Container Gardening + Plant Collecting
Typically, by mid-June, I’d be nurturing a well-groomed garden and plucking off a zucchini here, a tomato there. In previous years, this was the case. Thi...
Category: creating memories
sweet moments, things I don’t want to forget, things I’ll never forget
Jackson turns 12
The first time Jackson asked to repaint his bedroom, which had been a shade of light blue since buying this house in 2012, I knew he wasn’t going to give ...
Girls Weekend June 2018
The original idea for one our 2018 Girls Weekends was to reunite in New York City where our friendship really began. Though we already knew each other from work...
Summer break so far
The moment we finished our last day at the homeschool co-op where the boys attend and I teach, my brain slipped into something more comfortable. It shrunk and t...
Medal No. 20
Eleven years ago I entertained a personal physical challenge: could I run 13.1 miles? For some, that was a reasonable, attainable goal. For me, I wasn’t ...
Twelve Years Later
There are good things that happen during a time of mourning – favorite stories are told, family members gather to comfort one another and offer affirmatio...
A Midday Escape
Yesterday was a bad day of school. Those days happen. Sometimes it’s on account of bad moods, other times it’s that the level of exhaustion is so hi...
Medal No. 19
Are you ready for the longest race report ever? There are a dozen reasons why I shouldn’t have run this half marathon. Yes, I was trained for it, or at le...
Jackson goes to Disney World
After our day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (and subsequent day of rest by the pool) it was finally Jackson’s turn to go to Disney World! He̵...
Diagon Alley
Previous post: Hogsmeade Village After lunch we walked through Universal to reach the discreet entrance to Diagon Alley, which was next to Kings Cross and direc...
Hogsmeade Village
We had one full day at Universal, and that limitation required careful planning in regard to arrival time, meal time, and what part of the park to visit when. T...
A second spring break
As homeschoolers, we do what we want. It’s glorious. It’s magnificent. Our first spring break was spent at home, and truth be told, we still did mat...
The Killers Concert, Atlanta 2018
It all began with “Mr. Brightside” and Hot Fuss in 2004. It was a new sound, something I hadn’t heard before, and when Sam’s Town came o...
First Snow of 2018
Parts of Tennessee got its first snow of the year last week, but we weren’t that lucky. Yesterday, however, we scored a few inches (yay!) and it’s c...
Christmas in Wisconsin 2017
Since our experience in Hilton Head two Christmases ago was so positive, we decided to do it again. However, instead of warm, we went cold. Wisconsin cold. We m...
Favorite Moments of 2017
There are three primary reasons why I have kept this blog active for more than 12 years. First, I created it so our birth families could watch the boys grow up....
Video of our trip to Iceland
It took the bulk of my day to finish this video, but that’s only because iMovie is trial and error for me. If I would just fork over $300 for Final Cut Pr...
Adventure in Iceland – Going home
We were all sad on Friday morning. Though we’d done and seen so much in three full days, we were just starting to get the hang of life in Iceland. We were...
Adventure in Iceland – Day Three
One of the best pieces of advice we got from our AirBNB hosts was to avoid the Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa trolling with tourists. It’s likely you’...
Adventure in Iceland – Day Two
When we got back in town Tuesday night, after our excursion to Reynisfjara Beach, we went to a local grocery store to buy food for the rest of the week. We had ...
Adventure in Iceland – Part Two of Day One
Continued from previous post: Adventure in Iceland – Day One The goal of Tuesday was to get to Reynisfjara Beach near Vik, which National Geographic rated...