Category: parenting

“Of all animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.” Plato

baseball, brothers, parenting

This week I am reading Little House on the Prairie to the boys. It’s the perfect ending to our year in American history. We read Little House in the Big Woods earlier this year. Big Woods was NOT a hit. There was moaning and groaning galore whenever story time arrived. I made them listen to the whole thing anyway. I’m not always as sweet as I look… I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that the boys are actually enjoying […]

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Running Away from it All: Yosemite Day One

California, parenting, road trip, vacation

Day One: You know we love a road trip. Today we did something wild and crazy. We left our children with Alan’s parents, and got ourselves out of town! Does Alan have big, important projects due on Monday? Yes. Do I have important things to do Monday? Yes. Do we have children recovering from illness? Yes. Do we have a wonderful life that we are thankful for and don’t actually NEED to RUN away from? YES! We just needed REST. […]

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The Way Women are Portrayed at Arcades: This BUGS me!!!

family, little boys, parenting, toys, video games

Am I the only one annoyed by this? We try to be good parents. We monitor every single thing that comes into our house. The boys only get to play video games on the weekend, and even then, it’s Mario, Sonic, or Lego characters. But what happens when you take your children to a restaurant/video game arcade? And not just one particular one, but pretty much all of them? Scantily clad women waving flags on the motorcycle game. Ughhhhhhh. Why? […]

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“What delightful things we might do, were it not for Mrs. Harmon Andrews!”

attitude, books, parenting

Don’t you wish we could all be as cool as JD? Do you see his pants? There’s a granola bar stuck to his pants. We had a time getting it off of there, but do you know? He didn’t care. It didn’t matter to him what his pants looked like. He isn’t trying to impress anyone. Just think how much fun we could have if we weren’t trying to impress ANYONE. Oh, don’t even try to say that you AREN’T. […]

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One Simple Lesson That Brought Joy Back to My Life

Bible, blessings, faith, parenting, pictures, prayer

We look super happy in this photo, didn’t we? We were sort of happy, but we were stressed. Alan has enough school and family work to fill his plate, but he does well. I’ve already said a thousand times that the first year of home schooling has been a huge challenge for me. I was surviving, really. There was more stress than joy in my days. I was living frustrated. I ran into a mom that I sort of know at […]

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13 Wonderful Things That Are Happening at Our Homeschool

big family life, brothers, Classical Conversations, Easter, education, home school, parenting

I put this list together throughout this past week. Would you believe we only have 5 WEEKS of home schooling left for this year!!?  Have you ever had a new job that just took all you had and then some? Well, that was my first year of teaching, and I cannot wait for summer!!! A lot of good things are happening right now, though. I need to keep that in mind when I’m feeling beat down! I made a little […]

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Super Easy Crock Pot Roast for the Life-is-Kicking-My-Tail Days!

crock pot, food, parenting, recipes

In the great tradition of helping out new mothers, our friends Chris and Corinne brought over this roast, just after we had Joshua. I remember this day like the back of my hand. Corinne was 39 weeks pregnant herself, and she looked exhausted. We asked them to stay with us and enjoy the roast too, and I so enjoyed their visit. I have loved every single one of their visits. They are such an outstanding couple! We always laughed so […]

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Ways to Use Brain Pop Jr. at Home School

Classical Conversations, computers, homeschool, parenting, science

Home schooling may be one of the greatest challenges I have taken on as a parent.  One of my biggest struggles is making learning fun. If the boys spend all day doing seat work, writing, and listening to me teach them, they start to become unmanageable. A house of unmanageable children will wreck your day in a hurry. I figure if it is hard for me to find ways to make it fun, it must be hard for other parents […]

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Worst Mother Ever: Presentation Day

funny stories, parenting

I have been working all day to clean up. My in-laws are on their way! We are excited, but man, we have gotten MESSY lately.  By 5:20, I couldn’t even finish straightening up. I just ran out of steam. I told the boys, “Nonna and DaddyO will be here in 2 hours!” “Yay!!!” they all cheered. I said, “We still need to go upstairs and finish cleaning up, after dinner.” Daniel jumped out of his chair, and said, “Me go […]

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One Tough Seven-year-old

birthday, funny stories, homeschool, parenting, photography

This week was my birthday. I did not have a good birthday. I had both a terrible and a wonderful birthday. Don’t you think so many things can be both bad and good at the same time? That was my birthday this year. It was bad because I was so sleep deprived that I could barely function. It was also amazing. One boy worked on my birthday present all week. He made me four different Super Mom comic books. Then […]

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