Inspired by the Top Chef show being here in Chicago, I set us forth a cooking challenge similar to one of theirs. We went to the winter farmer’s market today and picked out 5 ingredients we can make dinner out of, not including the use of spice and oils. I tried encouraging my other homeschooling [...]

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Chicago stop sign-Florida stop sign. Can you guess which is which?

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(what Easter looked like at our house)
Okay, get out your interpretation journals. This one isn’t an aimless, rambling recollection. It has a punchline.Last night I had a dream that I was at a beachside casino (Ken and I used to work for one in another life) for our annual homeschooling conference (really? At a casino? [...]

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Right brained, eh? Today Anoif is categorizing her books. Not the books she is reading but the ones she is writing. Mail is busy perfecting magic tricks (pick a card, which cup is the candy under?) but not before he whipped up a few artsy photos. It is all well and good since I seem [...]

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About a year ago I used this same adorable picture to offset the tale of woe about a giant public meltdown. So, yesterday apparently we had our annual rehash. Only this time I have some more insight.
Anoif was at her gymnastics class and the rest of us decided to stroll around a local, picturesque [...]

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Yay, day and night are equal now. Happy vernal equinox. Please don’t mention our purported future snowstorm just now.

They aren’t as fancy as our past attempts but it is still a tradition we deeply enjoy.

We are very in to this story now. I never thought I’d say this about anyone but Peter Rabbit but [...]

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(Alright fellow nature geeks, time to go birding or geocaching!)
My brown manila envelope arrived today, much to my delight. Instead of pulling out a laughably thin laptop (see story below)* I pulled out something much more low tech and satisfying. A clutch of notebooks that could weather this spring and summer with me and the [...]

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Some days are just meant to be taken over by a creative wind. Today was one of those days.The kids lept out of bed and instantly started making stuff, so I went with it. The first projects were entirely their own. Mail made his gromit hand armor shown here. Maybe we should call the [...]

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Things have been moving at a fast clip here once the lurking flu thing left the city. I spent the weekend careening from event to event and daydreaming of sitting crosslegged on the floor and gazing at George Elliot (my laptop) equipping her with secret phrases and usernames that would get me access in to [...]

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(Adoring Grammy at the conference. Nice digs, eh?)
My mom visited last week and came with us to the conference, which was one of the most awesome experiences. She got to trek around the 1/3 mile long hotel with me and meet every homeschooler in the tristate area. We got to have some quiet moments here [...]

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