Category Archives: family

January 24, 2013 · 5:05 pm

Changes…

I’m working on adding some structure back into our home education. Being totally unstructured has worked for a while, but not as well as we had hoped it would. It has allowed the boys to learn many things on their own, according to their interests, but they really, really like doing things like lapbooks and unit studies, so even though there are some naysayers who believe that using any curriculum or structured assignments is not “real” Unschooling, it’s what we’re going to do.

We’ve begun easing back in with some things that I will be reviewing for the schoolhouse review crew, for example, a Spanish program (which I too, am doing!), because with our move to NM, we feel Spanish is a good choice for foreign language.

I have my stepson working with a CD curriculum for math that is an upcoming review. Last year, when he was being diagnosed with several things, the psychologist did a number of educational tests as well, and although he was seen as quite high in just about everything else, he needs to get caught up in math.

My eldest, who is actually 20, is going to be working with the 3rd grade cursive Handwriting Without Tears curriculum. We had tried an earlier, printing version of it when he was very young, but he just couldn’t do it, due to his disabilities, but I think this version may be a good one for him. I’ll let you know how it went when I write the review! 🙂

I am pulling out the kindergarten and then the first grade Abeka phonics and numbers books for my twins. It is an excellent foundation in phonics, but when the twins first came to us they just couldn’t handle it. Now, though, they are asking to do it.

We will also be starting to build up a supply of educational games, and using them for a regularly scheduled family game night.

I have a gazillian things saved on my computer that over the years I’ve collected free from the Internet, worksheets, unit studies, coloring pages, all things the boys are now asking to do, so I plan over the next week or so to go through and see what I have and kind of rough out a plan.

For each subject, unit study, or whatever the item is, I’m (for now) making a file folder to keep it in as they do it, so I have a running record of what they are doing.

We’re Just going to kind of ease into this for now, as we’re also dealing with a husband/father recovering from two spinal surgeries within the past six weeks, and still settling into living here, but I think this will be a good decision in the long run.

Do be watching, because over the next few months I will have several reviews here for a number of different educational products, plus I’ve just been given three single products to review for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine website. I’m very excited and blessed to have this opportunity, and to be given the products at no cost to me, to use and review. It will certainly help us with homeschooling on a very tight budget! 🙂

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Filed under education, family, health, home education, homeschooling, Kids, unschooling

January 17, 2013 · 7:12 pm

Life’s Little (or big!) Speed Bumps!

So…this past Few days have been very busy! On Tuesday, my husband had a follow up appointment with his surgeon (he had spinal surgery last month). After he went to shower and change in the early afternoon, so as to have time to rest before the appointment, we discovered that his almost closed incision had completely opened back up, was deep, bleeding and seeping. Took him to the surgeon’s office right away at their direction, of course, and they scheduled him for surgery the next morning. So… Now we’re waiting to discover what kind of infection is in there, so they can treat it. Meanwhile, he is in the hospital at LEAST through this weekend, and we’ll see after that. 😦 He’s not having a fun time at all, with all of this mess. I think he originally thought he’d be back to work long before this…

We are discovering more and more what a wonderful church family we’ve become part of out here, two lovely ladies from church came (very early in the morning) yesterday and stayed with the kids, taking them to church last night. I made it to church too, as my husband wanted me to go, and took the kids home after.

Today, I took the kids for flu shots, then to see their dad for a bit, as they were very anxious about him. We didn’t stay too long, because my husband wanted to get his pain med and rest, but at least he was able to see them and reassure them.

