Travels in Turkey: Around Selcuk
Travels in Turkey, Part 9 of 12 (I am resolved to finish up this series before 2011 gets here!) For one week of our trip to Turkey, we stayed in a villa in Selcuk, the modern city near Ephesus and close to the Aegean cost. From there, we took some day trips, like to Hierapolis
Cirque du Soleil: OVO
The girls and I logged quite a large number of miles in our car last month. As usual, we spent quite a large part of our time tuned into Sirius/XM Kids Place Live. One evening, Robbie Schaefer interviewed a number of performers and other folk involved in Cirque du Soleil’s OVO. Chloe was so excited
Travel Tuesday: Weekly Favorites
This week, I’ve started to feel like myself again. I realize now that I was in serious need of some downtime at home. Trying to keep up with work, homeschooling and the rest while on the road had been taking its toll. With that, I’ve enjoyed having a little more time to read blog posts
Passports with Purpose
As I sit here on this chilly morning, contemplating Christmas cards, Christmas gifts and all the holiday cheer and happiness that gets lost in my stress, I struggle with ideas on how to get back to the meaning of the season. Gift buying is particularly stressful for me. I have become increasingly frustrated with stuff.
Mondays are for Dreaming: White Christmas
The holiday season is in full swing here in our little hamlet of Pine Lake. This past weekend, we celebrated with our Pancake Breakfast with Santa, Cookie Exchange and Lighting of the Lake. Our house is decked with a tree, lights and pine rope. Holly, the contemporary Sirius/XM holiday music station is almost always turned
Christmas in Pine Lake
Traditionally, the first Saturday in December is the big Holiday celebration day in Pine Lake. In 2007, 2008 and 2009, we loved being here in Pine Lake for all the fun. This year, we were again active participants in the holiday cheer! At the pancake breakfast in the morning, Chloe sat on Santa’s lap and
Doing Good: Passports with Purpose
As I sit here on this Sunday morning, contemplating Christmas cards, Christmas gifts and all the holiday cheer and happiness that gets lost in my stress, I struggle with ideas on how to get back to the meaning of the season. Gift buying is particularly stressful for me. I have become increasingly frustrated with stuff.
Light Up Blue Ridge
The finale of our Thanksgiving celebrations last weekend was “Light Up Blue Ridge”. Each year, the celebration has grown and grown. I suppose there is no surprise there. That’s what happens. My mom went down early to practice with the tubas. When the rest of us arrived, we had to park in the new auxiliary
Photo Friday: Cameron Park Zoo
Since Camille got her pick of a fiber festival on the Saturday of our final weekend in Texas, we decided to give Chloe her pick on Sunday — the zoo! But which zoo? Chloe wanted Houston (too far), we had been south on I-35 twice already (ruling out San Antonio), so that left us to
Buy Nothng Day Thoughts (reposted from Dec 2008)
As I sat down to write my post about Black Friday, I remembered that I had written one in the past. And it exactly summarized what I was about to say. So, instead of reinventing the wheel, I’m simply reposting my Buy Nothing Day Thoughts post from 3 Dec 2008: On so-called Black Friday, I
Thanksgiving Turkey
We’re always hearing about the “Tofuturkey” as the vegetarian-alternative, but for the carb-heads that we are, this Turkey has become an annual tradition at the cabin. This year, Camille baked the main bread loaf — delicious (but the pot that comes out of the oven with the loaf in it — well, the handle is
Turkey Trot, er, Walk
On a whim last week, I suggest that we participate in the 2010 Blue Ridge Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. Despite no training or even no desire on my part to actually run, I thought it could be a fun way to kick off Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving morning, we headed to town earlier than the girls
Photo Friday: Boerne, TX
While we were in TX for two weeks at the start of the month, I promised the girls that we would do some day trips beyond Georgetown/Austin. The first weekend, we headed to San Antonio. For the second weekend, we did not take off an overnight trip, but we did explore two places new to
Impermanently permanent
While walking along our dirt road here in Blue Ridge, I spotted a vibrantly orange leaf. Seemed TOO orange. Unnaturally so. Because it was. Unnatural. The leaf itself was natural. But the color was not. Someone had come along the road and spray painted not-so-evenly spaced dots marking an underground cable. The thing is, they
Christmas Tree
Despite my constant mantra that we will not prepare for Christmas until after Thanksgiving, Christmas came early for Chloe yesterday. Rob, unable to wait, presented her with her very own harness, and Chloe was so excited she headed up the tree using her pre-Thanksgiving Christmas gift.
San Antonio Views
As I’ve mentioned, the girls, Barbara and I visited San Antonio while we were spending a couple of weeks in Texas. While we enjoyed visiting the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Riverwalk via boat, La Villita, Market Square and the Alamo, I think my lists of things I want to go back and see
Photo Friday: San Antonio
Not only am I a day behind on my Photo Friday, I’m behind on everything right now. So it seems only fitting that this Photo Friday post be comprised of photos from our trip to San Antonio two weeks ago. As always, a few good days in one place and I’ll get caught back up
New Breakfast Recipe
It’s been that kind of week. I have barely managed to complete the necessary, given our crazy travel schedule (TX > home > Blue Ridge) and the brain numbing headache that descended on me today. I can hardly string two thoughts together at this point. While I’ve never been a wordsmith, I had hopes of
San Antonio Overnight
We were so tired from our
Supermarket Temptations
My girls have been accompanying me on shopping trips since they were born. They learn fairly early on not to ask me to buy something while we are at the store, since my answer will almost always be “No.” But not always … if they have a good reason, I listen to it, but I
GBK Gwyneth
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