Dear Ones, On Friday July 17th we sold our house on Rippey Street.  This is truly a bittersweet triumph for many reasons, but we are looking forward at this moment.  We had the help of many of our neighbors as we worked into the night trying to get the moving van packed late last Thursday July 16th. If you have never moved yourself, I am not sure I’d recommend it if you have four kids, a cat, a dog, and a whole lot of stuff.  If Bill Perkins had not been in the van doing some

Hello Dear Friends, It is with great joy and sadness that I announce that my darling Samuel is going to be SIXTEEN tomorrow! Can you believe it! I decided to dedicate this letter to a quick walk down memory lane. Sam has always been the scientist, mr.logical, “How?” (never why, think scientist not philosopher) He was never the dare-devil and would wait at the top of the stairs to be carried down.  He was afraid to swim at first, scared of grass the first time we tried to set

The kids are all back at school; Sam at the science and technology magnet school in 10th grade (he’ll be doing10th and 11th grade this year) Sophia is a freshman at the International Baccalaureate high school just a few blocks away, and Tessa (7th grade)and Riah (5th grade) are at Pittsburgh Urban Christian School (PUCS). They are getting back into the groove, but I still mourn the loss of time together and the flexibility and spontaneity of homeschooling.  However, for their