Once upon a time a former-oilfield-man-gone-real-estate-agent and a former-engineer-gone-high-school-math-teacher lived in Knoxville, Tennessee. As I chased my corporate motherhood dreams and aspirations to return to an engineering career, we moved down to Houston, Texas, where I learned about how God can turn our biggest failures into His greatest successes. After I had settled down to […]
Christmas wRap 2013 – Our Year in Rhyme
Recounting the events of Twenty Thirteen January, December, and the months in between. Our year has been full of travel and fun, So let us track back through the things that we’ve done. January marked our first trip to Disney. Levi was enamored with a duck named Daisy. We met our good Florida friends at […]
Great Artists Study & Project Ideas: The Impressionists
During this year’s Great Artist study, we’ll be learning about six artists from the Renaissance, Post-Renaissance, & Impressionist periods. Discovering Great Artist by MaryAnn Kohl and Kim Solga includes short biographies and kid-friendly, hands-on art lessons in the styles of over 80 different well-known artists, but we wanted to expound on ways to liven up […]
My Ebenezer Stones
Samuel took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer—”the stone of help”—for he said, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!” —1 Samuel 7:12, NLT As I was cleaning underneath our bedside table this weekend, I found what was left of a little tube of ointment […]
Memory Master Tips & Tricks
Over the years, I’ve had other families ask about how we review memory work, especially as it relates to Memory Master Proofing each spring. Let me be upfront and mention that after almost a decade of sending our children successfully through the Memory Master process, we found that the end result of those particular efforts […]
Monster Truck Party {Free Printables}
Five years ago, we were blessed with our third son, Levi, our Texas-born, Tennessee-raised country farmer, dirt-loving hillbilly boy who can name a thousand different pieces of construction equipment (and was able to pronounce the word “excavator” before he could say “cup”). But this year, he finally ventured out to something new… and asked for […]
A Family Activity Christmas Countdown Calendar
If the truth be known… I maxed myself out when I made a hand-sewn felt Jesse Tree ornament holder. I know what you’re thinking: THAT maxed her out? Yeah. And I’m proud of it even if it looks like a 5-year-old did it. In case you’re wondering, crafting does not come easy for me. But Stephen heard […]
Traditions: Jesse Tree Advent Ornaments
Last year, as I reflected upon our family’s Christmas traditions, I was introduced to an Advent activity called the Jesse Tree. Why I was in the dark so long about such a great way to celebrate the birth of Christ is beyond me. Since then, I have researched and thought about how to include this Christmas […]
Bible Readeez: The Word Set to Music
Oh! How excited I am! Our family has literally been waiting for months for the release of Bible Readeez! But let me back up a bit… We first came across Readeez a couple of years ago and originally watched the Readeez videos on-line. A few weeks later (after using up our Internet download allowance multiple times), […]