This morning, I read again from the gorgeous gardening, meditation, living life book, “Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World,” by Wendy John...
Ben started with a drawing, then did a paper cut-out of the body for this guitar, then headed to the shop to use his new saw that cuts angles. His dad helped him cut out part of an old license plate a...
After a day filled with highs and lows, as I suppose is the standard fare of parenting, I got a chance to go to the grocery store on my own. That trip included a detour into Barnes and Noble for a qui...
Even though we buy paper and tape in bulk, tonight Ben just needed another form of canvas, and so he started giving Bean tattoos with marker. We discourage this sort of thing, generally. A long time a...
This week, I was inspired by the drive and determination of Skateboarders. We went for an afternoon to play at the park with a friend and her kids. It was a bit of running around that we needed to bre...
This was Ben’s Saturday Project. We were in the process of de-cluttering, and making a dump run, and Ben kept pulling cardboard out of the dump pile that he could use for building. I walked into...
Over the weekend, I got to spend a few minutes out in the shop with Scott. He needed my help to move some giant thing over onto the lift, and then push it under the back of the torn down vehicle. See ...
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...
Chores. I remember being a kid and having chores, and thinking I was overworked and under-appreciated. I remember feeling like all I ever did was work. I know it takes a while to have a grownup mind, ...
Ah – the glories of learning off the computer! Could there be a more exhilarating way to see in a quick moment all the geometric wonders involved in those wonderful Cathedral windows of old? (Pe...
There is a picture circulating of a little girl in an Iraqi orphanage, who misses her mother, so she drew a chalk outline of her mom, curled up within the lines and fell asleep inside her mother. This...
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...
In the dverse poets pub tonight, the topic is trees and Under The Canopy, which fills me with love and light. That is what we do! We care for trees. (A memory from long ago when I was in school –...
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...
Ben is our nine-year old, who builds with paper and tape. He wakes up every morning with a new plan, and goes after it with a rare determination. We have recently started homeschooling him because spe...
Sometimes I shatter; break into pieces and scatter across the floor. My tiny shards reflect light in odd patterns on the wall and once again I am something shiny. I remember a spark, I r...
If I could see what you see; the finished project from a pile of scraps. The angles and lines and tiny details, wheels within wheels that leap from your mind; the magic you create. I run along beneath...
Part of Ben’s fourth grade art curriculum includes a look at Gothic Architecture. We live in the age of the computer, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. What we can see in little pictures in...
Yesterday I read a great article about setting aside fifteen minutes a day to Power Brainstorm, to Idea Generate and let the mind wander from one new idea to another. The author said that of co...
In addition to all the Christmas presents Ben made out of paper and tape, and the tree itself, and all the decorations, he didn’t think the living room was quite festive enough until he created ...
It has snowed a whole bunch in our area. (I am so cheating with this photo. It’s from a photo site and not one I took of our current storm.) Our snow is bad, but not this bad. It’s packed,...
FAIR WARNING: This post discusses actual farm chores of a working farm – not just the feeding and watering of animals. We ended up with a cold weather system coming in that Southern Oregon hasn&...
It never occurred to me how very Christmas-like is the world of Gnomes. The gorgeously illustrated book of Gnomes was something my dad and mom had out on their coffee table when I was younger. I remem...
The night before Thanksgiving this year, I was up until the wee hours of the morning, cleaning things that didn’t really need to be cleaned – like my Washing Machine. When I reached out on...
The answer, of course, is “So we can learn to get back up again.” This is a line from Batman Begins that I heard my boys saying to one another after they’d seen the movie, reminding ...
Well, Hello
