Back to the Sunshine State- Part 1

I can't believe it took over a year to return to a place we called home for six years but we finally boarded a plane (without kids) & spent 5 days in the Sunshine State. The trip was planned around celebrating with Steve, Jenny & the kiddos as they reached 100% support & were officially headed to Poland. We were able to be there for a commissioning service at CCC & spend lots of time catching up. On top of spending time with that beloved family, we were able to catch up with a few others we have missed dearly since our move. It was a fabulous & emotion- filled trip & we are thankful we were able to go. 

We debated for about 5 minutes on whether we should take the kids or not when we had made the decision to go. I think we were smart to plan a mommy & daddy trip. My parents came into town to spend the five days with our little brood & provided shuttle service to & from the airport. I'm pretty sure the kids didn't notice we were gone ; ) 

It was an exciting moment for me to see them pull up! Then my dad's speech to the kids had me laughing as he repeated the phrase we heard as kids that may have been delivered a bit more sternly than it was to my bunch "We're a family & we are going to have fun!"

We booked our tickets on American Airlines who did not assign seats till we checked in at the gate. I walked up to the counter & gave the woman our tickets. She said she did not have any seats together & would need to work on it for a minute.  I found a cozy spot while we waited. She walked up & handed me our boarding passes. I never even glanced at them. When it was time to start boarding Rob looked at the ticket & saw "FIRST" written across...could it be? Did she move us to first class? I walked up to the desk just to verify & she smiled this funny smile at me like "don't say anything, just get on the plane!" So we did & found ourselves in the front row with an extreme amount of leg room to stretch out & enjoy the flight. It was a first for me....no pun intended. I'm thinking that the woman at the desk must have been pregnant a time or two & remembered how it felt to sit straight up & down for three hours with lots of trips to the bathroom. Bless her. We were off to a great start & Florida bound on July 16th.

The next great thing that happened was when we arrived in Orlando & walked to the counter to pick up our rental car.  She said it was a slow week & they were running a special on Corvette convertibles. Well that was an easy decision, especially for my travel buddy. We walked out to find this...

I cannot describe how fun it was! It was definitely the furthest thing possible to our Expedition that can carry six extra passengers. For example, our two carry on bags had to be jammed into the trunk & I carried everything else in my lap, including Arlo. We rode with the top down & sun glasses on the entire time which also meant we stayed pretty sticky in the Florida climate but we didn't care. I did feel like I needed to hold a sign up that said "this is a rental & we got a good deal on it!" Rob asked what we should name the car & the only thing I came up with was "the banana mobile" which he immediately shot down after he had a good laugh. He said it had to be a girl name so I suggested "Hannah" so we could call her "Hannah Banana." He agreed & we sped down the highway from the airport to Celebration.  I had to take the picture above so Arlo would know he was the one & only of the Valentine kiddos to ride in a Corvette & so he would remember how cool his mom once was ; ) The only downside to our vehicle of choice was how difficult it was to get out of with a growing baby bump. By the end of the trip I felt like a needed a crane to lift me. Rob came to the rescue every time & heaved me out of the passenger seat. People grinned at us when this was in process like they weren't expecting a pregnant lady to exit. 

We headed straight to Steve & Jenny's place before checking into the hotel. They were happy to greet us & Steve was pretty excited to go for a spin. In fact by the end of the trip Robby had taken just about everyone in that house, a couple other friends & a 12 year old kid drooling over the car in the parking lot for a spin! It was like a ride at the fair! 

We had a blast playing with Karis, Isaac & Olivia that afternoon before checking in at our hotel.  We thought it would be super convenient to be right around the corner from the "Polish Valentines" as I will now refer to them. It happened to be a beautiful hotel on top of being so close. Our room looked over the lake that we had walked around about a million times while we lived in Orlando.  

