Just button it up, why don't cha?

I made several of these scarves at Christmas time (two just like the one pictured - made out of a wool yarn, and one out of a soft acrylic, and another out of an acrylic and alpaca blend). They were easy to make and were hits with their intended recipients, though no one in my immediate family will wear one for some reason (outside of modeling it, anyway).

Don't quite understand my guys' aversion to it as this is the most comfortable and stay-where-you-put-it scarf I've ever seen. I don't think they understand how cool these scarves are and how cool they'd be wearing them.  

They are so cool, I've been wishing I had made one for myself while I was at it.  Hmmmm....maybe it's the fact that I think they are cool is why they don't. 


Life is cruel that way.

I'd start one for myself, but I have a feeling winter's about over around here.  

Hey, can't blame a girl for hoping can ya'?

Book Lovers Love Books

How's that for stating the obvious?  Whether the books belong to her or someone else, a book lover just can't seem to get her fill when browsing another's bookshelves.  And homeschoolers are, by and large, book lovers and book collectors; and almost without fail what a homeschooler's eyes are drawn to when visiting a new friend are their books!  Maybe we want to get new ideas.  Maybe we want to see if we have common tastes.  Or maybe (and I almost hate to suggest this, but....) maybe we're just afflicted. 

I don't know why it's such a compulsion to peruse another book lover's bookshelves, but I know that it is.  So I invite you to browse a sampling of the many books we've collected over the years.  Clicking on a picture will enlarge it (because I know you want to read the titles).

A sampling of the books in the family room

Nature and Science books

Art books

Religion, Philosophy, History and Geography

These are the ones not in boxes.  I store history books by period in a storage room and rotate them out as we're studying a particular time period because we don't have enough shelves to hold them all at once.

Teacher Resources

Way too many cookbooks 

A glass front bookcase houses a few of Greg's WWII books:

The little bookcase below has always been my "woman's shelf".  Early on it was a new mom's bookshelf.  Then it became loaded with homeschooling books, and a sprinkling of spiritual helps.  At the moment, it's undergoing a metamorphosis as I begin contemplating the transition from homeschooling to.....who knows?!?   It may simply remain an eclectic collection of what interests me at the moment.

And then there is music, poetry, nursery rhymes 

and all sorts of miscellany in the living room & dining room:

And as hard as it is to believe, I didn't even get pictures of the books in the boys' rooms, several other shelves of teacher helps, Bible study resources, Greg's Landmark book collection, books of music scores, and some wonderful children's literature I hope to someday share with grandchildren.  And, well...I'll admit I intentionally didn't snap any pictures of the collections that are growing on my dresser (my Mitford, Miss Julia, and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books - books I've only recently discovered are wonderful, fun reads).

Yes, I suppose it is an affliction. 

But a lovely affliction it is.