Homeschool started here yesterday. We have decided, for a number of reasons, to homeschool Daniel. The great things with this is ... Actually, there are many great things, but one great bonus is that I get to incorporate Mikey into school. He has been able to start working on Math and Handwriting as well as participating in our Bible and History lessons.
Yesterday we had an introduction to our Handwriting Without Tears program, which uses a system of manipulatives (hands-on) and workbooks to teach manuscript handwriting. Their wood pieces and mat are a fun way to start discussing letter shapes. They are also fun to play with. Here is Mikey's "Mat Man"...
and Daniel's "Workbook Man"...
We are starting out in Bible and History by learning about the creation story, Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, dinosaurs, and how the first people lived. We made a "dinorama" today that the boys are playing with now during their free play.
I recently gave Mikey a "special" book. I told him it was "his book". He was so excited about it! He carried it all around the house with him. He took it in the car. He slept with it in bed. It was too cute. He may not learn much about himself in the book (no pictures). But I am hoping to learn a lot about him. What book was it? Take a look...
We enjoyed finally receiving all the Mikey birthday, Daniel birthday, and family Christmas presents from grandma in North Pole that had been packed in our big trailer shipment. What a treat!
Daniel got to pick out his own special birthday dinner. Of course, it was cheese pizza, chicken nuggets, and french fries. All the brothers were thrilled with dinner. (Yeck!)
I made a special Lego Man cake for Daniel. He thought it was the best! (You will see from the picture that I am not a skilled cake decorator, but it was sure a lot of fun.)
Daniel is into his 2nd half of Kindergarten. He loves riding his bike, scooter, and skateboard. He is a passionate Lego builder. Swimming is also a favorite. He is such an amazing helper for me and a great big brother.
We moved into our new home 3 days before Christmas but didn't receive our primary shipment of household items until the following week. We had expected to receive our goods before Christmas and, thus, packed all our Christmas supplies and presents, most of our kitchen goods (bakeware, pots, pans...), and most of our furniture in the main shipment, which was barged, trucked, and trained (very slowly) from Alaska to North Carolina. We traveled with our RV and a little tow-behind trailer that had a handful of "survival" items that really came in handy. The boys matresses were in that trailer along with a fresh selection of toys, and boxes full of most of our clothes (nice after 35+ days with the same limited selection of travel clothes!). It also had Christmas presents we had picked up from family during our trip. And we scavenged the RV for camp supplies, kitchen spices, toiletries and more.
On Christmas Eve, after a few days of sitting on boxes and eating from paper plates, we were able to make contact with a lending closet on post that supplied us with temporary items like chairs (so handy!), kitchen plates and flatware, cups, microwave, toaster... We hit the local stores in search of Christmas trees and decorations and finally found a great sale at Lowes. One $5 tree, a bucket of rocks, a string of outdoor icicle lights, and some clearance ribbon and garland became this ...
We had a very merry (and memorable) Christmas!
Our Christmas Eve tradition of new pajamas for the whole family was continued, thanks to Grandpa Dan and Grandma Patty. So the boys were adorable in new, clean PJs come Christmas morning. And they were so excited!
Daddy made them sit nicely before handing out presents. (Torture!)
More sitting...
Much more of this sitting and we won't be smiling!
As usual, the boys were really blessed by presents from family. Grandma's presents from North Pole were packed in the big shipment, so we had even more presents to open the following week. Christmas was long and fun this year!
We didn't have much with which to cook or eat but with a few disposable pans and some plastic plates we still had a wonderful Christmas dinner.
The best part of it was being together to celebrate Jesus' birthday.
We got the keys to our house yesterday! We are checking out of our hotel (and our super fast Wi-Fi) and moving in to the house today. We will start by moving everything from our small travel trailer that we brought with us. Hopefully, our giant trailer with all our household goods will be delivered in the next couple days.
We probably won't post anything else until we have a decent internet connection at our house, so...
After 35 days and about 6000 miles on the road, we made it to our new home in South Carolina on Thursday. Well, kind of home. Home, but not yet house. We are in a hotel right now, hoping to get keys to our house within the next couple days.
I should probably try to explain our trip...
13 November - Left North Pole, Alaska. Drove into Canada and through Yukon and British Columbia. That was about 2300 miles and 7 days. Most of Canada was pretty nasty (yucky weather but the people were very pleasant) with blizzards, snow, ice, rain, wind storms and a bunch of obviously suicidal animals standing around in the middle of the road.
