Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Pittsburgh Transplant Trail 2

One of the things I inherited from my dad was a love of being outdoors. I love being away from traffic and noise and people. Hearing the breeze through the trees, and even something scrabbling through the underbrush (possum?, armadillo?, bear? let's hope not!) just make the time in the woods so enjoyable. So when I discovered geocaching I was quickly hooked. (If you want to learn more go to www.geocaching.com)

Well I found my 500th cache last weekend on a 13.27 mile hike. It was perfect! The weather, the group I did the hike with, but most of all the scenery! The only bad thing was that strand of barbed wire that I tried to put my head through, luckily I had a visor on my thick head.

Here are some of the photos of the hike:
This is the group of 10 that started the hike: Scrabbles (Me!), my 2 boys, Strombus and her son, JoshandMarce, FL Pirate, inpesa, and auyantepuy.


off into the sunrise


stopping to check the tadpoles


through the water...


the birds nest by stage 1


the mighty Oak


a little monkey time


a different viewpoint


planning on how to get through this part...


FL Pirates plan worked


then come the gators (we saw over 60!)


gator in the hole



ferns unfurling


baby gators...wonder where mama gator is?

the old railroad bed trail we were following through the swamp

Anhinga


I spy with my little eye...

butterfly

The final! We made it!

Friday, March 11, 2011

The Spanking Lady

Today I was the Spanking Lady Again. When my kids were little they would tell the other kids my nickname was the Spanking Lady. I did spank when they willfully disobeyed or they needed immediate discipline. But they made it out like they were beaten, to scare the other kids. These kids knew me though and weren't scared. Every once in a while it kinda made me feel mean to have that nickname. Since my husband is gone often with his job as a pilot (usually 2 weeks at a time) all discipline fall's to me. When I started homeschooling, I also had to add the discipline a teacher gives his/her students. I'm constantly telling, motivating, pushing my 3 kids about doing or not doing something. Lot's of times they don't like me, or the things I'm telling them to do or not do. But, that's my job. Sometimes, when I see how much they dislike what I'm telling them (one had a tear trickling down a cheek today, and one was just managing to hold them back) I want to just give up, I'm tired of being the Spanking Lady, the one who is always the bad guy. Who needs to know the difference between mitosis, and meiosis anyway, or how to find the area of a triangle (just build rectangular rooms!)? But I can't. Even though they may not need the information they are learning ever again in life, they need to learn how to learn information. They are sick of me telling them to change their attitude about things, but a lot of times in life all we have the ability to change about our circumstances is our attitude. And all those chores I force them to do? Well, I want their house to be clean when I come visit them when they get older. Maybe then, when they have kids of their own they will look back and say, "Yeah my mom was the Spanking Lady, but she loved us"

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Travel Journal/Albums




We are planning a month long trip to Alaska in April, and even though I have made travel journals for all the trips we've gone on, I wanted to see what Ali had in her On The Road Class. One thing so far I've picked up is she makes them into albums with photos added during, though mostly after her trip. I will be working on making one for our trip in the next few weeks. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Springtime in the Grove

Out our back door is an orange grove, I love looking at the trees each morning as I walk the dog, and seeing the changes brought on by the seasons.  With all the warm weather this is the view these days.