Thursday evening we got cleaned up & headed to an old favorite restaurant, Seito Sushi. It was just as good as we remembered! I wanted to get back to our hotel room as soon as possible to go to sleep. I was SOOOO excited to sleep in a place where no one would wake me up. I actually picked up some Tylenol PM that I took each evening & completely knocked me out. I felt great! Friday morning started with a trip around the old neighborhood & some nearby developments before heading up to the mall. We grabbed a late breakfast before heading back south to have lunch with the Lent's. How did I not take a picture with them?! We ate at Abuelos, also a place full of memories. It was wonderful to catch up with these two. They are refreshing, hilarious & filled to the brim with Christ centered counsel & encouragement. Once lunch was over I thought we would head back to rest but we found that we couldn't stay away from Steve, Jenny & the kids! I read some Curious George & snuggled with sweet Isaac who is now 3. Karis (turned 5 just a few weeks ago) climber all over Uncle Rob & precious baby Olivia who was about 18 months old when we visited tried to figure out if she liked me to hold her. There were lots of laughs & a heavy heart on my part thinking about the physical distance between our families that was fast approaching...more on that later. 

Good thing we rested well because Saturday was filled with activity! We started off the morning celebrating Karis' 5th birthday at a nearby pool. The Brainards met us early for a quick visit. We love this family! We met them about a year & a half before we left Florida. Annie & I were pregnant at the same time with the boys for us & sweet Lilah Leigh for their family. We are pregnant together again & had we knowing each other for the past 7 years, all of our pregnancies would have overlapped!

Karis could not have been more fun to watch during her birthday celebration. She is such a delightful little girl that relishes in spending time with friends from babies to grown ups. Her official birthday was not until the end of August & they thought it would be more fun to celebrate with friends than right after a huge move. We were happy about that decision. Another bright spot in our trip was getting to meet the newest Lent baby, Vivian. She is perfectly chubby & full of smiles!

I had all these plans for afternoon naps everyday in our quiet little hotel room but when it came down to it we could not refuse an opportunity to visit with friends that we have missed SO much. The Bucks fell into that category & we got to meet up at Starbucks that afternoon. We have known them since the fist year we were in Orlando. In fact, I am pretty sure they were the only other young couple at CCC with us in the early days. They celebrated the welcoming of our babies & Emily was never short on helping us, cuddling kiddos & inviting us to Sea Word (pre twin invasion). The girls loved the attention from Christian & Olivia. What a great visit, quick as it may have been, we left feeling encouraged about many things. 

Saturday evening we had some yummy BBQ with this clan. All the grandparents were there too...I am thinking that the Polish Valentines were in the spot light of my camera lens the whole time & I am missing pictures of everyone else ; ( As I look at this picture I am wondering if Steve is holding a partially eaten banana...that makes me laugh. 

Sunday will be a whole post in itself since it encompassed the majority of emotions during the trip. That being said, we will move onto Monday. We woke up bright & early to head over to a Colombian bakery that has the most delicious pandebono, a Colombian cheese bread served warm. I could eat about 10 of them.  Our old Colombian neighbors Hugo & Juanita introduced us to a new carb filled addiction. I texted her the picture to say "wish you were here!"  We said our goodbyes to our beloved family, packed up our hotel room & were on our way to the airport. Our other quick stop in the afternoon was to Winnie Palmer of course. What a place full of memories. Memories of meeting all of our babies & precious friends babies, a place filled with colleagues that were a gift to work with & just a place that played a large role in my life while living in Orlando. It seemed fitting that I had to be there pregnant with Arlo since he wouldn't be born there. To prove it, my friend snapped a picture of me with my own pregnant belly full of baby Charlotte.  

We were tired both physically & emotionally, we missed our little brood & were excited to hop on the plane back to Texas. It was late that evening so we didn't see the kiddos till the next morning. It was a lovely reunion for six (& a half) people plus souvenirs in Mommy & Daddy's bed. I'm not sure what we will do once Arlo is here....do they make larger than king size beds?

What a wonderful trip that we were thankful we were able to enjoy. I am actually a little tired thinking about it but then again, I was about 10 weeks earlier in this pregnancy now & was able to tolerate much more activity!

