3 hours ago
Showing posts with label Fun Stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fun Stuff. Show all posts
My husband looked at me last week and told me he thought I should seriously consider taking another week of summer before starting our homeschool year. He said he’s never seen me this stressed out going into a school year, and he thought I should take just one more week to do nothing, except whatever would feel inspiring or restful.
Of course I had objections…but then we will have to go another week into May! What if we struggle to get into a homeschool routine before our fall trip to visit friends in a couple weeks? What if we get behind?!
But there was a part of me that knows he knows me best out of anyone. So if he sees that I am a little unhinged right now, he’s probably right. I’d be wise to take his advice.
Instead of breaking out the schedule and books this morning, I slept in, finished reading a book I’ve had in progress for a while, and sat down to write something. You can thank my husband for the existence of this post.
On The Page {Anything I’ve Read}
I’ve been struggling to finish several books this summer, so first on my relaxation to-do list this week is reading those! I just completed this book about personal style, this book on Chernobyl, and I have plans to wrap up this book in the next day or two. For blogs, I’m enjoying old-school posts, and also one with encouragement for homeschooling high school and one warning homeschoolers about vouchers - all linked below.
They Won’t Ban Homeschooling - They’ll Control It Instead
A 2025 Pioneer Woman Writes In Her Diary About July
August’s Letters From The Hearth
I have also been working on having reading time with each of my kids individually, which is no small feat when there are five of them! The consistency is never as good as I want, but it’s a habit I will work on establishing. We’re reading The Hobbit, Little Women, The Swamp Robber, Winnie The Pooh, and The Complete Brambly Hedge.
In My Armchair {Projects I’m Working On}
So many of my personal projects have fallen by the wayside, as we have been running from one activity to another and somehow keeping the house decent and the kids fed in between. However, I did make these adorable beaded fish with my kids this month. They are double-sided, and so much more satisfying to hold than they look.
In The Kitchen {Things We’ve Made}
This has been the summer of me trying to keep my kitchen stocked with fresh fruit - some of which has gone bad because we tried to save it too long, but most of which has been gobbled up almost immediately.
I haven’t done a ton of baking, but my kids have. My daughter has started making chocolate chip cookies (hers are somehow better than mine, though we are using the same recipe). My son has perfected baked oatmeal, and has been preparing breakfast for his siblings every day this week. It’s such a blessing to eat something warm from the oven that I didn’t have to make myself!
I did, however, make pumpkin muffins with fresh-milled grains, and the bags are stored and waiting to be pulled out of the freezer on a busy morning. We also had a “shark week”, and shark cupcakes were in order.
On My Person {Things I’ve Worn}
My heart is starting to turn toward fall fashion, but it’s far too hot outside still. It’s good for me to look through my photos of outfits I enjoyed this summer, since I’ll probably be wearing them for a little while yet!
Despite the temperature, I can’t help eyeing my fall fashion inspiration board. I just finished reading Wear It Well, which talks about picking three words to describe and hone your style - I am analyzing the outfits I’ve pinned and mulling over what my three words should be.
In The Accounts {Money We’ve Saved}
After a July weekend trip, our car started having electrical problems. We took it to the dealership for diagnostic tests, thinking they would have more precise equipment to find the issue. A day later, they gave us a list of fixes that would cost more than we paid for the car! After a little bit of panic, we kept our heads, and took it back to our own mechanic. He replaced one wire, and we replaced the battery, and that seemed to fix the problem. So we “saved” several thousand dollars by not taking the dealership recommendations!
Other than that, I have been saving money by just…not buying things. Instead of doing fall clothes shopping, as I’m always tempted to do in the late summer, I pinned outfits I intend to recreate with my own clothes. I also took my girls window shopping so we could see what the styles are this year, but I didn’t buy anything and thought instead about how I could get the same vibe with clothes I already own.
Out My Window {Beauty I’ve Noticed}
Late summer is such a beautiful time in the mountains. I’m sitting on the porch typing this, and birds are singing all around and hummingbirds keep whizzing past my chair. The sun is shining on the grass, making it turn gold, and puffy clouds float past in a bright blue sky.
