Last Night in Boston.

My week in Boston is coming to a close. It has been a week that was so good for me on many different levels.

First...professionally, our research project on the Creative Therapies (art, play, music) was exceptionally well-attended today, and I received so much positive feedback about my session. It was good to have validation for the work we have put into this research project.

Personally, this has been a week where I had the opportunity to spend chunks of time just resting, reading, seeing historical sites, and just enjoying a change of pace. I am very much a person who needs my alone time to ponder, write, think, reflect and rest, and this time this week was good medicine for my spirit.

Relationally, this week was a good time to reconnect with my graduate school mentor. It was a time to reflect on my family relationships, to think about the changes that have been introduced into our family with homeschooling, and make a game plan for the rest of the winter/spring.

My suitcase is packed. I just have to pick up a few souvenirs for the kids tomorrow morning and then I am off to the airport. I have loved my time in Boston; it is the type of city that I could see myself living in....if I was to ever move to a big city, which I won't. Nevertheless, I have thoroughly enjoyed being here and look forward to bringing the family back here someday.

Feeling History.

When I was going through school and college, history was really something that I endured. To be honest, it was a drudgery, something to memorize and forget. I didn't have teachers who helped me to see the significance of history and how it can come alive and make today's life more rich and relevant.

As an adult, I have definitely developed a deeper and more informed (less ignorant) appreciation for history and how history shapes our perspectives. Boston is a place that is literally seeping with history. I love that you can be walking down a street of high-rises and hotels, and all of a sudden you come upon an iron-gated cemetery holding the remains of people like Paul Revere and Benjamin Franklin's parents.

I ate lunch today at this place, Ye Old Union Oyster House, which is the oldest restaurant in the United States. As I sat in the dark, lantern-lit upper level of the building, with the solid wood beams and low ceilings, I could envision groups of soldiers meeting here, talking about their strategy.

They serve up seafood platters like this...and ironically, I liked it all....the calamari, scallops, clams, fish.....but really didn't care for the oysters. I think it's a texture aversion for me. I couldn't bring myself to pay the high price to try raw oysters on the half-shell, given that I'm not totally sure I could psych myself up to eat them anyway. Maybe next time.

Across from the restaurant was this haunting Holocaust memorial. It was 5 tall glass towers, etched with all of the numbers of those who were murdered in the concentration camps in Europe. The bottom of the towers were grates that allowed steam to rise, representing the gas-filled chambers.

It struck me that across from these places where American Revolutionary soldiers strategized to fight for our freedom, lies this testament to the tragic years where the freedom of a whole people was wickedly taken away.

This is the red-brick path called the Freedom Trail, which winds 2.5 miles to connect major history sites throughout the city. Here are just a few of the sites that I visited:

The old town hall, which has since been converted to a Ruth's Chris Steak House.

This statue of Benjamin Franklin watches over the hall.

I walked through 3 burying grounds, reading some of the etchings and wondering who these people were...lots of solders, some famous like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams....others unknown and anonymous. But the sacrifice was as great. One of the cemeteries held the bodies of all the individuals who were killed in the Boston Massacre.

After finishing the Freedom Trail, I walked slowly back to my hotel, enjoying the early-spring sunshine. This photo was taken in the Boston Gardens, which I can only imagine are breath-taking in the spring and the fall. The sunshine was stunning!

I arrived back to my hotel just in time for a short nap. I decided to stay in tonight so ordered room service, topped off with a slice of Boston Creme Pie.

Tomorrow brings more sessions followed by dinner with Evelyn Oka, who was my doctoral commitee chair and advisors at MSU. It is always good to catch up with Evelyn and some of my other friends from graduate school. I also will spend a good chunk of tomorrow prepping for my paper session, which is at 10:00 am on Friday. Time for bed! These Westin Heavenly Down Spa beds are heavenly!

In Boston.

Well, I arrived in Boston yesterday, after a smooth but tiring morning of traveling. I sat by a delightful man from Grand Rapids on the plane, and that always makes the plane ride go more quickly.

Last night, I ate dinner at a place called Fire and Ice, a restaurant where you choose your ingredients and they cook it on a huge open fire grill in front of you. It was a fun, upbeat atmosphere....topped off by the house specialty chocolate layer cake.

There are so many things that I would love to do in my spare time here. So far, I am trying to schedule in the following:

Visit to Harvard Yard and surrounding bookstores
Boston Aquarium
Traveling the Freedom Trail
Lots of photos of historic sites

You can just sense the history here. So many of the buildings are architecturally amazing, and I have seen a few stone churches that are extremely old and just overflowing with historical air.