Came home and began working on laundry (which never seems to end), and our assistant pastor brought over a couple of meals that ladies had made and taken to the church for us (we live a ways from our church, so it was easier to do it that way). We are now warming a lasagna and a vegetable dish in the oven for tonight’s supper, and my house smells WONDERFUL! 🙂

When my husband is finally better from all of this, I intend to become involved in that ministry, as I have been in previous churches. For any of you considering where you can minister, it is a very important ministry, too. You never know how much it means until you are the recipient of caring people who take the time out of their busy schedule to fix and bring your family a meal when life is a bit overwhelming, whether because you’ve just had a baby, or just come home from the hospital, or you have a husband in the hospital and a bunch of kids to manage at the same time. Ever since the first time I was on the receiving end of this ministry I’ve known what a blessing it is, and always tried to be involved in the giving end of it, too, and I always will!

Right now, I have one child reading one of the new Hardy Boys books he got for his birthday, and the other three are playing and watching Veggie Tales, which allowed me time between laundry loads to write this. As you can see, I meant it when I said I intended to be more intentional and frequent with my blog writing! I’m trying to average at least once a week and go up from there.

Have a good evening, everyone, and remember to see the blessings more than you see the troubles! 🙂

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Filed under Christian faith, family, health, Kids

January 10, 2013 · 2:27 pm

Fret not…

As my closest friends already know, my biggest spiritual struggle is with worry. An old friend back home in MI used to regularly quote the words “fret not” at me…unfortunately, it’s still a major struggle for me.

My husband is struggling to recover from major spinal surgery, and instead of concentrating on his recovery is having to spend much time on the phone with both the surgeon’s office and the administrator of his medical leave. The surgeon wants him to be recovered more before he goes back to work (his incision isn’t even healed shut yet, and it’s only been one month, today, since his surgery), and the administrating company at this point has only agreed to extend his paid leave through tomorrow. So, I am worried primarily about his recovery, because if they make him go back too soon, I don’t believe he will completely recover, making the surgery a waste. I hate bureaucracy so very, very much…

We’ve been trying ever since we moved here to NM to find out how to transfer our guardianship of our adult, developmentally disabled son to a judge here. I made a call this morning to an organization I was referred to by a lady I met at a Scrapbooking day, but the person I need to speak to is out of the office until next week, so I left a voice mail with our phone numbers, and information about what we need. Hoping they can help, worrying, because we are now running out of time to get this done within the timeframe the original judge gave us.

I miss my best friend. I haven’t seen her since May, when my kids and I visited her for a few days before we left MI, and had three birthday parties in three days, for my twins and two of her kids. I miss getting to spend time with my best friend. I know it will never again be like it was, being able to see each other fairly often, even though we lived 2 1/2 hours apart. Now, it’s about 1700 miles, and several states. I miss having someone to talk with, who understands my life. I miss my other friends, the ones who were there to get together with me for just fun get togethers, even if just to go out for girl’s time… I’m lonely, and I feel like maybe I’m just being selfish.

I miss taking piano lessons, but I had to leave my piano behind when we moved, and we haven’t been able to replace it. I even miss practicing!

I am weary.

Lately, I’ve been very stressed and anxious, and am trying to give it to the Lord, but I have such a hard time leaving it with Him!

“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.” Psalm 37:7

This is SO hard for me, the whole “fret not” thing! I do not do well with the whole “just in time delivery” concept, it makes me very anxious. I guess the only thing I can do is keep trying, but it’s just so hard…

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Filed under Birthdays, Christian faith, family, health, scrapbooking

January 4, 2013 · 10:58 pm

A Fresh Start in the New Year…

As we begin the new year, I want to get a fresh start to the home education in our family. Flexibility is very important to us, for a variety of reasons. We like to be able to pick up and head out to the park if it’s a nice day, so it’s nice to not feel wedded to a specific, rigid structure in our home-schooling.

We use a relaxed/Unschooling/Charlotte Mason method of home education, or what I’ve occasionally heard called the “wing-it” method. 🙂

Now that I’m a member of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, being flexible is also helpful when it comes to being able to add new things into our educational program when they become available to us. For example, we’ll soon be adding in a beginning Spanish program, which makes us very happy, because we’ve recently moved from MI to NM, and feel that learning the Spanish language would be a good thing in our new life.

