Daley Ponderings

The boys (and Heather has enjoyed it too - I haven't gotten to it yet) have really been enjoying Khan Academy this last week.  It is an educational tool, with lots of questions to test you on different skills.  Jonathan is especially motivated by the reward badges it gives you when... (More)

I'll take this opportunity, home from church with two sick kids, to post my notes. 10/19 - JDD, "Most fun things are spoiled if you HAVE to do them."  I forget the context of his quote but it reminded me of my thought at the harvest supper.  The middle and high school youth groups... (More)

Faith had a blast at Star Island with Grammy and Papa. 7/25 - JDD, explaining why he likes to use a certain spoon for his breakfast cereal, "That spoon is special to me, because Grammy gave it to me for Christmas last year." 7/28 or 29 - Joy had a cold and I gave her 1 or 2 nebulizer... (More)

Having a dad in the fire department is educational in more than just fire safety: 5/17 - Jon is called to an accident "involving motor vehicle vs. moose" 5/18 - Jonathan reads about moose and siberian tigers on wikipedia ~5 - Joy says "owee here" = outta here 5/20 - jpd 17 lb on our... (More)

My due date was February 21. Jonathan, Noah, and Faith had all been exactly five days late. Joy was early, but we weren't sure of her date and the more we thought about it the more we figured she probably had been late as well. So we had Linda and Porter schedule their flight to arrive... (More)

We are still working on renovating our new house, and thus we are still living with Jon's generous parents.  And since we are living here, we are schooling here.  But a comment from his mom gave me some insight into some non-homeschoolers' comments about homeschooling. We usually... (More)

I received a free "embedded" light from Microsoft a number of years ago.  I put "embedded" in quotes, because I think it is funny that Microsoft considers a lightbulb connected to a USB power source an example of an embedded device.  I guess I haven't looked that carefully, but I... (More)

Here are the last ones to share, I'll try to be more careful in the future to link to posts properly when I "share" things, so you can actually see the content regardless of whether facebook or google or the original poster make it difficult... Statistics in science : I don't quite... (More)

Recently, I read One Thousand Gifts , which was recommended by someone whose blog I read, but I can't remember who anymore.  It was a beautiful book and has inspired me to be thankful for the little things once again.  (Briefly, the hesitations I have in recommending it: she writes... (More)

6/14 - On our camping trip, Faith liked to play Ice Cream Shop.  Her flavors are unique: pineapple hot sauce, strawberry beet, water, to name a few.  After those, I requested just plain ice creams, though she really wanted to put hot sauce on most of them.  We finally settled on a... (More)

I don't think it has been said here, other than in small mentions here and there, that I joined our volunteer fire company in Middlesex Township a couple of months ago.  I am not sure of the exact number of incidents that I've gone out on, but the number is probably around 8 or so, though... (More)

Jon was with a bunch of people we don't see often last night, and one of the men mentioned that his wife was discouraged by all these homeschooling mother-of-many type blogs where everyone has all their lives together and nothing goes wrong.  So I thought I'd post how my life is not... (More)

4/15 - Faith and Noah are playing house.  They are married, and are parents to Faith's "purple baby doll".  Noah says to Faith, about their baby, "When she is happy, I hold her.  When she is sad, you milk her." 4/18 - We were talking about heaven (I don't remember the beginning... (More)

Faith has started calling Jonathan, "Ohnny-int"  This is related to how she says medicine ("meddy-int") and other words that end in /n/. She also says her own name, which sounds unfortunately rather like "Hate" but the /t/ is a bit softer, maybe halfway between that and "Hathe".... (More)

I'd been having these strange contractions for a few days. Not the simple Brackston-Hicks that I have throughout pregnancy that feel tight but do not hurt. Not crampy labor contractions, either. They were very tight and they hurt. They came usually when I was sitting – on the couch or... (More)