Piano People

When I was a little girl, I wanted to play the piano more than anything. At around 7 or 8 years old, I often walked into our neighborhood piano teacher’s house and sat on her hallway bench to listen to her play. I signed myself up for lessons one day, and my parents were horrified….

Brave, Strong, Smart.

“Motherhood is not meant to be done alone,” she said. As I read this in an Instagram post, it hit me like a punch. Though I do have Tony’s help and support always, the homeschool role in our family is largely my responsibility. Where we live, there is not a real homeschool mom group where I can…

What is ‘Normal’ Anyway?

“Your kids will never be normal,” a friend said to me with a smile as we snacked on fresh guacamole and homemade chips. It was unusually windy that day. We had to stand in a wide stance so each leg could alternate, absorbing our weight as the boat swayed from one side to the other, our…

Home for the Holidays

Well, this is different! For the first time in seven years, we are spending the holidays at our house in Newport. All the traditions of Christmas’ past that we had set aside in lieu of travel, have found a home in our hearts easily this year as if we never left. The recent days we…

Board Games for the Win!

Did you know that “Game-Schooling” is actually a thing? It is! Our school is Travel and Literature-based, but we are not traveling (at all) right now which means we need to shift our focus to something else. This year, we are incorporating more games than ever to fill the travel void. The presence of games,…

Curious about Homeschool?

Introducing:  GO TIMBALERO HOMESCHOOL COACHING   By now, I think everyone understands that distance learning is not homeschool. They are near opposites at their core. But how to transition from one to the other? I can help you explore this idea and provide direction for preparing your homeschool plan – whether you want to give…

Road Trip Basics

Me and my adventurous sibs, Smokey Mountains, 1971. I remember family road trips when I was a kid with vivid detail. My parents, two siblings and I would jam into our dark cherry red Oldsmobile F85 (lovingly nicknamed, “the Bomb”) and drive the three-point-five hours from Indianapolis to grandma’s house in southern Indiana about once…

2019 Reading List & Lynne’s Top 5

Give the gift of books this holiday season! So many titles, so little time! I love the modern fiction I read this year, like Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield and Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. Both are well-written and full of literary magic. I could read them over again and each…

Saying No to the Dreaded Scroll

Phones are like air and comfort food. We need them and they make us feel good. Have a question about anything at all? The answer is at our finger-tips in seconds. Need to call home? The phone is already dialing. We are all, every one of us, connected and addicted to this new way of…

Risk-taking, Relationships, and Trust

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it. –Paulo Coelho in the  Alchemist Recently, I had the good fortune to sit down with long-time friends Bj and Jess Gumkowski (world renowned athletes, teachers, coaches, nutritionists and generally higher level humans) to chat about life a bit. As she gestures, open hands to the…