Our Summer Vacation

Yes, I know...I have again fallen off of the blog wagon, and have lots of catching up to do...hopefully soon.

However...

We just returned from a fun summer vacation to California last week, and I am proud to say that I have already ordered a photo book with our pictures from Snapfish!

Yea for me...that NEVER happens!

Here is the link if you would like to check it out.

Review the Revue

Caylie has spent a good part of the last 2 weeks performing at The Rep in 

"Review the Revue".

She loves doing the show, and even though she stays so busy during these times, she doesn't mind juggling her time around to squeeze it all in.

Corey and I took the boys to see one of the performances a couple of weeks ago, and then this past Saturday night,

mom and I attended the closing night performance.  

Caylie did an awesome job, and it was an exciting show!

Tim also came for his 2nd time, and brought her some beautiful red roses!

She loved that!

Several of her friends from her old school were also there for the show.

(Including Elizabeth, who is like a sister to her!)

They are a great group of girls!

They all went out for coffee after the show, and Caylie said that it felt like family.

She has known them all for so many years,

that she said that it just felt completely natural being together again.

Here Caylie is with her sweet director, Nicole.  

This will be the first summer in 3 years for her not to do the summer show at The Rep

It is going to overlap with her mission trip to Jamaica,

and she has decided that Jamaica is a priority.

Her mission trip last year had such an impact on her,

that she can't wait to return!  

She hopes to perform at the The Rep next fall for her last high school show.

Here is a bonus link to a news segment where
 one of the fabulous acts from "Review the Revue",
The Four Reps,
is featured...check it out!
It will put a smile on your face...I promise!

Random Thoughts

As we head into the weekend, here are some random things that I have floating around in my head this morning. 

1) Last night Corey, the boys and I, went to see a preview performance of Caylie's show.

  

She is doing another preview performance as I speak type, and the official opening night is tonight.  There are two shows tomorrow, one on Sunday, and I can't even remember what next week's schedule is.

It keeps us running, but she really loves it, and she did a great job last night.

I love to hear her sing, and watch her dance, and see her expressions as she "does her thing" on stage!

She is so expressive, and enthusiastic!

Next Saturday afternoon, Corey is going to go to the matinee performance with his parents, then on Saturday night, my mom and I will go to the closing night performance.

I am looking forward to getting to see the show again, and being there for the final performance is always exciting.

2) For the previous two years, I have attended the Arkansas Homeschool Convention in Searcy.  I have enjoyed going, but had decided not to go this year.  

A couple of months ago, I heard about the
MidSouth Homeschool Convention

in Memphis, a convention I had never even known about previously.

(How that happened, I'm still not sure!)

The MidSouth convention is much bigger, and brings in great speakers, so I was really interested, but since Caylie's show was opening this weekend, and so much craziness comes along with that, I had decided that I would have to pass on attending this year.

Yesterday drove me crazy as I kept hearing of other moms that were heading to the convention!  I pulled up the schedule of sessions, and as I read through it, I wanted even more to be there!

I went to Corey and asked what he would think of me leaving at 6am this morning, and driving to Memphis, spending the night, and coming home tomorrow evening after the convention ends.

Although he knew that it would be a juggling act, he said that he could manage it, and that

I could go if I wanted to!

He's great about that kind of stuff.
We tend to be pretty spontaneous about things like this, but even so, as the night went on, and I realized that I wouldn't get home from Caylie's show last night until after 10, and that there were sooo many loose ends that I felt I would leave hanging if I took off this morning,

I decided that I would just not go.

  It would have been hectic, and tiring, but also very educational and inspiring, so I keep bouncing back and forth about whether or not I made the right decision.

3)  In other news, I posted here about how we missed the opportunity to sign Caylie up for the

1/2 marathon in Little Rock that she had been training for.

As a result, we found another 1/2 marathon near

Galveston, TX,

and decided to make that our family's Spring Break trip...

adding in some beach time, a fun water park, and a day trip to Houston.

Caylie has continued her training, but for the last couple of days,
she has had some pain at the bottom of her calf...in the area of her ankle.

She says that when she puts weight on the ball of her foot, that it hurts.

This is obviously not a good thing.

I don't want her to hurt herself more by continuing to run if she shouldn't,
but I also don't want her to have to miss the opportunity to meet a goal that she has been working toward!

  We are hoping that taking a few days off from running, will give her a chance to improve.

