notes from home

roving blogger reporting in....

wow, where to start?  I guess I have been on an extended blogging break.  Blogging used to be a big part of my life, and then, one day, it wasn't.  As the weeks went by, it was easier to forget my blogging life ever existed.  And yet, blogging made me happy.  It is easy to let it go, but then I remember how happy it made me.  Having my own space to write, think and be creative has added to my life in really good ways.

So....I'm dipping my toe in again, just to see how it feels.

to catch you all up;  we are back into the thick of learning.  This year, I am doing something I haven't done in 16 years; I'm homeschooling one child.  The end of homeschooling came much sooner than I ever thought it would.  Amie is homeschooling 8th grade this year with me, Demi-Sky is at an arts charter school for 10th grade and Meg and Josie are both in college now. 

My blogging has slowed down as life continues to surprise me. In the last few years, my mother has died, then my stepfather died, my grandfather was put into a nursing home, my grandmother moved in with us and one of my children had gone through a period of really struggling. I took time off from my schooling to spend more time with that child.  Said child is doing much better.

Well, now that you are caught up, here is what is happening here at {Home} :

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8th grade is in full swing. Amie is schooling at home with me.  She is taking both a History and an English composition class with Biola Star once a week.  She also attends two drama classes, one art class and a math tutoring class- outside the home, the rest of her subjects are covered at home.  We go to the gym together several timesa week to cover p.e. and she volunteers with a cat rescue group. 

We moved my grandmother into our master bedroom and Sky built a Murphy bed for our front living room, which is our room now.  I do love the big window there, I don't know if I'll ever be able to give it up now.  Having a Murphy bed in our front room does have the advantage of forcing me to make the bed right away, every morning :)

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Sky is still working as a building inspector. He is also busy building furniture and has moved into creating rustic/ restoration furniture.  At the moment he is finishing up a rustic kitchen island for his sister and making stained glass windows to go into the barn doors he is making for our front room. 

Josie is taking classes at the local community college and has taken over Meg's horse-care jobs in the morning.  She is working on getting her driver's license, so for now, I drive with her to the horse jobs.  (insert silent scream-I'm not a morning person) Meg is working part-time with a near-by police department as a clerk and occasionally playing the violin for police functions.  She is planning to apply to the police academy as soon as she has her associates degree and is old enough.  She is busy with cross-fit these days, too.  (she has to figure out a way to scale those walls, you know!)

I took a break from college to deal with things at home, but I am planning to start again in the Spring.  Emma-the-wonder-labradoodle is her lovable self, and Oliver is as evil as only a cat can be.

We are gearing up for Thanksgiving this week, we are enjoying some beautiful weather here in So. California.  Today I am dying Amie's bangs silver-blue and later tonight we are planning on a family session of Dr. Who, pizza-smoked on the grill, followed by apple crisp for dessert.

Life is good.