Journey to Excellence

Although I am certainly not glad that Brynne has been having back problems, her need to shut down her sporting activities has sure made this a peaceful week! This was Rick's week to work in Oklahoma, Dawson has been working, Dawson's friend (and our new live-in "son") Chad went back to Oklahoma to get more of his belongings, and Kyndal has been tired this week so has been snuggled up in her own home. It has just been Eli, Brynne, and me the majority of the time with no out-of-the-house activities. We have done school for a few hours each morning, had personal time most of the afternoon and evening, and have turned on the Kansas City Royals versus St. Louis Cardinals games every evening. The kids have played their video games while I have read and watched baseball. Like I said, it was a much-needed very quiet week! Perfection! The kids actually enjoy doing their Learning Bridge 6-7 activity pages each day. I don't know why I didn't think of using this pr...

It's officially summer (in the northern hemisphere anyway). Which summer month is best and why? August. It's my birthday. We take a week trip to my parents' lakehouse with our Okie friends each August. We take the month off from school in anticipation of our fall start date. There is no softball, no camps, nothing. The grass is all dead so no need to mow. It's hot but who cares? I'm in the house being lazy reading my books and doing lesson plans. Can you swim? How did you learn? June 27th is National Sunglasses Day. How many pair do you own? I don't remember a time that I could not swim. I have no idea when or how I learned. It was probably the same way my kids learned. They were introduced to water from their first summer, dunked in it, allowed to explore in it, and eventually took some lessons that they didn't really need. All my kids are fish. I have two pair of sunglasses and my goal each summer is to try to still have one of them by the end ...

What journey do you most want to take? It can be a geographical place, an emotional or spiritual quest, or even a creative pursuit. I received a comment this morning from a long-time blog follower I didn't even know I had. She told me that she has followed me for years, that she is from our previous city of residence, that she would often see me at the school and various other places, and how much she has enjoyed the realism of my blog all these years. I was touched! I also wish she would have introduced herself so that we could have possibly been friends. But that got me thinking about the journey we took to get where we are now. In August, we will have lived here in our little home in Missouri for four years. I started looking back at blog posts from about the time of our move. We were getting ready to have a presidential election. And here we are again. Some of the reasons we downsized and moved to small town Missouri was because of the likely results of the election. ...

This was that crazy week. Rick and I were on an overnight trip to Hermann, Missouri, to celebrate our 15th anniversary (again!), so Kyndal was left to help out with Eli and Brynne. That included taking Brynne to basketball camp at the University of Central Missouri. Since she was logging school hours ... extreme P.E. ... Eli needed to have some schoolwork to do while she was gone to get in his hours, as well. Each day he read out of his book Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins for one hour. Then he worked on a research project assigned to him by his speech therapist. Finally, he played the game Taken Charge by Galvanize Labs for one hour. He really enjoyed this game because it had him learning about the inner workings of the computer and putting one together. He completed Level 1 this week. When I asked him if he wanted to complete the game this summer (we have a free subscription until the end of August) he said that he did. He really enjoyed it! Video game...

Hermann, Missouri, is a quaint little town on the Missouri River. Germans settled there hundreds of years ago and quickly determined that it was the perfect location to grow grapes and produce wines. Stone Hill wine is a popular wine that you can find at most stores, including Walmart, and maybe you have seen it. It is made in Hermann, Missouri. There are many, many wineries in and around that small town. Staying in Hermann at a Bed and Breakfast, going on a winery tour, and doing some wine tastings was on my bucket list. Rick and I just celebrated our 15 year anniversary so we decided this would be a neat little one-night trip to take since it's just a few hours from our home. We stayed at a B&B right next to Stone Hill Winery called Stone Hill Overlook. It was a nice little modern bed and breakfast that served our purposes perfectly. Plus it had a beautiful hilltop view of Hermann. We took the advice of our host Jim and went straight to Adam Puchta Winery. Well, ...

I saw this and thought it would be fun to do in honor of Father's Day. The first few questions were easy, but the further I went the more I am thinking I might not know him as well as I think I do. I don't know, what do you think, Rick? He's sitting in front of the t.v., what is he watching?  He is watching some kind of sporting event and is flipping back and forth between it and two movies that he has already seen, one probably being a cartoon movie. You are out to eat, what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Definitely Ranch. Name a food he hates. Hmmmm .... I honestly can't think of one food item that he hates. You go out to eat and have a drink, what would he order? After he jokes about having Crown with a lime (inside joke), he will probably order a Stella Artois or a Corona. Favorite kind of music? He likes all kinds of music, especially 80's movie tunes. He knows every word to every song in Grease 2 if that tells you anything....

