Teach Them Diligently: The Truth

As I shared in the last post, our family had an overall amazing time over the weekend while attending the Teach Them Diligently Convention!

But...

I thought I'd take a few minutes to be blatantly transparent about what attending an out-of-town homeschool convention can be like for a family of six. {Hint: It ain't all grins & giggles...}

In fact, if I were completely honest, I would have to say that I actually believe that Satan himself was working overtime to try to keep us from going or at the very least trying to make us miserable while we were there!?! LOL

*If you leave any packing for the day of departure... it will cause you to be behind schedule...

*If you think you might be able to make it across the state line, where the gas is cheaper, before you fill up... you will run out of gas...

*If you take 2 toddlers in to a keynote address by a man that your older 2 kids really wanna hear (Ken Ham) you will  be pulling 2 overtired toddlers out of that keynote address about halfway through...

*If you call the hotel and request an early check-in... you will end up checking in at about 7:30 that night...

*If your husband takes the baby with him on a little jaunt to Walmart 'cuz you need a coupla things & she won't sleep... she will throw up on herself... in the car seat... on the way back...

*If the second day of the Convention starts off really well... even including meeting friends that you've only ever known online for lunch... 2 toddlers will publicly meltdown simultaneously, forcing your surrender and causing your husband to retreat to the hotel with them...

*If you have the opportunity to meet the Rev. Dr. Voddie Baucham following one of his workshops, you will forget to use either Rev. OR Dr. when you address him, making yourself feel like a idiot!

*If you manage to get back to the hotel before the pool closes, the kids will know it and will want to swim, even though all you want to do is sleep!

*If you try to carry on a conversation with an uber-intelligent author (Israel Wayne) your children {well, at least the ADHD one} will hijack your camera to spin around with...

But...

*If you survive all of those little speed bumps that seem to pop up out of no where, you will head home with tons of notes... an uplifted spirit... a re-encouraged will to homeschool... new ideas... new books(!) and memories that will help you push on through any homeschool burnout that you might be feeling. ;-)

There is no doubt in my mind, that attending a local or regional homeschool convention is worth every penny of money you have to spend to get there and worth every inconvenience you must overcome to stay there. :-)

Teach Them Diligently: My Apologies...

The end of last week was quite a whirlwind!

We set out on Thursday for Spartanburg, South Carolina and the Teach Them Diligently Convention... an amazing opportunity to come together with like minded believers, attend encouraging & inspiring workshops, and shop for quality Christian homeschool curricula.

This was only the second regional homeschool convention that we'd ever attended... but we did learn quite a few tricks of the trade from our last go 'round. ;-)

What I didn't learn... how to control my extroverted excitement at meeting people that I truly adore & admire!

I. am. a. dork.

Especially when I get the chance to meet people that have impacted my life in some way. And this Convention was not at all short on opportunities for me to showcase my dork-i-ness.

So... in this... my first post about the great family adventure that was the Teach Them Diligently Convention... I would like to start by apologizing to all the wonderful people I met for my over-enthusiastic, attack-like hugs... my inability to coherently communicate with you on the level of my true ability {I promise I can put complete & meaningful sentences together about important topics...} and for any crazy thing that I might've said that made absolutely no sense and caused you to wonder if I should really be homeschooling?! {Babies didn't exactly sleep "well" while we were there... thus, neither did I...}

In the meantime, while I'm waiting to hear back if my apologies are accepted... Here are a few of the great people that I had the privilege of meeting & speaking to and managed to snap pictures of:

These are my online friends Stacy & Heather... and we'd never met in person before, though we chat online all the time!

These are two of my role models... Amy Roberts of Raising Arrows & Lisa Metzger of A 2nd Generation of Homeschooling. Such a blessing to speak with them in person, even if only for a few minutes! 

Sammi & Lawrie got to meet one of their heroes, Mr. Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis & the Creation Museum! I also took their picture with Mr. Israel Wayne of Wisdom's Gate Ministries and was perfectly content to take their pictures with everyone that I got to meet {'cuz I prefer to not see pictures of myself, honestly...} but Sammi was quick to remind me that while they were fans of Mr. Ham's... I was the one that was a fan of Mr. Wayne's and therefore, I needed to let HER take my picture! LOL 
Clever way to wrangle the camera from me I 'spose... 

...though it is indeed a blessing to share a picture with Sony, Israel and his adorable son Benjamin.

More to come on all the wonderful insights & inspirations we gained from this incredibly well put together Convention......   :-)

Swimsuits 2012: Revisiting the Modesty Issue...

We are so blessed to be attending the Teach Them Diligently Convention this week!

And being the awesome Daddy that he is, Danny made sure that our accommodations included an indoor pool! A real treat for March!

And being the sometimes-over-anxious Mommy that I am, this sent me into a tizzy thinking about finding new modest swimsuits for the kiddos (the girls in particular...)

It's a subject that I've broached before... two years ago, when Sammi crossed over the threshold from cutie pie toddler/preschool wear and into the {dun, dun, dun!} 7 - 16 size range. :-/

To that end, I still stand heartily by my recommendation of Swim Modest, as the most affordable of the well-made, modest swimsuits available on the market currently. I mean, seriously, Sam got TWO SUMMERS of swimming out of that swimsuit!!!

But as inevitably seems to happen with tweenagers (I'm learning this as I go...) they tend to develop their own sense of "style" and want to be heard when it comes to what they prefer to wear. And as long as those desires fall within the range of some previously agreed upon rules of modesty, I'm cool with that.

So when the swimsuit hunt began... Sam informed me that she would rather not have a "skirt" or skirt attachment on her suit. "Ugh..." I thought. "Why don't ya try to really challenge me?!" LOL

In the end... this is what I was able to find:

{Emme has the same suit as Ellie, but was unavailable for this photo shoot due to her beauty rest schedule...}

Here are the details...

>Sammi, from Lands' End

• Girls' Classic Rash Guard Top (Navy Stripe)- http://bit.ly/za0Twa
• Girls' Solid Woven Swim Shorts (Navy)- http://bit.ly/zTUG6c

>Ellie & Emme, from Walmart.com (these were available online only...)

• OP - Baby Girls' 2-Piece Rashguard and Boyshort Set - http://bit.ly/yQiQly

>Lawrie, from our local Target (the easy one to shop for...)

• Cherokee Boys Rashguard, Ebony - http://bit.ly/zKAKvC
• Cherokee Boy Swim Trunk, Assorted Colors - http://bit.ly/xCOEug

Just in case anyone might happen to be wondering what our family's personal conviction is when it comes to swimsuit modesty... I will gladly share, but I also want to say that we completely understand and respect that other families may come to different conclusions of what modesty is to them. :-)

For us, modest swimsuits will:

• Have a high neckline, so as to completely cover the chest
• Have broad straps or even cap sleeves, if possible, so as to avoid the "string" look
• Be long enough (if it's the top of a 2-piece) to completely cover the belly & most of the back (no low-plunging, deep cut backs)
• Completely cover the hips & stay in place, so there are no "swimsuit wedgies"
• Look more like shorts/skirts than panties... and the more thigh coverage, the better ;-)

So there ya go! Our little 2012 swimsuit fashion show! Hope our search will be one that can help you... and let us know in the comments of any other great resources for modest swimwear!