Veronica Boulden

A Knights Tale:  One Prospective College Student’s Frustration Over Having to Choose a Major  Written by Norah Boulden Based on True Story    The sun had not yet crested the horizon when the knight reached the base of the mountain range. His horse, strong and loyal as she was, veered consistently towards a little stream running parallel the gravel path. Every time, the knight kindly and firmly pulled her back to the straight and narrow.  By the time the sun had painted blue over the pale pink morning, and Dawn had given her seat to bright Day, the knight had left his horse in a quiet mountain pasture to continue alone. He had worried long over the armor he’d left behind, how useful it might have been in long run against a gryphon or a tiger, but now he was thankful he hadn’t worn it. His tunic was soaked through with sweat, clinging to his shoulders and chafing beneath his sword belt. All while he toiled up the steep path, puffing and groaning, the sun shone merrily on from its perch b

My oldest daughter and I drove over twenty hours in the past three days in order to visit two of her top four college choices. Interestingly, we ended up visiting two other colleges that were not on her list as well. When we asked the GPS to take us to Chickfila, and it lead us right to Chickfilas  inside two different university student centers. So my sheltered daughter had the opportunity to gawk at a virtual city of college students and buildings at two massive secular universities. All the colleges on her list are small and private. So we actually saw a total of four colleges, two up close for hours, and two we saw for the amount of time it took for us to figure out it wasn't a freestanding Chickfila, turn around, and get back on the interstate. We saw enough of those big universities to serve for comparison all weekend, especially by way of stark contrast.  For instance, as we were driving back towards the highway at one of the big universities, we passed a frat row. She know

For the last several years, we have been taking the girls wherever they want to go for their birthday dinners, and that's always Cheesecake Factory. And since Cheesecake Factory is right next to Barnes and Noble... It's become a tradition to buy books, too. The girls think a trip to the bookstore is the best form of birthday party ever, and I think they're on to something. Forget goody bags. This way, everyone goes home with what they really want- books! 

The CT United Ride, an annual 9/11 tribute of motorcycles, makes a turn right near our house. So we piled the girls in the back of the truck, embracing the mutual America ideals of freedom and risk-taking, and we drove up the road to Putnam and parked under a shade tree.   While it was still quiet, we read George W's speech from that fateful day. The girls ran around on the park grounds. We had snacks and drinks from the cooler. It might have been the perfect late summer day in Connecticut.   We must have seen a thousand bikes. It was a very impressive display of patriotism and goodwill. 

Adele approached me, "Mom, I need a presentation for Foundations next week. What should it be about?"  I told her, "You can base it off your history memory work."  In Classical Conversations, the Foundations kids are learning ancient history this year, and they are memorizing The Ten Commandments right now. So I grabbed The Children's Bible off the shelf and told Adele to read it for ideas.  The Hobbits got a snack, another snack, I should say.  Adele read aloud to her big sister, Avril, stories of Moses, while Avril took a break from her Challenge A work.  Avril helped Adele pronounce "Canaan" and other words that gave her trouble.  Adele got the idea of using an old Moses puppet to make a skit.  "This is way more complicated than it needs to be," I think, but I hold my tongue and say, "Okay. That sounds fun."  I don't want to discourage a good idea she's excited about.  I'd put my foot down and force her to think of so

Our family loves the library's annual book fair. This year, my oldest daughter and I volunteered. On the first day we volunteered, before the sale began, they asked us, "Do you mind setting up the Classics section?" I think my mouth may have dropped open and I blinked a few times. My daughter thought fast enough to say, "Sure, that's fine. We'll do the Classics." We made eye contact and I think I played it cool enough. Did they know that we're a Classical Christian homeschool family? Volunteers get to shop early, which we knew about before we volunteered. We bought home two boxes that day. I went back the first day of the sale and purchased another two boxes. We volunteered again a few days later, and my husband brought our little girls. They filled a box together. Each box at full price was somewhere between 20-30 dollars. Then, the last day, I filled one final box for the low price of $10. I total, we may have spent $150 and we got many worthy book

When I was a teenager, someone I knew committed suicide, and like many people naturally do when that happens, I started asking questions about eternity.   None of the adults in my life would give me straight answers, or maybe they could not give me answers, because they didn't have answers.  At that point, I grew frustrated and I went looking for answers myself.  From going to Sunday school and VBS randomly, I had learned that the Bible was the book of answers for that sort of thing.  So I started reading the only Bible we had in my house- the KJV.   It was like reading another language, because the English in the KJV was so much more complicated than what I was reading in school text books at the time.  But I persevered by the grace of God.  Really, there is no other explanation than the grace of God.  I grew better at reading and understanding the Scriptures and from then on, I was able to start reading more and more difficult English literature including Shakespeare. Eventually,