Box Day/ Sonlight / Homeschooling

It's official, today is our big announcement.... we are homeschooling!! This may not come as a surprise to many of you  mama bear because I have talked about homeschooling even before Matthew and I started having kids. It was my way of prepping hubby. But no prep needed he has always been on board from the beginning to homeschool. Especially when we realize all the gaps we have in our own education. Over the years our reasons have evolved as to why we have chosen to home educate our kiddos. In the beginning it was always the thought of a traditional classroom not tying us down and being able to travel and do mission work and also homeschooling our kids. Well, here we are many years later and seems this is still true and one of our reasons. Other reasons why we have chosen to homeschool, to teach our children to be free thinkers, to edge against the grain, to pioneer a new generation, religious reasons, freedom, and I am truthfully not ready to send my four year old out into the world. Honestly I don't know what the future holds and who knows my kids may one day attend public school but for right now this is our chosen way of life. I am really excited and nervous to start this journey but I remember, I can do ALL THINGS through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

There is a scripture that I love

Remember God's Words
18"You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.19"You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. 20"You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,…

Deuteronomy 11:18-20

I pray that in these foundational years for Ladybird and Zeke Bear that we teach them to love God with all their hearts and to love their neighbors as themselves. To know God's character and to develop their own character. This is the most important thing to Matthew and I. 

Our "box day" as Sonlight refers to it is where you receive your curriculum and the whole family goes through it and everyone gets excited about the upcoming school year. Although you can't tell by the photo Ladybird is really excited about doing school at home. She had a fever here and was not feeling well. In fact while going through ALL the books she fell asleep. 

Bear was totally into it he helped bring all the books out and went through them with me.

Please pray for us as we start this journey we will need it. 

Cheers. 

Barcelona la cuarta parte

I never gave the last day of pictures for Barcelona and even though this trip was in February I still want to finish these pictures and have them journaled   blogged. Our last full day in Barcelona we went to Montserrat which is a mountain about an hour from Barcelona. I am still quiet impressed at our ballsiness to make this trip. We took a bus across town to catch the rail to which was an hour ride, and then took us to a cable car which was amazing and the kids loved it. We finally reached the top and the view was gorgeous especially since it was a clear day and we could see all the way to Mallorca. Our camera died so we only had my Iphone.

On the cable car on the way up.

View from the cable car

Finally at the top we had to climb a lot of stairs but we made it.

This Basilica is beautiful and many people travel here for multiple reasons but two of them being to get a chance to hear the boys choir, unfortunately we didn't get to hear them and a pilgrimage to see the black Madonna you can read more about it here.   

All done and waiting for the cable car and our long journey back to our hotel.

We left the next day and had to wake up at 2:00 AM to catch our flight at 6:00 AM. It was brutal for all of us but originally this trip was supposed to be a girls trip with a good friend from South Africa so the kids were not included in the calculation of the best time to fly scenario. The trip didn't happen so we ended up at the last minute getting tickets for Hubby, Ladybird and Zeke Bear. Wouldn't have it any other way I am a blessed mama and wife to have had them with me. I love traveling with my little family.

Cheers.

York, England Part Four

We checked out of our hotel Sunday Morning and headed North to go visit some Heritage sights. First stop the Kirkham Priory this place was so beautiful and peaceful. We loved walking the grounds and just imaging the monks and priest that used to live here.

Originally we were supposed to drive to Pickering Castle then head toward the coast south to Scarborough Castle but we really wanted to see the Yorkshire Moors that I had read about in the Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and I mentioned it here. So we stopped at Pickering for ice cream and potty breaks and then headed further North to see the moors.

I so wish I could have taken pictures of the drive to Whitby Abbey,the  Yorkshire Moors were a sight to see although it was not covered in the purple heather flower I have heard about and then the villages we drove through were magnificent and looked nothing like England but I felt like I was in Italy. After the moors and the beautiful villages we entered Whitby and I knew we had to eat fish and chips here

.

I had no idea what to expect coming here I just decided to come here because we got to drive through the Moors but this Abbey is by far my favorite of any I have seen so far. It also holds very interesting history, this Abbey is the place that the date was decided when Easter would be celebrated. This is also the spot where Dracula climbed the steps from the North Sea and took his first victim in England.

After Whitby we headed down the coast south to Scarborough Castle the cliff/ mountain that this Castle was on was extremely impressive unfortunately by the time we got there the gate keeper was closing it. We decided to park in the village nearby and get coffee and stretch and check out the beach. It was way to cold to get in the water but adults and kids alike were all in the water. 

Our adventure did not stop there on our way back home after driving for nearly an hour on back roads Ladybird threw up we had to stop give here some water and clean it up. We finally reached the highway and after being on the highway for 15 min our car starts to act funny. Matthew pulls off and our car is no longer accelerating and does not start. My phone is dead, Matthews battery is also on low but it doesn't matter because we aren't getting any reception on his cell phone. A few feet back there is an SOS phone and its probably 8 PM by this time and we are starting to loose daylight. We finally get towed to a nearby service station and now we have to wait for a proper tow to our house 80 miles away. We waited, and waited, and waited for three hours. We finally got home at 3 AM. That was a nightmare but I thanked God because although it was 3 AM when we all got into our beds we were safe and unharmed. It's been a month now my car is still in the shop getting a whole new engine. I am also thankful because when we bought the car we received 9 month warranty well June was our last month. So our car decided to break down at just the right time.

Cheers.