Slices of Life

I was so excited to see so many Valentine themed posts showing up already. I feel like it is so far away but really it's just 3 1/2 weeks away. While we don't do anything big I do love to celebrate in small ways like making handmade cards for the men in my life and buying some sweet treats for them to enjoy. I'm sure my husband and I will have a date night... just not on actual Valentine's day! We like to avoid the crowds.    Apparently we all love to see some love since last week's post most definitely celebrated love!       Most Popular Posts from Last Week: We Had Us a Hitching! by My Seventies Split    Some Others that Caught My Eye:   Heartbeat Pouch Bag by Hulaloop    How to Sew Simple 15 Minute Valentine Coasters by Sum of Their Stories     Chocolate Chip Valentines Day Cookies by Crystal & Co.   This party will remain open until the weekend.  My hope is that everyone will share all sorts of wond...

Going through the process of touring colleges I was asked a lot of questions about how homeschoolers get their kids into college. I promised to write a post but wow! I had no idea it would be so long! This may be more information than you care to read but I didn't know how else to break this down.  See, of my 3 boys, not one of them got into college the same way!!  When I began homeschooling my boys they were in preschool (Evan), kindergarten (Alec), and 2nd grade (Ian). Thoughts of college were a long way off and we mostly focused on day to day living and learning.  Newport harbor boat tour; learning about the history of the area At most I planned out our year but often we flew by the seat of our pants and I relied heavily on unschooling practices, field trips, and hands- on exploration of actual life for our early years.  Field trip to the zoo We settled down a bit more when they reached middle school and we at least had workbooks for things like grammar, math, an...

I read 150 books in 2025 so it was really hard to pick just a few favorites. Typically I just go through each month and pick a favorite from the month but I thought this year it would be fun to pick favorites based on various categories. It was still so tough to pick just one book for each category though!   Best Young Adult novel:  I Hope This Doesn't Find You by Ann Liang--   This was another fun listen on my Libby app. Sadie tries so hard to make everyone like her but at times her frustration can get the best of her so she lashes out in email form. She never, ever plans to send any of them but they help her feel better.... until the day they all get sent and her life turns upside down. Most of the letters are sent to her nemesis Julius Gong and in a surprising twist of fate the emails find the two of them working together more than ever. It was really cute!  Best juvenile fiction:   Connect The Stars by Marisa de los Santos-- A really adorab...