We tracked our progress each day on this dining table map
20 November - Arrived back in the Good Ole USofA and northern Washington where we spent a few wonderful days with Steve's youngest brother and his family. We got there just as they were moving from their rented house into the first house they bought together as a young family. There is no better way to get to know someone than to pack up all their belongings! We had a lot of fun invading their space and getting to know them better! It rained the whole time but it was much better than the weather in Canada.
Whew! Packing is hard work.
24 November - Traveled to the Oregon coast to spend Thanksgiving with Steve's parents. And my dad. And Steve's 2 brothers. And each of their wives. And each of their kids. And Steve's 2 uncles. And each of their wives. And their (combined) 8 kids. Yep, 25 of us celebrated Thanksgiving together. It was great and the boys were in 7th heaven with all the cousins they got to play with and all of Grandpa Dan's cool toys. We had some amazingly beautiful 60-degree sunny weather while we were there. We also took a side trip down the coast to see my grandma (the boys' greatgrandmother).
Steve's parents
Steve & his brothers
The Fam
Great Grandma
27 November - We had to put Scooby to sleep. So sad, but so thankful to be close to family.
2 December - We headed to the Portland area to get some work done on the RV. Nothing wrong with it, just making some improvements and upgrades. During our time in Portland we took time to see the Portland Zoo Lights, my uncle and grandfather (the boys' greatgrandfather), my aunt and uncle and uncle and aunt, and 4 of my cousins and 2 of their spouses. More family fun!! We spent a little time with some good friends from college, bowling with one couple and their 2 girls and inviting ourselves for a sleepover at the house of another couple and their 4 boys. Again, the boys thought all these cousins and friends were the best thing in the world! And we really enjoyed reconnecting with all our friends and family. On a side note, Days Inn in Wilsonville has THE WARMEST indoor pool we have ever been in. It was wonderful!
Mikey and Grandpa Rice at Zoolights. Brrr... it was a cold one!
Great Grandpa and Uncle Steve
Cousins Lauren and Cameron
The boys have absolutely loved swimming during our travels.
They have gotten so comfortable with the water. They all still wear life jackets and floaties but Daniel has progressed to real cannonballs (just like Daddy).
8 December - We pointed the RV south and drove through Oregon. We got a late start that day, so we stopped in Medford (southern), Oregon for the night. The next day we did a marathon 775 miles and about 18 hours that took us all the way through California to San Diego. We had planned to do this in 2 days but a big rainy storm was moving into California and we wanted to beat it so we could take the boys to LegoLand (the coolest theme park for young kids, geared for ages 2-12) to celebrate Mikey's birthday. We stayed at a neat little beach house at Camp Pendelton during our time there.
Celebrating Mikey's birthday in a truck stop
10 December - 2 fun-filled days at LegoLand. We had great weather on the first day and just a little rain toward the end of the 2nd day. Steve and I were pretty tired by that point so we spend one extra day at the beach house to recover before pushing east.
Bob the Builder built entirely of Legos at LegoLand
So many fun rides!
San Diego beach
Camp Pendleton beach house
14 December - We started our drive east. We drove about 2500 miles in 4 days, arriving at SC really late on the 18th (or really early on the 19th, if you want to look at it that way). We drove across California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississipi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina with night stops in Tuscon, AZ; Lubbock, TX; and Shreveport, LA. Somewhere along the way the boys broke off the dining table, thus the reason for the slight detour to Lubbock. An amazing RV center there, Pharr RV, repaired the table even better than it was before and, when they were done, told us that as a Christmas present to us it was no charge! The were a Christian company and such a blessing to us.
18 December - Arrived Charleston to pick up our van (shipped from Alaska) and on to our new duty location. We have been in a hotel since Thursday, waiting for our house on post to be ready for us. We are hoping to hear some good news today about getting keys soon. We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas together in our new house and enjoying all the space and the big fenced back yard and all the little things packed away in our travel trailer that we'll soon be able to reunite with. Our household goods, traveling by sea and land in a giant 44-foot connex box, is here somewhere and just waiting for us to call with our new address. We may have that by Christmas, too.
As we approach Jesus' birthday, we are so grateful for all the presents that He has blessed us with: our RV, an awesome month together on the road, a warm winter in SC, a great house on post, good health, and provision everywhere we have been. We may have been without a "house" for the last month. But together as a family, we have been "home" every day of our adventure.
Driving through Lubbock, Texas. Listening to "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" on the local country music station. Passing homes decked for the holidays. Christmas lights lit and strung through out the RV.
Army chaplain, wife, and sons ... we just finished 7 glorious years serving God and our country in Alaska. We are now temporarily on the East Coast enjoying our adventure and always putting our trust in God.
Our home classroom
and Daniel's "Workbook Man"...
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