vacation ... already?

(Lots of words ... no pictures ... too tired to proof-read.)

We love living in our new sleepy little town. Island life is suiting us very well. I feel like we're just now really getting settled, now that we won't be making at least one and often 2 trips to Duncan every day. Doing the drive just once in a while doesn't seem to take a long time, but driving that stretch 4 times a day - no thanks! It recently occurred to me that we were spending close to $500 a month on fuel to get the boys to school. We would never have considered spending that much money sending them to a private school, so why on earth were we willing to spend that amount on fuel to drive them to a public school?? Yet another confirmation that our choice to homeschool is the right thing for us.

Since the boys have been out of school for a week and a half now, several people have asked me how homeschool is going. My answer is that it's not really going just yet. We're enjoying this time of "de-schooling" - just getting used to being together all day long before we get to January when we'll have to actually be productive while being together all day long. :) We are officially enrolled with Regent and will be meeting with our support teacher in early January to figure out how we're actually going to do this thing. For those who know a bit (or a lot) about homeschool, I now have my PO number and can start purchasing curriculum. Since I only have half the funding as we're only doing half the school year, I'm going to get a Grade 1 core curriculum (Sonlight) just to get us started. I'll simplify it for Marty and make it more challenging for Max if need be. I'm hoping this will give us a good idea of how we want to arrange our curriculum in the Fall. Depending on how much I spend on curriculum, I'm hoping to register Max in the local indoor soccer class, which just so happens to take place at the same time and place as Paul's community volleyball drop-in. I will also be looking into getting them some drum lessons with a local instructor (Dustin). We were introduced to him by the Traditional school where the boys' had 15-minute group "drumline" sessions once a week. (The video on this link shows the intermediate class from our old school. If you look for other videos by DDT Studios, you'll see more of what they do with drumline. They even use TobyMac songs!) I talked to Dustin about possibly doing lessons when we start homeschooling and he is very open to working with my budget. He said that Max seems to have a good grasp of the basic concepts, while Marty really seems to like banging the sticks on the drum with the full force of his outstretched arms. He suggested that they could share a short lesson once a week. They both really liked drumline so I hope we can work something out. If not in January, then maybe in September. So that's the school update. I wasn't even planning to write about all that, but there you have it.

We've been teased a bit already because it's our first few weeks of homeschool and we're already playing hookey! Our van has been making some ominous sounding clunk-a-lunk sounds, along with a whirrrrrrrrring and a few other things. We wanted to have our mechanic in Abbotsford do one final overall tune-up on our van. Paul had done some electrical work for him before we moved, and the deal was that he'd only charge for parts, in exchange for parts-only work done on our van when the next need came about. Well, the next need came much sooner than we thought so we decided to make a week vacation out of if. Doing this now also allows us to go to Paul's extended family's annual Christmas gathering. So here we are in Abbotsford. Aside from the van needing some TLC, we really didn't feel we NEEDED to get away, but it's been nice. It's been a very low-key visit. The first priority was getting the van fixed, and that was done on Monday - between 8am and 10pm! We love our mechanic. He did a true bumper-to-bumper tune-up, fixing or tweaking 15 different things. Paul even spotted a tiny leak in a hose that if it wasn't fixed now, it would have caused the head gasket to go and render our van useless. That one little hose repair saved our van from certain death as soon as a few months away.

Our trip started with an overnighter at Paul's Mom's place. We timed our visit there so we could once again go to Bethlehem Walk. The boys had a great time, as we expected. The video shows the event during the day, and I think going through at night makes it seem even more authentic.

When planning this trip, we were hoping to stay with family friends here but their guest rooms were already spoken for for this week. We know lots of people here but not just anyone has the space and beds and fortitude to accommodate a family of 5 for a week! I've dropped myself and my kids on a few people for an extended visit over the years. Those are very special friends. :) Thankfully, the friends we asked, accepted our request, and we've been having a great time. It's neat to get to spend extended time visiting with people we would normally only see at church, social gatherings, or for an afternoon coffee visit. The kids are getting along fabulously - almost a little too fabulous between my Marty and the sweet girl one year older than him. They are quite a pair! We have managed a few other visits and dinners out with friends, but it's been fairly quiet. Lots of my mom-friends are busy with Christmas activities at their kids' school, and a few families are sick, so that's made visiting more tricky. We were at Max's old school on Tuesday for the long-awaited, much-anticipated grand opening of the outdoor hockey court. The event was scheduled and cancelled three times last spring, due to bad weather. Who knew mid-December would be the perfect temperature under clear skies?! It was so sweet to walk up the big hill to see all the kids lined up ready to go over to the court, and hear Max's name being called out by a whole bunch of kids from different grades. One boy even ran out to hug him! It was fun for me too, to catch eye contact with some of the kids I made connections with over the two years we were there. We'll be back there again tomorrow for the boys to have lunch and playtime with their friends and former classmates, then we'll stay for the Christmas concert. I'm sure I'll shed some tears. That place sure is special.

Today (Wednesday, as I write this) Paul went in to spend the day helping out with a few odd jobs for his old employer, who has become a good friend of Paul's during his two stints of working for him over the past many years. Apart from being teased for being deserter, it was a good day! He's even welcome to go back again tomorrow. He sure is tired, though. How quickly he has forgotten what it's like to start working at 7:30 am. He chose a good day to volunteer his time, as one of the wholesalers served free lunch to their customers, and tomorrow morning another wholesaler will be serving free breakfast!

Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to reconnecting with a few of the moms and kids from the playgroup I went to almost every Thursday for the 4 years we lived in Abby. They weren't planning to get together this month but made a special exception at my request. Thanks, girls! A few more visits are in the works, then we'll be on the boat to take us back home on Sunday. Marty has had lots of fun telling his friends that he lives ACROSS THE OCEAN and had to take a boat, A VERY BIG FERRY BOAT to get here. Anytime we drive across town or over a bridge, he asks if we're back on the other side of the ocean. Not yet, my boy.

We'll be home on Sunday and then right away on Monday will be on the receiving end of company as my cousin comes to visit, bringing with him a special lady that he would like us to meet and get to know. My, oh my!

We're also very much looking forward to our first little Christmas "at the lake". We'll be having a little gathering with our Camp Family, going to church together, then spending Christmas Day (and celebrating a very special 3-year old boy's birthday) with Paul's entire immediate family. That's been a long time coming, so it will be very special.

Long enough read for ya? I'll write again when we get home, with pictures!

xo R