Spring classes

School started a few weeks ago. Cris got right back into Greek with a test the first day. I think its purpose was to shake out the cobwebs that grew over the nearly-nonexistent winter break. His other classes are Orientation to Pastoral Counseling, Doctrine of God, Evangelism, Gospel Communications, and Medieval Church History. Whew! It seems to be going a bit better than last semester, if only because he is getting to be a better student.

And I am taking a class too, auditing Elements of Biblical Change; part of the counseling curriculum. You might not know that Westminster is associated with the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation, which is located right across the street. I am thinking of registering as a “real” student and working toward a certificate in the counseling area, or even my Master’s. I wouldn’t have time to finish any kind of program while we are here, but it’d be nice to get something started and carry on via distance learning later. We’ll see how that goes. So far I am not doing such a great job keeping up with the reading, and I haven’t even attempted to do any of the assigned writing (which I could not turn in anyway, as an auditor). More about that class another time.

The kids are in only one class right now: a reading group run by one of the moms in our homeschool group. Once a month they meet to present a book on a particular topic, chosen at the beginning of the “term” by vote. This month the topic was rocks and minerals, so they did a little research on a few of their favorite rocks and did an oral presentation. I had to miss it – the group meets when I am in class, so Cris took them. He caused a bit of a stir there in the room full of moms.

James is enjoying Cub Scouts and is signed up for Little League which starts in April. Eleanor is in a homeschool Girl Scout troop and is enjoying that too. She’s thinking of signing up for soccer when the time comes. It could get really interesting around here with all these activities if we continue as a one-car family (which probably won’t be much longer).

Catching up…

First, a reminder for those of you who are still checking in here… blogs that are not updated frequently are annoying, aren’t they?  Who wants to keep checking in only to find a 3-week old post?  Yeah, I know.

Use a reader, like google reader or bloglines.  There are others.  You can plug in all your favorite blogs and when they are updated, you’ll know.  No more checking in to find there’s nothing going on in PA!

So let’s see…  our friends’ Russian adoption went through, they are all home, including the big dog we were babysitting!   That was quite an experience.  It felt calmer and quieter in the house within minutes.  So far, our little Max does not seem to be upset about the loss of his pal.  He is still vigilant, watching out the back door for those pesky squirrels.  Oh, he loves to chase!   We are all enjoying him, and when the rain stops we’ll start heading out to the local dog park and taking him hiking with us.

We did have about 5 inches of snow last week, and enough of an incline in the back yard for a little sledding.  The kids and I also walked over to a local church with a big hill and got some runs in there.  Now, it’s raining so the snow will be gone soon.  Hoping for one more big snow before spring!

OK, that’s enough for one night; I’ll save the school update for tomorrow.