Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Cedar Point
I LOVED wearing my prAna dresses at the park. They are SOOOOO comfortable and have totally changed my mind about wearing dresses. I could wear both of them with tennis shoes and a hat. I was SO cool and SO comfortable!
I brought a book and read while waiting in line or while sitting outside while my kids were on rides.
What a great amusement park! They had GOOD beer!
The birding trail that the two kids did.
This ride was CRAZY!
My three main amusement park people. Abigail will ride some rides. But Sidge just isn't very interested.
Our team!
Virgin strawberry daiquiris on the beach. They kids LOVED this.
One extra kid in the car wasn't AS easy. But we made the 9 hour drive each way work. On the way there, we stopped at a thrift store famous for their HOT WHEEL car booth and Isaac spent about tan hour picking out what he wanted.
While we aren't into HOT WHEELS, we all found some other very interesting items at the thrift shop.
Our hotel. Waiting for our room. Unfortunately, our room wasn't ready until nearly 6pm.
We had promised our Isaac a "Big 13!" However, COVID derailed those dreams. So instead, we told our kids they could all have a "Big 14!" Isaac had wanted to go to Cedar Point. It is one of the biggest roller coaster parks in the USA. He also sweetened the deal by telling JB that there was a very popular birding migration route/festival that went through that area. (I had no idea this park was in such a beautiful place. Right on Lake Eerie. It was SO amazingly beautiful.)
We had promised our Isaac a "Big 13!" However, COVID derailed those dreams. So instead, we told our kids they could all have a "Big 14!" Isaac had wanted to go to Cedar Point. It is one of the biggest roller coaster parks in the USA. He also sweetened the deal by telling JB that there was a very popular birding migration route/festival that went through that area. (I had no idea this park was in such a beautiful place. Right on Lake Eerie. It was SO amazingly beautiful.)
Unfortunately the BIG birding time did not correspond with the dates the park was open so we had to settle for not-so-good birding in order to get the park.
We stayed at THE BREAKERS right next to the park. We opted to not take our RV because, truthfully, gas prices meant it would take a long time to tow and cost a lot of money, and we would have trouble with getting back and forth to the park while simultaneously getting birders where they needed to be. The hotel was nice albeit expensive. I also am just not into the incredible prices of everything! I mean a chik-fil-a sandwich in the park was $10! Highway Robbery!
We drove up on Saturday. Our room wasn't ready on time on Saturday. (Apparently they don't guarantee room ready time due to the type of hotel they are?) So we took the kiddos to a HIBACHI grill inside the hotel. This was the first time Gabe had ever been to Hibachi, and my kids hadn't been since they were small. Here are some pictures from the dinner!
On Sunday, I took Isaac and cousin Gabe and little sister Hannah to the park. John took the birders, well, birding. Later in the day, he actually got back in time to join us at the park so we did it together in the evening as well.
On Monday, we all went to the park together. We took some breaks in the heat of the afternoon. The kids also enjoyed the pool and hot tub.
And on Tuesday, we drove home.
I have realized that I am just not very into amusement parks.
- Crowds are ... crowded.
- Heat is ... hot.
- Lines are ... long.
- Food is ... expensive.
- People are ... odd.
- Concrete is ... not grassy.
- Rides are ... scary.
That should sum it up. I loved getting to see my boy Isaac do what he loves. (Although, at 14, they have to play it cool so you don't get to see the excitement as much.) I also loved to see how into the rides Hannah was. In fact, she was the one who "forced" Gabe and Isaac to do the drop tower -- something neither of them was very interested in doing.
In the end, Isaac got to ride every single one of the 16 coasters that were open. (The big grand-daddy coaster DRAGSTER RIDE that the park is famous for was not open. In fact it is down for the entire year.)
We had a wonderful time. A highlight was riding the SNAKE RIVER EXPEDITION with John and our three youngest kids. This is sort of like Disney's RIVER CRUISE. While we were on the ride, a boat in front of us actually broke down and the riders had to be removed from the ride. As a result, our actors had to ad-lib an extra 10-20 minutes of material, and they were really good at it. I also find pleasure in watching people do things they love (like act, sing, perform, play an instrument) despite not being Brad-Pitt level acting.
