The Moberg Family

Author: Susanne

  • 24-25 Last Day of School for ALL of us!

    We actually finished school on time at the end of May! Hurrah!

    What a blessed school year. Though we have always enjoyed the friends we do “out” school with, this year has been exceptional. There is just nothing that compares to doing school with your church family.

    Recently my mom shared the hymn called Here Am I, Send Me. This stanza stuck out to me:

    If you cannot speak like angels,

    If you cannot preach like Paul,

    You can tell the love of Jesus,

    You can say he died for all.

    If you cannot rouse the wicked,

    With the judgment’s dread alarms,

    You may lead the little children,

    To the Savior’s waiting arms.

    It struck me that those last two lines–You may lead the little children to the Savior’s waiting arms–is a desire that the Lord has put into my heart from a very young age. I’ve always loved to teach children, but teaching and leading a school with Brian centered around our church family has far surpassed any teaching joy I’ve yet experienced. It feels like this is just what we, together, as a marriage team, were made for. And it’s not just leading the little children to the Savior; it’s also helping cast vision for parents to lead their own children to the King. Every other month I met with the moms and every other month Brian met with the dads. We got to encourage, exhort, and challenge our friends as they endeavor to raise and educate their children unto the Lord. I think the world, and often the church, underestimate the power of “letting the little children come” to Jesus (Matthew 19:14), but we firmly believe that this endeavor should be one of the most important values of the home and church.

    Via Bona Academy was far more fruitful than any of us had anticipated. Interdependence is a beautiful thing. Somehow our love for the children in our church grew exponentially. Somehow our own children matured and grew through serving the littler ones. Somehow our children’s friendships deepened even more with their peers. And through it all, I know my love for the Lord grew–and we hope that each child and parent involved in Via Bona grew in their love for the Lord as well. Because, of course, that is ultimate goal of education: to know Christ.

    The foundation of our days together at Via Bona centered around speaking and committing to memory many good, true, and beautiful words. I would often encourage my fellow moms with the thought, “If your children end up in prison for standing firm in the gospel, do they have enough of the Word memorized to sustain them? Do they have enough hymns memorized to rejoice in the Lord each day?” Thus we started the day with a two-page catechism, reminding all of us why we were joining together. Then the kids recited the New England Primer from 1727, mostly because we were studying early modern American history. And then we launched into memory work, which consisted of:

    • Bible work: We centered this around the Book of the Twelve, or the Minor Prophets, as that is what our pastor has been preaching through. By the end of the year, the students could name the minor prophets as well as one key idea and one picture that encompassed each book in the Book of the Twelve.
    • Scripture memory: We also centered this around the Book of the Twelve. Each child memorized at least one and up to 27 verses from each minor prophet.
    • 6 different hymns
    • 8 poems written by William Carlos Williams; Alfred, Lord Tennyson; and Lewis Carroll
    • 11 Latin phrases
    • 17 grammar definitions and examples
    • 7 songs about nature
    • 3 songs about American history
    • 4-5 geography songs

    In addition to all of that, I compiled some challenges, which consisted of

    • 3 longer poems from each poet
    • 3 speech excerpts from American History
    • All 47 presidents of the United States, including a fact about each one
    • All of Micah chapter 7

    I made “Memory Passports” for each child, and once he or she could recite memory work perfectly, I would give a stamp for that particular piece. It was definitely a hefty amount of memory work and children needed to be very self-motivated to give up a few minutes of their recess to recite memory to me. I will say that every single mom started the year out very skeptical that her children could learn that much memory work, and every single mom ended the year by commenting on how amazed she was at how much even her little children could retain. So although they all did VERY well, there were 6 students who received a stamp for every single piece of memory work AND all of the challenges. At the End-of-Year Performance, we printed out all of this memory work and held it up for people to see. The audible gasps confirmed the disbelief that our minds are capable of memorizing such a vast amount of information by practicing just 15 minutes a day. I also know that memorizing in community is, indeed, a powerful tool.

    Each of these children standing up received a beautiful, timeless book for their hard work in memorizing all of the memory work. In addition, we are taking them all out for delicious burgers and high quality milkshakes for also memorizing all of the Challenge work. Bravo.

    Here is most of the crew in their patriotic red, white, and blue, minus one child who couldn’t be at the End-of-Year Performance.

    Then, of course, we had our all-church end of school picnic and the kids both played in the May recital.

    So…as far as our four remaining days at home each week… We had a very productive and fruitful year. A few highlights are that we continued, and made huge progress in, our Latin studies. Elliott and Selah also dove into beginning Greek. They took an introductory course in Logic with their dad as their teacher. We studied three different composers, three different artists, and three different poets. The kids did an excellent job with math, writing, grammar, geography, and history. We enjoyed many, many books together including Pilgrim’s Progress and, wait for it…The Princess Bride. (Note: I’m not a fan of William Goldman’s lack of moral character, but I do think the story of The Princess Bride is brilliant. So I read the book aloud to the kids, skipping over Goldman’s personal stories of infidelity and passivity as a father. I always feel like I have to give that disclaimer before recommending the book.) I’ve already checked the movie out from the library, and it is on our list this week to watch it. It will be the kids’ first time and I cannot wait to watch it with them!

