1. your comments on wonderfarm’s birthday post. I didn’t want to add another post because it was a hoot to have so many of you show up and chat with me. Thank you, especially those of you who don’t usually leave comments. You made me smile at my computer screen. Many, many times. 2. house guests. [...]

Photo by Lulu. She and her friend made these this afternoon. Four kinds of cupcakes, four kinds of frosting. Because this is what 16-year-old girls do when they’re bored on a summer afternoon. Today is my blog’s birthday. Four years old. Time for a party. Last year on wonder farm’s birthday, I got all maudlin and retrospective about [...]

You might not want to bother taking your pan down to the river. You’d probably be smarter to do something more practical. The practical folks are the ones who get rich. Cook for hungry miners, say. Even if it means cooking beans over fire for eight hours in 95 degree heat. Even better, you could [...]

I give my kids lots of writing advice. Like this: * To get started on something new, sit down and write without stopping for ten minutes, and see what comes to you. Re-read what you’ve written and underline anything promising. Then freewrite on that. * Write your beginnings and endings last, because they’re the hardest parts [...]

photo of T by Mary McHenry Back in January, I wrote a rambling, terribly earnest post titled How Does a Child REALLY Learn to Write? That post generated a slew of thoughtful and heartfelt comments. It also managed to capture the attention of Wendy Priesnitz, editor of the always insightful Life Learning Magazine, who asked to reprint it. [...]

It’s been busy around here. Homeschool camping trips, birthdays, and the usual “end-of-the-school-year” culminating activities, which ironically manage to creep into the lives of homeschoolers. I haven’t found time to write here. But luckily for me, Annie of Bird and Little Bird visited a few weeks back, along with Molly of A Foothill Home Companion. [...]