I woke up at about 5am and finally gave up trying to go back to sleep, so I got up, got dressed, grabbed my computer, and drove to Starbucks at 5:45am and was there for 4 hours before I realized it! It gave me time to write the long post below - so sorry it is so long!
Last week we asked our realtor to look around for rentals in the $1000/mo range – and I’m a little shocked at how small the homes are for that price. I guess I shouldn’t be. I was thinking that even if the house is small it would be OK because if worse came to worse the kids could sleep in the house and Tim and I could sleep in the RV or vice versa, but the lots are just as small as the houses – no place to park the RV! Plus just the thought of ‘throwing away’ $1000+ a month on rent when homes are so cheap right now is difficult. But it is SO nice to be completely debt-free and mobile right now. We know that God’s economy doesn’t always make sense (i.e. ‘throwing away’ rent money vs investing in a house) so we’re just trying to be sensitive to His Spirit! We are thinking that is how God wants us for now, but it could just be us and not Him, so we are continuing to pray for Him to show us His will in this. A friend of mine forwarded an email from someone in her homeschool group who is trying to rent their 5 bedroom home in Ruskin because they’re in the military and being moved to Washington, DC, so we’re going to check it out on Tuesday. Ruskin seems so far away but it is closer to my family in Port Charlotte so maybe that is where we’re supposed to be? Please be praying for us in all this!
This past week has been nice as we have been winding down from school. We think we have another week or 2 left of work (I probably should sit down and figure that out!). We received the kid’s scores from their standardized tests they took about a month and a half ago, and we are SO pleased! They all did great! I was a little nervous because formally we’ve really only done math and a little grammar this year, and the rest we took the ‘unschooled’ homeschool approach. Evidently they didn’t miss anything because they really did great! Whew! I’m still not sure exactly what they’ll be doing next year. I’ll talk more about that below.
I drove to a body shop my insurance company sent me to for an estimate on Tuesday. After the guy looked over my car he said he would be about 15 – 20 minutes writing up the estimate and I had noticed a charter technology school I had heard about across the parking lot. So I walked over to the charter school and did a quick tour of the facility thinking this might be a good fit for Noah, but I discovered that even though he has taken some high school classes with Florida Virtual, and has completed Algebra and Geometry, he could not be considered 9th grade because of his age and this school is for high school students only. I was referred to the lady downtown who coordinates the charter schools in Hillsborough county, whom I instantly liked a lot when I talked to her on the phone. She said there was another technology charter school opening this fall on Faulkenburg (very close to our church) for 6th – 12th grade, and that school may be a better fit for Noah (which made me start thinking it may also be a fit for the others??). It has a 4 or 5 hour school day (I’m thinking it is probably 4 hours on Mon-Wed-Fri and 5 hours on Tue-Thur) so I like that it wouldn’t be all day long. Also, the kids go at their own pace, which is what we’ve been doing, so I like that a lot! I don’t know – I want SO much to keep our lives simple, and I know that would definitely complicate things. But I had a sense that all these things I discovered today were being directed and led, so I’m trying to listen.
I’ll leave you with pictures from a ‘sunset cruise’ Nathan, Nicole, Nicholas, and I took on Thursday on the lake – it was so nice! Sorry this has been such a long post! I’ll try to update more often to avoid these mega-posts!! God bless!
Last week we asked our realtor to look around for rentals in the $1000/mo range – and I’m a little shocked at how small the homes are for that price. I guess I shouldn’t be. I was thinking that even if the house is small it would be OK because if worse came to worse the kids could sleep in the house and Tim and I could sleep in the RV or vice versa, but the lots are just as small as the houses – no place to park the RV! Plus just the thought of ‘throwing away’ $1000+ a month on rent when homes are so cheap right now is difficult. But it is SO nice to be completely debt-free and mobile right now. We know that God’s economy doesn’t always make sense (i.e. ‘throwing away’ rent money vs investing in a house) so we’re just trying to be sensitive to His Spirit! We are thinking that is how God wants us for now, but it could just be us and not Him, so we are continuing to pray for Him to show us His will in this. A friend of mine forwarded an email from someone in her homeschool group who is trying to rent their 5 bedroom home in Ruskin because they’re in the military and being moved to Washington, DC, so we’re going to check it out on Tuesday. Ruskin seems so far away but it is closer to my family in Port Charlotte so maybe that is where we’re supposed to be? Please be praying for us in all this!
This past week has been nice as we have been winding down from school. We think we have another week or 2 left of work (I probably should sit down and figure that out!). We received the kid’s scores from their standardized tests they took about a month and a half ago, and we are SO pleased! They all did great! I was a little nervous because formally we’ve really only done math and a little grammar this year, and the rest we took the ‘unschooled’ homeschool approach. Evidently they didn’t miss anything because they really did great! Whew! I’m still not sure exactly what they’ll be doing next year. I’ll talk more about that below.
I drove to a body shop my insurance company sent me to for an estimate on Tuesday. After the guy looked over my car he said he would be about 15 – 20 minutes writing up the estimate and I had noticed a charter technology school I had heard about across the parking lot. So I walked over to the charter school and did a quick tour of the facility thinking this might be a good fit for Noah, but I discovered that even though he has taken some high school classes with Florida Virtual, and has completed Algebra and Geometry, he could not be considered 9th grade because of his age and this school is for high school students only. I was referred to the lady downtown who coordinates the charter schools in Hillsborough county, whom I instantly liked a lot when I talked to her on the phone. She said there was another technology charter school opening this fall on Faulkenburg (very close to our church) for 6th – 12th grade, and that school may be a better fit for Noah (which made me start thinking it may also be a fit for the others??). It has a 4 or 5 hour school day (I’m thinking it is probably 4 hours on Mon-Wed-Fri and 5 hours on Tue-Thur) so I like that it wouldn’t be all day long. Also, the kids go at their own pace, which is what we’ve been doing, so I like that a lot! I don’t know – I want SO much to keep our lives simple, and I know that would definitely complicate things. But I had a sense that all these things I discovered today were being directed and led, so I’m trying to listen.
I’ll leave you with pictures from a ‘sunset cruise’ Nathan, Nicole, Nicholas, and I took on Thursday on the lake – it was so nice! Sorry this has been such a long post! I’ll try to update more often to avoid these mega-posts!! God bless!
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