On Wednesdays I do not have students.  My after school hours are reserved for driving kidlets to their oboe and violin lessons and making sure people get to their Wednesday night church activities.  During the first semester of the school year I had cello lessons on Wednesday mornings, but in…

It’s January.  In this “middle of the winter” month there is a lot of reading in our house, a lot of practicing, and a lot of homework. There’s a bit of ice skating on the weekends, because now all of these kidlets can WALK to the neighborhood ice rink by…

Astute, long time readers of this blog know that Mr. SP is famous for his charming faces.  Whenever I pull out the camera, he goes through a serious of poses, making the craziest, weirdest, yuckiest faces he can summon up.  It’s been going on for years, and years. Earlier this…

We’ve had a lot of Fridays home from school this month, but amazingly, the weather has been really great for most of those Fridays.  Yesterday the snow was perfect for creating things.  The Banana made a caterpillar and a snow room with four walls.  Mr. SP created a snow snake…

Last weekend YaYa and I had the unique opportunity to visit the Art Institute of Chicago.  Here’s the deal.  I love art museums.  Both times I had the opportunity to visit the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., I spent nearly the entire day wondering around the National Gallery of Art.  Seeing…

  Ever since we saw a group of middle aged women plunge into the icy waters of Lake Superior last year on New Years Day, Mr. Sneaky Pants has been itching to go for a winter swim.  We didn’t get around to making that happen last winter, and this year…

Our Christmas break was seriously just one long cold snap of subzero pain.  Near the end it did warm up one day to 7 degrees above zero, and we took advantage of the balmy temperatures to go for a quick hike to Rock Knob before the thermometer plunged back down…

  I learned  my kids have figured out that my expressive vocabulary increases exponentially when I am agitated.  The more irritated I get the more I start to use big words, and as I get more worked up the words get bigger.  It unfortunately cracks them up and they end…