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Showing posts with label Vacations and Trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vacations and Trips. Show all posts
Until the first week of May we were unsure whether or where we would be going on vacation, but at the last possible minute we made a decision. So amid the whirlwind of finishing our school year and planning a homeschool graduation ceremony for our church's homeschool group, we somehow managed to plan, clean the house, shop, and pack up for vacation.
We decided to go to Arizona this year - it's been 7 or 8 years since we visited, and the kids don't even remember going to the Grand Canyon. I'm just going to do a fly-over view of the highlights of our trip!
The Grand Canyon
We made a "quick stop" at the Grand Canyon before making it to our actual destination of Phoenix. It was really neat for the kids to see the canyon when they will actually remember it at these ages! On the way we listened to a few talks from Answers In Genesis about some of the current creationist research and theories surrounding the Grand Canyon, and it made this visit even more interesting for us.
Confession: I always feel a little underwhelmed looking down at the Grand Canyon, at first. But I think it’s only because it is just impossible to understand the scale of it. We did spot a helicopter in the canyon this time, and it looked smaller than a gnat. It’s just hard to understand how deep it really is. I’d love to go to the bottom someday. Looking up from the bottom might help my brain understand better.
We were also a little amazed to see lots of people leaving the trails and walking on rock outcrops, with a drop of hundreds of feet right behind them, as they stood on a mere four square feet of flat ground! And it was windy. I couldn’t point it out to them without being rude, but people die at the Grand Canyon every year by falling in. If you visit, just…don’t be stupid. There are lots of perfectly safe places to get good pictures at the top, climbing around on slippery rocks is really not necessary.
Saguaro National Park
We decided our main destination would be Phoenix because it's relatively close to Saguaro National Park. We basically planned this whole trip around going to Saguaro, and it was such a pretty place!
Saguaro National Park was really beautiful, the classic desert landscape. The desert can feel so dry and empty, but Saguaro is full of interesting plant life (and I'm sure animal life too). We got there early in the morning, when we could hear birds chirping among the cacti, it was so quiet. I wish I could explain to you the scent of desert air in May, it’s like no other scent I know, floral and woody and dry.
I took so many pictures, but I felt like I couldn’t capture the sheer amount of saguaros in this one little section of the park! They were everywhere, and some were so tall. Saguaros grow about an inch every year - they don’t even start to grow arms until they are 50-80 years old. The tall saguaro I’m standing beside in the photo below is probably around 150 years old.
One thing we didn’t know before we went - there are actually two separate sites for this park that aren’t connected. We were very confused when our map apps were leading us two different places, until we figured it out. The west site has three times more saguaros than the east site, but some on the eastern site grow fatter!
Joshua Tree
We decided to take a one-day trip to California to see Joshua Tree while we were so far south, since it's only about 3 1/2 hours from Phoenix. This was my first time ever visiting California! The gas was expensive, and it was hot in the desert, and there were wind and solar farms all over the place, but other than that it didn't feel as foreign as I expected (what can I say, California has a reputation).
Joshua Tree National Park was a very unique place to visit! Joshua Trees are actually not a tree at all, they are a yucca-type plant. They grow very slowly, similar to the saguaro cactus, and we even saw a few of them still flowering. We entered the park from the east and drove through to the west entrance, and I quite liked going in that order…we went from the Colorado desert to the Mojave desert, and from mostly cacti (including a “teddy bear cactus”) to Joshua trees everywhere! Some of them were so tall, and some areas so thick, that they looked like pine trees from a distance. It felt a little bit like a Dr. Seuss landscape.
One thing we wondered about as we saw a few dead “trees” was what the inside of the trunks looked like…the ranger at the west entrance answered that question. Apparently the trunks are good for almost nothing - the insides are spongey, and when they are dried out they’re still very fibrous, and they can’t be burned. Just interesting to look at, I guess!
