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Paris: Our Trip & Tips
It didn’t begin with a lifelong goal of seeing the Eiffel Tower. It started with an email alert. “Low cost fairs from Asheville to Paris” It was an update from my Going account – the same account that helped me take my London to London for her graduation gift last year. It was back in October and the flight was too good to pass up and those truly amazing deals go lightning fast so I didn’t waste any time. I looked around my house and said, “Who wants to go to Paris with me? This is not a required family vacation. This is a spontaneous(ish) opportunity and if you want…
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Guatemala: Day Two
(Will you be patient with me if these posts take weeks?) It’s another senior season of BUSY. My first baby boy is about to graduate and I cannot allow myself to spend too much time pondering that just yet. And, if you’re counting, that leaves only TWO kids in high school. Our numbers game is weird lately. Back to Guatemala though …. You read about the first day here. I promise I won’t do an eight day play by play. Well, I don’t PROMISE. But – we’ll see. When we left Antigua to make the second part of our journey to where our main stay would be at San Juan…
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Guatemala: Day One
It seems I’ve hardly stopped moving since our plane ride from Guatemala ended and London picked us up late that night at the Greenville airport. (Pretty sure I sat behind Pedro Pascal on one of our flights. I mean, okay. I’m not pretty sure. I’m just pretend sure. It looked like him. Sort of. I can’t explain why he’d be flying economy with me, but not all choices are explainable.) I’ve wanted time to think about my experiences – time to let all that we saw and all that we did and all that I thought to filter through. And maybe it has. The truth is that time is simply…
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Going to Guatemala
Guess what word is hard to spell? Guatemala. I’ve looked it up and let autocorrect help me way too many times. I think I finally remember that there’s an E after “guat” even though apparently my brain is desperate for it to be an A. Despite that tricky-to-me spelling, Bergen and Piper and I are heading to Guatemala in February. We have an opportunity to travel with my friend Hannah and her husband and a small crew of other folks we’ve yet to meet. One of the best ways to describe this particular trip is that it’s a bit like a Habitat for Humanity trip except it isn’t with Habitat.…
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The Deal With Me & Low Cost Flights
I love a deal. And I love an adventure. It seems I find myself talking about this website where I find both an awful lot so I figured a post about it was maybe overdue. Going is a website. It’s like a clearinghouse for low-cost flight deals. You do not purchase any tickets directly from Going. Here’s what you do: You create a profile and then choose a home airport. If you want to try the free version, you can pick up to five airports. The Premium version gives you up to ten airports. The Elite version offers unlimited airports, mistake fare deals and first class rates. Once you sign…
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Otto Meets a Hawk
Maybe the idea started because I’m always trying to keep Birthday Magic going strong even after the actual celebration. Or maybe it began as a way to spread the cost of gifts out with half a dozen children. Who knows? I can’t recall exactly when, but at some point in our family history I started giving gifts that were future experiences: Taking a pottery classAttending a concertWatching live theatreA skiing tripThrowing axesDinner dates & movie dates The goal is, of course, to fit the event or date to the person receiving the gift. Sometimes this finds me at a Twenty-One Pilots concert when I only know one song. It’s led…
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Five Finds Friday (Lost Valley Ranch Version)
We’re home. So many car hours under out belt. I rented a Suburban for this trip (because I didn’t trust my own to make the many thousand mile haul) and therefore I was Solo Driver despite having three teens who have the ability to shoulder the load. (Maybe next year I’ll risk our old Yukon just for the back up drivers.) Anyway, we’re back from the ranch and I’m going to try to share a Lost Valley version of the Five Finds Friday. I’ve thought of that idea for two whole seconds and here I am typing as I think and we’ll all see how it plays out. funny Laughing…
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Losing Time: The Cost of Spontaneity This Week
Do you ever have one of those weeks where you just feel as if you’ve lost time? As in, you look around you and you have, you know – basically nothing – to show for your days? I mean, it’s not true. Entirely. There’s been the care and the feeding of the folks I live with. There has been work accomplished. A decent amount, I suppose, if I’m really examining it closely. And yet. It just feels like an off week. It started off with a BANG. Maybe a little too much actually. We’re all just paying the price of spontaneity I guess. Sunday it just seemed like a good…
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camping with the boys: lake jocassee is a wonder, but what happened to the hammocks?
Some birthday gifts take a while to bring to fruition. That’s kind of true always, but it’s especially true during this season. Otto tuned 11 back in May. Last week he and I and Bergen headed to the always breath taking Lake Jocassee for an overnight camping trip. Really, it was always more about the fishing than the camping. It always is for that fella. We unloaded our meager little supply at the tent site and the boys tossed their lines in immediately. I love low key camping. And the boys are satisfied with that too. Being with these two is just plain old easy. And that’s not a feature…
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A Heart’s Home: Lost Valley Ranch
Of course it’s not fair. And as a new friend at the ranch last week told me, “My mom always said – Fair is a place where pigs get ribbons.” Her mom is right. I recognize that it is privilege and good fortune (and the divine plan of God) that has landed me and five kids at a four diamond luxury working ranch for the past five summers. The word that perhaps best describes our awareness of this is grateful. Just endlessly grateful. Deep and immense gratitude. Our regularly scheduled week in May was cancelled. When the ranch was allowed to open in June, we assumed that we just missed…
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leaving colorado.
Leaving an Eden is always terrible. Leaving an Eden via a cramped car with five over tired and sad kids AND spending about one bazillion hours in Kansas and staying at subpar hotels across the middle states of the U.S. is the actual worst. I’d say I’m not complaining. But I am definitely complaining. I’m sitting in some hotel room in Tennessee because I just could not drive one more mile. I ordered pizza and had it delivered to our room and the kids are watching whatever cable television has to offer these days. Tomorrow or the next day (or the next) I’ll type pretty words. I’ll be at my…
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Taking Them on an Adventure: The Literature Odyssey
If any current job of mine fades away, I’ve got a pocketful of other ventures I’d love to take on. Full time writer.Lost Valley Ranch Staff.Professional Trip Planner.Font Developer.Product Tester. I don’t even know if most of those are actual jobs. But if there was a job where I could plan trips for people, I’d be all in. I’d theme the trips for target audiences – A Literary South Adventure. Art Museums Only. Cities That Have Inspired Songs. I’d pair food options and I’d provide opportunity to journal your feelings and record your memories. I’d even be happy to pick the sound track and the audio books, the podcasts and…
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five finds friday (superstore, fly fishing, sloppy joes)
I’m going to take your word for it that it’s actually Friday. Alright? I can’t seem to get the kinks worked out of this blog lately. Some updates need to happen, I thought I handled them – I don’t know. I just know that when I share these posts on Facebook the photos are not appearing as they should. Right now though, I’m just shrugging my shoulders and wishing it would all get square on its own accord. funny When I like something I tell everyone I know about it. Is that an enneagram type? Often I am guilty of telling you about it at least four times. It’s a…
