Year 4, March 22th-24th, 2019: Excuse the mess!

 P.S. Now where did I leave off? With being focused on other things this week, I've kind of lost my place! So, enjoy the randomness and I'll get back on track soon.  Pictures are pictures, right?  Who cares if they aren't perfectly chronological! Cheers!

Now for the weekend's post:

Let's see.  Two days of socialization and high mental alertness has left me, well, very drained.  You know you're an introverted homeschool mom when.....yup, over stimulated.  So after being out on Friday and Saturday, I rested and did no major physical or mental work on Sunday.  In fact, I rested for 3 hrs in bed! And it really helped! Now I'm a little more recovered and can start the week better.  But I'll have to take the week easy as well because this Friday is Winterjam and we have a prayer thing with our Rooted group on Saturday.  Sigh. It's a very, very spring for us.  I don't know if or when we'll get back to the Children's Museum, or go to the park, or finish cleaning out the front garden (I need two days to recover after 1 hr worth of work, and that's not a joke).

Anyway, it did feel good to get out of the house and just focus on some things.  The workshops I attended at the home education conference were insightful and more theological than practical, so I felt I got a lot of spiritual content as well. My opinions and convictions were affirmed.  I did attend more lectures this year than the past two years, partly because I had nothing else to do.  I did talk to some vendors, but unfortunately, there were less vendors there than in previous years.  In person conferences are going to continue to decline, but we are trying to hold onto this one as long as we can.  We love our organization and want to support it, but we can also just financially support it through the year, as well as attend the conference.  But there is something about the one on one interaction and concentrated time focused on one topic that I find helpful.  I've tried to be part of online conferences but get distracted by kids or chores or life.  So, an in person conference is helpful to me.

Thankfully, I can just up and go with very little preparation for those still at home.  I left a bit of a list of food ideas and what I wanted the kids to do for school on Friday.  Of course it wasn't done perfectly, but I didn't stress about it.  Everyone, even Abishai, is capable of finding nutritious food and cleaning up after themselves.  For the most part, everything was cleaned up ok.  I am grateful that I can just go and do something now, that we've reached that point that I can trust them to manage, and that's partly because I try to lower my perfection standards.  They definitely survived without me, which is good.

I won't go into detail about what I learned at conference because a) it could be offensive to some if I don't word it well b) I'll have to go over my notes and my brain is fried c) I still have to process some of it.  I did find a new curriculum for Justin for high school with classic literature and some history, along with some electives, etc. that will cover a bunch of credits if I stick with it.  I wasn't in the market for it, but it was written awhile ago by a couple who raised 6 homeschooled kids during the beginnings of the homeschool movement and is trusted by one of their fabulous speakers there.  I hadn't heard of this speaker before, but I ended up attending several of his sessions because he was speaking my language! I bought all his books (conference bundle.)  A homeschool grad, who was homeschooled when it was illegal, and very passionate about home educating his 10 kids, ages 18 and under.  But so intelligent and well spoken and "normal."  Israel Wayne is his name and I can't wait to read his books.  I also bought a math book for Keturah, and some little random gifts for each kid, including a bug catcher and net that Abishai can't wait to use!  Yes!  And I bought a $70 chemistry kit for Justin that goes along with one of the high school courses.  He specifically asked for a real kit with real chemicals, not just kitchen supplies, and since we need to support the vendors that do come, I went ahead and bought it.  You just never know when you walk in there, what you will walk out with, lol.  And there's lots of info booths as well like some colleges, health items, support groups, music schools, etc.

Anyway, it was good, it's in the books, and now we keep marching on with only 5 weeks to go until Gary's transition.  And now, he will be home for most of April (I think) as he is preaching the next 4 weeks including Easter, which is his last sermon he will preach as a paid staff member of Indian Creek.  Wowzers! And then there's an open house on April 27th, and a guest preacher/final day is April 28th.  But we have concerts, and I have jury duty, and appointments, and special guests on the weekend, and school to do, and Keturah's musical, and and and.....ah!  It's a very busy season, so let's get to it!

Keepin' on with the count! And several family members will be town in the upcoming weeks!

Which service should we go to and which one(s) should we serve at?

Look for more info on that in the coming weeks, probably shared on social media rather than here.  I'm waiting on a book I ordered to read before I misquote and get it wrong.

Cue the tears.

He's so big!  I don't know what we'll do when he outgrows this bed.  I think we'll need a regular set of bunk beds because Benaiah will not be leaving for at least another two years and will need a bed on breaks.

Not sure what all got posted last week, but I found it funny how every kid is different in an elevator.  Here are our big three!