Palm Springs
On the way back from Joshua Tree we looped around and visited Palm Springs - I am so glad we drove through there, because it was a very interesting town. As you drive, the surrounding desert is so dry, and the air so dusty - but suddenly you see snow-capped mountains in the distance, and before you know it you are tucked away next the the hills, driving through palm-tree lined streets. I don't think I've ever seen surroundings change from desert, to mountainous, to almost tropical so fast!
Palm Springs is a natural desert oasis, and it's surrounded by parts of the Aqua Caliente reservation - we decided to take a little hike into Andreas Canyon, which is on the reservation.
I am not exaggerating when I say that Andreas Canyon was probably one of the coolest places I've ever been. This is a natural fan-palm oasis, and feels more like you're in Hawaii than in the middle of the Mojave desert. The palms are so tall, it's surrounded by tall rock walls, the water is bubbling and crystal-clear, and the air is sweet-smelling and refreshing. It was just gorgeous! We hiked on the trail, took a bunch of pictures, waded in the water, and enjoyed the unique atmosphere of this place!
Apparently there can be rattlesnakes near the oasis, but we didn't see any - October to May is supposed to be the best time to go to avoid snakes. We stayed about an hour, but I could have spent much longer there. If we are ever in the area again, I would definitely go back - it's worth the entrance fee (about $60 for our family of 7), even for an hour.
Phoenix
We spent some time just relaxing on this trip as well, which was much needed. We spent an entire day at our hotel's water park, we went on an evening desert walk, and walked to a European pastry place for breakfast. Having a little down-time between visiting national parks on this trip was so nice.
Petrified Forest National Park
On the way out of Arizona we detoured to check out Petrified Forest National Park. This park used to be a national monument, and got upgraded to a park in 1962. It's a very overlooked park, but I'm glad we stopped there - it was so interesting! There wasn't any single big sight to see, but as you drove through the park there was petrified wood just everywhere. We have some petrified wood areas in my state, but the sheer amount of petrified wood here was pretty amazing. I probably wouldn't go out of my way to go there again, but it's worth a stop if you are driving through, and it's one more National Park that we can cross off our list!
I've been to Arizona four times in my life, and I think this was my favorite trip there. We were able to see so much, we went in May when it wasn't ridiculously hot yet, and we worked in some relaxation days, which is the key to a good trip in my book. It was a much-needed and inexpensive vacation for our family this year, and proof that you don't have to spend alot of money or go too far to have a worthwhile vacation - there are so many interesting places in the U. S. that are worth seeing!
I learned from my mistakes last year and broke out my fall decorations on time this week. The autumn season is always more brief than I expect, and I want to enjoy it fully this year: including fall decor, fall candles, pumpkin muffins in the oven, and moody mystery books galore!
Summer eased out rather uncomfortably around here. We started school, but I wasn't as excited about it as I sometimes am. I think the dreary weather for a large part of our summer made it feel as if we didn't get a proper summer break, and this school year, which I've known will be a particularly difficult one, has been looming. I have all five kids homeschooling this year, and even though I feel exponentially more capable as a homeschool mom as the years go by, the challenges that come with more kids in school and older grades always seem to (nearly) cancel out my homeschool-mom gains. This year I can at least give myself the credit of seeing the challenges coming.
(The traditional first-day-of-school donut.)
Our homeschool days have been easier in some ways than I thought, because I have really got my homeschool systems down after perfecting my strategies over the last couple years. But it's also been harder in some ways. I shifted my mindset a few years back about homeschooling as the parent, treating it in my mind as more of a job that could take as long as 8 hours a day if necessary, and that helped transform our homeschool in alot of ways. However, this is the first year that it actually has been taking nearly 8 hours out of my day, and those extra demands are taking a little getting used to (for me). I also know this is most likely a temporary thing - our days will run smoother eventually, expectations will even out, skills will catch up, and I'll likely have more time on my hands again at some point. But right now my days feel packed.