    Elliott continues to grow as an entrepreneur. He pored through many books about chickens and is learning how to raise them. Last year he sent 150 letters to our neighbors advertising his lawn business. This year he sent out 927 postcards to all four surrounding neighborhoods and has picked up many new clients. If you would like to see his postcard, you should ask him to send you one because *it’s awesome.* (He may or may not have had a little help from his mama…)

    Selah has grown in her musical abilities tremendously this year, both in singing and piano playing. For the Via Bona End-of-Year performance she played “This is My Father’s World,” while everyone in the audience sang along. It was her first time playing while people sang, rather than just for a recital. She’s going to start working on a hymn once a month to play at the beginning of our prayer meeting on Wednesday nights to keep working this skill. Her sewing skills are also improving and she has made some beautiful items.

    Well, adios to our 2024-25 school year! Thanks for journeying along with us! Until next time!

  • Elliott turns 14

    Although it’s true that Elliott is literally growing up before our eyes, it feels like we can actually see him sprout up a few millimeters every day. The man is growing up!

    True story: We measured him on his birthday and I have witnesses. He was 5 foot, 8 and 3/4 inches. I remember vividly because I took note that he was exactly one inch taller than me. Ten days later I went to actually put up the arrow on his growth chart. I figured I would just double check his height again so I called him down to measure him.

    And he was 5 FOOT, 9 AND A 1/4 INCHES TALL! He literally grew half an inch in 10 days. But I still marked his height as it was on his original birthday…

    And because I’m a month late in writing this blog post, we measured him again a month after his birthday. AND HE WAS 5 FOOT, 9 AND 3/4 INCHES TALL. That’s right, he’s grown a full inch since his birthday. And now you understand why our grocery bill has skyrocketed.

    (And because I wrote this a month ago and forgot to post it, now I’m TWO months late in getting this blog post out. Of course, I measured him again today and he’s currently … 5 FOOT, 10 INCHES.)

    What a delight to watch your children grow and blossom into their passions. Elliott’s love for animals has grown as fast as his body. He has spent the last 9 months or so researching chickens. He has devoured book after book and his dreams are only growing as well. So…we got chickens. They are a story for another day, but I feel like it would be more appropriate to call our son Farmer Elliott from here on out. Fittingly, he asked for a pair of overalls for his birthday. It’s been several years since he had a pair, but I still think of him in overalls since he wore them for most of his life when he was little. If you weren’t sure he was homeschooled before, now you can be certain. #theoverallssayitall (One of these days, I’ll even get a picture.)

    The Capture the Flag birthday extravaganza was a success this year. The Lord provided BEAUTIFUL weather and it was a super fun day.

    Happy birthday, Farmer Elliott! We love you and every way the Lord has uniquely knit you together. We love watching you grow in stature, maturity, and character.

  • Selah turns 12

    Selah turns 12

    Praise the Lord for getting to celebrate another year of our daughter’s life!

    Selah asked to have her closest friends over for a day and a sleepover this year, so we made it happen. Year after year I am overwhelmingly grateful for these precious friends God has gifted Selah with. They are just truly my favorites, and I couldn’t have thought to ask for more!

    I planned nothing other than food. Selah led it all. The girls pulled out all of our crafting supplies and went to work creating varies projects. I happened to be in the next room during this time and it blessed my heart to hear them singing hymns and an ancient Hebrew song in rounds in between giggling and laughing and crafting. Such a delight.

    Then they had a picnic on our dock, went on a UTV ride, and played games. We had homemade pizza and Caesar Salad for dinner. Selah requested homemade milkshakes for her dessert. The girls all spent the night though I am not sure they got any sleep (obviously). The next morning was Sunday so we had a feast of a breakfast and all headed off to church together!

    The day before she turned 12 she cut just over 12 inches off of her hair to donate.

    On her actual birthday, we celebrated with French Toast for breakfast and Chicken Alfredo for dinner. She took Grandpa, Daddy, and me on a UTV ride and spent the rest of the day playing games with Elliott, Grandma, and Grandpa.

    Perhaps the biggest milestone that occurred on this birthday was this:

    Selah has always been an inch or so behind Elliott each year. But at 12 years old, Selah is a quarter of an inch taller than Elliott was when he turned 12. You have no idea how victorious she feels over her big brother.

