Holiday Crafting

Well, I never got around to doing more napkin pumpkins. I simply ran out of time. We ended up hosting family for Thanksgiving in our new home, so it was all hands on deck to get more boxes unpacked and tossed out.

Our new sleeper sofa arrived two weeks earlier than expected – yay!! It was not in time for Thanksgiving company, but it ended up not being a big deal as everyone was occupied doing this or that for most of the day and the only one who did much sitting was my dad. Thankfully the loveseat was already here.

We ended up making another purchase that I never expected I would ever consider – a faux Christmas tree! Normally I am all about the experience of going to the tree farm (or in our case more often than not, Home Depot) and picking out a live tree. I love the scent of live trees!!

It is hard to say what truly caused me to consider it enough to discuss it with Mr. Beck, but there were at least two reasons. First, the idea of having a live tree with Honeybunch in the life stage she is in was completely overwhelming. She does not acknowledge the word “no” like our first two, lol. Frankly, I just do not know how we are going to reach an understanding there other than constant repetition and consistency. Second, a friend of mine that I have reconnected with after years of living in different areas and never crossing paths, encouraged me to visit an annual Christmas event held at a local museum and it opened my eyes to all the creative ways you can decorate faux trees. The unfortunate truth about real trees is that ornaments have to be super lightweight or they will weigh down the branches and it just won’t look pretty. Faux trees simply do not have that problem.

So, we considered it and ended up purchasing a beautiful pre-lit, nine foot tree and it was delivered on December first. I have spent each week since then (read: all month) trying to decorate the whole thing, lol, because it is the largest tree we have ever gotten/owned and there is a lot of it! I have wanted for years to start making some homemade ornaments and decorations and this seemed like a perfect time to do it…though I highly recommend not waiting until the month of December, lol.

As of right now I would say it is pretty much as done as it will be this year especially considering we have to keep the bottom 1/4 or so bare due to Honeybunch and her curiosity.

Now, not all of the ornaments/decorations are homemade. I did purchase a few things on sale at Hobby Lobby. There were some things I bought from Dollar Tree and then I used a few of our older ornaments and a bunch of picks I had collected through the years. My friend came over to help because I have never decorated like this before and felt a little lost. She even stuck a few random decor pieces in the tree that are not necessarily Christmas items. It was so fun working with her and seeing how her mind works!

Most of the homemade ornaments are made with twine and wood beads…that is it. I wanted a very natural look. Lovebug and I also made some ornaments together that look like amber glass. The tutorial I found was so easy to follow, but it was considerably more time consuming than I anticipated and, since I had to run some errands that day, the last step was not followed to the letter, so I have some mixed feelings about the overall results. They are pretty – just not as pretty as they could have been if I had drained them longer and/or rotated them more often as they dried in the oven.

One of the projects I am super proud of that I will share here are some large balls that I customized. Here is the supply list:

• Smooth Fōm balls in the diameter of your choice (mine are 5.6 in and I found them at Hobby Lobby in the craft section)
• copious amounts of hot glue sticks (I lost track of how many I used and they’re the long ones)
• hot glue gun (I recommend getting something with a finer tip than mine – it might save you some glue and burnt fingers)
• twine (I bought mine at Dollar Tree and the quantity is determined by the number and size of the balls you are using. Another note here, their twine is two different sizes – the thicker twine is 8 ft long and the thinner twine is 9.5 ft long.)
• nautical rope (another Dollar Tree purchase and same thing here – I cannot provide a specific quantity because it will vary depending on the number and size of the the balls you are using. It also depends on whether or not you separate the three strands or leave them together – I separated mine so my supply went further and the final product looks more farmhouse and less nautical.)
• finger protector (Dollar Tree sells little pink silicone finger protectors to help with working with hot glue. I go back and forth on whether or not it is really that helpful, but on this project it definitely was.)
• pair of sharp scissors
• patience and maybe a Christmas movie or two or three…

Now, it is impossible for me to hold the phone (camera) and work at the same time, so I do not have a ton of photos to share here. However, a lot of pictures really are not necessary as you are simply wrapping the twine and rope around the balls and gluing it down as you go. That is it. You can do it in any pattern you want. I kept it pretty simple so that I did not have to cut the twine/rope any more than necessary. It was just easier to do a whole length, switch to the other medium and use that whole length and then finish off with the first one. One note that I will show in the picture is how I tried to be super intentional with the transition spots as far as keeping them on the same side. This just ensures that there is a back you can stick into the tree and the pretty side is seamless. Final note: you can (if you choose) use a lighter to burn off some of the scratchy pieces of the twine when you are done. I was nervous to try it the first time I used twine for a project, but I found very quickly that it works really well and nothing went up in flames. I did it over the kitchen sink, but you could also do it outside. Alrighty, here are some pictures..

here is early in the process. started with a dollop of glue, stuck the end of the twine in it and started tightly wrapping. put a line of glue down then press int the twine.

here is a picture of a transition between materials. I just stuck them as close together as possibly.

here you can see that I cut the rope so that it ended in line with the first material transition. I did not have enough rope to make another full wrap, so I just trimmed it.

