First Date....

Annsley received an invitation in the mail the other day for a date! At age 9!! The gentleman was very proper and asked her in a polite, formal way. When she read the invitation her eyes sparkled and danced with excitement. This event was a dinner and a dance. The event was sponsored by our church, so I felt that it was an acceptable venue for a first date. Of course, I wanted to know all kinds of information about the young man who asked her. It turns out, he is a God loving person, really loves his family, a boy of character, a hard worker, and a very fun guy. I told her I thought it would be fine if she accepted the invitation. So, she immediately called him. Normally, I would frown on Annsley calling a boy, but I made an exception in this case.

"Hello, this is Annsley."
(the other side of the phone.) "Hello"
"I'm just calling to tell you that I would be happy to accept your invitation."
(words that I couldn't hear)
"So, you'll pick me up on Thursday at 5:45?"
(insert other small talk here)

"Goodbye, Daddy. I love you too!"

I told her that she couldn't have chosen a better first date. They had a fun time doing the chicken dance, the Scottish polka, the Limbo, and many others. It is hard to imagine that someday in the not too distant future some other guy will be calling to ask her out. Let me just tell you that I won't be so easy in giving my permission!

The room where we live....

I thought I'd give you a little tour of the school room. Seth is watching the Latin DVD and doing some art at the same time. On the wall to the right is our timeline and copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that we got while we were in Washington DC. The plastic globe ball in the background was free with our subscription of Kid's National Geographic and Seth drives me crazy bouncing it all over the room.

Note the rabbit ears. Nice TV, eh?




This is our US map that we have traced the routes of our different driving trips on (which, of course, you can't see) but we have been to 26 states altogether. The trampoline is a wonderful energy burner when the kids need a little energy burn-off! The Playmobile castle is the only toys my kids have ever really with (although you can see that there are bins of legos, blocks, etc) The picture is and has been leaning against the wall for about 6 months now. I guess I need to hang it up or move it out, eh?






Another picture of the timeline, and some posters and Seth coloring.

Behind the door on the left is our laundry room.
















The piano, the art display, the computer for the kids to do Rosetta Stone.

Behind that door is my "office." It is lined with bookshelves and I have my homeschooling/scrapbooking/junk stored in there. It is actually clean right now which is a rare shock!






Behind the couch is where we usually sit. The kids are at their desks and I sit at that brown chair in the middle (I am there right now.)

Most of the books are in the kids' rooms or in my office. The bookshelves behind my chair are our daily stuff.

Usually the kids are up and dressed by breakfast, but for some reason Annsley begged to do school in her jammies this day. So, I let her. After all, today I'm still in my exercise clothes from this morning.

Grandparent lessons....

Perhaps you remember that on Tuesday afternoons Annsley and Seth go to one of the grandparents. (Then the next week they switch.) In today's post I want to honor my parents and in-laws. When I dropped Seth off at my parents my Dad had taped a little scorecard on the door of ten Olympic events that he had set up for them to do together. They included a round of croquet, backyard golf, holding their breath in the hot tub, foos ball, etc...How many Grandpas would go to all that effort to entertain a seven year old? Seth loved it (especially because he "won" 8 of the events.) Then I went to pick up Annsley and she had her piano lesson with my mom-in-law. Next they worked on their sewing project that they have been working on together (a home made doll and accessories.)

We constantly remind our kids how blessed they are to have grandparents who not only love them and want to spend time with them, but also invest their time and energies to teach them and support them. Last Saturday morning, in the freezing rain, Seth had four grandparents standing with blankets and umbrellas to cheer him on in his soccer game. They use every opportunity to teach them about God as well.

Believe me when I tell you that I am taking notes on how to be a grandmother some day. I know that most people don't have even one set of parents who are able to do this, and it is something I never take for granted. Not even for one minute!!! Not even for one second!!!

Happy Me, too

Yah, what she said!!! (Except for the toes, the dog, and the bladder issues!)

Happy, happy spring!!

How can my little girl be 9? (Obnoxious bragging mother alert)

9 years ago today we celebrated the birth of our first child. Annsley LaNae came out and I was so thrilled to have a little girl. I wanted a girl so bad to share the kind of relationship that I have with my mom. And there she was. I realized that I have probably blogged more about Seth than I have about Annsley, so today is my tribute to her.
This is a poem I wrote one day when she was three and the sun was shining in on her blonde hair and chubby thighs. I would still say the exactly the same about her today (minus her chubby thighs!!)

