Learning Air Guitar at an Early Age

I have a bad case of the winter blues. Last night I sat down to look through pictures, and this set made me smile: My husband was playing air guitar with the kids. There may have been some tickling involved, too. They sang Hootie & the Blowfish “Let Her Cry” (sad), “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Goo Goo Dolls’ sweet “I’ll... Read More

My Nephew in His New Duds

Annie just sent me these pictures on her iPhone. My nephew is adorable. And I can’t believe he’s already saying these long sentences at six months old! 😉 Oh, I know what to do in this chair! Let me get that remote and turn it to espn! Poop! I can’t reach it and mom is dressing me up over and over! This stinks! Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen….. But... Read More

The Castle Builder by Longfellow

Julie sent an email a few days ago and said, “This poem made me tear up. Thought I’d share it with you all [sisters], since you have boys, too.” The Castle Builder by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks, A dreamy boy, with brown and tender eyes, A castle-builder, with his wooden blocks, And towers that touch imaginary skies. A fearless... Read More

Puppy vs. Kitten

Meet Casper – as in, Casper, the Friendly Ghost. This is Casper, the Friendly Puppy. Casper is staying with us for a couple months for training. We think he (Click here to read more or leave a comment on Puppy vs. Kitten)  Read More

Veggie Smoothies + Puppy Training = One Crazy Family

Wow, it’s been days since I posted. So much for posting every day in January! In my defense, we are training a puppy for a couple months for someone. The yelpyelpyelpyelpyelpyelpyelping has made it harder than normal to string two thoughts together. I’ll be back soon. Cheers!  Read More

Green Juice Fast

My husband is on a 15-day juice fast. Last week we watched the first half of “Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.” It’s a documentary about a man who juice-fasted his way across the U.S.A. to save his own life, interviewing people about their diets as he went. It affected my husband so much that he is feeding green juice to our kids (who are very excited about this) and... Read More

Learning to Receive

I introduced one of my husband’s younger sisters a week or so ago. We don’t know how long she’ll stay with us, but we’re glad for whatever time we have. One time, shortly after she came, she said, “Debbie, I don’t know how you handle all these little kids without help.” I don’t know, either. She’s really good with our kids,... Read More

Old Scrapbook Layouts

I’ve been clearing space on my computer, which means I’ve run across a lot of old scrapbook layouts. “Old” is a relative term. These were from two or three years ago, when I was getting into digital scrapbooking, experimenting with free trial downloads of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. This was the first layout I put on the blog: (Click here to read more... Read More

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

The smell of whole wheat bread, just out of the oven, is one of my favorite childhood memories. Our family never bought bread from the store. Mom always baked it. I was embarrassed to take the odd, thick slices to school as a sack lunch sandwich, but I was plenty happy to eat it straight out of the oven at home! Warm and smothered with butter and honey, it is a glorious piece of... Read More

On My Mind Today

I was surrounded by young kids (all mine, of course) a couple days ago. They were climbing on me, crowding me, asking me repeated questions, with one request piling on another before I had a chance to respond even to the first one. This wasn’t how I imagined parenting to be. Some days I’m a walking sermon on child spacing. In the middle of this, my husband called. He... Read More