Foods 
If you didn't get a spring or summer garden in, have no fear! You can put in a fall garden. I know, summer is still in full swing and here I am talking about fall. The reason is, if you want to do a fall garden, you need to do some planning now. A little planning now can have some big pay-offs in the future. Isn't that how it goes with most things? Fall Gardening Basics Fall brings cooler weather and shorter days. This climate change also changes what you can grow successfully in your fall garden. Summer staples that need longer days to produce larger fruits like watermelon, peppers, and tomatoes are out. ...Read More
Homeschooling 5 Reasons Your Child Might Be Struggling With Handwriting
Struggling with handwriting can be a real source of anxiety for your child—and for you. Imagine how they feel when they can’t write the way you want them to. Imagine the tremendous stress of wanting so badly to write well and not understand why they can’t quite get there. None of us wants our children to feel stressed every time they sit down to write. As you're working to uncover any underlying problems with handwriting, keep this in mind: be gentle and encouraging. Pay attention to all the things you see your child do when he or she writes. Observe the ways you see them behave, hold their pencil, position ...Read More
How to Make the Best DIY Dishwasher Tablets Ever
25¢ That's about how much it costs me to run a load of dishes in my dishwasher using those pre-made tablets. That's over $90 a year in my home. What if you could wash your dishes for just 5¢ per load? That's less than $19 a year to wash my dishes! That beats $90 by a long shot. I’m going to share my tried-and-true essential oil DIY dishwasher tablets. You’re going to love them! I’m a big fan of using essential oils. They help our family save money, stay healthy, clean our home and so much more. Over time I’ve made lots and lots of products with my essential oils. It's still a thrill to create ...Read More
What To Do When Your Garden Fails
The end of the summer gardening season is coming soon. Come September, I'll be looking to see if my garden was wildly successful—or whether I'll be chalking this year up to a learning experience. It’s hard when you’ve invested as much time and energy into a garden to get it going as it takes, and then somewhere along the way, it all goes down the tubes. For us this year, we didn’t even get a lot of the plants in the ground that we usually do. Of the 4 trays of tomato plants I planted, we had only 5 plants germinate. As frustrating as that was, God is still in control and He still blesses us unexpectedly. We were ...Read More
5 Clever Ways to Sneak in Handwriting Practice
It's funny how different kids can be. Take school subjects, for instance. My oldest loves history, literature, and theology. My next oldest loves math, art... ...and handwriting. Who in the world likes handwriting? My child, that's who. I get that a log of kids dislike handwriting. I don't particularly desire to practice my penmanship either. For those of you who have kids who don't particularly like handwriting, here are some fun ways to sneak handwriting practice into your child’s life. If you do it correctly, they won’t even know that you’re actually teaching them. These handwriting ideas are for ...Read More
Bible Journaling for Kids: 5 great ideas to get them started!
I was amazed. My ten-year-old son's notes during the Wednesday night Bible study rivaled my own. I didn't have to force him, or even cajole him. He simply held out his hand to receive the study materials offered by our pastor, and got to work. His spelling wasn't great, and his sentence structure was lacking. But in this situation—who cares? He was taking the initiative to hear, ponder, and record spiritual truth, and I couldn't have been more thrilled with this son of mine. My son—who is working hard to overcome attention-deficit hyperactive behaviors. My son—who usually struggles to sit through the Sunday ...Read More
What Is Copywork? And why it’s the missing piece in your homeschool day!
My oldest is 14 now, and his handwriting still looks like it was scribbled out by a chimpanzee (sorry to all you chimps out there). Watching him write reminds me of what young Zorro must have looked like in school, slashing his pen across the paper. If it weren't so sad, it would be comical. We weren't nearly as rigorous about handwriting skills when he was younger—and it definitely shows. Thankfully, we learned we needed to be more disciplined with his younger brothers and their penmanship is quite good. It all started when we combined copywork with our Bible memory goals. Copywork, put simply, is copying by ...Read More
Low-Carb Lemon Blueberry Scones (paleo option)
I've found the longer (and more consistently) I keep my carbs low, the less of a sweet tooth I have. But sometimes, it's nice to sit down with a cup of coffee (or hot tea in my case) and a tasty little treat and feel...normal. And these low-carb lemon blueberry scones really fill that void. The scones aren't too sweet. Along with the blueberries, I use just a touch of a monk-fruit based sweetener—just enough to make these slightly-sweet, but oh-so delicious. Not familiar with monk fruit? This is one of my new favorite natural sweetener. Monk fruit has been used in Southeast Asia for many many years. The seeds ...Read More
