Million Dollar Education

Josiah and I went to the Watch convention yesterday and today (Washington Association of Teaching Christian Homes).. We had a great time! Josiah loved the time with me... and he sat through the convention speakers just like a trooper! We had bought pizza two days in a row!!! What a treat! Rod and I were gone last weekend on a business trip, so he couldn't take the time off from work to go the the homeschool convention... but I'm going to see if he can next year. It was great to spend time with others getting encouragement.

We got to catch up with some of the people that we met at the First Class Auction Dinner a month or so ago. Ran into some homeschooling moms that I haven't seen for awhile... Quite a few ladies from our own first class. A couple of the speakers are well known homeschool authors. Steve Lambert (Five in a row) and Diana Waring (Reaping a Harvest) were both there and I had plenty of time to speak with them personally. I also had quite a bit of time to talk to Steve's wife Jan and Heidi St. John. Heidi did a workshop on Marriage. She has such a good heart and really understands marriage. I would like to get to know her better.

Next year I plan on contacting my homeschooling friends to see if it's possible to carpool. It was definatley worth the trip. And the thing is, you don't know unless you go and see for yourself. There were a couple of workshops that touched my heart but Steve Lambert's closing talk last night will hang with me for awhile. We were supposed to come home early, and we locked the keys in the car... (Sent Josiah to the car to get snacks earlier in the day, and he locked them in... I've had him do this many many times... so it was a learning experience for him... and a learning experience for me... how often do you break in to your own car???) So when we finally got things taken care of and then had dinner, it was time for Steve's talk. So we decided we were already late, might as well stay for the last talk. I realized that I haven't locked my keys in the car since before I was married (only once with rod) and that maybe there was a reason that I was still there...

He spoke about many many things but one topic was how much is our kids' homeschool education cost us? My first thought was a few hundred dollars a year. But he was asking something much deeper! How much does it cost?... What did we give up so that we could stay home to eduate our kids...? Well, at the time Josiah was born, the job I had was paying 24K... But he said that the average family... by the time you add up how much homeschooling costs as well as how much of moms income you gave up to do it... cost of living.... over the course of your familys homeschool education... it costs the average homeschooling family a million dollars to educate their kids! Wow, hadn't thought of it that way. The price of a small island! He challenged us.. are we giving our kids a million dollar education? This all really got me thinking and i'm really trying to consider the actual value of our little homeschool.

I guess there's about 3 million homeschoolers and it's growing at about 16% (I've heard varing rates, but none less than that).

I am extremely glad that we went. And it was interesting sitting there in a conference, with Josiah at my side, as my peer, listening to a speaker talk about my job in homeschooling. I really hope that he saw this weekend that this is something much bigger than mommy's idea to just keep him out of the public school system! I really enjoyed the time with Josiah and he's becoming such a good mannered little man. He's such a dear! And a great companion!

Lately, I've really been challenged in finding the value in what we do.. homeschooling. And also finding the value in our friday school co-op (being on the board has caused me to ask questions about the value of friday school)... And my belief has grown tremendously. (Now if I could just infuse that in my home!!!)

What I've been doing lately!

Hi... seems like a lot has been going on lately!

I've been helping my parents get their druthers together with this new modular that they are putting on their property. Red tape, yuck. The foundation was officially poured today! Woohoo! So it needs to cure for a week, then the house can be put on it. But who knows when they'll officially move in... that's up to the mortgage company. But I did get to take the kids out for a *field trip* where they got to watch foundation be poured. I took pictures and mini video with my camera. Josiah said it looked like dog poop (while being poured). That made me laugh! I haven't seen foundation poured before, and was really surprised how long it took 6 guys (that were all working hard) to do it!

Kids are in VBS at our AWANA church this week. A friend that also goes there is taking the kids and I am picking them up. That's actually working out nicely. Josiah and Jedediah both have close friends that go to Awana and Friday school there this week, so they are getting some fun friend time!

The Newsletter for First Class Friday School... Polli handed it over to me this month. So i'm now, cough, cough, the official editor of First Class News. It's a good thing she's gonna help me get it going! But so far it's going pretty well. I think i'll be fine once I finish figuring out the software program for it and after I get a feel as to whats really expected with it. I need to tie up a few loose ends and it'll be ready to send the first of next week!

My *new* computer that I got a couple of months ago has been having some problems. So Dell is making me a new one. Yes, they are replacing a new computer with a newer one. It should be here next week. Can't wait... They haven't actually figured out what's wrong with the one I have... it's a long boring story... and I just really don't enjoy the uncomical details of it all, so i'm going to leave them out. But, the good news is, that they say they'll give me some sort of an upgrade for the hassle.. so i'm looking forward to seeing what that upgrade will be.

Rod and I are gone this upcoming weekend for a business function. Be nice to get away together... in a hotel room... alone...

