Writing and Driving and Life E. L. Doctorow once said that “writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” This ...
I love how much art and music envelop us at every turn, and how the boys have learned to channel their own feelings through art and music to take the edge off of some of those overpowering emotions. T...
My mood is always more settled, almost nestled in and snug and happy, when I am tending to the needs of my soul. ...
And it dawns on me. The lesson. These things happen sometimes when something someone says intrigues me so, that I want to ponder it, mull it over, hold it in my hand and carry it like a talisman until...
We talked about the power of nature to heal our souls, to refresh them, and cleanse them from the dust of every day life. ...
My 13yo son asked me a question last night. He turned to me and asked, "What does it mean to be a hero? Do you have to save someone's life to be a hero?"...
Do you listen intently to the words of songs your kids listen to - the stations, the kinds of music they like? ...
Always the lists. Give me too much free time between calls at work, and a fairly slow day with no nearby neighbors to visit with, and I used pages and pages of scratch paper to make lists for the New ...
I have gotten out of the habit of writing, and my world is suffering. The walls start closing in on me when my creativity is on hiatus. When I am drawn like a moth to bad news, and the marching feet o...
My boys and I see pictures in the sky. We see big, bold, ridiculous, pictures sometimes, and we laugh and point. This is beginner imagination building that we have been doing since they were tiny. Now...
Last night at dinner, we got into a conversation about music lyrics, and my husband and I were both telling stories of growing up in a time when we had to guess at half the lyrics. We had to listen ov...
Because Ben and I are both artists, and experience a large range of emotions, we’ve had to learn about anger and how to handle it, manage it, subdue it, understand it and live with it. We...
What a completely blissful day. These are the new rockers we picked up at a garage sale this weekend, and this is the view looking out onto our back field in Southern Oregon. It goes on and on and we ...
Yesterday, on the way to music lessons, there was a lively conversation in the car between my six-year old and my nine-year old about whether the word muzzle and snout could be used interchange...
Gears are at the heart of so many things around here. Scott is building a race car for the Drag Strip that is around the corner from our house. Both boys like to build motorcycles and bikes, and finge...
The other night at dinner, Scott explained to the boys about The Mom Flower. He told them that moms need hugs and kisses and sweetness from their children to survive, and that being cross with a mom m...
Today, we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday with a couple of videos* specifically tailored for children’s understanding. When we were done, my six-year old announced that he was...
The way I am learning to meditate, is to be still and quiet, and allow my mind to settle onto something, whatever it wants to settle onto, and keep breathing. It is a very low-key, no stress kind of m...
Whatever you may believe about the formations of crop circles, whether they are made by pranksters or by some other means; to put any time into studying them, proves they are not easy to dismis...
We were out later last night than ever before, I’m pretty sure. Somehow after our afternoon chores, we ended up going out to our Goat Mentor’s place – way over in Applegate. It is al...
We started with Dessert First, because Bean won a Gift Certificate to Dairy Queen from our local Credit Union. He had answered the kid’s quiz about which Presidents were on which bills. He was v...
“Long, long ago, in a village far away…” And so begins a story, that holds our attention all through dinner. Benjamin, my 8-year old, told a story that he’d heard at sch...
The plan was to look at Oxymorons because they are hilarious. However, the best thing about our outlook on learning is that we can change on a dime based on the interests of the kids. Ben’s mini...
Over dinner tonight, I was informed that the boys had been watching The History Channel‘s show, American Pickers, and were introduced to a flag with a Swastika on it. Sharp intake of breath. My ...
We started our dinner out with a question from Ben. He asked “If having a baby is the most painful thing a woman can do, what’s the most painful thing a man can do?” Scott started wi...