CLEAN Water...

Lily did a speech on poverty for her public speaking class recently. What seemed to get her attention the most was that SO many people do not have clean water to drink. In fact, SO many die every day because of the lack of something so basic. Wow. This clip says it in an amazing way. Please watch!

Solidarités International: Water talks from La Boite Concept on Vimeo.

To celebrate Lily's success, I sponsored her in her desire to buy a water filter for a family in Asia who needed clean water (through GFA). A perfect start to the end of her project...

Mint Becomes Caramel

We are not totally sure it's the same creature, but the morning we found Mint's cocoon empty we found this pretty moth hanging out by our window. So, Mint became Caramel. Not the Julia butterfly Lily was hoping for, but she still thinks he's beautiful!

Birthday Fun

Lily turned 8 last Wednesday and we had a wonderful family celebration. Just us. Lily designed the cake and we all decorated it together.

Mint the Calapiddar

Chris found this caterpillar climbing on our island next to a bouquet of flowers and it quickly became Lily's favored friend. She made a home for it, named it, played with it, fed it well (with too many of my geranium leaves...my plants now look sad) and watched it's changes. I just couldn't correct her lovely way of saying it...calapiddar.

Homeschooling and Play

One of the things I love about schooling at home is the never-ending opportunity for creativity. It often starts with something we learned, but to be honest it's opportunity lies even more in the moments when Mom is distracted. This particular day I had a lot on my plate and could not, for the life of me, stay on task with my daughter (now who needs instruction?!). This is what I found her doing...

Crazy?!!

For Alex's 13th we had a sleepover with 17 girls. Yes, SEVENTEEN! Are we crazy?!! Yeah, maybe. But it went well. All teenagers were bundles of fun, energy and general sweetness. AND they all got about 5 hours of sleep. Amazing in my book.








The girls did "blind" make-overs! Some pretty hilarious results!


Just a little not-so-subliminal message to help keep our hearts and mouths in check. :)

A Date with Dad

This does a mother's heart good! And it's so good for a daughter's and a father's heart as well. She knows she is treasured and beautiful, he knows he has loved well. And I know she has a taste of the honor and respect she should expect from (and give to) a man. In our imperfect family, God is here...calling us to lay down ourselves and follow Him.