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can the grocery store be a field trip?
When you are raising young children, every time you leave your house – it’s an adventure. They’re so curious about all the details of life. The trips that may be mundane to us are still full of wonder to them. I’m always seeing advertisements and links to websites for homeschooling and classes and projects and activities. I keep a notebook near the computer where I jot down leads and eventually research them to see if they’ll fit our family. The most recent one I sat at our old desk and typed into my search engine of choice was fieldtripfactory.com. It’s a website designed to connect educators with local businesses that…
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words fitly spoken . . .
I know I’ve written about my kids being that still, small voice of God to me sometimes. So many times I’ve been convicted by their words and their actions and have been forced to reconsider my words and my actions. And while later, after the fact, I’m prone to lean toward being pleased with my children for their clarity of thought and their purity of purpose, during the moment of the revealing of truth I am blindsided by something else less flattering although equally familiar. Pride. Humility. A quick flash of frustration that a nine-year-old has a higher degree of sensitivity than myself. You know, feelings like that. And so,…
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don’t stop singing
The kids and I were all doing some grocery shopping recently. Everyone was walking beside the cart, chatting amicably and helping me gather our necessary purchases. Hawkeye, however, seemed to have a higher level of energy than the rest of us. Somehow he kept appearing on either side of the cart and he seemed to be continually emitting a higher volume of steady sound than anyone or anything around us. They weren’t unhappy noises, but the volume level was increasing and my tolerance level was decreasing. “Hawkeye,” I touched his shoulder. “Can you please, um, stop making all those sounds?” He froze, turned his whole body toward me. “What? You…
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nine. 9. number nine.
When you wake up as a nine-year-old and your name is London Elizabeth Scout this is what you do ….. You wake up to your special requests coming true. Fruity Pebbles and the Sunday comics in bed. (Yep. Fruity Pebbles. Gasp!) You are allowed to open your presents before your cake. (You should know that agreeing to this decision was strongly influenced by Daddy. Mommy prefers the long wait and the building up of anticipation.) Now you have your hiking backpack for our future adventures. You get to choose our day’s activity. A day at our local water park. (How convenient that the library gave away tickets for the water…
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wild.
I took a couple of young ones to the library this week. And I came home with a handful of wild things.
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A Letter About Ice Cream, Cookies and Disappointment
Dear Breyer’s Ice Cream, I am choosing to address my letter to you as you are the official maker of this particular product. I like bright colors, funky shoes and exuberant headwear. But I like my ice cream in the plain old vanilla variety. My children love cookies with a chocolate coating and cookies with a chocolate filling and cookies with chocolate sprinkles. But I like my cookies simple and plain as well – like the Golden Oreo. When I do decide to mix it up and go a little crazy at dessert time, I chop a Golden Oreo or two (or six) into little bits and mix it into…
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Summer Field Trippin’
Summer definitely looks different than the school year. We sleep a lot later. Our meals are routinely consumed at less-than-normal intervals. We find ourselves in or near water with a higher degree of frequency. But all school isn’t completely shut down for us. (We’re actually continuing math for the summer and we never stop all that good reading.) Plus. We get to go on some fun field trips too. Last Friday we joined a handful of fellow homeschoolers for a drive into the North Carolina mountains to visit the Cradle of Forestry. I love any excuse to drive into the Pisgah National Forest, to enjoy the always-slightly-cooler temperatures, to be…
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a long-winded build up to some Fourth photos. that’s all.
Yesterday was what London calls a “home day”. It’s just like what it sounds like – a day where we spend every waking hour at home. These are her absolute favorite type of days. We stayed home primarily because we had no access to a car. Which was fine. To be fair, the kids stayed home all day. Kevin and I actually enjoyed a now-rare date night. The kids and I had plans to attend a library event in the afternoon but both cars were occupied so we skipped out on the library event. Which was fine also, except now our library books are overdue. Again. (I’ve made a basic…
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modem, thrift store and surprise discoveries
Ta-da! We have internet service again. Not that this appears any differently to you, but to me – it sure does. I was so grateful to discover that little app on my phone to make posting blog entries much easier, but I still prefer the larger screen, the keyboard and its clickety-clack sounds and access to links and what-not. Our modem was struck by lightning before we left for Virginia and today we finally had time to get that problem fixed. Plus, a new modem would have cost almost a hundred dollars, according to First AT&T Man on the Phone. However, Second AT&T Man on the Phone said we could…
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summer song
These days could just not be moving any faster it seems. Ah, summer. I want to hold on to you with both hands. And beautiful, sweet, glorious days of my children’s youth – I want to gather you in my arms and frame you on my walls and write about you in books and beg you on bended knee to stay stay stay.
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Coming Home, Being Thankful
I drove to Virginia early last week with just the kids. It’s been a tradition for many years for the moms and the kids to gather the week before our annual July Fourth party and spend time prepping for the party, corralling small children and laughing at nonsensical things. The husbands generally join us later in the week as soon as their jobs make it possible. So it was this week. And for the ride home Riley is staying with Emma a few extra days and driving the car Kevin drove up home. Which is why we were driving home Sunday with six kids instead of one and two grown…
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How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways.
What I Love About the Farm: Hanging out with Sally and Emma and Sarah. The wide open spaces. (No neighborhood in the distance. No cell towers. No highway over the ridge. Nothing but green trees and green grass.) These two boys developing a brand new buddy-ship. No Internet connection. (Yes, I love this. I type these little posts at night, lying in bed, through my phone. And even that service is sketchy and unreliable. And I like how that makes me feel marvelously distant from all other realities except the one wide-open reality in which I am currently experiencing.) The loud chaos of so many children playing at once. And…
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Tradition.
The farm has little to no Internet. So it’s phone entries again for this girl. But I’d say the view makes up for the Internet-less. And then some. It’s that wonderful holiday. Sort of my favorite holiday. (Especially if we don’t count birthdays.) July Fourth. The week where the farm in Virginia is completely over run by hordes of romping, dashing, enthusiastic children. And we eat our meals all together and we always have dessert. We stick ourselves on top of old tire tubes and willingly place those tubes and our bodies in the muddy cold waters of the Pigg River. We gather all together and eat picnic foods all…
