The Making of a Castle

The above picture is the finished product of many weeks of work and creativity for Ryan. He was to do a project for the History Fair, and this is what he decided to make. As a fan of knights, swords, and medieval times, making a castle was the perfect choice for him. (Later I will post Jacob and Hannah's projects as well!)

It started with weeks of collecting boxes - every single box we used Ryan would say "Don't throw that box away!!" Weeks later this was what our schoolroom looked like...


Next, Danny and Ryan spent some evenings gluing all the parts in place.

It was then moved outside for a really cool spray paint - it had sand mixed in with it, so the finished product actually looked like stone.

Back in the house for all the finishing touches. Ryan took some old tile we had leftover and smashed them, and then laid them out like stone pathways. He really thought of all this on his own and seemed to know just what he wanted to do and the look he was going for.

Okay, this was the hardest part to watch. LOOK AT THAT MESS! There was glue and moss and stone and paint EVERYWHERE!!! But, it really was okay because Ryan was having the time of his life. He is a very creative boy, and I never really knew just how creative until this project. He is a careful, persistent laborer, and worked until it looked exactly how he wanted it.

His hands here are gluing the delicate pieces to form a garden in the castle courtyard.

Getting closer here.....

The finished product on display at the history fair!! Way to go Ryan!! You did an amazing job!!! Most people were in disbelief that an eight year old had done this. It really was an incredible project!

Did I mention that he had to make a board to go along with it that had some amazing projects all of their own? Plus a sword displayed in a glass case??? The history fair was a definite success for Ryan, and totally the highlight of his school year.

Happy "Hobbit" Birthday Ryan!!

We celebrated Ryan's 9th birthday last week! And as you may be able to tell from the cake (or maybe not!) we had a "Lord of the Rings" birthday, in particular, a hobbit birthday. The cake was supposed to be the home of the famous hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, known as Bag End. Ryan and I had so much fun making this cake - we worked on it together one whole afternoon.

Ryan woke up that morning to a decorated room filled with streamers and balloons. Green of course, to mimick the Shire. I put a candle in his little bagel and we started the day.

We called the day off school and spent it playing Lord of the Rings Monopoly as well as a version of Lord of the Rings Pictionary that Hannah had created the night before. It really was fun. Danny made Ryan's favorite meal for dinner - steak, garlic mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. Then we went into the living room to give Ryan his gifts, but that was where the Hobbit part of Ryan's birthday came in. If you aren't familiar with hobbits, they have what is known as a backwards birthday, where they give presents to everyone else on their birthday.

Ryan and I had spent time shopping secretly to give everyone else a gift. I really do believe he had more fun with this part of his birthday than any other. And the sneaky little hobbit even lined up with his Dad to get me a present as well! I was sooooo surprised and blessed...

He had a puzzle for his grandparents, a dagger for Jacob, a basketball for Matt, a game for Hannah, and some grilling equipment for his Dad. He gave me a beautiful pair of earrings... His sweet and generous nature was shining once again. He was sooooo excited about his birthday, and I think that it was really because he was excited to surprise and bless everyone else!

Here is Ryan with his giant Lego set - one of his birthday gifts from us.

We all went to a new bowling alley and played a couple games - a fun place for sure.

We came back and lit up the shire! Ryan had trick candles on his cake that wouldn't go out!! (Those of you who know Ryan know how appropriate this was for him!!)

I cannot thank the Lord enough for the amazing gift He gave to our family when He gave us Ryan...

Happy 9th Birthday, my sweet little "hobbit"!!!

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!!