    Selah has been counting down the days until she turned 12 for one reason: so she could be old enough to work in our church nursery. 🙂 This is somewhat ironic because pretty much every mother in the church has wholeheartedly trusted Selah with her babies for years. Selah *ALWAYS* has a baby in arms on Sundays. She told me once that she has a specific rotation as soon as the service is over for how to get to every single baby. She first visits the ones whose families leave the soonest, and then she moves on to make sure she can hold each one before the day is over. It is surprising to NOT see Selah going through the potluck line with a plate in one hand and a baby on her hip. But, now she is allowed to officially be a nursery worker. She’s delighted.

    Selah is 2/3 of the way to 18! I am so grateful for the spunk, joy, and zeal that explodes out of our tenderhearted girl. Just as her name suggests, she truly sings her way through life, wafting the sweetest melody of Christ’s fragrance in her wake. She brings so much joy and love into our lives!!

    Happy Birthday, my darling girl!

  • 24-25 First Day of School…For ALL of us!

    24-25 First Day of School…For ALL of us!

    Where to even begin….

    Fifteen plus years ago when Brian and I got married? That’s probably a good place to start. {wink}

    The truth is, I remember having conversations with Brian when I was pregnant with Elliott about what “school” should look like for him. But soon, those discussions revolved around questions like, “What should EDUCATION look like?” “Who should be responsible for educating one’s own child?” “How has education changed over the centuries and what is good about that change and what is problematic?”

    The education journey for our children has been an incredible one over the years, and it is so clear that Christ has been gently and strategically guiding us through it. He surrounded us with like-minded believers who have spurred us on and encouraged us and helped cast vision for us. All in the same year, as we were really searching for how to educate our children best, God led us to the best Christian classical community as well as our church, which is filled with homeschooling families who generally adhere to the classical model of education. We believe that education without Christ is not true education; we believe that the education of our children falls solely on our shoulders as their parents; and we believe that education within community can help us see our blind spots and can balance out our areas of weakness.

    One evening, in February of 2023, I was in the kitchen of my dear friend’s home along with Brian and our pastor and his wife. We (the ladies) were in the kitchen putting the final touches on dinner and we were discussing what the next steps would be after our children graduated from the one-day-a-week Christian classical school that we had been a part of. And I said, “Why don’t we start our own school?” We threw around ideas and brainstormed some things, but truth-be-told, I’m not sure anything would have come out of that conversation had our pastor not approached Brian and me the following day at church and said, “Hey, I think starting a school is a great idea. Will you both put some thought into what that would look like?”

    After months of discussion and prayer, and hours upon hours of reading laws, Brian and I had a plan to move forward in August of 2023. We gave our proposal to our pastor and, after many more months of discussion and tweaking and brainstorming, Brian and I launched a school for our church in September 2024!

    Brian and I FIRMLY and PASSIONATELY believe that education begins as a baby. Education does not begin at age 6 when a child is required to attend school. We have long encouraged parents to think about training and educating their children as babies. (Education is so much more than simply reading, writing, and arithmetic; the foundation of character, academics, and love for the Lord all begins in those earliest years.) Thus, our school is open to enrollment for babies. We love the concept of a one-room school house, and that is generally how we have set it up, with a few “break-out” groups throughout the day to best meet the needs of the toddlers and middle school/high school students. All of the moms stay throughout the day and help–the babies generally stay with their mamas or get passed around to eager arms. We are working on stretching the self-control of those darling 2 and 3 year olds by sitting for short spurts with the big group, but they have tons of time to play.

    And since I don’t think we will ever have a website open to the public, I can share its name here: it is called Via Bona Academy, or The Good Way Academy (Via is pronounced vee-yuh). We named it straight from the Latin vulgate in Jeremiah 6:16a.

    Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.”

    The Good Way–This is what we are always seeking as we educate our children, and now we get to “formally” do that in community with our church family.

    The response from our church families was enthusiastic, and there are 9 families involved in our school this first year. We have just over twenty children, ranging from toddlers to our oldest student at age 16, plus the three babies that get to join us for the day. We have a very small church, so actually almost every family with elementary-aged children has joined. Though we have been so incredibly blessed by our former school community, there truly is nothing like the community of our church body and we are so grateful!

    We meet together one day a week. During that time we work together on a hefty load of memory, we review and discuss the sermon from the previous week, and we study history, nature, and music. In the afternoon, the toddlers through elementary students have a watercolor class, while the middle and high schoolers have a Greek class and a Logic class. Brian and I are both teaching in addition to overseeing and our kids also have leadership roles as all the “big” kids are there to love, support, and encourage the younger ones. It’s truly beautiful.

    All that to say, the four of us had a “First Day of School” together for the first time ever!!

    To say it has been an enormous undertaking to get this going would be an enormous understatement. But, at the risk of sounding cliche, the joy of seeing so much fruit in such a short amount of time far outweighs the months of time we have spent on this endeavor. The joy of homeschooling with so many members of our church body has truly been a taste of heaven on earth. The joy of getting to encourage parents to disciple, love, train, and educate their children unto Christ has been so sweet. It has felt, in every way, that Christ’s wind is at our backs as so many pieces of this have come together seamlessly. Brian and I had no idea when we married that encouraging parents in these endeavors would be such an integral part of what we were made for, but I’m pretty sure God knew.

