week 23 of homeschooling - wednesday

mon, feb 1:
· math & spelling tests
· math worksheets
· bible class
every other minute of their day was taken up with reading or staring into space "dying of boredom". they're all being educated by a severe grounding this week (i'd rather not say why, to protect the innocent and guilty little...), so they're in separate rooms with only books from morning til night. it's been quite peaceful here, and no i didn't devise that plan either. they earned it all on their own.

tues, feb 2:
· math tests
· phonics worksheets
· reading, lots of reading, lots and lots of reading...
· music class was skipped because allen traded his drums for a sweet guitar!
· i had an appointment so we skipped the prairie primer.
· for a different adventure, i took the boys to the local college for haircuts by cosmetology students. they were both way too shaggy, and very sad to get their mops cut, but they look SO much better! they sure cheered up when she suggested they get fauxhawks! (mental note to use that next time...)

wed, feb 3:
· spelling word stories
· bible lesson
· math workbooks
· from the prairie primer (yes, finally back into the groove!): reading, history, bible, science, economics
· awana tonight. they each finished a section, a [word i can't remember], or a book!
· and again, every other minute was reading or starting into space due (hopefully thinking man, i'll never do that again!) to the grounding...

can i handle a mobile office?

i'm beginning to ponder my transition from digital-gadget-collector-with-plenty-of-room to recovering-digital-gadget-collector-who-has-little-room-but-still-needs-to-work. a mobile office will be challenging i'm sure. i'm used to working on a laptop, but i always had a docking station and a nifty armoire with everything i need within reach (not to mention a warehouse full of gadgets!). multiple printers, external drives, phones, fax, cameras, chargers, mouse, tablet, keyboard, usb cables for everything, thumb drives, sd cards, card readers, drawers, files, pull-out counters, etc. even extra computers, desktops, laptops, mac, and pc!
now i need to condense all that into a shoebox.
hmm, this could get interesting. i'm looking at desks that fold up into file-cabinet-sized, well, file cabinets, for storing as we travel. fortunately we'll be parked more than we'll be driving, but still, it's a bit perplexing how this will work. precious few RVs with bunks for the kids have desks. apparently it's not so common for families of 5 to live and work on the road. whatever, i need a desk! but alas, my desk may be small and on wheels. i just hope i can sneak most of my gadgets past allen!

week 22 of homeschooling

mon, jan 25:
today we practiced school on the road. we went to indiana to look at new homes (RVs). i drove while allen taught on the way there, then he drove while i taught on the way back.
(fyi, found a fifth wheel that we love with 2 bedrooms, 4 bunks, 2 bathrooms, full-size fridge. maybe soon!)
· math & spelling tests
· bible lesson
· from the prairie primer: reading, bible, language, complaining (really, it was in there!), health, living

tues, jan 26:
· math worksheets
· reading
· appointment day in dayton, so we skipped the prairie primer today.
· watched a scary little house episode about halloween and laura having nightmares. i'm guessing lizzy will have some...

wed, jan 27:
no nightmares for lizzy, or anyone, cool!
um, i don't remember. sorry, the days are running together in the excitement of preparing to move. they're learning, we're teaching, i'm just not remembering to write it down!
the kids had awana.

thurs, jan 28 - fri, jan 29:
hmm, yeah, still don't remember. we did finish the book, the long winter and ate wheat bread. although we didn't have that, and only that, for months on end like the poor ingalls family during their long winter of blizzards!
i'll try to do better next week (although i have to admit, there's an RV show, so we'll be looking for our new home!) :)

