All posts by Lea Callahan

Hard Choices. Hopeful Returns.

Faith, Inspired

Just now getting back to my blog and realized I haven’t updated since we moved last OCTOBER! Working on the consistency thing. ☺ So…we’ve moved closer to our church, work, and activities. This also allowed my widowed father to downsize to a garden home. My sister bought his house, we bought her house (which are across the road from each other), and he moved down the road to home he can manage better. Its working out great for all of us. We really miss the 5 acres we lived on for 10 years.

View From the Heart

That was our pasture. But, boy, is it nice to get to and from everything we run to in 5 to 10 minutes instead of 45 to 60. Makes getting to church at night so much easier. Now Daniel can make choir on Sunday nights, dinner & Pioneer club on Wednesday night, and all those Cub Scout meetings through out the week. Not to mention I’m close enough now to actually shop at the Whole Food Market!! YAY! We are much, much more regular at Church and more involved in the activities of life. It was a hard move and hard decision. But I think the sacrifice is definitely worth it. Before we were almost sequestered from society. We don’t want to be of the world, but we do want to be in it. We can’t impact the world if we are shut off from it. And while life out there was nice and had its practical purposes too for a time, it was beginning to cut off the impact we could have on the world. It was beginning to be all about us and not about anyone else. Now people can stop by (and do) much more often, and we can get out and see others too. We are so thankful for the great times and friendships we held there. Now, I’m very excited to see how God plans to use us here.

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A broader look

Inspired

Okay to I’ve changed my blog name and tag line to more accurately encompass all that is ME! Life is so busy and I’m sure it is for everyone so I think just “my blog” about “my journey” is more fitting. I’m homeschooling, homemaking, packing and more to move, helping with my father, just became a grandmother, learning new technologies, and enjoying and advising friends. Yep, definitely needed a broader appeal on my blog. 🙂 Then as I was thinking that was broader – and it is – I realized what it is really is being a woman. We do a LOT and its definitely worth blogging about. So this is my beginning of blogging about this woman’s journey through life.

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Healthy homecooked meals when I'm not here to do it.

Food,

How do I have great meals today and tomorrow when I won’t be at home most of the day. If I didn’t plan ahead, it would be time for boxed meals or meals from a window. However, yesterday I made homemade beef tomato sauce, roasted two chickens, and made two loaves of whole grain bread. How does that help? Last night we ate all of one chicken and part of the other with broccoli. Today when I get back from my errands all I have to do is cook some noodles and heat up the beef tomato sauce and supper is done. Throw in some salad and its extra nice. Tomorrow I’ll take the left over chicken and have chicken soup made from broth I made homemade weeks ago and froze. Did I mention the beef and chicken are organic and free range – that’s an extra advantage. Now that is fast food I can live with! 🙂

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Learning at your own pace!

Learning

What I love about homeschooling is that each child can learn at his own pace. We started out homeschooling our now grown girls when they were beginning the 6th and 10th grades. That story has lots of blogs for another day. But now we are teaching our 7 and 3 year old boys. Almost 2 years ago we bought “The Story of the World” by Susan Wise Bauer (www.susanwisebauer.com) for two reasons: 1) I loved her book with her mother, “The Well Trained Mind” for our girls through the high school years and 2) Everyone just raved about how great it is. Well I couldn’t get our son, then 6, to get one thing out of the stories or activities. So I stored it away on the book shelf and forgot about it. We read children novels on historic people and that was the gist of history while he was 6, then at 7 I purchased Scholastic interactive activity books on American History, which is mostly cut, color and paste activities with a little history built in. As his 7th year is coming to a close, I’m getting concerned about his lack of history so Sunday at church I asked a friend what she did for history – “The Story of the World” she quickly replies. “My kids just love the stories.” I felt a little discouraged, knowing I had tried this and couldn’t get my child to listen, but I pulled it back out and tried it again. Well, what a difference 18-20 months makes in a child’s life. Not only will he listen to the stories, but he can’t wait to hear what is happening next. Most importantly later he seems to remember the story vividly as he retells it to his father or ask me if I remember so and so that happened in the story. This is why I love homeschooling – we can do things when they are ready and they excel greatly instead of pushing it when its required and running the risk of them hating not only the subject but learning altogether. And the advantages of having an older brother – our 3 year old listens too because he doesn’t want to be left out. Although I admit it has to be with a car or train in his had moving it around the living room floor. 🙂 So hang in there, if your child doesn’t thrive in a particular subject or even curriculum right now, wait a little and try it again. Maybe it is just the wrong time for him and not his ability at all. Hang in there and take learning at their pace.

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