• Summer Plans

    The Christmas of 2021 was one to celebrate. It was the first time in a long while that we had our own tree, next to our own window, with our own ornaments, in our own home. We did everything we could to bring the Christmas spirit. We baked, wrapped presents, sang carols, and picked a Christmas read aloud. Since we started homeschooling we have tried to always have a book that we’re reading as a family. I decided on a childhood favorite of mine, “The Paper Bag Christmas.” My mother loves Christmas novels and is always reading a new one. She introduced this book to me as a teen and…

  • Prescription Strength Gratitude

    On November 20, 2020, Russell M. Nelson, renowned heart surgeon and leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, released a video. He talked about the “healing power of gratitude” and how “counting our blessings is far better than recounting our problems.” Thanksgiving was coming up in the middle of a pandemic, and the talk online was nothing resembling positivity. The news was dreary, heavily opinionated, and divisive. Social media was toxic and riddled with negativity. Russell M. Nelson, being a doctor, prescribed a cure to help heal souls. He asked people to post on social media everyday for a week telling what they were grateful for…

  • When Not Much Has Changed, But Everything’s Changed

    How are you all holding up? I mean… national emergency, quarantines, toilet paper shortages, social distancing, schooling at home and the threat of an unseen culprit that did all this. Are you all doing okay? We’re used to much of this. I mean… who knew it would take a pandemic to finally find commonality with the rest of the world. We already homeschooled and Ben for the most part worked from home when he wasn’t on set (which recently has been less than normal because they always want to hire someone who can have his face shaved or hair cut if need be, and Ben can’t right now). We already…

  • Suddenly Homeschooling? Here’s 10 Tips and Tricks

    Welcome! To those of you who don’t know much about me let me introduce myself. My name is Cindy. I am the wife of a working actor (Ben), mother to four beautiful little girls (ages 9,7,5, and 3) and I’m 36 weeks pregnant with our fifth little lady! We have been thoroughly blessed. As I’ve discussed in previous posts, due to the nature of Ben’s job and the abundance of support we receive from the charter school system in California, we decided to homeschool this school year. Because of that, now that the Coronavirus is having everyone move indoors, I have had several friends reach out to me for homeschooling…