Time Flies

Youngest without the hat. Middle son with the hat.

I just began my 17th year of homeschooling last month. I find it heard to believe that it's been that long. I started when my oldest son was only five years old. He's now 22 years old and in his third year of college. So yes mamas, homeschool kids do go to college and do well there too! He currently has a GPA of 3.34. (<---proud mama bragging a bit)

This year I currently have a senior in high school as well as a freshman. My freshman, is tall and he loves it. Especially now that he's officially taller than his older brother - at least one of them. 

Down to two boys at home

Homeschooling now is vastly different than it used to be even a couple of years ago. Most of the time I am simply the "scheduler and guidance counselor" rather than the teacher. I don't spend a lot of time in direct instruction anymore. My boys are now pretty independent. 

My senior this year is taking two classes at a local college. He started dual enrollment last year online. It has definitely changed things but he will end up starting college with about 18 credit hours completed. This is going to be a huge cost saver for him as he is planning to get a bachelor's degree in Aviation. This child of mine wants to be a pilot. In fact, he is currently doing his ground school class as part of his dual enrollment. Even with the state paying for his tuition for this class, it still ended up being a bit expensive. The entire program is on the most expensive at our state university. I'm thrilled that they have the program though. It's still new and the only one in our state. He will start flight training for his Private Pilot's license in the spring - hopefully. It will all depend on funding of his flight hours. He's determined though. He's been dealing with learning how to best use his time this year between college, homeschool, and work. This November he will be celebrating one year at his job. We started working with him on a budget last year and I have every confidence he will succeed and do well. 

My youngest isn't quite sure what he wants to do. We're still doing the basics here at home, but I've been contemplating having him try out the local tech center to explore some career options. They do a "sampler" program for ninth and tenth graders. We're considering trying that for next year. The only downfall to this program is it's located in the next town over - about a 20 minute drive. He won't have his license yet as he won't turn 16 until 2020. This means I'll need to drive him or at least ride with him as he drives. I'm sure that will be his preferred method. My oldest still doesn't have his license yet either and will be moving home this December to hopefully transfer to the college in that same town. Mom taxi will be in full force!

Homeschooling at its best

Back to my oldest though...this child of mine has thrived so much at college. He's really begun to come into his own and I'm super proud of him. Not only is he doing well there, but he also started his first job this past summer. My very introverted child is now a cashier at the local grocery store and is getting great reviews on his customer service skills. Mamas in the trenches...hold on. They do grow up and they do become productive members of society if we encourage them to find those skills. 

My oldest in his journalism class. 

They had a local TV reporter come speak to them. 

He's on the far left, back row, full beard. 

Homeschooling has been tough over the years, I won't deny that. There were days when one or all of us were in tears over a tough lesson. However, it's been worth all the sacrifice of staying home and investing into my boys. I don't regret one moment of it. I'm blessed and thankful that I had this opportunity. I'm just a bit sad that I'm starting to see the end draw ever nearer. Not to sound to route, but mamas, enjoy the moments. All of them. The hard, the fun, the messy, the sad, the frustrating - enjoy it all because it will all be over sooner than you realize. 

Camp

I know I've shared about camp before but it's been awhile. My hubby's Grandad built this camp years ago. He used to travel from Connecticut to the northern reaches of the the Maine woods with his children back in the 50's-60's to spend a couple weeks camping. He eventually bought some property along the lake and built this cabin. 

When most people think of "camp" they probably envision a lakeside cottage they drive to and spend a week or two at in the summer away from the general hustle, bustle of life. Well, this camp would definitely take care of both those options, but it's far more primitive than what most people think of when they hear "camp."

For starters, my husband's GPS in his truck was only showing Canadian cities by the time we made it to the "parking lot" for camp. I say "parking lot" because it's essentially a grassy little field at the top of the trail head. Once you park, you then hike a half-mile down to camp. Unless you are blessed to have a 4-wheeler and a trailer (which we now are - thank goodness!) in which case you make your children walk while you ride. There are perks to being the parent. 

Over the years improvements have slowly been made. In fact, the first photo above shows a new path my hubby created for his mom. She has a bench she likes to sit on near the water and this now makes it easier to get to it.

They also just added solar lighting which makes it so much nicer. The cabin doesn't have a lot of natural lighting and is always pretty dark. The lights make it easier to read and cook and just get about in the cabin especially at night.

The path down to "The Point."

The two boys waiting at "The Point" for Daddy to arrive with the boat.

