Monthly Archives: December 2014

Field trip: Christkindlmarket in Chicago

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Nutella-filled strudel… what the WHAAAA??
Nutella-filled strudel… what the WHAAAA??

Oh, friends… oh, oh friends… Have you ever eaten just SO poorly for SO long that you don’t actually have to TRY to start eating healthier again–your body just rejects anything that’s crap?  Because I am so there, people.  And I’m thankful.

This picture?  That Nutella-filled strudel?  No, no… that wasn’t what put me over the top.  That was insanity in a little piece of wax paper.  The kids shared one because it is total contraband, but it was Nutella–who can say no to that?  I can.  Mine was cheese stuffed.  But I couldn’t deny my kids because my husband is from Brooklyn where Nutella is apparently a right of passage.

Continue reading Field trip: Christkindlmarket in Chicago →

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“What they love” vs. “what feeds their soul”

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So, there was an interesting topic recently in a homeschool forum and somewhere along the way, a friend posted:

My mom is a recruiter, and has tried to find jobs for people with PhD’s before, because they can’t even find work in their field. It’s sobering. “Doing what you love” is great, but doesn’t always pay the bills.

It occurred to me that people have a misconception about what “do what you love” means…

Continue reading “What they love” vs. “what feeds their soul” →

The gentle flow of gray winter…

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It’s been a less productive time lately.  I have a very hard time with the shortening of the days.  No amount of vitamin D or special lighting has ever provoked a response in my body.  Even magnesium supplements have not helped (there is a contingent that yells loudly about the need for magnesium to help with vitamin D absorption).  So things have gotten slow… and moved to the big bed.

Continue reading The gentle flow of gray winter… →

Real understanding

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It’s been quite a week.  Mama is starting to get her footing and get back to engaging better with the small people.  Engagement.  That’s what I’m going for here.  It’s hard.  I have horrible Seasonal Affect Disorder and am truly thankful that we spent our emergency funds on a skylight in the master bedroom.  So the last few weeks have been very sluggish and mama hasn’t been very engaged.  I think I didn’t really realize what was happening, either.  My semester in review post made me think about it. Continue reading Real understanding →

The semester in review…

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And so comes the time to look back at the last few months and assess what has worked, what hasn’t worked, what to change and what to keep.  I probably wouldn’t be doing this except that we tried to make a monumental change and I’m not sure we’ve managed it well.  In my former career, “continuous process improvement” was actually part of one of my job titles.  It’s something I fully embrace.

So let’s review… Continue reading The semester in review… →

The Dragonnaire Cluster

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I just needed to update you all on BigGuy’s writing.  I’m VERY. PLEASED with it!  He’s seriously coming along really well!!  We don’t work on this every day but after his first whipping out of a page of writing, I introduced the process of rewrites.  There is a local homeschool mom I admire very much and she recently divulged how she tackled writing instruction and the gusto with which she embraces the rewrite.  Her kids (who are high school age) know that there is pretty much no set number or max on rewrites.

I gave this some thought, and decided that I would really rather my son be prepared to rework his writing many times over than assume he was done after any set number (likely a number close to 3).  Continue reading The Dragonnaire Cluster →