32 weeks.....say what?

The title says it all.....we blink & I am 32 weeks. Well, 32 weeks for another day & then I will be 33 weeks which is why I am determined to write this now. At this point with the twins, I was only two weeks away from delivery. Wowsers, we better start getting some things together for Buckaroo #3. 

More important than a baby bathtub or new bottles, the Valentine "family of kids" has been in full prep mode for the past two months since I last wrote about the babe in the womb. We have a bin of babies & baby items up in a closet that we had not played with for awhile so I pulled it down in hopes that it would be enjoyed by all & boy was it! 

• First order of business, strap the babies into Ergos on the boys. They were "shushing" their newborns without receiving instruction. 
• Second, practice swaddling giant babies & finding it is easier to start with a fitted crib sheet 
• Third, feed the babies their bottles
• Fourth, get the new "bracelets" as the boys say....try to rip them out & wear them on wrists until I saved & hid them. 
• Fifth, the babies have grown quickly & have advanced to solid food.

I found myself laughing often as I observed all the newborn care provided around here. The boys were absolutely precious & the girls were thrilled to offer their wisdom on how to best problem solve. Owen (as usual) was busier than his pal Anson so the girls had to trap him & make him be a baby until being forced to release him in fear of being bitten.  Anson on the other hand was (& is) the perfect baby. Our low key kid that loves his thumb & his blankie would lie in a reclined position being snuggled all hours of the day. I actually really enjoy this about him & wonder how he might feel about sharing snuggle time with his baby bro. Good thing I have practice snuggling two little guys at once ; ) He had a good "baby" cry to get attention from his caretakers.

Owen & Anson have had a baby or two in their bed to take care of at night since the baby box came out of the closet. Each of them have woken at night screaming they have lost their baby....so hilarious. Anson likes to take his in the car but we tell him that she must stay put when we get to our destination. When we get back to the car he climbs right in & says "Hi baby, how are you, you hot?" She would definitely not survive the Texas heat inside a car but Anson would blame it on us for making him leave the car empty handed ; ) 

Charlotte & Eloise have enjoyed some time with real live babies! Liam has been back over a couple times for cuddles with these two. My cousin Amy welcomed another sweet baby girl named Hallie early this month & the girls got to see her before me! They loved holding her & have told me multiple times that they can't believe Arlo will be that small. 

 

I had the opportunity to offer a "You Pick 2" to my friend Kate who was helping with watching kids during my blood draw & appointment a couple weeks ago. I actually chose to leave Charlotte with her since she is most independent & safe child. This means I automatically got Eloise. When the boys were up in the morning, I picked the one that was having a harder time dealing with life (that day) & got to put Owen on my team. So, Charlotte & Anson were happy to play with their buddies & I pretty much had no idea what I was in for. I was quickly reminded of why we call these two "the spicy middle" since they are our official middle children. They were like little jalapenos as we waited an extra hour for my appointment. At one point Owen picked up his Hot Wheel car & took off running as fast as a cheetah down a straight stretch. I was not sure where it ended so I began chasing him. I basically sprinted a good 200 yards which is something I hate when not pregnant so you can imagine how great I felt haha! I turned around to tell Eloise to follow me & she was running full speed with a stroller & three bags...she almost passed me. Thankfully I caught that little stinker & strapped him down.  

Once we were taken to a room the mood improved. Then we got to squeeze into a 2x2 ft space as two curious children observed how to provide a urine specimen. Thankfully our doctor & staff are awesome & provide large Tootsie Roll pops instead of those minuscule Dum Dum's. Although they cause an extreme amount of sticky saliva on clothes, hands & hair (that's Owen's problem) they sure occupy a chatty mouth for a good length of time.  Our doctor is so sweet & let Eloise find the heartbeat & measure my belly. Her eyes were huge & her grin even bigger. Her payment was two gloves that she was very proud of. After all the ridiculousness Kate made my day so much better when we arrived to grilled cheese & fruit on the table. She even made me a second grilled cheese....they were the best! Here is my stand in doctor...

