annie blog

I Love Math
but, unfortunately, some of my sons don’t like it, so much. So we do some practicing around here and, of course, I’m homeschooling my oldest son, and so I’ve been on the hunt for a good online site for math practice.

I found one. It’s called IXL. This site deals with math from kindergarten through sixth grade and divides the interactive work into math topics. It also allows you to see what a sample problem is like by just rolling over the link. I just love it when sites make their content so accessible. It also keeps a track of not only how many problems your student gets right but also tracks how long they have been working.

Check it out!

I Love Math
but, unfortunately, some of my sons don’t like it, so much. So we do some practicing around here and, of course, I’m homeschooling my oldest son, and so I’ve been on the hunt for a good online site for math practice.

I found one. It’s called IXL. This site deals with math from kindergarten through sixth grade and divides the interactive work into math topics. It also allows you to see what a sample problem is like by just rolling over the link. I just love it when sites make their content so accessible. It also keeps a track of not only how many problems your student gets right but also tracks how long they have been working.

Check it out!

Shoot, Y’all, It’s Burns Night Tonight
and I had really meant to celebrate it this year. But the day has gone and slipped up on me.

I’m totally unprepared — there’s not a drop of whiskey in the house.

A trip to the store is warranted, I guess.

Happy Robert Burns Day, everyone.

Shoot, Y’all, It’s Burns Night Tonight
and I had really meant to celebrate it this year. But the day has gone and slipped up on me.

I’m totally unprepared — there’s not a drop of whiskey in the house.

A trip to the store is warranted, I guess.

Happy Robert Burns Day, everyone.

Shoot, Y’all, It’s Burns Night Tonight
and I had really meant to celebrate it this year. But the day has gone and slipped up on me.

I’m totally unprepared — there’s not a drop of whiskey in the house.

A trip to the store is warranted, I guess.

Happy Robert Burns Day, everyone.

A Dose of Blue Sky
is what I need today. What with the fog and the gray and the drizzle and the cold. It almost feels like there are demetors on the loose here — and then I remember that, no, it’s not dementors, just January and my cranky 13 year old.

Those things do resemble each other, though, sometimes.

Over Christmas, because of the generosity of some kind folks from our (previous, sniff) church, we were able to stay at a gorgeous house on the beach for a week.

And what a beach. I’ve been going to the Gulf Coast for my entire life and this was the most beautiful beach I’ve seen yet. Bar none.

First, this is the boardwalk down to the beach. It is so picturesque.

Oh, the flapping Barlow hair — with Neffy-poo alongside.

Jon and me.

The sky was so beautiful that day. The beach is always different, you know, what with the constant changing of the sky and sand.

One of the following days, we went down there with some cousins who had come to visit. The weather that day was glorious but cold.

Cold, what cold? This boy takes the world at a run. He is passionate.

As is this boy. Know what he’s saying here? Answer: “Why am I so cold?” I attempted to answer him as I wound my scarf tighter around my neck. I don’t think he understood because soon after…..

he went back in. He’s the one shoulder deep. He wasn’t the only one, of course. However, the craziness was confined to our stretch of beach and (of course!) to boys between the ages of 5 and 13 who have our surname. You really know that your people are crazy when a look for a mile in either direction confirms that of all of the people on the beach only your people are in the water.

Beautiful beach, I miss you. Blue sky, I need you. Please come to St. Louis as soon as possible. Until then I’m going to look at this and think of you.

A Dose of Blue Sky
is what I need today. What with the fog and the gray and the drizzle and the cold. It almost feels like there are demetors on the loose here — and then I remember that, no, it’s not dementors, just January and my cranky 13 year old.

Those things do resemble each other, though, sometimes.

Over Christmas, because of the generosity of some kind folks from our (previous, sniff) church, we were able to stay at a gorgeous house on the beach for a week.

And what a beach. I’ve been going to the Gulf Coast for my entire life and this was the most beautiful beach I’ve seen yet. Bar none.

First, this is the boardwalk down to the beach. It is so picturesque.

Oh, the flapping Barlow hair — with Neffy-poo alongside.

Jon and me.

