Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Busy times

Well, I haven't exactly been keeping up this blog lately. Since Christina and I went on our getaway trip to Astoria a few months back life has been pretty much non-stop. Here's what's going on around the Henderson house:

- Miriam is now responding to "yes" and "no" questions with very prominent nods and head shakes. It's fun and we can't help but laugh at her drama as she reinforces that yes, she can in fact tell us what she wants now.

- We are exploring the possibility of buying a home. We've made incredible progress on paying off our out-of-business debt and we're seeing if we can build a home and wrap the remaining debt into the equity. The market in this area continues to climb and we don't want to wait longer than we need to lest we never be able to afford a home. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

- Christina's sister and her kids were here for a few weeks. The kids have enjoyed playing with their cousins and we've enjoyed visiting with Cathie.

- We've all been passing bugs back and forth. It's been quite the winter and spring as far as health goes. Yuck! I'm hoping for healthy summer months.

- My good friend Jeremy and I went on our third annual weekend road trip. This time we drove only 2000 miles, concentrating on eastern Oregon. Again I came back amazed at the diversity of Oregon's landscape.

- At SAIF my team of three is about to be just me. JD left in December and Brigitte is about to have her first baby. We're currently in interviews for JD's replacement, but the summer is definitely looking busy for me while I attempt to hold the fort down and cross-train our new hire. The good news is that the work days are going by fast.

- I'm working on a web site for Western Architectural. A temporary home page based on the new design is up, the full site will take a few more months of work.

I'm sure there is more that we are doing, but hope this summarizes the important parts that are keeping us busy!

- Adriel

The End of the Year is Near

The end of the school year that is. Math and reading will continue through the summer and I plan to sneak in the occasional history movie. What could be more exciting than the history of Britain on a 4 disk set?! Some of you are well aware that I really do find that entertaining. In fact I did find a nice set made by the BBC. It sure was dangerous to be the king of England!

We in fact have finished our books for this year and started in on next years work 2 weeks ago. We will continue for at least 2 more weeks and then jump into our summer schedule. I have made 2 major changes to our curriculum for the coming year. First is with Language arts/ writing. We have started using "Classical Writing" which uses classical Greek methods to teach writing. We also incorporate handwriting, a little spelling analysis and grammar into this program. The second big change is that we are using a "My Father's World" unit study. It is classically based and brings together music, art, history, geography/ culture study and science under one topic. This year we are doing their "Exploring Countries and Cultures" year which is focused on geography and culture study. After this they have a 4-year chronological history cycle. So far we are learning a lot and it is fun too!

Our most exciting news today is that Abigail has finished her first grade reading curriculum. She is doing great and we are very proud of all the effort she has put into her reading.

David went to "The Physics of Baseball" event at the Rose Garden; so look for a note about this from him coming soon.


-Christina