week 21 of homeschooling

would it be wrong to admit i don't remember what we did last week?? with the pending move, or unmove, it's been an an exciting time of selling stuff, looking for campers, and well, dreaming of warmer weather and the open road.
of course allen always knows what he did. he's organized and scheduled. really, he has a spreadsheet. you don't mess with the spreadsheet either (trust me!). i'd call it drill sergeant-ish, but he prefers structured. my part of the day is a bit more flexible. unstructured, free form, surprising, changing, whatever. the kids need to learn to endure different styles of teaching right?
i remember we did some prairie primer. i'm sure it was pretty amazing.
we're also learning about the trials of farming, by feeding our neighbor's non-egg-laying chickens. the kids love playing with the animals, but are bummed about no eggs all week. now we're thinking about having chicken... ;)
so to summarize, i taught amazing stuff, just not memorable stuff. and here's what allen covered, all on the spreadsheet. :)

instead of relocating, we are unlocating. freedom on wheels!

it's unofficially official or officially unofficial, but we've decided to fulfill a dream and take to the road in an RV! i'll answer your questions now...

yes, full-time.
yes, the whole family.
yes, the kids are excited.
yes, permanently.
yes, we're serious. and we can't wait! :)

we've had so many concerned calls and emails and it's apparent some people are forgetting we are lundys. why are we doing it? because we can!

no, we're not desperate (while we do have 2 houses to sell, we could sell this one and live in greenfield debt-free but who wants to live there? not us!)
no, we're not selling the company (are you nuts?! we'll have satellite, internet, phone, computers, printers, and a mobile office.)
no, we're not yanking the kids out of school (we already homeschool!)
no, we don't need all this stuff (allen's new favorite saying: the more stuff you own, the more stuff owns you.)
no, we're not crazy (um, okay you got me on that one, we are, but it works for us!)

it's the opportunity of a lifetime and we're so grateful to be able to do it! thanks to DSP and technology, we're able to work remotely. instead of just teaching the kids about this country, they'll get to see it! we have family from florida to alaska, so hopefully we can visit them all. we'll definitely visit DSP staff and members along the way too (especially the other full-time RVers!)!

where will we go? who knows?! we'll follow the sun and stay warm mostly likely. we'll go where we want and stay until we're bored. we're giving up a house, but gaining an ever-changing backyard. we'll miss our friends, our church, and many conveniences, but we'll find adventures and make memories while keeping in touch! you can follow along right here if you're interested. i'm sure we'll do the same kinds of things, the backgrounds will just change.

more common questions:
what will our new home look like? we're not sure. we'll have to wait until we sell everything!
when will we leave? see above.
what are we selling? see above, really, everything! greenfield house, troy house (email me), truck, camper, possessions. local friends check out the house tour (email me). anything you see is for sale, furniture, storage, gadgets, decorations, tools, everything.
can you come too? sorry, we're limiting it to the lundy 5, but we'd love to visit you! :)

so hopefully soon, we'll be driving one of these! we'll certainly miss troy ohio, but it will be so fun to unlocate and go........

Where should our Road Show stop in the USA???

Where in the country should the Lundy DSP road show stop if the road show should hit the road?!

Ponder this if you will. Let's say the Lundy family and DSP Headquarters packs up in an RV and hits the road. (That of course would begin with my family, then any of team digital we can pick up along the way!) As we travel, we could stop for crops and photowalks near YOU!

The full-time RVers at DSP have made us so jealous we can stand it no longer and we're seriously considering hitting the road. But why settle for just an amazing adventurous life when you could also MEET DSPers all along the trail?!!!

So if you think a digital scrapbooking crop and/or photowalk in your area would be fun, let us know here! Maybe your town isn't big enough, or small enough, or ready for the Lundy family to roll in, that's okay! But if you think you have a great location for an official DSP stop, please let us know! We're working on some fun ideas and who knows what might happen?