I’m especially noticing and appreciating how healthy and full our pine trees look. I’ve noticed alot of beetle kill popping up in surrounding neighborhoods, and I’m so anxious about the health of our trees. We will be keeping a close eye for signs of those nasty pine beetles, but right now our trees look glorious and I’m praying they stay that way.
Out And About {Places We Went}
Yellowstone - We did a camping trip near Yellowstone National Park over the 4th of July! It was a wonderful place to spend the 4th and make memories as a family. There is something special about waking up in a tent.
My grandparent’s cabin - We try to visit my grandparents each summer at their cabin, and it’s always so restful. We just play cards and enjoy their company.
Lots of swimming - The pools have finally closed, but we squeezed in so many swimming days this summer, I feel we really made the most of it!
State Fair - My boys qualified for the shooting competition at the State Fair, and my girls had projects that also qualified. We didn’t go to the actual fair, but we traveled for the competition.
On My Mind {Thoughts To Share}
I sat here for a few minutes trying to decide what to say here. This year has been a difficult one for us, in ways I don’t feel comfortable sharing, and has underscored for us how important the body of Christ is. Nothing we’ve been going through has been worthy of a meal train or more serious help, but we have found encouragement from other believers, in our extended family and our church family. The past few months have also affirmed to us how we ourselves are important in encouraging our local body of believers and building them up. This verse has been a theme this year:
“…that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
Colossians 2:2-3
Paul is expressing his hope for the church at Laodicea, but these verses have become a refrain for our relationships, both within our house and in our local church family. We want to be “knit together in love” with one another, as our hearts are encouraged in pursuing the wisdom and knowledge of Christ, together. That should be the theme of our attitudes and words toward others - love and encouragement to pursue the knowledge of Christ. So I’ve been mulling over how to do that better in the midst of a stressful season.
In My Heart {Things I’m Treasuring}
-Laughter coming from the playhouse, where my little girls claim they are taking a nap.
-A Joe Diffy song (think old-school country) playing on our record player while my big kids work on crafts.
-The way my flowers perk up after a little watering.
-Thunder in the distance, the promise of rain.
-Lighting a cinnamon candle my husband bought for me on a whim.
-Warm laundry straight out of the dryer.
-Trees swaying in the wind.
-The feeling of turning the last page of a satisfying book.
-My oldest quietly settling next to me on a porch chair, cup of tea and Bible in hand.
On The Page {Anything I’ve Read}
This particular morning, I spent a good amount of time reading blogs and Substacks, and I forgot how much I enjoy getting a peek into different people’s lives and thoughts. I have found so much encouragement and refreshment in small blogs that most people have never heard of. This reflection on a passage from The Great Divorce was especially lovely today.
I am plugging away at a sci-fi time travel book at the moment, and I won’t mention it yet because the jury is still out on whether I’m going to recommend it. Aside from that book, I find myself listening to books more than reading this week. On rotation are: Where The Water Goes (about water management in the western U.S., which sounds boring but isn’t), Midnight In Chernobyl (still working on this one), and Old-Fashioned On Purpose (which I just finished).
In My Armchair {Projects I’m Working On}
In the last month I have returned from a lovely trip visiting our friends in Kentucky, then spent two weeks being a little lazy and recovering, then I jumped right into attending our local homeschool conference and VBS at our church. So I haven’t had the space or energy to tackle any major new projects yet this summer…aside from looking at curriculum and trying to think through how I will teach the history class at our co-op this fall. Important things, but not particularly fun to share.
In The Kitchen {Things We’ve Made}
I’ve been experimenting with new recipes here and there, inspired by a high-protein cookbook I rented from Amazon. I made lemon shrimp and pesto noodles; a sweet potato, beef, and pepper braise; and a greek chicken quinoa bowl.
The last one was the biggest hit, and the first time I’ve attempted making quinoa anything. I don’t have a recipe - basically I cooked up the chicken and made the cream sauce using a spice mix from Walmart, cooked the quinoa, and threw it all into a bowl with greek olives, sun dried tomatoes, cucumbers, and feta cheese. It was delicious.