You stand before me a picture of light
The sun shining on your golden hair,
reflecting the sparkles in your blue eyes.
Your smile lights up every shady spot in the room.
You in pink-there is no more innocent sight.
Purity and goodness.
You are a precious gift from God.

The word "good" is a weak word. They tell you not to use it when writing, but it describes Annsley. She is a "good" person. From the time she was a baby she was good. She was happy, loving, and obedient. She is considerate far beyond her years. She anticipates what might hurt someone's feelings and makes sure that she doesn't do that. She loves deeply. She loves life. She loves learning.

Here is a story that shows her sweet heart. When we were at the National Art Gallery I was really excited about all the wonderful paintings. Many were things that we had studied. The kids were really tired because we had been walking all day and they weren't totally in the mood for an art gallery. I was a bit frustrated because the men were acting like it was something to rush through as fast as possible and the kids were following that lead. I leaned over to Annsley and I said, "Annsley, I was really hoping that this would be something that you and I would enjoy together." She could tell that it was important to me, and from that minute on she walked hand in hand with me throughout the gallery and really participated. Once she chose to put her mind to it I think she really did enjoy it a lot, but it brought tears to my eyes to watch her choose to do something just to make me happy.

I could share story after story about her sweet nature. People who know her in real life know that I am really not exaggerating. She is the kind of child that makes a parent want to write a parenting book, but we are smart enough to know that God had a lot more to do with who she is than we do.

She has been a spiritually sensitive child since she was old enough to tote books around. Her favorite book was the Bible. She accepted Christ when she was 4 and she prayed a prayer (on her own) that she read in the back of her Bible. We never really pushed her to "accept Jesus" although we talked about Him a lot. She did that totally on her own. She still can be found pouring over her devotions and memorizing verses on her own.

Happy Birthday, sweet Annsley!

Tagged by Cathy....

Hey Cath, I keep meaning to call you....:-)

5 Things

in my fridge:
1. case of Diet Coke-a sweet gift from my mother-in-law waiting for me when we got home from our trip (along with some fruit, milk and dinner) Isn't she sweet?
2. small jar of chili-garlic paste from....let's see....how many years have we lived here? 6 years ago.
3. a huge fresh box of STRAWBERRIES!!!! Nothing says "spring is finally here" like fresh strawberries. Yummy!
4. Left over fajitas. On any give week we have fajitas at least once.
5. Cream for making homemade ice cream.

in my closet:
1. that pair of jeans that Betsey gave me that I'm waiting to be small enough to wear. :-)
2. about 100 tanks for layering. God bless whoever invented that style. It really helps those of us with long waists to cope with the short shirt fad.
3. the pair of white pumps from my wedding....worn only once.
4. all of Danny's coats (this is a whole blog post in itself, but he has taken over my side of the closet with them!)
5. my fluffy white terrycloth bathrobe that I got as a high school graduation present and wore all through college (right, Becky?)

in my purse:
1. several tubes of Carmex
2. a bulletin from church last Sunday
3. my daytimer (aka: my brains)
4. flushable wipes (you never know when you may need a wipe)
5. several receipts wadded up towards the bottom wedged in next to pb gum (purse bottom gum-you know the kind that you only chew when desperate because it has been laying in the bottom of your purse and may or may not still have the wrapper in tact.)

in my car:
1. my yoga mat (even though I have only done yoga a couple times in the last few months)
2. the latest Lemony Snickett book that we are listening to on tape (we are on Carnivorous Carnival). Am I the only grown up that thinks these books are hilarious?
3. the little notebook that for some unknown reason Danny makes us record our gas purchases. Can't I just write, "WAYYYY too much!!"
4. a little emergency kit that I put together (including duct tape, fingernail clippers, needle, tampons, aspirin, scissors, etc....)
5. our lawn chairs for watching soccer games

on my TiVo???:
ummmmm.....my 18-year-old-no-cable-can't-even-barely-figure-out-the-dumb-VCR television has nothing recorded right now. If I were to record something, it would be fuzzy because I would have to unplug the rabbit ears in order to plug in the VCR (it is either one or the other, baby!)

Time to blog...