Well, I had better get down to the conference to register....after all, that IS why I'm here! I hope to post some photos later on.

Laying Low.

Kennedy woke up vomiting yesterday, so I got her settled on the couch before heading off to teach. By the time noon rolled around, Hayden was also on the couch spiking a fever and vomiting. I had hoped to arrive home after classes to two on-the-mend kids; but, instead, what I found were 2 kiddos wiped out sick on the couch, along with a husband who was not feel well.

So, we are laying low around here today. We have done a few learning activities, but nothing too strenuous. This is yet another advantage of homeschooling...the flexibility to take a sick day when the kids need one, rather than having to make that decision of "do I send them to school or not?".

So what do sick children have to do with the photo posted above? While nursing my family, I have been able to make some good progress into the Stephenie Meyer books that I have heard so many things about. I finished the first, Twilight, in less than a day and am well into the second one, New Moon. I am enjoying the suspense and intrigue associated with these books and especially with the main male character, Edward. To be honest, I didn't expect to like them, but they really are quite entertaining and engaging. I purchased the 4-book set to take with me to Boston next week; however, at this rate, I will be finished by the weekend and will need to make another trip to Barnes and Noble.

Oh, well.....there are worse things in life. :)

Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk {Pop}........

Well, despite my efforts to salvage our Valentine's Day, things definitely got worse before they got better. After the kids' games, Matt had to run a cheerleading event for a few hours. The original plan was for us to head out for dinner when he got home around 6:30. Well, if you have ever tried to eat out on Valentine's day, you know that you are going to wait AT LEAST 2 hours.

When Matt got home, he was extremely grumpy. By the time we left, it was 7:30, and at our first stop (Olive Garden), it was confirmed.....2-3 hour wait. So, we drove around to a few places with VERY long lines, ending up more grumpy and very hungry by this time.

I then suggested an out-of-the-way Mexican place, out of final exasperation. And we only had a 15-minute wait. And how fitting that it was called The Dungeon. Valentine's Day in the Dungeon, that is precisely what the day was feeling like to me.

So, we sat down, ordered some chips and salsa, and everything seemed to be settling down. Until Hayden reached over and spilled my tall, ice-cold Diet Coke INTO MY LAP. As I felt the ice cold liquid soak into my jeans all down my legs and everything in between, I stopped.

And, only 4 little words ran through my mind....."You have a choice."

At that point, given the frustration of the day, I had the choice of getting angry. Or, I had the choice of making light of the situation and laughing at myself. I looked at Hayden, whose eyes were looking to see how I would react, already threatening to well up with tears.....

Thankfully (thank you Lord, for helping me), I chose the second option. And lest you think that I am bragging or being boastful here, let me be the first to humbly admit that this was all God speaking through me. The selfish part of me really want to scream, cry, stomp out, go to bed and wake up when this day was over. However, thank the Lord, He worked in me to control my tongue, and I simply stated, "OK, let's just get it all out right now. If you want to poop on me, or vomit, or anything else like that, please do it right now so we can get it over with." Both kids and Matt looked at me, and we were all soon giggling. Kennedy said that this was the worst Valentine's Day that turned into the best one. Hayden just looked relieved. And we enjoyed a very delicious dinner and some nice conversation.

To me, this Valentinue's Day reminded me that life isn't perfect. That if we keep it real, life sometimes threatens to get the best of us. But it also reminded me that we often have a choice of how to respond to what life throws our way. And that one simple choice can mean the difference between putting the final nails in the coffin of an already cruddy day while crushing everyone around us, or salvaging the day and helping people around us to feel loved and valued, despite the circumstances.

Hey, this is my life. And I love it. It reminds me that even if our best-laid plans go awry, and even if the bad moods emerge on Valentine's Day, we do have a choice: Will life's inevitable disappointments control us, or will we "make sweet lemonade out of the lemons"?

We decided that we are going to continue celebrating love all week. We are going to write notes to each other all week, put them into our tiny little red mailboxes, and open them next weekend. We are going to study the heart and how it works in our bodies, and we are going to look at how God defines love in His word.

