December Update

Well, the blog was so outdated when I came to it today that it had a Back to School background!  I've changed that now.

I don't know why I can't keep up with this blog.  I want to as there are so many things going on in our lives, but so many times those things are so discouraging that I can't bring myself to write about them.  Our financial situation and Greg's job situation have been the most discouraging over the past three or four years.  It doesn't seem to end.  In June 2011 when he got a new full-time job working for our county and supervising all construction on county buildings, we thought the end was in sight.  Between that job and working 20 hours a week part-time at the hotel, we were able to make ends meet.  That lasted a month before his hours were cut at the hotel during their slow season.  That went on for four or five months, and then he went back to 20 hours a week.

He took the job at the county which did not pay much because of the opportunity to move up there.  However, you have to work for them for a year before you're eligible to apply for other jobs.  This June marked one year of employment there for Greg.  However, no jobs have opened up 1) that pay more and 2) that Greg would be qualified for.  Once again, Greg's hours at the hotel were cut in the slow season.  When the slow season ended, rather than getting all his hours back, he got a 33% pay cut and most of his hours back.  Now, although he's working almost as much, he's making much less money.

 In the meantime, the transmission went out on his truck.  Goodbye $900! That more than wiped out or Automobile Maintenance fund.  Thankfully, there were other funds in our budget with money that allowed us to pay the bill.

In November, we were getting ready to head to North Carolina for Thanksgiving when Greg checked the tires on the van.  The back ones had worn through the the steel core.  $400 later, we had new tires on the van.  We enjoyed our Thanksgiving with our very dear friends only to have the fuel pump go out on the van before we got out of Raleigh.  $1000 and a day of missed work later, we made it home.  Thanks to a very generous gift by one of our dear friends, we had the money to pay for that auto repair anyway.

It's so hard not to be discouraged.  Greg's boss at the county will turn 65 this July and says he is retiring.  IF we can hang on until then and IF Greg could get his job, we'd be in great shape.  However, there is no guarantee of that.  Please pray for us.

Meanwhile, Landon is finishing up a very tough semester at school and does not think he'll be keeping his 4.0 GPA intact.  We knew that was nearly impossible with a Physics degree!  Gerren is finishing up his high school courses and will be 95% done in early January.  He plans to return to the Air Force recruiter and turn in all his paperwork to enlist.  He turns 18 in March and hopes to do basic training before it gets really hot in San Antonio.  :)

One more week of school and we're taking three weeks off for Christmas!  I can't remember the last time I took more than 2 weeks, but we can afford to do it this year.  I need the break!

Thanksgiving pictures to follow in a separate post.  I think Kim sent me 390 pictures! :)

The Busy Days of Fall

I want to update this blog AT LEAST once a week, but find I'm barely managing once a month! :)

It's funny how busy fall seems when you've had off from regular activities during the summer. We're trying to be more involved with our local homeschool group this year.  They've started some new things which are less co-op oriented (I like this since I've never really liked co-ops - too expensive and too much work in addition to what we're already doing).  There are now Connections groups meeting at least once a month.  They are age-grouped.  So, Carys is part of the K-2 Connections group, and Chase and Gerren participate with the High School Connections group.  We've been to one park day for each, and Carys' group has a trip to Peachwave (a frozen yogurt pay-by-the-weight place) and another park day tomorrow.

Gerren is overwhelmed with school, even though he doesn't have as much to do as Chase.  I think he's tired.  He's never been a very academic kid.  Now that he's seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, he's getting more antsy and less able to buckle down and finish.  He's taking the SAT the first Saturday of November, so we're in the last throws of prep for that.  He's halfway through Economics, only 9 weeks left.  He finished Calculus I and opted to do a personal fitness course to get ready for Basic Training (he plans to go into the Air Force immediately upon turning 18 in March) rather than Calculus II.

I think what's mostly overwhelming him is the Computer Programming I course he's taking on Florida Virtual School.  Although he loves the material and is naturally good at it, there is a lot of busy work like all other FLVS courses.  Sigh!  He's on the last module of the first semester.  His teacher is very slow about getting things graded, and then he'll have to go back and redo lessons when he's already on the next module.  So frustrating!  This semester has covered programming using Python.  Next semester is programming with Java.  So, I told him if he will just persevere and finish this module, he can use TeenCoder's first semester course which is programming with Java instead of doing the second semester of FLVS.  He breathed a sigh of relief, but he still is getting behind every day.

Right now, he has two things he didn't finish yesterday (not including the programming - he's still on Monday's assignment and now has three lessons from the last module which were FINALLY graded to correct as well).  Those two assignments are added to today's work, which probably means he'll miss youth group again tonight.  He just wastes so much time during the day.  I'll be glad when this is all over, and I know he will be, too.

