Homeschool Stuff

For my homeschooling friends. I have a post up over on my Homeschooling Review Blog about what we are using next year, if you are interested.

Change-Up

I'm changing up a few things on my Homeschool Review Blog. I'll post my homeschool stuff over there, not just reviews. So if you're interested in what's going on at Hilltop Academy, pop on over!

Colorado Trip Part 2. Sort of.

I started telling you of our little Colorado adventure in the middle. I don’t know why. That is how my brain works. Haphazardly.

On our way through NM to Colorado, we stopped at Capulin Volcano National Monument.



It’s kinda the first major elevation change we come too. We stopped there 4 years ago on our first trip and took this photo.



This is the one we took this time.



I think maybe we’ve all gotten a little bigger, even those of us who really shouldn’t have gotten any bigger…

Capulin is a nice stop over.



It’s a good place to have a picnic on your travels up to CO. There are some truly amazing vistas from up there.






My advice is to stop before you hit the Rockies and not after. Capulin is very impressive when you are coming up from flat ol’ Texas but after leaving the Rockies…well, notsomuch!

We stayed at an RV park near The Great Sand Dunes National Park. That was our first camping spot in CO. We’ve been there before, so we didn’t spend a great deal of time on the dunes, but the kids went and had a blast. Even the big kids.







This is my two boys and a cousin (sort of, he’s my sister in law’s sisters boy, but we call him cousin. TMI? Sorry.) running down the dunes.

That’s the thing I love about The Dunes. They really are fun for everyone.



Because we’d already been to the Dunes, we didn’t stay long. When everyone was done on The Dunes, we drove to The Colorado Gator Farm. It was something to behold. Think traveling sideshow.





(Annika got a certificate for holding the gator, that the gator bit and left teeth marks in as his official seal. She thought that was pretty darn cool.)

There were gators EVERYWHERE!




I suspect this is the place they send injured gators or gators that have been found and cannot be released back into the wild for whatever reason. I’m not sure I’d go back, it was a little odd, but it was fun doing it once. You can even pay to wrestle a gator if you are so inclined. We were not so inclined. Definitely a fun one-time stop.

Oddly enough, this was my birthday, so I got to spend my birthday at the Great Sand Dunes and the Colorado Gator Farm. Not many people can say that, I suspect.



(The kids realized we didn't have any candles in the RV so they improvised with twisty ties and toothpicks. Pretty resourceful, I'd say!)

Colorado Part 1

My family has been in CO on vacation with some other family members and some dear friends. Here is the whole group.



Okay, actually, this is the whole group minus me, the frady-cat. I can handle a lot of things but I don't like severe thunderstorms (hay! I'm a Kansas girl, those thunderstorms carry tornadoes and those can kill ya!) and I don't like spiders, I mean really don't like. Like maybe a wee bit phobic, and I don't like heights.
Driving up those mountain passes makes me freak. I have to close my eyes or look at the rock wall on the other side and NOT the sheer drop off. The sheer drop off will make me come unhinged. Because I have the kids in the car, I try not to show that I am panicking. I just act normal and DON'T LOOK. But I don't like it at all! It's funny because Violet knows.



As soon as I start to feel all freaked out she starts whining and she will try to get to the seat I am in and lick me. It's really funny.

I am not in the above picture because where they were can only be accessed by jeeps. Sir D let both of the boys drive up the scary, rocky, muddy, roads.



I'm not sure they've ever been happier.

It took a 5 hour jeep ride to get there and it was harrowing in some spots (I was told by my 12 year old little girl who is braver than me) I stayed back at the lodge doing laundry and sitting here…



…drinking coffee. All in all, not a bad trade off. The jeeps that they rented were from Castle Lakes Campground. If you are into jeeping, motorbike riding, or 4 wheeling, this is your place. It has a lodge, campgrounds, and some cabins. The best thing is that you can drive your vehicle of choice right out of the camping area and up the mountain whether or not it’s street legal. This is a pretty cool thing and hard to find.