    This little lady is turning into a lovely young woman. She was asked to join our church’s adult choir even though she was still 11 (13 is usually the minimum age) and she is having the time of her life. She is definitely a “little mama” at church, where you will almost never catch her without a baby in her arms.

    And this young man is growing into just that–a man–little by little each day before our eyes. This past summer, he sent out 150 letters to the houses in our neighborhood offering to work for them mowing lawns, weeding, picking up dog poop, or any other job they had a need for. He developed a fairly decent cliental base and a good reputation, and he had steady work all summer. He was using Brian’s equipment, but was using a portion of his earnings from each job to pay for the equipment. By September, he owned the equipment outright, had bolstered up his savings account, contributed a significant amount of money to church, and had quite the cash flow as well. We think he is off to a good start learning how to make money and ultimately, Lord-willing, provide for a family one day!

    Thank you for catching up with us by reading about our latest journey as a family, and for journeying with us from afar! Love to all of you!

  • Last Day of School 2023-24

    Yes, we did finish the school year last year. No, I have not caught up with life enough yet to document it. But I’d better get it in before we start school again in September!!

    We had a very bittersweet end of our school year because it marked the end of an era with our sweet little classical Christian homeschooling community. We weren’t sure up until the Spring whether or not we would have Selah “repeat” a year as a 6th grader there just to squeeze one more year in, but by February we realized it was time to move on, simply because of all that’s in store for this upcoming year (which is very exciting, but you’ll have to wait to hear about that!).

    So she and I both finished out the year strong and with a number of tears. We are so grateful for this gift God has given us the last 5 years. We are all better because of our time there. I offered to continue my admin work for the school for one more year to help with my transition out, so I’ve been super busy working this summer on the biggest part of my job with the school, which is designing and creating an almost-200 page lesson planner book for all the moms. I finished that up a couple weeks ago and I’m officially done as an admin with them. Bittersweet.

    Two of Selah’s biggest highlights of the year were getting to play Glinda in the school’s play The Wizard of Oz, and having a solo at the end of year performance. She was the PERFECT Glinda and it was really fun to watch her shine in that role.

    She sang a verse of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” for her solo, and she did a wonderful job. She’s dressed up as Nicolaus Copernicus in her red and yellow outfit. She did a wonderful job doing a presentation from his perspective. We ended the year with a picnic to celebrate the fantastic year.

    Top: The graduating sixth graders; Bottom: the three of us on staff who aren’t returning

    Our last two official events of the year were our church’s homeschool end-of-year park celebration and the end-of-year recital. Both kids played excellently and it’s always rewarding when their hard work pays off.

    As busy as this last school year was, it was another wonderful year of learning. We were back to studying the Middle Ages; we had studied this era five years ago, and it was fun to see all that the kids remembered. Though Elliott was home full time this year, he studied right along with us but also had a lot of time working. We studied Whistler, Constable and Millet, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. We studied Human Anatomy and all kinds of plants and animals from nature. We enjoyed too many stories to count, but revisited several of our favorites such as Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Robin Hood. They memorized tons of poems, tons of Scripture, tons of anatomy, history, and geography songs. Another DELIGHTFUL year of learning in the books!

    Academically, Elliott made a huge leap this year by being able to do his very-challenging math curriculum almost totally independently. Each day he would read the lesson and tackle the problems on his own, only coming to us rarely when he needed help. He has become a fluent typer, which makes life far easier! Spiritually, he has grown in being more thoughtful and kind towards Selah and trusting us. Character-wise, he really is stepping into becoming a man more and more each day. He is truly an integral part of improving and maintaining our property. He drives big machines, keeps all of our new trees watered and helps Brian with most every property project, including spraying thousands upon thousands of cacti. At the end of May he took steps to starting his very own business!

    Selah’s handwriting and spelling have continued to improve tremendously. Her art and watercolor skills have improved dramatically every single year. As I’ve already mentioned, she did a wonderful job performing as Glinda and singing a solo. It’s been a joy watching her come alive in these areas. As far as her character, she is truly embracing serving our family with joy and going above-and-beyond what is asked or expected of her. She is building the habit of taking care of little things daily versus letting this pile up. Spiritually, God is growing her so much. This year she has had lots of opportunities to learn how to follow the Lord versus her own feelings. She is learning how to commit to prayer when life is hard, versus succumbing to her emotions. It’s a joy to watch her sensitive little soul put more and more trust in the Lord with each passing year.

    They have grown so much in their learning, as well as in their love for the Lord. And, as you are about to see, they have GROWN UP!! They are growing up so fast I can hardly stand it!!!

