Flowering bushes!  Hooray!  While our winter wasn’t particularly terrible or particularly cold or particularly snowy this last season, it WAS particularly long!  Our first long lasting snow came in the middle of October, and we still had snow far, far into April, which made for a long time with trees…

I love this bush so much.  We planted it on the corner of the front of our house a few years ago, and it is growing and thriving, and completely gorgeous right now.  I love that it is one of the first things to bloom in the spring (just after…

Children’s Picture Books Seven ways to Trick a Troll by Lise Lunge- Larsen.  This is a delightful book of stories about trolls written and illustrated by a local author, and an illustrator that lives up the North Shore.  The stories draw on Scandinavian myths and legends, and the illustrations are beautiful.…

When Grandma Kathy was visiting last week she spent special time with each kidlet.  She took Mr. TOF out to share a reuben sandwich at the bakery.  Grandma and YaYa headed out to eat supper and discuss a book they’ve been reading together.  It’s a longstanding tradition that whenever Grandma visits,…

The mud kitchen is getting a workout these days.  It’s one of my favorite things that my husband has built for them.  I love that they spend so much time playing with dirt, leaves, sticks, flowers and things they find in the yard.  They make beautiful things out of mud.…

My late night practicing is getting squeezed out by  . . . resident teenagers.  While I love to hear their music, sometimes it puts me to sleep after a long day.  Perhaps I need to become more of an early morning practicer.

Back to your regular scheduled Sunday Evening Drama: There she sits at the dining room table, her social studies book in front of her, a ketchup bottle from supper that someone neglected to put away off to the side.  She’s reading expository text out loud . . . just to…

He’s out in the front yard every chance he can get.  Last year he completely wore out the grass on the north side of the front yard because he spends hours pretending to play soccer and baseball games out there.  The grass was literally shredded down to the dirt.  This…

I tried a recipe for quinoa porridge, and despite the fact that everyone around here likes quinoa, I learned that none of us really like quinoa porridge.  We have determined that quinoa must be more of a savory grain in our mind rather that something that goes with fruit and…

The Banana made this mask at art class, and it was chosen to go on display at the district wide school student art display.  When it came home, I couldn’t help but to giggle, because it’s so crazy and strange that only she could have come up with something quite…