On My Person {Things I’ve Worn}
It has been a cooler start to the summer, so I haven’t fully embraced my summer wardrobe yet - I also have been not the best at taking outfit photos over the last month, so these few will have to do.
In The Accounts {Money We’ve Saved}
Alas, I have done a terrible job of saving money this month. June is always one of our worst months of the year for spending. We have multiple birthdays and events, and we spend more in gas than usual. But…
-I did a decent job of packing us lunches or scrounging for snacks instead of eating out.
-I received free food items through app promotions.
-I started using Upside again to get cash back on gas purchases, and I’m well on my way to earning enough for a museum membership.
-My eyesight has apparently devolved to the point that my contacts are now considered “medically necessary”, and hence are covered by insurance! So instead of paying $400 for a six-month supply, I now pay $15.
-I got a drawing book I have been eyeing for my birthday, so now I won’t be tempted to buy it myself.
Out My Window {Beauty I’ve Noticed}
Our lilac bush bloomed for the first time in several years, and it’s completely loaded with blossoms! Unfortunately, pine tree pollen season has also arrived in the mountains, and everything is coated with pollen now, giving the blossoms a greenish yellow hue. I am looking forward to a couple rainy days next week to hopefully clean off my beautiful lilacs. Do people cute lilac blossoms for vases, and if so, do they last indoors? I am contemplating researching this, because I would love to bring them inside.
The wildflowers are also in rare form this year.
Out And About {Places We Went}
Homeschool Conference - We attended our state homeschool conference, and I was not very excited about the speaker list this year. However, I sat down in my first workshop session, and the speaker was just chatting and giving little freebies before really getting into her talk, and one of the things she said spoke straight to me heart. It was exactly what I needed to hear, and I felt tears spring to my eyes. Several speakers after that providentially addressed things I had already been contemplating, and I was reminded that the Lord knows what I need better than I do. I was so thankful for all of these faithful homeschool speakers that most people have never heard of.
Vacation Bible School - This post is brought to you by my church’s VBS. Last year I volunteered, but it was exhausting right on the heels of attending a 3.5 day homeschool conference, and I was such a mess I implored my husband to forbid me from volunteering for VBS the next year. He kept his end of the bargain, so I find myself with a couple hours to myself every day this week, and I don’t feel sorry about it. Sometimes we homeschool moms are with our kids so often (and that’s on purpose), we forget it’s okay to sometimes intentionally not be with them, just for a little bit to refresh. It’s been helpful for me to have some alone time this week to reflect on the conference and my hopes for the coming year.
Swim Park - This activity is on the calendar. Don’t tell my kids, it’s a surprise.
On My Mind {Thoughts To Share}
About halfway through the year now, I can confidently say that the thing the Lord is prompting in me is becoming more faithful in prayer. I will write more about this soon, but prayer has been a struggle for me for years now, unless I am having some sort of crisis, and I know that this should not be the case. Last week, speaker after speaker spoke about the importance of prayer, and one of them said that as our kids’ parents, we should make sure no one is praying for our own kids more than we are. That’s saying something when you have faithful praying grandparents in the mix! But it was a good challenge for me to be more intentional in praying for my kids, and our homeschool, and my husband, and our church.
In My Heart {Things I’m Treasuring}
-Warm weather and sunshine
-The occasional rainy day to hold off wildfires
-A house I love, even when it needs cleaning
-Kids who would rather play outside or make things than stare at a screen
-Friends who care enough to check in or smuggle your birthday present into the homeschool conference
-a free drink for downloading the Dutch Bros app
-Happy music
-Hearing baby birds hatch from their eggs outside our bedroom window (it was at 4AM, which was not appreciated, but it was still sweet to hear the chirps).
I’m back with another glimpse around my home and life this month. January is actually one of my favorite months - there’s always a sense of freshness about it, even while most things stay the same.
