Journey to Excellence

Time is flying by this winter. I doubt we are the only homeschoolers out there who are just in the winter groove, which means there aren't quite as many "exciting" photo-worthy activities happening. Or maybe it is just us. We just seem to be spending our days getting all of our necessary work done, throwing in some unit studies when they are relevant. Mostly we have our noses to the grindstone. So what you are getting here is just a report that we have been getting in six or so hours of schooling every day, covering all of our required subjects and learning lots. All of our concepts in math and grammar are getting more difficult so the assignments take a bit more time to complete each day. We are reading a lot every day. Not only are the kids reading their own personal books as much as they can, but we are also reading every day out of Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis and Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. WWII consumes the majority of the rest ...

No Wednesday Hodgepodge this week, so this ... For today ...  Wednesday, February 24, 2016 Outside my window ... it is cloudy, cold, and windy. I am thinking ...  about a sweet moment I had with Eli last night. He is going through those changes, if you know what I mean, that is giving him emotions and worries about things that have never bothered him before. I had a real mom to young man talk with him last night, maybe our first. When he was getting ready to go to bed he said, "Thank you for that." I said, "For what?" And he said, "For the talk." I got teary. My little boy, my sweet little Eli, is turning into a young man. We had just had our first real adultish talk, and he was so mature about it. I told him that I would always be here for him and he can always talk to me about anything. He seemed so relieved and he smiled and went to bed happy. Man, being a mom is the most amazing thing in the world. I am thankful ...  that the tornado tha...

Give it up? We are in the Season of Lent: Do you give anything up? Do you observe Lent? Confession: This year I did not give up anything for Lent. We are Methodist, so we do observe Lent as a denomination. I consider myself more of an independent Christian (my own title), so I do not really observe the tenets of any one religious sect. I believe that Jesus is my Savior; He is the only Son of God born to the virgin Mary; that He was crucified, died on the cross, was buried, and was raised from the dead on the third day, and now sits at the right hand of God. He is my daily portion, absolutely no doubt. I seem to have slipped into a sort of coma this winter. All of a sudden I stopped doing my morning devotion, my daily Bible study, checking in with my accountability partner. I shut down all activity except what has been absolutely necessary. I have spent my time taking care of what needs taken care of and then hibernating the rest of the time. I get that way sometimes this time of...

February 17th is national Random Acts of Kindness Day. It lands on the calendar one day after National Do Something for a Grouch Day (February 16th) which somehow feels related. Perhaps the 16th inspired the 17th? Tell about a time you performed a random act of kindness or were the recipient of one. Will you make an effort to perform a random act of kindness on the 17th? Share details if you're so inclined, and if you have something specific in mind. Isn't it an oxymoron to disclose a random act of kindness since the act of kindness is supposed to be random? And to have a day on the calendar telling us to be random doesn't seem random. I mean, if you know someone is having surgery in a couple of days and you want to do something special for them then that seems to be random, at least to them. But having a day dedicated to people doing acts of kindness seems wrong. We should provide acts of kindness whenever a need arises ... randomly .. not because we are told on a c...

The Struggle is Real: Rant or comic relief. What are you struggling with these days? Reflux. I have always had a sourish stomach, popping a Tums before I go to bed. Over the past few years it has gotten worse so I went on prescription Prilosec a couple of years ago. Even taking Prilosec twice a day I have had some chest pains (not as much in my throat with the medication) at night and needed to take either Gas X, Tums, or Gaviscon to even be able to lay down and go to sleep. My sister-in-law is a pharmacist and has warned me about the long-term negative effects of Prilosec, so I would really like to be able to stop taking it someday. That does not look promising in my current condition. I have tried every conceivable way of eating, because all of the experts have a different opinion. I've even gone as far as Ketogenic (practically NO carbs) because I had heard others report how much better they felt on that diet. I can't say I felt any worse, but certainly not better,...

Alright, let's wrap up the last two weeks. I've been sharing my computer with a Minecraft maniac, so when I've been in the mood to blog she seemed to always have my computer. Then when my computer was available, I didn't feel like blogging. Know what I mean? But, this blog is my way to prove to the world (and sometimes even myself) that we actually do spend 30 or so hours a week educating like we are supposed to do. Two Weeks Ago We had one of those glorious boring weeks in our schooling. We read, wrote, and mathed, primarily. I love those weeks sometimes. Dividing improper and mixed fractions takes some time with all of its conversions, higher level math facts, and simplifications. Because I would rather the kids "get it" than do multiple problems, quality versus quantity, they spent the week doing a lesser amount of problems, but more difficult ones, each day. I didn't want to pack in a bunch of activities to complete because I wanted...

I missed this week's Tuesday Coffee Chat, but when I went back and read the topic I just had to join in, even if two days late. Show me Love. Now is your chance to get all lovey-dovey. Share a craft, share a poem, share a date night idea. For Valentine's Day in 2010, some girlfriends and I put together a The Amazing Race: Valentine Edition for our spouses. It was so incredibly fun, one of the funnest things I have ever planned and pulled off. The post with the details of that date night is as follows: *************************** Oh how I have been dying to post something about this! But, I couldn't breathe a word or even drop a hint because it was such a big surprise! For well over a month my friends Berry, Deidra, Tamara and I have been planning The Amazing Race: Valentine Edition for our husbands. I saw this idea on My Insanity , and immediately enlisted these friends to do it with me. Saturday night was the first chance around Valentine's Day that we ...

Yeah, well I fell off the blogging bandwagon again. Oops. I have actually even had a couple of posts completed and then not published. Sometimes I just find myself wandering away from the computer. It usually coincides with an increase in the amount of reading I am doing, and I am doing tons of reading these days. But I'll jump in on Wednesday Hodgepodge today. Thank you, Joyce, for giving us a fun place to land each week. Create an acrostic using the word LOVE. L oving O thers V oraciously E veryday Does love really conquer all? Why or why not? I think so. I read somewhere one time that every single problem in this world is the direct result of a child not being properly loved. Let that sink in. That doesn't mean each child should be loved in the same way, necessarily, because we all have different needs and love languages. But, if Hitler had been loved "properly", would he have become the monster that he did? If that teenager down the street was pr...

New Month ... time to shed the old and make a fresh start. Let's start with One Good Thing. I was just talking with my friend Cheryl this morning about this very thing. I typically thrive on a pretty hard-core schedule. I wake in the morning, read my Bible and do some journaling and prayer, do a little computer time, get up and exercise, get ready for the day, get the kids up and moving, get them schooled while doing some housework, get everybody where they need to go and when they need to go there, feed the crew, and wind down in the evening with a regular bedtime. But, as of late, I have had no motivation, not even enough to keep up with my schedule. I haven't been waking at an intentional earlier hour. I haven't been starting my day in the Word. I haven't exercised at all. I really don't care to be on the computer. I feed the family, do the schooling, get everybody delivered and home again, and get the housework accomplished. And then I sit in...