Camping at Home

There has been some surprise expressed at our decision to stay in our home for over a week without any furniture. Sounds kinda weird at first, I guess, but there is a lot of cleaning that needs to be done, and it will take until June 4 for all of our stuff to arrive in Virginia (they packed and loaded it all this past Wednesday), so we'd rather stay in Omaha without our stuff with nearby friends to hang out with (and borrow stuff from -like folding chairs and a few pots/pans, and a bottle opener ;-) ) while we clean out and wait.

The first "Wonder Woman!" enjoyment of all that empty space for flying.

 So essentially we are camping at home. Bedtime got a little more complicated when we realized the movers had packed up all of the girls sleeping bags, stuffed animals, and "soft things" that we had been planning to use for the week, but we went to the local kids resale shop and found 3 soft blankets (each girl picked one out), and borrowed sleeping bags and pillows from friends and now everyone is comfortable.

Paper plates and plasticware, a hot pot, and a blender (to make smoothies out of all the frozen fruit that still needs to be used up), and we are in business. After the movers drove out we vacuumed and swept and kinda felt like we were setting up camp. We got books from the library, and I found a few cheap toys from a garage sale and we have just enough. It sure is easier to clean up toys when they are only 5... makes us think maybe we shouldn't unpack too much stuff when we get to Virginia....

The evening after the movers left our dear friends had us over for dinner - it was such a blessing to have good friends and food together after a crazy day!

These two have secret plans for marriage.

If these two got married the whole world would explode.

Babies.

Then we set up camp and moved the essentials back in:

Essentials: Electricity and Internet.

Dogs making do.

Library books and "Summer School" workbooks.

Archer sweeps!

One week from today we'll be pulling out!

Roller Skating Tot Time

Our local skating rink has an awesome program for little ones on Wednesday mornings, and since school is now in "field trips only" stage as our home gets disassembled, the girls and I are taking advantage of all of the fun things there are to do around here.

Today, Clara "skated" for the first time. She has tried on skates before, but today she actually stomped around the rink and participated (albeit somewhat unwillingly) in all the fun activities they have for the tots to do during Tot Time.  Lily and Noelle LOVE going roller skating, although they are both still stomping around in locked skates also, but they think it is so fun. Lily especially likes the music. Clara liked the lemonade and cookies.

Lily was a little concerned about Skate City's business model, however, as we got in the car, she said, "Mama, these people aren't very smart. They are only open on one day!"

Then I let her know that grown ups could skate every day.  "OOOohh."

More photos

Curriculum Descriptions

I am filling out paperwork to notify the Fairfax County Public Schools that we intend to home educate, and I thought this information might be interesting to share....

Lily’s Kindergarten Curriculum consists of:

• Singapore Math (EarlyBird A&B)
• Grammar/Language: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind
• Reading/Handwriting: Explode the Code, & The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading
• Bible: Sonlight Core A: Introduction to World Cultures
• Literature: Sonlight Core A: Introduction to World Cultures
• History/Geography/Social Studies: Sonlight Core A: Introduction to World Cultures
• Science: Sonlight Science A: Biology, Botany, & Physics

Lily’s First Grade Curriculum will consist of:

• Singapore Math (Primary Mathematics Standards Edition 1A&1B)
• Grammar/Language/Writing: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind & Tapestry of Grace Writing Aids
• Reading/Handwriting: Explode the Code
• Bible: Tapestry of Grace Year 2 Units 3&4, Year 3 Units 1&2
• Literature: Tapestry of Grace Year 2 Units 3&4, Year 3 Units 1&2
• History/Geography/Social Studies: Tapestry of Grace Year 2 Units 3&4, Year 3 Units 1&2
• Science: Noeo Science Biology I

I'm getting excited just thinking about it!

In Defense of Dogs

Since we owned our first home in Michigan, many of you know it came as a shock to us when we sold our home and discovered that it is extremely difficult to rent a home if you have a dog with any of mix of an "aggressive breed" in her.  Since Padme is a Boxer/Pit Bull mix, people hear the words "pit bull" and give us an automatic no. I can understand that, given the bad press and truly bad dogs (and owners) that are out there and the damage that those dogs can do.

Due to the way this constrains our house-hunting options, every time we move we reconsider sending Padme to one of our parents "for a year or so," but we always come back to the decision that she is part of our family, our responsibility, and if we can find a place where we can keep her, we will.

We pretty much always end up describing her to prospective landlords, and this time we even included a detailed description of her personality and history with our lease application. I won't include that here, but I will include the collage of pictures we came up with that we feel expresses the kind of dog she is, and why we feel she is worth all the trouble and even essay-writing in her defense.