We took a vacation a couple weeks ago, and I'm quite happy to report that it was uneventful! I think this may have been the smoothest trip we've had in quite some time, and a problem-free getaway was much needed. We drove up to South Dakota, we saw Mount Rushmore (including the evening lighting ceremony, which was wonderful), made a day trip to the Badlands with a stop at the infamous Wall Drug, saw a gunfight reenactment in Deadwood, took a tour of Jewel Cave. We stopped at Bear Country ( a drive-through zoo with more bears than I could count), and drove to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum (though the inside exhibits were unfortunately closed). My kids gained a grand total of six badges for various National Park Junior Ranger programs, which was quite an accomplishment.
Last time we went to South Dakota it rained the entire week, quite literally. We were tent camping, I was pregnant and soggy and miserable, and we cut our vacation short because we just couldn't take it anymore. After that experience, we were both a little nervous about this trip, but South Dakota was a winner this time! Overall, it was a nice quiet trip, with no car problems, no hotel issues, and no freaky weather events. Just what the doctor ordered!
Before we headed home we drove to Devil's Tower in Wyoming, and we also read about Custer and Crazy Horse before visiting Little Bighorn. It was a sobering way to end our vacation, seeing all the markers on the hill where Custer's regiment was completely wiped out. We read about the battle, and just seeing the sloping of the hills in person, I could really picture every stage of the battle as the cavalry advanced, and then retreated, finally forming a barricade behind dead horses on a ridge, before they were ultimately cut down. It was chilling, but it peaked my interest to read more about the Wild West, and I listened to "The Summer Of 1876" by Chris Wimmer on the way home. It was interesting to listen about different historical events as we were driving past the very locations where they happened.
The wide open, empty spaces of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana got into my blood in a way. I live in a rural area already, but it's become very much more crowded than the places we visited, and I've been scheming and planning a fall hike somewhere more remote to get that taste of wilderness again.
I usually like to ease back into life when we get back from vacation, but I was forced to hit the ground running last week. We packed two field trips (one pre-planned, one spontaneous), plus a birthday outing for one of my kids with grandma, into that whirlwind of a week. We topped it off last weekend by visiting our local botanic gardens for a fall plant sale. We didn't end up buying any plants, but we did enjoy the gardens before coming home to watch a football game.
Then I drank some tea and and sat down to write this post before scrounging up some dinner. I've been missing writing on my blog, and I'm very much hoping I can carve out more time for writing despite this extra-busy season. Sharing on social media has always been draining to me, but writing on my blog tends to give me energy. It helps me organize my thoughts and feelings, and somehow that gives me a little boost to get on with what needs to be done. That's worth something! I'm looking forward to making it more of a routine again as we head into my favorite season.
Currently...
Watching...alot of survival shows. As a family we are watching the latest season of "Alone", and by ourselves Derek and I are rediscovering a series called "I Shouldn't Be Alive". I remember a few years ago catching a terrible stomach bug, and I basically binge-watched this show, and then I forgot about it because thinking about it after that made me feel queasy. I no longer feel queasy about it though, and Derek and I are hooked. I also just discovered this Youtube channel talking about lost hiker stories, so kind of along the same line (except not all of the hikers make it out).
Reading...alot of picture books for the kids, and picking out my favorites for a summer picture book post coming up soon. I'm not sure if anyone needs another picture book list, but I am enjoying putting these posts together because they are lists of our personal favorites - so instead of re-visiting other lists, and trying to remember which books we liked and which ones we didn't, I have my own list to request from the library each year. And hopefully some of you kind find a few winners from the lists too! Here are all of the lists I've done so far.
Sipping...limeade, or homemade virgin pina coladas. I basically just mix together pineapple juice and Silk Coconut, and call it a pina colada. Yum.
Sporting...shorts and dresses, finally, because we've finally had a turn in the weather! It was the rainiest June I remember in a long time, and was quite cold until after July 4th. I still wouldn't say it's as warm as a normal July, at least not in the mountains, but it's so much nicer out than it was. The weather was so unlike summer until just the last couple weeks, so I'm just now getting into summer mode, with less than a month left until we were planning on starting school again. I may just delay our start by a week so summer feels less short.
