Bright Valley of Love by Edna Hong for AmblesideOnline Year 7. The blurb on the cover does this book a disservice. Very little of the book deals with the Nazis or at least not in the way I think of other Holocaust literature. The story dealt with bigger themes of the value of all human…
Stewarding a Bunch of Things at One Time
Originally published on Simply Stewardship, my other blog, on March 25, 2010 at a shockingly early 7 am. This post came up on a Facebook memory the other day as I was thinking about how the internet has moved away from being text-centric to image and video driven. I have a regular internet connection now…
Level Up & Side Quests
My 2023 word of the year was "Level Up!" As part of Simply Convivial Community Coaching, I've attempted to define my vocations several times over the past few years. With life being as it was since 2018 (severe anemia while pregnant, Dan's medical condition, and Covid), I've focused almost exclusively on being a faithful Christian…
February Reading
I only finished one book in February because I'm in the middle of a school term. I am reading several AmblesideOnline Year 7 books with a group on the AO Forum. A few chapters into Once and Future King, I realized that I had never actually read any of the King Arthur legends. The Story…
January Reading
I read Six Voices, One Story: The Heart of AmblesideOnline between the end of our last school year and the start of our new year. It was so encouraging to have renewed confidence in our philosophy and methods as we start Year 3, Year 6, Year 7, and Year 7-8-9. I'm so grateful for the…
2023 School Year in Review
We've had our best school year in a while! The girls have enjoyed ballet and American Heritage Girls. The boys enjoy soccer and Trail Life. Everyone--especially me--enjoys being back at choir with friends. Zuzu did some AmblesideOnline Year 7 and some CMEC. I've had a tough time transitioning her to high school, but we are…
100 Books
A few years ago, our local library got a grant to buy 1000 picture books and pack them in clear backpacks. Checking out all 100 backpacks and reading the 10 books in them makes it simple to complete the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Reading Challenge. The library doesn't require that participants read their backpack books,…
Christian Memoirs on Audio
As I was choosing books for my 5x5 categories, I wanted to read several books by Christian African American authors I respected. I had gotten Unashamed as a monthly freebie from Christian Audio, Carved in Ebony on sale from ChristianAudio for Black history month, and Gay Girl, Good God was available from the Houston Public…
2022 School Year in Review
Notice these are from December 2022. Better late than never! Our younger students wrapped up AmblesideOnline Years 1, 4, and 5. My oldest completed Sonlight Core F (Eastern Hemispheres) with some AO science. Dan played hard and occasionally let us work uninterrupted! The last photo is from the path right behind our library on the…
5×5 TechTonic
This spring, I participated in the Scholé Sisters TechTonic mentorship. We read Amusing Ourselves to Death, Irreversible Damage, and Balanced and Barefoot. To round out a 5x5 category, I added Outdoor Kids in an Inside World by Steven Rinella and the introductions to Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock. I recently finished Outdoor…
humble adoration 