Weekly Rundown: Southbound

There isn’t much I love doing more with my family than taking a big road trip. We’ve tripped across the US several times over. North Carolina to South Dakota a few times, all the way over to Glacier National Park, and who could forget our Laura Ingalls Wilder road trip?

It’s been a long, long time since our last big trip and we’re happy to be breaking our trip drought with a big road trip southbound, from Minnesota to Florida! We’re checking into a house on Rosemary Beach later today. The weather doesn’t look super amazing, but it doesn’t matter. We’ve got card games packed–you can see some of our favorites here–and we are just so excited to be AWAY together!

I’ll update you next week on everything we did, so if you’re planning a trip too, hopefully that will help you out.

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We had a full week up to our traveling days. Vacation dates are always a deadline for 1042 things on my list, so we did school, ran errands, and got a ton of tiling done in the bathroom. Here’s our weekly rundown…

WEEKLY RUNDOWN: Southbound

On our trek to Florida, we’ve been in Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, and Mississippi so far. We’ve stayed in Mark Twain’s birthplace AND Elvis Presley’s birthplace–never a break from the history lessons. Sorry, kids.

We are almost always home on birthdays, but this time Sophia’s birthday landed somewhere in the middle of Missouri, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Everyone always gets their own little Birthday Table on their birthday and a breakfast of donuts! #hutchkidsdoniecake

So Jarrod and I snuck out of the hotel before the kids woke up, found the most amazing local donut shop in Hannibal, MO and surprised Sophia with a donie cake and a makeshift birthday table in the car. Photocopied photos, clothes pins, and a birthday banner–surprise!

When we got to Tupelo, MS last night, she chose a Hibachi grill for dinner–so fun!

MAKING HOME

After our annoying mishap last week, I really really wanted to get the tile in the bathroom done. I’m over it!!

My goal was to get the shower and the floor done and grout when we get home. The shower is finished, minus one bullnose tile we were short and the floor didn’t get done. But I’m glad to have the shower done–that took forever!!

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING

Wednesday, for St. Patrick’s Day, Vera had a really fun class with Nature Explorers, SQUILT Music, and Chalk Pastels. I love these monthly classes so much and I really love when these amazing ladies join forces and bring a special class to the kids. She ended up with a lovely journal page in her nature journal, a chalk drawing of an Irish countryside, and a music lesson on classic Irish harp.

HERE’S WHAT WE READ:

• The Birds Our Teachers by John Stott. (HIIIIIGHLY recommend!)
• Exploring Creation with Zoology: Flying Creatures of the 5th Day
• Beautiful Feet Books Around the World with Picture Books Part II
• Genevieve Foster’s George Washington’s World and I cannot express how much I love these books! We are reading this as part of Beautiful Feet Books Early American and World History
• Sebastian Bach: the Boy from Thuringia as part of Zeezok Music Course
• SQUILT March Listening Calendar. We are studying Bach this month!

Vera and I also planted a sweet resurrection garden too. I love how it turned out. Hopefully we have some grass popping up when we get home!

WHAT WE READ THIS WEEK

The kids and I are currently reading the following:

• Created to Work by Bob Schultz. 
• C.S. Lewis Biography

We are listening to this CD as we drive–Vera LOVES Odyssey!!! I ordered it because it was about road tripping. Unbeknownst to me, the family in the story is driving to Florida too. It’s so fun. She has several in her collection and has learned TONS from these CDs!

NOTEWORTHY

Florida is going to feel so nice after the big snow storm we got earlier this week!

We all got haircuts this week too, and Vera took a big leap! Mostly, she just hates having her hair brushed 😉

ON MY NIGHTSTAND…Packed in my suitcase!

Jarrod’s not excited about it, but I didn’t know what I’d want to read on vacation so I packed them all!

• Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher–must-read!
• The Huntress. A work of historical fiction about a woman charged with persecuting Jews in WWII.
• Don’t Make Me Count to Three  A parenting book with the approach of starting with the heart of your child as you discipline. Everything leads back to scripture so you are training as you discipline. This idea is so good!
• Becoming MomStrong is a new bible study I’m doing with some friends and I love the book so far. Really solid biblical teaching. A lot of women’s bible studies are completely surface-level. Not much depth or too overly emotional. I just really struggle with good, solid bible studies, so I usually just go back to the solo bible. I actually learn a lot more that way. But I am happy that this study looks really good.
• Mere Christianity with a friend and it is excellent so far!

BE THANKFUL

Quick List:

• a car full of kiddos
• traveling south!
• seeing new things with my fam

What are you thankful for this weekend?

Talk soon!