We now have a small boat - small being the key word - but it did hold all four of us nicely. We took a ride around the lake one night while we were there. There is always wildlife to see and earlier in the day I took a quick little ride in the canoe with my middle son. We had an eagle fly right over us and land in a tree nearby. It was very cool.

Camp from the water. The brown building is the boat house in front of the camp.

The water was so still you could see the clouds reflected in it.

Gorgeous sun rays from behind the clouds. 

My favorite photo of my one of my kiddos taken while at camp.

While camp isn't my favorite place to go, I do like my modern amenities a bit too much, it is relaxing. My hubby takes very good care of me when we go up and I am essentially a woman of leisure when we are there. I read three books in the four days this time. He does all the cooking and cleaning. I read and napped most of the time. It was much needed. 

Shoveling

 

Anyone living in New England will tell you that we have had a lot of snow this winter. And saying "a lot" is really an understatement! 

One bright sunny day this winter I packed up all my boys and headed north - towards more snow because that's how foolish I am. Actually, we headed back to the family farm. We still own our mobile home that we lived in located on the family property. We had already received a few feet of snow and another two feet was predicted for that weekend. The roof on the trailer needed to be shoveled off before that could happen. 

My hubby was unable to do it so I volunteered to take the kids and go attack it. I figured my oldest and I could get it done in a few hours. 

While we were working, the younger boys went sledding outside and played with their younger cousins who were also up for the weekend to visit.

I have to say I was very grateful to my father-in-law who pitched in to help and offered us the use of a snow pusher that worked great to get the snow off.

I'm standing on the porch roof looking down the length of the trailer. There was probably four feet of snow on here. 

I was thankful for a sunny day and the wind wasn't too bad either. We began to shed a few layers while we worked. I only lost my shovel off the edge of the roof once and I did proceed to snap it in two before I was done. 

It took us about two hours to get it all cleared off. And then the blizzard that was predicted for the weekend fizzled. The roof needed to be shoveled anyway, but not as urgently as we had thought in hindsight. 

Busy But a Fun-Filled Day

Today started a long string of busy days for all of us here. Spring always seems to be that way. Winter this year was seemingly the longest ever which caused me to plan a number of field trips plus jump on board any others I could find. Cabin fever at its best.

I especially enjoy when we go check out places we've never been. There are some great places to explore in our state and some are favorites that we go back to time and again.

I'm sure many folks out there have heard of Poland Spring water. Today we headed to the original spring and learned some of the history behind it.

The buildings were absolutely beautiful. We went in to the small house that shelters the original spring source. It's made almost entirely of white marble. We also went in to the original bottling plant. The buildings were abandoned for many years once the more modern bottling facility was built down the road. Thankfully, they were restored (it took three years and about three million dollars).

The original spring (taken from inside the building)

The original spring (taken from outside the building)

Looking through a very large original pane of glass (from the early 1900s) 

The room with the tables in it? That was the original bottling plant. In the corner (off to the left out of frame) there is a large sink-like area that brought the water in from the other building. When the buildings were "rescued" we were told this room was covered in moss as well as flooded. Many things were taken from the buildings when they were abandoned. They were also vandalized. However, such high quality materials were used that much was salvageable.

The room we were in had absolutely gorgeous tiger maple all through it. The original floor tiles were even there. The ceiling in the other room - all covered in white tiles - was also mostly originally. Both the floor and the ceiling only needed a few replaced due to damage.

Throughout the building there are original photographs and artifacts. There was a bit of mistake on our time for our tour so we were there a full hour before our guide and had essentially done a self-guided tour of both buildings. She was able to fill in some of the history for us though. 

This tower was built to increase air flow through the building - early 20th century air conditioning.

After the tour we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the grounds. Considering it's been raining more often than not lately, it was wonderful to be outside! Even this little guy agreed.

Lest anyone think I had another child and didn't share, this is Mr. T and I babysit him. He's almost two years old.

This past fall I started a 4-H Club. Our focus is not animals, but GPS/GIS. Our goal is to find and hide a large number of geocaches this year, but we've had a late start. Today we took advantage of the fact that half the club was on the field trip and that there were a number of caches hiding along the hiking trails on the property. 

Finding our first cache of the day

This one stumped us for a bit. The clue was "the log on the stone trail." We were on "Stone Trail" but it was a literal stone trail. 

He almost fell asleep. He's such a lightweight, but I definitely got my exercise in for today hauling him up and down and all around the "moderate" hiking trail we were on.

