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Notes From The Weekend
You know what? I have more ideas for blog posts than I have time for writing said blog posts. Seems I am always out of time lately. And that’s alright for now. Nighttime choices often determine the course of my quiet hours usually reserved for writing. So it’s very late and I am stealing a few minutes where I can. This weekend we went camping – we ventured out with some good friends and headed all the way to the ocean. There was a lot of bittersweet on this particular camping jaunt, but I think my brain and my heart can only handle focusing on the sweet for now. Mosely and…
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Don’t Homeschool at Home Only
You know what’s cool about homeschool? (Eating breakfast at 10 a.m. Not packing lunches. Reading a funny novel out loud together with your kids. Watching your daughter develop good writing habits. Wearing your pajamas to math class. Allowing your fourth grader to have the opportunity to give art lessons to his younger siblings.) Wait. That wasn’t where this post was supposed to go. I’m going to start again. You know what’s great about homeschool? You don’t have to always do school at home! The staff here at Wildwood loves irony like that. Sure, we are home probably more than we are not. But it’s fun to take school on the…
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Road Trippin’: Tricks of the Trade
We’ve spent a LOT of hours in the car on the road with manymanymany small children. I don’t think we are experts in many things – but we might qualify as experts on sitting in the car with our kids. We’ve had lots of short trips, of course – trips to The Farm and the beach and whatnot. (And by short I mean less than six hours.) But we’ve also logged in miles and miles and hours and hours on loads of long trips as well. I mean – my parents and two of my brothers lived in Wyoming. That’s a painfully long way away no matter…
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just a little more thanks giving before we switch holidays
I know no one wants to even think about Thanksgiving any longer. Even the most reluctant of us recognize the official Changing of the Holidays the weekend after Thanksgiving. So it’s all Christmas Christmas Christmas now. And I’m all in for Christmas. I really am. Yesterday we chopped down our tree from the great outdoors and propped it back up inside our house – a strange tradition that I love but have to wonder how it would appear to someone unfamiliar with the custom. I’ll jump right on that polar express to trees and ornaments and stockings and traditions and the red and the green. Tomorrow. Today I just want…
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decorating inspiration.
Oh – and another thing. DC was like the icing on the cake, really. The entire road trip was actually more inspired by our desire to visit my brother and his wife. The kids loved Aunt Beckey’s craft room where they were allowed to wade through fabric bits and felted bounty and were encouraged to create and craft to their heart’s content. There was no end – miniature sleeping bags and pillows for their Calico Critters, a soft fleece pillow for London, a doll dress for Piper – and fairy wings to match it. Mosely was allowed to use the real deal sewing machine and Piper took a whirl at…
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The National Gallery
Did I even mention the National Gallery of Art yesterday? I don’t think I did. Growing up, my parents never really talked about art. At least, not that I remember. I’ve come late to the Art Appreciation Game. But I married a good-looking artist and we’re raising a handful of creators so I am educating, learning and teaching. And I am realizing – I love art. It’s personal and subjective. And it’s really fun. My friend Hilary is a committed Andrew Wyeth fan. His art is highlighted at DC’s National Gallery. Man. It was incredible. Just like all of DC, we just scratched the surface of the museum. (And we…
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The Keigleys Go to Washington
Can I just type Washington, DC and let that suffice? Ya’ll. There is just way too much going on in that city. My sister-in-law said that when her sons were younger and she was homeschooling them that she had always wished she could live in DC for six months just to really get acquainted with the Capitol. It would take that long. (Actually, isn’t that a great idea? To live in a place for a few months? To really become familiar and to try to squeeze all of the educational value right out of a city? Is there a kickstarter for that? A way to crowdsource my life? I think…
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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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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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A Weekend Round Up and A Tiny Music Giveaway
So much happening in the past few days. An overload of fun and friends. Some long time buddies trekked it over from Charlotte and we all met at our favorite apple orchard and picked apples – en masse! The next day our family loaded a bunch of those North Carolina apples in the car to share the love and drove to the peach state. We enjoyed dinner with some sweet and generous friends. (Truly. We live in a wealth of blessings to have so many kind and generous friends.) The kids stayed with them whilst Kevin and I ventured into the big city to meet our pals Nate…
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Prairie Adventure: Prairie House Manor Bed and Breakfast
I didn’t actually count how many nights in a row we slept outside. Kevin might have. I do know that in the first town we drove through that featured a large store of any variety, Kevin pulled the Tahoe over and went inside with cash and came back out with one self-inflating sleeping pad. (Yes. One. I guess after seeing my expression he turned around and came back out with a second one.) At any rate, we slept on the ground for more nights than we did not sleep on the ground. When we reached DeSmet and toured the surveyor’s house and the Ingalls’ Homestead, we visited the house…
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Prairie Adventure: These Happy Golden Years, a DeSmet Pageant
If it is a July weekend in the town of DeSmet, there’s probably a crowd of people gathered on benches in a wide open field in view of Pa’s Cottonwood trees waiting for the sun to set a little lower and the prairie play to begin. Nine nights each summer a cast of all-local, primarily high school students performs scenes from one of the four novels Laura Ingalls Wilder write that took place in DeSmet, South Dakota on the very prairie landscape these thespians are gracing. You’ll want to pull your wagon up early to the vast field of a parking lot so you can ride on a real wagon with…
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Prairie Adventure: The Ingalls Homestead in DeSmet
I think I might be about to set some new record for photos on one blog post. (It’s not a record I care to take the time to actually validate, but I think I’m right anyway.) On our westward journey each stop had its own treasures and surprises to discover. You can’t exactly compare one location to another – but, you sort of can. When we reached DeSmet, South Dakota and pulled up to The Ingalls Homestead out on the for reals prairie, we all felt like it was exactly as Laura described it in her last several novels. The Ingalls Homestead is only a few miles from…
