Category Archives: travel

Cottage Time

Tuesday, July 2, 2013, @ 9:29 amadventure, Cooking, Family, Life in General, pets, Reading, sports, teaching, travel, Weather, Writingchildren, eating, Family, Grayling, great days, making the days count, pets, reading, Summer Vacation, teaching, water sports, weather, writingClay

I am at the Michigan cottage now, it has been 1600 plus miles in one week. That’s how far I driven since my trip to Mississippi and back and to the cottage last Friday morning. That’s a long way. The drive down to Mississippi didn’t seem to faze me, but the drive back took its toll. I was whacked, the following day. All I wanted to do was sleep, I would sneak off to lie down and catch a short nap, if I could. It only frustrated B because there was much to do, there always is, especially when we were packing and heading north for a week. Continue reading Cottage Time →

Road Trip – Part 2: Homeward Bound

Tuesday, June 25, 2013, @ 7:51 amadventure, country, Family, growing up, history, jobs, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, travel, Weather, Writingdad, eating, education, Family, hard work, making the days count, MS, Oxford, reading, restaurants, Summer Vacation, teaching, writingClay

It’s Tuesday morning and I’ve been in Oxford for five days; counting this morning and Friday night, really, three full days, and I do mean FULL days. Regardless, my mission is done. Julie, rather Juliana (only one ‘N’) has the internet and an iPad.

During my time, here in Oxford I have exposed her to all sorts of new experiences – e-mail, the internet, and iPad apps. Along the way, I have left her a trail of notes and left behind a notebook with screen shots, but I hope, nothing overwhelming. It has been fun to visit, talk, and share. I wish we lived closer so I could visit more often, or she could visit us. However, that is not an option so I’ll have to write, e-mail, and call maybe even face-time.
Continue reading Road Trip – Part 2: Homeward Bound →

Road Trip and Summer officially begins

Friday, June 21, 2013, @ 6:10 amadventure, Family, history, jobs, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, travel, Weather, Writingeducation, Family, geography, great days, hard work, making the days count, reading, restaurants, road trips, seventh grade, weather, writingClay

Google's summer doodle - check it out! — Google’s summer doodle – check it out!

Summer begins today. Actually, it official began at 12:04 this morning. At the time, I was looking at the inside of my eyelids and sleeping but Earth was moving (and shaking) – tilting, rotating, and revolving. There are all sorts of definitions of summer – school, weather, and celestial. Whatever the definition, for most of us summer means vacation and time to kick back and relax. But, time keeps moving regardless of who you are or whether you are on vacation or not.

My world has been moving and shaking, too. This morning I am on a road trip Continue reading Road Trip and Summer officially begins →

Day 15: two weeks in, nine more to go

Wednesday, June 19, 2013, @ 10:49 amadventure, Family, food, history, jobs, Life in General, Reading, Scouting, teaching, Weather, Writingchildren, education, Family, geography, grammar, great days, high school football, making the days count, seventh grade, softball, Summer Vacation, teaching, weather, word partsClay

School let out two weeks ago and I have never been tireder. Is that even a word? Actually, it is not – I checked. The correct word, or words, should be more tired. It is the comparative form of the adjective, tired. In case you are wondering the superlative form is most tired and not tiredest like you’d think. Its comparative and superlative forms are irregular so the normal rules do not apply: example small – smaller – smallest and big – bigger – biggest. I would have thought tired – tireder – tiredest, but that does not work. Oh well, I have never been MORE TIRED, seriously.

The basement isn’t going as smoothly as I thought it would. The paneling is glued to the studs with super adhesive stuff and some of the paneling has come off easily, and others have not. The job is taking much longer than I anticipated. I did find a couple of the cracks in the foundation, they were the cracks we discovered in April and they were hidden behind the paneling near the window wells. Fortunately they are small cracks and easily sealable or seemingly so. I still have a lot of work to do. Continue reading Day 15: two weeks in, nine more to go →

Lazy Saturday afternoon

Saturday, June 15, 2013, @ 2:49 pmadventure, Family, Life in General, pets, Readingchildren, Family, Father's Day, hard work, making the days count, Paris, pets, reading, teachingClay

It started out as reading and ended up as a nap for both of us. I recovered in time to mow the grass, but not much else.

Today is Father’s Day and it is a beautiful morning. I am working in my backyard office and B and O are sleeping late. Like always, my trusty companion Ivy is with me. O ran the yard with her friend last night playing with glow sticks and having a great time. Summer nights, there is nothing like them. Continue reading Lazy Saturday afternoon →

Day 6: Chicken’s Roost

Tuesday, June 11, 2013, @ 8:16 amadventure, Family, Life in General, Scouting, Weather, Writingchildren, Family, gardening, reading, scouting, weather, writingClay

chickensroost

It is the sixth day of summer and it is off to a great start. I just have to keep it moving. I have 15 hours and 10 minutes of daylight today, but it’s light for a bit more. The past few days have been busy with stuff I said I would do when school was over. Now, the chickens have come home to roost.

