Before I jumped into homeschooling, I did tons of research. I researched different types of homeschools, curriculum, schedules, and learning styles. Because I, personally, am primarily a visual learner, I read every book I could get my hands on and then I read everything I could find on the web. I took copious notes and made diagrams and ...
My Kids
Our motto? Laugh. Eat. Play.
The kids are out of school and in this part of the country it's like a feeding frenzy trying to get kids signed up for "camps." Yes. That's the hip thing to do. (of course, I am anything but hip - sigh)If you don't know how to just be with and enjoy your child or help them entertain themselves for the summer, you sign them ...
Get your ya-ya’s out
I can't believe I'm still making threats. But I am.We were having a family portrait done before Lucy's graduation, and I know them all so well."Get your squirmy, silly-face stuff out of your system before we get our picture taken, or I'll . . ."So, I turned my camera on them and this is what they did. It's inevitable. They never pose with ...
In her lifetime . . .
1969 was the year in which I graduated from 8th grade and in the fall started high school. Richard Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th president that year. In July, the Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. walk on the moon. The World Trade Center had not yet been built. August saw more than half a million ...
Not another blonde joke . . .
Completely unapologetic about this - I have been documenting the cute and clever things my kids have been saying for years now. And yes, I totally think my four kids say and do the most adorable stuff. I just thought I would have outgrown some of those moments by now, seeing as Amy is almost 24. (!!)But this happened just one week ago. ...
57,000 words
If you've been following my blog, you know that Lucy has been busy writing a novel. The original plan was to write it in 30 days, but when the month of April was over, she still had more story in her.So she kept at it and kept at it. I need to just insert here that I was in Miami all last week and that now I have pneumonia, and there are no ...
Labor Day
Even though she is 93, my mom can still describe, in great detail, (as most mothers probably can) exactly how many hours she labored with each one of us.Serious mom memories.I'll just hit the highlights, but here's what I remember (vividly): Amy - 36 hours (back labor). Adam - 18 hours. Lucy - 17 hours. Jonathan - scheduled ...
Right under my nose
Albert hasn't budged in the past 5 years. His brick-face is still intact and just as amazing today as the first time we saw it guarding the Mindstorms exhibit in Legoland. But, look at what has happened here. That is Lucy in 2002 and again just the other day, 2007. (It seems as if the first picture was "just the other day," too.) There ...
Marking time
We've converted the garage space in our home so it serves as our office/classroom/studio. We spend most of our waking hours here doing all the stuff we do. And it's a perfectly habitable space, carpeted and painted a pleasantly neutral off-white, but I decided it would be much more fun to paint the walls all different and really bright ...
Making a Memory
My kids were all born here in Southern California. My husband is also a native Californian. So the only kind of churros they've ever known have come from a cart at Disneyland. But those are Mexican-style. They are hard and crunchy with lots of brown sugar. They are tasty enough, but I am used to light and fluffy Cuban-style churros. Oh, ...
