A Mother's Journal » Field Trip Ideas

Toes In The Sand

Lynn — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:16:38 +0000

This past weekend was quite busy and most exciting! On Saturday, I awoke and prepared for karate testing.

Hair up with red chopsticks. New white gi on.

Testing went well. It was a long process that included one-time attacks, line drills, and katas. It’s an honor to test and to watch our classmates progress!

At the end, we were all awarded a new rank. Joseph got his black belt, I got my blue belt, and our classmates moved on as well.

And then, sometimes a girl’s gotta leave and stick her toes in the sand.

I drove to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, without any children in tow and just enjoyed the solitude. The beaches are quieter this time of year. The weather was chilly, but the sun came out beautifully and the air felt just right.

I stayed in a beautiful place! One thing. Rates are cheaper this time of year. It was nice to look at what was offered and think about coming back in the summer and bringing my children.

I stayed pretty high up!

Which made for a wonderful view!

I am trying to embrace the ever-changing creatures in my life. Not many beetles, bees, and butterflies anymore, but new things, new sights, new thoughts.

Plants at the beach, growing in the beach sand, are so different from what was in The Little Wild Garden. I think ahead to where I might end up, what might grow, and how life will continue to change.

The plantings around the hotel were lovely. Tropical is something that never appealed to me much as far as gardening goes, but this was very inspiring. The color!

How does it feel to get away by myself and walk off and leave an unmade bed without a thought? Good.

There were lots of things here that the children would enjoy! I can see Joseph and John at the huge chess set!

The pools and water tunnels and hot tubs (right under the hotel!) were things that the children would love. I can see I need to make it a priority to bring them here when the seasons take us to hot weather again.

I walked on the beach and picked up tiny little, perfect shells. I put them in a bag as I walked. Not too many, but enough to remember…

In one of the restaurants I was in, there was an amazing glass wall in the ladies’ bathroom! (Yes, I took a picture of the wall in the bathroom.) I would love to have natural light like this in a future home. (More mental notes for things I would like to do in the future.)

Thinking. Thinking. Thinking. Doing lots of thinking these days. It is no small thing to close a chapter of your life that was a quarter of a century long! It is no small thing to quit reading at the end of a chapter when you had planned to read and love and keep forever the whole book! It is no small thing to have to give up on something that is supposed to last forever. It is no small thing.

But far out across the water — the dark water where we cannot judge depth or know what lies beneath, light dances in the sun. Likewise, I see a light at the end of the tunnel, and it is beautiful.

Enjoy this day!

Back From Yorktown

Lynn — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:24:31 +0000

Dear Friends,

I sort of took off without saying anything. Okay, I DID take off without saying anything, but I always feel funny announcing to the world that I am leaving to go somewhere, and I also get so busy trying to work enough hours before I leave and taking care of things, I do not always have time to say goodbye.

Thank you for all the comments about the frugal fashion show!

Once again, my sister and I had a vacation together in Yorktown. I love that place!

Michaela and I set out together last Thursday, just the two of us! I love that girl time with her!

Getting to Yorktown is quite the drive for us. The excitement of being there becomes real when we hit either the James River Bridge or the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel Bridge.

We rolled our windows down and listened to the sounds and felt the warm air on our faces! Michaela was the photo-journalist on this trip, since of course I was driving.

The tunnel at the end of the bridge! Michaela shut her eyes and told me to let her know when we were safely out! It is a bit daunting to know you are driving under water.

One of my favorite things about going to Virginia is seeing Belle, my sister’s golden retriever. She is a sweetheart of a dog! She gives hugs and will just put all 75 pounds of herself in your lap. She’s a big baby!

One of the cutest things is how Belle carries her own leash on her walks. Of course if she gets too curious, say getting into things she should not, my sister will take the leash.

Belle sure wanted to go with us when we left for a day of fun.

Our first day there, the girls spent the day at Water Country USA. They had fun, fun! But they were so exhausted by the end of the day. We forced fluids on them that night, knowing they were bordering on dehydration.

But fear not! You know they rebounded enough to spend the entire next day at Busch Gardens where they rode every scary ride, including the Griffon and the newly opened Mach Tower. Whoa.

My sister and I spent some of our time doing something much more relaxing than roller coaster rides. She took me to the huge Yankee Candle store. Huge!

The Christmas area was really amazing! The ceiling, which looked like a night sky, had snow falling from it every four minutes!

