a little of this, a little of that . . .

Well, we took a break from formal curriculum at the end of January when it was time to pack up and move across the country, and here we are at the beginning of May already. We spent 2 months in a rental house (with a pool that was never used, except by the dog) and a firepit at which we made s'mores one time. :) We just had to, you know? But since the inside of the house, although having a wonderful little floorplan, was a bit too smelly and unclean for us, we purchased a new house much earlier than expected. Even before our old house sold. Yes, indeed, for the last 2 weeks of March we owned 2 homes and had occupancy of a rental. Yep, walking in faith.

The story of how we were able to find and purchase our new house is too incredible to tell in a blog post. It is the exact floorplan in the exact neighborhood that we feel in love with 2 years ago while visiting here. (We're kind of house junkies. It's what our family does for fun. We look at houses.) I had thought we would downsize and get a pool and enjoy living life for a bit. Maybe a condo. T loves big houses. We did not compromise. He won. But I do love the beautiful manor that we now own. Yes, we refer to it as a manor.

So, this is God: We were able to get out of our lease at the rental (from a very grumpy agent) and received our entire deposit back. Our old house sold and closed in April, and we were able to sign papers there on an already pre-planned trip to visit family. Knowing the difficulty of cleaning carpets to our satisfaction because of living in the rental, we were able to purchase the new home (with the already loved floorplan across the street from the park) and replace the carpeting including a hypoallergenic pad before we moved in.

Now, life hasn't been a bed of roses. I've been struggling, to be honest. Although I love the environment I'm now living in, leaving my old home was one of the hardest things I've ever done. It hurt. It was scary. I'm still not settled, and definitely not fully unpacked. I've been dealing with a major sinus infection that won't die. But, seriously -- isn't God good? He is so faithful, even when I feel faithless. This is one of those times that I look back and only see one set of footprints and wonder why I was so alone, only to realize that I wasn't alone, I was being carried.

Just yesterday, I finally got the right paperwork together and headed downtown to file a declaration of intent to homeschool. I was quite a bit late taking care of this first-time-for-me task. I missed a turn and opted to go a different way than I had planned. I weaved through town for an hour to get there, had an incredibly wonderful experience with the sweet lady at the school superintendent's office (seriously!), then chose the wrong way to come home and was in traffic in the hot sun for over an hour!! Blah! A few hours later, I overheard T watching the evening news. Wowie bazowie! There was a shoot-out on the freeway that I thought I "should have taken" and there was an incredible traffic jam and police activity at the very time that I "should have been" going through there. Some people may brush that off, but I know God led me away from that scene. He's still carrying me, because I'm just a little (lot) too fragile to be making wise decisions.

And today is Saturday. My sinuses are hurting, which is causing the vertigo to try to act up, which is not fun in the least. I need to get some things done (laundry), and get ready for a big block party this afternoon in the park. Thankfully, T will be home and able to take Princess M if I'm not up to the excitement. We really need to meet some neighbors. That was another blessing about living in our rental house -- M made the greatest friends there! We had so much in common with a couple on our street, we even went to church with them. M was able to go over to their house to play almost everyday, which she has never had the opportunity to do before. It was so good for her! She needs to make some more friends around here. (And we need to invite that family over for a bbq/play day!)

There's only 2 weeks of school left for kids around here. I feel like M has been on summer break since January. We've done plenty of unschooling, though. Some of the things she has come up with to learn about have been amazing for all of us. She's been learning to type by entering Bible verses into Word. She's writing a report on horses from info from the internet and library books. She's definitely had tons of P.E. She was able to do a once-per-week co-op for 6 weeks, doing animal science and Bible and lots of outdoor play, and learned to play kick-ball. She has mastered cursive, and writes so well it truly amazes me. That's her gift, really. She was printing her name at 18 months old in stick-form capital letters. I will save those papers forever. And now she has very nice cursive - and forms some of her letters better than I do! Cursive is really a dying art, but I'll not tell her that. She's also had lots of fun with art and crafts. This week, she was into creating a hardscape on her etch-a-sketch and then copying it on drafting paper and coloring it in. That was very cool to this ex-engineer momma. Most of math work has been measuring, weighing, cooking and oral drill. Map skills come into play just trying to help momma find her way around! :) I leave workbooks in her book basket, and she thinks they're there for fun. Works for me. Getting her to sit still and have table time/real school for a few hours a day starting in August is going to be my biggest challenge.

M is very excited to be doing 3rd grade over 2 years and getting on track with kids her age. She's been going to the 2nd grade class at church and just loving it. I was (unnecessarily) concerned what people may think, but M answers the "What grade are you in?" question by saying, "I'm homeschooled. I'm going into 3rd grade next year even though I'm already doing 3rd grade now." And people are impressed! Who cares, right? But it's a funny slap-in-the-face to me that everyone thinks that's awesome.

I'm also really excited about next year. Since we've already done the first 8 weeks of our curriculum, starting up again will be repeat, which will make things much easier for me. I'm just the kind of person that likes to know what to expect, so having an easy route the first 2 months back after such a long break will be a God-send. Isn't it amazing how His plan comes together?

So, that's our update, in case anyone was wondering. :) I'll start blogging again in August when we get back into ECC full-time. Have a great summer!