Onto this sweet baby boy who is growing like crazy along with me. I look back at the amount of weekly pictures/updates with the other four & I should be ashamed. At least a son might not care as much as a daughter & would prefer not to see photos of his mother's bare belly...I'm guessing Arlo will never hold it against me. I say this because he is pretty sweet..........

a few pregnancy updates

• at 30 weeks Arlo weighed almost 3 pounds
• I have gained 22 pounds so far which is about 15 less than I had gained by this point with the girls & WAY less than I gained with the boys ; ) 
• Arlo is constantly showing off his dance moves & makes my belly look crazy a few times a day which is entertaining for the rest of the brood
• In every single ultrasound he has been in a full pike position...maybe headed towards being an Olympic diver? We are guessing he is not practicing his technique rather protecting himself from all the body slams my belly receives on a daily basis. 
• We have been able to see him open & close his mouth, suck his thumb, scratch his head & open his eyes...incredible every single time
• I had a follow up appointment with my neurologist at the end of July. My medication has been increased multiple times to achieve a therapeutic level. 
• Robby & I are enjoying our dates to the doctor & out to dinner here & there. He's my favorite & I am so thankful we are walking this parenting road together. 
• I passed my 1 hour glucose screen with flying colors, such great news since I failed that one & the three hour last go round. This means I have been able to keep up my bowl of ice cream a night diet. This is the most difficult pregnancy yet since there is no Blue Bell around. I have found some decent substitutions that I am sure I will think are disgusting once I try Blue Bell again & that's alright ; ) 
• After much consideration, we have decided for me to attempt to VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) instead of scheduling a repeat csection. Please join us in praying for labor to begin easily on it's own & progress naturally (& quickly) to a safe delivery
• Just over this past week I have begun to experience much more difficulty chasing children, getting up off the ground & rolling over in bed...all part of it!

One exciting addition to our family as of three weeks ago is Rosie, another Blue American Pitbull Terrier like Bella. She is sweet & a little wild which is making things even more exciting around here. She likes the belly & snuggles with me after she has been run ragged. A Rosie post will come in due time...like maybe years later. 

My mom came into town this past week for our pre-baby sewing extravaganza. We went through some baby items & put them away but our main focus was making Big Sis, Big Bro & Lil Bro shirts.  It was a more intense project than we anticipated but love how they turned out.  My mom snapped a pic of me during one of our late night craft sessions. 

I'm loving being pregnant with this little guy & although there are multiple things we need to knock out before he arrives, we can hardly wait for him to get here! We just know he will fit right in : )

Kindergarten~ a year in review

Since First Grade is already in full swing, let's take a moment to reminisce about Kindergarten.  We were thankful to find a nearby Classical Conversations Community following our move back to Texas. It was something familiar to the girls as our Florida born babes were surrounded by unfamiliar things. We kicked off schooling at home right after our first CC day & the girls were very excited! 

Implementing Classical Conversations at home:

Simply stated, Charlotte has a love for Geography...makes me wonder if she will be an adventurous young lady with a passport someday.  We introduced continents to Eloise in the same way Charlotte learned them when she was four. A map, play dough & some little flags.

Charlotte worked on what we call "blob mapping" which is basically drawing the general shape of each continent in the proper place in& eventually in relation to the prime meridian & equator. She spent enough time tracing it over the past year that she can draw it from memory. Eloise's favorite part of Geography was the dry erase markers & one of my favorite parts of Eloise is her facial expressions. 

Maps, maps & more maps! Our Geography covered 120 locations & features with a focus on the USA.  We learned all the states & capitals, many mountain ranges, rivers & lakes. Eloise was tired of the "baby class" & tagged along with me to Charlotte's class for the second semester. At three & a half she drove Charlotte crazy when we would work on our maps of the USA & I would say the capital & they would name the state. Eloise was faster than fast & proud of it!

