March 25, 2011 2:19 p.m.

The weather here has been just exquisite for several days.  We have had all our windows, and even our doors at times, open all day long and into the evening.  We only close them to sleep due to the many noisy dogs in our area.

Our house has a long, cigar-shaped footprint with a screen door, or screen-enclosed area at either end.  So when both ends are open, the afternoon sea breeze that gives Breezy Point its name flows through the entire house.  Yesterday, though, the winds were out of the west, and they were strong.

This is the view through the house, to the other end, looking west through the screen door on the bedroom end of the house.

And this is the view from the breezeway on the other end, looking east.  The house was deliberately positioned east to west to capture the afternoon breezes, and it works well.  Almost too well at times.  I love having the house open.

Here are further images from our lives and lessons…

Sweet Girl starting in on her scrapbooking.

She played ball with me in the front yard.   It was so beautiful.

Netfl*x night here, with new bean bag chairs, designed expressly for kids to “veg” in.

Now this kid knows how to study!

Calvert’s 3rd grade Greek Mythology: I read the story, and Sweet Girl listens.  Except I am not content to simply sit and read.  Rather, I make the story “happen” as I go on the dry- erase board.  Sweet Girl gets a kick out of how I do this.

Happy Spring, everybody!

 June 23, 2010 11:01 a.m.

We're out of sync with the rest of the world!

Summer has a full grip on us these days.  I mean, it is as summer as summer gets.  Long days, stepping out of the house at 6 a.m. to walk our dog, feeling the humidity envelope me and getting soaked feet from the heavy dew on the grass.  In addition, I have to be more vigilant when walking under the oak trees to make sure I don't walk into an orb weaver web.  They are difficult to see until the sun's rays begin to illuminate them.  The cicadas are still making noise at 6 a.m., too, which is the truest reminder that we are in the throes of summer.  So there it is.

By now, all of our homeschooling friends are on summer break.  I am starting to wish I were, too.  As many of you know, we are year 'round homeschoolers, and due to the climate of our state, we plan on getting more school accomplished in the summer than we do during the cooler seasons of the year.  The brilliant rationale behind this is because right now it is too darn hot to do much else, with the exception of swimming.  The plan sounded so practical, and some of my friends would comment on "what a good idea" it was.  But as the children get older, I find that we are out of sync with the world, and summer is not so simple as I expect it will be every year.

During the traditional brick and mortar school year, all of the outside activities are kicked up into full gear.  We are out of the house doing P.E., music, field trips and other activities so that we end up just managing to complete four Calvert Lesson-days per week per child.  Some weeks even less.  So it becomes all-important for us to do a full five lesson-day per week schedule during the summer, when most activities have ceased.  However, here's the deal.... when it comes to social days, visiting one another's homes for play dates and such, everybody is too busy to fit them in during the traditional B&M school year, and they are only free for such gatherings in the summer.  But summer is when we are trying to get most of our school done.  So we are out of sync, and again we are not fitting in those five lessons a week.  In fact, every Friday this summer, there will be a get together that will prevent us from doing school.  It is great, because I prioritize friends and getting together, but we are out of sync with the world, even the homeschool world.  Also, since there are fewer activities at this time of year, I have chosen this time to schedule all our medical, dental, and eye doctor checkup visits.  Then, subtract a week of Music Camp, where I volunteer, another week of VBS, and a few days of standardized testing, and before you know it, summer is gone.

So in a way I am busier these days than I expected.  Not what I expected from summer.  The cicadas I expected, the schedule I didn't.

Well, I won't be complaining this fall when our family takes a 23 day vacation trip (sans schoolbooks)!  But I'm afraid we won't be getting as many days off at Christmas time as I am used to.  Oh well.  Complaining about the trivial stuff, I guess.

So, why do I have time to write this boring blog post, you might ask?

That leads me into a discussion about Calvert.  As I expected, I find that teaching Calvert 5th grade, and Calvert 2nd grade, in the same year makes for a pretty teacher (mommy) intensive year.  I look forward to, and wonder, what it will be like next year when Chips is in 6th grade with Calvert.  For 6th grade, Calvert writes the lesson manual to the student, thereby giving them an opportunity to begin true independent study.  While I have heard of Calvert parents who haven't been able to pull this off with their 6th graders, I am holding out hope that we will when that time comes.  Then I will be able to concentrate on my 3rd grader more, earlier in the day, and hopefully have more efficient school days.  We shall see.

