We are back into something of a homeschool groove after weeks of disruption and leaning on Time4Learning for most of our academics.  It feels great to be back to a Charlotte Mason way of doing things again with all of our beloved books.

I will hope to have pictures of some of our wanderings up soon, and updates about what we are doing for school.  I have some time to blog again, hooray!  :-)

Until tomorrow…

As far as homeschooling goes, I submit an intent to homeschool to the local school district…and that’s it.  I can choose to have the kids participate in standardized tests, but it’s not required.  I don’t have to refile the intent every year like I do in Maryland.  I also don’t have to submit to reviews anymore.  WOO HOO!

The real bonus to living in such a homeschool friendly state is the ability for the kids to be dually enrolled in activities at the public schools.  Cole wants to play drums, and now he can join the local public school band class.  How awesome is that?  They can be enrolled in up to three classes/activities at the local school each semester.  They can take PE, play on sports teams, participate in music, art, or whatever interest they may have.  Other states do this too (and receive partial funding, I might add), but Maryland is a very unfriendly state to homeschooling.  Their loss, I guess.

It’s a wonderful blend of educational freedom – in my opinion – and it offers a whole new world of opportunities for my kids.  And the schools get extra money.  It’s win-win!

As far as the big move goes, my plan is to send the minivan and the storage cubes full of stuff out on the 11th of February, and then fly out with the kids on the 16th.  Hopefully the car and the stuff will arrive shortly after we do.  Well, that’s the plan, anyway.

That departure date means I will miss another holiday with my hubby, but we don’t do much for Valentine’s day anyway.  I am not a big fan of holidays created by retailers to celebrate a love that I choose to celebrate all year.  Besides, the 19th of February is our 11th wedding anniversary and I am excited to be reunited with him for that!

We did originally plan to drive, but I think flying will be better for everyone. I assume the kids would like to make it to Vegas alive.  Oh!  And we should have a house nailed down by this weekend and I am excited to know exactly where I will be living.  It will be a rental for the next year, but we hope to buy in early 2011 once we know what areas and neighborhoods are desirable in Las Vegas, and get our ducks all in a row.

I am still schooling the kids, but relying a lot more on time4learning to fill in gaps and free up time for me to clean and pack.  We also just passed ourt final review for the state of Maryland.  Yipee!

More updates soon, I hope!

Perseus

Acrisius found out his daughter would have a baby boy and that the baby was going to kill him.  Then Acrisius put Danae in a closet hoping that no one would go near her.  But, she had a baby anyway.  King Acrisius was still very worried and he put Danae and her baby at sea.  She started crying and singing a song to the baby.  Then they see cliffs and she cries for help.  Then Dictys pulls her out onto a rock and she said she would be his servant and live in his house.  Dictys said, “Come be my daughter, and your son will be my grandson.”

Perseus grows up and sees a woman who is taller than any man is, and her gray eyes were shining and bright.  Her name is Athena and she told him he would slay Medusa who was the mother of all monsters.  Athena wants him to chop off Medusa’s head.  He has to find the three gray sisters and they share one eye and one tooth, which is disgusting.

Medusa has snakes for hair and when you look at her face, you freeze into stone.  You have to cut her head off with the sword.  He [Perseus] has to use the shield to see her reflection.  Hermes came, he has golden sandals that have wings on them, and he gave them to Perseus, and a sword.  Then Perseus jumped off the cliff.

He flew over the land and it only took one day, and if he walked, it would have taken seven days.  He saw the three gray sisters and they were moving their eye back and forth.  Then he put out his arm so then he got the eye in his hand.  Then he said “Ha!  I have your eye and I will throw it in the ocean if you don’t tell the truth.”  They told him where to go and the seagulls were telling him to stop and play.

Then Perseus sees the three nymphs dancing and a dragon is watching.  They go up to see their uncle named Atlas and he is holding the heavens and earth apart.  They ask him where the Gorgons live.  The uncle says go down to Hades and get the magic hat of darkness.  And then a nymph brought back the hat in seven days.  Atlas said, “When you bring back Medusa’s head, can you show me the eyes so I can freeze into stone, because I want to keep the heavens away from the earth and I don’t want it to hurt anymore.

He [Perseus] gets the hat and then he sees the three Gorgons and two looked like dragons and the other one was Medusa.  So then, with his shield looking at her, he chopped her head off because she was asleep.  He flew off and the sisters awoken and saw that Medusa was dead and they started chasing him.  The sandals were fast, even for Gorgons, so then he got away.

On his way back, he sees the giant [Atlas] and turns him into stone and then he kept going until he saw Egypt, or something.  Then he saw Egyptians and they gave him food and stuff but they wouldn’t let him go, so he put on the hat of darkness and disappeared.  On his way through the desert, Medusa’s head was bleeding snakes.

He left the Egyptians and starts flying home.  Then he sees a woman [Andromeda] chained up to a rock next to the sea because her mom did a bad deed.  She [Cassiopeia] said that Andromeda was more beautiful than the queen of the sea.  Then Perseus set Andromeda free with his sword, but the sea monster was coming.  Perseus said, “If I defeat this monster, you will marry me.”  Then he started to fight the monster and he defeated it.  Then he marries Andromeda and says he has to go back home, but everyone says stay for at least one year.  So, he stays for one year.

Then he sees Phineus and his army, and then Phineus says, “My son does not have a bride.”  So then, Perseus laughs and says, “Let your son save a maid for himself.”  Then he [Perseus] turns them all into stone.  Then he goes home after seven years.  He had seven children, and when he died, Athena made them all stars in heaven.

