I started blogging in Albany Oregon on April 6, 2004. It is hard to imagine that 20 years have passed since that unauspicious start. Kelly was in finishing fourth grade, Christian was finishing second grade, and we had just made the decision to remove them from what were abysmal circumstances in the local government schools, both academically and socially. I started the blog to help me focus my thinking and keep a record of our homeschool planning and execution. It became immediately apparent that it was well worth the effort. The rate at which I blogged ebbed and flowed over the years. There was a period from 2019 through Spring semester of 2023 when I was working a full-time job and studying as a full-time PhD student when I slowed down pretty dramatically, but on finishing the degree, I started posting back at my normal pace of about 240 blog posts per year. Over that whole time, I have averaged, even with the slow years, a pace of a little over 200 posts per year.
We finished all the educational efforts of Kelly and Christian that we set out to record, added Lorena’s Associate Degree and my PhD, finished those, and have now moved on to new projects. Christian earned a Bachelor’s and PhD degree, Kelly earned an Associate, Bachelor’s and Master of Science degree, Lorena earned an Associate Degree, and I earned a PhD. We worked on all that so hard for so long that, when we finished, we were a little bit lost about what to do. Fortunately, during that time, we had undertaken two very large remodel projects and learned that we loved that. That had given us the impetus to by a couple of fixer-upper houses in Mexico, one of them now converted into a six unit apartment building and the other, the one we hope to use as a residence, is in the middle of a fairly large remodel. The problem is that we are not doing the work on those houses and we do not currently live in them, so we are watching it all happen as opposed to participating in it ourselves. It is fun to watch and write about here, but still leaves quite a bit of time on our hands.
We are navigating what to do as we move toward retirement age–I said “retirement age” advisedly because I hope I never have to retire. I am currently committed to continue working at my current job until I am at least 70. In addition, the paperwork is in progress to make me an Adjunct Professor so I can continue volunteer research contributions at University of Nebraska-Lincoln and North Carolina State University. Lorena and the kids want to travel a little more, so we hope to do that some, too. I expect there will be plenty of things about which to write, but there is nothing better than a longer term, hard goal to inspire effort and creativity to complete. I am getting to the age now where I think there might be only one more of those left. Maybe not even one. Nevertheless, I think I will have plenty of things to write to keep this blog going, hopefully for another twenty years, God willing.