Usually you have to trailer your non street legal vehicle to the starting point of the trails. That was a big plus for our crew. It’s a very beautiful spot with some really nice people running it!

Here is another photo of the whole crew. This photo I was in!



This was a lot of fun. It was not as fun for the guys because it was kind of tame. More of a river tour than a rafting trip because it was late in the season, but I liked it. It was a nice introduction to rafting for me. I will definitely do this again!

The Mountain Man Tours in Creed took us on this trip. The guides were good, a little hyper, but I’m thinking it must be hard to do this same trip 2 times a day for weeks and weeks and maintain your enthusiasm. I’m thinking caffeine is the way they make that happen!

While we were on the river, our guide Paul, told us of this lodge in Wagon Wheel Gap that sold pies that are made by the local Mennonite community. On our way out my Sister in Law, Ruth and I made nicely asked our husbands to pull over our giant RV’s so we could buy a pie. They of course, grumbled were happy to do so. That was probably the best berry pie I have ever had. If you’re ever in Wagon Wheel Gap, get yourself some pie!

Change

I've changed a few things up over here on the Hilltop. If you read through a reader, pop on over and leave a comment. I want to make sure it all looks correct and there is not some crazy photo or banner taking over the place, or some box all off center. So if you could, tell me how it looks, okay?

I changed up the photos of the family, because they are all about 3 feet taller now, and I also changed up the backdrop to freshen it up. I can't tell you how tempted I was to put something snowy on the blog. Summer is killing me. We're about to break the record for the longest string of 100 degree days. Oh Joy.

So, come check out my facelift, this was way more fun to do that the 20 loads of laundry I have to do after out 11 day camping trip to CO!

The Slow Death of Joy

I read something kind of astounding today. It was not necessarily new information, in fact it was something I’d read countless times, but I’d never quite thought of it in this new way.

It was a daily devotional about Joy. The verse the author of the devotion was expounding on was “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart will also be.” Matthew 6:21. We’ve all read this, we know it. It is right there after the verse about laying up your treasures in heaven and not on earth were they can be destroyed. I thought I was doing that. But what I read in this devotional smacked me right between the eyes.

Ellen Miller, the author of this devotional book, shares the story of her adult son being addicted to Meth and being missing off and on for years. Truly every mother’s worst nightmare. After telling the story of her son’s addiction she says...

“I share my story with you because, like many mothers, my treasure was my children. For many years, I drew my identity, creativity, and self worth from my children’s well-being. My dream of raising healthy, happy children was my energy source. But I’ve learned through this journey that this does not work; I can’t commit my sanity or insanity to my children. My joy must come from knowing that God’s agenda is greater than my own. Thus I reassign him to be my treasure by placing my trust in his promise of grace and mercy. Once I shifted my focus from me to him, I realized I could be joyful and strong regardless of this heartbreaking situation.”

I found this so interesting because for me, joy has been a little elusive of late. I have been trying to find it again. I made ‘joy’ my word for 2011. I was determined. There are many things in my life that are just not fun anymore. My kids are older and don’t want to play cards with me or watch AFV on Friday nights. Homeschooling the Jr. High and High School grades is just not very fun. It is a lot of work, really. My house is so very small and I am finding it quite difficult to function with all these teenagers in such a small house. My visions of working in the kitchen side by side with my daughters, teaching them how to cook and keep house has become a dismal joke in my ‘one butt kitchen’. Having all the boys’ friends over to hang out is a near impossibility considering we have room for 5 people to sit comfortably in our living room. This was not how it was supposed to be. We were not supposed to be still living in this tiny house when the kids got to be this age. This tiny house was a stop-over.

