Traditionally, on my birthday, I get a fabulous breakfast in bed followed by a day of fun and a break from responsibilities. It’s always a wonderful day! This year, though, I was inspired by another blogger to make my birthday a day that has more of an impact. I decided to spend my 38th birthday [...]
Category Archive for 'Mothering'
Encouraging writers
Posted in Home Schooling on Jan 9th, 2012
It seems that every new school year Kaia picks a subject to rebel against. Last year, she did whatever she could to get out of writing in any form. So, this year, I’m getting super creative with her assignments. If there is more to writing than just sitting down at the table and putting words [...]
Love my kids!
Posted in Mothering on Dec 31st, 2011
And they sure love each other, too! I often look back at them when we are in the car and see them just like this… They are the best of friends.
Hand Made Holidays
Posted in Do It Yourself, Knitting, Mothering, Sewing on Dec 30th, 2011
What beautiful holiday celebrations we have had this year! I am so grateful for the time that I have been able to spend with my friends and family. We’ve spent many days traveling to others houses to participate in their revelry and had a wonderful time! At our own home, we had a small Winter [...]
Leif’s crafting
Posted in General, Home Schooling, Mothering on Dec 7th, 2011
It’s not just Kaia who’s been crafty lately. Leif has been holding his own. Aside from helping me create a parking garage for all of his cars: He has recently had his hands in lots of gloop! We discovered a recipe during a science lesson and he can’t get enough of it. His little hands [...]
Sewing Lessons
Posted in Home Schooling, Mothering, Sewing on Dec 6th, 2011
Kaia has been begging me for sewing lessons lately. She’s done a simple square purse on my machine before, but this time she decided to do something with a real pattern. She chose a fabulous owl pillow. I had to stop my hands from taking over and really let her do it all. I gave [...]
Lacey Frames
Posted in Do It Yourself, Home Schooling, Mothering on Nov 23rd, 2011
Want a quick way to highlight your little one’s masterpiece? How about sewing a lace frame around it? Or, sew the frame on the paper first to encourage them to create. Kaia’s Poem, FALL, introchaic bimeter And Leif’s “blue train on blue train tracks in a tunnel”
Renaissance Faire
Posted in General, Home Schooling on Nov 14th, 2011
Kaia and I have been planning and looking forward to this trip for many months! I knew as soon as we decided to study the Middle Ages that we would need to go to a Renaissance fair! The Renn Faire in NC is one of the biggest around. The village is built on 20+ acres [...]
The Healthier, Happier, Stronger Me!
Posted in General, Holistic Medicine, Mothering on Nov 1st, 2011
Two months ago, I took the huge step of clearing my house of all grains, legumes, processed sugars, and processed/prepackaged foods. From now on, my family and I were going to eat only meats (including fish, fowl, and eggs), veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, healthy oils, herbs and spices. We were going Paleo. For most Americans, [...]
Vacuum Wars
Posted in Mothering on Oct 25th, 2011
If you come to my house and it hasn’t been vacuumed, it’s because someone likes to play war with the vacuum! Check out the happiness on his face.
Creating
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering on Oct 22nd, 2011
When Kaia and I were at the conference this past weekend, we both entered a raffle for various fun prizes. Kaia has a hard time with raffles because she gets herself very worked up about winning. So, she was pretty devastated when she didn’t win the wire tree that she’d hoped for. And it didn’t [...]
Southeast Women’s Herb Conference
Posted in Holistic Medicine, Mothering on Oct 18th, 2011
I spent this last weekend with Kaia at the Southeast Women’s Herb Conference. And what a wonderful weekend it was!! Though the wind threatened to blow our tent away a few times, Kaia came through her first conference with a big smile on her face and asked to go again next year. She went [...]
I know…
Posted in Home Schooling, Knitting, Mothering on Oct 6th, 2011
I’ve been seriously slack in posting here. That’s because I’ve not been slack in the rest of my life. We are working hard in homeschool, playing hard in the beautiful fall weather, reading great books, picking apples, eating well, and enjoying life! That’s how it should be, right?! I have a feeling new posts will [...]
Fundraiser for a fabulous resource
Posted in Home Schooling on Sep 14th, 2011
Mathematician Maria Droujkova has been working on an amazing living math resource for babies, toddlers and their parents. Please take a moment to check out her newest project and think about donating!
First day of Anatomy
Posted in Home Schooling on Aug 31st, 2011
We were super excited to start Anatomy this year. I have so many fun experiments planned. But, of course, we had to start with the Jello Cell. Did you create one of these in school? I remember doing it at least twice! You can use all kinds of things to create your cell. This just [...]