The following pictures are of the finished products. I only did two designs – three balls have twine, rope, twine and two of them have rope, twine, rope. I may add one or two more next year, but I plan to wait until I can get the styrofoam balls on sale.

you can see the difference in the two twines from Dollar Tree here. I did not realize it until I had already finished the first one otherwise I would have used the smaller twine consistently. still love them, though!

I had unraveled the three strands of the nautical rope and really love how it turned out! I think it would have looked more nautical and less farmhouse if I had left them as they were.

You can see how the possibilities are endless with the design! If you have the time for it, I think it would have been lovely to have multiple stripes rather than just one, but I made the first one in a hurry during nap time and then felt I should keep it consistent. They are sooo big, but it works really well in the tree we have and I actually have room for a couple more…but next year, lol. So, the average cost per ball was $6.58 not including the cost of the hot glue (since I have no idea how to even quantify that) or tax on the supplies. I think it is easy to say that it would cost considerably more to purchase these pre-made in a store!

I have just a few finishing touches to complete on the tree before I share pictures of it, but I did not want any more time to pass before sharing these. Hopefully, you found it helpful or inspiring.

It is my prayer that you are having a blessed Christmas season and that you will be able to celebrate with those you love! God bless!

Simple Pumpkin Craft

Okay, so I have been dying to do some holiday crafting and I finally made it happen tonight! The supplies I used are:

• unfinished wood pumpkins (mine are from Hobby Lobby)
• Waverly Antique Wax (or other stain/paint of your choice)
• paper napkins or tissue paper of your choice (the ones I used here are from Wal-Mart designed by Pioneer Woman)
• Elmer’s Glue Stick
• match, lighter or a craft knife
• a couple tumbling tower blocks (mine are from Dollar Tree)
• craft or wood glue (or you could use hot glue…I do not currently know where my glue gun is)

the pumpkins I used from Hobby Lobby

The first thing I did was paint one side of each of the pumpkins with the antique wax. It works like a stain and I just love the color. Make sure that you do the opposite sides of the pumpkins because later those sides will be facing each other and I think it looks best for the stems to face the same direction.

staining with the antique wax

While they sat to dry, I took a napkin and peeled the second layer off (if you have a napkin that is more than 2 ply, you will want to peel all the layers so that you just have the designed one for the project). I love the design on these Pioneer Woman napkins! The colors are gorgeous. After I finished peeling the second layer off, I cut what was left into squares big enough to cover the pumpkins.

peeling the napkin

After flipping the pumpkins over, I applied Elmer’s glue (the purple glue stick is great because you can be more certain of the coverage) all over and then placed a napkin square over it, smoothing it out the best I could. Then I roughly trimmed around the pumpkin so there was not as much overhang. This next part is optional! I chose to burn the excess off. This is not something I came up with myself; I saw another crafter do it on YouTube and was amazed by the results. It was kind of shocking how fast mine burned and I almost burned myself, so if you do not feel comfortable trying it you will not find me criticizing you at all. Obviously I had my hands full with this step and could not take pictures. I stood with my pumpkin over the sink and lit the napkin and it burned up to the edge all the way around! It has such a clean finish! The alternative is to allow the glue to dry then flip the pumpkin over napkin side down and trim the excess off using a craft knife.

applying the glue

after burning off the excess napkin

both finished pumpkins

Then I glued two tumbling tower blocks, which I had also lightly stained, between the two pumpkins so that the napkin covered sides were both facing out. It turned out soooo pretty and I am anxious for the glue to fully dry so I can display it on my tiered tray. I will probably be making a mini riser for it as the sides of my tiered tray are kind of high. Hmmm…I am seeing a future crafting post coming up!

gluing the tower blocks on

finished product side 1

finished product side 2

There is another pattern of napkin I plan to do tomorrow. It is a plaid pattern that I found at Dollar Tree before I found the Pioneer Woman design. Maybe I will come back and update the post with pictures of it.

These pumpkins are perfect for a tiered tray or really anywhere that you want to add a little pumpkin decoration for the fall season. It can be customized so easily – just use the napkin or tissue paper you like! You could also cover both sides of a single pumpkin, drill a hole at the top and make an ornament out of it using some twine. I considered putting it a the end of a beaded garland for my tiered tray, but I personally feel the pumpkin is too big for that. That does not mean that you would, so there is another idea! This could also be personalized to make name plates for a dinner party. The possibilities really do seem endless!

This was such a fun and quick craft! I hope you find this tutorial helpful. Have a great weekend!

Moved

Howdy…from a new city! Since my last post on September 8th we have closed the sale of our previous home and our new home and have been settling in at our new home for a month as of tomorrow. A month of unpacking and organizing and cleaning and so on. A month of missing our church and friends while searching for and making new ones. So much has happened so quickly!!

