and used that money for a trip to St. Louis. Sometimes the older ladies would give us snacks or hot chocolate. It was a lot of fun. What was on your blog this time last year? (If you weren't blogging, what in the world were you doing with all that free time? I was answering a Tuesday Coffee Chat of: Would you feel at ease going to a movie alone? Or to eat at a restaurant? A Conc...

I'm not going to lie. I am sitting here drinking coffee trying to will myself to get up and get moving today when I would really rather climb back in bed for another hour. I didn't sleep very good last night, so I am feeling a little sluggish. Drink another cup of coffee. That's what I'll do. And answer today's Tuesday Coffee Chat prompt .... Do you have a personal theme song? Have you thought about picking one each year, much like how blogs choose One Word? Leslie at Ink Interrupted  (the host of Tuesday Coffee Chat) gave a link for picking your theme song . Mine said "Man-eater" by Hall and Oates. Um .... no, I don't think that's it. And then I did another random one and it said "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi. I'm not sure that's it either. I thought about my life and decided, at first, that it would be a song about contentment. I did a lyrics search and didn't come up with anything. But then I came upon a song ...

What a much-needed and glorious long Christmas break we had this year! We ended school for first semester on December 18th and resumed school this past Monday. We thoroughly enjoyed our holidays and spending time together as a family. But all good things must come to an end, and these kids need to receive an education. MLK Day Last weekend I had to make an emergency trip to Oklahoma to be with Rick and his family while his mom was in a critical situation with newly detected brain tumors. I wasn't able to get our weekly plans done to get us ready for Monday, so we spent the day learning about and celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. And, I am so glad we did. The kids and I both really got a lot out of our lessons. We watched the Reading Rainbow episode of the reading of The Martin Luther King, Jr., Story by David A. Adler. Then we watched some of the "I Have a Dream" speech on Youtube . We ended our day by watching the movie "Selma" on Amazon Prime . Tha...

1. Last week we saw a mouse ... then another one ... then more. We put out traps with peanut butter, in most closets, in the attic, in the basement, and they all got licked clean with nary a dead mouse. So then we put out poison. And it got eaten. And we stopped seeing mice. Could they be gone already or just cleverly hiding? To be on the safe side I have cleaned out drawers and cabinets and sprayed with a mixture of peppermint oil and water (mice don't like peppermint, did you know that?). I have also put out some sticky traps in safe places away from the dogs. I sure hope they are just gone, and that I don't catch any on those sticky traps. Those things are hard core. The good side is that I have a clean house that smells minty fresh!! And Dawson cleaned out the attic that has been needing it for the past three years. 2. Speaking of Dawson. He had a pretty icky end to his 2015. Well, really it started looking up before the new year, but let's just say he was ready to t...

When did you last 'skate on thin ice', 'skate over the details', 'encounter a cheapskate', or just plain skate? Something bad almost always happens when I am away from home. While I was on an emergency trip to Oklahoma this past weekend, a conglomeration of events happened all at once and my laptop was hit in the crossfire. The kids immediately fessed up, and took it to a computer guy the next day to find out that there was no water damage (as feared) but a short somewhere internally that got knocked loose. It was easily fixed. My external hard drive hasn't worked in almost a year, so I have not backed up my computer. On my laptop are all of Kyndal's wedding photos, some of which would be gone forever, as well as every other photo. I have been skating on thin ice with this backup issue. I need to get another external hard drive asap. What would you say is the biggest problem of people your age? Lack of contentment and the comparison trap. W...

Ah ... Tuesday Coffee Chat . THAT I did miss in my blogging break! This week's topic: Let it Go! Is there anything you need to let go of before you can embark on this new year? And I am drawing a total blank. I've been so in the habit of letting things go over the past few months that I am not sure I have anything left. So, if I had to come up with something .... I guess I need to let go of those pesky 5 pounds that found me again over the holiday season. Photo Credit I find that I have the same cycle with my body each year. From January to about May, I work to lose those Pesky 5. I get them gone by eating within my calories and macros and exercising regularly. Starting in about April or May I add running back into my routine, and then summer comes with better eating (less warm, comfort foods and more fresh veggies). I keep this up until about October when the temps start falling and family activities pick up making exercise more of a challenge. We have a fall ...

Hi!!! I am back from my blogging break! I have never taken a month-long break from blogging before, and I have to say that it was so nice. The end of the year always takes me down with birthdays (3 of the 4 kids) and Halloween into Thanksgiving into Christmas. This year we also had some major life challenges in Kyndal and Collin losing their baby and Dawson experiencing a major relationship break up. We were way up and way down, sometimes all in the same day. So, I just needed a break. The little kids and I took off a full month from school .... again, much needed! Although they are not ready to start back again, I think we need to get back to some structure. Today we are easing in and tomorrow we will be back into the full swing. I decided to make my first post of 2016 an announcement of my "Word of the Year". This year my word is ..... KISS . And I don't just mean physically kiss more, which would also be a good thing. That's right. Keep it simple,...

As you can probably tell, I am currently on an unscheduled blogging break. I do have things to post ... Eli's birthday, Holiday activities, Christmas, New Year's Eve, the annual 'Word of the Year', etc. But I just don't feel like blogging right now. No reason, just don't really feel like it. Plus, I am sick with a sinus infection and just need some rest. We will be starting back to school on January 18th. I plan to get back into a regular blogging routine then. For now I am doing lots of reading and relaxing with my family.