and we're off, year 16 begins...

I'm a little behind on my posting...and I'll regret being up this late tomorrow, but I can't sleep and this is more fun than trying to find a new book to read.

Don't those kids look eager and ready to learn? Okay, Braden isn't so excited, but he has a full load this year and I'd just given my 'beginning of the year' speech. He more than the others is taking my words a bit more seriously. I've only got him for this year and two others. I have a lot to cram into that noggin of his. You can't tell from the photo, but Chloe and Nathan both aren't feeling that great. Our first day, turned into a half sick day for them. But we got organized and made some progress.

But I am a creature of habit and my ruts run deep. Ask the girls, they will tell you, I do say the same thing at the beginning of each year. 'This will be the hardest year yet. You are older and now you have more responsibilities and more is expected of you. But Dad and I know that you can do it!...' I don't know why I say it, other than it is true. Better to lay it all out there, so they are not surprised when it gets tough.

But I still cannot believe that we've been walking this homeschooling road for 16 years! You'd think starting would be easier now. Since I found Sonlight, picking materials isn't difficult. Last years books go in the box and the new years books come out of the box, open the teacher binder and you're off. It's the change of routine and the readjustment of my thinking to 'This is my job! If I don't accomplish this, it won't get done.' Thankfully I know that none of this is done in my strength. God creates the growth in education, He sharpens the mind, and expands their thinking. I just write endless sticky notes and correct papers. Even in the most chaotic years, when I thought we'd never finish or learn anything, God has ALWAYS come through. Books were finished, papers turned in, lectures slogged through, and somehow learning was accomplished. It leaves me to think, what exactly do I do for them?

It's called discipleship...I live my life with the knowledge that while we look busy 'doing school' they are watching. Does her walk match the talk? Does she speak rightly? Does she love, honor, and pray for one another as she asks us to do? Oh, there are far more important things going on with education than textbooks. Maybe that is why after 16 years, it still seems new every year.

Carry on kiddos, you're doing great!

vacation...

This year our family took a joint vacation with the D. Joner's, L. Joner's, Gerving's, and Bowen's to Lincoln City, Oregon. Some of the families we knew well and others we didn't. We all stayed together in a rabbit warren of a house, high on a cliff, overlooking the beach. The house slept 22, had 3 separate living areas, and 3 kitchens. It had an interesting concept of kitchen implements, but enough plates for an army. The only down side to this particular house, which we did not know when we booked it, was the 180 steps down to the beach.

Yes, I said 180 steps!! Down and up, every time you needed anything! Our house is the second from the left in the picture above. By the end of the week Dan and Braden thought that writing notes in the sand was an effective way to get the message to the house above.

It reads, 'send food'. It must have worked in part because when we all got back up to the house, someone had ordered pizza for dinner. However, no one ever did bring food down to them.

All the children were very creative in their beach play. Leave my kids alone on a beach with drift wood, a shovel, and a few plants and they will occupy themselves for days. Above is a fort that the kids carved out of the sand. I think all the sand they dug out came up to the house caked onto them. It was astonishing!

Later on in the week, the fort became a teeter-totter, girls vs. boys. Some of the parents even got into the action. I'm not sure which team took a dump onto the sand.

They also constructed a driftwood house. Another beach goer built one next to it later and improvements were made to both throughout the remainder of the week.

The view from inside. (This is a staged picture on the last day. These guys are WAY TOOOO clean! Most of the time they all were caked in sand. Even their ears were full!)

Nathan's project on the last full day was a beach garden, complete with a flag pole and benches.

The most fun the whole group of kids had was the creation of a beach bunker complete with cannon. Loren Joner is a great kid motivator. Loren and some of the kids sat in the bunker as a high tide threatened to invade the works. It was breached on the far side but remained mostly intact. The pictures don't do it justice, it was quite deep and fit many wet, sandy children plus a few dads and grandpas.

We did learn many things on our trip...the human ear can hold A LOT of sand as can Calvin's hair, Janice does NOT like the 180 stairs, Jaime has amazing talents due to her genetic makeup, Dan really likes whale watching (we saw them everyday right off our beach), Calvin likes bacon, the Tucks eat a big breakfast, there is a great yarn shop in Newport, OR, McKenzie can literally scale walls, JoyLyn will never get a turtle-neck over Jackson's head, vacationing with the Joners means you get great coffee, and 5 families who are very different can vacation together and have a great time doing it.

Thank you all, we had a great time! I do have to add this last picture for Chloe. Our house apparently came with it's own raccoon. The kids named it but I can't remember what they called it.

In broad daylight he would walk to the patio door and sit up just waiting for food. He is cute, in a scavenger kind of way.

Thanks again everyone...so where are we going next year?