    I am so grateful to the Lord that we have the honor and privilege of educating our children at home. I’m so grateful for the sweet homeschooling community He’s given us for the past five years. And I’m thankful for all of the grace He has given us each new morning.

  • Elliott the Teenager

    Are you more shocked that Elliott is 13 or that it’s taken me this many months to post about it?

    That’s a LOT of candles!

    Elliott had another epic birthday, but epic in a way that none of us were expecting!

    We scheduled his fourth annual capture the flag birthday party for a Saturday in March. I have said it before and I will say it again–my baby who was born on the first day of Spring has had snow on three of his birthdays (two cancelled parties due to blizzards), whereas my fall baby has had to have outdoor parties moved inside due to the extreme heat. Thanks for keeping us on our toes, Colorado.

    So although snow is not rare to get in March, it was quite the surprise to not only get EIGHTEEN INCHES the two days leading up to his party, but Colorado’s faithful friend–the sun–chose to hide for those same two days. So the snow did not melt quickly, like normal, but apparently thought he, too, was invited to the party.

    And two days later, after the sun returned from his vacation, this is what life was looking like around these parts:

    So we rescheduled for a month later and we were checking the forecast like crazy people and it was looking perfect. That is, until a few days beforehand everything changed. It started to show rain…and then more rain…and then flood-like levels of rain. The day before, here was the forecast:

    Are you even kidding me? A 100 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN? That’s not even a mathematical possibility.

    But we prayed hard and held on strong. It was BEAUTIFUL the day before–sunny, blue skies and not a cloud in sight until the evening rolled around…and along with it, the rolling clouds and thunder. But we told all of the attendees that we were moving forward. We rearranged all of the furniture in our house to try to clear a space for 60+ people. We bought the food and prepped all the things.

    And that night the floodgates of heaven opened wide. It was literally a torrential downpour THAT.JUST.DIDN’T.QUIT. ALL.NIGHT.LONG.

    But still that morning we held strong–we were determined. But then the four of us sat down to breakfast and not only was the rain coming down like a waterfall, but the lightning and thunder was flashing and raging around us without more than a few seconds in between. I said to Brian, “I don’t think we can do this…we can’t send people out into a literal lightning storm.”

    And he said, “Forget about the lightning! The kids are all going to get swallowed up in mud pits and we’re going to lose them forever!!”

    And then, on top of everything else, it started to SNOW. And I looked out once again and realized that our property was so flooded that we couldn’t even get to it.

    We would have had to swim across the moat to get to the other side.

    So we cancelled…again. Frantic texts and emails going out to all of the faithful friends and family who were willing to brave lightning, thunder, torrential downpour, snow, and bottomless mud pits just to celebrate our boy.

    We still have half of our friends begging us to reschedule, while the other half is begging us not to, lest we bring on yet another unprecedented weather pattern.

    Though obviously disappointed, I was thankful that God gave Elliott the grace to endure the disappointment well and with a heavenly perspective. We prayed hard both times that the weather would hold, and it didn’t–so we can rest in the fact that this was God’s plan.

    There happened to be a free numismatic event happening at a local hotel the days leading up to his birthday, and Elliott was able to attend twice since the first party was cancelled. If you don’t already know it, Elliott loves coins the way Brian loves trucks. It has turned into quite the hobby for him. This was one of the gifts I made him for his birthday:

    And truly, it has not only made him cents, but many dollars! He buys coins in bulk and then sells them in smaller lots. He knows their values and knows a good deal when he sees it. He is becoming more and more Brian’s “mini me” in the real-life game of “Bigger and Better.”

    And we also took a trip to the State Capitol and the Denver mint while his Washington grandparents were in town. That was a real treat!

    And of course, we also celebrated with my family and lots of yummy food and mud pie.

    We are looking forward to the years ahead. I am so grateful that our main community, which is our church community, is filled with teenagers and young adults who are wonderful examples of godly young men and women who love the Lord and love their families and love their friends. I am thankful for the teenaged boys and young adult men who are examples of respectful, hard-working servants and leaders. These are the young men Elliott gets to rub elbows with and learn how to navigate the teenaged years with. We are grateful.

    Happy 13th Birthday to our first-born son!!!!

  • Selah turns 11

    Selah’s birthday landed on a Sunday this year, which, in my kids’ eyes, always makes life extra special. When special events fall on a Sunday, that means we get to celebrate with our church family! Our church is quite small–we have around 120 each Sunday–and so it truly feels like family. And in this small church of ours, there are FOUR people whose birthdays fall on October 8th like Selah! To make it even more extraordinary, two of those people are a mother-son pair. Wouldn’t it have been amazing if Brian would have been born one day later, and then we would have had a father-daughter pair as well! Our friend surprised the quad with a yummy birthday cake and everyone sang happy birthday to them at lunch. It was so special.

    Though the sweet little boy in the top picture absolutely adores Selah, he wasn’t particularly keen on everyone singing so loudly 🙂

    We ended up taking home Selah’s best friends from church and having a party that afternoon.