Is there anything better than spending time with someone you love? I think not.

My sister and I also went to the Jamestown Settlement, where we toured three ships: The Susan Constant, The Destiny, and The Godspeed. Beautiful, beautiful replica ships! It was humid and there was not much in the way of a breeze, but the guide seemed comfortable in her clothing. I guess it is what you are used to!

The Destiny and The Godspeed.

The Susan Constant. (I love that name.)

Sisters. At Jamestown Settlement.

This picture does not do this beautiful food any justice! We went to the best seafood restaurant, Harpoon Larry’s, which is referred to as a “dive,” but oh my they are known for their food! There was a line waiting to be seated but it was worth it. Steamed shrimp, blackened tuna, sweet potato fries, and the dipping sauces were out of this world. (This is making me hungry.)

As is our custom, we did go down to the water at Yorktown, where the Victory Center is.

There is something about an American flag blowing in the wind, and especially here where we became our own country, finally, that strikes a cord deep in the American heart.

We enjoyed eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream while walking in the sand and just taking in the beauty of the lights’ reflection and the feel of the breeze off the water.

As much as it felt good to get away, it was sort of hard getting back into a routine. I don’t like myself for feeling that way, but life had been so stressful for so long before I moved here to the apartment, and after awhile a person can train herself to believe that she deserves that kind of stress. It felt immensely good to just get away and rest and not work and not worry about cooking or anything. My sister was the perfect companion too, and I needed her steady demeanor to help me talk through some things. It was just sort of hard coming back to face the responsibility of work, bills, cooking, etc. But I am thankful, so thankful, to have had safe travel and to have the apartment and my job to come back to!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! Even if it was hard, it really is good to be back.

Enjoy this day.

A Secret Garden

Lynn — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:19:34 +0000

On Sunday afternoon, I was at a pretty little park on the Eno River in Durham. Little River Regional Park. The first thing I noticed, of course, was a closed-in garden, with a latched gate on either side. There was a cute little sign asking the deer to keep out, but nothing indicating that I could not go in, so in I went.

You can see the little gate and the little sign on the front. The wooden fence by itself would not do much for coverage, but there was a wire mesh over that, and then the plantings along the fence were so dense you really could not see inside the garden.

Entering the garden, it’s like it just opened up and there was so much more room on the inside than I would have guessed!

This was truly a secret butterfly garden. There were signs to tell the visitor what kind of plants they were looking at and also signs telling about native butterflies.

For a little while, I was in garden heaven again. How I have missed my walks through the old garden in the early morning, throughout the day, and then in the evenings again, looking for creatures and touching leaves and getting lost in the scent of herbs and flowers. It’s been five months now. Nearly half a year. Does it seem so?

This garden, however, spoke to my heart in a new way. I could see myself creating a space like this. I can see myself creating a garden like this one.

I will be brutally honest. The once beautiful Little Wild Garden is so overgrown now, it’s really shameful. The paths are almost invisible with their new covering of weeds. The once loved and somewhat controlled native “weeds” are bounding. The once trimmed and nurtured ornamentals and herbs are leggy and out of control. Dying, even. The keeper of the garden is away. Probably forever.

A view from inside the garden, where there were individual beds and a place to sit under an arbor.

I really like the idea of a garden like this. I do. After maintaining a garden that spanned an entire front yard, I am wondering how it would feel to have a smaller, contained garden to truly hide in. A Little Secret Garden. I am liking this idea more and more, but one never knows. I have pictures of gardens in my mind. Lots of images. Lots of thoughts. I am hopeful that I will have a garden again some day. I believe.

That was my Sunday afternoon with Michaela. I was prepared for a picnic, but not for the privilege to sit in a little secret garden. It was a good surprise.

Enjoy this day.

The New Scrap Exchange

Lynn — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:54:22 +0000

A few weeks ago I went by the Scrap Exchange, and woe is me, they were closed!! As in closed down!!

The building they were in was condemned when the roof finally gave way. In a sidewalk discussion with an employee who was loading stuff up to be moved even as we spoke, I learned that they soon would be in a new building, with more room and more stuff. More stuff. Be still my little wild-about-clutter heart.

Fastforward to yesterday, when my mom came and spent the day with me! Highlights of our day:

Scrap Exchange
Chocolate shake from Chic-fil-A, with whipped cream and a cherry
Habitat for Humanity Restore
Goodwill
A.C. Moore
Baked potatoes from Wendy’s
Lots of laughter

Was that not the perfect day???

