Grandma and Poppy have been with us for several weeks. They arrived to escape Hurricane Irma and decided to stay until Brett and Mason’s engagement party since it didn’t make sense to drive back to Florida just to turn right around again a few days later. Poppy took the whole family out to China Garden […]
Have you ever heard (or said yourself) the words, “I want my child’s future to be full of possibilities.” I understand the intent behind those words, but I’m not so sure I agree with them. As a homeschooling Mom, I kinda think it’s my job to limit my child’s future possibilities. For example, Brett is […]
Have you ever said hello to someone and have them ignore you? If you’re like me, the first thought that jumps to my mind is something like, “What did I do wrong to make them mad at me?” Or how about you ask somebody a simple question and they respond to you in anger? Again, […]
I want my children to be wildly successful in their lives. Not perfect. But successful. By successful, I don’t mean materially successful. Instead I define a successful life as something more meaningful. I want them to excel in their marriages, their parenting, and their chosen vocations (whether that is goat farming or something entirely different). […]
Emery and I are at bread camp this week. The two of us are learning how to make bread in a brick oven. We’re having a blast. But it’s all day, every day for a week, so I haven’t had a lot of time to think about blogging. So today I’m going to share with […]
Last Saturday morning I went food shopping. As usual, it took two carts (sometimes it takes three) to get everything on my list. All the children and Jim were working, so I emptied the Beast of all the groceries by myself. I put a John MacArthur sermon on to listen to while I put the […]
As I’m writing this, I have a kitchen full of Hurricane Irma escapees processing tomatoes in my kitchen. This includes Grandma, Poppy, my brother, and his wife. My brother’s three children are picking more tomatoes and bringing them back to the house. While I’m not happy for the reason they’re here (Hurricane Irma), I am […]
I’m a naturally organized person. Which is helpful, because the more complex my life becomes, the more important it is to stay organized if I want to be efficient, get all my work done, and stay sane and happy. But you don’t have to be a naturally organized person to successfully manage a busy household. […]
We do a lot of cooking around here and have lots of pots, pans, skillets, and other cooking supplies. If you take a look at our cookware, you’ll notice we use predominantly stainless steel and cast iron. Whenever possible, I’ve always tried to avoid Teflon coated or non-stick cookware. Sure, it’s convenient, but how can […]
I was asked the other day on a podcast interview what I would do if I suddenly had an extra hour in every day (if I had a 25 hour day instead of 24 hours). I thought it was a great question. I didn’t have to think about it too long. My answer was… I would […]
Life as a Jonas means one thing: there is no such thing as a typical day. However, so many people have asked what a day looks like for our family that we decided we’d try to show you. This is what Tuesday looked like for Brett. 7:45 AM I wake up ten minutes before my […]
Many of you know that my oldest daughter, Brett, just got engaged. The other night we were discussing how important it is that you marry a person accepting him exactly as he is. You don’t get married expecting your spouse to change. Now, we all know that change is going to happen. But too many engaged […]
I got my Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. People often think that the ‘systems’ refers to computer systems, but in fact it refers to large-scale systems. I put my degree to good use working in Corporate America for 3 years before Brett was born. When I left the work force […]
When people find out that I homeschool my eight children, I get a lot of different responses. One of the more common ones is, “Wow, you must be smart. I could never homeschool my child in x.” Insert “science”, “math”, “grammar” or whatever “weakness” the person perceives in themself for that x. But that’s part […]
Some of the best parenting advice I’ve ever received came from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People* by Steven Covey. I’m not sure he wrote the book with parents in mind, but habit number one (Be proactive) and habit number two (Begin with the end in mind) are highly effective habits of good parenting. […]