Saturday, September 17, 2016

Some Time with Mom

My mom took the Greyhound down to San Antonio to stay with us a few days before heading to Louisiana to spend some time with her dad. 

The kids haven't been able to spend a nice chunk of time with her before, so we really enjoyed this. 


We hiked Lookout Mountain and watched the sunset. The water tower in the distance is near our house. 

Sunday afternoon we watched Anne of Green Gables. We used to watch this at Grandma's house for the holidays; it's been a favorite for all us girls to watch together.

The youth group was having a Nerd Night Sunday evening, and my mom and I helped serve the supper. Harrison made an awesome little nerd.

We explored a new park. The kids liked it but they said, "Can we come back in the winter?" 
It was a little warm.

Nana made chocolate chip cookies and snickerdoodles with the kids. We played several rounds of Uno. Had good conversations. We cooked meals together, did dishes and laundry and shopping. Lots of normal together while she was here. I enjoyed it immensely. 

Then we drove Mom over to Louisiana and spent a couple of days there. The focus of this trip is spending time with Grandpa. He's almost 90.

And, of course, we have to go to the Alligator Chateau at Oil and Gas Park in Jennings and hold baby alligators. Grandpa had never been there before,
 although he's seen it many times from the highway and wondered about it.




Bubba cooked okra gumbo for us. It was delicious! Chicken and shrimp and lots of okra ~ rice and potato salad. We saw Mrs. Aline and her family, stopped at Scratch Local Boutique and bought a few things (some friends just opened this shop in Crowley and it is lovely!), had supper and good conversation with Teressa and Jayda, visited several other people, and had donuts at Ruddock's Bakery with Uncle Gerald. A lot packed into a little space, but I feel full ~in a good way~ when we're driving back home to San Antonio. 

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Lately

We are four weeks into school and it's going very well. I'm surprised at how well, actually, and that scares me a little. What's around the corner? 

The older kids can all do a little more work on their own than they were doing last year. Harrison is quick with math. (Math is one of the longest subjects around here.) We've combined more of the kids for more subjects. We're using more age-appropriate books than we've used in the past. This year I was finally able to pull away from AO with their too-mature books for my students. I am using AO, along with several other websites, as a book-list resource. They recommend some really great books, but I'm finding I would use many of their titles a year or two later than what they suggest. And since they are aiming for close to free, many of their suggestions are older public domain and not as accessible to a young one, in my opinion. 

I find this year that I'm not rushing through readings like I used to. I have time to enjoy what we're doing. I'm very thankful for this ~ thankful for my husband and others who encouraged me to simplify; thankful for the internet and all the blogs and advice and resources out there; thankful to God for answering prayer and caring about school schedules.

Selfie at church.

Harrison's bubble beard ~ inspired by Phoebe, no doubt.

Swimming at the Travis' after Taylor's baptism.

At Oak Haven park with Charlize, sweating and spying out deer. We probably saw 50 at the park and driving around the neighborhood.