As part of our fresh start, we will be getting into the History of Classical Music from Beautiful Feet Books. We bought this shortly before finding out we would be moving, so until now, had done nothing more than check to see that all the components were in the box before taping it back up for the movers. 🙂 This program, along with the Early American History package that we also have from Beautiful Feet, are put together from a Christian viewpoint, which I prefer. We’ve been slowly working our way through the history package over a few years. I also have the guide for Teaching Character through Literature from Beautiful Feet, and several of the books.

We’ll be adding in a math CD program for one of my kids who is very behind in math, to see how it works for him.

My kids love, love, love doing lapbooks, and there are tons of them online, free to download and print out.

For Bible, we are going to use the guide for reading the Bible in a year that our church is giving us.

Several years ago, I received via a grant program online, a huge set of prints of American art. I intend to use them for Art Appreciation with a Charlotte Mason style slant.

other thing I’m looking forward to is getting involved with our church’s home-school group. The home school moms in our church will be having a meeting this coming Tuesday evening to brainstorm activity ideas for the rest of the school year. This is important to me because I want my kids more involved with kids from church.

I also want to look for opportunities for my kids to become involved in service to the Lord, which I think is even more important than academics. More than anything at all, I want them to love the Lord and want to serve Him in whatever way he calls them to serve, not to mention the fact that the more involved one is in service to the Lord, the less opportunities one has to fall for sinful temptations.

Now that I have my NM driver’s license, I can get a library card. Once I do that, we can take advantage of some of the free enrichment classes they offer, not to mention the fact that really, one can home-school with a Bible and a library card.

We want to add walking into our program, beginning with walking the length of our block while my husband is recovering from spinal surgery, building from that, to walking around the block, to eventually long walks throughout our neighborhood.

I will be rebuilding our supply of board games, concentrating on educational games, and instituting a family game night once a week. We have Yahtzee, which we will begin with, as it will help with math and strategy.

We’ve been here in NM for five months now, and finally feel like we’re home, and ready for this fresh start. I’m excited to see what this new year brings to us!

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Filed under adoption, Christian faith, education, exercise, family, home education, homeschooling, Kids, unschooling

December 17, 2012 · 10:38 pm

Stressful Park Day, With a Surprising Conclusion…

So…My children and I have attended regular park days on Mondays since a couple of weeks after moving to New Mexico, with an unschooling group. It was made very clear in the description of the group that “pushing a religious agenda” was not allowed, so we have carefully not done so, rather choosing to simply do our best to live our faith and testimony, and talk about it only if a door is opened. At the same time, I’ve tried very hard to respect different views, whether they be political or religious, by not mocking them. I believe strongly that healthy debate is a good thing, especially here in the USA, but it truly bothers me when those who are adamant about non violent behavior seem to believe there is an exemption for those who choose to be verbally violent (at least in my opinion) in the way they mock someone else’s faith. To quote, for example “I can’t believe that 82% of people in this country are so stupid as to still believe in the rapture”. I believe in it, and at that point, I chose to say so. I was also told (by someone who was being very angrily sarcastic) that it was not Christian to disagree with mandated government-funded health care. It did, in fact, get to the point where I raised my voice right back, although I did subsequently apologize for that. I do NOT believe it’s un-Christian to disagree with forced government-run health care, or even government mandating that everyone MUST purchase health insurance, or be made to pay a fine for not doing so. I think if someone can afford to buy it, but chooses not to do so, then they should not be able to ask the taxpayers to cover their costs if they need medical care. I do wish everyone had access to whatever healthcare they needed, but I believe that the government is inefficient, at best when it comes to running any sort of aid. All that said, again, I believe healthy debate is a good thing. I grew up on it. My parents encouraged it, and we had very lively discussions around the dinner table and elsewhere. I also believe, however, that when one must resort to treating someone like an idiot because of their deeply held faith, they’ve lost the argument,whether they want to accept that or not. I believe that twisting what the Bible says in order to say another person is not acting in a Christian way is not a strong argument, either. I got to the point where I basically threw up my hands and said “whatever…”, and was about to pack up my kids and leave, and probably not come back. I have NEVER done to anyone in this group what was done to me today, no matter how strongly I disagreed with them. I’ve never rolled my eyes when someone refers to the “goddess” as in “if the goddess had wanted me to do (whatever it was) she would have given me (something, I don’t recall what that was)”. I’ve debated, as kindly as I could, the issue of abortion, Obama care, etc, as calmly and carefully as I could. In return, I’ve been yelled at for asking about whether it was the law here to only use call phones hands free while driving, yelled at when I said I hadn’t gotten used to not having to save pop bottles to return for deposit (yelled at that I should be saving them for recycling), and now verbally mocked for my Christian faith, and yelled at because of my deeply held views, both faith wise and political views. This came close to being our final park day, which made me sad, because I’ve come a lot of times because my kids love going, and have friends there. It is one of the few places they have since we’ve been here where they can have an extended, weekly time of fun and play with kids who accept them in spite of all their differences (they are special needs children, with issues ranging from fetal alcohol syndrome, bipolar, ODD, OCD, etc). What changed my mind, you ask? Well, after things calmed a bit and someone got the subject changed, another mom who has only been coming for a few weeks came to me and very quietly told me she agreed with me, and asked me for information about my church. The Bible says we are to be the salt and the light in the world.

Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Matthew 5:14 Ye are the light of the world, a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Matthew 5:15 Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on on a candlestick, and giveth light unto all that are in the house. Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven.
And for those who wondered why, if we’re under grace New Testament) the Old testament is relevent to our lives today:

Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law,, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

I believe this means we are to influence others by our testimony, and living our faith. I do try very hard to show my faith and testimony in the way I live, the way I treat others, and in the ways I react to what others do to me. As a result, unbelievers have told me that they can see my faith, they can see that I do my best to treat others with a grace that appears to be what someone claiming to be a Christian should be doing. I hope that one day, when I stand before Him, the Lord will say to me “well done, thou good and faithful servant”. And I pray that the lady who came to me today will come visit this Sunday evening for our Christmas candle light service. I invited her, after she asked me several questions about our church, and about where it is. And I came to the conclusion that her doing so, even after the derisive, mocking way I was treated for daring to disagree, means God has me there for a reason, at least for this season in my life.

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Filed under Christian faith, education, family, health, home education, Kids, Politics, unschooling

December 16, 2012 · 9:31 am

Living in New Mexico…

Well, we’ve been here for about three months now, and are finally beginning to feel like we live here, and are not just visiting. 🙂 I still have some boxes that are not unpacked, but mostly that is stuff I can’t use right now, like my mom’s china and crystal. Those will stay in the special dish box until we can afford a dining room set with a china cabinet. I did not fully decorate for Christmas this year, although we do have the tree up and decorated, and a couple of vases of artificial Christmas flowers and leaves.

Things have been so crazy lately that I’ve not been posting here as often as I’d like, but now that Mike has finally gotten to have his back surgery, and we’ve mostly unpacked, I should be writing much more often. Right now, the kids and I are getting ready to leave for church. The choir is singing special music this morning, so I need to be there at 8:30 to practice, and it takes us a half hour or somto get there. Then we’ll need to be back there by 4:00 this afternoon, because the twins are in the Christmas Play this evening and need to be there early for one final practice. They are very excited! 🙂

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November 8, 2012 · 10:29 pm

Homeschool park days, in November! :-)

Yet another very cool thing about having moved from MI to NM, Here in Albuquerque, we are still doing homeschool park days, in November, in summer clothes! Today was our weekly park day with the ABQ homeschoolers group,the kids were having a great time, and so was I! I was very included in the conversations with the other moms, and so caught up in the enjoyment, it was 4:00 before I even realized it! We usually leave park days by around 3:00 – 3:30, and do at least one errand on the way home, leaving time for me to get supper going so we can eat shortly after my husband gets home. Fortunately, today I made use of my slow cooker, because even without an on the way home errand, we got home about 15 minutes before my husband did. It was a fun afternoon! Now, if I can just find the time to get to the MVD and get my driver’s license changed to a NM license, then we’ll be able to get library cards, and it will help if any of the museums have lower prices for local residents.

