Thoughts, Adventures, & Daily Life of a Home-Schooled High-Schooler

After the shop closed Saturday afternoon, we packed a few last minute items and clambered into the motorhome. I was slightly alarmed at first as it was clear that the AC wasn't working, and temps in the Upper Mid-West were projected to climb into the 90°. 15 minutes later dad determined that it wasn't turned on properly. Whew, what a relief. If only this would have been the only automotive problems we had. But more to come on that later. Just inside the Ohio line, we stopped for gas. We noticed a truck pulling a racecar, and several minutes later the racecar lady came over and gave us a bowl of candy leftover from a parade. Little hands eagerly reached into the bowl, quickly determining which was the best kind. It continued to get dark and the scenery changed to trees illuminated by our headlights. One by one various family members fell asleep anywhere they could find room. The last several miles before the truck stop were sponsored by Mtn Dew and trail mix. We finally d...

Sorry for not posting this sooner! I've had it typed for several weeks and forgot to publish it. Enjoy! Passion Girls Camp was held the 3rd weekend in July. The trip down to Maryland went without anything super exciting happening (thankfully!), and we arrived around 4:15. After unloading our earthly belongings and parking our vehicles, we all checked in, turned over our keys and any time-telling devices, and stowed our luggage in the proper tents. Then it was time for supper, and our first session. There was 3 different speakers for the weekend.           As soon as the session was over, we headed out to start our first initiative. The initiative was called "the floor is lava". We had to get our entire group across a bunch of bandanas without anybody touching the ground, or else you had to start over. Once you stepped off a bandana, it couldn't be used again.         It took us until 4:00 in the mo...

      The puppies started opening their eyes in the last few days, and the younger children are very excited that they can hold them more often.      But for me, their eyes being open means taking puppy pictures (not as easy as it sounds, trust me), setting up accounts with advertising companies, and (grrrr) the registration process.  Mr. Avery decided that he would rather sniff out this new environment instead of looking at the camera. I think that taking pictures of puppies is actually harder than photographing people. Humans at least understand the English language and cooperate better than 2 week old puppies. For the most part. I did have 1 pup that thought it should be back with its brothers & sisters rather than having somebody try to set it into a pose on an old sheet.   Asher, who decided to crawl around after the camera, and hence his paw is not on the pic. "You think I should look at the camera? No wa...

      Anyone that thinks having puppies in the middle of winter is no problem, I ask you to deeply consider what you are out to embark on. Think out all the outlandish possibilities of the work if could give you, or all the problems that having puppies could produce.       Our dog will be having puppies next week. With the less-than-ideal temperatures, she has taken up residence in our garage. However, our garage houses much more than just our dog, and we thought it wise to confine her to a certain area of the garage.      Then there is the problem of watching the clock, because it is very important to take her out for a potty and exercise time(the former more important than the later). We could keep her in the garage and only take her out for and exercise period, but we chose to take her out more often, as neither of us enjoy the job with the title of "Super-Duper Pooper Scooper".      Beca...