Which brings me to today, and why I have time to write this blog post.  Chips came to me this morning and said he wanted to try to navigate the lesson manual himself, today.  He wanted to go through each subject and teach himself the material, working through all the homework as he goes, no mommy needed.  I looked through his assignments for the day and said, "Okay, let's give it a try".  He might be on to something, and I don't want to squash his desire for independence in this area of life.

I will write my next post with a discussion of what my daily Calvert schedule has looked like up until this point.

March 4, 2010 4:00 p.m.

Hey friends, I need help.


Would somebody please inform the State of Flor*da that it is MARCH, for goodness sake, and that 55 degrees, in the windy sunshine, in the afternoon, in MARCH is simply unacceptable?

This is the weirdest, longest, coldest winter anybody here can remember in decades.

What's going on????

I think we should enter a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, what do you say?

January 24, 7:59 p.m.

You're right. It has been far too long since I have posted to this blog.

Part of the reason is my effort to reduce my screen time.

Part of the reason is the fact that we spent a weekend away from home.

Part of the reason is that what screen time I have had has been spent researching for a trip we are planning to take. But that trip I will write about in another post.

The best way to sum up the past two weeks of our lives shall be through pictures. We all love pictures; they make all posts more interesting. So here we go.

On this particular church morning, the temperature had gotten down to 25 degrees, with freezing temperatures lasting us 12 hours. Chips went to check on the dog's drinking water, and discovered that it was a solid block of ice!

As a matter of fact, we had a couple of thick frosts that same week. I love our property when it looks like this!

I tried to capture a closeup of the crystallization on our grapevine stem. It was quite impressive, for Florida.

The children, like their mother, simply could not keep warm enough. Here they were snuggling together during our catechism lesson one morning. I think a blanket would have helped more, but it was cute.

On one particular evening the next week (when it had gotten warmer), the children went outside to play while I was cooking supper. They were waiting for Daddy to return from work. When I stepped outside to check on them, they had rigged up their own "swing".


They "anchored" the rope to the column of the house. Well, it did work. But it was a bit hard on the tree!

The following weekend, we went camping at Lake Louisa State Park. I have to say that the hiking at this park is outstanding -- for Central Florida.


At the beginning of one three hour hike, the children were full of energy.


By the end of the hike, not so.


Here, Self-Reliant Man is sporting his Stetson and his new hiking pole. Sweet Girl bought it for him for Christmas (the pole, that is).


The hiking was so good. So much variation in terrain and plant and tree life.


Who says there is no leaf color in Florida?


We did see this amazing hornet nest. Must have been about a foot in diameter.


The children especially enjoy the Lake Louisa lakeshore. They always seek out water.


This is the sand man our son made by the lake. It is about 6 inches high.


Staying warm, snuggling with Daddy, and watching for 'gators. Dixie Lake.


Relaxing after a hike with Bear Blanket, who is still Sweet Girl's true love.


The children received Swingball from us for Christmas. This was their first warm opportunity to try it out. It was a lot of fun. In fact, we will bring it along on all our camping weekends from now on.


On this particular night, we enjoyed a VERY breezy day, some popcorn, reading, campfire, and lots of Swingball. It was a very happy evening.

We were thankful for this camping trip. Every camping trip has its own personality, and this was no exception. We were so happy that the weather warmed up in time. And that the rain stayed away, for the most part, except for midnight one night. But by then, we were all sleeping in the van.

Yes, we still love camping!

January 9, 2010 10:50 p.m.

It didn't snow here, today. The forecasters teased us all. Thousands of Florida children had visions of snowflakes dancing in their heads last night, but precious few around here actually got to see them.

I think my kids were disappointed, a little, but I think I was disappointed a lot. Now mind you, it was an unusual day here. In all my 17-1/2 years here, this was the coldest Florida day I have ever experienced. It never got above 36 degrees here all day. That's one for my personal record book. And yes, indeed, we did get sleet here. And the children ran outside and rode their bikes through it, and collected ice pellets in their inverted umbrellas.

