Calling All Gardeners!

Lately I've found some lovely things growing and blooming in my yard--I just have no idea what they are. I was wondering if any of you could help me:

Specimen #1: lovely variegated leaves (similar in shape to violets) with tiny white blooms coming out. It's a kind of ground cover almost.

Specimen #2: a bushy plant with light green leaves and delicate pink clusters of flowers

Specimen #3: a very tall flower with gorgeous fuchsia blooms

Yesterday the previous owner of our house called to ask if she could come by today and get some cuttings of one of the flowers in the backyard. Of course I told her that was fine, to come on by! I had ulterior motives though; I wanted to pick her brain about the care of some of the flowers and plants in the yard. She was very helpful about everything I asked her about. Unfortunately we were mainly in the backyard and never made it to the side of the house in the front where the above plants are so I completely forgot to ask about them. That, and I was so relieved that she didn't want to come inside--I was not eager to show her what my kiddos have done to *her* white carpet! I'm not even sure that I could keep that stuff clean if I didn't have children! But that's a topic for another day....

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One Way I Refresh During the Summer as a Homeschool Mom

As our homeschool takes some time off this summer, my mind almost never stops thinking of and planning ahead for the upcoming school year. This is probably because I'm Type A and an obsessive planner...lol Whatever the reason, I do enjoy this season of planning. But I also need to be refreshed as a homeschool mom. Homeschooling can be incredibly exhausting and all-consuming. It's not easy and it's a lot of responsibility. And I take that very seriously when I am researching curriculum and planning toward the next school year. So also taking some time to rejuvenate and refocus myself is very important. How do I do this? Each summer I take some time to read something inspiring and motivating that speaks to me as a homeschool mom. Some of my fave reads from past years--that I have nearby on my shelf and refer to often--are Educating the Wholehearted Child, The Well-Trained Mind, The Charlotte Mason Companion, A T...

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

my blessed life

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