The Lord certainly blessed us in the sale of our previous home. It went so smoothly! We had a garage sale that was the most successful we have ever had (not that we have had many – who has the time?!) and we, eventually, got all of our belongings moved. That was more of an…adventure?…than I anticipated, but it was done and once we had keys to our new home, they all got moved in much more quickly.

Now, if only unpacking went faster! But we do have three young children and their care falls primarily on me as Mr. Beck is busy working to provide for our family. Honeybunch is now 16 months old and I think the move has been the hardest on her. Her whole world changed suddenly. She also seems to be an ant magnet; it seem every time she goes outside, she finds ants. Or they find her. She also contracted hand, foot and mouth shortly after we moved in. She never had a fever and I started oiling her up immediately with a blend I found online specifically for HFM, just in case. It helped tremendously as the sores never got really big and they never “oozed” as I was warned they might do. In fact, after a week of oiling her every time I changed her they had almost completely gone away and by the end of the 7-10 days that HFM tends to stick around the only spots left were those caused by ants. She’s also cut several more teeth. You read that right…several teeth!

Occasionally I stop trying to unpack and organize in order to decorate the house as fall is one of my favorite seasons of the year and I could not stand the thought of missing out the opportunity to decorate our new home for it. As we were preparing to move, I dismantled almost all the wreaths I had made because they were looking old and dingy. So, the first project I made was a new wreath for our massive front door. The surprising part for me was that I found the florals at Wal-Mart! I’ve never bought florals there as I always felt they looked…well, cheap…compared to those at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. But on one of my many trips there after moving in, I saw some gorgeous sunflowers and those became the “centerpiece” of the wreath. Since then I have worked on decorating the massive mantle (everything is massive here, lol) and today I actually switched out the curtain rods and curtains left by the previous owners in the living and dining spaces with my own rods and curtains. That transformation alone has brought me some joy and more of an “at home” feeling.

Our new CC community is so different from the one we left, but everyone has been friendly and welcoming. We actually had our first field trip with them this past week – to the planetarium! And, funny story, members of the community attend the two churches that we are considering for membership, so whichever church we choose we will have friends both at CC and church. How cool is that?!

We are also getting involved with the local Trail Life and AHG troops. That has felt a little slower since they do not meet weekly as we are used to. We are committed, though, and again, some of our CC community friends are also involved in the same troops. That overlap is so very nice!

We ended up putting some IKEA cabinets we had and the whiteboard in the dining space so we can have somewhat of a school space in the new house. It is not pretty, but I am pleased to have something set up. It is working out pretty well. Now I just have to put in some child safety locks to keep Honeybunch from strewing everything everywhere. She is at that age where she wants all the things all the time to be what she wants and we have to stack the dining chairs when we are not using them to keep her from using them for climbing onto the table. “No” seems to mean nothing to her…not for lack of my using the word.

Mr. Beck is helping my brother to build my dream farmhouse style bed with storage built in. I am so anxious for it to be done, but they have been held up by rain and their day jobs. I will be so very glad when our mattress is no longer on the floor.

There is so much more to tell, but it is getting late and I want to prep another post about a quick craft I did tonight. I pray that God blesses you in mighty ways. Good night!

Topsy Turvy

So much has happened just in the short time since I last wrote here! In fact, our lives are changing pretty quickly.

We listed our current home for sale just over a week ago and this morning, we accepted an offer. Meanwhile, over Labor Day weekend, we put in an offer on a house in the new city and it was accepted. It also seems there may be an end in sight for the custody battle we unexpectedly found ourselves in last October.

Nothing is finalized, so all this positive could turn sour tomorrow. Or next week. Or maybe even two to three weeks from now. But currently, it seems to be a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel and a huge burden has lifted…and been replaced with a different kind of heavy burden.

Interest rates are ridiculous. Certain demands are ridiculous. On top of all that, we most likely only have until October 4th to pack everything, do some cleaning and get out. This burden…in some ways it is absolutely overwhelming because when you put down roots somewhere for several years and bear children and do life, stuff accumulates. On the other hand, it seems a little less overwhelming than the process of decluttering and cleaning before taking pictures for the listing. I do not think I have ever been so exhausted in my life. Not even during the newborn stage…maybe.

The most overwhelming part of all this is leaving our friends – the community of people with whom we have done life for the past six years. Some deep bonds have formed and parting ways is going to hurt. My momma heart worries for my kiddos. They will have to say goodbye to so many friends and the few activities they have begun to embrace – specifically, Trail Life, American Heritage Girls and Chess Club. There will be those things where we are moving, but there is that awkward period of meeting new people and forming relationships with them before being able to fully enjoy something. Does that make sense?

We are also so sad to say goodbye to our new church. We love it so much! The expository teaching, the emphasis on family worship, the didactic worship…and the people there who have so fully embraced our family even after such a short time.

