Veronica Boulden

Avril reads her latest Lost Tools essay to me... Me: "Wait. What's this?! 'I think Brother Luke should have helped Robin...' None of this 'I think' business. Just make the statement and then support it with evidence. Be bold! You know your own mind, right?" Avril nervously laughs: "Okay." Me: "Okay. Read on." Avril reads on... gets to the end, "This story teaches us that whether there are clouds of sickness and death or beautifully peaceful skies of life over the world, never put fear of sickness or death over the need to serve or help others." Me: "Woah now! What's that?!" Avril: "That's amplification PLUS antithesis." 

A few years ago, I bought myself a parrot, because I love birds and I had always wanted a parrot.  For a while, my parrot loved me best.  I was definitely the first person he bonded with.  But after a few years of being in/ around our family all day every day, my parrot gradually decided he loves my youngest daughter best of all.  So at this point, he is always with her, and will not stay with anyone else for long (unless the youngest isn't home or is still asleep.)  But even then, the bird will cry out to wake her up (if she's asleep) or he will cry out to make sure she's no where in the neighborhood (if she's not in the house). It's definitely somewhat comedic, since the bird has no issue making you or anyone but her feel like chopped liver.  He rides along with her for morning chores.  He sits with her while she reads.  He will literally fly around you and anyone else to get to her.  Of course, I am trying not to be bitter about how things have sorted themselves

My youngest came up to me and said, "I wrote a verse," and quietly handed this to me.  I was stunned.  As her homeschool mom, I know: She's been using how-to-draw books and sketch pads to learn how to shade.  She's seen me learning how to letter, and she's asked to read my lettering book.  She's been reading her Bibles more. She has an illustrated Bible that she loves, and she also has a Bible with coloring pages that she uses on Sunday mornings.  Both these Bibles are bringing her to and into the Word more for herself and they are fostering a growing Biblical literacy in her.  She has also been hearing hymns at church and learning hymns on the piano.  She also reads more poems now. We all do.  And of course, we read lots of stories silently and aloud.  Even the writing program I use with her teaches alliteration...  I see evidences of all those good things here.  As a parent, you can tell whether your children's soul is well by the things they do and say

Our oldest is going to New College Franklin in the fall. It was her first choice, our first choice for her, and definitely, most importantly, God's perfect will for her. We are very happy and thankful. We only wish we could go to school there, too. Their book list is a thing of beauty. Her dad and I are buying some of the books and we will be reading them. Maybe she will be willing to talk to us about them when she comes home for breaks. 

February has been the month of reading books my daughter has been insisting that I read for some time.  I so enjoyed Dune. I'm surprised by this, but my daughter loved it, so that spoke volumes to me. At this point, I really trust her taste. As much as I liked Dune, and I really liked it, I am not sure I'll read any of the other books in the series yet, since I have many other books I want to read.  I also finished The Fiddler's Green, another book my daughter loves. I may have cried almost the whole time. It is the second book in the two-book series. It's full of adventure and has heartbreaking moments. But it's also heart warming and in total, it is a redemptive story. I think this one would be a good read aloud for a family with later elementary, middle, and high school aged kids. 

I was lettering while my middle daughter was coloring while my youngest was sketching for an hour or so on this last, lazy Saturday afternoon. We left a beautiful mess on the table and we shared moments I'll treasure.   

    At this point in her Challenge A journey, my middle daughter is drawing various body systems and defining the terms (or parts) of those systems. But the definitions for the terms aren't provided for her in any textbook.  In Challenge A, students are supposed to read a variety of sources and compile their own definitions for the parts of the body systems.  When my first daughter went through Challenge A many moons ago, I remember that I really did not understand why the curriculum would not just give students (and parents) the right answers. Why are they asking students compile definitions from various sources?  Where is the textbook?  This is so much more troublesome than just asking them to copy and memorize the correct definitions.  Why not just provide one, singular, authoritative text or document with all the right definitions? Ugh!  Why make students go to so much more trouble and effort to formulate their own definitions from various texts? How am I supposed to know if th

We took a walk on Saturday afternoon. The girls took their remote control truck along. We found a nutgall! Avril learned all about nutgalls as she did the research for her recent Science Fair project on invisible inks.     We called this "Ratty's hole" (from Wind in the Willows).  A snow squall came up behind us as we walked home, but we were already in our driveway by the time the snow started falling heavily and the wind picked up.  We started a fire and warmed up with hot chocolate (marshmallow lovers). 

