A layer of onion skin viewed by the new-to-us American Optical One-Ten trinocular scope with a Celestron digital imager via Gnome’s Cheese software.

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

When people find out I homeschool, one of the first questions they usually ask is, “What curriculum do you use?” I’m getting used to answering the question, just like I had to learn how to answer the question that inevitably came after “Are they twins?”: “Are they identical?” No, they’re not identical. Without getting too [...]

[Read more →]

I was trying to settle Carmen down a little bit this afternoon.  She didn’t sleep well last night and by lunch she was picking at her sandwich and wailing at the slightest misfortunes.  We rocked and snuggled downstairs while she tossed and turned, searching for sleep.  I checked the clock and wondered how to best [...]

[Read more →]

Sometimes the big people need to rest or catch up on life, while the short people need to run around and get the rowdies out.  One way to keep everybody happy is to take a trip to the beach.  This time, we brought our new sun canopy.  Our previous $30 big-box special couldn’t stand up [...]

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

I tuned a lap harp.  I used the keyboard to get me through the first octave, and did the second octave largely on my own.  People, two years ago I would have had not only not been able to finish, but I would have had to flee downstairs, dizzy and feeling like my death was [...]

[Read more →]