Thursday, April 07, 2011

Back from Cincy

Actually I returned home late Sunday evening from Cincinnati, and the weather was wonderful!  We were running late because we stopped in Lexington, KY for lunch and some antiquing : )  Over all I would rate the trip a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10.  I feel incredibly blessed to have been given this opportunity to attend the Great Home School Conference of the Midwest, and with such an awesome group of ladies who share my faith and are filled with grace.  We had two suites in a hotel about 5 blocks from the Dukes Convention Center.    Many times it was faster to walk than to wait for the hotel shuttle, except when it was raining or the morning we had to be at a lecture at 8:30 a.m. : )  My poor legs and back were tired from wandering among the 300+ vendors in the exhibit hall.  Many ladies had those plastic egg crate thing's with wheels and a telescoping handle.  A couple of vendors sold them for around $25 - yikes!  I had all my worldly possessions in a back-pack/purse and then I carried a tote bag, and just sucked it up.  The only bad thing to mention were food prices  on the premises (of course).  Bottled water was going for $3!    I had my own bottle and just repeatedly filled it from one of the many water fountains, as they have filtered water.  Again, it was an amazing time, shared with amazing people.

Here is our group on the day we left.  We are standing in front of the fountain at the public library, which was across the street from our hotel, The Garfield Arms.

The grand finale for the conference was The Duggar family (they have 19 children and home school).  I don't want to talk about how long the line was or the wait to be seated, but it was a nice evening.  I had read their book, so not much new information.  However I did not know they had a show on TLC (we don't watch tv).  Since then I have rented one of their disc's from Netflix and really enjoyed it.  I mostly enjoyed it because my 14 year old dd did, and it had some great info on courtship vs. dating.  They make it look 'cool' and because of the size of their family, dd appreciates ours a bit more : )



Of course I brought my knitting!  I took it with me everywhere I went and was delighted to find one of the vendors was selling a fiber art curriculum.  It contained knitting, weaving, carding and dying your own wool.  So cool to see these things make a come back.  I managed to knit a hat on the way up there, and on the way home.  It is a 5 hour trip after all (gain an hour going east).

We also took a day to visit the Creation Museum and meet Ken Ham.  He is the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, a christian home school curriculum (to put it mildly).  He is a celebrity in the world of home school and maybe even a modern hero.  I encourage you to check him out at http://www.answersingenesis.com/  These are the same folks you might of heard of, who are building a life size ARK.  I so can not wait for that!  This was my second time to the museum and my first with no kids.  There is also a planetarium, but I did that the first time, not the second.  I was able to really talk more of it in and it was so much more . . . vivid, 3D for me.  It made may faith stronger and affirmed that we were on the path that God had placed our family.  I would love to go aging with a group from our church or even take the hubby and twins.  Sigh, guess I just want to go again - LOL

Well, I enjoyed the weather, the fellowship, the faith and the affirmation on home schooling, right before graduating my first from home.  I can't believe the big day is only 4 weeks away!  There have been many ups and downs in the 6 years I have been home schooling, but it is so well worth it!  Not only is it biblical correct, but it turns out kids to be proud of.  We are living our life for God and we are not afraid to live it out loud.

Blessings, Beth Ann

1 comment:

B. said...

Sounds like you had a great time!!