Logging the second cache

We headed home just as some afternoon thunder storms rolled in. It was pretty impressive and I was very thankful we were home to enjoy them.

Our day ended with my middle son taking his first belt test in martial arts. A few months ago my hubby and I "encouraged" him to try it. My hubby and our youngest son have both been taking classes for some time. We felt our middle boy would benefit greatly from lessons as well. He reluctantly agreed and overall does seem to be enjoying it.

Poor boy was extremely nervous about his test tonight, but no worries. He passed. He's now a yellow stripe (1/2 rank).

Receiving his yellow stripe

Receiving his certificate

All the students who tested with my son - all passed.

Overall it was a busy, but really fun day. We were able to explore places we've never been which is one of my favorite things to do. I was also very proud of my child showing great effort and progress in a skill that, while he might not have chosen it if left to his own devices, he's finding himself enjoying.

Generations

My three boys with their great-grandfather

May 2014

Two years ago our family relocated from the family farm (or the "Berry Commune" as I liked to call it - tongue in check of course!) to our own place an hour south. It's been an adjustment not only for us but also for my in-laws and my hubby's grandfather.

We moved to the Farm when our youngest son was just a mere eight months old - August 2004 to be exact. He was eight when we moved off the Farm. It was a fantastic place to raise my boys.

While we knew, as a family, it was the best thing for us at that time, it was still a hard decision. My children grew up not only having unlimited access to their grandparents but also to their great-grandparents. Many, many, many days, I saw this site after lunch.

circa September 2007

My oldest son at age 11.

From almost the day we moved on to the farm until about six months before we moved away, my oldest son walked down to get the mail with his great-grandfather. He looked forward to this time - as did his great-grandfather - and guarded it jealously. He hated it when his brothers became old enough to want to go with them and I only allowed it occasionally as I knew how much it meant to my son to have this time. 

I'm sure it's pretty quiet on the farm these days without the boys running around outside. Our trailer sits quietly while we try to figure out exactly what to do with it (leave it? move it?). Although, we do have a squatter on the property....

Today after we got out of church we headed north. We picked up some Chinese food on the way and spent an enjoyable afternoon visiting with Grandad. We heard through the family grapevine that he was thrilled to have us heading up just to spend time with him.

We chatted about life in general. He shared stories from his childhood which I did record so I can type up to save. My hubby and Grandad reminisced about family pets and when my hubby was living on the farm as a child.

All of the adults agreed that history as a child had little meaning to us. It's only as we've grown older that we've realized the importance of it. I was glad to capture a bit of our family history today and plan to capture more soon.

Summer Plans

This is the view out my window at the moment...

is it any wonder I'm already dreaming about the trips I'd like to take this summer?

Some have already been planned and scheduled and even paid for! I love that. Some are still in the planning stages. Some are just wishes and some, I hope, are definite. Here's where I'm hoping to head once the snow (and mud!!) are gone.

Here are the two definite ones, but these are "mom" trips (aka mom-recharge):

  I first went to MassHOPE last year and it was a blast. I had a fabulous time and will be heading there again at the end of April. I'm looking forward to the speakers and the vendor hall. However, I think the thing I'm looking forward to the most is time with friends. And, since I'm a mom I will say this as well, time with friends without children to interrupt our conversations. Just keeping it real.

Another trip I am going on that is "adult-only" is SoulFest. This is a four day Christian music festival in New Hampshire. It will be my third year in a row to attend. Again, moms-only and it's a fantastic time of recharging for me especially before our new school year will begin. Our tickets and hotel are already bought and paid for which makes it super enjoyable as well.

Our big family trip this year will probably be for a few days "upta camp." My hubby's family has a camp on the northern shore of Moosehead Lake. It's very remote and I am not much a roughin'-it kind of girl, but my guys love it so I try to go with the family every other year or so. It's been a couple years so it's time for another trip there. It will be relaxing and it's much easier to go now that the boys are old enough to take care of themselves. And considering the location, technology can't interrupt. We can now text from camp, but there is no way to call unless you hike out to the truck (a 1/2 mile) and drive to the top of a nearby hill.