I am so thankful for this man and the children that have come from our love. Although we and our lives are far from perfect, God has blessed us richly and I believe that we live a very charmed life. I am even posting this photo of Matt and I, even though Kennedy snapped it at the end of the day when we were exhausted and had bags under our eyes. Because it shows that authentic love isn't about shiny red hearts and perfect rose bouquets and date nights that go as perfectly planned......it is about living together through the realness of life, whatever that is, and realizing that each and every moment together is God's true gift to us, bags and all. Love you all!

A Happy Heart.

To be honest, today, we have all been a little out of sorts around here. The kids both got to bed late, resulting in a pretty lethargic morning. They both "stood around" a lot during their basketball games, which, admittedly, is always hard to watch for two parents who take their athletics very seriously. After the games, the kids both showed us attitudes less than stellar, resulting in them spending the last hour in their rooms. And, giving me a chance to cool down and figure out how to salvage this day that is supposed to be about love and togetherness and celebrating each other. Ever had one of those days?? Well, when it happens on a day that's supposed to be grand and happy, it magnifies it a hundred times.


Anyway, enough for my little rant. Despite the attitudes, here are some of the "signs of the season" that have popped up around here today:

I had seen several of these little cuties on various blogs, so we emptied out some tiny matchboxes and filled them up with Hershey's Kissables. We covered the box is some fun paper scraps, added some hearts, owls, and ribbon.


A special touch on this morning's waffles:

The kids each brought a brown paper sack full of Valentine boxes for their basketball teams. There is just something about the simplicity of a little brown bag, don't you agree?

Happy Valentine's Day, from our Grumpy-Trying-to-get-Sunny Home to Yours!

We plan to go out to the Olive Garden for dinner tonight, assuming that we don't have to wait for hours to get in. We are also planning to take a can of red spray paint out in the front yard to make some hearts on the fresh snow.....gotta' make the best of it!

Just a Fews Shots from Around the House.......

I love this shot of Kennedy. I love her sense of style....her sparkly pink crocheted hat is so "her" right now. And I fall in love with that dimple over and over.
Is there any better way to finish your school work than cuddled next to one of your very best friends?
And we may be teaching Hayden about classical literature and grammar.....but you can't take the little boy out of him (nor do we want to)! He was so proud to spell the word FART!

Celebrating 100.

Today is/would have been the 100th day of school. Given that we pulled the kids out of elementary school about a month ago to homeschool them, the exactness of this day was a bit hazy. Nevertheless, we thought it important to recognize this milestone in proper fashion!

The day started out with the kids saying that they wanted to try to read 1oo books TODAY. 100 books in one day. So, we started out with 1, 2, 3, and got 10 in, and realized that we would be reading pretty much every minute of today to reach 100, and we probably wouldnt even make our goal. So......we compromised and decided that we are going to read 100 books between today and Friday. That is a much more realistic and enjoyable goal, if you ask me! Some of the favorites of the day were The 100th Customer, Mystery Mansion, Centipede's 100 Shoes, and Born to Read. We also listened to an audiobook mystery called "100 Cupboards," which is a longer young adult chapter book that will take us a few days to finish. Lots of words were read and shared in this house today, for sure!

Other highlights of Celebrating 100 Day included.............

Making bead necklaces that included precisely 100 beads.


Counting and graphing exactly 100 pieces of an afternoon snack that consisted of grapes, baby carrots, mini marshmallows, blueberries, MMs, Reese's Pieces, gummy bears and Cadbury eggs.....I'll let you guess which columns got "zeros" on their graphs!!


Making pizza shaped as a "1-0-0" along with yogurt milkshakes for dinner (YUM).


Writing a Silly 100's Story, with some of my favorite answers being:

Hayden: I would never want 100 "GIRLY TOYS." If I was really hungry, I would eat 100 "SALADS." and I want to give my Mom 100 "KISSES." And If I had 100 minutes, I would want to "GO UP TO SPACE."


Kennedy: If I had 100 minutes, I would want to "GO SHOP WITH MY MOM." And If I had 100 dollars, I would buy "A FARM."

We also practiced counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's to 100, while Kennedy worked on some fractions involving 100. Each child calculated how old they would be in 100 years and drew a photo of what they thought they would look like at 105 and 107 years old (cute).

This was all coupled with a quick trip to Michael's, the pottery studio to pick up projects, and the grocery store for pizza ingredients. It was a full but very enjoyable day....according to the kids, much better than any other 100 Days Celebration they have had in school.

Hey, I'll take that as a compliment.

First Bike Ride of '09.