We will see.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Homeschool Mother's Journal

  

In My Life This Week

This was a difficult week.  

It started off with some stuff that kind of kept me

struggling to keep my head above water...
which is not my best mode.

I think that we kept things running along without any big pieces falling through the cracks, but small things, (if you call laundry, and house chores small) took a back seat, and are now

demanding my attention.

I have to keep reminding myself that life happens.  God knows that life presents challenges, and I have to work at not beating myself up when I experience the impact that comes along with these challenging times.

He needs to remain my focus and my comfort, especially in hard times.

I am hopeful that things are going to improve next week.

In our homeschool this week...

Things with school managed to stay afloat this week.  That is always a priority.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

Caylie has been super busy with running, play practice, school work and church activities.

Her show opens next week, so they are about to kick into even higher gear this weekend.  

She loves it, but it super intense right now.

Christian had his 2 days of outside classes this week, and he always enjoys those.  In addition to his usual church activities, the youth group went to play paint ball last Saturday.

Corey went with them, and they all had lots of fun...even if they did come home with some bruises!

(Corey said that paint ball is not a kiddie game...it can really hurt!)

Today, the older kids both have guitar lessons.

My favorite thing this week was...

Last Friday, Caylie and I went to a preview day at the
University of Central Arkansas, in Conway.  We both really enjoyed the day, and were impressed with the school.  Right now, I think that her top college picks are
OBU (Ouachita Baptist University...where Corey and I graduated!) and UCA.  She still has some time to weigh things out though!  

I posted here about a day where a we
"made lemonade out of lemons".
That made all of us happy, and gave us something exciting to look forward to!! :)


It made my heart happy to read this post that Caylie wrote on her blog. Caylie's sincere desire to allow God to work in her life, and guide her daily choices is one of my precious blessings.


I'm also thankful that while things were difficult for me this week,
Corey was very supportive and helpful.  

What's working/not working for us...

What's working?  

School.

What's not working?  

When I am feeling down, as I have this week, everything seems like a challenge, and it is hard to motivate myself to do the things that I need to do.  It DOES however, reinforce the need for me to count my blessings in the midst of struggles.  That is something that I have tried to become better and better at over the past few years.

It is absolutely a gift to be able to be thankful in hard times!

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

I am in the process of getting Caylie's senior year classes planned.  Most of her classes will be outside classes...at Co-Op, and at the community college, so I am just trying to get those details lined out, and make sure that everything will work well together.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share..

"Thank Me for each blessing along the way; this brings joy to both you and Me.

A grateful heart protects you from negative thinking.

Thankfulness enables you to see the abundance I shower upon you daily."

(Todays devotion in Jesus Calling by Sarah Young)

Writing the Waves,

Christi

A Great Save

We have had a busy weekend.  

Some good stuff.

Some bad stuff.

One of the not so good things, is that we realized the Little Rock 1/2 Marathon...
that Caylie has been dutifully training for months for...has filled up, and I did not register her in time!

I felt H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E.!

She and her sweet friend Carolyn were planning to run it together.

Ugh...

So...the wheels in my head started turning, and something good started to develop.

I told dad about it, and he helped me search online for some other fun 1/2 marathons.

We have decided on this one, and are going to turn the fun road trip into our family's

Spring Break! 

It is an area that will be new to us all...

Galveston, TX

...and we are getting pretty excited.

We are even planning for Carolyn to go with us so that they can run together!

We will get to go to the beach... 

and to Schlitterbahn Water Park...

and also plan to spend a day doing some fun things in Houston...just 30 minutes away! 

F.U.N.  

Have any of you been to Galveston or Houston?   We are on the hunt for fun things to do!

Are you making any plans for Spring Break?  

Writing the Waves,

Christi

Valentines Day In The Kitchen

Yesterday, Carson and I got busy in the kitchen to make Valentine's treats for everyone.  We made this recipe for Valentine's Confetti.  

Carson knows how to make microwave popcorn, so he got us started by popping our first bag.

After he popped the popcorn, I melted the candy coating.

We poured  it into the popcorn, and added the MnMs.  

Carson then stirred it up for us.

We spread it out on parchment paper to dry.

Carson sprinkled a few more MnMs, and some peanuts on top!  

He was feeling pretty proud of our little project!  :)

His attention span maxed out when it was time to fill the bags,

so I finished that part up.

We were both really happy with how the treat bags turned out!

When Caylie came home from CoOp, we started handing bags out. 