    I ended up planning an “Escape Room” type party for her…I had very little capacity, but with Elliott’s help we totally pulled it off. It was so much fun planning everything out with him! And he even said it was more fun planning it than actually experiencing it! We did some internet searching and he helped me orchestrate everything.

    The girls arrived to our living room, which was filled with balloons of many different colors, a Lego clue on the coffee table, and two locked suitcases in the corner.

    They had to figure out that the Lego board was a clue, which meant they had to pop the balloons in that order (green, yellow, pink, red) in order to find a number in each one. Those numbers put together created a four-digit code, which opened up the smaller blue suitcase.

    Inside the suitcase was a riddle that read: “What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?”

    Selah knew the answer immediately–a towel. They tried the guest bathroom towel first, but when they didn’t find anything they ran upstairs to the kids’ bathroom.

    Pinned inside the towel was a message that needed decoding. The decoder was also pinned inside. The girls found it immediately and got right to work.

    The code read, “Sometimes when you get in this, you might choose to sing a song, you can get wrinkly fingers, if you stay in this too long.”

    They raced back to the bathroom and pulled open the shower curtain. There was what was supposed to be a bath bomb…it was more like a glob of baking soda/water, but it worked! They cracked it open and inside the bath bomb was the key to our UTV. As soon as Selah realized what it was, the girls ran (screaming) downstairs and outside to the UTV. Unfortunately, I did not realize that nobody (except one girl) thought to put their shoes on. Total mom fail.

    They ran to the UTV, where Elliott happened to be waiting, and found this taped to the dashboard:

    In case you don’t want to take the time to decode the top puzzle, it reads, “How many Austrian Pines did we plant?” The girls had to solve that puzzle and direct their chauffeur to bring them to the trees to count it. Second mom fail was that I couldn’t actually remember what the correct number was, and the girls kept coming up with different answers. I had to call Brian so he could confirm! Once we all finally figured out what the correct number was, they had to plug it into the equation in #2. Can you tell that Elliott came up with that?! Once they got THAT answer, Selah had to figure out that the answer to #2 was a code that opened a lock, and the lock was located under the biggest pine tree that we planted, as indicated by clue #3.

    There’s nothing like walking across a property riddled with cacti WITH NO SHOES ON. Once they unlocked the padlock, they opened the suitcase to find the following code:

    The answer was “a flag,” and we were hoping Selah would connect that Elliott just bought a flag to put up next to his fort. He has spent years working on this underground fort! She figured it out and we headed to the fort, where she immediately began searching. With no shoes on.

    Pinned to the bottom of one of the pieces of plywood was the following riddle:

    They had a LOT of trouble figuring this one out. With a few guiding questions, they finally figured out that the answer was “tomorrow.” When I asked where they thought they should go next, Selah immediately knew to go to the kitchen calendar, where she found the following:

    In case you don’t know, Jill the hedgehog has been Selah’s pet since February. A picture of Jill on “tomorrow” directed the girls to Jill’s cage.

    This was a bit of a stretch, but they needed to find the paper that said, “Pull here.” That paper was attached to a long piece of yarn. At the end of the yarn was a magnet and a piece of paper that read, “Tall when seated, short when standing.” They had to figure out that the answer was a dog. (That took a few minutes!) Selah has about 101 dogs in her room, but I placed one of her sitting stuffed dogs next to a jar of dyed water on her desk. They had to figure out to use the magnet on the end of the string to get the key inside the jar.

    Once they retrieved the key, they knew it went to the lock on the suitcase in her room. Inside that suitcase was a printed out photo of our home library book shelves. Also in that suitcase was a piece of parchment paper. Elliott had cut a corner off on the upper ride side of the photo. They had to match the parchment paper, which also had the upper right corner cut off, over the photo. If they did so correctly, they could see where there was an “X” drawn on the parchment. The “X” marked our box set of The Iliad and The Odyssey.

    The girls ran down to the library and found those books. They pulled them out and found the final clue inside–

    They pretty quickly realized that this must be the clue that opened the other locked suitcase in the living room, where they began. There were two locks on that suitcase, and they had to figure out that they needed to type in 1008 (for 10-08, or October 8) on one pad lock, and 2012 (for the year she was born) on the other pad lock. Working together they eventually figured it out and found their awaiting prizes inside. Each girl got a nice wooden logic puzzle, two small metal logic puzzles, two spy pens and two notebooks, and these cute little hedgehogs! Each hedgehog base came with stickers that the girls could place on him. There were acorns and pumpkins and fall leaves–could anything be more perfect than little fall hedgehogs?! I just couldn’t resist.

