What's In My Teapot?

I am feeling sentimental today. Here's why: fall has come and the summer hours have passed into the category of days gone by. I love summer and it is my favorite season, hands down. When you see something you love fading into oblivion, it is only right to have a little time of mourning. The cricket singing outside my kitchen window agrees with me. There will never be another summer when Parker is only one year old. He is at such a busy, curious stage and he loves marching around in his rubber boots. He has two pairs, so sometimes he marches around in green froggy boots and sometimes in yellow fireman boots. By next summer he may not fit either pair. There will never be another summer when Gavin turns 4 years old and starts off to Sunday-school for the first time with such shining eyes. Or when he learns the joys of riding a two-wheeler without training wheels. There will never be another summer when Elasa is working so hard through both the thrill and struggle of learni...

Not so very long ago I had two pets living on my kitchen window sill. They were carried into the house in mason jars, riding on parsley leaves. Elasa and Gavin each laid claim to one and, since it was obvious that one was a girl and one was a boy, they were named Esther and John accordingly. (Our children are a bit deprived in the pet department due to our location in town, their father's allergies, and their mother's general lack of interest in pet care!) After munching on her fill of parsley, Esther made a neat little green cocoon and waited silently to be reborn. Finally, after several weeks, it happened! I glanced at the mason jar and saw a fluttering. The cocoon was empty and Esther was testing her new wings against the confines of her home. What must it feel like to fall asleep a worm and wake up a butterfly? After Elasa had a chance to show off her pet's new tricks to Daddy, we took the jar outside and removed the cheesecloth. Esther had to be coaxed out in...

I woke up early this morning with visions of yard sales dancing in my head. Not only would I go out and search  for buried treasures, but I would go alone (and therein lay the best part!) It wasn't until I had already showered & dressed that I thought to investigate the weather, at which point I peered out a window (my favorite weather forecaster!) and saw that it was raining. I considered going back to bed, but a new vision began dancing in my head... lemons !!! A couple days ago I saw a recipe for Lemon Curd Coffee Cake in one of my cookbooks and it stuck in my head as something I wanted to try sometime. The recipe calls for lemon curd and I happened to have some that I made awhile ago just sitting in my fridge. The recipe also calls for lemon juice and lemon peel and I actually had a bag of fresh lemons sitting in my fridge,too! Plus (and this is my favorite reason!) one of my friends sent me a lemon squeezer for my birthday and I couldn't wait to try it out!!!...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I am hoping this sentiment is true even if the photographer is me- an amateur- and the photographs are candid shots, at best! Just in case the pictures don't speak for themselves, I am planning to add some narration to fill in the inevitable blank spots! In mid-August, our family went to a cabin near Brickerville, Pa for several days. This spot is about one-and-a-half hours from us and it was the perfect vacation for the particular stage of life we're in...namely 3 children, including one whirlwind of a toddler. On Wednesday, the 13th, we packed & loaded the van & trailer and actually got out the door before noon! Wesley had outfitted our van with a hitch, and the trailer, on loan from my brother, was perfect for bikes & the overflow of luggage & food that didn't fit in the van. We made a stop at McDonalds for lunch and another in Ephrata to procure a key for our lodging. The next stop was our planned a...

This day is a bit epic for me. Not only am I actually posting my very first blog post, but it was also the very first day of homeschooling my first grader- my first born! I didn't plan for these two things to coincide, but as I want to document this journey of homeschooling through my writing- along with many other things- it seemed like a good day to make several things official! My intention is to make this blog a place where I can write about the things that make up my world. Our tea pot is always full of something, and while a lot of it is ordinary, there are many things that interest me and bring me joy and I would like to share them. Life is such an interesting mix of ordinary & extraordinary, and this site gives me a place to process some of it through writing. Starting this journey of homeschooling reminds me a bit of standing at the marriage alter! We trotted forth from that huge commitment with love & excitement beaming from our e...