I wanted to show you some pictures from the Scrap Exchange

I suddenly had the NOTION to buy some stuff.

Fabrics to make yours truly a wildly mixed-up tiered skirt with lots of funky trimming. Can anyone say altered couture?

This is the way I feel sometimes. I wanted to hug this man.

A counter made from old monitors. A novel thing when shopping, but I wonder how it would feel to live with this 24/7. I wonder how it would go over if I ripped out the cabinets in my apartment and installed something like this. I cannot imagine that the management would mind. Can you?

Thrift store treasures! Lots of nice towels, ready to go in the washer. We are using more and more towels since the pool is just a few yards away. And the big orange-y rug? Pottery Barn. For 1.29$. Score.

Annie, bless her little fatso beagle heart, must have smelled something exciting in the hand towel. She took that thing and ran around with it and shook it to death about 10 times and then laid on top of it and growled like it was a fresh kill or something. I don’t know. The towel looked absolutely clean to me and smelled like a regular old towel brought home from the thrift store. Maybe it was the color. Beagles. Go figure.

My treasures from the day, and you can bet I’ll be crafting during every break. Well, when I’m not at the pool, or grocery shopping, or cooking, or ferrying kids around, or…

Before I sign off, I wanted to share a link to some loft apartments that have been put into some of the old textile/tobacco buildings in downtown Durham, just a walk from the Scrap Exchange. I think it is the coolest thing! That part of Durham is being revitalized, and it’s about time!

Golden Belt Arts

Loft Apartments Photo Gallery

When you hear of the the American Tobacco district, think downtown Durham. There used to be a lot of tobacco coming out of this state. Yes sir. Glad these beautiful old buildings are being used for cool stuff now and not being torn down or allowed to cave in. You should see the old wood and bricks in person. Very vintage and beautiful!

And it’s hard to think about Duke Medical Center being affiliated with tobacco, but you might enjoy reading about the Duke name and how everything came about. American Tobacco history.

Enjoy this day

Raleigh Little Theatre

Lynn — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:57:59 +0000

Okay. Time to tell where I was on Thursday. Raleigh Little Theatre! And what a fun fieldtrip this turned out to be!

We had all ages for this fieldtrip, but the group was split into youngers and olders,the olders being allowed to see what went on behind the scenes. There were a lot of things backstage that were not to be disturbed or touched and the older group was able to comply with this! We learned about some different types of stages including proscenium and thrust.

The graffiti on the walls backstage comes from a long tradition of the actors writing things–lines from plays, ongoing jokes, names, characters, etc.

There’s so much writing at this point that there’s not much room left!

It was interesting to see the huge cables and weights which allow various backdrops and curtains and props to be lowered and raised during a play.

We were told about how creative a crew gets in putting together a stage. Things are reused and repurposed. It is a place for the imagination to go to work! I was suprised to learn that in this community theater, the actors are not paid! It is truly an offering of talent from members of the community back to the community! And no one is called THE STAR. That’s Hollywood, not theater.

Costumes! The room where they make costumes is amazing! Sewing machines, fabrics, trimmings! Such a space for creativity!

After the tour, the older students were asked to write six sentences describing their bedrooms. They were told that it did not have to be exciting or neccesssarily creative, just six sentences. I wondered what this would be used for!

The kids then were brought to the front of the theatre to work with someone who does casting. They were brought before her one by one, if they wanted to, to audition, with the description of their bedrooms! Are you expressive enough to evoke empathy from your audience by reading six random sentences in an angry tone? A sad tone? A whining tone? A scared tone?

Then the kids had to turn themselves into living sculptures, playing off of each other, to express emotions–without speaking.

This fieldtrip was so well done. I would highly encourage you, if you get an opportunity to visit Raleigh Little Threatre, to take it!

A Sunday Picnic

Lynn — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 03:11:34 +0000

“I love it when we do things together with the children,” I said to Mr. Carpenterman, batting my eyeslashes. So we went on a tiny little picnic over the weekend.

It was very simple, just taking a picnic basket and some egg salad sandwiches, sardines (yes, I said sardines), and other various and sundry things, like apples, sunflower seed butter, chips and crackers. Oh and some iced tea. Yes, it was beautiful and warm enough to run and play.

Four of us drove to some beautiful woods and had fun eating and walking and exploring.