Our goal was to start in the mornings with reviewing the memory work from CC with this fancy board I made. It was used about half the time & was really helpful....I'm actually not sure why I stopped but we still made it & learned our memory work without it. We included the boys strapped in their highchairs for most of this portion since they were highly entertained by our silly songs & hand motions. They actually memorized the six parts of the circulatory system with hand motions by 18 months of age. HILARIOUS. 

Classical Conversations weekly for 24 weeks:

We were part of a CC Community that met on Thursday mornings & Charlotte was in a class with kids that were 4-5 and a couple that turned 6 rather early in the year.  Her tutor, Mrs. S was the highlight of Charlotte's time there. She did an incredible job capturing the attention of eight busy bodies & engaging them in learning all sorts of fun things. I'm thinking they were jumping like bunnies for this one : ) One of the kid's favorite things was coming up with voices such as robot, monster, opera singer or the very favorite for my girls, the mousy voice. Since it is our goal to recite each portion of the memory work seven times, voices add some excitement. 

For the first semester our focus for science was on human anatomy which I loved. It was so simple to teach with my background & Charlotte really enjoyed exploring more about this subject through books. Each week they colored & cut out different organs & on week 12 they put them together on their own life size human body. Her's is still hanging in her room & will probably be there until she is at least eleven.

One of the many things we love in class each week is presentation time. Charlotte was confident early on this past year which made it all the more fun to help her prepare & watch her stand up tall, speak loud enough for all to hear & answer questions from her audience.  One week she was assigned to talk about her favorite state & as the picture reveals, she spoke about Florida. 

Another super cute one that would make her Aussie family proud....

For Fine Arts we started with basic drawing, moved on to tin whistles (always a favorite in the littlest class) which included basic music theory, great artists & their masterpieces & last but not least, classical composers. During the last six weeks we welcomed an organist from the church where we were meeting followed by a a cellist from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Both were amazing & I came home trying to convince Rob to let me take cello lessons. Here is Charlotte with her beloved tin whistle.  It's hidden very well when at home & when it is not, it gets washed about a million times. She made some sweet little friends including Gracie who she was happy to exchange Valentine cards with at the class party.  Also, a picture of the girls working on an art project. 

Charlotte actually became very interested in Georgia O'Keeffe & her style...if that's what you call it. She drew a certain flower & colored it with colored pencils about 100 times over the course of a week & could identify a Georgia O'Keeffe piece of artwork when out & about.

Over all for Classical Conversations Cycle 3 we were exposed to & worked to memorize:

• 161 events & people in a chronological timeline
• 24 history sentences including the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution & The Bill of Rights
• 44 U.S. Presidents
• 120 locations & geographical features with emphasis on the United States
• 24 science facts including elements of the periodic table & human anatomy
• Latin rules & vocabulary including John 1:1-7 in Latin
• English grammar & facts including the principal parts of 11 irregular verbs
• Multiplication tables up to 15x15, common squares & cubes, basic geometry formulas & unit conversions

Rob, me & the girls enjoyed a fun morning at the Perot Museum & also spent many a day with the family at the zoo learning all about animals & eating popcorn & Dippin' Dots. 

Over Christmas Robby & I worked on setting up a better equipped area to teach/learn for little people who can't reach the kitchen table well enough to write legibly.  I always wanted to ride the school bus to school but never had the opportunity since we lived so close. Now my kids can ; ) 

I want to record that at this point in time, the playroom/schoolroom only looks like this about once a month when we actually pick everything up at one time & run the vacuum. All the cute magnets of the alphabet & numbers were chewed on & threatened to be swallowed so they have since been removed. This picture is a nice goal though of the benefit of keeping a clean & organized home. 

A focus for this year as a family was to memorize & learn about the Fruit of the Spirit so I was delighted to find this free printable on a blog. 

