Our family prefers experience gifts to knick-knacks. There are tons of ideas for fun, but why not pair an experience with some good old-fashioned life skills, like kids cooking? When my oldest daughter was about 11, I signed her up for an online cooking class. Every week we watched a video together, printed out the […]
Many people debate the definition of homeschool. Is it school at home? Is it school outside of a government building? Is it school at all? I, personally, prefer to call it lifeschool. We learn as we live. That learning takes place in the context of family, and we take advantage of opportunities, such as teaching […]
Character. What does it mean? Well, it’s hard to say. I looked at five different dictionary sources and none of them had an exact definition for character beyond the personal traits that make up someone. Wishy-washy. So, I’m going to give a go on defining character. Character is the moral traits a person should exhibit to […]
Who started the rumor that God called Christians to a life of leisure, ease, and abundance? When and why did we start thinking that if it’s too hard it must not be God? Au contrare. We’re supposed to get muddy and beat up. If we’re not, then what in the world was Paul the Apostle […]
I love the expression, “Cleaning the house with kids is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos.” Doesn’t get more real than that. When lots of people, especially children, live together in a contained space, messes happen. But don’t despair, there are house cleaning hacks for everyone. First, let me tell you up front, I am […]
Beginner Parenting, better known as common sense, involves knowing the normal things from which to protect children. You know, like fires, climbing on the roof, or running in the street. The catch to being a Beginner Parent is that children don’t have much common sense. On top of that, they like to test your theories […]
While we’re officially on summer break from homeschool, that doesn’t mean I’m not thinking ahead to how I want to plan for the next school year. Is homeschool planning ever very far away from the mind of the homeschool mom? No. It’s not. Sometimes, it’s like voices in my head. Not like Jack Nicholson in […]
The first step I picked for my 12-steps To a Healthier You Journey is about as easy as falling off a log. In fact, it’s what you’ll find yourself in if you do fall off a floating log. Water. The human body is composed of approximately 60% water, so it stands to reason that replenishing […]
Remember when junk mail filled your mailbox? Credit card applications for your dog. Ed McMahon telling you that you won the lottery. It wasn’t too hard to tell what was junk then. If you have had an email for more than two days, you probably have realized that junk mail went digital. It can clog […]
Over our seventeen years of marriage and birth of five children, we have developed a certain philosophy on holidays, in general, and Christmases, in particular. What we started with as newlyweds doesn’t much resemble where we are now. That’s how life happens. We want to make memories with our children, and we have developed a […]