On The Page {Anything I Read}
{A novel recommended by a friend}. A friend of mine from church recommended The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova to me, because we had been talking about Dracula by Bram Stoker. The Historian is a chunky book (over 700 pages), but I am very much enjoying it. There is some pretty graphic descriptions of violence committed by Dracula, but otherwise it has been clean so far (just creepy). The book is something of an epistolary novel, and I always find it fascinating how authors can tell a story through a letter format. It makes me want to write more letters.
{Interesting Substack article}. I read this post about a quiet, meaningful life, and what we’ve been told it is and how to get it, and how maybe we’re looking for shortcuts where we shouldn’t. This is especially resonated with me as I’ve been cleaning out drawers and taking things to donate lately. The things that stay, that I would never dream of giving away, are a hodgepodge that I’ve collected over years, mostly items that have been handmade for me, or given to me by someone I love. In the end, having a beautiful home isn’t about purchasing just the right things to make my house look like a magazine, or clearing enough away to make it look Pinterest-worthy - a home is really beautiful to me because of the meaning given to those items by the people we love. It’s not exactly the point that was being made in this essay, but these are the thoughts this piece prompted in my head.
In My Armchair {Projects I'm Working On}
{Editing photos for our co-op yearbook}. I wish I could write something like "crocheting hats for everyone in my family" or "finishing beautifully artistic embroidery hangings", but once again my hobbies tend to revolve around my computer. But the truth is, I haven't had the time and energy this month to tackle handmade projects since I'm still very much a novice at crocheting and embroidery. When we rejoined our co-op this year, I was asked to take class pictures for the co-op yearbook, and I've put off finalizing the images long enough. I'm aiming to get them edited and uploaded for sharing before the end of the month.
In The Kitchen {Things We Made}
{Banana Bread & Busy Day Cake}. Between sickness and busyness, not much baking has happened this month, but I remedied that situation with a busy-day cake and three loaves of banana bread this afternoon. I had a little helper that insisted on mashing the bananas, which is just fine with me since that is my least favorite part of making banana bread!
{Fresh-Milled Bread}. I'm attempting to get back into a bread-making habit now that we've started homeschool again, and this last loaf my oldest daughter made on her own. We mainly make bread in my amazing bread maker - it takes about 15 minutes to put it together, and by the afternoon we have a beautiful, warm loaf to enjoy with a bit of butter and jam. I would like to dabble in more hand-kneaded breads, if I ever have time, but for now, the bread machine is a blessing.
{Chicken Noodle Soup}. The coldest weather of our winter so far has been in the last couple of weeks - we had a whopping high of 9 degrees Fahrenheit one day this last week. Those kind of days call for chicken noodle soup. I've never had a recipe for chicken noodle soup, I just wing it - cook some chicken, throw it in a pot with some chicken broth and carrots (a bag of frozen carrots for ease), chop up some onions for flavor, get a little creative with some spices, and then the secret ingredient - Grandma's egg noodles. No other noodle will do.
On My Person {Things I've Worn}
{Lovely Coats}. It has been quite chilly and snowy outside lately, but I like it this way in the winter, and I’ve been especially happy for my coat collection in these winter months. A few years ago I decided I might as well nurture a collection of beautiful winter coats since I spend so much of the year in them, and it’s served me well. Here are a few winter outfits lately, some with coats, some without.
In The Accounts Book {Money We Have Saved}
{Looking through Groupon for Deals}. I'm going to be honest and admit that this hasn't been an amazing month for saving money, so this isn't technically money saved, but money we "spent" in the form of points instead of cash. We chose to spend some of our credit card reward points on rodeo tickets - rodeos are a big deal around here in January, and we haven't taken the kids to one since they were babies. My husband got a deal through Groupon which saved us quite a bit on a fun experience.
Out My Window {Beauty I Noticed}
{Morning skies}. Our back window faces East, so every morning as I'm pouring my cup of coffee, I look out the window and see what colors the sky will be today. Peach and pale azure? Fire orange and deep purple? Rosy pink and lilac and icy blue? It's always a surprise. Sometimes, just as the sun peeks over the distant mountains, it will shine like a spotlight into the living room, splashing the wall like a paintbrush with glowing red.
