UNM Lobo Invitational! AND a NEW CAR!

This beautiful morning, we woke up at 5:30 AM to head to our annual Lobo 5k with the Cougar Track Club.  We had so much fun.  Both boys ran great.  Nolen improved his time by 2 minutes, Edward was about a minute slower this year than last year, Stephen improved his time by 3 minutes and I improved by 30 seconds! It was so hard but so fun.  I will be forever grateful for these moments with my sweet boys!

Today, we sold our car. 

We have owned our car for 9 years.  

We bought the Toyota Highlander a few months before Nolen was born.  It was a huge expense, but we needed a bigger car.  Well my sweet car was on its last leg these last few weeks.  The engine lost power in one cylinder.  We were at the point of spending thousands to fix it or just scrap it and get a new car.  I spent two hours deep cleaning the car and saying good-bye.

Today, we got a new car.

2019 Toyota Sequoia.  

I hope this car lasts us 10 long beautiful years.

Field Trip Number TWO!

Today, we went on an amazing field trip.  We woke up early, 6 AM, and rode the Railrunner to Santa Fe.  It took us one and a half hours to get to Santa Fe on the Railrunner.  We laughed and looked out the window at all the scenery.  There are so many parts of New Mexico that I have not ever seen.  

We arrived in Santa Fe around 9 AM.  We then walked to the famous Loretto Chapel that houses the Miraculous Stair Case.  It was built by an unknown man and for over a hundred years it stood without any support.  It was such a cool site.  The chapel itself is extremely ornate.

 After we toured the chapel we headed over to the New Mexico Museum of Art.  The boys spent most of their time drawing rather than looking at the art.  It was pretty interesting to see different types of art on display.

The boys were getting kind of restless and I figured after a little walk over to the Georgia O'keefe museum they would calm down, but they didn't.  The Georgia O'keefe museum was not that interesting.  We spent maybe 20 minutes in the museum before we left for lunch.  

 Lunch was at The Burger Stand.  It was a good choice.  The boys got milk shakes and I had a healthy salad.  My parents tried the burgers and said they were great. 

My favorite part of the trip was riding the train and seeing the miraculous stair case.  We were all so tied we actually took naps on the train ride home.  That was the best part!!

Homeschool: Two Weeks In

We are two weeks in to our first experience with home schooling.  

It has been quite the learning experience for me.  I have had to adjust so many different things that I do during the day.  I have a hard time with change.  I like to keep things in order and keep the chaos at bay.  That has been the hardest part for me when transitioning to home school.  I love many parts of home school and adjusting my schedule will get easier with time.  

Last week we spent the whole week at home just doing work.  I am trying to find balance between outings and staying at home.  The boys really want to go out and do a lot of field trips but I am torn between teaching them from the book and learning outside of the classroom.  I am scared that if I don't teach them from the "book" they wont learn anything.  

I am trying to find a balance between teaching piano and teaching my boys.  This is hard.  I have changed my rates and asked my students to be respectful of my time and I will be respectful of their musical education.  I am hoping, moving forward, this balance will become easier.

Here is a snipit of what our last two weeks have looked like at home.

 Finding a baby lizard in the yard.

 Going to the mall to pet the lizards and snakes.

 Playing an intense battle of air hockey.

 Finding a salamander after cross county practice.

 Painting for Language Arts.

 A quick get away on my bike.

 Beautiful Friday night run with the cross country team.

 Our favorite run, "Top of Copper"

 Nolen's friends at cross country.

Nolen mowing the neighbors grass for his weekly work.