While I don't keep track of the stacks and stacks of books the kids grab to read just because, I always love sharing what we are reading, and seeing what other people are reading. I'll sort this list by person, and just include current reads or books finished in January. Rebekah (age 3)  She's not reading on her own at all. But her favorite books right now are Black Beauty and anything fairy tale.  Tobias (age 6)  Not reading on his own yet. His favorite books currently are The Cat in the Hat and other books by Seuss, as well as fairy tales.  Samuel (age 8) January reads ..read more

 We had a wonderful late Christmas on Saturday with extended family. Good food, good conversation, and lots of laughs. Sunday the whole family was at church. I feel like it is important to note that, because in the winter in a large family it is rare for everyone to be healthy enough to all be at church. A winter cold that runs through a smaller family in a week or two can take us 4-6 weeks before the eleven of us get through it. It is more common to split the family between home and church as those who are well go, and those recovering stay home.  In the late afternoon the winter st ..read more

Life is always full with a large family. My last update was early in October of last year, which means I have 3 months to catch up on. There is no way to do that well, but I will try to hit a few interesting moments.  October was uneventful, which I appreciated. We had steady progress in homeschool, teaching seminary went well, and we had two birthdays - Joseph turned 17 and Daniel turned 14.  November decided to make up for the uneventful month before. I woke up one morning barely into November, walked into the bathroom, and stepped into water.  Overnight, a pipe burst from w ..read more

Let's see if I can get back in the note taking habit!  Saturday kicked off with an unexpected run to the urgent care near us with Mason. He woke up with a swollen area the size of my palm on his knee. It was hot to the touch, tight, and you could feel fluid under it. I always hesitate to take him to the local urgent care because he is so complex medically, but I was pretty confident in what needed checked and done temporarily to get us through to Monday when we could check in with his surgeon.  As any mama with a medically complex child will tell you, you have to be your child's adv ..read more

Monday's seminary lesson focused on temples. After that it was breakfast with the kids, then all sorts of math lessons. From radicals in Algebra 2 and angles in Geometry to mental math with a focus on different strategies to do two digit subtraction problems in your head, to equivalent fractions, we covered a lot of math. The kids all agree their favorite subject today was science. The younger boys experimented with mirrors and illusions. The older kids built working wooden cranes with several pulley options.  Another thing we have been doing every day is watching some of the Paralympic G ..read more

Random photo on my phone for dog appreciation day - no real dogs here thanks to allergies, but lots of  stuffed animals. Monday kicked off with our first day of seminary for the school year. At 6:10am I was surrounded by teens who make the time to show up each morning before school to study the scriptures together. It is so neat to be a part of this! After they headed to school at 7am the rest of my kids started drifting downstairs, ready for our school break. The plan for the week is to rest and do family time. One sad note, my grandmother passed away today. We love her and m ..read more

A couple of the boys are working on learning coding. Another week has come and gone. I wanted to quickly remind readers of a few things: Our weeks are very often repetitive. It's just a fact of this slow growing time we've chosen as we stepped off the education conveyor belt more than 15 years ago. It's the freedom of living a life less driven by other peoples' agendas and schedules. It also can get boring to read about. Check back in when you need a quiet read. Take a break when you don't.  The real reason I keep this blog is to keep a family journal of this precious time we ha ..read more

 First Week of the Homeschool Year Rebekah gathered a lot of  supplies when she was ready to  'read'. Monday, August 2nd, was pleasantly smooth for a first day back to homeschool. I woke up at 5:40am (no alarm, I'm just an early riser) and spent some time quietly eating, reading my scriptures, and putting away the clean dishes from my cooking/baking session on Sunday. At 7am I woke any kids still sleeping. The first hour of their morning is for waking up, eating breakfast, getting dressed, and doing a chore. At 8am everyone begins school, though some kids like to ..read more

Daniel finished this articulated albino catfish made from his imagination and a bin of Legos. We really have spent the end of July just soaking in the end of summer fun. Family time, visit to the park, walking trails, watching ducks, visiting the local science center, building, crafting, creating, and catching a show at the planetarium. We start back to school on Monday. Today I will be sharing about our curriculum plans.  Family Studies World Geography and Cultures  The high schoolers (11th, 10th) and one of the middle schoolers (8th) will be using Notgrass Exploring World ..read more

Sunday we celebrated Samuel's 8th birthday with our usual family party. His dessert of choice was cupcakes, and the icing covered faces on some of my younger kids were quite hilarious. We also enjoyed church and a rainstorm. Emma auditioning Monday Emma started Theater Camp. She spends a large chunk of each day at camp, with their performance on Friday. Today was a lot of warm ups, auditions, and casting. They will actually be doing two small plays. For one she got the role of Jack's mother (from Jack and the Beanstalk fame). This is a small part and something she was comfortable wit ..read more