I have so many little matters to tell you of, that I cannot wait any longer before I begin to put them down.
Posted in Elizabeth, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy on May 10th, 2018
Today was the last day of our seventh year of Community Bible Study. CBS was our first successful attempt at finding real community in California, and it’s been the most constant spiritual presence in our lives out here, as it took us only 3 months to find CBS but 3 or 4 years to find […]
Posted in California, Elizabeth, Friends, Homeschooling, Janie, Musings, Susanna, Tommy on May 9th, 2018
When a group of homeschool friends announced they were doing a field trip to the Huntington, we pulled out our membership card and tagged along. It’s amazing what a difference a month made with the flowers! All the roses were heavily pruned a month ago, and this week, they’re all in full bloom!
Posted in California, Elizabeth, Friends, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy on Apr 27th, 2018
This week a bunch of our friends headed up to Santa Barbara to tour the mission, burial site of Karana, the girl from Island of the Blue Dolphins. I’ve never seen so many children geeked out in a cemetery before. We visited the huerta where Zia worked in the fictional Blue Dolphins sequel, and we […]
Posted in Elizabeth, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy on Apr 17th, 2018
Posted in California, Elizabeth, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy on Apr 7th, 2018
Over Spring Break, we met up with some friends to visit the Huntington! We never made it into any of the libraries or museum buildings, but the botanical gardens were beautiful! We brought along our nature journals and our trusty prismacolors and did the real Charlotte Mason thing for once. We’ll definitely be back again […]
Posted in California, Elizabeth, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy on Apr 6th, 2018
After all the Northern California adventures, we drove back inland and stopped in Bakersfield for one last field trip. The Kern County Pioneer Village is full of over 100 historical buildings, sortof like a low-budget Greenfield Village. It was good to show the kids more of the agricultural heart of the state.
Posted in California, Elizabeth, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy on Apr 5th, 2018
The rains held off enough for us to head over to Sutter’s Fort the next morning. Then we headed over to the Capitol building for a tour.
Posted in California, Elizabeth, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy on Apr 4th, 2018
Our next stop was Sacramento. They’ve preserved much of their historical downtown as a place for museums and tourist trap shopping. We skipped the tourist traps and looked into the Sacramento history museum, historical schoolhouse and Wells Fargo offices, and the California State Railroad museum. For lunch, Derek found a great burger dive, home of […]
Posted in California, Elizabeth, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy on Apr 3rd, 2018
My back was hurting so much from lugging around my 8-lb lens that I changed it out for my cheapo kit lens on Wednesday when we went to Alcatraz. Turns out something is wrong with its focusing mechanism, and I spent the day angrily trying to force the camera to work, then giving in and […]
Posted in California, Elizabeth, Homeschooling, Janie, Susanna, Tommy on Apr 2nd, 2018
On our second day in San Francisco, I wanted to give us a break from museums and tours, so we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands, where it’s mostly state parks and beaches. We visited the Marine Mammal Center, a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing sea mammals and helping rehabilitate them for […]