So, the emotional burden is heaviest now. There is so much going on this month that I fear we will not be able to spend enough time with those we love before we have to move hours away. Granted, it is hours and not states. But Texas is huge, haha. And everyone has lives of their own where they are. And sometimes relationships fade because long distance is hard.

There is such a mixture of excitement and grief. Peace and overwhelm. So many different emotions! My prayer is that I can be the best support to my husband that I can and that, as momma, I can help ease the grief of my children and help them to be excited about the change headed their way. I also pray that the Lord will bear MY grief as I try to be all that I can for everyone else. Ha! Listen to me! I pray that the Lord will bear US ALL as I am too weak to be much good for my family past a certain point. He is our Peace and Comfort. Our Provider and Sustainer. He will help us through this topsy turvy turn in our journey.

Another Summer

Though CC only meets for 24 weeks of the year, our homeschool schedule here is year round as we feel like it promotes an attitude of constant learning. If we are all honest with ourselves, we will recognize that we always have something to learn. If there is ever a time that we feel like we have it all figured out, we are in more trouble than we realize. The world is just too vast and our minds too weak to be able to know it all.

Homeschooling year round also affords us a bit of flexibility, allowing us to take breaks as needed. The summer is no exception. Little Man and Little Lady were able to spend a week with my parents in East Texas earlier in the summer and more recently spent a week going to VBS at a local church in the mornings (which is when we typically “do” school). Also, considering the intensely hot summer we are experiencing this year, any outdoor activities we wish to do have to be done as early as possible. That being said, we have enjoyed meeting friends at a new favorite splash pad and a small waterpark not too far from home on several occasions throughout this season.

This past week we were blessed with a small thunderstorm, praise God! We had not seen dark clouds, much less rain, in so long we could not remember the last time if our lives depended on it. Unfortunately, it barely lasted minutes and we are in desperate need of more rain. Even more so, farmers and ranchers across the south are struggling – inflation and lack of supply have made fuel prices unbearable; the drought has made it nigh unto impossible to cut and bale hay. A scarcity of hay brings the price up to the point where some simply can not afford to feed their animals, which means they have to sell them to someone who can. This could cause a meat shortage. I don’t know what is hurting them more – inflation or the drought. Rain is top priority. Will you pray with me for rain, please?

As I am writing I hear the printer working hard to produce the pages of the homeschool planner I purchased on Etsy earlier today. I also hear our dog, Poppy, snoring a bit. Anyway, Little Man and Little Lady are getting old enough to do a little more for school than what I have been asking of them to date and I need to be more on top of things. I am excited for this planner as it has customized sections for CC plans in addition to sections for other curriculum. There is a lot more to it that I will not get into right now, but it has the potential to be a huge help to me as we approach the end of summer and our next CC cycle begins. This is significant because even though we school year round, I tend to plan to start certain things a week or two before CC starts meeting. This year our community’s first day back is August 16th so that does not leave me a ton of time.

That being said, it feels like another summer is drawing to a close even though the season itself does not end until September 21st. As I titled my previous post, time marches on. That is one of the fundamental truths we must accept in life. It stops for no one. It stops for nothing. But God, that is. One day, time will be up. My hope and prayer is that my family will be ready for it.

I pray you will be ready for it, too. God bless you and keep you.

Time Marches On

It is amazing how quickly one can get out of the habit of doing something. Even things we really, really, REALLY want to do successfully (like blogging) can get derailed. So here I am after 22 months away.

It is a bit crazy to see that number in print. Success does not just happen. I know that, of course. So I guess it comes down to priorities and health and habits and…so on.

In October 2020 we learned we were expecting – something I had been praying for almost since Little Lady was born. I know that sounds insane to start praying for another little one with a newborn in your arms, but I guess you could say that I had discovered by then that I loved pregnancy (almost completely) and giving birth (though it is really, really hard) and being a momma. It did not take long to see advantages to having babies closer together. So many life stages happen together and frankly, Little Man and Little Lady are best friends.

In Spring of 2021 we purchased house plans – we were finally ready to start looking for land and build our dream forever home! It was so fun dreaming and planning. Hoping. We found out fast, though, that finding the perfect location was going to be more challenging than we had realized. It did not help that I was very pregnant and it made the physical process of looking at land a little harder.

Fast forward to July 2021 and another little lady was born into our family! I am going to have to rethink these “code” names as it could get confusing, ha! This delivery did not go as planned and we ended up having to transfer to the nearby hospital. It was a frustrating defeat in my eyes, but once it was all said and done and she was safely in my arms…well, I cannot say it was forgotten, but I will say it was a relief. She is named after my beloved grandparents. One day I might share my babies’ names here in this space – the naming stories are great actually – but for now, you all will know her as Honeybunch.