 I have been planning to take my boys on the Freedom Trail in Boston now for a few years. It's never seemed to work out. I am hoping that this year is the year. Right now I'm tentatively planning to head to Massachusetts near the end of May/early June. I have relatives that live just south of Boston so we'll crash there which saves on hotel expenses. My aunt lives right on the water and we'll be able to take a commuter boat from her town directly in to Boston. I've done this with the boys before and it's affordable and fun. I will either be booking a tour or using an app. I haven't quite decided yet. Anyone ever done this with children? Do you find the tours kid-friendly (i.e. they can explore enough) or is it better to go on your own time schedule? My boys are 9, 12, & 16.

We'll extend our time in Boston to allow for a day at the beach. My aunt lives near Nantasket Beach which is fantastic. We went down for a few days last year to visit and they loved playing in the surf. I may also try to add a few more historical things to our trip, but I think a full day in Boston may be all we can manage.

I am also considering a trip to Old Sturbridge Village. I think this will be a separate trip as invited my sweet mother-in-law to tag along with us. I'm also going to see if my sister-in-law and her three young ones want to join us. I'm busy researching that now to see if it's a doable day trip. I think it can be done, but it will be a long day. I'm about three hours from there by car. Any tips?

The last trip that is in the planning stages is an anniversary trip for my hubby and I. We will be celebrating 20 years of marriage this summer and are planning to take a trip to Niagra Falls. We've never been and it looks like a lot of fun. I'd love any tips anyone may have on this as well. I have an general idea of what we'd like to do at the falls, but I'm looking at things to do in the surrounding area as well. We will most likely go for 3-4 days.

What types of trips do you all do in the summer?

Freezer Cooking

I have been thinking about attempting some freezer cooking for quite some time. I always seem to have plenty of food on hand but nothing ready for supper. Can anyone relate?

My sister also wants to do some batch cooking so we sat down for a few hours this afternoon and came up with a game plan. We are going about our freezer cooking a bit differently than most I think. Instead of spending a day cooking, we split up the meals we think will work best. We will spend the next three weeks putting together enough for two families. At the end of the month we will be getting together to swap meals. This should ensure at least two weeks of dinners and a month (or more) of breakfast/snack things.

Since this is the first time either of us have attempted this type of preparation, it will be interesting to see how it all works.

We are including breakfast foods in our freezer cooking for a couple of reasons. One, I dislike mornings and to have to get up and cook immediately just isn't going to happen. From the time my boys could fend for themselves, they have been in charge of making their own breakfasts. It's usually cereal or granola bars. It's certainly nothing fancy, but after this, they may enjoy it more.

Breakfast Plans
Waffles (thankful my sister is taking these one)
Regular Pancakes (I will be making some gluten-free ones as well for my youngest).
Oatmeal Cinnamon pancakes
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Muffins (and probably some regular ones as well)
Banana Muffins
Blueberry Muffins
Donut Muffins (so yummy!)
Apple Cinnamon Muffins

Certainly lots of muffins, but this will also allow for snack time as well.

For main meals what we decided to do was to essential double the recipe. We'll keep one and give one to the other family. Since we are pretty new to this whole thing, I'm wondering how it's going to work, but I'm certainly eager to sample the goodies!

Main Meals
I will be making:

• Pizza crusts (flash frozen and stacked with waxed paper for easy use)
• Pulled BBQ Pork for sandwiches
• Pizza Pasta Casserole (aka lazy mom's lasagna)
• Bacon Cheeseburger Buns
• Crunchy Chicken Strips
• Teriyaki Chicken Dump
• Caribbean Chicken Dump
• Sticky Chicken Dump

My sister is tackling:

• Meatloaf
• Chicken pot pie
• Chicken Parmesan 
• Beef pot pie
• Meatloaf Volcanoes (muffin-tin style)
• Teriyaki Marinade (we'll add this to steak we already have on hand)

Meal Extras

I am going to be trying my hand at making freezer biscuits. My goal is to make two dozen for each of us. These are suppose to be similar to the pop-can style. Hopefully they are! My sister is also an excellent break maker so she will be making some oatmeal rolls (hopefully!) to share as well as kaiser rolls. She sent me home with a nice big sample of these to try. She made them for the first time a few months ago and is now using them for sandwiches, burgers, and more.

We decided to be really ambitious and also tackle desserts - mostly cookies. I didn't write down what she was going to make, but I'll be making some yummy chocolate caramel cookies, molasses crinkles, brownies, and congo bars (family recipe - essentially tollhouse cookie bars). I know she's making chocolate chip cookies, but I can't remember the rest.

I have a feeling our families are going to be happy with our new venture. I'll be posting progress and will let you know if it works as well as we hope!

