Cultivating Childhood

We've traded falling leaves and winter coats for tank tops, shorts, and little boys running around outside in bare feet.  As much as I miss the changing of the seasons that we experienced in Seattle, we've had a lot of fun doing special outings, field trips, and family times that we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. October Our most exciting event this month is that my brother got engaged to his lovely girlfriend.  Since both Phil and I only have brothers this means that I finally get a sister and my boys will finally have an aunt!  We are very happy for them. School is also in full-swing, and we've had a lot of fun with various outings.  We went to the Mini-Maker Faire in Riverside.  N and Z got to shoot off rockets of their own making.  N's flew so well, it went right over the building! We also took advantage of the free museum days here in San Diego and went down to the Natural History Museum with Grandma and Papa.  It corresponded nicely with o

Every year, I look forward to putting together my homeschool curriculum.  I usually start thinking about this in February in eager expectation of the following fall.  I'm so glad that I started this early this last year because with all the things surrounding the initial move, I did not get a chance to really think about homeschooling again until just two days before we started!  Thankfully, it was mostly prepared months in advance! I love writing these yearly posts about what we are doing in our school.  It helps me organize my thoughts, and I love looking back on what we've done in the past as I've often forgotten something that we did or enjoyed.  I also see how I've changed in my educational theories and priorities as I've gone along.  Look how crazy I was in preschool  2012 or even when I started my journey and had burn out in 2011 !  Here is is the plan I had for Kindergarten last year. I feel like this year is pretty straight forward.  It could almost

September was a month that I'd never want to relive again.  It was a month fraught with depression, loneliness, isolation, frustration, and uphill battles.  Everything that I had been pushing off in my busyness of the previous months suddenly came crashing down once there was a chance to breath again.  Yet, through it all, I've come to learn some pretty important lessons.  I've learned more about myself, my husband, and even my children.  I've been able to reconnect with my family and learn to enjoy them again.  My prayer life has taken on a whole new dimension, and I've learned so much about the God I serve.  My husband is a stronghold; a person who speaks truth into my life and loves me for just who I am.  My kids are a joy again instead of objects that often got in the way of what I had to accomplish for the move. I'm thankful that I was also able to go through this part of the transition on this side of the ocean.  My parents have been wonderful in allowin

After our Thailand trip, we had eight short weeks before we wanted to put our house on the market.  July and August were full of getting rid of almost all of our belongings, sprucing up our home to get it ready to sell, packing, trying to see friends as much as possible, and doing everything else that has to happen when you are planning on uprooting your family from a place you've called home for seven years. We did manage to do some fun things though.  Here is a quick peek at what we were up to... July We love going to Mercer Slough for blueberry picking.  We went at a great time this year, and we picked about 6 lbs of fruit in less than an hour! We played tourist at the Space Needle for Phil's birthday with his parents. The month ended with our church's Kids Summer Adventure.  The boys attended a lot of different summer church programs, but this was the only one that I volunteered in.  The theme was Jungle Safari, and I got to host the Costa Rica room

Our time in Seattle is nearing an end.  As I think about what drives the motivation behind our move, I've also been struck by the many reasons why we could stay.  These last few weeks have been/will be more emotional for me than I usually am, but I'm trying to allow myself to feel that since I believe that this is a good place to be mentally as I process the transition. We attend a wonderful church We attend the North campus of Bethany Community Church in Seattle.  This church has really shaped and formed our hearts for God, and we have been blessed to be a part of its ministry.  It will be hard to leave this community of faith.  Our church also has a lot of wonderful ministries that it supports including Tabitha Ministries and YoungLives.  If we stayed, this is something that we could be more a part of. We have some great friends There are some amazing moms that I get to hang out with on a regular basis.  They are the unsung heroes of this generation who are raising the

Our trip back from Mae Sot was beautiful.  Aaron took us back in his car since he had to go to Chiang Mai anyway.  I was amazed at some of the beauty I somehow missed on the way there that I was able to witness on the way back. A village on a river Transporting an elephant. Unfortunately, I somehow contacted a virus from either food poisoning or some other way, and ended up being extremely sick that evening - like more sick than I can ever remember in my life.  I kind of want to forget most of that though so I'll save you the ugly details.  Thankfully, I was mostly better the next day, and at least fully functional.  I even tried eating again, and had some more amazing Thai food. Pineapple Fried Rice at the Night Bazaar I was so glad I was feeling better the next day because we went to go visit Partners Relief and Development that day.  We had sort of met some people who work for Partners in Mae Sot at the house church we went to, but it was good to talk to some