And in the back of my mind I need to get a couple of birthday parties together... Julia's is August 1st and Josiah's is August 6th and they are approaching quickly. We'll probably have a party at Clear Lake again this year... I almost can't resist... we had such fun last year! Z

On the Board...

About a month ago, Rod and I were asked to consider joining the Board of First Class Homeschool Co-op. We attended our first meeting (which, for a meeting was way too much fun Polli!) this last monday night and got officially voted in. It was very very interesting to be apart of the side of friday school that everyone else wonders about. You know? You find out how much money is in the bank and how the decisions are made and learn a lot more about what Friday school is doing... and you see others that take ownership and people that care about something that up until a year or so ago, I just attended. We've been going to friday school off and on for five years.

Last year, I got to know Polli... she's great! And started talking about how friday school is run and that the people in charge really do need help getting things done. I didn't realize that it was such a big deal. Friday school used to be where I just took my kids for a morning out of the house!

First I got started with the directory. It needed printing... Ok, i'll do it.. how hard could that be? Then they needed help mailing newsletters... so I got my kids involved and we sit at our table and fold newsletters together... that was pretty easy. (Figuring out 11X17 double sided printing, was NOT!) I realized that by "teaching" the nursery and holding babies, that I could get my admin fee waived... so I was Julia's nursery "teacher" and last session I was her toddler "teacher". Then Josiah had mentioned how much he'd like friends to play chess with... So I got Rod involved teaching a Chess class that has been a HUGE hit! (Well, he's tied into that for at least another year because Jed is dying to play!!!) Then time went by, we helped with Registration... A friend told me that they were thinking about cancelling our use of the lunchroom because of how our group was cleaning up afterwards... I love solving problems... A friend and I figured out a system (that works really well) and implemented it. Which took a huge burden off of the leaders of friday school and we get to keep our social hour... woohoo!

Rod knew we were in for it when I got "keyed" (anyone seen the Grey's Anatomy episode about getting keyed?).. yah, too funny. Anyway, it's been a ton of fun... and it's really blessed me to help. It's been great for me to get out of the house with a purpose and to have more friends to laugh with. I can't believe how many friends I've made through friday school. And that has been very good for me... who seems to be a homebody for the last few years.

Over the course of the last couple of years.. Rod and I have been asking ourselves... is Rod a homeschooling Dad or a Dad who has homeschoolers... And this last year, at friday school, since he's taught for 3 sessions, we've noticed that there is only one other Dad teacher. There are a few who come here and there and there are a few more in leadership... but not many that actually participate weekly in Friday School. We've started asking the moms where are the dads? At work, Rod didn't think they'd let him reschedule his fridays.. but he finally asked... and now it's on his permanent record as community service... He's decided that he wants to be a homeschooling Dad... part of the program.... Well, he's at the other computer as I'm typing, writing an article for our newsletter about homeschooling dads... (that now, i'm the editor of)

I know i'm the primary teacherin our kid's education , but there is things that Rod teaches and teaches really well. So we started by thinking that he should be the one to teach those types of subjects... And that whole willingness to get involved and get involved in friday school has lead into something much bigger than we could have ever imagined... in a really cool way.

Right now at Friday School they are working on getting a program set up for the Homeschooling Highschoolers who need something different than the younger kids. I'm really encouraging Rod to get involved where he can, because of his background... he has the skills, the knowledge, and the Youth Ministry background to really do something there. We'll see where it goes. We aren't exactly sure at the moment, but I'm really interested in seeing more homeschooled kids stick with it through highschool. Which seems to be a big problem in the homeschool community here. I hope eventually we can have a Homeschool Youth Group.

Do I think that by being on the board that that's going to impede on my time? Not really. One meeting every few months is a small price to pay to be apart of a great association. Our next meeting is in September...

Now my newsletter? Well, that's another story. I'm working on my first newsletter as we speak.. Hopefully after the first month or two, I'll get things down and it'll go smoothly. And then i'll get a newsletter folding assistant! But really, I love to write, I love my fonts, and I love having ownership in something... so for now, yah, the newsletter will take time, but i'm into it!

Home Sweet Home!

I've travelled a lot in my life. A LOT. Well I guess it was my turn. Or my fault for choosing the cheapest way to fly from Maryland to Seattle... Not that that was cheap in my opinion...

Zane and Shannon dropped me off at the airport after eating dinner at a yummy bbq place in Waldorf, MD called Famous Daves. Yah, it should be famous. Great BBQ! Rod loves pulled pork... and guess what I was eating when he text messaged me at the restaurant... poor guy!

Once I was there, no biggie, waited in airport lines before. Well it took two hours to get through. The plane that was coming to the Baltimore Airport was late, really late... probably three hours late. So that means that I would miss my connecting flight. We waited at least four hours to depart from BMI. We took off at 2am. Then we got to Vegas... and waited 5 more hours (on standby b'c there were NO seats technically available) to see if I could get a seat. I was tremendously relieved when some guy called "Nelson"....