Even after 20 years with the same company, and moving up and up through the ranks, my husband still works very long hours. My college age son is making decisions that I think to be unwise, and yet there is not much I can do about it except watch. My 2nd, almost adult son is never home, and instead is working constantly. A good thing, I suppose, but not quite how I envisioned it. I am finding having teenage daughters a challenge. There are so many hormones flying around my house sometimes I wonder if it should be declared unfit for human inhabitance. Being a woman myself you’d think I’d comprehend what was going on in my daughters’ minds and be able to be understanding and helpful, but frankly, I’m at a loss. One daughter won’t speak except in monosyllabic responses, and the other won’t stop speaking so anyone else can get a word in edgewise. This is not how I thought it would be.

I have decided that idealism and unrealistic expectations are the death of joy. I have killed my own joy slowly over the years by hanging on to the unrealistic ‘Perfect Christian Homeschooling Family’ vision, made possible by my own idealism.

I like very much how Mrs. Miller ended her daily devotion; “Of course, reassigning your treasure may not be easy. My only helpful tip: it’s easier to let go of something once you recognize it wasn’t yours in the first place.”

So I guess I should now go about the process of reassigning my joy. I’m not sure what this process will look like or even how to go about it, really, but I know I’ve got to try. You hear of so many amazing Christian people who have been through unparalleled adversity talking about having joy despite their circumstances. How did they do it? My husband is gone too much, my house is too small and my teenagers are driving me batty. I’ve let this kill my joy? What a wimp I am. The greats of the faith like Corrie Ten Boom, Detrick Bonhoffer , and Mother Theresa, must be shaking their heads in heaven at my milquetoast disposition.

They say the first step to recovery is recognizing you have a problem, right?

Newly 17

My Gunnar. He was just the cutest baby. He was fat and happy. He didn't crawl until he was 10 months old and he didn't walk until he was 15 months old. I had to carry him everywhere! He was 20lbs at 4 months, so that was no easy task!



It did not take him long at all to realize his preferred method of transportation was wheels.


And as soon as he could he went for the real thing. A gas powered engine. Gunnar loves a gas powered engine. I believe if I counted I would come up with at least 6 or 7 items in his possession with a gas powered engine.


So it should be no surprise that this day has come. This day where my newly 17 year old son buys a motorcycle.


And yet, this vision of that squishy little smily baby riding off on a motorcycle is one I don't think a mother is ever quite ready for.



Drive slowly, baby!

Blue

My Ev is on the blue teem this year at church camp. This is how she choose to show her solidarity.

Blue hair.

Oh boy.



(How cute is that???)

Church

Some days I feel like I'm drowning in an ocean of Religion, and yet I'm so thirsty for encouragement.

That just does not seem right.

It's Getting Busy Up There!

While we were in Arkansas at Millwood State Park, camping with family and friends, I saw something. Something I could not get out of my mind. For most of our party, what we saw was just an odd spectacle that we joked about around the campfire. But for me, it was something else. See, I’m a writer. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have any books published (YET!) but I have the mind of a writer. I see something like this…





...and I can't let it go! These are literally rail cars that someone put a front door on the short side, and a back door on the back side, and an air conditioner window unit in a cut out hole, and that’s it! They built a wooden structure over the top of them, kind of like a carport and called it done. I didn’t even see any windows! And it sent my mind racing. Who are the people who live there? What led them there? How did they get to a point in their lives where they decided a railcar was a good place to life? What happened to them? What’s their story?

And that’s why I can’t let it go. The question ‘What’s their story?’ I can’t very well knock on the door of one of those railcars (even the nicely panted red one with the floral wreath on it), and ask, so I have to make it up.

All week since we’ve been home a story has been unfolding in my mind about a young woman who finds herself living in a rail car apartment. Over the week the whole story has materialized. Beginning, middle and end. Plot, characters, storyline, it’s all there. I’ve written down the details of my story and maybe one day when things slow down a bit, I’ll actually get to write it. But for now, this lady (who already has a name) has joined all the other characters sitting in a little waiting room in my mind, waiting for me to tell their story. It’s getting busy up there!