The robins returned in February, signaling that spring was right around the corner. In the meantime, it continued to snow on and off and just last week we had some nighttime temps in the single digits. I’d say we’ve been gradually thawing out for the last month and it has created the usual slush we […]
Marlene’s This and That
Observations – Perspectives – Inspirational A collection of articles on family, homeschool, and life.
The Game of Life
Like 175 million other people worldwide, I recently joined the social networking website, Facebook. Besides luring my own friends, I pestered relatives, and my grown-kids high school friends to join me in snooping on one another. It’s was a hoot, and for the first couple of weeks, I was hooked. After mentioning in my status bar that […]
Division More Fun Than Hiking
One morning, around the breakfast table, I was reminded of a comment my daughter M made about her preference to do a page of long division than to take a hike. This is a pretty strong statement, considering the mention of division may turn her from Miss Jekyell to Miss Hyde. For a moment, […]
Time is on My Side
As E is about to turn 11 and my oldest son is soon to be 35, I am reminded of how quickly time flies and the changes that come with its passing. Sometimes, we get stuck in a rut of negative thinking about time. Taking the time will require too much of us. We think […]
Believing is Seeing- 5 Holiday Family Friendly Movies That Inspire
As many do at this time of year with short winter days and long cold nights, my family and I watch a lot of inspirational movies. We don’t have a TV, so we gather in front of the computer to watch our favorite movies on Youtube, Hulu, or Google Video. What’s great is that […]
Forty and Pregnant
If we consider our thoughts as prayers and saying them aloud as complete affirmation of our desires, we must be prepared when our prayers are answered. When in my early 20’s, woman’s intuition told me that I would have a change of life baby, I expressed this thought to my husband. We had never […]
Jenna and Johann Otter Return To Glacier
We were no more than 10 minutes from home visiting a bird sanctuary with our homeschool nature journal group. It was a damp, dreary, autumn day and only 4 mothers with their children had shown up. Even though close to home, it was my first time in the Sowerwine. The group followed […]
Five Reasons to Avoid Black Friday!
The aroma of roasting turkey wafted through the house as the girls watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. The dog show followed and then the traditional movie presentation of Miracle on 34th Street. After being bombarded with an After Thanksgiving Day sales blitz, I began visualizing my neighbors bundling up in 20 degree weather to […]
A Story Teller
“In each case I am telling a story—I think of myself as sitting around the campfire after a day on the trail, telling stories that I hope will have the members of the audience, or the readers, leaning forward just a bit, wanting to know what happens next.” – Stephen Ambrose Grandpa Davey and I […]
Cataracts – A Bedtime Story
One of the joys of motherhood is having one’s children gather in the bedroom and lounge around on the bed. My tots and teens have often engaged me in conversation this way and I’ve always felt it created a special bond between us. While the girls and I were tucked under the covers last night […]