Our Classical Conversations community had a scheduled break week, so that gave us an entire week off of our regular homeschool schedule. With the break, we'd basically have two weeks to do one week's worth of our school work, so I took some of the extra time to fly out and visit my widowed, elderly mom for a few days.  My husband, sister, and I are supporting my mom in various ways so she can live in peace in a clean, safe, nice one-bedroom condo, have what she needs, and enjoy her retirement in ways she desires like trips to the Senior Center everyday. During my visit, I got to see my sister everyday, too, since she works full-time and lives there in town nearby. She helps Mom with all the regular stuff like groceries and doctor's appointments. When I come to town, I like to take care of those really physical tasks mom needs done like cleaning, or moving her Tupperwares filled with holiday decorations into and out of storage, or dumping all the collected recycling and the

Avril got second place in her Challenge A Science Fair!  She worked hard and deserved to be rewarded for that.  The best part of the event was the fact that all the parents and siblings and even some aunts and uncles and grandparents came out to support the students.  We all got to spend hours together enjoying conversation and snacks in our host church's game room.  Later, some of us met up for dinner at the diner with even more conversation.  It was a great night! 

Today, my seventh grader added the refutation section to her outline for the first time.  I asked her to step me through her thought-process and the argument she was forming up about "Whether Brother Luke should help Robin." Here's what she said: "...Some people think Brother Luke should not risk his life to go help Robin. Brother Luke could be infected by the plague himself. Then he could infect others. But he's a Christian, so he doesn't value earthly things or fear sickness or even death. He knows he will go to Heaven when he dies." Some people think Brother Luke should not risk his life to go help Robin, because his life is far more important than Robin's. But that's invalid, because even though Brother Luke may know more, or pray more, or read the Bible more than Robin does, God wants mature Christians to be kind and selfless. ...This matters to Christians today, because we are faced with a similar situation and decisions because of Covid.&q

My youngest made Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth to help decorate our mantle for February/ Valentines Day. I find a lot of charm in the clay carvings my kids make through the years with their perfect imperfections.  My middle daughter also made two friends, one giving the other a gift.  These friends makes me think of the verse: "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive."  I don't have many decorations for Valentines, so the girls were trying to add to my collection.  I think they found some really beautiful ways of expressing what the holiday of love means to them.  I love their hearts. And I love the beauty in their souls reflected in the art they choose to make and the ideas that are capturing their imaginations.  I know I'll enjoy these Valentine figurines for as many Februaries as the Lord gives me.   

We're still preparing for the upcoming Science Fair over here. It will be held on Tuesday.  My daughter's board has been finished (basically) for weeks, and she has been practicing presenting with it all that time.  But the various items on her board were just taped there until yesterday. That way, she could make adjustments big and small as needed and so she could try different arrangements.  Note: This is not my first rodeo. There was intense drama and tears when stuff got glued to boards too quickly to project boards in the past, so I insisted she tape everything first. She complained about this and even cried because she realized how much work it would mean would have to be repeated, but in the end, she was also glad she taped first. She did end up wanting and even needing to make at least a dozen changes to the board as she went on through the last few weeks. So having things taped made that possible and easy.    But yesterday, we finally spent a few hours actually gluing

My oldest made me a miniature nativity set. Isn't it adorable?! Several people have said she should make these to sell, so she's actually looking into opening an Etsy shop. But with working part-time already and doing her schoolwork, which is quite rigorous, piano practices, driver's ed lessons and practice, etc., she doesn't have a ton of margin this year, so I am not sure how likely it is to happen. But I know I'll cherish this set forever.