Firsts in June

We celebrated several childhood milestones in the past month-ish. I can’t make them stop growing up. 🙁 First 100-piece puzzle (of course it’s a cat): First phonics reader (we love Nora Gaydos): First time riding without training wheels (with Grandpa cheering on): First – and only – time turning 2 (sob!): First time in five years feeling like there’s... Read More

Homeschooling Q&A with Mom

Beginning to homeschool can be nerve-wracking. In these early phases of gathering information and finding our homeschooling style, it has been helpful to gather people around who have “been there, done that.” I started counting the BTDT families around me (though not necessarily physically nearby). I’m blessed with at least nine or ten families who can field my... Read More

Angel Food Cake with Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

It’s always a treat when Annie comes to our house! Man, can my sister ever cook! Usually, Annie likes to make things up as she goes, but when it comes to baking… well, sometimes she still makes things up as she goes. For this angel food cake recipe, though, she followed every step exactly. And it turned out… heavenly. The recipe is from Glenda, a woman in Annie’s... Read More

Turtle Shell Rabbit Trail

Last week… we ran across a hexagonal turtle shell pattern while looking at an art book… which led to looking at pictures of turtle shells to see if they’re ever truly hexagonal (sort of, just not symmetrical)… which led to our attempt to re-create the original, mythical, symmetrical, hexagonal turtle shell. It doesn’t take much to entertain us…... Read More

Décor à l’école

“When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” I learned this as a kid, and ever since, I’ve been mispronouncing words like bear, build, and group. Just kidding. But I taught this rule to my kids last week, and now I’m noticing exceptions everywhere. I’m also noticing that the kids don’t know which letters are vowels. We’re... Read More

Word for Wednesday: Trade Secret

Need I say more?! (Click here to read more or leave a comment on Word for Wednesday: Trade...)  Read More

The Amazing Adventures of Kitty Kitty

Last week we had to say goodbye to one of our cats from this post. The hero of the story is alive and well, but his orange buddy has gone on to greener pastures (the back west pasture, to be exact). This story happened when they were both tiny. (The pictures were taken when they had grown up more.) We try to celebrate these good, fun things, keeping in mind that faith is a relationship,... Read More

Word for Wednesday: Déjà vu

We picked mulberries off the trees last week. It reminded me of the huge, old mulberry tree that stood near the front of our house growing up. It was the best climbing tree ever, with large, low, sprawling branches – my favorite place to play. Our feet were stained purple all summer long. I was so sad when my dad cut the tree down. The berries covered the ground by the front... Read More

Perfectly Destructible Piggy Banks

Junior has been fascinated with coins lately. He can regularly be found counting his 7 pennies, 4 nickels, 2 quarters, and 6 dimes. I bought him a piggy bank a few months ago. It shattered before it made it into the house. This is not at all unusual, and I’ve refused to buy another one until the kids can drive themselves to the store. (I figure I’ll have bigger worries... Read More

Mother’s Day for Mama Mabel

The calf from last week’s post is still alive, but not without a good deal of blood, sweat, tears, and vet expenses. “He’s a dandy,” an old cattle rancher told us. Translation: he’s a big, fine-looking calf. But he wouldn’t nurse. We don’t know why. He was separated from his mother for a short time. Maybe he couldn’t nurse, or maybe... Read More