Year in Review

Well its definitely too late for a Christmas letter, and getting to be too late for even a New Years letter, but I am trying really hard to not let this month go by without some sort of update. I so enjoyed getting Christmas cards and letters from people, hearing what they are up to, seeing pictures of their children growing up. So, even though we did not manage to get anything in the mail, I would like to at least do an electronic update!

How to summarize a year of our lives? I wish I had some pithy, insightful essay to recap our 2012, but I don't believe I've done enough reflection for that. I could give you a laundry list of our activities, but that might put you to sleep as you certainly have your own laundry lists

Instead I guess I will go with the highlight reel of the year. Twice in 2012 we were fortunate enough to get my all my siblings together. The first time was in February when we celebrated my Mom's birthday. My brother and his wife came up from Cincinnati which is a rare treat since he is in medical school and his weekends are often not his own. My sister came from Virginia with her family. Her youngest daughter was not quite one, and many in our extended family had not yet met her. My grandparents joined us for the afternoon from their nearby retirement community. This time together was especially significant because my grandfather had been in declining health since shortly after New Years. As it turns out my grandfather passed away only a few days after our gathering. This photo has special meaning for all of us as it was the last time we were all together!

A second Toth family gathering occurred in July to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday. My Dad's twin brother and his family were all present as well, so we got to spend some rare time with our cousins. And of course our children got to spend some wonderful time playing with their cousins. Since my uncle lives in Philadelphia and we live in Ohio, we chose to meet at in Bedford, Pa, halfway between. The trip was a little like a step back in time because we rented houses on a bucolic sheep farm, and celebrated a birthday dinner at a tavern which has been in operations since George Washington's time!!

Our other travel for the year was our Freedom and Liberty Tour, in the fall including Boston, Cape Cod and New York city, most of which I have already described in earlier blog posts.

Scouting continues to be a highlight for us. It has brought us into a wonderful community of families with whom we share a lot of comraderie and common values. Bute1 attended Youth Leadership Training this summer and earned his Bollus award in November for implementing his leadership plan. He is a leading the Brazen Buccaneers patrol this year, enjoying it very much  taking the responsibility seriously. Bute2 is his most loyal helper and follwer.  Butes 3 and 4 are counting the weeks until they cross over and join Boy Scouts, while Bute5 is thriving in his den as a Wolf Cub. He has an wonderful den leader who is himself an Eagle Scout and Bute5 absolutely hero worships him. Bute6 has become an honorary member of his den. Cub Scouts is wonderful in that the siblings can be included in many of the activities.

Our family integrated home church has really gained some momentum in the last year, with the addition of several new families and a transition to every week Bible studies. We have found a fantastic new curriculum which includes levels of study for everyone from preschoolers to adults, as well as a large amount of Scripture memory passages set to music, which all ages can enjoy. We are quite excited about really engaging together in scriptural themes as a family. It is particularly gratifying to see our older kids take some ownership for hosting and running the weekly Bible studies, as it is a lot of work.

Homeschooling continues to be a joy, but is certainly not without its trials. In April we attended the Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati as a family which ended up being a real highlight. Our kids loved marching around the Skywalks in downtown Cincinnati. The older kids got to hear John Stonestreet speak, and the younger ones attending talks by the Human Calculator and Storyteller Jim Weiss. It was an exhausting weekend, but very profitable. One of my main goals was to gear up for high school, which will be upon us next year for Bute1! We are hoping to homeschool all the way through high school, but it definitely requires another level of planning and record keeping. It also leads to new challenges in terms of trying to walk that line between encouraging students to gain independence and explore their interests, but still keeping them on task for the things which they don't enjoy as much (or at all). Trying to find resources for secondary level learning and experimenting with record keeping and the balance between structure and freedom has consuming much of my mental energy in the last year ... hence a lot less blogging than I had hoped.

Well, that is whirlwind tour of our 2012, I wish I had a more elegant, polished update, but we are defintely in the better-late-than-never category! Thanks again for all of your cards and greeting over the holidays, I enjoyed each one!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad