ABCs and Algebra

As a kid, I loved September and all things back-to-school, but now? not so much. I miss the long, lazy days with Cade in the mix; he's such a great helper and, in general, great companion. Clementine's back in dance, and Charleigh's in gymnastics, this year: activities that cost money and necessitate the (slight) slowing of my roll. And small group's picked back up, which carries with it some responsibilities.

Charleigh's First Gymnastics Class

We're on a schedule, and even moreso because I'm trying to be serious about teaching the girls preschool. Clementine needs to start kindergarten next year, and daily I ask myself: homeschool or public school? Obviously, Cade's in public school and has been from the outset. I haven't had any major complaints and won't try to change his path, just...I very often wish I could pull him out for one adventure or the other, and I daydream about endless field trips with my school-aged, little kids.

I believe homeschooling to be a calling, so I don't much worry about other people's voices. I'm praying and listening for God's voice, and I'm testing myself because planning, scheduling, and follow-through aren't necessarily areas of strength for me. I'm blessed in that--should I end up homeschooling the little kids--I have friends ahead of me on the route, and they'll undoubtedly prove to be excellent resources.

For us, homeschool preschool involves ideally three mornings of work in the house, one morning for Charleigh's gymnastics (Clementine takes dance one evening), and one field trip. I've been starting a day of work by reading two devotions. I picked up the first book at a thrift store for $.75, and--although the girls really like it--I don't like it nearly as well as Keys for Kids, which is also story-based. The other book is a devotional Bible, so the devotions are scripture-based.

After reading our scripture devotion, we spend some time with one or more of these books (1, 2, 3): mostly in search of further visual representation of the Word. I really like the maps in Biblica because I feel like geography (along with chronology!) has always been a major area of weakness for me.

We're working with one letter a week in the order recommended by School Sparks, and--with the help of this resource--we're memorizing one Bible verse for each letter of the alphabet. We're also making Crafty ABCs and practicing writing our letters in various workbooks and dry-erase books.

From there, it gets more loosey-goosey. We're working with numbers, too, and right now, I'm putting a lot of emphasis on the girls' learning our home address. Last week, we spent a good bit of time working with pennies and nickles and playing "store": learning how to trade pennies for a nickle and vice versa. We're blessed to have our own library of children's books, also many puzzles and games. And, of course, we tear up the road; it's part of who I am as a person, so it's part of who I am as a parent.

Then the lanky thirteen-year-old slips through the door with his book bag, and last week, he needed help with algebra. I felt a little angsty about it--Will I remember?--but made out just fine, so I guess Mrs. Todd, Mrs. Murphy, and Mr. Harmatta did alright by me, back in the day.

It can feel like a stretch, ABCs to algebra in one day, but I'll enjoy over two decades of trick-or-treating with my kids, so the nine-year-age gap between Child #1 and Child #2 has its perks, after all.

Family Vacation 2013: Chicago Land, Pt. 1

When we pulled up, Erin and Mira were waiting outside their apartment building in Lombard. They ushered us inside and (along with Dave) filled our bellies with tacos and Garrett Popcorn: The Chicago Mix, which is caramel and cheese popcorn tossed together and was, for the record, my favorite thing I ate on vacation.

Everything was already perfect, because we were all together.

The next day was rainy, but I insisted that Erin and I have faith and head toward East Dundee with the little kids; Jim had already paid through Groupon for our admission to Santa's Village Azoosement Park. We stopped at Schaumburg's Prairie Center for the Arts on the way, because Don Lawler's and Meg White's "Awaking Muse" was high on my list of things to see in the area.

It was raining pretty hard as we pulled up, and I prayed out loud in the minivan: thanking God in advance for clearing up the rain for us. Not long after, the rain stopped entirely, and I give all credit and praise to the Lord. I have to say: in terms of the (many) things I sought out on vacation, nothing impressed me more than this sculpture, carved from Indiana limestone. The park in which it's located is beautiful, in general.

