Now I Get It

It has been seven months since my last blog post. So many times I have thought how I would love to blog about this or that. I miss blogging; I truly do. Back when I started this blog in 2007 I didn't think I had much to share. I had only been homeschooling a few years, and my oldest was in first grade. I remember thinking back then that I wish there were more veteran homeschoolers in the blogosphere. Most bloggers seemed to be like me, in the first few years of their journey. Now that I feel like I have a bit more to share (although I know in the grand scheme of things I am still a newbie in most respects) I just don't have time - or haven't had the discipline to make the time, I should say.

Days fill up quickly. They really do. This year I am homeschooling all three boys. Thatcher is in 5th grade, Haddon in 1st, and Beckett is in Kindergarten. I wake up at 5:00 each day to have time to read my Bible, exercise on the treadmill and grab a quick shower before the boys are up at 7:00. Then it's chores, breakfast, discipleship and we're off. We are schooling to 4:00 most days. Whatever is not done by 4:00 typically doesn't get done until the next day. I know for some school doesn't take that long but with an ADHD'er in the mix it just does for us. Then it's time to pick up and start dinner. After dinner this fall we were heading to the baseball and/or soccer fields Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights plus games on Saturdays. We have always had a rule that each child would only participate in one sport/activity at a time but with three boys - three practices and three games each week meant six outside commitments. We get home and then it's time for baths and bed - for the boys AND for me! :)

Homeschooling is harder than I ever thought it would be. This year has just about eaten my lunch in so many ways. Most of my friends are experiencing similar feelings of exhaustion and/or burnout. Yet at the same time, it is good. I am still thankful for the blessing of homeschooling my boys...most days anyway ;) Dh and I had a great conversation recently which pushed me out of a pity party I had been having with myself and set me back on a better path.

The whole reason for this post was mostly to say, "Hello!" I am still here. Still homeschooling. Still thinking about all I would love to share. Happy Thanksgiving to any readers I still may have. I hope your week off is full of blessings, restfulness and time to recharge. This blog post is the start of that for me.

Multitudes on Mondays ~ April 25

Living in Houston is a bit different. While many parts of the country are finally starting to feel like spring is here to stay, for us it's almost gone! We are typically hitting temperatures in the mid to high 80's with 70%-80% humidity. That means that we've have many days already where it feels like 90 degrees, and we are not even out of April.

Today as I add to my (very irregular) counting of 1000 blessings I am reflecting back on some of the beauty we've enjoyed this spring.

51. Hummingbirds buzzing about at our ranch this spring...truly amazing! I have never seen them in such a frenzy. The boys and I sat in awe watching on this particular evening. I grabbed my phone and took this short video. I was barely 12 inches away from them and they didn't even seem to notice!

52. Monarch in our butterfly garden almost ready to emerge. The boys never tire of watching each chrysalis as it changes from its gorgeous jade green to translucent to new butterfly!

53. Those first moments of a monarch's life still clinging to her former home.

54. The reminder that butterflies are to me of this precious truth:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ~2 Corinthians 5:17

55. And although the transformation of this butterfly is complete, my transformation is very much still in progress. And the progress is oh so agonizingly slow. And painful often. I wonder if it hurts the butterfly as she struggles to emerge from her chrysalis. Because sometimes for me this process seems just.so.hard. But I cling to the promise found in Scripture,

And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.~ Philippians 1:6

56. A black swallowtail caterpillar on a fennel plant. My absolute favorite caterpillar!

57. This lesser vine sphinx moth the boys spotted on the window at church at our Saturday night Easter service.

58. I am so incredibly thankful that my boys are learning not only to spot nature but are beginning to delight in it. There is a sweet connection between loving our Creator and truly appreciating His creation.

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver

59. The delight on little and not so little boys' faces at seeing one of their favorite places on earth for the first time in 2011, our swimming and fishing place we call Blue Hole. For bullfrogs croaking underground while we fished and the tiny baby perch the boys caught on that gorgeous spring day just a few weeks ago.

