A blog to keep our friends and family up-to-date on the mission trips we are doing with our family this school year.
The Ancient Galilee Boat…discovered in the sediment of the seabed in 1986. Quite an excavation project involving a cocoon of fiberglass foam to keep the wood from falling apart, and a bath of heated polyethylene glycol (synthetic wax to replace water in the wood cells). In 2000, it was moved to this museum.
On The Road Again
In 12 hrs, we’ll be on the road to the Atlanta airport for a 14 day trip to Israel. Please pray for the ability to sleep while we travel (22 hrs of land and air travel before we reach our first hotel). Also, pray for safety and good spirits for all 30 people in our group while we are there.
A few of my favorite things
Flexibility was the main reason we decided to home school our children this year. In addition to the travel, we’ve been able to do a few things that I’ve particularly enjoyed. Here’s a list of a few, for those who are interested!
- Ben was able to play rec Lacrosse during the fall season.
- We have seen three professional plays at the Alliance during their School Day Performances, which is at a significantly discounted price: Into the Woods, A Christmas Carol, and The Wizard of Oz.
- Margaret began horseback riding lessons back in December.
- Our whole family went to see the Bodies Exhibit at Atlantic Station.
- Kate is taking 3.5 hrs of dance each week: ballet, tap, and jazz.
- The girls taught the 2nd-5th graders’ 30 minute Spanish classes for a day at Unity, showing over 50 slides from our mission trip to Oaxaca. Talk about leadership experience!
- Ben has progressed to Life Scout in his Boy Scout Troop (203) and will begin working on his Eagle Scout project this summer.
- I have been to see two plays at The Shakespeare Tavern on Peachtree.
- Kate performed in a live-radio broadcast of A Christmas Carol with Rome Little Theater. She played three roles.
- About twice a month, we volunteer at various places in our community- Unity Christian School library, Rome Action Ministries food pantry, Cobblestone Crossing horse farm, Mark Law photography studio.
- Kate participated in a 6-week acting class with 5 other middle-school-age students.
- All three kids have started a typing program, and Ben is already at 30 words per minute. (Kids are expected to type much of their school work, but no typing course is provided…hmmmm.)
- Margaret and Ben have both begun to learn to play guitar, taking lessons and doing some self-learning as well.
- All three kids have learned how to manage digital images on their computers after each trip we take, and the girls have begun their own scrapbook of the year.
- Kate & Margaret will play spring soccer, while Ben will add tennis lessons to the agenda once we return from Israel.
- We have walked the dogs, ridden bikes, jumped on the trampoline, gone scootering in the park, and visited the YMCA for swimming/yoga/spin class more times than I can count.
If you ask them, they’d say they are TIRED of each other and MISS their friends (despite MONUMENTAL efforts by mom and dad EVERY weekend we’re home to co-ordinate extended playdates for EACH child). But, I see siblings who laugh with each other, have TONS of inside jokes, know each other better, and have learned how to work together and deal with each others’ strengths and weaknesses like never before. It’s been fun, it IS tiring, but it continues to be the best decision we could have made for our family.
Ben had the opportunity to learn to SCUBA dive with Doug on our last trip. His open water dive took place in Grand Caymen!
This photo was taken our first full day in Oaxaca, Mexico back in Oct 2011. I am posting it now because this past Saturday, we had a mini-reunion with many of these people up in Lookout Mountain, GA. We failed to take a group photo last Saturday, but this one pretty much sums up how fantastic our group is! I am so fond of these folks, and we forged such deep friendships in the 6 days we spent in Oaxaca. Most of all, I am grateful for the time these people chose to spend with my children: laughing with them, serving other children with them, praying with them, touring around Mexico with them. We are at a cross-roads. Our kids are growing up fast, and will soon begin to value the opinion of OTHER adults much more than they value our opinion. I am thankful for people like these, who spent a week pouring into the children of Mexico alongside my children!
Some of you may have seen the movie, A Dolphin’s Tale. It told the story of the dolphin named Winter, who lost her tail due to infection after being caught in a crabbing net. Without a prosthetic tale, Winter would die. In January, we went to Clearwater, Florida to the small aquarium that rehabilitates animals like Winter.
Margaret and Ben restocking shelves and packing bags of food for the working poor, the disabled, and those who suffer from cancer. Rome Action Ministries does this, and so much more, every week! Volunteers are needed!