Trying...to figure out if we can afford a vacation this year, or if we should opt for a staycation. I know everyone is probably hurting financially with this inflation - so many of our monthly bills have gone up in the last few months, and I can't get out of the grocery story under budget anymore. But as I talked about in my last post, we've also had several things break on us this spring/summer - our microwave, Derek's car, our whole tent debacle. And finally, our stove officially died this past week. A few of our buttons were fried by a power surge in June, but we were hoping we could just make do...until I tried preheating the oven and none of the buttons worked. All of these annoying costs are coming out of our vacation budget, so I'm not sure what is going to happen with that now. We will either scrape together enough for an inexpensive camping vacation, or we will do a staycation (which could also be really fun, if we can just sell it right to the kids).
Remembering...that we did at least get to visit an interesting place when we went on a short trip to visit my grandma - Mesa Verde! Mesa Verde National Park has the oldest buildings in North America, thought to be built around 1200 AD (or some maybe earlier). They figured that out by tree ring data - they looked at some of the oldest trees in the park, and then looked at some of the logs used in the building construction, and matched up similar wet/dry season patterns in the tree rings to get to the guess of 1200 AD. I don't know much about the accuracy of that, but it's pretty interesting anyway!
We went on a tour, but a word to the wise, if you sign up for a Mesa Verde tour, it takes about an hour to get from the Mesa Verde Visitor Center to where to tours actually leave. Not knowing this ahead of time, we somehow arrived just on time for our tour, but the tour guide must have left early because there was no one to be seen. We waited until the next tour arrived an hour later, and they pretty much had to let us in since the other tour had departed early. If you ever visit and you schedule a tour there, plan to be at the visitor center at least an hour and a half before your tour time. I thought they should have put some of this information on the website, but really, I should have known better. It's been along time since we had been there.
Looking forward to...taking the kids to the pool in the next couple weeks. We haven't been swimming all summer because of weather and sickness, but I think we might finally make it to the pool next week. There are no outdoor pools near us, but there are a couple in town that have affordably-priced family swim nights. I always stock up on licorice and watermelon before the pool - those are just the traditional pool snacks, I guess.
Growing...a lovely herb garden in our porch greenhouse. My herbs are doing so well this year, despite the cold start to the summer. I want to avoid the mistake I made last year and start harvesting some of the herbs now! My oldest is also growing a tiny straw-bale vegetable garden, and I think it's doing well...we have flowering squash plants right now, so hopefully that's a good sign!
Planning...to start doing a few hikes before summer is over. The mountains are in rare form this year, with all the moisture we got in June, and there are flowers and tall grasses everywhere. It's very lush and colorful, instead brown-tinged and dry like July so often is. I'm loving that we have no fire bans, and I want to take the kids out for some nature journaling and picnics in the next couple weeks.
Preparing...for the school year, but only lightly because I don't want to get myself out of summer mode quite yet. I've mainly been putting together a history syllabus for my 7th grader, and requesting some historical fiction books from the library to screen. I'm hoping to find a few winners for him to read. He'll be studying ancient history this year, for the first time seriously, including the Greeks and Romans. I want to give him some interesting books set in that time period, but books that don't over-glorify those societies either. I know they are important foundational to our current culture and political structure, but they were also Godless, so I'm hoping for something that will give him a realistic (but appropriate) feel for those eras. Open to suggestions if any of you homeschool moms have already studied ancient empires.
Knock, knock, knock.
I crack open one eye and see the sunlight streaming in through the windows. Woodpeckers. Usually our woodpeckers are a problem in May, but all the birds seem to be arriving late this year. I bang my hand against the wall a few times to scare it off, and then pull the blankets back over my head.
Knock, knock, knock.
I'm starting to get a little exasperated now and I knock back on the wall a few more times. Finally, the woodpecker seems to have left.