60. For all the beauty we get to experience each time we leave the burbs and head to the Hill Country. What a privilege and joy!

* Sorry about the quality of some of the pictures. I need a class to learn how to take better nature photos on my phone! :)

Multitudes on Mondays ~ March 14

On this journey of gratitude I am learning (or at least trying to learn) to be thankful in all things. And to look for and see grace in all - the big and small. Some weeks it is in the simple day to day blessings I am learning to revel and other times it is in a place where God absolutely wows me with his love, his majesty and his creation. This was one of those weeks.

We were flown to Colorado, guests of a ministry whose goal is to refresh, encourage and bless pastors in the journey. They take the mission of their ministry from 1 Kings 19:7 where the angel says to Elijah, "Arise and eat for the journey is too great for you." Their hope is to strengthen pastors because they say the journey is too much at times. They hosted us in their condo on the mountain, fitted us with ski gear, gave us three day ski passes, took us to eat out at amazing restaurants for dinner and prayed with us each evening. This was our second time to be blessed by this wonderful ministry.

So grateful for...

41. Breathtaking views at every turn. Absolutely stunning.

42. Three days of skiing with incredible snow, one of the deepest snow bases in history!

43. No injuries!

44. Precious friends with whom we shared our trip. We love these guys to death and are so blessed we get to do life with them each and every day.

45. Our wonderful hosts, Allen and Doris, (center) who had the vision for this ministry years ago and have been faithful to bless so many pastors and their wives each and every year. Their generosity is overwhelming. Allen told us that one of their goals was to show us just a bit of how deeply God loves us. Mission accomplished!

46. More breathtaking vistas, and this one with the love of my life in it! Very thankful he is my best friend and Daddy to my three boys. It was so fun to be away from the daily grind and just enjoy each other.

47. The prayer that happened each night as we gathering around this bench for a time that was sweet and refreshing and truly soul nurturing.

48. Amazing food. Yum! Homemade mushroom ravioli with a cognac demi-glace, trout with eggplant ratatouille and polenta, a huge plate of amazing barbecue and one of these each afternoon after skiing - a toffee covered caramel apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Must.learn.to.make.these.soon.....

49. My sweet mom who took time off work to come down and love on the boys so we could go away. They went to parks, saw a movie, got a special new toy, had special lunches out and best of all got precious time with their Grandma! They love her so very much.

50. A safe trip that brought us back home...

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home;

~John Howard Payne

A New Addition to Our Day

When I taught public school we had time each morning referred to as DEAR (Drop Everything and Read). It was so much fun! I allowed my students to sit under their desks, on our classroom beanbags or anywhere - as long as they were fully engaged in a book. Each year for some of my students it took time to acclimate to this new freedom. Reading for the pure enjoyment of the activity was a new concept for them. No discussion, no tests, no agenda.

Recently, as I was thinking about what I wanted our homeschool days to look like, I realized we just weren't spending enough time reading. I read a Bible story to them each morning at breakfast. At lunch we do our read-alouds; for the last several months we've been reading through the Chronicles Of Narnia again. Haddon reads a science reader to me daily, as well as from a phonics reader and his My Favorite Bible Storybook for Early Readers. Thatcher reads daily from Story of the World, in science and across most of the curriculum. In addition, he reads each evening for at least an hour at bedtime. But somehow it just wasn't enough. I was not getting to see my boys delight in books on their own. And I definitely wasn't getting enough reading time in with Beckett. One of my biggest goals is instill a love of reading in my boys because a lifetime passion for learning almost always begins with a love of reading. DEAR time immediately came to mind.

So when it was time to start our new semester I told the boys that from time we finished breakfast, around 8:15, until 9:00 it would be DEAR time each day. There were a few stipulations. I would have a basket of books from which they could choose their daily reading selection. They could discuss with me outside of DEAR time if they had particular requests but I got the final say. There would be no talking to each other or discussing of books; this was just time to read and enjoy.

