Off to Philadelphia

A couple of weeks ago we went to Lancaster for an educational session for Ryan, and we took a day trip into Philadelphia! We had never really been there before and found it to be quite a charming city...

The science museum there (the Franklin Institute) had a special Narnia exhibit which was FANTASTIC! We spent an entire afternoon looking at props, sets and costumes from both movies and viewing the excellent displays. It was well worth it for fans of Narnia. We were disappointed that we couldn't actually take any pictures inside...



Of course we saw Ben Franklin while there...

It was fun - we actually plan to go back again and spend a couple nights in the city and explore more of the history there. From this trip we will always remember the visit to the joke shop, almost running out of gas, tasting Turkish Delight for the first time, seeing an Imax movie about caves, Panera bread, Maple Donuts, and irish music!!

Homeschool Dangers

Well, it finally happened. I have always read stories about homeschool families who do science experiments in the kitchen and end up blowing up the house! Well, we didn't blow up the house. And nobody got hurt (not really). But we had a moment we won't soon forget!

Jacob and Ryan were taking apart an old camera with screwdrivers. Aren't boys just fascinated with how things work? Anyway, they got it almost all the way apart when Jacob started to jump and wiggle and jiggle and bounce all over the room - we didn't know why he was howling, and then he stopped to explain that he had been "shocked" by something electrical in the camera that sent tingles all the way down his left leg! Was that enough to stop him? No, he had to go back and find out WHY he had been shocked... so he proceeds to fish around with a screwdriver (this time he had a towel wrapped around his hand) and made a huge spark - when it went off it sounded like a gun had gone off!

Amidst the laughter, I was grateful that this was hopefully the closest we would come to blowing up the house!! haha

We put the camera away for DAD to finish with them...

Love your curiousity boys - never stop learning and experimenting!

SEIZE THE DAY!!!

Someone e-mailed this article to me today and I felt it was definitely worth sharing - especially for all of us moms who homeschool!!!



Stressed Out Parents and the Art of Staying Positive


Every week somewhere in the U.S. a mother sits across from me and wrings her hands or pulls at her hair and tells me what a terrible job she is doing as a parent. The really odd thing about it is that this parent’s child might be doing great. In the midst of her own anguish over what she isn’t getting done, the mother doesn’t see the progress. What a waste!


I’m going to share with you a fact that my grown children have shared with me: a parent’s worry doesn’t do the child any good. Guilt doesn’t either. What both of those emotions do is rob the parent of their hope and enthusiasm, of their joy and creativity. As parents attempting to look to our child’s future, there appears to be much to potentially worry about each day. We would all like to save our children from the pitfalls that may lie ahead. We cannot, however, accurately predict all of those pitfalls and often lose sleep over things that don’t happen and may never happen. In short, we don’t even necessarily worry about the right things.


A worried parent is not attentive to what is currently happening. I am far from exempt when it comes to worry or guilt. I do my fair share of being buried in both emotions. It is essential, however, that we concentrate on what is happening with our children now. It is essential that we be emotionally available to our children now. It is the very children over whom we are wringing our hands who will lose out while we do that. You really can’t interact with Mom if she is busy worrying or beating herself up about what she didn’t get done.


Try this exercise and see if it helps. Try dealing with this very moment. Try staying in the “now” with your child. Set aside tomorrow, next week or next year and also set aside what you didn’t do yesterday or last week. Today your child is here, available to you and ready to learn from you. Today you are here, hopefully available to give your child the full attention and interaction that he or she needs. Today is a rare opportunity to be with this person to whom you are devoting much of your life. Seize the day!

St. Patrick's Day

No, we are not Irish, but we certainly gave it our best shot at celebrating the day!! The kids and I had just studied the geography and culture of Ireland, and so we made the most of the holiday by making Irish lamb stew, Irish soda bread, and green shamrock shakes! The kids each created a project for their geography notebook on Ireland

Grandma even did her "granny duty" and made shamrock sugar cookies!!

Hannah did her usual St. Patrick's Day ritual - decorating a bunny! This is the real one...

and this is the fake one...

Maple Sugaring Time 2009

This was an unbelievable experience for the Dustin family - one that will provide a "sweet" memory for many years to come! Who would ever have thought that a small 2 acre yard in Maryland (not Vermont) could produce home-made maple syrup!! (Thank you, Jean, for taking this wonderful picture!) To us it looked like something out of a Vermont tourism catalog!! haha

My parents, who are here visiting for several months, have made maple syrup before on their land in Wisconsin. Dad noticed we had some viable maple trees here on our land and so we all thought it was worth a shot. We ordered tapping supplies, a boiling pan, and gathered jugs from everyone we knew. My Dad is pictured here drilling the hole for the tap.