Since we have been home I feel like I have been going 100 miles per hour. I find I go through phases where I am highly productive and energetic and for some reason I am in one of those phases right now. When I get into this mode I get less sleep and have more energy. Perhaps it is motivated by the incredible amount of things I have to get done over the next couple of months. I layed out a schedule of all the things I want to get done so that I can begin checking off the boxes. But, I haven't had a lot of brain power left over to blog. Maybe one of these days I'll get inspired to post something interesting. Until then, just know that I am reading all of *your* interesting thoughts!

Whoever said, "It's great to be home?"

People always say that when they come home from vacations. I never really have that feeling. Danny loves being back to our own bed. I can sleep anywhere, so this doesn't affect me. Danny likes eating homecooked meals again. Guess who has to cook those meals? I prefer restaurants. Sure, living out of a suitcase is a bit of a pain, but who has to empty those suitcases and wash every last piece of clothing, and get it folded and put away? When we got back last night I had a bit of an overwhelmed feeling with all the things I need to get done in the next couple of weeks! I prefer worrying about decisions like whether to eat in Chinatown or Little Italy in NYC! (We chose Chinatown, by the way.)

I haven't yet had the time to tell all the the sites we saw in New York City or in Philedelphia, but that will have to be saved for another time.

Alas, I know that real life must happen in order for vacations to seem so special but, this trip was a very special one to me. The theme for this trip that kept running through my mind the whole time was "In the Presence of Greatness." Great historical leaders, great museums, great monuments, great documents of freedom, great art, great architecture, simple places where great things happened, and most of all, great country! Everywhere we went, that thought kept popping into my mind. It was such a privilege to get to share this greatness with my children at a young age, and hopefully, it will inspire them to greatness as well.

If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere...

It's up to you, New York, New York!

Thank goodness for a gorgeous day!! We drove to New York this morning and took the ferry over to the statue of liberty and then went up to the observation deck. It is such an incredibly amazing sight! It really gives you shivers seeing it up close in real life.

We will spend tomorrow doing more sight seeing/tourist stuff.

Danny reserved hotels before we left. We are not the kind of people who spend a lot of money on hotels. We view them as a place to sleep and if they are clean we are happy. However, since we have my computer every night we go to priceline.com and see if we can get a nicer hotel for the same price as the one we have reserved. So far, we have been able to upgrade almost every night and tonight takes the cake! It is a beautiful hotel with a view from our window of the Empire State Building! This was less on Priceline than the Red Roof we had originally reserved. God bless the internet! Our kids are going to become hotel snobs!

I would not have made a good Pilgrim!

Well, it was bound to happen, but today we hit miserable rain all day. We braved the Mayflower boat tour, but decided to bag Plymouth Plantation. We had been a bit undecided about whether we would go there even if the weather was nice. Although, after talking with the very knowledgeable people on the Mayflower, we were sorry that it wasn't nicer out. The Pilgrims landed at that very spot in December. I can't imagine how cold and miserable that would have been. It must have been pretty bad in England to set sail on that tiny ship with 130 other people. I think I probably would have chosen to stay.

Next we drove to Providence, Rhode Island. We drove by the capitol building, but the weather just wasn't permitting of too much walking around outside. So, after lunch, we headed on to our hotel in Connecticut. We are staying here so that we have a short drive to NYC tomorrow. Fortunately, we looked at the weather and it is supposed to be sunny and warmer! We are headed straight for the Statue of Liberty, so I really hope the weather is nice!

Today reminded me of how thankful I am for warmth. We hopped in our car, turned on the heater and warmed right up. When our nation started there were no places to go to get warm. Those early colonists battled amazing conditions and we are reaping the benefit or that!

Update from Boston...

This morning we drove down the Maine coast and saw the Atlantic Ocean. We can now say we have been in all four corners of the United States. There were some quaint villages that I'm sure would be packed at a warmer time of the year, but were pretty deserted today.

We then hopped over to Boston, parked our car at a subway station and rode to the beginning of The Freedom Trail. This is a 2 mile historic loop that weaves you through Boston and it is so interesting how the old and new building co-exist right next to each other. You will be looking up at a modern skyscraper and then walk right by the Old North Church (famous from the Paul Revere story where they hung the lanterns so Revere could send out the message, "The British are coming.")




















One of my favorite parts of The Trail are the old (REALLY old) cemeteries. I included a couple of pictures because I think they are so cool! We saw John Hancock, Samuel Adams and Paul Revere's graves.
I ate Lobster Bisque at Fanuel Hall (a famous meeting place of the Revolutionary heroes.) I was bound and determined to have lobster in some form before leaving New England. It was delicious!!! It sprinkled on us, but I was so thankful that it was warm and not freezing. I was really worried that we would freeze on today, but the temperature was great!

