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 …

Well before I learned that the state would not allow me to teach my own child to drive, I was teaching her to drive. To calm your nerves, for a few mornings she drove from home to seminary, which is held in the church in town. The roads are mostly deserted, and the speed is …

Jess and I are super-hyper-overachievers, and with the first half-dozen of our children we thought we could handle it all while our children sat around reading The Lightning Thief (where does he keep the lightning once he’s stolen it, by the bye?) or Harry Potter for the 17th time. But with seven children, we can’t …

As I write this I’m eating homemade butter on homemade wheat & buckwheat bread. (What is buckwheat? If you can tell me without Googling it or looking in Wikipedia, you win! I have no idea what buckwheat is. Jessica ground some to put in muffins the other day and there was still some buckwheat flour …

Jessica’s surprise birthday present for me was, by the way, dinner and tickets to a performance of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. Fabulous! The performance was inside an Episcopalian cathedral and the sound was heavenly. It was a wonderful evening, but it’s not my birthday yet. I’m not 40 for a few more days. On …

Doug sings Sm My friend Drew has been trying to compress this video enough to post on the blog. He finally got it, thought I look a little compressed as well (it feels somewhat squashed). I hope you like it; feel free to pass it along, but include the disclaimer below. What is going on …

Skiiiing. That’s fun to write. Skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing. It actually sounds like little kids tearing straight down the hill, the way they do on skis. If they fall, they don’t have to worry about breaking anything. They just bounce. On Saturday I took some of our heaps of extra money and invested it in Memories for the …

A friend invited me to go snowshoeing with him yesterday, and to my legs’ consternation I agreed. Also brought Emma along, who is shown here looking south over Lake Pend Oreille from about 3.5 miles into the hike. We had to quit at about four miles because I was too tired to continue, and we …

Two years ago today, while we were struggling to finish the plumbing in the house (we ended up calling in the professionals, $2400) the snow was waist deep on the level. By mid-February, our driveway looked like a white hallway. I have pictures where the snow berms were above my head. We had so much …