Then in October 2021 we got sucker punched in one of the worst ways. My step-daughter had been struggling emotionally for a while and, as a result, was going to counseling and under the care of a psychiatrist. Things suddenly took an unexpected turn and when we did not embrace it, her biological mother convinced her that the only way to handle it was to file a custody lawsuit. That, of course, was not the only way to handle it and we had made that quite clear on multiple occasions, asking her what she wanted to change and how. She would tell us she did not want anything to change – every single time. We felt betrayed and heartbroken (there have been a lot of lies said about us in the process) and frustrated. This type of litigation is so expensive. It has knocked us back quite and bit and, though the Lord has been so gracious in the ways he has provided for us, we are so far from where we were. It took so much work to get there, too, so it is very frustrating on many levels. We have hardly seen her since October. We struggle with trusting her.

In April 2022, Little Man made Memory Master again. We are so proud of him and all the work he puts into CC. Little Lady finished her second cycle of CC and we are equally proud of her. Sometimes it is hard to tell if she is memorizing anything, but then she randomly breaks out in song singing one of the history sentences and we know something stuck. She loves CC and participates wholeheartedly, but her first love is art.

So here we are at the end of June 2022 and Honeybunch is quickly approaching her first birthday. How did it get here so fast?! I’m steadily working on party details and trying not to go crazy as we are struggling with the inflation with which our country is currently plagued. Fuel is over $4.60 per gallon and I will not even go into the rest right now. We are still dealing with the custody suit. It hangs over our heads like a dark cloud.

I am so thankful for my Love and our three little loves. I spend each day trying to love them as well as I possibly can and trying to do my best to prepare for whatever is ahead. We have a small garden that is both abundant and struggling. I have so much to learn! There is still so much to do. Thankfully I do not have to live in fear because I know God put us in this time and place on purpose and he is sovereign.

To tie things into my post’s title…consider this my latest “return after an extended absence” post. Maybe I will be more consistent moving forward. Maybe not. Regardless time marches on whether I am consistently sharing in this space or not. My first responsibility is to take care of the ones God has entrusted to me to the best of my ability, showing them what it means to love God and live in a way that is pleasing to him. Modeling repentance and extending forgiveness when necessary (more often that I care to admit).

Hope you all are doing well wherever you are in the world!

Homeschool Mission Statement…Why??

One of the best pieces of advice we received at the beginning of our homeschool journey was to sit down and write out our homeschool vision…goals…mission. Any of those would work. That is what I am encouraging you to do today, friends.

The results will guide you as you swim through the myriads of curricula and, hopefully, help you decide between this math and that math…or this all inclusive curriculum versus that one…because it will help you keep what is important to you at the forefront of your mind and you can determine if a specific curriculum lines up before you buy it.

Does that make sense?

Mr. Beck and I decided to do a fondue dinner for date night one evening and since it is a long dining experience we were able to discuss and write down our family and homeschool mission statements. I have since printed them out and framed them; now they are hanging in our school space.

This Beck Academy Mission Statement

We will strive to…
Learn to delight in our Lord! Psalm 37:4
Form deep, healthy relationships within our family.
Learn how to think.
Learn to communicate effectively and productively.
Learn compassion and responsibility. 
Foster a joy of lifelong learning.
Encourage each other to pursue our interests and passions.

Having a clear vision for your homeschool will greatly aid you in choosing curriculum because if something does not fit at first glance, you do not have to waste your time and money trying it out only to discover that it is not what you wanted. For a simple example…if you want your children to have a Christian-based education, you can automatically mark off the secular curricula off your list.

See what I mean?

Now the next thing I am going to discuss here is not exactly on topic, however I feel it is important to use hand-in-hand with your homeschool vision, especially when you are shopping for curricula.

Know your kids and how they learn best. This requires spending intentional time with your kids and close observation of them.

Let me use my son as an example. I have seen just how amazing my son does with manipulatives for math. He has learned most of what he knows mathematically through watching a European educational show for kids called Numberblocks and, subsequently, Learning Resources Mathlink Cubes. The only reason I found out about the cubes is because we happened upon a YouTube video of a woman creating Numberblocks with them (YouTube used to be the only way we could watch the show since it’s not a local show). Little Man played with that first set of Mathlink Cubes for six hours the day we brought them home…!!!

It has been phenomenal to watch him learn that way and so, after hearing the founder of Math-U-See speak at a homeschool convention and observing students and parents requesting selfies with him, we chose to try Math-U-See as our very first math curriculum. It helps that the founder appears to be a believer as well. His program uses manipulatives to teach math and I feel that that will resonate with our little man. We hope it will resonate with our little lady, too, but we are not convinced that she is quite ready for it yet.

Hear me say, though, that if for whatever reason this program does not resonate with our kids the way we imagined it would, we will be dropping it like a hot potato and trying something else. I actually have several options in mind, ha!

That is one of the beautiful things about homeschool! This is not public (or even private) school where someone else determines the curriculum and the tempo of your child’s learning, so do not try to recreate that at home. Embrace that fact that it is entirely up to YOU! That is a huge gift! No one knows your child/children like you do. No one wants them to succeed more than you do.

