First off, I’d like to ask for prayer for my husband’s step father – “Grandpa Robert.” His health has been declining over the last few months and over the last couple of weeks he’s been doing very poorly. He’s now experiencing kidney failure but the determined his heart was not strong enough to undergo dialysis treatments. His heart function is at only 15%. So, his heart is failing him as well. They are bringing him home tomorrow and hospice will be taking care of him.

On a brighter note, my daughter Emily (16 yo) has been practicing for her first recital coming up next month. She’s been taking lessons for the guitar for a little over a year. I wanted to share a video of her playing with you. I’m so proud! Can you tell? Emily is such a bright and beautiful girl, so talented.

Not only does she play a mean “git-tar,” but she’s an amazing artist! I want to share some of my favorites with you:

A drawing of her sister and friend.

I asked Emily to draw a barn for me… it’s now hanging in my family room.

A commissioned piece she sold.

A Girl on the Beach.

Emily’s Self Portrait.

 However, the most meaningful thing to happen to me today? My 22 yo son who is away at college posted this on Facebook this morning:

Baby Barred Owl

This morning my daughter Hannah came running in from outside where she was doing her nature study and says, “Mom! I just heard a bird that sounded like a monkey!”

She didn’t see the bird, though, so we did a google search for “bird that sounds like monkey” and found out the Barred Owl, which lives all over North America sounds very much like a monkey! We have seen this owl a few times in the past, but never heard its call. This was a very exciting discovery for us!

A Barred Owl call sounds like “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all?”

I searched even further for more fun ideas to help us enjoy learning about these beautiful birds and wanted to share them with you.

Continue reading “Homeschool Nature Study – Barred Owl” »

Have you ever been ice skating? We live in the boonies, so we have to drive two hours to get to the nearest ice skating rink. If you’ve never been before, let me tell you. It is so. much. fun.

Ice Skating at the Ice Chalet in Knoxville, TN.

This past week, we took our two youngest girls to the Ice Chalet in Knoxville, TN. We’ve only been a couple other times, but I have to say, I think my girls are naturals. Once they got warmed up, they were off to the races!

Laura.

Hannah.

Laura and Hannah on the ice.

I had a lot of fun on the ice, too. The biggest surprise was my husband. He hadn’t been ice skating in decades. Literally. Mykal is one of those guys whose always been a dare devil and he’s not afraid of pain. However, I (and the girls) were worried he’d slip and fall and whack out his back because the day before (on February 4) he had turned 61 years old!

Hannah and Me… taking a break.

To our great surprise, he took off and did 30 laps really fast and never even lost his balance! Crazy!

I was so proud. Here’s a little clip…

An eight-year-old little girl came up to Mykal and said, “I heard you say you haven’t ice skated in 40 years. You’re AWESOME!”

Hilarious. Anyway,  it was a really, really nice day!

From a homeschooling standpoint, ice skating is a great way to get exercise and it can count toward credits for P.E. Hannah and Laura loved it so much, we are considering signing up for weekly lessons. I think it’d be worth the weekly 2 hour drive.