The sky was so beautiful that day. The beach is always different, you know, what with the constant changing of the sky and sand.

One of the following days, we went down there with some cousins who had come to visit. The weather that day was glorious but cold.

Cold, what cold? This boy takes the world at a run. He is passionate.

As is this boy. Know what he’s saying here? Answer: “Why am I so cold?” I attempted to answer him as I wound my scarf tighter around my neck. I don’t think he understood because soon after…..

he went back in. He’s the one shoulder deep. He wasn’t the only one, of course. However, the craziness was confined to our stretch of beach and (of course!) to boys between the ages of 5 and 13 who have our surname. You really know that your people are crazy when a look for a mile in either direction confirms that of all of the people on the beach only your people are in the water.

Beautiful beach, I miss you. Blue sky, I need you. Please come to St. Louis as soon as possible. Until then I’m going to look at this and think of you.

A Dose of Blue Sky
is what I need today. What with the fog and the gray and the drizzle and the cold. It almost feels like there are demetors on the loose here — and then I remember that, no, it’s not dementors, just January and my cranky 13 year old.

Those things do resemble each other, though, sometimes.

Over Christmas, because of the generosity of some kind folks from our (previous, sniff) church, we were able to stay at a gorgeous house on the beach for a week.

And what a beach. I’ve been going to the Gulf Coast for my entire life and this was the most beautiful beach I’ve seen yet. Bar none.

First, this is the boardwalk down to the beach. It is so picturesque.

Oh, the flapping Barlow hair — with Neffy-poo alongside.

Jon and me.

The sky was so beautiful that day. The beach is always different, you know, what with the constant changing of the sky and sand.

One of the following days, we went down there with some cousins who had come to visit. The weather that day was glorious but cold.

Cold, what cold? This boy takes the world at a run. He is passionate.

As is this boy. Know what he’s saying here? Answer: “Why am I so cold?” I attempted to answer him as I wound my scarf tighter around my neck. I don’t think he understood because soon after…..

he went back in. He’s the one shoulder deep. He wasn’t the only one, of course. However, the craziness was confined to our stretch of beach and (of course!) to boys between the ages of 5 and 13 who have our surname. You really know that your people are crazy when a look for a mile in either direction confirms that of all of the people on the beach only your people are in the water.

Beautiful beach, I miss you. Blue sky, I need you. Please come to St. Louis as soon as possible. Until then I’m going to look at this and think of you.

A Good Salad
recipe can be found here.

Don’t you just love a good salad?

I made this Caesar salad just a few nights ago. Jon and I both really, really liked it. It is just about the easiest salad dressing recipe, ever, and you use the same garlic to both infuse the oil for the croutons and as an ingredient for the dressing itself. I just love recipes where you use everything. This would also really appeal to folks who don’t like anchovies or eggs in their Caesar salad dressing. However, if you don’t really like garlic then you should probably steer clear. The recipe says to use romaine but we did not. I’m sure that it would be even better with a crunchy lettuce, but we used it with our field greens and really liked the result. So, if you need a great recipe for an easy Caesar salad dressing and an awesome crouton then please do click on over.

And, because it has been rainy, foggy, cold, misty and gray here lately — I’m going to post beach pictures tomorrow. So, we’ll get a dose of blue sky one way or another.

Happy Thursday, everybody.

A Good Salad
recipe can be found here.

Don’t you just love a good salad?

I made this Caesar salad just a few nights ago. Jon and I both really, really liked it. It is just about the easiest salad dressing recipe, ever, and you use the same garlic to both infuse the oil for the croutons and as an ingredient for the dressing itself. I just love recipes where you use everything. This would also really appeal to folks who don’t like anchovies or eggs in their Caesar salad dressing. However, if you don’t really like garlic then you should probably steer clear. The recipe says to use romaine but we did not. I’m sure that it would be even better with a crunchy lettuce, but we used it with our field greens and really liked the result. So, if you need a great recipe for an easy Caesar salad dressing and an awesome crouton then please do click on over.

And, because it has been rainy, foggy, cold, misty and gray here lately — I’m going to post beach pictures tomorrow. So, we’ll get a dose of blue sky one way or another.

Happy Thursday, everybody.