You know you might have been homeschooled if...

 you see a paint stir stick lying in the shopping cart at the store and you think "why did someone leave their paddle (for naughty kids) in the cart?" followed by "I wonder why the kid was naughty".....and then a few seconds later you finally think "oh...right...they do use those for stirring paint"
This was a true happening!!

Just a glimpse to savor...

I found this piece awhile back, and sadly I do not remember the author. Yet it captures my heart feelings on the subject! I thought it would be a fitting thing to post about the rarity of such communication on a day which we see with only great rarity as well. So enjoy...

"I used to write long letters - the old-fashioned kind with postage stamps affixed - frequently.
I had cute stationary and fun cards and stickers and photos to include with my newsy letters.

That was back in the day when I went to bed at 10:30 pm and didn't get up till 6 or 7 am. That was back in the day when the only event I had going on for the week was a family outing that was written on the family calendar. That was back in the day when I read books just because I wanted to and not because I couldn't complete the most urgent project without learning this information. That was before I knew how to send an email, and definitely before the days of having 100 emails to reply to in a day.

Going to the mailbox was the highlight of the day. There was almost always a letter waiting there for me, too. It would be full of news, sometimes pictures and newspaper clippings or a tea bag to add to the fun.

These days, I still check the mail box occasionally when I'm home. But usually the only thing addressed to me is junk mail, a catalog, or another bill from the FoMM attorneys... Sometimes I wonder if that means I'm an adult now?

But letters are still ... um, just so deliciously good. I don't really care if it's written on beautiful stationary, or if it's a long newsy email from a friend or cousin who I haven't talked to in a long time. It's just good to hear all about another person's life and loves and battles.

I got one of those yesterday. All nine wonderful pages to be savored and re-read and thought over often... detailing life's struggles and questions, funny anecdotes about people I know that I'm sad to have missed seeing, and a hundred million other things that kept me awake thinking till late last night.

When society is too busy to write letters, we miss out on so much that we don't even know we're missing. A connection with a real human being - a piece of elegant communication to be saved and savored and stuck in a shoe box to be re-read decades down the road."

in which I amend the long absence of posts...

so as you might have noticed...or not, but it's all the same to me....I haven't posted on here in quite some time. God has thrown my life some of the biggest changes I've ever had and I've been busy with enough other things that I've sadly neglected my blog for awhile. But with myself and my family having moved, settled in (mostly) and all that I'm now getting around to it again :) Anyway I decided that the first thing I would do is post some more pictures of Ari! Because the pictures in this post don't do him justice. They were taken on a cold, rainy day standing under an umbrella, and poor Ari was wet and worried. So these I think (and most certainly hope) you find to be nicer! enjoy!

Goofy pictures first...

general running around

his "cutting horse" corner series...

he is very photogenic!

my adorable boy...