Monday

(I feel like I gained an extra day. All day, I've been thinking today was Tuesday!)

Holly tried out a lesson with a new instructor. It went very well.


Watching Taylor teach, I realized how little actual instruction Holly has had lately. This was much more in line with her previous instructor.


The instructor Holly's had for the last eight months was a nice change at the right time, just as it seems Taylor will be a good change at the right time.



Green hills . . . blue skies . . . white puffy clouds . . . summer in Virginia is beautiful!

No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle.
Winston Churchill

* * *

Last week, we saw twin fawns in our backyard. We came across them again today when we got home. The babies scampered away quickly, but mom didn't mind standing still to get her picture taken. I usually don't care much for the deer, but since she has the two babies, I like her quite a bit better right now!

Weekly menu

smoked pork chops, ramen noodle salad, watermelon, bread
YOYO
chicken souvlaki, couscous, hummus, strawberries
??? (Mom work late)
cheeseburgers, scalloped potatoes, watermelon
eggplant creation by Robert, bread, salad
Kristine's birthday!

Lunch (with or for):
smoothies
grilled PB&J
Linda's Marinated Mozzarella
parmesan pesto things

On the back burner:
spaghetti, bread, salad
tuna, crackers, fruit
scalloped potatoes, Rocky Mountain Salad
cutlets Romano
chicken ala king, rice, strawberries
teriyaki meatballs, ???
pork loin
taco salad; quesadillas
sub sandwiches, chips, fruit
Renita's Funnel Cakes!!!
breakfast
hot dogs

Book Review - Reader's Digest Life in These United States

I'm only including this to make it count for my number of books read, but I'm burying it in Monday, hoping it will get lost.

I've read Reader's Digest since I was a kid, and my favorite section has always been Life in These United States. I grabbed this book at my library book sale last weekend. It's a collection of short, humorous stories from the magazine. It was somewhat entertaining, although after reading 500+ such stories, it unsurprisingly became a little tiresome.

:)

In bloom

Although it's been dry, dry, dry here, everything still grows better than it did in Colorado. Our flower baskets look terrific. Although our cars were jam packed when we moved here, we balanced our flower baskets on top. We knew that hanging them would instantly make our new house feel like home. (And it's hard to believe that we left Colorado exactly one year ago today!!!)


Rose of Sharons (Roses of Sharon?) have become a tradition for us. We've always planted one by our front door. This one's taken off; they are definitely a more common sight here.


Our hydrangeas.


Even the Easter lily is enjoying summer, lol.


Another indoor plant that likes being outside.


We have quite a few flower pots on the back deck too.


Their ivies hang down a good eight feet. We've never seen that before!


The only plant that is not doing so well is our crepe myrtle. I noticed them in abundance last year, so Robert bought a few to plant in our yard. There's one dried up flower; that's it.


...compared to what it's supposed to look like...


But the blue hydrangeas make up for it!


Daytime temps have dropped down 10-15 degrees to around 80, making it pleasant to be outside again. Yay!

Kids' activities

As we're preparing for our new school year, we're also planning out what activities the kids will do.

For the past year, we've heard great things about a Christian homeschool rec league. Practically everyone we know plays in the league (or so it seems). Although Trevor's never had any desire to play, we went ahead and signed him up. He was less than pleased, but we figured he might enjoy a season of team sports, especially since lots of his friends play, and we knew he'd enjoy the opportunity to be around a slew of new kids with whom he'd have plenty in common.


We've taken Trevor out for the past few evenings to learn a few skills before soccer begins in two weeks. When Robert was a kid, his soccer team WON the Colorado State championship, and he's coached soccer in the past. Trevor's had a great time practicing.


I'm surprised to see how many people have been at our little elementary school both nights. There's nothing special going on, yet there have been 20-25 people each night. That's pretty amazing in our little town of 2000.



To our surprise, Holly decided to sign up too. She played soccer for four years or so when she was younger, and she's looking forward to doing it again. Besides, she also has friends that play in the league, and this will be a good way to see them more regularly too.

We should find out team assignments within the next few days. Based out of our larger (relatively!) city, there will be almost 300 kids playing. I'm still a little awed by that, and it will be something to see everyone together on game days!

Meanwhile, Holly's also been thinking about a new riding instructor. She likes her current one fine enough, but she's looking for a little more direction in her riding. This has been a never-ending challenge for me; I've talked to two dozen or more people over the past year, and it's just hard to find anyone who teaches English jumper at Holly's level. We visited a new barn yesterday, talked to the owner and a few instructors, and she'll begin there next week to see how things go. :)

Trevor will also continue with chess club, begin taking weekly art lessons again, and participate in the local cooking class. In addition to soccer and riding, Holly's deciding if she'll join 4-H for another year. Looking at this all at once, it seems hectic, but most activities are not weekly, some are local, and soccer will only last for two months.

I'm still thinking it will be pretty busy, lol. It will be good for us, I'm sure.

Book Review - Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson

I have time only for a quick review. I've been waiting several months to read this 2006 Ney York Times bestseller. My library was slow to order it, and even now only has a large print copy. But it was well worth my persistence in checking the catalog and well worth my wait.

