First Day of School 2013-2014 School Year

It was time.

Time to start school.

 We had a two month break, which sort of seemed like two weeks.

But anyway. 

It was a great two months full of busy fun. We were sick some, we sent friends overseas, we swam and played and cleaned and organized and rested and read and then it was time...

School.

 Starting early is necessary for us since we have vacation days to account for, along with sick days, sanity break days, holidays and a definite need to be done by Memorial Day, all while packing 180 days and 36 weeks into the school year. 

I could panic about it all if I think about it for too long. 

But August 1st seemed like a great time to start. I know by now to start with a short two day week, my friend and neighbor was starting the same day, and MY GOSH WHY NOT?

We have to start some time.

One resolution of mine for this school year is to make it all more fun. More activities and more laughter and more...

fun. 

I'm determined.

So to set the mood, I decorated. 

I wrote them notes. 

I woke up early, did everything I needed to do, and so did they.

And at 9 am ON THE DOT we were ready. 

All in our chairs. 

Even the dog.

They read their cards.

Our principal, boys' advisor, PE coach and financial liaison prayed over us and our year.  

We made our traditional beginning of the year signs. 

 

Then we actually did school.

Mainly we remembered where we left off and figured out what we have to do next.

And we figured out we forgot EVERYTHING we ever learned in math. 

Sigh. 

Then, because we are slightly crazy and addicted to fun, we went to the next to the last night of our church's Vacation Bible School, or "Rock the Block" as we call it. Seeing a gaggle of kids flying happily down the hill made my heart so happy. 

Making some good memories there. 

Then I came home and found a treat from a precious friend on my door. Perry is always a wonderful surprise:

So that was day 1. 

Only 179 more to go.

I am exhausted. My house is a disaster already. My head is spinning from all I have to do and I'm already wondering how I will get it all done. I finished the day fully knowing that unless the mercy and grace of our great and gracious Lord fall on me, I will fail repeatedly at this mission of educating my kids. Thankfully I was reminded that He who calls is faithful. 

And I am thankful.

Last day of school - 2012/2013 school year

Ah, I cannot even blog about this school year yet. The dust is still swirling around in my head at a hurricane's pace, and all I want to do is locate my clean, organized house. 

That may take awhile.

Let's just say I hope to locate it before it's time to start school back in August. 

{and I can't talk about the fact that we are doing summer school this year. Nope. Not yet.}

But all of that goodness aside, it's my most favorite picture taking day of the year. 

If you knew how many attempts it took for me to get this kid to give me a decent picture...

[it may or may not have ended with me hissing through clenched teeth "if you think you're gonna play video games with your friends tonight, you'd better give me a decent picture first...]

Ah, this baby kid. 

And may I introduce my new favorite picture in the history of the world? 

The baby kid HATES it when the middle kid does this. Can you tell? *H A T E S* 

Just checking. Yep, still doing it.

Cue lots of yelling. Lots.

The girl kid and I couldn't stop laughing. Whew.



And here are the beginning of the school year's pictures:

{{{gosh, why did they grow so much this year? WHY?}}}



 

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Sweet hallelujah, it's summertime. 

Sheriff's Office Field Trip

I was a little trepidatious about a Monday morning field trip. We managed to roll out of the house on time and as we made our way the 30+ minutes to the destination, I hoped this was going to be worth it.

It was so worth it. 

We went to the county seat of our county to tour the sheriff's office. This includes the sheriff's office along with the county jail.

(There was a note that we would not be touring the actual jail where the inmates were kept, which was fine with all of us.)

I could not believe how kind these people were. There were at least ten officers that took us in groups all over the sheriff's office. They showed us the police cars, transport vehicles, the SWAT truck, the booking section, the holding cells, demonstrated and explained fingerprinting, showed us all of the work stations and let the kids touch and explore nearly the entire office.

I was just amazed. 

We ended the tour in the office of the Sheriff, who was such a kind man. 

It was well worth the drive on this dreary Monday. Super worth it. 

Examining some finger prints. 

Fingerprint demonstration

SWAT truck

Office of the Sheriff

Antiques in the Sheriff's office

Explaining the things in the office

There were several displays of patches from all over the country

McGruff, the Crime Dog

Someone is a little terrified of "mascots"

The inside of the back of a police car.

Two thoughts:

1. I need my van to be made like this. I could hose it out every so often. Genius.

2. I made it through the decade of debauchery without seeing the back of a police car. That is God's grace and protection over me. I spent some time thanking Him for that. 

Checking out the bullet proof vests. 

