Rejuvenated....

Christy and Madison at The Back Porch!

Our family at the Destin Harbor!

Mommy and Daddy (Sheryl and JT) at The Red Bar in Greyton Beach.

Poppa driving the pontoon boat - the best day!

Kaitlyn enjoying the day on the boat!

This summer has been full! Many days spent in airports around the globe, talking to Delta Airlines, arranging meals for 15 people at our house and well over 50 on the field daily, games of Settlers of Catan, late night talks pouring into interns, Bible studies, worship services, orphaned children, and on and on. There were many days when I just didn't think I could take another step. Yet, God gave us sweet rest and rejuvenated our souls for another day. Praise Him for His goodness and faithfulness.

We took a week to head to Destin to regroup and rejuvenate as a family. What a joy and blessing it was! We spent our days getting up late (when you're used to 5:00 am, 8:00 is a miracle!), reading books, playing in the pool, eating great seafood, and playing in the sand at the beach. Not to mention many games of Settlers and Bananagrams.... What a blessing to have that much-needed time together.

Now, we are back home and everyone is in the groove of the new school year. Everyone has new chore assignments, schedules for school, and the blessing of a new schoolroom. We are excited about what this year has in store for us. We are all eagerly awaiting news on our adoption from Uganda. The wait is long and arduous, but we know that God is in total control!!!

We give Him all the glory for His goodness and His Sovereignty! To Him be all the honor!

Time to rest...

In Ecclesiastes, God reminds us that there is a time for everything under the sun. After the summer on trips to Uganda, Guatemala (twice) and Arizona, our family has needed the time to regroup, rest, and be refreshed. So, now is that time.

We are spending a week at the beach in Destin. This is a great time to focus on God and His creation. We are spending lots of time together at the beach, swimming in the pool, and playing games. Thank you all for your love and support while we rest.....

Christy is Home!

Christy and Jett

Kaitlyn and Christy

Madison and Christy

Christy, the semester intern we had in the fall, is home!!!!! She was supposed to leave for Australia on August 2, but it ended up that she is going to have to stay in the United States for a little while.She moved in on Saturday while we were on our way to Anniston. We are blessed by Christy so much. She is such a help around the house and she is very patient with everybody. She listens to everyone no matter how boring they may be, and she cares about us like we are her own family! Living with Christy will be a great joy to our family. Thank you God for sending us Christy! - posted by Kaitlyn

School is in session...

This is the view of the school from the reading area. There's a small table in the middle with six chairs for the little kids. The taller desk on the right belongs to Kaitlyn and Madison. They store all of their books and supplies in the armoire in the corner.

Although this photo is a little dark, it shows our reading area in the back of the room. We have a red chair with an ottoman, a corner chair, and a loveseat. The bookshelf is for our computer, printer, teacher books and reference materials.

Here's another view of the reading area from further back. Along the right wall there are 3 large bookshelves as well as a small one with 2 desks/chairs in between. Jett uses the desk closest to the reading area. The bookshelf to his left is the history/geography center. To his right is the math center.

The official start of our homeschooling year was last Monday, August 2nd. With a new schoolroom and organization galore, the kids were all very excited about starting the day....

Many people have asked about our schoolroom, and well, we've never had a lot to say about it. Many people don't like to recreate a school environment at home, but we are totally opposite of that. We love organization and a room where we can "just do school." It's our space, and we love it! So, I'm attaching some photos.

This year we changed our school room from a smaller room in the house to one of our larger rooms. It's a longer room (26 feet) which allows us more space to spread out. We are also anticipating our adoption being complete sometime this year, and we needed to make more space for the next child/children!

So, now we've specifically divided our room into areas: a reading space (this is also where I do individual teaching), a table for arts/little ones, a history/geography area, and desks for each student. With notebooks and binders in all sorts of colors these days, our girls got very excited about assigning a color to each subject. While I would like to tell you that it was overboard, my organized self found great pleasure it it!

The question asked most often of me is this: what does your typical day look like in homeschooling? Let me say first that everyone has a different schedule, and no one schedule will fit your family and mine! Plus, I have three children which is a factor as well as the ages of my children....13, 11 and 6. We'll be adding at least one more soon, so that will affect our schedule as well. However, right now, here's what it looks like for us....

7:30 Breakfast and family time
8:00 Clean up/prepare for the morning
8:30 Jett - reading and writing; Madison - math (teaching textbooks on the computer); Kaitlyn - science/literature (she will begin taking these classes on Thursday so this is her time to work on them)
9:00 Jett - math; Kaitlyn and Madison - Bible with Mom
9:30 Phonics and Bible for Jett and Reading for the girls (we are currently going through the Narnia series and discussing them daily)
10:00 History for everyone!
10:30 Seatwork for Jett; Grammar for Madison and Math for Kaitlyn (Teaching Textbooks)
11:00 Spelling for Jett; Science/Writing for Madison (same as Kaitlyn in that she will take these classes on Thursday); Spelling for Kaitlyn
11:30 Geography for girls; Jett is usually finished by now and playing Rescue Man
12:00 Grammar for Kaitlyn; Typing or Spanish for Madison and then Spelling
12:30 Typing/Spanish for Kaitlyn; Piano for Madison

In the afternoon, the girls finish piano and Spanish if they haven't already done so. Plus, they will begin taking guitar lessons in a few weeks. We try to have lunch everyday at 1:00 with everyone. In the afternoons, the girls usually have some homework and research projects for either history/geography or Bible. Jett plays a lot and has to run off some energy. This is my time to work on One Way Ministries' stuff - emails, mail, newsletter, travel arrangements, etc.