A Simple Life

October 25, 2026

A little trip with my Eli

Eli and I took a little adventure of a trip this weekend. First, we went to the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in LA.

Statue of Yoda

It just opened a few weeks ago and also has a Star Wars inspired restaurant. I bought tickets for the museum before it was even open and the restaurant already had a waitlist for months. All that to say, we weren't able to eat at the restaurant, but Eli found us some delicious sushi nearby.

It took us a bit to find the Star Wars exhibit, but they had several other sections that were right up Eli's alley.

There was a comic and Manga section that were pretty interesting.

And then we found it...

We spent the night in Thousand Oaks and the next morning, we went to downtown Ventura.

We thrifted for Legos and had lunch at Lure. Eli loves seafood the most in our family, so he was excited to eat at a fish house.

Then we went to Brickfest!

Unfortunately, there was a bit of false advertising. We've been following this event for years and they make it seem like a HUGE event, but the reality was not that big. Still fun, but not big.

There were several vendors but everything was extremely overpriced. It seems like Eli's thrifting for sets is a way better strategy to this whole thing, yet it's possible that others are catching on because we didn't find any Legos in all the stores from Ventura to Camarillo.

I'm learning a lot about this Lego world. For example, the green mini-fig in this case, Lloyd, sells for $1,000! Somehow Eli has an eye for these little details.

We were disappointed to leave without any Legos, but we still had a really fun time exploring.

September 26, 2026

Life Lately

September is always hot in San Diego, but this year took the cake. We discovered a pool close by and spent many afternoons there cooling off.

Alison gave Maya her cooling blanket :)

And Eli built Legos in our bedroom, the one room with air conditioning.

Speaking of Legos, Eli has basically built his own Lego store/company. I'm excited to see where it goes. He finds Legos in bulk online, will zoom in to see pieces of sets, knows the real value of mini figs and rare sets and buys the bulk for cheap. Then he re-assembles the sets and sells them to Lego collectors. I've been super impressed with his ability to spot high value pieces that people are just tossing away. I've also been surprised what people will pay for mini figs!

This sums up life right now: sorting Legos, while listening to a book for school and getting ready for a science lab (it's hard to see the microscope also on the table)...and of course, his trusty homeschool dog right there with him.

Fridays are full of labs around here.

And when work is done, these boys know how to have fun.

The best part of having a senior dog are the hugs that she gives.

August 21, 2026

Back to work for me :)

It's a big year for us; a transitional year with a long story. I'll try to keep it short...Ben and I have talked for years about starting the ball rolling on my next career when the boys got to high school, in hopes that when Colin graduates, I'll already have something in the works and not be completely aimless. I haven't known/still don't know exactly what my next career will be, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to get the ball rolling. I spent the summer researching, working on my resume and praying. I knocked on several doors that I thought were for sure the answer, but all doors closed. Then, a fellow Chaplain wife, shared with me that the school she works at, was looking for an 'Educational Assistant'. It seemed like it could be a good fit for me; part-time, Christian curriculum and working with kiddos one-on-one. So I applied to Tri-City Christian school and after a 3 hour interview with the Early Childhood Education director, I was hired. The funny part is, we talked for hours about challenges she was seeing in kids and how I could help address them, but I was never really given a job description. I'm learning that this is common in new jobs.

Here are the teachers I am working with:

Everyone is lovely and been so great to work with. The school sent us to a conference in Orange county and we pulled up to the most beautiful church. Somehow I got I paid to spend the evening here.

I am primarily helping Mrs. Schillinger's class and I spent a few weeks helping her set up her classroom. She was in need of a white board and I was able to donate the one Ben made for me years ago. It makes me so happy to see it go to good use.

I'm learning a lot about being back in the workforce and adjusting to having 2 jobs. I am loving working with kiddos and being able to help teachers, but I am still thankful every single moment that I homeschool my own kids.

And my amazing kids (and Ben too) are the reason that I can do this. They have jumped in with helping cook dinners, run errands and clean up the house, while also starting school and going to jobs.

Alison made us dinner one night from her new Trader Joe's cookbook.

One teacher asked me, "So your boys are okay being home by themselves?" and I said, "Of course!" because they really are! The don't fight or get into trouble and are able to take care of themselves. They get their work done without me nagging them and obey quickly when I need to remind them to do something. However, it did make me laugh that after she asked that, they decided to spend their afternoon building "go-carts". They may not start a fire in the house, but they might break an arm playing this game.

First Day of School!

Can you believe it?!?! Both boys are in high school!!!

They both did an amazing job jumping back into work. They get extra points for school right now because it's hot and humid and our house is sticky and not the most comfortable to be sitting and writing...and that's an example of a poor run on sentence, but they are doing great!