Spring Break Trip to Brenham: Getting There

Last week our family and 10 students from our BCM worked at Miracle Farm, a boys' ranch in Brenham, Texas. We left Saturday morning and drove to Galveston for our "fun day." It rained ALL. DAY. LONG. It got really bad in Houston, and with the traffic and the rain and driving through water at least 6" deep, I was a little tense. But we made it to the hotel and then ate at P.F. Chang's, which is always a treat. Then we spent a little time at the mall before heading to bed. The next day we had our own little worship time in our hotel room.

Then we went to Moody Gardens. I've driven past it and heard about it so many times; it was great to actually get to go there! And the weather was perfect! We all went through the aquarium pyramid together, then had lunch and then part of the group did the ropes course and some of us went to the Ice Age museum, butterfly garden, and down to the shore. We all met back up and a 3D movie and then went through the rain forest pyramid. It was so cool! A white-faced monkey ran right by my feet on the boardwalk! After that we (Mike) weren't planning on going 0-to the beach, but one of our students had never seen the ocean before, so we used out puppy dog eyes and talked him into letting us go for FIVE minutes. :D The smell and sound and feel of the ocean is still just a little like coming home in my heart. From there we drove to the ranch at Brenham. We worked there last year, too, so it was good to see the friends we had made. I basically dropped my girls off then grabbed two students and went to HEB to buy food for the next day. I was exhausted by the time we were done, but that just made me sleep that much better!

Aquarium:

Our students on the other side of the water!

Museum:

Jessica and Clint found their dream animals...

 Butterfly garden:

Can you find the caterpillars?

 Shore:

Rain Forest:

He ran RIGHT BY me!!

sloth

Look at that beautiful blue "bird"!

Galveston:

Mike asked them to stay out of the water...

Blogging with bigger kids

Blogging is fun, and you have so much to talk about and so many pictures to show when your kids are little, especially if you live a bazillion miles away from grandparents and don't want them to miss anything. The only trouble is you rarely have time to blog! But once they turn 13 and get on facebook/instagram/twitter, they don't want you telling the world every cute/stupid/funny/exasperating thing they do. And they claim the right to approve or disapprove of any pictures posted. And honestly, they stop doing as many cute and funny things. Thankfully, I still have Mikayla!
 The other day I was driving her home from school and we passed a field with goats in it. She said, "Oh, horses--wait, are those llamas or kangaroos?"
Rebecca is looking over my shoulder, so I'll tell an embarrassing story about her next time!

Arkansas History/Black History Thoughts. Even though February's over.

I am teaching Arkansas History to the elementary kids in our local home school group. My planning today got me thinking about Central High. When I was growing up away from Arkansas, my family still saw Arkansas as home. So whenever I got a new history book, I would look up "Arkansas" to see what it had to say. In the Pre-Bill Clinton days, it was always the Central High story. And that always made me feel ashamed of Arkansas. It is a shameful thing, and something that should never be forgotten. But today I realized that it's only something to be ashamed of from the white point of view. Black Arkansans hopefully see it as something to take pride in. I thought of the courage it took for those young black students to face the lions and grab the best education they could, paving the way for generations to follow. So when I teach those children about Central High, I plan to focus on the victory, the amazing accomplishments of the Little Rock Nine.
Photo creds: Marquette University