In 1993, Greg Mortenson unsuccessfully attempted a K2 climb and, upon his rescue, was accidentally led to a poverty-stricken Pakistani mountain village. Impressed by their hospitality, he promised to build them a school.

Greg begins his ingenuous efforts to garner financial support to fulfill his promise. He catches the attention of Silicon Valley pioneer Dr. Jean Hoerni, who grants him the money--in exchange for a photograph of the completed building. From this combined effort, the Central Asia Institute is eventually formed, which has since built over 70 schools in remote mountain regions.

Greg opens educational possiblities to small villages in the region, returning occasionally to the U.S. to work and raise further funds. His appeal lies in his ability to befriend the various peoples he meets--from peasants to tribal chiefs to Taliban leaders. Greg is in northern Pakistan on September 11 when he hears, "A village in New York has been bombed!"

This adds a compelling twist to the book, which made it particularly memorable. Greg saw firsthand the secret schools that exist only to teach militant jihad under the guise of "Islamic Education" at a cost of $45 million. Funded through an extremist, fundamentalist offshoot of Sunni Islam, these schools provide the only educational opportunities for impoverished Pakistani students. (Do I need to say How scary is that?)

The central theme of the story overshadowed the fair amount of liberal political rhetoric that I found (and almost expected). There were several small comments interjected which were not necessary. Greg's main point is that through education we can leave a legacy of peace--instead of violence, war and terrorism. We can sit here and talk about it all we want, but Greg Mortenson and the CAI are DOING something about it.

He's an interesting guy with an interesting story. It definitely gave me pause to think about a lot of things that I don't usually think about. I highly recommend this book.

Cooling down!!!!

For the second night in a row, the temp's dropped down into the 50s.

WOO-HOO!!!

Another night of sleeping with the windows open and hearing all of the oh-so-lovely buggy and frog and I-dont-know-what sounds!!!!!

Notice

We finally filed our Notice of Intent to homeschool on Tuesday, in plenty of time for the 8/15 deadline. Holly's and Trevor's names were both on it.

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This has been a really long and hard decision. We knew Trevor would continue to be home, but it was possible that Holly would go to the local middle school. When it first came up a year ago, I was literally almost sick to my stomach. After praying about it for a short time, I felt an incredible sense of peace, and I knew that all would work out fine--whatever the end result was. I have not worried about it at all this year. :) In the spring, Holly attended 8th grade orientation. She registered, chose her electives, and began testing for class placement a few months ago.

In the meantime though, I'd heard nothing but negative comments about the school. The majority of comments came from parents, many of whom have just chatted with me casually while checking out books at the library. Some came from the students.

We've always heard that middle school is not the time to end homeschooling. If you're going to go to ps, start in high school. But we also considered that there might be an adjustment period, and that it'd be nice to get that over with before high school...and transcripts.

On top of that is the fact that Virginia high schools are not required to accept any homeschool credits toward high school. (Those who are unfamiliar with homeschool laws might find this a reasonable demand, but the fact is that it's not typical in most states, and it's blatantly discriminatory since they accept other outside credits.) Sure, you can go to high school at any time and enter into an appropriate grade, but since the school will not accept homeschool credit, the student is unable to graduate at the end of their schooling. The problem is that the law leaves the final determination to the school--and only a few schools in the state accept the credit.

We definitely want Holly's return to public school to be positive--and it became increasingly apparent that this was not the year to go back. We made the final decision last week. We will plan for her to go to the high school beginning next year. And we're all in agreement on that.

We had one more very nice affirmation right after I dropped our NOI in the mail. Holly knows a local high school teacher, and although he'd known of our conflict with the decision, he'd been quiet about it in the past. That night, however, he expressed his agreement with our choice, saying that the middle school was not the best idea but the high school was very different and would make for a good transition.

Robert and I have long known that it was God's plan for us to begin homeschooling. (It absolutely was not anything we ever would have come up with on our own!) We've known that our family would do this as long as God wanted us to. This year will be a juggle with me working--but I have no doubt that's part of His plan too. As long as I focus....submit...., it will be a wonderful year.

But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

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Lucky dog

Lucky loves living in Stickville. He's still a slug; he'll lay in the house all day, and he's happiest on his cushy pillow. Robert says it's because he's a wimpy French dog. Although he loved his crate in the old house, there's no room for it here, so he just has his pillow on the floor. He took the whole traumatic move thing...well, lying down. He hates being away from us, but as long as we're there, his life is good.


He loves to run outside, free in the woods. I was a little concerned about ticks (and here), but the tick medicine is working perfectly. Lucky doesn't get out for long periods of time on his own unless someone forgets he's out there, but he always turns up back home.

He loves to play with Annie, the little Golden next door, and one day the dogs took off. Annie's family got a call from a family who found the dogs. Although our property lines touch, Robert and Donald (Annie's owner) had to drive three miles to get there. When Robert and Donald (the neighbor) arrived, Annie was enjoying visiting the new family, but Lucky had taken off. Of course, by the time the guys got back home, Lucky was sitting here waiting patiently.

We are so lucky to have such a great dog. He's so Lucky to have us too.

