Sweet Fall!

What is your favorite season?

I will usually answer spring if asked this question, but today I would have to say fall. It has been an absolutely gorgeous fall here, with perfect blue skies, sunshiny days, and just the right amount of chill in the air at night. I wish it could just go on and on.

Today I'm ignoring the fact that winter (winter = snow) is just around the corner and I'm just enjoying this much too short season with my family.


p.s. Did you vote?

Halloween Scrooge!!!! That's me!

If I had to pick my least favorite holiday, it would be Halloween, hands down! I don't remember ever really liking it. I grew up in a small UT town with a high elevation (= cold at Halloween so snowsuit worn over costume while trick or treating) and Halloween was just not a whole lot of fun. Our little elementary school would hold a carnival for Halloween and there was always a costume parade.....you know the drill, witches, princesses, pirates, ghouls, etc. all parading around the cafeteria/gym so the parents could take pictures.

I was a very shy little girl and what I wanted most was to have a really pretty princess or genie costume like all the other little girls. I probably didn't tell my mom that because she had her own idea. Taking a costume I had worn in the 24th of July parade, she had me wear green tights, a leafy green costume and a leafy green hat and I got to go to the costume parade dressed as Niblet. Who? Oh, yes, the Jolly Green Giant's little helper.

I'm sure that other years I had lovely costumes, I just don't remember them. I only remember the trauma of being a little green plant for Halloween.

Since then, I've harbored much distaste for this holiday and I have not done much in the way of fun for my own kids. We've carved pumpkins every so often, we've never done a corn maze, I don't buy costumes, we don't decorate much for it. In short, I've done all I can to make it boring. My husband, bless his heart, is trying to make it fun for them this year. Yesterday he took them all the Punkinland and let them each pick out whatever pumpkin they wanted. Then he helped each of them carve them and light them to decorate our porch. I watched and took pictures.

I'm trying to have a better attitude about it. I let the girls pull out all the decorations we have (that's what you get for presents when you have an Oct birthday like me. Yay!! Not!) and dress up our house a bit. I found WAY cheap costume makings at the dollar store and today I got those ready to go. Just need to get a bit of candy and we're set, I guess. Maybe next year, I'll even spring for the corn maze................

Here's a few pictures of the kids artwork(excuse the shaky photography, my camera is not good with night pictures). Hope you have a safe and

fun(?) Halloween.

Leadership Education

In the last few months I've made some pretty dramatic changes in the way I look at education and my role in it as a parent. I made the choice to withdraw my girls from a private school where they had been attending for 2 years and bring them home to home educate them. In the midst of trying to determine what in the world I was doing, I did tons of reading and online research of different philosophies of home education. I found things that I liked in each philosophy but wasn't sure which direction to go. Then I read "A Thomas Jefferson Education" by Oliver DeMille and found there the guiding priniciples that 'spoke' to me, allowing me to pull from the different philosophies what felt 'right' to me and incorporate all of them into our home education adventure.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Shanon Brooks, who is the CEO of George Wythe College, which was founded by Oliver DeMille. The college is expanding and building a new campus in my hometown on land that was once owned by my parents and this was an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of what the college is about and how it will impact my hometown. I was so motivated and inspired by what I heard, and if I could I would sign myself up as a freshman today! But since that is not possible, what I can do is to begin to educate myself so that I am better prepared to guide my children as they start on their own education journies. One of the keys to a Thomas Jefferson Education is to "Inspire, not require!" and that is what I came away from that seminar feeling like I needed to focus on. If I undertake to educate myself and share my excitement about the learning process and what I am learning, it can't help but inspire my children to want to learn, too!

Off I go!

Talk about Tuesday 10/16

He finally grew out of the little crib he's been in since his birth. Which was just supposed to be temporary anyway. When he was born, the seventh child, there just wasn't room anywhere in this house for a full sized crib. So we got by with a small one, but when we noticed that his head and his feet touched the ends of his crib, we decided it was time for something a bit bigger. Luckily, my friend had a spare toddler bed we could borrow for now, because there still is no room for another bed. Maybe when his oldest brother leaves home next year, we'll move him up to a big boy bed. For now, this works great!

It's a Blooming Miracle!

I truly can't believe it. After 4 years of dirt, we have a green backyard again!

I can't tell you how much smiling I've been doing at the thought of grass back there again. Smiling, that is, between grimaces from the pain of my sore arms and shoulders from raking up all the blasted rocks that this piece of ground produces.

Here's a picture of the before and after......









Before............








After.............

Sorry this is a day late for Talk about Tuesday, but, ahem, I was rather busy raking rocks.

For more information about Talk About Tuesday, click on it.