Spring Means New Beginnings
If there’s anything blogging has taught me, it’s that I’m horrible at blogging. I have no discipline, no follow-through. How that’s different from my real non-computer life? Oh, it’s not, really. I often start things and fail to follow through on them. Catch up on my blog? I’d rather catch up on Netflix.
I always come back to the same thought though. In 20 years, when the kids are grown and on their own, what am I going to remember? Well, if I spend all my “free” time on worthless activities, I certainly won’t remember the fun we had painting, or the way Sam’s crocodile tears spill out of his eyes. I’ll probably start to forget how Ben read all of his 4th grade readers long before we finished school, or the way Grace draws me a picture to say “thank you” for cleaning her closet out.
I’ll have a hard time recalling how we spent endless days during deployments and TDYs or the amazing time we had when those deployments and TDYs were over. I can’t believe I haven’t written down one thing about our trip to San Diego and Disneyland!
So, while it’s not quite Spring, here I am, recommitting to documenting our lives. Certainly not every silly detail, but the things I’d really like to remember, thoughts I’d like to write down, funny things the kids say, moments that make me pause and thank my God for this amazing life I’ve been blessed with.
Today we made Strength Trees. I found the idea on Pinterest, of course. We started by making a list of each of our strengths. I used the Fruits of the Spirit as examples for the kids. Sam made sure to point out that Ben is not gentle, not at all. Ben admitted he has a slight self-control problem.
Generally, they did a good job coming up with things.
We painted trees onto water color paper and then used a branch for each character trait. I may have helped the younger two paint the words on. It’s surprisingly hard to write with water color and a paint brush.
This is something I definitely want to keep and display somewhere.
We’ve had seven months to work on our homeschooling technique. All I can say is it’s still a work in progress. We’re ahead on things like math and reading, but history still seems a little slow going and science is all but non-existent. So I’ve already started thinking and planning next year. I’m coming up with ideas for unit studies and nature studies. I’m pretty happy with our math curriculum. I’m good with the general set up of Sonlight, but I think it needs some more fleshing out for us.
Overall, I don’t think I’ve hurt them any so that’s a plus!
These Ordinary Graces 