Now I’ve Seen Everything

There I was at my kitchen sink doing dishes (you can bet at least three times a day I’m doing that) and daydreaming while looking out the window into my backyard.
My backyard, where the pool is, where the ducks usually are. And sure enough, there they were just swimming around, occassionally stopping to jump [...]

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Book Binge is Over

Was that really a month already? I know we started late but still, sheesh…where does the time go?
Thanks to MaryP at It’s Not All Mary Poppins for hosting the event.
Here’s what I read this month.
From the Little House Books Collection I read:
“The Caroline Years”
Little Town at the Crossroads by Maria D. Wilkes
Across the [...]

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Women’s Issues 101

I added a new category called, to be politically correct, Women’s Issues. I would have called it “Menstruation, Who Needs This Bloody Mess?” but I thought that was well, besides lengthy, just a little crass.
But that’s what I’ll be posting about in this category because it has been an on-going issue in my life [...]

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In the Ground

There’s something about dirt on my hands
That makes life seem a little more real
There’s something about the smell of the freshly unearthed
That reminds me of a place I’m sure I’ve never been
The displacement and replacement reminds me of forgiving flexibility
The willingness to forge anew and accept the offering
Whether it be seed, sapling or full grown
There [...]

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It Had to Happen

It went a little something like this:
Me: Okay, turn that off after this bit (she was watching clips of Whose Line is It Anyway) it’s time to work on some Language.
Daughter: Laughs. (Good thing she was ignoring me and watching Colin and Ryan otherwise I might have thought she was laughing at me.)
Me: Hello? [...]

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Garden Woes

We enthusiastically and with much verve, started our little backyard garden on Saturday.  We turned, we hoed, we planted, we covered the bed with chicken wire and then lay beautiful black enriched soil over top of that and watered.
And what have we learned in the first few days?
Well, it seems chicken wire DOES NOT keep [...]

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Starting Over…Again

I was really scared at first. Hubby, not so much.
How was she going to react to having to sit down and do some actual written work? Would there be howls of protest? Would she suddenly expand her vocabulary to include the word “hypocrite”? (No Dear, Mommy is not a liar, she’s [...]

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Syrup for that Waffle?

Sort of contrary to my last post on the subject…
After 18 months of mucking through the homeschooling jungle, much soul searching, many restless nights and even a few mysterious but telling dreams, I’ve finally made a firm decision.
Unschooling is not for us. Hubby heartily agrees and God Bless him he waited for me to [...]

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Changing Everything

UPDATE: Like I said, ON PAPER it was everything we wanted. But paper is flat and the property was most certainly not. The part of the property we liked best falls under EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) control and nothing is allowed to be done to it and the approved building site is a tiny lot [...]

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It’s The Littlest Things

When you’ve spent your entire childhood, and most of your children’s, wrapped up in “school think”, it can be hard to find ways to assure yourself that things are going well once you’ve started homeschooling or unschooling.
We don’t mark progress by tests or other evidential means such as worksheets or research intensive projects.  In fact, [...]

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