So, do not be overwhelmed, friends.

1. Start by figuring out your reasons for homeschooling. Your goals.
2. Become experts on the subject of how your child/children learn.
3. Then create the learning environment that fits best with those two things.

I hope you find that advice helpful. I pray that you find peace and comfort with the recognition that God put you in charge of teaching your children on purpose.

Rest well, friends. I have got to get some sleep before we start our school year later this morning.

Goodness time goes by quickly when you are excited, haha!

Why Classical Conversations?

Last year, we started using the Classical Conversations homeschool curriculum and we love it! It had been on our radar before Little Man was born because so many of our church friends were using it.

The first time we went to the Great Homeschool Convention, we intentionally checked out other curricula to see how it compared on price, content, methodology and community (not necessarily in that order).

Nothing, in our minds, came close to checking all the boxes that CC does. In a nutshell, it costs less than private Christian school, it is God-central and community based and the classical method of learning just makes sense to us.

Following is an excerpt from the Foundations guide that will give you a glimpse into why we love it so much…

We believe the purpose of education is to know God and to make Him known. Our mission is to know God and make Him known. In every subject, God has hidden His truth and beauty. It is our pleasure as students and teachers to discover Him as we learn. Our studies should also prepare us to reason clearly, speak eloquently, calculate accurately, and write convincingly so that we have the ability to make God known to others. Children are stamped with the physical image of their biological parents. This physical resemblance is one way we know our children are our responsibility. It is the parents’ job to model what it means to bear God’s image, and all other institutions should support parents in that effort, not supplant them. We raise our sons and daughters to become brothers and sisters in Christ. Parents have the divinely appointed duty to love and train their children in the way they should go, embodying Christ’s love in all things and in every circumstance. We commit to studying God’s Word throughout our lives – we should be no less committed when it comes to studying His world…We believe that each child is uniquely and wonderfully made, and the people who know and love a child best – the parents – are the ones most motivated to help that child succeed. Within the framework of a biblical worldview, Classical Conversations equips parents to use the classical model – the tools for learning any subject. ~ Classical Conversations Foundations Guide, pg 4-5

It is really hard not to keep the quote going, lol! Mr. Beck and I love how supportive CC is regarding our God-given responsibility to raise our children. The first 30 pages of the guide eloquently yet concisely defines classical pedagogy, our role as our children’s teachers and how CC works.

The classical method says that every person, no matter their age, goes through three stages when learning something new – grammar, dialectic and rhetoric. The grammar stage essentially consists of learning the vocabulary and becoming familiar with the tools necessary for learning a particular subject. Dialectic at its most basic is using the vocabulary and tools to gain deeper understanding and rhetoric involves the ability to confidently debate, teach or present on a given topic. I am going to use our new hobby, beekeeping, as an example to try to give you a clearer understanding of what I am talking about.

For a year before we bought our first three hives, Mr. Beck ready everything he could get his hands on about the subject. We subscribed to a beekeeping magazine and he took at least one online beekeeping class (that I am aware of, lol). He also joined a local beekeeping organization and attended some of the meetings. I was not involved in this primarily because I never saw myself needing to know. It was never my intention to get close to them anyway; I was simply looking forward to benefitting from their byproducts: honey and beeswax.

It is safe to say that we have moved into the dialectic part of the process. We have three hives and it is all hands on learning to do what Mr. Beck first read about. We will probably be in this stage for a while as we learn to understand our bees now that we actually have them and eventually begin harvesting our first “crop” of honey and beeswax. I was surprised to find myself more fascinated by and interested in the bees than expected. You might actually say I love the little creatures…to a degree. I am most definitely in awe of their industrious and diligent natures. I am in awe of how God created them to operate together as a hive, a unit. It is truly astounding to get to see them up close and personal.

Our goal is to reach the rhetorical stage where we will be able to teach others what we have learned about beekeeping. We want to have an apiary where families or school classes can come see where honey comes from firsthand. Our dream is to sell the honey we do not personally use. Who knows? Maybe someone will come to us one day to ask for our opinion regarding what hive to use for their apiary.

Any questions??

CC is very intentional about teaching that God is the center of the universe. He created every subject, every subject overlaps and is connected and absolutely every subject points back to God as Creator. It gives me goosebumps to type that! It is so beautiful!

The community aspect of CC was a huge draw for us. We did not want to start this homeschooling journey feeling stranded and alone. It can be so overwhelming! None of the other curricula we looked at have that community support. They might have a Facebook page run by someone looking to connect with others who use the same curriculum, but nothing run officially by the creators of the curriculum. No regularly scheduled gatherings of any kind. Nada. We were blessed to join a community no too far from home. Our director is lovely and the friends I have made there are priceless. We do not all share the same religious or faith backgrounds, but we all have the deep desire to lead our children the way God intended. We all love God, want to know Him better and want to make Him known. It is so wonderful to be able to reach out to the other mommas in our community, both those who have been homeschooling longer than we have and those at the same point in their homeschooling journey, for opinions and recommendations and prayer and support!