{Snowy landscapes}. We've been enjoying a good amount of snow this January, and I love it. I read a meme that said, if you choose not to enjoy the snow, you'll have alot less joy, and the same amount of snow, and I couldn't agree with anything more. Here's another Substack post that similarly extols the virtues of snow. Do not complain about snow in my presence, because you'll receive no sympathy from me. I love how it washes everything clean, and makes an ordinary landscape other-worldly.
Out And About {Places We Went}
{Snow Sculptures}. We decided to try something new this year, and we went to an outdoor display of snow sculptures. We didn’t get to watch the actual sculpting, but we did see a huge block of hard-packed snow, the “before”. It’s amazing what people can do with such an unstable and temporary medium! I don’t understand why you would want to waste all that lovely snow on sculpting something weird, as a few artists did, but most of the sculptures were pretty neat. We enjoyed the sculptures, walked around a cute little mountain town, and enjoyed Mexican food for dinner. It was a worthwhile (and free!) outing.
{The Rodeo}. Rodeos and stock shows are a big part of the culture around here in our western state, as I mentioned above, and this month we re-introduced our kids to the rodeo in particular. It was so fun to explain the different events to the kids and watch my little one’s eyes go round. “They have to race around the barrels as fast as they can, and get as close as they can without touching.” “They have to get one rope around the calf’s back feet, and one rope around his head, and then pull the ropes tight.” “They have to ride up next to the steer, jump on it, and wrestle it to the ground.” “They have to stay on that bucking horse (or bull) for 8 seconds without touching it with their free hand or falling off.” You don’t realize how crazy all that sounds until you try to explain it to a 7 year old. It was a grand time.
On My Mind {Thoughts I Want To Share}
{On reading hard books}. I always feel pressure to put something profound here, but I am in a hurry to finish this post before January is indeed over, and I’m pressed for time. So let me just say that if you are afraid to attempt to read an epic poem (as I mentioned I was in this post), don’t be. I couldn’t decide, so I picked up The Iliad and Paradise Lost, and I’m surprised at how much I am enjoying both. If you’ve read any Dickens within the last five years, trust me, you’ll be fine.
In My Heart {Things I'm Treasuring}
{1} Bright eyes and a big smile asking to help with the baking.
{2} Side-by-side sorts of friendships - different than the treasured “bosom friend”, but heart-filling in their own way.
{3} Frosty front porches glittering in the morning sun.
{4} Being worried that you are catching the family cold, but then waking up with your sinuses still clear.
{5} Sitting on the floor, reading a living book to my kids for school, and having a tiny dog climb onto my bent-over back and settle down there for a nap. Yes, she did that.
{6} Spots of sunshine on our wood floor in winter.
{7} A husband who never fails to have a pot of hot coffee ready for me in the morning.
Hope your January has brought fresh and new joys to you - and here’s to February!
Note: I wrote this newsletter to send with my Christmas cards, and I decided to share a modified version here as a nice little summary of our year. I'm sure you are all busy with your families on Christmas Eve, but maybe sometime in the next week you'll have time to read this, and you'll know I was wishing you all a Merry Christmas!
---
As I sit down to write this, our house is dark. There are no twinkly lights, no ornaments or garland. After throwing together our Christmas cards at the last possible moment last year, I thought I better get an early start if a newsletter would happen in 2024, so no Christmas decor graces our home just yet. But my oldest is building up a fire in our woodstove, it’s the week before Thanksgiving, and our speaker is playing Psalm 100 put to music. Gratitude is our atmosphere this evening, and despite a year that had it’s share of disappointments, there are so many things for which to thank God.
Our year started off rather dreadfully, but also with a spontaneous bit of fun. For me, this will ever be known as the year that I had the worst dental procedure known to man, aka: a gum graft. The fact that I have previously worked as a dental hygienist made the procedure especially excruciating, since I knew exactly what they were doing each moment! I lost the ability to smile for two weeks (literally, couldn’t move my muscles properly all through January), but a new little puppy brought a smile to my heart at least.
