Thoughts, Adventures, & Daily Life of a Home-Schooled High-Schooler

While we were at the cabin this weekend, I found a magazine with this very interesting article. Enjoy! Food for Thought You will probably never look at a cup of coffee the same way after you read this:        A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved when a new one arose.       Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she places carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the third she placed coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.        In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She took the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and po...

     The words "Thoughts, Adventures, & Daily Life of a Home-Schooled High-Schooler" are what greeted you when you opened my blog. I realized that I blog more about my thoughts and adventures than daily life , and I decided that I should try to include a little bit more of the everyday hum-drum.      So, I intended to blog Wednesday. . . .and then Thursday. .  . and today it finally happened.  I didn't feel like eating cereal, so I made eggs and toast.      And then after that, I wrote a letter. Don't you wish you knew who was getting a letter from me?       After lunch, I pulled weeds from a flower bed. But I didn't take a picture, because who wants to see a bucket full of weeds?       As I went about the rest of the non-blog-worthy-day, I didn't take anymore pictures, and the post never happened. The same thing happened on Thursday. * * * * *...

 Eternity has two When the melody's been written, And the words have all been penned And you've heard the spirit calling, Through some old sacred hymn. In the valley of decision, Tell me friend what will you do? This life has many choices, Eternity has two. This world and all its pleasures, Will soon be passed away. The final invitation,  Could be going out today. You're standing at the crossroad, And the Savior's calling you. This life has many choices, Eternity has two. The straight and narrow way leads to life, The broad way down below. What would it profit, to gain the world, And lose your very soul? Tomorrow is uncertain, Our days on earth are few This life has many choices, Eternity has two. This life has many choices, Eternity has two.      We are NOT promised another year, month, or day; our next breath could be our last. The song poses a thought provoking statement. This life has many choices, Eternity has ...

When I was writing the blog post about garage sales, mom walked through the office and saw me pecking away at the keyboard and asked "How come you never write about me? Don't I ever do anything blog-worthy?" Yes Mom, you do many things that could be blog-worthy. Its just usually not anything as embarrassing as dropping money while paying for purchases or giving someone 4 year-old versions of  compliments. Even though I wished you a "Happy Mother's Day" yesterday, here is another THANK YOU for everything you do for our family. Happy Mother's Day! Featuring Badlands vests!       

     If only the rain was the worst part. But of course it wasn't or else the blog post you are reading probably wouldn't exist.      A development not far from our house had yardsales yesterday. Everyone wanted to go, because going to yardsales is really fun; you have no idea what kind of treasures the "free boxes" might contain.      One lady had a full table of "free goodies" and several of my younger siblings took this as a cue to carry off whatever caught their fancy. With arms laden with a few minor purchases and many more items from the free table, several decided to go back to the van. I turned my attention back to the clothing that was laid out on the table before me.      Clang! Bang! Bumpity, bumpity, and "Oh no! Run faster, catch it!" were some of the next sounds that I heard. Inwardly I groaned as I saw a person from our family scurrying down the hill after a wayward free item, which...

       My last post talked a little bit about one of the different things that you might come in contact with when you work with people. Little did I know what would happen a week later. On the other hand, maybe it was good that I didn't know! **********************************************************************************       It seems that when the people in charge leave, the most bizarre things happen. One of Dad's cousins was getting married on Saturday, and they decided to go to the wedding. Sheri was also off, so Brian and I stayed home (we weren't invited anyway) to help Jamison run the shop.       The drama started about 10:30. Customer Abe* came in and wanted to shoot a bunch of bows. However, we only had one bow set-up at the poundage he was comfortable with. So, Jamison started setting up bows for him to try. As I was running register for another customer, Tom* walked in the door. He wa...

In our society, gender distinction can be a real problem. We have guys that dress like girls, and girls that dress like guys. When you work/interact with lots of people, this can be a challenge because there are a number of names that are not even gender specific.  Take note, gender distinction is not an issue in our  household.   Here is an example from several weeks ago. . . A few weeks ago, I instructed a child and its mother during an archery class. I said "a child and its mother", because I was not able to decide if Oscar* was a boy or a girl.        When I first heard the names of the people in the class, I thought "Oscar and his mother. Hmm, this could make for an interesting class! I think this will be the first time we have a child and parent go through the class at the same time."       Oscar came to class in a bulky blue jacket, sweatpants, and pink camo muck boots. The child was around 9 years old, had...

 The above title mentioned pile of peels. That's the biggest pile of banana peels I have ever seen. BUT, I normally don't go about my days looking for piles of banana peels to photograph. Now, enter the reason those banana peels are in one big pile. . . .        Mom was getting a few bunches of bananas at market this morning, and the seller offered her the whole box for the same price of a few bunches, and she readily excepted. Now, what are we going to do with all those bananas? About half the box was. . .um, er, well. . .  we'll just say getting to their prime. I promptly froze most of the bananas for later use. The end of the banana story.  *********************************************************************************** The two newest residents around our place, Summer and Bear.       Some of the younger children thought that they would enjoy having rabbits over the summer months, and the Small An...

       Thursday evening I was driving home from helping with a mini Easter Service at Coffee Shop, and I had an idea for the dress that I was sewing.         I enjoy trying different embellishments on the dresses that I sew. (Mom says its good to try and figure 'em out now while I have time.Then someday when my time is more crunched, I'll know how to do it easily and effectively.)            My idea was a way to save a headache trying to conceal the serging in the middle of the flower by ironing the edge over earlier in the sewing process.  (If this doesn't make any sense, just keep following along. The pictures might help portray my idea better than my wording.) I cutout my flower as usual, using a small dinner plate as my pattern.  I'm not good at cutting freehand shapes! After serging the edges, I sewed a gathering stitch around the outside of the flower. ...

It has officially been spring for almost a month (since March 20th, to be exact). Spring is just now starting to show some change in the landscape. This was not taken at our place, this was in Ohio at Clarion Park.  A lonely violet lifts it head to the sun. . . The Year's At The Spring - Poem by Robert Browning The year's at the spring, And day's at the morn; Morning's at seven; The hill-side's dew-pearled; The lark's on the wing; The snail's on the thorn; God is in Heaven— All's right with the world!  Robert Browning