Oh man, it has been way too long...

and not just since I posted. It's been too long we've gone without doing school regularly. We've been on an unschooling regimen since we moved into our new house 5 months ago. We've been doing a lot of remodeling, and I put off doing school until I had a school room to unpack the many, many school boxes into. I unpacked about 5 boxes last fall into what I thought would be the school room. Fast forward 5 month and that is now the laundry room. We obviously can't do school in the laundry room, so I made plans to make our garage the school room. That's a great idea, but we're so busy remodeling the rest of the house, we don't have time to heat and carpet the garage, even though we did have a crew come in a replace the garage door with a sliding glass door. 2 weeks ago, I finally got the much-delayed idea to turn half of our looonnnggg living room into a school room. So, we now have a functional school room, where the kids can sit at a table and do school work and I can sit on a couch and read to them. Have I mentioned how important a couch in the school room is? The kids love to pile up around while we read.

On Thursday we were reading our history lesson in the evening, learning about the Republic of Texas. DH actually had to stop reading his books to listen to me read the Story of the World. On Wednesday we discovered it was the anniversary of the day William Barrett Travis sent his letter out to his fellow Texans and the world. It was the exact day we were reading about the Alamo for history, so it was very real to the kids and I. I actually had to stop reading the letter, as I got quite choked up. Try reading this letter aloud with feeling and not get choked up. I dare you!

To the People of Texas &
all Americans in the world------

Fellow citizens & compatriots------

I am besieged, by a thousand
or more of the Mexicans under
Santa Anna ----- I have sustained
a continual Bombardment &
cannonade for 24 hours & have
not lost a man ----- The enemy
has demanded a Surrender at
discretion, otherwise, the garrison
are to be put to the sword, if
the fort is taken ----- I have answered
the demand with a cannon
shot, & our flag still waves
proudly from the wall ----- I
shall never Surrender or retreat

Then, I call on you in the
name of Liberty, of patriotism &
every thing dear to the American
character, to come to our aid,

with an dispatch ----- The enemy is

receiving reinforcements daily &

will no doubt increase to three or
four thousand in four or five days.
If this can is neglected, I am deter
mined to sustain myself as long as
possible & die like a soldier
who never forgets what is due to
his own honor & that of his
country ----- Victory or Death

William Barret Travis
Lt. Col. Comdt