Someday, I will tell my Chippy that he spent a moment, once, in the hand of the muse...but his every moment--just every, single moment of his life--in the hand of God.

While we were at the park in Schaumburg, the one in East Dundee closed for rain. It was okay, though, because I was with my best friend, and I had a long list of things I hoped to see. All of them were outdoors, but the rain didn't bother us for the rest of the day.

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Jim's and Brandee's Travel Tips

Have a back-up plan in case of bad weather, a good amount of faith, or both.

Family Vacation 2013: Indy, Pt. 2

Jim and I joined a small group Bible study about five years ago (when I was pregnant with Clementine), and we continue to study with four of the families. Two other families have joined, and sadly, one--our original host family--moved away: first to Hickory, North Carolina, then to the Indianapolis area. I reached out to Daleen to tell her we were coming through, and she asked if we'd like to stay with them.

So the Crews home in Avon was the next stop on our family vacation. We loved visiting with our friends and slept and ate (so!) well in their home. They knew they'd be out of town for our return trip but gave us a key and a code. "Make yourselves at home," they said and passed us one basket of clean laundry and another of divine, orange-flavored breakfast rolls. I didn't do a very good job of capturing their entire family of six with my camera, but the good news is: we're adventuring with them later this month; I'm sure to do a better job, then. Precious, precious, beloved people.

Cade and Me with Our Friend Daleen

Jim with Baby Shannon and His Own (Jealous) Redheaded Wonder

6/7 Kids

Sweet baby Shannon

From Avon we headed to Zionsville, where we met up with Nicole Owens of 70 Piggies and Owens to Africa: my one, true blog crush. I can't tell you what I fell in love with first: her eye, or her heart, but I couldn't stand the thought of our being so near one another and not meeting in person. Nor could I stand the thought of not hugging her before she and her family depart on July 11th to be about Our Father's business in Kenya. For four years.

In person, Nic is (and I have a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes, writing this) exactly who she is in words: a calm, quiet, small spark of brilliant-bright-white light. She's eat up with Jesus in that "still waters run deep" sort of way, and it hurt me--It hurt me!--to let her go; I tried my very best to squeeze the stuffins out of her. I don't know if she knew, but I stuck my heart real quick-like in her bag. I hope she'll take it with her to Africa; I hope she'll take it along.

I'm so grateful to her for driving down from Muncie to make a dream come true for me.

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Jim's and Brandee's Travel Tips

If someone you know and love offers you a bed, a meal, a shower, a washing machine, etc., just say: "Yes. Thank you. I love you." It's taken me a long time (and a lot of kids!) to just sort of lean into the kindness of others, but honestly? I think that's an important part of the Lord's work in me. I believe God wants all of us to learn to receive love as surely as He wants us to learn to give love, and so much of all of it--of Him!--happens through other people. I'm not talking about mooching or taking advantage: just receiving with gratitude...and paying forward the kindness.

Also, if there's someone on (or near) your route you'd like to see: buck up. Ask the question. Give that person the opportunity to say: "Yes," and fellowship with you. You have nothing to lose and everything, just everything!, to gain.

Family Vacation 2013: Indy, Pt. 1

The drive from Lexington to Indianapolis was strange for me and even a little sad. We zipped right on by Louisville, which is a place with a hefty share of quirk, also my friend Marti: I'm a fan. Then we zipped past Seymour, which is my ex-husband's home town. Take it from me: it feels strange and sad when people who were once part of one's family are no longer one's kinfolk and relations, and that's true even after nine years, even when one was a wonky fit with those peeps, anyway.

Also, I'm always surprised to find myself in Indiana, even when I plan the trip. Indiana was a weird, little (pivotal) chapter in my life. I moved to Indiana (Ft. Wayne) in 1996, and the girl with whom I roomed is the same one my family and I zipped from Lexington to Indy to meet, last week. (You can read more about Carlena's and my story, here.)

