Like We Used To

There is a house to clean
And groceries to be bought.
There is a school week to plan
And 'to do' lists to be made.

But the sun is shining.
Oh, how that sun calls me!
The rainy season is almost upon us.
I know what this means for me.
I have lived through this kind of thing before.

So when the sun beckons
And calls me out of doors.
I surrender.
Because of all of the healing things I am learning
And relearning about - the sun is at the top of that list.

As I try to slow down
And listen to the quiet voice within
I know that when it pull me in one direction
I must go.

I take them to a farm.
We pick out pumpkins and some apple cider too!
And I watch them from behind as we wander through a corn maze.
I remember the days gone by.
I remember the little years and the laughter left in the corn stalks.
I remember all of Halloween things we used to do.
And I bring myself back to the present
Because I am trying to remember THAT is where the gift truly is.
It is not in the past.
It is in the right now.

And so I watch them again.
This time from right where I am at.
We laugh together and have fun.
The five of us together.
And I thank the kind of God that would bless me with these four souls.

Nice photo - Josh. 

He is making this face because there is dirt on the underside of this pumpkin. He hates dirt/sand/nature. 

The deal with the pumpkins was that the kids could get any pumpkin they wanted so that as they could carry it back to the car. This Mama's done with carrying their pumpkins. And because we believe that Sarah is a fully capable human being this applied to her as well. These next few pictures show her carrying her massive pumpkin and us laughing the whole time - me so much so that I snorted which only made us laugh even harder. 

Josh trying to maneuver his pumpkin so he didn't have to touch the dirt. 

Elizabeth didn't find the right one out in the patch, so she got hers from the pile of already selected pumpkins out front. 

A Day At The Beach

When we first began homeschooling park days and times spent out of doors were a must. 

Just the 5 of us doing our thing.

The four kids playing together creating, building, laughing, sharing.

These times helped to build another layer of our family life. 

More than most things, I want my kids to know that they have each other's backs in life. 

I want them to always look out for one another - 

No matter how old they get, 

Or how geographically far apart they live from one another,

Or where they are at in their life's journey.

I want them to know that they can always depend on each other. 

I want them to know that each of them has value and has something to offer that the other three kids don't have ensuring that they all know that collectively they each have something to offer the others.

Homeschooling certainly helps us reinforce that vision.

I have gotten away from time together doing fun activities. 

I don't know why that is. 

It seems like homeschooling has been stressful for a while. 

A lot of me trying to get this done and that done

And feeling like a complete failure when it doesn't work out the way that I had planned.

And the kids fretting about not knowing this or that yet. 

And while their book work is certainly very important. 

So are days at the beach. 

We are blessed to be able to live the nomadic lifestyle that we do. 

The places we are able to see and the things that we have been able to do are so conducive to a homeschooling lifestyle. 

And yet I have forgotten that.

I have been fretting over how little time left there is. 

And how fast this time has gone by.

Instead I need to remember to rejoice in the fact that there still is time left. 

And that there is still time to be with them in my most favorite ways. 

Arcadia Beach

This tree looked like the spine of a dinosaur to me. 

Lily chasing a seagull

While the kids were playing Lily and I took a walk down the beach. 

Waiting for me to catch up...

There was a haze -which you can see to the right of this rock - that prevented you from seeing very far in front of you. It was really weird as it only covered half of the beach. It was like a thick fog on an otherwise clear sunny day at the beach. 

A jellyfish

The kids moved the driftwood to create an arena on the beach. 

Josh was slide tackling the ball away from Elizabeth - ever the competitor - he really did not want her to score.