A Different Easter

A dear friend wrote this after erasing every activity from their family calendar.  Every activity and holiday, but Easter.  Easter can never be erased.  "He rose, He is risen, and He will come again.  That has not changed.  He has not changed.  And maybe He wants that for all of us during this time:  To watch our plans being stripped away until only He is left.  With room to ask Him to fill all the other days with ways He want to transform us into a blessing to share that eternal hope with others." - Ali

We are all missing the traditions from years past: the matching Easter dresses, the community Easter egg hunts, gathering with family for meals, even going to Target for Easter basket gifts.  But this Easter will be different, one that we will never forget.  It's ok to mourn the loss of the ordinary and expected, but to then turn the mourning into joy!  We have been given a gift of time, time to focus on the greatest story ever told!

Here are some links to ideas on how to celebrate this Easter season with joy!

If you are local and would like one of these Easter guides, I'd be glad to drop one off!

 - A Printable 15 Day Guide for Easter that we've used in years past

 - A Printable 2 day guide for this Thursday and Friday

 - Resurrection Eggs with a printable

 - Homemade Resurrection Rolls with a great explanation

 - Resurrection Rolls (with Pillsbury crescent rolls) 

Easter baskets may or may not be feasible or doable this year for some families, but if you're searching for online ideas, these are two of my favorite bloggers with great lists.

 - Preschool Easter Basket Ideas with Naptime Kitchen

 - Easter Basket Ideas for Outdoor Imaginations 

    with Over at Alicias

May your Easter be full of hope, full of joy, and full of expectation of what's to come!

Traveling Away the Winter Blues

All teachers know that January, February, & even March can be the longest months of the year.  As homeschoolers, we aren't exempt from wanting to throw in the towel and just watch every documentary possible on Disney +.  But over the years, I've found one of the perks of homeschooling is traveling (or day trips) when you just need to get away.  Last month, we took a Friday (Marty's day off) to drive two hours south to Savannah just for the day, but we squeezed as much history, good food, and bookstores as we could into a day.  

This post will cover a few of our favorite day trip places and some local spots along the way.  My biggest encouragement to anyone is to start exploring now.  Don't wait till you have enough money (don't go into debt either), don't wait until the kids are old enough or easier, and don't think that it's too late!  Seize every opportunity to explore, even your own city.  We took our girls on long car trips when they were toddlers.  Was it easy?  No way!  Was it worth it?  You know it!  Traveling to Japan when our girls were 5, 8, & 10 was our trip of a lifetime.  Hopping trains around Philadelphia & New York City will always be some of our favorite memories.  

But big trips aren't always in the budget, so day trips are the next best thing!  1-2 hours is the ideal travel time to allow plenty of time for exploring, but far enough away to make it feel like a vacation.  Here's our thoughts on Hilton Head, SC, Savannah, GA, and Beaufort, SC.

Hilton Head

This past summer, one of our bucket list goals was to visit or see all the lighthouses in SC.  As admirable as this may sound, it did not happen.  But we did visit a few, one of which was Harbour Town Lighthouse on Hilton Head (Heads up: There is fee to get into the resort where the light is located as well as a fee to go up in it.)

Hilton Head Spots: (all in the same shopping area)

- Frosty Frog Cafe
- Carolina Coffee & Crumbs
- Frozen Moo-Coligny

If you travel south on Hwy 17 to any of these locations, you must stop at the Carolina Cider Company & Clockwise Coffee!  The pastries, bottled drinks, and coffee are worth it, plus the ambiance is the cutest!

Savannah, GA

Wormsloe Plantation (1.5 mi avenue of live oaks)

Little Duck Diner has a great variety while still providing healthy options.  Such a fun diner feel!

One of the two bookstores we visited: The Book Lady Bookstore & E. Shaver Bookseller (next door to a tea shop)

I can't continue without emphasizing that taking these day trips as a family has been some of our best memories.  Even when Marty has yard work to do or ministry to prepare for, he still chooses to check out all of these new places along with us and I am so grateful!

Other Savannah favorites:

- Coffee Fox

- Leopold's Ice Cream

- The Paris Market (shop/coffee/dessert)

- Wright's Antiques

- Savannah Bee Co.

- Goose Feather's Cafe (breakfast/brunch)

- Davenport House & Museum

- Treylor Park (lunch/supper)

Beaufort, SC 

(pronounced Bee-yu-furt, as in beautiful)

Beaufort is one of the quaintest towns I've ever visited.  Not directly on the Atlantic coastline, it has a calmer presence.  Some of our favorites were the knitting store, Southern Sweets Ice Cream & Sandwich Shop, McIntosh Bookstore, The Chocolate Tree, and not to mention exploring the Kazoo Factory and Hunting Island Lighthouse.

Planted - Looking back and finding roots...

 

Dec 2018

Dec 2019

A new year,  a new decade.  This last month has been one of reflection as for most of us.  2019 ended and as we reflect on the past year, the past decade, we can either dwell on the past or look toward the future with anticipation!  10 years ago, I was pregnant with my 3rd baby girl, had just celebrated my 30th birthday, and had only been homeschooling for a year.  In the last 10 years, between Marty and I, we have traveled to Japan, Hungary, Ecuador, & Ghana.  We have moved 3 times, homeschooled our girls through elementary, into middle school, and now high school.  We have struggled through illness both physical and mental, sad good-bye to family many times, and survived a state to state move.  But the beautiful memories and experiences far out weigh the hard times, and even through those hard times so much good has come!

