Mom Monday Week 23 – The Homemade Pantry

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The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila is the latest addition to my cookbook collection. It’s a great book to read – it contains lots of stories from Alana’s life in the kitchen and around the house, besides the recipes. Alana says she is of Jewish descent, but her name sure sounds Romanian. She blogs at Eating From the Ground Up.

The Homemade Pantry Cover

As a homeschooling mom, I really enjoy taking care of my children and providing the best educational experiences for them – including cooking experiments.  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 21 – Summer Reading Program

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Everywhere I turn these days, somebody mentions how summer means diving into books. Naturally, as a homeschooling mom, you will take your children to the library and sign them up for the summer reading program. I know because I will do that. I assume we match.

You might want to sign yourself up for some really cool reading, too – the kind that you never had time for through the school year. I know I will.

Mom Monday Series - Summer Reading Program

What kind of books sound good to you? Personally, I like nonfiction, biographies, inspirational, and the classics.

Speaking of classics, I’m at 7% through “Les Misérables” on my Kindle. I found it for free, in French, the complete saga, and could not resist. Now I must finish what I started – eek!  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 20 – A Happy Marriage

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My husband and I got married in our early 30s.

By then, we knew who we were, what we wanted out of life, and how to communicate it. As such, our marriage started out blissfully happy and it has only gotten better as time went by.

Time did go by. This week, we are celebrating our ninth anniversary.

Bride and groom kissing in the church doorway

One of our wedding pictures, in the doorway of the stone church where we got married

We have had some challenges along the way, of course. We are people, faulty and broken, surrounded by other people, faulty and broken. But, through the challenges, our love for each other has only gotten deeper and richer.

We remodeled a home and had great fun with it.  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 19 – Get Outside and Play

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How many hours a day do you spend outside? They have a saying in Sweden – I lived there for three years – “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.”

It’s so easy to come up with excuses about not being outside: the mosquitoes, the wind, the rain, the snow, the cold, the heat, the gnats, the noise of the neighbor’s mower etc etc etc. The thing is, fresh air does so much for our minds and bodies, we should be thankful it’s freely available.

I love this blog that challenges families to spend 1,000 hours outside each year. I’ll spare you the math… That comes to two or three hours every day. What do you think? Is it doable? I think we were doing that already, but not consciously and, maybe, not every day.

Boy in Tree

Since we took the challenge, we have been outside even in the rain and even when I had a sore throat. The kids put on their rain boots and coats and ran around in the rain. I allowed them to play with umbrellas – which are usually off limits for them. I sat under the roof overhang, on a comfortable outdoor chair, with a wet cotton sock covered by a wool pashmina around my neck (natural remedy against sore throats).  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 18 – Ask and Ye Shall Receive

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God is in the business of answering our prayers – even those we don’t have enough faith to pray. As I hosted the latest Raising Multilingual Children blog carnival, I felt pricked in my heart about French like never before. In our homeschool, I do read to my children in French and talk to them in French now and then, but it’s not enough.

They need conversation, preferably with small people like them. Immersion. I started dreaming about a French play group. If only there were francophone children in East Tennessee…

Wait a minute! What if? What if I could bring together a small group of homeschoolers and I taught them French as they played?

I went from “if only…” to “what if?” in a matter of days.

“If this is from You, Lord, please lead me to start a French play group. I don’t know how, where, when or with whom. I feel this calling. I will take it one step at a time and watch for Your guidance.”

I did not exactly say those words, but that was the spirit of my unspoken request.

I felt called and I took the first step. I made an announcement on our homeschool support group’s page on Facebook, asking if there was any interest in a French play group.

The first reply came from a French lady who lived 30 minutes away and had a son about my son’s age… We even had five mutual Facebook friends and had lived in this area for about the same time (nine years). What are the odds?

She was thrilled to have a French play group getting started. I was thrilled to find her.

ask and ye shall receive

Had I not asked, I would have never known. As I told my husband, he said, “Ask and ye shall receive…”  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 17 – Rocking OPCs

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First, an explanation: OPCs = Other People’s Children. Before deciding to homeschool, I thought I would go teach other people’s children for a living while my own are in their respective classrooms. I never followed through with that plan because I felt short-changed.

How could I be away from my children for seven hours a day? How could I step aside and allow another person to see the sparkle of “now I get it” in their eyes? Homeschooling became the only solution my heart could accept.

It’s one thing to leave your school-age children behind for the day. It’s another thing altogether to leave your baby behind. Thankfully, I did not have to do either.

mom monday series on homeschool ways blog

Now, let’s take it to another level. If you have five minutes, grab a box of tissues and watch this clip from Paris je t’aime.

You don’t need to speak French to understand what is going on. There’s not much dialogue.  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 16 – Dealing with Disappointment

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Disappointment is part of life. It’s one of those emotions that one experiences daily in small doses. Sometimes the doses get really large, of course. Hopefully, not daily. So, in our homeschool, it’s not like we have to make a lesson plan about it. Opportunities for disappointment abound at any given point in the day.

My kids want to do something that should be done only after we finish school, for instance. The answer is, “Yes, we can do that, after you finish school.” If they ask why, I usually explain, “Devotional first, then school, then recess.” We try to make many things fun during our devotional and school times, but recess is fun by definition.

mom monday series on Homeschool Ways - Dealing with Disappointment

Disappointment hurts and one cannot prepare for the pain. But, one can learn (1) the steps out of it and (2) that there is life after disappointment. As Christians, we know that God’s answer to our prayers may be “No” or “Later” at times. As we trust Him, hope replaces disappointment.  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 15 – Bring Sunscreen!

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This school year is drawing to a close – our first official homeschool year. We have only forty more days and then my son’s kindergarten experience will become a memory. Surreal.

And, it’s spring. I take that back. It’s summer already. After several days with temperatures in the upper 70s and even 80s, I feel like it is summer. Somebody on Facebook was telling summer she was not ready for it yet. She wanted more spring. Living in the South (of the United States) certainly has taught me spring and fall are short. Summer and winter seem long.

Bring Sunscreen! Mom Monday Week 15

So, as we head into the summer months, the one thing to remember is to apply sunscreen. I know you know that. I’m bringing it up because I recently had to see my dermatologist for a spot on my arm that did not look like any of my moles. She decided to remove it right then and there. It was small enough, but different enough.  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 14 – An Audience of One

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A few months ago, I heard a sermon about having an audience of One. We look for numbers to validate ourselves and our work. But, instead, we should consider that God alone matters – His opinion about our work counts more than anybody else’s. Have you ever been challenged by friends or family members about your decision to homeschool?

Mom Monday Week 14 - An Audience of One

It’s easy to get discouraged and feel dejected after facing ignorant attacks. The only question we should answer is, “Does God approve of my homeschooling my children?” Sadly, many of the questions we ask miss the point.  Continue reading »


Mom Monday Week 13 – Pretty, Stinky Flowers

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Depending on the weather, I take a walk in the morning. Our neighborhood is 10 minutes away from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park – a perfect place to homeschool.

Mom Monday Series on Homeschool Ways

I did not learn the concept of a nature walk until two years ago when I was researching homeschooling and fell in love with the Charlotte Mason approach. Nature walks are my time to be by myself, with God and His creation. I ask for clarity on certain issues. He delivers.

Three pine cones, small, medium and large

Pine cones in different stages of development remind me of the growth process we all go through

The other day, I found some treasures that reminded me of a few lessons about life in general and homeschooling in particular.  Continue reading »