Marshmallow World

On Friday the weather forecast for the weekend was 8-16 inches of snow by Sunday evening.

Since the weather has been mostly sunny and snowless this winter, I thought it would be interesting to do a series of "time lapse" photos of our back yard over the course of the weekend. Obviously, the weekend isn't over yet, but the results are dramatic enough that I decided to go ahead and post while I have time. (Otherwise I might not get around to it. Iz bad, I know.)

The little dab of snow lurking in the shady areas on Friday afternoon was left over from a few days earlier. The clouds were beginning to gather, but the flurries didn't start until after dark that day.

 Saturday morning the ground was lightly covered with a very wet snow. It had already melted off the stone walkway and mostly just stuck to the grass. But more was still in the forecast.

Midday Saturday it started snowing lightly... 

 just kinda spitting snow off and on...

 By early evening the snow finally decided to start getting serious.

 The "snow" setting on the camera shows it coming down better than the "auto" setting above, though I have to say the "auto" setting makes a prettier picture. I love the warm lights shining from the back fence neighbors' houses.

 And so finally, this morning, we did wake up to a Marshmallow World.

Church was cancelled due to the bad roads, so we are enjoying a quiet morning sitting by the fire, watching the snow. We love that our family room has both a fireplace and French doors overlooking the backyard.

We will enjoy the snow while it lasts because it could very well be all gone by midweek. Denver weather is funny that way.

A Sonlighting Family

The assignment today for the Sonlight 25th Anniversary Blog Party is to introduce my family, and share where we are on our homeschooling journey.

My students are these beautiful young ladies, ages 19 and 22. Our formal homeschooling days have recently ended. However, the girls do still currently live at home, so the learning continues. After all, thanks to Sonlight, we raised them to be "lifelong learners."

They say homeschooling actually starts at birth... and it does. When I hear a parent say they could never homeschool it makes me wonder what they think they were doing during those early years. However, our formal, curriculum-based homeschooling actually started in 1998 when Laura was ready for kindergarten. That's the year we started with Sonlight... but that's a story for another post.

Fast-forward to 2011... (and the years went by about that fast...) we were pleased to present Laura with her high school diploma at a group ceremony we had put together with a few other homeschooling friends in our area. Laura graduated in Idaho where we had lived since she was in kindergarten. It meant a lot to her to get to graduate with her friends.

Rebecca graduated this past spring (2014) after we had moved to Colorado. Since she only had one semester of school left after we moved, we hadn't connected with a homeschool group here. Instead we planned a special backyard ceremony just for her with her grandparents and church friends.

Over the years as I've shared our homeschooling story at conventions around the country, I tell how learning is a lifestyle in our family, not just something we do during school hours. And though the girls have graduated and are pursuing their adult lives now... the learning goes on.

This post is part of Sonlight's 25th Anniversary Blog Party (January edition):

   

I'd love to hear your story as well!

Do you Instagram?

I've had an Instagram account for awhile but have never done much with it. However, Laura uses it all the time. Now... I'm not into taking selfies, but I started playing around with it a bit this past weekend and I have to admit I've enjoyed taking scenery and still-life pictures. I love the effect of using filters and frames. Here are some fun shots I've taken the last few days.

Breakfast at my desk. #goodmorning #Sonlight

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jan 21, 2015 at 6:04am PST

Thank you flowers from Judy on my desk this morning. #sothoughtful #Sonlight

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jan 19, 2015 at 6:27am PST

Enjoying some hooky time by the fire. #relaxing #winterevening

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jan 17, 2015 at 6:27pm PST

One of Lyle's coworkers made me a cup of tea while I waited for him. #playingwithinstagram

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jan 17, 2015 at 11:20am PST

Not #Sonlight. #restingmybrain #lovemyman

A photo posted by @karlacinid on Jan 17, 2015 at 10:54am PST

The building above is the print shop where Lyle works. I had just dropped some of the Sonlight reps off at the airport and my work responsibilities were done for the week, so I was running errands with him. It felt good to think about something besides work for a little while.

Let me know if you have an Instagram account, so I can follow you! I don't have very many connections on there yet.

Sonlight Fun

This past week at work was a lot of fun... as well as pretty intense... with our annual Sonlight Training Conference with the convention rep team for the upcoming homeschool convention season. Our reps come from all over the country. I've worked with a lot of the same ladies over the years and have made some good friends, so it was great to see them again, as well as meet our new reps. We laughed, enjoyed good food.. and learned a lot.

I used to fly in for this event, but this year I got to help organize it. Even with all the extra work this time, I came away excited about the upcoming convention season, as I always do. My first convention will be in Loveland, Colorado on March 13 and 14. Lots to do between now and then!

Something else fun is going on at work as well. Sonlight is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, and they have several exciting events lined up throughout the year. The celebration will be kicking off with a free online event this coming Thursday evening featuring Sonlight's founder and owner, Sarita Holzmann, as well as guest speakers, Heidi St. John and Crystal Paine. This event is called Inspire 25 and will include some great PRIZES as well as inspiring sessions. I'll be there. I hope you'll join me!

And then, the other thing I'm involved in is Sonlight's year-long blog party. On the 25th of each month I'll be joining up with other homeschool bloggers to share my stories with a different topic each month. If you blog I encourage you to join the party. Again, there will be PRIZES! Plus, it's a great way to gain new readers.

Looking forward to a great year!

The Gift

Two weeks after Christmas.

We were staying with my sister. We had been waiting for a phone call for almost a month. Finally it came.

"Your baby has arrived! Would you like to come meet her?"

The maternity section of the hospital was quiet that January evening. We washed our hands and donned scrubs as instructed, and they led us to an empty patient room. And we waited again.

But not too long. Pretty soon the nurse wheeled in the bassinet. She carefully lifted the tiny, blanket-wrapped bundle and laid our newborn daughter into my arms.

And in that moment, I became a mother.

It is, most assuredly, not a gift I take for granted.

Not flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute,

You didn't grow under my heart,

But in it.

Happy Birthday, Laura!