It was sooooo fun to watch the jugs fill up with sap - every day (I have to admit, sometimes hourly) we were watching the jugs to see if they needed to be emptied. It was so fun to watch the boys go out with their five gallon buckets and gather the sap. Other than being grossed out by ants in the sap a time or two, they did a great job. Again, I felt like the mother of sap-farming boys!! It was so cool.


Grandpa and the boys, out checking the trees.

When we got enough in the jugs, the boys would gather it in five gallon buckets to store either out on the porch in a garbage can or in the freezer or fridge. I wish I had a picture of my spare fridge filled with nothing but sap in every empty container I could find - roasting pans, bowls, pitchers, tea cups, thimbles, etc. (ok, not thimbles)

Jacob re-hanging a jug after emptying it.

FINALLY - time to boil!!! We needed around 40 gallons of sap to be collected in order to start boiling, in the hopes of getting one gallon of syrup out of that. In the end, we ended up getting just over two gallons of beautiful, sweet, delicious maple syrup. My Dad rigged up this stove to boil on, and he and mom did ALL the work keeping the fire going to boil it down. Does my back yard look a little "West Virginia-ish?" haha

As it boiled down, it started to turn a light brown - evidence of syrup!

When that boiled down, we added more sap to keep it going.

Finally, it was ready to be filtered and taken into the house where it needed to boil down even more. My Dad was the master-mind and experienced one who knew all about this and how to do it. Could I do it myself now? Well......let's just say I am making my parents come out next January again!! haha

Finally, the sap is down to these two pots, and we watched it boil. More like smelled it boil. There is absolutely no fragrance like that of maple syrup boiling on the stove. I wish it could be bottled and sold. Incredible.

Finally done - and then it needs to be filtered once again before bottling!! We were so excited to actually have made maple syrup from trees in our back yard. And I have to admit that it tastes absolutely amazing!! Nothing like it! With all the work that we now know goes into making syrup, we are treating our bottles like pure gold!!


This is our finished product, proudly brought to you in a video by Ryan!!! (who, by the way, took most of these wonderful pictures of the maple sugaring process) Thanks Ryan!!

Father-Daughter Dance

Ah, another turn around the bend of life. Another step, another milestone as we watch our children grow up. Hannah all grown up, wearing a beautiful dress, receiving her first corsage, wearing her first pair of "heels", going to her first semi-formal. At least this first dance was with her Dad and not some nervous young man who was trying to steal my daughter's heart!! A local church in the area sponsored a Father-Daughter dance at a Grand Ballroom, and Danny and Hannah went with a friend of Hannah's and her father. What fun they had!

Danny trying to pin on Hannah's corsage.

This picture is familiar - a similar pose was struck last year as they went out for a special dinner, just the two of them. This is the third year in a row that they have done this. Hannah really does look forward to it each year.

Danny, Hannah, and Abigal and Robert Vigil on their way to the dance.

A little goofiness at the end of the night - I think they weren't ready to stop dancing yet!!

Yep, a ham and his daughter!!!

Another collision and a night in the ER

What a weekend we just had. Danny fell on Friday night and injured his leg - but we didn't notice the swelling, redness and warmth of the injury until Saturday night as it became increasingly more painful for him to walk on. We were concerned about a blood clot as those are some of the symptoms and his doctor said he needed to go to the ER and get an x-ray right away.

Six hours later, at 3:30 a.m., we crawled home and into bed. To put it in the words of Matt, "So, you have a bruise?" haha yep, a bruise. We spent 6 hours in the ER for a bruise. Which, don't get me wrong, I am thankful for. I am glad there was no fracture or deep vein thrombosis. I just have to remind my husband that, in the words of the nurse at the hospital, Saturday night out in the ER does NOT count as a date!

So, we grabbed a few hours of sleep, and got up to some hungry children. Danny and I decided to go out and get subs for everyone for lunch. On the way home, we got in another accident. We were absolutely incredulous - I couldn't believe that I was in two accidents in a ten day period! This one was worse (for me). We were hit from behind by a car, who was then hit behind by a truck and pushed into us again, so we had two definite impacts. I must say that getting hit from behind was far worse and more painful than hitting someone head on.

So, let's take a count here. My van is in the shop being repaired. Matt's car has been broken down in the driveway for a week and he is driving a borrowed vehicle. Danny's Pilot now needs to go in the shop for repairs. We had vehicle misfortunes in Florida...

Honestly, I have to admit that I am very nervous about driving. I have some carpools to drive this week, and I am just not sure how that will go. I am going to have to work this through and learn to trust the Lord in all of my ways. I know that nothing happens outside of His sovereign will. We will persevere and learn to drive again!!!