handsful

This weekend, we all piled in the van and pointed it toward the NC Homeschool conference in Winston-Salem. With the exception of our years in FL (where we attended the FL conference), we’ve been to this one every year since our homeschooling years began back in 2001.

I remember that first conference well. Walking into the HUGE book fair with miles and miles (well, maybe I’m exaggerating) of tables full of colorful books, curriculum, and manipulatives, etc. I stared at my veteran-homeschooling sister-in-law and begged her to just tell us what to buy for our rising kindergartner! Seems like eons ago…

Most of the time, we only stay one night. This year, because the big kids were volunteering in the Children’s Conference going on during our conference, we stayed both Thursday and Friday nights (they had to report for duty EARLY both mornings…). And, because Lainey and Dylan were participants in the children’s conference, Randy and I were able to spend tons of time in wonderful workshops, hearing great speakers enlighten and encourage us in this homeschooling journey. Not to mention, the book fair…where everything looks great and the temptation to buy it all can be overwhelming!

One part of the conference we really enjoy is catching up with old friends. Friends like Val, Shelley, Julie, Rebecca, Terri…ladies that I’ve known since before I even had kids. Then, when we began starting our families, we began homeschooling them together. Our first co-op was known as “His Kids” and we met at Shelley’s house with all of our preschool aged kids and babies. The picture above is our kids posing with some of their “old” friends – since baby-hood. We watching parenting videos while Abbey and the boy beside her played on the carpet :)

This year was very different for the big kids…they had jobs to do. Report for duty before 8am each day, and work a VBS-type program with the younger kids…they worked hard, were wiped out by the end of it, but loved (most) every minute of it. The program director (above in the white shirt) is already campaigning for them to help out with a conference in SC. They made a great impression and that makes us very proud.

A fellow volunteer that Abbey became friends with…they’re both loud and crazy, so they got along swimmingly. And, are now FB friends, of course.

Once we arrived home on Saturday, we all sat in the living room and went through everything that we purchased. We’re excited about a worldview curriculum from Summit Ministries (www.summit.org), a DVD program on God’s view of economics, and a DVD series called “Do the Right Thing” by Chuck Colson. We also bought reading and math work for the littles, devotionals for the guys and girls, a cookbook and book on homesteading (gotta learn how to can veggies!), SAT vocabulary and math prep books, books for pleasure reading, pattern blocks and cards for the littles, etc etc! Some things we’ll begin using a little this summer, most is for the fall.

Homeschooling year 11 is almost under our belts. When we began, we had no plans to continue through high school…not that we weren’t open to it, it’s just that we were taking it one year at a time. Here we are now, with a rising 11th and rising 9th graders (not to mention rising 1st and K). It’s not always been easy, and we’ve had trying years, especially those when we’ve moved. But, it’s still the best decision for our family. So far so good :)

But, I’m cramming it in anyway. As busy as we are, it’s gotta be done.

My dad turned 70 last week! Mom and Dad drove over to our place to celebrate…we hung out, showed them the house (they’d not seen it since moving day…) and garden, opened a few presents, and then went to a local place for a great southern-style lunch. We sent dad home with a slice of pecan sticky bun cheesecake from a nearby bakery. Hope he liked it! Happy Birthday, Dad :) Love you!

I’m keepin’ my eye on you, Granpa…

This has been a BIG week for our Lainey-girl! First, we discovered she had a loose tooth. She spent the next week or so wiggling and twisting, and sure enough yanked that puppy out a few days ago. She was rewarded with 4 quarters from the “daddy-fairy” (no toothfairy here…)

Last weekend, Lainey decided she was done with her training wheels and set out to learn to ride her two-wheeler. It’s not been easy, and she’s had a few frustrated tears for sure. But, she’s doing great and showing herself to be very persistent when she wants something. Marley has been a fabulous big sister-teacher.

Dylan watching the progress…imagine one day when HE rides a bike?!

A hard-working girl. We wrestled with that helmet…it was either too loose or too tight. And, you can see here that the tooth was still hanging on.

While she was learning to ride, Randy was beginning the fence for our garden. We went back and forth on this. Fence, no fence, fence, etc. In the end we decided to go for it and build one…better safe than sorry, I guess. He designed it himself (as is usual when he builds anything), and he’s doing it right. Payton and Ethan have been big helpers! I added another 2 rows of corn last night, while the guys got one side done, began another side, and started the framework for the gate. It’s a big job.

Yesterday, we called our neighbors to see if we could come and visit their donkeys. Yes, we’re in the country now. Mr. and Mrs. Fesperman are both 80 and the sweetest couple around. Just last Sunday, we were out in the backyard…we look up to see Mr. F driving down our yard in his golf cart. He was bringing over a whole bag of homemade mini pecan pies for us. Oh my gracious, they have been so yummy!!

So, Marley, Lainey, Dylan, and I headed across the street to have a little farm experience. Mr. F met us at the barn and drove us over to see his 4 “pet” donkeys.

Tom-Tom is the big white one…then there’s the family of daddy, mommy, and little baby. They came right over for head scratches and apple treats. Well, Tom-Tom stayed behind the fence and made a bunch of noise at us. The roosters crowed a lot (we regularly hear them at our house, they think the sun rises about every few minutes), and the cows pretty much ignored us. Mr. F used to run a very prosperous working farm, but now just keeps his animals for “fun” and for the tax breaks :)

Marley took a lot of the pictures in this post…thanks, girl.

You’re pretty much up to date on us, now…don’t you feel better now?

It’s been years since we had a garden. Like about 9 years when the big kids weren’t so big. We had a small area beside our house and grew lots of tomatoes, attempted cucumbers (heh), and managed to get a couple of cantalopes.

We’ve super-sized that garden here. The actual tilled up land is 25′ x 110′. Gulp. We decided to try half of that for this first season.

After measuring, we made a trip up to our local garden center and the nice guy there gave us a guide that tells us what we can plant this time of year, how far to space each plant, and how deep to plant. Just the right info we needed! We pulled out the graph paper, did calculations and drew out our garden. Last Saturday, we headed to the dirt…

We decided to be really geeky and actually put up stakes at each row of plants. Then, we strung twine across each so we’d know where to plant.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Time to get our hands dirty.

The master gardener

Peppers. We planted 5 different kinds. We had a system…Payton dug the holes, and Randy (and Dylan) put the plants in. We were short-handed that day. Marley was with a friend, Ethan was sick, and Abbey was inside getting ready for the prom (see last post!).

Tomatoes. Again, 5 different kinds. We also planted beans and corn by seed (THOSE took forever…), cantaloupe, and watermelon.

Now that it’s all planted, we’re considering whether to put up a fence. We’ve gotten varied advice…you MUST have a fence or you’ll lose all your veggies…take your chances and see what happens. ?? We’ve never seen deer here, but we feel they must be around (woods all around us). We have seen bunnies several times…and we know they love gardens. We’d hate to see all of our work – and food – eaten up by woodland creatures. Randy has crunched the numbers and drawn out the design for the fence he’d prefer to build. We’ll see.

Have I mentioned yet how much we love it out here? Rural life is suiting me just fine.