So, if it goes, where should the DSP Road Show go?!!!! Post your answers here!

week 20 of homeschooling

we're still under a blanket of snow, but no snow days here, or well, every day's a snow day. the kids LOVE playing in it every recess. i like looking at it, but only from inside a warm house. :)

mon, jan 11:
· math and spelling tests
· math & grammar workbooks
· bible lesson
· i had a chiropractor appt. so we skipped the prairie primer (and my back is fixed, yay!)

tues, jan 12:
· reading, math workbooks
· music class, more loud practice
· appt day so lizzy and i had a girl day while the boys went hunting. we went to friendly's to get her free birthday meal, yum! so yeah, we skipped the primer again. school shmool! ;)

wed, jan 13:
· spelling stories
· reading
· bible lesson
· math workbooks
· from the prairie primer (5 chapters!): reading, bible, science, math, environment, living, health
· we talked about mixtures and solutions, so we found examples in the kitchen and drank a yummy one, instant spiced cider.

thurs, jan 14:
· math & spelling tests
· math & grammar worksheets
· music class, more loud practice
· from the prairie primer: reading, health, character, bible, writing, art, geography

fri, jan 15:
· field trip day at charleston falls! thanks to miami co parks, the backyard buzzards learned about winter habitats.

we made our own laundry and dishwasher soap

just like the ingalls on their prairie, well not quite, but we made our own powdered laundry soap. which turned out to be quite easy and fun! i'd read about liz and kim's liquid soap, but wasn't up for all the steps. i'm lazy. so i googled and found this easy recipe.
i'm very happy with it, though the grated pink soap is so pretty, i hated to use it! :) i'm glad it works, it's easy, it's SUPER cheap, i know exactly what's in it, but mostly i just like the pretty pink soap.

Powdered Laundry Soap
1 Cup grated Zote Soap
1/2 Cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 Cup Borax
For light load, use 1 Tbsp. For large or heavily-soiled loads, use 2 Tbsp.

it's more fun if you have cute little helpers.
i guess i really overestimated my container needs. i'll have to grate more pink soap!
see? pretty! yes, i'm easily impressed and amused. :)

Dishwasher Soap
1 T Washing Soda
1 T Borax
Use 2 T per load. If dishes are cloudy, add one drop of liquid dish soap.

seriously, that's it! i tried it out first and just measured out a tablespoon of each until i was sure. then i put a cup of each in a jar (and shook it) with a 2 tablespoon medicine cup for a scoop. easy! no pictures because it's boring without pretty pink soap. :)

week 19 of homeschooling

the holdiays are over and it's back to the grind. the kids weren't very excited, but they did well. the dog got grounded again though. he likes to interrupt lessons to lick children.

mon, jan 4: (happy birthday grandma!!!)
· spelling tests
· math workbooks
· reading
· bible lesson
· gym class was jump shots while bouncing on the trampoline (while freezing i should add!)
· from the prairie primer (we just started reading the next book, the long winter): reading, history, living, health, language, science, vocabulary, safety, bible, character
· we also watched two more episodes of little house and learned about war, addictions, sacrifice, hard times, humility, good stuff!

tues, jan 5:
· math & grammar workbooks
· from the prairie primer: reading, science (3 chapters, but a short lesson!)
· in the book they had an equinoctial storm, so we studied the earth's rotation & revolution, seasons, sunrise/set, etc. we used matt's head as the sun. :) and found a cool animation.
· i went to lunch with the girls and apparently missed the second accident of the day! each time it snows it seems some car ignores the 4 giant arrows warning of the curve and slips off the road. we woke up to that this morning, but no injuries. this afternoon though, the car flipped just before the kids went outside to play! glad they were home and able to help. and there was a third just off the road when i came home. so, some life skills today?!
· and thanks so a very timely tip from moneysavingmom.com, i just downloaded a free copy of the long winter audio book from homeschoolradioshows.com (today only)! so tonight we'll listen to the next 3 chapters!!!