It had been seven years since I'd seen Carlena. She'd met Cade during that visit; otherwise, neither of us had met the other's family. In fact, both families had started to form within the year after that last visit. So there we were, the nine of us, and didn't it feel like a happy reunion? Conversation's always been easy between Carlena and me; our little girls took up with one another right away; and I just kept looking at Cade thinking how I was only about one year older than he when I met Carlena. Time flies, y'all.

 

Artspark and the Indianapolis Art Center--where our families met in Indy--excited me a little less than I'd hoped, but hey, visiting was free, and I subscribe to the notion that one shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. In all fairness, Jim appreciated the opportunity to watch glassblowers at work; I loved the crooked house; and Carlena exclaimed over the Elaine Miller piece in the image below.

Elaine Miller, "A Lighted House, Another Perspective"

After being rained out of Artspark, our party overtook (likely a private) pavilion behind some condos and adjacent to a playing field. We picnicked in utter peace, and the pavilion had its own, unlocked and perfectly-clean bathrooms: score!

It was wonderful to see my friend, again. I'm touched that she and her family drove down from Ft. Wayne to meet us in Indy and hope we're able to reconnect sooner rather than later. Lifelong friends are such a gift!

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Brandee's and Jim's Travel Tips

I don't know what sorts of things you like to visit when traveling, but I like off-the-beaten-path sorts of things, the odd things that make a place unique. The tackier the better. Jim's probably less into this sort of thing than I, but he's very indulgent because it often costs nothing (beyond gas, of course) to visit, say, a statue. My top three favorite websites for learning an area's oddities are as follows: Debra Jane's Roadside Architecture, Roadside America, and Atlas Obscura. They're very different from one another, and each has its own charms.

Family Vacation 2013

 

I have a faraway friend who's an everyday friend. We're perpetually mid-conversation, always caught up. We call one another with a question, with a sentence, with five minutes of words on the way to somewhere just around the bend, down the road a bit; it's okay. It's all good. I talk to her while I eat my sandwich, brush my teeth, bathe my kids and yell at them. I call her when I need to cry or cuss or brainstorm or vent. I know her number forwards and backwards like a top-secret code, like an oft-used, access code to acceptance.

She'll love me no matter what.

I don't know how to explain the gift part, the miracle part, of our relationship...which is most of it. Time (almost twenty-one years) has a lot to do with it. But I can offer: face time accentuates it, and this element in particular requires ingenuity, sacrifice and--where rubber meets the road--work, which is alright because work isn't drudgery, always.

In recent years, it's been less complicated for my friend to travel, and she's done most of it. Jim had an extra week of time this year, though (unused paternity leave), so we decided to pack up and drive a minimum of twenty-seven hours to visit my friend. As you probably already know from reading here, Jim and I have a thirteen year-old, a four year-old, a two year-old, and a seven-month old. We also have limited, financial resources.

To follow: the story of our action-packed trip (six states, eight days) and how our family of six made it for approximately $1300...or $800, depending upon how one looks at it. I'll elaborate more, later.

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Brandee's and Jim's Travel Trips

  

A wise man once said: he who fails to plan, plans to fail. I'll admit readily that, by nature, I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of girl. It's expensive and wasteful to be that way. In the months and weeks before leaving on our trip, Jim and I planned carefully. For example, before leaving:

• Jim reserved rooms at hotels that 1) offer free breakfasts and managers' receptions and 2) have refrigerators and stoves in the rooms.
• We decided to eat lunches and dinners primarily from our cooler and inside our hotel rooms. We shopped our local grocery store for food and drinks to take with us.
• We bought lots of snacks, coloring and sticker books, etc. from the Dollar Tree.
• I spent hours scouring the Internet for free and/or cheap activities in the areas we were visiting. 
• Jim purchased a Groupon for one activity.
• I prayed earnestly about every aspect of our trip.