I think about the sound that kept me awake last night, like the whining of a lost dog moving around our house. After worrying about it for 15 minutes, I sort-of woke Derek up to tell him I thought there was a dog wandering around outside. He told me it was the local elk mewing in the field down the hill. "Are you sure?" I had asked. "Positive," he replied as he closed his eyes again. I feel a little silly now for praying that whoever owned the "lost dog" would find it.
I push my thoughts away and roll over, squeezing my eyes shut against the sunlight, attempting go back to sleep.
Chirp, chatter, chirp.
A squirrel has decided to scold some other creature right outside my open window, and he's loud. Perhaps he's actually scolding me for daring to try to sleep past sunrise.
Basically all the wildlife is conspiring against my sleep cycle.
I give up and roll out of bed.
---
Even though I wish I could have a day to catch up on my sleep, I'm glad the squirrel scolded me out of bed this morning, because I actually have some time to write a chatty post. I'm sitting on the porch now, coffee cup on the table, listening to the birds singing in the trees, and feeling the warm sun on my back. Watching out of the corner of my eye as Wyatt practices aiming his unloaded .22 at a distant tree. We signed up the two big kids for 4H this year - actually, I should say Derek signed them up. I made it very clear that I didn't have the mental space this spring to manage 4H commitments, so it was up to him to make sure they stayed on top of their projects, and he has held up his end of the bargain admirably. Wyatt is shooting in the county fair competition this weekend. It's been really great to see how seriously he is taking gun safety, and to see him get more comfortable with shooting, because, as he reminds us frequently, he'll be old enough to hunt big game next year.
Gwen signed up for sewing in 4H, and she and Derek have been figuring out how to work a sewing machine - with a little help from me. I am still the only person in the house who knows how to thread a bobbin, so I'm not totally unnecessary. They made a cute little shirt together, and I'm so proud of Gwen for her hard work in learning how to follow a pattern - I don't even quite know how to follow a pattern! My sewing expertise is limited to blankets.
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At the beginning of June, I was sure I'd have buckets of time to read a bunch of books, organize the school room, take up a new hobby, and write on the blog. It was summer break, after all! No schoolwork on the to-do list for a few months. Unfortunately, that is not quite how it's worked out - I don't even know where June went, I just know I was out of the house almost every day for pre-planned trips, errands, appointments, the homeschool conference, and VBS. You don't even want to know how much I spent on gas. But the last appointments were checked off the list this week, and I am looking forward to catching up on house projects, cooking more, and yes, more reading and hobby time for the next month.
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Speaking of trips, for 4th of July weekend we all went to visit my grandparents at their cabin in a cute mountain town a few hours away. I love getting a chance to visit them each summer, because it's one of those trips that is just refreshing. We don't have a packed-full schedule, we just enjoy one or two activities and spend the rest of the time playing card games with my grandparents. Derek and I love card and board games, and we rope our friends into playing with us whenever we have them over for dinner, so it's a treat spending a whole weekend chatting and playing cards at the cabin. The kids usually run around outside, play a few games themselves, and watch movies during our downtime.
This visit my grandparents took us to an outdoor wildlife park that mainly featured animals that we have in the mountains, and a few from further north. Red foxes, coyotes, black bears, mountain lions, porcupines, elk, and even a wolf and a grizzly bear. We've seen many of these creatures many times in the wild, but it was really cool to see them up close. We got there in time for the afternoon feeding, and the keeper told us about each animal as they came to the near side of their enclosures to eat. It was really cool! Afterwards we went out for pizza, then home for sparklers in their driveway since the fireworks display was cancelled for inclement bad weather.
It was a great weekend all the way around!
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On our way home from visiting the cabin, we decided to stop at a trail to a waterfall that we usually don't have time to visit. We piled out of the car and spied the waterfall in the distance, then read the sign directing us to either the main trail or the "primitive" trail. Well, let's do the primitive trail! We set off and followed the kids up an overgrown, rocky path, over a log here, under a fallen tree here.
After crossing a small but steep gully, we couldn't figure out where the "primitive" trail was anymore. Derek decided to climb up the hill and see if there was a good way through for the kids. As he came back down the hill, announcing it was too dicey to take the kids that way, I spotted the main trail down the hill through some trees. We all scrambled over a fallen tree and a marshy area, and reached the path.
