Catching Up, Cleaning Up & a Tetanus Shot.

Phew! We have been sooooo busy!

I started us back to "school" this week. On top of that, Elias scratched his toe with a rusty machete (silly boy) on Monday. He was also due for his tetanus booster...so we spent Tuesday getting him his shot.

On Sunday, we had Elias pull all of his stuff from out of his sleep area. He keeps on letting stuff get up against the walls and that tends to let mold grow in the winter. We needed to clean it up. That has been a process running over a few days.

The mattress is shaped like a sort of "U" with a separate piece that inserts to make it a rectangle. We pulled the separate piece out and cut off the "arms" of the "U". He now has a narrower (almost the size of a twin) piece of mattress to lay on. However, we cannot put it back in until we finish cleaning out the area. We are taking the foam off of the separate piece and replacing it. Without the foam, it will be easier for us to put back in there the things that need to go there.

The shot on Tuesday and two commitments on Wednesday have interfered with getting things done. At least the mattress is wrapped in several layers of plastic and the area has been sprayed with bleach. Today, I hope to wipe it out so that we can get his mattress back in there.

So, where has he been sleeping? Well, on the "kitchen" floor with his head up by the kitchen sink cabinet and his feet sticking into the bathroom. Yep...he is almost as tall as me. I am 5'2" and that is how small our kitchen area is! He has spent two nights sleeping that way. Hopefully, tonight will be different.

Well, I gotta run. I have lots to do today. Hopefully, I will get back here later...or tomorrow...to post some more. I have some pics to share, when I can have the time to get them ready.

Curriculum Found & Photos!

I am so jazzed. I found some long misplaced curriculum! Yay! I spent Monday correlating some workbooks I had and putting together lessons. I batched them and have enough for almost two months lessons. At that point, I have more that I can switch to for some subjects and I will be evaluating where our son is at for other ones.

I feel good about ramping up his education this year...and so does he! We are both excited about getting started.

I have also been sorting through my photos, renaming them and organizing them. It is a lot of work, but worth it. I have so many photos...over 8600! I am also deleting some...leaving the best ones. I take several shots because I never know for sure how they have turned out until I put them on my pc. The little screen on the camera does not show it big enough for me to tell...although...I did discover that I can zoom in on them even while in the camera.

Celebration, Carrot Cake and a Timeline!

We now have a 12 year old in the home! Woohoo! Today, I am making him a carrot cake. I am still feeling pretty under the weather, but since it's a mix...hey, I can do it. *smile*

Our microwave/convection oven is smaller than the one we had before. The other one was rectangular and fit a 13 x 9 cake pan. This one is square and rotates. I was thinking I was going to have to divide the mix and bake it in two stages. This oven does have a rack, but the one time I tried using it to cook two layers at a time, it didn't turn out quite right, so I am a bit leery to try it again.

Well, I looked at the mix and...what do you know? It includes using a bundt pan! Well, I don't have a bundt pan, but I have something very similar...an angel food cake pan. So, I am trying that. We will see how it turns out. OK, I hope! I know that it sure smells good and seems to be baking OK.

We were recently blessed with a blank timeline. It is one of the ones from Homeschool in the Woods, by Amy Pak. Our whole family is excitedly looking forward to filling it out as we look at history this year.

Dave is going through our stuff. We have some curriculum that I have been unable to locate. Hopefully, this month we will find it. I think I have most of what I need already. It is just a matter of getting my hands on it!

Quick Update!

I am giving a quick update because I am sick, sick, sick! Ick!

I don't often get bed sick, but I have been in and out of bed for three days now, or has it been four? It felt like I was getting better, but I am not sure. Today I feel pretty poorly.

One thing about being sick in a tiny environment is that it helps bring out the "closeness" of the space we live in. This is especially true if I am too sick to make the bed into a couch.

If one being sick is hard in this tiny space...two is worse. Now, our son is also complaining about being sick. Yet, we will get by. We always do! I am washing our sheets today and will lay on the couch. He can lay in his sleep area above.

On the upside, Dave got the wheel back from the motorcycle shop. They replaced the inner tube and balanced the wheel for him. The tire is good and the rotor is good. He is going to pick up brake pads after work today and, hopefully, get the wheel back on this weekend.

Our son is signed up for the homeschool co-op. One of the leaders very graciously got us signed up since I had no van to get there with. Woohoo! We signed him up in faith that Yahweh God will make a way for us to get down there once a week when it starts. I do have an idea on how I might be able to do that, but I am not sure if it will work out, yet.

