EKjourney Backup

First Day of School Pictures Sawyer, age 11, 5th/6th grade Jubilee, age 10, 4th/5th grade Evangeline, age 8, 3rd/4th grade Brighton, age 6, K/1st grade Glorielle, age 5, Pre-K/K

School Planning! Every August, I spend a good long week putting together homeschooling plans.  I go through the book shelves, last year's folders, notebooks, and workbooks purging and cleaning things out.  I like to work big so I make plans on butcher paper taking notes, writing down ideas, and structuring how I think the year might go and what materials/curriculum I might want to use.  I revamp chores and write a menu plan so the running of the household is restructured as well.  Once I know the direction I want to go, I type everything up and make it official. By the time I am done, I have a detailed plan for Fall and an outline for the school year.  I always leave lots of room for modifications so we can find what really works. This year was a bit tricky.  I was trying to fit in 2 hours of tutoring in Barton (Sawyer and Evi) and Foundations in Sound (Brighton and Glorielle) on top of our normal subject areas.  Oh my, where do I find an additional 2 ...

We have come to that time of the year again...preparing for the next year.  We don't really do a January to January year, rather a September-September year.  I try an immerse myself in cleaning and planning so we can start the school year prepared and organized.   I often start the year with reminders and inspiration before I dive into the actual planning.  I really needed to be still and just have something to read and ponder these last couple of weeks.  I read Shepherding a Child's Heart and Teaching from Rest.  Both had some great things for me to keep in mind as I focus on the whys of homeschooling. This year especially, I feel like we really reached a transition with the older two children.  Turning 11 and 10, I felt we entered full force into that time of their childhood where building relationships are paramount...and I suspect will be throughout the rest of their upbringing.  Everything is about talking (and listening, listening, listening...

We took a very quick trip up to Seattle on Friday.  It was not the trip we were expecting but we tried to make the most of the time that we had there. Phil and I celebrated our 16th anniversary on Friday.  We spent the day in the car, the evening separated, and the night consumed in extended family drama.  In terms of actual time to enjoy and celebrate our marriage, it pretty much stunk.  However, in terms of living real life together, I couldn't be more blessed in my marriage and that the Lord gifted me with this man as my husband.  That he is there by my side loving me in all situations and I am not sure I could understand Christ's love for me until He painted me this picture of unconditional love through my husband.   We went up for one main reason:  I was going to spend the day with my Aunt and Mom helping with some practical aspects of some major family "events" (Gram's move to memory care and my Uncle Bob's death), being there together with one a...

Has there ever been an August rain such as this?  I can't remember one in any of the years I have lived here.  This isn't a quick summer storm rather the typical gray drippy clouds so common here in the Pacific Northwest....but so strange for August.  But, it was lovely...the smell of rain on dry and dusty roads and trees, the warmth of the air, so cleansing!

(There are 3 posts about our vacation so be sure to click on older posts at the bottom of the page to see our Southern Oregon and Redwoods adventure). Crater Lake National Park, the land of stunning blue waters that you could stare at all day.  What a marvelous place for our hearts to worship at the magnificence of our Creator.  It was so very good to leave behind the woes of late, the interviews and waiting, the drama, the heartaches, and just get away.  We were quite disorganized and packed in a rush Saturday afternoon (and left Sunday morning) but we were thankful to just leave everything behind.   Union Campground, right on the Rogue River. Well, the mosquitoes could have been worse! Our First hike was up to Watchman tower, in the evening.  We were quite amused when a couple with two children probably Brighton and Glorielle's age were shocked that we were going to hike the Watchman Trail, a 1.6 "moderate" hike with a slew of children.   So many trails a...