Return of the Dust Bowl
Enjoy another weather-related lesson from the Caswell Clan. Yesterday, the average wind speed was in the 40 MPH range with gusts up to 90 MPH. The air quality went from “okay” to “terrible” in a matter of minutes. Dirt and dust were so thick that visibility was ZERO. Most...
Create Unstobbable Habits
Perhaps you’ve heard, “It takes 21 days to make a habit.” Well, yes, and not quite. The 21-day research comes from a plastic surgeon, Maxwell Maltz who noticed a pattern in his patients. Whether they went in for a nose job or lost an appendage, something changed in the...
Communication is Key
When you watch a show or movie and the character has a secret, do you find yourself saying, “If they had just been honest from the beginning, everything would have worked out differently.”? (Maybe even better, though it would make a completely different final product). My parents often quote...
Lessons from Disney’s Encanto
My daughter’s newest favorite movie is Encanto. We originally watched it because my sister created a Math Parody Video based on one of the songs (seriously, you should watch it. You’ll learn an obscure math fact to a catchy tune). Like many people, we enjoyed the story, the songs,...
An October of Possibility
October brings vibrant colors, weather changes, and a harvest Here in West Texas, the cooler temperatures take a while to stay. On the Caprock, we start our mornings around 50 degrees but we may still reach the 90s during the day. A dryer climate often means less dramatic color...
Homeschooling 101
Comparison is the thief of Joy. When I get in a “My kids are behind” mindset, I shift my focus to the ways they exceed. My job is not to raise people who think like everyone else, regurgitating the popular answer of the day. My job is to give...
Lessons from Daniel
If you “grew up in the church,” some of the events in the book of Daniel are very familiar, like the Lions’ Den and the Fiery Furnace. You may even remember how Daniel and his friends refused the king’s food or the disembodied handwriting on the wall. In those...
Lessons from the Lost Prince
This book by Frances Hodgson Burnett was slower in some ways but the suspense of “who is the lost prince?” keeps the reader engaged. I will not be divulging many details of this book, as that would give away the ending. I will only say, this story is a...
Lessons from The Railway Children
Madilynn chose The Railway Children as our next listen. She also read along, at least when there was light to do so, since we were listening during the time she had evening rehearsal for the performance. Having never read it, I didn’t know what to expect. As we listened,...
Year in Review: 2021
In some ways, 2021 was an extension of the strange happening in 2020. In other ways, it was filled with greater abundance and possibility than we could imagine. In January, my friends and I took a road trip to Fredericksburg, a German town in the Hill Country of Central...