And the local radar showed the familiar blue color oh, so close by, to the north of us, but where we lived it was pink, so we had to settle for sleet. So close, yet so far.

The failure for snow to materialize triggered emotions in me that I had forgotten. Emotions related to the loss of earlier parts of my life, when I was younger and when I lived where it did snow. I always was a lover of things cold; I was the kind of person who would travel to Canada in the winter months, who couldn't get enough of the cold and snow, with all its beauty and all its inconveniences.

Marriage brought me here to the land of only two seasons and no snow, and I regretfully left my four seasons behind. I truly did, although I was simultaneously gaining a new and wonderful life. Were Self-Reliant Man and I to have settled down where I once lived, life would have been very different for us. Probably more difficult. Perhaps we would have had to remain a two income family, and we may not have been able to afford to homeschool. Who knows? The Lord has us here for his perfect reasons.

But on a day like today, I admit I found myself briefly pining for something different, and as I worked to pack away all of our Christmas decorations, I found myself thinking deeply about life issues, like the matter of contentment, and of the fragility of our own hearts.

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. PROVERBS 4:23 We are warned here to guard our hearts, and it is our duty to do so, and to do the same for our childrens' hearts. I thought, today, that if we were able to see the complete spiritual scenery of our lives, we would realize that we are each traveling on a narrow, rocky trail to our destination. Not only is the trail narrow and the footing difficult, but our path is flanked on one side by a steep drop off. So fragile are our hearts. We are helpless wanderers, dependent on the wavering affections of our hearts. If our hearts go astray, so do we. Go astray a few inches too far and off the edge we go.

Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path. PROVERBS 23:19 We need to protect the hearts of our kids, too. For me, that means being very careful about what sort of things they are exposed to in their young years. Too much too soon and they become jaded and bored with life. Train them to find joys in the simple things, most especially in the beauty of God's creation, which is forever renewed, day by day. Show them how the Lord can be their portion, day after day. Don't roll out the fun experiences of life too quickly.

I had lunch with a dear friend this week, and we talked a bit about friends we each know who "have more". These friends have more money, they travel more, they go places that we only dream about going to. They have healthy, active, willing and available parents to further enrich their adult lives. We all have these kinds of people in our lives. You know who they are. They are the friends who send out Christmas letters every year detailing their world travels. And when we read them, it affects us. It affects our children. Makes us envious. Makes us discontent, even for a moment.

If anybody were to ask me on a typical day if I am happy -- if I am content -- I would quickly answer "yes!", for indeed I am. It is so easy to compare ourselves with those people who mail out those Christmas letters. But also this year, I am aware of friends who are thinking about far more than their annual vacations. They fear for their jobs; fear for their health. They wonder how they are going to make it through that next chemo treatment. They wonder if their husband will come home from active duty on the expected date. They wonder if they need a home health aide for their elderly parents. They wonder how their mother is handling life in the nursing home.

These friends have caused me to think nearly every day of how blessed and precious our lives really are. How thankful we are to have our health. I am thankful that I feel pretty good most of the time, even though I have my off days. I am thankful that we are able to homeschool our children. I am thankful that my kids are so healthy, happy, and easy to please. I am thankful that we are not actively worried about my husband's job security. I am thankful that our biggest problem right now is dealing with our rotten home insurance company, and that we can happily make plans and preparations for our next camping trip fifty miles from home.

Contentment is all about trusting the Lord to provide the things he know we need most of all. He knows our hearts better than we do. He is most concerned with our heart "health". He knows what is coming down the pike for us. He protects us from our own foolishness and poor judgment. He knows how easily we can be bored with our precious lives, and he sees all the cliffs and drop offs -- all the spiritual dangers that lurk around the bend that we cannot see or anticipate.

Contentment is about trusting the Lord. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. PSALM 27:4

No, maybe it didn't snow today. But this winter is far from over.

January 8, 2010 12:08 p.m.

In all the years I have lived in Florida, this is a first. For my little town, tomorrow's forecast reads: Rain showers in the morning becoming more intermittent in the afternoon. SNOW or SLEET may mix in early. High 41F.

And no, I don't live in North Florida.

Thank's Al Gore. Your" influence" is evident already. Going to charge up my Camcorder now.

January 5, 2010 12:20 p.m.

I thought I lived in Florida. I thought I was home. This afternoon it is 43 degrees and sunny and windy. Where did I wake up this morning?

Taking my kids, now, to what is perhaps their coldest (outdoor) P.E. class ever. They are supposed to play tennis.

Brrrr....

January 3, 2010 9:58 p.m.

The party's over! Tomorrow we begin our routine lifestyles again. Homeschool lessons begin tomorrow. Little Son will start Fifth Grade, lesson one. Baby Girl will continue Second Grade from lesson eight (or just about the beginning of Second Grade).

The down time between Christmas and this first day of school always provides an opportunity for me to gather up some of the loose ends in my life. This includes, but is not limited to:

• decluttering the house
• straightening and organizing shelves, closets, and cabinets
• filing away or purging loose papers
• clearing off the horizontal surfaces of the home (primary the kitchen counters!!)
• mailing off letters and packages that have been sitting around for a while
• removing old toys that the children no longer want or need, and setting up space for their new gifts
  
• setting up binders for filing the children's new school year papers
• thinking about my daily schedule and ways to improve it
• visiting friends I don't see often enough
  
• identifying books I want to read, Bible reading and devotional habits I want to improve, and goals I want to be mindful of for my family

I feel pretty good about my efforts on the above bullet list, and I am now fully ready to begin on the new school year. Over the past month, I was lulled into believing that I have time to accomplish certain things, but by the end of this coming week, reality will hit me again and I will realize how much time is running past me in my daily life. But that's okay, because now I can see it coming and will not be surprised when it does. When it happens, I will try this year to exercise more self-discipline and less screen time. I realize that it is the screen time I still allow in my daily life that prevents me from staying on top of other important family and home responsibilities. So, expect to hear from me only on odd days. Even days, I have the day off -- no email and no online (except for Calvert requirements or emergency needs).

And here is a Bible verse that I read this weekend that is my prayer for 2010 for myself and my family, as well as all the believers who I love and care about, including my bloggy friends. I pray that..

It has been 21 hours since my last past. Now look at the radar image here, and look at the radar image from the last post. Not too much different, right? Sort of like coming back to a soap opera after being away for awhile and pretty much the same things are going on.

Locally, we have had 8 inches of rain here at our house, according to the official almanac. Right now, the rain is as torrential as ever, and the winds are stronger than they have been all storm long.

The good news is that Fay is creeping due west at 5 mph. But we are situated right in that heavy precipitation band that is wrapping around the south side of her core. And we've been there for a night and a day.

Things to be thankful for: we don't have flooding, we don't have apparent damage to our house (a friend just called here and reported water seeping through her walls and surfacing from beneath her laminate flooring!), so far our trees have done okay, except for some branches, and only our shed has structural damage. If you've seen the news, there are many places around here that are flooded,including right here in our community.

The bright side: it hasn't gotten warmer than the 70s today!

DH is on his way home from work, and I will be so glad to see him walk through the door. 'Til then, dinner is in the works.

Just another summer in Florida, right?

UPDATE: It is now Friday, August 22, and finally the clouds are breaking up some, and the sun is trying very hard to break through. You can almost tell there is a sun up there. I haven't seen it since Sunday or Monday. In total, we have received over eleven (11!) inches of rain in our village in the past couple of days. And the land around our home has proven to be marvelously flood free. Even now, there is not a puddle outside to be seen. Just a bunch of branches to pick up. Thankful, thankful!!

Our house is 12 miles from the east coast of FL, and Tropical Storm Fay is sitting stationary directly off the coast from where we live. The winds are getting very strong. It is alarming. It feels like hurricane Charley did 4 years ago. It is going to make landfall in about 12 hours just to the north of us.

Don't know how many hours we are going to be pounded like this.

In short, we are beginning to feel Fay's fury this evening! This is almost a little bit too much excitement for me right now. Whew!! I don't think I could handle a serious hurricane. I sure hope we don't lose one of our mighty oaks.

Well, I better post this before the power goes out again. Will post again when it passes.

I am so proud of the composition that my 8 year old son wrote today! I am copying it over here, exactly as he wrote it (except he used pencil, cursive, and composition paper):