Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Reason 7,495 Why To Love Homeschooling

Wearing a tiara anytime she wants, especially during spelling dictation.

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Monday, January 28, 2013

7,495


That is how many miles we drove between November 20th and January 1st.  First, we went to Michigan for Thanksgiving to see my grandmother and other family in the area. Two days after we came home from Michigan, I drove to Denver with Ryne and Grace to help my dad and sister with some things. Marc and Anna flew out to Denver that weekend so we could have our Christmas celebration with my dad and sister and then we drove back home together.  Two-and-a-half weeks later we left for a major road trip (26 straight hours down, 23 straight coming back) to Naples, Florida for my brother-in-law's wedding and Christmas with Marc's family. And that doesn't include the road trip I took to Denver in September and the one I just got back from last night.

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Aren't Christmas weddings the best?

Yes, it was a lot of driving, but that's just how things worked out this year.  Marc and I make a great team when it comes to long-distance driving. He drives more total hours, but I usually do the middle of the night stretches. Each trip was so worth it, and we have at least 7,495 wonderful memories to treasure.



Coincidentally, this is also the number of up and down motions my arm has made as I have painted multiple rooms of our house over the last several months. My last post here promised the reveal of our new school room, but would you believe it is still not done? It is mostly done, but I had to switch gears and work on the girls' room so Grace could sleep in a real bed and not the chair in our bedroom. You'll be happy to know the girls are now in beds in their own room, but there are still projects to finish in there too.  It is so hard to find extra hours for projects when I can't even fit in the normal stuff. 


More significantly, this number is 195 more than the number of days of marriage we celebrated on December 30! To save you from getting out your calculator just take a peek at the surprise shell-message I made for Marc on a Florida beach.

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God has showered us with His grace for 20 years, because there is no way we {two people with stubborn Dutch blood flowing through our veins} could survive that long in our own strength.  I am honored and humbled that He gave me a man who is god-fearing, hard-working, self-sacrificing, wise, handsome, and fun to be my partner and best friend.

Sadly, it is also the number of pieces into which my heart has been broken. My dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's over the summer (although symptoms had been evident for quite a bit longer). I am very emotional about this, so I'm not going to go into much detail about it right now.  I would, however, be grateful for your prayers for him and my sister who lives just down the street from him.
This is how many things it seems have broken or fallen apart at the Blue House in the last year.  I'll spare you the list, but suffice it to say the December morning when I discovered the refrigerator and oven were BOTH broken was when I nearly lost the last of my marbles.  The latest victim is my printer that only wants to print in color. Good thing I found a quick fix online -- all I have to do is clean the printer head with hot water then rubbing alcohol then calcium-lime-rust remover then a little compressed air then everything should be fine! {sigh}

Given everything that has been going on, this is just about how many times I've debated in my mind what to do with this little blog of mine. About 90% of those debate sessions end with me deciding to close the blog down for good.  I keep telling myself I don't have time -- that any time spent blogging could be finishing up another project or crossing something else off my never-ending to-do list.  But something about blogging keeps pulling me back.  I love the creative side. I love posting pictures. I love writing. I love the interaction. And the fact of the matter is that even if I don't blog, there will still be projects to finish and things to cross off the to-do list, and I would probably just find something less rewarding for those times when I need some me-time. So the blog lives another day.

Speaking of time-wasters . . .  this is at least how many times I've been glad to not be on facebook! Okay, okay, before I start making enemies, I know there are probably some good things about it, but I hear way more about the negatives than the positives. Nevertheless, my fifteen year-old daughter desperately wanted an account and after jumping through some hoops, she finally was given our blessing.  But that meant one of us had to be on facebook to monitor her, and Marc hates the idea of facebook about 7,495 times more than I do. So I am now on facebook. I have no idea how to use it, but maybe one of these days I'll get around to figuring it out.  If you know me in real life, look me up.  If you don't, but we know each other through blogging, shoot me an email (link in sidebar).  I'm not linking my facebook account to my blog, because I like to be a little anonymous over here at the blog. ; ) 

Whew! How's that for an update?