Last Lazy Days of Summer and Our First Day of School
Posted in Mothering on Aug 29th, 2011
Yes! That absolutely is Nutella Ice Cream!! And OOoooh is it delicious! Today was our first day of ‘school’. I can’t believe it’s here already! I never had a chance to chill out over the summer. Still, I’m excited about our school year. Leif was also very excited and insisted on driving the school bus [...]
The princess and the cowboy get hitched
Posted in Mothering on Aug 14th, 2011
Yesterday, we had a wedding at our house. Everyone was required to wear hats. I’m not in any of the pictures, so I’ll tell you, I was a flower girl and I had a viking hat on. (Yes, Kaia is holding a glass graduated cylinder of flowers!) Toby officiated, and read from the holy dictionary. [...]
My little splurge
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering on Aug 13th, 2011
I brought in a little bit of money last month with some herb sales. So, I bought myself a fancy, new ice cream maker. I’ve never had one and boy, have I been missing out!!! So far, we’ve tried mint chip, peach yogurt, and strawberry. Leif waits patiently as the ice cream maker finishing churning…
Crafting flowers out of seeds
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering on Jul 22nd, 2011
Somehow, I’ve ended up with a bag full of extra garden seeds. Many are years old and some are just varieties that I didn’t care for and don’t plan on using again. So, I thought I’d use some up in a craft. Here’s what you need: Seeds Pumpkin and squashes are best, but you can [...]
Sunday Rituals
Posted in Mothering on Jul 18th, 2011
Cooking waffles with dad. Visiting the outdoor kitchen. And thoroughly enjoying it. And spending at least half of the day in dad’s hats. Safety First!
Kaia has been in art camp all week, from 9-5. When I pick her up, she spends at least 30 minutes telling me about what they did all day and showing me her art before I’m allowed to pull out of our parking spot. She is in her element. Last night, she just couldn’t get [...]
A Beautiful Day…
Posted in Mothering on Jun 25th, 2011
…at the lake with wonderful friends! And no, he is not letting that cake out of his reach! From the looks of that belly, you’d think he’s already eating a few pieces!
Birthday Twister
Posted in Mothering on Jun 25th, 2011
We gave this to Kaia for her birthday. It brought back such memories for Toby and I that we just had to jump in and play! Yes, my pony tail was tied tightly at the back of my head before the game started. But, I’m happy to report that I was the last one standing!!!
The cake!!
Posted in Mothering on Jun 24th, 2011
Double layer, chocolate-vanilla swirl with a butter cream frosting!! YUM!!!
My sweet little girl is becoming a young lady! She is growing so fast, and that shy little toddler who use to hide behind my skirt is now stepping out to take on the world. You are my I love you I am your parent you are my child I am your quiet place, [...]
Pyramath Winner!
Posted in Home Schooling on Jun 20th, 2011
Wow! Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments and math game suggestions! We are excited to try them out. We are also very excited to tell you that we now have decks of PrimeBomb and Fractazmic that we will be reviewing soon. So, with out any further ado… The winner of the Pyramath [...]
More Fabulous Math with PyraMath & a Giveaway!
Posted in Home Schooling on Jun 13th, 2011
In early May, I read this review on a game called PyraMath and immediately thought it would be a great way to practice math facts with Kaia. I went to the website and clicked on the link to Play. We happened to be visiting in Boston a the time, but I thought I’d just play [...]
Play Tents
Posted in Do It Yourself, Mothering, Sewing on Jun 12th, 2011
Kaia and Leif LOVE playing in tents, so when I saw this project, a little A-Frame play tent, I knew we had to do it! It was so simple, we were able to make both kids their own tent in less than an hour! Kaia made the measurements while Toby drilled the holes. Then I [...]
River Walk
Posted in Mothering on Jun 12th, 2011
We found a wonderful little riverside spot for playing during the hot summer days! Nice and shallow with lots of spots for getting dirty. You can’t tell from this picture, but Kaia is soaked up to her neck! She did a good bit of splashing!
Multiplication Bingo
Posted in Home Schooling on Jun 4th, 2011
One of the games I thought we might play this summer to sharpen Kaia’s math skills is Multiplication Bingo. I found this great site for creating your own Bingo cards, Print Bingo, and simply plugged in the answers to the multiplication facts for 2×2 through 9×9. If two or more equations have the same answer, [...]