Homemaking Links

FlyLady is my hero!

Homeschool Links

Curriculum Links

Robinson Curriculum

Ambleside Online

An Old-Fashioned Education


Homeschool Forms and Record Keeping

DonnaYoung.org

Homeschool Tracker

Dream Home

I think my husband is getting restless. Lately he has been talking about looking for a new house. I think the house we live in now is just fine and I would be content to live here for the rest of my life, but it is fun to dream. I think if we do move someday, I would like to build a house so that it can be exactly what we want.

Last weekend he showed me this website with houses that are efficient to heat and cool. I think it is my new dream home! I guess we better start saving our pennies!

What would your dream home be like?

Preschool -- Necessary?

I have two children: a one-year-old son and a three-and-a-half-year-old daughter -- call them Drew and Gracie. People have started asking me if Gracie will be starting preschool this fall. I just smile and say she will be staying home with me. I realize that she would probably enjoy preschool, and would possibly even learn some things that she would not learn at home. I even had one friend tell me that I would be doing her a disservice (by inhibiting her social development) if I keep her home. But I am not convinced.

When did preschool become a normal -- perhaps even necessary -- thing for our children to do? A few days ago I was thinking about it and I realized that almost all of my friends' children have gone to preschool for at least a year before starting kindergarten. I guess I'm feeling a little bit uncomfortable by doing something different.

What do you think? Is preschool necessary? What would Gracie gain by going to preschool that she could not learn by being home with me?

Birthday Cake

We will be celebrating my son's first birthday soon, so tomorrow I am planning to bake my very favorite chocolate cake: Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Cake. I made it for the first time for my mother-in-law's birthday a few months after my husband and I got married, and eight years later it is still my favorite.

What is your favorite kind of birthday cake?

Out of Town

What is it about packing that makes me hate it so intensely? It's not that hard to put clothes and toiletries into a bag. I even have a packing list to check items off as I pack them. And yet every time I'm faced with packing for a trip, I get so upset about it that I would almost rather stay home than pack.

Maybe it's the fact that I know I will be facing days that don't follow my normal, predictable routine. Maybe I'm afraid I will forget something vital. (I almost always manage to forget *something* but I'm still alive!) Tonight it might be because, due to the fact that I've been sick this week, I don't have enough clothes clean to make it through the weekend and I'll be up half of the night doing laundry just so I *can* pack. I really don't know. Maybe I'll spend some more time thinking about it.

But for now, I'm off to pack.

When Mommy is Sick

Sometimes even Mommies get sick. Hard to believe, but true! This has been one of those weeks ... Monday night I came down with a fever, chills, aches ... Tuesday night I decided it might possibly be mastitis (I am nursing my nearly-one-year-old) and on Wednesday I started taking an antibiotic for it. I am on the mend now, but most of my daily chores around the house did not get done while I was sick, so I have a lot of catching up to do. So what am I doing? Recuperating by starting a blog!

Who takes care of Mommy when she gets sick?