{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Linking up with SouleMama this evening.

Friday Felines: Cozy

I thought I'd join Dawn today in posting some 'Friday Felines'. This fellow, who we are cat-sitting for the weekend, has found himself a cozy spot on top of the pellet stove. I just purchased this basket yesterday at the thrift store, and already it is being put to good use! I suspect the basket is Amish-made as it has an Amish-sounding signature on the bottom.

And Callie has settled into a box in a shaft of sunlight on my desk. They both look so cozy, I am feeling inspired to go snuggle in somewhere myself for a few minutes before starting supper. We've been hard at work cleaning and baking today to prepare for visiting family this weekend and it's time for a break!

Small Joys: Homeschooling in a teepee

I'm pretty sure they don't let you do this in school! One of my children did all her school in a teepee this morning. Her older sister then spent a good part of the afternoon reading in there. What fun!

Quote for the day--Thoreau

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." ~Thoreau

Quote for the day

The best things in life are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.                                                                                             ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Quote for the day

"The child who sees his mother with reverent touch lift an early snowdrop to her lips, learns a higher lesson than the 'print-books' can teach.  Years hence, when the children are old enough to understand that science itself is in a sense sacred and demands some sacrifices, all the 'common information' they have been gathering until then, and the habits of observation they have acquired, will form a capital groundwork for a scientific education.  In the meantime, let them consider the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air."  ~Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Vol 1, p. 63

Happy New Year!

We're enjoying a quiet but productive New Year's Eve here. DH put the camper in storage, cleaned up the basement, and built a boot rack. One daughter dug out my candlemaking supplies and is happily melting down sludgy wax, cleaning it and creating wax blocks, ornaments and candles. I've been updating some other blogs/websites I help with and catching up on computer work. It's rainy outdoors--a good day to putter about inside.

This evening we'll be enjoying a big pot roast--part of the 1/8 cow we recently purchased. It's baking slowly in my big cast iron Dutch oven along with some potatoes, carrots, celery and onion, and filling the house with good smells.

Even though tomorrow is Sunday, we do plan to let the children stay up to see the ball drop (if they make it). They have a Veggie Tales movie to watch and we may get a family game of Rail Baron going after our nightly chapters of Little House. Now that we've finished Jotham's Journey, I'm looking for a new family read-aloud to start--any suggestions?

While I finally managed to get most of my Christmas cards mailed a week ago, I didn't get the ones for our church family finished. So sometime this evening I'm hoping to finish those up so I can put them in church mailboxes tomorrow. Better late than never, right?

I've been working on some New Year's resolutions/goals but don't have them quite finished yet. Will post more on that soon!


Wishing each of you a happy new year!