Last night as I tucked my oldest into bed I reached for our weathered copy of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and thumbed through looking for something that might capture my 8 year old's heart and imagination.  I struck GOLD with this one:

O CAPTAIN! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done;

On a Holiday such as Thanksgiving I love a perfectly set table with gleaming crystal and an overflowing fragrant centerpiece; I love the gentle strains of a string quartet mingling with the aromas brought on by 24 hours of cooking.  O... and how I LOVE well groomed children wearing coordinating shirts, sitting patiently (and thankfully) around the table, eagerly awaiting our feast!  But let's be realistic here... 

Here is Asher, my littlest Roman!  

Today in our homeschool we ventured into the life of Julius Caesar. We read about his military conquests and ascent from one of Rome's three Consuls to Dictator over the entire Ro...

One day last week as the boys were enjoying the sunshine I ran into the house to send a few emails.  My four year old obviously didn't have a sense of where I had gone because when he found a "private spot" in the garden to relieve himself he pulled his pants down right outside my office window.  His little butt checks were only a few feet away.  Only a pane of glass and a rose bush separated us.  So precious!  

I'm not a political blogger:  I don't have the guts for it,  I hate confrontation, and I'm not uber educated on every facet under scrutiny today.  But I do believe this:  The separation of Church and State can never be achieved.  You see, its people who vote.  All male and female citizens of these United States are free and encouraged to vote.  And a large portion of said citizens are Christians.  

When I tell people I have three strong-willed boys I often hear "O, I have one of those too... My little Ashley knows exactly what she wants and will pout until she gets it."

Uh...

Some of the reasons I wanted to homeschool my three sons: 

-I wanted them to get outside and live what they were learning.

-I didn't want them bored.

-I wanted them to learn to love real, living literature.

-I wanted to raise men who knew the history of our world from a Christian perspective.

I said yes to suffering this year.  I purposefully said yes.  

While there are far greater degrees of suffering in the world (and likely on our block) than what I am experiencing, it is still suffering... and this suffering I said yes to.

It was the end of summer and I was looking at the upcoming fall with many ...

‎"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be

and you help them to become what they are capable of being"

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home."  It was the first time the opening line to a book lodged itself into my mind.  The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton was the book.  And I was 12.

The Outsiders spoke to my young inquisitive mind, my romantic...