Do Life Right

When I first moved to Arizona in August 1999, I was baffled at the locals when they kept talking about the monsoon seasons. Monsoons in the Sonoran desert? Isn’t that an oxymoron? According to dictionary.com and every other source I’d previously read, a monsoon is something that only exists in Asia, not in [...]

This is a guest post by my 11 year old Always Unschooled daughter, Zoë. She has been writing up haikus left and right and wanted to show the world a sampling of her latest writings. Cumulatively they sum up her life over the past few days.
Cats
Playful Fiona
Connor comes to steal my food
Astrid sits [...]

We’ve tried Zazzle, Cafe Press, and the several other online t-shirt stores. They each have their own pros and cons. For the most part, I keep going back to Cafe Press and Zazzle. I absolutely love the postage stamps I’ve made through the Zazzle website with my very own photographs and computer [...]

My family and I live on an acreage south of Tucson, Arizona. We are fortunate enough to have land with many mature saguaros (as evidenced by many of my photographs on this site). We’ve owned our land for four years and we’ve lived on it for slightly over two. In those years, [...]

See “Spring in the Sonoran Desert: Yellow and Peach” for more photographs.
We’ve noticed the chollas and saguaros are blooming as well as the prickly pear cacti. Interestingly, each different kind of cholla or prickly pear has a different color flower. They are all beautiful.

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Many people believe that deserts are barren wastelands. I’ve been to several and I’ve found them all alive with plants and animals. I’ll even go so far as to say I believe the Sonoran Desert is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Currently, many cactus flowers are blooming here (and [...]

My younger daughter’s Girl Scout troop (I’m their Leader) recently went hiking at Gates Pass, on the West side of Tucson, AZ. Here are some photographs. All the little green vertical lines are saguaros. Many are hundreds of years old.

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Happy LEAP Day! Leap Day is one of my all time favorite days. It’s a Bonus day that always makes me think of rainbows and smiles! To celebrate this occasion, I’ve made a list of my favorite reasons I’m glad I started this blog. I’m also giving each of my daughters [...]

My younger daughter and I joined our local Unschooling group for a really fun day at Picacho Peak at the end of January. We first went to the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, then we picnicked at Picacho Peak State Park.
Here are some photographs of the experience.

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Our favorite “Children’s Fiction” Books We’ve Read in 2007:

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, and the follow-up One Morning in Maine; These sweet stories capture Maine in its pure form. Blissfully happy, we see the girls Sal and Jane, as they go through significant milestones in their lives. I can barely get [...]