I have seen at least one blog post from a momma who quit CC after a short time and her list of reasons why were quite…well, I really do not know the word for it. There were some uninformed and off-base accusations towards corporate (she had never directed yet was speaking as though she was privy to all that entails) and she complained that she was expected to be involved. Friends…I honestly believe that she was completely misinformed about what community looks like.

Community day in CC looks like being involved in your child’s day – you are, after all, your child’s teacher. The tutor is there to model ways of learning the information when you are at home the rest of the week not to act as an actual public school teacher. Community means that if a momma is tutoring a different class than the one her child is in that the mommas in her child’s class step up to help her child get the most from class. Community means that the mommas help the tutor and director as needed; everyone works together to make the day the best experience for each family involved.

The God-centric and community aspects of CC were the main draws for us when we were deciding on which curriculum to try first. We stepped into CC with open hands knowing that if Little Man did not thrive in it, we could try something else the following year. He loved it, though, and wanted to jump into the next cycle as soon as we wrapped up the first one!

So, here we are preparing for year two in CC. Little Lady is officially old enough to start, so she will be in class with her brother on community day. This excites her to no end! The latter half of last school year (not including the part where we had to start meeting online due to COVID) she kept begging to go upstairs with him. It will be interesting to see how it goes because, unlike her slightly older brother, she is not reading yet. One of the beauties of homeschooling, though, is that children do not have to be rushed to meet state guidelines, but can learn in their own time. She has been asking to learn to read, so we will be doing a reading and spelling curriculum in addition to CC this year. I will talk about that more in a different post.

Something else new for us this year is that I will be tutoring a class in our community. I alluded to it in my previous post, about how I am both excited and nervous. It is definitely a step out of my comfort zone, haha! One of the perks to tutoring is that I will get a small paycheck each quarter that will go towards tuition and other fees for the following school year.

I hope this post has been informative and helpful. I am always happy to answer questions and, if I do not have the answer, can usually point you in the right direction to find the answer.

CC has a website – www.classicalconversations.com – and Facebook page which you can find here.

I highly recommend that you check out the FREE Parent Practicum offered every summer by Classical Conversations. You do not have to be in a community to benefit and it is an incredible way to gain understanding about classical education and CC, in particular. The link for this year’s Parent Practicum is here. I especially loved this year’s subject – READING!! Typically we would meet in person for practicum…but COVID. Booooo. But I will concede that the online version was handy because I could pause and rewind as I took notes, ha!!

If you find yourself looking into homeschooling for the first time ever due to COVID, I hope this post encourages you to consider Classical Conversations. If it does not, that is okay, too. No two home schools will be identical – is that great news or what?! It speaks to the freedom of parents to teach their children the way they see fit and the way that is most effective for their children. You will learn soon, if you have not already, that children, even siblings, do not all learn the same and that is why some students struggle more than others in traditional school settings. It is a beautiful gift to be able to tailor each child’s education as needed.

Remember this: at the end of the day, the primary advantage and blessing of homeschooling is the relationship you grow with your children. The time you spend learning with them (because you will be learning with them, ha) will draw you together through shared wonder, excitement, struggle, discussion…celebration.

I hope you are not overwhelmed as I wrap up this post! I pray that you have homeschool friends in your life who can mentor you as you get started. Just breathe…if the first curriculum you choose to try does not work for your family, you can sell it and try something different. This is home school, not pubic school. You make the decisions based on your vision, your goals, for your home school and, ultimately, for your child’s needs. That brought to mind another homeschool related blog post I can write in the near future – sharing our homeschool mission statement.

God bless you, friends.

Let’s try this again…

How many posts have I started with “well, it has been a while…”?

Hence the title of this post and the fact that I downright refuse to start this one that way. Though, let us be real here: it is a glaring, honest truth that I have neglected this blog for which I had huge goals and maybe impossible dreams since my first duties are wife and momma. Those two keep me hopping.

So, what has happened since my last post…

The world as we knew it has turned upside down. I refuse to talk about it here, right now, because when I do my air passages start to close up. Breathing becomes something I have to think about more intentionally. Everything is just completely mucked up. God, help us.

On a positive note, unlike so many parents today, we had already started our homeschooling journey last year and so there’s very little transition to make this year. We will start our second year of official homeschooling for Little Man and Little Lady almost completely as planned. The main difference is that our CC community will start the year meeting in multiple host homes rather than all together at our host church. The reason being that our host church has not resumed children’s ministries yet on Sundays, so they are not allowing any other children’s events or organizations to meet on their campus during the week.

