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“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming to the universe: Wow — what a ride!”
Ran across this out on the web somewhere and loved it so much I had to share! I hope you are enjoying your ride this much!
Is it just me, or do some of you experience a secret thrill with being behind the scenes of something? I have always gotten a kick out of knowing the "insiders" view of things, whether it was being part of the set crew of a musical in highschool, knowing the organizers of an event, helping out my mom when she sold stuff at the farmers market and craft shows, that sort of thing. Along with this excitement came a fear of being too much in the spotlight. Like I would never want to be the lead in that musical! Why do I bring this up, you ask? Well, I got offered an opportunity this week that fit with my idea of being part of the insider crowd, but not by too much. Not yet, anyway.
Kelly Lovejoy, who is the organizer of the Live and Learn Conference, emailed me, after reading and liking my articles in Live Free Learn Free, and offered me a chance to host what she calls a Fireside Chat at the conference. I could pick the topic and it would be a small discussion group, 20-30 people at most, with me answering questions as the experienced unschooler. I said yes before I got cold feet! She also asked if I would be interested in writing an article about the conference for the e-zine Connections. Wow. Yesss! When it rains, it pours, huh?
Anyway, my topic for the Fireside Chat is going to be the spirituality of unschooling. My beliefs as a jumping off place and hopefully lots of exciting discussion of everyone else's spiritual take on unschooling. I'm so excited! I would so love to write a book about this stuff and this will give me a chance to see how it might be received. How cool is that?
Kelly said she would be looking to recruit for future years conference speakers at these chats. This is the too much in the spotlight part. At least for now. I would be lying if I told you I would never want to speak about my passion at a conference. Just not yet... The universe is so good to me. God never gives you more than you can handle and this year I've got just what I can handle in what I have signed up for. Yay!
We are, as a family, starting to get really excited about the conference. I was telling the girls about some of the funshops tonight and they thought it all sounded cool. They were also talking about what they might want to do for the talent shows. E might want to join her friend S and do a hula-hoop act. A wants to do something, but she can't figure out what yet. I suggested imitating animals and having the audience guess what she is. She might go for that! I think this is going to be such a wonderful experience!
My life is on fast forward. Can someone please slow me down? Too much is happening and I can't even tell you all about it, yet! Quite the teaser, huh?
ANYWAY, my sister in law and her friend are here visiting us, so we have been busy with that the past few days. They are all out on the strip with the girls and I have a moment to myself to catch up with you all. But I don't feel like posting too much, just wanted to let you know we are doing fine. They leave early tomorrow morning and then our focus will be on getting ready to travel to NY to visit my family for a few weeks. Time is racing by this summer. I cannot believe July is almost gone!
Here are some shots from the trip we took yesterday up to the mountain. We hiked, and I mean hiked, up to a waterfall. I am quite amazed at how not sore I am today.... Enjoy!
E lost her first tooth tonight! She had complained of her tooth hurting the other day and when I checked it, it was a tiny bit loose. Yesterday, while swimming in the pool, she and A were fighting about something and she had the string on her sisters swimsuit in her teeth. A gave her a shove and the force caused E's tooth to get very loose. There was a little blood and it freaked E out. Until the blood and pain, she was quite excited to lose a tooth and get the money from the tooth fairy. Now she was not too sure this whole tooth business was all good. Tonight, I was putting the recycling out and sent the girls up to brush their teeth and get ready for bed. After a few minutes, they came out into the garage holding their toothbrushes. E said, "We have a little surprise for you", and held out her hand with her tooth on it! She was so excited. Well, until she looked closer at her smile. Now she is worried people will make fun of her missing tooth! A and I kept assuring her no one would, but she is not sure we are right. I think she looks adorable! Well, I have to go supervise the tooth fairy while she leaves the money to make sure she leaves that tooth for E. Both my girls want to keep their baby teeth so we leave notes asking her to leave them!
Monday morning we headed west for home and mountain adventures. On our way east the week prior, I had noted some signs for a funky roadside attraction that boasted an 8ooo pound prairie dog, and a whole host of other animals "not seen in zoos". I made a mental note to make a stop on our way home. The thing is I had seen this place years ago on my previous across country treks and wished I had stopped. Now, with kids as my excuse, I could! The place was very run down and quite sad to see, with the animals cooped up in wire cages, but it was worth the stop for one thing: The prairies dogs! Real live prairie dogs running around inside the fence and out. Below is E trying to get up close and personal with one of them:
The girls were so excited to see them, they barely noticed the rest of the animals. Foxes, coyotes, badgers, racoons, bison, many different birds, pigs, goats, cows, rattlesnakes. Well, the baby goats came in second, because you could pet them!
