Veronica Boulden
This blog is a journal, a family photo album, a recipe box...
Saturday, January 16, 2021
Wild Turkeys
This time of year, the wild turkeys graze in our yard daily. Living in the middle of the woods means we get to enjoy a great deal of wildlife by simply looking out of our windows.
Friday, January 15, 2021
New Years 2021
On New Years Eve, Dwayne decided to make a cake. He used the same recipe that was used in our wedding cake almost twenty years ago. We played Scotland Yard, a game that he grew up playing. On New Years Day, we had friends over and shared a simple meal of deli sandwiches and delectable desserts. We just enjoyed a few days filled with delightful leisure making the holiday very restful and celebratory at the same time.
Thursday, January 14, 2021
Asimov
Norah's reading Foundations. She recently read Dune. She's always rereading Sanderson and Poe and Wells and Shakespeare and Esolen and so many others. Many of the books she reads were assigned as part of her homeschooling, originally. But many books, like Asimov's Foundations, she has come to as avid readers do via other books or conversations with other readers. It has been heartwarming and rewarding to watch her go from book to book to book through her childhood and now into her young adulthood.
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
Friendship
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Reusing Giftbags
Friday, January 1, 2021
Books I Read in 2020
Books I read for the first time in 2020:
The Roar on the Other Side
Apologia's Chemistry
The Patriot's History of the United States
Listening for Heaven's Sake
Peacemaking
Something They Will Not Forget
Jayber Crow
The Rector of Justin
Anna Karenina
Gawdy Night
Brave New World
Passing
Rebecca
Dante's Paradise
Homer's The Iliad
Books I reread in 2020:
The Office of Assertion
The Question
Northanger Abbey
Frankenstein
Hamlet
Phaedrus
The Horse and His Boy
Macbeth
Much Ado About Nothing
Julius Caesar
Norms and Nobility
Robinson Crusoe
The Scarlet Letter
Jane Eyre
Persuasion
A Tale of Two Cities
Amos Fortune
Up From Slavery
Books I read portions of in 2020:
A Beginner's Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Paradise Lost
Caesar's Conquest of Gaul
Miniatures and Morals
On Reading Well
Till We Have Faces
Books I started in 2020 and I am still currently reading:
The Brightest Heaven of Invention
The Consequences of Ideas
The Fellowship of the Ring
Phantasties
The Brother's Karamazov
How to Read Literature Like a Professor
How to Read a Book
Rythmn of War
A Mathematician's Lament
Sunday, December 27, 2020
Christmas 2020
We always buy a gingerbread kit and we always use the leftover and unwanted Halloween candies to decorate the gingerbread house. As you can tell, the girls don't like gobstoppers or bottle caps, etc.
This December, Norah's classmate paid her to paint succulent pots for his mom as a surprise. He used an excuse to bring the pots over to us in secret earlier in the month. Once the pots were painted, we all went over to their house for dessert and to exchange gifts a few nights before Christmas. That's how we got the pots back to her classmate in secret and in time for him to slip them under their tree. He sent a video of her unwrapping her gift and finding out that Norah had painted the pots.
We attended Christmas Eve service in the afternoon.
We've been members of Walnut Hill since before our oldest was born more than sixteen years ago, so I realized that I have been to sixteen years of Christmas Eve services at the same church. I am thankful for that.
We have an extra cell phone that we have let our oldest use when she is volunteering away from home or on field trips, etc. It recently needed to be replaced with a newer model. Our oldest asked for a music player for Christmas, but we gave her this cell phone instead because it can also serve as a music player. Note: If she were more interested in having a cell phone, we'd be less willing to give her one. But since she could really care less, that's a strong proof she'll use it well. We had a lot fun writing out terms and conditions for its use. And the whole family had a lot of fun laughing as she read them aloud Christmas morning. Note: She was somewhat obviously disappointed with this gift until we pointed out to her that a cell phone can be used as a music player as well.
We gave the middle daughter an iPod, something she asked for also, so she can listen to music and audio books, etc.
Dwayne's company sends a ham every year at the holidays. So we had ham, homemade mac and cheese, roasted Brussel sprouts, pineapple casserole, spicy honey mustard, and cranberry chutney for Christmas dinner.

Saturday, December 26, 2020
Goals for 2021
I'm making some goals for 2021.
I'm keeping it simple, going back to the basics.
1. Read the One Year Bible.
2. Clean with Fly Lady.
3. Take my vitamins and count calories.
4. Read at least one book a week.
5. Exercise five or six days a week. (Anything from strenuous weight lifting to simple walks will count towards this goal.)
6. Contact one family member or friend every day.
I've done all these things consistently in the past. I still do most of these somewhat consistently, but the last few years have been so busy and emotionally and physically challenging that I have fallen out of these healthy habits for weeks or even months at a time. So I am putting a renewed focus on these simple things that make the most difference in my spiritual and physical well-being for 2021.
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
New Leisure Time
I'm done with my first semester of grad school. My oldest just finished all her CCPlus work for this semester. It's also the official first day of Christmas break for our Classical Conversations Community. A big snow storm is only hours away, so it's freezing outside. And I'm still a bit worn out from a full day of Blue Book testing and lively conversation with my Challenge 3 class yesterday. So I've got my feet up by the fire and I am leisurely reading five books at the same, literally. I'm reading one chapter in a book and then switching to another and then another. I haven't been free to read what I want in months and I just don't know where to start, so I am just reading them all at the same time. Whenever I get too restless from sitting and reading, I'll listen to my favorite podcasts and do some housework and/or meal prep. In the next few days, I actually look forward to writing a new essay on The Iliad for the Circe Apprenticeship, assessing my students' Blue Book exams, and writing their progress reports. Those are next things on my official to-do list. But for today and maybe tomorrow, too, I'm taking time to simply enjoy life and my new leisure time. The girls are also leisurely doing some schoolwork (but not all of it), reading books chosen from the library, playing piano, or writing their stories near me.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Read Aloud Moments
I snapped this photo of Avril all wrapped up in a quilt listening to our family read aloud, since she looked so adorable and cozy. We're on the last book in The Wingfeather Saga. We read a chapter or two several evenings a week first thing right after dinner. Sometimes our parrot, Arcus, will join us and he'll choose someone to favor and allow them to pet him. Tonight he perched on Norah's shoulder and shirt collar as she read and tried to imitate her voice by making a rumbling noise. When she's reading, he makes a noise just like an a.m. radio station that hasn't come in clear yet. When she pauses, he stops. He's a huge distraction, and we all laugh, just reinforcing his behavior.