Our first experience with teething was when our oldest child was 10 1/2 months old. There was some slight fussiness for a couple of days. The night before the auspicious occassion he awoke his normal amount of times during the night, and got up in the morning with a brand new tooth poking through. A... Continue Reading →
My children and I recently read Carrie Jones's book, Sarah Emma Edmonds was a Great Pretender. I have to admit that I wasn't overly enamoured by either the writing nor the illustrations. However, the story of Sarah Emma Edmonds is fascinating. Born in the mid 1800's, Sarah was born a girl, which was enough of... Continue Reading →
My husband has become a little obsessed with making smoothies. He points out that they taste good and he is getting a lot of fruits and vegetables in by having a little treat. The green smoothie pictured was a kiwi and spinach smoothie with a few strawberries thrown in.
This month we are reading and watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the Harry potter book and movie challenges. I decided to make Dobby's sock as this month's Harry Potter ornament. It's often been said that you can tell a lot about a person, not by how they treat those society deems... Continue Reading →
Some red tissue paper squares (easily cut out in bulk), hearts cut from cardboard pulled out of the recycling bin, some glue, and some kids yielded some spectacular decorations. It's rather difficult to not come out with a decoration anyone could appreciate. My three older children each decorated a heart, using slightly different techniques. My... Continue Reading →
Chocolate chip cookies couldn't disappear just because we were cutting out gluten, dairy, and soy. Luckily, Ginger Lemon Girl has a fantastic gluten/dairy free recipe. This was actually the first allergen friendly dessert that I made that came out correctly. My husband sighed when I made them and decided that he could live gluten and... Continue Reading →
Percy Jackson fans will not be disappointed with Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero. The first series creatively wove a modern young adult fiction tale with Greek mythology. My children waited with excitement for each book to be released. Riordan topped himself with this first book of the second series. Rather than merely continuing with the... Continue Reading →
It isn't often that one finds a YA fiction novel where the main character has been homeschooled, let alone unschooled. This fact alone made me want to read J.J. Johnson's soon to be released book, This Girl is Different. Evie, an intelligent, well-read, thoughtful young woman who has unschooled throughout her life is set on... Continue Reading →
Jennifer Hallisy, a pediatric occupational therapist, has written a wonderful resource for parents and early childhood educators entitled The Write Start. In an age of e-mail and texting, the focus on writing has shifted. However, encouraging our children to write gives them a freedom of expression not found elsewhere. I wasn't certain what to expect... Continue Reading →
A woman struggled with finding balance for her family, not easily fitting her desires with her reality. Posting to a group of other mothers looking for support about how to make the reality of her situation work for her, she was given many insightful responses. Inevitably though, the finger pointing began from someone. It wasn't... Continue Reading →
living peacefully with children 