As I led the kids along, I noticed that the main trail reconnected with the primitive trail on an easier path, and the big kids and I scrambled up and got an amazing view of the waterfall! The water was cascading 100 feet over a cliff into a little pool, then continued in a bubbling stream down the hillside. We could practically feel the mist on our faces, even though it was a couple hundred feet away, and a perpetual rainbow decorated the bottom of the fall. It was gorgeous!
It was indeed too steep for the kids to go any closer, so I sent them back down the path to rejoin Derek, but curiosity got the better of me - I picked my way across the hillside to get a little closer to the waterfall. At twenty feet from the falls, the water was roaring very loudly, and the mist occasionally whipped into my face, making my clothes damp. Then I noticed that Derek and the kids had gone on the main trail across the creek and were waiting on the platform on the other side - it seemed silly to go all the way back on the steep, somewhat slippery path to get up with the main trail, so I decided to cross the stream in front of the waterfall instead.
Did I mention I was only wearing flip flops for this hike?
It was somewhat poorly planned, but I made it safely across the stream (which wasn't deep at all or I wouldn't have attempted it), and met up again with Derek and the kids at the overlook on the other side. It was pretty amazing to be so close to such a tall waterfall!
We all were very impressed with the waterfall and agreed it was a great 4th of July adventure in lieu of fireworks.
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When we haven't been face-to-face with huge waterfalls or running mundane errands, I've really been enjoying being home this summer. Aside from it being somewhat stressful financially to go anywhere with gas prices as they are, I've really been enjoying cooking more when I've had a rare day at home. I've made a caramel apple pie a couple times now, biscuits and gravy from the Magnolia cookbook (which I must admit were a huge hit), and sweet and sour chicken from scratch (as good as any we've had at a restaurant). I really want to perfect a key lime pie this summer, and perhaps even attempt the holy grail of pies - the lemon meringue. I don't know how many times I've heard my dad fondly remember his granny's lemon meringue, and though I don't have any hope of supplanting her pies in my dad's memory, maybe my kids or grandkids can remember my lemon meringue pies with fondness someday.
For my birthday in June, Derek took me shopping at Ulta and Hobby Lobby and let me buy whatever I wanted - I got some nice lotion and makeup at Ulta, and at Hobby Lobby I found an inspiring watercolor and drawing book. I would really like to spend a little time playing with watercolor and practicing drawing this summer. I can't guarantee I will share any of my attempts online, but it's something I always wanted to get better at, and I'm hoping for more down time in the next few weeks to practice.
On the to-do list for today though, I have to call and set up a couple more doctor appointments (though these won't be for a couple months yet), register for our homeschool umbrella school for the next year, renew HSLDA, start to plan a bit for next school year and potentially order some curriculum, and cut Gwen's hair. It reaches to her shorts waistband right now, but she wants it to be mid-back length instead.
The kids have donned their swimsuits to play in the kiddie pool on the porch, and I just spotted a water gun, so I think I'll wrap this up before water comes flying this way!
How has your summer been so far? Has it been as crazy as my June was, or have you had some down time?
Currently...
Celebrating...The end of the school year, and to mark it our crazy mountain weather dumped 1.5 feet of snow on us, with several other smaller snowstorms in the last two weeks as well. It put a damper on our summertime feelings, but I am very grateful for the moisture. The grass greened up significantly since that big snowstorm, and before that it was scarily dry. Here's to hoping for no fires this year!
Trying...to recover from our Memorial Day weekend trip, which was so fun but also took all my energy. We took a road trip to New Mexico, to see a couple of the National Parks down there - Carlsbad Caverns and White Sands (with a brief stop at Guadeloupe Mountains National Park in Texas, and Petroglyph National Monument and the Manhattan Project National Historical Park on the way home).
