Long Time No Post

Hi! It's been a long time since I have posted, but hopefully I will be here a little more frequently in the future. Several things have been keeping me busy around here namely Jeff, Lauren, Devin, Jordan, Aaron, Kaelan, Jackson, Caedmon , Chase and Eli! In addition to being busy with family matters--you know, cooking, cleaning, laundry, discipline, shopping, etc. we have had a busy time working on a couple of projects for The Homeschool Channel. Jeff and Jordan went to the Alabama homeschool conference where they conducted lots of interviews and filmed several speakers and then they came back home with Bob and Tina Farewell with their son James. Bob and Tina are the former owners of Lifetime Books and Gifts and we meet them several years back when they came in their big bus and parked in our yard for two days for visiting and conducting a "Have Books Will Travel" meeting. We had a great time back then and it looks like we will have many more opportunities for visiting in the future. Bob is now working with Jeff on The Homeschool Channel and we are so excited to have him and Tina joining the team. They know most everybody in the homeschool world and have made some great contacts. Anyway, they came home with Jeff and Jordan where we enjoyed a couple of meals and fellowship together along with Ken Carpenter and his son Cole from Franklin Springs Films. Why were they all here? Well,Tina conducted two workshops that were filmed and Bob conducted his Gettysburg monologue which was also filmed. All will be presented at a future time on The Homeschool Channel.

In other news... I have a new Canon Rebel something something camera that is all fancy and such that is taking great pictures...and I have a new iMac computer of my very own (ok, some of the kids will use it as well). I have a lot to learn about how to operate it as all I have used before was a Dell PC, but I think I am about ready to delve into the vast unknown and at least figure out the word processing program. Jeff is still uploading or downloading or installing or whatever it is that you do to get all of the "stuff" that I "need" on here in order to conduct business and school for the next year. Hopefully we will have all of that taken care of in the next few weeks and I can actually blog more frequently and include pictures taken with the new camera.

All of the girls' birthdays have now past. Lauren had her 25th in April. Kaelan turned 10 in May and Devin turned 21 in June. We now begin the boys birthdays starting next week with Chase who will be 2. He was just here the last two days with his mom and baby brother. I had been working on his "preschool in a box" for the last couple of months and was able to add a couple of Melissa and Doug puzzles and some board books for them to take home with them yesterday. I didn't get all the file folder games done that I wanted to, but I was able to include 16 activity bags that they can look forward to using for the next few years. Lauren was really excited to look through everything...or maybe she was just making me feel good about it!

I have actually planned out our yearly overview for school and have our first 8 weeks loosely planned. Now that I have a computer again, I can soon get our weekly lessons typed out (yes, I do that) and can get Jordan's study guides typed out as well. Jordan officially has 2 years of homeschooling left and we are trying to plan a course of action. He is really interested in photography and videography and is interested in a career in that area. Ok, it's no coincidence that he is learning and getting paid to learn how to do these things as he works with his dad on The Homeschool Channel. I think instead of us planning the course we are looking to see the course that God has planned. Jordan has no desire to go to college (math is a hindrance) and Ken Carpenter last week mentioned that he doesn't look for a college degree when he is hiring for his film companies. He looks for experience and that is what Jordan is now getting...and some of that is training with Ken Carpenter himself...How cool is that?

I am hesitant to put more time in school planning as Jeff is determined that we will be traveling together whenever he travels. That will generally mean leaving home on Wednesdays and returning at the earliest on Sundays. God's plans will definitely overrule my plans. Please pray with us that we can get a 12-15 passenger van soon so that we can travel in one vehicle and that we may be able to secure an RV which will make traveling much more enjoyable. It will help us car school if we can all be in the same vehicle!

Devin returned from Iowa Monday and was full of talk about the Amish stores that she visited while there. She impressed us so much that we are all going up next week. Ok, we were already going there but it just so happens that she was in the same area that we are going to be visiting next week. Jeff and Jordan will be filming and conducting interviews at the Fathers of Vision conference just outside of De Moines next week. The conference speakers include Scott Brown, Kevin Swanson and Peter Bradrick. If you are going, we would love to meet you. We will be the family lugging huge pieces of video equipment and pushing a baby stroller!

We are finally enjoying some peppers and tomatoes from our own garden. I haven't had enough to do any major canning yet, but hope to have some in the next few weeks.

Caedmon is now calling for mommy, so this long post will close. Hope to be back soon!!