You Don't See That Every Day

I met a lady recently whom I have come to admire. I don't know her well yet, but what I do know I like. Let me tell you how it happened.  Our older kids go to school with her kids, so I have seen her around but had never talked to her. Then she and her family showed up at our church. So I went over to talk with her. As we exchanged who are you 's, I mentioned that we homeschool, and she said, "Oh, I'm jealous !" What? Shake my brain, rattle it around, did I hear you right? I have never had that response to my homeschooling admission. Usually I hear things like, "I could never do that" or perhaps an inference to my state of mind and sanity. To actually have someone jealous of what I was doing ... I knew right then I liked this lady. But it gets better. We continued our conversation, and got around to the fact that I have 5 children. And she once again got me. She said something to the effect of how wonderful that is. People, that is not the normal r...

Every few months I get tired of cooking supper. My inspiration is gone, my zeal and any interest in  meals is zapped. If I can swing it in the budget, we usually end up getting pizza or takeout on those nights. This month I did it a little differently. I told the kids to get in the car, and bring a sweatshirt, because we were going out for dinner. The Mr had to work late in the field, so he didn't come along. We headed west while the kids kept guessing. Eventually they figured out that we were heading to the beach.  We stopped at a favorite park in Lincoln City, to stretch our legs.  Then it was off to Mos for some clam chowder. Yum. We even head enough time to walk on the beach and, as usual happens, throw, er, skip rocks in the water. It was a lovely night. The next night I still hadn't recovered from my lack of cooking syndrome. So we grabbed some takeout and went out to the farm. It was so quiet and peaceful there.  We ate our food, sitting in th...

The annual family camp-out happened this past holiday weekend. We hadn't been camping with the extended family in a few years. But I braved the elements and took the 5 kids camping without the Mr's help. He had to stay home and work, (and recover from a bad cough.) We had a beautiful weekend on the coast. You know it's the Oregon coast because of the coats being worn. But this time the beach was warm, although it wasn't really sunny. The kids had a great time playing in the sand, playing in the water, playing with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents. We took a hike out to Cape Lookout but only made it halfway. The hike was a bit more than we had anticipated with the young ones in tow. The drop offs were pretty steep. And although it wasn't too taxing of a hike, it was too much for the little guys this time. The Boy was able to finish the hike later with other relatives.  My youngest was really enthralled by the one park ranger's talk t...

Not wanting to sit around all day again one Sunday we heeded the well known advice offered by our forefathers. Go west , they said; and so we did. We rounded up our troops, loaded them in our truck and my sister's car, and drove out to explore a new-to-us park, Fort Yamhill. The website I looked at made it sound like there would be some sort of physical evidence of buildings that once were at the fort. Only one remained. There were signs for everything and how the fort was arranged There was plenty of historical information. But no old ruins, no evidence that there was actually a fort there once upon a time. And there were no trees, until the very last part of the walk. All in all, it was a nice enough outing, but not one that I would highly urge my guests to visit unless they were researching for a book.     I had to throw this one in there because they actually stood still, without silly faces, long enough to snap a picture.

One of my nieces got married this past weekend. It just so happened that my youngest daughter was in the wedding party. It was finally her turn to be the flower girl. All of her older sisters had had their turns in cousins' weddings and now her turn in the spotlight. We were a little trepidatious about her ability to get through it without breaking down, but she did a great job. Earlier she had told me she was scared, but after going over it, practicing, talking it through, she took charge of her little cousin the ring bearer, and she did her job like a pro. Of course having a fancy new dress and shoes and hair pretty also helped. The wedding was held in a gorgeous log-cabin-esque chapel with plenty of seating for our large extended family, and friends. The bride picked copper and turquoise to be her colors, and they were beautiful together. My Mr and the kids helped decorate the reception venue the morning before the wedding. It sure is handy having a tall fella around...

** I can't really write about our July adventures until I update what we did last month!** So here is the final revision of an entry I started a month ag o ** Time for a field trip! With some but not all schools in the area still in session we grabbed at one last chance to go to a nearby attraction before there were too many crowds. Just down the road is a place called Enchanted Forest. It was built back in the 70s and I can remember as a child driving by it on the way to and from Grandma's house, and always longing to go there. It looked so wonderful, so exciting! A play-land centered around fairy tale. I knew as a kid I would never be going to Disneyland (that didn't happen until I was 19, living in California) But this place ... it was near! It was a possibility, although maybe slight. And yes, as I got a little older and actually stayed with relatives without my parents, I did get to go to Enchanted Forest. Such happy memories. So now that we live nearer, I make su...