The World is almost filled with. . . Daisies?

There are no dandelions in the new yard.

And, daisies just happen to be my favorite flower. What a nice surprise it was to see my back yard full of them. I do kinda miss all those little yellow fuzz balls though.

Welcome Summer!

Learning to Love Reading Again

When I see this,

I know that at least one of my homeschooling goals, a big one, has been achieved this year.

Welcome back my little reader, my lover of books, I missed you.

(A frustrating year in school last year left her less than enthusiastic about reading. These photos were actually taken in April and she's still going strong, reading most nights before bed and to me often)

Spring is

 Mud puddles and cousins,

 Misty evening walks,

Misty Morning walks,

 Tutus,

Homemade doughnuts from my oldest girl,

Ducks in the pond,

More mud,

Time with my boy exploring,

No more paper blinds,

Baseball,

And. . . Did I mention mud.

Hello

I got my new camera! Now if only I could find the inspiration for a new banner. (I never have to look very far for inspiration, my own front porch usually works) For now just a quick hello. Our first year of little league has been very exciting and nerves are aflutter about some upcoming recitals. We have been doing our best to enjoy the emerging nice weather with hikes,

and picnics with home made peanut butter and jelly.

And by watching and learning about all the wildlife in our own backyard. There is a beautiful family of Sandhill Cranes that have lunch here every day. And a camera shy muskrat (we think) living in a mound in the center of the pond, not to mention what sound like at least a millions frogs.

Just doing our best to enjoy the season of mud.

School on the Road

The hubs has had a few out of town jobs the last couple of weeks and so, we've been able to fully abuse the freedom homeschooling gives us and tag along. It has been fun checking out some parks and museums in cities we would not have otherwise visited.

The Children's museum in Flint was a hit with the littlest ones, but a bit of a disappointment to the older ones. It is a fairly small museum without much there to keep older kid's interest, but still very nice.

 At one park, we discovered some naturally occurring whirlpools in a stream bringing up some great questions to explore, and inspiring us to find some fun experiments that we can't wait to try out. Not to mention a wonderful afternoon throwing stick and leaves into the water and watching them swirl and whirl and some even disappear down those little vortexes.

We visited a local art gallery in one town, my oldest really enjoyed seeing the works of some real artists. And we even ventured to the east coast of the state one day to explore the beautiful, still frozen shore of Lake Huron. 

And to entertain us during all of that time in the car, we have been enjoying The Sister's Grimm series on audio disc. I'm am, of course, missing my camera terribly. All of these photos were taken with my phone and then touched up a bit. They don't do justice to the beautifully sunny days we enjoyed or the gorgeous Michigan scenery.

Catching Up

 Hi. I've started half a dozen blog posts, but just can't seem to finish them. I'm not sure why. We have been thoroughly enjoying our beautiful Michigan winter. I love the snow, especially with our new, amazing back yard. I feel so lucky to be here in this wonderful home. Seriously it's beyond perfect and I'm still not sure how we ended up here. There were so many variables, everything just fell together, or truthfully apart, perfectly and here we are. There is this great tiny stream out there that we hike to occasionally, it's breathtaking in the snow, but I doubt we'll be able to get to it come spring. I think it's mostly swamp all around in wet weather.

We had an amazing time on our annual snowboarding trip, thanks again mom and dad. This year we opted to go for an entire week and rent a big house so we could all hang out together. It was lots of fun and the kids are really becoming decent boarders, thanks to Unkie. He is so very patient with them. Not to mention quite talented. Since we got back the snowman/snow fort building has ceased and kicker construction has replaced it. Of course the kids are just as happy to ride their snowboards like sleds once in a while too.

Sadly though, I did not get many great photos and my camera met it's demise at the top of the mountain. Yes, not only did I unknowingly drop the camera, I then proceeded to jump on it a few times while strapped into my snowboard completely burying it in the snow and smashing the screen. It will still take photos, but they all have this one weird fuzzy spot off to the side and the viewfinder and screen are toast, so I have no idea what exactly I'm photographing. At least I have a decent phone for once so I'm not completely without a camera.

I hope to be back soon with a kitchen table makeover that we did before we started packing up last summer and maybe even a sewing tutorial, if I can figure out how to get some halfway decent photos.