In the meantime, Chase is working so hard at her Freshman classes.  I've really been impressed.  She's not been a kid that I needed to teach how to study or prepare for a test.  I think that just comes naturally to her.  I do have to work with her on her math quite a bit.  She doesn't have a natural affinity for it like both of the boys did, but she works very hard and is getting an A in Algebra I using Thinkwell.  Thinkwell is accelerated, but she chose to use it as she wants to study meteorology in college and will need a lot of upper level math.  I like a girl who knows her own mind! :)

Church Paradigm

I'm so discouraged with the state of the church in the US.  I think Landon feels the same way as he's almost given up finding a church in Orlando.  Orlando!  We haven't given up yet, but we're so discouraged.

We have never felt like our current church is our family.  We've been attending there for two years now.  Never once has anyone invited us over for dinner or even coffee.  Never once has anyone even asked us to go out to eat with them after church.  There are no other homeschooling families in our church.  I am so lonely.

I am making my way through this blog post written by futuristguy who is a frequent commenter on another blog I like to read, The Wartburg Watch.  Some parts have really hit home with me, and I wonder where to find a church like that.

In the section "Trends in Managing Membership", he wrote: 

"Seeker-sensitive" programs and using key church services as a platform for evangelism are based on a consumerist paradigm; discipleship - TRUE discipleship - is based on a participatory/producer paradigm. The emerging paradigm that will be in ascendancy soon...  is based on a producer mentality.  Churches that reinforce spiritual consumerism will be functioning on a paradigm in decline that will be in full decay within 25 to 50 years. The time is now to transition toward an integrative, holistic, producer-use-your-giftings paradigm. If we can connect God’s people into meaningful ministry at levels appropriate to their gifts and spiritual maturity, I suspect many aspects of being/doing church will take care of themselves, as long as there is intentional discipleship and training (emphasis mine).

Though our current church is not based on a consumerist paradigm, there is still no attempt to connect people "into meaningful ministry at levels appropriate to their gifts".  Instead there's a lot of micromanaging of ministry by the paid staff.

Under "Trends in Church Communications" he writes:

In [Traditional or Pragmatic paradigms], the leader has automatic authority to decide and lead because of their official positions/roles. In the emerging Holistic paradigm, leaders earn authorization to advise and influence based on a relationship of trust. I suspect many churches, denominations, and ministries experience significant breakdowns in their communication systems. Do we follow through on what we say? Do we promise things too far beyond what we know we can fulfill? Does anyone take notes at meetings so we don’t waste time later trying to reconstruct what the decisions and details were? Whatever the specifics, leaders (and therefore their Kingdom enterprises) often are not proving trustworthy, and that is a warning signal to those who crave the security of trustworthy leaders. (In an America where many children come from homes of divorce, and where typical senior pastor turnover is around three years if I remember correctly, consistency and continuity are essential for maintaining leadership roles in the lives of generations X, Y, and Z. In an unstable world, at least we can offer godly security of doing things decently and in order, and keeping our word!)

 Doing things "decently and in order"?  "Keeping our word"?  Where are those churches?  I haven't been involved in a church like that in a long time, maybe not ever!  Well, we haven't given up yet.  We're still looking for a church where " the locus of leadership is shifting from professionals to participants, and the focus is shifting from authority to authorization."  As futurist guy writes:

 Power has traditionally been in the hands of the paid church leaders, and their decisions needed to be implemented loyally in deference to their positions of authority. Power is now in the hands of participants, who authorize influence to institutional leaders based on maintaining a relationship of trust. This means participants may well not continue their involvement if trust is not established after a reasonable period of relating, or if it is broken and  not mended. Thus, I would urge leaders to review all “systems issues” and “church service styles” in light of TRUST. If mutual trust is not the core of bridging generations and paradigms, then the legacy of the Traditionals and Pragmatics will not be sustained, even with well-intentioned “tweaks” of programs and structures in order to seem more Holistic-friendly.

Yes!

Tough Week

We got home from Sarasota on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.  Landon was home from UCF, and we had a nice weekend.  On Monday, however, he woke up with vertigo.  It got worse as the day went on.  So, we had to make an unexpected trip to Orlando to take him and his car back to school.  He was up all night with dry heaves from the vertigo.  I convinced him to go to the clinic after his lab, and they gave him a prescription.  He feels okay as long as he takes it.  If he's not better in 10 days, he's supposed to go back.

On Tuesday, Greg, Chase and Gerren were headed to CAP and the transmission started going out on Greg's truck.  He managed to limp back to Ocala.  Thankfully, he has his motorcycle which he drove to work Wednesday.  During lunch, he called a local place that sells used parts and was able to get a transmission for $475.  One of the senior members at their CAP squadron has an auto repair place and will put it in for him very reasonably.  However, it's still a nearly $1000 repair which we cannot afford.

On Thursday morning, he went out to start his motorcycle and found that he'd left the key in it and turned on all night.  Needless to say, it wouldn't start.  He had to take my van to work on my usual grocery shopping day.  When he got home the battery still wasn't charged, so he had to take my van another day and go to buy a new battery for the motorcycle.  The Walmart he went to was out of them.  So, after pizza and a movie for family night, he headed to the Walmart near us and bought one.  He came home, charged it up for several hours, tried to put it in his motorcycle, and it wouldn't fit.  He had to go back to Walmart and exchange it.  He got to bed at 1:45am Saturday morning just to get back up at 6:30 to go to work at the hotel (his second job).

