A couple of weeks ago, I knew that Tuesday was going to be a super busy day for me because I had a bunch of “big” things to do: Ship all the orders (it had been a 3 day weekend, so there were lots!) Make a bunch of lotion sticks and lip balms Prep for […]
I think that one of the biggest strengths to homeschooling is that my children get to learn the things that interest them. Because it is self-directed, they often learn faster and retain the information longer. They make connections and learn how to think for themselves instead of just memorizing facts that they will later forget. […]
I am very thankful that we have been having an extremely mild winter here in SE Indiana. It was so pretty out the other day, that the older children all asked if they could go running. The boys headed toward friends of ours. Brett didn’t want to run with them, so she drafted Hewitt to […]
We love living in the country. There is only one problem – the lack of high speed internet. Right now we have satellite internet, which is better than dial-up. Most of the time. The biggest problem is when we have several days of stormy weather, like we’ve had. So what’s an entrepreneurial family with a thriving business that requires […]
The day after Thanksgiving, we had a choice to make – go shopping for Black Friday sales or… Go hiking in Sugar Creek Metro Park in Dayton, Ohio with my brother and his family. It was a very easy decision. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day spent with family. It was a day that […]
If you have been reading this blog for a while, you probably know that every year we go apple picking! We have gone every year that I can remember. We always have a lot of fun, as you can see in this post from 2010, and this post from 2007. I could not find blog […]
A couple of weeks ago, the family went apple picking. When we got there, I took the little girls to the bathroom and Jim sent Colter to find out what kinds of apples were available for picking (fuji apples are our favorite ones to pick). Colter returned with the news that there were no more […]
The three girls were snuggling in bed with us this morning. Indigo was with me and Brett and Jade snuggled with Jim. Jade: “Dad, you have one child.” Dad: “What about Brett?” Jade: “ok, you have two kids, but that’s all.” Dad: “Their names are Brettcoleemeryfletcher and Greyhewittindigojade.” Jade: “No! Just Jade and Brett.” Indigo: […]
As many of you know, we’re taking a much anticipated (and much needed) vacation at the ocean in North Carolina. All ten Jonases love the ocean. We spend hours and hours in the water and on the sand. We do come into the house periodically to eat and sleep, but that’s about it. Due to Hurricane […]
The weather here has been gorgeous lately. (Nope, hurricane Irene didn’t reach us here in Indiana.) We’ve had hot days, cooler nights, and low humidity. We took advantage of the lovely weather to exercise outside. I thought you’d enjoy watching part of our “sprint 8” session. We basically sprint for 30 seconds then walk for […]
Everybody on the Jonas homestead has a job to do, from the adults, to the children, to the animals. It’s pretty obvious what the goats are responsible for, but we also have cats that are responsible for mouse control. We have indoor cats and we have outdoor cats and they patrol their respective domains. The […]
The other day I got an email inviting the family to come swim at a local lake with some friends. The invite was last minute (the way I like them), so I told her we would try. I gathered the children together and made a big announcement that we could go swimming at the lake […]
On our recent trip to St. Louis, we had to stop at a rest stop. Whenever we stop, the children always run around and stretch their legs. If we’re in a parking lot, without a safe place to run, we just do 50 jumping jacks as a family. It’s usually quite a spectacle, and yes, […]
My children adore swimming, but for some reason, we haven’t had a chance to swim once this summer. So we packed the children up… … and we rectified that today! Jade kept coming up to me every 2 minutes and giving me the little hopeful look and saying, “Mom […]
Did you know that we once got to “babysit” dogs for a few months? Yep! We took care of two Great Pyrenees dogs – Alex and Shelby. Great Pyrs are livestock guardian dogs for the goats. But we just liked to play with them. Unfortunately, they also like to roam, and our 3 acres weren’t enough […]