Thatcher took to it right away! He loves to read and always has. We have used this time to be certain we get all of our history reading finished. I am also making sure to keep the basket full of of many fiction selections as he naturally gravitates to non-fiction. He adores the Childhood of Famous Americans biographies, and any book about the military or spies will hold him captive for hours. Because I don't want him to neglect the beauty and creativity that is found in fiction I am making sure that at least every second or third book he reads is full of imagination. It has been fun to watch him rediscover this genre of books.

For Haddon, at first, DEAR time was intimidating. He was definitely still an emerging/early reader when we began. By nature he is not a risk-taker and the thought of reading without Mommy right beside him was a little unsettling. I told him that he could come tiptoe and ask me a word anytime after he tried his "good reader strategies" and was still was stuck. He was greatly relieved but still reluctant. The first book he chose was Frog and Toad are Friends. It took him the full week to read it. Then he picked up Frog and Toad All Year followed by Frog and Toad Together. With each successive book he got a bit more comfortable and a bit faster. The book he is reading in this picture, Days with Frog and Toad, was completed in one sitting. He was so very proud! His confidence has gone through the roof and I have been amazed at his growth as a reader in just six weeks since starting DEAR time.

Beckett, my sweet Beckett. He was born seventeen months after Haddon and in the middle of multiple therapies, doctors' appointments and diagnoses for Thatcher. As a result, I have logged a fraction of the reading time with him that his older brothers got. DEAR time has been a wonderful opportunity for us to read together and to try and make up a tiny bit of all that missed time from years past. But it has been a learning experience for him...and for me. The other boys would sit still for anything I read to them; they were just happy to be reading. In contrast, Beckett is very picky about what we read. He has to choose the book or at least agree to my selection. ;) He has loved the Dr. Seuss books, especially Fox in Sock and Green Eggs and Ham. We have also been reading lots of Mother Goose rhymes and he has enjoyed memorizing several and saying them to Daddy when he gets home at night. At first he would not sit still to "read" any books independently (while I was cleaning up breakfast dishes) but now he will curl up and look at a book for five minutes or more. It's a slow start, but a start, nonetheless!

The first subject we do each day is our Bible/Discipleship time at breakfast. The next thing we do is curl up on the couch and read each day for DEAR time. I wouldn't have it any other way! :)

More Thoughts About Self-Education Over at Milk and Cookies

Amy, at Milk and Cookies, asked if I would do a guest post during the 10 Days of Homeschooling Blog Hop sponsored by Heart of the Matter. I immediately said, "Yes!" and got to sharing some things that have been on my heart as this year completes the grammar stage for Thatcher.

Despite obtaining a degree in education and teaching public school for eight years, I had no idea that there were different methods of (home)schooling when I started out on this journey. Thankfully it was not long after I began educating our oldest that I stumbled across The Well Trained Mind. It immediately clicked for me; this was the education I wished I had received! And the journey to classically educate our boys began.

Now jump forward six years...

To read the rest head over to 10 Days of Classical Education: Day 2 at Milk and Cookies and take a peek.

Also, take some time to check out some of the other "10 Days" posts. I have been inspired and encouraged, and I bet you will be too!

Multitudes on Mondays ~ February 7

A little late today but continuing the list of His good gifts:

31. The whole family tagging along with dh to Austin this weekend on a work-related trip.

32. Perfect timing of the church who asked dh to speak just before we were to start our unit on Texas history! :)

33. The break in the icy road conditions on Friday that allowed us barely enough time to get out of Houston after we thought we wouldn't be going on this much anticipated trip after all.

34. Sharing family legacies...being able to show my boys the 180 year old house my mother-in-law grew up in east Austin, now owned by the American Botanical Council. What a blessing to see where she and her siblings (whom my boys adore) made all their childhood memories!

35. Fun times learning about our state's history at the Texas Capitol.

36. Walking around the campus where I attended college. Such sweet memories. I was overwhelmed with emotion as I shared remembrances with the boys.

37. A visit to the Texas History Museum. I know nothing of the specific history of other states save where it intersects with American history, but Texas truly has a remarkable story. This museum really was an incredible opportunity to experience it.

