Good read, good thought, good listen: a list for the weekend

Hello and good morning. It's not a holiday here, we're all up to our daily activities. Kids are with their glorious caregiver, we're going to work. But, I did sleep in a little and I will wear flip flops to work. That makes it feel like a holiday!

I have a few more images for you from our trip, but we'll have to wait until the weekend to look at them together. What a joy! I brought home thousands of photos. I am thinking about combining them into something. Any suggestions?

For the weekend here's a little list of things I'm loving right now:

Good coffee: Every morning, I am grateful for the Old Factory Coffee shop. We even took a huge bag of their coffee on our trip. A little bit of home on the road.

Good photography: I'm taking Erin Little's class and I've been shooting manual for a few days now. Eeek, really? Me? Shooting manual? She's patient, kind and explains the hardest concepts like an artist. Thank goodness.

Good read:  I just finished reading Wendell Berry's The Wild Birds. About membership, community and family.

Good thoughts: Huge list of easy steps for sustainability. It's inspiring, every little bit helps.
And Wendell's own list of Rules for Sustainability.

Good listen: And finally, a rare reading from Wendell Berry. About Arthur Rowenberry, one of his Port William Membership characters.

The Great American Road Trip

Hello Dears,
We are back from our Great American Road Trip. We took two weeks off of work, rented a little SUV and drove in it for 91 hours total! Our main destination was to California for a family camping trip, but we took the opportunity to introduce our kids to some of the most beautiful sites in the country. We opted for back roads and smaller highways, we used a paper atlas instead of a GPS and we found little greasy spoon diners for our road food.

We drove through 9 states, visited 7 National Parks, read 7 chapter books, ate ice cream and went swimming 10 times and we came home full of love and happiness.

Look out for a few more photos over the next week-- I'll be reliving every moment as I upload and edit them!

Adventurous Soul: Nature Frames My World

I recently saw this video transmitting it's way across the web (via). Each landscape and season has it's own wild, raw beauty. And it's all out there beckoning to be taken in. I am so grateful that camping season and the national parks have been calling us out of our wintery hibernation.

 I know I feel the most alive among the trees, mountains and fresh air. This summer we'll be spending the better part of two weeks sleeping in a tent and visiting as many national parks as we can fit. More details to come but my heart is so looking forward to it!





Revelation, a Visual Poem. from sebastien montaz-rosset on Vimeo.

weekending: Camping Calm

I am sitting in the woods and it is hot! Roaring fire is before me and our tent is behind-- I'm listening to our little people talk to each other in hushed tones, they think we can't hear them whisper! My feet are dirty and I'm sweating but my heart is calm.

For me the smell of campfire, pine trees and the sound of a singing whippoorwill send me straight to my happy place. Cicadas singing in the trees and drops of rain on tent nylon in the cool night air are the sweetest lullabies.

Do you have a place where no matter what goes on year heart calms instantly?

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Blogging by hand: I'm trying something new, I'm writing my new blog posts in my journal first and then posting them here at a bit later time. I feel like I can collect my thoughts better. You should try it!

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Joining Amanda.

happycampers: Going on an Adventure

This weekend, we went on a little drive after finishing up our school shopping. We drove through our favorite hide-a-way in the city, Stone Park in Sioux City.

We noticed the campground was nearly deserted, so on a whim we made a reservation. And we went home (45 minute drive... we were a bit crazy!) packed a few things. Including our tent, sleeping bags, flashlights and campfire food.

In less than two hours we were back, putting up the tent, unpacking the car and having hot dogs for supper. And in my head I was singing, "We're going Camping now we're on our waaayyy."(start the video at 3:36). Just like my mom did on every camping trip we've taken together.

It was so nice to spend some time together around the fire, playing an early morning round of Candyland, hiking and sleeping under the stars. We are so blessed to have this little slice of heaven so close to us!

Sketchbook Saturday Morning

There is something that our family loves to do. We call it Sketchbook Saturday Morning.

We sit around a table, mostly at our corner coffee shop-- we bring our sketchbooks and a pile of art supplies. Then, we spend an hour or two in conversation and giggling, drawing, coloring or painting and eating baked goods, drinking coffee (or hot chocolate).

It's a precious time during the week. It's technology free (we are most of the time anyway) and just a time to connect to each other. The conversations that we have while our hands are similarly occupied are at times deep and knowing-- but at others silly and wistful.

On our camping trip, we spent our Saturday morning at the picnic table drawing with Mommy's special pens (THEY WERE SO EXCITED)-- until it was too hot and we moved to our chairs in the shade.

It is a surreal feeling having the kids sit next to me drawing and painting. Learning to enjoy the things I love.

Do you have a technology free day/activity? How do you like to share your passions with your children?


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A special Thank You to Kerry for her lovely post. Go visit her to get a code for 10% off Revisiting Sanctuaries. 