It has been so very helpful in encouraging & correcting our children, even the boys. To kneel down with them to ask "was that kind or gentle?" or remind them by saying, "you need to practice patience & self control" relates scripture to real life & easily reminds us of our inability to be perfect & need for Jesus. We are also using these words when helping each other reconcile about every 5 minutes it seems ; ) It usually goes like this, "I'm sorry for biting (hitting, pushing, you name it) you. I should have been gentle & kind, will  you please forgive me?" Even the boys know all nine when we are regularly practicing. 

Along with the CC memory work, we are responsible for adding math, reading, spelling & handwriting instruction. Some choose to utilize curriculum & I'm guessing for early years some tried & true home school moms just know what to do & when. I definitely fall into the category of "just tell me what to do, how to do it & I will get it done." This being my first go around, I was looking for simplicity & found it. Kindergarten is pretty simple anyway ; )

MATH:

For Math we almost completed Saxon level 1. Charlotte made her lessons look simple, at least until the last couple months where they have become more challenging.  She learned all about the calendar, patterns, subtraction, addition of two digit numbers, telling time, counting money & many other things.  She loves to write & practiced writing all the names of the numbers on the dry erase board. 

A fun part of our Math curriculum was setting up a store which occurred way more often than the book suggested. Thanks to Uncle Scott & Uncle Kyle they had a cash register that not only "spoke" English but also French & Spanish...Eloise always switched it to one of those. They gathered all sorts of items from our pantry, made price tags, filled the drawer with coins & made receipts. The goal was for Charlotte to add the two digit numbers on her own before typing the problem into the cash register which I'm pretty sure happened about a quarter of the time.  Eloise was cracking me up talking on the microphone to the customers about what was on sale or notifying them that the store would be closing in "20 40 minutes" or something strange to us, normal to her.  

We have about five lessons left before we move onto Level 2. I thought about trying a different curriculum just to see what it was like but considering the fact that Charlotte understands this one, works well with the style etc, we made the decision to stick with it since we will have enough change this fall when Arlo joins us. It is awesome that her reading has taken off enough to where I can circle the problems I know she can read & have her complete them while I put the boys down for a nap. She sometimes surprises me & does more than assigned.  Each lesson has an instruction portion, a 25 question addition or subtraction worksheet (what reminds me of a timed test in elementary school) & a worksheet that has about 6-10 problems on it covering previous material.  Instead of always going in that order which I did for almost the entire year, I now stay a day behind on the worksheets & have her complete what she can while I either clean the kitchen or get the boys settled & then I help her finish, make corrections & move into instruction for the next lesson.  There are assessments, both oral & written every 5th & 10th lesson which is another thing I love. It clearly reveals what she is struggling with & we can pause in between lessons & work hard to master the content before moving on, that way she never gets behind.  

Handwriting:

For handwriting she completed Handwriting without Tears in less than a month when I had planned to make it last the whole Fall. She just loves to write & took off so I let her run with it. Her letter formation changed drastically & words became easier to read in a short amount of time. Once we completed that book we moved onto a writing journal that also had space for drawing & added copy work which we both enjoyed.  The journal assignments would be something like writing a sentence about your favorite food or something you like to do, writing about people in the bible etc. We did an animal alphabet which turned out SO cute. Each day she would write the next letter & what animal it stood for. The pictures were my favorite. For copy work we used a print out of the scripture we memorized for CC, John 1:1-1-7 She copied all the verses a few times through & would read them back to me. We also memorized this in Latin but she didn't have to transcribe it ; ) When the weather was just lovely, Charlotte enjoyed doing her writing outside by herself. I was a tad jealous thinking I would enjoy being assigned to write something while alone....in the great outdoors. 