Now, I am sitting in front of a swimming pool in our hotel while blogging. You gotta love modern technology!! Danny is taking a nap, because he is getting a cold and needs a rest.

Hello from New Hampshire

I don't have any pictures loaded from today yet, but this morning we got an early start and drove through some quaint historical towns. Our goal was to get to New Hampshire to stay with a friend of Danny's since childhood. On our way we got to see them make maple syrup in Vermont. Danny was really hoping we would get to see them tap the trees and watch the sap flow out. We missed that by a few days but we were there just at the right time to see them take the sap, boil it, filter it, and turn it into syrup for us to taste. It was a neat little mom-and-pop operation and the owner was no nice in showing us all the steps. The maple ice cream was delicious!!

This was out longest driving day, but we did stop and peek into the New Hampshire capitol building. We happened to see the governor walking by. We had a nice home cooked meal at our friend's house and we set sail for Boston and the Freedom Trail tomorrow. I've been really looking forward to that after reading Johnny Tremain and all the books about the Revolutionary War info.

The kids do so great on the long driving days. They didn't even complain one time about the driving. We pop the Story of the World CD's in and everyone is happy. It is great because the kids beg us to put it in, we get a good history review in, and Danny gets to hear all the things we have learned about. We have been listening to vol 2-The Middle Ages and I am hoping to get through the first half of vol 3-Renaissance to Early Modern. That would catch them up to where we are in history.

It has been fun to read your comments. I think of so many of you as I am driving through your states. I really wish I could stop and meet all you East Coasters!! Donna, today I thought of you because we drove by a store called Boucherville (pronounced Boo-shay-ville.) I had to tell Danny all about you. And, friends from home, I am missing you all!

Trip update...

Tuesday, April 4-This morning Danny (bless his heart) left our hotel to stand in line for tickets to the Bureau of Engraving. He got to see the Washington Monument at sunrise, which is something the rest of us can't say. He got 9:00 AM tickets and we scurried to meet him. I can't say that I have ever seen 130 million dollars in one place before, but now I have! WOW!

On the other side of the extreme we went to the Holocaust Museum next. They have a fantastic exhibit called Daniel's story that is just perfect for children. It was so well done and Annsley and Seth really got a feel for what happened without all the images that they might not be ready for.

We went up to Arlington Cemetery to see the changing of the guard. Seth really enjoyed that. There are some amazing stats about the men who serve in that position. I'll have to dig those out sometime, but they take these amazing promised when they accept that position. It was a beautiful day and we had some good pictures of the city in the background.

The kids got a chance to swim and then we set off on to see the monuments at night. It was a beautiful night and they were absolutely gorgeous!!























This is what Seth looked like by the end of the day! (Notice the book title.)

Wednesday, April 5-We woke up very early to take Danny's parents to the airport and then we set out for PA. We stopped for an extremely cold tour of Gettysburg. We did the car tour thing and didn't get out too much. We haven't studied the Civil War yet, but we did talk about it some before our south trip last year. We did read a biography about Abraham Lincoln and the kids memorized the Gettysburg Address. (Yes, I made them stand in the freezing spot where Abe Lincoln stood and quote it!)

And what Classical Education tour would be complete without the Hershey, PA chocolate factory tour? We changed out itinerary a little. We were going to tour Amish country and Lancaster, but decided to take a shorter route to our hotel and go by Hershey. We were going to skip it, but decided to include it and it turned out to be a highlight for the kids (of course.) They put you on a little ride and you learn about how they make the chocolate and then they give you some samples. Hey folks, it can't be education all the time!! (Actually, the funny thing is that they already knew a ton about how chocolate was made from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory class they just finished at our co-op! It was a great reinforcement of what they learned!)

Tonight we are in another hotel with a pool and internet access. We are all happy! We are having a great time, and it is so fun just to be together!

An update of the last four days (feel free to skim)

Friday March 30, 2006-WARNING-Long trip explanations!! Prepare for skimming ahead!!

