Catchin' the Early Snow

For once we were the first ones to the slope; fresh snow!!!

Double-sledding; Gaël borrowed Daddy's biking gear.

Charles in his Cowl

 

Back Up the Hill

 

Valentine a Little Discouraged

 

The Best Soup Ever...(if you can keep from gagging)

The image below is not straight out of a book of horror; it is of the ingredients to make the most scrumptious and nutritious chicken broth/stock ever. These are chicken feet donated from chickens who, up to that one fateful day, lived a good, happy life of barnyard bird, free-roaming and even loved, in a  funny sort of way.

Shall We Shake on It?

 

The Pianists

 

Dog News/ Nouvelles du Chien

In some odd quirk of Blogger, the service I use to publish this blog, my last post did not get published. This left a couple of pictures with odd titles and no explanation, unless you happened to have heard of the winner of the Winchester Dog Show.

The Best Dog of the Year inspired our family to greater love of our own dog who has a lot in common with Banana Joe, this year's winner. He is small. He is black. He is adorable. That's about it. We, nonetheless, had a day of celebration of smart, cute, sweet, spunky, small, black dogs everywhere.

Banana Joe's Got Nothing on Me

 

World's Greatest Dog

 

A Blog of Africa to Share/Un Blog a Partager de l'Afrique

This morning's great discovery: a blog of monumentally beautiful photography of the people of various tribes of Ethiopia, and in an earlier post, the Philippines. The pictures bring to life an Africa that is in post-National Geography mists in my mind. When friends and clients talk to me of life "in the village", I now have a tiny glimpse of what life might really be like there. This may be part of what they miss about home; the beauty, mystery, dance and sunlight. I see! The text is rich as well in insight and observations. Thank you, France Leclerc, for your sharing your lens on Africa.

franceleclerc.com

More on Reading Ages

An excellent article from Carrie at the Parenting Passageway: http://theparentingpassageway.com/2010/03/21/regarding-waldorf-and-the-early-reader/

Reading Woes...Not in my Book

I wanted to share a link to a great article today, one that explains why I am not concerned about a child who is not reading at 6, 7, 8 or 9. The debate is still a hot one, even in my own family circle, but I have too much experience with homeschooled children now to have any doubts that this child too will read...when he/she is ready, and then I will not be able to get their little head out of a book.

Nostalgia, A Waste of Time.,,or Not

This post was provoked by another of those naive political articles stating how glorious our country was 100 years ago when there were no taxes on X,Y or Z. This sort of argument always has the power to irritate the pants off me. There is no Utopia, there never was a Utopia. It is an idea and ideal that helps us strive for better, attempting to create our own perfect place on earth. 

Winter Parenting

Parenting in sub-zero weather can be at its best and its very worst. These January days are so short and so cold that time outside is limited and time inside gets boring. Little arms and legs get restless and big voices miss having a space in which to loose themselves. It's not always easy to find ways of getting that energy out without destroying anything and everything in its path.