Catching Up

Big hugs to so many of you who responded to my last blog post with kindness and love! 

I am still trying to respond to you individually, but, as always, I am having a hard time catching up.

Life is so full at this stage of the game. When I was a young mom, I thought that life would get simpler as my babies and toddlers grew up, and in some ways it has. But each season of life has its own kind of busyness and its own limitations. So here I am, homeschooling a high schooler, grandmother of ten, coordinator of house projects, hostess, blogger, daughter, wife. Yes, life is full. 

A bit of what we've been up to lately . . . 

Some of our family had the opportunity to tour the house that once belonged to my great-grandparents. 

It was an amazing opportunity . . . and an amazing house! Craftsman style, built in the early 1900's. Beautiful mill work, inlaid wood floors, gorgeous chandeliers, built-in china closet, window seats, a back staircase that led to a maid's room, little doors and so many nooks and crannies, sweeping wide staircase with a solarium on the landing.

We all loved seeing this piece of our family's history, but I am especially grateful that my mom was able to visit it. It meant so much to her!

On Sunday, our family celebrated Bekah's 16th birthday. 

How can my baby be sweet sixteen?! Her actual birthday is tomorrow, and she has invited some friends to celebrate with her later in the month. No need to confine the celebration to one measly day, right? But we kicked off the festivities with a sweet family gathering. (I'll share more pics in another post.)

Progress continues in the library. 

The bookshelves are finished! The next step is painting, which will begin tonight. Then we'll allow the paint to cure for a week or so. And then we can unpack those boxes and shelve those books. Can. Not. Wait.

After the books are shelved and the piles of boxes are cleared away, we'll paint the rest of the room. We still have a ways to go, but the end is in sight!

Tenth grade is rolling along.

We have tweaked some things along the way this year, dropping some things that did not bring "shining eyes" and replacing them with things that do. There is new life in our little home school! I may write some more about that in a future post. (I seem to be planning a lot of new posts as I write this one!)

I so love homeschooling and I am sad to think that I have only two years remaining after this one . . . but I am not sad that this is the last time that I will be teaching Algebra II. I will say no more about that. 

Those are some of the things that are keeping me busy. We're also preparing for our celebration of Resurrection Sunday this weekend. What a glorious thing to celebrate!!

What is keeping you busy these days? (Do you ever have a hard time keeping up . . . or trying to catch up?)