One cool thong we’ve done since moving here is to go to the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta. Tons of fun, and educational, too! There was a Nasa tent, where we watched a good demonstration of why one would have to have a space suit in space. The demonstration was done using peeps, which was kind of fun. 🙂 There was a hot air balloon simulator that all four kids got to go in and “fly” the balloon, seeing on a big screen everything that was happening. We got to meet some of the balloon pilots, and watch all the balloons being inflated and set up for the balloon glow. After that, there was an awesome fireworks show, better than any we’d ever seen, anywhere. Next year, we plan to try to go to both a morning session, when they do the mass ascension of all the balloons, and an evening session, to see the glows and fireworks again. It was an awesome evening, and I highly recommend that if you ever get to Albuquerque during the fiesta, you should make it a point to go. My kids liked it so much, we purchased from amazon.com two books about the first hot air balloon flight and plan to do a lapbook about it.

They’ve also asked to do a unit study about Route 66, because it runs right through our city(Albuquerque), and because the original Cars movie was based on Route 66, so now that we’re getting settled in here, I will find the unit study I had saved on the computer, and they can do it. I’m saving some of thos stuff, though, so that if I can find someone to sit with the kids next month when my husband has surgery (I will need to be at the hospital all day with him), they’ll have something to do. I don’t know any unschoolers who might be willing to keep them that day, so if I find anyone, it will likely be regular homeschoolers, who will have their own kids doing school, so mine will need something schooly to do, too, even though we generally are relaxed/homeschoolers. Lst resort will be having to bring them to the hospital for the day with me, which would NOT be my first, or the best choice.

Another educational thing they want to do is learn about New Mexico, along with each state we drove through on our way here to NM, so we’ll do that before continuing on with our study of all 50 states. My two youngest, for about the past year off and on, on their own, have been making notebooks in which they draw and color each state flag, then label it with the name of the state, the number (1st, 2nd, etc…) of state, and the year it became a state. They are enjoying that, probably because it was their own idea. My stepson has for some time been writing stories for the Fossil Fighters DS game, and drawing pictures to go with them. He’s keeping them in a notebook. Our oldest is most interested in playing baseball on DS, sorting his sports cards, and reading.

I have been considering getting the Write an Adventure Novel in a year curriculum and doing it myself! I had made a goal to learn to knit this year, but then we found out my husband was being transferred to NM, so my time became cosumed with packing and getting us moved. Now it’s November, so if I’m going to meet my goal I will need to find the DVD set I purchased from a homeschool catalog and get going on it, hadn’t I? But first, I need to complete a baby gift I’ve been working on for a new grand niece.

We have my cousin and her teo boys from Ohio coming the first part of next week for a short visit on their trip out west, so the kids and I will be getting the house in order as best as we can (we aren’t completely unpacked as yet) tomorrow and Monday, and while I run errands tomorrow, they’ll be doing their Saturday chores under their dad’s supervision. I think I will call my cousin tomorrow and ask her if she will teach me how to make omelets while she’s here. That way I can buy what I need for them on Saturday while grocery shopping.

