Winter

Miss B. greeted me at the breakfast table with this spontaneous little poem, composed after glimpsing a bare branch through the window:

Winter

The trees are bare,

Their leaves nowhere.

Snowflakes fall on the trees,

Happy days begin to freeze.

But winter days have just begun,

Throwing snowballs is lots of fun!

We sled down steep hills,

What--more tumbles??

Now comes Christmas, quiet, fun,

And winter's just begun.

Often, rather than simply saying something like, "I'm excited for winter to come!" she'll write a poem, and has done so since she first learned to write--she just loves the sound of words, the varying rhythms, the lingual dance. 

Just one of the many little drops of delight with which she showers our days.  There's nobody quite like Julia.

Not sure if you'd heard...

You saw it here first, folks.  Stay tuned.

School Days!

 The kiddos were chomping at the bit to get started with the school year. They ADORE our Ambleside Online curriculum and eagerly pored over this year's book list, giving their opinions as to which free reading books we ought to start first, recalling their favorite historical figures from last year, and chanting out their Spanish vocabulary. It is such a joy to teach kids who love to learn!

 You've never seen a more excited Preschooler!

Our four delights.  We are unspeakably blessed.

The Old Stomping Grounds

After years of Jayhawk indoctrination and various excursions to the KU campus in Lawrence,

we finally took the kiddos to the mighty hills of Westwood...

 

They were appropriately impressed.

What do you think, any future Bruins among them?

Afterwards, we enjoyed legendary Diddy Riese cookies on the beach at Santa Monica.

Hey, whatever it takes to make them dream of UCLA at night!

Just like Grandma

Or Bado, as she's known around here.

Our strong-willed child

He insisted on dressing himself for bed.

We pick our battles around here.
(Notice the chigger bites on the underwear line---poor Kansas boy!)

Tweedy

A house built by their great-great-grandfather

long walks to the lake

swimming with frogs and chasing lizards

echoes of memories from their mother's childhood

mining quartz on the hill above the house

dusty sunsets

a night sky unlike anything they've even imagined--

A fifth generation falls in love with Tweedy.