We are home now. More and more I think to myself: I love being with my family, but I feel like I have travelled enough for a lifetime. I really just love being on my farm!
The end of the school year
We are done with the year 2021-2022. The school year is over! This was a hard one for me. I taught the 7-9th graders a language arts/Bible/history combo thru Sonlight coupled with the 10th graders British Lit combo. It was so amazing but SOOOo much reading for me. I was very busy! I also taught a class at our co-op for the first time.
Next year I am simplifying by retracting the Brit Lit class for our four (Ana, Kari, Isaac and Sidge) as well as a few other friends who are going to do it with us next year. This should cut down my time considerably!
Anyways, time for summer break!!!
Saturday, May 28, 2022
A great reminder
This is what I want.
But most days I feel like I am so far from this.
Parenting can be so hard.
Homeschooling can be so hard.
I find I lose my cool more than not.
I want so badly to be my Grama Gert …
A woman who truly lived Jesus.
Friday, May 27, 2022
More ballet pictures
Mauren Sparks snagged some pics of Abigail’s solo and duet last weekend.
Ballet in a formal class setting, is now done u til August. Let the summer intensives begin!
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Pre-teens
My kiddos are getting older and we are starting to have pre-teens and teens come over to “hang out” instead of play. Man, life flies by. Here is Abigail with her ballet friends from left: Bailee, Emma, Alyssa, and Hannah.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
The Hawk and the Dove
Saturday Reading:
Sunday Reading:
Saturday Reading
Sunday Reading
Monday Reading
Tuesday Reading
Wednesday Reading
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Monday, May 23, 2022
The Jesus I Never Knew
I am reading the book THE JESUS I NEVER KNEW with my 10th graders.
Each chapter, we all pull something out that really speaks to us. Here's one of the things that jumped out at me. And keep in mind, this was written the year I graduated from High School (1995!)
"A political movement by nature draws lines, makes distinctions, pronounces judgment; in contrast, Jesus' love cuts across lines, transcends distinctions, and dispenses grace. Regardless of the merits of a given issue -- whether a pro-life lobby out of the Right or a peace-and-justice lobby out of the Left -- political movements risk pulling onto themselves the mantle of power that smothers love. From Jesus I learn that, whatever activism I get involved in, it must not drive out love and humility, or otherwise I betray the kingdom of heaven."
WOW!
Here's another quote that really spoke to me:
"For this reason, I must say in an aside, I worry about the recent surge of power among U.S. Christians, who seem to be focusing more and more on political means. Once Christians were ignored or scorned; now they are courted by ever savvy politician. Evangelicals especially are identified with a certain political stance, so much so that the news media uses the terms "evangelical" and "religious right" interchangeably. When I ask a stranger, "What is an evangelical Christian?" I get an answer something like this: "Someone who supports family values and opposes homosexual rights and abortion.
"This trend troubles me because the gospel of Jesus was not primarily a political platform. The issues that confront Christians in a secular society must be faced and addressed and legislated, and a democracy gives Christians ever right to express themselves. But we dare not invest so much in the kingdom of this world that we neglect our main task of introducing people to a different kind of kingdom, one based solely on God's grace and forgiveness. Passing laws to enforce morality serves a necessary function, to dam up evil, built it never solves human problems. If a century from now all the historians can say about evangelics of the 1990s is that they stood for family values, then we will have failed the mission Jesus gave us to accomplish: the communicated God's reconciling love to sinners."
Rain brings Mud
Trying to remember that rain on a farm brings mud. And children in a home bring life. A total of 12 different children (only 4 of them my own) spent time with our family yesterday for various things. The best thing one mother told me when she pulled up and was informed that her daughter was out in the pastures running around: “We can’t ever get her to want to be outside! I’m so happy!” I told her it was farm kid peer pressure 
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)