The first place we started this morning was at the Library of Congress. While we were waiting for our tour, we walked next door to the Supreme Court building. I was moved to tears by the huge majestic marble columns. (Remember, I am a sentimental sucker for all things patriotic.) We went back to catch our tour of the Library of Congress. This was a spectacular building fully decorated in Italian Renaissance style. Of course, any Classical educator worth their salt gets excited about seeing one of the three surviving original full Gutenburg Bibles. I was amazed at the perfection of the type set and ink. The reading room was something we looked into from behind a closed window, but I’m pretty convinced that any book read in that room would make you smarter just by osmosis. Both Annsley and I fell in love with that room! I also enjoyed seeing some letters written by George Washington and an original manuscript of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography since that is what I brought along to read.


Next we went to hear a lecture at the Supreme Court Building. It was interesting and we took a little tour of the place.














The highlight of the day for the boys was the Air & Space Museum. I realized that Danny and I are great complements for homeschooling because he got so excited in the hands on science part and was explaining things to the kids (and me, as well!) I get more excited about all the history/literature stuff. So, between the two of us, our poor children are constantly being subject to school.

We also took in the Botanical Gardens which were lovely.

Note to future DC travelers…SKIP THE ZOO!! To be fair, it closed earlier than we thought and so many of the animals were put away for the night. But, the joke is now that the only animals we saw were a squirrel and an emu. Part of the problem is that is was quite a distance of walking for us at the end of a day already full of walking.

Saturday, April 01, 2006
This morning started at the Washington Monument. We walked around the mall and the cherry blossoms were absolutely amazing!! No wonder they seem to make the National news every year. The weather was perfect for this day. My favorite is the Lincoln monument. (Yes, I teared up.) I had the kids quote the Gettysburg address for me. (they’ll have to do it again in Gettysburg. J) I had never seen the Korean or WW2 memorials before and I was very moved by the sculptures done of the Korean War soldiers. We haven’t studied WW2 yet and Danny gave a short history of WW2 for the kids while sitting looking over the memorial.

The one place where we have had to pay for admission so far is the National Aquarium. Don’t bother. It is very unimpressive. Neither of the kids even ranked it in the top 5 things we saw today.
Our bonus treat for the day was a tour of the White House grounds. We were disappointed because we were not able to get a White House tour before we left. However, two times a year they open up the white house grounds for tours. We got to go right up to the White House. This was an unexpected addition to our itinerary and it was in everyone’s top three favorite things of the day.

Lastly, we went back to the Air & Space Museum for the 5:00 planetarium show. This was very interesting. Then we took the subway back to the hotel and rested our oh-so-weary feet!


Sunday, April 2, 2006
This morning we started out the day at the Museum of American History. We enjoyed seeing things from the Revolutionary War time since that is what we have been studying and I really loved seeing the original Star Spangled Banner. (Yup. Teared up!) Danny enjoyed taking the kids through The Price of Freedom exhibit and explaining the different wars. Annsley and I liked the First Ladies’ gowns.

But the highlight of the day for everyone was the Museum of Natural History. If our feet would have lasted we could have spent 10 times as long there. The gems and rocks were a big hit for everyone. Seth gave us a guided tour in the animal sections. (Who knew he was actually reading all those books. I always figured he was just looking at the pictures. He knew all sorts of animal trivia.) There was also a cool exhibit on ancient peoples including a real live (dead) mummy. There were some cool little videos about Ancient Egypt. We saw some of the vases from Ancient Greece that were just like the ones we studied from Story of the World.

We ended the day at The National Archives and saw the original copy of The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights, and one of the original copies of The Magna Carta. The kids were so excited to see John Hancock’s name. I made the kids quote the intro to the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble to the Constitution. I got a little teary just standing in the room with such greatness.

Monday-April 3 We started out the morning with a Congressional tour of the Capitol building. It was very interesting until about 3/4 of the way through our tour the lights went out in the Statuary Hall. All of a sudden they started ushering people out of the building and the men in charge didn't look like they were fooling around. I would be lieing if I said my heart wasn't beating a little faster than normal, but it was amazing how fast and efficiently they got people out of there. It turns out that it was just a power outage, but it made for an exciting morning.

This afternoon we spent way too short of a time at the National Art Museum. I had no idea the amount of famous paintings they have there. I went from room to room in awe explaining to the kids and my less than enthusiastic husband and father-in-law what I remember from Art in Story. (Thank goodness for homeschooling!) I could have spent hours there, but we had to check into our next hotel. I loved comparing the different Madonna and Child paintings. Those were my favorites, but there was art from Monet, Cezanne, Manet, Van Gogh, VanEyk, Renoir, Ruben, Rembrandt, and the list goes on and on.

I'll update again tomorrow before we leave this hotel.