Next on my list is getting desks for the computer room, so I can have back the tables I need for cardmaking/stamping/scrapbooking workshops. I’m a consultant for Close to My Heart http://lorimoffit.ctmh.com and am really trying to get my business off the ground now that we are finally here. If any of my readers enjoy scrapbooking, stamping and/or card making, please consider me for your papercrafting needs, and go to my website. I have a current party going, so if you go to the site and scroll down, you’ll see a link for hurricane sandy aid gathering. Click on that to begin shopping. In November, everyone who gets the stamp of the month set can also choose another stamp set for 50% off, plus, with every stamp of the month set, Close to My Heart will donate $1.00 to the American Red Cross for hurricane relief. Get a great deal, and help others at the same time! You can also order when there is o current party, but I do try to have one up each month. If you are interested in having your own party, you can email me at lorimoffit@gmail.com and I’ll set you up with an EZ invite so that you can have your own online gathering, earning free and half price product for yourself. I will also be happy to mail you catalogs to show to your local friends, and your non-local friends can order from your personalized link on my website. Their online order will be sent directly to them, and you still get the credit! 🙂

Well, I think that’s all for today!

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Filed under card making, Close to My Heart, education, family, Kids, scrapbooking, stamping, Travel, unschooling

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October 25, 2012 · 2:20 pm

Today’s happenings…

Got a load of towels done, still need to fold them, though… Kids have all finished their Bible studies for today, now the twins are going around with their dad’s measuring tapes, measuring everything in sight, LOL! They just a little while ago spent time reading to each other, taking turns page by page. one twin chose one of his Biscuit the dog books and The other chose a Little Bear book. My twin who didn’t want to do the work involved in learning to read is really improving in his reading now! 🙂 my teens spent a little time on the wii, now A is playing baseball on his Nintendo 3DS, and I is watching Kung Foo Panda on DVD. I have spent most of the morning trying to find out how we go about transferring our guardianship of A to a judge here, because obviously, the original judge back home has no jurisdiction in NM. We’re hopeful it will be a simple matter to just transfer it. I have a pressure band on my left arm, it has been very, very painful lately to go without it. I had to take a pain pill and muscle relaxer this morning, so it’s as well that I’ve planned not to have to go anywhere today, because I’d prefer to not drive. 🙂 Still have a bunch of boxes in the front room to unpack, but I need to get more big plastic bins with lids for things that get stored between uses, as I don’t want to store them in the garage in cardboard moving boxes. Most of the school stuff is still in boxes too, because we really need some more bookshelves to put them in. 😦 And of course, still wishing for a piano, had to leave mine behind to save money on the moving truck, and I miss having lessons, and really miss my practice time! 😦

We very much like our new church, though it was hard leaving our church back home when we moved. But, it’s really not possible to be an active member of a church that is nearly 1700 miles from where you live! Our church here is a good fit for us, and we hope we’ll be a good fit for the church (http://www.mesabaptist.org)! I’ve joined e adult choir, our older boys are in the teen choir, and the two younger are in the Sunshine Kids Choir. I also attend the weekly Ladies Bible Study group. There are other families with adoptive children, including some with special needs children adopted from foster care, like us. We really are happy at Mesa!

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Filed under adoption, education, family, Kids, unschooling

Aside

Something new!

I’m sure that at sometime in this blog I’ve talked bout the fact that we homeschool. Well, now that we’ve gotten at least partially settled here in New Mexico, the kids are asking to do some school-ish things. They really want to do a Route 66 unit study, because we drove on part of Route 66 during our trip here, and because the original Cars movie was based on it. I think we can manage to do that soon. 🙂 

I’m hoping to get more followers here, because I’d like to apply to be on the Old Schoolhouse Review Crew for the coming year. To do that I need a bumch more followers of my blog. I will be blogging about what my kids and I are learning, along with other journeys in my life. Now that we’re here, and at least partially settled, I should have more time to write. 

So far since being here, we’ve been to the International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, where we learned about flying hot air balloons, and also learned some interesting things in the Nasa tent about how the pressurized space suits protect astronauts. In the demonstration, they used marshmallow peeps to represent toe astronauts. We also learned that in space, the boiling point is at a much lower tempurature than it is on our stovetop! 