Standing in front of some beech trees

While some of us climbed trees, some of us walked gracefully around and looked for identifying marks on trees and rocks and the like.

Our two youngest had fun getting out some energy. Is there anything better than the woods for what ails you?

We examined trees with odd growths on them.

There was quite the stand of broomsage, and the carpenter said he’d be sure to tell me when it’s green so that I can make a broom.

The Carpenter, who is an excellent woodsman and knows all of his trees, pointed out this and that. I told the children they had to listen carefully because they would be tested before we left to go home. We are homeschoolers after all. They laughed and ran off.

Well, not really. They listened to their daddy explain how this redbud had bloomed last year. You can tell because of the seed pods. He pointed out many a beech tree, silver and white maples, the eastern red cedar, sourwood and more. He talked about the trees like he knew them personally. I think they know him, too.

I love to see these HUGE quartz rocks!

We noticed a deer skull and wondered what had happened to the deer. It was interesting to look at the teeth. These are the molars and premolars.

An outing doesn’t have to be expensive. It doesn’t have to cost much of anything actually. This was just the cost of our brought-from-home food, and it was so much fun!

A great longing for the old days when the trees could talk in Narnia came over her. She knew exactly how each of these trees would talk if only she could wake them, and what sort of human form it would put on. She looked at a silver birch: it would have a soft, showery voice and would look like a slender girl, with hair blown all about her face, and fond of dancing. She looked at the oak: he would be a wizened, but hearty old man with frizzled beard and warts on his face and hands, and hair growing out of the warts. She looked at the beech under which she was standing. Ah!–she would be the best of all. She would be a gracious goddess, smooth and stately, the lady of the wood. Prince Caspian, The Chronicles of Narnia C.S. Lewis

Norman Rockwell

Lynn — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 02:31:08 +0000

What a special day we had today. We went to see the Norman Rockwell Exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art. It is not permissible at all to take pictures in the museum, but it occurred to me while I was there that my pictures would not do the work justice anyway. You have to be there in person, in this very large and comprehensive display of Rockwell’s work, to really appreciate how talented and prolific the man was. I had to fight back the tears a couple of times. Once was while looking at the pictures he did for the war effort, encouraging people to buy bonds. The four freedoms, they’re called.

Freedom of speech.
Freedom to worship.
Freedom from want.
Freedom from fear.

The poster of the children being tucked safely into bed (freedom from fear) touched me so much. Actually, just thinking of America during World War II got the best of me!

I feel, for us, it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see this exhibit. Don’t know that we’ll ever get the chance to travel up to Massachusetts to the Norman Rockwell Museum!

On another note, and I mean literally, here’s a little clip of Michaela with her violin teacher. This is O Come, Little Children, something that Michaela recently learned. This was the first time she played it with her teacher, Miss Rebecca, though, so they get started and then start over again. It’s so cute! Miss Rebecca’s a great teacher! The lighting is not so great because the sun was behind them, but I was in the only spot that I really could be in to film them.

Gotta run for now. I somehow ended up in a standing and staring mood this afternoon and now I’ll have to climb over a pile of clothes and books to get into bed tonight. I knew better than to pull out that much at one time. I did. Mmm.

North Carolina State Fair

Lynn — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 21:17:32 +0000

Do you remember being young enough to do this?

Do you remember being young enough to WANT to do this?

We visited the North Carolina State Fair this week. It was fun. Personally, I enjoy the exhibits and the food. The children enjoy the rides and the food, in that order.

It’s a work day today. The farmer’s market this morning was perfect. The weather was cool, but it was bright and sunny! We sipped on hot mochas and talked. And talked. And talked.

Enjoy this day.

Few’s Ford on the Eno River

admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 22:18:43 +0000

Yesterday was one of our last co-ops of the school year, and boy was it great!! It was so much fun for the children (and the moms), and the lessons were done so brilliantly, I don’t think even the oldest kids thought of it as “school.” Still, even I was learning about our waterways as the children played on a sandbar in the Eno River.

Come on, Mom! Let’s get to the river!

I immediately spotted a butterfly sitting on what was, as my husband explained to me, raccoon scat, or droppings, or whatever you like to call it. Michaela could not understand why I wanted so many pictures of this, but it’s the butterfly I’m looking at! Still, all in all, very educational, no matter what you are looking at!