    Selah had requested English Muffin Individual Pizzas and Caesar Salad for dinner, so I set up a pizza bar, complete with English Muffins, pizza sauce, mozzarella, parmesan, olives, pepperoni, canadian bacon, and homemade bacon crumbles. The girls built their pizzas and then went out side to play while they cooked in the oven. They had a grand old time building obstacle courses and eating outside on our lawn. Then they enjoyed some ice cream for dessert.

    Here are a spattering of other special photos from her birthday:

    Elliott got her a stuffed hedgehog 🙂
    At her request, I made mini fruit tarts to share at our weekly church pot luck on her birthday. Her new stuffed hedgehog helped her blow out the candles on her birthday mud pie.

    Happy 11th birthday to our dear Selah B!!!

  • First Day of School 2023-24

    It feels a bit like a tornado blew in in May and has swept our little family from one month to another so quickly that I truly cannot keep up.

    There were delightful things that happened during the summer…like Elliott getting to work hard with his daddy helping his grandparents. He got to do “real” man things like drive excavators and lift steel. It was a sweet “foretaste of the things to come.”

    We planted SO MANY TREES. Over 250. Working together as a family on this huge project was THE BEST. There may not be anything I love more than working with my hands with my family by my side. As a family, we read through the entire Little Britches series by Ralph L. Moody. Said books were read before, during, and after the tree planting, which provided thought-provoking inspiration!

    Brian vs. the pollen monsters

    The kids and I went on so many walks and truly enjoyed the beauty of our property, which was finally green with a full pond! The wildlife surprises us and delights us every day.

    Dinner on the Dock

    We had delightful times with friends and family.

    But then Fall hit before I felt like we even had a moment to catch our breath, and before I knew it school was starting. The next week we had grandparents in town treating the kids to all sorts of fun. Then, the next week, tragedy hit and although the days kept coming and going, I was so broken. We all were, of course, but I was the one breaking down during math lessons. So, we took it day by day. One day at a time. One academic lesson at a time, one life lesson at a time. So many snuggles and tears.

    Then came Brian’s and Selah’s birthdays. How important it is to still celebrate life and the ones you love, even while mourning the death of one you love. Hard, but important.

    All that to say, we did, in fact, start school. And despite every unplanned (by us) circumstance, we have accomplished (what I think) is an extraordinary amount of school so far. THAT is by God’s grace and God’s grace alone.

    This is a unique school year, as Elliott graduated from our sweet little Classical Christian one-day-a-week school last year. After praying about and considering many different options, he is home with us full time this year. The goal is for him to be trained under his daddy’s wise wings, learning the real life skills of working a trade and running a business. Though we are not as far along the business plan as we had hoped to be, we feel confident God’s timeline is best. And Elliott has had plenty to do with his daddy even before the official business has begun. As for me, I still get to teach him the academic things and it has been such a sweet gift to have one day a week with him to myself. Though we have no idea what next year will hold, I am so grateful that THIS is the plan this year.

    Selah is continuing to go to “out school” one day a week and she loves those days as much as ever. At home, Elliott and Selah still learn all of their humanities lessons together, and I love this time with my children so much!

    First day breakfast: sweet potato curry hash, fried eggs, grade-level bacon, and homemade bone broth.

    Okay. This is probably a secret that the rest of the world has known since the beginning of time, but I JUST discovered it. If you try to shape bacon and THEN cook it, it never cooks until crispy because of the overlapping parts. But it dawned on me a few months ago that I could cook the bacon in strips (in the oven, which, in my opinion, is the easiest and best way to cook bacon) and then shape it as soon as I take it out of the oven–while it’s still warm, but hasn’t yet hardened into its delightful crispy self. I tried it for the first time with our grade-level bacon and it worked like a dream. Up next, I’m trying that with bacon-wrapped dates. I LOVE them, but I can never get that bacon crispy enough when I wrap the raw bacon around the date before cooking! I’ll keep you faithful readers posted. 🙂

    It was a surprise attack!!! What would he do without her?!!! He would be far too serious. We all would.

  • Jaxon Drago

    September 23, 2023 brought a mourning into our lives that will stay with us all, in some form, until our last days. At times, the grief has felt almost too much to bear. We loved you so much, Jaxon.

    [above] all the cousins together on our property; [below] our last family photo
    the last photo we took with Jaxon and the last time we saw him, celebrating his birthday

    Jaxon was always making us laugh, and the last time we saw him was no different. Only Jaxon could read sentimental Hallmark birthday cards in such a theatrical way that had us all in stitches. He gave the best bear bugs, always had a pun on his tongue, and his wit brought a light-heartedness that juxtaposed his large frame. I am so glad we got to enjoy one of his band concerts recently. The cousin group will miss his hilarious contributions to the shows they put on together each year. From now on, family get-togethers will always have a void. Our lives will never be the same without him.

    Goodbye, Jaxon. We will always love you.