At home, we’re learning how different it is to cook here than it was in Port Huron, MI. We are nearly six thousand feet higher here,  so cooking is different because of the altitude. 

The weather here is amazing! Our friends ack home are running their furnaces, wearing jackets, and ladies are pulling out their tights to wear with dresses, whereas here, we are still in summer clothes, and I’m wearing sandals. 🙂 I’m liking the weather so much! 

It’s very beautiful here, in a different way than the beauty of Michigan. I think it’s going to be a wonderful place to homeschool, there are a bunch of different museums here, which I’m told are very kid friendly, and as soon as I have time to change my driver’s license to a NM one, the kids and I can get library cards, which will also help a lot. 

Well, as I said, this is a new journey, homeschooling in New Mexico. We’re looking forward to it! 🙂

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October 20, 2012 · 11:08 pm
September 3, 2012 · 9:29 pm

New Journeys!-

It’s been a long time since I posted anything, I can’t believe how time has gotten away from me! However, I plan to try and be so much better about frequent posting now. I’m in the midst of a brand new journey. My husband’s job was transferred, so we have moved across the country! I’ve lived just about my whole life in Michigan, but he was transferred to Albuquerque, NM, so that necessitated  a BIG journey!  

Mike’s last day of work in MI was June 28th, 2012, and the following morning he left for Albuquerque. His first day to work in Albuquerque was July 9th, so he wanted to get there and have time to find a house for us to rent before beginning work. He made it there by July 1st, which was considerably faster than he should have done it, given that he also needs spinal surgery. It would have been so much easier on him if he could’ve taken a longer time with more overnight stops. We reserved a room for one week at a Super 8 in Albuquerque, and he was able to move out of it before the end of the week, having found us a BEAUTIFUL home to rent!  

The children and I did not leave until July 30th. I am a consultant for Close To My Heart (http://lorimoffit.ctmh.com), and had pre-orderered my fall/winter catalogs, which were not shipped until July 12th, so we had to wait. That turned out not to be too bad of a thing, because I needed every minute I could get to get our life packed up and ready to move across the country! In fact, I finished up the packing the morning of July 30th, while waiting for the moving truck to arrive! 🙂

It was very hard, that last month, basically living as a single mom, while trying to pack, have a moving sale, plus add in how hard it was as each week went by, another goodbye either was happening, or getting closer. Before Mike even left, the kids and I went to my best friend Charlene’s for a few days, it would be our last time to celebrate our ks birthdays together. So in the 3 days we were there, we had on one day a party for my twins, whose birthdays are May 1st, and the next day a party for 2 of her kids, whose birthdays are in June. I was just fine, until it was time to leave for home. When we said goodbye and hugged, it felt like it would be the last time (and it will be, for a long time), I began to cry. I forced it back, but when we pulled out of the driveway and got to the end of the street, I couldn’t hold it back anymore. I sobbed for at least the first half hour of our trip home. Charlene and I have always been such an important support system for each other, and now it’s pretty much impossible for either of us to take care of the other one’s kids if needed. She kept my kids when I had my bariatric surgery, for example. I have hope that they will be able to come and visit us sometime within the next year, I miss em all, so much, and so do the boys.

When we left on July 30th, we stretched our budget as hard as we could to enable the boys and me to go up north (in MI) to spend two days. I wanted that, so we could spend time with my mother’s  only surviving siblings and their spouses. They are all in their 80’s, so I’m fairly certain this was my last time to ever see them alive. 😦 I’m so thankful that my husband felt strongly enough about my doing this that he also made sacrifices in order that we could go. We really enjoyed our time there, we spent time with my aunts and uncles, and my Uncle Jim took the boys out in his truck for 2 or 3 hours and showed them all kinds of things, and took them rock hunting. The kids got to watch Uncle Jim use his machine to polish a piece of rhodonite that is shaped like a heart, and make a necklace out of it for me. My Uncle Leon made me a beautiful bird house which will sit on a post made from part of a slender tree trunk. We also went to Torch Lake, where I spent just about every weekend with my family during my younger years, so that my kids could have one last time swimming there.