Fom us "sickies" in our little RV on the hillside to all of you in your homes, I hope you are all very healthy!!

Doe in the Park!

Elias and I got to go meet a fellow homeschooling family in a park by the river. We had a very enjoyable time. He got to play with the boys and I got to visit with Sara, the mom! It was SO nice to be able to do that.

While we were there, Sara noticed a doe across the road from the park. I was able to get a few pics of her before she disappeared. She spent quite some time grazing there. We were hoping she would not try to cross the road.

Sadly, there are a lot of deer who get hit on the road along the river.



Thankfully, she did eventually go back into the woods. I got to watch her turn and go back in, fading into the trees, as if she had never been there.


These are pictures of that doe.

Home School Co-op!

Well. last week wrapped up our time in a home school co-op. I have always wanted to participate in one and we were blessed with the opportunity this last semester. It was a wonderful experience. I got to meet other home schooling parents...to connect faces and voices to names. Elias got to meet other youth of varying ages. All in all, I am very grateful that we got to do it.

It was also an incredibly stressful experience. Having only one vehicle meant that we all needed to leave together at 5:45 in the morning. We would either have Dave drop us off at a church where we waited for the secretary to come let us in; or we dropped Dave off at work and came back to the church. If I dropped him off, then I had to go back to pick him up later. By the time we got home, typically about 13- 14 hours later, I was wiped out. Actually, I was tired long before that.

The evening before I had to make sure we had everything packed that we needed. We needed to have breakfast, lunch, snacks, etc. Although there was some access to a microwave, we had to remember to bring all the utensils, plates, etc. It was very interesting, to say the least. The day after was usually spent recuperating from the day before! The very first day we did it, I came home and just crashed on the couch. I was exhausted. But I would not have traded the experience away! It was worth it!

At the first church, we got to know the secretary who, very graciously, gave us a place to work at while waiting for music classes to start. The music classes were not part of the co-op. They were a different group. Elias took music theory. After music, we either drove or got a ride to the other church where the co-op classes were held.

There he got to take a class on oceans. He also got to do P.E. and art. After the classes, we got to participate in a group dinner. By that time, Dave would be there. That was really nice, too, as that was the time he had to also get to know other parents.

What a wonderful thing to see adults and youth working together to share their talents and knowledge and abilities with each other. All the parents pitched in and helped, whether with teaching, or setup, or cleanup or other assorted things that needed to be done. There was a spirit of co-operation and coming together with a common goal to make things work for everyone.

Lord Willing & the Creek Don't Rise!

Phew! I don't know that I ever thought that phrase would become so real to me. However, since moving onto our land, there are several times when "the creek don't rise" portion has been very real.

I think it was only 3 times last winter that we could not get across the creek. I remember one time Dave could not get home, so he went back to work and spent the night there. Another time I tried, unsuccessfully, to throw his mudders across the creek to him. The first one went downstream and I held onto the second one!

What we did get across the creek was a stick with a rope attached. Dave tied it on one side and I tied it on the other. Then he pulled himself across the creek, getting soaked in icy water in the process. Wet shoes and socks! Wet pants! In fact, the mudders would not have kept him dry...they would have simply allowed him to take off his shoes and keep them dry by carrying them. The force of the water went way up his legs.

At some point, Dave decided to look for a creekside tree to fell so that it would lay across the creek. Admittedly, it is not the best way to get over the creek, but we figured, "hey...in a pinch!" So, off he went with a friend to find one. After felling it, they tied a rope above it so that we had something to hold onto while we crossed. It is not a very wide tree, but it is plenty strong enough. We tried crossing on it. One has to be VERY careful using it to cross, even with the rope.

If the creek is high enough to need to use it, there is still all the water flowing into our meadow from the neighbor's property and the hillside gully to get across, too. It is a bit tricky, but we figured we could do if we really had to. It beats trying to walk through swiftly flowing water that might contain a branch that could slam into us.

This winter, we have been pretty blessed. In spite of the rains, we have been able to get across the creek...until last week. My son and I are going to a home school co-op one day a week. Last week it was raining hard so Dave parked across the creek, just in case it got too high to drive across.

We have cement blocks and pile of rocks to use to walk across onwhen the creek. When it rains really hard, though, the blocks and rocks get buried enough to make it so that we cannot walk across, even when we can still drive across. Well, last week there was no way we could walk it and it is good thing he parked on the other side because he could not have driven it, either.

