Christmas Star

Kasey called and told us Dan K would be at Orchards park with his telescopes so people could stop by and see Saturn and Jupiter.  We met up with them and she and jimmie played with the kids and had apps on their phones to look up constellations while we waited to use the telescopes. Big thanks to the awesome Koster family for sharing and teaching us! We got to see the rings of Saturn, and when they dipped below the horizon, they focused on the moon and gave us an incredible look! Obviously my iPhone photos through a telescope don’t really do it justice, but it’s an idea of how good our view was! People are cool. Thank you, Kosters and Meadows! 

Winter Solstice is the turn around point of our long and dark winter days. I love our cozy nights by the fire. But more sunshine is almost always preferred! Endless praise to our Creator for this magnificent universe and hope in brighter days to come. 

Homemade: fire starters

It’s actually kind of terrifying just how flammable dryer lint is. We’ve been building fires every other night, so I decided to be resourceful and make my own started out of things we normally throw away. We lined an egg carton with about a TBS of scraps from the paper shredder, packed in dryer lint that I saved up for a couple of days, and then I melted down the remains of a candle that reached the end of its wick, and poured the wax over the top of the starters. We tested one out tonight. It worked beautifully! We will be making more very soon, but filling up empty toilet paper rolls instead of egg cartons. 

Look at that beautifully blazing fire 😍

Scenes from Homeschool

The kids worked hard today. Math lessons took a particularly long time, language arts was really challenging for Sloane.  Sloane and Esme were both awake multiple during the night and seemed to be taking turns sleeping.  At 2:45am I poked Aaron and begged him to take the next turn as I had not slept even a minute yet. He tagged in and did the next round of mid-night-tears and tucked them back in. 6am came so very early today.  

But we powered through and it was one of those days when the work just dragged on. So, determined to be the fun teacher mom that I am, I scavenged myself garage for nuts and bolts and quickly put together an super fun sensory activity for the kids when their “work” was done.  They worked hard at play and the creativity revived my mother heart. We had a good book talk and we all felt so happy because this was a moment that mirrored what I dreamed homeschooling would/could look like. It just took us until 1:30pm to get there.

The boys have been busy busy busy cutting out intricate Star Wars themed getsnowflakes. We laminated the lot of them and put them up in the classroom today. They’re so cute! 

In the late afternoon, neighbor pals gathered on the island for a primrose rock painting activity. Sloane and Bryn had fun working together. 

We also made homemade DIY laundry detergent this week. It smells so good! 




We are busy busy busy around here!  It’s good busy though. Full and satisfying. If

Meg Reads: The Witches by Roald Dahl

We had one last spooky hurrah before we went full blown into Christmas mode. 

Roald Dahls magical masterpiece was a captivating read for my homeschoolers. Corbin picked it up during his free time and finished the parts he missed.  


Friday Movie night rolled around and I totally traumatized our kids with the 1990’s movie adaptation.  Soren’s face! 😳 

We decided to save the 2020 HBO version for next Halloween 🤣🤣🤣

Homeschool Field Trip: The Old Spanish Treasure Cave

To finish up our homeschool geology unit, we took the kids (plus Corbin, who got to play hookey for a few hours) to The Old Spanish Treasure Cave!  This was so fun, and a great hands on review of Erosion, deposition, sedimentary rock, gems, and minerals. The kids saw fossils and several types of stalactites and stalagmites. They also learned about the Dunbar mining company from the turn of the century. It really just blows my mind that are are miles and miles of cave systems and underground pools of water beneath these Ozark limestone bluffs we live upon. After the cave tour, we got some sluice bags for the kid’s and cane home with treasures to add to their rock collections.