Reading:

I am not sure why but I was SUPER intimidated to teach someone how to read! I can read well & don't even remember how I was taught so surely I could have figured something out on my own ; ) Again, I did some searching to find a curriculum that would fit our family & learning styles well.I landed on All About Reading.  It has a multi-sensory approach, open & go lessons, fun & engaging games to review material & is mastery based.We started this in August, a month after Charlotte turned five. She knew all of her letters & just a handful of sounds. I hit the ground running after studying up but Charlotte was just not ready. I tried for a couple of weeks to just explore the possibility of completing a lesson to no avail. I spoke with a few women that recommended just putting it away for a month & trying again. I thought "No way! This is Kindergarten, we must move forward." What fabulous advice though that I am glad I took to heart. A month later, she was interested & easy to teach. We took our time through lessons, played our games a lot, she taught Eloise & the boys what sounds letters make or names of things that start with a certain letter & at the completion of Level 1, we had a budding reader that could not put down a book! The readers for this curriculum are fabulous. Three came with Level 1 with each containing somewhere around 10 stories so it looks like a chapter book, she loved that. Overall, I have been really impressed with the outcome & at the beginning of First Grade, we have moved onto Level 2. 

Spelling: 

We did not do anything special for spelling this past year as far as curriculum goes. As she learned the sounds of letters, we began sounding out the words she desired to write in her journal. This caused some serious frustration on her part because she would much rather me tell her how to spell each word so it can be written perfectly.  By the end of the year, she was comfortable trying her best before the two of us working together. We are starting All About Spelling this year which is from All About Learning Press just like our reading curriculum & look forward to seeing how it will go. 

It was harder to keep three siblings occupied throughout our schoolwork than it was to teach a kindergartner. Eloise was easier to entertain at three turning four than two almost two year olds.

Eloise, Owen & Anson- The Nest class of 2029 & 2031 respectfully. Robby & I just calculated when these kids would be 18 & laughed outloud...it sounds SO futuristic!

Now all of the previously listed curriculum choices & assigned work may sound like a lot but here is how our usual day is broken down:

• CC memory work review- 15 minutes after breakfast & anytime we are in the car
• Handwriting- 10-15 minutes in the morning
• Math & Reading lessons- 30 minutes each in the afternoon
• Reading out loud- Char to us- 15 minutes later in the day or evening

This totals about an hour & forty five minutes which leaves plenty of time for this....

A friend & roommate from college came in from New Mexico to visit family & stopped by to see us. Her sweet Sarah & Charlotte are just about a month apart in age. Tessa started the first CC campus in her town & was the director. I was & am so proud of her as that is a big undertaking. How special to be on the same road many years later.

Walking this road in a community of other like minded people is such an encouragement. There are some REALLY hard moments whether it be days full of whining & complaining (me included), disobedience, horrible attitudes or just rambunctious two year old twins whose goal at this point in life is to destroy things or injure themselves. I am worn out & I look back our checklist & feel like it was a horrible day because we didn't get certain assignments done. 

Education is so much more than learning about history, science, reading, math, spelling, language etc. It is also about learning though life experiences both exciting & mundane in the context of a family engaging with others. It is about knowing what it takes to run a household, how to care for a newborn & how to work hard amongst lots of distractions. It is about playing & enjoying what God has given us. It is about dealing with sin, both your own & someone else's, It is about reconciliation & reminding each other of the gospel. It is about using those light bulb moments to point a child to a greater understanding of who God is, how he works & increase their adoration of Him.

One of our primary reasons we have chosen to educate at home alongside Classical Conversations is to provide the foundation for a biblical worldview, to help our children know God & equip them to make Him known wherever they are & whatever they are doing once they leave our Nest .  An article I read recently from a Classical Conversations publication  (under the Subject Integration title) helped me understand in more depth how all the pieces of what we are studying fit together & reveal more of God's story through all of time. What a way to think about learning! 

I should drop the idea of a "perfect" home school day  (because mine has a lot of checked boxes next to subjects) & pray that my focus would be to shepherd our children's hearts to know & love the Lord through our studies. As challenging as days feel, I look at the faces of these children entrusted to our care, try to imagine what joy precious Arlo will bring to our family & continue to ask the Lord for wisdom as we move forward through the years of bringing up our little brood.