So, we slogged on over to the new neighbors property. Someone bought the property next to ours and is in the process of putting in a double wide. Part of that package was to build a crossing over the creek. So, we carefully picked our way across the wet meadow over to their property to walk across to the road and back over to the van. That was not too bad, other than the water running into our meadow.

This week, however, it was really bad again. We had our mudders on this time, though. We were prepared! And it is a good thing. We noticed that the water in our meadow was more than usual. As we approached the neighbors property we could see why. His creek crossing was dammed up. You could see the tree limbs sticking up above the road. The water was level with the driveway on one side and barely coming through on the other.

Usually, creek crossings are made a little bit lower than the driveway height so that any overflow just flows evenly across. This was built even with the driveway. So, instead of flowing smoothly over, it was being diverted onto his property at one end of the crossing and flooding it. As it went down the other side it was eating away at the crossing and causing a whole torrent of water to flow along the creek and over to the meadow with some of it going back into the creek on the other side of the crossing. If we had not had our mudders on, we would not have made it through the flooding water to get to the crossing and the road.

So, two weeks in a row, we had our exercise before we even got into the van! But we made it! Thankfully, in spite of some continued heavy rains later in the day, the water was able to do down at our driveway which allowed us to actually drive across. Typically, when the water runs that heavily through the creek, we have some undercutting on one side of our crossing and there is some repair that needs to be done before Dave can drive across. But, thank Yahweh, we were able to drive right across!

We truly believe this is an answer to prayer. We had faithful friends praying with us that we would be able to get home. Not only did we get home...we were able to drive right across! Woohoo!

Long Day and Home Education!

Wew! I made it through yesterday! We have started going to a home school co-op on Tuesdays. We have not been able to go due to no money, no car. Well, God made a way for us to do it through someone who worked things out for us. But it means a VERY long day!

We leave about 5:45 a.m. Yep, you read that right! A.M.! As in...it is still dark. Now, I am used to getting up most days right around that time. However, having all three of us out the door by that time is vastly different! The night before we all need to be showered up and I have to have something packed for both breakfast and lunch.

First I drop Dave off at work; although, when the weather turns nicer, he will be dropping me off instead. That way I won't have to go pick him up. The classes are in two different places. Well, actually, the first set of classes are not really co-op classes, but a lot of the same people are there.

So, my son and I get dropped off at the first church, where the music classes are held. The church secretary is a home schooling mom herself and she has a place for us to work on schooling until the music theory classes start. My son really likes it.

From there we go to the second church, where the co-op classes are. We will need to catch a ride once we start getting dropped off. We go to the second church and eat lunch while we wait for his classes to start. He is taking Oceans, P.E. (for which I am currently a helper), and Art.

He loves all of his classes and he is making some friends. I get to meet and talk with other home schooling parents. Adult conversation! Yay! We are very blessed by this.

Last week, the first week, we were still not up to speed with getting well after being sick. I asked a friend if she would mind dropping us off for the afternoon classes only. She was gracious to do that as it is way out of her way normally. She decided to do shopping that day instead so it worked out nicely for us both.

This week, we did the whole thing. I was exhausted. With PTSD, it does not take much to overwhelm me. I am realizing that I must find a quiet place to just take a quick nap or something during his first class. Yesterday, I was so exhausted that I had my eyes closed most of the way home. I did not even go into the store with Dave on the way home. As soon as we got home I hit the couch. I sort of dozed off and on...not sure if I actually slept at all or not.

Later, I dragged myself off the couch and checked email and a couple of things on the net and then was in bed by 10. This morning, I could still feel the aftereffects of such a long day away from home. But it is worth it! I will just have to take each week as it comes.

It snowed yesterday and part of today, so far. I love watching the snow come down. I just hate that it keeps turning to rain and then sometimes to ice. This is not the winter weather I remember from before. This is like the transitional weather from winter to spring. It is almost as if winter never hit this year. :(

On the one hand, that may be good...saves us the cost of heating and makes it easier to do laundry. On the other hand, it is dreary, muddy and icey. The ice is bad because of how dangerous it is, too.

Today, the sun is shining. I love the sunshine...warm or cold...I love the sunshine!

The mouse population went down again by two (oops...editing in correction...THREE) within the last few days! Sure wish they would just stay outside! My son and hubby get to do the mouse trap duty.