  • 2023 Last Days of School

    2023 Last Days of School

    You guys. We start school in two days and I haven’t even posted about their last day from last year. You are probably wondering if my kids actually passed their last grades. The kids had their last day at their “out school,” we did two days of exams and then had their End of Year Performance and then we went out of town for a month. We got home and still had about two weeks of minor things to finish up. Then our days were so full that I have not had time to officially “close out” our year. We had a super full year, an even fuller summer, and yes, it is true–this blog post is BETTER LATE THAN NEVER! 🙂

    To sum up our 2022-2023 school year: The kids were introduced to the study of ancient history and the world of mythology and ancient writings–all from a biblical worldview. We enjoyed many wonderful books together and had another very sweet year with our little learning community. Since our school only goes through 6th grade, this was Elliott’s last year attending. It is bittersweet, as most “ends” are. He will miss the school and his friends but is also very much looking forward to what’s next.

    Our studies included: ancient history; physical science; Vermeer, Turner and Homer; Kipling, Hughes, and Stevenson; Schumann, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms. For nature studies we focused on pond life, birds and wildflowers. They memorized Genesis 1:26-27, Colossians 1:15-20, Luke 1:46-55, Habakkuk 3:17-19, and Proverbs 2:1-10 (and tons more Scripture for church, but these were their school verses). They studied some “Ancient Civilization” countries–several from Europe, Africa and Asia. For the first time in many years I just could not keep track of all of the books that they read. I tried, lost the list multiple times, and just couldn’t keep up with the hundreds of books. I’m a little sad because I really do love noting which books we thoroughly enjoyed but this year was SO FULL and busy that it just didn’t happen. However, I can list a few of our favorites: We did enjoy children’s versions of both the Iliad and the Odyssey, The Cat of Bubastes, The Golden Goblet, The Bronze Bow, Boy of the Pyramids, A Single Shard, Where Mountain Meets the Moon, A Triumph for Flavius, and Detectives in Togas. We finished the fifth book in a series we have thoroughly enjoyed the last couple of years called “Among the (Pond, Forest, Night, Meadow, and Farmyard) People.” They are sweet little stories about animals that have great morals. The kids both performed in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. They LOVED this play! Elliott was Don Pedro–one of the leads. He had 87 lines and did a wonderful job despite being sick for the performance! He got to wear a mustache and I think that experience will leave him clean shaven for the rest of his life ;). Though Selah only had a few lines as Ursula, she hit the ball out of the park and her character truly shone through her. At the end of the year, as is tradition, the kids each studied a person from ancient history, dressed up as that person and gave a speech from his point of view. Selah was Julius Caesar and Elliott was Hannibal. The kids continued with their Latin study this year and, of course, progressed with their math curricula. At the beginning of the year we hosted a “pond day” with our church homeschool group. The kids prepared little presentations and talked about the flora and fauna that we have seen in and around our pond. They taught our church friends a song about vertebrates and invertebrates, facilitated a time where friends could place an animal or plant life where it belongs on a huge mural we had drawn of the pond and surrounding area, read picture books and then I led a watercolor lesson for the group. Then, everyone jumped into the pond to play! Pond Day was definitely a highlight of our year! Winter Market was, of course, another huge highlight. Oh! And during the End of the Year Performance, Selah was one of five kids selected to sing a solo. It was her first solo! She did very well. A couple other things that stand out from this school year–we all wrote limericks and that was a hoot. I should post those below. The kids also really enjoyed doing research papers this year. It’s Elliott’s third research paper and one of his favorite parts of school. He wrote about fish and Selah wrote about hedgehogs. It was such a special and fun year of learning!

    Here is a collage of photos from events with the kids’ classmates:

    And here is a collage of photos from the Pond Day we hosted for our church homeschool friends:

    One of the things we absolutely love about our church is the multi-general aspect of it. It really is like one big family–we aren’t segregated into age groups for events like these. The youth in our church are youth that I want my children to model after. They are strong in their faith and kind, and always take the littles under their wings. Pond Day was no exception as the big kids took the little ones on boat rides and everyone enjoyed a lovely day together!

    Here are our limericks for your enjoyment:

    I once had a friend named Pompey,

    Till he met me in battle one day.

    So Egypt chopped off his head;

    And then I found a new friend—

    Till my last words were, “Et tu, Brute?”

    (If you haven’t heard, Selah actually has a hedgehog named Jill!)

    Alright, and now it’s time for their end of the year photos and papers! This will possibly be Elliott’s last year of drawing first and last day self-portraits. I think he went out with a bang! Neither of the kids particularly enjoy drawing themselves but they also LOVE flipping back through their old ones. So I told Elliott he could be done now that he’s officially in Junior High :). The kids also complain every year that there isn’t enough space to write down all the books they love. I suppose if they’re going to complain about something, that’s a good thing to complain about.

    And now for my favorites…the compare and contrast from the first to the last day!

    Way to go, kiddos! We did it! We had another rich, fun, challenging and filled-with-memories school year! Thanks be to God!