My kids especially loved Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We saw Mammoth Cave with them last fall, and I think Mammoth Cave was a good starter cave - Carlsbad was the ultimate goal though, and they were ready for it. We walked over two miles of trails inside the caverns, and the kids were fascinated with all the formations. Clarice frequently reminded us "Don't touch the formations!", and Georgie quietly walked through the trails and occasionally declared that she was "kind of freaking out". But no one was too afraid, and we all enjoyed the adventure! We also enjoyed watching the bats fly out in the evening, while marveling at the inability of some people to understand what "silent" means. Any little noise can spook the bats and prevent them from flying out of the cavern, and yet still people were fiddling with bags, opening food wrappers, knocking around water bottles and allowing their children to cry without taking them away from the amphitheater. I'm proud to say our kids were silent and still though, and we did get to see a little flurry of bats anyway.
White Sands National Park was also impressive and a little mind-blowing - the sand stretched for miles, and if you didn't know better, you would think it was snow. We tried going in the middle of the day, but if you are going to visit this park, this time you want to be there is 7-9 PM. The light turned pretty, the wind died down, and the park was relatively quiet! Here are a few photos, but these are just the ones I took with my phone - when I get my big camera photos edited, perhaps I'll share more.)
We came home to 3 inches of snow on June 1st, which thankfully melted off immediately. I can't be too bummed about the incongruent weather when I see sparkling water trickling along the road and quenching the dry grass. We even had some flowers springing up despite the cold!
Giving...some thought to sharing the homeschool posts I promised a while back. I intended to write a few homeschool-related posts in March, but for some reason March and April became extremely busy. Maybe it just comes with getting older, but I find myself drained alot more easily in recent months by too many days out of the house or excessive socializing. I have thought of myself for years as an "ambivert", leaning toward an extrovert, but the pendulum has seemed to swing back to the introverted side for right now.
May was a little frantic because my dear friend moved away to another state (yes, I cried a few times), we were trying to wrap up school, and then I immediately had to start switching out the kids' clothes from winter to summer and prepare for our trip.
All that to say, my homeschool posts never got written, but I hope to rectify that soon. I still have some ideas swirling around in my mind, and I may even make a rare foray back to Instagram to share a few thoughts or curriculum videos in the next couple months! A couple people have specifically asked me what we've been using for language arts, so that's the first topic on my list.
Wearing...I really can't decide what to write here. I'm still wearing long pants (the snow, you know), but with sandals, wearing my hair curly (which I like better now that my hair is longer), wearing this eyeshadow palette (so light and pretty). Wearing this body spray (smells like summer laundry), this lip oil. Wearing out my earbuds from listening to a bunch of chic-lit audiobooks (thanks Katherine Center and Chanel Cleeson).
Taking...charge of the budget. I have been a little lazy about my budget over the last year, but in 2022, with this ridiculous inflation, there is no more wiggle room for that. My method is to plot out every event I have going on each month on one of those little $1 monthly planners, estimate how much each event is going to cost me in gas, eating out, etc, and then work around that. I've also gone back to our repertoire of cheaper meals so I can stock our pantry a bit each month, as so many people seem to be doing. We already have quite a good amount of noodles, grains (for flour), oatmeal, rice, and dry beans - this month I want to stock up on sugar and coffee. You can make all kinds of things with those essentials!
Reading...alot of fiction, especially on audio, and it's been great for getting out of my reading rut. I think I was just getting bogged down in too much nonfiction - my brain gets tired, and then I don't want to read at all. Re-finding my fiction/nonfiction balance has been good. I just got The Lost Man by Jane Harper from the library, so hoping to start that this week, and I finished a bunch of books in the last couple weeks, so a book roundup is coming!
Watching...this amazing video about fractals. Apparently the solutions to certain mathematical equations can be graphed, and when they are, they create amazingly complex shapes that repeat themselves for infinity. You have to watch the video to fully appreciate how complex and crazy this is. It's amazing to me that God hid these incredible shapes in math, for goodness sake! It reminds me of this verse:
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9
Indeed.
How has the start to your summer been, friends?
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