Joanna's Page

Wow, it has been ages since I have even been able to think about paper or cards.
We did a flip-flop in our family due to the economy, and I have been in CNA training.
I am also starting to knock away at some pre-reqs. for the local community college nursing
program. All this leaves me with little time to do much else, so etsy and paper have kind of had to
take a back seat.

This new step is really interesting as I have not really been in "mainstream" culture for MANY
years. Raising kids has you… Continue

Lent started on Sunday for us. One of the fun things my children and I do, and will probably do today, is make a paper nun calendar. These are a bit like an advent calendar used to count down the days until Christmas. Our Greek Nun calendar, however, counts down the seven weeks of Lent. With each week, you tear off a foot, if the calendar is paper, or fold it up, if the calendar is cloth.

Recently, I painted a picture of one of these Greek Nuns. I had a fun time with her feet, giving her a diff… Continue

Well, I am really excited. Every year I get wound up to start the garden, and see how self sufficient we can be.
Along about August, I get tired of doing much of the work on my own. This year WILL be different! Check back in August for the truth, eh?

In our attempts at being better stewards and self sustaining, eight years ago we bought 9 chicks. I thought,
EGGS! Let's raise our own eggs. WE have loved having homegrown eggs, and the european earwig population in
our yard has declined significan… Continue

Saturday we went to a local homeschool function. The plan was to lapbook. We have done this in the past and really enjoyed it, so we thought Saturday would be fun. It was, but in someways it didn't focus on the items we would have, so it wasn't as rewarding as if we had done all the work ourselves. We did glean some new ideas though.

Lapbooking is a creative way to put study and put together a report on any topic in or out of the world. You start out with a couple file folders or even cardstock… Continue

Today was a full day-full of sugar, full of exercise, full of baking, full of life. It was good.

Isabel turned 9. I made a scavenger hunt for her with 9 clues in order for her to find her present. She has needed a new to her bike, so yesterday, we found one on craigslist. Good timing. Mark went and got it, then hid it at our neighbor's until Isabel was well asleep. He brought it over, and we covered it with a sheet in the front room.

When she woke up, Isabel had only one thing on her mind: Let… Continue