As far as I can tell, there is nothing that says "Spring is coming" like that first thaw of the new year. The warmer air seems to touch a part of the soul that has lain dormant for many months. And with it come the inevitable cries that every parent simultaneously loves and dreads: The kids cries of "Mom and Dad, will you get our bikes out!" For us, that means sorting through a mess in the garage that has accumulated over the winter months, trying to get to the bikes and locate the helmets under all the random stuff.

But finally, after a quick safety inspection and refilling of the tires, they were off! Kennedy and Hayden must have ridden for nearly 2 hours today with our neighbor friends, loving the fresh air and warmer temperatures. As you can see, Hayden felt it warm enough to stay in his shorts after his ballgame, though paired with his bulky winter boots.

This brought to mind my childhood pleas to my parents to get my bike out when days like this hit. More often than not, because our bikes were stored in a back shed, I was disappointed when Dad said "not yet." But I do recall vividly that ache of just wanting to get back on my bike, feel the wind in my hair, and once again experience the freedom of rolling down the neighborhood sidewalks.

So, here's to more thawing days and many more bike rides.

What Our Day Might Look Like.

Some of you have expressed curiosity and interest in how we "work" homeschooling in terms of scheduling our day and making sure we cover everything that we need to cover for any given day. Let me being by saying....we have always been firm believers in flexibility, even before we ventured into homeschooling. So, while we begin with a lesson plan for each week, and a general lesson plan for each day, we also realize that life happens sometimes....we feel different levels of health, motivation and wellness each day, so the general ebb and flow of life is allowed to happen, too.

Generally, we try to follow according to the following schedule on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, though we allow a bit more flexibility on Fridays.

8:30 ish-->Wake up, cuddle a bit, read, bathe, get dressed
9:00-10:00-->Make beds, tidy up, make and eat breakfast, devotional and prayer
10:00-->Handwriting and/or typing practice (or leave for field trips to zoo, museum, library, etc)
10:20-->Bible and History lesson with written narration reports/drawings
10:50-->Math, facts drills, math-based lessons
11:30-12:30-->Free time, free art play, prep and eat lunch
12:30-1:00-->Read-aloud reading (I read classic literature to the kids)
1:00-3:00-->Quiet activities (art/reading/writing), kids in their own rooms and me in mine!
3:00-4:30-->Art, Language lessons, Imaginative Play, Music, Outdoor Play, Play with Friends
4:30-5:30-->Free time, catch up time, movies
5:30-7:00-->Dinner prep and dinner
7-8-->Wii play and/or computer play
8-9-->Baths, Snacks, Read-alouds with both kids
9-9:30-->Tuck ins and kids do quiet reading in rooms until lights out.

On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, Matt does some of the teaching while I head to CU, so the morning tends to look a bit different. Instead of handwriting, the focus on those days in on Science, Bible and Physical Education. Then, in the afternoon while our nanny Mary is here, the kids practice lots of reading, work on their own projects, play educational games, and spend lots of time time in free play.

So far, this schedule is working for us. As the weather melds into spring and warmer weather, more of our lessons will take place outside as we work on planting a garden, creating a fairy village garden (I can't wait to do this, and incorporate lots of our lessons into this), and doing nature/exploratory walks. We are also going to be doing theme units on butterflies and dinosaurs, to correspond with upcoming exhibits at Meijer Garden and the Ford Museum.

Next week should be a fun learning week! Not only will we be focusing on themes of Valentine's Day and love, but we will also be celebrating 100's day on Wednesday. Lots of fun to be had, for sure!

Dad Hair.

I need to share with you another funny Hayden-ism from tonight. I was getting dinner ready, and Hayden was playing his one hour daily allowance of the Wii. Many of you will recognize the above as the screen allowing a player to create a "me" or a character to be used in the games.

Hayden: "Mom, come and look at my Me."

(I walk in and look.).

Hayden: "Look, Mom! He has Dad hair!"

The next time you see a balding man, don't think of it as male-pattern baldness. It's actually "Dad hair."

Great Quote.

A big thanks to my creative and thoughtful friend, Julie, who shared this quote with me. I found it incredibly inspiring and thought-provoking, and you may, too:

An eternal question about children is, how should we educate them?

Politicians and educators consider more school days in a year, more science and math, the use of computers and other technology in the classroom, more exams and tests, more certification for teachers, and less money for art.

All of these responses come from the place where we want to make the child into the best adult possible, not in the ancient Greek sense of virtuous and wise, but in the sense of one who is an efficient part of the machinery of society.

But on all these counts, soul is neglected. - Thomas Moore