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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…
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Hiking. Times a Lot of Littles.
Having our weekly nature walks has really helped to foster an already natural desire the kids and I have to be outside and to explore. (Although I’m super appreciative of being able to prepare a post from my cell phone as we still have no internet connection, I really miss being able to link back to older posts for reference and having access to the photos saved on our computer.) Anyway – this is a post about nature studies and hikes. This summer manymany other moms and I have been gathering once each month for a joint giant hike with our manymany offspring. It’s been marvelous. Or at least I…
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A little experimenting
Last night we had a lightning show. It was pretty spectacular. We all sat on the front porch and watched the lights crackling across the sky in various degrees of comfort. One particularly close lightning strike apparently did our Internet in. So this morning I’m trying a bit of an experiment. I found a little app (how weird is it that technology has even changed our language?) that is supposed to make posting from my phone much more manageable. And that is today’s experiment. Does it work? How easy is it? Are there weird glitches and annoying details? We shall see. Yesterday we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon adventure to Jones…
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It’s All in How You Sell It
The temperatures are rising. And I’m not only talking about the high temperatures outside. Our thermostat is recording higher numbers every day too as we try to sweat through summer without turning on our air conditioning. So far, so good. Truthfully, it’s more like – so far, so okay. The children don’t really enjoy being overheated and sticky any more than I do, but if having six kids has taught me anything (and trust me – it has) it has taught me the value of the up sale. The vital importance of the big hype. It’s all in how you say it. For about a week now I’ve been talking…
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swim lessons.
Isn’t it weird how one moment can change your life forever? And how your life is actually kind of made up of loads of life changing one-moments? I mean, you don’t really know it at the time, or you do, but you can’t really wrap your brain around it. And as parents we are watching those moments happen practically every day. When I think about this for too long, I begin to feel as if I’m swimming in water way too deep for me. And it’s funny that I use a swimming metaphor because it’s last week’s swim lessons that got me started thinking like this in the first place.…
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Diaper Free Days Are Ours!
Guess what we no item we no longer purchase and stick in our grocery cart? Diapers! Guess what daily routine is no longer mine? Changing diapers! Yes. The last little Keigley baby man is completely potty trained! We’re talking no diapers. No night time pull ups. No anything except the cutest little boxer briefs covering the cutest little boy bum. It’s amazing, really. This change in our lives. This transition. This spending no budget money on catching and containing kids’ excrement. It’s glorious. And that’s true for every family that moves right from daily diaper changes to bathroom freedom. And for us, for this family, it’s been a daily habit…
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Jamestown. And Jamestowne.
We’ve been studying the history of England and the events that led to the explorations of America for the better part of our homeschool year. And it’s such a lovely blessing to live within driving distance of the location of the first permanent American settlement. As soon as we started even getting near to the study of the Jamestown settlement, I knew a trip to the Virginia coast would be in our future. One, because I like any excuse to visit the Motherland, state of my birth, land of the presidents, envy of all other states, home to beautiful mountains and all of my childhood memories. (Yes, I’m a little…
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Our Lodgings: Better Than A Hotel!
Sometimes on road trips you have to stay in hotels. And sometimes, a hotel is a good time. You’ve got the pool, the free breakfast, the room service. But you also have the high cost. (Especially for a family of eight, a number hotel managers declare is unsafe for one room.) And you also have the creepy probability that no one actually ever washes hotel comforters. Anyway, for our Jamestown Journey, we didn’t even consider a hotel. Because we had something so much better. Someone, really. Our cousins Sherry and Willy. (Our kids have these names burned in their brains because Sherry and Willy swooped down a few years ago…
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Duke Botanical Gardens: A Lovely Halfway Spot
During the school year we spent a lot of our history time studying British history and the early exploration and settling of North America. Knowing we had family living in the Jamestown area, we began planning an end-of-the-school-year Virginia trip back in the winter. And last weekend, we headed northeast for a couple of days of relaxing educational adventuring. Looking at the map, it seemed we would be passing through Durham right around lunch time. Our good pal PopPop lives in Durham and when we contacted him to see if he’d be available for lunch that day, he said more than just “yes”. Bob (that’s the name his momma gave…
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more explaining. or catching up. or sharing my brand of crazy.
It’s summer, but it doesn’t really feel like it. That is, if summer is supposed to feel like relaxing, lazy days and free time galore. Maybe that’s not what summer feels like once you hit – uh – twenty-two or something. For our family, for this house, for me, summer has been constant. Steady. Sort of swamped. Busier than the school year somehow. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed and out of time and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why. Some of it is as simple as daily swim lessons at three o-clock in the afternoon. (I chose the worst time imaginable. What was I thinking? Well. I signed up several…
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Happy Father’s Day
I don’t like to reinvent the wheel. And sometimes, it’s hard to be clever and kind twice. (That’s a joke, my friends. Just a joke.) At any rate, Happy Father’s Day. I wrote this a few years ago. But it’s still true. _______ First. My Father. When I was a kid I thought my dad had the same super powers that every kid thinks their dad possesses. You know, eyes forever roaming the world that can quickly pinpoint ME hitting my brother across the back with my Cabbage Patch Kid. The Long Arm that could reach all the way into the backseat of the station wagon while driving the death-defying…
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One for the Finn Files
Our family eats meat. We likes us some chicken. But, despite the fact that I was raised on a farm, I don’t care for discussing the bones of the creature that I am eating whilst chewing. Our dinner table last night featured a roasted chicken. (Yes, I finally remembered to put it in the crock pot. And it was roasted with rosemary that we grew in a pot on our front steps! I can’t believe I haven’t killed the rosemary.) Piper Finn and London both ended up with a chicken leg. Finn kept pulling out the bone and holding it in the air for us to marvel with her. “Look…
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Answers to questions you didn’t ask.
No, we have not given up our weekly nature hikes. Yes, our kittens are still crazy adorable. No, the kittens have not been wearing doll clothing lately. Yes, I do plan to write several blog posts about our weekend’s travel adventures. Yes, one of our chickens did die while we were absent last weekend. (Kevin likes to refer to the death as murder. He’s dramatic like that.) Yes, swim lessons seem to be putting a real kink in the day to day schedule of our lives this week. No, I have not eaten three peppermint patties today while my children weren’t looking. Why do you ask? Yes, the clothing on…