I look forward to more days like this where Benaiah gets to play taxi driver. Only one more month until he can try for his full fledged license!

I literally bought this folding rolling cart from Aldi's for this very purpose: the homeschool convention.  I loved it!  My back doesn't hurt!  I think I might even bring this on trips to the museum instead of carrying around a backpack!

It's not every day that I get up before the sun rises.  But the moon was nice and bright!

A homeschooling couple that has a YouTube channel and does video parodies.  They live here in Indy, but are known nationally for their channel.  They are different from our generation and a little wild and crazy.  I just kept thinking how this was NOT the style of our Mennonite friends sitting in the audience.  But it was a fun addition for me and other younger/less strict/millenial/social media addicted generation.

Parents making animal noises for an animal chorus! And my friend Jocylyn who is a first time homeschooler, got up there!

One of the workshops with a long time homeschooling speaker.  She's actually retired from speaking, but again, lives fairly close.  I even have one of her books from when my mom bought it years ago!  And she loves history!

My friend Corinne sharing curriculum with other parents with children with learning or physical disabilities.

Yes, I actually have that dictionary from my childhood.  You can't read the nation's founding documents without knowing what the words meant before 1828.  This definition of education is all encompassing, not just academic subjects, but life skills, too.  And it's about equipping students to be life long learners instead of just force feeding them facts.

I just found a new favorite speaker! Israel Wayne was homeshcooled by his single mother with his 5 siblings beginning in 1978 when it was illegal to homeschool.  He has 10 kids up to age 18.  And he knows his stuff.  He's a very popular speaker on the homeschooling convention circuit.  He knows the history of homeschooling, which is a workshop I attended and loved because I learned new things!  The passion he has for home education is incredible.  I bought his whole book bundle and can't wait to read them!  I will finally have a concise resource that explains my opinions that I can share with others.

And we met a REAL actress!  Sam Sorbo!  I looked her up and she has a net worth of $10 million!  Her husband has a net worth of $20 million.  Her husband is none other than "Hercules" from the TV show, Kevin Sorbo.  Eeek!  I really wasn't that star struck, but it's incredible to have such a "powerful" person in a place like California where it can be incredibly hard to homeschool.  She has used Classical Conversations in the past, too!  Actually, she's just like me, super, super passionate and serious.  I went back and watched her most recent movie, that she wrote/directed and starred in and it's a pretty serious topic of "Let There Be Light." Kevin Sorbo also starred in it, and they played ex-spuses turned remarried spouses, so it was interesting to see them be able to show their real life relationship.  Two of their kids played their kids in that movie as well.  Anyway, yes, very serious mama bear.  And she came to spoke at OUR home education convention and presented a couple of workshops as well.  Sweet!

Meanwhile at home....it's going to be a super sad day when Abishai stops snuggling with us.  But I don't think it will happen any time soon.

Sam Sorbo on stage.

Random picture of the Johnson side of the family that cousin Donna sent Jared and I.  That's Jared in Gary's arms and Aaron in Leah's arms.  Grandma and Grandpa Johnson in the back row.  And the youngest cousin hasn't been born yet.

Another one of my favorite speakers, Peter Heck.  He's a high school civics teacher/preacher.  He's very intelligent and dynamic and in this workshop he talked about being on the offensive for Christ and our kids instead of defensive.  He also spoke in the main session.

Abishai enjoyed the gifts I got the kids.  We haven't had a bug catcher for awhile, or rather I haven't seen it, so I picked one up from my friends who run a fun nature centered booth of goodies! He's LOVING it and wants to go outside with it!

Abishai loves the pinchers that came with it.

I think Abishai caught a bug!

This net has a telescopic handle.  Nice!

Noise maker of the bunch!

I know, not many weeks left....

Abishai thought he needed to charge the tablet, and he mentions it every time he uses it.  So he randomly found a plug to use under Benaiah's desk!

Finally!  A bigger step count!  This was day 2 of convention, although I sat down a lot of course, just the distance between the exhibit hall and workshop rooms were enough.  The first day didn't get recorded, unfortunately.

Abishai wanted "dessert."

Abishai's famous sayings  of the week: "Sweet! Sweet means good, Mommy!" "I'm faking" (when asked if he's crying on purpose or not). And "Mom, you see those pine trees over there.  That's where the Thompsons live.  That's Ava's house, and Grady's house." (Benaiah only mentioned it once).  And Abishai was very clingy all day Sunday and Monday because I was gone for two full days.  Poor little Mama and Dada's boy!