Author Archives: Erin

Thanks to Lisa Weaver Swartz, we have family pictures to share this year as we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  After nearly three years of minimal travel, we hosted the Birdsong clan for Thanksgiving, and … Continue reading →

We’re still here! This past year has been a busy one, but we’ve taken plenty of pictures.  Sydney got a fancy new Nikon . . . but he’s mostly using a lens that allows him to take close-ups of tiny, … Continue reading →

Seventeen months after last getting off a school bus, our kids climbed back on one again.  The last time they were in public school, Katherine was in fifth grade and Nathaniel in third.  Now ages 12 and 10, respectively, she’s … Continue reading →

The kids just spent a week at Choral Camp in Ohio at Sydney’s alma mater, Rosedale.  Outdoor singing sessions under the tent, shaving cream fights, slippery water slides, and beginner solfege training: it’s a really fun combination of music and … Continue reading →

We bought a farm!  Let the jokes begin. After a lovely two-week visit to my parents, the kids and I returned to Kentucky, where Sydney and I signed the papers on a 17-acre farm near Harrodsburg.  It is 25 minutes … Continue reading →

Since we didn’t have a clear start to the school year (will they go to school?  will they stay home?  what would either of those look like?), we thought we would mark the end of the school year with some … Continue reading →

Last spring, Sydney filled our backyard garden with strawberries.  He has since thinned, weeded, mulched, and watered them.  Since he used to pick strawberries commercially, and since he prefers blueberries anyway, this is very much something he does just because … Continue reading →

The joke in our house is that Sydney is slowly reclaiming our yard from lawn, one garden square at a time.  Sydney has sown carrots in the holes in the concrete blocks he’s put down as edging (wood, we’ve discovered, … Continue reading →

Neither kid is keen on picture-taking at the moment, but Katherine can be leaned on “for the grandparents’ sake.”  Nathaniel, however, is quite happy to refuse me even then.  Sorry, I tried. Sydney has one class left to teach this … Continue reading →

Katherine likes ceremony, and she thought a picnic on her birthday would make the most of our lovely spring weather.  The redbuds in Kentucky are filling every background with pink and purple, and everything has turned green underfoot. Rain made … Continue reading →