38. The best part of the LBJ Presidential Library for my boys was rolling down the steep hill out front afterwards! I got each of them to stop just long enough for me to snap a quick pic...and then back to rolling. ;)

39. For little random details I always notice and fall in love with...like old ornate doorknobs from 1888 in the House and Senate Chambers at the Capitol.

40. For little boys worn out and ready to go back home after a fun and exhausting weekend.

Five Dollar Friday: Roasted Tomato Basil Soup with Homemade Whole Wheat Croutons

This recipe is from one of my favorite Food Network stars, Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa. I love her recipes and her show and own two of her cookbooks. I made this recipe for the first time a few weeks ago. Thatcher ate two huge bowls and would have eaten more if I let him! You can find the original recipe here at the Food Network site. The recipe below has a few modifications to make it more cost effective and fit our family's taste. Honestly, as is it is a little high on the price to be considered a $5 meal but I wanted to post it because if you have basil and tomatoes from your garden, this soup would be nearly free! Even obtaining one of these ingredients from a friend's garden would bring the price down by $3.00. Spring will be here before we know it so if this recipe isn't in the budget for winter, tuck it away for spring when everyone's gardens will be full of goodness.

Also, I love this soup because it is not laden with tons of heavy cream like so many tomato basil soups are, yet it has enormous flavor. I serve it simply with homemade croutons and a bit of Parmesan cheese. Grilled cheese sandwiches are always a favorite with any tomato soup or a chicken Caesar salad would be wonderful if you wanted to add some protein.

Ingredients:

3 pounds ripe plum tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons good olive oil

2 teaspoons sea salt (may not need if you are using stock, esp. if it's not low sodium)

1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

2 cups chopped yellow onions, about 2 onions

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

1 (28-ounce) canned plum tomatoes, with their juice

2 cups fresh basil leaves, loosely packed

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 quart chicken stock or water

1/4 cup heavy cream (not in original recipe but just a bit add a lot of flavor in my opinion)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Toss together the tomatoes, 1/4 cup olive oil, salt (if using), and pepper. Spread the tomatoes in 1 layer on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes.

2. In an 8-quart stockpot over medium heat, saute the onions with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the butter, and red pepper flakes (if using) for 10 minutes, until the onions start to brown. Add garlic and cook two more minutes.

3. Add the canned tomatoes, basil, thyme, and chicken stock/water. Add the oven-roasted tomatoes, including the liquid on the baking sheet. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes.

4. Add 1/4 cup heavy cream.

5. You have several options here depending on the kitchen gadgets you own and how chunky you want your soup. The original recipe calls for a food mill but I use my immersion blender to make a really smooth soup (and don't have to dirty up any additional bowls or appliances). A food processor or blender would work well too, just be extra careful when mixing/pureeing really hot liquids.

6. Taste for seasonings. Serve hot or cold.

Cost Breakdown: $9.62

$ 3.00 - 3 pounds plum tomatoes

$ .42 - olive oil

$ .02 - 2 teaspoons sea salt (may not need if you are using stock, esp. if it's not low sodium)

$ .04 - black pepper

$ 1.00 - 2 cups chopped yellow onions, about 2 onions

$ .24 - garlic cloves

$ . 14 - butter

$ 1.50 -canned plum tomatoes (sale)

$2.99 - fresh basil

$ .02 - dried thyme

free - 1 quart chicken stock or water (ckn stock left over from here or here)

$ .25 - heavy cream

If you want to add homemade croutons here is how I do it:

I use thick slices of the homemade whole wheat bread I make for our family, but any bread will do. Cut the crust off and brush an olive oil/herb mixture over both sides of the bread. I like to add about 1/4 tsp of basil and 1/4 tsp of thyme with a bit of salt and pepper to about 1/4 cup olive oil for my croutons. You could add garlic powder if you wanted garlicky ones! Cut bread into large chunks. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 - 20 minutes turning every few minutes until all sides are browned. These are wonderful sprinkled on top of your soup. Enjoy!