I’ve always been fascinated by snugness. Part of my delight in bad weather is the comfort I feel when I’m inside looking out at it (though I really don’t mind being out in it, if I’m prepared). One of the reasons I love heating with wood is that it’s so overwhelmingly cozy. You can’t grab …

Some time last year I was crunching a box of spendy store-bought granola and thought, “Waaaait a minute; I can make this stuff! I don’t have to waste all this money on corn syrup and BHT and methylchloroisothiazolinone*.” (Ever wonder how the stuff you buy in the store stays fresh in the months between the …

I have to preface this post with two unrelated notices, the first one sad: The company for which I work has recently laid off a number of workers, including a regular reader of this blog. Hang in there, You-know-who-you-are! Say your prayers; you’ll be fine. (I have not been laid off yet.) And secondly, if …

Our driveway is 354 feet long and has about a 40’ rise, and we can’t afford the going rate for a tractor to come clean it out after every snowfall. So last Saturday, after a heavy snowfall, we fed the kids a good breakfast and sent them out with snow shovels to clean the driveway. …

Family Home Evening is a Mormon practice in which, once a week, all outside obligations are cancelled and the family spends Monday evening together. It’s a wonderful habit on our family, when I’m gone so much on other nights of the week. With seven kids ranging in age from teenagers to toddlers, it can get …

It’s been pretty important to us to teach our kids how to work. Not only will it make their lives better if they know how to dive in and get the work done, it’s also basically impossible to raise a large family if we’re trying to do all the work ourselves. Seven children go through …

Remember that famous painting by Norman Rockwell showing the showing the family seated at the Thanksgiving table and everybody’s smiling and the grandma’s down at the end setting on a turkey and the grandpa is standing beside her like a patriarch? Well this is our family yesterday. Only in this case the patriarch is standing …

I think I wrote before about how we put this computer desk in the corner of the dining room because we don’t have any other place to put it. Well, it works handsomely. We got this used machine off of Craigslist and it works pretty well.* Um, yes, I wrote about it here. Jess decided …

Recently I wrote an article for a local magazine about how I take our kids into the local wilderness for hikes, Jeep jaunts, and backpacking trips. The article detailed places readers could take their own kids, but its focus was really about spending time with kids. One accurate measure of our character is how we …

Having the day off on Monday, I bowed to the wishes of the local trail guidebook and lit out for the abandoned lookout tower atop Berray Mountain. I also bowed to the wishes of Emma, who’s always spoilin’ for an adventure; Becca, who’s always willing to go along; and their friend James, who was dying …