We have been homeschooling this year, and what an adventure it has been! It seems like school takes up my whole life! Even now, as I sit whiling away the minutes I am 5 math lessons and 3 weeks worth of Grammar lessons behind schedule. The children have been doing their school work, but I'm finding it harder and harder to scrape together time to correct all their papers. What is the point of doing the work, if you never get the feedback on how well you're doing? Add to all that, the fact that I'm trying to come up with new and more interesting ways to study some of the subjects and you can see how school has just about taken over. And yet, it is proving to be a very rewarding experience in some ways.
I have always been like all the other parents I know who count down the days until their children go back to school so they can have some peace and quiet. And I confess that the first few months of homeschooling were tough because my children NEVER went away. My house is NEVER picked up - the day's of keeping a doily and decorative vase of flowers on the kitchen table are LONG gone - and my walls are covered with timelines, alphabets, maps of the moon and models of Saturn instead of nice artwork. And I have found that I love it!
I love the peace that comes from knowing that my children aren't being fed a load of Liberal/Communist claptrap every day. I love being able to tie History and Science into the gospel. And I love having my children around - though I also love escaping for time alone every now and then. And someday I'll be able to convince Andrew to finish his schoolwork before 4:00 pm...
So, that really sums up life in the Crumpley household. We had a great time on our camping trip over Christmas. And we had a lovely visit with Tyler's extended family in Oklahoma and Colorado in March. Katherine and I enjoyed attending the Women's Broadcast with Ruanne (my mother-in-law), and Tyler got to spend a day shooting in the mountains with his dad and brothers. After being away for nearly 2 weeks, it has been a challenge getting back into the groove.
On a more personal note, I have lost 19 lbs. so far, and my clothes not only fit comfortably now, but they are actually becoming too big!! How disappointing it would be to have to buy some new clothes...And I have begun an adventure into the fascinating new world of baking with natural yeast (translate that as sourdough). A friend of mine has been wanting to learn how to bake with sourdough for years, but has never been very successful. So, she asked me to try it with her so we could learn together. It has been very interesting and kind of fun. Someday, my sourdough bread will be as good as my bread made with commercial yeast. In the mean time, I have adopted two Refrigerator Pets - Edward and Lizzy. Edward and Lizzy are my starts. We name them to help us remember that they are essentially living things that need food and TLC. So far I have made bread, pancakes, muffins and cinnamon rolls with my natural yeast starters and I'm going to biscuits and cornbread next.
I thought I would tack on a few pictures from our camping and Oklahoma trips just for fun. So, enjoy! and I'll try not to wait another 7 months before I post again!
Alvin enjoying breakfast on our last day of Christmas camping. It was actually quite warm that morning...
The kids had a great time sledding with their cousins, though the hill wasn't quite as steep as they would have liked.
Katherine and Stephen had a rather short-lived snowball fight. Katherine missed her target by quite a bit.
But Stephen was spot on!
Lunch just before we all separated to go home.
There wasn't much for us to do in between visits to Grammy and Grandpa Scott. So, we spent quite a bit of time at the school playground. As you can see, Andrew and Katherine are not above playing on the equipment. Especially if they can play tag.
Aw...aren't they cute?
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