The children in the co-op begin to gather around one of their teachers for the day and listen to her tell them about what to be careful of — copperheads, leeches, but not to panic. She explained what to do in case of each. Don’t pick up or antagonize snakes, don’t panic if a leech gets on you, we’ll get it off of you the right way, etc. It was a good reminder for all the children as we head into summer.

Next, the children sat down on quilts and listened to the story for this co-op: The Raft by Jim LaMarche, a beautiful, beautiful story about a young boy who spends the summer with his grandmother, an artist who lives on a river in the woods. At first he thinks he’ll be bored, but nothing could be less true! He is in love with that place by the time he leaves!

How clever of our teachers to take us to Few’s Ford for this co-op!

The first half of the class was about the Eno River, where the river starts, what other rivers and/or lakes it feeds into and gets fed by, and thus by what route it ends up flowing into the sea. Instead of making this a technical talk that no one would remember, our teachers had prepared tags, one for each child, representing places along the Eno River or whatever other waterway the Eno flowed into.

Look at all the places!

The students listened as they were each told about their locations, including highlights about elevation, tributaries, landmarks, etc. They were each to “build” their location on the sandbar, and as they dug out the river running through their location, it would connect with the person on either sie of them. Finally, the point was to have a flowing river from start to finish.

These boys build Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro.

Michaela was all the way out at Pamlico Sound.

Some small areas had to be dammed up as the children started testing water flow. It’s some kind of work to build a river!

The sand held the water well, so the water is headed toward the sea.

Tributaries. I loved watching the children really put their minds and all of their effort into this!

It’s working!

Cape Hatteras. Isn’t she lovely?

Now nearly everyone is done, the system is complete and we are pouring water in! It worked so well. The water flowed from Hillsborough to the Outer Banks!

After a lunch break — a picnic with peanut butter and honey sandwiches, apples and lemonade, we started the second half of the co-op, which was a scavenger hunt for creatures and plants! I was in plant heaven out there! I think not one child seriously hunted for plants. They all chose creatures! But I could not blame them, for the creatures were many and varied, and very interesting!

Fresh water mussels.

There were displays set up all over the place for creature visitation so all could get a look, then they were gently released back into their natural homes.

Crayfish. Big! With big claws!

A fishing spider.

After all the “school work” the kids just played in the river. Michaela claimed that she “fell in” but I think falling can be on purpose sometimes.

I think this will go down as one of the best co-ops in FIAR history.

You know what I did during all of this, right? I visited with little creatures and tried to identify plants.

It’s a work day for me. The day is more than half over, but still a ways to go. Just using a break to finish up this post.

Crabwalkers on Your Marks

admin — Fri, 07 May 2010 13:47:14 +0000

Yeah, it made me laugh, too. It was one of the instructions given yesterday during our Five In A Row homeschool group’s field day.

Crabwalking was just one of the races the kids had during field day, a fun day in the sun after a year’s worth of educational, hands-on, learning days.

There was the egg race.

The running backwards race.

The sac race.

And I thought it was extremly noteworthy, and most intriguing, that some of the kids, while they waited, began to build Mount Olympus. I knew I was in a homeschool group when one of the kids looked it over and jokingly declared it a “geographical absurdity.”

We had a great day!

I was talking on the phone to my mother this morning about pets and flowers and just stuff that I talk to my mom about. It’s not hard to get on the subject of pets. After all, she has dogs and cats, ducks, chickens, and goats, and has in times past had sheep, turkeys, and I can’t remember what all. They have even had wild songbirds land on their hats when they’re out gardening. She reminded me that when she went into the Air Force all those years ago that she had to find a home for her pet oppossum and her pet pig. I had forgotten about that. Too bad she couldn’t take her oppossum and her pig into the Air Force.

You never know what kind of stuff we might talk about here.

Turning now to World Bunny News, Coco’s bunnies grow and get sweeter by the minute. I took a few pictures this morning, in the bright sun (pardon me), and the little bunnies could scarcely keep their eyes open. In fact, I would have declined to post these pictures at all, but I wanted you to see the varied colors we have going on.

We have two little honey-colored bunnies.

We have two solid black bunnies. It’s like Midnight and Boomerang all over again.

We have two brown bunnies, one a soft brown and the other a brown mix that looks a bit wild like Coco.

And finally, the lone gray bunny that has such personality and reminds us so much of Coco.

Aren’t they adorable? I could sit out and watch them all day. They’ll be two weeks old tomorrow and seem so healthy and big for their age. Coco seems very content right now. I’m happy for her.

Enjoy this day.