Author: Angela

I write so my family will always have letters from home.

The Cause and the Cure

I have been feeling the effects of Post Traumatic Family Portrait Disorder. I won’t go into all the details, but I am unnerved. There were unfortunate choices made in our clothing and posture. The sun was in our eyes. We couldn’t find a decent new dress within 30 miles for Paige. A shortage of curlers, a mistake in the bangs/no bangs dilemma, a failed teeth-whitening attempt and sunburns just hours before the portrait. Oh, the ignominious defeat! I’ll blame the town, as usual. Shame on you, Sahuarita.

I’ll find consolation in the children’s portraits for a long time.

Monday

It’s the Monday after a big weekend. The laundry is going, school work is in progress, and the flowers in our backyard are beautiful.

What have we been up to?

ArtclassesDavisMonthanAirshowFamilyPortraitsSpeakinginchurchTeachingSunbeams(3-4yrolds)RestingWritingletterReadingRestingCryingand findingbeautyinthisdifficultplacetolive.

A Great Matter settled

It’s settled. It doesn’t take much to make my little boys happy.

A Big Event came and now it is over. I oversaw many things: chemistry, cinema, costumes, photography, tents, model building, cooking, advertising and bunting. I went overboard. Again.

Sticks, pine cones and friends provided the most entertainment today. It’s a wholesome and encouraging truth to be remembered Next Time.

Yard Improvement Day 2

Tio Seto (we’ve adopted him) came back today and finished this 60 foot wall. We’ll paint it after the stucco is dry.

The kids and I picked out some Mexican tiles. They are mismatched and so colorful. We placed them every 5 feet.

This makes for a long wall, perfect for sitting and enjoying the trampoline antics and waiting for a grilled hamburger. I couldn’t get a good shot of the whole wall because the yard is littered with a lot of tools and toys.

Seto liked all of our rubber lizards and toads. Every now and then he’d find another one in the dirt. We have a fun backyard.

Yard Improvement Day 1

We’re having a wall built around our garden and flower beds in the backyard. It will have some stucco and some Mexican tile when it’s finished.

The installer had a long day under the constant careful eyes of Boy #1, #2, #3 and Man #1.

We like our installer. He’s nice enough to be family. He makes hauling rock and cement look easy and he smiles a lot to compensate for our lack of Spanish skills.

Vendor Day

It was Vendor Day at the park. Daniel sold S’Mores and he let the kids roast their own marshmallows!. Timothy sold candy airplanes in custom-designed packaging. Paige also sold some treats. Her marketing strategy was to produce a commercial with her friend. Fun!

Under Construction

When a website is undergoing some kind of change, they say it’s “under construction.”

Something like that is happening here. I am a hesitant blogger (despite my frequent posts) because unlike many bloggers,  I am not here to start a discussion. I’m just here to share. I share to maintain relationships with family and have some personal validation. I have a very small readership. (Bless each of you!) I get a lot of questions about curriculum and activities, so I have tried to share these things here. This may be changing, however.

First, two bits of background information:

A few months ago I found a discussion that asked, “At what point do you stop posting about your children because they are old enough to tell their own stories?” This question has hovered over my head for a while and I can see wisdom in not treading heavily on the experiences of childhood. I have tried to be careful with what I post about the heart-wrenching or embarrassing moments of growing up. There are no posts showing the painful smile after braces or striking out during a baseball game, etc.

This weekend I read a homeschooling discussion and was once again shocked and horrified to read the hatred and mistrust that is directed against parents who educate their own children. Such comments ignore the good and highlight the bad. I have seen homeschooling done very well and I’ve seen it done very poorly. Over the past several days my reaction to the acerbic tone of so many against this movement has been to crawl into a shell and ponder two questions,

“Is the online telling of the education of my children ultimately unfair to them?” (even though I block search engines)

and,

“Do my homeschooling posts serve anyone but myself?”

Since I’m not looking for a discussion, I don’t expect these questions to be answered by my readers, but through prayer. And believe me, that’s enough.

But, if you see fewer posts in the future, or see that I suddenly start posting pictures of decorated corners of my house instead of scenes from the schoolroom you will know that I have decided to protect that aspect of our lives.