wed, jan 6:
· math timed test
· spelling words in a story
· bible lesson
· math workbooks
· music class (they learned three little birds by bob marley!)
· from the prairie primer: reading, bible, history, science, language
· tonight we read about the huge blizzards, so i hope there's more snow when the kids wake up. they think i'm magic. :)

thurs, jan 7:
my reading magic worked and we had snow! the kids had a ball. we did get our school in, but gave them lots of time to play. the boys went rabbit hunting (the cute bunnies prevailed this time though!) and lizzy got to play guitar hero (she opted not to kill cute bunnies).
· math & spelling tests
· math worksheets
· survival skills class (prompted by said hunting trip) and grammar. they had to write something, i didn't pay attention.
· from the prairie primer: reading, geography, economics, science

the local school has a 2 hour delay, and since we don't have delays or school days, we just declared tomorrow a sleep in day! yay! :)

fri, jan 8:
· another mostly snow day! they did play educational computer games. and the boys went hunting again and lizzy worked on her hand-eye coordination, okay, she played guitar hero again.

homeschooling - wait, we're on break but we're eating rabbits?!

(ick warning below!)
the little house prairie primer keeps suggesting we eat rabbit as part of our lessons, and i keep purposefully skipping that part. but allen had to take the boys rabbit hunting so josh could use his new bb gun. they've gone before without success, so quite honestly, i was pulling for failure. lizzy was begging for them to look at it from the innocent little bunny's point of view!
alas, they were successful hunters so we had rabbit tonight. slow-cooked with sour cream/cream of mushroom over noodles, and also fried. hmm, tasted like chicken. :) the boys loved it! i'm proud to say lizzy and i ate it, and well, we liked it too, though we had to concentrate hard on not concentrating hard on what it was, which is really hard. :)
but we're proud of daddy and the boys for bringing home prairie rabbits just like pa, even if we weren't as excited as laura and mary! but i'm so counting this toward our schooling. what a learning experience!

I took a photo a day for all of 2009!

I did it! I took a challenge to take a photo a day for all of 2009 and I did! Now we have a great look back at what we did every day last year. Yep, most are quite boring, but so is our life. :)
I plan to put each week into a scrapbook page and have a photo book printed next. We'll see!
You can see all 366 here. Yeah, 366... We lived May 26th twice, once in New Zealand, then once in the Cook Islands! :)

lizzy is 10, double digits!

we now have a 10-year-old! and for 1 month and 17 days (precisely) she will be older than josh. :) lizzy had a friend over to celebrate her big day and they had lots of fun, especially with the doll from grandma. (isn't it pretty?!) happy birthday and new year lizzy!

fun christmas break in florida!

we all had mixed feelings about spending christmas in florida. no snow? no cold? away from home? well, now we all agree - we loved it! mostly because the grands were there, so it felt like home. but it was so fun to enjoy the sun and beach, and christmas too!
we're now also big fans of driving overnight. it was great without all the traffic, stops, bright sun, (not to mention the whining and fighting, oh i just did!) and it took 14 hrs instead of 17. allen and i took turns snoozing in the back (and watching little house episodes with the kids). great way to travel!
i took 1,105 pics this week, so i'll just make you suffer through a few of them!

12/23: walks by the canal, boat ride, only spotted one gator, looking at christmas lights

12/24: day at the beach, swimming and kayaking, opening one gift early

12/25: opening gifts of course, and playing with them all day

12/27: the kids (and dog!) jumped on the trampoline for hours today, until it snowed, then for hours more!

Merry Christmas from (mostly) sunny Florida!

we're having a great visit with the grands in middleofnowhere, florida - where every day it's in the 70's, there is no agenda, life moves at a slower pace (literally), and grandchildren are being spoiled (rotten!). we're loving it!
this morning started a bit early for the grownups, but the kids couldn't wait any longer. they all agree: BEST CHRISTMAS EVER! josh was so happy with his real BB gun. matt's loving his pump action shotgun (not real!). and lizzy loves her new doll and named her regan. and we were all amazed to see that santa left a trampoline at home in ohio!!! (that would have been hard to get home in the van!) i have a feeling that will be the source of future funny videos and possibly broken bones...
we hope you're having a very Merry Christmas today wherever you are!

