Journey to Excellence

August was ridiculously busy! Annual week at the lake with Okie friends. It's a highlight of our summer! Bennett won Grand Champion Boy in a nearby fair baby contest. Brynne celebrated her 12th birthday. The kids and I took a trip to St. Louis to Mastadon State Historic Site and the Saint Louis Zoo. Bennett turned ONE! I treated my nieces and Bennett to Build-a-Bears for their birthdays. I finally got to start working at our local branch at the library. This was my first display. I'm the morning librarian. I love it! Brynne re-entered public school. Benny had a fun first birthday party! Rick took the kids to St. Louis to witness the Total Path of the Eclipse. We started major renovations on our house, including an attic remodel into a master suite and the ripping off of our roof to put on a new one. Eli started his 8th grade year homeschooling. Brynne ended the month (tonight) with a 102.5 degree fever

Can you believe we're rolling into the Labor Day weekend? What's a project you'll labor over this fall? Well, I won't exactly be physically laboring over it myself, but I will be supervising it, hearing it constantly, and cleaning up after it. We just started a renovation at our house on Monday turning our attic into a master suite and second living area. Our roof is getting replaced tomorrow. Then we are gutting and completely renovating our one bathroom, tearing down a garage, adding a privacy fence, and installing a new HVAC to our ground floor. Tell us about the best perks you ever had in a job? You know, the best thing I can think of was when I had health insurance that I paid an extra $15 a month for (because my employer paid the base cost) that had a maximum yearly out-of-pocket amount of $100. Man, those days are over! August 31st is National South Carolina Day. Have you ever been to SC? Any desire to go? According to Southern Living, these a

On Saturday we celebrated Bennett's First Birthday with family and friends. It was a great party and Kyndal did such a fantastic job with the food and decorations! Bennett had a fun day!

Welcome back to another year with Journey Homeschool! It is astonishing to me that we are starting our 8th year of homeschooling! And, yet again, the dynamics of our homeschool environment have changed. Therein lies the beauty. Eli at the library where I work doing some morning schoolwork. If you are new here, let's recap: We started homeschooling Dawson when he entered the 8th grade. Kyndal and Eli were in public school and Brynne was starting public school kindergarten. Within six weeks we decided to bring Brynne home for her schooling. So we had two in and two out. We had this arrangement for two years. Then we moved back to Missouri from Oklahoma to a smaller school district. Dawson went back to public school for the 10th grade, Kyndal was a senior in high school, and we brought Eli home to school with Brynne. Again, two in and two out, just a different combination. We had this arrangement for five years. Kyndal and Dawson both graduated from public school and I continu