So this happened yesterday - my husband fulfilled my long dream of shelves above our credenza.
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If you’ve noticed, we kinda love Ikea furniture. We’d searched high and low for affordable ‘natural yet hefty’ shelves, but ultimately couldn’t choose anything but our lovely Ikea Lack Shelves.
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I’ve seen this asymmetrical layout in several Instagram posts and have just loved it! My goal is a landing spot for Lego creations and sets.
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Our boys were away with their church youth group this weekend volunteering - and, of course, having a great fellowship time.
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Swipe through to see the progression from no shelves to shelves full of Lego, a few framed prints {still deciding what to hang}, and our boom box with our scaled down CD and cassette tape collection.
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And how cool is it there is a place I can tag called ‘Bikurgurl’ here in Washington State?!?
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#hereisourhomeschool #ikea #lackshelves #ikeafurniture #ikeahome #bestaunits #legosets #legocreations
This guy is my heart 🖤 We rescued him, at my insistence, after my first cancer surgery. We already had our sweet little terrier mix, Kemosabe, but he slept with our younger son, The Artist, and I wanted my older son, The Bibliophile, to also have a dog - especially if my cancer spread or I didn’t make it through the surgeries.
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It may sound a bit morbid, but I needed to know my boys each had a dog. Growing up is hard enough, but thinking about having to grow up without me, I wanted them to have someone who could always be there for them through thick and thin. My husband is great, but it’s not the same as mom.
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By the grace of God, my cancer antigens have been within acceptable limits for 3 years. In the meantime, we’ve so enjoyed having this guy be part of our family!
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We adopt rescue dogs because, like us, they’ve got a lot of love to give and just need someone with the time and energy to give them the love, support, and discipline they need to be part of the pack. We weren’t looking to show or breed dogs, we were looking for companions.
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Not every dog is right for every pack, but this guy is a joy for us. He’s a comfort to The Bibliophile, The Artist, Kemosabe, my husband, and I.
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Who rescued who?
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#cancersucks #cancercomfort #planningahead #rescuedog #rescuedogsofinstagram #whorescuedwho #darkpaw #kemosabe #blackdogs #blackrescuedog
So this happened today — with the pollen literally covering everything outside, my scarred eye is swollen badly. The only way to fix that, says my husband, is to see Deadpool 2 📹
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If you’d had told me pre-2017 that I would’ve caught up on all the Avengers Cinematic Universe movies, I’d have laughed. Outright.
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But, time does bring change. I abhorred IronMan: the torture scenes, the emasculation of women — my husband allowed our boys to watch it, so I was there to pause video, add commentary, initiate discussions. Women do not need a man to rescue them - it’s a white male fantasy perpetuated to keep women subjugated.
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But here’s the thing - that’s not my man. That’s not my children. My man loves my strong will, my fight and determination.
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Here’s where the love of the story begins. This is where the comic book universe crosses from the paper to the big screen. Through these movies, you see characters develop, stories change.
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And, yes, a lot of violence and action. But here’s the thing: it’s in a safe place, an imaginary place running parallel to our own.
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The Marvel Universe has been an exciting adventure through stories and character arcs we can discuss as a family. My boys can point out inconsistencies in the storyline with relation to mythology and Thor’s history. We discuss plot, motive, and outcomes.
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How is this different than anything else we do in our homeschool? It isn’t. We follow their lead, we’ve been their parents for over a dozen years. We’ve put in the hard work of raising them to be empathetic, intelligent, and responsible young adults. Though there are always challenges in our future, we’re starting from a solid base.
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However, this side story of Deadpool isn’t one our boys have seen ... yet.
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So today, my husband and I went to the movie theatre, alone, for the first time in almost 15 years! I never longed for time away from my children because I knew the day would come sooner than I’d realize that their wings are already testing flight. They’re learning to fly.
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In the meantime, we’ll support them in the way we can best - by building our relationship stronger through new, shared experiences.
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Oh, and the movie? It was awesome!
So I’m clearing out the rest of the corners in the office and found a great place for these once beloved flash cards! They’re being sent on to another homeschool family {in my family!} 📚🖤
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It wasn’t so much about regurgitating the facts as it was fun reading material, tactile and analog, tucked in a purse or bag. Having a couple of these with me, at the ready, made waiting in lines, grocery shopping, and car trips more pleasant for everyone when my children were younger - and it didn’t hurt to learn a little along the way!
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As we ran across flash cards, I’d one-hole punch them and use ring clips to keep sets together. Recycling the boxes, these portable, toddler/elementary-sized decks were easy to keep around - in the car, purse, or stroller bag - and hand to a child in need of a change of scenery or quiet activity.
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Through the years, we’ve gone on to make many of these decks on our own - be it to memorize vocabulary or simply keep a set of similar information, or even stories we’d written, together.
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We also kept one set intentionally blank. This set would serve primarily for questions we wanted answers to, but were in the middle of a different activity or needed to research the answer. Eventually, we migrated that over into conversation books I keep with my boys to allow an unfiltered dialog to progress between us through the years. Most of the notes are from me to them, but knowing they can ask anything allows them the freedom to know I want to hear them, talk with them, and answer their questions - though these days, they are looking more for a listening ear than advice. I’m happy they still want me to know all about their lives 💖
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Homeschooling may seem daunting, but it’s really a labor of love - giving our children a solid foundation on which to build their lives.
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#flashcards #eclecticunschooling #eclecticunschool #eclecticunschoolers #bikurgurl #homeschool #educatingourown #hereisourhomeschool #homeschoolmemories #passingonskills #analoghomeschool #analoglearning #homeschool
I’ve been suffering from allergies. The worst part is they affect my vision as I have a gnarled scar on one of my eyes. When the pollen count goes up, my vision goes from already-allergen-fuzzy to ridiculously fuzzy and painful.
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Today, we were supposed to go to a beach park day, but we weren’t feeling it, so to Tipsy Cow Burgers we went - armed with Costco Gift Cards - and enjoyed our ‘burgers’ - mine vegan, my Bibliophile meat-an, my Artist chick-an 🐓
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Thank Goodness it’s Friday!
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#tgif #tipsycow #perfectpear #burgers #veganburger #eclecticunschool #fridayfun #hereisourhomeschool