And as for that 8000 pound prairie dog? Concrete. With a big wall to hide it from the traffic on the highway. So, there you have it. Next time you are passing through Oakley, KS and are tempted to stop for the big prairie dog, think twice. Unless, of course, you want to see the real ones running around free.
We made it all the way to Denver the first day, with a little detour to figure out how to get to our hotel, which you could see from the highway, but not get to. Slightly frustrating since it was late and we were tired. The next day we headed out for Steamboat Springs. We made one detour over Loveland Pass, stopping to hike to a patch of snow and take in the scenery. Below is E running down the mountain, barefoot no less, all by herself, taking her own path to the snow:
The fireworks show was great and made a nice ending to the day. The next morning we got up and decided to take the gondola up the mountain. This is the view from the top of the lodge, looking northwest-ish.
While we were up there having a picnic lunch, they closed the gondola because of a threatening thunderstorm. We ended up being driven down the mountain in a shuttle bus. That was fun! Before we went down, D took this picture of us, ski runs in the background. We will be sure to go back in the winter to ski sometime!
After a nap (for C) and some games at home (for the rest of us, mancala and a cool marble solitaire), we went back to the alpine slide. E wanted to go down with D and A needed her mother. C was left going alone. I rode up the lift with A, and E got upset because she had wanted to be with me for that part. When we got to the top, both girls wanted to ride with me. It was quite the dilemna until I told E that D had done this before and knew what he was doing, unlike me who had never ridden an alpine slide before. It took her two milliseconds to decide who she was going down with! She and D, and A and I, went down side by side on the two tracks. I let A control the slide all by herself. She was hesitant at first to go very fast, but by the end was speeding down the track! E kept telling D to go faster, but would make him stop to wait for her sister when they got too far ahead. Needless to say, they wanted to ride again when we got to the bottom. Since it was getting to be dinnertime, we told them we could go down one more time in the morning before we headed home.
We headed home and had a lovely dinner back at D's. His roomates' granddaughters were there for the night, so the girls had fun with them while C and I got a chance to catch up with/get to know D. It was a very nice ending to a very nice visit (Thanks, D!). In the morning we packed up and got ready to head for home. But not until one more ride down the alpine slide! This time E went with me and A went with Daddy. We all raced down the mountain. It was a great way to say good bye to Steamboat!
A few shots on the way home:
Before I forget the details of our trip, I need to record it here, for all posterity. I had a conversation with my stepmom a while back where she commented on how wonderful it was that I had the blog to record the lives of my children. It really is. I think about my own childhood and how much of it I hardly remember. Or I look at old, old pictures of my mom or dad and have no idea the story behind them. Technology today is such that we can record so much more of our lives compared to what our parents could. The trick is to balance the recording with the living! So, on that note, time to record what has already been lived.
I was very pleased with how great the girls did on the driving parts of our trip. They are so mature now and could keep themselves occupied so well, I foresee many more roadtrips in our future. E had her moments of restless energy which manifests as annoying her sister, but I learned to get us stopped and out of the car when that happened. The short break, the chance to stretch, pee, and get the wiggles out helped tremendously.
As soon as we pulled into the driveway of our friends, the party began! I swear I had not even gotten out of the car before my girls were off with their friend playing! They picked up as if no time had passed since her move. I have some childhood friends like that and it is a wonderful thing. Anyway, we spent five wonderful days with them, seeing cool places, hanging out playing/chatting, and just having a great time. The highlights were the Kansas City zoo, the Moon Marble Company, the merry-go-round at the park, the toy store and pizza place in Lawrence, lighting sparklers, and getting to see the movie Cars together.
The last day there, I went and picked up C from the airport, as he was joining us for the drive home with the detour to Steamboat Springs. To be continued....
Just gonna pop in to say we are home, mostly unpacked and pooped! I will write more, with pictures, tomorrow when I can remember it all! We really had a great time, but the end seems to always be about tiredness, at least for me. Or maybe not just me. Tonight, E kept tossing in her bed swearing she could not go to sleep, and fell asleep about four second later. Poor A had a hard time once we got home. She did not know what to do with herself after two weeks of such fun and adventure. We snuck off together to do some quick grocery shopping together and that seemed to help. I must go sleep in my own bed asap.... Oh, last year we did a month long vacation and slept in seven different beds. This past two weeks, we slept in six different beds. I swore I would not do that again, and I guess I am swearing it again, for all the good it will do me! G'Night!
Oh, and I found the credit card! It was inside my checkbook register! Doh.