Then, he found out that his hours at the hotel were cut AGAIN due to it being their slow season.  They were cut at the end of June from 20-12 hours per week, and now he's down to 8.  We like having him home, but we cannot afford it!

I can only speak from our personal experience, but we are in NO way better off than we were four years ago.  I guess you can figure out who we're voting for in November.

The Last Hurrah of Summer

 As in previous years, we did 4 weeks of school then headed to Suntide Island Beach Club for our annual timeshare week.  Carys has been there every year since she was born and has made some great friends.  This year was awesome because it was the first time since 2006 that Greg was able to stay the whole week. 

Greg and Carys in the hot tub

Chase doesn't want to have her picture taken.

Greg worked on teaching Carys to swim.

This is what Gerren and Chase did most of the time.

This is what I did most of the time!

Chase STILL doesn't want her picture taken.

Carys lost another tooth one night.

Isabella and Bianca and their family have the condo next to ours.

Carys looks forward to playing with them all year!

In the pool with Mom

We met the Beatty family at Suntide four years ago.  They rent there at least once a year.  We hadn't been back at the same time until this year. Sherry, the mom, thought she recognized Chase and came over and asked.  Chase and Micaela struck up their friendship again.  Micaela taught Chase how to make these bracelets she'd been trying to learn to make on her own.

Micaela and Nolan

Gerren and Chase finally came out of the room on the last day.

Playing pool with Micaela and Nolan was too good to pass up

One last picture of Carys swimming

We had an awesome, relaxing time - the best time I've had in years although we missed Landon!  I guess we'd better get used to that.

School Already?

 Well, our summer has almost come to an end.  We began our rolling start into the school year on Monday, July 30, with all of our subjects that run on 180-day schedules - mostly the Sonlight stuff.  We love Sonlight, and this is my 15th year using it, every single year I've homeschooled!

Chase is doing American History and English I with Core 100 and Biology using Sonlight's schedule and Apologia's Exploring Creation With Biology.  She's using Thinkwell online for Algebra I.

Carys is using Core B and Science B along with Singapore Primary Mathematics 1A, All About Reading Level 1, Italic B handwriting, Artpac 1 from Rod & Staff and Bernstein Favorites: Children's Classics for music.

Gerren is not using much Sonlight.  He's only using the Bible part of the Sonlight Economics Schedule.  He's using Notgrass for the main part of Economics.  He's also taking Calculus I with Thinkwell, Computer Programming I through Florida Virtual School and finishing up Life Management and Study Skills using a few books here and there.  We were going to do Calculus II, but I think we may choose Personal Fitness instead.

We are starting our 4th week today then will take a break for our annual week at Lido Beach in Sarasota next week.  We can't wait!

We took Landon back to UCF Friday, and it's very strange not to have him here today!  He started his classes today and is looking forward to another great year.

Summer

Well, I'm thinking I should give up Facebook or some of the blogs I read to keep my own blog current!  I doubt I'll go to those extremes, but I do need to weed things out as we are starting school in less than two weeks.

The summer has seemed to fly by.  In June, we traveled to Illinois (which we really could not afford) to see my parents and attend a family reunion.  We had a wonderful time at the reunion, but I was shocked by the progression of my dad's dementia and appalled by my mom's denial of the problem.  I did everything I can, but not living in the area certainly puts a damper on my ability to influence the situation in any way.  

I did enjoy visiting with two old friends, and we did trips to the zoo (Carys wanted her picture taken with every statue), 

 

the Arch (including a riverboat ride), 

 

  

and Cunetto's House of Pasta on the Hill in St. Louis.  I would still LOVE to live there!  Unfortunately, strep throat wreaked its havoc on all of us while we were gone and when we returned to Florida. 

In July, we served at Mission Ocala with our church.  This event is like taking Vacation Bible School to the streets.  We do four days of our own VBS at a low-income apartment complex near where our church meets.  I had an awful cold the entire week which spoiled some of the fun, but we always get a lot out of it.  Many of these kids would never be able to go to VBS, if we didn't take it to them.

Also this month, Chase earned her Wright Brothers Award in Civil Air Patrol and the new rank of Tech Sergeant (I think - it's the first of 5 levels of sergeant).  Her test score was also high enough to earn entrance to the Cadet Honor Society which the Florida Wing has (I don't think all the wings have this).  Landon is a member with distinction of this honor society as well.  Chase is hoping to earn the "with distinction" part of it next. :)

 

 Chase has worked so hard this year both at school and in CAP.  We're proud of you, Chase!  

We're starting our Sonlight stuff on Monday, July 30.  We'll start other subjects (ones that don't require 180 days of work to complete) each week until we have everything going strong after Labor Day.  We're looking forward to a week at our timeshare on Lido Beach in Sarasota at the end of August.  (I needed a week at the beach in May, so I'm really glad to finally get one.)