daily life

Knock, knock

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

The other day Axa and Raj had a bit of a scuffle, and we ended up having an impromptu family council. During the course of the discussion, Tony asked them how they thought they could prevent similar problems in the future. They came up with what I thought was quite a clever and mature solution. Since the altercation had involved Axa forgetting (yet again) Raj’s rule that people ask for permission before entering his bedroom, he said he would like a sign for his door to remind her (and everyone).

Axa decided she could benefit from a sign as well, and they had a great time choosing colors, fonts, and wording for their signs.… Read more

The Ticktockman and Me

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

When we got pregnant with Axa, Tony and I were living in student housing at Brigham Young University. Having witnessed too many friends whose every move suddenly revolved around naptime (and every conversation around diapers, precocious developmental milestones, and infant bodily functions) we swore that having a baby would not change our lifestyle. Sure enough, tiny Axa went along with us to the International Cinema, campus lectures, Tony’s computer lab job, and midnight shopping runs. When she was two months old, we even took her on a summer-long field study to the Philippines.

Nope, having a baby didn’t put a kink in our lifestyle.… Read more

Our School Nook

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

I have a bit of a split personality when it comes to homeschooling. On the one hand, I was brought up mostly as an unschooler, and believe in a fair degree of laissez-faire when it comes to how my children spend the majority of their time. On the other . . . well, I’d love to emulate a rigorously proper prep school, cute plaid uniforms and all.

I feel the same way about homeschooling space. Learning shouldn’t be confined to a room in the house, or even to the entire house. It should happen at all times, everywhere.

Still, I have a secret fantasy of someday owning a house big enough that we could dedicate a whole room to “school.”… Read more

Staying Sane

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Piano piano sale questa sensazione di esser fuori posto d’un tratto solo il buio per me rimane il vuoto intorno e poi . . .

Looking back over the past few months, I can definitely see improvement in how I feel and what I can do. I still miss how resilient and capable I used to be, but I’m able to hope now that I might possibly sometime get back to “normal.” For now, it’s a matter of making sure I’m consistent with doing everything I am capable of doing. And maintaining a good routine.

I don’t go out much; just church on Sundays, library day on Saturdays, nature study on Mondays, and dates with Tony every week.… Read more

Halloweening, Familia Style

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

When I was a kid, there was a minister who lived next door to us. He refused to pass out candy to trick-or-treaters. Instead, they got little Christian tracts on how evil and satanic the holiday was. At the time, I just thought he was weird. But I could do without Halloween now.

In fact, not seeing spider webs, creepy masks, and gravestones all over people’s yards and store windows every October was one of the things I loved about living abroad. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t have to either let my kids gorge themselves on candy for the entire first week of November or be the “mean” mom who takes it all away.… Read more

Homeschool Performance Review

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

I realize that this first term of full-time homeschooling has prompted more than the usual number of posts about homeschooling. Fortunately, you’re all just dying to hear every infinitesimal detail about our homeschooling life. Right?

The other day I was reminiscing elsewhere about what it was like back in the good old days when homeschooling was weird and subversive, not hip and progressive. You know, the days when nobody had heard of it, and for a lot of people homeschooling=educational neglect=child abuse. I can still remember the first time I was in the park, and some random adult starting quizzing me on the multiplication tables.… Read more

Fall at the Pumpkin Patch

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Last Friday we drove an hour up into the hills to pick fall apples. We filled three buckets with Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Empire, and Rome apples, enough to grandly fulfill Grammy’s dehydrator ambitions, eat all the sweet, crunchy apples we could want, and have apple crisp with vanilla ice cream for family home evening treat tonight.

On the way home, we decided to stop by the pumpkin patch.

We only intended to stay an hour or two, but Murray Family Farms is no ordinary pumpkin patch. It’s a 360-acre autumn extravaganza. After eating our picnic lunch on a shady table outside, we let the children play in a sandbox thing full of field corn.… Read more

Conference Weekend

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

It’s been rather startling during the past couple of weeks to have so many people I hadn’t seen in years tell me face to face that they’ve been avidly following my blog (not to mention chide me for not posting much lately). Sometimes I forget that this blog is a fairly public personal journal. Also, sometimes when I tell a funny story as I’m catching up with old friends, I realize I’ve told it before, just not in person. Ah, well.

We had a lovely Conference Weekend. One of the nice things about being back in the States is that we can watch Conference in real-time and it’s not the middle of the night.… Read more

Apocalypse Over

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

Jet-lag has been vanquished, but I’m still making those last lingering adjustments to post-expat re-entry. (you know, finishing up the spontaneous incineration of the ablative heat shield, also known as “trailing clouds of glory . . .”) So far, I’ve been to Trader Joe’s, the Library, Macaroni Grill, and even (gasp!) Wal-Mart. But I didn’t actually buy anything at Wal-Mart. So does that make it O.K.?

I still don’t have a good short answer (or even a good long answer) for the ubiquitous question, “where are you from?”

I’m not sure what to do about that. Lately I wish I had something prosaic to say, like Wisconsin or Palo Alto.… Read more

International News in My Backyard

International News in My Backyard

Sarah Bringhurst Familia

The Tunisian police are holding a sit-in today to protest all the police stations that were burned during the revolution, and make sure the 23 police officers on trial for killing demonstrators during the weeks leading up to President Ali’s exit get a fair trial. They’re considering a general strike if the sit-in fails to produce the results they want. Ben Ali’s power base was largely drawn from the police force, and so the police now feel that they’ve been unfairly blamed for the violence during the protests in January.

Unfortunately, the past few weeks in Tunisia have seen a foiled bombing plot by Qaddafi, and fighting and deaths due to rioting and tribal conflict in the south, as well as a rash of muggings and car break-ins in our own neighborhood.… Read more