week 18 of homeschooling

mon, dec 14:
· math and spelling tests
· grammar & math worksheets
· reading books
· bible lesson with allen. (no mention of laser beams this time, so all is well)
· gym class was some combination of throwing/catching balls while jumping on the mini-trampoline
· from the prairie primer: reading, history, writing, bible, vocabulary, reasoning, safety, geography
· i seamlessly tied in a story about internet safety to a little house on the prairie lesson about strangers. i used my geek powers for good! :)

tue, dec 15:
· math timed tests
· grammar worksheets
· "area of need" day - some extra time for the subject each struggles with
· reading books
· the children of God band practiced loudly for music class
· from the prairie primer: reading, history, reasoning, literature, bible, geography

wed, dec 16:
· math timed tests
· spelling words in abc order
· reading books
· bible lesson
· while reading the book (by the shores of silver lake), the chapter had a major cliff-hanger and the kids BEGGED me to keep reading. then it got so good they didn't want to stop, so we read all 6 chapters to finish it up. you should have heard the gasp when laura saw almanzo for the first time, shew!! i *love* how much they get into these books!
· from the prairie primer: reading, history, geography, living, vocabulary, reasoning, science, bible, character, writing
· awana night
· i saw this very cool video on facebook, so we had to watch. totally relevant since it's an ubercool interpretation of ukraine during WWII, part of josh's heritage. world history class - check!


thurs, dec 17:
· math timed tests
· spelling tests
· grammar worksheets
· "area of need" day
· bible lesson
· no prairie primer. since we finished the book early, we just concentrated on our maps. i printed BIG maps that took 4 sheets of paper so they could fill in the states AND read what they wrote. (with josh, that's still near impossible)
· we played with this cool interactive map to quiz on the states and capitals.
· fun moment: they asked me if sweet home was the capital of alabama! :)

fri, dec 18:
· book reports are due for josh & lizzy. don't hold your breath, they just finished reading tonight!!
· computer games day!
· maybe we'll bake something, dessert probably...

TA DA! the end of the second 9 weeks! since we don't do grades, i'm thinking of giving them colors. good job kids, you got all yellows. or maybe we'll pick a fruit... whatever we do, we they survived another semester, so good show!

next week we're heading to florida, so we'll take the week off, except for watching little house episodes on the way down. guess that'll count for the next semester. and we'll hopefully learn about latitude and how much warmer it is in the south (unless the cold follows us, which it tends to do, in which case we'll study weather abnormalities and drink cans of suck-it-up).

i AM a cook!

so allen's convinced me that i *am* a cook afterall and i'm embracing it! i've always hated it, never understood it, and was rarely good at it. but lately i've been applying what i am good at, research, and it's working! (i knew that college degree would come back into play one day.)
now i've switched gears from betty exhausted crocker to research scientist baker and i'm loving it! my family doesn't mind that i don't spend hours slaving over meals. they just know the stuff i threw in the crock pot smells good. they don't care if i thaw the chicken first or grate my own cheese. they don't care that i think anything over 10 minutes to prepare is way too long. they don't even care that i don't know what half these ingredients are, or what any of them do. they are just thankful that they have yummy meals (usually, there are plenty of failures, learning opportunities still) and a much happier mom in the kitchen.
i love my bread maker, crock pot, one-dish recipes, and my time spent (what little i spend) in the kitchen for my family. well that, and i love licking the spoons...

journaling:
Apparently I AM A COOK. No, not like you, your mom, or your amazing Aunt Sue, but I can cook, and I’m starting to like it! Who knew?!
No, I don’t know what season to taste means. I wish you’d just say how much. No, I don’t know what baking soda does, nor do I care. But I can find easy recipes that we love. It’s a treasure hunt now I enjoy. Want to know my secret ingredient? Love!

see more details and credits here.