Sitting in the police car

We couldn't take pictures of the booking section and the holding cells and workstations. The kids explored and sat in jail cells. The padded cell was especially intriguing. 

In light of the sermon from the day before, I was on heightened alert about the name of Jesus. In the padded cell was scratched into the wall (by a fingernail, they said) the word "JESUS." I said, "Oh, it's the name of Jesus. How amazing to see that there!"

They laughed and said, "That was probably a man named 'Jesus' (Hay-SOOS)" 

Oh. Okay. 

Well, I tried. 

And at least we talked about Jesus for that minute, right? (and we laughed)

After the field trip we ate at Steak and Shake before we ran our errands. I mean, field trips are celebrations, right? And we had to celebrate with shakes right? 

I think we just wanted shakes. And grilled cheeses. 

We were happy!

Caverns Field Trip

I have always wanted to go to some caverns that aren't too far from our house. Luckily one of our  homeschool groups scheduled a field trip there. I was probably a little more excited than the kids were...

It looked like we were driving into the end of the world...

This just made me happy.

This is clear (and gray) quartz. We were deep embedded of our study of Revelation at the time of this field trip, and these just reminded me of Revelation 21.

I was slightly ready to stop seeing Revelation everywhere.

This is your standard postcard shot. 

I considered getting one of these for the backyard.

The kids "panned" for gems. It was fun and all the kids enjoyed it. This also reminds me that we were supposed to study out the different gems we got that day.

Um, yeah. Homeschool field trip fail. 

The girl kid found some clear glasses in the gift shop and asked me to get them for her. I hesitated, but they were only three dollars and since she was trying to be just like her mother, how could I resist?

That is going to come to a screeching halt soon enough, so why not encourage it for the short time it lasts?

This was the perfect time of year for this field trip. The scenery was breathtaking. 

Waiting to go in the caverns. This shot was accidental, but it makes me terrifically happy. 

So. Walking down into these caverns was simply an assault on all of my senses. At once. It was amazing. I needed a few minutes to take it all in. It was just surreal. We sat through an informational lecture that was really interesting. They told the history of this particular cavern and a lot of information about the rock formations and things like that. I really liked all of that.

Then. They did this thing called "Total Darkness." I have not in my adult life been scared of much, but when they turned off all of those lights, I was slightly panicked. Part of it was because I also have never experienced dark that all encompassing. You could almost feel it. They kids did fine. I was about twenty seconds away from turning on my cell phone and ruining it for everyone. 

I am fine with never doing that again.

I'm afraid of the dark. That dark. Who knew?

And back to Revelation for a second. (I know. I was ready to be done thinking about Revelation too.) When reading and studying the bowls and seals and wrath and destruction, the overthinking planning part of my brain thought (seriously) "Where would I go? Where could the family go?" And I thought of caverns like these. "We'd be safe there! From the fire falling from the sky! From the stinging locust! From the drunk lady on the..." Never mind. Really. 

Trust me. I hear the absurdity of that. But it's true. And after the "Total Darkness" debacle, I literally thought, "Well, that won't work." I mean, we wouldn't have cell phones for long, and the flash light batteries wouldn't last long and then what would we do? And this cavern didn't have the water supply that we would need, although all the water is going to dry up anyway...

As ridiculous as it sounds, I'm glad I got to see this fleshed out. I saw how silly it was to try to plan my way out of Revelation.

I'm only typing this all out to (hopefully) remind myself later how ludicrous it is to try to over plan... anything.

So we'll just call this a lesson learned.    

Ahem.

Anyway...

We saw a "light show," which was Christmas themed. 

We toured the caverns, which was really cool. 

After that the kids did a huge maze. I refused to go in. I told one of my friend's husbands that I already knew I wasn't a fan of mazes. I am not a fan of being lost. I sort of do that in real life, literally and metaphorically, enough. I'm sure it's not a control thing at all...

Ahem.

How about a day where you get to face all of your ridiculous fears?

He joked after I confessed my Total Darkness trauma that we could have a high tower that overlooked a pit of snakes and we could just have a cornucopia of realized fears. 

That made me laugh. Except I'm not afraid of heights and I'm definitely not afraid of snakes. But dang that darkness nearly did me in. 

Anyway, this nice daddy took about 2,962 kids into the maze by himself while the mamas sat outside and had some good conversation. (Insert me being deeply thankful and blessed by the mamas God has so graciously placed in my life.)

Since we had a crazy busy day this day, we headed out shortly after. This was a great trip, and I'm thinking a cavern tour might be in my future. As long as I can figure out this darkness thing. And while I'm not studying Revelation. We can all be thankful that I'm not studying Revelation again for a little while. 

Goodness.