Wasn’t It Just Yesterday I Updated This?

The title says how long it seems since I last updated my blog!  I simply can’t believe it was mid-July, and we were trying to get our school year rolling.  When I last posted, most of our home contracted the virus that has had the world in chaos for the past few years.  That was not fun, but we all made it through with only relatively mild symptoms.

A few weeks later, we wanted to go to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky while my oldest was still home from college.  It was simply amazing.  If you ever get the opportunity to visit there, I highly recommend it.  Crazy as it sounds, there came a downpour as we got off the trams from the parking lot.  We all were running to get in the ark!  At least we knew where to go for safety.    We also stopped at a Buc-ees on the way home.  You can call it a gas station, but it is a world unto itself!  In our travels, we have stopped at a couple more of these stores, which are pretty awesome.

Also, in August, we had to say goodbye to our wonderful backyard maple.  It was mature when we bought our home almost 25 years ago.  In the past few years, however, we had noticed a change, and it seemed to be dying.  By this summer, it was definitely dead.  I was so sad to see it go.  I would watch the birds there from the kitchen sink.  It shaded the sandbox and yard when the boys were small.  We had birthday parties under it and shucked corn.  Oh, so many memories!  When it was cut, the man who cut it said carpenter ants were the problem.  The wood pieces were covered in these ants!  We treated our other large tree to keep it from happening there.  So far, I haven’t seen problems there, but we are still keeping an eye on it.

My oldest went back to college to start his second year as a business major.  So far, he is doing well!

Homeschooling has been moving along ok.  It is a struggle getting my teen boys in the school mood most days, but we manage and get the work done.  Some of the boys are more interested in getting it done than others.  Our co-op semester has also been going well.  My boys are taking various classes, and I’m teaching a geography class for middle school, a US Constitution class for 6-12 grade, and co-teaching a class about career opportunities.

In September, we took the younger three boys and went to St. Augustine, Florida.  We had a great time, went to a beach one day, and went to the old city and the fort another day.  One of the days we were there, we drove down to Daytona and visited the speedway.  That was defiantly more for my husband and sons.  They had a great time, though, and I thought the museum with the historic cars was fascinating.

We were able to go with our homeschool umbrella school to the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge.  It was a fun field trip, and the boys had a great time.  After our morning at the museum, then lunch, we visited the historic Brushy Mountain State Prison.  That was a very interesting place to see.  It is worth looking up if you are unfamiliar with its reputation or some of the prisoners it has housed through the years.

We helped some family friends move from Virginia to Georgia a few weeks ago.  We helped with loading and unloading, and my husband drove one of the u-haul trucks they had rented.  I followed along in our car.  On our way back, we side-tripped through Hot Springs, North Carolina.

We also took a day trip into the Smokies to visit Cades Cove.  The fall leaves this year have been exceptional in our area!  We always enjoy the scenery and feel like we’ve stepped back in time.

I hope you have a wonderful autumn.  I genuinely intend to post more often, and I know I have posted that before, but I really do mean it.  I guess I just stay busy with day-to-day real-life stuff, and the online world sometimes tends to be neglected.  We will see if I can hold to that this time.

Please note:  I had this post formatted nicely and when I went to preview it was all messed up.  I hope the changes I made make for nice visual formatting on your screen.  If it is a mess, I do apologize.