4-H Banquet

Back in the fall, I stumbled across the local 4-H group. "Stumbled" might not be the right word; "was pushed into" is more like it.

Way back in September, I saw a flyer for a homeschool writing group led by a local author. Even though Holly didn't attend the class, I googled the teacher and found her blog. Following a link there, I ended up on Debi's blog. Debi mentioned horses, and when I contacted her, she invited us to her sheath cleaning demonstration. You can imagine that was not --and is not-- high on my list of things I ever wanted to do.

In the meantime, someone recommended Mark as a possible riding instructor. I called Mark and found that he teaches western barrel racing (not what Holly wanted to do), and that he also leads the local 4-H Horse and Pony club. The club's next meeting was TAA-DAA a sheath cleaning demonstration at Debi's.

God usually has to knock me in the head a few times, but I eventually get it. So I took Holly to the meeting, and she's been pretty active in the club ever since.

They don't break for summer, and tonight was the last meeting of the club year.



Truthfully, "banquet" sounds rather hoity-toity--this was really a family bbq. As the meetings are usually just the girls and a handful of parents, this was a nice chance to eat together and chat with the other families, while some of the kids swam. The girls were given awards for various activities in which they participated through the year, discussed the upcoming state horse show, and club officer positions for the upcoming year.

4-H has been a good activity for Holly. She's learned a LOT, done some cool things, and had fun. The other girls are somewhat shy, but they are pleasant, and we've really appreciated the committed, Christian leaders who have turned this group into a successful club. We are so thankful to have found 4-H!

Bringing it back up. Again

I live in my own little happy, optimistic, rose-colored world. I like it that way. If something's unpleasant, I am very good at ignoring it. No one likes unpleasantness, right? Denial works for me.

Life is not always pretty. So I don't always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that includes when I blog. It's not that I'm not "keepin' it real," I just don't want to think about the yuck. That IS the real me. (So there.)

Holly's been practicing driving for several months. She's braver than I am, she started out in the truck. She'll drive on our private road too, with one of us, but of course she won't go on a public street.


A month or so ago, she and I went to the horse show. I was feeling terribly sick as we drove home, and I ended up turning onto my street, unbuckling my seat belt, throwing open my car door--and throwing up. Seven times.

Although it was midnight, pitch black out here, and our road is narrow, twisty and hilly, I WOULD have been more than happy to let her drive home--except that I'd thrown up ALL OVER THE INSIDE OF MY DOOR. The Barf Queen reigns, but I terribly missed my mark. I certainly wasn't going to subject Holly to that.

Instead Holly called Robert, thinking he'd drive my car home. (Lucky guy.)

Meanwhile, my neighbors stopped by, asking if I needed help. I told them I was not feeling well, that Robert was on his way up. I am QUITE sure they must have thought I'd been drinking. A lot. Why else would someone be throwing up in a car at midnight on a Friday night?

As we waited for Robert, I began feeling slightly better and was able to wipe down my car with a clean, wet washcloth that I just happened to have on hand. (That's nothing short of a miracle, as I usually don't have napkins or kleenex.)

I was too grossed out to touch much of anything in my car, but we headed for home, meeting Rob halfway down the street. Poor guy, I'd dragged him out of bed for nothing much after all. He didn't even offer to clean my car out the next day; I had that lovely job all to myself. And for the next several days, I could see my special spot on the road, the leftovers of my yummy dinner at Applebee's. It was not something I'd intended to see more than once.

Do I need to say my neighbors are seriously avoiding me?

Now you know why I might not tell the whole story.

Weekly menu

tuna, crackers, fruit
4-H bbq
hot dogs, pasta salad, baked beans
Subway! (Mom working)
breakfast burritos
chile rellanos, tacos, refried beans
spaghetti, bread, salad

Lunch (with or for):
smoothies
grilled PB&J
Linda's Marinated Mozzarella
parmesan pesto things

On the back burner:
cutlets Romano
chicken ala king, rice, strawberries
chicken souvlaki, couscous
teriyaki meatballs, ???
pork loin
taco salad; quesadillas
sub sandwiches, chips, fruit
Renita's Funnel Cakes!!!
breakfast
smoked pork chops, fruit salad, ???
scalloped potatoes, salad
hot dogs
Rocky Mountain Salad, bread

Saturday

We had a warm and rainy morning.


Not a bad thing, as we need the moisture. We sat on the front porch and drank coffee.


Someone announced it was time for a haircut. (That someone was NOT me.) I was a little nervous. The last time I attempted to cut Holly's hair, I made the first cut, realized it was a BIG mistake, stuck it in a ponytail and made her an appointment for that very same afternoon.



Look at those curls! Enough to break a mom's heart!

Not happy with yet another picture!

Oh, but he's happy with the results, and I'm happy to see my boy's face again!

I took Trevor out to ride his bike again. With all that hair gone, we had to resize his helmet. I think he'll be very comfortable with shorter hair for the rest of summer.



DAD and Sherry! Here's a pic of the new helmet! Isn't it fabulous looking!? It's lightweight and comfortable too!! THANK YOU!!!



The kids' colds are almost gone, and it was another good, relaxing day!