Newsday on a Tuesday!

My brain is kind of confused about what day this is-- but I'm glad to be back in the swing of things and refreshed.

We spent the long weekend camping. We needed a break. A break from everything. I think more than anything we all needed some good food, sleep, fresh air and physical exertion. Funny. I already know this is what we need, I just need to remind myself once in a while.

Before this weekend, we had a crazy crazy few weeks. My family visited and it was so good to have them! Then two weeks of running around... plus the Isabel had swimming lessons (She passed Level ONE!).

And when we got to our destination, it as if we went from running crazy to a complete stop. And um... it didn't go well. I think we spent the day and a half detoxing the crazies out of our life. But once that detox was over-- we finally had a really good trip. I feel so bad for our camping neighbors who heard,"Truman, lay down. Truman, it's not time to get up yet. Isabel, no more crying..." Grr... I digress. We made it, and we have some great memories too!

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I just want to let you know a couple things:

Revisiting Sanctuaries is FINALLY going to start. Sign ups are now through Wednesday, July 13th. It starts July 18th. Please join us! If you want to see what the class is about you can read an excerpt here from Rhythm of the Home.

Rhubarb Sangria--- amazing, I posted it over at What am I Cooking?


*Um, yes, I haven't uploaded my pictures yet. This photo was from our last camping trip! 

happycampers: Stovetop Lattes

Are you going camping for the holiday? I was just day dreaming about our three day trip coming up. Three glorious nights listening to the wind, the rain, birds and other campers. Tent sleeping and outdoor-fresh air-first-thing-in-the-morning-warm-latte drinking.

Whaaaat you ask? Lattes in the wilderness. If you travel with us,Yes!

To make our camp stove lattes-- all we need to bring extra is our Moka pot. We like to pack light, so I'm glad the Moka is small.

Do you have a Moka pot? We love, love it. It's stove top, compact and easy to use. I got ours on ebay a few years ago for $9 bucks. It brews espresso-strong coffee and we mix it with whisked milk with just a hit of sugar. Camping coffee at it's finest. (Brewing tips here).

And recetnly, we needed to invest in a camp stove. For the six years we've been married we've made do without one. I'm not sure how. We really only had one style in mind, when we went to get it --the green Coleman Stove just like my parents but when we got to the store, we found that they were all sold out. We tried the next best thing a Coleman Fold'n Go 2-Burner Stove.

And after a few uses, I think I can say we love it. It cleans super easy, cooks evenly. And the only thing I look for next time is a wind screen, but I'm sure we can rig something up.

So if you are in the wilderness having a hankering for a latte, stop by our campsite. We'll make you one for you on our new stove! My kids will even wash your dishes....

happycampers: Firsts of Summer

On our first real in-the-woods camping trip, we not only slept in our tent but we had a bonfire and munched on s'mores, ate breakfast cooked on the camp stove, took flash-lighted trips to the near by 'modern' outhouse in the middle of the night (and when I say 'we' I mean Eric and Truman... I was too cozy).

And since this is the First Day of Summer, I wanted to give you a little taste of a new section, happycampers, about our adventures in camping with little ones-- I'll share some stories, tips and tricks for camping with kids (and for adults too), plus a few product reviews.

This trip we played it safe and went to a local state park-- Stone State Park-- a hidden treasure in the midst of Sioux City. This park isn't large but it's the perfect size for day hiking and for the kids to run around. Enough wildlife to be amazed but, not enough to be overly cautious.

One thing that surprised me-- the kids love to do camping chores. Truman washed dishes with me for almost an hour (after we quickly washed the breakfast dishes he found so many more things to wash...) and Isabel suggested she make the beds.

Isabel was so proud of herself for making all of our 'beds' even if she just haphazardly spread up the sleeping bags.

It rained as we slept and when we woke up in the morning, Isabel complained about the noise of the rain. I gently explained, my view on rain while camping... "I think the earth is singing me a lullaby-- to me it's one of the most beautiful sounds in the world."

Isabel breathed dreamily, some from sleep and some from my injected nature-lovin' romance, "Oh Mimi, I like that idea."

Camping....

Do you have friends, the kind that you are with through everything?

We’ve seen the metamorphosis, shared history. We’ve known each other since we slept in bunks in door rooms, pre-marriage, pre-children, pre-mortgages, pre-moving, pre-doctorates... And now we take time each summer to vacation together. We clear our schedules for some serious relaxing, hiking, playing and eating. And it's something that we look forward to all year.

[Fierce but friendly competitors!]

[Enjoying crazy loud card games... insane amounts of laughter.]

[Welcomed the rain for an excuse to relax more!]

[Our 'eat out' night. This photo is just for David...]

Do you have a similar tradition, vacationing with friends or family?