I'm So Excited!

Life seems pretty good right now. Last night my hubby was finally able to make a deal to not only sell our old truck but also his motorcycle that he hasn't ridden in about five years. Not only are they gone but he was able to score a really nice 4-wheeler in exchange for them. Talk about excited! The man is floating on cloud nine.

Our old truck that is now gone! I used to drive five kids in this thing.

He has wanted a 4-wheeler for some time and with his upcoming moose hunt, this will come in super handy especially if he ends up having to haul the moose out of the woods any distance.

So why am I excited? Well, because the truck and motorcycle are gone. It's been pretty frustrating during this selling process. My hubby had many, many, many hits on his ads for both but almost everyone would show interest and then just stop. Or they would say they were coming to buy and then never show up. The worst was when a guy showed interest in trading the motorcycle for a 4-wheeler and hubby ended up trailing it two hours south to have the guy finally tell him that the 4-wheeler wouldn't start so he couldn't get it to him. ::sigh:: Lesson learned.

Another reason? My hubby finally was able to get the 4-wheeler he's always wanted, but a way better version than we could have ever bought outright. Well, I guess we did buy it outright but it feels like we just lucked out. He traded his motorcycle plus most of the cash from the truck sale for it. I'm married to an engineer. He did the math - of course. He traded about $2800 worth of vehicle for about $3450 plus some cash. That is pretty exciting!

Oh and that extra cash? I'm finally going to be able to use that to buy a digital SLR camera body! Talk about excited! I've wanted one of those for quite some time now but I just couldn't afford the price tag. I already own a Canon film SLR and my lenses for that will work with a digital one. So I have spent the day researching and trying to find the best deal out there.

And one more reason? I'm going to be able to doing a review soon for CSN Stores. I'm sure you've seen these on the internet at various other blogging sites. Not only do they sell dining room furniture but they have 200+ stores that sell just about anything you can imagine! Need some home decor items? They have it. What about some new toys for the kiddos? Yup, that too. And an absolute favorite of mine...office supplies. They have those too.

And the review item? It's going to have something to do with my new camera. I have it all picked out and I can't wait for it to arrive (the review item - not the camera...yet).

Until then I hope everyone is having a fabulous day!

Dodging Catastrophe

Doing bills and dealing with the money side of marriage drives me nutso - just ask my hubby. In fact, about three years into our marriage I handed it all over to him to deal with since I just could not do it anymore. We made some really bad choices and decisions when we were first married, but my husband has done a fantastic job over the last fourteen years turning our financial situation around. It's no longer dire but livable. I like that.

Over the last few years we've joined the Dave Ramsey bandwagon. We are working hard to be debt free and no longer use credit cards at all. It's worked well for us for the last two years. And we are close to being able to say we are "debit free!!!"

However, just the other day (Wednesday to be exact) my hubby was working on the bills. He called me in to ask if I had forgotten to give him a receipt. Yes, I'm prone to doing that. It's one reason he makes us use duplicate checks. I insisted I had given him all of them. We started probing a bit more in to the site I had allegedly bought something from.

We discovered it was actually hubby's debit card number. We also discovered it was a children's book site on-line. I'd never seen the site before and my hubby isn't prone to buying kids books without telling me.

So I called the company. It was closed. At this point we were sufficiently scared enough that we called and had our debit cards cancelled immediately.

The next day my hubby went to the bank. He was issued a new card and mine is on its way (thank goodness). He talked about what happened with the bank and they said they would forgive the charge but we first needed to contact the company and see if they would do it first.

So that's what he did. Here is where the scary part comes in....

There was another charge from the beginning of June that we hadn't caught yet. 

The only reason we caught the charge we did at this point is that we have the ability to look at our statement on-line any time we want to. We still get a paper statement and hubby reconciles all charges with that so we would have seen the other bogus charge at some point.

In talking with the company he found out that this has been happening a lot with them lately. What the thieves do is charge small amounts on the card (the charges attributed to us were $14 and $15) over the course of 5-6 months. They watch to see if you cancel the card. Do you notice what they are doing? If you don't, then they hit you with big charges.

The other freaky thing was that they used both our home information and hubby's work information to create a mailing address, phone number and e-mail. While it was our home zip code (which would match the debit information), it was hubby's work street address. The e-mail combined some letters from hubby's name and his work phone number.

I am so thankful it didn't get to that point. Now we'll work on figuring out a way to ensure this doesn't happen again.