Lessons from Home - faith, homeschool, and healing from loss

Nasty Colds and Pandora

Hi everyone. Last week was a long week of sleepless nights and snotty noses. Brett, Caleb, Joshua, and Joel came down with colds. Brett had to endure it on the road, while I spent the week holding a crabby toddler on one hip and a crying baby on the other. We have lingering coughs, but […]

How a Family Christmas Vacation Helped our Grief

I knew our first Christmas without Rebekah would be difficult. I had no idea what that actually meant, but in anticipation of needing to get away, we booked a couple nights at a large resort several hours from our home. A Christmas vacation to look forward to and focus on just us might help. This […]

The Happiest Time of the Year??

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. I enjoy the bright decorations and plates of cookies. I enjoy shopping for the perfect gift and anticipating the joy of the receiver. I love the secrets, cards, snow, and time with family. I love the enthusiasm of my kids as they shop for each other […]

My Love didn’t End when Her Life Did

We decorated Rebekah’s grave last Saturday. The boys pushed holiday signs into the half frozen ground-plump snowmen and happy penguins. Friends hung a wreath with a large glittery bow. A purple snow globe with a friendly polar bear completes our decorations. It looks festive. As festive as a grave can be, I guess. It’s not […]

Thankfulness in the Face of my Grief

Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Usually it is a happy time of year for me, full of laughter, anticipation of delicious food, and the joy of being with the people who love me most. This year is not full of laughter. Can I really be thankful when my little girl is gone? The kids are memorizing Psalm […]

Suffering to Learn Obedience

Throughout the Bible there is a running theme about suffering, trials, and temptations. We live in a fallen world and these things happen, not at the hand of God, but at the hand of satan. As I was pondering this and skimming through my Bible searching for verses, I was amazed at the number of […]

Gifts from Heaven

Gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Some come in brightly wrapped paper, some in a plastic bag and yet others appear on my cluttered desk without any presentation. They are big like the new car my husband parked in our garage as a surprise back in our early years of marriage. Those were scarce […]

Grief- My Dark Hole

I imagine my grief as a dark hole. Its a hole in a sand pit. It’s deep, it’s dark, it’s cold, but mostly it’s scary because I cannot see the bottom. Some days, I hoist my upper body out of the darkness and breathe in fresh air and sunshine, but most days I live just […]

That First Week

I had never lost anyone close to me. I had spent hours praying for people in my life who had lost someone close to them. I had tried to relate to their feelings, but never realized how far away I was from their pain. I felt sad for them, I cried for them, but grief […]

My Used Books Find

We live in a small town which is void of many of the exciting stores, theaters, museums etc. of a bigger city. What we do have, however, is a lovely used books store. It boasts floor to ceiling shelves teaming with exciting adventures, people, and advice on every page. The smell of old books and […]

Dear Defeated Mom,

“It was just a miserable day,” I cried as tears threatened to run down my cheeks. I stared at my husband, who was hundreds of miles away, through my cell phone as I tried to explain why I was about to cry. It came in a long stream of words, none very specific, not nearly […]

Loving My Opposite Child

We have the same blond hair and blue eyes. We have the same strong independent spirit, fierce stubbornness, and annoying bossiness, but that is where the similarities end. Loving My Opposite Child She is a girl of extremes, all sunshine and rainbows or all thunder and storm clouds. I take a more middle of […]

Why I Think My Hens Are Great!

I love my hens. There, I said it. I know I complained when they scratched up and ate my carrot seeds-twice. The loud exclaiming (otherwise known as yelling) when five happy girls gave themselves dirt baths in my herb garden, tossing mulch everywhere and leaving craters, was probably not called for. Perhaps chasing them away […]

What To Do When You don’t Want To Share

I looked from my 9 year old son to the last brownie on the plate. I wanted that brownie. I had plans for it, which included a cup of coffee and uninterrupted quiet time. I really really wanted that brownie. I glanced at my son’s hopeful expression, “Can I have the last one?”. ‘NO!’ was […]

How to Choose a Science Curriculum

If you are like me, you love paging through homeschool catalogs and reading reviews online. So many fun subjects to teach and so little time! The choices are endless and often times overwhelming! Science curriculum is a big one for me. They all look like so much fun! Here are a few things to consider […]

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