In the meantime

     It is official--we are currently not boat owners... and it feels really odd. Joe and Levi used a friend's truck and towed Shiva on her trailer to Tok to meet up with her new owner. Thankfully, the trip was uneventful and the new owner was tickled to take possession. Joe and Levi enjoyed the trip as well, making a boys' weekend out of it. 

     But now, there's a big empty space.
No, literally, there is a big empty space in our front yard where Shiva usually lives on her trailer for the winter. The knowledge that there won't be a boat there any more is just weird. The hunt is still on for the right boat to carry the name Kyrie Eleison, as well as be home for our family's upcoming adventures, but right now, there are other things to focus on.

     One of the things Joe and I talked about before we even started thinking about a life afloat was homeschooling. It was something we discussed even before we had kids and it continued in my mind as our son came along. Then the idea of a sailboat life came up and we realized homeschooling, or boatschooling as cruising families call it, would be a requirement. Why not start from the beginning and ease at least one transition? 

      So now, here we are in our third year of homeschooling--Levi is in third grade and Rachael is in kindergarten, and while the first two years were really good, this year has been rough, I'll admit, and for a multitude of reasons. First off, I'm teaching two kids this year. Second, we tried a different curriculum from what I've used the past two years. Third, Megan is crawling around and getting into everything while I'm trying to teach. Last, but not least, Joe has been working on an addition to our house and has by necessity been around a lot more than we have been previously used to--not that it's a bad thing to see more of my husband during the day! That addition is going to make it much easier for us to rent out our house when we set sail. While it's a major disruption to a school day, it's extremely satisfying to go out to the addition when Joe is working and see how much progress he's made. I'll have to take some pictures. It's really coming along!

     So, back to the homeschooling bit. And fair warning, this is a subject that will be coming up a lot in future posts! Levi told me last spring he wanted to try something different for school this year than the curriculum we used the past two years. He seemed to be struggling a bit and one thing I've learned even in my short time as a homeschool mom is that sometimes what was working stops working for whatever reason and it's time to try something else. Well, we tried something different this year and frankly, it just wasn't working. Rachael is enjoying learning to read and Levi loves his math program, but otherwise, the kids just weren't having fun, and I wasn't enjoying teaching them. I knew something had to change. After giving it a lot of thought and asking Levi what he thought too, I finally threw in the towel with our current curriculum and we decided to go back to the old one! We're taking a much needed week off while we collect the new materials and I help Joe with the addition this week. I think we all need that break from school to get our heads back in the game.

     The hunt for the boat is still on, and to be honest, we found one we like very much, but it's located in California and therefore we've only seen pictures so far. We'll see what happens in that quarter, but if she isn't the right one, no worries. Kyrie is out there somewhere. We'll find her!