I spent quite a bit of time watching the robotics competition last weekend, and while our robot didn’t fare as well as hoped, I found watching the robotics teams quite entertaining. There was always something to watch, whether it was the match itself, or the flurry of movement between matches…

Last week was a week of late nights for The Banana as she worked to pull all the parts of her history day project together before the competition on Saturday. Process papers were written. Annotated bibliographies were organized. Quotations and student composed text was typed. Photographs were printed, and an…

I’m gearing up to watch our regional robotics competition this weekend! The Devious Snail has been working long, long days at school since the beginning of January with his robotics team. The Devious Snail worked in the programming division. The robot is almost ready to rumble on the field this…

I’ve been pronouncing the word “debacle” wrong. My husband gleefully pointed it out to me, and I’m trying to change. I tried cross country skiing for the first time on a very flat lake. It went alright, and I actually didn’t fall at all. I can see the appeal of…

Every summer I grow lavender on the back deck in containers. At the end of the season, I pick the purple flowers, let them dry, and fill little sachets with the blossoms. I toss them in my dresser drawers to make things smell nice, and other places. This winter season…

We have waited years to tear out the carpet in our family room and put new flooring in. We debated for years about what kind of flooring to install: Tile? Wood? A mixture? A few months ago we decided it was time for action. The carpet in that room was…

Last weekend a group of women from our church drove up to Adventurous Christians, a small camp close to Canada. We were joined by a group of women from another church in town, (and there was also a group of dads and their kids staying for the weekend as well).…

I love a good picture book, and so do my kidlets, who are now big kidlets. I think illustrated books are for people of all ages. Here are some of our recent favorites: Douglas by Randy Cecil: This is a lovely story, and the illustrations are terrific, so many details!…

It’s Wednesday, which means I am hauling kids to all sorts of places, and waiting in the car during YaYa’s oboe lesson. At least I get some reading done in snatches here and there. I’m on a quest to better my poor attitude about driving kidlets to this place and…

At the piano I learned the middle movement of a Beethoven Sonata. I have been working on the Sarabande from Bach’s G Major Suite for Cello (obviously, on the cello!) but I’m not finished learning it yet. I learned that when the temperature rises wind instruments go sharp, BUT string…