A couple weeks ago I taught a two-part Van Gogh class for our co-op group.  (Have I mentioned how much I will miss them?  *sniffles*)  It was a very fun class and I ended up finishing two projects of my own.  We talked about Van Gogh and then the kids created their own Van Gogh inspired art with air-dry clay.  We used the clay to create texture, rather than gobs of paint.  In week 2, we did end up painting our creations.  The idea came from Art Projects for Kids.  Duh.

I think the kids made beautiful and interesting pieces!  I was very proud.  :-)

Today was not my favorite day, let’s just leave it at that.

1. I am glad that today is nearly over.

2. I am glad I did not murder my children today (I was tempted).

3. I am very grateful for good friends who are opening their homes and closets to give me stuff.  I feel very loved.

4. I am grateful for the idea of the Advent Conspiracy and focusing on something besides consumerism.

5. Today is the first day of Advent.  I am grateful that Jesus came, in the humblest of circumstances,  for me.  Nothing else matters!

Whew!  I feel SO much better now.  I would love to see more gratitude posts from readers.  What are you grateful for?

Anyway, we made a date to go rollerskating all together this afternoon.  First, we went to the top level of the Target parking garage.  No one ever parks there, and it seemed like the perfect place to have a little skate fest.  Wrong.  Although it was empty and essentially debris-free, they were very lazy in the way they poured the concrete and it was just too rough.  We skated for about 45 minutes before deciding to try a different location.

So, we headed to Rockville High School.  The parking lot was empty and since it’s fairly new construction, it was really smooth.  However, there is a big sign hanging on the building that says no skating is allowed, and we were there all of 10 minutes before a police cruiser pulled in.  *sigh*

Our third attempt was the black top behind Cole’s old elementary school.  It was nice and smooth (other than some dangerous wood chips), so we ended up skating there for about an hour.  The girls got tired, but they just took off their skates and played on the playground.  We all agreed that skating would be a regular weekend activity.  It was so nice to spend the day out of the house and being active.  The kids were also very confident on their skates after ice skating on Friday.  :-)

I think next weekend, in addition to some skating, we will head down for a hike at Great Falls park.  It’s another “must see” place on my DC list.

I do have a lot of time to fill with NOT thinking about my husband who has started his new job 2000+ miles away.  (He totally loves it, by the way.)

Yesterday, I just knew we had to get out of the house, so I looked up events and activities in the area and decided on a tree lighting ceremony down at the National Harbour.  It’s one place we have never been, and there were fireworks and an ice skating rink.  The Gaylord Hotel is A-MAZING!  I have never seen anything like it, so the trip was worth it for that alone.

We went ice skating (of course) and ended up having a fantastic time!  It was the first time any of us had been ice skating.  I used to be an avid roller skater back in the day (which means about 18 years ago, of course), but I was surprised that I was able to skate without falling on my butt.  The kids also did really well, and in spite of many falls, they continued to get right back up and keep going.  I was a proud mama!

Zoey was really brave.  She stayed pretty close to the wall, but she was definitely going for it on her own and wouldn’t even hold my hand.  She decided to strike a pose for me here.

Sydni always tries for a model pose…LOL!  She fell more than anyone, but continued to get up over and over and over again.  By the time our session was up, she was going around the circle with the experienced skaters and doing so well!

Cole skated about half a lap before he decided to try and skate with the big dogs.  He fell a lot too, but he was doing fantastic by half-way through the session.  My kids rock!

After skating we went down for the tree lighting ceremony, but it was so windy we ended up seeking hot chocolate at Mayorga Coffee.

TWENTY minutes later, we had hot beverages and walked back down by the marina again.

I would say this is a new Black Friday tradition, but we will have to find something similar in Las Vegas for next year.  Woo hoo!

I am going to copy David Letterman this week and count down the top 10 reasons for enjoying time away from my husband.  I miss him already, so I thought maybe this list would help me focus on the “positives.”  :-P

10.  Lots of space in the bed.  I don’t have to worry about sticking my knee in his back, or getting an elbow in the face.

9.  Cleaner air.  I am sure I don’t really need to explain this one, do I?

8.  Having the car 24/7.  Some of you know this, but I used to wake up every day of the week and drop him off at the Metro, or go without the car.  I am looking forward to the break!

7.  Less cooking.  The kids are happy to eat cereal and ramen.  This means I get more nights off.

6.  Early homework submission.  I will be bored, so my assignments will be finished extra early.

5.  Binging on sappy, romantic chic flicks.

4.  Reading in peace.  There will no one trying to get my attention because he is being ignored while my nose is in a book.

3.  Less laundry!

2.  No Car Talk.  He drives me nuts by constantly asking me what I think about this car, or to make a list of dream cars, or driving by car dealerships.

1.  Full ownership of the “Scepter of Power,” otherwise known as the remote control.  I can watch whatever I want, whenever I want.  This means a LOT less “Stargate.”  ;-)

Lonnie left this afternoon for Vegas and I don’t anticipate seeing him again until late January, at the earliest.  I didn’t realize until I was driving away from the airport how much I depend on him, for SO many things.  I mean I know that I do depend on him, but my heart finally caught up with my brain as we drove up 495.

But I’m ok.

I’m ok because there is someone else who I depend on, and He can see me through anything.  He has been there with me for every faltering step of the mess that is my life.  He was there when I was angry, and when I was headed in the opposite direction, running as fast as I could.  He was patiently waiting.  He always has been.  He always will be.

Lord, You are good and Your mercy endureth forever.  I worship You for who You are!