The world, piece by piece

We received a free product for the purpose of writing this review. Our family only reviews items that we actually find valuable and are able to be 100% honest about regarding our experience. We received no monetary compensation for our opinion. Links contained in this post may direct to affiliate sites.

I am in the minority in my own home. Why? I am not a puzzle person.

There’s only one other member of this family who sides with me on this. The rest of them actually sit around, sorting tediously small pieces into nuanced piles, then laboriously poking them into place on some scene … and they call this fun. It’s a “group activity,” I’m told, and “really relaxing.”

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Before breakfast

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The rhythm of life here is different at Floating Axe Farm—even though the “farm” part of that name consists, for now, solely of 16 hens smack dab in the middle of the very awkward, very ugly pullet phase.

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The perfect year

This is the season when the school year stretches before you, clean and promising, like a fresh spiral notebook, or a box of flawless, sharpened pencils. The lesson plans feel like the answer to all the niggling worries about learning gaps and keeping up with that perfect family at co-op. The extracurriculars are all perfectly lined up, in balance, and designed to facilitate the kind of “well-rounded experience” that everyone wants for their children. And you’re totally caught up on laundry, which is a sign. This is going to be the perfect year.

And it will be. I can promise you that.

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And so, we begin

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School is now officially, firmly in session this week. The rhythm is not there yet, but the heart is– and so far, I’d say 2016-17 is promising. The Lord clearly has lessons in mind: lessons in patience, in grace, and being a good student even when you don’t like the skill being taught. And those, by the way, are all for me.

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Paper dolls with a past

We received a free product for the purpose of writing this review. Our family only reviews items that we actually find valuable and are able to be 100% honest about regarding our experience. We received no monetary compensation for our opinion. Links contained in this post may direct to affiliate sites.

I loved paper dolls growing up. Loved them. I had an amazing collection of all the usual suspects, but my favorites, by far, were  Trixie Belden and her friend Honey Wheeler. I played with those dolls for hours on end—alone, with friends, it didn’t matter. I loved constructing elaborate homes and scenarios in which to recreate the details of the stories with which I was so smitten. I simply loved Trixie, and Honey, and every aspect of their wild, adventurous lives. Playing with paper dolls allowed me, for a moment, to step into the story, and narrate them back to myself in a whole new way.

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The revolving door

This post may contain affiliate links. Purchases made through these links support our family’s work in sharing the Gospel around the globe. Thank you! 

Jack is home; Mary Hannah is gone. The revolving door that seems to have been installed in our family– the one that will stay in motion, no doubt, until Jude is old enough to swept up in it– is doing its work here. In, and out, and in again … over and over, I watch bags be packed and add traveling snacks to the grocery list, I make “Welcome Home” banners with the littles ones, I plan homecoming meals. Missions, and college, and camp, and missions again.

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