Spring is on its way and changes are in the air.  We have never looked forward to spring as much as we are this year!  The 200th Anniversary of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery Expedition is over. We know many of you are still studying their epic journey or are planning on studying it next year.  We encourage you to do so and please let us know if we can help with your studies - we're quite passionate about Lewis and Clark!

With the change of the seasons, we're changing our focus. As many of you know, we lived in a motorhome for 2 years and traveled across the country.  Our homeschooling lessons were the experiences we encountered along the way (with a little math thrown in for consistency).  People often ask us about our journeys and ask when our book will be published.  We've come to realize the book may never materialize, but we didn't want to let our fans down.  So, John has started a blog about our journey: An American Adventure.  We will still publish a monthly email newsletter highlighting an interesting event or historic places along our journey (see the article on The Ice Storm of 2007 below and on our blog), but if you want to see the day-to-day (well almost day-to-day) happenings of our trip, be sure to read the blog.

And we're still committed to bringing you the highest quality project kits and books to enhance your studies or to give a gifts.

If you are on our email list, you would have received some great coupons!  If you are not subscribed, please sign up.  Just visit our home page and fill in the information in the box at the top of the page so you can be encouraged to Re-Discover America!  (And get the coupons too!)

And for an extra thank you for reading our blog, if you leave a positive comment with a valid email address, we'll email you a very special valuable coupon (one coupon per email address and one coupon may be redeemed per address)!

The Ice Storm of 2007
 
One of the many casualties of the ice storm.

This past January, we were visited by one of the worst ice storms to hit this area in 50 years. On that Friday night the power went out in most of Springfield, including our home. The temperature dropped well below freezing and having no power meant having no heat. Since we are on a well, there was no water either. The boys were excited because as Boy Scouts we train and practice wilderness survival and preparedness skills. Out of the camp closet came sleeping bags, propane tanks, a camp stove and a lantern. We borrowed a couple propane tanks and 5-gallon water containers from the Boy Scouts’ supply shed. We were prepared for the worst 3 days ever.

To conserve our fuel we used beeswax candles from our Candle Dipping Kits.  We were camping in our own house, who could ask for more?  We were living like the pioneers . . . cooking over a propane stove, playing board games by lantern instead of watching television, reading by candle light, melting ice to flush toilets . . . OK, maybe not exactly like the pioneers, but we were constantly having to do what we could to survive. We moved the food from the freezer to the outside where it was colder. We had to chop wood for the fire place, run to town to fill the water containers, we even had to huddle together and share bedrooms to conserve heat. Boy, it was a great weekend! 

By the following Monday morning, the temperature dropped to 1 degree.  It was day three and we heard it may be a month before we got power back. The fun and games were over. Katie and the boys headed to Alabama to stay with her sister and I had to fend for myself. Every moment I was busy handling something. You might think that it would have been a great opportunity to relax. If I did not stay on top of maintaining fuel for heat or even keeping the toilets clean it would have been a much worse situation. Needles to say, we got our power back on the 10th day. Thank goodness.  As difficult and tiring as these 10 days were, I can only imagine what it would have been like for those original American Pioneers. By the way, we still have some bees wax candle dipping kits left for you.

I am told that the Farmers’ Almanac predicted this ice storm to hit around January 11th. It may not have been right on but it was plenty close enough for me (it hit on January 12th). I am also told that the almanac predicts a worse storm in February. We will be even better prepared and only hope others will be as well. The good news is that most of the trees that caused the power to go out are down so we shouldn’t have as wide-spread power outages again. Unfortunately this past ice storm did claim a few lives in the area. We continue to pray for their families.

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Springfield, Missouri     Phone: 417-883-6905