tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62342632024-03-13T02:18:30.241-05:00Classic AdventuresIf you don't mind the construction dust, come on in. The coffee's hot, the food's good, and the door is open...Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2193125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-7350624435456330352018-09-16T22:42:00.000-05:002018-09-16T22:42:28.058-05:00What We've Been DoingPretty much just standing outside, gaping in awe at what September feels like. I had nearly convinced myself that my fond reminiscences of glorious autumnal weather in mid-September was rose-colored revisionist memory. Yeah, it wasn't. This is some Omazing weather!
I get up in the morning, make coffee, open all the doors, grab a sweater, and then work in the chilly morning air. The kids thinkUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-45024949511561856222018-09-03T05:00:00.000-05:002018-09-03T05:00:08.201-05:00Visiting ChurchesSince everyone seems to think an 1,100 mile commute for Sunday morning worship is "unfeasible," we're having to find a local church. (I kid. It's important to have community. But boy, were we blessed with our church of the last three years.)
One of the things I have so loved about the Anglican communion is found in the Fifth Article of the 39 Articles of Religion:
VI. Of the Sufficiency of theUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-56442834875789092352018-09-02T08:48:00.000-05:002018-09-02T08:48:19.657-05:00John is Good To GoWell, things never really improved with CNM. That was a shame, but it was what it was, and it turned out so much better in the end.
He did get into some classes, which was great. Ish. (The instruction was a bit of a mixed bag. It's pretty horrifying what college instructors are doing and saying in the name of being "the cool teachers". There are still those, though, even at CNM, who show Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-81338981816913861892018-08-30T07:41:00.000-05:002018-09-02T07:41:53.870-05:00Co-opI keep geeking out about co-op. Do you know why? Because it's amazing! Good structured time, followed by good free time, with food thrown in. That's a poor narration, as I'm sure Miss Mason would have observed, but I'm still processing it and thinking deeply about it. So that's all I've got, really.
It's a large group, and they'll likely want to divide up into slightly smaller groups if it Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-86123747181919228462018-08-29T10:00:00.000-05:002018-08-29T10:00:13.593-05:00The End of the AdrenalineWe've been beasts this week! Go, go, go! Lift, load, shift, hang! Go back for more! Beat that garage back!
Get it done! Get it out! Make the calls! Visit the places! Corner the people! Make it feel like Home!
There has been little rest outside those glorious sunrise coffee-on-the-porch sessions (which may have been what kept me going - those are really nice!)
But I found the end of the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-26665199794025227992018-08-28T10:00:00.000-05:002018-08-28T10:00:11.651-05:00The Good!I mentioned that there has been so much good, and there has!
One, the weather. Z had suspected that loading a U-haul in Alabama August and unloading in New Mexico August might help soothe the souls of the uprooted. He was right. It's been absolutely gorgeous here, with light breezes and bright skies.
Bunnies! There are cottontails all around the housing areas and in the desert. They're about Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-79544019814038371592018-08-27T10:00:00.000-05:002018-08-29T06:53:15.040-05:00Move In Day!We had opted to live on Base for the first year. It seemed like a good idea. We'd had such a great experience with Hunt Property Management through the Army, and we thought that going from post to base would make the adjustment easier on the Littles. We were scheduled to get the keys Monday morning at 10:30. We pulled up just in time, the weather was fine, and ...
And I'll be honest, the grosslyUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-49907838152287262302018-08-26T10:00:00.000-05:002018-08-29T06:53:04.720-05:00The Move, Days 3, 4
We were going to go to Amarillo and stay the night before heading to Uncle Bo's place on Sunday. Sometime Friday evening, though, Uncle Bo called to say it really wasn't that far from OKC to his place and that we were welcome to come on ahead and stay a couple of nights with him. So that's what we did. We pulled up at the ranch, poured out, and enjoyed two very beautiful, pastoral, comforting Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-65172200377055376452018-08-25T10:00:00.000-05:002018-08-25T10:00:14.814-05:00The Move, Day 2This was the longest leg of our journey west. We drove from West Memphis to just west of Oklahoma City. It rained the whole way (not a big deal for me, but Z was driving a 26' U-haul towing a 12' trailer - I imagine he had a much different drive than I did).
The kids were going to trade off vehicles each day, but the Littles so enjoyed riding in the big truck, and the Bigs really dug being able Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-90347620956492716452018-08-24T10:30:00.001-05:002018-08-24T10:30:21.120-05:00The Move, in RetrospectWe're here, now! And it's glorious!
But let me fill you in...
We had help with the packing and loading the last two days we were in Huntsville. Wonderful people, but they wouldn't just get IN the U-haul. So we're going to have to find more (which, at the end of life, is part of the Good Stuff).
Pizza. Cold beer (not for the minors, of course). One last game of Werewolf. James was still Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-11203617921690071712018-07-29T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-29T04:00:13.719-05:00NREMT Certified!John passed his NREMT certification!
But we didn't know at first.
He went to take the exam, knowing that it's adaptive, and that he needed to set aside two hours to take it. He called me after about half an hour.
"Wow! You're done? How'd it go?""Not great. It shut down on me after 70 questions. I'll have to try again in two weeks."
Oh. Oh, my. Well. Huh.
So when he got home, we had some tea Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-30891912922731629632018-07-27T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-27T04:00:09.755-05:00PackingThere is a great divide between what I'm glad to move and what the kids want to move. Clearly, we should have been more transient during their formative years.
That said, we're still packing ...
Only one more month until our family is mostly back together!
