Hannah's Newest Creations

At the shop where Hannah sells her wares, there are many women who are selling homemade jewelry.

So Hannah is making boxes that you can use for jewelry for a lovely gift presentation.

Next up: small gift cards to match the boxes.

Projects

For Jacob, who loves to build and create.

For Hope, who wants to learn to sew.

For Abby to have fun with.

Hannah came home with things for her paper flowers and the booth (no surprise there).

And I bought fabric for bedroom curtains. We'll all be busy now.

Introducing Bonnie, our new African Violet

Named after Marilla Cuthbert's geranium in Anne of Green Gables, the book Hope and I are currently reading.

Bunny Love

With Minnie

In the classroom...

Abby has been listening to various lectures from "The Great Courses" series, where renowned professors from colleges around the country are taped giving their best classes. We have usually been quite pleased with these courses, so it was a surprise when the past few have begun with a detailed discussion of evolution.

Abby commented the other day that, if evolution is a solid fact, why is it that each professor has a different explanation of how life began? She said some of the explanations were impressive (!) but never answered the fundamental questions of where did it all come from.

It was interesting to me, having been fed this stuff throughout my public school life, because I just tuned it out and knew enough to regurgitate it for the test. My children do not learn about the theory of evolution until they reach junior high and by then the inconsistensies between scientists are clear. I think it is valuable to study these theories for many reasons, but what irks me is that in school, on the news, or in books, it is taken as a given, as if it has been proven and the argument is over.

I am grateful that Abby doesn't just accept information from others just because they have a few letters after their name, but that she thinks through things and wants to discuss it later. I hope she will always use her critical thinking skills in every area of her life so that she won't be easily led astray by others, no matter how impressive their arguments may sound.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

When I was in third/fourth grade (can't remember which) I didn't have many clothes. In fact, I think I had less than one outfit per school day for the week, and I only had one item with green in it. So it was a huge deal when St. Patrick's Day came and I had *nothing* to wear to save me from getting pinched- and boy, did the kids pinch you at our school.

Anyway, I couldn't go to school without wearing something green and I remember quite a bit of drama on my part (and a lot of disgust on my mother's part). Seeing the domestic trouble mounting, my Dad jumped in the car and raced to the nearby gas station (if I remember right) and bought this pin for me to wear. He made it back just in time for me to get to school- and I was spared a day of pinching and humiliation.

I have worn this pin most St. Patrick's Days since that time and I am grateful that I had a father who cared about my feelings and understood how inportant some things are when you are little.

So, Thanks, Dad. And Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Only Eight Months Away...

So I said to my husband on my birthday, "The bathrobe is a great gift (the one I picked out for myself). But if you *really* want to knock my socks off, I'd love to get tickets for The Lion King".

Front row balcony. Six very excited people. Hoping and praying that Rob will be Simba in this performance. Because how often do you get to see a family member in a Broadway show?

We interrupt our family's flu to bring you this post...

Instead of a birthday cake this year, the girls made me "Cake Pops".

They didn't try any of the cute shapes in the book, but even so, these were the best birthday treats I've had. Much better than a regular cake!

Do not make these if you are on a diet!

Hope gets her braces off (finally)!

She was only supposed to have braces for one year, which turned into two, since the teeth that the braces were for took that long to come in.

But now they are off and she's ready to eat popcorn again (actually, it's popping right now, as I write this!).

But first, a quick Starbucks run to celebrate, with hot chocolate for her and a decaf vanilla latte for the rest of us.

Morning in the Sun

The sky seemed so blue against the white of the aspen branches.

There have been lots of bluebirds in the trees, but when I tried to photograph them, they all flew away. Hope was able to catch this one.

She filled the bird feeder on the maple tree with bread.

Jacob played in the back. Hannah did her hoola hooping, but we didn't get a picture of that.

Abby worked on her friendship bracelets.

The bunnies got to frolic on the grass (and on Jacob).

And Lucy watched over it all.

At the Wildlife Museum

Parts of it were noisy, with all the animal sounds they played.

You walk through different ecological zones from parts of the world and see animals and climates from all over.

"People" in the different areas talk about the animals, weather, etc. While you are standing there, minding your own business, a voice seemingly out of nowhere demands, "Ask me a question!" Nearby is a computer screen with questions you can choose for the "person" to answer.

We spent the rest of the time at the museum saying to each other, "Ask me a question!"

Jacob and Abby appear to be in danger of getting attacked by a polar bear.

More people wanting to be asked questions...

Dory: "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming!"

Our local library is offering free tickets for this museum and for the art museum downtown. It's a fun way to spend a few hours and it fits nicely into Abby's ecology studies!

More Adventures in Paper Flowers

Hannah made a wreath for one of her biggest encouragers.

Two frames for the shop.

New card designs.

And how everything looks at the booth as of yesterday!

New Link in Sidebar

I have added one of my favorite blogs to my sidebar:

Confessions of a CF Husband

Nathan blogs here about his family- wife Tricia and daughter Gwyneth. I started reading Nathan's blog just as his wife was about to undergo a double lung transplant due to advanced Cystic Fibrosis. Tricia had just delivered their daughter, Gwyneth, by c-section at 24 weeks gestation and neither of them had high odds of survival.

Even though we do not know this family personally, I remember how our whole family prayed for them so fervently during those weeks- and rejoiced in the days, months and now years that have followed as we have read of Nathan's account of Tricia's successful transplant, subsequent battle with post-transplant cancer (she's doing well now), and their little one's growth and development.

Nathan is the worship leader at his church and both he had Tricia have a wonderful testimony of God's faithfulness to them. Their daughter is now three years old and is so cute :).

I wanted to share this blog with you so that you might be encouraged, as our family has, by this amazing family. Sometimes I feel like an internet stalker reading about their life when we have never met, but thankfully, I'm just a harmless homeschooling mother/internet stalker.

Gratitude # 34

Horrible Histories

Learning about the past has never been so fun.

Days of Gratitude- Day #33

Time to get outside and play.

Days of Gratitude- Day #32

Gift Certificate for Christmas

Spent in the After-Christmas clearance section. I bought eight of these. Looking forward to decorating the staircase next Christmas... Thanks, Dad and Judy.

Days of Gratitude- Day #31

More Memories

Aunt Melody and Uncle Steve a looong time ago...

And last summer.

Cousin Tim and I. Sure, he looks cute here, but let me tell you, I wasn't happy with him holding onto me. I remember that as soon as mom took the picture, he let go and I ran away from him!

Apparently, I have forgiven him and we are on good terms today :).