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

Wordless Wednesday: Culprit

I never did find out who put the “vases” there in the first place… (Click here to read more or leave a comment on Wordless Wednesday: Culprit)  Read More

A Week of Homeschooling

As the kids get older, we’re slowly shifting our focus toward homeschooling activities. Last week was a good one for showing the types of things we do. Monday, it looked like it was shaping up to be “Duck Week.” An egg hatched in our incubator overnight! It was at least a week early, so the first thing on the agenda involved ditching our original plans and driving... Read More

How We Became Backyard Beekeepers

A huge box arrived on our doorstep one day last winter. The boys tore open the box and spread pieces of wood all over the living room floor. And so began our adventures with beekeeping… including me getting stung by a bee for the first time since childhood! (That story mid-way down…) Part 1: The Hiving of the Bees My husband built several hives. Then he ordered our... Read More

Renewing

To those still with me after this past week, thank you. I’m truly sorry if I discouraged anyone, and I’m grateful for the thoughtful comments. Life is challenging enough without spending energy on peripheral conflicts. I feel like I’ve kicked a wasp’s nest, and there’s no undoing it. Normally, I really dislike conflict. It makes me very uncomfortable.... Read More

A Better Explanation

Note: My views on creation vs. evolution have changed since this post. In fact, my views about the Bible have drastically changed. My connection to community has drastically changed… After digging deeply into the Old Testament, I’m convinced that God carefully crafted every word to be deeply meaningful. Creation is now a treasured story to me, although not in a strictly... Read More

A Boy in the Tulip Patch

One evening last November, my husband and I shivered in the cold and in the glow of truck headlights as we caught up on the overdue task of planting bulbs. Bulb planting is an exercise in delayed gratification. This spring, it was worth it. It probably would have been worth it to trim the grass around the edges of the bed, too… but then, of course, it would just grow back.... Read More

Ruffling Feathers

It has been a fairly quiet few months around this blog, hasn’t it?! I’ve been fighting a deep exhaustion. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising, considering all the changes we’ve made in the past year. While I’ve been buried in a dark cocoon lately, a few other metamorphoses have been brewing… When I was young, someone described me as “complacent”... Read More

An Update

In the last couple weeks I’ve: 1. Said goodbye to my sister-in-law. She went back to the city where she was living before she came to stay with us. We are very sad to see her go. 2. Made an awesome-tasting angel food cake with my sister. Pictures and recipe coming soon. 3. Watched Food Inc. and am pondering going all-natural, buying only organic, local food (except angel food... Read More