Summer school for us involves lots of flexibility to our schedule. We intend to do school work for 2-3 hours each morning Monday through Thursday. But this week we logged some hours away from home on Monday and then Brynne was sick on Thursday and Friday so we pretty much just took it easy on those days. The kids completed Days 5 and 6 out of Summer Bridge 6-7 . They covered the following concepts: ratios and graphing least common multiple commas root words, prefixes, suffixes reading comprehension complete subjects and predicates We read all but 70 pages of Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics . It's a great book and lots of fun to read. Eli started The Prophecy of Bane by Suzanne Collins ( Gregor the Overlander Book 2) and Brynne started Eclipse (Book 4 from the Warriors: The Power of Three series) We logged some special hours on Sunday and Monday when our family went to spend the night at Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City. They got in some PE while swimming ...

If you could sit beside and/or jump in any lake in the whole wide world today, which lake would you choose and why? I'm going to go with Lake Michigan because right now the sound of a cold, northern lake sounds heavenly. My parents have a lake house just one hour from here, but it's so hot and muggy here in Missouri that I would like to go somewhere cool and refreshing! Plus, every image I ever see of Lake Michigan just looks so beautiful! What's your favorite 'fruity' drink? Anything peach or mango. I really like a peach green tea. I read a list of thirteen things to do right now to simplify your life. They were ... clean as you go, re-evaluate your relationships (cut toxic ties), unsubscribe (too many blogs and websites), de-clutter, write down your daily goals, reply to emails right away, forget multitasking, create a morning routine, re-evaluate your commitments (which hobbies and responsibilities are most important to you), say no, clean up your c...

I almost forgot it was Tuesday because we took a little family and friends vacay this weekend to Great Wolf Lodge and that threw me off! Today's question: What would you do differently if you knew no one would judge you? First of all, I really don't care if people judge me. Been there done that. And people judge everything anyone does, so my answer today is more about what I would do if I could ... I would find some little farmhouse for sale with a tiny bit of acreage for a hobby farm and I would move to it. I might have some chickens, a horse to feed apples to and brush, and a teacup piggie. I'd live my life there in solitude enjoying a small garden, books, and a front porch swing. And there I would live out the rest of the days of my life. And I'd do this tomorrow if I had the money. Photo Credit If someday I disappear, you will know where to start looking for me.

We completed our first week of Summer School this past week. We take a more relaxed approach to school in the months of June and July. From 10:00 a.m. until noonish we tackle some actual school work reviewing concepts, learning new ones, and doing some reading. Then in the afternoons we relax, go swimming, rest to prepare for evening softball, etc. While at Hastings last weekend Brynne saw the Summer Bridge series of books and asked if we could buy one for her and Eli to use this summer. (She is a total homeschool kid.) I was happy to oblige so purchased the 6-7 grade bridge edition. Each day the kids start out with a front and back worksheet from the Summer Bridge book. Just this week they covered these topics: Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division review Rewriting expressions using exponents and evaluating Equivalent fractions Greatest Common Factors Stressed syllables and definition look-up in dictionary Complete, fragmented, and run-on sentences Edi...

Rick and I will celebrate 15 years of marriage next week. When we got married we said that we would go on a Mediterranean cruise for our 15th, but instead we found a great Groupon for an all-inclusive resort in Puerta Vallarta and spent 3 relaxing and fun nights there! We stayed at the Vamar Vallarta at the marina instead of in the usual touristy areas of PV. This particular resort is one where many of the locals come for their vacations and time off. We felt like we were at a Mexican family reunion where nobody noticed that we weren't really in their family. Everyone was so nice and we were blessed by all of the families who were vacationing together and enjoying each other! Smiles were all around! When we arrived we were greeted with mimosas and escorted to our superior room on the 7th floor. Wow! It was really a studio apartment with full kitchen, dining area, couch, and bedroom with a balcony view of the main pool, the mountains, and the marina. It was beautiful! ...