Summer has its own schedule and as the kids have gotten older the more structured it has gotten. W is off scuba diving with the Boy Scouts at Sea Base in the Keys. I know he is having a good time, how could he not? O started basketball camp at the high school – eight days of basketball drills and instruction with the girls’ varsity team and the head coach. Next week there’s softball camp for four days and interspersed there are softball games – Wednesday, Thursday, and next Monday. Tonight I have a Boy Scout meeting and Word Press training. I’m not going to camp this year with the scouts. I will miss it. It’s a lot of fun Continue reading Day 6: Chicken’s Roost →

A walk in the park

Saturday, June 8, 2013, @ 8:54 amadventure, Family, Life in General, Reading, Scouting, Weatherchildren, exercise, Family, hard work, making the days count, pets, scouting, Summer Vacation, writingClay

gratitude with my 'Superhero' pen — gratitude with my ‘Superhero’ pen

It rained Thursday morning, at least part of the day, when the rain ended, it left a beautiful afternoon. W and I made it to school and got all of my teacher stuff moved to my new rooms. It took only a couple of hours, having W move the boxes made it easier for me to work on the pitch, the pitch where I looked through stuff and tossed into the recycle bin. It felt good, but there is more to toss, but that will have to wait for another day.

Friday was beautiful, the kind of early summer morning when it is not quite summer and yet, still not quite spring, either – cool crisp air, bright sun, a sky so blue that it makes the green deeper and brighter. A perfect day for a walk in the park. Continue reading A walk in the park →

Last day

Wednesday, June 5, 2013, @ 5:27 amadventure, Family, growing up, history, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Writingchildren, education, Family, hard work, history, making the days count, reading, seventh grade, Summer Vacation, writingClay

It’s the last day of school. In a few hours, the busses will pull out of the parking lot for the last time and take the kids home for the summer. They are excited and the teachers are, too. But, the last day of school, or of anything, is always the hardest.

It has been a good year and I’m sad to see the group move on – they are all great kids and have done fabulous job in the classroom. They will be great eighth graders. The day is only a partial day and it will be part fun and frenzy. The kids have their yearbooks and they will be asking other kids to sign and leave a note. Many kids will approach me and ask me to sign their yearbooks and I always leave a note and a message. This year’s note will be asking them to make their summer worthwhile and to use all of their 77 days to their fullest. I hope they do, the days go quickly, much quicker than a day in school. Continue reading Last day →

Getting started

Sunday, June 2, 2013, @ 8:53 amadventure, Family, history, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Weather, WritingAmerican Battle Monuments Commission, dad, education, Family, great days, hard work, history, making the days count, Paris, patriotism, reading, seventh grade, Summer Vacation, weather, World War I, writingClay

aisnes_marne_memorial_day_trumpet2013_cropped — Memorial Day 2013 – A doughboy plays taps – Aisnes-Marne American Cemetery, Belleau, France photo courtesy of Aisnes-Marne American Cemetery Facebook page

This is a bittersweet time for me. The beginning of summer always is. It is a feeling of relief and joy and uncertainty mixed into one. This should be day 2 of summer vacation. It is day 2 of summer, meteorological summer, that is. Celestial summer will arrive just after midnight June 21^st and we’ll have our peak daylight. But, for now I have three days remaining before summer really begins for me.

We had a snow day in March and two flood days in April that threw a wrench in the school calendar and thus mine. It has been a rainy spring, which is nice because last year we had little rain and the fall fruit and harvest was dismal at best around our parts. Friday was warm and muggy, you could feel the energy in the air and Saturday was overcast with afternoon rain. We’ve been spared violent weather thankfully, but we had a spectacular lightning show last Tuesday evening and rain almost every day for the past week. Continue reading Getting started →

Postcards from Spring Break – 2013

Friday, April 19, 2013, @ 4:13 pmFamily, history, Hobbies and Fun, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, travel, Writingchildren, education, Family, great days, history, making the days count, postcards, reading, seventh grade, Spring Break, teaching, weather, writingClay

a warm sunny day at Bahia Honda State Park with the Atlantic in background

It has been a great day, a great week, and a great month. I just don’t know where it went. Three weeks ago, I was on a beach on a warm sunny day with the breeze in my hair. It felt like it would last forever and I guess it has. Memories of our vacation to the Keys has sustained me over the past few days – from torrential downpours to flurries in the air, it has been quite a few days.

Yesterday morning, it was raining and I went to the basement and I discovered water pouring in through a crack in the foundation. I soon realized I wouldn’t be able to keep up and woke W who jumped in to the job grudgingly, but soon embraced the task. By 5:30, I knew I had to stay home and was busy writing a quick sub plan when W’s school called the day off. An hour later, my school called off, too. So, I spent the second day of summer vacation (see a NO SNOW snow day) fighting with the water in the basement, moving furniture, bookcases, pulling up soggy carpet up and hauling it to the curb. We were lucky our water was just that, water. Other homes in the area had water coming in from the sewer (yeah, ewwwwww). Continue reading Postcards from Spring Break – 2013 →