Grammar Lessons

We hit the beach last weekend.  I love going to the beach in January! It truly gets cold here, but every once in a while we get a warm spell in January:

January, 2011 (2 years ago)

Here’s our January beach visit this year (same beach!):

The winter storms have sucked about 7 feet of sand out into the ocean, and they haven’t pumped it back in yet (coming for Spring break):

Garland and Cliff Kids

The lack of sand (big drop-off) made for some fun jumping and sliding:

And I couldn’t believe Sarah and Evie (and Louisa) were boogie boarding… that water was c-c-cold!  All things are possible with a wetsuit…

8 mile run last weekend.  Man, 8 miles isn’t easy or pretty for me!

While I was in Portland last weekend, my (rockstar) Mom took our kids on a school field trip to Mission San Juan Capistrano… that’s Mission visit #4 for us!

Sarah (top left) having fun with friends at workshop:

I can’t believe my ‘baby’ is almost 10 years old:

Saw a blogpost making snowflake tortillas for a snack so we gave it a go:

tortillas (folded into sixths) with cut-in designs, melted butter, cinnamon sugar, and toasted (or burned, in my case) in the oven

Josh ate his with peanut butter.  But he eats everything with peanut butter on it.

Snowflakes consumed in the backyard because I hate sweeping my kitchen floor. 

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Lots of UNO being played at the our home recently:

For our Grammar lessons, I often write 2 sentences on our white board for the kids to diagram.  They copy the sentences into their journal and label the words (noun, verb, adjective, adverb).  Then we go over the sentences together.  Josh finished his sentences a little early so he added a third sentence for me (in red). 

I have tough homeschool days when I feel like I’m not the best teacher for my kids and I question “am I really doing enough?”, but Sentence #3 keeps me going:

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Conversation with our kids recently… explaining the concept that their dad and I love them and are proud of them.  But.  We live for something beyond them.   

We would die for our kids, but we do not live for them.

A big idea… it will take a lifetime to soak in.  I’m still soaking it in myself.  My parents were so good to model this for me.

Warmest blessings to you all!