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kayak adventure
On Monday my friend Hannah and I checked off an item that has been sitting patiently on my wish list for years. (It was my birthday gift from Hannah — more on birthday later.) Go kayaking at Lake Jocassee. At first we had to wait out a storm on the lake. (We passed the time nicely with good conversation, salt and vinegar chips and dried mango. Nope – I’d never tried dried mango before either.) The storm cost us some floating time, but it was a solid and satisfying experience despite the delay. And Lake Jocassee is just fantastic. Unbelievably clear lake water.…
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lacking direction. or motivation. or energy. yes – all of the above.
Whenever a few days pile up on me and I have had no time to write, I suffer from a stage fright of sorts. The opposite of writer’s block. What would you call that? It’s an overload. Too many ideas. Too many thoughts. I don’t know where to start. I feel the same way when my home gets out of control messy from a couple of busy days and a little neglect on the home front. Where do I begin? This week I have felt like a commuter bus, a taxi cab, an Uber ride. I’ve used most of a tank of gas in two days just going back…
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Five Finds Friday (tzatziki sauce. big feet. tats.)
I don’t think I conquered a Five Finds Friday post last week – maybe it was Farm Week? (It’s too hard to keep up.) This week has been oppressively hot. We’ve had theatre rehearsals and auditions and I am so glad for an organization like our local Logos Theatre where I feel good about my kids receiving both quality and safe instruction on stage. I’ve started staring at the lists of plans and books and ideas to begin to homeschool a FRESHMAN this fall and I feel both excited and horrified, capable and out of my league. I only have TWO children left in elementary school and…
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farm, framily, feelings, photos
At the farm I didn’t write very much. I brought a couple of books to read, but I didn’t open them. I stayed up late every night, talking in the quiet hours with Emma and Sarah and Sally, with whomever stayed awake and was chatty. I didn’t rise exceptionally early because my kids are late sleepers and those of them who were not were capable of having a bowl of cereal downstairs with the other early risers. We saw rainbows more than once at the farm. Once, as the rain begin to chase us, we chased the rainbow’s end. It seemed so perfectly catchable. It…
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The July Grove Collaborative Giveaway
It’s been more than a year now since I first heard about Grove Collaborative. (It even had a different name back then actually.) And it’s been pretty much that long exactly too since I have purchased hand soap or dish soap or dishwasher tablets in an actual store. Keep me out of the stores, for goodness sake. I love that my products come directly to my front door in a timely manner with little to no effort any longer on my part. Guess what my life is full of? Complications! Schedules. Deadlines. Surprises. Unexpected everythings. And so if there is anything that can streamline some of the…
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a rearranging addiction: or a story of two trunks & a TV
I love the house where we currently live. It’s old fashioned and charming and quirky. The door frames are wide and the porch is cozy. But it’s more than one hundred years old. When you leave it locked up tight for a week while you spend time in Virginia, a couple of things happen to a house this aged. And when you’ve just returned from a dreamy time at The Farm, the last thing you feel like being greeted at the door with is the smell of Old. Musty. Moldy. Just Old. When the kids and I arrived home we unloaded the car and let Ryder run free. (He…
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Farm Time. a list of what it is and what it is not.
We’ve crossed right into Farm Time. (Actually, we crossed over last week but that just goes to show you how Farm Time works.) No algebraic formula exists that will equate into understanding the comparison between Real Life Time and Farm Time. And no one in Farm Time even cares. In Farm Time these things happen: We tell stories at the kitchen table and then we laugh until we cry but sometimes no one, not even the person laughing, knows what started the hilarity. Movies take place on the lawn. Not as in – here’s a projector and a sheet hanging on the side of the house, but…
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this train of thought ….
You guys, if procrastination was a job – I would win. Wait – that does not even make sense. So many days I feel as if I am ramping up for take off. I’ve got lists and stacks and piles. I feel as if I work all day on something (I don’t know what) and then, at the end of the day, I’m still standing here, sort of empty-handed, maybe two things checked off the list, sixteen more things added, one pile shoved under the table and another stack carried outside and nothing really feels accomplished or completed. Pretty much like I’m already defeated. Like maybe I can’t win.…
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state of the union – or an official sounding title for an unofficial style post
Writing something can take me all of five minutes some days. And then, other days, I can labor over a piece for days, let it sit a month or more, add to it in bits and parts. Today I finished up working on a post for Travelers Rest Here about a local farming family. I thoroughly enjoyed my interview time spent with this family – three grown children and their parents. I loved hearing about their farm (where I buy corn and strawberries and all other kinds of produce as well) and about their dad’s parenting ways and their family traditions. I remember when I left the interview I…
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Beyond Wildwood: The Ranch — Yes, I can.
Wednesday. Mid-week at the ranch. This was THE day, my favorite day. (I think.) So exploding with perfect moments. It started early. Again, because of the gift of my father being along for the ride, I had the freedom to take advantage of an early morning guided hike while the kids slept in. 6:45 am. You know I don’t like early morning wake up calls. So obviously I really wanted to do this hike. At the lodge it was just me and Amy and our guide Campbell. (Another fine LVL employee from our side of the states – a Georgia boy.) I had literally wrangled Amy into…
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Five Finds Friday (homemade herb dip, an Anne Review, and Otto spends money)
I’m grateful to the weather this week – although it’s been rainy and humid still, it has not been hot. And I, for one, will not complain about swinging into summer at moderate temperatures. What I’m not grateful for this week is the major snafu I had with my Travelers Rest Here website. Apparently the server for that website had a limit on emails you could receive. Although they never made me aware of said limit. And – what they do when you reach that limit is – nothing. They do nothing. They simply stop receiving your emails. And those emails disappear for eternity. And that’s not good for…
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The Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado (And Kristie Mountain Sports)
We first heard about them in an Okee Dokee Brothers video actually. (Which is why you’ll notice Otto is wearing his Okee Dokee Brothers t-shirt in these pictures. A little full circle, friends.) The Great Sand Dunes. This vast area of – well – piles of sand. But not at the coast. Not near an ocean at all. In the southern part of Colorado actually. The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. Bergen was the first proponent of the idea when I pitched it to the kids. “What if we visit the Great Sand Dunes after Lost Valley this year?” I asked them. Like…
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finishing flag football & what otto said
Last night we cheered Otto on as he finished his last flag football game of the season. (We missed two games due to our Colorado adventures so the season has felt pretty short.) It was his first venture into team sports and our family’s first venture into football of any variety. (I still have a hard time explaining how Otto performed if anyone asks. “He scored a touchdown,” I’ll say. “And then he caught the football in the end area for the throw that happens after the touchdown that is for a much smaller amount of points.”) We’ve got the best fans too. Before the…