Wednesday, we left to begin our trip to Albuquerque. We stopped in Holland MI to see my Aunt Carol and went to the Lake MI beach and supper with her. That was so fun! After that, we spent the night in Portage, IN, which is just outside of Gary, IN.

Then it was on through IL., on our way to St. Louis, MO, where we spent the night at the Hampton Inn, which was a lovely gift from my cousin Anne. She met us there the next day and took us to the arch, where we went through the museum, and then went to the top of the arch, as well. We had an early dinner together at a very good BBQ restaurant, and then after our goodbyes, the boys and I headed for Republic, MO, where we spent one night and then spent a couple hours the next morning with my cousin Ed and his lovely wife Demara.

After Republic, we headed for Owasso, OK, which is right outside of Tulsa, and spent the night with an old friend and his wife, Chip & Sheila. Had a wonderful time with them, the boys LOVED their pool, LOL! Wen we left there the next morning, it was to head through Oklahoma City, where we met up for a late lunch with a friend from a Christian Unschoolers yahoo group. That was fun, we’d never met “in person”, only online. We met at a cool place called City Bites, good subs for the kids, and a good salad for me. It was wonderful meeting Deanna, she is as nice in person as she seemed to be online. :-).

From there, we headed to Amarillo, TX for our very last night on the road, where we found a lovely surprise. Our room at the Super 8 was a SUITE, for less than the cost of the little room we had in the Super 8 in Portage, IN! The lady at the desk said it was the only Super 8 like this in the whole country, and the only reason we were there was because the one my husband had stayed in in Amarillo was full up, LOL! It was very nice, and for once we didn’t need to use the inflatable sleeping bags for the twins! 🙂

Our last day on the road, we decided to take our time, as we needed to wait to arrive until after Mike got out of work, because I did not yet have keys to the house. I forgot that we’d be crossing into an earlier time zone again when we crossed into NM, so when I realized we were now an hour earlier, I decided to kill time by finding somewhere for a late lunch. We got off of the expressway and found a nice little diner on historic Route 66, In Santa Rosa, NM. The food was very good, and plentiful, too. Even on the little kids menu the portions were good size, and there was a taco meal on the kiddie menu as well, which was something new for our kids. They loved the place, especially the decor, very much what would make you think of Route 66. Everything was freshly made, even the salsa for the chips they brought us was homemade, and excellent!

After that, we headed to Albuquerque, and my introduction was driving on I40 through the city during rush hour. Not very fun at all! We arrived at our new home about 10 minutes before Mike got there from work.

We love the home we’re renting. We will rent for at least the next couple of years before even thinking about purchasing a house again, so it was important to find a house that was right for us. We homeschool, so five of us are here even during the day, so we need space to be in. It’s all on one floor, which is nice, and there is plenty of space for people to spread out and be alone when they need or want to. It has a very open floor plan, which is also quite nice, makes it seem so spacious! We have a good size main bathroom, and also a master suite, with our own full bath and large walk in closet!

We got involved right away with a local unschoolers group, and have attended every park day since the second week we were here. The boys really like the other kids in the group, and I like the other moms.

I am still working on finishing the unpacking, and we need to buy a freezer, some bookshelves, some storage shelves for the garage, and furniture for the front living/dining room, but things are coming along! Now, if I can just get used to the much higher altitude here, that will go a long way toward helping me have the energy to get it all done!

My PLAN is to try to write something here a minimum of once a week, maybe more often if I have anything of any interest to write about. I’m hoping that getting used to this new life, and homeschooling, etc, will be plenty interesting, and that I’ll actually remember to get on here and write about our life!

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