March 14, 2012  5:51 p.m.

Being away from the internet pretty much means I have not been keeping up on all my friends’ blogs very well.  I apologize, everyone.  I will try to do better.  It’s just that when I check my Google Reader and find that there are 148 new unread blog posts, well, I feel overwhelmed and just skip through many of them.

But I wanted to share a couple of our recent motorhome adventures.  We are trying to stick to the one month plan, meaning that we try to do a weekend camping trip once a month during this pleasant time of the year.  One weekend in January, we went to Seasons in the Sun RV Resort, just for one night, to practice RVing.  We actually got to swim in the outdoor pool in January.  How ‘bout that?

When driving a Bluebird down the highway, it is best to have actual bluebirds looking out the windshield.  Courtesy of Sweet Girl, of course!

Enjoying a swim … in January??

Chips, here, is experimenting with his waterproof video camera from his grandfather.

And lots of bike riding to be done as well.

It did turn out, however, that this trip was way too short.  We barely got there and it seemed it was time to return home.  Seasons in the Sun was a nice enough place, but not nearly so nice as the place we would go next. 

So the next trip we made to The Great Outdoors, also in Titusville, for three nights.  What a place!  This place had everything: a nature museum, nature trails, miles of roads to bike, Olympic size pool, fitness center, tennis courts, restaurants, and plenty of nice friendly people, mostly snowbirds at this time of the year.

Our “next door neighbors” had a little white dog that Chips and Sweet Girl fell in love with.  I guess because they missed our own dog, Beau, who can’t really travel with us in the motorhome due to his mobility and incontinence issues.  

This time, Breezy Point Mom was brave enough to get in the pool, too.

We didn’t bring a tow vehicle, so we biked everywhere, night and day.  That was a lot of fun.

I guess the surprising-est thing about this trip was that we didn’t visit this property unnoticed.  You see, our RV is an old Bluebird Wanderlodge, and every one is unique.  So as soon as our motorhome arrived on the premises, a couple in a golf cart “recognized” us and followed us all the way to our campsite.  They even assisted us with backing into the site and straightening out (still a challenge for Self-Reliant Man and me).  Anyway, they introduced themselves to us, and told us that we had the motorhome that was formerly owned by the same couple who bought their older motorhome from them (did you get that?)  We also met several other couples who also have Bluebirds.  They all belong to an active online network of Wanderlodge owners who help one another out with technical problems, etc.  This is because the Wanderlodge division of Bluebird went out of business a couple years ago (they still make school buses) so on some level we are “on our own”.  It was really neat to have so many friendly folks approach us and get to know us.

As we are getting over the flu right now (I am still only at about 75% of my normal self) I sure hope we are ready for this coming weekend, as we plan to go back to The Great Outdoors for our March visit!

March 13, 2012 3:50 p.m.

My lifestyle has changed.  It has been a far busier year with my 4th and 7th graders, and I have not enjoyed the same amount of access to the internet that I used to.  I was trying to stay off the internet before 9 a.m. and after 8 p.m., but as a result I haven’t had much opportunity to write anything meaningful.  Chips is using the computer much more, and so is Self-Reliant Man, so I find it is harder for me to blog anymore.  It took today, a day of Chips and I having the flu, for me to slow down enough and stay home from outside activities.  After feeling like a dog turd all night and all morning, I am finally coming to myself again.  So I have some rare time to write.  The problem is figuring out what is most important to write about, since so much water has gone under the bridge in the past month. 

I will just thumb through my recent photograph to refresh my memory.  But first, a word about homeschooling.  We have made a revolutionary decision regarding our curriculum.  I am very interested in enrolling Chips in The Potter’s School for much of his high school, maybe even in the Classical Track.  But rather than discover during the Freshman year that it falls short of our expectations, I would like to determine this sooner.  So, Chips will not be using Calvert for Eighth Grade.  We will enroll him in the Potter’s School for eighth grade to see how it goes before diving in for high school.  Chips can’t wait.  After using Calvert his entire life, he is ready for a change.  He also loves the idea of using a USB headset and attending live online classes. 

So here is the plan right now.  We anticipate Chips to finish 7th grade by the end of the calendar year.  Then he will have 8-9 months of an interlude during which we will have him take a few courses.  Maybe Calvert 8th grade math, Florida Virtual School courses in keyboarding and Spanish, and the summer school Study Skills course offered by the Potter’s School.  He can also use that time to concentrate more on his violin practice.  Then, come September 2013, he can begin the 8th grade at the Potter’s School.

Sweet Girl is thriving in Calvert’s Fourth Grade and we will continue on with Calvert for her.  Having said that, I have to add that there has been a big step change in the workload for math, when compared with third grade.  It has been somewhat painful for her and for me, and not every day goes smoothly where math is concerned.  It is not that she can’t do the math, it is just that the assignments call for a level of self-discipline and organization that has been hard for her to muster.  Keeping the writing orderly, the steps in logical order, and just keeping her mind on what she is doing and where she is in the solution process hasn’t always been easy.  I am hoping that she grows into it.  She is doing remarkably well at the “building blocks” of math; for example, she can complete a 100 multiplication fact sheet in 2 minutes and 45 seconds with no errors.  It is just applying her knowledge to completing the assignment that is hard.

Here is a set of random images from the past month or so.

Chips made a sugar cube pyramid for one of his art lessons.

Sweet Girl studied in her PJs this day.  A science experiment for finding the volume of objects by measuring water displacement.

Chips is sporting the tuxedo shirt he received from his grandfather.  Perfect for violin competitions.

Here he drew a picture of the motorhome with Etch A Sketch. 

Sweet Girl does an experiment in magnetism.