Yes, Derek talked me into another dachshund, the full sister or our other dog, Lulu. We named the new puppy Dot, and she’s been a ton of fun, and also trouble, for the whole of 2024. Thankfully she is turning out to be a “kid dog”, and she loves snuggling with any of the kids before we tuck her in each night.
Our five kids have grown so much this year, not just physically, but in all the other ways you can think of as well. Our oldest three signed up for 4H in the spring - for woodworking, sewing, and leather-working. They each submitted projects to our county fair and won various ribbons, and two of them even got to send projects to the state fair and won ribbons there! I am so proud of the diligent work they put in, and for how well they each did. My little girls have another year or two before joining 4H, but in their spare time they keep each other busy with imaginative games, forts, baby dolls, and drawings that I find all over the house.
In May we took our annual vacation to Arizona - mainly to see the Saguaro cacti in Saguaro National Park, which were just as impressive as I thought they would be. Apparently Phoenix is not a popular destination so close to summer, but the weather ended up being just perfect for our warmth-starved selves. We took a side trip to Joshua Tree and Palm Springs - it was the first time I’ve ever been in California. The wind and solar farms in the desert were a little jarring, but our destinations ended up being well worth venturing into the land of $7 gas, just for a day. Of course the hotel pool will always be the kids’ favorite part of vacation. We could take them to see the wonders of the world, but it wouldn’t be vacation without a fun pool.
Our favorite summer experience was a day trip to a small mountain town to see wildflowers. While we hiked around the trails, we counted 21 different varieties of wildflowers, and seeing the colors bursting over the hills was glorious. God is so creative, isn’t He? We are casual hikers; we never were the type to backpack our toddlers into the mountains, so it’s fun to be able to get into nature more as the kids grow.
As a summer project, Derek and our oldest son rigged up a makeshift greenhouse and started a garden. We have grown things in a small porch greenhouse before, but it was exciting to have a more substantial vegetable garden, and we enjoyed a crop of squash and tomatoes as the summer stretched into fall.
I am still homeschooling the kids, and they each have been progressing very well. It’s such a blessing to have them home with me and to get to see them learning and growing, not just academically, but in their knowledge of the Lord. I am still involved with several other ladies in running a homeschool support group at our church, and this fall we also joined a co-op one day a week that has been a blessing for all of us.
Derek is working for the same government organization, most of the time from home. Even though he is locked away in his office, there is something special about having him under the same roof as us each day.
Time and space fail me, and newsletters that try to cover everything get tedious. I will only briefly mention that many books were read, many hikes were taken, kids jumped off diving boards for the first time, we went to the movies, we went on field trips, we taught all the kids how to roller skate. We had more doctor (and orthodontist) appointments than typical, plans were cancelled because of the cost of broken appliances, we had to buy a new (to us) car. We attended the state homeschool conference together, we spent time with both sides of the family, we saw our dear friends from out of town, and enjoyed weekly fellowship with other believers at church. Somewhere along the way, Derek and I passed our 16th anniversary with not a ton of fanfare, but with the quiet, solid kind of love that makes this stage of life so special.
So it’s been a good year. Any trials seem minor, and the blessings glitter like the Christmas lights that will be going up this weekend. It’s a lovely thing that each year ends with Thanksgiving and Christmas - what better way to close the year than by remembering all our gifts, and then contemplating the greatest gift of all, our Savior Jesus Christ!
There’s an old hymn line that describes Jesus as the “Light of light” coming to earth “as the darkness clears away”, and I’ve been contemplating that phrase as we approach the Christmas season. The Light of the world was born to us, clearing the darkness of sin and death away for all those who repent and trust in Him for their salvation. That God our Savior would be born a little child is a mystery too great to comprehend, but He was. He came to defeat our sin and the curse of death on the cross. So as I close this letter, I pray that you would know Him, and that in knowing Him, the light of Christ will shine on you and your family this Christmas season and always.
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name…And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:12, 14
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