Friday, January 8, 2016

Weekly Wrap-Up {9 Years!}

 photo 2015 Christmas bokeh 2.jpg
1/4/16 - Playing around with my camera, trying to get some Christmas bokeh. Yes, my tree is still up. Sigh.

At Blue House Academy, January doesn't just mean a new year or a new semester; it marks the anniversary of starting our homeschool adventure, and this is our 9th anniversary! To God be the glory -- left to my own strength and abilities, we would have never made it past that first January. Oh, how many wonderful memories are wrapped up in those 9 years!

We had a peaceful Christmas at home this year. My mother-in-law and Marc's oldest sister came to visit for a couple of days before Christmas, so that made up for our not traveling out to Denver this year. It was the first Christmas in years we stayed home and we really, really, really needed that down time -- especially Marc, since he got very, very, very sick over the Christmas break. I had just a touch of it, but mostly kept from getting the full-blown virus by overdosing on olive leaf extract and vitamin C.

By the end of the break, I could tell we were ready for routine again -- Ryne had watched just about every DVD series we own (all of Star Wars, twice, all of Harry Potter, all of The Lord of the Rings), Grace had to be surgically removed from the iPad on which she spent hours chatting with her friends, and Anna slept for two straight weeks. So, in case I ever give the impression that we are perfect and spend all our free time reading, playing board games, and doing other lovely, worthwhile things . . . Ha! No, we were less than inspiring. ; )

Monday was back to school. It's funny, with the girls' school there is such a distinction between first and second semester, but for Ryne's homeschooling the lines seem a little blurry. Organization-wise I've been thinking of his schooling more in terms of transcript credits. Some classes he's finished with the first semester content and others he's not, if that makes any sense. For example, second semester he switches from American Government to Economics, but because I added in some more material for government, he's still finishing that up. It doesn't really affect the feel of our days -- we just study what we study -- but it does make me appreciate more the flexibility of homeschooling.

Tuesday was Anna's 18th birthday!!! It's hard to believe she's now an adult. For 2016, I'm adding the book The Songs of Jesus by Timothy Keller into my devotional mix, and Psalm 4 was the reading for Tuesday, which includes the verse that used to hang above Anna's crib, "I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety (verse 8)." Reading that felt like a hug from God. She's not my little baby anymore, but the Lord still watches over her.

Anna requested a pistachio cheesecake for her birthday, so after taking Ryne to the orthodontist that morning I quickly made the cake that I forgot should have been in the refrigerator all night. It still turned out wonderful and we had a nice family celebration that evening.

One of her gifts was a life-sized cut-out of Finn from the new Star Wars movie. There's a picture on someone's phone, but apparently not mine (I'll see if I can add it later). Finn stayed in the kitchen overnight and when I came downstairs to fetch my coffee Wednesday morning, I almost had a heart attack because I had forgotten about him and just saw some large person with a weapon, lurking in the darkness. He's now found a home in the senior lounge at school and is planning on attending college with Anna next year. : )

The rest of the week was more settling back into the routine of school, ballet, catechism class, dentist appointments, laundry, etc. I made a trip to the community college to pick up Anna's textbook for the statistics class she's going to take this semester. Turns out it's an ebook, so it seemed crazy spending $140 for a piece of paper with a code on it. I keep reading tips about how to save money on college textbooks, but so far with the two classes she's taken, there have been no options except to buy the material as offered in the school bookstore. I certainly hope next year when she's a real college student we'll have more options.

Since I missed the last weekly wrap-up before the Christmas break and then we had two weeks off, I'm sure I've left out so much, but these were at least a few of the highlights.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas break! Happy homeschooling!


2 comments:

  1. Beautiful photo. Someday I want a really nice camera to do that "bokeh" stuff ; )
    So glad you all had a relaxing break...congrats on 9 years. 9 was our total. Some days I really miss it, but the further away we get, the more I'm glad I don't have to teach those tough classes!

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  2. Congratulations on 9 years of homeschooling!! It is something to reflect on and be proud of your accomplishments :) Nice capture of bokeh with the pinecones.

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