On the one hand, since we will be one of the host homes, I love the idea of not having to drive to our host church once a week. On the other hand, all I want to do is leave the house these days. There is something about being told you what cannot do that makes you want to do it even more. Even though the official shelter in place mandate has lifted and Texas is “open” again, I still feel “shut up” in our home. Yet as much as I want out, being out in public is not my favorite anymore due to the mask mandate – I refuse to get on that soapbox here and if you feel like shaming me for not wanting to wear a mask, you may as well keep scrolling because you will not change my mind; it feels like our freedom to make decisions for ourselves has been stripped away.

Ughhhhhhh.

I am struggling not to talk about it despite saying from the get go that I refuse to do so! See how it permeates life?!

Here is something positive…

Mr. Beck and I have had some date nights since Texas opened (all the praise hands).

The littles have had a few riding lessons from their auntie in East Texas (they love it and they are all personality these days).

Punkin is actually smiling for a picture (probably because I told her not to…it gets her every time, lol).

Poppy, the best snuggle puppy ever, continues to bring us all so much joy (she is a whopping two years old now).

I am going to be a tutor for our CC community this year – woohoo! Stepping out of my comfort zone and I am both excited and terrified, haha! I have been prepping review games and gathering fun goodies for the kiddos who I will be tutoring. It has been fun and a continual conundrum as I try not to spend too much money yet also try not to have too many shared things that I have to sanitize every week. Frankly, I am all about developing herd immunity and if all of us meeting were on the same page about what that looks like, I would not concern myself with limiting sharing or even sanitizing everything weekly. In the interest of loving others well, I am doing my best to make sure everyone feels safe and comfortable.

If you are not familiar with CC, it is an acronym for Classical Conversations and it is the homeschool curriculum we started using last year. I will have an entire post dedicated to CC in the next week for anyone who is interested in learning more. If I can get all my ducks in a row all at once (hehehehe), I plan to take some pictures of our school space and share a tour post. Our space has been a work in progress for about three-ish years now and it is finally getting to a “finished” point. The air quotes…well, knowing myself it will be tweaked constantly, so I do not think it will ever actually be considered “finished” in the literal meaning of the word. 

Soooo, in the next week, my goal is to post a ton of homeschool related things:

• a school space tour,
• more about CC,
• other curriculum that we are supplementing in addition to CC,
• our tentative daily rhythm,
• some Usborne books and such as well as a few other fun things that we will be using to enhance our learning

Whew! That is a lot, lol!

In other news, Mr. Beck has been working from home since March 16th. We have adjusted pretty well, I would say, but since our bedroom is the only room he can work and lock the door if needed…I feel like I have lost a private sanctuary. Also, I had it really cleaned up and organized and that has all gone out the window. It is pretty much impossible to work in there while he is working, too, so it is chaotic.

We started beekeeping in April! So crazy, y’all. Seriously never thought I would set foot near a beehive, yet I have repeatedly gotten close to take pictures or videos without a bee suit on and have yet to be stung. I would venture to say that I have grown a little fond of them. Though we will not be harvesting all the honey this year (we want them to be super healthy for this winter), we have been able to taste it when Mr. Beck has to clear cross comb in the hives and it is soooo good. It is going to be the best when we harvest next year! 

There are many projects I wanted to complete during the shelter in place, but all I accomplished was sewing a lot of masks for people. No small thing, especially considering the struggles with my machine the first week of sewing, so it was not nothing. It just wore me out. Goodness, it sounds like I am complaining…I am not complaining! Just being straightforward..blunt. I think I was sewing masks for about a month. So…that is that. The people I sewed masks for were very generous and I am thankful that I was able to help people out. Many times I caught myself imagining Gran with me; once or twice I broke down sobbing, thinking about how nice it would have been to have her mentoring and sewing with me. How is it that it has been almost five years since she passed and I still have so much grief at times? I am so thankful that she is with Jesus and no longer in pain or missing Poppa.

I also thought I would get to do a lot of reading and that has not panned out. I just fall asleep, lol. Meanwhile, my “to be read” pile (the physical book pile and the digital one) keeps growing. The life of someone who loves to read and yet struggles to actually do it. Ahhhh, me.

Punkin is going to be doing all virtual school this year since her vulnerable maternal grandmother lives at Punkin’s mom’s house. That sentence is…whew. Anyway, that will be interesting and different. Thankfully, my brother built us a workstation for our school room and she has her own space at the workstation to do homework. Also, we save more fuel not having to drive to here school multiple times a week. No school pickup line is a WIN, for sure.

Mr. Beck and I just celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary with a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. It is so beautiful there! We had a blast and ended the trip with some painful sunburns (ouch!) to remember the fun times. Young Living’s LavaDerm After-Sun Spray and LavaDerm Cooling Mist have been my lifesavers!!! I cannot recommend those two products enough. Now the question is how much skin will I be able to pull off at once…? HA!!! (Please tell me I am not the only one who found that fascinating as a kid?!)

That is it for this post, friends. It is late and I still have some little details to finish before I can do my school room tour and have peace of mind that we are indeed ready to start school on Monday.

Get ready to read all about our homeschool plans!

Good night and God bless!