In some years past, I've clinged to a word for the year.  They have ranged from "peace," "trust," to even "words."  But this year as I prayed about the year ahead, the decade ahead (all three of my girls will graduate from high school!), the Lord gave me the word, "planted" from Psalm 1: 2-3, "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither."  I'm not sure what all it will entail, but I know that I'm to be "planted" in God's word no matter what.

I'm praying through the roots that my girls are growing, yet also for the wings they will spread in the years to come.  Over the year ahead, I hope to use this space to share our journey, mistakes we've made in the past, things we've learned, and what we hope for the future.  

Summer Tradition - The Bucket List

Every summer for the last several years, we think through all of the things we want to do over the couple summer months of no-school.  It's so easy for boredom to creep in by the first week, but having a bucket list helps us avoid binge watching shows or going to the beach every day (which my girls wouldn't complain about...)   

Our lists have been carefully thought through for a while now, but I'm finally getting around to writing my "annual" blog post about it.  These lists are not set in stone, nor are they attached with guilt over not being able to do them all.  But they are filled with fun, family memories, and a little bit of frivolity!  

Mom's Bucket List (with some of their ideas sprinkled in)

• Be a visitor at the Charleston Visitor Center
• Summer Reading (If local, sign up for the library summer reading program, plus the Barnes and Noble one.)
• Outdoor Movie with neighbors

• Blueberry Picking
• Try a "new to us" ice cream spot

• Bike around Kiawah
• Bike the Greenway
• Day trip to Beaufort or Hilton Head
• Riverdogs Baseball
• Summer movies at Freshfields and Folly

• Visit 2 state parks
• Charleston Museum houses
• Breakfast on the beach

• Shell crafts
• Memorize a Psalm together

• Drive-in movie theater
• Biscuits at the Battery

• Take each girl on a date
• Anne of Green Gables Marathon
• Make hair bows
• Visit all the SC lighthouses

  

Last year, I heard about another fun idea called a summer basket.  This year it was more like a summer cooler, but the same concept was there.  Around the last day of school/first day of our summer, I pulled together some simple items to go along with our bucket list.  Reading lists, candy for the movies, fireworks, chalk, mosquito bracelets, and a new SC puzzle (the inspiration for our lighthouse hunt.)  Not a lot of money invested in it, but a fun start to the summer!

 

Here's a link to last year's bucket list and some from the past.

- 2018

- 2016

- 2014

A great resource for making a summer basket! Click here.

Preparing for Christmas

The years that give us that extra week between Thanksgiving and Christmas are my favorite!  It's a week to prepare for the Christmas season.  Once December 1 arrives, the advents begin, the festivities fill our calendars, and sometimes Christmas just turns into chaos.  Silent and holy nights are few and far between.  But my prayer this year is for slower days, quieter nights, and a refocus on what's really important and why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.

As I look back over pictures of the past, the memories of little girls in matching pjs (which we might still do!), of giddy giggles opening our advent house doors each day, and family traditions that have changed a little each year, it all makes this mama heart ache and swell at the same time.  There have been peaceful years and truly chaotic years.  As I've thought more over this past month, "What should this year's Christmas look like?" much will stay the same, while some things will be different.  That sweet house with doors labeled 1-25 will be opened to reveal something simple for every day leading to the 25th (a Christmas activity or act of service).  This little house has been a blessing and curse over the years.  One year when I was determined to do an act of service with my girls every single day, I found myself yelling and frustrated because either their heart wasn't in it or I was hurrying to get something ready to give to someone "in need" with a fake smile and an exhausted heart.  But most years have brought so many sweet memories!

This year will have less filling our calendar.  Much of that is due to less extracurricular activities than in years past, but I want to take what's important to us and tweak it to hopefully work better.  As a homeschooling family, we have some flexibility to do this.  We began our school year early so we can intentionally take slower school days in December.  Lots of reading, crafting and baking!  We are trying a different family advent this year to continue to point our focus to Christ, and I'm really excited to do it along with our church family.  The first link below is the one we're using this year.

The Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Reading Plan

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp (another great Advent book that we've used for years)

Come Let Us Adore Him by Paul David Tripp

 

Now, none of this is intended to add guilt as I know we will miss days of reading as a family and there will be nights that I'll have to sneak the cards around inside our advent house to avoid Christmas shopping on a busy day and instead just watch a Christmas movie.  These ideas and links above and below are just resources to help,  not to hinder your Christmas season.  

Keep things simple!  If Cracker Barrel after a busy day of shopping is going to bring some calmness to your week, go for it!  If graham crackers and leftover halloween candy for "gingerbread houses" make for a nicer mama, then ditch the homemade gingerbread recipe.  Advent is a season of waiting for Christmas.  Waiting involves silently sitting sometimes.  

Below are several links to some great gift guides to hopefully help make even gift giving a little more peaceful this Christmas.  

A Gift Guide for the Homeschool

25 Gifts for Book Loving Kids (or Adults)

Dozens of Bookish Gifts for Kids

Several gift guides for kids (the explorer or inventor in your family)

The ultimate link! Stocking stuffers, gift guides for guys, traditional toys!
 

 Our fancy gingerbread houses (with Trader Joes gingerbread men to help)