Recent Posts
Proactive Parenting: Preventing Meltdowns, Managing Emotions
Children are still learning to regulate their moods and emotions. If we help them head off problems before they arise, everyone will stay happier and less stressed.
Book Review: Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne with Lisa M. Ross
Make your home quieter and calmer, with less clutter, less media, and less stress. Home is supposed to be your restful home base. This book shows you how to make it so!
Backyard Suburban Gardening: My Year 5 Harvest
This year's expanded garden was more work, but the increased yield was worth it! I added to the front flower garden, too. Here's how everything grew and what I want to do differently next year.
Book Update #5: Grad School Life: Publication Day is March 19, 2024 + Cover Reveal
Exciting news: I have a book cover and pub date! Plus, details on the rest of the book production process, receiving page proofs, and figuring out book promotion.
Winterizing the Bees, Year 1
Northern winters are cold—so what do the bees do? Here's how we prepared our hives for the snowy months.
3 Years Blogging: Why Write a Blog? How Do You Balance Blogging with Life?
Time flies like an owl! Here's why I continue to write a blog, and why—even when scaling back to fit blogging better in my life—it's still worth it.
Book Review: Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar
More space in America is dedicated to parking cars than to housing people. How did our built environment become this way? Why is parking so frustrating, the center of every zoning debate, and the key to reviving our towns?
Switching the Blog Schedule to Biweekly
With all the other projects I'm working on, this blog will be taking a backseat. I'll still be writing here, just a little less often!
"School-Age" At Last: My Homeschooling Plan for School Year 2023-2024
My oldest will be seven years old soon and people keep asking me what curriculum I'm using. Our plan is more eclectic: lots of outsidetime, fun co-ops, farms, play, life, and more!
Book Review: The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World by David Robson
What you think and how you approach a situation can significantly affect what happens. This book explains how your beliefs influence real-world outcomes—health, sleep, stress, memory, concentration, fatigue, creativity, and more.
Five Board Games We Play With Our 6-year-old to Learn Math
Who wants to do math worksheets? Not my 6-year-old. But hell happily play games for hours - so we do! Here are a few we've been playing lately.How is a book edited and produced? Here what's happening with my book on the slow road to publication.
Book Update #4: Chugging Through Copyediting
How is a book edited and produced? Here what's happening with my book on the slow road to publication.
Modern Quality: Where Do We Get Beautiful Things?
If you go to any major store, most of the stuff you can buy is cheaply made and ugly. Why? Quality and beauty make us happier and healthier. Where can we find them?
How We Managed Our First Honey Harvest
Our bees have been productive this summer, so we decided to harvest some honey! Here's what we've learned about the honey extraction process.
Self-Direction in Graduate Education and Improving the Academic System
Some parts of the academic system are based on conventional schooling practices, not on how people actually learn—when they're curious and motivated, when material is meaningful. How can we better support learners in grad school?
Why I'm Running For City Council
I’m running for Post Falls City Council because I want my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to grow up as part of a thriving, resilient, local community here in North Idaho.
Book Review: Changing Our Minds: How Children Can Take Control of Their Own Learning by Naomi Fisher
Different kids need different learning environments; they're interested in different topics; they thrive on different tasks. So why force them to learn the same things in the same ways at the same times in schools?
Why We Started Beekeeping—And How It's Going!
No secrets: We wanted the honey. Here's why we started with four hives, how we setup the bees, what happened when one hive swarmed, and other faced challenges so far.
Book Review: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
Habits are the backbone of daily life. How do you form new habits and create better habits? In this book, Duhigg explains how habits work—for individuals, organizations, and societies.
How I Built A Career From Strengths and Interests—And How Your Kids Can, Too
What will your kids do when they grow up? Who will they be? And how can you help them? The key: People build lives and careers out of what they love, not what they hate.
How Do I Raise My Kids to Revere Life, Love What Is Good, and Reject the Bad?
I don't want to raise the next generation of materialist, short-term focused consumers. But how do I help my kids counter modern culture, resist temptations, and internalize the right ideas?
Reflections on Our Homeschool Year (2022-2023)
Cataloging learning in an always-learning household is a challenge! Here's what we've been up to this year—such as learning math from board games, joining a new co-op, and of course, plenty of time outside!
Book Update #3: Revisions Complete, Entering Production!
I'm inching my book from idea to final product! Here's what the review and revision process was like, and my next steps as the book moves into production.
How to Start a Reading Habit
What if you don't like reading? What if you don't have time to read? What if you want to read, but just can't make yourself do it? Here's how to make reading a hobby—it's simple, and you can start today.