And we all bicycled to our little post office to mail an important package.  Can’t get much greener than that.

More to come…

January 18, 2012 4:11 p.m.

Be it ever so humble, there is no place like it.

No, it’s not exactly a garage like it was used to in years past, but it’s home for the next several years, anyway.

And yes, the surface covering seems to be doing the job, although you can still see some superficial tracks.  Nothing compared to the 2-3” ruts it was leaving in the grass, though!

Stay tuned.  We hope to be taking it out on the road this coming weekend.

January 12, 2012 4:57 p.m.

We actually had a property improvement this week.  It was time for our motorhome to have a home of its own, since the Florida sun is very hard on anything that is parked in it for long.  Also, the ground on our property is not … well… supportive enough for the weight of the bus.  So, we had a dump truck come and deliver 5 cubic yards (about 6 tons) of crushed / pulverized concrete, also known as recycled concrete fines.  We learned that once this material is spread out, and wet down a few times, compressed, and dried, it makes a very inexpensive and supportive ground cover.  In fact, our road is made out of this stuff. 

So, it was dumped, and while the children did their lessons, Breezy Point Mom began to spread out the material, shovelful by shovelful, wheelbarrow load by wheelbarrow load. 

After lunch the same day (after I had been at this task for a time) I took a break because a work crew came to install our car RV-port.  This structure is 12 feet tall on the sides and nearly 15 feet tall at its peak.

Above you can see the work I had begun, and the beginning framework of the carport on the ground.  It had to be anchored to withstand 130 mph winds in our state.

Once the bases were placed in their permanent location, the archways were laid out on the ground, and raised up in a few minutes!

I always hate it when Self-Reliant Man has to get up on the rooftop to do any work, and when he replaced our barn roof, I insisted on fall protection.  So I didn’t feel all that much better when this fellow sat astride one of those archways without fall protection, and nowhere near a ladder!  But he had to go there to install the first few sheets of metal.  I guess.

They made such a good team.  The entire project was completed in a little over 3 hours.  Here, two men are climbing a ladder simultaneously (and may I add, quickly!) to raise each individual sheet of roofing. 

We wanted a color that would have a minimal impact on our surroundings, and chose forest green.

Final step for this work crew – installing the trim.

My students wanted to do their lessons outside, in full view of the goings on.  This is educational, too.

Once the work crew went home, and lessons were (kind of) finished, Chips and Sweet Girl went to work spreading the concrete, too.  Crushed concrete fines are much heavier than dirt, you know.

Once Self-Reliant Man arrived home, we had supper, and worked into the night.  We needed to get it spread out and hosed down so it would settle and harden soon.  It is still drying, by the way, three days later.

Still at it, and we weren’t finished until about 10 p.m.  The motorhome is still at the top of the hill, but it is looking forward to relaxing in its new home. 

Honestly, you never know what a week will bring here at Breezy Point!

December 29, 2011 9:34 p.m.

We have had the best Christmas time this year.  Nothing especially stands out, except that we have really enjoyed all our time together.  Self-Reliant Man is off from work for twelve days in a row, and it has been such a blessing to me.  We have really enjoyed our time together so far.  As I look back, I am reminded of many details of the past weeks.

Such as… our tree topper!  In past years, it has been a struggle getting our tree topper to stand up straight and look good.  So I put on a temporary tree topper while I looked around for a new one.  I called it our redneck tree topper.  What do you think?

Finally I got out and found a nice white angel tree topper in Gralween’s.  See?

I thought it was okay, but my family secretly thought it was a little bit too frou-frou for our style of Christmas tree.  But they didn’t have to worry about it long, because a long time friend showed up at our door one day with a package.

The package contained this:

She and her husband felt sorry for us when they saw the red solo cup, and decided to part with an old tree topper of their own.  So this one is the winner.  After all, gifts (in this case, tree toppers) from long time friends are the best, are they not?

One other way that our children have been passing the time is by playing and singing hymns out of our church hymnal.  These times give me big smiles and lots of joy!

Chips talked about how nice it would be to have a Christmas train around our Christmas tree.   He proceeded to get out his grandfather’s old Lionel and converted it into a Christmas train.  What do you think of that?

And Sweet Girl got together some old Christmas village decorations and made a simple littl village on our window seat.  I think she started a new tradition here. 

On Christmas Eve, my neighbor brought over her elderly and frail mother to hear Chips and Sweet Girl put on a short violin concert.  You see, her mother is the surviving widow of the man whose violin Chips has been playing for the past year.  So she not only appreciated our children’s performance, but she also loved hearing that old violin getting played.   She couldn’t speak very much, but the smile spoke volumes!  It is great when you can minister to others right in your own home.

Sweet Girl prepared a simple dessert to make our Christmas Eve evening extra special.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care…

in hopes that St. Nick soon would be there!

And mom in her kerchief, more or less, wrapped gifts outside in the breezeway after they went to bed.  You can only do this in Florida when you have a Christmas as mild as we had!

And here is the tree all ready for Christmas morning to come.  Christmas Eve truly remains my very favorite night of all.  It is so magical!

Here are the children showing some of their favorite presents..

In between, I have been getting some much needed Spring cleaning finished.  After all, once homeschool begins again, I will be hard pressed to find time to get any of that sort of thing done.  My home is sparkling!  And you know what?   A scrub brush on your hands and knees really gets the job done much better than any mop.

In the evenings we have eaten popcorn and watched Christmas videos.  Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol, and The Polar Express (at this writing). 

And to top it all off, we enjoyed a family bicycle ride yesterday on a truly beautiful day.  It was really a happy time. 

These are truly good, wonderful, and precious days.  Happy days.  Cherished days.  Just being healthy, just being all together.  Days I look forward to all year long.