It was fun to give people a treat that we had worked together to make!

Caylie and Christian each made cards for everyone in the family, and they were 

very special. 

 I love things that are made by my kiddos!

Corey got us gift certificates to some fun stores, and then we all went out to eat at Chip's, one of our favorite casual restaurants. 

 It was a fun and relaxed Valentine's day!

Writing the Waves,

Christi

My 8 Favorite Homeschool Resources

Yes, I know that it is only February, but as a homeschool mom, I am always trying to think ahead, and work to make our courses as interesting and effective as possible...so yes, I'm already thinking ahead to next year!

We have actually had a really great year with our curriculum, and so believe it or not, unless something sweeps in and changes my mind (which I'm always open to), next year we will stick with these 8 resources that have been working well for us.

1) ALEKS online math curriculum-  This year Christian did Pre-Algebra, and we have been very pleased with the program.  Next year, we plan to stick with Aleks for Algebra.  They offer a free trial, which is what we used this summer before making the decision to switch from Teaching Textbooks.

2) Sonlight History- I really like how Sonlight merges resource books with historical fiction books to create a richer, more in depth picture of history.  This year we are doing our 2nd year of World History, and next year we will do US History.

3) Wordly Wise Vocabulary- This was our first year to use Wordly Wise.  It is a great, easy to use, yet challenging vocabulary curriculum. 

4) ABeka Grammar and Composition-  I like how thoroughly the ABeka workbook introduces and explains each new concept.  Last year we used Easy Grammar and Daily Grams, but I have found ABeka to be a little better at presenting the information.  We will continue with ABeka next year.

5) Spelling Power- This is a great spelling book that can be used from age 8 to adult. 

6) Apologia Science- Christian is doing Physical Science this year, and will be moving to Biology for 8th grade.  We will probably supplement the course with Red Wagon Tutorials.

7) IEW Writing- The Institute for Excellence In Writing is a thorough program.  It took me a while to get it all figured out, but once you get rolling, it leads the student step by step through continually advancing writing techniques.

8) Lizardpoint Geography-  I just came across this recently, but both Christian and I really think it is great.  It is a free online geography "game" that allows the student to master each part of the world, one area at a time. Right now, Christian is mastering Africa.  Before I found Lizardpoint, we were using our interactive globe to look up the areas that we were studying in history.

Caylie attends the homeschool high school co-op in our city, and will continue to do so (as well as taking classes at the community college), next year, when she is a...

SENIOR! 

Aagh!  Did I just type that?!?! 

Please excuse me while I take a quick break...sniff, sniff...

Ok...moving on...

The only classes that she is doing at home this year, are history, grammar, and vocabulary.  She is using the same resources as I listed above, only at the high school level, and next year will be the same.

Also, both kids do Christian World View here at home, which I have just put together using monthly memory verses, and daily readings.  The last book that we covered was Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Life", which I love, and now Christian is reading "Live Like A Jesus Freak", by DC Talk, while Caylie is reading her Bible.

What homeschool resources do you love?

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Back From Blissdom

Caylie and I returned yesterday from our fun trip to the Blissdom conference in Nashville.

When we got there, started talking to other bloggers, and attending the sessions, we quickly realized that although we have both been blogging for a while, there is sooo much that we didn't/don't know!

We were able to meet many helpful, more experienced bloggers, have lots of good mother/daughter time, and we actually came back knowing quite a bit more about this fun world of blogging!

Caylie suggested that we take a picture of ourselves each morning before heading out of our room.  Although I really, really, really dislike having my picture taken, I decided to throw caution to the wind, and go with it!

I'm crazy like that!

Michelle Branch was the entertainment for Thursday evening.  

On Friday, we were treated to a nice lunch.  

We were at the table with these sweet bloggers...(from left to right) Cha Cha from sitrelaxandread.blogspot.com, Lisa from thepenningtonpoint.com, and Kellie from thisblessednest.blogspot.com.  

On Friday night, we were treated to Chris Mann and then Crystal Bowersox!  Both were just great!  I especially loved hearing Crystal!

Of course I forgot my camera that night...and wouldn't you know...we were close enough to the stage to have gotten great pictures, but whatever...you'll just have to take my word for it!

Dang it!

Anyway, last but definitely not least, before heading home on Saturday morning, we enjoyed a great breakfast at Cracker Barrel with this fun bunch of bloggers!