We'll lose James, who is staying here, but we're gaining Z back. This is how it should be. Having children grow up and head out is Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-87377906922761182232018-07-25T07:54:00.000-05:002018-07-25T07:54:11.877-05:00I got my port outThe occasion was rife with puns -
Port out, Starboard home! POSH with a capitol P-O-S-H. (It's okay if you sang that in your head.)
One of the kids asked if I was no longer portable.
Z, of course, asked me later how the deportation went. (Puns are bad for a reason, folks.)
My sweet Nutty Professor son got up early to go with me. We had a lovely morning of chatting contentedly over our currentUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-87983209768948094082018-07-15T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-15T04:00:14.687-05:00All clear! Fire the canons! We watched Mary Poppins this week (part of a rather shame-faced endeavor on my part to get the Littles spooled up on the musicals they don't know yet - oops! Talk about gaps in one's education!)
Then Friday I had labs (still cancer-free - doc pushed for just one thin scan in January. But no, that wasn't the deal. Thanks, tho-)
And it's awkward to know whether to shout it from the roof tops Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-33867364148491602782018-07-13T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-13T04:00:01.829-05:00Not Quite A CountdownIt's ...
1 day until we enjoy the 4th of July festivities with our wonderful peeps.
10 days until John takes the NREMT. (Please pray he passes on the first try - it's not whether he knows the material, but facing testing, for that one.)
17 days until I get my dancing boy back with all of his stories, laughter, commentary, and debris.
15 days until I get to do one last road trip with one of myUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-47370496937952086232018-07-11T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-11T04:00:04.944-05:00Shifting the ViewAfter I spent a wonderful day with a friend, she gently reminded me to be sure to make time for my people. She's right. I know she's right. I completely spaced that Wednesday was Wednesday, so I missed book club. When I saw the text asking if I was coming, the Littles had bread in the oven, I had fat bomb shrapnel all over the counter, and I'd just sent the kids out to bike to the park while I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-28088273232515574232018-07-09T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-09T04:00:07.548-05:00The Loveliest DayWe had just the sweetest day today. It got off to an uncontrolled and awkward start (why is Lily's chocolate so hard to find? I feel like that should be sold in every corner market from here to Bangladesh.) My shower has developed some weird stigmata in the wall, and the hall bath wall appears to be trying to escape toward the commons areas (going to alert the housing office about that in the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-78154873613529042382018-07-07T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-07T04:00:13.178-05:00What Else Has Been Going On?Once again, we have jettisoned a car with much cheering and applause.
John's Buick started blowing the upper radiator hose. Just out of nowhere it started doing it as if it had picked up a fun new hobby. He took to carrying a full took kit, complete with a magnetic tool retriever (not that it did any good - we lost four screws down there and never were able to retrieve a single one - they just Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-65794392760496367122018-07-05T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-05T04:00:13.881-05:00Tech StuffSo, right after I poked fun at James for his tech rescue proclivities, I have to fess up to what we did ...
John needs a laptop for school. Em and Jase need some kind of dedicated devices for their writing classes and other projects, and I'd kind of like them to be portable because we are entering a season of travel and wandering off, so laptops sounded good. I kind of need a new laptop because Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-26065215037706449462018-07-03T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-03T04:00:05.670-05:00ArlingtonMe-Tae's father passed away some time ago. It took until recently to get his interment arranged, but it finally happened this month. He was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, afforded full honors. It was, hands down, the most beautiful ceremony I've witnessed, and a fitting way to say goodbye and thank you.
James and John couldn't make it because they both had classes during the time Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-83892976654889594992018-07-01T04:00:00.000-05:002018-07-01T04:00:09.056-05:00Missing OneJacob is off at his summer intensive, and the house is shockingly quiet. (On a tangentially related note, do you know of any robust earbuds that can survive a 14yo boy? I'm resigned at this point to replacing them every six months, but I hate the waste.)
In some ways, not much is different. We still chat about news over coffee in the mornings (yay for technology!) and he still sends me photos ofUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-86728705939514314002018-06-29T04:00:00.000-05:002018-06-29T04:00:06.625-05:00TestingWe decided to have the younger three run a lap of ITBS this year. It's not a required element of our homeschooling, and we generally don't do any standardized testing until they take the CLT and the ACT. I thought, though, that this was a good time to get a general overhead snapshot of about where we are, how we're doing, and what I may have completely spaced covering so far. Plus, I've had a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-9088798367414224392018-06-27T22:11:00.001-05:002018-06-27T22:11:53.206-05:00Summer!It's Summertime! It's warm! It's sunny! It's been three months since I've written!
We closed on the Forever Home in April and it's now got just the family it needed. I am eight months into living 11 minutes from absolutely everything and still absolutely loving it! Like, you would not believe how wonderful it is for me. Oh, gosh. Yes!
James ended up staying at the house most nights near the endUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-30905859076893386912018-03-14T05:30:00.000-05:002018-03-14T05:30:22.252-05:00Getting StrongerI've been meaning to get back to the gym for, oh, two years, now. Oops. First, I had to get my brain back. (That took about a year.) Then I had to get the kids back on track. (Yeah, that was another year.) And now, it's time. I'm so excited!
I stopped by the gym and filled out a health history form, talked with one of the trainers, and made a plan. Then the schedule won't work for this coming Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234263.post-65645681588218964512018-03-13T12:37:00.000-05:002018-03-13T12:37:42.841-05:00Cooking and JugglingI've been trying to pin down the schedule so that I can catch James in the kitchen on a Sunday afternoon (or any other day, I'm not picky) when we're both here, motivated, and hungry (because it's fun to make things more challenging), in the hopes of guiding him through kitchen basics.
Now, before you think, "Wait, he's how old? How does he not know how to cook?" I would like to point out that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2