I now know what it feels like to wait endlessly, to have no access to food... and only access to a water fountain... for four plus hours... to wait standby wondering if you're going to get on 'this' flight... to have commrodery with a lot of people (a planes worth) where you are immediate friends with everyone involved because you have this situation in common.. and I know what it feels like to try to maintain a good attitude (I don't know if positive would be the right word) despite the sitation...

I don't know how many times on TV that i've seen people waiting, their flights delayed or cancelled and wondering if they were really making a bigger deal of it than it was. It's crazy to think of how many people were affected by a dumb late plane. All of the people on the plane (plenty of children) and those who pick them up....

But because I was able to get on the earliest flight (9:30 am) to Seattle, Rod was able to come down an pick me up... I really wanted to see him... Anyway, i'm home!

Maryland 2007

Well... we finally made it here. Gosh, I make that sound like it took us forever to get to Maryland. We left friday morning about 4:30 and arrived on sunday at 9 am... so we drove for about 50 hours. Yep,straight through. We were planning on getting here originally on Monday... but decided that we just didn't want to drag the drive out that long. Shannon and I had a ton of fun... well mostly. Montana of course seemed to take forever (yah, I knew it would, Rod and I have driven cross country to see family quite a few times...), the bit of Wyoming we went through with skiddish cell phone coverage, and then there's the trek through South Dakota... Somehow whenever we get to South Dakota, it's my turn... to drive at night through the flatlands that seem short on gas stations.. Indiana seemed to take awhile as well. Shannon pretty much drove during the day and me, the night owl drove through the night. Before yesterday, the furtherest east i've ever driven was Tennessee.. When we drove through Lolo, MT and I waved at you, Paul & Shari...

I tried to play my DS but playing diner dash in the car just wasn't working for me. Did listen to some music and I did watch a dvd.. bridget jones diary... I've never been a sunflower seed person like Rod is when he drives... but I have become one. I realized that the key to staying awake is really keeping my head busy... whether it be listening to music or chewing on sunflower seeds. You just can't be board and drive that far.

I was bummed that I didn't take many pictures along the way of our trip. With driving straight through, we didn't stop at many scenic places. McDonalds and Taco Bell and Gas stations in my opinion aren't really picture worthy....

So I'm here for a couple of days. At home the boys are in VBS at church. Mom's taking them a couple of nights and the day that Rod has off he'll take them. I can't believe i'm missing VBS! I've 'worked' it for the past three years....

When we got here it feels so East Coast. The houses, many of them have brick faces... which I've always loved... So many things here are different... But the heat is shocking.... you walk out of the house or get out of the AC'd car... and you get a blast of heat. It appears that most people spend their time indoors. Today is was 98 and tomorrow it's supposed to be 97. Thank the good Lord for Air Conditioning! Rod used to live out this way, before there was 'us' and i've teased him about why he ever moved west, it's beautiful here... and the way the houses are here it feels classic. He says he moved out here to meet me... awwww...

Funny being so close to the nations capital makes me feel somewhat patriotic. Seeing the signs etc... Normally, it's a place that's so far away, that you have no real reason to visit. And being here makes me want to come back, bring the kids, and see the sights.

It's peculiar to go somewhere without Rod. I know that Branden travels alot, but I don't go very many places without Rod. I really love to be with him... and it makes me sad when I have experiences that he is not a part of. It's a piece of me that is hard to share. You can't really share something that you haven't done... I can tell him about it, but it's just not the same! Miss you babe!

My brother Zane, when Josiah was a baby, found his birth mother. Since then he's been in touch with his birth siblings. He has 5 birth siblings.... And one of them, First Sargent Sam, lives about an hour from Zane and he was here when we arrived... So I got to meet the infamous Sam! I didn't know if I would ever get to meet his other siblings just because they live all over... and so it was an honor to meet him. And pretty crazy to see someone who looks so much like Zane. Up until now, I've never seen anyone that has his features... it was great! And then, because I'm a civilian... trying to figure out all what Sam actually does took me a bit. But he was very patient.... Thanks sam!

I fly out wednesday night... taking a red eye.... Funny, some days I so need a break from my kids... and then when i'm not with them I really miss them! I guess since i've been gone, Jaden and Jedediah have both moved up a level in swimming lessons and Josiah got his first trophy (3rd place) in BMX racing at Bakerview park... and Garrett got his first ever First place trophy (he's gotten others before) in BMX this last weekend as well... Usually i'm the one texting pictures to him to see at work while we are doing something cool... i'm not usually on the receiving end of those text pics!

Anyhoo... i'll let you know when I do get home... and maybe even post some pictures... Z