Left side (front to back)...Meghan from thetuckerstaketennessee.com, Sami from samicone.com, Alicia from Confessionsofasnowflake.com, Christina from Fieldtoforest.com, and of course my sweet Caylie from Lifethesedayscaylie.blogspot.com.

Right side (front to back)...Michelle from somegirlswebsite.com, Lindsey from anewlifehartz.blogspot.com, me, and then Jenny from thesoutherninstitute.com

It was a special treat to get to sit and visit with such sweet, honest women, that love the Lord, and really desire to not only live out that faith in their everyday lives, but also want to allow their faith to be revealed to readers through their blogs. Several of these girls are using their blogs for the specific purpose of encouraging others to grow in their faith.

Quite a few of these gals were homeschoolers...and a couple will even be speaking at the 2012 homeschool bloggers conference in Washington D.C. (The 2:1 Conference).

Such a neat group of girls!

It was an encouraging morning, and a great way to end our Blissdom experience!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

We Made It...By The Skin Of Our Teeth!

Well, last night, Caylie and I arrived in Nashville for the Blissdom conference.

To say that it was a stressful trip would be an understatement, but thankfully we made it safely, despite the very difficult drive. 

My poor vision, combined with driving at night, combined with heavy, blowing snow = NOT fun!  

At one point, I was so tempted to just stop the car in the middle of the road, and have myself a good cry, but I made myself keep driving, and driving, and driving. 

Finally, around 11pm, we arrived at the hotel.  I wanted to get out and kiss the ground, but it was too cold, and I was too tired, and wouldn't have been able to get back up! 

Caylie then told me that during the drive, she had been so afraid that I was going to throw up in my own lap from the stress, that she was trying to figure out how she would quickly get into the driver's seat to take over! 

Yeah, it was that bad.

I. WILL. NEVER. DRIVE. IN. THOSE. CONDITIONS. AGAIN.  (You CAN quote me on that!)

Now we are all settled into our room at the beautiful Opryland Hotel.  We have picked up our name tags, gotten our swag bags full of fun little treats, and are excited to head to the first event in a couple of hours.  :)

I am so excited about all of the new things that we will learn in the next couple of days!  Can't wait!

Writing the Waves,
Christi

Blissdom...

The latest buzz around our house is that Caylie and I are planning to go to the Blissdom blogging conference next week!!!

We both have blogs, enjoy recording the events of our lives...(she's more consistent than me!), and are interested in learning more about blogging.

I had never considered going to a blogging conference, but when I started hearing about the Blissdom conference, it looked kind of interesting, and I mentioned it to Corey.

Corey has always encouraged me to learn more about blogging, and our family loves to be able to look back and read the posts that both Caylie and I write.

My birthday was last week, and although we went out to eat together, and Corey had some beautiful flowers delivered to the house, I guess he had not given me what he considered "my real birthday gift", so he and Caylie came to me last night, and handed me a hand written "certificate". It said that as a late birthday gift, he was sending Caylie and me to Blissdom together!

I was surprised, and speechless!

He knew that I would start coming up with reasons why it wasn't practical, etc., etc., and so he had already written things like, "Not An Option!", "Kids Are Taken Care Of", and "You ARE Doing It" on the paper!

He knows me well...

Caylie and I are both excited to get to go and learn more about blogging, and spend some quality girl time together with others that share the same interest!

But I'm nervous too!

Aaaa....

Writing the Waves,
Christi

OK...So I'm A Little Late Posting Our Fall Pictures....

One day in November, we went to a park to shoot some pictures for our Christmas cards. 

I didn't get my hopes up.

 It was a very last minute kind of thing, and kind of thrown together...in broad daylight...with a less than cooperative four year old! 

Sooo...I bribed him with ice cream if he would cooperate...

...and it worked pretty well!

Christian is old enough now that I don't have to bribe him to cooperate...

...but he thought that he

might as well get some ice cream...

ya know...since Carson was getting some...

Can't believe how much my big guy has

grown up in one short year!

Melt this mommy's heart...

My sweet, precious Caylie.

Beautiful on the outside,

but most importantly...on the inside.

Can't believe that she is 17 now.

 Time flies way too fast...

Oh, how I love these kids...

...and they love each other too

...most of the time anyway!

Counting my blessings.

Loving the little things.

And laughing along the way!

So, there ya have it...

another Christmas card to help remember these 

treasured times!

Writing the Waves,
Christi