The Girls of Summer

It isn't June, but here in the Gulf Coast we know that summer really begins right after winter fades. No one waits for the official June 21. Here are Katherine and Grace enjoying another hot, Houston day.

Meet the Head Honcho, Dave

This is the man of the house, Dave. He is a husband(extra ordinary) father(super) son(devoted) and grandpa(doting).  He teaches an adult Sunday school class each Sunday, loves to watch golf and baseball and to play golf when the opportunity arises.

He could have played the role of Doctor Doolittle and not had to fake talking with the animals. He loves to chat with all the animals around the house. He has a good rapport with all of them, but especially with Yetti. The two of them sing to each other and Yetti wants Dave to touch him anytime Dave is sitting on the patio. Quite possessive, that dog.

Dave works and brings home the bacon as a Vice President in an engineering firm that specializes in the movement of oil and gas. His current assignment has him working in Tulsa full time. Since August of '10 he has flown to Tulsa each Sunday night and come home to Brookshire each Friday afternoon. Makes each weekend a frenzy of activity, but also a honeymoon. No complaints!

Dave is new to the farm idea. He grew up on a lot and block in Fort Worth, but he is coming along rapidly toward the Green Acre Movement. We are some ways from the need to butcher any animal, and I think that might take a special amount of nudging! smile

Sitting on the back patio, overlooking the grazing cows, the garden, the creek at the bottom of the place and the birds in the feeders, I think he's soaking in the "farm virus" that hit me a long time ago. It doesn;t seem to give him hives at all!

Meet Katherine

Meet our daughter, Katherine.  Katherine is a bubbly, extroverted 13 year old, 7th grade, homeschooled girl who loves animals (especially the cuddly variety)  loves to play on Club Penquin and relishes her BFF and the time they get to play together. She is tall standing 5'5" and  reed slim like her Daddy. She has his dark olive skin and dark brown eyes. Cute smile, currently sportying braces, and quick sense of humor.


Katherine loves to read. She has the complete set of the Warrior series and is hoping to finish the set of Harry Potter  books this summer. Her homeschooling social studies and history curriculum comes from Sonlight which means she reads a lot of historical literature and she loves it. It does my heart good to see her reading while all folded over in the comfortable rocker, despite the distractions of a household.  We go the the local library every two weeks and fill up the book bag with wonderful treasures!

Katherine has been taking horse riding lessons for two years now. A local woman, Joanne, retired from 30+ years of school teaching to a small farm and now subsidizes her income with riding lessons. Joanne has 6 horses and Katherine has progressed through all of them. Her current mount in Cassie, a Tennessee Walker with a ready gait and easy lope. Katherine loves loping the best. Don't all kids like speed?


The first 5 years of Katherine's schooling...were spent in Catholic private school. When her mother died suddenly she came to live with us. Our local private school, and our family church, is Baptist and so she entered 5th grade at Simonton Christian Academy.

At the end of 6th grade, the option for 7th grade at a Christian school was 25 miles away. We opted instead, at her urging, to do homeschool. It has been a great success! If you care to see our homeschool blog you can find us at kelleyhomeschool@blogspot.com