Keiglets
The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs.
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Field Trip: WNC Nature Center
What a gem! Incredibly beautiful location outside of both Black Mountain and Asheville, North Carolina – you simply couldn’t drop this Nature Center into any prettier spot. Kevin had a meeting in Black Mountain last week and our local zoo membership offers reciprocal passes at the Nature Center. It was a Thursday and we already had a field trip planned for Friday but it seemed like an opportunity too rare to pass. And we were right. The day’s temperatures couldn’t have been better – a chill in the air just perfect for crunching leaves and walking outside. Prior to departure all of the kids loaded their backpacks with their nature…
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Making Terrariums
After we finished reading The Magician’s Nephew (which I just love, by the way – remember Digory our dog? That’s the book his name came from. Like so many other names, I tired first to name one of our children Digory but with no success) the curriculum suggested several ways to create your own magical world. We landed on terrariums – a project I’ve actually always wanted to try. Any jar or glass container with or without a lid will work. It’s seriously super simple. We chose a jar that belonged to my mom – I think it held sugar once upon another life. The idea is basic, although of…
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At the seashore
In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth. – Rachel Carson To me the sea is a continual miracle; The fishes that swim–the rocks–the motion of the waves–the ships, with men in them, What stranger miracles are there? -Walt Whitman For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), It’s always our self we find in the sea. -e.e. Cummings The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea. -Isak Dinesen Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s…
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you know, this and that
It sort of feels like fall outside. And I’m completely fine with that. Last weekend Kevin and the boys had a fabulous little jaunt to a lake in Tennessee where they met Kevin’s dad and a captain with a boat and spent the day fishing together. Those two fellas of ours have just been infatuated with fishing for months now. They trade lures daily and have all kinds of endless conversations about riggings and baits and hooks and I don’t even know what else in their fishing lingo. It’s adorable. The girls and I stayed home. Apparently, a girls weekend at home means lots of food. Seriously. It was crazy,…
Keep Reading . . .
returning …
five finds friday (if, in fact, it actually IS friday)
my social dilemma
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Sunday Night Preparations For a Better Week
I imagine this is true for every home that includes young children. Or old children. Or any number of humans dwelling within its walls. Sunday night often determines the pace of rest of the week. When I’m on my game, when Sunday afternoon is free and affords me time to look over my list and my lesson plans and my menu and our family’s schedule, then the whole week is better. It’s an effort. A decision. A priority. And sometimes it breaks down. But when it doesn’t break down, when I make the effort, when I look ahead a few days – you guys – the entire week’s dynamic is…
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and speaking of …
Somehow I still feel like I’m catching up to myself after our trip this summer. Which wasn’t like two months long or anything so you’d think I should be just fine and all caught up. I still haven’t even taken the time to write a post about my second favorite stop on our trip – Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Mansfield home, where she actually penned (literally – penned) the entire set of nine novels. And I think all I’m talking about lately is how I am off track on all courses. I have felt some comfort in the fact that I am not alone. Maybe it’s just the season – it…
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A Slew of July Fourth Memories.
Oh you guys. You know July Fourth is my favorite holiday. And I’m not home writing now and typing this post – I’m embracing internet-less good times at The Farm in Virginia. And I’m sure I will return with photos too many and stories too much. But – right now I’m just giving you a little weekend reading. I’m linking up as many July Fourth posts as I can find and more than you probably want to see. Here you go ….. The one with London in a red cowboy hat and Piper making pouty toddler faces. The one with a picture when we tried to create a Camp Fourth…
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When a Sport Inspires a Song.
It’s everywhere. In every pub and the subject of every person’s social media status. It’s in our living room. World Cup Soccer. We aren’t exactly sports fans. Kevin doesn’t own an orange jersey and I cannot name more than two current football players. I get ridiculed for not more thoroughly embracing the Olympics and this house boasts no favorite sports team of any variety. But World Cup. It’s different somehow. Kevin played soccer in both high school and college. This is the first time soccer has been available on our home screen, thanks to Apple TV. It’s been fun. We’ve all jumped on board and cheered on this game over the last…
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Prairie Journey – Guess What’s Waiting For Us in DeSmet?
Prairie days are getting closer on the calendar. Last year this adventure seemed so far away as I was hatching it and hoping it would work out. Actually, this trip has been nearly a decade in the making. Yeah – life is moving quickly like that. As we were taking this same basic journey with a bonnet-clad fifth-grader Riley, I knew then we’d do this journey again some day if time and circumstance were on our side. And, so far, it seems they both are. The order of travel is The Big Woods, Walnut Grove, Plum Creek and then Silver Lake in DeSmet, South Dakota. For a large portion of…
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Celebrating a Year of School
Yes, whilst looking at Instagram pictures recently I came to the realization that Wildwood Halls of Ivy had no End of School Year tradition. (Kind of like I needed a kick to get to a Field Day.) No tradition to celebrate conquering the arbitrarily assigned magic number of 180 days? That would never do. I like traditions. I like celebrating. I gathered the kids. Passed out blank sheets of paper. Tossed pencils at them. “Every one write down one food and one activity that you think sounds awesome.” And so they did. It was like an audition for traditions. A try out. We compared notes – if more than one…
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B. I. N. G. O. – Laura Ingalls Edition.
It’s been a while really. But when Papaw and Grandma made their pilgrimage from the great north to the even greater south, they brought along a little game with them. It was a fishing version of bingo. The kids got kind of obsessed. Otto is a huge fan of all things fishing. (“Hissing” he still pronounces it.) And all the kids love to play games. They played this bingo game about eight times every afternoon. And then again after dinner for another half dozen rounds. Insatiable. Their appetite for bingo was insatiable. Of course I needed to tap into that insatiability. And so. We created our own Laura Ingalls bingo…
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The Tale of Two Siblings
These two Keiglets have a special little bond. Many is the morning that I find them reclining on the sofa together, London reading books out loud to her little brother. London keeps a list of daily activities and ideas on a dry erase board she has in her bedroom. (She’s a natural-born planner, apparently those genes are strong.) One day I noticed her list went something like this: Play Legos. Water my garden. Bake scones. Bathe Otto. When I asked her why she felt the need to add a cleansing routine for her young brother to her list, she responded, “When we were cuddling last night – I noticed he smells bad.”…
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Ten Ways To Know You Are The Parents of Big Kids
When we visited the beach a few years ago without pack and plays and booster seats, we knew we were ending an era. As I watched the last wee one morph from baby to toddler to little fella, I knew the inevitable passage had occurred. We are the parents of Big Kids. Are you in the club too? The Big Kid club? Here’s a little list of ten ways to tell you are now the parents of Big Kids. 1. You do not require the use of baby nail clippers for the trimming of tiny digits. In fact, half of the time the kids have handled all that fingernail and…
